1000!!!

reached 1000 views today! First time a blog I have done has gotten that many. As a treat hear are some pictures of some of my projects under way.

First off is my WWI German HMG WIP

I'm starting to dabble a bit in basing units with terrain. I normally avoid this as I think aesthetically it can clash once on the table.

Next is my WWI German Artillery and crew WIP.

I will be re-basing my Russian artillery piece as well as I proffer the round base for such models. 

Lastly here is a piece I am working on exclusively for my WWI Steampunk game based on the Leviathan book series (you can read about it here). Also the picture I'm using as the inspiration.

Hope to get some more lead painted this weekend and will post pictures. I will also be attending a local gaming club (Link) this coming Sunday for the first time and hope to have lots of pictures of our games.

Updated Germans

Put some of the mat varnish on them and added some stuff to the base.

Major Heintz (right) & Staff Officer Hauptmann (captain) Gurber (left)

One unit led my Leutnant (second lieutenant) Helms (far right)

Second unit led by Leutnant (second lieutenant) Hock (far left)

I am working on an HMG team as well as some artillery, the wheel of which you can see above. I also have two more units of infantry and 1 unit of cavalry on order as well as a 6 legged armored transport for the steampunk game I'm working on.

Russians

Here are some WWI Russians I got to use for WWI, Russian Civil War White Russians, and now for the steampunk game I'm working on. I painted these up a year ago but put some Army Painter Anti Shine Matt Varnish to cut down on the gloss from the quick shade recently.

The hole army as it stands

Commander Rittmeister (major) Bogrov (right) and Staff Officer Stabs-Rittmeister (captain) Volkov

Infantry lead by Poruchik (first lieutenant) Dernov, Levkin, and Petrov

Artillery

Maxim gun

Command with Flags

Germans should be all done tomorrow

Warmachines

So when I arrived at RAF Lakenheath in the UK where I'm stationed and decided to get back into tabletop gaming I thought I'd give Warmachines by Privateer Press a try. I had one friend interested in trying it out so we both got a starter set and started playing. I enjoyed it more then him and started building up my Protectorate of Menoth army. However without anyone to play with I never finished the army and moved on to other projects (I know that never happens to any of you). Here is what I have done to date.

War Casters

War Jacks

Support Units

The Rest

Fresh Batch

Here are a fresh batch of painted early WWI Germans/Prussians. The only things remaining are applying the quick shade and grass. I have held off on the quick shade so that you can see the difference it makes.

Here is a side by side comparison: 

I find that quick shade helps give the colors depth as well as give the figure shadows. It also will make your figure look a bit dirty like the have been out in the field for some time fighting which I like. Another good use is to help cover up mistakes. As you can see one the figures without quick shade there are small spots where I missed paint, the quick shad helps mask that so its a nice little cheat.

Post-Apocalypse

So a couple of years ago I broke down and purchased some beautifully sculpted minis from Lead Adventure's post-Apocalypse line. My plan was to use them for a post-apocalypse game I was working on using modified rules of Legends of the Wilde West. I got most of them painted between the the end of 2011 and start of 2012 before wedding plans, wedding, and start of married life got in the way. I still have a handful left unfinished, half still bare led and half nearly done. Here are some shots of what I got done.

Process Part1

So I said I'd show some pictures of the process I use in getting from raw led to table ready. I took some pictures as I was painting up some more of my WWI Germans and decided that a step by step was just to boring. Instead I'll show a couple pictures of them about 70% complete.

Should have them finished tonight after work. Will also be putting up some pictures of stuff I have done in the past.

Pirates! Arrrrrrg

Anyone remember the constructible card game Pirates by Wizkid that came out in 2004? They came in foil packs like any other collectible card game except that some of the cards punched out and could be assembled to create sailing ships. I happened to have a tackle box in my closet back home with a large British fleet and a large Spanish fleet so I had my folks ship it over to me. Hoping I can revitalize the game a bit as the rules are very simple and offer fast and fun play.

WWI Germans infantry

So inspired by the book series I mentioned in the last post I have decided to paint up some early war WWI Germans I had sitting around for some time. I'm going to keep them roughly historically accurate so I can use them both for WWI games and for the steampunk game I'm working on. The minis are from Renegade Miniatures 28mm WWI range.

I started off by basing them and using some Spackling to give texture to the bases

Next I use Army Painter Uniform Grey to prime them.

I got half of them done over the weekend but failed to take any more pics of the process. When I work on the next half I'll make sure to catalog it better.
Here are the finished first half:

German Command

Infantry and officer

More infantry and officer

Inspiration

   So I have been reading through a series called Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, whose site you can find here. The series is set in a steampunk WWI. The nations that make up the axis powers are called 'Clankers' because their whole society revolves around the use of elaborate steam powered machines. The allied nations are called 'Darwinists' because through Darwin they have learned to alter the 'life strands' (their term for DNA) of plants and animals to evolve them into tools.

   I found this world fascinating and a new take on the steampunk genre. I decided to develop some gaming rules that would allow gaming in this world. Using rules from Contemptible Little Armies (CLA) by Christ Peers and Valor & Steel & Flesh (VSF) by Robert Charrette as my frame work and modifying them to suit this time period. CLA offers great rules for the WWI era which the books take place in but as in history the rules lack much in the way of vehicles, thats where VSF comes in since its a rules set for Victorian Science Fiction.

Once I'm done I will put the rules on here as a free PDF download.

Starting Anew

So I have decided to take this blog that I had made some years ago for my short films and reuse it to catalog my war gaming experience. I have been playing tabletop games off and on for the last 10 years. Just coming from one of those off stages now that my wife and I are settled in our home at RAF Lakenheath where I'm stationed for the next couple years.
Hope you all enjoy my work.