Sunday, 14 January 2018

Zulu's and Necromunda progress.

How have we got to almost half way through January already!!. I set myself a few goals for this month and have been working hard towards them.

 Zulu's have been stuck together and undercoated and yesterday I painted the fist two units, well almost. I undercoat my figures in my old garage (on its last legs with no windows or doors) and have an old washing machine that I use as my table/stand I had undercoated the Zulus before work and in the evening I popped in to grab them. I have no light in the garage but the table is just in the entrance so I step in grab the board of figures and step out...usually. We have been having some very strong winds in the UK and that day had been such a day, as you can imaging plastic Zulu's have very little weight and had been blow off the table onto the floor this I only worked out after my step into the garage resulted in a crunching sound. Yes one base of Zulus took the brunt on my 18 odd stone and are beyond repair so one unit is a base short and will be made up to strength in the next batch. I still have the base work to do but have with the look of these Zulu's and they do not take long to paint.


 As I showed in the last post I stuck the Necronuda figures together in short order and have decided to paint them one at a time rather than as a batch. I completed the first figure and am very happy with the colours picked

While moving my hobby stuff around before Xmas I uncovered my old Necromunda figures, I have to say they still look good and will be seeing action as soon as I complete the latest figures.

 As I was working on prep before Xmas this occurred which I am sure many wargamers will understand.
Wargamers train of thought... Need to finish undercoat on Bloodbowl orcs, have some paint left so will undercoat a few more Zomicide black plague figures of Dad's... Must stick more Zulus together as I promised Dad.. While the glue is out might as well pre base them... Guess can pre base the rifle armed ones too... Seems a shame not to base the Sudan mounted as well. So an hour later desk is full of stuff little of which I planned to paint.
One of my big goals for 2018 is to get back regular gaming, I had looked at two local wargames clubs both of which meet in Stoke-on-Trent (about 30-40 min) but they meet on Thursday and Friday both days that my Wife works evenings so I have never felt I could get over. but this week I looking into maybe a Boardgames club and found one only 5 mins form me that meet on a Tuesday evening Cheshire Gamers I love a good board game and will take my Zombicide along but after introducing myself over social media very quickly found that a few of these games want to move over to miniature wargames... I am sure I can help with that .
So I will be popping along this Tuesday and seeing if I like it.

Thursday, 28 December 2017

Necromunda 2.0

Morning All,
                    As I explained in my last post I am going to crack on with the new GW Necromunda, now after opening the box I have to admit that you get plenty for the money (no always the case with GW). The figures and Terrain are nice hard plastic although the figures seem unnecessarily complex to put together. This is some thing I noticed last Xmas when putting the new Bloodbowl figures together. I put this down to the figures being designed on computers and not sculpted.
anyway with it being that odd period between Xmas and New year I knuckled down for some work, I stuck the House Goliath gang in the morning and have to say that GW have made it tough for you to mix these new figures with any old ones you may have tucked away from the 90's these guys are HUGE forget heroic 28mm these guys are almost 40mm but you get some very nice scenic base's

By the afternoon I moved up to the hobby room to start on the House Escher but got a bit distracted while the first girl dried and ended up constructing all the terrain bits.
So this is where I sit today I have all the big guys and terrain done and four of the girls, I have a family meal today but should have time to complete the Escher gang and then its primer time.

  While gaming has been a rare occurrence for me one of my other hobbies has been going great, most Saturdays I am found on the sidelines of my local sports clubs trying to capture stunning action shots, its something I enjoy and has kept me from trying to play sport (while always ended in injury for me). I have an instagram account where I share my sports and a few gaming images.

I also provide images for the local newspapers sport pages and love seeing my work popping up and promoting the local teams. Other that that my life revolves around my lovly wife and daughter plus our Scottie dogs (plus our daughters Schnauzer cross)


Till next time Peace James


Tuesday, 26 December 2017

Painting toy soldiers for games you never play with friends you dont have!!

The title to this post comes form a chat I had with a fellow blogger it was said to him by an ex-partner during a heated conversation. It is something that has stuck with me as it cut so close to the truth, I enter my 45th year and my last regular wargaming was as a teenager, so can I call myself a wargamer...
It is tough to admit but I don't make friends easily, I can safely say that my two best friends are my wife Liz and my Dad Paul. I'm not fussed about this as I have a great life, it just means that playing wargames for me is tough, I am not a one for solo gaming, for me playing wargames was always more about who is round the table then whats on the table.


My Dad retired a few years ago and threw himself back into wargames so I have been mainly painting stuff for him the play with, this has been great for keeping my painting focus. I guess that I am really a painter who would like to play more. This brings me to why a have resurrected this blog after so long in the wilderness. It is for me to get my ideas and plans in print, I always find painting to a target brings the best out of me. If along the way I gain readers and share tips that can help all well and good but that will not be my goal.
I have been a very blessed person over the last few years with my personal finances in a very nice place I have been able to pick a job that leans more towards a great work/life balance than wealth gathering. I have a great job that is Mon-Fri 9-5 this hopefully will let me try and find a local games club where I can put the painting/gaming back into balance too. I have also been able to build up an impressive collection of games/figures that will keep my busy for many a year.
In 2017 my daughter moved out and the now spare room has become a hobby room for me and my wife one side holds all my wargames/boardgames stuff and the other side holds my wife's sewing knitting and dolls house stuff. it gave me chance to build my own painting desk, I raised the desk level so I can paint without ending up hunched over.
another big plus for me has been the explosion in figure based board games I started with Zombicide for my 40th Birthday and have built up an impressive array of board games just waiting for my attention. I guess this is where this blog will come in as I plan in 2018 to work on completing these games. I have two local wargames clubs to try out and will look for boardgames clubs too. I have several GW boardgames that go back to my youth and the peak (so far) of my wargaming which I am keen to get my brush into.
This blog is going to be where I put my plans and results, so where do I plan to start. I have been painting Zulu war figures for playing the era in skirmish so I have to finish these but I want to make a start on my board games, oddly I want to start with the last one bought as I know my Dad is keen too, so I will be sticking together and painting the figures for GW's Necromunda.
Gaming wise I will be looking at attending the local wargames clubs before the end of January.

January goals
  1. Stick together necromunda figures and terrain
  2. Attend at least one wargames club session
  3. Play at least one game (wargame or boardgame)
  4. Finish Colonial Zulu's