December Update

Well, its December and I just realized that I never posted an update for November. To be totally fair there hasn't been a lot of work done on the hobby front over the past 6-8 weeks. I'm still plugging away at the painting commission I accepted.

I did pick up a few new Warmachine Retribution models: Some House Shyeel Arcanists, a Lys Healer and a Voidtracer.

In addition to that my son, brother-in-law and I decided to started to play both Dropzone and Dropfleet Commander. I elected to start a Shaltari force after some research. I debated between the UCM, Scourge and Shaltari. The ranged firepower and teleportation tactics for the Shaltari eventually won me over. I picked up a frigate box for Dropfleet and I am debating on color schemes. I am very much looking forward to the release of the Battle Fleet boxes.

For dropzone commander I picked up a Shaltari starter box, a Coyote warstrider and a Firedrake. My son has picked up the PHR starter, a set of Sirens and Tritons. I had been apprehensive of trying this game out but I am glad we did. The rules are fairly straight forward and we flew through our first game together earlier this week and had a blast I might add. We ended in a draw as we only had time to play 3 turns and had both managed to claim one objective.

I have also been using my 3d printer to make bases for my new Shaltari hover tanks and for my new Warmachine characters. I have also been working on some 10mm buildings for use with Dropzone. The first couple have a dersert/scavanger feel to them. I would like to do some large apartment or business buildings for a city and have some ideas that I need to design.

I have heard that Warcradle has released some new renders for Dystopian Wars and Armored Clash. From the little that I have read they are mixing the Dystopian Wars IP with their own Wild West Exodus to create the Dystopian Age IP which will have their Wild West Exodus as a skirmish game, Armored clash has become a 10mm land/air game and Dystopian Wars has been revised as a 1/1200 scale naval/air game. Unfortunately with the meshing of game worlds a number of the nations have changed. In particular, my Republique of France appears to no longer be apart of the game world or potentially has been absorbed by the Prussian Empire, time will tell. Warcradle has the a blog detailing some of this.

https://blog.wildwestexodus.com/blog/2017/12/1/unveiling-the-dystopian-age

Sorry I do not have more pictures this blog but I have not had much to photograph to be honest. Once I finish my painting commission I will try to knock out my Retribution or Shaltari forces. I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season. Thanks for reading and God bless.

October Update! Now with more Glacier King

Hello all,
It has been a fairly product few weeks at least until this week. I acquired a plague from a children which knocked me out for half of this week. Quite unpleasant! However, I am on the mend now and beginning to feel human again. Before getting sick I had made good progress on my commission and expanding my old game rules.

Ok, status update. On the Warmachine front I have greatly expanded my Cygnar forces. I haven't really taken any pictures of these guys because I haven't painted the majority of them but so far I think are my favorite faction.

Warcasters
Cain's Hellslingers
Allison Jakes

So far I have enjoyed using both of these casters - One nice thing about Allison Jakes is that I can also take her as a solo, albeit less powerful than her warcaster form.

Heavy Warjacks
Gallant
Centurion/Hammersmith

The Gallant has performed extremely well for me so far though it does not seem to have the best life expectancy. I haven't had a chance to field the centurion but I am extremely excited to do so. I have been debating on picking up a second Centurion/Hammersmith box depending on how it plays.

Light Warjacks
Lancer
Firefly

Both of these have played quite well though I have had better luck with the Lancer so far. I have been considering adding a sentinel to my lights as it would make a good shield guard potentially.

Solos
Katherine Laddermore (Dragoon)
Colby Sterling (Mercenary)
Harlan Versh

Other than Colby, I haven't had a chance to make much use of these. Colby is a mechanic and so has been quite useful the couple of games I have had her in keeping my jacks running. Harlan Versh combos well with Gallant, proving him with an extra focus each turn if within range. Laddermore is just a beast.

Units
Stormblade Infantry with weapon attachments
Sword Knights
Stormsmith Grenadiers
Stormsmith Stormtower

Both the Stormtower and Grenadiers have served me well in previous games. I have not had an opportunity to try out the Stormblades or Sword Knights just yet though I am definitely looking forward to fielding them.

