Week In Review: Wait... Where Did The Weeks Go?!?

So as I previously mentioned, there had been a lot of packing as I moved back home for a few weeks.  On top of that was a ton of driving with me heading down to Boston one day, back to home the next, then back again, then home again... So much driving! On top of that, there has been snow storms, birthdays, medical things... it truly has been interesting times!  That said, I have been able to squeeze in a tiny bit of hobby so let's take a look!

Eastern Reinforcements From The West!

I picked up the last of the vehicles that I need for the 12th Company... a GAZ-AAA from Rubicon Models!

Yay for generic box art photos... since I threw my box away too soon.  Whoops!

Now for those of you with some knowledge of WWII (which didn't include me until recently BTW), the GAZ is a truck that was built by the Soviets which means it's in entirely the wrong theater for me to include with the 12th, right?

Nope.

The GAZ-AA is actually a version of the Ford Model AA that was licensed to the Soviets by Ford motor company.  Besides the USSR, the Model AA was also produced in other European countries including France.  So yes, in this case, I can field a GAZ-AA... I just decided to go with the Rule of Cool and slap the extra set of wheels on it as well.  The rivet counters are just gonna have to deal with it.

This was also the first Rubicon model that I've purchased and overall it's pretty nice.  There is a bit more detail than you typically find on Bolt Action models, plus their range actually covers more vehicles as plastic kits.  In fact, the only downside that I could find was gluing them together.  All I had on hand was Testors glue in the blue bottle.  This works great for Warlord stuff but Rubicon... not so much.  It still works, but the time that it takes to get a solid bond is much longer. Once I realized the issue I did a search to see if this was just me or if this is just something I'd not realized. Apparently Tamiya plastic glue is the recommended type, so I'll have to try to get some of that in the future.  As it was I made it work with the Testors with only a minimal amount of swearing so that seems like a win.

And with the Ford assembled, it also means that I have all the vehicles I need for the 12th to be fully mechanized and ready to go!

My motley mechanized force. Can't wait to finish painting them up!

I have no idea how this motley assortment will fare but even unpainted I love the feel that it gives.  The two trucks have MMGs attached to their roofs like they were pressed into service, and I swapped out the MMG on the from of the Hano for an HMG more fitting for the US M3.  I'm hoping that I can start painting them this weekend, plus I still need to make sure that I have all my ground pounders sorted as well.

The Building of Decks And More!

Other than picking up and starting to assemble the GAZ, there hasn't been any mini related progress.  There were boardgames though!  Dominion, Trash Pandas, Radlands, Splendor, Clank! Acquisitions Inc... so many games which has shot me up to 35 games this year!  Soooo much better than last year and the best part is the time that I've been able to spend with friends and family.

And that has been about it! I will be heading back out to the field soon which will in theory mean more time for hobby, but I'm starting college a week after that so... yeah, more interesting times. Still, I want to focus my hobby more while I am away so I'm going to narrow down the things that I bring down to work on. Variety is good, but too many options mean nothing gets done. I have some ideas that I want to try out for Core Space, plus I have all those minis that I painted! I also picked up the Outlands Delta Garrison terrain set from Battle Systems which I think will add some interesting variety to what I already have for Core Space. Oh, and there's a dragon that I want to paint. Until next time...

Week In Review: Hanos And Heroes!

Things happened this week!  In fact, I even managed to play a game!  Shocking, right?  So without ado, let's dive right in!

Harry the Hanomag

The first bit wasn't painting but it's a step forward for the 12th Company!  Introducing their captured half-track, Harry the Hanomag!

Going with my theme for the 12th Company, I had to include a Hanomag in their force.  I have always loved the look of the Sd.Kfz 251 and this is perfect excuse to put one into my army.  In this case, it will be as counts as M3 since the stats for the two vehicles are very similar but it will still let me run with the German version.  This leaves me with one more vehicle to buy but I've already got my eye on one that will give the 12th a wonderfully ragtag look that I am going for.  More on that soon, plus it's time for me to get to painting these guys!

Daqan vs Latari in Song of Blades and Heroes

Next I finished painting that one dude I needed for the Daqan force so it was time to dust off Song of Blades and give it a go again.  I stated up the two forces, set up a table, and away I went!

On the Daqan side, we have three Outland scouts, two crossbowmen, and a single spearman.  This gives the Daqan a good variety of units; the scouts are light while the crossbowmen and spearman both have heavier armor.  Not necessarily that relevant in SoBH given the high level view the system takes of things but I think I was able to capture the different feel of them?  Maybe?

