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The possessed are looking really nice so far Sigur, I like how you've included the hazard stripes.

The book looks really interesting as well, its not out over here yet, whats it like inside what sort of games does it cover?

They did a really nice job with the new chaos releases. Looking forward to seeing that squad completed.

The book sounds intriguing. That name sounds familiar, should I know it from somewhere?

 Sigur wrote:

Spoiler:

Got the cam's battery out of the charging unit again just to take the picture. Yup, it's Henry Hyde's long awaited Wargaming Compendium! 520 pages. I'm just at page 37 now and it's lovely. The guy knows his wargaming stuff and is a graphic designer and both you see instantly when looking at this book. It also seems to cover most important aspects of wargaming. I'm only through scale musings and the history so far. As far as I heard there's a ruleset in there as well. I hope to write some kind of article about the compendium some time soon but so far I think that it could well become THE go-to piece of literature if you're interested in miniature wargaming.

Heh - I met (in passing) the guy that wrote that book when he stopped in at the Joy of Six show in Sheffield, where I was helping out...

According to Amazon.co.uk it should have been released on 17/07/13, but it still saying that you can pre-order it - I'm confused...

Some really incredible stuff you’ve worked on. When I get a spare moment I will genially enjoy looking through everything from start to finish.

What are your thoughts on Horus Heresy models, they look cool (your painted ones amazing). People love them, but my god i have never, ever enjoyed painting them (too many NEW edges to highlight).

@Giraffe X: I think it should be out already even though Amazon pretends it's not. Not sure though. Really cool book though, it covers basically everything wargaming related. Painting, terrain making (all including tutorials), questions of scale, period/setting, the history of wargaming, it has a ruleset usable for several things and so on. I plan to do a more extensive review come beginning of September when I got some time to do stuff aside from commission work again. Very well written by someone who knows his stuff, lots of useful things, beautiful pictures and very well laid out. It doesn't deal with any games specifically but some are mentioned as examples (like TFL's games as an example of card activation, the DBx family of games when it comes to abstraction and so on).

@Gitsplitta: Thanks, also very much looking forward to finally having those guys finished. The book's been in the making since 2009 and it's been mentioned on the Meeples and Miniatures podcast and surrounding messageboards and pages, the Battlegames Magazine and later Miniatures Wargaming and such.

@Dysartes: Amazon's been weird about the book for quite a while. I think since 2011 it's been on and off for pre-order all the time. I ordered mine from Amazon.co.uk and it arrived on the 31st of July IIRC. If you're UK-based you can also order directly from the publisher Pen&Sword.

@TheFireDrake: Hi and thanks very much. I like most of the releases FW now bundles under the HH brand. Not wild about Fulgrim himself (weird pose) but overall, I quite like the models. That upcoming Land Speeder is pretty sexy.


So! Last night I went and did some Star Trek gaming as announced earlier. Even took a hitchhiker for a ride:



Actually it's just a viking I mistook for one of my own guys while packing up after my last Saga game. The fella had cheekily moved into one of the holes of my then already kind of understaffed multi-bases. He was returned home now.

First I was introduced to the new space gaming mat. Gone is the black piece of cloth, say hello to one of those new GF9 space mats. Not huge at 36" by slightly less than 36" but alright for this size of game. 't was the first night of testing the Romulans, we diced off and I ended up commandeering the Romulans whilst my opponent took command of the Federation "fleet".



The Romulan Empire brought two Snipe Frigates, one Klingon-built Heavy Cruiser and a FastHawk Cruiser whilst the Federation brought a Kirov Class Cruiser, one Constitution Class Cruiser (a.k.a. The Enterprise). Romulans had a few points more on the table but it didn't have an impact on the game's result at all. We also chose to play a scenario which was about ending up in orbit of the central planet with more ships than your opponent.

So I moved my ships towards the enemy fleet (red beads indicate cloaking device activated)...



...some shooting was done, the Federation ships broke through my formation...



...more shooting was done, i lost ships while not really scratching the paint on the Federation ships.



After a while all I had left was the Klingon cruiser (in good shape but way outnumbered) so the Federation ships took a time out on the other side of the planet to reload their damned photon torpedoes:



Then they zipped back out and vaporized my last shi (the hole in the midst of the Federation ships indicates the former position of my Cruiser):




Rather one-sided but last game I played was months ago and we basically play a new ruleset every two weeks so I had no idea how it worked. Anyway, very pretty setup, very pretty ships, ruleset still is solid. If you're into Star Trek (TOS that is) have a look. It's Starfleet Battles - A Call to Arms published by Mongoose. There used to be a Babylon 5 version of the rules too back then and there's another variant of the same rules for Mongoose's own universe.

