Oh yeah, we’re doing this again. As much as I do my SITREPs and updates when things happen, sometimes you need that monthly update to keep your eye on the sheer number of plates you’re spinning. I’m going to write them at the start of each month, and do a quick once over what’s been done and what’s coming up.

Tech Update

Before we go into the juicy stuff, a little update on the behind-the-scenes. Two big things with the resin 3d printer at the moment – the first is that I’ve moved away from Elegoo ABS like in favour of Sunlu ABS-like. It worked out cheaper and as a side effect seems to be slightly faster to print using after doing my calibrations. I’m very happy with how it looks and feels in the hand, especially when combined with the larger scale I’m now printing at.

Less good was the other issue – turns out that I’ve been running the Saturn with a dead LED on one of the lamp boards. This was leading to some of the weird behaviour I’ve included above, with an almost perfect square of failure on every print. After doing some troubleshooting (aka opening the printer up and donning some shades while running tests), I narrowed down the issue and reported it to Elegoo support. And props to them, within a few days I had a replacement part on it’s way from China for less than a bottle of resin. The part arrived earlier this week, so the next step will be opening it all up again to replace the faulty board and get it up and running again.

Ultramodern

After announcing my plan to reduce my focus and rebuild around a standard scale, I’ve felt a little bit of a weight lifting from my shoulders. Rather than having to balance collection guilt vs new (and useful) shininess, I now get to focus on picking up what I need and when I need it.

The first order of business (after the test models) was to reprint all of the current Spectre STL releases I own, using 110% scaling for extra details. On a Sunday evening, while watching AEW Dynasty, I got these figures based up as well as doing a few little tweaks to the Task Force Operator guys, clipping off the NVG mounts on the helmets and filing down to give a set of figures ideal for daytime operations. Thanks to having the STLs (and with NVG STLs on the way hopefully), I can make a second set for night ops later on (the glorious advantage of printing your own, the idea of having duplicate sets suddenly becomes much less like madness).

Onto the painting desk, I have the Spectre Local Forces. The idea behind these guys is they will be used for Tsarist Irregulars (a little bit against their original intention but suitable for the project), while Russian figures are being used for the regular Tsarist armed forces. The Local Forces are going to be the first models painted in the new scale, so I’m going for a slightly simpler camo to get my brain back into painting mode. I ended up sponging on colours with two shades of green and another of brown, before going back (after the wash) to top up with a final sponge of the original green. I’m still not 100% on it but I’ll have more of a play.

With the Republic of Shyluz forces, they are being redone due to the scale change. However, seeing as I’m building them from Combat Octopus’s modular parts, they need a lot of space on the build plate and I was running into issues with the failed LED. Rather than trying to play “avoid the horrible pit of print failure”, I’m going to wait until the replacement part is in situ so I can print away efficiently and get the first platoon of Shyluz Airmobile Infantry printed off ready for painting.

As part of the Ultramodern Project, details on Shyluz have continued to be developed over on the Patreon. The background material has all been covered about how I’ll be talking about the focus of the project, the Platoons of the Republic of Shyluz Defence Forces, so now it comes to detailing them. I’m also updating on how Shyluz is doing in the wider world, which may setup some details on other nations that will be involved.

BPRE28mm

A subproject of the Ultramodern project but actually the game I’ve ended up playing the most, BPRE28mm is taking up a chunk of time in my brain. Now that Spearhead has been released, it’s time to get my collection all setup to play the complete BPRE experience. I’m pondering about the idea of expanding my battle mat collection with a larger Phaseline one (the larger size also fits in the Spearhead and Raid mission types). I have also picked up the BPRE vehicles for coverage and to add to the visual appearance of the table. There is another element for the visuals (but we’ll cover that in Project Blender below.)

I’m still assembling the latest figures but I’ve got to say they continue the excellent work of the previous sets. I was a big fan of the new SPEAR guys when they first showed the artwork for them, but seeing them in the resin is another step, with all the details picked out and ready for painting.

Once these guys are assembled (as well as their Nitto opponents), I’ll then get to work painting them all up, ideally in small batches but at a similar time so I can keep the consistency. I’d got all the paint schemes written down but it’s much easy for consistency where there isn’t a big break between sessions. And once it’s all painted up, then it’s time to run a Spearhead campaign with my Corporate Regular Opponent.

Old World

Offt boy okay. So in my last post on the Old World I was like “huh, this game is fun and I have lots of figures suitable for this army so maybe I can jump in for cheap?”.

The answer was No. Because half measures are for fools.

I hit eBay after drawing up my original list to see what I could pick up and discovered some Chaos Chosen for massively under the retail price. Chaos Chosen are one of those units I look at the current box, enjoy the wonderful sculpts and realise that the release is 100% designed for the smaller units of AoS, with each set of five costing £40. Unfortunately, I need 10 of them and frankly, I’m not paying £80 for a special unit of the shocking “Big Dudes”. Luckily for me, someone was selling the spures separately and I was able to make a giant saving. Now to just wait for some cheap version of the Chaos Warriors and Chaos Knights so I can add some command groups…

I also did my base order from Hobby Heaven. This is something I could have printed myself on the FDM printer, but after a few test I realised it was actually more efficient to get the bases ordered but 3D print the movement trays I’ll need (seeing as the filament printer is busy with other things and occasionally I do need to turn it off so I can sleep). Hobby Heaven is someone I have ordered from repeatedly due to the wide array of plastic bases available and rapid delivery times. No change with this order, arriving on Friday after a Tuesday afternoon ordering with a literal pile of 30s and 25s for the infantry, as well as a few larger ones for certain models in the collection. This weekend is going to be a rebasing session, which I’ll be reporting in elsewhere.

Project Blender

My time spent learning Blender is a little bit slowed due to everything else going on right now. However, I have continued a little bit of playing around, mostly looking at how to engineer the connection between the different parts of the structure. Although learning to 3D model is the central focus, I also ideally want to make sure the things I sculpt are actually useful in the end, so learning the do’s and don’ts is a key part. I will however head back to actually putting hands on the tools this coming week, with the idea of getting the first building fully printable with all the things I want to try out on it.

I’ve also started assembling the hit list of items I’d need if I were going to build my own figures, although this is more of a thought exercise at the moment. Items such as magazines, optics and hard objects on web gear are, by their nature, standardised objects that would be reused when building either a weapon or a full figure. With the plan of “Buildings->Guns->Figures”, preparing for stage 2 by gathering references now will save me time in the future.

Other Projects

Although the projects above are the focus ones, there are still other projects that I’m keeping vaguely involved in, even if there wasn’t any movement this month

• WW2 has taken a bit of a pause as we haven’t got any games currently planned (both of the WW2 players I know are distracted with The Old World). However, the latest Arnhem Kickstarter from Empress launched literally today and is coming with some excellent additions to the paras, such as both Polish paras and a set who haven’t YET been ruined by being stuck within the perimeter. This has reminded me I still have a pile of guys that need basing and undercoating before the painting begins, so maybe they will end up being done soon when I’m watching TV.
• Necromunda is also in a bit of a lull but there have been discussions about running a campaign day. I still have my Enforcers finished, but the partially completed Outcasts and Eschers are waiting to be finished off.

End of Project Update. See you all next month.

I’ve previously mentioned that, as part of my Long War series against the tactics of the Dastardly Regular Opponent, we would shortly begin a Pint Size Campaign-inspired set of missions pitting our tactical minds against each other in the deserts of North Africa. After some research, and agreeing to play some games with the Germans on the offensive rather than sitting back with the MGs, the DRO decided upon Torbruk, pitting the Germans on the offensive against British and Commonwealth positions.

With initial planning for the campaign being done by the DRO channelling some of his day job (hitting the spreadsheets), I soon realised that, aside from playing and writing out the battle reports, there wasn’t much else I could do to assist. My opponent would be providing the table, the board, the armies and the scenario. On the one hand, I could have drawn a sigh of relief and gone to do something else (like paint some MDF) but there is something about commanding figures you personally own over those you’re merely borrowing. That and the Western Desert is a frequent setting for our games – both the Dastardly Regular Opponent and the Creative Regular Opponent have forces for the region, so it makes sense that I should join them. Plus, neither of them has any Australian troops, so it gives me a chance to be a little unique.

The question is, how to build my platoon of Diggers? The traditional way is to pick up a pile of metal figures and get to work. But, with World War 2 being one of the biggest parts of the historical hobby, plastic kits are also available, especially if you’re working on the Desert Rats.

Warlord Games, a company whose game Bolt Action is the number 1 reason we have some of the truly weird and wonderful elements of the war, have two different plastic kits for British infantry in the desert war. The first covers the 8th Army’s British, Indian (with several variations) and Scottish troops, giving you unique head combinations to make the force stand out. The second goes further, offering you hats more suitable for the South African, Kiwi and Australian troops, as well a literal pile of suitably beardy and varied heads for the various Special Forces that had their birth in the deserts of North Africa such as the LRDG, SAS, Popski’s Private Army (thanks Call of Duty: Finest Hour) and more. From looking at the raw numbers, these are some fantastic boxes, offering you 30 figures with plenty of options.

Sounds great, what’s the problem? Well, from a mechanical point of view, the kits offer you enough guys to build your sections, but not enough to fill out the entire platoon. British Platoons consist of three 10-man sections, two leaders (the Platoon officer and his NCO), a Boys AT Rifle team (two men) and a 2″ mortar team (two men) so a single Warlord kit is not quite enough – I’d need to scrounge the Platoon’s integrated teams from somewhere else or (if I wanted it entirely in plastic) buy a whole other box/an extra sprue. I could find a use for these additional figures (extra sections, engineering teams or more) but looking at £35 for a single box, this extra stuff would kick a hole in the project before I’d even started.

The other issue with Warlord is their sculpting style. I have heard some people refer to them as gorillas which I think might be a little on the mean side. They are however, definitely bigger and bulkier, heroically sculpted and looking like the characters from the front cover of a 1970s Commando comic. Faces are chewing gravel, big meaty arms wrenching back on charging handles and generally bulkier than the figures my opponent already owns. Sadly, they do nothing for me – as I’ve mentioned in the past, I always lean towards the more realistic-looking figures when it comes to moderns or historicals.

Putting these reasons together, I decided to look elsewhere.

This brings me to the other plastic option, The Perrys.

The Perrys probably don’t need much introduction, but seeing as every blog post might be someone’s first, so let’s go. Alan and Michael Perry are, to put it mildly, legends in the wargaming space. If you’ve owned Warhammer figures, you’ve probably used some of their work. If you’ve played the Lord of the Rings miniatures game, you have DEFINITELY touched models sculpted by their hands. They are also notorious for having a giant wargames table that is truly the envy of any man.

Outside of work for Games Workshop and Foundry, they also have a lovely set of their own historical releases, covering periods from the Medieval times through to WW2 (with a large collection of Napoleonics that the Creative Regular Opponent is rather keen on). The sculpting style is much more realistic than Warlord, with much more slender figures and finer detail on the weapons themselves. They also, usefully for me, have a range of plastics covering the eras they sell models for, including boxes for the Afrika Korps and the Desert Rats that give you basically a force in a box.

The Desert Rat box comes with 38 figures, giving you enough for a full platoon on the roster (including the radioman abstracted away by Chain of Command). This includes your platoon weapons (2″ mortar and Boys AT rifle) as well as a Bren gun for each section. For someone wanting to build a platoon on a budget, this is the ideal setup.

Additionally, The Perrys have also done something very clever with the headgear options. Rather than going the usual route of cutting the head off at the neck, they instead give you a full formed head but leave it bald, without even a scrap of hair on their head. This then lets you slot on your chosen headwear, either the varieties included on the sprue (helmet, helmet with net or an officer’s hat) or pick from one of the many alternatives available on the Perry website. As I wanted to make my Desert Rat Antipodean, I decided to go with pack WW5, giving me enough slouch hats to fill out the platoon. With a relatively simple order in, I sat back and waited for the parcel to arrive.

The following Wednesday, this cardboard parcel dropped through the door. Speedy shipping!

Inside the outer box, I was presented with two items. The plastic kit come in a full colour cardboard box, complete with Peter Dennis art on the front and some basic colour illustrations on the back There are also several tempting shots of other Perry kits on the long edge, just to show you what else you could be making…

The metal heads came in a box style that I’m pretty sure many Spectre fans will recognise from the early days. We’ll cover what’s actually inside it in a second because first of all… SPRUES!

The good bit of any plastic kit – breaking out the sprues and taking a look at what you have to play with. This set comes with three of the main sprue, two of the command sprue and a pile of bases. If you recognise the style of base, that’s because these sprues are made in the UK by Renedra who also provide bases for North Star, so they popped up during my adventures into Frostgrave figures. They are really nicely made, with basically no cleanup required during assembly – always a positive!

I’m not using these bases though. For one, square bases for weapons teams are an odd choice. For another, I have plenty of Warlord-style bases (including various sizes ideal for prone figures) and don’t really want to reintroduce this base style to my database. Luckily, my Creative Regular Opponent uses these bases for Napoleonics, so they will be making a journey north at some point.

This box also comes with a double-sided information sheet. One side gives you the British Platoon layout, as well as information such as weapons issued and the Rifle Battalion layout in 1942. The other side has the more important things such as a sprue overview. It’s not a comprehensive set of instructions or even a list of what the parts are but it does provide some advice when it comes to the figures needing specific parts for a combination such as the 2inch mortar and the prone Bren team.

It also reveals an interesting point about some additional heads in the box – those of the SAS/LRDG. These are complete head replacements and you get six of them (three with camp comforters and three with kaffiyehs). To mount, you’ll need to break out the scalpel and cut through the neck, leaving a nice flat surface to then glue the head to. This process is the same as you’d have to do if you chose to order the Sikh heads (WW6) which would definitely extend the assembly time if you were replacing all the heads with their metal equivalents.

The core of the box is of course the main sprue. This has 12 bodies on it, with two of them in the prone position, giving you enough parts to assemble a full section and a weapon team per sprue. There are plenty of arms with rifles, including several with rifle held in one hand, leaving the other ready to sling a grenade or show them on the move. There is also the Thompson, (two sets of arms), the Bren gun (two sets of arms with a big asterisk on that statement), a Boys AT Rifle and 2″ mortar with a set of arms for the loader. There is also a pair of arms with the Lee Enfield Rifle Grenade Launcher, which is an interesting addition although not massively used in many WW2 games by British forces. Finally, there is a pile of add-on parts – shovels, picks and bayonet frogs. There are also some pouches designed to be fitted to specific bodies (presumably left off to assist with the production process) but could probably be added as extra details if you want some guy covered in webbing.

The command sprue has the parts for your officer, senior NCO or radio telephone operator. There are two bodies (one of them in a fancy jumper, the other has headphones on for the RTO) as well as a set of arms holding weapons in one hand (leaving the other for all-important tactical gesturing) which include a Thompson, a Lee Enfield and a revolver. There are also two parts for the radio, a back piece and a separate arm holding the mouthpiece. Arms and bodies are cross-compatible between this sprue and the main one (the slung rifle arm appears on both), which can lead to some really cool combinations.

Finally, we have the metal head pack. Inside the box are 7 metal pieces, 6 giving you the hats for most of the regular infantry heads while the last one is for the figures lying prone. There is a nice level of variation among the different heads – some have one side folded, while others look a touch more weather beaten. There are definitely some that fit better than others on the base plastic heads, and a fair amount of minor clean up to do but the end result is pretty damn cool. It might have been nice to have a slightly smaller set available (and make building a mixed platoon slightly easier) but this is probably the easiest/cost effective way of releasing a niche add-on product.

Of course, we can talk about the contents but the proof is in the making. Part of the fun of plastics (depending on who you ask) is the build process – actually putting the parts together, combining them and (eventually) breaking the instructions to kit bash new setups.

On the whole, these were pretty damn easy to put together. Most models are merely three parts (body, arms, hat), meaning you can really hammer through assembling a squad in an evening. There is a pretty good amount of compatibility between the arms and the bodies – all of them can be easily made to fit without requiring any cutting or shaving down. This obviously gives you a massive variety in terms of the figures you can assemble, easily letting you assemble a full platoon (or maybe more if you’re so inclined) without two figures looking too similar.