Meanwhile, on the Latari side there are a whole two swordsmen and two bowmen.  That's it.  Nothing else.  When I did their stats I gave them all Forester but... yeah, we'll see how that plays out.

So with the forces set, it was time to hit the table!

For this battle, I decided to just go with a basic meeting engagement; two forces are walking through the countryside and stumble into each other.  Obviously, only one of them can leave here alive.

So... I actually did play through almost the whole game.  I even took pictures of each figures actions going back and forth across the table.  It sounds great, right?  Unfortunately it wasn't.  The lack of any real forests meant that those points were wasted on the Latari and left them at a numerical disadvantage.  Add that to a bunch of horrible dice rolls... yeah.  Back to the drawing board.

The Forester ability isn't worth the points sink that it became and I think that the Latari needed a bump to the Quality.  I had them at Q3+ but I want to kick them up to Q2+.  This will still leave them at disadvantage but the high Quality should help to balance it out better.

And... yeah, that's about it really.  I've been recalled for a few weeks so this week will be focused on packing and moving.  Hopefully there will be some mini time in there as well but... just gonna have to see how this plays out.  Fingers crossed!  Until next time...

Core Space: Getting Into Some Characters

Since I picked up all my new cyberpunk minis, I figure it's high time that I actually wiped up some stats for them in Core Space.  The thing is, while there are rules for making characters, its a little vague as far as what is... well, average?  To try to figure this out, I broke out the character cards that I have.  First things first, every crew needs a captain... and I honestly think that this was the easiest one to make.

I see captain Kylan Hesketh as a bear of a man from a life of hard knocks, so I used Weaver as a starting point for his stats.  I dialed down his skill points by one, dropped combat expert, and made close assault 1 as his secondary ability.  Kylan is a former gang member that has broken from his criminal past and is trying to make an "honest" living as a trader.

Now for the crew.  I'd planned on stating them all up but I think that for now I'm just going to focus on the second crew member for the beginning of the Perseus Campaign.  In this case, the crew is Riva Doan.

Looking over the base crew cards, most characters start with four health, four skill points, and an array of nine career points spread between two or more commonly three levels.  In this regard, Riva is pretty much bog standard.  The only difference is that when you build characters, you have to start with two career points while most of the out of the box characters only get one.  Not a big deal but it does mean that the point value for custom characters are going to be a bit higher.  As for her background, Riva was another member of the gang that Kylan was part of and she decided to follow his lead when he jumped ship on the gang.

This gives me what I need to start the campaign though I want to incorporate some of my new civilians into the story as well.  I won't post all their cards but we have Mara Chaldr the techie, Sevia Nakamola the corporate, Dolin the trench, and even Skitz the cyberdog.  I'll probably tweek their stats once I play a few games with them but this is good enough to start!  Now to get them to the table and see how it works out.  Until next time...

Week In Review: Frosty 12th Heroes!

This week I managed to finish up a project that I've been working on for a while now.  It started as something simple and then... yeah, I might have gotten carried away but I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  What is it?  Let's find out!

Auril the Frostmaiden

Yep, that's right.  It's another Auril, but this time I think that she is a bit more impressive.  Here she is in all three forms.

These are a set of figures that I purchased on Etsy from Light And Luck Minis, and they did a really good job with this.  Nice and clean prints with very good detail as well.  The biggest difference between this set and the official set is... well, they're bigger!  The third form on the right is mounted on a 25mm base but the first two forms are both on 40mm bases.  This technically puts them out of the medium size category but it's still shy of the large so hopefully it works out for my friend.

Of course since I painted up this special set of minis I decided that I needed to make a box to put them in as well.  I could have just gone with a plain old box but what fun would that be?  Time to get creative with foamcore and hot glue!

I used the glue on the foamcore to give the box a frozen look to it, which I tried to emphasis with the blue white paint scheme.  My daughter suggested putting the window in the top, and I love how the frosting effect turned out to make them look like they are inside a block of ice.

The cover goes almost the full depth of the bottom and I lined it with some white felt as well.  This should protect the icy detail that I did on the bottom plus it gives the box a bit of friction so the bottom doesn't just fall out.

I've been working on this project for a while so it's good to see it finally complete.  On to more projects!

Daqan Knights for Song of Blades and Heroes

With my elves done, I pushed on to get my Daqan knight troops done as well.  First up was one of the missing crossbowmen.

