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@Gitsplitta: Thanks very much. Yup, it's this very special thing only large armies of toy soldiers can do. Also thanks for the cheeky compliment on the Spiderman.

@Captain Brown: Cheers, much appreciated!


Well, two days ago I got to play a game again! After having partaken in a game at Virtual Lard Cpt.Shandy was eager to try playing over Discord. And so we did. Here's my little battle report and general thoughts on the subject:

https://www.tabletopstories.net/language/en/2020/12/remote-gaming/



Hope you enjoy the article and have a nice weekend!

Another WIP shot of the Landau coach with Austrian staff officer:



Things be proceedin' slowly. An annoying fact dawned on me: That coach won't drive anywhere off-road, so I might have to keep the base more road-like and bare, with a few little tufts of grass here and there, else it would look off on a road. So I won't be able to get as much colour into this figure as I'd hoped to. Let's see. Any ideas?

Right, today I was out doing some field research.








"What are you doing, human."



There are perks to sitting right at the outskirts of Vienna. Had to deliver some figures to the inner city, so I had a look at some of the Fiaker coaches standing around. The larger ones for 4 people are basically the Landau Chassis. The wheels are mounted a bit differently (single suspension on each wheel rather than one suspension for each axis), but otherwise they're pretty much the same thing.

Heyhey. Despite all the plans I started working on my own Napoleonics during my days off.



Cleaned and based the Poles, primed them (black!), painted up some test minis. Those will follow soon. Just so you know in which direction this is going.

Just the infantry for now so I got the infantry done for both sides, then I'll add cavalry.


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Roight, that's the five testers for the 8th Infantry Regiment of the Duchy of Warsaw done:



Maybe I'll change some bits, maybe I'll refine some bits, but overall this is what I'll go for. Now only to repeat this 12 times.





Hope you like'em so far.

I can't believe you got the white piping around the collars...

Well, they gotta be white, don't they...

Happy new year, everybody!



Slowly I'm plodding through the Poles.



I think I got most of the big, boring steps done now. One more major thing will be painting whites. Crossbelts, straps on all sorts of things and of course the white piping. That'll be a big one. After that the next steps will be getting the skin done properly and the greatcoats. I'm planning to vary the colour on these a little. They should be 'pepper grey', as in the French army, but of course they were manufactured all over the Duchy and maybe there'll be some who brought their own greatcoats or got them somewhere else, so varying colour on these is never a bad idea.

Even got the bases brown, which took many more steps than one might think. I prime the Austrians light grey and use that as a base for the brown on the bases. Of course with the black primer on the Poles I have to throw in one or two in-between steps to get the bases to a shade which goes with the Austrians.

Well, that's it. It certainly isn't going fast, but miniature painting never does, right? And it shouldn't. These are my own figures I do in my leisure time, so I make the conscious decision to paint them as that as well.


Hope you like them so far. By now the look of the guys is starting to form (which is one of the reasons why I tend to paint base colours one after another and then start detailling. This way I get a better impression of the overall look).

Lovely work Sigur.

Well, I got disctracted...

BUT here's the first Tabletop Stories review of 2021!

Due to the circumstances solo wargaming was a big thing for many people in 2020, and will likely be for the coming months. So I thought I'd take a look at a set of rules by the foremost rules publisher in this niche: Two Hour Wargames. I chose to go with their sci-fi game series 5150:Star Army in its latest incarnation, named Citizen Soldier.

If you're interested in solo or cooperative wargames, reaction systems, campaign gaming or unique wargames rules in general this very much is worth a look, I think.

https://www.tabletopstories.net/language/en/2021/01/5150-citizen-soldier-review/



Hope you enjoy this article and find it interesting; there's a battle report of the test game coming soon!

During that little Sci-Fi thing I caught over the holidays I started painting these fun litte kits by GW:



Sure, the skulls are silly, but I didn't feel like converting terrain pieces a whole lot. So they are what they are. These are still WIP of course. I have yet to add details and some weathering. Hope you like them so far!