There are a few things to mention. The main one is about the Bren gun. Each sprue has two Bren arms – one for firing from the prone, the other for carrying by the carry handle. However, if you use any of the prone figures for your 2″ mortar or your AT Rifle, it means your Bren team will not be able to be assembled in a shooting pose, or even one that looks ready for action. Now of course, there is something to be said about now having someone trying to Rambo with the Bren gun and yes technically it’s a team weapon that would be mostly shot from the prone position. But, it is something to be aware of when constructing. I ended up assembling one of my Bren gunners by combing a crouching body with the firing arms – I’ll be adding a piece of wall to his base to support it, as well as some work to make it suitably “middle of the desert” looking.

The other thing is about the arms. The positive above about them working with all the bodies without cutting or modifying is countered by the fact that you probably should do some tweaks to them. While assembling, there are plenty of fits that need a little bit of gap filling once in place or some minor adjustment just to make them fit. I think this ties into one of the downsides of multi-part plastics – it provides a massive amount of flexibility but the more flexibility you have, the less perfect each figure will be.

There are also a few of the bodies that have extra details to make them look more suitable for the LRDG, with goggles around the neck. These are a nice addition but they are going to stand out a little bit among the rank and file – if you’re looking for a section where all the guys are the same, this maybe a little annoying (I personally don’t mind, it adds some extra character in). I’m also not a huge fan of one of the poses that has the guy figure kneeling with both knees on the floor; although I’ve adopted this pose while airsofting, it’s not a particularly action-packed pose, more suited to a weapon team or radio operator rather than a basic infantry pose.

There is one final thing to mention – the price. In total this platoon + specialists worth of figures cost me £36, including postage and packing. If you didn’t want the custom hats, the box of plastics by itself is £22 and you can usually find someone selling it at a wargames show. Despite a few points I raised during assembly, I think this is probably the most cost-effective way to get a Desert Rat platoon. The Perrys also have a collection of metal models to accompany this set, so if you wanted some guys with trousers, then you have a source for that. There are also other supporting elements, such as a vickers team and AT guns.

After a couple of nights of work, and a long session supergluing all the hats and cursing my lack of accelerant, I managed to assemble my full platoon as well three additional figures. Realistically, it is unlikely these guys would be wearing their slouch hats in action (helmets are better at absorbing shrapnel hits) but I was aiming for a distinctive look. From briefly looking around, the hats were worn frequently during the campaign in Syria… maybe I need some Vichy French to fight…

As for the figures, I’m happy with the end result. Like with any plastic kit, the quality of the poses vary from model to model but looking at it from afar, I’m happy with the overall feel of the force. A good mix of combat poses and slightly more relaxed. I still need to properly sort them into squads, but the core elements (Squad Leader and machine gun teams) all look suitably different.

I decided to base the weapon teams together on a single base due to how they interact with each other – the runner spotting for the Boys rifle, the loader passing the next round to the 2″ mortar. The Boys is on a 60mm base due to the positioning of the spotter and the long plastic barrel. I tried both a 40mm base and two pill bases but they all just seemed cramped. The only downside to this larger basing is I might struggle with deploying the team behind smaller pieces of cover.

With the additional figures, I decided to go with the LRDG look, giving them kaffiyehs and some interesting bits of kit (such as the guy hefting a rifle and Bren having just dismounted it from the vehicle). These guys will probably end up being used in the Patrol phase as markers, or forming an additional Bren team when the platoon needs backup.

The next stage is, of course, getting them painted up. As an experiment (and because I want them done quickly), I’m going to be using Sonic Sledgehammer’s contrast method. I haven’t really done a full project using primarily Contrast but both Regular Opponents have been using his recipes to full effect (and cranking out armies at full speed). This should mean once I start, I’ll be ready to get these guys on the table ASAP.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a ChargeBlog project without thinking ahead so time for one last little teaser. When you say Tobruk to me, there is one very specific picture that comes to mind. I’ve included it below. Maybe a sign of what may happen later in the campaign.

See you next time after I get these guys painted up.

2022 is over and a new one has begun! Traditionally, at this point, I’d break out the stats and graphs, show you the diagrams, and then talk about the plans I have for the year. Then we’d laugh at all the stuff I promised I’d do last year and then didn’t get around to, slap me on the back, and look forward to doing it all again next year.

Well, this year is a touch different. You may have noticed that I’m in the process of moving (Yep, even I’m getting bored of talking about it) so pretty much all my hobby gear is either packed away or waiting to be put into a box. Combined with this, I’m actually going away for a week with my family in the middle (which I’ve coincided with some work I need to do on the new house anyway) so my timetable is a little compressed, to put it mildly.

Putting it all together, this means that the blog will take a little break until the middle of next month. Ideally, I’ll be done sooner (and with a nice big desk to work on) so I can finally change that top update image to something more interesting and less “boring desk”. When I come back though, I have some plans.

Goal 1 – Paint more Minis

Ooo how original. He wants to paint more minis, really pushing the boat out there huh? Real Original.

Funny, but listen. One thing you get when packing is an appreciation of just how much stuff you have. I’ve been going through, packing stuff away, and realising how many figures I have currently unpainted that I’m really excited to actually paint. Things like the Greater Demon or the Morathi in giant snake form are challenges I haven’t attempted yet while ranges like the White Dragon British are big gaps waiting to be painted. My database of figures was paused updating but I’m currently sitting at around 47% painted. I want to make a significant dent in this, and seeing as figure buying money is going to be limited going forward (again, the house has its needs) now seems a good time to focus on Painting rather than Purchasing.

Goal 2 – Organise my Collection

The figure count however is only one part of my collection woes. The other parts are named “Tracking”, “Bases” and “Storage”.

Tracking is something I’ve been keen on doing since I first did a figure census back in January 2018. Previously I’ve managed to keep on top of it all, updating the database whenever I’d do anything with my figures in a good routine. That was, up until late last year where SUDDENLY my brain had other things to be worried about and I lost track of it all. Because of this, getting back on the tracking horse is important.

One thing my tracking has brought up is I currently have four different base types in my collection (GW, Necromunda, MDF disks and Warlord slim bases). There used to be another type (Renadra plastic) but they were replaced with GW-style bases on my fantasy figures. Frankly, as I’ve moved into 3D printing, it makes more sense to standardise on one base style (well technically two but Necromunda is just fancy GW bases). Another reason for this standardisation is that GW bases are cheap, easily delivered and have enough space to attach magnets.

Both of these points tie into the final part, Storage. At the moment, most of my figures live in KR Case Foam, stored in various outer boxes – which was fine when I moved as I was able to pack them all up in one go. However, a key word here was “most” – since 2020 I’ve bought quite a few models including some at a size that does not fit in any of the cases I have. So basically, I’m going to have to do some taxi runs to move a large amount of my collection around.

Another issue with storage is that frankly, I have no idea where half my figures are. The KR Case Foam is good for transport but a pain in the ass for pulling out models for a game due to the whole “being opaque foam” thing. This means that hunting down figures involves tearing my way through the transport case, pulling out the interior cardboard containers and then going through the individual layers.

The plan for storage is to move over to the sensible wargamer approach of Really Useful boxes, fillers and magnet sheets. By moving to lots of smaller boxes, figure locations can then be added to the database and tracked, making assembling forces far simpler while still making them easy to move around. And then I have a load of KR Cases to sell (so talk to me if you have a need for good transport cases).

Is this a lot? Yes. Will it be useful and stop me from wondering where the hell models are? Probably.

Goal 3 – Improve ChargeBlog

One thing I realised going through the transfer of this blog is just how much of a mess ChargeBlog itself is. In part due to the fact the blog is almost 10 years old and almost 600 posts (591 including this one) deep, things are starting to creak slightly. I think what is worse is the fact that the site is very much stitched together from things I found on the internet, leading to a look that could be best summed up as “a mess”.

This goes double for my attempts at YouTube. I’m very interested in moving forward with the weekly update vlogs once I’m settled in, as well as trying to push harder on the longer videos. I’ve already got some great audio recordings for a more documentary-style video covering Black Powder Red Earth’s background, but it’s a project I just want to do right. On top of that, having more space means I should be able to get a little more creative with the video, especially if SOMEONE gets around to doing Goal 5 down there.

The overall plan? Do a proper maintenance pass on the blog’s installation, then another pass on the posts to make sure all of them are in a fit state to be read (targeting missing categories or broken images). Then work on assembling a common set of assets and visuals for the blog and the YouTube channel to get it all looking professional and synced.

Goal 4 – Get Moving On My Creative Projects

This should technically be multiple goals but I’m going to shove them together. I have a few creative projects on the go and this year I’d like to see some more movement on them

Ultramodern Chain of Command

I mentioned this first of all this time last year and even got a few good battles in with it. However, the events of last February definitely kicked my motivation to model modern-day near-peer conflicts to the kerb. However, my inspiration has returned and my last few games of Chain of Command have definitely had me more interested in getting back to it. There are so many tools in that ruleset to model the various different forces available, as well as providing a size of game that there isn’t really a ruleset on the market that does.

Write a Ruleset

I’ve been bouncing around a few ruleset ideas, as every wargamer does. However, rather than trying to aim for “THE MOST REALISTIC ULTRAMODERN” set (which let’s be fair, there are several very good options for that I could pick off the shelf right now if I wanted a game of that), I’m going to lean more towards making a Cinematic Game. Building your force from combinations of groups of Extras, Minor and Major characters, throwing in cards to affect the battlefield and throw curveballs for players to react to and then (hopefully) ending up with you discussing the heroic moments after the game ends, looking forward to how it affects the next episode/scene I MEAN battle. Honestly, it’s mostly just an exercise for my own benefit and it probably won’t see any form of properly published release.

Unless, of course, it’s used as a test bed for my final project…

ChargeReal

The big endgame is more work on the ChargeReal. More nations, more history, more details. Bazistan is well on its way as the basic setup, but there is a whole world that needs building. It’s like building a tapestry – I have one section that’s well on its way but there are all sorts of dangling threads (the Albion Civil War, the pirate nation of Libertalia and it’s PMC groups) that I really want to weave together. It’s taking inspiration from the events of recent history but providing another setting to use it.

I need to stress this – the ChargeReal is the long game. Like “haha wouldn’t it be funny if my retirement is just me writing non-fiction books about a fictional world” levels of long game. This is going to be a big project, a chance to play with all the tools and toys I like and get them into a new world. There are all sorts of cool ideas bouncing around my head that I’d like to play around with.

For example, one day I’d love to make some ChargeReal figures – what started off as a way to use whatever figures I wanted in my games has evolved into wanting to use a lot of late 1990s/early 2000s aesthetics, including a lot of prototypes that never saw the light of day as the Cold War ended (I blame someone specifically for putting these ideas in my head (he knows who he is)). There are also some setups or kits I already have in mind – one of the units I’m coming up with is the various Albion Civil War Militias, which would be a chance for a rag-tag group using Albion state arms (L85s, FALs, AR and maybe even some weirder kit) combined with semi-professional sets of fatigues and web gear. I like the AR15/Fast Helmet/Plate Carrier look as much as anyone but there are so many figures filling that niche which are just the same with one or two minor tweaks, which to be fair is accurate to how modern units are looking – a look and gear set has evolved for the modern day. So, if by some miracle I do decide to make figures myself (looking at the list of lessons you can learn from how other people have released their figures), it might be something completely weird.

One thing I appreciate about ChargeReal is that I am taking step by step away from pure Ultramodern gaming and further into the alternative reality. It may not be to everyone’s taste but it’s something that I’m finding enjoyable to work on and hopefully will be entertaining for others.

Goal 5 – Paint my MDF Buildings

It’s become a meme among my group of wargaming friends about my unpainted housing collection. I need to get all the MDF I’ve been dragging around painted up and ready for the table. My main problem was one of space to actually work on them, seeing as my hobby desk was the same as my computer desk. The other issue was finding all the right greebles needed to turn the MDF cubes into actual MENA buildings.

Well in the new place, I’ve got both a big separate desk for hobbying on and two 3d printers ready to print off junction boxes, water tanks and more. It also helps my DMZ habit has had me staring at MENA-style buildings and not just adobe huts) for several hours a day – it’s a great tool for showing how to detail relatively simple spaces into more. The time using the BPRE templates is also illuminating just how much MDF buildings need interiors. Combining these together, I’ve got some motivation to finish off my terrain.

These are some pretty wide-ranging goals but they are also quite open-ended – I don’t expect to finish them all this year. But, it is a list of things to focus on, and hopefully they should be goals to strive for while also keeping the excitement for the hobby up.

Okay, so literally on the day I’m writing this, I’m looking through and signing a big pile of paperwork that should be finishing off my house purchase. This whole thing has been kind of a nightmare the entire way (and there is still stuff that needs doing even after I pass the money over) but I’m really looking forward to it being done.

It’s also been a bit of a sledgehammer on the desire to do much hobby related – it’s hard to focus on sitting down to paint when I’ve spent a whole day dealing with house stuff. Additionally, the process of tidying and packing up takes priority alas.

That said, I did manage to get a few things done this month, so lets talk about them!

Videos

So first up, lets talk about the YouTube updates. They are something I’m going to continue on with, but last few weeks just didn’t work in terms of timing. However, it is stuff I enjoy the process of working on – recording stuff casually and then stitching it together. Plus, video is much faster to get my thoughts down and recorded – it’s also even quicker for people to digest!

I did also record some audio for a really exciting video series I’m going to start working on for BPRE. Sitting down to that with guys behind the game was a great time – John Chang is incredibly interesting to interview, able to give you 1000 more words than you may have planned but infinitely interesting to listen to. I’ve got a plan for these audio clips to do something more than just simply throwing them out there, turning them into almost a series of documentaries

DWARFS!

Look okay, I know I talked a lot about the Dwarves before. But they were a pretty big job this month getting these guys off their supports and sent off to their new owner (who is frantically painting them as I’m typing this now).

The main thing from printing stuff to be given as a gift was having to put a little more effort into making sure removing them from the supports left as little damage as possible. This time around, I actually trimmed the supports off the raft at the bottom, before using a scalpel to trim away the connectors on the pieces themselves. This was in contrast to my usual technic of “just rip the supports off and deal with the issues later”.

This project also had a couple of misprints – there were one or two slightly short feet or missing decorations that, if I was printing for myself, I would have probably not minded. But when you’re providing them to someone else, you really want to take every care. Luckily, my hard work paid off and he’s really enjoying painting them. I’d expect to see them on the blog soon, perhaps in the new year when we do some fantasy gaming.

Insurgents

Yeah, I’m still working on these guys. I’ve really struggled to sit down and paint through this set – not because there is anything particularly wrong with them, I just haven’t been gripped quite as much as I have with other releases. Or maybe I’m just distracted by other things right now.

Either way, the other reason for now finish them off is I need to do some repair work on the RPG gunners. After gluing them together using the locator lugs, I ended up seeing a load of awkward gaps that drove me mad – to the point I actually put it in the freezer to break the super glue joins. I’ll get back to painting them soon, and then I can get to work on basing them up.

Dark Knights

I did however take a break to go do literally anything else with my painting time. I’ve had the Quartermaster Fallen Legion models in my folder for a while now and (at some point) I’ll get to work making an Easterling army. For now though, the Black Númenóreans unit really grabbed my attention. They reminded me a lot of one of my favourite Vae Vicits models that I have painted up back in April, so would work perfectly either as a bodyguard unit or perhaps someone chasing them down. I did have to re-print one after snapping the sword on the way to a paint session with the Dastardly Regular Opponent but the paint scheme is simple enough I’ve been able to quickly paint up the first four. The other two (and the totally-not-a-Ringwraith) is also on my paint desk, so hopefully I’ll find some time to splash on the Black Contrast.

Fantasy Mercs

Another painting project I’ve looked at is these rather nice Last Sword Imperial troops that have been sat on my desk for a while. Well, when I say desk, I actually mean the table where all my models have been sitting waiting to dry after going in the ISO. And then waited several months. Now that I’m packing up, I needed to clear this stuff out.

