Apologies for the lack of any updates the last week. As I mentioned previously, I had been having some eye problems & headaches since banging my head a month or so ago
Because of this I've been deliberately holding off doing any painting and waiting for an eye test that I booked for last Friday. Well, the good news is my eyes are fine, I actually have above average close up vision apparently. They did an OCT scan of my eyes, an amazing new procedure that can flip the image and show you a 'slice' through the different layers and then build a 3D image that can be rotated on screen. This is what it looks like (not my eye, a picture I found on the 'net)
It seem as though, what I've been experiencing is probably something similar to whiplash, for which I've been rubbing freeze gel into my neck
So, now that I know my eyesight is OK I'll be back with painted results very shortly
I took a few photos whilst wandering around Salute on Saturday. Not too many but there are plenty more available from other people if you do a search on the 'net
So, here a few games & displays that caught my eye, all are 'clickable' to enlarge them
And I survived Salute for another year (although once again, I got a headache on the underground)
Yesterday was deliberately spent doing very little hobby related so I could just chill out and relax. However, I did take a couple of snaps of what I came back with
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At the top you can see my 'impulse buys' that I was so worried about. In the end this turned out to be a pair of buildings from Renedra. They shouldn't take too much time to assemble & paint and will give me a nice break from figures. Right of those are the seven not Sontarans I pre-ordered from Heresy. Again, colour scheme is rather easy so I can hopefully get these done quickly
Onto the bottom row, there is a Forge World catalogue I picked up for a friend and the latest DVD of back issues of Miniature Wargames magazine. I have all these in hard copy but need to clear the space, does anyone want over 300 issues before I bin them for recycling?
To the far right are the latest figures from Gary Mitchell that I will paint and photo for his website. Gary is happy to get these on a drip feed basis as I do them so there is no pressure to rush them. Finally, central are the free dice and Jason figure for attendees. Not sure what to do with him, I can't say as I'm so excited with it being plastic this year
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This second picture shows the items I picked up from Mantic Games. As I was a Kickstarter backer they gave me some of the items that were due to be sent with the second wave, the season 2 book (more teams, players etc) and the hex bases. I did succomb and buy the vixens female team and they kindly threw in the limited edition Gabe character for me
So total cost on the day, each of the buildings were £15 and so were the Dreadball team so that brought the damage to only £45 - phew!
It was funny, once I was there looking at all of the pretty new things to buy it dawned on me exactly how much I still have to paint. So, more resolutions are needed I think!
Tomorrow I'm off to Salute, the biggest wargames show in UK. This is my first visit for four or five years, as it's a bit of a haul from near Bath along the M4 to the opposite end of London I tend to only go every now & again
So what am I after at the show?
I have a small order of Sharclon troopers (think Dr Who Sontarans) to collect from Heresy Miniatures plus some new figures from Gary Mitchell to paint for him
I'm also planning on getting the latest Miniature Wargames DVD of back issues, maybe another pack of Chinese mythology figures from Black Hat and maybe the new freedom fighter figures from Crooked Dice
That leaves me impulse buys, the bit I dread ...
If you're there and you see me wearing a red Big Bang Theory 'Bazinga' t-shirt then say hi!
I completed a couple more of the Black Hat figures last night. They have actually been done for a couple of days but just awaiting their bases to be done. There is something about doing bases that really bores me so that seems to get left
Firstly is another of the warrior princess figures, these really are lovely sculpts
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The second figure is the last one left from the heroes pack 2
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This leaves me two more princesses, the Sandy figure from the Monkey pack, one hero plus a mounted hero on a dragon horse left to paint to clear all of the figures I have bought
Once they are done I have three new figure packs, that my friend Steve, passed onto me. Oh and there is Salute in two days time so I might have something new after that <sigh>
Another quick post with some photos of more games played at the Wells club last week
I organised a game of Star Wars X-Wing for four players, with myself rules checking and keeping things flowing. We had two Imperials flying a TIE advanced & interceptor facing off against a Y-Wing & an A-Wing. Both of the interceptor & the A-Wing were new models that we hadn't used before. They both have the 'boost' action that allows them to move an additional template 1 distance forward or gentle curve. To add a bit more interest I also introduced asteroids for the first time. These are static obstacles that have to be avoided or you might take damage if you cross them
Here's a few photos from the game that resulted in both Imperials surviving (barely for the interceptor who was left on his last damage point!) It really is a great game that produces a fun evenings play!
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Also happening this night was another outing for the 20mm Stalingrad game with four of five players. I finally found out that the rules being used were I Ain't Been Shot Mum by the Too Fat Lardies
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Finally there was a two player game of Flames of War being played with a battle between German and American forces
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More photos from games that were played at my gaming club, the Mid-Somerset Wargamers in Wells, over the last couple of weeks
Starting off with the evening of Thursday 4th of April, Steve Jones ran not one but three simultaneous further games of his XCom campaign. Each of these were played on a card table that was just over 2 foot square and proves you don't need a huge amount of space to play a game on
The first table represented a bullet train in Tokyo, with a hidden alien bomb that needed to be found and disarmed. I was playing this game and managed to pick off the alien greys fairly easily but the appearance of a Muton made things a touch trickier. Still, an unlucky dice roll on his grenade launcher allowed me to drift the target point back towards him and so deal him some damage from his own weapon. This, followed up by a blast from my HMG gunner took him out and I could enter the large building at the back and disarm the bomb
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The next table was a section of a sewer plant in Berlin. There were several humans that had to be rescued before they could be snatched/eaten by a group of viscous Chrysalid aliens. Rich was playing this game and managed to run onto the board and trigger most of the target humans whilst only losing two or his troopers. This was a marginal victory but against those aliens he did very well ..
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The last table was down town Johannesburg with Andrew & Chris running a team that needed to extract General Peabody safely off the table. With inspired shooting they easily accomplished the mission
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Elsewhere around the club, there was a 28mm WW1 trench raid plus a microscale WW2 fleet action game (apologies there is no photo of this as it didn't come out very well)
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Another quick update, with another Black Hat Chinese mythology figure completed. This is another one from the Heroes Pack 2
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Still more to follow ..
I think my biggest fault as a gamer is being seduced by 'quirky' looking game settings that have accompanying figures
Last month I had one of those moments when I dropped some cash on the Tor Gaming game called Relics. Set in a weird fantasy world with stitchpunk Brittanan puppet soldiers, hulking Orcnar creatures and pain loving Nuem humanoids. It was the latter that called out to me first and I picked up a starter set to have a look at. Luckily this only consists of five figures so I won't be distracted for too long
The first figure I decided to paint was a Pueri, a mutilated (look at those leg stumps!) female magic using being. Can't tell you much else until I get hold of a rulebook & read the fluff. Hopefully I'll get a copy at Salute in a week or so's time ..
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One down, four to go!
And I'm back ..
I had last week off of work and planned on getting so much done gaming wise but in the end achieved very little. My mother was ill with a bad virus early in the week and I ended up spending time with her or doing jobs for her. I also managed to get some work done on the garden even though the weather was damned cold. Two benches power sanded and re-stained/varnished plus a couple of lawns cut for the first time this year (it was like cutting hay!)
Anyway, enough waffling and on with the fruits of painting. I'm carrying on with the Chinese mythology theme until I've completed what I currently have. So, here are a couple more now completed
First up a hero type armoured & wielding a glaive type weapon
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And next, another figure from the Journey to the West set, Monkey himself
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More to follow!
