Happy new everything and all that.

Get that crap out of the way then.

Right, so I've basically been drunk for the last 3 (and a bit) weeks in order to have a proper holiday. Yes it's been great, very inspiring, thank you for asking!

I don't do New Years Resos and I def don't do "looking back at's..." or "plans for this year includes..."
If I work on it, it ends up here.

 More 'Misfits' inspired Goliath's I'm afraid...

I've never beaten this one. A situation that persists... dammit.

Have a good one all.

Nice to be back =)

Ace

Focke Wulf mission Funf, and other shit.

Hey all.

Here are some progress shots of the three Focke Wulf's =)

Safely contained in their cardbord box, the trio (aided by the ever useful clothes pegs) pose for the camera. You can see the fuselage of the TA152 has been cut and sanded down here and is ready for the cockpit rebuild =)

The size difference between the fighters is pretty plain in this shot. It's amazing to read the spec sheets on various planes throughout the War, even the Spitfire ends up significantly larger and heavier than she started out (and with about 2.5 times as much horsepower!)

Landing gear on! You have no idea how tricky it was to get the Revell/Frog TA152's oleos' and gear to look right... Swearing time. Airfix did a good job on the A8's undercarriage and, as usual, no complaints with the D9 from Academy - basically the same straightforward build as their Fw190 A6-8.

 

So, what else? Well after Olgier and I rolled up our RoC warbands last weekend I decided some new figures were needed to fill the battlefield!

I haven't given GW my money for about 10 years now (something that isn't about to change...) so a new source of figures was needed. Unfortunately in Wellington there isn't really a lot to go and look at as far as the wargaming scene is concerned, but...

Enter - The 'Caffeinated Dragon' Wataaah! I scoped this shop on the way back to the workshop after a test ride a week or so ago and figured I'd go have a look.

And guess what? They sell Reaper minis! 

 

 Problem solved =)

 

 This is where I'm up to about now. The Reaper minis came from the 'Bones' range as I had been wanting to try painting one up for a while now. I plumped for a dastardly looking Elf to become my Dark Elf Wizard and a rather heroic looking Paladin type to fill in for the Griffin Templar for games of Hybrid =)

The Dwarf between them has been in my collection for a long time and used to hang out in my HeroQuest box along with Jim the Jabberwockey and various other assorted guff. He'll be starting his wargaming career as Olgier's Tzeentch loving Chaos Dwarf Champ. 

And yes, the Necromunda project continues...

New to my painting table of woe is this...

Something a bit different for me, we'll see how it goes =)

See you!

Ace

'Roxette'

Hey all, here is the latest addition to my Necromunda Goliaths - 'Roxette'

Roxette will be joining; Filthy Pete, Mr Goodbye, Rob the Sausage and Flopper in their exciting adventures with 'UltraMaim' (hopefully soon)

Sorry for the recycled photo, I'll finish a few more and then do a sort of 'Band Photo shoot' in the near millennium...

 I had a great time painting this one, like taking a Joyride - It must have been love...

 Spending my time painting minis like this seems Almost unreal. If you ever get stuck for a colour scheme you just Listen to your heart...

From any angle - He's Got the Look...

That's enough of that I think...

No HYBRID this week I'm afraid - Olgier is needed elsewhere so the minions of the Heresiarch will just have to shuffle aimlessly down empty corridors by themselves for a bit.

More terrain to come and the P51D is almost ready! Wally has his stick gripped firmly between his legs and err... 

As you were then.

Ace

Meat factory.

That's a good name for a Goliath gang if ever I heard one!

Without further ado, here are the first members of my (hopefully) all conquering Necromunda gang...

ULTRAMAIM!

Great fun painting up these lads. I wanted to go for a sightly more colourful scheme than is usual for a Goliath gang... and then proceeded to end up going for no coherent theme at all...
I'm always into embellishing a minis clothes with designs or some such and the good thing about a Necro gang is that you can basically go nuts! (Just look at those stars, I bet he's the envy of the roller disco...)

Most of the colour ideas came from the 'Jem and the Holograms' cartoon... Don't judge me.

As usual I expected the vast amount of skin on these thugs to be a big problem, but I deftly circumvented it with a new approach to skin tones =)  (Basically its the 'use a big square brush and paint it like its a painting' technique)
 

Had a good time rusting up the cylinders on my makeshift Heavy. It's a little hard to tell from these photos but the Heavy's mohawk is actually hot pink and not orange... If anyone has any advice on taking awesome model photos and lighting in general that works for them, I'm all ears!

-Kimber "Oh my God! Those pants are truly OUTRAGEOUS!"

Ahem..

And just by way of comparison, here's a lovely little mini my mate painted up way back when we actually had time to play this awesome game.

 
The original Goliath gang Leader;  "McGregor"

(AKA - McGregor the unfortunate, McGregor the holey, McGregor the sure to fall from a great height and McGregor the not so brave as Sir Lancealot...)

