Point(s) in Case

My case arrived and I have pictures as promised ^_^ it is truly wonderful cost your gaze upon't;

So the case is a double aluminium from KRMulticase and it has three of the trays which you can see the infantry in (i guess they should be infanTRAYS, geddit?...) the other half of the case is made up of the Pic 'n' Pluck for the heavy jacks, a half width infantry tray for solos and casters, these two stack to make one quarter total of the case, and the last quarter is to extra deep infantry trays which I'm using for light jacks, and Cavalry when they arrive. I'm even saving space optimistically for multi-wound infantry (pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease).

So there we have it :) I'm really please with the way everything has fit in there, I've use the spare foam from the pick n pluck to pad fragile parts, and there is plenty of space for expanding the army. Im going to be getting a lot of empty trays from these guys, and keeping them (with minis in of course) in the cupboard part of my desk, and then getting them in the case when I need to move them. Genius.

Other than the case, I got my Rahn and Arcanist today (unfortunately still waiting on the Chimera and Magister I ordered a month ago) and will be basing them tonight, and priming them tomorrow. I'm trying not to be too excited about the wargaming club I will be attending for the first time on Monday, but I'm damn sure looking forward to it! I mentioned it to a couple of friends of mine, who would've been in the gaming group we were setting up, and they seem interested too, and are waiting on my feedback. I think this could be the start of a wargaming resurgence in my near future ;P gone are the days of "Just" painting at any rate ^_^

Also - what is it with me and thread titles recently, I am on FIAH! Yeah that's right, I have a caffeine problem...

Thanks for dropping by :)

Lofty

Oh Happy Day

Oh Happy Day indeed! I finally found a wargaming club! It was a chance post that I spotted on the Privateer Press forums, made by a forumite who's location was listed as Huddersfield (the next town over from me) so I messaged the guy, asking where he gets his games, and he messaged me back with the best news I've had in ages - there is a club in Huddersfield, ten minutes away from the train station. Genius. We have exchanged a few emails and I'm meeting him there on Monday so I can meet the gamers.

I of course checked about Warmachine/Hordes, and there are four guys who play with various factions, and a couple more, not including me, who have shown interest in the Iron Kingdoms. To be honest, I'm chuffed to bits. After a few months of waiting for the Leeds PG to get time to sort out a venue in Leeds (to be fair I think venues are scarce) I managed to trip on the most random opening, and found one ^_^
Needless to say I will be keeping the blog updated with how it all goes, and hopefully getting some videos/pictures of battles. I've decided not to take any miniatures on my first visit, so's I can meet everyone and get used to the place before I start gaming, get comfortable, ya know?

In other news - I ordered myself a Miniature case from the lovely people at KRMulticase (a double aluminium case with custom trays) and I will be showing pictures off at the weekend along with my recent painting progress :)

It's another long post, for which I apologise, but this is massive news :D
Thanks for dropping by!
Lofty

Reflection

Ok so I've been inundated with stuff from the gaming group which I mentioned last post. The friend of mine who is organising everyone is all of a sudden very keen to get some games started. So I was looking through my various cases and drawers, and came across some of my older miniatures, namely my Warhammer Fantasy Dwarves which are made up primarily of the older version of the multi part plastic kit. This means that if I did ever want to pick them back up again, the newer miniatures wouldn't fit. After a lot of thinking, and pondering, I decide to try and resurrect an old forum account on a Warhammer Dwarves board, and see if there was any interest in buying these miniatures. I also found some other bits n bobs, Warhammer elves, but they can be completed with the various half built regiment sets I also found :P

I also found my 40k Eldar which were the first GW miniatures I ever bought/played/painted, so I'm a bit reluctant to let them go, but nostalgia isn't what it used to be, and there is very little point in just keeping them in the drawer that they are in doing nothing.