Today a few administrative things came up, causing a bit of distress and lots of time spent on that so I have to admit that I haven't finished the Possessed. These guys... oh anyway, here's a new WIP picture and I hope to finish them tomorrow:



Have I mentioned that the rest of the books I had ordered arrived? Day of the Rangers supplement for Force on Force (about the Black Hawk Down thing in Somalia in the early 1990s. Very cool book, packed with 20 scenarios, historical, hypothetical and cinematic, surrounding that day. I don't have any models suited for the setting but nothing easier than to convert this into a downed Storm Talon, Space Marines rushing to the rescue and Orks flooding to the Storm Talon to loot it. Or something like that. I do love the Force on Force ruleset.). Second thing is one of the Osprey books on the Red Army in WW2 as reference for an upcoming commission project. Interesting stuff as well of course.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Okay, the Possessed are finished!








...well, still a bit bloodless but that'll all be added in the end. Army's looking really pretty already. Next to add will be the big guy!

Spoiler:

Game looked like a lot of fun! Love the icon those troops are carrying... really spiffy job on the blood dripping from it.

@Gitsplitta: Thanks, mate!


First WIPs of the Lord of Skulls:




Erm... this is going to take a while. Let's say you got a Baneblade. It's huge but it's mostly all even surface. This guy is like a GIGANTIC model pressed together and crumpled up so you got tons and tons and tons of details all over him. Kind of a challenge combined with the super-tight schedule. Hope that you like him so far. It's essentially just basecoating but I'm sure you can see what colour scheme I'm going for with this one.

I think it looks gorgeous Sigur. The big hazard stripe sections really break the "standard" chaos colors up nicely.

Did you have to assemble the kit, Sigur, or was it supplied assembled?

Also, any chance of the next WIP including a standard SM for scale purposes?

@Gitsplitta: Cheers!

@Dysartes: Heyhey, sorry, forgot about the size comparison SM. I'll put it on with the next Wip picture. Basically, an SM is a head shorter than the tracks in the front. I didn't build the model myself, got it completely built. Unfortunately, large parts weren't cleaned of mold lines which took me a bit longer for preparation.


Update:

Update!







It doesn't look like much of an improvement but I sat quite a while again. In the previous update the metallics in the back were barely done so that's what I mainly did today. Also the battle damage, neatening up in general, get details I left out earlier, gave the skulls some definition and so on.

Exquisite!

It really does look suitably nasty Siggy! you've done another excellent job, even though I really don't lke the actual model myself (too much like a bad 80's cartoon baddy!) I think you've made it look pretty grim darky enough to get a pass in my books! :-)

Just catching up on your thread Sigurd and it is amazing!

Love the possessed, especially the colours on the wings. And as for the Lord of Skulls, it looks awesome. Great brass tones (would love to know how you did that!) and the weathering is great.

@Gitsplitta: Thanks!

@Nerdfest09: Thanks doubly then.

@San76: Thanks very much, I hope that you enjoy the thread and just ask if you have any questions!



Sorry for the lack of update last night. I just didn't manage to get it done, got a little distracted...

Anyway, here it is now - the Lord of Skulls:









Hope you like him. As with all of those Khorny models, I'll add some blood in the end.


...and finally, especially for Dysartes, here's the size comparison shot:





Here's an early WIP of the last unit (for now) - Raptors:






Last night I skipped gaming night (shame really, missed out on finally trying Muskets&Tomahawks) so this noon I was gripped by an incredible lust to push some models across the table. So spontaneously I grabbed a bunch of Epic minis, some of my 6mm terrain and set up a tiny solo scenario:



So what is this? The scenario originally is from the Force on Force supplement Day of the Rangers which, as I mentioned a few days ago in here, has some backstory, event cards, special rules and 20 scenarios surrounding the UN mission in Somalia 1993 (with the whoe Black Hawk Down thing and all of that). In this very scenario a squad of US Marines in three fire teams has to storm a Somali warlord's weapon stash, blow it up and get out.

In my version three small squads of Eldar Guardians led by a Warlock are sent out to destroy an Imperial AA missile system. The site is defended by a bunch of Squats and reinforcements in the form of PDF and locals are inbound to support the defence of their launcher.

To make it short, the locals rolled really, really well for reinforcements. By turn #4 they had doubled their numbers and most of them were even trained troops with some combat experience. One of the groups that came to help defend the place actually were three PDF soldiers who brought along five civilians. Counting as "hostile mob" the civilians aren't armed with fire weapons but may attempt to 'taunt' an enemy fire team and therefore add to their combat stress level (this is an often overlooked mechanism but I really love it as it adds a lot of "realism" to the games. As the fighting goes on and depending on certain enviromental factors like being under fire, having casualties, being in cover and so on units accumulate combat stress over time, lowering their confidence and morale).


