Target missed!

Mission Failed. 

I have not hit my 100 point target this month. First poor showing of the campaign but not the end of the war.

I have successfully painted 4.5 sea guard and a selection of bases to be used in the future. A rather pitiful 63 points, plus whatever some bases are worth. There are a whole host of excuses that prevented me from attaining gaming nirvana this month but I will not bore you with them here, suffice to say I will have more work to do in the coming months.

Onward and upwards

Talking of the future; my High Elf army may well change in composition over the coming weeks,  Weazil from http://warhammerforadults.blogspot.co.uk/ has mentioned that he may be running a 4th edition game at BOYL 2016, which is something I would love to take part in. As regular readers will know I do like a bit of 4th (or is that 5th?) edition Warhammer Fantasy. However it would require a rejig in army lists as a lord character must be chosen in the later editions, it is Hero Hammer after all.

The core units of halberd armed melee infantry, archers, cavalry and scouts will likely remain because of the flexibility and flavor they provide. The main questions that puzzle me most are: Can I fit in a bolt thrower and where to put the general? Make a mega unit with the Silver Helms, have him on a monster by himself or lounge around with the infantry? I am leaning towards sticking him on a Pegasus but that might be a bit expensive. When I know more about, points and magic item distribution I can think in more detail.

The legion grows

Of course during this quiet month my purchasing urges have not diminished. I picked up a quintet of High Elven characters on the Old Hammer Trading Group, in fairness this caught my eye for two reasons: 1, It was a tenner and 2, had the Everqueen in. Alarielle is one expensive lady and is going for £25 on ebay BIN's which is normally too rich for my stingy self. The others were an archer champion that I have liked the look of for years, a Gary Morely mounted hero and a marauder standard and musician.

I had always thought the marauder stuff was.... stocky but standing next to Jes Goodwins seaguard they just simply do not look Elven. More so a rather butch pair of humans playing dress up. I think these will go back on sale at some point soon, I just cannot see myself wanting to paint them. Should anyone want to pick them up from me please let me know.

I did possess the Everqueen before at some point in the mists of time, god knows where she went but I now have a duplicate and am inordinately happy about it. This means any army I now run will include a Mage on foot, so I can use the miniature. She, along with the archer champion has been stripped and are currently being prepped for painting.

Where to go from here?

I am going to take a break from painting Seaguard once the 10th member of the unit is complete, mainly to mix things up and have a break but also to allow me to get the Shadow warriors unit up to a legal 5 many unit and get cracking on the other ranged elements of my army. I am currently trying to resist the kid at Christmas approach of wanting to paint Alarielle, instead I will use her as a reward after getting a shit load of archers done instead. This also gives me some time to learn how to paint shear material which will not necessarily expose the Evernips™ but just break up the monotony of a green dress because I suck at freehanding designs.

A tale of Oldhammerers Play Along: Update

Celebration

Holidays are brilliant. I get to sit on my arse while painting and listening to Motorhead very loudly. Good times never last for long so I am enjoying the time I have before I go back to work.

Painting time has helped me hit my targets for my play along at home, much to my relief. By this point, in all honesty I had expected to fail; just another project started with enthusiasm and left alone within days. There is a long way to go of course but its a solid second step.

5 Elven guard with a standard bearer is 84 points

2 Archers are 28 points, bringing me to a total of 112 points painted since the 19th of this month.

To say I am pleased is an understatement, maybe some semblance of willpower is beginning to manifest itself in me after my first couple of decades of dicking about.

These guys join 4 Seekers (72 points) and a Silver helm (37 points). Bringing the grand total to 221 points. Phwoar, I am sure the collective hoards of the Warhammer world are having their underwear menaced by the mere thought of them. Maybe not.

Photography

Hmmm, so photography is quite a skill. A good picture can really present a miniature to its best. Sadly my camera skills could be considered in need of improvement at best and down right shoddy if reviewed honestly. The best pictures I could get off my phone involved daylight from the front and a backlit screen from behind.... not exactly professional but hopefully it gives an idea of what these guys actually look like. My phone seemed to especially enjoy picking up all the dust and rogue static grass on my laptops chassis and in many other pictures did its best to ignore the miniatures completely.

