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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

July, another hard month on the old brain but still slowly working through it. At least the heat wave is over.

That said, productive month for painting. Also managed to do a little bit of a tidy up, part 1 of fixing up my workspace. The room I work in is mostly done, but I still have to work through the backroom where Is store my terrain and the 3d printing setup is.

The other thing from this month is realising just how much shit I have and how little I’ve actually painted up. I really need to stop purchasing things! Luckily, I’ve reached a point where I actually don’t need anything for the projects going forward (at the moment). I’ve also got plenty of 3d printing to look at.

Project 365

Another month, another graph style change. As you can see, I’ve started separating out my purchases and painted to reflect actual purchases and 3d printed elements. This is mostly for my own tracking – I want to reduce how much I’m buying, so being able to see that bar reducing is a great motivator

Speaking of, lets see how I did last month.

Painting is over the target (always a good sign) and the purchases were what I was expecting (Dominion release and a new Spectre release) but still a fair amount.

Battered Brush 2021

The event continues and I’m doing pretty well! I’ve managed to claw a little bit of headroom pushing forward so I’m not burning on the edge struggling to keep pushing. To illustrate this, here is a graph!

One thing as part of it is that I’m not really doing an offical Battered Brush, mostly because I keep doing non-Games Workshop products (partially thanks to my 3d printing additions).

At time of writing I am 58 days in with 64 models painted.

Project Fantasy

As a running trend, Fantasy was the main focus this month. As I mentioned last month, we kicked off with the release of AoS 3’s Dominion box. After separating it all out (and having to deal with a misprinted rulebook) I managed to build up a few of the figures. The standout so far has to be Yndrasta, the winged hero above that is a glorious figure. I still need to do a few tweaks (making the bases look a little less swampy) but I can’t wait to try out some things when painting them up.

At the start of the month, a friend pointed out someone was selling one of the old Warhammer Watch Towers on eBay. I’ve wanted one of these things for years, ever since they were first released. And seeing as I’m now running a fantasy campaign, it made a lot of sense to get a watchtower to fight around. It turned up rather promptly and I have to say it’s a lovely piece of kit.

The big painting progress this month was continuing on with Cursed City. At this stage, I’ve painted up the big three groups of bad guys (Zombies, Skeletons and the Menagerie) as well as the three villains to lead them. I’ve also cranked through the side objectives (partially to avoid painting big things) but all I have left before I work on the heroes is the vampires.

A new addition to the collection was this 3d printed Golem from Last Sword. He’s actually a pair of golems combined together, the mace wielding Pernach and the extended arm of the Sword Golem. This is the second 3D printed model I’ve painted up, and I’m really happy with the final result. Especially with the steam/smoke cloud which I painted up with a mix of hexwraith and nihilakh oxide over a white base. Seeing as I’ve used green to be the identifier for magic across models so far, it gives the golem an arcane look to it. I’m looking forward to getting it on the board.

And speaking of being on the board, I’ve played more games! With The Sister visiting every other week, we’ve finished off the first three missions of our ongoing campaign featuring the Swordmasters. These missions will form the first episode of the storyline that I’m writing, and even had a suitable finale that reset the cast ready for the second episode!

I’m going to be writing up a post for these games (once I get round to it) while The Sister will be writing the story up more narratively over on her own blog. I’ve also got some terrain pieces on the way to the second episode, so there might be a little gap before we start playing on episode 2. But I am also very excited to detail more about what’s going on and write up stuff on my setting.

Project Necromunda

Seeing as I was ahead on my painted models for July, I decided to take a look atht he Escher figures I’ve had sat waiting for me to start on the project. I have a rough idea for the scheme – inspired by a recent Kill la Kill watch, and having been told off for painting things in shades of brown, green and tan, I’m going for a scheme inspired by some of the clothing in that show, both in terms of colours and some design elements. I need to finish my test model but it setups up some cool ideas for the gangs theme – these Eschers being fashion focus, making clothing that is lined with chems to make the experience everything. Once the test model is done, I’ll get to work assembling the rest.