South to the road: Eldar units
Round bases indicate hostile (towards Eldar) civilians

Anyway, at this point the whole site had pretty much become a fortress with a huge numbers advantage on the side of the Squats and colonists. The Eldar engaged one large unit while staying out of sight of the rest but got shot up badly. At this point I tried to grab the wounded and just get out [another thing I really like about these scenarios: In this one for instance the attacking player gets as many victory points for getting off the table via the extraction zone as for blowing up the mission objective. The same amount of points the defending player gets for keeping the objective from getting destroyed so actually the attacker can at least get a draw if he manages to get out without any casualties. As usual, the Irregulars get victory points for wounding or - even worse - taking one of the attackers prisoner while in return the attackers get no victory points for killing irregulars and on the contrary get negative victory points for wounding civilians]. It didn't quite work and the day was won by the Squats/colonists.

The suggested table size for the game for 15mm or 20mm minis is 2'x2' so I got to play on a 1' by 1' "table" again. Very fun experience, very handy. And it did get my miniature gaming itch scratched. So as usual with solo games - I won.

The LoS is awesome. I love the glow coming from the canisters in the rear.

got to agree with Gits - those cannisters are fantastic. the blend is great and the white vertical reflection lines really make them pop. outstanding...

LoS in general is pretty awesome. Agree with Gits and San, the canisters set it off. Size comparison looks great. I love your 6mm terrain. That whole little scenario seemed like easy fun.

@Gitsplitta: Thanks! I was really unsure what to make with the canisters in the back, which is why i basically left them for last. First I wanted to go with a "filled with red goop, some of them only half-filled" look but that would just have been too time consuming. Still, I'm happy with the result as it is.

@San76: Thank you very much. Yeah, the vertical reflection lines really make the effect work I think. Nicked that idea from the 'Eavy Metal paintjob.

@Moltar: Cheers! I felt like the back of the thing needed a bit of "visual jazz" because it being all metal and stuff. The scenario was indeed fun. Quick to play, quick to set up. I could have made it look prettier by adding some more fences, vegetation and such but whatever. I didn't even really plan to post pictures of it but I think that this cork sheet I used for the ground actually worked very well. Oh yes, I do like my 6mm houses as well. I gotta make new moulds for the some time too as I reworked the masters and the old mould got a little damaged.


Here's the latest update on the Raptors:



So yeah, it's all within schedule. If I don't manage to finish those guys tonight (which is kind of unrealistic) I'll do so tomorrow and the plan is fulfilled.

Yesterday I went into a model kit shop, only to get one or two bottles of paint. Ended up leaving with loads of things I didn't need in the first place and 40€ less in my pocket. But at least I'll try out some new stuff soon. Entirely unspectacular but I like the absurdity of the plan - buy spray paint to put it into my airbrush and then spray it on. Aw yeah.

 Sigur wrote:
Yesterday I went into a model kit shop, only to get one or two bottles of paint. Ended up leaving with loads of things I didn't need in the first place and 40€ less in my pocket. But at least I'll try out some new stuff soon. Entirely unspectacular but I like the absurdity of the plan - buy spray paint to put it into my airbrush and then spray it on. Aw yeah.

OK, I give - how's that going to work?

 Dysartes wrote:

 Sigur wrote:
Yesterday I went into a model kit shop, only to get one or two bottles of paint. Ended up leaving with loads of things I didn't need in the first place and 40€ less in my pocket. But at least I'll try out some new stuff soon. Entirely unspectacular but I like the absurdity of the plan - buy spray paint to put it into my airbrush and then spray it on. Aw yeah.

OK, I give - how's that going to work?

It's called decanting. Basically spraying the paint into a container and then thinning it for brush painting or use in an airbrush. An old technique. I learned about it from a car mural painter.

~Eric

@Dysartes: Thanks for your comment! It's called decanting. You basically spray the paint into a container and then thin it for either using it for brush or airbrush use. It's a rather old technique. I think even Eric knows of it by now. I learned about it from some model store dude. (@Taarnak: Just teasing you, mate. You summarized it better than I could have.)


Khorne Marines done, just waiting for good light conditions to take some pictures.

Now full steam ahead into the new project - WW2 Red Army for Flames of War (15mm scale).

If you've read any of my other historical projects you probably noticed how I always like to give some historical context along with every project I tackle. This time I have to keep it short so this will have to do:


This is all you have to know for now, comrades.


It's been a while since this was the case the last time but I spent most of the day cleaning, building and basing these models. As the horde grew, it got more and more daunting, despite my attempts at organizing it somehow:



...and that's not even all of the infantry and artillery. The flame thrower platoon hides in the lower left corner, then there's another artillery battery, batalion HQ and then there's of course... the tanks.


Experts have worked out that during the 1940s and 50s the average soviet citizen never left home without at least 10 T-34 with him.

Then there's a bunch of SU-100s. The only reason why all of that isn't built yet is that I ran out of super glue.