After clearing out all the pieces from the pile that I’d snapped in half (mostly Combat Octopus barrels), I started working through these pieces. Unlike many figures I print, these are very definitely designed to be ranked up as a group (potentially on square bases if that floats your boat). For someone who only plays skirmish games with individuals, the posing is maybe not ideal (I like my characters to look suitably heroic) but they would be okay when mixed with other characters. Or maybe I need to shift into

I’ll do more on these guys once I get them painted up – there has been talk of Fantasy Infamy Infamy so I can see more of these figures (as well as other troops from Highland) being among the first things on my painting desk.

Necromunda

Finally, as well as my Too Fat Lardies Day experience, I actually played another game this month. The former housemate invited me around for a game of Necromunda to see his new Slave Ogryns and generally hang out. I took some Badzone Enforcers with me (mostly to play with my horde of scum) and (after some food) we played.

And I had the worst game of Necromunda.

Basically, I was cursed by poor dice rolls, a bad starting location and a list that wasn’t ideal. Combining these things together left me with a game where it felt like I couldn’t physically do anything to affect the end result. It should be stressed that none of this was down to my opponent trying any bullshit (I could see he was slowly watching me losing my mind during all this) but on the drive home I definitely felt very much like maybe I wouldn’t play Necromunda again. I’m much less militantly against it now, but I do definitely feel that there is a lot about that game that just hasn’t clicked for me personally.

That’s all for this month – I’ll be posting my plans for the month over on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ChargeBlog. As I’ve always said, the Patreon is a tip jar, letting me help to cover some of the costs associated with the blog and help me get my hands on the 3d printing STLs I use. I want to start providing more stuff for the Patrons (more than just a name at the end of a YouTube video) and the campaign above will end up being something that the patrons see first.

Dear god, where has the year gone?

As an update, still fighting through the house shenanigans and waiting for some more paperwork to go through. That said, I’m still working to push forward, try out new things and keep on the grind for the old. I’m also feeling a little bit better about things in general – maybe its the tweak to my work week so I don’t spend it all by myself, maybe it’s that melancholic part of me that likes the colder days and listening to the rain coming down outside. Mostly because they give me an excuse to stay in and paint.

Let’s take a look at what I go up to last month:

Napoleonics

Yeah yeah, Napoleonics. Although I’m still not quite to the point where I’m going to start buying fancily dressed men (my Dastardly Regular Opponent was instead the one that fell on that particular sword), I had a really good time. I go into more details in the post I wrote (linked below) but I think the biggest thing from it is actually it’s got me thinking more about the larger scale games – O-Group is suddenly something I’m interested in trying, controlling things at that size rather than simply pushing around a platoon or two.

FDM Printer

Probably the biggest change that happened this month was the arrival of a new toy, the final part of the 3D printing journey in terms of capability. My Creative Regular Opponent sold me an Ender 5 Pro, one that had been well-used and since replaced. For someone just starting off with attempting filament printing, it was a pretty good investment that (once I’ve fixed some of the teething issues) will definitely expand the type of stuff I can print. I’ve already shown off some of my attempts to use it in the Weekly Updates (as you can see below).

I also already have an idea for a project I want to try, which always helps when learning new tech. I want to try making my own 3d version of the BPRE buildings – working from the templates given, adding some basic 3D details and making sure they are 3D printable at the end. I’m sure there are other options for it but exercise in learning.

6mm Moderns

Of course, something else the FDM printer is for is expanding what I can do with the ever-growing 6mm game investigation I’ve been looking at. I already have some resin prints from Lazy Forger but there are some things too big for the print bed of even my Saturn. Filament provides less detail but is slightly more economical, so if I’m hammering out compounds to fill a board for 6mm, it’s going to hurt the bank less. Still working on getting the printing right (hence the spider webs and the shift at the bottom) but looking forward to printing some truly titanic combat areas.

Tiny terrain needs tiny tanks to fight over it, so this month I got to work actually getting some printed. Previously, I’ve experimented with printing the turret and hull separately, but the fiddliness of actually painting the two parts dissuaded me from progressing past the “squeezing at tiny tanks” stage. Instead, I assembled the models in chitubox and save out the combined file to print instead. For the moment, I have only done the “default” option (turret forward) but I’ll be adding a few extra ones. These vehicles are going to be the first part of two Bazistani Kingdoms, all ready for a small war over oil. The T-72s are from the ever-useful Bergmann while the Chieftans (complete with added Peak cupola turrets to make it look slightly different) come from the BAOR set from Bobmack (rescaled down from 28mm).

Something I’m really interested in with 6mm is doing it all via 3D printing as a test to see just how far you can get. And so far? I’m right on track.

Youtube

I mentioned last time about wanting to do more videos more often. Kicking off a weekly update has definitely reignited both some hobby spirit and some desire to push forward the video-making – you can tell by the fact I’m actually making thumbnail images! I’ve done three weekly updates so far, which I’ve put into the playlist above – please ignore the volume issue in episode one, I corrected it by the second one.

Despite having done these shorter-form videos, I’m still working on longer videos. I’ve got a few things for the Contract in Awbari on the way, although finding time to do the recording is something I still struggle with a little bit.

Spectre Insurgents

The Spectre Insurgents turned up literally the day after I posted the last update. These guys are some really nice models – you can see the progression in them from the original insurgent figures Spectre released back in 2015, both in terms of sculpting style and the gear they are rocking. I added a few rucksacks to them – I’ve been afflicted by the curse of needing my guys to look a bit more equipped and ready for battle.

All the positives said I do have a few issues with them I’ll go into more detail in the impressions post for them. Most of them actually have more to do with the business model of Spectre – the quality of these cast models isn’t that far different from what I’ve been able to print myself from the Spectre Patreon, while buying cast adds some annoyances (bendy barrels, delays, limited numbers) that printing myself fixes – for a start, my Quality Control department has far less to deal with. But we’ll see how I feel after I finish painting them (and after I take a look at the Local Forces that arrived on Monday).

Fantasy

The other side of my painting for the month was getting a few more fantasy figures painted. There is something different about painting moderns versus painting fantasy – fantasy has bigger colours, less camo and more interesting patterns. I get to be a little more exploratory, playing around with things like the woad tattoos on the archer on the left or just painting fun models.

3D Printed Dwarfs

Speaking of fantasy, I also did some 3D Printing – namely a crap load of Dwarves. My Dastardly Regular Opponent has been wanting some dwarves for his own fantasy skirmishing needs and so I have been using Highland Minaitures’s rather excellent range to fill his order. I still need to get them cleaned up and ready to go but I’m already impressed with just how good the Highland figures look, both in terms of design and how 3D printing can get that quality off the hard drive and into 3D. I had a few minor misprints that I need to correct, but otherwise, I’ll be looking forward to when he gets them on the table.

Skirmish Sangin V2

Finally – I actually played a game this month. I’ve been writing up some tweaks to the beta rules of Sangin V2 (specifically looking at things like spotting and injuries). They have been sat in the pile to work on down the line, but a brush with a certain video game set my mind alight and I just needed to get a game played. Luckily, my former housemate is a veteran of Inquisitor and Dark Hersey, so I was able to persuade him to pick up the D100s once more and jump back into something new. We both had a really good time (always a good sign) and I’m already pondering what’s going to happen next.

I’ve got a battle report coming up later this week, just need to finish off the last bit of writing for it and you’ll hear the story (or at least the first part) of Captain Bashim Al-Zuri’s multi-national hunt for a wanted criminal.

Other Things

• Modern Warfare 2 came out and it’s great! I had a great run through the single-player campaign and the multi-player really gets the part of my brain that loved Modern Warfare 2019 even before we got stuck at home during the Pandemic and it was the main way I stayed in contact with my friends.

That’s all for this month – I’ll be posting my plans for the month over on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ChargeBlog. As I’ve always said, the Patreon is a tip jar, letting me help to cover some of the costs associated with the blog and help me get my hands on the 3d printing STLs I use. I want to start providing more stuff for the Patrons (more than just a name at the end of a YouTube video) and the campaign above will end up being something that the patrons see first.

Holy crap we’re into October already. When did that happen?

House stuff is still rambling on, not helped by the current joyride the UK Economy is currently having. For this reason, I still have all my hobby gear up and running, the 3D printer still slamming away and I’ve been trying to find time for painting. I’m actually going to be expanding my printer collection – a friend is clearing out a repalced Ender 5 Pro and so I lept on it, the first roll of filament and a dry storage box paid for via a reward program through work. Look forward to plenty more things being printed as well as a my post documenting the whole process.

Patreon Update

Okay so usually this bit is where I talk about what’s going on with Patreon and the stuff I’m backing that’s caught my eye (it’s usually also the Spectre talk). However, as it continues to grow, I’ve decided to silo it into its own post that’s coming in a couple of days – one of the Patreons I’m on (Vae Victis) doesn’t like to release handy preview until the actual models come out. For this reason, I’m going to start waiting until the 5th of each month to cover the Patreon as this allows everyone involved to show off some stuff whats coming next.

BPRE 28mm

So last month I managed to run a full night raid against my Former Housemate. With both of us fully clued up on the rules (including my opponent now clocking how best to unleash the scoria drones), it was a blast to play. Three missions long, Scorch took the first two but the last one was an absolute nail bitier. That game continues to be such a good thing to jump in and play.

Next up, I’m about to start properly working on the next “Contract in Awarbari” video. This one is going to roughly cover the gameplay, going into detials on our previous games as well as covering some specifics. I want to release it this month, and try to increase the pace of releases.

Bazi Counter-Espionage

Remember the CO guys I made last month? Yeah still haven’t got round to painting them. Instead, I added more, bringing the masked goon squad up to a larger number and with more assault rifles and UGLs to group. I’ve also been preparing an article covering them, mostly to show off the modular aspect of the CO releases and cover some of the little tweaks I did to get stuff to fit.

Speak of Bazistan, I actually wrote up the first part of my nation infomation for the ChargeReal, covering the two main nations in Bazistan iteself. Feedback on the post has been great, and so I’ll be quick to post some more writing on the topic, bringing together some thoughts I already had.

Getting Out Of The Rut

After a month of not painting much, I finally sat down and hammered out this guy over a lunchbreak. This is a model commisioned by one of the Directors on the Spectre Patreon and then given to the Patrons as an additional model. He’s definitely inspired by a certain character from MW2019 and was a good figure to get the mojo back for painting. Even if my painting of stripey tops was perhaps not the neatest. As for his use, I think he might be a handy mercenary from Dazhbog to add to some of the militias in Bazistan as a mentor.

Trying Something New

Ever since I restarted painting back in 2014, I’ve worked from a black basecoat, much as the traditions have demanded since the dawn of mankind. I’ve also been pretty resistant to changing this due to having a style I like and the fear that a new style might make it easier to paint. However, with the rise of Zenithal Highlighting and SlapChop as ways of getting figures painted quickly, I’ve start to wonder if maybe I should give this “non-Black Undercoat” a go. I decided to keep things simple, seeing as I have a whole colleciton of models undercoated in black – I hit them with a layer of white spray from above, effectively a two step Zenithal process. I have tried this on a mix of figures that I’ve 3D printed before I hit anything else purchased, mostly so if it doesn’t work I’ve not ruined anything expensive.

The first model to be fully painted up is this Orc lady crushing a Watermelon 3d print I got from Vae Victis (as part of their Bae Victis set). Obviously I don’t have a 1:1 to compare and I wasn’t using any contrasts or similar styles but I can definitely see the advantage of the differing tones – it was much easier to pick up different elements on the model thanks to the white and black. I’m going to finish off the other models I’ve basecoated this way, but I think this might be the style of undercoating I switch to going forward.

Thinking about Fantasy

Earlier in September I played some Famous By Our Swords with the Dastardly Regular Opponent. Having since had more time to think about it (and been playing more Battle Brothers on my Switch), I’ve realised that I’m incredibly excited about playing more of that game. I want to do a little bit of work to it, adding some systems specific to my own setting and confiming some things but the ruleset is agressivley my kind of jam. I’m really excited to get my sister into the game, and then we can return to our Wednesday dice rolling times.

However before that, I’m going to need some more human mercenaries to fight. I could go mad printing more off, but what I decided to do first is getting my collection of North Star Frostgrave figures painted up. Before this however, i would need to rebase them onto 25mm GW style bases (from their original flat style). I have already done this on the metal figures, but plastic glue makes rebasing a pain in the ass. However, fortune smiled on me, as merely triming the bases down meant that the Frostgrave figures would now stand close in height to the GW style figures I also have. Now I just have to paint them.

I also started continuing on my painting of the Dogs of War models I printed AGES ago (back on the Mars Pro). However, after starting to paint them (and getting quite far), I suddenly spotted a whole bunch of printing errors on them. For this reason, and after looking in more detail at the faults, I decided to bin them and reprint.

However, one of them did manage to pass QC test and so another member of the warband I painted in May. I really like these models – lots of little details that really make them look like Renassiance mercenries, including such simple things as having a rucksack to carry off their gear/loot and spoils (you can tell I’ve been reading a lot of A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry can’t you?). The Bairdiche is also an interesting weapon, something different from the regular Warhammer militias you see a lot of people being inspired by.

Speaking of painting up things I printed ages ago, I also spray painted up the Vae Victis walls I painted in December as a print test for the feasibilty of using the Saturn for terrain printing. Turns out, although these pies are wonderful chunks of resin, a lot of the terrain I’ve wanted to print since are just too large. That said, not getting these things printed is my own fault and so, on a crisp morning before the Dastardly Regular Opponent was due to turn up to play fantasy, I took these outside and hit them with three spray cans at different angles. I still have some work to do on them (such as picking out the wooden doors and MORE GREY DRYBRUSHING) but I think these are going to be some really handy pieces to have in the collection.

Finally, this boy. The Avatar of Khaine from the Daughters of Khaine box I have… is not that great. Perfectly fine for a statue on a big cart, less good for a burning statue stomping towards you fueled by the blood of sacrifice. Needing a break from other stuff, I decided it was time to assemble this and prepare some tweaks to make him a little more “Walking Embodiment Of The God Of Murder”. This was my first attempt, cutting and drilling (turns out 3d printing supports are great and plentiful for pinning). He’s definitely more dynamic, but is dangerously “Come and have a go”. I’m going to tweak it, bringing the sword arm forward, making it into a more challenging pose like he’s calling out a true rival.

Other Things

• I’m having a pretty crap time at the moment with the mental health generally killing off my enthusasim for the hobby (hence why last month is lots of little things rather than getting stuff finished off or setup). I’m trying to manage it at the moment but the onset of winter (including all those dark evenings) might cause some problems. It just sucks!
• This weekend I’m picking up my FDM but more importantly… we’re going to be playing some large scale napoleonics. I’m kind of excited but also kind of terrified.

That’s all for this month – I’ll be posting my plans for the month over on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ChargeBlog. As I’ve always said, the Patreon is a tip jar, letting me help to cover some of the costs associated with the blog and help me get my hands on the 3d printing STLs I use. I want to start providing more stuff for the Patrons (more than just a name at the end of a YouTube video) and the campaign above will end up being something that the patrons see first.

As you may know, I am very much of fantasy games. Having let myself buy more than just moderns, I decided to go hard into getting all the fantasy figures I’d always wanted, but never got around to getting armies for. Combine that with 3d printing giving me all the figures I might want for cheap and a brain that can’t be stopped from writing settings, and suddenly I’ve got a hankering for fantasy world of men, elves and dwarves in puffy sleeves and filled with duty to their Empress versus the monsters of the wilds (although honestly, it’s probably more likely to be nobles fighting nobles).

The problem I’ve had is finding a ruleset that really hit the spot when it comes to the style of Fantasy game I want to play. I want a game that is balanced to be gritty but simple to pick up and play, as I’ll be mostly playing alongside my sister. I also want something that is filled with plenty of toys and is fun to be tied together into a campaign with some progression, allowing for gradual improvements as the games tick on… Oh and usually a suitably grim wounds table so by the end your grizzled veterans are hobbling their way into combat or sitting out for a contract or two.