For the next batch, I will try and get a more advanced set up prepared after calling upon the knowledge of a mate who knows a darn sight more than I do.

Learning

One of the best aspects of doing anything is the opportunity to learn and improve as you go along. Even in seven miniatures, I feel I have improved in some aspects and learned valuable lessons in others. The way I produce skin has improved steadily, my mixes are getting closer and more sympathetic each time. The last guardsman I painted being my favourite in that regard.

I also learned that the material bit on the spear looks shite in green. The one Guard painted like this may well change but for now, I will leave it as a cautionary tale to myself.

An old White Dwarf also yielded a gem painting tutorial which I have followed on the last two Guards and they are a massive improvement. I may well go back and update the older miniatures.

Moving Forward

Up next will essentially be a ditto, 5 more Guard and 2 more Archers. A bit bland but important for several reasons; firstly it allows me to get the Guard unit up to a minimum size unit according to Warhammer Armies, which for me would be one hell of an achievement. Secondly, it means in a following month I can bring an Archer unit up to a similar state.

As I have a few days left of December and enthusiasm to spare, I hope to find the Silver Helms lance and shield so that they can be painted up and attached. There might also be some greenstuffing to do to smooth out a join for him.

Compatability mode

Set Up

As readers of this blog will know, I am an avid proponent of Warhammer Fantasy Batlle 4th and 5th edition, which often does not get the love I feel it deserves. The wealth of background information, army books and campaign packs really help complete the image of the Warhammer world for me. However, the main rule set is not a patch on Warhammer Fantasy 3rd edition.

Most races are well represented in Warhammer armies. Dwarves have their many different varieties of hardcore infantry with lots of warmachines, Chaos is its wonderfully varied self, Dark Elves have their signature Cold ones and Witch Elves but once again the High Elves get the shaft a little. Especially with Kithbands, Warrior Kindreds and Ships Companies being more or less the same things with only minor equipment differences, I thought it was time to spice things up a bit and have a controlled merging of generations.

Processing

What I didn't want to do is to make the army better; no that way lies madness and power gaming, this is not the way to fun gaming for everyone. My goal is simply to add variety. Every pro will be suitably counteracted with a con such as additional points cost or restrictions.

I will use the experience system in Warhammer armies to designate statistics and will not deviate from that. If a bit of extra variety is needed then skills from the Warhammer 3rd edition rule book will be used.

Execution

I am leafing through the 5th edition and most rules heavy High Elf army book ever created. While it is great and characterful it is also very fussy, with countless special rules for each unit type. Not what I want but excellent inspiration for background etc. so I will work through one army list entry at a time.

Dragon Princes of Caledor

Noble Elves that are descended from those that once (or some that still do) ride dragons. The kin of Kings and blatant warmongers. These arrogant little bastards do little other than train their martial skills and swoosh around in a superior manner so in my mind they have to be +4 Elites, the best that can be fielded but will only ever ride on their little dragons (horses) fully equipped and armoured. I imagine anyone that tells them different will be met with sneers and sarcastic remarks. As they are elite troops, they need to be restricted, tying them to the amount of dragon riders in the army seems like a sensible idea, helping give that Caledorian theme.

Silver Helms

Already described admirably by Warhammer Armies for 3rd Edition Pg 48. This has been uploaded by some kind soul for your convenience here http://www.scribd.com/doc/100191674/Warhammer-Armies.

Ellyrion Reavers

Already described admirably in Warhammer Armies for 3rd Edition Pg 48 as Shore Riders.

White lions

Rugged woodsmen that have a reputation as brave and capable warriors, often used as bodyguards for important people. While they spend much of their time in the field as lumberjacks and monster slayers par excellence, not all of their skills are based on fighting despite their ferocious reputation . I would make them +3 Elites, with the Foresters skill. Often used as the bodyguards of Important Elves, their availability depends on the amount of higher level characters also present.

Phoenix Guard

The Phoenix Guard protect the Shrine of Asuryan, they are well trained and drilled, sworn to a magically induced silence and spend long periods of time on guard duty. They have never been represented as exceptionally powerful and occasionally causing fear due to being unnervingly quiet. However, this is not an option that is available within the restrictions I have set myself and moving outside of these starts the slippery slope toward power gaming. The best fit within the parameters is as +2 Elites with no additional special rules.

