Patrol Angis Pro-Painted Set

I was hoping to bring you a Comic Life AAR to acompany the recent Patrol Angis report I posted, but unfortunately I am having ongoing technical issues with the software which is preventing me from completing this. So, in the meantime, I thought I would give you a brief review of what you get when you order the painted version of the Patrol Angis Starter.

The starter comes with two complete sides for playing the three scenarios included in the rule book. As well as the figures, you get the rules, the monthly freebie miniature and an additional Patrol Angis Sculpt. The additional PA figure also come painted, but the freebie miniature does not (understandably).

So let's take a look at the sides. The Yordan side, painted in green, consists of a weapon platform, a Post (i.e. squad) of Retained Knights and 3 battle armour suits. Here are some pics:

Yordan Post

Yordan Weapon Platform

Yordan Battlesuits

Here is a close up of one of the suits (just to prove that sometimes I can focus my cheap, old camera!)

The Yordan force assembled.

I really like the green/yellow paint scheme on these guys and the folks at the Ion Age don't scrimp on the basing either.

The other force comes from the Prydian army and is comprised of two posts of Retained Knights and a command squad:

Female Retained Knights

Retained Knights

Close up of one of the knights

Prydian characters

Group shot!

Again, I really like the paint scheme and basing. The figures are all painted with artist acrylics (available from The Ion Age here) and the results have made me consider swapping to them as well as it works out much more cost effective than normal model paints.

This is the first time I have got figures that have been pro-painted in this way, and I am rather impressed. If I were to aim for a similar standard, either I would fail to achieve it, or it would take me so long that I'd give up. So in that regard they are excellent!

Here's a picture of the extra figure you get when you buy the set:

To finish off, here is an 'action shot' of all the figures:

The pictures probably tell you more than words can, so I'll just reiterate that I am very pleased with them!

I should also mention that, as presented, the Female Retained Knights are usually painted in Yordan colours. As I prefer to mix up the male and female characters, I asked if they could be painted as Prydians so I had the two squads to play around with and the request was handled no problem. How accommodating of the chaps at The Ion Age!

If you are interested in buying painted figures, then you should check out the Ion Age site. As it is the same company as 15mm.co.uk and Alternative Armies, you can check out painted options from those sites as well.

Slaughterloo Painting Challenge (5 days remaining)

Good grief! 5 days left already. And I can scrap at least one of those due to needing to set up the table in advance.

But fear not, progress is being made and I am able to present some actual photos of completed figures!

First up, 6 Light Elf Infantry. As you can tell from the one in the front left, I have had to adopt a simpler basing strategy to expedite the process. The others were painted before the project started.

 

Here is the Todoroni General. As you may guess by his bemused expression, he doesn't really belong on the field of battle and is classed as 'Inept' under the rules (and no doubt by his Elf allies as well).

 It's fair to say, though, that you probably won't go far in Valon when you are in command of a force consisting mainly of militia. I love these figures! The front two ranks are actual militia, the rear rank is 4 Light Infantry doing militia duty for the game.

This is one of my favourite figures. The Light Infantrytoad  with his tongue sticking out. The Todoroni figures have such character to them.

  

These light Elves will be doing duty as Line Infantry in our game at the weekend. I didn't paint these. A friend spotted them at a show and kindly picked them up for me. They were all mounted on round bases, so I had to rebase and dip them. They come from an earlier Flintloque starter set.

  

Talking of which. here are Sharke's Rifles, the other half of the starter. I had to rebase these as well. I also had to repaint their skin as they had been painted in a more traditional orc-like hue! I'm not normally fussy about such things, but I do like my Flintloque orcs to be a fleshy colour.

 

  

I have 10 more Elves left, all painted, just needing basing. The Todoroni cannon is complete, bar basing, and the crew are being painted, along with the remaining Elf cavalry. Plenty left to do, but I am confident of success! 

Slaughterloo Painting Challenge (12 days remaining, ARGH!)

Oh boy! Major panic time. I can't believe that my last post on the subject said I had 65 days left for this. Frequent readers of this blog may be aware that there is quite a bit of important stuff going on at the moment which is taking up my time. I was also on holiday for a week (I heartily recommend a relaxing week in Ludow and the surrounding area to make you forget your wargaming project stresses!). To add to this, my opponent has finished his force!

But I have to view all this as a minor stumble and, for the next 12 days work with increased focus and renewed resolve to complete this project!

