Hello there!
For those of you that remember, I decided sometime last year to start a blog with the intention of chronicling my life as a wargamer...unfortunately I failed for pretty much the last 7 months!! So, first off an apology to those that did decide to follow me!
Now, what have I been doing those last 7 months...quite a bit actually. Don't get too excited though as my title of 'the undercoater' is well and truly been kept. I'll try and see what I can remember what i've done and maybe in some future posts put up some pics. Here goes...
Painting:
Hahaha!! As usual not much happened in this area...or did it? As it happens I did manage to put brush to model a few times, and even painted a "finished" army...well, I consider it to be an 'army' at least!
First off is the Celestial Dragons. I was painting these originally as part of the Phat Cats Tale of X-gamers challenge, and even managed to get a small force mostly done in time for a Hobo Tournament. Unfortunately that was as far as I went with the marines. Quite frankly, even with the cool stuff that's been released, I have gotten pretty bored with the 40k game since the 5th edition was released. This is partly due to the rules changes, but mostly to the fact that I have too many other distractions! Suffice to say, no more marines were built, and certainly no more were painted.
Next up is Firestorm. I much preferred this system from Spartan Games (http://www.spartangames.co.uk/) compared to their Uncharted Seas, but unfortunately non of the models really 'jumped' out at me. This gave me a great opportunity to buy a fleet to use as a proxy from Ground Zero Games (http://www.groundzerogames.net/). I even went as far as starting to paint this fleet...and finished...one ship completely lol Still, these are still on my painting table waiting for me to finish the rest to the same level. In my eyes, this has been painting progress!
So, last on the "what I've painted" list is 6mm modern war tanks and APCs. This is something new (no surprise that I've started another system!) as a fella called Nick has had myself, Ant, Stef and whoever else is interested at Phat Cats to playtest his game system. This system has been in development for the best part of a decade, and Nick soon realised we're just the guys for the job of playtesting...i.e. we're nuts about guns and stuff!
As this was 6mm modern, new miniatures were in order! After Ant did some research, we eventually got a small army together with miniatures from Magister Militum (http://www.magistermilitum.com/prodtype.asp?PT_ID=746&strPageHistory=cat&strKeywords=&numRecordPosition=1&strSearchCriteria). These miniatures, while expensive, are incredibly detailed, and after seeing Stefs brits painted in the Desert scheme, I had to do the same with my Americans...and lo and behold, next thing I know I have them all painted!! (listening intently for any cheers at this point??) They're not exactly difficult miniatures to paint, but I seem to of been getting a great reaction to them when they're on the table. Don't worry, I'll try and put up some pics and maybe a short guide as to how I did them as soon as I can.
I think that about covers what i've been "painting" over the last 7 months. Thanks to the Challenges I set both Ant and Stef last year, I'm now planning on painting my Menoth army for Warmachine in order to take it to the UK Masters tournament in June / July! More on this another time.
Wargaming:
Even though I've not been painting much, I've certainly continued to game! Warmachine seems to of been my main focus for last year. I'm not sure why, but it appears to be the game I consistently go back to. More recently though, the games have gone up a gear. This is due to the doubles tournament I attended last month at Maelstrom Games. Unfortunately myself and Stef did come last place in this tournament, but I think it's safe to say that this has encouraged us to think outside the box and aim to do a lot better at the UK Masters. I'll try and report on my progress for this as often as I can.
The other games I've been playing include the 6mm modern warfare game I mentioned above that we're playtesting, a home grown 'Kill Team' 40k game that has been produced by the Tabletop Tyrants and an old favourite of mine...Infinity! Really pleased that this game has shown it's head again and that there has been a lot of enthusiasm for it. It's a great system (if a little complicated at times) and I'm hoping to play a lot more of it this year!
Anyway, I think that's enough waffling for this lunchtime. Hopefully I'll try and keep this a bit more up to date this year...and I know you're all dying to see photos!
I hope you all had a great Christmas, and Happy (belated) New Year!