I’ve already tried things like Open Combat (a fantastic system for getting stuff on the table but missing some of the grit I wanted), Frostgrave (great overall system and love the writing but the D20 mechanic seemed not the most intuitive too swingy for my taste) and Rangers (love the RPG element and the co-op but again D20s).

Enter a new challenger, Famous By Our Swords, available on Kofi. I was directed to this by a friend of mine I usually talk Ultramoderns with as it was written by a friend of his. After a little look, I was immediately taken by the rules set. I almost feel a little bad putting the fantastically written world-building that starts the book to one side so I can focus on the actual rules. The core mechanics mostly hinge around an interesting activation system (each character has a number of activations that go into a bag to be drawn out at random) that leads to some really interesting situations, a simple “D12 + stat” based combat system and campaign system based around venturing out to solve contracts for the company while slowly improving your crew raising stats and gaining new equipment.

I would wholeheartedly say it’s worth taking a look. This definitely feels like it needs a clarification or two, with maybe some additional details or explanations, with one or two places being more suggestions than hard and fast rules. Our main sticking points were activations (more specifically how many actions per activation – we ended up playing one action per activation for some extra tension) and armour (saves are mentioned in the character stats but not in the melee combat process so we missed it out). However, from chatting to the author, these clarifications and ongoing support is planned, and will be freely available for anyone who buys the book. So if you’re looking for something fantasy to play (or maybe have just finished mainlining Battle Brothers until a few hours before the game), creating a company in Famous by our Swords and running a few contracts is a pretty great way to spend an evening. I’m definitely going to play some of this, and I think we’ll be seeing more entries in The Empress’s Hounds with my sister rolling up her own warband to serve the Empress and clean out the Marches.

But enough talking about rules, let’s talk about the games. Yep, games! We managed to fit two encounters in!

Across the table from me sat the Dastardly Regular Opponent. Having rolled up a warband of four mercenaries (Hans with his hammer, Freddy with axe and pistol, Petyr with the polearm and Sydney with sword and shield), the company contract was rolled up – turns out the local village graveyard had a minor undead problem, complete with an attached necromancer.

Turning up at said graveyard revealed the rough estimate of 5 zombies was wrong and instead they would have to fight their way through 7. We technically played the zombies incorrect (the statlines were right but we missed the rules about only knocking them down and the resolve tests) but even so they were a big tar pit, tying up Petyr, Hans and Sydney at the gate. The Necromancer being able to bring them back during his three activations was also pretty irritating, but wildly swinging the polearm allowed Petyr to clear some space for Hans to break through.

Hans at this point rushed through the gap to get into close combat, swinging the hammer at the gibbering mage. Taking a wound off caused the mage to respond.

Reviving a zombie to come assist, the necromancer inadvertently formed a conga line and Petryr was all too happy to cut the music. Hans and Freddy finished off the necromancer (turns out mages are bad in melee with a poisoned blade). After shoving the bodies back into their graves and reliving the necromancer of his coin, the party returned to be paid for the contract.

At which point, the company took 25% of all loot gained. Because even in fantasy, you can’t escape admin fees. On the plus side, the XP gain did allow for some additional activations for each character.

For game 2, the dice rolled up a rescue mission, with the return of the fan favourite Siccarian Ambassador once again in trouble. Still grumbling about how much they had been taxed, the mercenaries took the contract.

And then realised what they were up against – Northmen! One leader, three heavily armoured warriors and worst of all, a very angry cow. I used the Cave Troll stats for the Minotaur, replacing it’s club with a spear. With 10 wounds and three activations, monsters are no joke.

Made worse when the group got bottled up between two halves of the force. The minotaur managed to pummel Hans into the ground and take wounds off both Petyr and Sydney but thanks to the polearm managing to cause two wounds when it hit, we managed to beat back the minotaur as well as the warriors.

WIth time going on, we decided to use the Brain/Brawn campaign skills to see if these heavily beaten mercenaries would have to fight the Lord. Luckily, a successful roll let the Mercenaries bribe their way out of having to fight a very scary man in their wounded state. Mission successful!

And then the company took their 25% cut. But on the plus side, Hans was only suffering from a maimed hand, putting him at -1 to his combat for the next two contracts. Maybe it’s time to get some guys on the roster (once I paint them up).

And with that, the games were done. We had a really good time so I think we’ll be playing some more of this. If you want to give Famous By Our Swords a go, you can find it over on Kofi at https://ko-fi.com/s/8f3371f9c4 for the cost of $5 or more.

We’re into September now. As reported last time, house buying is still underway – a technical glitch by one of the parties has slowed it but we’re working with what we have to keep it going. Because of that, I’m still continuing to start packing things up, slowly collapsing into boxes. I’m reluctant to really pack everything up until I know a date, so it’s lots of being on edge just in case.

Good thing I’ve had plenty of hobby to distract myself with!

Spectre Monthly Update

This is getting to be a common thing isn’t it? Probably because I don’t have a news bulletin to play around with, I’m just updating cool things at the start of each month.

Well good news, the first update is that we’re getting some more physical models. Spectre announced a refresh of the Insurgent range, switching to digitally sculpted figures and bringing the gear more in line with what’s available (stuff has changed since the originals were sculpted in 2014). I’m a fan of using guns like the VHS-2, perfect for showing off some guys who have been “collecting” weapons from regular forces. The support weapons are also cool – the M60 is something different and fun while I am always happy to see FALs being used. I have both packs on order, so expect to see them soon.

On the patreon side, another pretty fantastic month from Spectre. A more realistic Delta Breacher (including a collapsible ladder), a team of PLA operatives to sneaky around running insurgents and then some add-ons to the Insurgent releases. The RPG-29 team is always going to be fun but MAN the armoured technical is a really cool thing to come out. There is a little bit of an issue with the model file for the front end of the vehicle with some pretty bad contouring on the model but aside from that it’s a really cool release. I actually upp’d my contribution this month to the highest regular tier as I’m pretty happy with what they are now offering. The preview of the next metal release is also pretty great and I’m very excited for them, especially with how they might fit into my Bazistan plans. The Patreon can be found at https://patreon.com/user?u=35495709

Speaking of the patreon, I actually printed off several of the releases, covering both this month and last month’s figures (such as the IDF operators). Printing them was great, the built in supports working rather well and coming away cleanly although I did manage to rip some of the fingers off one of the PLA insurrection team. I’m actually really excited to paint these guys and girls up, as well as giving me some plans for games.

Combat Octopus

Well if Spectre gets a preview, so does the other company I’ve been toying around with this month.

If you join this month (after being previewed all of last month), you’re getting an upgrade pack for the KSK and Bunshwer releases. I wasn’t particularly happy with the voting but the community decided that the KSK were getting SMG and the G36 with UGL while the regulars got the MG5 and a UGL – I love the UGLs getting some attention but man I wished the KSK got their MG, especially as the regulars already have the MG3. That said, this is Combat Octopus, meaning that anything is possible – a little kitbashing might get stuff up and running. If you’re interested, the Patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/combatoctopus

I’ve been continuing my adventures in building some more Counter-Intel agents for Bazistan, this time playing around with the AK74s (mostly to give them some more assault rifles and grenade launchers to assist with groups of enemies). I think Combat Octopus is one of the best investments to make in ultramodern wargaming – if you like doing any type of kitbashing, having a source for parts that you can just print when needed takes all sense of risk away (that worry about screwing up parts for a project during the construction phase). I think I have one more batch to do (need some more guys in balaclavas with AKs) but then I’ll be making a blog post and video for them.

I also painted up the Octopod PMC figures that Combat Octopus released for free. These guys had been on my desk for a while, so actually getting them painted up has been something I’ve been meaning to do. I went for a uniform but different look, with DDPM trousers and black caps matched with different coloured shirts. I’m definitely going to have some more fun with these bodies, trying out parts to make even more of these guys.

Sangin V2

I played my second game of Sangin V2 remotely and had a blast. I did a full battle report on it earlier this month but I really good time playing through it. The fact we were able to quickly swap out a player when one had to drop due to real world issues was a great advantage of playing remotely. The game itself was great, with lots of cool moments of action (although next time I’ll spend a little longer working

At the same time, playing more Sangin V2 has really fired me up when it comes to getting more into it. That said, it’s still very much a WIP ruleset. It’s missing some key things like medical rules and a greater weapon inventory and I’m pretty sure that some other systems could still do with a little bit of polish. For this reason, I have started up a little page of house rules for the game over on my wiki at https://hntdaab.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Sangin_V2_House_Rules. I’ve already added a load of weapons to provide a more interesting set of gear, as well as a few minor rules. The main thing I’m looking at next is a tweak to the spotting system (mostly to avoid the need for a full spotting matrix) and a system for night fighting (seeing as it’s not just the good guys using NVGs now). These house rules are little fun things to work on although I do wonder at what point I’ve broken the rules hard enough for them to no longer be classed as Sangin!

Necromunda

At the start of the month I got a friend around to play some games and we kicked off with Necromunda. I wrote it up on the blog, but it also kicked off our first of what will hopefully be a regular thing. As we planned the next one I suggested…

Black Powder Red Earth

And OH BOY did I not know what I was getting into. Despite having three weeks to paint them out, I ended up leaving it until the last minute, literally still basing figures at lunch time as we were playing that night. I had a really fun time painting them (even if it was a touch stressful) but more importantly I got it all ready to do the important thing – actually play the game for the first time using the tiles.

And oh MAN. I thought the game was good when playing it with the proxy parts but actually playing the full setup with all the tiles and the actual figures? It’s something else. The simple matter of having doors and interiors just turns it into some real Close Quarters combat while the gameplay system itself is simple to learn but really requires careful positioning. I’m going to be writing up something on the game soon, especially as we have another game session booked in for 13th – and we’re going for a full 5 game Night Raid.

Good news for everyone, I actually am in the process of assembling a new video/blog post covering the painting (voice acting is done, just need to grab the images for it all), with a second one planned out covering the actual games after, and I’m aiming to bring them out sooner rather than later. I’ve also been chatting to Token who is behind BPRE and hearing some exciting things that should help with coverage for whats coming in November – the Phase Line is fast approaching.

Other Things

• I picked up a few GW releases for my fantasy collection. The new Witch Hunters are gloriously on point for the style of fantasy I like and the new Vampire hero is a perfect for my setting (plus alongside a few of his buddies from other releases.
• Painting a whole boxed game in a month was a nice bonus but then my completion total got punched in the face by buying all those insurgents and printing out a pile of models. I’m sitting at 47.67%, trending upwards from last month.
• I’ve been thinking about more ChargeReal stuff – I really want to get some posts up about the lore, the main issue is the lack of pictures I have for it unless I start raiding stock photos sites. That said, I have some interesting stuff already planned, including a certain piece of history that is going to be core in how the world is setup.

That’s all for this month – I’ll be posting my plans for the month over on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ChargeBlog. As I’ve always said, the Patreon is a tip jar, letting me help to cover some of the costs associated with the blog and help me get my hands on the 3d printing STLs I use. I want to start providing more stuff for the Patrons (more than just a name at the end of a YouTube video) and the campaign above will end up being something that the patrons see first.

It’s the end of a new month and we’re now entering August.

In the real world I’m in the stages of buying a house, having entered the stage of “Solicitors send letters to decide on legal things” which means there is a lot of hurry up and wait. I’ve already started packing some things away that I’m not using a huge amount (such as my airbrush and spray booth). This also means that Mars Pro has taken a little nap as it’s prepared to move. On the plus side, turning it off does give me plenty of time to redo the FEPs on the pile of tanks I have for it, giving them a good clean before packing them away.

But also hey, I managed to do some hobby things!

Spectre Things… Again

Ah damn it.

So, half way through the month I was in the process of writing a very snarky and annoyed article about how Spectre Miniatures is doing in the Year of our Lord 2022. Between the QC issues with the published models, slow down of releases, a patreon that seemed to have slightly misfired and annoyed everyone, and finally topped up by releasing the Origin 12 armed model above that looked very similar to the Delta model in the welcome pack. At which point, my key fault as a writer (being easily distracted from writing long posts by birds fluttering outside) meant that by the time I was even close to finishing my very angry writing, Spectre had already managed to release the promised models and mentioned fixes to some of my previous issues. So that was 2000 words in the bin.

But on the plus side, the models actually released by Spectre this month are pretty good! After going back to the drawing board due to the rather annoyed response to the released model, we got a new, slightly more plausible setup (although I have some opinions on the use of the Origin 12, and in fact combat shotguns full stop, by Delta Force but we haven’t got time for that particular rant and I’m not LazerPig) complete with mags in the plate carrier and a new pose. We also got a Criminal Heavy/Aftermath figure with a flamethrower but more importantly we got a full set of uniquely posed figures for IDF Special Forces. These are some really nicely done figures, with the X95 and Uzi pro giving some unique weapons despite the look being “Western SF” as anything else. That said, they should still be pretty fun to paint up.

Counter-Intelligence Agents

Combat Octopus has been churning out some fantastic sets and I’ve really fallen in love with the modular ability of his releases to make interesting things. I’ve already assembled a group of guys in leather jackets with pistols and AKs back in May by combining the Eastern European guys with some MENA heads.

Well as what often happens, another set comes out (the Covert/Overt pack from last month) and suddenly I got inspired to mix and match up some more pieces. After all, I’d used the Overt figures to make some masked gunmen, ideal for either some counter-terrorism operations or for ambushing some special forces folks trying to do bad things in the Kingdom. Once I’d done them though, I immediately came up with some more conversions. So then I did some more… and got even more ideas.

I’ve got a whole post on these guys coming soon, so hopefully I can show off just what you can do with a modular set. It’s definitely made me think about how, if I made some models, I’d probably try and make them in a modular fashion.

Remote Gaming

And now for the surprise! I managed to get a game in with my friend over in York, but I also stumbled into playing a game of Skirmish Sangin V2 after a friend was asking about it. Currently in the process of writing a full battle report for it but it was overall a great experience. It was also interesting to see just how well the remote play setup worked, and can see myself doing more when I get time.

Dark Elves and Elf Related Things

I’ve actually been pretty good about saving money buying new models/starting projects (getting a house will do that) but I did spot a few Dark Elf related things on offer that I had to pick up in preparation for some ongoing projects. Well, when I say ongoing projects, I mean the fact I want to get the Dark Elves in my collection painted up before the end of the year (or as soon as Last Sword releases their Dark Elf Kickstarter).

As I’ve said in the past, I really like Dark Elves in fantasy, especially the whole look and feel of the race from Warhammer. For the models, the Khanite Shadowstalkers from Warcry are among my favourite figures released by Games Workshop – I’m eternally weak for sneaky elves and the posing and weapons for them are great. So when I saw that someone was selling the Dark Elf half of the the new Nethermaze box for much MUCH lower than market price, I had to jump in and pick the models up. As you can see above, they have done a really good job of unique poses that fit with the original models – the two Shroudqueens each have their own quirks and will look great alongside each other.

The other half was spotting TTCombat now selling some of their RUMBLESLAM figures separately rather than only available via the teams. For a long time, I’ve kept my eye on the Throwing Shade, a shadowy creature that would be perfect for representing some of the naughty stuff that Dark Elves in my fantasy setting get up (if you consider “summoning shadow beasts from between the realms to murder your enemies” naughty). Having it arrive, I am both REALLY happy with it but also remembering how much I dislike messing around with cast resin figures – 3D printing has spoiled me. But that said, it is suitably shadowy, so now I just need to paint it up in suitable colours.

Other Things

• My YouTubing stuff continues to be asleep. However, I’m going to start writing the next video alongside the stuff on the Counter-Intel guys, as well as thinking a little bit more about what I want to make.
• I’ve managed to update my database to use procedures for all the regular queries I have to run, saving me a chunk of time. The next step I want to do is to get someone on the blog you can run to keep an eye on how things are going
• Speaking of, this month I managed to actually paint 20 models this month, which is the most I’ve done so far this year. Also more importantly, it significantly beat how many models I added to the collection, bringing my painted percentage up to… 47.28%

That’s all for this month – I’ll be posting my plans for the month over on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ChargeBlog. As I’ve always said, the Patreon is a tip jar, letting me help to cover some of the costs associated with the blog and help me get my hands on the 3d printing STLs I use. I want to start providing more stuff for the Patrons (more than just a name at the end of a YouTube video) and the campaign above will end up being something that the patrons see first.