Swordmasters

Messengers of the white tower, secret agents who root out spies and agents of the chaos gods, these guys are martial artists that have no peers. Able to use a greatsword as others wields a butter knife, they have to be +4 Elites. No other rules really fit them or are really required, they will go through what ever enemies are in front of them like a hot knife through butter. Most often they are used as the hand of the white tower, directed by Wizards and Seers to intervene at critical points. Because of this their restriction would tie them with Mages on the table.

Lothern Seaguard

Already described admirably in Warhammer Armies for 3rd Edition Pg 49 as Merchant Companies

Spearmen

 Already described admirably in Warhammer Armies for 3rd Edition Pg 49 as Kithband etc.

Shadow Warriors

Already described admirably in Warhammer Armies for 3rd Edition Pg 50 as Seekers.

Archers 

Already described admirably in Warhammer Armies for 3rd Edition Pg 49.

Shut Down

I had forgotten how bad at using Photoshop I am so the cards are not perfect but they present a general idea. If you have any ideas, comments or rotten tomatoes to throw, please let em now what you think!

Age and Resurgence

Preamble

Getting older is a double edge sword. On one hand I have more hair on my chin than my head, my knees and ankles crack as I walk and my short term memory is shocking to say the least. However, it does give you a wider (if not somewhat sketchy), sense of time and long term planning.

Recently, I spotted my High Elf shadow warriors on my shelves, remembered writing about them "a few weeks ago" on the blog, then wandered off again, probably distracted by something mundane such as employment or the need to find sustenance.

Inspiration

I have been following the tale of four Oldhammerers blog posts on the web, enjoying reminiscing about the original TOFG in White Dwarf and remembering how I had been following along at home. A thought then struck me, I could follow along with these gentlemen at home and maybe even reach my lifelong goal of having a well painted full army. The goal I had missed first time round by starting one army, changing on month 3 and never catching up. Maybe this time I would succeed?

It was at this point I realized that I was already behind as they had started in September and it was now December. To catch up, I was going to have to get organized quickly and and maybe increase my monthly point count but I was sure I could do it! The challenge was set, 1000 points by August and I knew I wanted a High Elf army, so I opened up Warhammer Armies and quickly thrashed out an army list:

Spellbard(118)                                                                                   141           
Warhorse(6), Barding(4), Protective symbols (10) and Woad(3)

Earl(88)                                                                                             103           
Halberd(2), Heavy Armour(3),  protective symbols(10)

17 Elven Guard(216)                                                                        264           
Standard(14), Heavy Armour(17), Halberds(17)

10 High Elf Archers                                                                          140           

7 Silver Helms(245)                                                                          259           
Heavy Armour(14)

5 Seekers                                                                                           90

                                                                                                  Total 997

I adhered to my own limitations of <25% characters allowance and >50% units allowance. I firmly believe Warhammer should be about units and not heroes which this restriction represents nicely. The Spell Bard would be the figurehead leader due to looking more dynamic and important on a fine steed but practical leadership would most likely come from the hero on foot. I wanted variety in the units where possible so went for 1 unit of melee infantry, 1 unit of ranged infantry, 1 unit of skirmishers and a unit of melee cavalry. This gives me a nice rounded force to take on all comers with that should be fun to play with and to me seems quite elfy.

This activity reminded me that one of the great strengths of  the High Elf army list is that it has no compulsory troops choices, so it lets you choose more or less what you want. Which is neat and makes life easier on the leadpile and therefore my wallet.

Climbing the mountain

With my army list in hand I headed to my leadpile to see what I could dig out. A quick search revealed:
20 metal sword masters,
15 lothern seaguard in a horrible state of paint after being purchased off ebay some time a go,
5 Silver helms,
16 metal archers
and a hero on a horse.

The swordsmen were quickly thrown back as their weapons did not represent halberds in any way shape or form, the mounted hero went back too as it was of no use to me. This left me with Seaguard to represent my Elven guard, which their heavily bladed spears could do in a pinch, all the archers I needed and most of the cavalry too. I then remembered the shadow warriors on my shelf that I had blogged about "a few weeks ago." It turns out that a few weeks was in fact over a year... Amazing how time flies isn't it? So after my first sift, I had the majority of my units but no characters. Ho hum, I will have to shop around a little to find something suitable but still, it was a solid start.

