Ish

Skull White should work... How, pray tell, might I go about exchanging some of my filthy lucre for your goods?

So... I was re-reading the Empire of Sonnstahl rules and it looks like if I want my unit of Heavy Infantry with halberds (ashigaru with naginata) to be able to function as a Support Unit, they need to be 20 Models. I’ve currently only got fifteen...

Well, lads, looks like you won’t be assigned to the musket unit after all...

You got any of that Citadel Color Contrast Wraithbone spray primer?

I played the original Interlock edition of Cyberpunk 2020 back in the mid-Nineties. At the time, my friends and I all thought Shadowrun was more interesting so we mostly stuck with that. Nothing wrong with Cyberpunk as a setting and the old interlock system was perfectly functional (I was a big fan of Melton Zeta, which used the same basic rules as a foundation) although like any game system it had a few quirks... But nothing a competent GM and some cooperative players couldn’t work around.

I don’t know much about the new edition, but I remember that there was a lot of positive buzz around it when it was announced.  

This project remains one of the most ingenious concepts and flawless executions of concept ever. 

1 minute ago, andy said:

I really want a Thousand Sons army; looking forward to seeing these guys when done.

Unfortunately, I also want a Black Legion army and have to choose. Decisions, decisions.

Work in progress shot of my Arcane Engine.

The  mounted figure is an old find from a “clearance bin” from a Chinese wargame that I do not know the name of (all the packaging was in Chinese) and he’s very out of scale with the rest of my figs. The plan is to paint him up as a sort of jade statue, then put a couple of figures on foot to count as crew (a samurai to guard the sacred statue and an peasant to wrangle the elephant).

And yes, I know, the Japanese never used war-elephants. They also didn’t have jade statues that shot beams of magical fire. It’s a fantasy game, work with me.

Not technically Warhammer 40,000 figures as you requested, but they’re still some of the oldest Gee Dub figures in my current collection. Say “Well met, travelers!” to the stars of 1995’s original Warhammer Quest:

For bonus nerd-stalgia points, here is the very first miniature I ever painted, still in his original K-Mart craft paint paint job. From way back in 1990. Officially, he’s Mithril Miniatures’ Celeborn, King of Lothlórien, but to me he’ll always be Christian Pathwarden, Cleric of Mishikal. He was my very first AD&D character.

17 minutes ago, CountElmdor said:

Those are pretty cool ashigaru.

Wargames Factory rolled them out back in 2012, some of the first products they ever made. Wargames Factory went belly up, but all the designs and tooling was sold to Warlord Games who still keeps them in production...

Detail is really “soft” and the joins between arms and torso or torso and legs is kinda terrible. (Well, terrible by 2020 standards. They’re about on par with GW’s plastic WHFB troops from the mid-to-late Nineties.) However, they were dirt cheap, $20 for a box of 25 figs, and there really wasn’t any other source of 28 mm plastic feudal Japanese soldiers on the market. Heck, there isn’t really anything out there now... and they’re still cheap at $32 for a box of 25 figs. (And Warlord runs sales all the time.)

For massed blocks of rank-and-file troops for WHFB / T9A they work great. When you’ve got 25-50 guys standing shoulder to shoulder, you don’t really need to worry too much about getting precision detail. Of course, since I also plan on using them mostly for fantasy wargames, I’m also not too worried about historical accuracy either... They’re going to be fighting Orcs, Vampires, and Elves. Why worry about making sure their heraldry is period specific? 

If you’re in the market for Sengoku Jidai troops, in bulk, I highly recommend them.

Less is Moor More.

Rain, rain, go away... I have minis to prime today! 

Managed to really “get in the zone” and knocked out my repairs and rebasing of my spearmen and halberdiers. 

The rebuilding begins....

Finally decided to start in on rehabilitating my long negelected samurai army. My goal for the week is to get the entire block of pikemen rebased, repaired, and touched up. There’s fifty of ‘em, so it’s a bigger job than it sounds.

However, to increase my enthusiasm, I’ve already given myself a couple “quick wins“ and will do some touch-ups on my Steam Tank and Heroes:

I have several hero models that I found in a “clearance bin” over ten years ago. They all come from a Chinese game that, near as I can tell, is based on the classic Romance of Three Kingdoms epic. But all the packaging is in Chinese, so I have no idea what the game is called, who these characters are meant to be, or anything. But they look cool.

”Drive me closer, I want to hit them with my katana!”

As a general rule, historical wargame figs tend to be far cheaper than sci-fi or fantasy games (especially compared to Games Workshop). But the multi-based 6 mm proxies for 28 mm route is also (in theory) a heck of a lot cheaper too.