Project Moderns

I am getting excited about restarting my Project Moderns. With this focus on getting fantasy stuff painted, I’ve been spending some of my non-painting time writing up the details for the various nations of my fictional setting. I’ve come up with a few so far and I’ve been writing the details on my personal wiki. It been interesting trying to make setups that actually feel unique rather than just “what if USA but a different name.”

Perhaps more exciting than my dabblings in writing plausible nation states, we got some new Spectre figures this month (at the last possible moment). Six new sets, each comprised of matching Covert and Overt figures. This has been something people have been wanting for as long as I’ve been collecting Spectre’s figures and don’t get me wrong it’s a cool idea. But I can also see how hard it is to do, how it affects the miniatures pipeline (you’re getting 6 new models rather than 12 different ones) and if you’re trying to be sneaky with them, anyone who knows the range will spot them. But, thanks to the 3D design, Spectre have managed to get it done. Current favourites are the US and UK operators – I especially like the photojournalist look, so I will probably get plenty of use out of her in the civilian form even when she isn’t being sneaky.

In more practical things, Project Moderns and Project 3d printing has been crossing over. I’ve been taking a look at the various models from the Quartermaster War in Iraq Kickstarter I backed earlier this year. Perhaps the big standout from it was the MH-6. I’ve got a few plastic kits (in various stated of repair) but found they were a little fragile for wargaming. A resin model should be a little bit more “playing piece”, with far fewer little details about to fall off. Overall, I was really impressed by this model. I need to do some clean up, and there are a few bits of misprinting but nothing unfixable. Definitely a promising sign.

This does open up the possibility of attempting an armed version through some tweaking and I will probably replace my model kits with a 3d printed version. The next stage is working on a flight stand

Another item on the 3d printing chart was the BRDM, also from Quartermaster. This one came out well (aside from some curling on the rear portion due to some supports giving away). I’m going to mod this a little, opening up the turret ring to allow other turrets on there – making your own fictional setting means you can do crazy things like putting HMVs or RWSs on there.

I’m currently working on a nation which doesn’t have an army, only a religious police force. These BRDMs would be great for them, something with a touch of armour to them.

Finally for the 3D printing side, I’m taking a look at some figures that people have been producing as STLs. Combat Octopus and Turnbase Miniatures are two Patreons I’ve joined onto offering Modern/Ultramodern figurines. So far I’ve been impressed with the detail of each of them – there is a sculpting style difference to both of them but nothing too major. I’m going to dig in a little more on each of them – the scale difference on Combat Octopus might need some adjustment with the scale and the support situation is not great for either. But once I’ve nailed it down, expect some more details.

Project 3D Printing

But my 3D printing adventures were not just limited modern wargaming. At 9pm the night before my game with The Sister, I suddenly realised I needed a campsite for the party to begin in. In years past, I’d probably have just realised I was buggered and I’d be missing the cool centrepiece. However, thanks to the 3D printer I was able to go purchase some camp elements, start the printer running and by the time I went to bed I had… one failed print on the item you see above and one bed missing but overall not bad. Luckily, I just ran another job for the following day. A quick paint after work and I was good to go!

And here’s the final result. It’s not the best paint job but it definitely added to the game. I think this is something that 3D printing is excellent for – getting those extra little details that you might not buy in an order by themselves but are relatively quick to print and get ready to just add that extra edge to your board. I’m especially thinking street furniture for Ultramoderns, just adding extra cover or even vehicles to fill the streets.

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

Jesus Christ, last month was one from hell. Sleep pattern gone to heck, generally feeling worn out and tired most of the time and all this in spite of having a week off at the start of it.

On the plus side, I got stabbed in the arm by some Pfizer so I’m hopefully on the way to actually playing games with people (as well as other hobbies outside). So swings and roundabouts.

Project 365

So you may notice that the graphs for this month has changed. As I mentioned in last month’s project Database, I’m now tracking terrain purchases and painting. This required some back end tweaks in the sheet I use to make the graphs and such, which meant I had to rebuild the graphs. On the plus side, terrain now counts when I’m working out my numbers.

