Galleries

Horizon Wars – Last Unit Completed And First Game Planned. 

So, with all the infantry and vehicles now done, only the last and by far the largest, unit is left.

This started life as a blue and green MechWarrior flyer that had languished in my broken bits box for the last few years.

After a quick repaint, and an even quicker rummage to locate a new flight stand (which was why it was in my broken bits box), this is now a 6mm heavy air transporter.  Only decals to do and then I can varnish the whole army and call things ready for our first game.

As that first game is planned for next week, I have been trying out some of the scenery I have.  We are planning a 9 or 12 point game to get to know the basic rules and mechanics.

As such a 2×4 or 4×4 feet table, with very basic scenery, should do fine.  We want to focus on the rules primarily for our first game, as Horizon Wars has some interesting new concepts in regard to movement and fire fights.   It’s nice to see a game designer with the confidence to take a risk, by launching a game with new mechanics, instead of just mixing and matching some of the old faithful concepts.

Next up, my new army in all its glory…

Campaign 2016

I have again had the pleasure of attending a wargames show run by one of our local game groups.

Campaign 2016 was held in Milton Keynes shopping centre again and, although small, is a good show that I try to attend every year if I have the chance.

It is an opportunity to support a local group and also a number of local traders.  Products For Wargamers is an internet seller and show trader from Milton Keynes.  Jim sells a wide and expanding range of items. As my 6mm army is now nearly finished I picked up a couple of his smaller trees, as a couple more will be useful for our planned 6mm games.

He also had a deal on fences and walls so I picked up some more railings.

They fit in nicely with my Warbases stuff but I may want to drybrush them with a bit of silver to help them fit in better.

His wall ranges also include some more modern, almost Sci-Fi looking, walls that should fit in with my DeadZone scenery.

All this lot came in at under £2 a piece.  A good deal for ready made scenery.

The only miniatures I came home with were these SHQ Victorians.  They are based on the Flashman stories, and as I have a cricket pavilion on the painting table, a chap in cricket pads was a must.

A good show, if quite small, and well worth a visit if you are nearby.

 

Horizon Wars – Decal Details

As the Horizon Wars force infantry have been getting all the attention lately, I have decided to give the armoured units some extra detailing, to make then look a bit more finished.

Salute gave me the opportunity to pick up some Stars and Bars decals for my Steam Wars Naval force.  Those decals come in a range of sizes.  Some small enough to apply to 6mm scale figures.

The chest decals for the dreadnoughts are so small I don’t really know if I got them the right way up…  The look is what I wanted though.

With a red, white and blue colour scheme the decals are just right if a little obviously US in origin.

So welcome to the New United Federation of Colonies (AKA – ‘The NUF-C’).

At least any future additions to the force will have a theme and colour scheme to follow…

First Horizon Wars game planned for next week. Looks like I will be ready.

Horizon Wars – Got To Stop Painting (Oh One More).

I have finished the infantry and think they are ready for a game now.  I need to stop painting now and call them done. The only details left to paint are too small to see from arms length.  I see no point in painting these parts if I wont see them.

My HQ units are probably the brightest elements as they have standards in blue and larger red details.

As cloned troopers they are all red heads (bred for their aggressive nature).

I have added some blue and red to the vehicles as well to blend them into the force.

Only one miniature left to paint then I can varnish them up and get that game planned…

Horizon Wars – 6mm Details – To Paint Or Not To Paint

So the detailing has started.  Plain white and black is too simple a paint scheme for these miniatures. A couple of extra colours are all it takes to add some interest.

I have done some test models and I like their look.  So far, silver red and blue are detailing the white and black base coat.

Once I finish the rest off, I may have to add some more colours, but I don’t want to go too far.

As I painted some more bases, I noted that some have faces and hair…  That’s 2 more colours I will need to add…

So far so good but still a long way from finished.

Horizon Wars – Basing That Takes Longer Than The Figures

So basing is well underway. The base colour is done and when they are all laid out they are looking fairly neat so far.

It also reminds me how much base painting I have to do.

Dry brushing in grey gives a fairly simple contrasting effect.

Again painting the edges takes a fair amount of time too.  All in all, these bases have taken much longer than they should have.  Longer than I expect the figures will take.

