Painting Distractions and other nonsense

I ave been very busy as of late with life and so this little corner of the blogosphere has been quiet for me. And its been pretty quiet in the workshop of doom as well.

Since the Bones have arrived I have painted exactly  - ZERO. I finally got so Fusion paint so I can prime them black. Its my painting style so I really don't want to go back to the days of a white primer and painting out all the white. I hated that period in my painting. Anyway I'll get a few primed as a test and see what happens. Once I start I will be painting monsters only really.

I did base paint about 30 Mechwarrior Clix figures. Fleshing out units for my initial Mechwarrior forces. We may pick up the new quick play Alpha Strike rules and actually play Mechwarrior, or we may just continue to use them for whatever we decide to play. Either way, they are a nice distraction.

As I was contemplating 15mm Sci FI, Fantasy or Post Apoc to paint next in the 3 hours I had to paint last night, I pulled the trigger on one of theose units that had been vexing me for several years - The 42nd Royal Highlanders (Black Watch) for the Pennisula. My British Nappies are waiting on 2 infantry units to be finished so I said, what the hell. I got faces, jackets, and kilts all base painted. Hopefiully tonite I can steal an hour and finish highlighting jackets, doing boots and gaiters and getting prepped for belts and lace. I should have about a week of off and on painting to fnish them, but, they were fun. The 92nd Gordon's Highlanders are next and I should have 12 infantry Units finished and the Brit infantry is finally complete. No promises after that, but a few more guns await, as well as 3 more cav units. And you can't have the Penninsula without the KGL. I still have 3 Spanish Infantry units, a couple of cannons, and a cav unit to finish them off.

Then come the French. they wait patiently and are understandably perturbed about being bumpe once again, this time by giants in dresses. They shoud be encouraged though, because a new line of metal Vitula Legion has been released. Scultoed by Paul Hicks these beauties are as vital to the French cause in the Penninsula as the KGL were to the Brits. So once on the market I will gobble these up for a whole division I should think.

The RECRUITS Con announced that they were close to closing the PEL for games at this Falls event. Seems a bit early for a regional gaming con in mid-september. But you all know my love for the Con. I am sure I will run a game. But with Football practice and season starting, I'm gonna be mightily distracted.

Keep rolling sixes

LA

Interwebs Notes, News and Praise

Couple of quick nots from the internets this AM:

Khurusan is hinting at a series of longa awaited releases these next few weeks. Story on Dropship Horizon:
http://dropshiphorizon.blogspot.com/2012/04/khurasan-releases-caiman-apc.html

One of my favorite and most prolific rules writers, Scott Pyle of the Goalsystem(Supersystem, Blasters & Bulkheads, Labor of the Gods, Robofire, etc) has announced a long awaited Goalsystem game for Dungeon Bashing, with character advancement and some light roleplaying. Glad to see this moving forward. Hopefully the BAsement Generals will be in the slot for playtesting again. I do have all those dungeon tiles. Maybe I can paint some dungeon parties at lunch. Story on Scotts blog: http://four-color-figures.blogspot.com/2012/04/announcing-goalsystem-dungeon-delve.html

And at some point coming up, our favorite 15mm artist, SpaceJacker is packing up and moving to Australia. So that means, a little bit before he gets back in the groove blogging and painting. Lets hope not too long. So enjoy his work before he scoots off. Note his workshop pics on the sidebar. If I actually was a prolific phot taker, this would be great. Thanks for the glimpse of whats on your table jacker!:
http://tinysolitarysoldiers.blogspot.com/

Just a slight toot for myself. I have revamped the Roll 2 Hit! site. Its my RPG blog that died off last april as I got focused on my mini work. I have a real hankering to RPG lately. So I thought I would reboot, add some tabs and use it as an idea journal for games I want to run. Not much on there now, but stop by if you have an interest in old TSR games (BAsic D&D, Star Frontiers, Gamma World, Villains and Vigilantes(not TSR I know)) or the retro clones(Labyrinth Lord, Mutant Future) or new games, some based on older mechanics, some just new(Stars Without Number, Icons). http://roll2hit.blogspot.com/