The shopping list

Mounted mage: It seems to be nigh on impossible to find a nicely done, mounted female mage. I have Googled until my eyes bled (slight exaggeration) and even asked the Mrs to help me look. The only model I actually liked is from GameZone miniatures, it from their faux Bretonnian range but is genuinely a thing of beauty. Sadly it is also almost impossible to buy, even the vendors own website would not allow me to purchase it. I will, however, persist as I now have it in my head that she would be perfect. If anyone knows where to get it please let me know.

Hero on foot with a nice big spear: Fortunately there are quite a few of these about, I will most likely use a converted version of this fella or the crewman from the old Tiranoc Chariot. I have wanted this miniature for years and think his antlered helmet will fit in nicely with the planned "natural look" of the army as opposed to the often used flames or phoenixes. (Edit: Ooooh or maybe a maiden guard)

  
Units: I also need 2 more Silver helms, 1 shadow warrior and 2 more seaguard. Blimey, Seaguard can be expensive on EBay these days! 20 quid for 4 miniatures seems a piss take when I bought 15 for £25 not so long ago. Still, patience is a virtue and I am sure there are still bargains out there to be had, especially as I am only looking for 2.

The plan

To hit my targets I cannot mess about painting bits here and there then panicking because it is almost August. No, this way is my usual route and its destination is failure. Instead, I drafted up a painting plan, separated in to 8 sections (no particular order), one each month until the target. I already have 4 painted Seekers and one Silver Helm so they do not need to be on the list.

2 Archers, 5 Guard

2 Archers, 5 guard

2 Archers, 5 guard

2 Guard, 4 archers, 1 seeker

3 Silver Helms

3 Silver Helms

SpellBard

Earl

This should leave me with needing to paint on average 7 models a month or a big spangly character, a feat that even I should be able to accomplish...maybe. Well I will try anyway. Whipped up with enthusiasm for the project, this is exactly what I did. In quick succession I painted my first 2 archers and 2 Elven (sea)Guards.

Since taking this picture, I have almost completed a third (sea)Guard and half completed the units standard bearer. You may notice that the spear shafts are black and a bit messy. This is down to my indecision on how to best proceed, I put up a plea on the Oldhammer Facebook page for advice and was met with a wave of sagely wisdom, many good ideas and smutty comments. I have decided that I want to see what the unit look like as a group before deciding a colour, they may even stay black but we shall see.

Progress so far

I intend to buck my usual tend of getting distracted and actually stay the course with this project. I am hoping that by publicly declaring it I will not suffer from waning enthusiasm as quickly as I usually do...

Army of four

So after a recent visit to Worcester Wargames, my local purveyor of new and old wargame tomfoolery, I have picked up some elves I did not recognise from the second hand boxes. Too new for me most likely but I have to say that they are fine models. I think they are Shadow warriors from the WFB 7th Edition releases but if anyone could confirm that it would be great. Usually, I am not fussed by a lot of the newer miniatures but these seemed particularly well done and certainly fitted my aesthetic of Elfdom, even if the leader does have a striking resemblance to Jon Bon Jovi in the 80's.

In the picture below they are about 70% done, all that remains is to sort out the skin properly and the smaller details, I think. Chances are I will find something else I don't like and spend ages pissing about with them.

Looking at the photos now I can see a load of different stuff that I have missed and/or want to do differently. The big knob on tip of the leaders sword is one culprit, I am rather aghast that I did not see that while painting but now it seems so obvious. Photography has multiple uses it seems, not only can I share what I have painted but can also used it for error checking!

Painting was super simple, as befits the one who painted them*: Green bits were Dark Angles green, highlighted up using progressive percentages of Goblin Green. The white(ish) was Astronomican grey highlighted up with more and more white before black wash being applied to the recesses. The dark brown is Vallejo's Dark Flesh with Graveyard earth mixed in for highlights. Light brown is Graveyard earth with Witch elf flesh mixed in for highlights. The skin is Vallejo's Bronzed flesh highlighted up with Vallejo's Elf flesh, all washed down with Gryphonne sepia.