I have started a little bit of silver on some of the figures as a treat to myself. After so long painting bases I thought it would be nice to do something else. How much more I will do, to pick out details on these tiny figures, I haven’t decided as yet…  I may only need to pick out a couple of things and then I can call them done.

Horizon Wars – Swift Progress

So now I have a Horizon Wars force up and running, I need to get them ready. Coronasan has already started his new 6mm force and that army grows daily with a heavy focus on armoured vehicles.

I still don’t have a generic system for basing armies and usually I chose a new style for each army I start.  This time I have decided on a rocky effect. I have used the basing material, brown gravel from army painter, before and it works well.  Once I started though, I realised that the rocks, although small on 28mm bases, are much larger on 6mm bases than I expected…

Also, I should have based them last as the white undercoat I have used means I now need to do an awful lot of extra work.  First by painting around the tiny infantry feet on about 30 bases and then dry brushing them to bring out the details on each one too.

One quick way of detailing so many small miniatures is a heavy black wash.  And with Star Wars back in the public eye the black and white storm trooper effect is a nice finish to get me started.

I will be basing up the Mech and the infantry but not the fliers or tanks at this time.

An impromptu set of painting mounts lets me ink wash the tanks and small flyers as well as this large repainted MechWarrior miniature.  This large flyer, which should be used in a 10-15mm game, will be used as a fighter bomber or transport.

The painting will continue over the next few days so updates should be coming fairly regularly over the next little while…

Horizon Wars – A Decision To Start Again.

Never one to shy away from more work, and despite having about 3 kilos of epic scale miniatures and tanks, I have decided to start a new Horizon Wars force using some miniatures from a kickstarter that I backed but had no purpose for at the time.

I got these lovely items from the Oathsworn Miniatures – Heavy Robot kickstarter.  Sadly the range is no longer in print and Oathsworn are focusing on other interesting projects. The Robot kickstarter sent me one robot and some small robot drones.  Two tank style and four flyers.

In 28mm scale they are nice little robot drones.

In 6mm scale they are a Heavy Mech, two small tanks and four fighter aircraft.

After digging out my old unpainted sprues of Epic scale Space Marines, I have come up with enough bases of infantry to cover all my needs.

Now all I need to do is slap on some paint and base them up ready for a game…

Horizon Wars – A Return To 6mm Games

Released last month at Salute, Osprey’s Horizon Wars has been getting good reviews and picking up new players all over the world.  Their facebook page seems to be where most of the discussion is taking place.  The authors new website is also a good source of info.

Upon getting finished with the first read through of the book, I raided my old 40k Epic cases.  I have several kilos of Imperial Guard to pick from and a sample 9 point force came out of the case without leaving a gap…

I also have Space Orks and Space Marines to chose from too.  The Orks could be used like this for a simple 12 point game…  Again without the case looking touched…

Anyone reading my blog will recognise that all my games get plenty of scenery bought or built for them.  I seem to have the start of a forest already.

Along with a small bomb levelled town, a couple of gun pits and some tiny hedges.

Hedges that should do fine by the looks of it.

These old home made rubber roads are perfect as a ‘cut to fit’ road system.

A touch small for tanks but scale seems ok for now.

And I have plenty of them…

Judging by our failed attempts at planning a game of Dust Tactics recently, we might get a game in by June 🙂

Tea And Sandwiches Will Be Served In The Pavilion (Eventually). 

Salute recently provided a shopping opportunity for me and I picked up some of the bits that I had been looking at for a few months now.  Warbases again featured heavily in these purchases.

I usually find their items easy to construct and go together without any problems or fuss.  Their cricket pavilion however is more fiddly than a lot of their stuff.  Clamps and rubber bands are the best friends one can have with MDF buildings.  A touch of ingenuity is also essential as these come without instructions.

Simple buildings when they are finished but that roof has 10 parts inside it…

The best moment for me was when I discovered the cricket screen in the pack.  I had not realised that this was in the pack but love the idea that the screen is included too.  I never expected to want one of these for the game table, but I am very happy to have one now.

So much so that it got finished first in readiness for our up coming Dust game.

Warbases now also provide some alternate wall sections for their Mill Wall set. These railings come in 3 styles of pointy or round iron.  At a pound each adding a few new wall sections does not break the bank.