Here's a quick glimpse of where I am with things (the more complete figures are on the box file):

Yes, there is some unpainted lead on there! But part of why I haven't been posting too much is I have a tendency to work on everything at the same time. So whereas my mate is able to post completed units, one after the other, I end up painting cuffs on one unit, the rifles on another, harnesses on the hippos etc etc. So not a lot gets actually finished until near the end...

On the plus side I have been working on a few other aspects of the project. To date, all my games at home have been fought out on the kitchen or study table. I've longed to play larger games on a decent sized surface, so after my holiday I popped to B&Q and got some MDF cut to increase my tabletop to 6x4 foot. I can hardly fit it in the room, but I'll just make my buddy crawl under to the other side of the table in order to ruffle his feathers. A sneaky Ferach trick, perhaps, but he would expect no less from me. Mwah ha haaa!

The other thing to take care of is a small pile of paperwork. Counters, reference sheets, army records and the all important command decks. I have to figure out how I want to put it all together. I'd like to mount the counters on very thick card if possible, laminate the reference sheets and mount and sleeve the command cards. But hey, I need a break from the painting at some point, don't I?!

Oh, and as a final note for those all eager for the big battle, while we have organised our own 1000 point armies, my buddy scored some good deals on eBay for painted figures. As such, we are going to end up using 2000 points. No point leaving figures lying around, is there?!

Slaughterloo Painting Challenge (65 days remaining)

Alas, progress has been slow! I blame this mostly on the weather. It has been pretty bad this week, to the extent that it rained on most of the times I could have gone outside to spray undercoat my figures. Annoying. Yesterday was a bit brighter though, so I was able to sort out the Todoroni Militia and the Elf Line which needed doing. On the other hand, I was only able to do a little more in the evening. And tonight I thought I'd update my bog instead!

On the plus side I took advantage of the poor weather to think about my force organisation. The 'first draft' did not take into account the C-in-C and General, so these have now been added and the rest of the force resized accordingly. The upshot of this is that it is now starting to resemble a force I feel happy with, rather than a hodgepodge of any figures I had in my collection. 

Todoroni

I have lost two crew from the cannon and also got rid of the Light Infantry. Using four of the Lights, I increased the Militia to a unit of 12, hopefully making them slightly more robust. The General in my army is a Todoroni ranked as 'inept' (what else?!), the figure comes from the Goyah set (review pending!) and looks suitably pompus/unable to command!

Ferach

 

The Ferach saw some alteration as well. One of the Line units lost two figures and I halved the figures in the Light Infantry. One thing I was not prepared to lose was the cavalry and you can see they have now been joined by command figures which arrived today. The general is a free Elf officer. Yes, that's right, free! Alternative Armies will give you two free figures if you request the free version of Flintloque and place an order using the code contained therein. Nice!

So a fair few changes to the army, but it has eliminated some of the painting and made it feel like a more coherent force than just all the figures I have thrown together!

On the other side of things I have developed a long list of secondary tasks which I have to complete by the deadline. I need to make counters for the game, as well as print the command decks and reference sheets. I also need to buy some boards to lay on top of the table in the study, as it is only really the right size for skirmish games and will not do Slaughterloo justice!

I also took the opportunity to change the lighting! This has been a long time coming and much needed. Oh the responsibilities of hosting this event!

Before (not so bright)

After (much better!)

Anyway, that's it for now, but I assure you that the next update will include much more painting and fewer pictures of illumination!

Slaughterloo Painting Challenge (73 days remaining)

Nothing like jumping in at the deep end to motivate yourself! Wanting to get a game in at the weekend with a good buddy, I realised that the first Saturday I had free was 19th July we decided to make the most of the time and plan something which would require a little preparation!

As we have both recently become fans of Flintloque, we decided it would be a good opportunity to go a little bigger and play some Slaughterloo. Great idea, although I've just realised how much painting I need to get done. Hence the challenge!

We opted for small 1000 point armies to get us going and I quickly figured out what I could use from my collection for a Ferach force. Looks like it will be a bit of a split between Elves and Todoroni, which suites me fine

Here's a picture of the Todoroni contingent of my force:

• 7 light infantry
• 8 Militia
• 1 Light Gun with 6 crew. 

So at the moment it is looking like a force just wanting to be swept from the field by any reasonably trained enemy...

Here's the Ferach contingent:

• 12 Line infantry
• 10 Line infantry (actually Light, but they will do alternative duties for this game)
• 12 Light infantry
• 3 Heavy Cavalry (to be expanded to the minimum 5 by my next purchase)

So all in all an almighty shambles of a force! This should be fun!