Speaking of, lets see how I did last month.

We’ll get into the purchases below, but I’m really happy I managed to hit my goal of 31 models painted this month. Overall, I’m doing okay I think, keeping up with the target without the purchases going too far out of control.

Battered Brush 2021

Something that comes from having a whole bunch of wargaming friends in a different city means that I get dragged into some strange arrangements. In this point? Battered Brush 2021.

As the image above shows – 100 models, in 100 days. This is something similar to project 365 but just a little bit more focused in terms of days and model makers. I’ve been using this to get to work on all the GW figures I’ve been picking up, especially with the Cursed City box. I’m planning to keep working through GW stuff with one of two other items sneaked in (such as the Imperial Dwarf I painted this month).

At time of writing I am 29 days in with 30 models painted.

Project Database

Adding terrain to the database is still an ongoing process. I have a lot of more than I expected.

Another new element to the database I’ve added is a list of games. Partially so I can keep track of how often I actually use my models, but also a fun way of logging my hobby time. This required some database shenanigans (turns out storing lists of values in a database entry is a big no-no, in comparison to my more programmatic approach). Instead, there is a few more tricks to make the various tables link together. This is probably the final aspect of tracking the three parts of the hobby – Miniatures, Terrain and Games.

Project Fantasy

First up for Fantasy – Conversion work! When Cursed City had just been released (and I was unsure if I would get my copy) I picked up some bits from it (Namely the Human Captain and trio of Bloodborn Vampires). When I actually got my copy of Cursed City, that left me with some duplicates to assemble.

I still haven’t decided on that I’m doing with the Vampires, but after the arrival of the pair of Witch Hunters, I got inspiration. I decided to assemble the elder Van Denst as a dual pistol gunslinger which left me a pair of gloved hands with torch and sword. Combined with how the female captain goes together, the gloved hands would fit perfect with the style of the model. Combined with a head from the Stormcast head (complete with warrior braid) and some chopping/greenstuff work, I’ve managed to assemble a human captain I’m pretty excited about in a very commanding pose. The next step is to get her painted up, which I think I’ll do around the same time as the Van Densts and the Witch Hunter from Cursed City.

In terms of completed projects, we start first with the Chaos Barbarians. Made out of the Darkoath champions, Godsworn Hunt and the Ogroid Myrmidon I finished off last month, I’m mostly pretty damn happy with hwo they turned out. It’s a very different project for me – lots of exposed skin and naturalistic materials (leather and fur) rather than more processed materials.

I’ll go into more detail on them in a post, but the feature I think really worked was making sure each model had the clan colour (Red) and the Leader colour (Purple) so that they looked like a family clan that has joined with my other Chaos warriors.

However, my favourite project to finish this month was the skeletons from Cursed City.

I think I really like painting skeletons.

Blog post coming soon.

Not quite finished in time for this wrap up but I have also been working on the zombies from Cursed City. These guys were a complete 180 from the skeletons, with lots of a details to pick out and lots of colours to work through. I couldn’t batch paint them anywhere nearly as quickly as I usually manage but by the end managed to work out some techniques that I might be able to use going forward.

Big fantasy news for this month (even though it counts for July) was getting the Age of Sigmar Dominion box. Now, I’m not keeping it all – I’ve split it into three with two fellow hobbyists and will just be keeping my hands on the new Stormcast figures. I’m honestly surprised how excited I have been for the new Stormcast models. I will raise my hand and include myself among those people who found the original Liberators kind of… dumb. But, with the addition of the robes and armour design, they have become a much more dynamic and overall better looking version of the fantasy knight archetype. I also adore how GW has used the Stormcast to push a great diversity of characters and people. There are some fantastic heads in the new releases, perfect for letting you show a real mix of glorious warriors, rather than just more angry shouting bald men.

Yet somehow, despite not getting in Age of Sigmar (all these figures are going into Open Combat duels), you’re also going to see more Stormcast! After I’ve done cursed city, I’ll be working through my collection of armoured warriors and maybe even adding some of the upcoming releases such as the Vigilors and Vanquishers that were announced during the launch stream.