This is where it gets a little crazy though. The pre-orders for all of the new trencher units has recently went up and I could not help myself but purchase a number of them to add to my expanding Cygnar battalion. So over the past week and half I have pre-ordered:
Trencher Express Team PiPlink
Trencher Mechanics PiPlink
Trencher Warcaster Lieutenant PiPlink
Trencher Long Gunners PiPlink
Trencher Patrol Dog PiPlink

As these are all pre-orders I will be receiving them sometime either this month or next month. Not to be left out my wife surprised me with a Glacier King a little over two weeks ago. He is magnificent!

This beast is going to look amazing when painted! My wife sure knows how to pick them! 

I acquired a MOD-T 3d printer recently to help with designing models for my game rules. I had spent quite a bit of time trying to find similar models to use instead but in the end I was never able to match what was in my head with what I was finding. Its been a fun process learning how to use the printer but I also recently discovered it was good for making base inserts which is the pink base you can see the glacier king standing on above.

Here's a pic of the models I designed for some of the 40mm base inserts I have designed so far. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture of them once printed.

Wow, this has a been a long rambling post. I really need to do these more often :) Last thing for this post is the map of the game world I am working on. I'm still finalizing locations and names but its in pretty good shape and I am extremely happy with how it is turning out.

This has been quite the learning experience with Corel Painter Essentials but also a lot of fun. Colored areas denote different nations. Still working on fleshing those out. 

Thanks for reading, I will endeavor to do smaller more frequent posts in the future. Hope everyone has a great weekend. Until next time.

Legion of Everblight - Archangel Painting

Hi all,
I'm Chris's brother in law an while I've been listed on the blog for 2 years its about time I make an actual post. I'm going to try and start posting my some of my Warmachine and Hordes army painting. I'll starting with one of the nicest mini's (IMHO) made by Privateer Press, although you can hardly call it a mini this thing is huge .

Legion of Everblight: Archangel, all assembled.

Bases coated, 1) Home Depot touch of color flat black spray base, 2) Tamiya fine surface grey spray primer.

To start all the skin was painted in Vallejo French Blue, all the scales are done in Vallejo Black and the wing membranes are a mix of Vallejo French blue and Vallejo Signal Blue. All paint was brush applied in several thin coats using a wet pallet. 

I'll update as I make progress on the model. 

September Update

Its been a pretty crazy couple of weeks. Between Spartan Games recent closing and the recent craziness of my real life job I have not had a whole lot to post about recently. I did complete painting a Firestorm Armada Terquai Patrol fleet.

I liked the contrast of the red/purple and teal.

I have also recently broken out an old set of rules for a naval combat game I started working on a long while back. I've started working on getting the maps cleaned up and finalizing the rules. My son has already volunteered to help me playtest the different nations and ships. Its been fun to dust off and get back into designing something. One of the reasons I had put it on hold previously was the fact that I could not acquire ship models to match the nations I created. I recently discovered TinkerCAD and Sculptris and have been using them to slowly generate models to use with the game. I will definitely be posting some updates as I make progress.

I recently started a large new painting commission  which will likely keep me busy over the next few weeks. I will try to post some progress pictures as I work through them. Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Firestorm Galaxy Expansion - Further Renders

Hi again! Just thought I would share a few more renders. The kickstarter is just a few hundred pounds short of being funded which is exciting. Its been nice to see the kickstarter regain some momentum, I'm hoping that it will make several stretch goals. Though unlikely, I really hope that the Illosians Stretch goal is made. We shall see.

New Directorate Light Destroyer- Very sleek and dangerous looking to me.

Heart of the Stars - Character Marauder Ship unlocked when funded for most pledge levels.

Relthoza Light Destroyer - I love this model! Definitely looking forward to acquiring these!

Sorylian Fleet Carrier - Very beefy in my opinion and surprisingly awesome looking!

Spartan redid the stretch goals for the kickstarter which seems to have helped with the resurgence of backers. Unfortunately, the campaign pack is no longer being listed as a stretch goal. I'm hoping that it will still be sold at some point as I am looking forward to setting up a campaign in the future.

I'm hoping for some more Aquan or Relthoza renders next but either way I am excited for the expansion sets! Thank you for reading!

Firestorm Kickstarter - More Renders

Happy weekend all!

Spartan posted some new renders of the Sorylian and Dindrenzi light destroyers. Both of these look fantastic in my opinion. I'm very much hoping to see some Relthoza renders next!

Sorylian light destroyer - I really love the underslung weapons.

Dindrenzi light destroyer - The double rail guns look really good. I like how stocky/beefy this vessel looks. Looks like it hits pretty hard.

