Welcome to May! April was a pretty successful month for getting stuff done but oh boy do I have some cool stuff to get to work on, as well as it murdering my ratio!
Project 365
First up, lets take a look at the numbers and oh god…
Painted: 39
Description | Maker | Number |
T-62 | Tiny Terrain | 2 |
BMP-1 | Spectre | 1 |
Chaos Warriors | GW | 10 |
Chaos Warriors (Old) | GW | 11 |
Stormcast | GW | 3 |
Insurgent PMC | Spectre | 10 |
Insurgent PMC (Undercover) | Spectre | 2 |
Purchased: 106
Description | Maker | Number |
Witch Aelves (Underworld) | GW | 5 |
Insurgent PMC | Spectre | 10 |
Insurgent PMC (Undercover) | Spectre | 2 |
Stormcast Heroes | GW | 3 |
Stormcast Sequitor | GW | 10 |
Stormcast Evovator | GW | 5 |
Ogroid Myrmidon | GW | 1 |
Ogroid Thaumaturge | GW | 1 |
Crimson Court (Underworld) | GW | 4 |
Cursed City – Heroes | GW | 8 |
Cursed City – Villains | GW | 42 |
Vyrkos Blood-Born | GW | 3 |
Emelda Braskov | GW | 1 |
Chaos Warriors (Old) | GW | 11 |
Well in good news, I continued to exceed my target of 31 models a month painted. I also managed to prevent figures dropping into the shame pile by getting the Insurgent PMC and the Chaos Warriors done.
So as I predicted last month, the release of Crimson Court and Cursed City bumped up my purchased to a ridiculous level, not helped by a sudden project appearing in my mind (more details below). Looking at the numbers from this, I’m going to hold off on picking up anything for the next month or two. I already have plenty of things to work on, especially with the addition of a boxed game I can play with my sister. Looking forward, there are a few things I’m very interested coming up (such as the recently previewed Witch Hunters or whatever Spectre is working on), so I’ll be saving my hobby purchases for them. Until then, the goal is getting the stuff I’ve purchased painted up.
PROJECT FANTASY
I have spent a lot of time this month painting boys and girls in black armour. After my experiment with the Underworld warband last month, this month I decided to get to work on the main line troops. It was a great bit of experience, a very nice change from the painting style of the WW2 figures I had been working on. I’m also really enjoying just how useful Black Contrast paint is, even though I’m not using it for it’s original purpose. Painting it over metal to do the black armour meant it took a fraction of the time and saved me a lot of extra work. I also made sure to do a fair number of guys with bare heads, just a little more practise with painting facial features.
Of course, just after I finished the first set, my Dastardly Regular Opponent (while we were having a social distanced BBQ) decided to add some extra bad guys to the pile by gifting me a box of the old Chaos Warriors (complete with brown box). These took a little bit of work and cleanup to get ready (and there are still gaps I only noticed when I started painting) but they are still that gloriously iconic look, the looming metal black slowly marching forward. It was also fun putting the same scheme on the older figure, you really see how the level of detail has improved in the sculpts as well as just the general quality.
Oh boy, and then Cursed City. This was some real Games Workshop shenanigans. As impressive as it was seeing them continuing their aggressive release schedule, the experience of actually ordering it was a nightmare. My local wargames shop was out of stock before the pre-orders even went up and my second choice put me onto a future wave list. Even then, I didn’t know if I would even get it until I had the dispatch email. I was actually thinking it was almost time to cancel my pre-order, assuming that I wouldn’t be seeing any sign of it. In fact, I even managed to order the models I really wanted separately just in case I missed out on them. But luckily, I got the email and then the box through the door the following day.
With Cursed City’s arrival, getting the Crimson Court undercoated and the upcoming release of the Soulblight Gravelords later this year, I’m really falling in love with Games Workshop’s undead models. Age of Sigmar has definitely become much more interesting over the last few years, and the reccent releases keep giving out models I’m really interested in. Plus, zombies, skeletons and more are perfect for games like Frostgrave or other fantasy skirmish things, and you can never have enough zombies.
Of course, the vampires aren’t the only set of fantasy figures I’m eyeing up. At the end of last month, I mentioned taking a look at painting up the easy build Sequitors in a more realistic method. As you can see, they came out rather well. These three look like some hardcore templars. now, Having painted these, and spotting that Leodis had more models in stock…
I picked up a few things. The Evocators and Sequitors are the exact look I’ve been wanting, and raising up to squads means I have plenty of people to assemble in the different loadouts each squad can prepare. Despite having enough troops to form a small army for AoS, these guys are not going to end up filling boards. Instead, they are all designed for Warcry. I really like all the small skirmish games, mostly because you get to make each figure a real character. I’m looking forward to continuing the fun I had with the trio of Sequitors above.
And as my friends continue to point out, I now have four factions worth of Age of Sigmar (Stormcast, Daughters of Khaine, Undead and Chaos), something pretty amusing having only really got into it last year.
PROJECT WW2
I took a little break from my WW2 British platoon to work on fantasy stuff and now I’m back and ready to finish off the final tray of WW2 Brits (23 in total). Once done, I’ll just need to spray up the platoon of Churchill tanks and my first WW2 force would be done.
Of course, there is another reason for wanting to get these guys done. As you can see above, Mr Hicks (the sculptor for this range) has completed work on a 3inch Mortar team to go with the existing figures, showing off a great mix of the different clothing styles one might encounter. This is probably a sign we’re about to see another set of releases for the Late-War British. As you may have worked out from my repeated ramblings, I’m very excited for a 6pdr crew to go with the rest of my force. But at the same time, the soft spot I have for the troops in greatcoats means that I might potentionally be interested in expanding my British force to another platoon, which can be combined with my tanks. However, I wouldn’t dream of starting this until I’ve finished off my current collection and got to the stage I can actually get some games in.
PROJECT MODERNS
End of the month, I took a look in my drawers and realised I had a pile of ultramodern vehicles that just needed the final touches applying to them. Again, this a case of using the Black Contrast paint and being amazed at the usefulness of it. Black Contrast over tan for the tracks and guns does the job of highlighting, only needing a final tan drybrush after the wash to look great. I also made sure to mop the wash off carefully, rather than letting it pool too much. Finally, arabic-indic numerals on the turret side helps to mark the vehicles individually.
I also have a few more vehicles to paint up, including a technical with a bed full of guns. Expect to see them at the end of next month when I’m looking for things easy to finish again.
Little update – Anthalonica Miniatures just finished their Kickstarter. I decided to go in for the ever useful PMC squad, a set of figures that have a habit of turning up anywhere. These guys should be out in August, and I’m looking forward to seeing how they turnout.
Perhaps more exciting, I’ve been inspired by some of the work coming from the Modern Miniature Warfare group. These are the Sarissa Alamo buildings that were kickstarted last year before being released as a general product at the start of this year, painted up by Richard Fry as modern compound buildings. Seeing them painted up and ready to game over got me thinking about the pile of buildings I have assembled.
Here are mine. Now, after playing around with the layout with what I had, I started getting a few ideas about what I could do with them. With a few more extra buildings and terrain tiles for more open spaces, I might be able to get a 4ft x 4ft board together for a CQB maze. This would be ideal for a quick demo game, something I haven’t run since Operation Dragon’s Hoard in 2018.
Expect to see some pictures of this as I get work on them – this will be the first step in getting my MDF terrain all textured and painted.
That’s it for this month’s update, I’ll see you in a month!