Making up for lost time...

Of Gaming...

This'll be quick - in the last two weeks, I've not done ANY! I messed up my scheduling and didn't get a game two weeks ago, and last week I spent my usual Gaming night at Guildford Games Club on Monday taking photos of other gamer's armies. so nothing to report exceopt...

Of Guildford Games Clubber's Guest Galleries... (try saying that 3 times fast...)

As noted, last Monday I took my camera, light and a fair bit of backing paper down to the Guildford Games Club to take some photos of the other gamer's armies. There's some impressive collections down there, and some great painters too so I though it was about time they got shared with the world!

In the coming weeks & months, I will be including galleries marked "[Guest Gallery]" to many of the different sections of the site including warhammer, 40K, warmachine, Infinity, Seeds of War, 6mm WWII and epic among many others. These are galleries for true gamers armies and whilst I havent uploaded the majority of them yet, I love them already!

The First for your consumption was chosen purely because he's the only one who provided me any details of his forces whilst I was photographing them. Introducing the first of 3 Guest Galleries to come from the talented hands of Alex Foyster - His Warhammer High Elves (19 pictures)


Of painting and updates...

Similar to the Gaming, much of my hobby time this week has been taken up editing the photos I've taken and preparing them for inclusion on the site. Combine that with two good weekends spent with my Girlfriend and a couple of good nights out with my mates and painting time has been.. no wait... I'm not sure how I've managed this....
I've now finished my First 8 Auxillery Archers for my 28mm Romans and my first 24 Auxillary spearmen too (much thanks to LBMS transfers and great service from Maelstrom games on the latter). I've also prepped the next regiment, and am 1/3 of the way through my second 8 Auxillary archers. Oh, and I've painted half a regiment of Skeletons from mantic games too. Its been a GREAT fortnight - if only this could happen all the time!


So, updates:
As promised - The handgunners are online in the WHFB Empire 2 gallery (4 pictures)
The First Unit of Auxillary Archers made it in fron of the camera and into the 28mm Roman Gallery (2 pictures)
I've finally photographed my meager and random Pax Arcadian Units for the Seeds of War section (32 pictures)

And, last but not least, beacuse I made you all wait two weeks for an update, I've uploaded one of my own favourite galleries from my old commissions. The Witchhunters gallery was a group of commissions painted over a long period for a repeat customer of mine - the same guy who I did all the Dark Angels for. There's some of my favourite work in there, so please check it out and I hope you enjoy it! (71 pictures)

Totals:
New Galleries - 3
New Pictures - 129 (!! dont expect me to keep that up ;) )

*** Stop Press *** ***Stop Press *** ***Stop Press *** ***Stop Press *** ***Stop Press ***

I just realised that after this update, I will be achingly close to passing 2500 images on this site, so sod it, have another gallery for free, and since its me, it might as well be an Epic one!

Introducing the Legio Ignatum. My Current Titan Legion. Spawned after Painting the Studio Warhound model for the Epic: Armageddon Book, its a bit of a slow - grower, but it will expand one day... (20 pictures)

New Totals:
Galleries - 4
New Pictures - 149 (Really, dont expect that again for a LONG time!)

Total Picturs now on Site - 2504! Thank you for watching it grow! :)

FAIL

But only a minor one - its sunday, the weekend has passed & I've not got an update online!

I'm afraid a great weekend away with my Girlfriend took priority over the toys this week. I'll try to get something up during the week and back on track next weekend, but no promises - there's a busy month ahead.

The Good news...

The good news is that as of tomorrow, I should have many more Guest galleries at least ready to be edited - I'm taking my lights and camera down to Guildford Games Club where the good fellows have agreed to let me snap a few shots of their armies for guest galleries on this fair site.

Now, it might take me a while to edit & compile it all, but there's some great armies down there (proper Gamer's one's too... not just Pretty things that live in cabinets!) which I'm looking forward to being able to showcase here.

So there's good times ahead, even if good times at the weekend do slow the site's progress just a little - keep your eyes peeled throughout the week as i will endevour to play catchup ;)

A tale of old and new

Of Gaming...
Monday night was another good one at the Guildford Games Club. Having watched a number of encounters, and bought my own squad, I finally played my first two games of Infinity Last Monday.

I do like the rules set. The way you have to think ahead to cover all angles and possibilities (such as enemy Paras ona first "intro" game! Grrr... ) really appeals to me. I really think it could be fun with two teams of Ariadna with basic rifles duking it out, but for the while I'll enjoy my plethora of special weapons none the less!!

First game I lost, to aforementioned Para. Though I would like it noted that that only occurred after my opponent stated where he was dropping, and wanting to learn the intricacies a little better, I asked "So Why didn't you choose to drop him here and do this?". To which my opponent replied "...ohh.. that's not a bad idea..." and proceeded to kill 4 ofmy team in a single turn.