Heyhey, here's my first 5150: Citizen Soldier battle report!
In which we meet our hero Sgt.Goosio and his merry men and accompany them on their first patrol mission amidst an increasingly volatile situation between human villages and a tribe of Blood Axe Orks.

https://www.tabletopstories.net/language/en/2021/01/5150-citizen-soldier-test-game/



In this battle report I also use in-game situations to illustrate the unique reaction system. Hope you enjoy the article, and have a lovely weekend!


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Roight, time for some GALVANIC SERVOHAULERS. Or construction vehicles, as regular people would call them quite rightfully.





Really good set. And to be honest, if you buy that size of construction vehicles from Siku or others they wouldn't be much cheaper. I kept the fancy details a bit toned down in terms of painting because I'd like to use those along with more generic sci-fi as well. Also sorry for the slightly ruddy photos; my flash's batteries finally died. New ones are on the way, but not with me yet.

Oh well. Hope you like them, more 40k soon!

Hey really love your SERVOHAULERS .

I have those! Mine need painting too.

@moskolector: Thanks!

@Gitsplitta: Yeah, I guess these tend to be a bit lower on the priorities list than that new officer figure or that tank or ...pretty much anything else. Terrain tends to fall by the wayside a bit.


Heyhey, here's a group of Custodes on Foot:




Hope ye like them. Next up:Custodes on jetbikes, while I preprare a whole lot of pretty Eldar.



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In other news, I got a full platoon for 5150:Citizen Soldier now. Did that by (re-)painting seven dudes a while ago:




Three squads of six (including a sergeant, corporal, and a guy with a slightly killier gun. Here we got a wild mix of plasmagun, heavy stubber, and grenade launcher. The 3rd squad, Sgt.Goosio's, still is one man short after Pvt.Paul got killed during the last Patrol mission), one Lieutenant with three pals (radio operator, Squat medix, flag guy. In games terms only the medic is of special importance, the others are just grunts) and two support weapons. These are an autocannon and a Lascannon. Note the wildly different colour schemes on these guns. These guys are just planetary defence force, so they have to get their kit any way they can. I guess the lascannon fell off a cargo lifter or something.

Then there's some extra figures:



A squad of Squat clan warriors. They're a trade delegation's bodyguards who are stuck on the planet due to the invasion. Then there's three more planetary defence dudes, because having extras is always handy.

Most of these were painted around 2009/10 when I did some repainting of my IG army collected from 1996/97 up to... er... 2009? Not sure. As you can see, there's some really new bits in there from the Catachan command squad. I got those, a Valkyrie and a Manticore. All new stuff. But I never did much with those. Anyway, in 2009/10 I participated in a "Tale of [x] Painters" kind of thing in which I painted a platoon of abhumans. Squats, Ratlins, Ogryns, Beastmen (no idea where I put these actually!). Originally, most of the Catachan models were painted during the late 90s and 2000, very often very quickly between school's end and the guys arriving for gaming on Saturday in the evening.

Anway, now I got the guys to play 5150. There's more than enough opposition around. Due to reinforcement rules there might be vehicles showing up for either side. My old Orks of course have a serious lack of vehicles due to the fact that ...well, there weren't any around apart from Buggys and bikes. I got a plastic battle wagon in a very sorry state which would require lots of repairs. When I stopped playing 40k with my Catachan IG (I also got Cadians of course, and Valhallans, because IG players never get enough ) I was just starting to repaint the vehicles. I think so far I got a half-finished Chimera?

Anyway, as much as warhammer 40k just isn't my main focus of gaming any more, there just is something nice painting one of those old metal lasguns again. Really took me back. They're by no means masterpieces, but they're ready for the gaming table!

...aaaand more 40k things! Custodes things too.






So once those are finished there'll be even more pretty 40k things to come, so stay tuned for the finished versions of the chaps above and for what comes next!

Nice wip on custo

@moskolector: Cheers! Stay tuned for finished pictures soon!


In the mean time, here's other things:







Hope ye like them!

Great editing and terrain for that action shot! They look like they just jumped out of the comics!

Wow, they are spectacular!

@Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll: Thanks very much! Yeah, I tried a new thing there.

@Gitsplitta: Cheers! They're not real, but they're spectacular.