Every servant of the Empress has their role. Mine just happens to involve balancing transactions and making sure that mercenaries like yourself fulfil their obligations. And while yes, my usefulness against a horde of orcs or the Northmen may be limited, I do like to think it works better when I am in charge of the coin purse for an expedition, rather than someone more used to using a sword rather than a pen. The right tool for the right job.

Now hand me the pouch of salt and spices from my bag – I don’t believe this so-called cook has ever heard of seasoning and I’ll be dammed if I’m eating something so lacking in flavour.

Aberforth Halwyn, Imperial Paymaster

Halflings! Adorable little bastards, usually the butt of most jokes in fantasy settings, much beloved of naps, good food and avoiding work. Something I’m sure we can all agree on.

When thinking up Midgard as a setting, I’m trying to find the guiding line between “perfect utopia” and “extreme fantasy racism” that a lot of settings seem to be going for (such as the Witcher). I’m trying to avoid the classic fantasy tropes, especially regarding the barbarians beyond the “civilised lands” (for a whole host of reasons) but I’m trying hard not to just make “another fantasy setting TM” while still having the features I’m wanting.

For this reason, the Halflings of Midgard are going to pull from multiple elements. Even if it’s traditional, I am keeping the idea of them being agricultural but updated slightly. Rather than just being a pastoral reminder of Middle England, instead they are actual canny farmers and inventors that work through their limitations – this ends up making them a keen part of the Empire as they see the need for co-operation. They get heavily involved in the day to day running of the Imperial organisations, with some of these skills then being in high demand with private individuals – even the dumbest lord in the Marches knows it’s handy to have someone who can balance the books when the Imperial Tax Collectors arrive for their share.

This halfling model is the paymaster from Last Sword, included alongside the paymaster wagon and a group of rough and tumble fellows escorting it. However, upon adding him to the base, I realised he would need a little something to make him stand a little higher. The cash box from the Elf Bard (a figure on my desk waiting to be painted) was almost perfect, if a little on the small side. However, thanks to 3d printing, I scaled it up slightly so both of his feet would fit on it. Got to love my magical resin box.

Painting wise, I decided to give him some armour pieces. Technically the vest is just clothing but I really like the idea that this particular halfling is valued enough to have armoured gloves and a breastplate. Just what’s needed for an adventuring fellow.

The main detail apart from the metal is the Black and Yellow. These are the new Imperial colours I’m using (perhaps inspired by a certain fantasy game I’ve been playing), while the Red and White will remain the scheme for other imperial elements (like the Swordmasters). Yellow is usually a bugger, but Flash Gitz Yellow over Eshin Grey seems to have worked out okay.

I’ve got a few more fantasy models to paint up but before I really get into them there is the matter of trying out my rules. Perhaps on Wednesday?

Another month gone, the shortest of them all for 2022. This month was definitely a bit on the slow side – I spent a lot of it struggling to actually sleep at night and so the hobby time turned into the “oh god I need to nap or else I’ll go mad” time.

However, I still got a few things done. So lets go over them!

COLLECTING

Vapa at the start of the month saw me expanding the collection (just a little bit) as I mentioned in the SITREP. Two more Comets (to bring me up to a platoon for Big Chain of Command) and some fantasy characters from Crooked Dice. I’ll admit, I’m still not that excited about the fantasy models – the Divine Mortal being really low quality and realising just how good the 3d printing fantasy models have become.

3D PRINTING

This month’s 3d printing was a little bit off as I had some issues with the Saturn. I first spotted it on the CVRs I mention below, but I managed to hide the damaged part of the hull and redid the tracks. However, because the Chieftain hull I was trying to print is so big, I had to make sure that the adhesion to the bed was 100% before I started attempting to print them. Luckily, I managed to fix it with the classic process of re-levelling, so next month will include a Chieftain, with perhaps a few tweaks.

The main vehicle printing this month was a pair of CVRs. These are from Bobmack’s BAOR, rescaled up to 1/50 scale. As I mentioned in the SITREP, I really like these kits as they are smartly designed, includes stowed versions and look spot on. I’m less a fan of the pricing for individual models on their store (and the fact you have to purchase each level of stowage separately) but honestly they are cool kits. Just be careful of how spiky the tracks can be!

Part 2 of the CVR 3d printing also got a SITREP, covering the pieces I’ve printed and added… But we’ll take a look at that lower down.

I’m probably going to do a 3d printing update – this month has definitely included a fair amount of trying out new things. I’ve actually dropped back to using 0.03mm layer depth (suggested by a few of the patreons I’ve been signed up for) which has increased print time on both machines considerably, but I’m happier with how these pieces are coming out.

BUILDING

Despite buying the Comets, it was actually the Stuart I assembled this month. It’s an adorable little tank (seen here next to the Churchill) and seeing as it’s a Rubicon kit it was great fun to build. Actually, building model kits remind me one way 3D printing won’t replace more regular kits is that there is a real joy in building a well designed kit. I really like how the kit can easily be swapped between the turret and the Recce version, something I was definitely worried about when first building it.

As mentioned above, there was actually some building to be done with my 3d printed parts. I had a lot of fun using the 3d printing slicer to play around with positioning before sticking them into place in the real world. I’m really happy with the ability to quickly improve/change the look of a vehicle without having to model accessories myself physically or order from someone else. I’ll defintiely be looking to do these tweaks to other vehicles going forward.

Finally, another 3D printing build process but not one for Ultramoderns. I have a big collection of Stormcast from Games Workshop – I actually like a lot of the design elements and feel of the models, GW doing good work. However, I want to use them for my lower fantasy setting and, inspired by lots of examples on reddit, I began a plan to make them look a lot less… bling.

I decided to start with the banner bearer from the Dominion box. As a skirmish gamer, I don’t really need banner bearers and I think the pose and sword is too strong not to use. After trimming down the flag and it’s pole, I replaced it with a lantern from an old space marine sprue I had. For the head, I think the gaunt cheeked death mask is one of those iconic Stormcast pieces – I trimmed it off and replaced it with an alternative helm from the Sun Knights kit that Last Sword produce as part of their patreon. It’s decorative but not quite as gaudy as the original, and it will definitely help him stand out among the more “normal” Midgard troops.

I’m not done however – I’m going to do some green stuffing, adding some cloth effect to cover up the body sculpted parts of the armour (such as on the back). I’m still nailing down the complete look, but this guy will definitely be my test model. More details when I get some more work in

PAINTING

Painting definitely suffered this month, I only managed to paint 7 models up, a little less than I planned to. Admittedly, part of this comes from not getting the project I had planned (the last few bits of the Empress US Army guys) but ah well, that can wait.

First up, I finished off the White Dragon Miniatures preview models I was sent. The Brits (in both 20mm and 28mm) were the last to be worked on due to them actually having camo patterns that are more complex than “colour plus dots of other colour”. The scheme I wasn’t 100% on after finishing (it’s the Spectre colours and it still feels a touch green) but the Iraqi Sand drybrush does definitely add the dusty, tan look I want. I’m still planning, but it’s a good chance this is the scheme I’ll use for the two full platoons I have.

Wanting to get some models actually painted, I finally got the KSK from Combat Octopus finished off after they were sat staring at me on my desk. I really like the multi-part KSK figures, with separate pouches to help you make them as laden up as possible. One thing not visible but I really do love the breaching shotgun I stuck to the team leaders day pack. I plan to print at least another four, if not more. I definitely need to add a DMR at least, but I’m frantically awaiting some heavier support for them – I’ll probably add some light AT so they can be handy in platoon level games. Luckily Spectre gives me several options including a certain one that’s famous at the moment.

Finally, I gave Captain Carter a go. As I say in the SITREP, I’m going to go back and give her another go, the face and shield being the focus point. After some sleep though, I actually really like how she looks next to the WW2 guys – I used the same leather colour and it helps to make her fit into the rest of the force while being larger than life.

GAMING

Only one game this month – and we got to play a big one! Go enjoy the Big Chain of Command battle rep set in North Africa – it was a really good time, getting play more Chain of Command and play around with getting some cool camera shots. It’s amazing what you can do with a camera with 8x zoom on it, really letting you get down to model level (and meaning I need to up my painting game!)

WRITING

First for writing, I helped out a good friend of mine with a new article for Airsoft Action covering BPRE 28mm. As well as adding some thoughts at the end, he reprinted elements of my BPRE 28mm impressions piece I wrote to help detail the rules. So officially, I have some of my blog content in print!

Rules wise, Ultramodern Chain of Command is coming along. I’ve updated some more of it, trying to get the “regular force on regular force” portion all written up to allow the more standard style of game to be played (and because it’s the foundation for the rest). The next big goal is getting the army lists written up, something I’m slightly slowed down in doing as I need more armies painted!

I also got to writing some more of my fantasy rules (as my sister has mentioned she’s interested in getting back into playing some games). I’ve nailed down the basics of the D100 system and how the game will play out, the next step is writing it down. Because my sister and I want it to be very evocative for generating narrative, it’s going to be relatively crunchy (with resources like injuries, fatigue and terror to be managed) but I have a few ways to allow for bigger fights. Hopefully it plays well and I can work on the campaign elements too – I’ve been playing a lot of a game called Battle Brothers and it’s full of ideas to borrow/use. In fact, there is a lot of games in it – things like Darkest Dungeon have definitely helped to influence the sort of game I want it to be.

BLOGGING

The blog has done pretty well this month. 11 posts, including two battle reports, in February. I actually also got a few other articles almost finished but had to put them on pause for… a reason.

The reason being I’m looking into Youtube stuff. As I wrote to my Patreon subscribers in the middle of the month:

I’m going to start putting ChargeBlog content onto Youtube.

This is going to be an add-on for my blog content. Writing is always going to be faster for me, but I realise reading 2000+ words can be a bit of hurdle to get through. My idea with expanding to Youtube is lower the barrier of getting to my content, so longer posts (i.e. not the SITREP ones) will get some video content of me reading the post out, accompanied by video and stills. I still need to work out some of the mechanics for it (mostly around the battle reports) but it’s coming.

I’m not going to be going the full Youtube life. I have no desire to chase the algorithm, get sponsors, quote the likes comments and subscribes. Thanks mostly to seeing how many of you are sticking around, I’m feeling confident at trying some new things to share the stuff I like doing. So thank you!

I’m rolling up the new workflow, learning to do the editing and working with someone to add the fancy branding. If I’m going to do this additional way of enjoying my stuff, I want to do it right.

If you want to know what’s coming next month, why not jump over onto the Patreon? I’ll be putting up a preview post there around the same time as this goes up, detailing what’s on the docket for next month. If you like the sound of what I mention, then you can become a patron to help fund it. There are no tiers to choose between – just pay what you want and the support is much appreciated. Click the button below or follow the link to my Patreon page

New year, new update format! Rather than looking at projects, I’m instead going to take a look at the various aspects of the hobby, giving a much wider view over it all.

But as an intro, I’m feeling pretty happy with January. I may didn’t paint as much as I wanted but there was some nice variety. And perhaps most importantly, so many games!

Collecting

I actually did pretty well this month in terms of purchasing. I didn’t actually buy any models! One of my goals this year is to save money by not buying too many new things, and I’m happy to report it’s going well… for now.

However, that didn’t stop me getting some new toys in the post however. Thanks to White Dragon Miniatures, I got hold of a taster pack to look at all the ranges he currently has on offer (including some outside of the usual 28mm). I was planning to only mention I had these guys once I got them painted up but alas a combination of slow painting and other people doing their feedback, time to spoil the surprise! There will be a full impressions piece coming in February.

I also received a gift from the Dastardly Regular Opponent for my birthday – a Stuart V. I’m still deciding how to assemble it – a light tank is handy but by the end of the way the turretless recce vehicle is also a possibility (and something different for the table top).

3D Printing

Now, 3D printing was another matter. As well as the monthly patreon additions, I also picked up some kickstarters from people like Bobmack3d and Miska miniatures to add to my supplies. The advantage of this stuff is it’s nice to have it on the back burner – if I suddenly need a Scorpion tank or a bunch of Syrian militia, I can get them printed quickly.

The biggest in terms of volume printing this month was the modern French Foriegn Legion from Normandy Miniatures. I’m still in the process of cleaning these guys up (and dealing with some misprints) but once ready I want to get them turned around soon-ish so I can bring another force up to Platoon strength.

The biggest single printing I did this month was the Typhoon, the model for which a friend bought me for my birthday. It’s a gloriously huge vehicle (which might be slightly too big for the figures I use) but it was also fun to just see what the printer can do.

Building

Speaking of big things, I finally assembled the other big model that’s been waiting in the build queue. The Morathi kit is two figures and I adore it. For all the issues with Games Workshop, I adore their design work – this giant kit goes together with so many nice ways of hiding the joins. This will definitely be one I’ll spend some time painting up, really pushing my skills with a centrepiece (much like I did with the Godling).

Painting

I started off the year well by painting up the trio of Churchill gun tanks for my first Chain of Command game. As required by the dice gods, they spent their first game exploding but I’m super happy to have them painted up now. I still have the Croc, AVRE and Comet to finish

With the rise of platoon level wargaming, I realised I had to finish off some platoons. Originally, my first plan was to finish off my USMC (in preparation for needing more) as I assumed my US Army were complete. However, part way through I realised that actually I would need to go back and add another set of US Army troops. Even so, I did get two Assaultmen finished off with their SMAWs.

Finally as mentioned before, I painted up some of the White Dragon Miniatures. I’m in the process of finishing off the Brits, but it was a fun project jumping between the different colour schemes (IDF, Taliban and Russians). Expect some more details once I get my impressions piece up.

Gaming

I think the big thing for this month was I got three games in! And shockingly, they were all Chain of Command.

At the start of the month, Operation Carronade took us back to 1945 for a Big CoC game. It may have got spooky by the end, but I was really happy getting my WW2 guys out. It was also cool as a first go with an actually good camera, letting me get some glorious zoom levels.

Operation Rubicon took Chain of Command to the ChargeReal, with the first testbed of my Ultramodern tweaks to CoC. We all had a really good time with it, with only a few little oddities to smooth out. It’s very promising for the upcoming campaign, especially once I start adding the actual support lists.

I’m still writing up the battle report for this one, but Operation Kinder saw another UIltramodern Chain of Command game against one of my former housemates as his intro to the game. More details in the post but we had a really good time, including some glorious firefights. It was also good testing, revealing stuff I need to work on… but that’s in the next section!

Writing

As mentioned, main writing focus this month was getting the Ultramodern Chain of Command to a first version. I’ve got a WIP post in progress to talk about the tweaks in more detail but the Operation Rubicon post has some basic details. So far, I’m getting the basics up and running, allowing for two regular forces to go up against each other. Next step will be writing proper force lists, and then I can start work on the weirder styles of play (insurgents and SF).

For other writing, I’ve been working on some more ChargeReal stuff. With the decision that the campaign will be a border skirmish between the Albion Commonwealth and the Bazi Empire, I’ve started writing up the details of the various forces (including their partners) – one thing I am excited about is making sure we’re not just playing the classic “modern military with all the gear vs middle eastern army” – I’m already carefully choosing who might be on the Bazi Empire’s side.

And finally, fantasy. My sister has begun itching for some more gaming/story missions and so I’ve begun thinking about the rule set I wanted to throw together. It’s a little early to mention specifics but it’s coming.

Blogging

Blogging wise, I managed to do 11 posts with two battle reports and two major updates among them. Not bad! Also the site got 4.8k views, some of the highest monthly totals heading back to the dizzy heights of 2019.