Before tackling this I got the accompanying Osprey book of course. :p


So that's all for now. Tomorrow I'll build the rest of the units, get these rascals primed and will see that I get as many of those as possible basecoated. Update intervals on this project probably will be rather short so keep on checking in! Comments, critique, hints and questions are highly welcome as always!

Holy crap Sigur!

 Sigur wrote:
@Dysartes: Thanks for your comment! It's called decanting. You basically spray the paint into a container and then thin it for either using it for brush or airbrush use. It's a rather old technique. I think even Eric knows of it by now. I learned about it from some model store dude. (@Taarnak: Just teasing you, mate. You summarized it better than I could have.)

No worries. I found it rather amusing.

I didn't mean to step on your toes. Lol.

~Eric

Yeah you know it's gonna be an epic task when you run out of glue! that looks like one awful amount of fiddly right there Siggy!

Thats an amazing set of chaos you did there.. and Fast! You must be a machine!

How long did it take you totally to do the LoS?

@Gitsplitta: Yeah, that's what I keep saying to myself every morning when i get up, look at the calendar and then see that unpainted horde.

@Taarnak: No worries. Here's the kicker - I didn't even use it yet. I rummaged through the whole house on the look for one last little photo film container as those are great to store paint, then noticed that I've got a more accurate airbrush paint anyway so I delayed my decanting plans for a bit. Do you have any additional hints? All I know is to be darned careful not to heat up the sprayed paint in any way and to have it "fume out" at least over night.

@nerdfest09: Yeah, that was a bit annoying. The other thing was that I went though almost a full can of black primer too with those guys. I'm generally okay with smaller scales (love gaming with them too). The most important thing is that I manage to get out of the "Paintiing 28mm" mindset and into "painting 15mm" one.

@Solar_lion: I prefer the term "cybernetic organism". Living tissue over a metal endoskeleton. Not quite sure about the exact time on the LoS because at ne point I got fed up and painted some more on the Raptors. Somehting like four days?

Huh, I can't believe I haven't posted the "army picture".






...and here we go with the single pictures (not all the shots really, just the most important one so you see I actually finished the models and added some blood):









I like that picture because you can see it's eye:





















So that's that. Managed to finish the whole bunch well in time and already drove them to their home where I got to witness one of the Apocalypse games the guys over there (city about one hour drive away from here) do every few months. I posted pictures of their summer games before last year and the year before. It's always great to attend, not only because they set up pretty large Apocalypse games with all painted (and neatly painted too!) minis.

On the first day there was a game of Orks versus Imperial things, day#2 was an even bigger Chaos versus Imperials game. Here are just a few pictures:

















So yeah, just a few pictures. Really pretty looking games though as you hopefully can tell from the pictures. Actually made me want to play some 40k. The rest of the pictures (including noughty imperial wing-art) can be found here (pages 11 through 14): http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/games/?nggpage=11


That aside - not much in the way of news to be honest. I planned to post lots of updates on the Russian front but really - there isn't all tht much to see. I already reorganized all the infantry into smaller batches to make it more manageable (otherwise I'd go crazy I'm afraid). But at least I've got a recipe now after some experimenting. It doesn't happen often but with the first recipe I had worked out for the infantry I made a little mistake which kind of hits the motivation. That 40k event (and some other stuff) set me back about two days. But I'm back on top of things and rather positive that I can finish that army until the end of the month. I really have to restrain myself on the birthday front though. If I indulge in deviant pleasures that might cost me some extra time....

Anyway, hope you like the pictures and I'll post more stuff again soon!

That army looks fantastic Sigur... wow!

Apoc game looks very fun. Amazing to see so many nicely painted figures on one place. Most of the Apoc games I've see photos of are bare plastic festivals.

@Gitsplitta: Thanks, buddy! That's exactly what I enjoy so much about that particular group's games - it's all lovingly painted, they made a ton of terrain including really impressive, large Orky industrial buildings, some of them with LEDs and whatnot. It's just refreshing to see people just have fun with 40k. If you look around the internet you easily get the impression that everybody who plays 40k hates every little thing about it. So it's good to see people just have fun with the game an with their models to set things into the right light again.

Alright...*takes off Space Marine helmet and puts on Red Army commissar cap*


Hi comrades! Finally another update, eh?

As I said, I figured out a recipe for the infantry a few days ago, did some work, noticed that I had to modify my recipe. Oh well, it happens. Not very often but it does. So I changed my recipe and here are a few sample bases of finished soviet infantry:




...and here's a look at what's done so far on a larger scale:



Basewise, this is a bit over 50% of the infantry/artillery bases but the latter are larger and have less figures so things don't look too dim. Hope that you like the guys, C&C welcome!

It's a camo green flash mob of dooooooom!