Merry Christmas

Not really any hobby progress this week with getting ready for the holidays.  A couple dozen more mechs got a wash layer and I made a basing material purchase as well.  So I hope you all get some hobby cheer for the holidays or at least something good for one of your armies or game systems.

See you all next week and holiday on!

The Coming Year

So I didn't have any real hobby time this past week other than a 4 way battle of X-Wing Saturday night against Cheef, Wolfie, and Chris the Panda.  I ran my quad B-WIng list again with some pretty good results even considering that Cheef tried to make it a 3 v 1.

So I want to take this post to sort of lay out my hobby goals for the next year.  This will give me a checklist to refer back to and something that you my readers can prod me about if you don't see results.

So first on the list is my BattleTech.  My 21st Striker Regiment of Eridani Light Horse needs 4 more aerospace fighters acquired and the other aerospace fighters finished painted.  I also need one more base of half tracks from GHQ to finished off the mechanized infantry.  Then lastly a large number of the mechs need based.

The 151st Light Horse Regiment has begun but needs all the artillery vehicles, tanks, aerospace fighters, infantry, and some more mechs.  I've got enough mechs for 17 lances but while over half are painted, none have been based.  (I really have to buy some more of the ballast sand I use to base my Eridani Light Horse and get going on some of this).

Lastly for BattleTech I need to get 3 more warships and a bunch of jumpships/dropships to get my AeroTech fleet together.

So next up is Mordheim.  I've got all my dwarves purchased and have started painting on them, but only as far as priming and first major color on each model.  I'd like to get these done in the first part of the year so I can get some games of Mordheim in.  I know a couple others in the group I game with have been talking about Mordheim as well.

I also want to get my SAGA warband finished so I'll be able to talk someone into play testing it with me.  Most likely this will end up being Bob as he does historical gaming with his dad and is also slightly interested in SAGA.  I've got all the models I need for my Viking warband but none of them are more than partially painted.

So next up is X-Wing.  There are a few purchases I need to make and I need to get back into my repainting so that my ships match.  I want to get all my B-Wings flipped to horizontal flight as well.

And then there is small terrain projects.  I've got a couple pieces I'm dabbling with to make into factories for BattleTech.  I need to revisit the HPG Station I built for BT as well and finish it off.  And then there is stuff I bought for my Mordheim Dwarves.

Yesh, I'm in for a busy year as this doesn't even include Bolt Action armies which has died off after a big initial push and the 15mm army for Gruntz which Cheef is trying to stir a bit of interest in.  Plus I'll get some Aeronuf from a Kickstarter sometime in the spring.  So that's what I'm up against for goals for the next year.  I'm going to do my best to get items ticked off the list and done.  Hopefully you all out there will help push and prod me if you see me off on distractions or not making progress.

That's all for now and I'll see you all next week.

BattleMech Assault Coming

So, it's been a week of making progress on the BattleTech pile of things to do.  The batch of plastic hex bases I ordered arrived the middle of last week so everything that had been based green is now on a base.  I also got 45 mechs done with the hightlight color and the wash layer so they're ready for basing.  I need to get a new batch of sand from the hobby store so I can get started basing.

The Light Mechs

The Medium Mechs

The Heavy Mechs

The Assault Mechs

   I need to take an evening to get them all slated into spots in the overall TOE for my Eridani Light Horse.  Hopefully I'll have that for next week's update.  I've also got about 30 some more mechs on bases now and need to get the highlight color and wash on them still.

Tie-Advanced in the Crossfire

I also managed to get some gaming in this past Saturday night  I played a 3 sided game of X-Wing against Cheef and Billy the Bill.  I fielded a list of 4 B-Wings against Billy's Scum list and Cheef's Imperials.  Instead of asteroids we parked Billy's Corvette in the middle of the board to fly around instead.  Cheef and I both hit Billy pretty hard early on before tearing into each other a bit.  I got a bit lucky and outlasted them both with a single surviving B-Wing.  It was an enjoyable game and I like the amount of damage that 4 B-Wings can dish out as well as absorb.

That's all for this week and I'll see you all later.