Project Necromunda

Funny thing about Dominion – it’s also kicked off another project.

During the run up to it’s release, my local wargames shop Leodis had several deals to sell off stock to make room for the new releases. One of these was the Hive War box for Necromunda. A few moments after I shared this news, one of my former uni-housemates appeared with a cunning temptation to split the box.

A few purchases later, and I’m building an Escher gang. Much like with the enforcers I made last year, I decided to go all in, getting as many options as possible so I can mix and match from the start. I’m still working on the theme for them, but I think a focus will be to make it colourful – I find myself often just focusing the effects of washes and dark colours, so making a group more vibrant.

Project 3D Printing

Remember this? Yeah, it’s been a little quiet. I still need to write up my blog detailing my initial thoughts on 3D printing – I’ve been pushing it back again and again until I was really in the mood to write it. Hopefully, that should be done soon with the bonus of six months of printing and playing around.

My first 3D printed Kickstarter has delivered – Dogs of War offered a good set of Imperial Mercenaries, perfect for any number of fantasy skirmish shenanigans. By which I mean Mordhiem style things. Overall, I’m really happy with the quality of these models, they definitely show off what the printer can do. On the other hand, less happy with how much fucking around there was to get them fully printed – there were about four batches of prints with a few minor issues on several models each time.

With the grumbling over however, I can now focus on other things. Like painting them.

And speaking of painting, here is the first 3d Printed model I have actually painted. This Imperial Dwarf is from Last Sword, a Spanish miniatures company currently working on units that strongly evoke Warhammer Fantasy’s Lizardmen, Chaos, Empire and High Elves (with elven vampires and other more unique units on the way). I’ve got a lot of thoughts on these patreons, which I’ll get into at some point but I think this one is definitely one that works for me personally.

This guy sits among the Welcome pack, a great model to get into their style. As someone needs some adventurers for upcoming campaign missions, this guy seemed pretty perfect. Printing was easy (unlike other Last Sword STLs which have some risky supports), painting even easier. I added some Frostgrave rope (rather than his shield) and a treasure chest from another Last Sword figure (an elven bard that mis-printed) but I’m happy with the final effect.

As well as joining the Patreon, I also went deep into their back catalogue and picked up most of their STLs. Among them were a really cool set of Golems. I had to do some repair work in Windows 3D Builder to get a good print, as well as adding supports. But the look of this guy gave me some really good ideas. I actually used the arm from a different golem, as well as a base I had prepared for another 3D printed model. This is definitely a model that I looked at and got really excited about, so keep your eyes open for when I actually finish this guy.

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

Welcome to June! May was busy and so I ended up…

Wait. That picture seems… different to last month. Something is off. It’s almost tidy.

Oh yeah – I upgraded my office/hobby room with a new piece of furniture. I’m probably going to do a little thing on it (mostly because I love it) but it’s an Eket setup to give me a little more storage space.

Project 365

So lets take a look at the numbers for May.

Well good news! I painted more than I bought (by a fair chunk). I missed my goal by 1 (and more until I did my terrain painting on Monday night). On the other hand, the month was quite busy for work, I had some pretty bad brain days which made painting hard to do and A LOT of time was spent assembling models (thanks to Cursed City).

PROJECT Database

And so, having painted some terrain for a game, I have triggered a trap in my work. To make sure my data is correct, I now need to add all of my terrain to the database to bring the overall number of items up to the correct level, letting my overall completion percentage actually be accurate.

I’m setting up another table in the database and will start filling it with all the various items. The main problem with terrain vs miniatures is going to be cataloguing it, tying an entry in the database to the actual item. Part of me is tempted to start assembling asset tags to stick to the bottom of them, although I fear that may be a step too far.

PROJECT FANTASY

Although the painting numbers aren’t the highest, I think the main focus this month was fantasy. This is because there has been a lot of assembly this month, both starting from scratch but also finishing off some partial assemblies that have been sat around.

