TuffSkull's Notepad

Of a slightly late Monthly report...

I am pleased to say that January was another pretty good month for painting.

I've added a couple more formations to the 15mm Human army, and painted the first half of my long-awaited 6mm WWII soviets. The original plan to use them for flames of war has gone by the wayside however, and they are now based for use in Blitzkreig commander.

This has reulted in my having an army about 5 times larger than I really need for that game, so I have no doubt a large portion of it will be up for sale soon!

I've started work on five 28mm US Delta Force from Tag. I painted their counterpart squad a few years ago, but am only just getting on to the second set. Doing these in Desert camo, but not very happy with the balance of realism Vs eye-candy effect at the moment, so work has stalled.

Finally, I'm preparring for my First game of Warhammer, scheduled for the first Monday or March so my Savage Orcs are having numerous lists written for them then torn up before I set forth with the brushes to finish off whatever I decide is needed for the game :)

Of the plans for February...

February will hopefully see yet more under the brush and, girlfirend allowing the plan currently stands as:-
-completion of the infantry Horde & support artillery for my 6mm WW2 Soviets.
- Paint & base whatever is needed for my Savage Orc 1500pt game
- Finish the Delta Force
- Start work on what little armour I have for 6mm Soviet Force.

Time shall tell....
__===
Photos to follow!===__

Of the December Marathon...

December hasn't been the best of months as far as work has been concerned for me, but making the most of things, I've hit the brushes hard and have been painting vast numbers of 15mm figures to help compensate.

Thus far I've completed:
An army of dwarves.
And undead force - just needs chariots finishing
Some Minataurs
Some Ogres / Trolls
And the Majority of the infantry for a large human army.

I've also finally finished & based two more formations of DRM Kameli, my converted Kameli command formation, and two simple objectives for the army.

Not a bad month - photos of all below!

Of the Cabinets at the end of a decade...

I thought I would mark the end of the decade with a quick tour of the miniatures cabinets I currently have in my flat. I also have a cabinet filled at The Game Shop in aldershot, but I dont get there often enough to take photos for this tour :(

Also - please forgive the dodgey photography on some of these - I took them in one pass & was clearly suffering from christmas sugar shakes! :os

Cabinet 1:

C1 Shelf 1 - Display epic Tau, DRM / SoW Pax Arcadian test pieces and Warmaster Bretonnian Joust display piece


C1 shelf 2 - Miscellaneous display pieces


C1 shelf 3 - DRM Seeds of War Kraytonian Kameli Core force, Gaming standard. (front 3 regiments & objectives painted December '09)


C1 Shelf 4 - WHFB Savage Orcs, gaming standard.



Cabinet 2:


C2 Shelf 1 - Epic Display / Competition pieces & DRM pax Arcadian colour tests


C2 Shelf 2 - Misc Fantasy Display pieces.


C2 Shelf 3 - 15mm Fantasy undead, Dwarves & Beasts painted Dec '09


C2 Shelf 4 - WHFB Night (aka deep forest) Goblins and 15mm humans / medievals



Cabinet 3:


C3 Shelf 1 - DRM Seeds of War Kraytonians


C3 Shelf 2 - DRM Seeds of War Kraytonians


C3 Shelf 3 - DRM Seeds of War Kraytonians


C3 Shelf 4 - You guessed it... DRM Seeds of War Kraytonians!


Cabinet 4:


C4 Shelf 1 - Random old display models, mostly missing display bases!


C4 Shelf 2 - 15mm Fantasy human army 2


C4 Shelf 3 - 15mm converted Centaur Army


C4 Shelf 4 - 15mm Fantasy Human army 3


C4 - bonus - random odd warmaster & epic models, mostly mommentoes from commissions :)



And thats the lot! Thanks to ebay and filling Game shop's cabinets, my own painted collections are finally thinning to a point I can actually display them all in my flat. More will be going (namely 90% of the 15mm stuff) in the new year, but that just makes way for me to paint yet more toys - Happy days ! :D :D

Thanks for looking!

Of why so quiet...

This blog hasn't had many updates, but in fact I've been doing quite a bit of hobby lately!
Since writing the Kameli list, I have been once again expanding my Kraytonian army so that I can field all of the new formations I included in the list. There are still a few converted formations which need finishing off, but the army has had quite the boost! I've been too busy with the brush to play with tghe camera, but I will endevour to take some pics of the new units soon.