Yikes, 41 Snuck Up On Me

Well, tomorrow I'll hit 41 years old.  Man does time fly by when you're not paying attention to it.

So, as a gamer I of course treated myself to a few hobby related fun things for my birthday.  Being the fan of Dreadnoughts that I am, one of them was one of the new Contemptors from the Calth set that I snagged off eBay for what I thought was a very reasonable $26.  It's very comparable to the Forge World one and the Kheres assault cannon is MUCH easier to assemble in plastic than it was in resin.  I did hit the bits box to add a bit more to the new model to get it a bit more relic looking.

The Contemptor assembled

I might just be looking for more of these at a good price in the future.  It's a nice kit if a little light on weapon options, but hopefully that will be addressed in the future.

Next to a FW Contemptor for comparison

Now that the holidays are upon us, thoughts turn to Santa Claus and his 12 reindeer and Rudolf to lead them along, bringing gifts to all those on the nice list  Well I had to take it one step farther cause that's what we as gamers do.  So I've got a Knight Titan and his 12 ancient brethren lead by a chaplain dreadnought to bring retribution to all the heretics out there.

Heretic Beware

Now if this can't get you in the hobby spirit during the holidays then you must be the heretic, the alien, or the traitor, in which case keep an eye over your shoulder for an avalanche of walkers coming for you this holiday.

That's all for this week and I'll see you all later.

Busy Week

Well, since I'm in retail management plus also involved in staffing a new store that will be opening in January, it's been a pretty busy couple weeks for me.  I haven't had much hobby time but I did get in an order that I had been expecting.

My 28mm Forge from Armorcast arrived to use as terrain for my Mordheim Dwarf band.  I plan on it being part of their camp, an abandoned blacksmith shop on the outskirts of the city that has been put into use by the expedition.

I also just went in on a Kickstarter.  I've had pretty good luck with them with 3 successful and good time frames and only one failure that didn't deliver.  The risks on this one is low as it's being done by the creator of Gruntz and is being assisted by two established companies, Brigade Models and Army Painter.  I've always liked the idea and aesthetics of Aeronuf, so it being recreated as Imperial Skies as an alternative WW1 is interesting.  The link for anyone interested is here.  Many thanks to John of John's Toy Soldier fame for putting it on my radar.

That's all for now and I'll see you all next week.

100th Post

Wow, hundredth post, these things really start adding up without you noticing.

So we've got some progress on the Mordheim Dwarves this week.  First I got them all primed one evening after work.

After that I started getting a base color down on most of the models.

Captain Maeglin Draykhelm

So I've made a few decisions on the fluff for the band.  The overall leader of the expedition is Captain Maeglin Drakehelm from the Dwarven fortress of Beledur in the Grey Mountains.  The Drakehelms are one of the three clans that rule Beledur.  He formed this expedition to Mordheim for a couple purposes.  One is the potential wealth and honor to be won within the city.  The other is a chance to settle some grudges against the forces of Chaos and Skaven found in and about the city.  He's gathered his force and set up camp just outside the city in a small abandoned village.

Maedhros Drakehelm, Maeglin's brother

Maeglin's expedition leadership is made up of his brother Maedhros Drakehelm and the engineer Aesgir.  He also managed to attract a pair of slayers Gaelthir and Hradmin.  Captain Maeglin is also accompanied by his eldest son Aesbiorn.

The Slayers Gaelthir and Hradmin

The Engineer Aesgir

Maeglin's son Aesbiorn

So that's it for now and I'll see you all next week.

The Dwarves Are Upon You!

First of all, let me apologize for this going up a day late.  Yesterday turned into a real train wreck of a day and I just ran out of time.  With that said, it's on to the main event.

Mordheim, you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.... wait, wrong wretched city.  So we're looking at starting up Mordheim again, with a possibility of running a full blow map campaign. I've always played Mordheim with empire warbands with a brief foray into a vampire list.  This time I want to do something different without the pull into utter chaos or evil, so I settled on a dwarf list.  I've got all my models now and just need to finish up the fluff.

 

First up are my heroes.  I've got 3 models that I can use as Nobels.  One for my primary and then two others in case of "Lad's got talent" rolls.  There is also an Engineer and a pair of Slayers.  I thought there would have been a Rune Smith option, but alas no.