If you want to know what’s coming next month, why not jump over onto the Patreon? I’ll be putting up a preview post there around the same time as this goes up, detailing what’s on the docket for next month. If you like the sound of what I mention, then you can become a patron to help fund it. There are no tiers to choose between – just pay what you want and the support is much appreciated. Click the button below or follow the link to my Patreon page

Earlier this week, I ran through what I got up to in 2021, which honestly having gone back through it all I’m pretty happy with. 2021 saw me work on a variety of genres

Looking ahead, what are my plans for 2022? Well….

Project 365

First up, my plan to paint 365 models in a year. As I mention in the 2021 review, I didn’t quite hit that goal but it was a great motivator. I’m going to roll the goal over into another year – even if I don’t hit it, it would be nice to begin to approach it.

I’m probably not going to do all the tables and graphs I did last year. Frankly, it ended up being a pain at the start of every monthly update post, having to get all the details together

Finish Purchased Projects before starting new ones

My biggest problem with last year and my purchasing was the sheer number of projects I came up with, purchased, assembled and then put to one side. As just a taster of the projects I still have to do:

• Chaos Warriors (including Lord and Greater Demon)
• Dark Elves (Witch Elves, Corsairs, Morathi and more)
• Stormcast (including the Dominion box)
• Undead (Vampires, Zombies and Skeletons)
• Dark Eldar
• War Cry Catacombs
• War Cry Red Harvest
• Escher gang for Necromunda
• White Dragon British
• Empress British platoon
• Empress US Rangers
• Empress US Marines
• Empress Russians
• Spectre African Militia
• Full Battle Rattle Canadians

This doesn’t even begin to cover the hosts of smaller squads, sections and vehicles that are sat in the collection waiting to be painted.

Now, this isn’t to say I’ll live like a monk and never purchase anything this year. With the announcement of Cursed City getting expansions, previews of new Eldar figures coming later this year and a few rough plans for projects, there are a few special things I might pick up. But I’m not planning on doing anymore random sprees or leaping into new projects that require buying a load of new things

Ultramodern Chain of Command

Speaking of brand new things, my biggest project this year is going to be something that doesn’t need buy new models – it’s taking the things I enjoy and already have and putting them into a stew pot.

Chain of Command is my favourite platoon level ruleset. Nothing gives me the same level of involvement or interest as a game of Chain of Command (except maybe Skirmish Sangin), making me feel in the action rather than merely rolling some dice. It gives you that feeling of having too much to do with too little, the requirements of the mission fighting against the tools you having in your hands. For many years, the idea of Fighting Season, a conversion of Chain of Command written by Leigh Neville and Rich Clarke, seemed like it would be the ideal ruleset for my collection. However, that has entered development hell, with Mr Clarke announcing it being put on the back burner for quite frankly pretty understandable reasons.

Well, this is the year I want to start playing Chain of Command with my collection of Ultramoderns. And luckily there has been plenty of things written about Fighting Season (as well as other modern conversions written by people for Vietnam, The Falklands and Somalia). By pulling these things together, suddenly a lot of the work is already done (and done incredibly well) – it just needs cataloguing and putting together. Of course, my goal isn’t to copy Fighting Season exactly – I’ll be using it for more than just counter-insurgency (I do have one or two other regular factions that might get involved) but that game will certainly lead the way when it comes to dealing with how modern professional armies function vs those in WW2.

The other part of this?

Chargereal Campaign

I’m going to be putting my world setting to work and assembling a long campaign for my local crew. Seeing as an overwhelming number of the group knows Chain of Command rather well, it’s one less thing to teach from scratch to get people through the door and into Ultramoderns. My thoughts are to have each player be in control of a different element in a task force (with options such as Infantry Company, Ranger Company, Internal Security Company or Special Forces) which will perform different missions. Depending on how these missions go, other players may find their missions helped or hindered – a botched night raid by a Special Forces player may embolden the OPFOR in the region, giving them extra support for when the player Infantry or Rangers play their missions.

Am I doing this so my friends get to send each other passive aggressive messages at the start of each battle once I reveal the situational effects?

Yes.

The idea is to run this campaign slowly – with the players being scattered to the four corners of the North we might not be able to get together as much as we like. However, I think I can run enough side events that will still keep the players involved even if a full game isn’t practical. Combined with a monthly update for all players, and it might be time to get the Albion Empire’s finest into an operational footing and throw in enough twists and turns to keep everyone interested and entertained.

Fantasy Ruleset

Seeing as my brain doesn’t like to sit still, I’ve got a second set of rules in the works. As mentioned, I’ve been playing some fantasy games with my Sister and in the first two episodes we’ve played, we used the Open Combat rules. These are great little skirmish rules but maybe don’t include the level of crunch we want for an ongoing campaign. I took a look at Rangers of Shadow Deep and, although I adore the co-op aspect, I don’t think the power levels or combat really matches to how our Swordmasters (and other factions) really play in the setting and I didn’t feel levelling characters was exciting as it could be. The way out? Get writing.

My current thinking is a D100 system (going for the RPG feel) with units either named individuals or small groups of unnamed extras. I also want to include the events system and AI from Rangers, so my sister and I can play the game together and get a fun experience, rather than me trying to direct the story as the bad guy. True, I’ll have to write everything from scratch but that’s half the fun!

Blog + Patreon

So that of course leaves the blog and attached Patreon to be planned out. The Patreon is a relatively new addition and I still need to 100% nail down what it’s going to be. I want it to be a tip jar + perks, so the main thing is making sure it doesn’t add too much to the overall work load. That said, doing the extra work writing up patreon specific scenarios is definitely something I enjoy, especially as I already have a lot of the work done beforehand and it’s just formatting.

As for the blog itself, the main thing is just keeping on top of the posts. The daily (ish) SITREP posts work really well for me, even if the Algorithms of other places may not want to share them quite so much. Having all my hobby in one place and not limited to 270 characters works super well for being able to tell the story of my ongoing hobby. The main thing is to keep on track of getting the posts done relatively quickly. Things like the Spectre Covert guys took way too long between “models painted” and “post written”. I still have the battle reports from my fantasy gaming to write up. Mostly with the blog my aim is to be efficient, rather than dragging out writing simple things.

That’s it for planning. Fingers crossed on how well it goes throughout the year – even if I don’t hit all the goals, this is at least what I have planned.

2021 is over. It was definitely a hard year for most people, with me finding myself especially struggling by the end with life and work. However, through all of it there was a lot of good! I managed to get a chunk of things done, including a lot of the social side of the hobby that I enjoy. It’s safe to say that without the Monday Night Paint sessions I started doing with my friends I’d be a lot worse off. But thanks to them (as well as many other people on both Twitter and Patreon) I managed to make it through the year having been as productive as I have ever been.

Project 365

So back at the start of the year I roughly set out my plan to paint around 365 models in a year. Seeing as in 2020 I only managed to paint 58 models (and the highest I’d done in a year before that was 223 in 2017) this was going to be a pretty massive change. Frankly, quite a few people did mention this was a pretty bonkers idea.

How did I do? Well, I managed to paint 307 models (both miniatures and terrain) in 2021. It might not be the 365 I aimed for but frankly it’s a massive improvement over last year.

There was also a nice variation on what I actually painted. In previous years, the percentage was pretty much entirely Ultramodern but 2021 saw a nice mix of things to paint up. In fact, for the first year Fantasy Skirmish actually beat out Ultramoderns as the most painted by a big chunk – I’ll put this down to working my way through multiple boxed games and their associated terrain.

Of course, every reaction has an equal and opposite reaction. In 2021 I added to my collection 503 figures. Now, that is an awful lot of stuff to add. I think a big part of it comes down to picking up several Games Workshop game boxes (Cursed City, Warcry Red Harvest and half of the Dominion box set) while another chunk is 3d printing figures but even so that is way more models than I really should have picked up.

However, even with these additions, my painted percentage stands at 44.28%, up from 39.68% at the start of the year

2021 Retrospective

So apart from the raw painting numbers, what else was big this year:

January

Probably the biggest thing of January was getting my 3d printer (the Mars Pro). After screwing it up over Christmas (I broke the cable to the display while trying to make sure it was working), it took me until January 9th to actually get my first wholly successful print… I think broke the screen again.

January also saw me finish off my Enforcers, including the Forge World purchases – shame it would take me a good few months to ACTUALLY use them.

February

February saw a few projects begin. On the WW2 front, I painted my first set of Winter Brits and started work on the Empress kits. I started the descent into Chaos with the Warhammer Underworlds box and then Sigvald (who is still waiting to be painted). I also returned to camo with the Spectre Delta figures.

But it wasn’t all new stuff. I also actually got a game in, playing a Spectre Operations solo game to reignite the juices and get things on the table.

March

March saw more painting of my WW2 British forces, finishing off the bulk of the force. As well as more experiments with 3d printing, it saw me finish off the Warhammer Underworlds Chaos Warriors to a level I was really happy with, complete with conversion work which I still enjoy looking at on my shelf.

And then I built the biggest model I have ever done in the form of the Slaanesh Greater Demon I still need to paint.

March also saw me decide to step back from playing Real World Ultramoderns wargaming. I still stand by that post I wrote but I think also the interest in world building has really got it’s claws in me.

April

April saw a mix of Ultramodern and Fantasy. I finished off the Insurgent PMC in about a week from arrival to fully painted and had great fun working on them. At the same time, I started painting the bulk of my Chaos Warriors

And then I added a shed load more stuff to do by picking up some Stormcast and Vampires AND THEN Cursed City arrived!

May

In May I finished up the Chaos Warriors and wrote up a post on them. I also started working on other things such as the rest of the Winter Brits and a few more pieces for fantasy such as the Ogroid Myrmidon for fantasy. I also finished two of the Swashbucklers I bought, planting the seeds for my fantasy gaming with my sister which I really enjoy.

June

And speaking of which, June was the first month we actually played a game together! The rest of the month was filled with painting up fantasy models, as well as more 3D printing. I hammered through the Cursed City Skeletons but mostly it was getting the Chaos Barbarians painted up. I really enjoyed painting them. It was a different style of model to work on, lots of flesh rather than metal work.

July

July saw my house getting invaded by bats! And ironically not just on the painting table (although that happened as well). Luckily however the bat did escape and left me to my devices.

This month saw me finish off the first 3D printed model I’m really proud of, a mix of Golem parts from Last Sword. I’ll be going back to do a proper post on this guy, as his work came in the months where I just stopped posting things!

There was also lots and lots of gaming with my sister, which did really get me to both finish off some more Cursed City parts but also get the 3d printer out for terrain pieces.

August

Oh Boy – August saw me jump onto the 3d Printing patreon train and not really look back. I printed models as soon as they came out on the 1st and had some of them painted up by the 2nd! ALso the Turnbase robots were soon printed and the Covert/Overt operators painted up, giving me a very popular month for Ultramoderns. I also printed off one the largest single figure using my 3d printer, preparing the Hades figure from Heroes Infinite for a possible role in the future. Finally, to finish the 3D printing experiments, I printed my first vehicles. I think this was the month that I really decided “yes, this is a hobby I want to focus on” rather than just a simple add-on.

This month also saw me introduced to Necromunda properly, playing up against my former house mate in a nasty intro (damn webbers) to the game.

September

September saw a return to battle reports with a game of Skirmish Sangin V2, a system I’m very excited for – the same game also saw the first time an entire force in one of my games was assembled from 3d printed soldiers, Combat Octopus’s Bundeswehr as. It also saw me play more games against my sister, breaking out some fun dungeon crawling tiles.

The 3d Printing experiments also continued, finishing and actually painting vehicles ready for the table. This was the point I realised that getting a larger printer would definitely open up the options for what I could play. And not just in the large scale – my investigation in possible playing some 6mm also started this month.

This was also the month I started posting more regularly, using this blog for all my major updates rather than simply posting to twitter or facebook.

October

October saw the Necromunda play begin in earnest, with both weekly sessions and then a weekend stop over with a few friends. I managed to fit in six games of it in a month, a frankly mad number after the past few months!

There was also other hobby advances – I printed an MBT on my Mars Pro, something I hadn’t expected to ever do. I also completed another milestone in painting with the Godling I needed for fantasy, painting something larger than human in 28mm covered in flesh that resulted in something I’m actually really happy with. I think this is one of my favourite models from this year.

November

November was the end of the Necromunda times with the final weekend up in Middlesbrough which man was such a good time. I also got some games in with the new Black Powder Red Earth game and it did pretty fantastic for the blog.

However, my favourite thing this month hobbywise just had to be assembling up my Heavy Bolter Enforcer. I’ll probably struggle to use him in a future campaign but it’s a perfect example of having that mental image for what a model will look like and then delivering on it.

This month also saw the launch of my Patreon page, letting people throw in some money every month to help keep the blog going. It’s been a great help, letting me focus on producing more stuff! I’m indebted to everyone who takes part.

December

Rounding out the year, I ended up going to Warhammer World and did a few final hobby things such as painting up the final few Chaos Warrior related characters. And, as the final countdown rang out, I finished the final wash on Spectre’s Criminal Heavies, ending the year as I started it.

I did also pick up a stack of models for a few projects, including a lot of Games Workshop pieces all ready for fantasy.

And of course, I started the next stage of my 3d printing journey with the arrival of the Elegoo Saturn at Christmas.

Well that was 2021. I’ve got a few plans for 2022, mostly building on some of the habits from this year. But that would be saying too much! Expect a post with the details soon.

Godric sat in his tent, enjoying the feast before him, all of it freshly prepared. Boar, hen, baked bread made by the servants given to him by his new master, even some roots that had been foraged and prepared, mixed with spices and honey. He nodded gratefully to one of the marauders, whose family would have brought down the boar and enjoyed the reaction it elicited, a strange hand gesture mixed with an almost bow, the smile creasing her painted face as she returned to her own meal.

It was strange being here, he considered. In a warm tent as the wind howled outside, surrounded by people his former comrades might have called barbarians. They would laugh at them inside their castles far to the south, assuming anyone up here would be simpletons resorting to base violence. And true, it had taken him a while to get used to the idea of having servants he owned rather than simply employed. Or how frequently he talked to demons and Godlings as if they were any other comrade. But he had found a common purpose with these warriors, now seeing them as trurer friends than any knight he might have once fought alongside.

The wind howled once more as the flap opened, a trio of armoured figures joining them. Two of them, Musongo and Kazour, bowed and headed to their usual seats while the third came to kneel beside his seat, her hair pulled up into a topknot, the side of her head shaved and marked with tattoos.

“My Lord…” His Seneschal started, but Godric merely placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to pause.

“Rhazgra, my dear, come sit, you must be famished. I had worried the Templars had caught you.” He smiled down at her, spotting the confusion in her face slowly turning to relief.

“I… thank you my lord.” She seemed to relax, taking her seat and quickly biting into the food that Kazour had passed her. Godric smiled at the way the Embalmer had served his superior before himself and wondered idly if the older warrior had once served some general in the South. Musongo, as she always seemed to, had already started talking animatedly to Kraureth and his Queen, the hearty laughter of the trio soon filling the silence as the Wanderer started up her story.

Godrivr leaned closer to Rhazgra. “I assume you encountered our mutual enemy?”

His Seneschal took a moment to swallow but then answered him, a childhood of manners the northern chill hadn’t pulled out of her. She answered, matching his quieter tone. “They did My Lord. And as you predicted they were far too easy to trap. The undead did our dirty work.”

“And I assume that your sister gave them a parting gift?” He smiled, already picturing the younger of the two girls casting down green fire upon their common foe. As much as he may dislike the Templars and their ways, Rhalar had a hatred for them that lit a fire in the young woman. He didn’t press her on it, but the Templars were not kind to those with knowledge of the arcane and the scars on her face were the sort of wounds an Inquisitor would inflict.

“She did.” Rhazgra smiled in response.

Godric couldn’t help but smile back. “Good girl. And the artefact?”

“Already presented to The Speaker, as you requested.” She bowed her head slightly, the candle light catching the golden ring through her eyebrow. “It was an honour to serve you this day, my lord.”