*All paints are from GW unless otherwise stated.

Painting faces in helmets is causing me some trouble. As readers of some of my other blog entries may know, I struggle with flesh in general but on a helmeted head there is so little to work with it just seems to end up looking like a messy splodge. Any pointers would be gratefully received.

I am also looking to "Oldhammerify" them a little, so some stripy trousers may well be working their way in to the picture very shortly.

Life in the field

I hope to use these guys in 3rd Edition fantasy at some point so I went to the rule book and smushed together some rules for them.

Bon Jovai, wanted dead or alive in 6 realms will be an Elven Hero, with longbow, hail of doom arrow, light armour and a greatsword. That sword is far too large for a hand weapon but I am not sure where he will put his bow while using it. That is a problem that Bon must face alone.

He will be accompanied by six (as soon as I can source another three, if anyone has some up for sale please let me know) Elven warriors. +1 missile Elites, with longbows, light armour and greatswords (again the swords on the miniatures are huge). They will also be scouts.

Just out of curiosity does anyone know if Bon needs to pay to be upgraded to a scout or does he just get it by joining the unit?

Scouts in 3rd Ed don't get to deploy closer to the enemy like they do in later versions of the game so use of the advanced forces will get them half way there for some close up longbow action. Skirmishing and standing around some bushes should keep them relatively safe from missile fire but in close combat they will be living on a prayer.The hail of doom arrow should also be a nasty shock for any heavily armoured units not expecting it. 

I have also started work on some Silver Helm knights, so keep an eye out for them soon.

The Elven Enigma

Out in the cold

Elves in Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd edition were one of the popular races. Often featured amongst the pages of white dwarf, rule books and these days on Internet forums. Wood Elves were often seen, particularly in battle reports and were used as the general Elf representatives. Dark Elves were well favoured as well but maybe that was more to do with the associations between Witch Elves and nerds...

High Elves on the other hand were a relatively rare sight. I was pondering on this and think I have found a few reasons why.

The fluff

In the 3rd Edition Rulebook, the High Elves aren't really presented in a wonderful light. Being described as hedonistic and lazy, with no mention of their martial abilities. Ulthuan is shown as having an inner and outer lands, held apart by difficult to traverse mountain ranges. The outer realm is never mentioned. Not the most inspiring write up in the world but if anyone could point me to any background material that I have missed, then please let me know!

The Rules

Where the background is scant, the rules are almost absent! High Elves have one rule: their Mages can swap out any of their battle magic spells for other spell types. Handy, if you happen to be a Mage, pointless if you are not. While magic is intrinsically linked to Elves, there must be more to them than that. Wood Elves have their Archery and Field Craft, Dark Elves have their Witch Elves, Assassins, Hatred and even potential mutation.

Improving the view

So, enough of the bitching, its hardly going to help to whine about a game that is nearly thirty years old. Instead, we could look at the Elven background from later editions and try and reverse engineer something fitting but more interesting to be used with mutual agreement with your fellow gamers.

Using 4th and 5th Edition fluff, Ulthuan is described as a glittering kingdom that has somewhat passed its best. Despite being over the hill, it is still one of the world's major players. The High Elven army is described, both visually and in text, as being well equipped and well trained with many elite troops. They are proud of their race and their kingdom, often looking down upon the other races and even on their more feral cousins. 

Everyone also seems to wear armour, even archers and war machine crews, who otherwise would not have any protection. I guess when you have so much time to make stuff and a dwindling population, there is always going to be a surplus of equipment. It also makes sense to try and stop that population dwindling further...

Actually that makes me think about one of the typical Elven units, the Spearman. Why would an Elf want to use a spear? They gain no bonus from the initiative boosts as they almost always strike first anyway and the extra half rank of fighters only works if they stand still, rather negating the advantage of movement 5. Maybe it's the desire to be another foot or so away from an enemy when you kill him. I dunno, but I prefer them to have greatswords personally, they are elegant weapons to be used with great finesse to match the Elven psyche yet also let them kill with alarming regularity.

