Three Naga slither into a dungeon...

This past weekend I was making an attempt to clean-up and organize my game room.  Like I'm sure you all have done, I ended up finding all kinds of toys I had long forgotten about.  Some of those miniatures you will be seeing on the blog soon just out of pure guilt of letting them sit so long!  And then there are other projects that just appeared by other unexpected finds.

Presenting Exhibit A. 

I have a game called Descent:  Journeys in the Dark. (Boardgame Geek Info) I bought this boardgame not too long after it was released thinking it would help me and my buddies relive some of our old dungeon crawl fun days (Dungeons & Dragons, etc...).  Descent wasn't really a hit, but it was good motivation to focus more on fantasy gaming.  Bonus right??  Anyway, during the clean-up I was clearing out some "we never play this" boardgames when I saw Descent sitting there. 

"I guess I should just toss that," I said. 
"I'll take a look inside first and see if anything is useable," I said.
"Ooooh!  I could really find a use for those," I said.

So you probably think it's a bit weird that I talk out loud to myself.  My defense is that I was an only child and developed the habit of talking to myself a long time ago and it feels quite natural.  Besides, my dogs pretend to show interest too.

What resulted from this was me buying a container at the local store and dumping those mini's into it with the resolve that I would paint them to use for general gaming purposes.  I didn't want to "waste" a lot of time on them with all my other on-going projects, so I established these rules:
1) 5-6 colors
2) simple basing
3) color ring on base to help identify each figure.

The first 3 of which you can now see below.  Less than an hour per figure.  Not too shabby I think and it won't keep me too distracted from my main projects.

I hope you all are having a good week.  Thanks for stopping by.

Rod

LRRPs - Long Range Recon Patrols

On the project list for this year was to jump into 15mm Vietnam wargaming.  Nothing to do with current releases of stuff from Flames of War for Vietnam, but I will be scooping some of that up to add to my collection.  This project grew more out of my desire to play Vietnam in a larger scale.  Up until now I generally play Vietnam in 28mm or 20mm.  Then my buddy Darby started playing Battalion scale actions using 3mm stuff.  Well, that's too tiny for me but 15mm seemed perfect.

So starting off I picked up some figures from Flashpoint Miniatures.  This first unit I painted was a blister of LRRPs.  They generally would be seen wearing tiger stripe camo so I tried to give them that look.  As for the bases, I had ordered some from Litko and then realized I measured them wrong.  I can be an idiot at times.  SO, I made a trip to the local game store and bought some Flames of War bases.  Easy solution right? 

I decided on 3 figures to a stand for a total of 4 stands.

And each individuallly...

 

Not shown, but I also completed another stand of Brits to add to my Irish Guard for FoW.

How the War of Milfwerd's Pond began...

One-Eyed Krug often looked with envy across the pond to the swampy home of King Glurpwin and his kingdom of Mugwump.  Some day he wanted to own that land himself.  Partly just for the thrill of the hard-fought victory, but also because the supply of food was much more plentiful on that side.  Those plans were still in the future, but now his actions were those of a desperate king.  The attack by the Bylgewater Rats had taken him and his warriors by surprise.  They managed to raid a lot of their food stocks before being beaten back by his Skink warriors.  Retaliation was out of the question.  The Bylgewater Rats may be of lessor quality than his own Skinks, but they more than made up for it with numbers.  A raid against those rats would be costly.  Too costly.  But perhaps.... perhaps he could catch King Glurpwin and his frog warriors off-guard.  Enough to restock his decimated food stores.

He must see what a small raiding party can accomplish.  Small enough to perhaps slip unnoticed by the frog warrior pickets.  One-Eyed Krug issued the command to his Skinks, "Go!  Go!  Kill frogs and find food or we will starve this Winter that is almost upon us!"

And so the small raiding party of Skinks made their way across the pond to the peaceful lands of the Mugwumps.

Would their mission be successful?  Either way I they knew it would be so.  If they returned they would have food to help their clan through the Winter.  If not, it would still aid by being a fewer number of stomachs to fill as the food stores whittled away.... and so they marched on.

To be continued....