He smiled at her again. The two of them were not so different – both had fled the Empire for their own reasons, and turned their talents to thriving in the north. They may have travelled different paths to be sat in the tent in their pitch black plate armour but there was a connection there. She and her sister served him admirably and in return he rewarded them based on merit – a far cry from snivelling lords buying themselves commands in the south.

Tearing a leg from a cooked game hen, he pointed the exposed bone at her. “The honour comes to you because of your skills, not because I grant it. But for now eat. Rest. Tomorrow we return to our Lord and see what his next command is.”

I thought I was done with painting Chaos Warriors. I thought I’d had my fill of the black armoured bastards, the fridge sized units that are one of the best designed things Games Workshop have come up with. I’ve painted the Underworlds band, I painted both the classic design and the newer one (that still needs a separate release) and I even painted a limited edition one after doing mod work to it. Sure, there were some Chaos Warriors I had missed out – the Exalted Heroes which are made of finecast and probably not worth my time preparing or even painting for how much bullshit I’ll have to deal with (even if the Crom the Conqueror model does give me some massive flashbacks to seeing his figure being released in White Dwarf all those years ago) and the limited edition Slambo figure already has a call back from the Underworld’s band that does it better and more in keeping with the current range.

And then while walking around Warhammer World, I spotted… Him

Oh dear, another Chaos Warrior character. From 2012, this guy is actually in plastic which surprised me. He comes from that era just before Age of Sigmar, where characters were often sold with moulded plastic square bases – I also have two models from the Dark Elf range (the Assassin and the Sorceress) which are similarly equipped. As someone who never really into Warhammer Fantasy Battle, square bases always feel archaic. Buying models with them on, especially these sculpted ones, always is a pain. It just adds some additional work that needs to be done to clear them up, trimming down the plastic edges so they can be placed onto the regular bases.

However, there was another thing I’d need to do. As mentioned before, I’m using the Chaos Warriors to represent the armoured warriors of the Northern Kingdoms, realms beyond the control of the central Empire of the setting. For these reason, these characters are not the heavily mutated warriors of fantasy (we’ll get to those guys later) but instead highly trained warriors clad in well made armour. For this reason, I’d need a headswap to something more human. Luckily, one advantage of having a 3d printer is that it opens some doors in terms of spare heads. Looking through the collection of Mercenaries from Reptilian Overlords (which are basically a collection of parts for making Mordhiem mercenaries), I had an idea.

With how my world is setup, it’s very possible (and more common than the Swordmasters would like to admit) for an Imperial Knight to leave his posting and head into the north. Perhaps they grow tired of the Empire’s constant wars, maybe some betrayal on the field of battle leaves them alone and far from home. Once they arrive in the north, these Knights will need to prove themselves to their new liege lords (and their fellow warriors) but bring with them knowledge that the locals may lack – especially when the Northern Kingdoms head south to raid the coast or push back any Imperial advance across the Sea of Storms.

To apply this, I went through and found a suitable head, eventually settling on the classic veteran look of horseshoe moustache and eyepatch. Running it through a quick printjob, installing just required trimming the bulk of the head off the neck piece from the kit before filing down the joint. I also tweaked the head position – where as the original was glaring down an opponent, the new heading is a touch more relaxed, a little more posed.

Painting wise, the model is the same style as I’ve used through all my Chaos warriors. the nice thing about this scheme is that it’s simple but provide the effect I’m going for with ease. I’m still really happy with the black contrast on metal look, as well as how the purple stands out against it, really catching the eye. The main additions for this model was adding some bone colours to the snarling face and horns – I like the idea that this guy is a touch more ornate with his armour, the snarling skull probably something he slew back when he first arrived. I also played around with adding a touch of hexwraith to the spear to fill in some of the cracks with green. You can see just a touch of it which give an effect but I might need to rethink it for next time.

I think at this point I’m safe from future chaos warrior plans. As mentioned at the top, I’m really not interested in painting anything Finecast in this range, as the moulds are more trouble than they are worth in the clean up stage. I think my Chaos Warriors force is now going to look elsewhere for additions – I still need to paint up the knights and associated “Lord on Crocodile” but that will be a project I have to drag myself through (because painting horses). There are also some other Chaos forces to paint up – I now have three Chaos Warcry bands waiting for paint and some extra figures to accompany the big boss. Turns out I may not have bought anything at Warhammer World but the trip did give me some ideas…

Remember when I said October was busy? November was even busier. Between family stuff, Necromunda campaign wrapping up and starting a Patreon, my actual painting time was pretty limited. But at the same time the “hobby” time was pretty productive, with a fair number of blog posts and scenarios produced.

Project 365

Lets take a look at the details. But as you can see, the numbers are not that impressive…

Yep, the painting number don’t lie. I painted one model to completion last month. True, he was a very good model but only one model. Also picking up the Warcry Red Harvest box in the same month does really make it look incredibly out of balance. I also think it’s very unlikely I’ll hit the 365 models painted in a year “goal” I set myself at the start of January. On the other hand, I have gone from 39% of collection painted up to 45% which I am pretty happy about!

Project Necromunda

So yeah, the one model I painted this month was the final addition to my Necromunda gang, Grom. Ever since I bought the gun at the start of the campaign, I was already planning on how I’d fit it to a model. The Scout heavy bolter was the right sort of pose and so, after picking up a new Subjugator sprue and a few “Scout with Heavy Bolter” bits he was good to go. I also got to use a rescaled Turnbase Miniatures head which fits perfectly.

And there was a final weekend of games! I got to have a really good set of games against a few final gangs (including some I hadn’t played before). We also got to play on our Campaign Arbitrator’s cool 3d terrain table, complete with all the shenanigans you’d expect – there was a lot of people falling from high places and getting hurt. I’m in the midst of preparing a wrap up post but also waiting for the final scores to be tallied up. I had a really good time with it all, and I’m excited at the possibility of a future campaign playing a different gang.

Project Moderns

I finally did my Impressions piece on the Covert/Overt range from Spectre. It took me far longer than I expected to do and it was entirely down to me just putting word to blog. As I’ve mentioned, I’m not the biggest fan of the concept but there are some really good miniatures in this set.

I also wrote up my impressions on the BPRE:28mm game. I really happy to say that the post did absolute gangbusters, coming very close to being one of my best opening 24 hours. It’s a great game and I’m looking forward to getting some more games of it in. I’m already considering tweaks to add other forces and convert it to the ChargeReal setting.

Hobby-wise, I’m slowly working on getting figures together for the next game I’m running. The Spectre Heavy Criminals will be a special forces team assisting the group of Regulars, bringing some special gear. The Combat Octopus Indian Army guys are going to be the Royal Bazi Army Infantry, giving me a force that is a little more modern than the classic AK armed figures I’ll use for the Emirati troops. Both of these are still enroute to being finished but luckily it’s lots of camo schemes I’m used to.

Project Fantasy

This was a month off actually playing fantasy but it didn’t stop me picking a few things up. Red Harvest, the latest Warcry box, was something I’ve already mentioned in last month’s update and, when I saw that Leodis had it for a significant discount and with a points based money off, I realised it made sense to grab it quickly. This is a large box full of plastic kit to build and I’m really excited for getting the terrain on the board.

You’ve already seen her in her own article but I also picked up the latest Chaos Warrior release that was on special order. Not the biggest fan of GW leaning into the Fear of Missing Out but she is a really fun model to convert and then paint up. I’m also really happy at just how well my tweaks turned out and can’t wait to get her on a board.

That’s it for this month’s update, I’ll see you in a month!

“What’s the matter girl? Did you not think I would find you, even down here in the bowls of the earth? Did you not think that Our Lord would send someone to keep an eye on you, his Seneschal?”

With her pale hair running over her shoulder, the golden beads glinting in the torchlight and a humourless smile across her face, Musongo the Wanderer stepped over the shattered corpses of undead, her two handed mace swinging across the floor like a broom, sending the shattered bones spinning aside, before coming to rest on her shoulder. She extended her hand to Rhazgra before pulling the younger warrior up with ease, the strength of years as a fighter and traveller making even her commander a simple burden.

She grimaced again. “Do not be so weak Seneschal. One day I may come for your position, just as you came for your predecessor. And on that day I will need you fighting fit and ready for my challenge” She paused, and then her lip curled further into a genuine smile “Although that position does sound like a very boring thing to do – too much planning and commanding, not enough fighting and exploring. Much less interesting than wandering the world to find things that Our Lord might find useful.”

She clapped her hand on Rhazgra’s back, almost driving the air from her lungs, before point her mace up the tunnel. “Come this way – your Disciples lay beyond and they are eager for your successful return…”

As any fan of the blog can see, I am a fan of the Chaos Warriors from Games Workshop. I’ve painted the Underworlds group, I’ve painted both the old and new warriors. I even have a set of cavalry to paint up, although the sight of horses is perhaps slightly concerning. So, you might have guessed that when Games Workshop showed off a rather cool looking Chaos Warrior earlier this year and then announced she was event only, I may have been a touch annoyed.

Cut to a few months later and guess who reappeared on the Games Workshop site? Announced for a Made to Order promotion, and available for only one week, it was my time to bite the bullet and order something from the GW store rather than my local Leodis Games. It happened to fall over my Necromunda weekend, leading to me waking up on my friend’s sofa to see the pre-order up for £21. A little more than you may want to pay but I bit my tongue and bought her, in a large part just because I love the sculpt.

A week after pre-order and she arrived in my hands. Holga Clovenhorn (as this warrior is named) comes in the standard pack for a character sprue, complete with plastic surround inside the cardboard. The sprue itself is slightly tweaked, with thinner gates and careful placing. I should have grabbed a photo but from looking around it seems to be so you could assemble the figure at the event. It also went together in the easy build fashion, with some cool layering work to hide the joins.

And then as I reported in my SITREP post, I took the clippers to the limited edition model. Before you shout Blasphemy, it’s my model and I’ll do what I like. I think if you’re making a Chaos Warband for Age of Sigmar, then sure, the horns are a great touch. However, in my setting of Midgard, I use the Chaos Warrior models to represent the highly skilled fighters of the northern kingdoms beyond the Empire. These guys and girls are often warriors from elsewhere that have travelled north to find a new life free of the Empress’s orders – they aren’t mere puppets of a corrupting set of gods but actually well trained and hardy opponents.

The conversion itself was pretty simple – I cut away most of the horn with my clippers and then tidied up the mess with a mixture of hobby knife, file and even some sandpaper to really break through the material and smooth it down. For the horn stub, this was a touch easier to hide thanks to the character’s long hair. Trimming down most of it, I then worked greenstuff over the gap to cover it before threading it in a way that it looked like an extension of the existing hair piece. I did notice that removing this horn left a void of “dead” space on the model as well as making it look a little less special. However, it does now look closer to all the previous chaos warriors I have.

When painting her, I decided to try out a character with darker skin, using the method on the Games Workshop site. My previous skin paint jobs have been really limited in scope, either using Medium Fleshtone + wash, a base colour and a lighter drybrush or relying on contrast. So this time I decided to really push the boat out and go whole hog. I even added a spot of Druchii Violet in the eye socket to give it some depth (and save me painting eyes).

However, with the rest of her being using a paint style (detailed in earlier posts) that is quite quite dark in tone (I literally cover the armour in black contrast), her dark skin would be lost amongst it. For this reason, I decided to go with white hair – the wrestler Jade from AEW pulls off this look with very vivid bright white hair that is frequently paired with dark clothing, so I looked to her for some inspiration. I ended up going for a few layers – dawnstone over the black undercoat, a layer of wraitbone, black wash for depth and then a highlight pass of wraitbone. This came out with a really nice effect I’m a fan of.

Having done the conversion work on the horns, I’m really happy how my fixes now look after being painted up. The patterning on hair on the right side was perfect to add some golden touches as little pieces in her braid (perhaps inspired by another character I like) and these stand out amongst the white in a pleasing way.

I didn’t go too hard on the shield, just giving it a few details including the nickel oxide eyes and the painted tongue. With the darkened metal, I ran a drybrush of leadbelcher over the top just to make it pop.

You can also see stripes of gold covering the exposed part of her head – this was my attempt to fill the dead space mentioned above. Gold is the shortcut for high ranking characters in my Warriors and having chunks of it always makes you look important. With two stripes along her skin, as well as a golden earring, it makes Musongo look important among the rest.

And speaking of the rest, the most important thing – She looks perfect alongside the first batch of models I painted. With a different pose, she’ll definitely work either as a champion or as some heavy muscle. The new style of painting I tried on her (using extra passes rather than just basecoat + wash) is definitely something I’ll be using more of going forward.

Actually, thinking of her role made me think a touch more about what sort of character she might be and what name would suit her. I eventually settled on her being a rival/ally to the Seneschal – someone powerful enough to be a threat but also useful to butt heads with when it comes to making plans. A two handed maul is a heavy weapon to wield, so naturally she has to be a tough lady. Eventually I settled on her being a Wanderer, someone that would slide in and out of the Seneschal’s story. Looking up wanderer in various languages, I settled upon the Bantu word for Wanderer as it fit the feel for the character. I can already see her as someone who came north and was granted her cursed armour, before venturing off on her own stories. I look forward to weaving her into my tabletop games – if she comes up against the Swordmasters, then she will be a fierce foe.

October was a busy month between work and playing in a Necromunda campaign (and the return of Escape from Tarkov to steal my late night gaming time) which left barely any time or motivation for painting. But on the plus side, I did only buy a few tiny extra pieces…

Project 365

Lets take a look at the details.

This month was definitely not as effective as some of the previous months have been, for reasons I mentioned above. But it is cool to see just how much I’ve been 3d printing vs buying in from elsewhere.

Project Moderns

I missed out on my monthly moderns game due to my Dastard Regular Opponent replacing it with celebrating his birthday (which was just as fun). Instead, it’s been a lot of 3d Printing and thinking about ChargeReal stuff. After finishing the VBLs at the start of the month, I hit the 3d Printer hard.

I’m preparing a bigger post on the experience of printing Guaro3d’s vehicles (hint: it’s mostly positive) but for now, safe to say I’ve been working through the models I’ve picke dup to get them ready for gaming. However, there is also a little bit of testing the limits. The Atlay tank, for example, is one I’ve wanted for my forces but it’s also a big vehicle. In fact, it’s so big it almost maxed out my build volume.

The Scorpion is much less of a tester and more of wanting it for a gaming piece. Being a small tank, it provides a chunk of firepower without being too much for most forces to fight. It’s also the type of vehicle you’re more likely to see in policing actions, even as it gets overpowered on the larger battlefields.

The final experiment this month was with the fantastic Combat Octopus. After some chat on the Spectre Discord (which I’ve had a good time hanging out on), I’ve realised that the original CO models are very much at true scale 28mm. When compared to other figures (such as those from TBM) they were a little bit more slender over all, even down to weapons and equipment. I’ve reprinted these at 110% and I’m a little happier with the slightly increased size. I can see it making them a little easier to tweak. I eventually settled on reprinting at 107% based on some more tweaks and it’s the size I’ll use going forward. The only downside is that I need to go into the project files with each new release and export the supported files as STLs to rescale but it’s a very minor thing.

There is another moderns experiment I’ve been working on but its in a very early stage. See if you can spot it in the top image.

In terms of actually bought figures, the releases from Spectre last month arrived. I’m pretty happy with them (aside from the bent barrel on the lead FAL gunner) and I’m quite excited about getting these guys painted up. In terms of paint schemes, I have the basics setup for each – civilian gear for the operators and a desert camo with black details for the criminals

In terms of their place in the world, the agents are going to end up being relatively generic (there are plenty of nations looking to do sneaky moves). As for the Heavies, I’m really seeing them as an elite force (if slightly dodgy) in the Bazi Empire – there are plenty of Royals who may want their own force to play a hand in affairs with all the gear they can purchase.

I also picked up Spectre’s The Hunter figure when it was online. I’m interested in seeing what it’s like and finally getting around to playing The Day Of the Dew, a Skirmish Sangin scenario with Insurgents vs a predator like creature. Maybe some Christmas fun?