First up we have the entirety of Cursed City. 50 models and 10 tokens is a pretty hefty addition, and took me a while to build and then undercoat. These are going to be painted up as part of the Battered Brush challenge Games Workshop York is running in June (which due to the Dastardly Regular Opponent being based there is going to drag me in to it).

I actually have some duplicate models to assemble as well, three of the posing vampires and the heroic captain. I’m still debating my exact plans for how to assemble them, but I’m thinking of some weapon swaps for the vampires (using some Elven weapons I have) while the Captain might get a headswap and weapon tweak.

As part of my tidying up, I bit the bullet and finished off my Chaos Lord’s assembly. This required an evening of green-stuffing fun to rebuild a hand at the join between the arm and the Keeper of Secrets spear I was using. After originally doing it with way too much greenstuff (so that it looked like it had swollen up) I had to frantically trim big chunks of it away as it started to set. However, now that it’s been done and undercoated, I’m really happy with how it’s turned out. More pictures of the process once I finish him off.

And speaking of green stuffing, I also finished off building my Keeper of Secrets. From the start, I’ve always declared how much I dislike the crab claws. As I was building her as a Warrior Queen turned Greater Demon, I wanted to use weapons on all four arms. this required a little bit of cutting and green stuffing repair work to the arms, covering up the joins between the hand and the crab claw wrist. I had planned to be a little bit more experimental, bringing the shield a little closer to the body. However, when I got round to actually assembling, I decided not to risk it; the default pose is perfectly suited for the pose of the giant warrior creature casually advancing on her opponent. The model is now undercoated and at some point, I’ll get round to painting her.

The final bit of assembly and mod work for this month was the Soulblight Vampire Lord. I adore this model but I thought the bats in the hair were a little over the top. It was also confirmed when, upon assembling the model, I realised the larger base was only need to make sure the bats in hair actually fitted. Wanting this lord to fit with the Crimson Court band I got last month, I decided to give her a haircut – of course, this required me to then add some tips to the hair. My first few attempt was purely green stuff (as you can see above) but I could get the detail I wanted. Because of this, I decided to instead use some donor parts from some left over Dark Elf pieces, giving me the sharp points and meaning I only had to fill in the gaps with liquid green stuff. Now she’s undercoated, I’m really happy with her. You’ll see the results once I get to painting my vampires.

Now for painting, I finally took a look at my Swashbucklers. Getting the first two painted up as a test, I’m really happy with the models, perfectly suited for what I have in mind for the Swordmasters in my setting. I am looking forward to getting the rest painted up and ready to be used in games moving forward.

The other fantasy painting was the Ogroid Myrmidon. This, I believe, is the single largest model I’ve painted so far. He’s a glorious model, a Minotaur like creature with shield and spear that towers over it’s opponents. It took me a couple of days to paint him up, but I love how he looks and I’m really excited to get him on the table. More details and photos once I finish the rest of my half naked Chaos followers.

And yes! Terrain! During my week off (which I’m currently on) I decided to arrange a game with the Dastardly Regular Opponent so we could roll some dice. I’ll talk about all the joys of Open Combat (the ruleset we used) in the battle report but more importantly, OH MAN, it’s nice having painted terrain to play over it. As much as I dislike how much time it takes and how much it murders my paint brushes with slapping paint all over it (not helped by my brain preferring to work from a black undercoat) but on the plus side, I really like how it’s turned out. Now I just have to work on the rest…

Uh oh.

PROJECT WW2

Offt okay. So I am very close to finishing off my Brits but man it’s a bit of a slog. I don’t know if it was just this month or if I’m getting bored of painting green and brown but it was hard work kicking my way through the rest of the figures.

That said, I did rather enjoy converting and assembling my sneaky recce boys. I really like the camp comforter look and, with several duplicate figures, I decided to make some special figures. As well as the green-stuff’d cap, I also painted their faces with black contrast to tone it down and look like it had been blackened prior to some sneaky business.