Next up is my dwarf warriors, or clansmen as the list refers to them.  I've got more than needed for rounding out the band as needed as well as replacing casualties.

 

After that is my archers and thunderers again with a few extras to replace casualties.

I'm hoping to have it all primed by next week as well as having the fluff done enough to get it posted.  There also some small side projects going in case we do go ahead with the map campaign.  These include some models and terrain bits to set up a Dwarf encampment.  I'll be trying to get these to the point of being ready for the next post as well.

That's all for now, but if there are any experienced Mordheim players reading this who have experience with the Dwarf list, I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions you have.  Take care all and I'll see you next week.

BattleTech Once Again

So the main thing I got done this week was getting the base green on forty something battlemechs.  About four of them need another coat to fix a few places were the green went on too thin.  I'm going to spend some of tomorrow and a hunk of Friday working to get these closer to completion.  This will have my 21st Striker Regiment just 8 aerospace fighters shy of completion.  It will also get the 151st Light Horse started as well.

I recently came into contact with a group playing BattleTech on a semi-regular basis in the area, so hopefully there will start being more CBT battle reports on the blog.  They seem to get together about every other week so I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes a week from this coming Sunday.

This week I've spent Sunday afternoon and most of Monday and Tuesday helping my dad and brother in law rebuild a large portion of my parents front porch, so that's cut into a fair portion of my hobby time.  It did let me get in some thinking time while working and I've been trying to prioritize some of the projects on my to do list to get it cleared out some.  BattleTech is towards the top of the list, as well as wanting to get SAGA Vikings completed.

I did get some time to work on something else Sunday evening, but I'll be saving it until next week.  It's a totally new project for a game system I enjoy but haven't had a chance to play for a while and hence it hasn't been on the blog.  The only hint I'll drop is that axes are being sharpened.

That's about it for now but next week will be a lot more substantive between CBT progress and the new project.  See you all later and keep you hobby on.

Motivation

I didn't really get any hobby stuff done this past week so thought I'd take a post to discuss the state of where I am with the hobby.

So it used to be that 40K, especially marines, was what kept me really motivated to model and convert and even to paint (the part which I don't enjoy).  Then the last edition came out and hit the local game group about like the Hindenburg crashing down on top of the Titanic with Pompeii in the background to set the mood.  I've only seen a few 40K games played since then and it's pretty nonexistent right now.

There is still BattleTech and I love expanding my Eridani Light Horse, but it's very hard to get a game of that in.  I'm still working on this, and with a vacation next week should start making a dent in that huge list of primered models.  With close to a hundred mechs primed, I gotta start making progress soon.

 

I've also got some Bolt Action, both US Army and British paras, but again, it's not being played much and thus hard to get motivated to make progress on either army.  Both armies need some purchases to round them out some more, but they're both back burnered.

So next is X-Wing, which I enjoy, but the first love is off them and I need to find that again.  I've not played it much lately due to an Infinity league so getting the models back on the table more should be a step in the right direction.  Hopefully this next Saturday I can wrangle a game or two.

So speaking of the Infinity league, this has been my game time for pretty much the last few months.  I went with a Myrmidon themed list converted to look very Greek hoplite.  There were a few issues with this.  First being the aesthetic issue where it took pretty much the entire league to get most of my conversion bits which meant I got the army converted and primered, but none of it painted to score points.  Gameplay wise the list suffered from the theme which caused low numbers of orders, next to no specialists for the missions, and the need to close against armies that could take most of my models out at range.  All in all I didn't do very well scoring in the games which fed the lack of hobby points.  Infinity is an interesting game, but it just doesn't pull me in and I'll probably not be playing it often at all.

I've also got SAGA on the back burner due to no real opponent and then 15mm with the Gruntz ruleset which while it's interesting to assemble the models and ideas for it, has been a real pain to figure out how to point units up.  It's borderline calculus.  Neither of these is making fast progress and are slow projects right now at best.