We also had a massive game lately (see below!) and I've painted a few items of scenery for that, as well as working on a few other Seeds of War "Bolt On"s which I'll talk more of soon.

Of war on a new scale...

On october 17th, 2009 a few intrepid gamers set about a massive game of Seeds of War at the Aldershot Games Shop.

Usually played at around 600 points on a 6ft board, this was to be over 5000 points per side, on a 20ft board.

To write up the whole game would take forever, so I wont even try, so purely for the purposes of eye candy, here's some pics - come and join us next time!

Hi All,

I've uploaded the latest version of my Force Org for Kameli Strike Forces - my fan list for Seeds of War.

Kameli force org.pdf (72.85 KB)

The current Army Guide for the new units can be found in my last post.

Since the last version we've tested it a couple more times & discussed:

Torakk Riders:
The Torrak riders are immensley powerful when they get the charge (as intended!) & have had their points raised slightly once again. I think we're just about getting the balance on those now.


Kameli infantry points cost:
I dont have the power to alter main lists these days, but the strike force has been adjusted, so that standard kameli infantry units are now 45 points. Its a lot for a sinple infantry unit, but the ability to dig in on objectives is immensley useful when well used. It also prevents players from taking them as normal foot sloggers - a move which would be very un characterful for the strike force design.


The Force Org:
As well as this, I've altered the organisation slightly to limit the number of advanced deployment formations you can take, by forcing you to take Aurika - mounted broods as well, adding to the character of a fast strike force rather than an advanced army of defenders.

Demolition Broods:
I'm yet to test these, primarily as I'm yet to finish the models for them, but I already have some additions in mind.

What do people think would be more fitting - Advanced deplyment, or Aurika mounts? They cant be lowly foot troops as they currently are since they just wont keep up with the army!

More games Ahead:
More test games are being played over the next 3 mondays as we play out a mini-tournament at the Guildford games club between the 4 sides of the latest two big games.

Of Recent Gaming...

The Kraytonians have been out on many fronts lately, taking a beating from the Pax on two occasions, but expanding the great empire against the Andrayada on other fronts.

Last week the two fronts met as four forces battled it out. Two Pax armies and an Andrayada force faced off along with my Kraytonians, fighting for control of 5 objectives spread over a 6' x 8' suburban battlefield. I do have pictures of many of these latest games, but any time I've had for writing up such things has been put aside for writing up a new army....

The games have all been great, not least as we've been playtesting a new force I've been designing for a bit of fun, because my Kraytonians have outgrown the standard force org (thats my excuse & I'm sticking to it...! ).


Kameli Strike Force - WIP Fan army for Seeds of War



The Kameli Strike Force represents a supremely fast army, full of recon & advanced deployment units, backed up by brilliant air cover.

If you're trying to hold ground, the Strike force may not be what you're looking for, but if you're a kraytonian player who likes to take it right to the face of the enemy line, then please download, take a look & let me know any feedback you have - the next version may rely on your thoughts!

Kameli strike forces.pdf (321.16 KB)

I've still got a lot of sculpting & painting to do before I finish this project, not to mention writing, but please feel free to try them out - I'll post the actual force org (points still very much in testing!) soon too if people want to see it :)

Of Battle Reports in the making
I'm currently playing with a new piece of software called battle chronicler which allows you to input your army details, define a game board & write up old school battle reports very simply & easily.

The cool thing about it is that once you've input the data for an army, you can import it into any new game report you wish. The slight downside is that my Kraytonian army is HUGE, so it took a while to write up, and I'm also lacking the details of my opponents army. Every time we meet we seem to play a game rather than exchange details, which means my list of game sawaiting chronicling is getting ever longer - sorry for the wait!

Of Conversions & Ace leftovers
Having acquired yet more Kraytonians via a recent trade, I've been doing some converting lately :oD

Out of the remnants let from my devious plans, came this little guy.

Very simple conversion but I'm not sure what to use it for yet. I've painted it up as a fighter Ace & I'm hoping to find a use for it at a later date, but since it fits with none of my current actual projects, I thought I'd post him right away & see what you lot thought

As you can see from the pre-painted pic, its just an Arkator fuselage with Arkiten Wings. Very simple way of getting a new look sticking to the same style.





I've also used it as a test bed for my shot at the Kraytonian Language. I designed a basic numbers & characters system for them quite some time ago & here its shown on the side of the cockpit, which denotes his confirmed kills. I havent got time to explain it now, but its pretty simple so I'll write it up as soon as I can!

