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Steam Wars – Martians Taking To The Field (Or Our Night Out On The Town)

All good things come to those who wait (especially after a bit of hard work).  Our larger Steam Wars game came round soon enough and I was able to get quite a lot of my Martian force on the table for this game.

Mostly mechanical infantry, commanded by their Martian cephalopod overlords and supported by their Tripods.  I also wanted to try some Martian death worms, that would be burrowing away in front of the main army and hopefully pop up to munch on any Prussian Scrunts that they could get their grasping flesh hooks into.

The Prussian Scrunts had a slightly smaller force but consisted of a good mix of infantry and support units.  Oh, and let us not mention the Prussian Airships, as I only realised on the day that I had no weapons to combat them.  So be it, I would have to ignore them and focus on the remaining troops, and hope they would not be too disruptive.

After the first turn we had deployed onto the table and set up some lines of fire and placed some troops in hopes of some early charges.

My right flank appears overloaded as only the Prussian cavalry seem to want to venture over here.

My centre is also well stocked as the Prussians take to the buildings to gain some cover (or to plan an aerial assault).

My left was evenly balanced with the Prussians who fielded two infantry units here along with their heavily armoured HMG bike.

A bike that would pick away at me for most of the game and run off when ever I ventured forwards.

The Scrunt Jet Boys have always had my respect as they pack a fearsome punch when they get a clear charge to my vehicles.  I would go on to lose two or three tripods to their ministrations in this game.

My Exo-Suits proved their worth early on by ripping apart their first prey fairly easily.  For a small unit they pack a good punch (and are pretty good shooters too).

All in all a great game and some really nice scenery for such an eventful scrap to be played on.  My thanks to Coronasan for a great days gaming and a welcome break from repacking the new kitchen.

Steam Wars – Martian Elites Ready To Go

An impressive little lot if I say so myself.  Well, slightly less impressive when I say that, this time round, I only painted eleven figures of the seventeen pictured here.

The remainder are ones painted over the last year or so but without any clear position to play in the Martian Army.  Now though, they are all profiled up and ready to go.

Command unit one – Two Elite Crypto Cephalopods with heat rays and their officer, an Archo-magus, that can project his powers across the battlefield (if I manage to roll high enough that is).

Command unit two – Science Officer, a drone controller, and his marvellous mechanical gundogs.

A unit of Heavy Mechanical Assault infantry

Science team – An Elite Crypto Cephalopod in his personal exo-suit with a pair of Science drones as assistants.  Played as fast infantry, he also fulfils the role of a backup drone controller.

My first unit of Fast Cavalry for the martians.  The heat rays and grasping tentacles on these personal Eco-Suits should make them to be hard hitting, versatile, troops in the upcoming game.

All I have to do now is find a bigger box for this army as they are slowly outgrowing their original case…

Steam Wars – Martian Elites Incoming

As the shed has been out of action for so long, I have been unable to host any games at my place.  Coronasan has been kind enough to take up some of my slack and have me over for a game or two.

One of those games coincided with my regaining access to the shed.  As I had just gotten comfortable in the painting chair, I thought that I may as well bash out a few new pieces for the game.  It was planned to be another, larger sized, game of Steam Wars.  As such, I thought it was about time I added a few units to the Martian forces, as the Navy had seen some attention last time round.  I pulled a few painted units out of the case as inspiration, and to remember what colours I had used, and took a look at the painting queue to see what we had waiting.

My Martians are a small elite cadre of ancient Cephalopods that manage to retain their hold on the red planet by enslaving other races to do their bidding (and all the dirty jobs).  Their allied forces also contain a large number of mechanical constructs that can be fielded as specialists troops or good old fashioned foot slogging infantry.

This time round I have added a number of Cephalopod leader types, in their natural form.  These can be played as either drone controllers (to ensure the mechanical forces are doing what they need to) or as Archo-magi (to add a slightly fantasy/ hsteamtech magic element to our games).

Last, but by no means least, I have started on some heavy infantry. I fell out of love with these figures some time ago but, with a fast and dirty paint job, they will serve their purpose well on the game table.

Not Quite Back On Track After Renovations

I am almost hoping some of you have missed me.  It’s unlikely that many of you really have missed me, but an Englishman should always have hope.

Things around here have been more than a little unsettled, as we have had a batch of renovations in progress over the last 2 months.  Renovations that have gone on a little longer than we had expected or hoped…

No, we have not won the lottery, so please don’t expect a handout :-).  We have been working up to a few things for a year or two now, and just about have our ducks in a row so to speak.  In the end we took the plunge and decided to have it all done in one go. Mistakenly, we thought that it would reduce the stress of workmen being in the house for too long.  As it was, we just added to the stress, at least that’s how it seems to me.  Ho Hum…  Thats life I guess.  We survived and are almost back on track now.

I suspect there is no worse trauma than having a kitchen renovated.  The lack of a sink (or readily available running water) can be slightly disruptive to ones normal routine…

Not to say that the front room being full of kitchen cupboards did much to help either.  We had planned to run a simple temporary kitchen out of our conservatory.  In the end we could only access the kitchen by going out of the front door, around the side gate and back into the house by the rear.  All for a nice cup of tea!

Was it worth it you say?  In the end probably.  This lot should see us to our grave as we have no plans on moving house in the next 30 years. The wife is 10 years older than me so I guess I will at least have it to my self in the end, even if I have to share it for now :-).