Compare and contrast something like the Perry Bros. British Line Infantry BH1 plastic boxed unit and the Baccus British Line Infantry NBR01 pewter unit.

The Perry 28 mm figs give you forty men for £20.00 (about $25 yankee bucks); the Baccus 6 mm figures give you ninety-six figures which if mounted four-to-a-base would yield 24 bases... But it only costs £6.00 (about $7.50 USD).

Now, as a very grossly over-generalized statement, during the Napoleonic Wars a line infantry battalion would be composed of ten companies. The whole battalion would be around 1,000 men (excluding officers, musicians, etc.) and each company was supposed to be around 100 men strong (although casualties, illness, and so forth always meant there was some variation here).

Doing some very rough “back of the napkin math,” if we wanted to represent a single company on the table using the Perry figures, we’re looking at about $75... with the Baccus figures, we’re looking at $7.50.

Like most parents, I’d have been happy with either option of course. But in my heart of hearts, I think I’m glad I ended up with daughters. 

But, the oldest is now a teenager and the youngest is rapidly approaching the teens herself... So, y’know, this opinion subject to change.

One thing I’ve always been keen to try is to use 28 mm rules, but with 6 mm scale figures but with multiple figs mounted to a single base.

My original idea was to use this for Saga Age of Crusades, which is normally played with 28 mm scale individual infantry figures on 20 mm square bases. I was thinking of putting four 6 mm figs on the same base.

Similarly, you’d “shrink” the terrain to match. So what the rules call a “small house” would be a collection of huts and barns with the same footprint. A small stream becomes a large river. And so forth.

So you would get the visual appearance of two grand armies clashing over a sweeping landscape, but you wouldn’t need to go through the expense of building such forces in 28 mm and it wouldn’t take eight hours to play a game.

(There are also a lot of people who play 28 mm games in 15 mm scale; they simply chop any measurements given in the rulebook in half: 28 mm soldiers move 6”? Our 15 mm soldiers will move 3”. Nice and simple.)

I haven’t gotten to play Napoleonics, ever, but have always loved the period. Finding a group of likeminded nerds just never seemed to happen... But I do try to keep an eye on that side of the hobby.

By all accounts, it seems that Black Powder from Warlord Games is the most popular and most approachable wargame for massed battle (50+ troops) that covers 1700 – 1900 CE. The basic rules are modified slightly for various eras: French and Indian Wars, American Revolution, Napoleonics, American Civil War, Colonial Africa, etc. It was written by Rick Priestly and Jervis Johnson, who were basically the creative force behind the titles that put Games Workshop on the map (Rick Priestly also wrote the WWII game, Bolt Action, for Warlord Games alongside Alessio Cavatore another former GW alum).

Muskets and Tomahawks from Studio Tomahawk is an excellent game for skirmishes (10-20 troops) in the same period. The game has a second edition due out soon, that will follow the same core rulebook modified by era books. The French and Indian Wars and the American Revolution will be the first book, Napoleonics will be the second.

There are a lot of Napoleonic games on the market, but these two would probably be the best place to start. If you can drum up some other interested parties, I’d love to join.

Replied to Wrong Thread. Can this get deleted?

So... Anyone interested in playing D&D or something via Roll20? (Or have an existing game I could join?)

53 minutes ago, InfestedKerrigan said:

Threadjack aside, I vote a healthy child that will keep you up many sleepless nights by your side, and who knows where, but brings you endless pride and joy at the fruit of your love.

Oh, fine, be the mature and responsible one with wishes of health and happiness that make the rest of us look like jerks. 😝

But, yes, in all seriousness, I wish you and your family all the best.

Different plastics will respond differently, so you might want to do some test runs using the bitz of excess sprue before you start trying it out on the models, but...

Boiling water seems to be the safest and surest method, in my experience. It seems to work almost all of the time and doesn’t seem like it will cause any harm if it doesn’t work. 

If you have a tea kettle or an electric kettle, you can also try holding the mini in the steam jet as the water boils (use tongs!) this has worked for me in the past with softer and/or thinner plastics, like Airfix kits.

I’ve also known people who have used their ovens (at a very low temp) and their microwaves. But that seems like  potential health risk for future food prep to me.

It’s not; I was writing that post at the same time you wrote yours explaining the nature of the question...

...but mostly I just enjoy any excuse to complain about the sassenachs. 
 

Anna, Hannah, Hannah Montana, Bananas in Pajamas....