Here's the AAR of the second game of my solo 5150:Citizen Soldier campaign. This time our heroes are on the attack, and for the first time at full platoon strength!

https://www.tabletopstories.net/language/en/2021/02/5150-citizen-soldier-campaign-game-2/




Hope you like the battle report and have a smashing weekend!

Looks like an interesting system, Siggy - and the table looked excellent, as we've come to expect.

@Dysartes: Thanks very much! Yeah, well, those Two Hour Wargames rules are the go-to games for solo things. Although I just finished the novel Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann and got the second volume on the Swedish army during the thirty years war, so I feel a strong pull in that direction again. Let's see what happens next!

Heyhey, I painted Eldar of the Iyanden Craftworld type. Starting with Guardians:




Not 100% finished, some bits need some tidying up, but they're mostly done. And of course they'll get some heavy weapon platforms.




I also got started on the Dire Avengers. Those are still much more WIP.




I was told to make those look especially nice, because the gentleman I paint the army for (it's going to be big. All the aspects, all the things. It'll look amazing) really likes them. And who can blame him. Dire Avengers are the quintessential Eldar-looking unit, aren't they. I love the look of Eldar. Never played them myself, got mauled by Eldar for years and years during 3rd edition 40k. But anyway. Eldar are just crazy pretty and GW is doing good not to change any of the designs.

Well, I hope you like them so far!

Looks like you're off to a good start with this project, Siggy - are they all on resin bases?

Timeless!

Cheers! Yup, all resin bases. Not too bad an idea when it comes to plastics really. Even with metals it's not a bad thing. Makes'em more bottom-heavy, Figures don't fall over when storming a hill, etc.

I've got an Iyanden wraith army I've been sitting on for years waiting for me to get the gumption to paint it. As few humanoids as possible (only seers), otherwise all wraith constructs from wraithguard to a revenant titan, a few transports and a plane. Not a lot of models, but I've never had the guts to drag it out.

Gumption! Good word, that. I don't paint Eldar very often (lots of Harlequins and the occasional characters, but rarely proper armies), and when I started painting these here now at first I ran into a tiny bit of a wall. Eldar are a bit more interesting to paint than say a Space Marine army (Primaris, certainly). Stupid sexy Eldar!

They were my first army just for that reason. Unfortunately now I'm stymied by them.

Resin bases can be a good way to make an army look consistent - better than building individual bases for everyone - but they're not cheap. Not to mention, it can be a pain if the style you're using disappear from sale partway through...

@Gitsplitta: Throwing all the good words out now, eh? Yeah, I never played Eldar myself, because from a pretty early time on it was clear that they were my brother's thing.

@Dysartes: Yup, for certain things they're handy. I never took them as a go-to thing. To me, ye make yer bases yerself, but that's just me, my socialization and probably the fact that outside of GW/Warmahordes/Malifaux/Infinity a.) tall bases and b.) resin bases are highly unusual.

Well, I'm painting Eldar. Wanted to get the Rangers done next, because they are the next largest unit, but I had to wait for some orders concerning some details. Didn't finish the Dire Avengers, because on Thursday I had a little paint/chat thing on the interweb with friends, so I wanted to save them for that, but in the end painted something else: The next largest unit, Banshees. 11 figures plus Jain Zar. Slightly surprised that she's twice the size of her comrades. What's up with that? Do 40k figures scale with their points costs now?

Aaanyway, the Banshees are finished now, THEN I found another Banshee and another Exarch. Hrrr-umph. Oh well, those are the order of the day now, on the side I started basecoating the Warp Spiders and made some terrain bits. In the end Jain Zar probably needs some touch-ups on the armour. Overall I'm proceeding alright. The thing of course is that with this army, with all the aspects in their traditional colour schemes, I basically have to figure out a new recipe for every single unit in this army. A fair amount more work (not to mention the fact that these are Eldar, and thus have to be painted proper due to their inherent sexiness), but that's okay. Upside to this is that the whole project is very well structured. Kinda stop-and-go feeling between each of the units, but also well structured.


edit: Oh, I also bought things. First and foremost: new shoes. Good. My prior ones had a small hole and no profile any more, which had me roll for Difficult Terrain on ANY terrain. So that's good. Also had a re-supply of paints AND I bought myself a 40k thing, the Battle Sanctum. So that's going to be fun.