As well as the recce boys, I also finished off a few extra riflemen, a pair of prone support teams (giving me an extra PIAT and Bren gun), the spotters for my Vickers guns, four SMG soldiers and Agent Carter. This is the Wargames Illustrated “Pulp Agent” but lets be fair, it’s obvious who it is. I’m… Not Really a fan of this model. It’s definitely a much more heroic/pulp figure, with different proportions that don’t quite fit my painting style. I would definitely love a version of this character with the same style as the Paul Hicks Brits, but for now she’ll work as a little bit of fun.

In terms of the project, I now have two vickers machine guns, two radio teams and a platoon of Churchills to do to finish off the projects. With lockdown easing, it’s likely that soon my British will be clashing with Germans under the control of the Dastardly/Creative Regular opponents.

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

Welcome to May! April was a pretty successful month for getting stuff done but oh boy do I have some cool stuff to get to work on, as well as it murdering my ratio!

Project 365

First up, lets take a look at the numbers and oh god…

Well in good news, I continued to exceed my target of 31 models a month painted. I also managed to prevent figures dropping into the shame pile by getting the Insurgent PMC and the Chaos Warriors done.

So as I predicted last month, the release of Crimson Court and Cursed City bumped up my purchased to a ridiculous level, not helped by a sudden project appearing in my mind (more details below). Looking at the numbers from this, I’m going to hold off on picking up anything for the next month or two. I already have plenty of things to work on, especially with the addition of a boxed game I can play with my sister. Looking forward, there are a few things I’m very interested coming up (such as the recently previewed Witch Hunters or whatever Spectre is working on), so I’ll be saving my hobby purchases for them. Until then, the goal is getting the stuff I’ve purchased painted up.

PROJECT FANTASY

I have spent a lot of time this month painting boys and girls in black armour. After my experiment with the Underworld warband last month, this month I decided to get to work on the main line troops. It was a great bit of experience, a very nice change from the painting style of the WW2 figures I had been working on. I’m also really enjoying just how useful Black Contrast paint is, even though I’m not using it for it’s original purpose. Painting it over metal to do the black armour meant it took a fraction of the time and saved me a lot of extra work. I also made sure to do a fair number of guys with bare heads, just a little more practise with painting facial features.

Of course, just after I finished the first set, my Dastardly Regular Opponent (while we were having a social distanced BBQ) decided to add some extra bad guys to the pile by gifting me a box of the old Chaos Warriors (complete with brown box). These took a little bit of work and cleanup to get ready (and there are still gaps I only noticed when I started painting) but they are still that gloriously iconic look, the looming metal black slowly marching forward. It was also fun putting the same scheme on the older figure, you really see how the level of detail has improved in the sculpts as well as just the general quality.

Oh boy, and then Cursed City. This was some real Games Workshop shenanigans. As impressive as it was seeing them continuing their aggressive release schedule, the experience of actually ordering it was a nightmare. My local wargames shop was out of stock before the pre-orders even went up and my second choice put me onto a future wave list. Even then, I didn’t know if I would even get it until I had the dispatch email. I was actually thinking it was almost time to cancel my pre-order, assuming that I wouldn’t be seeing any sign of it. In fact, I even managed to order the models I really wanted separately just in case I missed out on them. But luckily, I got the email and then the box through the door the following day.

With Cursed City’s arrival, getting the Crimson Court undercoated and the upcoming release of the Soulblight Gravelords later this year, I’m really falling in love with Games Workshop’s undead models. Age of Sigmar has definitely become much more interesting over the last few years, and the reccent releases keep giving out models I’m really interested in. Plus, zombies, skeletons and more are perfect for games like Frostgrave or other fantasy skirmish things, and you can never have enough zombies.

Of course, the vampires aren’t the only set of fantasy figures I’m eyeing up. At the end of last month, I mentioned taking a look at painting up the easy build Sequitors in a more realistic method. As you can see, they came out rather well. These three look like some hardcore templars. now, Having painted these, and spotting that Leodis had more models in stock…

I picked up a few things. The Evocators and Sequitors are the exact look I’ve been wanting, and raising up to squads means I have plenty of people to assemble in the different loadouts each squad can prepare. Despite having enough troops to form a small army for AoS, these guys are not going to end up filling boards. Instead, they are all designed for Warcry. I really like all the small skirmish games, mostly because you get to make each figure a real character. I’m looking forward to continuing the fun I had with the trio of Sequitors above.