Lots to think about and try to sort out, but it's all good. I enjoy painting, very much so, and I think mixing in some GW stuff along with my ever expanding Retribution army will keep things interesting. It will stop be from getting bored (yeah right ;P) of painting the same scheme over and over on my Ret, and it will hopefully rekindle my interest in some of the armies I will now maybe get an opportunity to play again with some old friends. I doubt I will ever get back into GW hobbies to the extent I was once, because I don't like the constant rules updates, but I like the miniatures, and painting them, so there is no reason not to play with them if I have the chance :)

Now that that's all been said, I found a Gorten battlebox on Ebay for £30, and I'm having a very hard time not buying it. Especially with it being payday today lol. the main reason I'm not going to get it is because I'm convinced that PP intend to make the Rhul 'jacks into plastic kits, the gun bunnies will be like the light Cryx 'jacks, and again in my humble opinion, the heavy Rhul 'jacks are far too similar to not be a half decent plastic kit. This is coupled with the fact that the battlebox is now discontinued.
I'll have to wait for the mercenary force book to find out though I suppose :) plenty to be getting on with until then!

Sorry for the wall of text, and lack of pictures, and thanks for dropping by.

Lofty

Cool WIP

See what I did with the post title? Oh yeah guess who had coffee for breakfast. Seriously though this is the last chance I will get to make a picture post until next weekend. Getting fed up of it being so dark in the evenings during the week to be honest, but that's just the way it works right?

No more coffee... ON WITH THE PICTURES! ^_^

I'm very proud of the way these guys are turning out, I mean for starters, that actually looks like a face with hair, and both eyes have pupils pointing in the same direction (god bless graphical drawing pens). I also posted these on the forums, and worked out how to link individual posts, so I updated my post in the painting thread locator :)

I also decided that If/When I get chance I'm going to start photographic my most recent Warhammer Fantasy armies, and blog any further painting progress. I like the GW models, and some of my friends still have some, so it's a game I'm pretty likely to play (at least until the next new rule book comes out, or I teach them Warmachine) so why not keep painting, cos I will always enjoy it. I will of course not use the IABN tag for any such posts :)

/Rant off

Thanks for dropping by

Lofty

Double Plus Good

Glorious sunshine makes taking group shots a breeze :)

Also below are my Invictor UA which I finished this week, and my yet to be primed ACTION POSE GORGON tm







Also had some pretty good news this week too. A friend of mine who has "grown out" of wargaming has always shown an interest in the models on my painting desk when he comes to visit, and each time i've seen him recently he has been asking more and more about my retribution, so I linked him to PP's website, and said he liked the Protectorate models, but not the Warjacks. so of course I linked him to the new plastic warjacks, an new cinerators/casters, and he said he liked them a lot. Then on Wednesday I get a text saying that he is going to try and get together a gaming group, which is great news, even if it is just our regular DnD plus a bit of Warhammer/40k. But the coup de grace is that the same friend came round last night and was telling me which Protectorate models he is going to buy, and how he is going to paint them etc. Awesome! Now if I can only manage to teach the other guys how to play, they might like it as well! To be honest I would really love there to be a store locally which sold PP miniatures because I would totally apply to be a PG, I've been looking at some scenery to buy this year, and maybe get a few boards which can be stored easily when not in use, but easily painted/flocked and gamed on (on top of the coffee table).

All in all, (apart from work but thats another story) things are looking up for my Iron Kingdoms hobbying!

Thanks for stopping by

Lofty

Warmahordes

Ok so I've been thinking about Hordes this weekend. I want a faction to play, even if it's only 15pts (it will be more, I don't have the willpower :P). 