It's kind of odd, now that I'm the most relaxed on the work front in a long time, have a schedule that is giving more time for hobby, and I've got multiple projects available to work on .... that I'm finding it the hardest to motivate myself to make progress on the hobby front.  Hopefully it's just a lull that will soon pass.  I think a lot of it is due to the frustration on the Infinity front.  There is talk of Mordheim in the coming months, and that's always a fun way to spend time converting and getting creative with group ideas.

So that's where it all stands right now.  I've got lots of options yet seem a bit lost on the hobby front.  If there are any good tales out there or sage advice from those who have been there before, feel free to chime in as always.

Mainly Fluff This Week

So I've not really made any progress on painting or assembling this past week.  What I did get done however was to flesh out the background of my 15mm Gruntz force.

As various groups were begining to leave Earth to colonize and settle out among the stars, one such group was the Scottish Clan of Claiborne and two smaller clans that had sworn allegience to them, Clan Tulloch and Clan Forsythe.  They found a lush mountainous world with numerous islands scattered across it's several oceans.  They named the world New New Caldonia and the system as a whole they named Hebrides  New New Caldonia's two orbiting moons gave it a harsher tidal and weather pattern than Earth's but the Clans prospered and built up their local industries.

As the galaxy showed itself to be a much harsher place than expected with pirate bands, aggressive opposing factions, and destructive aliens, Ian Claiborne, the leader of the Clan and thus the planet at the time, began a reoriginational period that emphasized the military and martial endeavors.  Several small military academies were founded as well as the Highlander Military College.  Claymore Military Designs, New Glasgow Aerospace, and Culloden Arms were also founded during this period to become the core of New New Caldonia's arms industrial complex.  These changes allowed the planet's population to continue to thrive while strict adherence to the ancient clan honor codes earned Clan Claiborne a well deserved reputation amongst their friends and allies as well as their enemies.

Decades later the elders of the clan were approached by representatives of the East Hyadum Trading Company.  Over the course of several weeks, an agreement was finalized where the East Hyadum Trading Company would assist in improving New New Caldonia's industry and merchant fleet while making available a wide range of products and resources.  In return Clan Claiborne redefined itself slightly to be known as a warrior house sworn to protect the East Hyadum Trading Company.  The new access to various power plants, metals, armors, and other technologies has lead to constant advances in the planet's arms industry, which only makes the Clan Claiborne military forces that much more dangerous.

The current government is lead by the clan elders Matthew Claiborne, William Forsythe, and Sarah Claiborne.

Sorry there isn't much this week, but I've got a fair amount of stuff to make progress on, just need to find time to get it all done.  That's all for now and I'll see you all next week.

Now It's Getting Fun

So first off let me just say 4 for 4, and I'm doing well with this schedule so far.  Now, let's get into the fun stuff.

New 20th Arcturan Lance

Original 20th Arcturan Lance

 I've continued to work with a guy up in Vancouver that I met on a BattleTech buy/trade group.  In the middle of last week I got my 2nd lance of 20th Arcturan Guard in the CamoSpec book winter camo.  So that adds a Mauler, a clan Nova, and 2 Fafnirs to the first lance of a Thug, Battlemaster, Zeus, and Atlas for a Lyran scout demi-company.  I've got two more lances of Heavy and Assault mechs to make it a full company at some point in the future.

These arrived in great shape and went together so easily

Next, my first wave of Gruntz models from Brigade Models arrived for 15mm gaming this past Saturday.  I've got both tanks, the motar carrier, 2 APCs, and 5 IFVs assembled.  I'm currently messing with the artillery/anti-tank guns which do NOT want to go together and keep gluing themselves to everything BUT the other parts.  I'll also be starting on getting the infantry models on bases this week as well.

I'll use this silver and blue scheme for the whole force

Destruction stalks the battlefield, yes one is a chaplain for a command version

 Now with an assault Battlemech model working out as a medium mecha at best for my commander, I definitely wanted to find something to be an assault mecha cause ... big huge robot attack!!!  So with actual 15mm models now to judge against, the perfect idea for assault mecha hit me.  In 40K among my favorite models are space marine dreadnoughts and they look to be the perfect assault mecha chassis.  So I'm going to use the paint scheme on my two Contemptor dreadnoughts for the whole force and it give me about half a dozen regular dreadnoughts to use as well.  Nothing says that you want to crush your enemy, drive him before you, and hear the lamentations of opponent like a force of huge mecha striding across the battlefield.