And as my friends continue to point out, I now have four factions worth of Age of Sigmar (Stormcast, Daughters of Khaine, Undead and Chaos), something pretty amusing having only really got into it last year.

PROJECT WW2

I took a little break from my WW2 British platoon to work on fantasy stuff and now I’m back and ready to finish off the final tray of WW2 Brits (23 in total). Once done, I’ll just need to spray up the platoon of Churchill tanks and my first WW2 force would be done.

Of course, there is another reason for wanting to get these guys done. As you can see above, Mr Hicks (the sculptor for this range) has completed work on a 3inch Mortar team to go with the existing figures, showing off a great mix of the different clothing styles one might encounter. This is probably a sign we’re about to see another set of releases for the Late-War British. As you may have worked out from my repeated ramblings, I’m very excited for a 6pdr crew to go with the rest of my force. But at the same time, the soft spot I have for the troops in greatcoats means that I might potentionally be interested in expanding my British force to another platoon, which can be combined with my tanks. However, I wouldn’t dream of starting this until I’ve finished off my current collection and got to the stage I can actually get some games in.

PROJECT MODERNS

End of the month, I took a look in my drawers and realised I had a pile of ultramodern vehicles that just needed the final touches applying to them. Again, this a case of using the Black Contrast paint and being amazed at the usefulness of it. Black Contrast over tan for the tracks and guns does the job of highlighting, only needing a final tan drybrush after the wash to look great. I also made sure to mop the wash off carefully, rather than letting it pool too much. Finally, arabic-indic numerals on the turret side helps to mark the vehicles individually.

I also have a few more vehicles to paint up, including a technical with a bed full of guns. Expect to see them at the end of next month when I’m looking for things easy to finish again.

Little update – Anthalonica Miniatures just finished their Kickstarter. I decided to go in for the ever useful PMC squad, a set of figures that have a habit of turning up anywhere. These guys should be out in August, and I’m looking forward to seeing how they turnout.

Perhaps more exciting, I’ve been inspired by some of the work coming from the Modern Miniature Warfare group. These are the Sarissa Alamo buildings that were kickstarted last year before being released as a general product at the start of this year, painted up by Richard Fry as modern compound buildings. Seeing them painted up and ready to game over got me thinking about the pile of buildings I have assembled.

Here are mine. Now, after playing around with the layout with what I had, I started getting a few ideas about what I could do with them. With a few more extra buildings and terrain tiles for more open spaces, I might be able to get a 4ft x 4ft board together for a CQB maze. This would be ideal for a quick demo game, something I haven’t run since Operation Dragon’s Hoard in 2018.

Expect to see some pictures of this as I get work on them – this will be the first step in getting my MDF terrain all textured and painted.

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

Welcome to April! Lets take a look at how things are going.

Project 365

To start, lets take a look at the count.

A good bit of progress! I’ve now managed to paint more models than I’ve bought this year (always a good side of the equation to be on) and made a considerable dent in the Empress WW2 brits. Purchases… well we’ll talk about them in a sec.

I also managed to do enough models above and beyond the target value (31) helping to bring me a little closer to the intended progression. At the moment, I’m only 5 models below the target progression – I could have pushed to actually hit that target this month but honestly, it’s not the point of it. It’s a goal, not a requirement. As another positive, I’ve now hit over 44% of my collection painted, a percentage I haven’t beaten since 2018.

Project WW2

Project WW2 was the key focus of March, especially after the test painting of the month before. And I managed to finish the core platoon of my force! Three infantry sections, a PIAT team, a light mortar team and the two Senior Leaders (NCO and LT), all painted up and based. I’m really happy with how these models have turned out – the painted scheme is glorious muddy and grim, just right for a 1945 force. I’m also really happy I decided to go with the snow bases, helping to offset the darker colours. It’s also impressive to have the force finished – I could now (if the world wasn’t mad) go play a small game of Chain of Command with no extra units.

