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!
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
The 'List'
As every avid wargamer out there will know, we have a tendancy to collect not only miniatures, but entire game systems!! Some are fads, not lasting much more than a couple of games, while others stay close to our hearts throughout our entire gaming career...but eventually we all end up playing another system at some point.
So, I thought it would be prudent to show what game systems I currently, previously or rarely play at this moment in time. Here we go:
- Warhammer 40,000 (Marines / Tau / Deamonhunters)
- Warhammer Fantasy (High Elves)
- Epic 40,000 (Marines / Titan Legion)
- Necromunda (Not played...but will soon be making an Enforcer Team)
- Warmachine / Hordes (Menoth / Circle)
- Flames of War (Germans)
- Uncharted Seas (Elves)
- Firestorm Armarda (Making my own Raider Fleet)
- Infinity (Yu Jing)
- Rules of Engagement (Paras)
- Heavy Gear (North - Nova Redriders)
- Babylon 5 (Not played this for some time! - ISA White Star Fleet)
- Blood Bowl (Human Team)
- Dark Heresy (RP)
I think that currently sums up the majority of the game systems I've played in my life. The problem I have with most of these systems is quite common...I don't have a single fully painted army / fleet / team for any of them! Some have been undercoated, some have been partially painted (ie basecoated) and some even have the odd miniature painted, but for the most part they are severly lacking!
So, onto my "plan". As I have mentioned before, this blog is intended to give me some kind of incentive to get some of the above armies painted. I've decided to start with the most game systems I play the most and then hopefully work up from there.
The armies I intend to get done (I can already hear laughter from many of my friends at this point) are as follows:
- Warhammer 40,000 : Celestial Dragons Space Marines. This is a chapter of my own creation that is based upon the Space Wolves Codex. I am supposed to be building this up as part of the Leicester Phat Cats 'Tale of X-Gamers' campaign (more on this in another post).
- Warmachine : Protectorate of Menoth. I've got a few miniatures for this army, and after my recent trip to the UK Masters in support of 'The Tyrants' (see The Anarchy of Anton for a great write up on this event) I now have the urge to create a larger list and to get it painted. Bone/white is already making me nervous lol!
- Flames of War : German SS Panzerkompanie. I've yet to completely decide on which varient of this army I intend to use more permenantly, but as any of you that know me will be aware, which ever I collect the army will have tanks in it!
- Firestorm Armarda : Raider Fleet. Now, we've not started this too long ago, but people seem to be getting quite fired up about the system. I've even created my own fleet using miniatures by Ground Zero Games...and they're mostly painted!!
For each of these I will try and put up a blog that shows my ideas, lists, what I've built and what I've painted. When I can, I'll try and keep each post as a 'Work in Progress'...but sometimes I forget to take pics!
Now, I think that is probabaly more than enough of a challenge for myself to get done. Especially for an idle painter like myself. Fingers crossed!!
So, I thought it would be prudent to show what game systems I currently, previously or rarely play at this moment in time. Here we go:
- Warhammer 40,000 (Marines / Tau / Deamonhunters)
- Warhammer Fantasy (High Elves)
- Epic 40,000 (Marines / Titan Legion)
- Necromunda (Not played...but will soon be making an Enforcer Team)
- Warmachine / Hordes (Menoth / Circle)
- Flames of War (Germans)
- Uncharted Seas (Elves)
- Firestorm Armarda (Making my own Raider Fleet)
- Infinity (Yu Jing)
- Rules of Engagement (Paras)
- Heavy Gear (North - Nova Redriders)
- Babylon 5 (Not played this for some time! - ISA White Star Fleet)
- Blood Bowl (Human Team)
- Dark Heresy (RP)
I think that currently sums up the majority of the game systems I've played in my life. The problem I have with most of these systems is quite common...I don't have a single fully painted army / fleet / team for any of them! Some have been undercoated, some have been partially painted (ie basecoated) and some even have the odd miniature painted, but for the most part they are severly lacking!
So, onto my "plan". As I have mentioned before, this blog is intended to give me some kind of incentive to get some of the above armies painted. I've decided to start with the most game systems I play the most and then hopefully work up from there.
The armies I intend to get done (I can already hear laughter from many of my friends at this point) are as follows:
- Warhammer 40,000 : Celestial Dragons Space Marines. This is a chapter of my own creation that is based upon the Space Wolves Codex. I am supposed to be building this up as part of the Leicester Phat Cats 'Tale of X-Gamers' campaign (more on this in another post).