The paint que .... with Gruntz still to add

So that's where it all stands right now.  I've got plenty, as in like 70+ BattleMechs and all the 15mm gaming stuff, to get painted.  I don't enjoy painting to I'm really trying to get myself in the mood for that so I can start making a dent in it all.  So everyone out there keep your game on and I'll see you all next week.

Still On Track

So this past Friday my Gruntz rulebook arrived and I was able to get my ideas for what to field and some of my army fluff fleshed out since then.  I've decided on creating the Warrior House Claiborne on the planet New New Caldonia in the Hebrides System which is sworn to allegiance and service to the East Hyadum Trading Company faction in the Gruntz rulebook.  This faction is based loosely on the old British Empire's East India Company.  I like the idea of the faction and making a Scottish decedent warrior house aligned to it allows me to get a little creative as well.

So while waiting for my shipment of miniatures to arrive from Brigade Models, I've been digging in the bits box as well as made a purchase from Walmart when I saw something easy to convert to use.  So I've got what looks like will be a Medium Mech for my commander since I agree with Cheef that 9 wounds is way too much for an infantry model.  I also found an armless Bear Cub clan mech that I added some missile pods to for a light or scout walker.  The last item for now is a pair of assault gunships.  I found a couple Star Wars flyers that I added some gun and missile bits to before priming.

So I was also able to flesh out the organizational ideas for the force.  The main force of vehicles and tanks will be detachments of the 4th Royal Scottish Mechanized Regiment (Claiborne's Highlanders).  The mechs will be from 7th Battlemech Battalion (the Coldstream Guard), and the fliers will be from the 53rd Highlander Air Wing.

4th Royal Scottish Mechanized Regiment (Claiborne's Highlanders)
Regimental Command Company
CO: Colonel Andrew Claiborne

1st Battalion (Armored)
CO: Major Duncan Tulloch
A Company
Captain Jacob Fisher
    Command Tank and 4 Platoons of 4 Tanks each
B Company
Captain Reg Tamsin
    Command Tank and 4 Platoons of 4 Tanks each
C Company
Captain Michael Galloway
    Command Tank and 4 Platoons of 4 Tanks each
D Company
Captain James Donegal
    Command Tank and 4 Platoons of 4 Tanks each

2nd Battalion (Mechanized Infantry)
CO: Major Sean MacIntyre
A Company
Captain William Kirkland
    Command IFV, 1 Platoon Mech Infantry in IFVs, 3 Platoons in APCs
B Company
Captain Richard Powys
    Command IFV, 1 Platoon Mech Infantry in IFVs, 3 Platoons in APCs
C Company
Captain Conner MacDuff
    Command IFV, 1 Platoon Mech Infantry in IFVs, 3 Platoons in APCs
D Company
Captain Matthew Stirling
    Command IFV, 1 Platoon Mech Infantry in IFVs, 3 Platoons in APCs

3rd Battalion (Mechanized Infantry)
CO: Major Ian Mallory
A Company
Captain Charles Fawkes
    Command IFV, 1 Platoon Mech Infantry in IFVs, 3 Platoons in APCs
B Company
Captain Seamus Maguire
    Command IFV, 1 Platoon Mech Infantry in IFVs, 3 Platoons in APCs
C Company
Captain Donald Claiborne
    Command IFV, 1 Platoon Mech Infantry in IFVs, 3 Platoons in APCs
D Company
Captain Edward O'Leary
    Command IFV, 1 Platoon Mech Infantry in IFVs, 3 Platoons in APCs

4th Battalion (Artillery)
CO: Major Francis Trevayne
A Company
Captain Patrick Forsythe
    Command IFV and 4 Platoons of 4 Mortar Vehicles each
B Company
Captain Jon Mycroft
    Command IFV and 4 Platoons of 4 Mortar Vehicles each
C Company
Captain Thomas Moriarty
    Command IFV and 4 Platoons of 8 Anti-tank Guns each
D Company
Captain Colin Byrne
    Command IFV and 4 Platoons of 8 Anti-tank Guns each

