I am still here!

Well, it has been ages since my last post, I have been rather busy. Thought I'd better take 5 mins to post just so everyone knows I am still alive! I've taken this week off work to finish up my MSc dissertation, so between dealing with that and getting married recently I've been pretty busy, hence the lack of blogging.

I've also been tidying the man-cave, so things are looking a lot more organised. This really helps with the motivation to sit in there for hours painting figures!

So what am I currently working on? Well, as the first paragraph suggests, not a great deal, but I do have a few items of interest on my work surface:

• UNIT and other various figures for Doctor Who. Looking forward to getting on with this project soon.
• A regiment of beastmen! Inspired by this site and realising I had a box of 11 beastmen just waiting to be painted, I set myself a challenge to paint them to completion by the end of today, using just my 15min breaks from more important things! They have come along great and I'll post a pic when they are finished.
• Empire handgunners and pistoliers: More Warhamer for 3rd Edition. Hoping to paint these soon but these newfangled figures from GW have just so much detail that I find them a bit daunting.

Everything else is tidily packed away at the moment. I'm also feeling inspired to crack on with my World War 1, also due to entries on the Special Fried Dice site I linked to above. If ever there was a period which called for quick and dirty speed painting it's WWI!

Oh, I also have a new project idea (I know, I know...). Justified by it being funded by me selling no longer required figures on eBay and the fact that it is in 15mm and takes up little space. More of that in future, except to say it is sci-fi and involves bugs... Okay, okay, you got it out of me, it's Starship Troopers... I was reading the rules recently and thought they seemed surprisingly decent, so temptation has me by the throat again. I have to say I intend to follow the ideas in the book, more than the film, which has the happy byproduct of meaning I can field a 2000 point Mobile Infantry force for a mere £9! 2000 points worth of bugs on the other hand...

Watch this space!

Honeymoon haul...

Well, I'm now back and a fully certified married chap, but fear not, the blog will remain 'on task'. All I will say on the subject of weddings is that it all went very well and a great time was had by all.

One thing that came as a slight surprise was the number of boardgames we managed to acquire over the last couple of weeks! Frequent readers will note that I only really discuss my miniatures game activities on this blog, but I would predominantly consider myself to be a boardgamer. In fact this blog was only started to prompt me to greater activity on the miniatures gaming front, which indeed it has done!

But this post is mainly about boardgames, as this time round The Works was very generous to us! My wife (hurrah, wife! ;) ) often comments on my optimism, in that, without fail, I have to enter every The Works shop we pass just on the off chance that they might have some boardgames. This all stems from some time in early 2006 when I went to the Bristol branch and found they had a huge amount of starter sets (£5) and boosters (£1) for the Lord of the Rings collectable miniatures game. Needless to say I bought as many as I could carry. Since then, my optimism has been rarely rewarded. One time I got a cheap copy of a Dungeons and Dragons boardgame (never played...) and I think I got some boosters for the Star Wars Pocketmodel game one time. So pretty unsuccessful. But I am never deterred!

On our honeymoon I found one game to buy in the Oxford branch and five in Shrewsbury! It was like one of those dreams I have where I find an amazing gaming deal and it turns out to be untrue (yes, I dream about games pretty frequently. And zombies. Sigh). But enough chit-chat, here's a pic along with brief descriptions and links to Boardgamegeek.

Citadels: A quick card game based around a role selection mechanic with the theme being the development of a fantasy city. I picked this up a couple of days before the wedding when we realised we'd failed to bring any games with us for the honeymoon. Played it a couple of times in the evenings. Quick and pretty light.

Blood Bowl: Team Manager and Ora Et Labora were our honeymoon treats for ourselves. When we go places we make a point of trying to support local game shops, especially when they have such pleasant staff as The Gameskeeper in Oxford. They appear to be an older husband and wife team. Husband seemed a bit grumpy about the whole thing, but the wife was very knowledgeable! Blood Bowl: Team Manager is a card game version of the fantastic Blood Bowl boardgame. But it does differ in terms of the card game being focused on a season of several weeks and matches represented by 'highlights' which players complete to win. Yet to play it properly, but it seems like a very fun game, probably better off for not trying to recreate the boardgame too closely. Ora Et Labora is the latest Uwe Rosenberg offering. I love Agricola, but missed out on Le Harve. All I can say about this at the moment is that it looks very good indeed and I can't wait to play.