The kickstarter is currently at 91% funded and working its way closer to 100%. Within the next few days it should be funded and then we can start working on those stretch goals! Very excited! I hope everyone is having a good weekend. Thanks for reading!

Spartan Games - Firestorm Kickstarter update

Well, the Firestorm expansion kickstarter appears to be going fairly well so far. Spartan has begun posting renders of the Core nation expansion ships. These look really good so far. I am certainly excited to be a backer since it appears fairly certain that it will be funded. The real question is how many stretch goals will be released. Personally, I am hoping that the Illosians are unlocked but any stretch goals would be awesome!

A timeline has been released so far along with some tidbits regarding the racial histories. I am personally very excited about these. I really like the increased emphasis on the story for Firestorm.

Timeline post

This model is the Aquan torpedo destroyer and I love it! It has definitely made me want to pick up the Aquan Expansion Set. I've wanted to start an Aquan fleet for a while and these may convince me to do it! 

Terran Alliance Light Destroyer - Very cool model

Terran Alliance Battle Carrier - Amazing model, i love the engine configuration!

Pathogen infested Dindrenzi vessel. This looks pretty sweet! It has been indicated that the different races will have different stats when infected. It sounds really cool!

Finally, there has been more uploads for the 3D model views which I will share a link to below.
3D Turnarounds

The kickstarter is sitting at 87%, at least when I checked last. I'm definitely excited for it to fund and see how many of the stretch goals will get unlocked. Thank you for reading, have a great weekend!

Spartan Games - Firestorm Galaxy Expansion Kickstarter

Well, this was a nifty little surprise when I saw the email that the Firestorm kickstarter had gone live. This kickstarter will implement the 3.0 ruleset as well as release several new factions to the firestorm galaxy. There also appears to be several add-ons for terrain which look and sound awesome. They haven't got all of the renders for the terrain up just yet but the few they do look good.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/921886974/firestorm-galaxy-expansion/description

The majority of the campaign revolves around the new Harbingers of Desolation 2-player set. The standard version of this set provides a Saurian fleet and Pathogen fleet, along with a mini campaign book, rulebook, punch terrain and the standard tokens, templates and dice.

Saurian Dominion (Warrior Caste) starter fleet - Heavy battleship, 2x heavy Gunships, 3x heavy Frigates and a SRS Interceptor.

Pathogen (Prime) starter fleet - Assault Carrier, 3x Cruisers, 6x Frigates and 2x Assault SRS

I really like the new SRS tokens and have always hoped for a long while that Spartan would move to this style SRS token. There has been mention of adding upgrade boxes to the kickstarter so people can get the equivalents for their favorite factions but we will have to see if that happens as part of the kickstarter or just a later release.

The deluxe set provides some exclusive models which include an approximately 6" diameter Saurian border station and a massive Pathogen dreadnought/behemoth.

The Saurian border Station - This thing is pretty beastly in my opinion but will look really nice on a table. 

I am definitely excited to see the Pathogen model equivalent to this! Also included in the Deluxe set is acrylic tokens and an asteroid scenery set.

Similar to the Dystopian Wars Expansion there will be an upgrade box for each of the core 6 factions. Unfortunately, there are no renders for these just yet. Each upgrade box is supposed to contain 1 large squadron, 1 medium squadron and 1 small squadron. This leaves a lot of leeway for what could be in each box but I am very excited to see what may be there. I will likely pick up the upgrade box for my Relthoza in addition to the Deluxe 2-player set.

There will also be 3 narrative books released. A Kurak Alliance book, detailing all of the alliance races, their histories and, finally, some artwork of each race. There will be a similar book for the Zenian League and the Neutral/mercenary factions. These are really excited will potentially provide a massive boost to the fluff and narrative for why we all battle our little spaceships and planetfall forces.

They have a list of stretch goals Starting at 60,000GBP and running up to 170,000GBP. Some of the ones that jumped out at me are the unlocking of the Saurian Elite at 75,000GBP, Flashpoint Campaign pack similar to the dystopian wars oe at 80,000GBP, a Deluxe scenery pack at 100,000GBP and the unlocking of the Illosians at 110,000GBP.

Saurian Dominion (Elite) Heavy Battleship - I honestly like this style a little better than the military caste ships but they are both a very cool aesthetic.