One more thing to devote my non existent spare time to has popped up recently namely emulating games I used to play as a lad on my Amiga 500+ (great days they were, great days)

A game I used to love but only had a demo to play around with was Microproses 'B17 Flying Fortress' and would you believe that it just so happens that a wonderful person has emulated it for me!

Here are a few shots of my often shot to pieces B17 G and her fine (slightly retarded) crew.

 And here are the brave lads (in front of another crews plane I suspect, ours is usually on fire or sinking to the bottom of the channel...) Navigator Rectum is so cool that even during a mission he never takes his shades off... which would probably explain why we get lost so often.

 Yeah well it's not the best track record ever recorded but they are improving. Honestly, we've only lost about 30 or so crew members at this point... (most of those are Navigators after they get me lost over Belgium...)

 I should also point out that this is technically the 'Fluffy Kittens Mk5'...  We've lost a few...
There was this one time we made it back and then the rear bit of the plane came off and collided with the hanger. Just as well old Flappy the tail  gunner was in the cockpit playing strip poker at the time...

Ace

Quickie

Hey! Here's a quick photo of the desk this week.

Proper photos soon =)

Ace

Temple of Terror... finally

But first, some new acquisitions...

A good friend at work was generous enough to give me these lovelies...

1/24 Tamiya car kits? Oh yes... I know just what to do with these... a little bit of Mad Max inspired lunacy is called for I think...  =)

Also on the table...

My one and only Infinity miniature (so far) - started working on this wonderful sculpt last week, its going pretty well I think? I always find it exciting to start painting/modelling something you haven't tried before, you sort of try a bunch of techniques that worked on previous minis, find that wont suit, rip your hair out for a bit, then go back to it and make up a new approach on the spot!
I'll update when she is all done =)

Here are the first four of my Goliath gangers after a few layers have gone down. They're going to be a LOT more colourful than this when done... trust me. (Incidentally, the Juve - third from left, is one of my all time favourite miniatures ever. I dkw...)

Speaking of gangers here is the next member of my 'Red Cross' gang for post apoc stuff. This little guy originally sits on the back of an R75 BMW Afrika Corps bike... he's moved up in the world (funnily enough to another GERMAN vehicle... hmm) More pics later!

Ok so

#14 Temple of Terror

Bit of a forgotten book I think, this one. When I first picked it up to begin this review I realised I had probably only read it the once as a lad. Not an auspicious start...

A wee bit in and you find yourself surrounded by some familiar guff, however.

Yep, Yaz is back and so are the Dwarf's from StoneBridge! Basically you're playing the same schmo who rescued the Warhammer from Darkwood forest in "Forest of Doom" and have been hanging out lapping up the hero status ever since! Well probably something like that, anyway you get yourself tangled up in a quest to race an evil dude with a cool name (Malbordus, very evil and quite cool sounding) to a place in the Desert of Skulls and destroying his hidden artifacts before he can use them to armageddon the crap out of everything. Right, so get to place, fight baddies and break stuff someone else wants.

Easy?
No.

There are a few very interesting twists in this one, I wont spoil them apart from to say that looking for the artifacts becomes a sort of gambling game when a MESSENGER OF DEATH is sent after you and hides his infernal letters of DEATH at points you might expect to find a very important item.
The bastard.

Other than that the book is a very solid Ian Livingstone affair, lots of good locations and fights, some great enemies and useful items.

One of the more esoteric baddies to beat up is this blighter. I know, crocodile with lily pad hands was what I was thinking too...

As per Ian's usual approach the book is light on actual puzzles and revolves more around good character interaction and direction. That being said it is a much easier book to get through than say, DeathTrap Dungeon, I think I went through that six or seven times before I found the Gem I was looking for!

This guy was my favourite encounter.

Shall I talk about the art?? I usually do!
Bill Houston provides us with the interior illos for this book. And very nice they are too. As the first 'desert' themed adventure of the series you'd expect the book to be pretty heavy handed on the eastern themes and Aladdin pants, and you would be right! Not that it matters as the Lost City of Vatos is beautifully captured and populated by Bill, especially with this lovely Lady...

Ah, my dear my dear. If we only had 400 sections together... but you are too evil and twisted I think
...and the blasted Dwarf's still need saving. So much to do, so few sections to do it in...

Speaking of twisted and evil, this is our mate Malbordus. One of the better entrances for a villain in these books.

The cover is again delivered by Chris Achilleos, and again references a scene that doesn't make it into the book? Who cares. Its a good pic and pretty much sums up what welcome you can expect in Vatos!

Sorry if this has been a bit of a ramble, too long between the read and the write, and I'm totally buggered =(

Read it, look at the lovely pictures and enjoy =)

Ace.

A friend in need...

Is a friend who needs some modelling help! This looks like a job for... SUPER MODELLER MAN!

But seeing as he isn't here, I'll have to do it.

A friend of mine needed a model with a pesky fall-off style lance arm pinned in place, can't have heroic figures losing their appendages mid battle!