And although I am sure you all know, I thought I would give props to the 4 work horses in the Miniature Gaming World. These 4 site I look at multiple times a day, and so do hundreds of gamers and painters and hobbyists around the world. If you want to know something or reach out to the gaming community, you better reach out here. If you don't follow these blogs or sites, what are looking at?:
The Miniatures Page: http://theminiaturespage.com/
Miniature Review: http://www.miniaturereview.blogspot.com/
Tabletop Gaming News: http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/
Lead Adventure Forum: http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php

And a guilty pleasure of sorts. The Mech Dude's blog is one man's quest to get Macross gaming to the table for everyone. I applaud this and many a saturday afternoon was spent by Ze Baron and myself playig the Robotech RPG by palladium, and trying to scavenge anything Macross related. So I would love to see him succeed in breaking through the Harmony Gold mess and getting Valkyries, Tomahawks, Regults, and Zentradei to our tabletops. I would buy a whole bunch if he did.: http://www.mechdudesblog.blogspot.com/

OK so I lied.

OK so I lied. I don't just have a few more mechs and tanks for Robofire!

I figured since I had a decent start, why stop there. Why not go full OCD on the stuff and put in two more orders from Troll and Toad for Tanks and Mechs from the clicky MechWarrrior line. Cripes! It never eds.

So The idea is that I can paint up two full armored forces and a couple of mercenary groups to play Iron Cow, Dirtside II, Strike Legion and Epic:Gold, (needing about 40-50 units a side) and then use them for Robofire! as well, since it really is small operations at 5-7 units a side.

I really like the armor and vehicles from the line, and since you can pick and choose the ones you like , even better. You can leave some of the more wonky ones alone.

So this project will be going on for a while this year.

Now I need to keep chugging on the Medievals, and a couple of post apoc gangs and maybe even start to paint that Chaos Marauder warband.

Gonna be a good year.

Robofire! - Or how to have fun with Supersystem and Battletech

Hello gentle readers. As we in the midwest unbury ourselves from the recent blizzard, I thought I would post about what me and the Baron have been up to.

Scott Pyle of Supersystem and the Four Color Figures Blog fame has generously allowed the BAron and I to play test a game he has been working on. Robofire! Its a way to use the big stompy robots and tanks in a fast and fun way, with minimal bookkeeping, and is based on his terriffic Goalsystem rule system.

The rules are pretty raw, and sop we are plowing ahead with games as written to make suggestions on some changes. Overall its a blast, is fast and fun, and lets us use the big stompy robots we all love/hate.

First things first. I am firmly in the camp of not liking giant robots as big as a building walking around on a high tech battlefield. Too big, too expensive, too easy to destroy. (My hard sci fi roots can't help me over this). I can go about as far as Heavy Gear, where the mechs are about 15-18' tall.

But, one of my first wargames I ever bought was the boxed set of Battletech, and I loved all of the Macross mechs. So I am torn. So screw it, in the end I want to paint and game and have fun, so there's room for it all.

So this and Robofire has led the Baron and I to Troll and Toad to buy discount clicky Battletech plastics for repainting. And am I glad. I have had a blast this last week painting my new figs.

So here they are. A faction for our gaming pleasure. Painted in a weekend and on a couple of snow days.

40 stands of Infantry, 8 tanks and vehicles, 2 mechs. I have 3 more tanks, and 2 more mechs to complete the force.

I'm pretty happy with them. Tried to keep it simple. Simple paint scheme. Simple highlighting on panel lines, little bit of detail work. Nice wash of GW Devlan Mudd (its the holy grail of washes). Done.

I have another faction I'm doing next. About the same size. Then I need to paint some terrain buildings so we can play this at Recruits in March. Can't wait.

I am working on a variant for Heavy Gear. Its a little more complicated, captures the gear combat pretty well. Thanks Scott, for the rules. They are a blast.