High Elves strike me as the sorts who firmly believe that they are better than everyone else by nature. They have long lives with which to hone their skills and create wondrous works so who can really blame them? If any being lived hundreds of years and watched generations of lesser species die of old age, I think a little hubris is quite likely.

Representing the Pompous Artisan

As an addendum to the Rule books rules, I would suggest the following:

Pride: High Elven units are not subject to panic by fleeing allies of any race other than High Elf. All High Elves have +1 leadership up to a maximum of 10.

Elven Armoury: All High Elves come equipped with light armour for free. They are still bound by the Elven movement reduction and must still pay 3 points to purchase heavy armour.

Any thoughts?

Hirst Arts Terrain

Hirst Arts, if you have not heard of them before, sell high quality latex molds for various scenic purposes. I recently purchased three of these and have begun an extensive production in my kitchen.

The online store is rather archaic by modern standards but still does everything that it needs to. Naturally, when my bank saw I was spending a reasonable amount of money in the US, immediately halted the transaction and informed me of a potentially fraudulent attempt to purchase latex molds.... Sometimes my banks fraud department remind me of a puppy who brings you your shoes. They sit there in front of you all proud and happy, slobbering over your expensive footwear. Objects which you have recently put in the cupboard and have no intention of using any time soon.

Fortunately, Bruce Hirst was very helpful and emailed me swiftly to inquire about the transactions halt. I contacted the bank, he put the transaction through again and we were in business. The parcel was sent through US mail, was traceable so I could keep my eye on it and see just how long customs decided to sit on it for.


Eventually my molds arrived and I set about casting up as much stuff as I could.


This is the first time I have attempted anything like this and I am not going to lie, there is a bit of a learning curve. The Hirst Arts website has quite a bit of useful information on it which I recommend a read of and Bruce enclosed a letter with my parcel providing a few hints and tips for latex care. Our first batch came out looking a bit bubbly.... we did some research on the internet and found a great video by Famous Gaming explaining how to make a budget vibrating table. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_oihGT8X8s. While we didn't have a hot glue gun ( I need to get one of those) or four identical sized small sponges, we did have two car sponges and a bit of hardboard. Armed with our scrounged resources, we mocked up a very crude version of the device seen in the video.


It made a huge difference, bubbly fail was reduced by a good 90%, OK, we still got a bit of bubblage but for improvised equipment I was very happy with the result.

The box of casts so far. The huge disks come from the bottom of our mixing bowl and will be used as Helipads, frizbees or maybe thundercat symbols.

  
As mentioned above we have acquired three molds, my favorite of which being http://www.hirstarts.com/steel/steel.html#about that makes a rather cool looking bridge. To get all the required pieces, we will need to cast the mold 16 times, which is quite a lot. So far, we have done 4 and used maybe a quarter of the 1kg of plaster we have. The others were piped and industrial flooring and one that makes up an extensive plumbing system. All of these will hopefully make some great terrain for Necromunda/Rogue Trader or 40k.


Floor tiles are possibly the easiest to cast as they are, rather obviously, relatively flat. The bridge pieces came out quite easily too but the pipe sections were an absolute bugger. We have been really struggling to get them out of the molds without damaging them, especially the very thin rims. This may well be down to the plaster that we are using. Without wanting to order huge bags of plaster online, I went to a local hobby store and picked up whatever they had. It is described as being hard, good for models and takes paint easily but maybe it is quite a bit weaker than the more traditional dental plaster.


Anyway, the project is in full sing and we are both having a great time casting all the bits up. I cannot wait to actually build something!

Your Pound of Flesh!

So with great intention I recently purchased some of Mengil Manhides dark elf company from Ebay, I acquired 12 for the princely sum of £20. I'm not sure if this is a particularly good deal or not as I am no hardened trader but I was quite pleased.


I did not really approach them with much thought, I simply selected a male and female unit member and began painting using the pallet I had out after painting some Silver Skull Spacemarines (more to come of those later). Right, so that’s the metal and leather on the armor sorted, time for the flesh then.


Oh, that stuff.

Shit.

I quickly realized after painting Astartes, aliens and not much else for so long I hadn't actually painted any skin of any color in quite a while. So full of enthusiasm, I went digging in my paints box for some fleshy paints. I found a bit of a haphazard selection and went to it with gusto.