Pretty basic bit of clean up and drilling...

...stick a bit of paper clip in there, stabbing yourself repeatedly with the sharp end...

...add some super glue and... Voila! She is fini!... and your fingers are firmly stuck together!

Job number two was a little bit more involved and has seen my first bit of actual miniature sculpting... ever! Another friend wants to get in on the Necromundan action and has an ultra sexy Escher Heavy with the Heavy Plasma Gun, except she's missing the gun! Can't have that!

I've made plenty of Chaotic alterations and added things like hair and cloaks to miniatures in the distant past, but never actually tried modelling human limbs! (thank God Necromunda mutates people left right and centre...)


 Here's the mini with her original ad in WD. Got to love that 90's paint job! Hopefully he will keep it bright with his repaint!

One paper clip, a bit of brass tube and some greenstuff later...

Add arms with Tamiya epoxy... total nightmare to get them right!

And there you have it! One more or less completed Escher Heavy, no longer with Plasma armament but with new, er, improved stubber/auto cannon! (Just look at my grubby thumbnail, shocking!)

Ok, that's it for the moment, um, as you were...

Ace

Welcome to Space Crusade!

Finally!

Space Crusade is all finished! I don't know how many of us managed to complete our boxed sets of Space Crusade and HeroQuest; but I can say that at long last I am amongst them!!

Space Crusade was my favourite of the two games, not because I thought it was better, the two are completely different ideas (HeroQuest is a dungeon crawl and Space Crusade was a direct tactical competition) but because it always made me break out in a sweat about 20 mins in!
It didn't matter if you were playing the Marines or the Alien player, the hyperventilation would set in the minute the blast doors opened!

That being said I have always enjoyed playing the Aliens more, against three determined Marine players it becomes a hell of a challenge =)

Here are a few shots of the minis, my apologies that some of the pics are a bit blurry =(

 The Blood Angels. When equipped with Boltguns sporting COMBAT BLADES they make a lightning fast assault force.

 The Imperial Fists. The most annoying of Marine Chapters with their SUSPENSORS. Basically a team of heavy weapons guys moving as fast as bolter guys do!

 The Ultramarines. Princes among Marines, the bravest of the brave, loyal to a... Yeah so obviously my personal favourites  =)


And here to spoil the day for the Marines. The bad guys!

 The Grotty Gretchin! Usually used as cannon fodder or to stop drafts.

 The Orks. Tougher than a steak dinner after the third re-heat, and just as ugly!

 Oh now were talking, the Chaos Androids. Packing one of the more eclectic ranged weapons in the game, no slouches in close combat either. The appearance of one of these guys is usually enough to send an entire marine team running...

 And this is how you get your own back as the Alien player. You use your own Marines. I've had these evil gits go toe to toe with a Marine team and win. Game winners and life savers (well, unless you are a Marine player  I guess...)

The Genestealers (for some reason renamed 'Soulsuckers' in the video games??) You might not get to place them as you would your regular troops but man are they useful (when they FINALLY decide to join the battle...)

The crown jewels of your Marine eradicating defense force... The Dreadnought! (or 'noughts' if like me you managed to find two!) They may have a passing resemblance to ED209 but kick much more ass! Remember though to always, always, always! have them accompanied by some lesser troops. It doesn't matter what they are, just keep a power sword/power glove/meltabomb wielding Marine Sgt away from them!


So there we go. One fully painted box set of HeroQuest and now one of Space Crusade!
Each set was made up of two boxes, one being my original from waaaaayy back, and the other being more recently discovered. Out of the two projects the Space Crusade minis were by far the more difficult to finish satisfactorily. The nature of the pieces being multi-part and the number of models with existing paint jobs (in relation to the almost untouched quality of majority of my HQ figures) meant a lot of searching for usable parts and some hefty cleaning up. But overall I'm really pleased =)

Managing to get nine marines per chapter was a real boon too as it means no having to swap weapons on painted figures, and getting two dreads was awesome! I wonder if I will ever get to use them at the same time... (evil smile...)


Here's whats on the butchers block this week.

The guys are interested in having a go at reliving our teenage years with a bit of a Necromunda bash!
Very excited about this as I never got around to painting my mighty Goliaths. Maybe I can even include a missile launcher this time... hmm
Hopefully it will all come together and we'll have a five way campaign going with everyone talking smack and stabbing one another in the back like we used too... Ah, them was the days...

Lastly, here's a shout out to a fine fellow I used to game with from those heady days of adolescent spottyness.
These two adventurous types were painted in the space of a dull, rainy afternoon over at my mates place. My effort is on the left, a fancy fellow with a feather in his cap and cow shit on his feet (probably...) My friends model is the other and I think showcases his extraordinary talent for turning out unique characters with almost no effort (the jammy git!) I cant tell you how much he taught me about miniature painting, he just did it like no one else!

I miss you Eb. I hope you are doing well.

Ace.