- Warmachine : Protectorate of Menoth. I've got a few miniatures for this army, and after my recent trip to the UK Masters in support of 'The Tyrants' (see The Anarchy of Anton for a great write up on this event) I now have the urge to create a larger list and to get it painted. Bone/white is already making me nervous lol!
- Flames of War : German SS Panzerkompanie. I've yet to completely decide on which varient of this army I intend to use more permenantly, but as any of you that know me will be aware, which ever I collect the army will have tanks in it!
- Firestorm Armarda : Raider Fleet. Now, we've not started this too long ago, but people seem to be getting quite fired up about the system. I've even created my own fleet using miniatures by Ground Zero Games...and they're mostly painted!!
For each of these I will try and put up a blog that shows my ideas, lists, what I've built and what I've painted. When I can, I'll try and keep each post as a 'Work in Progress'...but sometimes I forget to take pics!
Now, I think that is probabaly more than enough of a challenge for myself to get done. Especially for an idle painter like myself. Fingers crossed!!
Friday, 4 June 2010
'The Seige of Terra' - Tempus Fugitives Campaign Weekend
Hello again (I know it's been a while!)
*I best warn you, this is fairly long!*
A few weekends ago...3 maybe 4...I took a trip upto Nottingham to Warhammer World to not only order some new bits from Forge World for my up and coming Space Marine army (more on that at another time) but to also check out the 'pre-heresy' campaign weekend that I'd heard about while following another blog over at the 'my wargame' team (check it out here). This weekend was called 'The Seige on Terra' and was organised and run by a GCN Club called the Tempus Fugitives.
My first impressions when I first arrived were how busy the gaming hall was....and as it turned out, pretty much all but one of the tables there was being used as part of the campaign!! If you've ever been to Warhammer World, you'll know that that is a LOT of gaming tables! If my memory serves me correctly, about 120 people took part over the weekend.
To give you an idea of what this campaign was about, the clue is in the title! haha! For those of you that know their 40k background, this campaign was themed around the final moments of the Horus Heresy as the forces of chaos laid seige to the Emperors Palace. This meant that the current codexes were a little out of whack and so the Fugitives had created an excellent set of rules and army lists to allow players to have Primarchs, Custodes, Sisters of Silence and all the other bits and peices that the Mechanicum have since 'forgotten' how to make.
Once id ordered my bits in the shop, I took some time to have a look around and check out some of the armies. Luckily they were on a break of sorts so most of the armies were out on display...photo op time!! Below are some of the pics I thought showed off some of the best conversions of the day (apologies if the quality isn't great...I was using the camera on my phone!):
Imperator Titan!!
*I best warn you, this is fairly long!*
A few weekends ago...3 maybe 4...I took a trip upto Nottingham to Warhammer World to not only order some new bits from Forge World for my up and coming Space Marine army (more on that at another time) but to also check out the 'pre-heresy' campaign weekend that I'd heard about while following another blog over at the 'my wargame' team (check it out here). This weekend was called 'The Seige on Terra' and was organised and run by a GCN Club called the Tempus Fugitives.
My first impressions when I first arrived were how busy the gaming hall was....and as it turned out, pretty much all but one of the tables there was being used as part of the campaign!! If you've ever been to Warhammer World, you'll know that that is a LOT of gaming tables! If my memory serves me correctly, about 120 people took part over the weekend.
To give you an idea of what this campaign was about, the clue is in the title! haha! For those of you that know their 40k background, this campaign was themed around the final moments of the Horus Heresy as the forces of chaos laid seige to the Emperors Palace. This meant that the current codexes were a little out of whack and so the Fugitives had created an excellent set of rules and army lists to allow players to have Primarchs, Custodes, Sisters of Silence and all the other bits and peices that the Mechanicum have since 'forgotten' how to make.
Once id ordered my bits in the shop, I took some time to have a look around and check out some of the armies. Luckily they were on a break of sorts so most of the armies were out on display...photo op time!! Below are some of the pics I thought showed off some of the best conversions of the day (apologies if the quality isn't great...I was using the camera on my phone!):
Adeptus Custodes Jetbikes: These jumped stright out at me! I've seen the jetbike conversion before, but never really thought that much of it, however, with the addition of the new Blood Angel jump pack wings, I thought these really looked the part!