Unfortunately, gusto does not really equate to quality. I quickly realized that I had no idea what I was doing and stopped with the following results:

Learning points:

• Just because the models come undercoated, it doesn't mean they have been undercoated well. It was a bit thick and claggy in places and hid some mold lines that came out when color was applied.
• Throwing yourself in without a reasonable pallet of paints will not produce slick color transitions.
• Some of the older sculpts facial details are not great and require an intelligent approach to get the best from them.
  

Realization that I needed some practice, if not a better selection of paints, dawned on me so I went to the internet to learn from people who actually know what they are doing. Over the next few evenings I watched a variety of video tutorials and some written ones to get a better grip of what I needed to do. While all this was going on, my ever patient wife was listening carefully and providing supportive comments. The next evening she returned home from work with the Vallejo skin and leather paint box for me.

Yep, she's a keeper.

Now I just needed something to practice on. At this point I remembered that a little while ago I had ordered some of the very fine models from Hasslefree Miniatures and they had kindly included a free topless dancer in the box. Sadly, it was only a miniature one but it would prove an excellent practice canvas.  Below are the results.

I had not mixed the colors well and the difference between the layers was far too noticeable. I had then tried to merge them by using washes. Unfortunately this caused it to look chalky and the skin to be much darker than I had anticipated. Darker skin is not a bad thing but it didn't match the ginger hair color the dancer already had. As we all know a tanned ginger is a physical impossibility.

Undeterred I grabbed the next miniature in line, Marina from Hasslefree. This time I was a bit more careful with my mixing. The tones were much closer and the transitions much less obvious. I started with a Bronzed flesh (Vallejo) base, washed it with gryphon Sepia (GW) and then added repeated layers of Bronzed Flesh with more and more Pale Flesh (Vallejo again) mixed in. It's not perfect, placing of some of the highlights is a bit odd and it will never win a Golden Daemon but I am quite satisfied with it and now feel confident enough to have a crack at my intended victims.

Speaking of which, Mengils bunch really need to be stripped and prepared properly before I can paint them to a  standard that I would be happy with. So that will be the next project for me. Assuming that I do not get distracted with the Hirst Arts molds that are currently winging their way across the pond to me. :)

And so, my rambling begins.

First off, I feel an introductory post is in order to establish myself and my incessant wittering regarding wargames and why I do what I do.

I have been playing a variety of wargames for a good 20 years now and feel impassioned by the hobby, which I see as wonderful and beneficial but slowly going to the corporation dogs. By now, you have probably guessed my interest is primarily in Games Workshop games, while I have played many others, I keep being pulled back in by their back ground, artwork and other imagery.


My gaming career started by playing 4th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle and 2nd Edition 40k, around 1995 or so. While I have little fondness these days for 4th Edition Fantasy (herohammer ahoy), 2nd Edition 40k is stuck very firmly in my psyche. Don't get me wrong, its a terribly unbalanced game and can be horrendously abused to exclude as much fun as possible, but when played in the intended mind set, it opens a huge amount of possibilities.

When you discount the varying power builds, 2nd Edition 40k is relatively robust and very enjoyable; some of my most cherished/funniest wargaming memories come from playing this game due to its relative complexity and room for comedy. A perfect example would be my Spacemarine Captain heroically shooting an Eldar guardian off his jetbike at close range only to have the bike itself crash on him and kill my noble captain. Both my opponent and I were laughing so hard we were pretty the rest of the game is quite a blur. There doesn't seem to be room for this kind of nonsense in the modern games, which for me is a great shame. Some people complained that heroes were over powered, in a similar vein to the contemporary fantasy games. I found that a heavy weapon to the face sorted that out, something that Fantasy lacked.

 

The tipping point

As time has rolled on, 40k got simplified in to the horrific abomination of 3rd edition and has been patched repeatedly since, making the game progressively more and more playable. I played through it all, mostly because I found the back ground so engaging (I will get to that bit later).While the rule sets have been getting a bit better, I think the whole ethos of the game has been going down the pan. A purchasing arms race has emerged, where if you don't have X you don't stand a chance vs Y.