The following were all bought from The Works for £7.99 a pop. Not bad when you consider they'd usually sell at the £25 plus range!:

Oregon: Developing farms and settlements during the time of the American West, this is probably one of the lightest of the games we got. It looks very pretty, but I am unsure how much the abstraction will damage the theme. But in any case, it looks like a good light game from a read of the rules.

Notre Dame: Competing for prosperity and influence in 14th century Paris. I realised when I picked this up that I've seen a group playing it at the wargame club I have been going to.

Amyitis: Interesting idea for a game: players are nobles hoping to gain influence with the king by putting resources into the creation of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon!

Royal Palace: More nobles with a desire for prestige, this time in the court of French Royalty during the 18th century. At least I assume it is as the rules never outright reference the time period and I have had to guess based upon mention of Madame de Pompadour...

La Cittá: Enough with the nobles, let's travel to Italy during the Rennaisaince and develop some city states! This has been hovering on or nearby my wishlist for ages so was a total no-brainer to pick up.

Fast Flowing Forest Fellers: Finally a bit of fun from that lover of alliteration, Friedemann Friese. Grabbed this when I saw it by itself in Oxford. Not entirely sure it would have made the cut if on display with the others, but who can object to a silly game about lumberjacks racing down river on logs? Actually, given my primary blog audience is wargamers, don't answer that!

So I am one happy bunny right now! If anyone is interested, I'd be happy to post more details or reviews of any of these games. Also, if any of you happen to be near Solihull and fancy a game of something, just let me know!

Right, now I have to leave you to punch out and bag all the components for these beauties!

Hiatus

I just wanted to let those of you eagerly waiting for more Doctor Who news (or checking to see what other projects  may be spontaneously demanding my attention)  know that I am going to be taking a break for a while.

I'm getting married in two weeks and, although I have tried to keep on hobbying until the last possible moment, there is really too much going on right now to spend time painting or modelling.

But fear not, I shall return refreshed and with a little more time to spend on the hobby. Things I have had to 'freeze' at the moment include:

• Terrain for Doctor Who, including simple roads, a church & graveyard and a quarry
• Two more Companions and UNIT forces
• A look at the 2nd edition of the FNG rules from Two Hour Wargames
• A bizarre new obsession with GW's old Gorkamorka skirmish game

So when I return I hope to be progressing with all the above, plus getting on with 'Warhammer 3rd Edition', 'All Things Zombie' and the countless other projects I have put on the back burner.

Thanks for following this blog and I'll see you all in a few weeks!

Cheers
Chris

Heroes and Villains

Time for another update on my Doctor Who project. I've managed to make a little progress around everything else taking up my time, so have a few figures to show you now.

First up the bad guys...

Delete... Delete!

These Cybermen will make up one of the player forces available in the scenario. Apologies to any purists upset by mixing of different 'eras' of Cyberman, but too bad. The paint job turned out out and was ridiculously easy. Gun metal coat and a black wash. Job done.

You must be washed....!

I'm basically addicted to washes, and hopefully the picture above shows why. The figure in the middle is pre-wash, the ones to the left and right are post-wash, although still drying. As someone who finds painting quite tedious, I use black and brown washes to make my painting look semi-decent!

Here are a couple more baddies:

EXTERMINATE!

Okay, so I would prefer classic Daleks, but these guys were cheap on eBay and I wanted to try them out. I regret the lighter grey on them as I was thinking it would darken more after the wash. But good grief, painting all the 'bobbles' on them was a bit of a drag!

Anyway, these are going to be a possible non-player force, brought into play by the scenario specific event deck I have created. If they appear they will be 'damaged', meaning they'll move around pretty randomly terrorising everyone!

Okay, on to some good guys now... First up is Harry Sullivan, UNIT medic and Doctor's companion:

I'd have preferred darker trousers, but I'm quite happy with him. Of course, for those Doctor Who fans among you, this will pretty much have given away my choice of Doctor, so without further ado, here is the great man himself:

Yup, the Fourth Doctor. So choosing Tom Baker may be a bit of a cliche, but he was pretty awesome. I'm quite pleased with how this figure turned out.

Still on the table: UNIT troops and several other companions. Tune in later for further updates.

Maggots and flies and cars, oh my!

Time for a quick update!

Firstly, the dark light didn't do some of the figures any justice in my last post. I am going to take future pictures in the man-cave where I have more control over the lighting! Here is one of K-9 seeing as he deserves a bit better!