Project Necromunda

Oh boy Necromunda. I’m very much behind on writing up the games we’ve been playing but in the last month I managed 6 games in about 15 days so it’s been a little intense! Overall, I’m having a really good time with it – it’s great finally getting the figures I’ve been working on actually onto the table. The campaign is going pretty well as at time of writing I’m doing.

There is going to be some more detailed battle reports on each game coming soon and later this month I’m going up to Teesside for a weekend to play several games against the rest of the campaign. Hopefully I’ll be up to date by then.

Project Fantasy

Finally, the last area of gaming for the month was the finale for current campaign of fantasy I’ve been playing against my sister. It was a really fun set of games, always great to get a new player into the game. I’m already planning out the next campaign, hopefully using some of the 3d printed figures I’ve been collecting.

This also saw me paint my biggest model so far. This Hades from Raging Heroes was perfect to be the villain of the final part of the story, as well as likely to appear later on as a reoccurring obstacle for the main characters. It was also a painting challenge – with so much flesh on display, I couldn’t really get away with some simple “base colour + wash” so for the first time I actually did some layering work. I don’t think it photographs very well (you can see the brushmarks) but I am really happy with how the model ended up when it was put on the tabletop. It was a really good feeling just to finish the model and be like “yep, this works, I can paint things like this”. I’ve got a few more large models to paint, including my keeper of secrets and Morathi model. I think they will both be done next year.

Related to fantasy, I’m also getting very tempted by the new Warcry box that was announced over the weekend. I still need to paint the models from the Catacombs box, but that mine terrain and Darkoath (apart from a few faces) have me very excited at the possibilities. This might possibly be on the Christmas list at the end of the year.

That’s it for this month’s update, I’ll see you in a month!

Well a little later than usual.

So going to say – September felt like a hard month. Generally low on energy and focus across all things, so naturally the painting suffered a touch. But at the same time, managed to get some game time in which is always a plus.

On the other hand, I’m really happy with having done the move from doing my hobby updates on Twitter/Facebook to centralising them here. I can more easily see people actually reading the stuff I’m working on, rather than just scrolling past.

Project 365

Lets take a look at the details.

So I picked up a couple of new things but again, the 3d printing is strong. I even managed to go back into my back catalogue to paint up some Northstar figures for fantasy. On the downside, I didn’t quite reach my target of painted this month. Luckily my excess covered most of the slack.

Project Moderns

Another month doing a lot of Moderns. I managed to fit in quite a variety of things, from printing out some vehicles to actually getting a game in!

First up, the game! First time playing in the ChargeReal, first time with the new version of Skirmish Sangin Version 2 and first time playing moderns against an actual person since July 2019. It was nice getting the tactical brain up and going, and proof nothing quite beats Skirmish Sangin as my favourite ruleset.

It was also fun actually introducing ChargeReal to the tabletop, setting up a game that uses the specific situation rather than just hanging names off real-world locations. I’ve already got few extra scenarios planned, looking into other areas of the world. I really need to keep updating the wiki, especially with some new ideas for just for the Albion Empire is up to along the border with the Bazi Emirate.

After rekindling my liking for the period, I decided it was time to expand the vehicle pool. I found a really good maker of 1/64 scale vehicles on Cults (an STL site) by the name of Guaro 3d. The models are not cheap but in comparison to the 1/100 files from Bergmann, a lot more detail is saved when you get them up to 1/50 (my preferred scale). I’ll do a full post on the files I’ve picked up at some point, but I think this guy is a gold mine for anyone 3d printing for ultramoderns.

One downside to 1/50 for vehicles it that I am rapidly reaching the maximum size my print bed can handle. It was a limitation I knew I’d run into when I started off but the trade-off was having the correct sized clean/cure station and the more reasonable price. However, next time I’ll know that printing 1/50 vehicles is definitely something I’m interested – for now, I can limit vehicle size or chat to friends about borrowing some print time (maybe).

This month also saw some new releases for Spectre. Two squad packs and an add-on, definitely leaning towards the near future/cinematic look.

For the agents range, we’re getting a much more fair weather looking team compared to the rest of the range. These boys (and girls) looks very similar to the agents in the Division 2, with an interesting mix of modern guns. I really like the backpack setup, covered in extra gear and seperate pieces to be played around with.

For the criminals, we have some masked high tech criminals with a collection of some High Speed looking AKs and ARs. There is a good mix of high end firearms, perfect for showing some well equipped operators. I’m seeing them in use as some special security agents, perfect for counter-intelligence and dealing with foreign special forces. I can already picture a mission with a mix of regular army and these over-equipped bad guys hunting down some low profile agents.

As for the VGB (or Very Good Boy), I’m far less interested. I can see what they are going for with it, taking design inspiration from the Boston Dynamics Spot with the addition of the RWS mount but frankly it looks a touch awkward. I much prefer the chunky designs of things like the Ranger from Battlefield 2042 for my ultramodern tech.

Project Fantasy

Fantasy was again quiet last month. I managed to get in one of the weekly games (a rather fun dungeon crawl with slowly revealed tiles) but had to delay a fortnight due to not having it sorted. Luckily my Wednesday evening games can be pushed back, rather than rushing to play something that isn’t fully finished.

Part of what I was finishing was these cultists from Northstar. They have been in my collection since 2018 (along with the rest of the original round of fantasy skirmish). They are really nice figures, with lots of lovely details on them. I’m planning to start cleaning out the North Star figures – they are fun to paint, plenty of detail without being too overwhelming.

Project Six (Ultra)Mil

Just at the tail end of last month, I got to talking to Lazy Forger about some of his rules he was working on for super small scale games. Having seen some of his great work on MMF and also having played his previous game Round of Fire, I decided to take a look into the idea of doing some games in 6mm. This is definitely something that I’ve been on the fence about – 28mm isn’t really that good for modern games feature more than one or two armoured vehicles and for world building sometimes you need larger scale battles. Using the Bergmann 1/100 models, as well as the other STLs I purchased, I’ve started assembling some forces. I’m going to be testing out the rules so expect some smaller scale conflicts coming soon.

That’s it for this month’s update, I’ll see you in a month!

August is gone. Not the most summery of months for me, I ended up getting my second jab and falling ill on week off (not related, was just run down from work). On the other hand, I got a ton of stuff done hobby wise – painting, printing and writing. So overall, pretty good!

Also you might have noticed, my paint rack has expanded! Yep, I realised I was still putting some of my paints into my drawers, rather than having them within arms reach which was getting annoying. Because of this, I picked up two extra drawers to carry more citadel paints. It’s also added a nice shelf for my phone mount, meaning I can keep it at eye level (and stop missing phonecalls when it’s on the stand).

Project 365

Your eyes are not deceiving you. That purchase column for this month is an unusual colour.

Lets take a look at the details.

So yep, all of my additions to the database this month were 3D printed. This is the first month that’s happened and it was a lot of fun; printing out the models, working out the paint schemes and thinking up the scenarios and uses for them

I also managed to do well on painting, working on a few things from previous months as well as most of the things I printed this month. It’s one thing I’m aiming to do with all the patreons that I’m on – if I’m buying the models, I should probably get to work on them and enjoy the painting.

Battered Brush 2021

I did it! I finished battered brush with over 10 days to go! I decided to give up on doing on GW stuff as it was more of a personal challenge. It was really cool to watch the map slowly tick up as I managed to fit painting days in. It was even better once I started beating the dreaded line!

Project 3D Printing

As I mentioned above, this is the first month where I’ve actually not purchased any physical models. Instead, I’ve picked up a few STL files but spent most of my printing time pushing the edge of what I’m used to the on the printer. Going bigger, realising mistakes in my setting (100mm retract speed was maybe a touch high)

A lot of it has actually been learning how to properly setup and support models. I’ve moved from just using Chitubox for everything to a hybrid Lychee/Chitu solution – doing the initial supports and resizing in Lychee before going back to Chitu for slicing. Lychee’s supports seem a little more reliable (if aggressive) but I also like the repair function, especially as new versions include a button to use Azure’s web tools to do it.

Technically not part of this month but, after finding a great source for some ultramodern vehicles, I’ve started experimenting with hollowing models and adding holes to drain out. This is something I haven’t tried, but it’s a neat addition to the skill set.

Project Moderns

For the first time in a while, Moderns is the busiest category on the blog! I appreciate that a lot of people read this blog mainly for the ultramodern content and luckily for them, I’m slowly getting my mojo back for it. I think partially it’s down 3d printing opening up what’s coming out but also I’m a sucker for world building and so coming up with new scenarios (both setting and gaming) is something I really enjoy. Now I just have to get them on the table.

I made it my aim at the start of the month to get some of the Patreons I’ve been paying for printed off. First up was Combat Octopus, a Patreon I’m really excited about (as a man wanting to build a pile of fictional nations). With their 1990s Germans, I found a really unusual set of models (only Eureka doing a similar set) with a whole host of options thanks to their multi-part setup. September will see some more additions to the Germans and Japanese SF coming out and I will definitely be painting some out.

I’ve painted them up as the first fictional nation in my setting, the Republic of Shlyuz, giving them a mix of G3s and G36s to match the squad loadout I’ve got planned. Once I’ve got the NCO and Radio operators printed, I’ll go into more details on them.

The other modern patreon I have is Turnbase. They are doing a nice range of figure every month and this time it was my weakness – PMCs

I will admit, I’m a little less excited about the possibilities of Turnbase – it seems to replicate a little bit of what Spectre and Empress are doing, with less of the sheer range size the others have. However, I don’t want to be too harsh on them – they are still producing models at a satisfyingly rapid rate, with some really interesting weapons and poses. Swappable heads means (like my anvil subscription) that it’s worth still getting them

The other thing Turnbase does excellently is adding vehicles. Their last two months have included a vehicle as part of the pack. I do like how it’s offered at both the regular and upper tier level (the upper tier adding more to increase the value). The PMC Month also included a Little Bird, in both gunship (if you paid extra) and transport role.

Now, I love Little Birds. I adore scout and utility helos in games like ArmA 3 and GTA Online. That last one might show in what I constructed – a PMC light support gunship, made by taking the AH6 body and not printing the weapons for it. I can easily see this appearing on the board in support of some PMC types. No guns, not even the boards, just a machine gunner leaning out the side. Printing was nice and easy (their supporting work continues to get better) and got it all printed within a workday.

Downside – the initial version was fractionally too small for the crew (as you can see). However, with Turnbase being active on Facebook, I was able to raise the point, get a response and fixed files within a few days. Not bad!

With Spectre releasing it’s long awaited Covert/Overt models last month, I didn’t want to waste time with them. The paint schemes were relatively simple, but it did add the extra challenge of “now paint two models basically the same”. Overall, I’m really happy with how they came out – simply yet standout, while still looking like civilians. A full post in coming covering the range, but I can see them getting a chunk of use.

And this is where I get into trouble – robots! Or should I say Bipedal Semi-Autonomous Combat units (or BSAC) from the nation of Arcadia in the ChargeReal. I’ve always like the Chappie-esque robot design, and I think adding them to ultramodern wargaming (with the right rules) could be an interesting tactical challenge. These models are free from Turnbase’s Gumroad website and (after a quick rescaling) were printed out. I’m already thinking up ideas for them, trying to sell these things as early prototypes rather than 100% perfect for combat – the type of things you need to spend time commanding rather than it automatically changing orders.

Not quite finished this month but here are some more figures using from Combat Octopus parts. These guys are supposed to be the Interior Securtiy troops of Shyluz (hence the Russian look to them) but with the same camo of the regular troops. The torsos are form the modern Russians set, mixed with legs from the German set and with heads using the Vityaz helmet. I have three more from the squad acting as the long range element but I think these guys are perfect for the ex-Soviet door kicking look.

Project Necromunda

Your eyes do not deceive you – I played a game of Necromunda this month.

I managed to invite the Former Housemate over for a quick game, as well as splitting up the Hive War box we bought a few months ago. As well as it being nice to be social again, it was also fun playing the game. Necromunda has just that right level of

As for the game result? Well, the attempt by the Enforcers to escort a captured Escher Champion through the badlands ended up going poorly when the Delaque ambushed. A well placed sniper, aid from an Eldar Bounty Hunter and the casual dropping of a melta trap just behind the VIP to turn her into ash basically meant Enforcers were out for the count. I definitely need to learn the tactics of the guys I have but I really liked how they played. And importantly, going up against my Eldar Bounty Hunter meant I got to see her loadout actually work out.

I can’t wait to get into a campaign and get some revenge!

Speaking of Eschers, here is the Champion in question. After assembling her last month, this month I actually sat down and painted here. And it may shock you but look! Colours!

I decide to go for a paint scheme inspired by an Anime character I like and I’m really happy how she turned out. Having relied so heavily on dark colours and Agrax Earthshade for so long, painting a model without it felt like a new experience.

So, what next for the Escher? Well I need to go and assemble them first, but I’m aiming for this style. I think I might try and use colour pallets from characters I really like, giving them a fashionable and bright edge in comparison to my Space-Merc Enforcers.

Of course, that wasn’t the only Necormunda model I worked on. I had picked up a pair of hangers on because I love the models – the Ammo-Jack bristling with magazine and shells, the dome runner with the skull mask. However, I decided I wanted to get them into the field.

The Dome Runner is light and agile like every other Escher, but the skull mask made me think of the Death Maidens. For this reason, I’ve decorated her up as a rogue Escher now returned. A needle pistol and sword make sense weapon wise, and I added some Escher pouches to make her match her sisters. And speaking of, I think her clothing might end up being from the same series as the Champion above – black and red, ideal for an outsider.

Seeing as my enforcers can roll with bolt guns from the off, the Ammo Jack will become an Enforcer champion. Just assume that’s all the gear he stole I MEAN confiscated. I also decided to change his headgear – the original head is a bit plain and all my other mercs are using Anvil pieces. So I looked through my collection of STLs and found a Ushanka.

So I had a friend at University called Denis, who was from Russia and, it’s safe to say, made university unforgettable. Always up to hang out, enthusiastic and excitable and not afraid to burn ammo at airsoft. Who better to be inspiration for a ganger covered in ammo?

Now, you may notice he’s joined by some friends. These lizzards are a reference to a little story that came up early in in knowing Denis and it lodged itself in my brain. One of my friends mentioned while I was showing off the basic model, another said one should be on the gun craving violence. Luckily I found a Sumpkroc model on Cults3d, scaled it down, printed it off and attached them. I think they are a really neat addition, both making this guy standout but also making him uniquely mine. I can’t wait to see what happens when he hits the table.

Project Fantasy

Fantasy was quiet this month. Sadly my games with my sister took a pause this month (we finished the first arc and so took a week off, during which I was exhausted, and then I was ill for the other one this month). However, this hasn’t stopped me writing up those games (or at least finishing the first one). The other two are almost done, I just keep being distracted from finishing them off. However, for a sneak peek, go and ready the narrative my sister has been writing over at her blog.

However, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been planning ahead. Last month some very nice MDF tilesets from PWORK turned up. The tavern and dungeon sets are going to wait but the caves are going into action for Episode 2, game 1. I still need to finish assembling them but it’s a really smart little setup, with literally three items that needed instructions. I’m still not sure how I’m going to paint them (or even if I will before the game) but it’s a set I’m very happy with.

However, I am looking far beyond the limits of this first story. I’m already planning Episode 3 + 4 and trying to think where our swordmasters will be going next. One thing I’m excited to show off in this setting is the variety of characters you might end up encountering. These Lion Guard Elves fit into that – one of my ideas features a hidden Elven temple that the Swordmasters may stumble upon, giving a location for future battles in the episode. However, we’ll see what I come up with.

These models are from Last Sword and were a nightmare to get printed. All of the files needed repairing, so eventually I had to take them into Lychee and repair all of them, thankfully added by the Azure tools. Now I’m done, I’m really happy with them – there are some great poses, a trio of characters and spot on for my image of them. Now to plan the scenario…

Project WW2

Yes that’s Captain Carter.

Yes, I did buy her from Skullforge Studios to go with my Chain of Command force.

No, I have not painted her (I tried and failed when i went too hard on the while paint).

No, I have not worked out her support list cost or rules…. but I will.

That’s it for this month’s update, I’ll see you in a month!