Second game I was more ready for it and new more what my troops were capable of. I set up a good defensive position and waited for the right moment. When the time was right, and the passage of travel clear, my Rocket launcher exposed her position and took down the enemy medic. Now the game was on - my Ant-Tank trooper dashed from cover, got a good shot off on the enemy ORC suit with his Adhesive launcher and followed it up with a Demo charge to knock him out. His final action moved him back around a large pile of pipes, to a rather exposed position, but one which was well covered by fire from the rest of my squad. The enemy were walking into a hailstorm if they went for retribution.
The following turn the AT trooper worked back around the pipes and took out the enemy medic, and had a good try on the enemy lieutenant too. unfortunately his luck had run out, and he was subsequently taken out by the nefarious enemy para, who this time had to drop behind his own lines to shore them up. That didn't last long however as he in turn left himself open to a shot from my Kazak Veteran, and the game was called as he hit the floor.

Thanks James - Great Games!

Of Painting...

This week I've finished off another unit which has been on the workbench for an obsene amount of time. Literally years! So, FINALLY, 10 sad little classic empire handgunners are dust-free, fully painted and in the cabinet - photos next week!

In the mean time I have two galleries of the very old, and one of the very new for you in this update!


For starters, we have "Epic, The Early days" - a gallery of some of my earliest forrays into converting epic miniatures and some not-so-hot paintjobs to keep you entertained. (22 pictures)

Secondly, we go up to 10mm scale, with the eventual arrival of the inevitable Warmaster Miscellaneous Gallery. Most of these figures were painted as random painting fun when the models were new, but there's a fair variety in there from many different races! (29 pictures)

And last but not least, we jump further up the scale chart and to something brand new. It may only be a tiny one, but I open the 28mm Roman Gallery with my first completed regiment - Warlord Games Slingers. Soon to be followed by many more I hope :) (3 pictures)

As ever - thanks for looking!

Totals:
New Galleries - 3
New images - 54

A 6mm special...

Of Gaming:
Had a great game of BKC last week. We played a mid-war Breakout with my soviets battling to escape from the surrounding Germans of Matt Arnold. Neither of us Have played in ages & it was like starting from scratch, but a re-match is booked for 10days time with the same forces, so hopefully a better grip will be achieved on the rules and a fuller game completed for once! Matt suffered terribly from a lack of command roles and a large portion of his forces failing to make it to the tray until well into the game. I suffered from my own command decisions - trying to use my own armour to see off the germhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifan Stugs, when I should have up-tailed and run away from them to escape the board. Lessons learned - may the re-match see the real winners!


Of painting & Updates:
The Slingers I mentioned last week will be photographed sometime this weekend, but not in time for this update I'm afraid. So, tts more of the old-skool today, as I continue to update my photo collection and add some more of the older models to the galleries.

With regards painting this week, nothing yet, but give me a chance - the weekend lies ahead of this update!

First up we have my original Epic Tau units and display base from 200... 2000 and ... umm - a way back! It was before the epic Tau's general release by Forgeworld, at any rate! More were later painted to match on commission, but these were the originals :) (23 Pictures)
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Secondly, we move up the scales to 28mm, and classic Necromunda figures - my Orlock Gang has been added to the 40K section. Usual story with these I'm afraid - painted, rarely used, and eventually sold, but much enjoyed none-the-less! (20 pictures)

And finally, a small but perfectly formed gallery featuring some 6mm Franco-Prussian War miniatures I painted up for Baccus Figures has been added to the recently re-named Horse & Musket section (was the napolionics section...) . Superb 6mm sculpts, even if you're not a fan of the era - maybe worth taking a look! (8 pictures)

Totals:
New Galleries Added: 3
New Pictures Added: 51

And then it went quiet....

No sooner had I passed 100 galleries, than my BlogFeed decided to go Belly up and I could no longer post (readable) updates on my News Blog!

Big Thanks to Rich Mayhew who's fixed it all for me - Beers are on the way!

In the mean time, what have I been doing?

Pledge Updates:

Selling stuff! I've certainly kept up that end of the pledge, having sold a couple of thousand (!) Pounds worth of painted toy soldiers int he past couple of months. All my Warmachine, Hordes, 3 15mm armies, half my 6mm soviets and loads more besides have now made their way all over the world - I hope they're enjoyed in their new homes!

The good side to this is that My funds are looking slightly more healthy. The slightly bad side is that most of the time I've had for hobby has been spent wrapping models up and my painting's not been too fast.

Buying Stuff! I've been talked into (didn't take much) taking up Infinity. I needed to start a game which is played by more people at my club, as I tend to skirt around the edges playing 6mm games now & then, but nothingn regular. Infinity is now that game and I've bought an Ariadna force, for about £60 spend so far - first painted miniature is now up!

Painting!
Damn, I already mentioned that my first Ariadna miniature is done... that's gone and taken the wind out my own sails. Oh well - find him in the brand new Ariadna section here of 28mm sci-fi mics! (4 pictures)

The EA Necron Gallery has gone Live once more. It was one of the first to be put on the new site, but was taken down again after many delays from obtaining the miniatures to ailing funds. However, the commission is finally complete & the gallery online! (37 Pictures)

I've also painted 16 28mm Roman Auxillery Slingers, but I'm yet to get them in front of the camera - another update soon! :oS

Overall:
Gallery count: 2
Picture count: 41
The Pledge:
Models Bought: 37
Models Painted: 51
Months into the Pledge: 5