 I was pondering between Circle and Skorne, after putting Trolls off as a bad idea - "Lots of big metal models will be expensive to collect wah wah wah" but then I was thinking, "Massive trolls beating on stuff... no brainer". Plus, it was the Trolls that tempted me to the Privateer Press website all those months ago and got me hooked on the Retribution models, I was actually looking at which Troll models I could use in my "Nordic" Warhammer fantasy army (barbarians, snow and ice, and bears ;p)

So I guess I'm asking for help. I know absolutely nothing about Hordes, and I know that it is being tested at the moment so it's all changing, but I wondered if you guys had any opinions on the three factions I was thinking about. Tyrant Xerxis is what tempted me to Skorne, and Werewolves is what tempted me to Circle, but tbh I'm leaning alot more to the primal sort of look/feel of the Trolls. There is all this, coupled with the fact that I;

a) want to get pretty much every model I have seen thus far for the Ret, plus a few mercs/solos, and

b) Searforge called the other day and politely asked me to buy a butt-load of their dudes to paint O_0

Also - c)

I'm vagely tempted to pick up some of the new Warhammer fantasy releases, so the sooner I have a Hordes/new faction to satiate the urge, the less likely it is that I will go back to the dark side ;)

Halp ^_^

The ol' Reach and Flank

Mr Scyir and his flankin' buddy :)

I had to drill out the halberd and replace with brass rod, as the shaft was bent when I got it. It was only after I took these photos that I spotted the tabard on the Scyir seems to have only a basecoat :s should be a quick fix though.

Thanks for dropping by

Lofty

Retribution so far

Finally got some decent daylight outside despite it still being grim and icey, so here we are:)


For some reason I forgot to photograph my Griffon... I also had to scale down the images because blogspot is a bit fussy, so there are some other (bigger) pictures in my photobucket album and this thread

Thanks for looking - off to undercoat my UAs and my Scyir ^_^

Industry

Ok so, after my last blog, and the comments I got, I have to post a little list of responses :)

Losthemisphere - thanks for stopping by :) your retribution is really inspiring me at the moment, I'm just waiting for a dry day for undercoating, then I'm on to more painting!!

IKadventures - Thanks a bunch dude, I try, but I often feel let down by being dyspraxic, it's good to know someone out there likes what I'm doing!

CJ - thanks again for the support mate, if you want to know about anything on any particular photo that I'v posted, feel free to ask and I'll try to explain how i've done whatever it is :)

Wendell - first off, a BIG thank you for iBodger!! Second, thanks for dropping by, IABN deserve alot of praise for what they're doing with the blog syndication, I feel I owe them alot for introducing me to the many blogs I follow, and the friends I have made as a result! Thanks for stopping by!

I'm still pretty floored to be honest, and chuffed with the support. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Privateer Press has the best community ever! :P I may be a little biased to be fair, as the last "community" I was part of was on World of Warcraft.... Never regretted quitting the game ;P

Revelations

Part of my order arrived from Maelstrom today! *Glee*

But as I sit here, cleaning/gluing, generally being quite excited about my newest additions, it struck me. Even as I write this, I feel a little weird. I'm under no misconceptions that this is a popular blog, heavily read/followed, or even that when it is read/followed/glanced upon it is a "good blog"

My painting isn't spectacular, my camera work is as poor as the lighting conditions here at the minute, and I don't have any celebrity interviews, or even replies to any of the emails I have sent to Privateer Press, but you know what? I couldn't care less :) I write this blog as much for me as much as I write it for anyone else. I don't have the luxury of an LGS or a gaming group to be a part of, none of my friends play war games any more  but that is their loss. I enjoy painting, modelling  reading and learning the rules, even trying them out on Vassal, and I enjoy writing this blog, marshalling my thoughts/experiences, and setting them in black and white. If anyone were to read them and share them with me then thats great, and I hope that someday soon my local PG can get a local games night going so that I can play WM for real, and talk minis and paints and such with my fellow gamers. Until then, I'm gonna keep blogging, and keep enjoying the hobby, and keep on painting :)

Cheers

Lofty

Weekend Warrior

Welp, I've had a pretty good weekend all told. New Mk2 book is awesome, Leeds PG is trying to organise a game/event at his store in Leeds, and I finished my Manticore and my Phoenix, as well as neatening up my Magnetized 'jack ready for priming

Thanks to some tutelage on Vassal from the good Mr Astray over at Yellow Dice, I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of the rules and things now, just a few areas which I'm hazy on, but those are the areas that I haven't read too much about yet. I'm really looking forward to this game in Leeds, will give me chance to get my painted models on the table, and finally get some more use out of them, as well as letting me practice and learn more Warmachine, which is never a bad thing!