On the plus side, it doesn't require a massive outlay in advance of the game. Just a couple of cavalry and a general should do, although I can see myself opting for some additional Line infantry or a better cannon!

I'll report on my progress as I go and post pictures of units as and when they are completed. 

Saga challenge complete!

Phew! That was a bit of work. I needed to prepare my 4 point Viking warband for a game this Thursday and was only able to work on it from Saturday... Due to using multipart plastics for most of the figures, it meant I effectively lost all of Saturday to gluing them together!

So that left me with Sunday, Monday night, Tuesday afternoon and tonight to finish them all! Well, you'l be happy to know I succeeded and, while not the best painted figures, they'll do for my purposes and I'd rather have them done for gaming than still be trying to paint the buckles on their belts!

Before I introduce you to them, I should say thanks to Pete who gave me the plastics, thereby saving me a small wad of cash and proving he is one of the most generous and kind natured wargamers I know! Well, either that or he really did hate the figures as much as he said... Thanks, mate!

Anyhow, on with the show....

8 Warriors (Plastics from Wargames Factory) 1 point. 

Warlord. Made up of two spare plastic warriors, but I may upgrade to a more 'warlordy' figure at some point.

8 Warriors (Plastics from Wargames Factory) 1 point. 

8 Hearthguard (Metal figures from Black Tree) 2 points

The whole motley crew. I'm content with that for a couple of day's work...

Side view to display my clumsily painted shield designs!

So that's it. I'm hoping they will do me proud on Thursday... The next question will be what to chose for the next 2 points worth. I'm thinking berserkers and another Hearthguard unit...

But for now it's on to the Normans....

15mm Ratmen HotT army (Irregular Miniatures)

While browsing options for 15mm HotT army packs/deals, I came across an offer that could not be refused! While it appears that most armies sell for £15-20, I happened to see Irregular Miniatures have a line in their 15mm fantasy catalogue which simply states:

24 AP Armies	£9.00
except Lizard Army	£10.00

(Note for those who have not played HotT: AP= Army Points and a usual army is 24 points. Units are generally 2 AP each with some exceptions, leading to a typical 12 element army)

Intrigued, I sent a quick email to Ian Kay (super chap, great customer service) to inquire as to the contents of the 24AP pack for the Ratmen. His speedy response was:

"It contains 25 assorted rat inf, 2 rat riders, 2 chaos knights, 2 magicians ,1 lurker and a god figure! Over £12 of figures!"

Well, that was enough for me to take a shot, although I was slightly wary that there were no specific ratman magicians, lurkers or gods listed in the rest of the catalogue. By some crazy miracle, the packet which was posted on Friday turned up on Saturday morning and I eagerly tore it open.

Here is a picture of the small pile of led my £9 got me (note this does not include 9 ratman archers which I foolishly started to paint before taking this picture):

True to Ian's word, the contents were just as described. True to what I guessed from the catalogue, the god, lurker and wizard figures were generic and not ratman specific. The god in particular was a curious choice as it seemed to be a 28mm Greek philosopher, not exactly what I picture ratmen worshipping. Of the wizards, I preferred the one which looked like a hunchbacked old man, as that seemed to fit the army better. The other looked like a generic evil wizard (which will no doubt find a place in another army).

Figures which did not make it to the painting stage 

Sorting out the rest of the figures, I saw they were a good mix of ratmen with hand weapons, some with bows, a few banners and a couple of polearm types with helmets. There were a couple riding wolves, which was good to see, and also the chaos knights, which looked fine as an 'ally contingent'.

Arranging the force into suitable elements, I came up with the following:


1x Warband General (Ratman leader and armed guard) @2AP

1x Hero (Ratman Hero) @4AP

1x Riders (Ratmen on wolves) @2AP

1x Knights (Chaos Knight allies) @2AP

3x Shooters (Ratmen with bows) @2AP

4x Warband (Ratmen warriors) @2AP


So an 11 element 24AP army was achievable while adhering to my need for a theme which did not include philosophising Greek deities.... At this point I realised that I had a spare ratman, so I decided against the magician and picked the ratman which looked most like a hero and based him for that purpose. I have painted the magician anyway and it can find a home in this or another army at some point.

Once painted and based, the figures looked like this:

3x Shooters (Ratman Archers) 

4x Warband (Ratman warriors) 

1x Ratman Hero and 1x Magician 

1x Warband General (Ratman elite warriors) 

1x Riders (Ratman wolf riders), 1x Knights (Chaos Knight allies) 

To a degree you 'get what you paid for', but then again for £9 I think this is excellent value for money. If I were to make any suggestion, it would be for Irregular to ditch the generic figures and include more of the wolf-mounted ratmen, or even a couple of their fantasy wolves as a Beast element option. In my opinion, this would give the army more thematic coherency. But as it stands, it was only the knights in my final selection which were not 'ratman specific'.