Finishing the platoon was Phase 1 of my WW2 Brits. Phase 2 is now to paint up the supporting Infantry I currently own, beginning with the senior leadership (and medic) above. The rest of the stuff to work on includes two vickers guns, two radio crew acting as JOPs, SMGs users and a few figures with soft caps I’ve converted. Phase 3 will be me working on my platoon of Churchills and friends. Phase 4 is the end game; there are a few force elements that are missing from the Empress Range (such as the 6pdr crews) that I’m hoping they will release some in the future.

Of course, this month I also ran the numbers on preparing some OPFOR for the Brits. The Empress Volks Gren range is really good looking…

Project Fantasy

I’m rapidly finding myself thinking about and painting up more fantasy figures. WW2 is definitely fun to paint (and I’m really looking forward to playing with the Brits/building up another force) but Fantasy is really filling the niche of fulfilling both interesting things to build/paint and getting my world building/design elements. I’m in the middle of writing up a post on the Chaos Warriors I finished this month, where I actually get to stretch my writing skills.

The big quantity of purchases this month is from Wargames Foundry’s Swashbucklers range. This is mostly due to the fact my Sister expressed an interest in possibly playing some games of soldiers. Based on her interests (and a love for buckling swashes), I decided to pick up these wonderful figures. Along with the three figures in this style from North Star, they will form my Sword Masters, spies/assassins for the empire in my nebulous fantasy setting. Once painted up, and the ruffians 3d printed, there will definitely be some fun games coming.

Also part of this setting is a way to use GW’s Stormcast.

Okay, stop running.

The Stormcast Eternals are definitely aggressively iconic for Age of Sigmar and I hadn’t really found a use for them. However, after seeing some Stormcast painted in a more realistic (i.e. less gold) style, I was suddenly captured by the idea of using them for a Templar like force, aggressively over the top fanatics to go toe to toe with the Chaos Warriors. I’ve also decided to go with exposed head look – it’s definitely among one of the weaker points of my skill set but I did really enjoy working on the head for my Chaos Warrior champion I painted.

Now. I am a simple man. I like little treats. And I set myself a goal that, if I finished my WW2 Brit Platoon, I would start on a nice kit for my fantasy range. Having mentioned my Chaos Lord and his cursed warrior details last time, I decided to push the button and get a model for his patron. The Keeper of Secrets from GW is one of their finest figures, nailing that merger of lethality and beauty. I decided, after a little bit of sweating aggressively, to go for more of the “four armed warrior goddess” rather than the traditional claw arms of Slaanesh demons. The picture above shows the WIP form, stuck together with some white tack. I still have some work to do, mostly with adjusting the left shield arm to cover her chest more. I am really enjoying building this model, and it will definitely be pushing my skillset forward.

Now… I am a little worried that this month is going to shred some of my gains from last month in terms of improving my completed percentage. Games Workshop is going hard on adding vampires to Warhammer fantasy and man, they found my weakness. I was already on board with the four new vampires in the Underworld box (a superb entry for great figures) but then they announced Cursed City, a board game using Games Workship miniatures just dripping with character. I adore the models they have announced, the gothic horror/low fantasy setting spot on for what I love. This is going to be a big chunk of change, but definitely worth it. I’m going to curb my new purchases soon, but I think these vampires (and maybe a few other vampires/undead for fighting in skirmish games) will be in the collection soon.

Project Moderns

I wrote a post in March about some decisions I’ve made regarding how I’m going to be playing my Ultramoderns, stepping away from the real world and into real-world adjacent. You can find more in the post. As for extra work, I’ve done a little bit of development on the aims/rules for the nations, more coming soon.

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

However, I’m really excited to say I managed to hit 50 days! I don’t have a specific target for days I want to hit, I just want to see how far I can keep it rolling.

If you want to follow along, I’ve added a moment with all the streak so far. It’s interesting to see just what I was working on when I started off.