Adeptus Custodes Marine: From what I saw on the day, these were the best examples of the Custodes. It looked like the fella used the Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard for the most part, but I've yet to figure out what he used as the legs. (Sorry about the lack of focus!)
White Scars Terminators: Personally I think these are some of the best examples of 'pre-heresy' terminators I've seen...but they couldn't of come cheap!! First off is the assualt squad, each wearing the Chaos Terminator Lord lightning claws. Ouch. Then they're all wearing Maxmini shoulder pads (a site that seems to do great bits for conversions). And the last item of note...the armoured head from the Sergeant Chronus character for the marines. Big ouch! Still, very nice ;-) It was just a shame they hadn't been painted to completion...but then I suppose they are 'white' scars! lol!
Emperors Children Primarch Fulgrim: These one's were mainly for Ant lol Both are quite nice conversions, however I was unable to get a pic of my fave (which used the tail from a Trygon!!) as it was hiding in the middle of an enermous cities of death board!
World Eater Terminators: These were also nice examples of 'pre-heresy' style terminators...especially for those with a slightly smaller budget than the guy with the White Scars! For those with a keen eye out there, you'll notice these have been done using shoulder pads from the Cryx Bane Knights or Thralls (not sure which) from the Warmachine game system. Thought they were painted really well, and I'm pretty sure I've seen this army before somewhere. Like the use of the chain-halberds...very fitting! Now for something 'old school' for those of you as old as me lol :
Space Crusade Dreadnought!! (oh and did you also notice the Land Raider in the previous pic ;-)
Moving on....the following weren't really anything pre-heresy as the Fugitives had allowed for some people to take part using current army choices as well as armies such as Orks and Eldar. I just thought these were really nicely painted (Sanguinary Guard) and some nice ideas for a 'Farseer' and 'Avatar' wraithlords:
The games soon started getting back into full swing, so pic taking became a bit awkward. Something that I soon noticed was how well this event was being run. The guys at Tempus Fugitives really know how to do an impressive campaign weekend...even the book everybody got in the pack was nice and glossy! I ended up having a quick chat with some of the guys from the club, and they were pretty cool and very enthusiastic about the whole thing (no surprises there!). As it turned out, this was actually "Part 2" of the campaign, so hopefully i'll get the chance to go along to their final weekend!
I wasn't able to hang around to find out what the final outcome of the day was, but as the weekend was more about having a good time, I doubt anybody really cared! lol
Oh...and I couldn't finish this write up of my visit without the following pic:
Imperator Titan!!
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
My first ever blog: An Introduction
Hello there!
As the title says, this is my first ever blog, so thought I'd give a very brief introduction to myself.
For those of you that don't know me my name's Spencer (or Spinney, Spin, Spence etc). I've been a wargamer/mini collector/weak ass painter for going on two decades now. As with most of us I started out in the world as created by Games Workshop, but soon enough the 'dark side' got it's claws into me and I've never really looked back since!!
I'm a regular member of my local wargaming club (The Leicester Phat Cats) and also regularly visit my local store (Gifts for Geeks).
My intention with this blog is to give some people a small insight into my life as a wargamer, but also I'm hoping it will give me some incentive to start painting some minis (at last I hear some of you cry!!).
Anyway, that's enough for now (as I'm still at work!). I'll try and keep this blog as up to date as possible and soon I'll try and put up some pics for you to drool/laugh over!
Catch you later!
Spence
('The Undercoater')
As the title says, this is my first ever blog, so thought I'd give a very brief introduction to myself.
For those of you that don't know me my name's Spencer (or Spinney, Spin, Spence etc). I've been a wargamer/mini collector/weak ass painter for going on two decades now. As with most of us I started out in the world as created by Games Workshop, but soon enough the 'dark side' got it's claws into me and I've never really looked back since!!
I'm a regular member of my local wargaming club (The Leicester Phat Cats) and also regularly visit my local store (Gifts for Geeks).
My intention with this blog is to give some people a small insight into my life as a wargamer, but also I'm hoping it will give me some incentive to start painting some minis (at last I hear some of you cry!!).
Anyway, that's enough for now (as I'm still at work!). I'll try and keep this blog as up to date as possible and soon I'll try and put up some pics for you to drool/laugh over!
Catch you later!
Spence
('The Undercoater')
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