Of Golden Demon UK '09

In an amazing show of restraint, I have since my last posting abandoned ideas of entering Golden Demon this year in favour of continuing work on my main projects. I'll still be going to the event and look forward to seeing everybody else's work, but for me, I'm just not in the right place for detail painting still, so I'll continue to play around with massed ranks & save the special characters for another year :)

Of the Massed ranks...

Speaking of massed ranks, the Kraytonian reserve infantry are now completed & ready for action.

Monitor Warriors:

Veteran Warriors:

Heavy Support Broods:

Medium support Broods:

Kameli scout infantry:


I've also started work on two formations of Arkator Bombers, one of Arkiten and an Aryx too. These aren't being painted in my usual scheme but instead are being painted to represent aircraft of the Kraytonian space Navy, sent down to aid the land forces of Basileus Kra-Vor?. More on these soon!

... but still no grass!

I'm going to have to go mad with the grass at some point, as the number of units waiting for basing is mounting up fast.

Today saw another 5 Kraytonian formations under the brush, this time in the shape of 2 formations of Veteran Krayt & 3 formations of Kameli.



However, I also bought myself a ticket to Games day /. Golden Demon, so thoughts are also wandering slightly in that direction - who knows which path my brush will follow next! ;oP

Yup, if I dont get the excuse of a day off from the weather, it seems I have to crush my finger between two steel girders to get any painting done these days!

Of Being Butchered...

I wont go into details, but in the doctors own words - "Its not broken, just bloody butchered!". Due to a mis-communication at work, I could easily have lost all my fingers past the first knuckle last week, but Adreneline is a wonderful thing & I got away with just mangling the end of one of them.

Bad enough that it bled for 4 days, and to get some time off work, but not bad enough to keep me from the brushes a week later when I finally find I have the time & ability to do something!

Of Kraytonian re-inforcements...

Before I left DRM, I'd already got a few more Kraytonian units lines up to bulk my forces a little. On leaving, I also found myself with a small horde of figures due to me to replace those I'd initially bought myself but had ended up as part of the "studio" Pax army ready for Bovington last year.

I ordered a few units from many different areas of the force org, allowing me more specialisation options within my large forces. I also couldn't resist ordering a small fortunes worth of the new Torrak Riders. I've based them 3 to a base & in formations of 3 or 6 stands. I know thias isn't how Doug's planning on using them, but I just love the sight of them like this!

All in all I knew I had a few toys waiting for me. However, I didn't realise quite how many until I'd spent half a day cleaning & gluing them all....



On seeing this I scrapped plans of working on my savage Orcs & decided the space Crocodillans really needed some attention!

A Day later, two Monitor Broods, a Medium brood, Heavy brood and a formation of Ketzali were all just awaiting their final basing & ready to hit the table.



Tomorrow - Veterans & Kameli!

Of the Orcs of Savagery...

The savage Orcs are certainly not forgotten. They have had a few units added but nothing I've managed to photograph yet. All painting is still very much of the speed variety & details will be added when I go back to each regiment, once basic painting is done for them all! Pics soon ;)

Of Weather from Another Continent...

Last night I was driving home from a weekend seeing friends in coventry. As we got nearer London, the weather started to get nasty. As I got near home, the weather was getting silly!

In the worst snow for 18 years, I woke up to 10 inches of snow & it continued for another 5 hours after I took this photo - not normal for the UK, but quite fun for all the kids who's schools were closed (god bless Britain's inability to function in any weather!)


of Making the most of it..

As I said, Britain is quite incabale of functioning if we get anything other than the usual moderate rain. As such, my work for the day was cancelled & I got to spend the day in, having a very productive painting session!

I would have liked to have been working on my Chaos pieces for the Tale of Tactical Wargamers project I'm involved in, but unfortunately I need to do some undercoating for that, and I didn't fancy taking the models outside for that on this particular day.

As such, I set about some of the other pieces I've started lately.

Of a return to epic (but nothing too small!)

First on the list was the warhound titan shown as a WIP below.
It was painted quickly, to match some other Titans I painted a long time back (themselves painted to match the warhound I did for the E:A rulebook - henve only one new style titan here - his battle brother is in Nottingham :) )



Of the Savagery of Orcs...
My other project is my Savage Orc Army. Speedy painting is the order of the day for these regiments - they've been sat around waiting for display paint jobs for years, so scrap that & get them table-ready ASAP instead!
These models are from Black Tree Designs. They'll have to earn their warpaint in battle & I'll add it at a later date!