When fliers first emerged, I did not want to get one as I find the concept of air support being present on a  field about the size of a football pitch odd to say the least. Until my first game against an airborne opponent; a Necron army with three Doom Scythes. They turned up on my opponent's turn two and by the end of it, all I had left of a once large army was a combat squad of marines hiding between a wood and the burnt out hull of their Razorback. The rest of my army fell prey to death rays and the shooting from the rest of his army, in one turn. At this point (beginning of my turn three), I chucked in the towel as five bolters against an entire army is never going to amount to much.


Afterward we both agreed that the game had not been very fun and discussed what I could have done to avert the massacre. The only answer either of us could think of was to buy either fliers of my own or some AA guns.

So I got a AA gun fortification as a compromise. Still no fliers but at least some defense against them. This time I did better, I lasted until my opponent's turn three and even managed to shoot down one flying croissant. Further analysis found that neither of us had enjoyed the game again and that I needed to buy a Storm Raven. In true scientific fashion, we repeated the experiment using differing armies and terrain lay outs and came to the same conclusion.


For me this was the NOPE! point. I had played multiple games with an hour + of set up and just under 30 minutes of actual game play which had not even been that fun. After lengthy investigation, we had concluded that the obstacle cannot be over come by strategy and instead requires quite a bit of money. For me this is when a wargame breaks, when it no longer depends on the players skill but solely on their wallets. When I saw the same thing happening with the Titan/large walkers that came along shortly after, I knew that my interest had died completely.


So boo fucking hoo, an old man throws his teddies out of his pram and declares that he is not going to play this game any more in true nerdite fashion, right? Well, kind of yes to be honest but most importantly for me, it made me sit back and take stock of the bits I actually like and want to experience more of.

The root of my addiction

I am a strategy fan, either in physical games or video games. I love pitting my whits against someone else in a good natured and gentlemanly fashion. It helps me improve my mind, gives me something to think about while bored (this happens a lot) and builds friendships with some noble types. Wargames do this nicely and often in real life rather than through a screen too.


Art is something I have always been into. Sketching characters, banging out story boards or just generally shitscribbling is something I have previously spent a lot of time doing. These days with a house, a wife and a career, I cannot dedicate as much time as I want to it to get to a skill level I would be happy at. So for me miniature painting and scenery building is a nice compromise. Some nice person has drawn me the picture and I can get my kicks by coloring it in. There are also lots of very nice video and written tutorials which I can glance at in breaks between work in a bit of slow digestion. Thanks to the internet and the general free flowing of knowledge, my painting skills have really picked up in recent years, even when not actually painting that much. For me this is a big improvement over regular drawing which I was beginning to suffer frustration with.


Storytelling is an essential part of wargaming for me. I'm not bothered by "My hero is going to go and slap yours after I run this block in to your chaff and blast the rest with magic." Although that is a brief and honest description of what may happen, it doesn't really set my pulse racing. When I start putting names to faces and plots together in my head, I start enjoying the experience from a second angle. In my rather deluded head the above passage would read "While his henchman engage the puny human skirmishers Davoth Tyr, Captain of the Black Ark will gut your hairy savage as Kelmon the Spirittalker rains death upon you". (Or something to that affect).


It sounds sillier written down than it does in my head but pleasing my inner twelve year old is quite simple and requires just a hint of imagination. Stringing games and the characters in them together again gives me something else to think about when bored and adds to the vividness of the experience.


In short, there are more aspects to it than just the moving miniatures around on a table that I enjoy and modern 40k just wasn't encouraging the things I like, so I needed to readjust my focus and off I go looking for something that does tick all my boxes.

Oldhammer

About a year ago I discovered that I was not the only one who longed for days gone by like true old farts and that there are people out there, still playing game they like because they like them, not because they are newest and they don't really like them. A new concept pinged in to being in my mind that I had previously discounted. I could, you know, choose which games I like to play and find people to play them with. As I said this had been previously discounted because I thought everyone still only wanted to play the newest games and keep up with the masses. Over the last year, I have been eagerly reading as many Oldhammer related blogs as possible during my spare time as well as digesting the Warhammer 3rd Edition Rulebook.



And that, dear readers is me. A once cranky old git, reinvigorated and back in love with his favorite past time that will hopefully create some readable content. Maybe. :)