I didn't write down my process on this one so I was kind of winging it, but I think I am close enough to have it consistent.  I did decide to paint the helmet and torso armor as well, which I hadn't done with the spearmen but I really like how it makes the figure pop.  In fact, I liked it so much that I touched up one of the spearmen so that it would match.

This change will help to tie them together and gives them a more finished look.

The other troops for this little force will be the Outland scouts that I already painted up.

When I looked at the artwork later, I realized that they did the chest armor as metal instead of leather, but I like the hardened leather look.  Not sure if I'll do the rest of them with leather, but I'm happy with these guys so far.  Once I finish up the one remaining crossbowman then it will be time to get back to some Songs!

The 12th Company for Bolt Action

The date for the upcoming Bolt Action event was finally announced so it's high time for me to start working on the 12th company again!  To that end, I decided that I needed to dirty up the Opel Blitz that I'd already painted.

A little bit of rust and a lot more dirt, and I like how worn it looks.  I still need to mount a machine gun at the front of the bed, but that should be a quick addition.  For vehicles I still need to pick up another truck and I'd really like to grab an SdKhz 251 instead of just running the regular M3 half-track.  It's not essential, but I love the idea.

And that was it for this past week.  Things are going to be getting... interesting... as well.  Shorter week for me this week, plus I'm looking to come home from the field for a couple of weeks to help with a project at the office.  Perfect timing since I just got my hotel work station set up just the way that I want.  LOL.  Is what it is, right?  Until next time...

Week(s) In Review: Whoopsy! Missed A Couple There!

Yeah, I missed a week... or maybe two... whoops!  To be fair, my schedule has been a bit hectic but, hey, it is what it is.  So did I actually do anything during that time?  Heck yeah, so let's take a look!

Trollbloods of Erehwon

That's right, more Trollbloods!  In fact, I figured out a few units that I have completed!  First up, my Trollblood stone scribes (aka crazed psychotic axe wielding maniacs).

I know that I had mentioned using Madrak as my chieftain (aka the lord) but after thinking about it, I decided that he would be the perfect leader for this unit.  I still have one more of the regular scribes that I could paint up but it's that whole two sculpt problem, especially since I need a leader for the unit.  Throwing in Madrak breaks up their look and he does look pretty badass as well.  Perfect!

Of course this means that I'm missing a leader for my army... or am I?

No I'm not, because I finally repainted Borka!  This picture is kind of dark but I think you get the idea and I just love this sculpt!  He's just an absolute bad ass and I love the idea of being able to use him in a game again.

Latari Elves for Song of Blades and Heroes

I've had an itching to play this game again, and I finally finished my little elven warband.

I thought this would be a good starting point for this force.  It has some balance between ranged and melee so it should be interesting to field them again my Daqan Lords... when I finish them.  I wanted to have a balance force on their side as well but I haven't painted up two crossbowmen yet.  They are started though so I should be able to finish them this week... or I could just be a rebel and play them withoug finishing them!  Craziness!

Funko Madness!

So Funko isn't painting but it is something that I have collected a lot for.  In fact, a lot more than I had realized.  Behold the wall of Funko!

I had stopped picking up sets for this but my friend decided that I had to have some more, in this case the Avengers four pack and the Thanos single.  There are plenty that I missed but I'd completely forgotten how much of this game I had picked up.  As I've said before, it's not a bad game and there's a lot more to it than I expected.  So many combinations you can throw together just for the insanity of it all.

So one of the big problems with this one, is actually what you see above.  There are so many boxes!  It's just not easy to cart around, ya know?  But... I think I have a solution.

This is a Rigid tool case and as you can see, it fits all of the Funkos that I have (30 figures total... for now...) and there is some room to spare in the middle for the tokens, crystals, and dice.  Of course there isn't anywhere for the maps and cards, but I figure I can consolidate most of those into one or two of the four pack boxes.  Overall, this will be much more portable, plus my daughter calls it my murder box.  I mean, look at the thing.  It kind of makes sense; this thing is a beast!  Now to finish packing up the last of the bits then there will be Funko pandemonium!

And There Were Games... Lots And Lots Of Games

Last year, I track a whooping 45 boardgame plays for the entire year.  45!  What the heck, right?  Well this year, we are already up to 25 plays.  In 10 days!!!  It's crazily awesome and I really hope that we keep this momentum going because I've really been enjoying it.

Beyond all of this, there has also been some role playing, both playing and running so there has been map making as well.  Lots and lots of stuff, and it's been a lot of fun, and now I'm headed off to do some more stuff.  Until next time...