All in all, though, I am very happy and will definitely consider buying more of these army packs! I want to end by mentioning that the service from Ian was top notch throughout, with quick email responses and super fast delivery.

(Note: I started drafting this post when the figures arrived and before painting had started. When my wife saw I had put a reminder in the text saying "[Insert painted figure pictures]" she 'helpfully' commented "Painted figures? So just when do you expect to be able to post that entry?" Naturally this filled me with resolve and a desire to prove myself, resulting in the army being painted over the course of the weekend. As it would never have been so without that comment, this post is dedicated to my wife! Thanks for helping me get through all the painting!)

BUGS!

Title says it all really. A bit obvious, but at least you know what you are getting... I have finally painted all my Khurasan bugs and while my use of the word 'all' should not lead you to think I have covered my table in them, I feel it is still an achievement to have painted all of anything!

As those who have seen previous entries will know, I am using these as part of a 15mm Starship Troopers project. As an aside, I recently got the Skinnie, Arachnid, Mobile Infantry and Roughnecks army books from the author on ebay and he kindly went to the effort of signing them for me. I mention this mainly as he has more available for anyone who is interested and, if you are lucky, you can get them for about £2 each.

But anyway, onto the show!

First up are the Warrior Bugs. 24 of these, which will form two groups of twelve in my games, or perhaps 4 of six depending on how flexible I need them to be:

Next is the 'Ogre Beetle', which will be used as a Tanker Bug in SST. I like this figure mainly as it looks quite effective with a simple paint job!

Finally the Hopper Bugs. Part of me would like it if they all came with open wings, but I quite like the variety in the pack. In SST they will make two units of four to outflank the Mobile Infantry.

Lastly, a group shot showing the hoard in all its glory. It makes up approximately 1000 points in SST, without any additional assets like bug holes which I would probably want to use in a game.

In terms of growing the army, more Warrior Bugs will be next on my buy list. I will paint more as 'regular' warriors, but can use different paint schemes to donate workers, tiger or guard bugs as I wish. I will probably just use alternate painting to distinguish blaster and blister bugs too.

That's all for now. Hopefully the next entry will be my Light Mobile Infantry.

On the workbench

Here is a picture of the last three companions I'm painting for Doctor Who:

(L-R) Sarah Jane, Leela, Nyssa

I think they are okay, but I got so fed up with Nyssa that I just settled for a single colour and a wash. Too frustrating trawling Google and finding page after page of pictures of her in some kind of velvety looking brown/purple clothing which seemed to be the costume the figure had on. So she just got what she was given in the end.

Just because I know wargamers are a nosey bunch, here is the current state of my work area. Roughly going from left to right:

• Dug out my 15mm zombies after watching the first season of The Walking Dead back to back on Monday. Okay, it is only six episodes, but still! I need to base these properly but have been putting it off. I've got more figures out of shot which need working on. As for the TV show, it was good, but I had to force myself a little to take it on its own merits rather than compare it to the comic, which (ironically some might say) managed to convey the humanity of the characters much better than the show did. Characters were added to the show for no real reason and major plot points added or removed for zero benefit. But let's be clear, both myself and my wife really enjoyed it, it probably just helps if you haven't read the comics.
• Behind this are some unpainted Skaven which used to be my Blood Bowl team but are going to be reappropriated for Warhammer 3rd Edition.
• To the right of the Skaven is the unit of beastmen I rush-painted in a day to see what would happen. I'd put them on the table, but there is a reason I have not posted a photo!
• On the mat, in the back row, several plastic Space Marines in various states of paintedness, for Rogue Trader. There are more still on sprues in the top left of the picture. There is something strangely exciting about knowing you are working on figures which are about 20 years old and haven't been used before.
• In front on the left are Sarah Jane, Leela and Nyssa waiting for their flock to dry.
• Finally, to the right of the Doctor Who figures are the Skaven who started all this mess on my table. I find painting blocks of troops to be hugely dull, so I need other projects around to break things up a little. It doesn't help that once I have these done I have another 20 waiting for me. Will I ever manage to paint a whole Skaven army?!

(As an aside, blogger has lost its 'follow' option on the toolbar when I am logged in and is just showing 'share', regardless of whether I already follow the blog or not. Is anyone else experiencing this? It's hard to add blogs at the moment!)

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.