Thursday, 30 January 2020

Air tank gunning...What? Gotta be ADATS

Evening everyone,
 
I thought I'd do a quick follow up to the first figs painted of the year that I teased in my last post...here.  First off the bench for 2020, a couple of additions to the combat support element of my 4 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group...ADATS - air defence ant-tank system.
 
These are not the first batch of these beasts that I've painted for my 4CMBG troops...when I put my Team Yankee force together, I started with a 2 gun section in support.  Not only are these figs able to take command of the skies, but they can throw out Mach3 smokeless missiles at Ivan's heavy metal at long range.  In the realworld we were talking about 10 kilometres, dependant on the strength of the laser guidance...in gaming terms, I think it is about 72 inches; but a very lethal ability to take down close air and armour!
 
My first game that I had these beautiful air gunners along, they proved to be very resilient...taking a lot of fire before finally succumbing to 125mm rain...but they also tallied a considerable body count of T72's and BMP's.  So from that game I had to paint up another section for a somewhat full-ish 4 gun battery.
 
Anyhow, these models painted up super fast and were great to paint-up...again.  So please enjoy a couple of pics of the latest gun numbers to hit the ORBAT.
 
Cheers.
 
 
 
Hike up Lead Mountain, 2020
 
Painted:
 
28mm            -
15mm            2
 
Bought:         0
 
Progress:     +2

 
 

Sunday, 26 January 2020

Hello to the Roaring 20's

Happy New Year folks...belated of course.

I hope the new decade finds you and yours healthy, happy, and well. To say the least, it has been of to one hell of a rocky start, but here's to optimism. It's an odd milestone to bring pause for thought, but this marks year 6 of this bloggy adventure into Nerdly Darkness.

Overall, I think the blog has accomplished the main objectives that I had hoped for...it has helped to bring some degree of focus to my painting and gaming. It has allowed me some venue to document and catalog my gaming woes. And in spite of being hit with random real-world, real-life dramatics, crisis, struggles, or whatever your verbology...it is something that is still near the forefront of my mind and has allowed me to further connect with other folk in this hobby.

The last year has certainly seen a dramatic decrease in the amount of posting...which did also see a decrease in the amount of painting that I accomplished. The one challenge has been that there are some projects that I have started that have not made it to the internet and thus are not captured in my climb up Mount Lead.  At years end, I stood around +45 in terms of progress but there are some figs that I have completed that did not make the posting cut...as such, I could probably claim a higher number. Of course, if that's the only stressor I'm dealing with today, then it sounds like a pretty good day.

Oh, I did do some custom painting to support my wife's handicraft business...she had a run on 'Fairy Gardens' this year so I painted up various doors, gnomes, and houses for those. I also painted up a bunch of Star Wars keychains for her shows...all in all about 50 different pieces.  And today I am actually test-painting and basecoating some 'dragon eye' pieces for her...so that will keep me similarly busy.

Big picture: I'm still very much into the hobby...I really like painting and I am always working on improving my technique and style. So yeah, you'll hear from me throughout the year.

Big hand, small map perspective: There are still 'places' I want to go, so there are some goals for the year...
  • increase my output (d'uh...low hanging fruit);
  • get my 4CMBG project back on track and get into the club campaign before it is too late;
  • finish up the Legion starter box AND all the various expansions that I bought (although, a lot were gifts and from random windfalls, so they don't count as having been bought); and
  • right now I am thinking of getting a table together for CanGames...in the realm of possible would be Force on Force Cold War, Star Wars Legion, Fallout WW, or Battlestar Galactica
All the best in the year...a couple of pics for you.

First figures of the year...


And because we are in the 20's, I recently went to Las Vegas for the first time and had to try my hand at a Tommy Gun...it's not the drum that my wife put downrange, but it was a nice treat (I put my money to another shooting venture, but I'll share that later in an appropriately themed post)

Take care






Saturday, 25 January 2020

End Year Painting Finish


Hello folks,

I know, I know...it has been some time since my last post; I guess it was last year...I guess over the course of the past year my blogging mojo kind of left me and I greatly reduced my electronic/cyber presence.  I did however, continue to push through with painting projects and was able to move the markers a little bit forward. 

The end-year had a variety of projects each competing for their time, however, thanks to some youtube video binging I found myself quite motivated to paint up the starter box for Fallout Wasteland Warrior...in spite of my previous toe-dip into these minis:

Test Painting - Fallout Wasteland Warrior

Now, back to youtube, I happened to see Guerilla Miniature Game pop-up in my feed one day

and one of the featured videos was Ash's intro to the Fallout Wasteland Warrior starter box.  I figured what the hell, give it a watch, and go from there.  I ended up watching all of his Fallout videos and was sufficiently motivated to breakout the starter box and paint it up.  Now I bought the box in 2018 (if I remember correctly) at our LGS and got an excellent deal, because I was gaming Fallout 4 pretty hard at the time I also bought a blister of turrets when they were available and the Boston Companions that I painted for my toe-dip.

Now we jump to the Fall 2019 and I am now putting paint to brush on the starter box.  One thing to consider as you look at the pictures, Modiphius released the set in a few options, resin or pvc.  The box I bought was the pvc, as such you will see that some of the minis do suffer from some base warp that I was not able to fully mitigate these.  As well, I've read that the resin and now metal figures have much more detail than the pvc...curious to see this as I like the detail that is in the pvc figs and really more just sounds better.

Bottomline, thanks to GMG I painted up the box, I am very happy with how the figures turned out, and one of my objectives for 2020 will be to try these figures out on the table.

Enjoy the pics...take care.

 The Starter Set survivor lineup...(l to r) potential railroad faction figure that could pass for random settlement survivor, pipe pistol packing survivor, Dogmeat, Nora the sole survivor, and another random peon who can be used as survivor or slave; dependant upon the scenario.
 
 
Closeup shot of the crew...the bases turned out really cool and each one is themed.  I even tried to paint some Quantum Nuka Cola for Dogmeat...
 
The Survivor/Peon/Slave...double barrel at the ready...
 
There is a power armoured figure for the survivors...I elected to paint this up as a survivor with some scrounged pieces from other suits...as opposed to going all BoS with it.
 
Nora the sole survivor and Dogmeat...
 
The MUTANTS!!!! These were a ton of fun to paint up...pretty much anything goes and if you're inclined it is an excellent reason to 'research' some time with a Fallout console game of your choosing...
 
 
The Turret blister...these came in hard resin and were a little finicky on building but turned out really well...I'm very happy with the results. 
 
Saving the best for last...the first figure from the starter box that I painted, the Chairman of the Board...the DEATHCLAW!!! This was a blast to paint and I had a lot of fun bringing the various details out with the highlights and shading...
 
 
Take care folks, keep swinging
  

2019 Expedition up Mt. Lead.

Painted:
28mm-ish     57 (+16, 4 turrets, 12 box figures)
15mm           3

Bought:        15 (+4 turrets)

Progress:   +45