7th Battlemech Battalion (The Coldstream Guard)
CO: Major Lloyd Knowles
A Company (Recon)
Captain Charles McCrory
     4 Lances
B Company (Support)
Capain Michael Sullivan
     4 Lances
C Company (Assault)
Captain James Patrick
     4 Lances

53rd Highlander Air Wing
CO: Colonel Sean O'Connell
1st Squadron (Fighter)
Major Kevin Baird
     12 Superiority Fighters
2nd Squadron (Ground Attack)
Major John Tawney
     12 Attack Fighters
3rd Squadron (Transport)
Major Peter Foorgate
     12 Transports/VSTOLs

So that's all there is for now and hopefully my Brigade order will be here this week and we'll be able to continue on.  See you all next Tuesday!

Slow Week

Well, I didn't get a whole lot done this past week.  About a dozen or so Mechs came out of the Simple Green and got primed but I didn't get a picture of them.  I've still got about 4 stubborn ones still soaking away.  I did get some 40K marines sold which let me get some 15mm ordered.

I ordered this detachment from Brigade Models.  It gives me a nice assortment of models to get started with and lets me get working on organization.  I've always like Hammer's Slammers by David Drake so the air cushion hover tanks and apc's really drew me in.  This is something that could be really fun to expand on.  I'm leaning towards a Scottish Highlander regiment theme right now.  It'd let me tell Cheef there can be only one anyway LOL.  I also got the Gruntz rulebook ordered and it should be here early next week sometime.

The 40K just sold to fund the 15mm was a landraider, a quartet of predators, a vindicator and a pair of razorbacks.  I've still got a lot of 40K marines to sell off though, having decided to get rid of all the unpainted stuff and get down to just the finished models to keep back for future use.  It's looking like a few land raiders, 8 or so rhinos, some various odds and ends, and a whole lot (3 hundred or so) of infantry to get sold off still.

The rest of the week should be a lot slower and I'll have the weekend clear and free this go round so I'm aiming to get some progress on both painting the mechs and hopefully get some preliminary work on fleshing out the 15mm fluff idea as well.  That's all for now and I'll see you all next Tues.

Yeah, I was a bad blogger

So yeah, I've been a bad blogger for a while.  There were some computer issues at first, that were resolved just in time for work issues.  I got past the work issues but by then I was just out of the habit of blogging regularly.  So this is how it's going to be from now on.  I'm aiming for a post every Tuesday and we'll see if I can get back on track.

 

So I moved back in the spring like I mentioned in a previous post.  I finally got all my Eridani Light Horse BattleTech dug out and organized.  As it turns out the 21st Striker Regiment is missing about 8 mechs due to a miscount on my part somehow.  I'm also needing some aerospace fighters but that's on hold for now.  There is also a fair bit of basing to do still and some basing to repair where the glue shrunk when it dried and made gaps.

So I've had an itch to keep on with the Eridani Light Horse so I've been hitting eBay and a BattleTech Buy/Sell/Trade group for deals to start building up some models.  Eight of these will be used to fill out the 21st Striker Regiment and the rest will all be going into the 151st Light Horse Regiment.  That will give me 46 primed models for the second regiment plus the 26 mechs soaking in the Simple Green.  I still need to make an order with GHQ for some trucks and I need to get a lot of Aerospace fighters, Tanks, and Artillery.

Also, Cheef seems to be trying to get 10mm gaming going as a thing locally.  I've got some 40K Space Marines up for sale and might be using that to put together a small 10mm force (no pun intended).  Brigade Models sells some nice 10mm Hammers Slammers models so leaning that way for now.

Also, I've been in an Infinity league lately though my choice of a pure Myrmidon list has made it a bit tough for me.  Infinity is fun, but it just doesn't have the same pull for me that other systems do.  After this league I'll probably drop out of the Infinity thing for now at least.

That's all for now and I'll see you all next Tuesday.