I placed a reasonably sized order at Maelstrom with some Money I got for Xmas, So I have Rahn, 2 Arcanists, a Scyir, a Magister, Chimera, Gorgon, and UAs for both Dawnguard units. Once I have my teeth stuck into painting that lot, my next few purchases will be both Houseguard units + UAs, and the battle mages. I'm still trying to mix what I want to paint in with what I would like to play with, so it might not make a lot of sense just now, but I hope it will be a pretty good collection to pull from for games once I have a steady gaming club to attend. Some good news on the gaming front as well is that the guy who updates the Warmachine Vassal module has finished all the sprites and things for the retribution, and is just waiting for the go ahead from Privateer to implement them into the module. This is awesome, as much as I enjoy playing and learning with the Stryker battlebox, it makes far more sense to play with my own faction, and learn the ins and outs of pointy eared xenophobes!

Onwards and upwards!

Cheers

Lofty

The waiting game

So I've had a couple more games of Vassal, and once I was assassinated on turn two by the lovely Kaelyssa.... I really need to think about what I'm doing more. I'm getting there though, I won my second game, with lots of helps and tips from my opponent ;P

I've been leafing through my PDF print rule book, and things are starting to make a lot more sense, so I'm hopefully getting there now. Just need there to be a Retribution faction on Vassal, so I don't have to proxy, and I don't have to use the Stryker battlebox anymore. Though Having said that, I'm going to buy the Battlebox (or the models that make it) and teach some friends of mine to play WM hopefully.

At the moment, I'm home from work, waiting for a plumber to show up to fix the burst pipe we got for Xmas, so I have plenty of time to get my Myrmidons finished. I have a Phoenix just waiting for a snow base, a Manticore waiting for one more layer of highlight, and the base, and a Hydra which has everything bar basecoats/washes. Sounds like a challenge for today ;P

I also just blew some Xmas money over at Maelstrom Games, and picked up UAs for both Dawnguard units, a Gorgon, a Chimera, Magister solo, and a Scyir. They should arrive next week hopefully, so I will be able to be fully painted between purchases :)

All I have ongoing at the moment is the magnetized Myrmidon that I started, and I feel like there is a fair bit of work to do there to rectify the mistakes I made with the arcnode/power plants. shouldn't be too big a job though, just getting the motivation to sort it out :)

Will hopefully post pictures of my entire collection tomorrow, as I will be at home again, and the snow/daylight outside seems to be pretty good for photos :)

Cheers!

Lofty

Mixed bag

As I write this, I'm playing a Vassal game against Astray from Rolling Yellow Dice and having a blast tbh :) He PMd me while I was layering on my Manticore, so I finished up, and started up the game. Lots of fun, though I still have a lot to learn, both in terms of rules, and in terms of tactics, but I think they go hand in hand. I lost by the way, I made a rather daring move with Stryker vs Kaelyssa in turn 3, and failed abysmally, but at least I played like I had a pari, I could have tried to save him, but where is the fun?!

EDIT: - I made the assumption that Stryker was a gonner, but on turn four, he smote Kaelyssa quite verily and bought me the game for no losses on my side, vs Kaelyssa and an unhealthy looking chimera, unlucky dice for Astray though :(

Still really enjoying painting, got the Manticore to the highlights stage, and pleased with progress, and got my Hydra base-coated, and not really looking forward to the detail on those fists of his :)

I know now what trays I need for the double aluminium case I'm after from KR, so I'll order that to coincide with my next day off, I hate re arranging DHL delivery, lol.

Quick update really, was just excited about finally making a contact for Vassal games, which, let's face it, is far far better than just painting up my minis with no game in sight! Oh - I did attempt to get a thread going on Army cases, as a reference, but I'm pretty sure people are just fed up of seeing that sort of topic, so it is on it's way down the board with a few posts. At least I can say I tried :)

Cheers!

Lofty