I must say it is nice to be able to serve tea without too much fuss.

Sadly the washing up always seems to need doing…  Now I have a way to get back into the shed I might just get to paint something, if I can still remember how it’s done…

Last Days – Second Half And Final Crew

I finally found time this week to get the last of the Hasslefree miniatures completed.  These, you might remember, are for Osprey’s Last Days game.

They consist of a second child, this time with a baseball bat and bin lid. A teenager with anger issues. An older lady with a stoic ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ attitude and lastly, a slightly shifty chap with a bag full of ‘supplies’.

Pre shading shot…  showing all the mistakes and my poor attempts at getting clean edges…  and my attempt, on the older lady, at polkadots and tartan…

And now all those issues hidden away by a healthy dose of ink wash…

I don’t paint eyes anymore (if I ever did) as the ink gives a hint of definition and at table distance I can’t see them anyway (this is likely to be the last time I see them this close up…)

The full crew in all its glory outside their homestead.

Last Days – Start Made

Last Days is a post apocalyptic zombie game set a few years from now.  I had purchased a few figures specifically for this game from Hasslefree miniatures. Once undercoated these have sat for a few weeks untouched.

I have made a start though.  I played a game, almost by accident, against a fellow gamer, Will, in a club nearby.  Coronasan had to cancel his planned game against Will and I stepped in, last minute, to help out with scenery and to act as an opponent.

Will took me through the basics and we played a game that can be reviewed here…

In that game I played with whatever came to hand.  Which happened to be a crew of ‘Boiler Suited Thugs‘ that lived in a prison.

So to balance things out, my official crew will be a bunch of do-gooders that live in a police station…

An older lady in charge (SWMBO), 2 Coppers, 3 Survivors and a couple of kids…

Half way there in an evening, not bad as starts go…

 

Azazel’s April Challenge Part Two (Or Part One, Actually)

Part one of Azazel’s April challenge was Armoured April. Paint some Armour. Simple really. As my Death Guard were on the table recently for a game, and also out for some much neglected painting, it seemed appropriate that I get another unit done in line with this challenge.

My last unit completed, a Plaguecaster, is acting as a colour scheme reminder. That said, the scheme is basically just green, silver and grime…

The grime is often a random application of inks and washes.

Along with plenty of rust.

My opponent shouldn’t get this view of him often but it helps to show how much fleshy purple and green body is actually on show under that armoured carapace.

Part machine, part daemon slug…

All Death Guard Tank Killer (I hope…)

As he sits there at the back, waiting for my opponent to arrive, he could be mistaken for the crawling cousin to my flying Bloat Drones.  A simple army for a simple 75 power game today.

Warhammer 40,000 – Not My First Death Guard Terminators

A while back I started thinking about adding some Terminators to my Warhammer 40,000 Death Guard Army.  I even purchased some over a year ago before really looking at the rules for them or the specific weapon options.

As I had been buying older Death Guard Plague Marines I thought older Death Guard Terminators would still be usable.  I was wrong sadly.  Those figures will be converted at some point, but being a lazy soul, I decided to buy some proper Blightlord Terminators and make a start on them.

I see them as a unit of close assault heavies.  They are soooooo slow they will need to teleport to where they will be most effective, then stay there…

The sculpts are the typical mix of new GW details.  All the standard chaps are carrying Combi weapons (a Combi-Flamer on this chap)

Heavy weapons are included as usual and, as I have chosen a close assault theme for these guys, I have a Plague Spewer on this chap.

Combi-Plasma.

A Plague Flail for when you really want to hurt the people standing in front of you…

And the chap in charge has a Combi-Melta.

Nothing truly special here, but a good staple load out for a closer combat aimed unit.

Steam Wars – Mechanical Army – More Robots

My Steam Wars Mechanical force started out as a simple allied infantry option for the Martians to use.  It seems to have grown somewhat, and if I ever manage to gather the figures altogether in one place I may well enter them in Azazel’s April challenge as an army in their own right.

The latest additions to the army are these two medium sized robots from Shadow Miniatures. They were an Ebay purchase from a small gaming store and the pair were on clearance.

They are just my kind of thing but can I find a link to the original manufacturer? Sadly no…

The best I can do is find a seller online with what looks like the remainder of the line (along with 3 fantasy figures there are two other robot styles…)

If anyone knows of this company and if they do any other ranges please let me know.

I like their almost ape like gait and it also doesn’t hurt that they have a shoulder mounted cannon…

Lets see if I find more first or get some paint on these originals…

April Challenge – Army Shot – And One Painted Figure

Azazel has again found a challenge I can get behind.  Not that the regular neglected model challenges are something I cannot take part in (heaven knows I have far more neglected models than new).

This time round its a two part challenge. Part one being an armoured model of any sort, more on that to follow.

The second part is just a bit of showing off really. With an old fashioned, honest to goodness, army shot.  Why not show off that army that you have spent the best part of your free time painting up, and bollocks to anyone that says you shouldn’t show it off.  No one tells artists not to show of their art…  Lets be proud to be like artists (as often that’s what I feel like, as I don’t get as many games in with these little men as I would like…)

As this is a painting challenge as well…  I present to you my latest painted piece. I call it Plaguecaster Pete…