More SAGA Vikings And A Bit More BattleTech

So I got a box of plastic multipart vikings from Hammer of the Gods The Dark Ages line.  It's a nice plastic kit from Wargames Factory that will make 32 figures with plenty of options between spears, axes, swords, bows, and shields.  There are only 4 body options in the box, but plenty of head and arm choices that you can still easily avoid models looking repetitious.

The first order of business was to assemble three archers to finish off the 12 man unit of bondi archers.  This gives me a full point of missile troops for my Vikings Warband.

Next up was 8 more warriors for the fourth and last point of my starter warband.  The first unit is mainly spears with a couple axes and swords mixed in.  I did this unit as half axes and half swords.  I'll have my Warlord, a unit of Hirthguard, 2 units of warriors, and the unit of bondi archers.  Should give me plenty of bodies and a good mix of troops for learning the game with.  Painting still continues plus I need to get the newly assembled models primed.

The other thing I'm excited about is that a while back I worked out a deal with a fellow out of the Vancouver area to get some BattleTech models painted.  I've never been able to paint white models, much less attempt white models with a camo aspect to it.  In the original CamoSpecs book for BattleTech there is a 20th Arcturan Guard mech in a snow camo scheme that I've always loved so that's what he's doing for me.

This is the command lance of the 1st Company, 2nd Battalion, 20th Arcturan Guard.  He's currently working on the Alpha Lance and I've got the other two lances to ship to him in the near future.  This will make a nice change of pace unit from my Eridani Light Horse, though with the Lyran mindset, I think it still qualifies as a scout battalion.

Command Lance
Major Victor Waering, Company CO, Battlemaster
Captain Oliver Maulthier, Company XO, Atlas
Lt. Petra Collier, Zeus
Lt. Richard Fischer, Thug

Alpha Lance
Lt. Gregory Mannstein, Fafnir
Emily Sydon, Novacat
Wilhelm Rache, Fafnir
Kevin Scopes, Mauler

Beta Lance
Lt. Alois Hennessy, Battlemaster
Charles Korolev, Stalker
Katherine Baniche, Stalker
Eddard Wolcott, Atlas

Charlie Lance
Lt. Heather Reed, Orion
Todd Lloyd, Zeus
Brian Showforth, Blackjack
Elliot Borodin, Hunchback

That's all for now and next week I'm hoping to post up progress on how the painting is coming on the Vikings.  I also need to show the US Army troops that I've picked up for Bolt Action as well.  See you all next time.

SAGA Vikings Progress and Some BattleTech

So I've started getting some paint on my Viking war band the last couple days.  I've also been rereading through the rules over and over while watching some of the battle reports out there.  The more I look over it, the more and more I like this system.  No one upmanship due to list building, just seeing who has the best tactical instincts.  I got one model mostly finished today to try out colors, though he still needs basing and a bit of touch ups.  Apologies about the blur on one end of all the photos, my phone's camera lens has acquired a scuff.  Fortunately I'm only a bit over a month away from my next upgrade.

 

 

I'm using Vallejo blackened steel and tarnished steel for the metal bits, and then will be using bronze to make the warlord and some other leaders stand out a bit.  Other colors being used are flat yellow, medium fleshtone, clotted red, and flat red.  GW gryphonne sepia is the wash I'm using over the hair and flesh and then GW badab black over the metals.  The baal red and devlan mud washes will also get a bit of use.  I'm not happy with how dark the Vallejo intense blue is and think I need to find a different shade.  I'll keep working on these fellows a color at a time and will keep posting on their progress.  I'm satisfied with how it's starting to progress, but it's starting to come together.  I've also found some small wooden barrels that I've started to use for terrain for SAGA.

The other project I've made a small bit of progress on is in BattleTech.  Needing a break from painting SLDF green on the Eridani Light Horse, I've started assembling a force of Wolf's Dragoons, Black Widow Company to be precise.  I've got a Robotech Warhammer to assemble for Natasha Kerensky's ride that will be added to the force as well.  It isn't precisely the canon force listed in the FASA books, but it'll work for my interpretation of them.

That's all I've got going for now, work is keeping me a bit busy plus I'm still slowly unpacking stuff from the recent move.  Suggestions and advice are as welcome as always and I'll see you all next time.