Next up, I recently managed to acquire the Corgi model of Bessie. It took a surprising amount of work to remove the figure of the Doctor from the front seat, and I managed to damage the model a little, but nothing too serious. It was a bit of an extravagant purchase in some ways as it is not really required for the scenario. But one of the event cards in the game allows for Bessie to be placed on the board, so I wanted to be prepared!

I also finished off the 6 bases of maggots for the game, so here they are:

Pretty icky! And of course, the rules allow for these beauties to change into flies. Had a bit of a problem here as it is surprisingly difficult to source a decent fly. I found one picture on the Doctor Who Miniatures game forum, but could not find them to buy. In the end I decided that, in keeping with the slightly dodgy effects the show is known for, it would be okay to use some joke shop flies! I got these in two packs of bugs and insects from Poundland. They actually also came with some large maggots, but I prefer my more 'realistic' fishing bait ones! Here are the flies:

I basically left them as they were, but applied a heavy dark grey drybrush and painted the eyes red. I think they look very much the part in terms of dodgy sci-fi monsters, but also slightly creepy...

There is plenty more on my workbench right now, UNIT troops and characters, the Doctor and companions, plus some Cybermen and Daleks. Stay tuned for more adventures!

Doctor Who Project

Well, I have felt the need recently for a more light hearted project where I am not trying to build big armies or paint a whole load of figures. Pressures in other parts of my life have led me to want a more relaxing game to work on. So I am pleased to announce my Doctor Who project!

I have written a 3 player scenario which will involve a search for an alien artifact, the rescue of hapless civilians and the presence of multiple non-player game-controlled alien forces. In short, chaotic and fun. I'm using the full event deck from the miniatures game, but also a scenario specific event deck of my own nefarious devising. It will all be kicking off big style. At least, that's the idea!

But let's start off slow... A couple of orders from Black Tree have arrived and I thought I'd start off small (sorry for the poor lighting):

K-9 will be one of the companions the Doctor player can select at the start of the game. Which Doctor? Well, let's just say I have selected a series of companions appropriate to my chosen Doctor, of which K-9 is just one.

Next up a few more Weeping Angels, from the Doctor Who Adventures Magazine, who may or may not be making an appearance in the game:

I'm a bit happier with these than my previous effort, but that might be due to basing them differently...

Finally (and randomly illuminated by flash...).... maggots from the story The Green Death:

And where are these from? Well, I searched far and wide for my perfect maggot...

Whoever Frank Warwick is, his fake maggot endorsement sold me on these bad boys. They are dead squishy, but paint up okay I think. Plus they actually scale pretty well with 28mm figures, looking similar to this:

So these maggots may be making an appearance in my game as well....

That's all for now, but stay tuned as there is plenty more to come.

Doctor Who (!)

Whoah, where did that come from?! Only the other day I was staying how I'm going to stay on focus and prioritise some of my current projects... Then BLAM! Two painted Doctor Who figures... I can only assume they came through a crack in space/time and I've painted them far into the future when I have the spare time to dabble in projects which might never see table time...

Both these figures came with the Doctor Who Adventures magazine, available weekly in the UK. The Silence figures came with last week's issue along with some Silurians (8 of each). When I saw the figures I was going to give them a miss but (as is typical) I couldn't help it in the end. I doubt the Silurians will ever be painted, but the 'lanky' look seems to suit the Silence figures and I've seen a couple of publicity photos where they actually look taller than humans, so  I figure they might work.

Here is a 'before and after' shot:

For a quick paint job done last night I'm pretty happy with how it came out, especially given the dubious quality of the soft plastic figure.

I also thought I'd paint one of the Weeping Angels which were given away with a much older issue. In this case I just decided to paint the figure grey and follow with a wash in ink as I'd like to spend as little time on them as possible. I was going to try a really minimalist approach and just apply a wash, but it wouldn't take to the plastic. Unfortunately it didn't turn out so good. I think partly this is due to the mould lines on the figure, but also the method I used. It does look a bit better in real life though.

Again, a before and after:

The figures (well, toys really) that sometimes come with the magazine are pretty hit and miss (Cybermen with 'childbearing hips' for example), but I'm kicking myself for not picking up the Daleks. The Weeping Angels came in a pack with two poses, hiding and pointing, the Silence just the single pose, but it looks a bit creepy, so that's fine. Crooked Dice do some stone angels (Link) but at £4.50 a pop I think I'll give them a miss in favour of the cheaper alternative...

Incidentally, I'd highly recommend checking out the Doctor Who miniatures game rules, (Home page) which are still available as free PDFs. The system has been developed further for Crooked Dice's 7TV rules.

That's all for now!