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I was introduced to Eureka's Pond Wars line by my friend Todd (aka Bravo 6).  I fell instantly in love with the whole concept!  One of the first graphic novels I ever read was Stan Sakai's "Usagi Yojimbo" series, and therefore I've been a long time fan of anthropomorphic animal series.  A more recent one has been "Mouse Guard" by David Petersen.  So!  What does that mean?  Well, the lead pile has grown.  But also, inspired by the recent adventure on Jay's blog (Jay's Miniature Enterprises) I thought I would introduce the miniatures I paint as part of an on-going story.  Just not near the frequency of his stories because I'll still be painting other stuff in addition to this project.

As for this new project, my frog warriors arrived this week so they will hit the painting table soon.  These "Skinks" are actually Reaper Kobolds.  I've had these in my lead pile for quite a while now.  When I got them I thought looked too much like lizard for Kobolds.  I prefer the dog type Kobolds like Otherworld Miniatures makes.  Although, for this fun little project they felt perfect so I painted them up and called them Skinks.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Rod

Vantage - Drive Armor

Here's another bit of painting for 15mm Sci-Fi fun.  This one is the Darkest Star Games "Vantage" Drive-armor.  I can't help but refer to it as a Tachikoma though.  Anyone who's seen the anime Ghost in the Shell series will know what I'm refering too.  If not, look them up.  They're cute "little" critters.

Anyway, I tried a couple of different paint schemes before I finally settled on this one.  Not one of my better paint jobs and the numbers are a bit lacking, but actually looks pretty good at game playing distance which is what I really care about!  Now to figure out a game for all these new goodies...

TP-27 Responding, Sir!

Ugh, was it this way?

Over here?  Guys?

"TP-27, Agent Ionia is headed to your location..."

Also, so you can see how it sizes with one of the figures.  Here's a picture of TP-27 in hot pursuit with Agent Ionia.

Meep! Meep!

We're another day closer to Friday.  Have a good week friends!
Rod

SpecSec Response Team

Now I'm taking a little departure from the Dark Ages and 28mm to paint some of the figures I bought from my buddy at Darkest Star Games.  He has a line called "SpecSec" which is an anime inspired 15mm Sci-Fi range.  This is some really neat stuff!

So as I was looking at these guys I thought I'd fancy up the bases while I was at it.  It's a response team so they won't be going into a normal setting.  I had it in my mind that they would be headed into a industrial area.  Maybe a robot factory or a science complex under attack by bio-terrorists.  So I wanted to have the concrete/paved ground look with parking stripes and other stuff.

Most of it is made up of clock parts or mostly sculpted green stuff.  I hope ya like 'em!

First up is Agent Ionia (purple hair inspired by Major Kusanagi...)

Followed by the SpecSec Response Team:

Next up will be some robots!
Rod

Scots Warriors

So, I finished up my four points and managed to get to the store and play a game today before the tournament tomorrow.  I got to give my Scots and try and get beat up by some angry Irishmen.  It happens. 

Mainly, I just needed to get that first game over and understand my army.  Now I can ponder my abilities a bit.  Anyhoo, here's the new troops.

Group Shot

Hope you folks are enjoying your Saturday.

Rod

Future Project Sneak Peek...

So, my 8 Scots Warriors are assembled and they've just been primed so I'm sitting here waiting for the primer to dry when I get a knock on my door.  There stood the UPS man with a package containing reference material for one of my upcoming projects.  SO, what is it?

La Guerre d'Indochine

The book on the left will be a little tough since I don't know French, but it's got some great pictures.

I have been involved in Vietnam wargaming for several years now.  Which naturally directed my interest into the earlier history of Vietnam.  The French were fighting the Viet Minh in Vietnam long before the Americans showed up.  Reading bits here and there, my curiousity was really increased a year or so ago when I read "The Street Without Joy" by Bernard Fall.  He gives a very candid review of the War, but also takes time to highlight the bravery of French units resisting hordes of Viet Minh troops.

Ever since then I've contemplated playing the First Indochina war, but I couldn't decide on 28mm or 15mm... which miniatures, etc.  The usual bunch of dilemmas we all face.  Anyway, the delays are over and I've taken a step forward towards making this a reality.  Hopefully you'll be seeing more of this project progress in the future.

Rod