Loki's SAGA Irish

Loki and I have a little Community Currency trade on the go I am painting and providing an Irish SAGA force and Loki is kitting me out with wargames terrain so I can once again game at home. I had agreed to create a 6pts SAGA force but once I started I got a little carried away and have ended up painting 9pts. The Irish can swap Hearthguard for champions so one unit of 4 Hearthguard are painted as 4 champion figures so he has the choice. In total he has one Levy slingers, 2 javelin/spear armed Warriors and 1 Irish wolfhound unit (act as warriors). In total there are 5 Hearthguard units one which is 4 champions and 6 of them have Dane axes. I finished off with a figure that when looking at research looks to have been modeled on a picture of the king of Ireland and a little diorama with a leader and his faithful Hound and Druid.
And now to the pictures first unit is the unit of champions, and at the end is a group shot. I will pack them up tomorrow and they will travel up with me to Morecambe where I am meeting up with Loki and Kev at my Dad's so we can do a run through of the BforC game (you never know the odd game of SAGA may happen)

On top of all the work on the SAGA Irish I am trying to complete a hearthguard unit for my Dads Vikings so he can up his force to 6pts (using some celt slingers we already have). I am working on a couple of Leaders too.

I have also completed the Banana Bunch Guards

BattleTech set (very poor)

I bought this Box set well over a year ago as I loved playing it as a kid. As I want to run the game at blog-con I broke out the figures and must say if this is the production values they put into the game now no wonder it seems very poorly supported now, I know they used to have big European competitions in the 90's while now I only see one of the blogs I follow playing it now and then.

The figures are a very poor plastic molded piece of rubbish, the detail is almost not there and where the figure has been produced in more than one part no care has been taken sticking the bits together and they seem to have used a paste brush to put on the glue.

If you think of them as just game pieces like chess pieces or drafts then they are ok but as wargames miniatures they are shockingly poor. Fortunately the game is still as great as I remember and I have dug out and finished some very fine metal Mechs I had in the loft. I will paint up the plastic ones as they will be find for one off games (which lets face it is all I will be doing with this game)

I am very busy painting at the moment and will have plenty to show you soon, I am also heading up to my Dads this weekend and meeting up Loki and Kev so we can play test the Bloggers for Charity game and nail down once and for all the rules we will use and the figures we need.
Peace James

New Bloggers make it easy for us old'ns

So I like may of you bloggers follow a fair few blogs and when you start out if the blog has no follower gadget or is from a different platform, you could simple follow it by adding the URL to your blogroll shown below.

As a total blog whore I now get this message when I try to add more to my blogroll

This cause's me great pain :) so on a effort to easy my pain I would love it if anyone new to blogging would add the followers gadget to their blog, you can hide it down at the bottom if you want but without this gadget I can not add you blog to my roll. With it I can carry on adding to my hearts content (401 and counting). It is a little more involved than it used to be but to help out here is a how to for you.
On your Layout page click on new gadget you will get the window below you then need to click on the more gadgets tab (I have highlighted it in a very understated way for you).

 

 

On the next window scroll down to the bottom of the page and you find the followers gadget.

 

 

All you have to do now is save the gadget in the next window and choose where on you blog to put it when that is complete you should have something that looks like the last picture.

If you have followed these steps then you can sit back and wait for all us blog whores to find your little part of the blogosphere, if you want to encourage followers go out and comment on blogs you like follow them and always list you blog under your comment.
Peace James

 

 

Plaid new style.

I have been busy painting a fair bit of plaid recently and have picked up a new way of doing it off a blog, the blog is a fantastic one about the Scots in the Civil war, check it out Project Auldearn 1645. So inspired I created the below plaid.
If you are wondering why I am only showing the back of the figures it is because these are part of a SAGA Irish force I am painting for Loki as part of a Community Trade.

I am very happy with the look of these and I will be sticking with this style from now on. I have also finished the base's on Johns F&IW French which will be packed up this weekend and sent home next week.

Another reason to attend Blog-Con

So Blog-Con is rapidly approaching and we are starting to get a few more games lined up, so far we have Dave with The man with no name challenge myself with a BattleMech game Ian is promising to bring along some of his board games and on the Sunday PanzerKaput has said he will bring along a VBCW game, Sunday will also see the bring all you can X-wing Game. I have a few people with arms still to twist  games still to confirm, but it looks like a BP game and a Musket and Tomahawk game plus I am working on a SAGA game.
The review table is building nicely with both Mantic and BattleFront agreeing to send products, I would also ask if anyone wants to bring along any rules sets they do so we will make sure they are well looked after and returned safe at the end of the weekend.
We have agreed on an area to be set aside for seating and general gossip hobby talk. What I need you all to do is pop over to the blog and answer the poll (unless you already have) that will give me an idea of how much tea/coffee and biscuits I need to bring. As an added incentive to those thinking of attending on the Saturday it just happens to be some ones 40th Birthday (I know some one else is having a big birthday that weekend too) so plenty of cake will be provided.

I would love it if all of you can spread the word again around the blogosphere as the success of this weekend rest fully with all of us bloggers I hope this will be the first of many Blog-Con's
EDIT: I have just had it conformed that Mike will run one or two SAGA demo games so if you ever wanted to try it out this is you chance.
EDIT2: I can now confirm that my Dad Paul Brewerton will be running a Musket and Tomahawk Game on the Saturday.

Peace
James (he does not look old enough) Brewerton

Spreading the Love

I find I go thought periods where I go looking for new blogs, I read a lot of blogs (over 400 at last count) but even with that many I can have nights when very few updates happen (do you not realise how important it is for me to have posts to read, get posting you lazy lot).

I have been finding some real gem’s over the last few week some of which I do not know how I have missed and others that are new kids on the block. I wanted to share these blogs with a little overview of what they offer if you want to check them out do so if not... this is not the post for you I guess.

http://inthehalloftheplasticking.blogspot.co.uk/  building a 28mm Medieval army out of only plastic figures.

http://lordsiwoc.blogspot.co.uk/  all things Zombie

http://vulcanologists.blogspot.co.uk/  great general hobby blog

http://caliban-somewhen.blogspot.co.uk/ some great ancients action

http://vswargame.blogspot.co.uk/ Painting to die for

http://philswarcabinet.blogspot.co.uk/  new blog for a regular blogger

http://wargamingrediscovered.blogspot.co.uk/ newer blog with great content

http://diceoflegends.blogspot.co.uk/  little bit of everything

http://emperorbaz.blogspot.co.uk/ Barry has a great new wargames room follow all his attempts to fill it.

Painting Sheild Damage

After a few requests after I showed my painted shield damage last month I took the time to photograph the steps involved.
This is a very quick and simple technique, first you complete your shield to the design and colours you want then with a few steps the results can be very effective.

Completed figure along with a plain shield

The next step can be done with a fine brush but I use a drawing pen shown below with this or the brush put as many black lines on you shield as you feel it needs make sure they are different lengths and directions.

Next it is time to break out your finest brush and some white paint, the paint you need to thin out as much as you can without it becoming a wash. With your thin brush and a small amount of paint on the tip of it you underline each black line, the line does not need to be solid in fact a broken line can been more effective.

I now get a dark wash and with a thin brush paint over each damage line this softens the white a little and I have even used it make a water mark down from the end of the damage line. (but not this time)

 The picture below is the final effect. While it is not a display standard skill for wargames table figures this give a great effect and does not take too much time to complete.

I have been a very busy boy since returning from Holiday and will have loads to show you all very soon. I thank you all for the comments on the last post it was great to start such a discussion.

Peace James