Overall I am very excited about this kickstarter and looking forward to painting these models and hoping to get some of my family interested in playing this. The new ruleset will go a long way with that as it appears to be much faster to play and easier to teach.

I almost forgot to mention, those with a lot of hobby funds can back at the highest level and design their own small, medium or large squadron for any faction which is just awesome but waayyyy out of my hobby budget. I am still very excited to see what is made as the Dystopian Wars models I have seen from this have been awesome!

Hope everyone has a great weekend, thanks for reading!

July/August Update - Fleet Action 2.0 and Firestorm Strike Force News

Its been a busy month. I haven't remembered to post anything until later in the evenings and then it is too late to get much put together.

Its been a fairly productive month, however. I finished a commission for a client. A Tomb Kings Warrior regiment. For myself I have painted the Dystopian Wars SS Dawn of Souls, the Corsican Incident prison tower, and I am currently about halfway through a set of Trollblood reinforcements: an earthborn dire troll, a trollkin sorcerer, a storm troll, a runeshaper unit and Braylen Wanderheart.

I was so excited to get the warriors regiment sent off I didn't get a full regiment picture taken but I'm pretty happy with how these turned out.

There has also been a lot of information released on Firestorm Armada on the Spartan Forums. It is definitely worth checking out if you have any interest in Armada. Overall, I am very curious about the changes, it definitely appears to be a faster game in 3.0 which I am excited about as it makes it more likely I can get someone to play it! Perhaps my Omnidyne fleet will see some action. Just need to get it painted now!

Spartan released the Dystopian Wars: Fleet Action 2.0 rule set and complete nation statistics. Very excited for this as I really liked the Fleet Action ruleset, particularly with land games. It also steamlines the game enough that my son and I can sit down and play a round without him getting too board which is awesome.

http://www.spartangames.co.uk/massive-new-update-for-dystopian-fleet-action-arrives

Spartan has also dropped some information on a new board game they will releasing which is set within the Firestorm Universe, Firestorm: Strikeforce.
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/firestorm-strike-force-qa
This game looks amazing in my opinion. It reminds me a lot of an old game I used to play with my dad called Dogfight.

This was a seriously fun game. I really like how it used the cards to allow you to duel with your opponents.

I am very excited to pick this up to play with my kids. I am going to wait until there are some Relthoza, Aquan or Sorylian sets are out though first as I don't have as much of an interest in the Terrans.

I have a couple of posts backlogged to put up I just don't have the pictures loaded for them. I have a Sorylian Command Helix I still haven't posted pictures of and a proxied Pathogen Firstorm Armada fleet that I would like to get some pictures posted for. So hopefully I will get those pictures taken posted. I intend to post again soon:) Thanks for reading!

The beginnings of a Kriel - Trollbloods painted & happy 4th

First off happy 4th of July!

I finished painting the trollbloods my wife and I currently own. She doesn't play much but wanted a few models for the rare occasion when she does. Surprisingly, when we started this, she picked the trollbloods to play. Further adding to my surprise she picked Captain Gunnbjorn as her warlock. My daughter wanted in on the fun initially so she picked Calandra, the Oracle to start. Since then I have wanted to start a Trollbloods army in addition to my Cygnar army so I traded her a set of Retribution guys for Calandra.

Anyways, history aside, I have taken some pictures of the recently painted Trollbloods and a few of my Cygnar guys. I am still struggling a little to put together a color palette for my warjacks. I'm almost there, hope to have a test-jack painted up here in the next couple of weeks.

The newly started Kriel. Based on how much fun they have been to play recently I will definitely be expanding the Kriel.

Calandra, Oracle of Glimmerwood - I really like the pose of this model and gypsy type clothes. She seems fairly squishy for a troll but overall is very fun to run so far. She will be renamed in the future once I get a name for my kriel.

Back shot of Calandra to show off some more of the gypsy dress.

Commission for my wife - Captain Gunnbjorn. I can't help but thing this guy looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger as a troll. Really happy with how this guy turned out.

Rear picture of Gunnbjorn - I like the rockets strapped to his wrist.

Dire troll mauler - I really like how his skin turned out and how contrasts with the red stones implanted in his skin.

I magnetized the dire trolls left fist so I can swap him between the mauler and bomber. I have tried both with good success but lean toward the bomber!

Rear picture of the Bomber/Mauler.

Troll Impaler - he looks like a hunter to me so i painted the majority of his armor as leather.

Rear picture of the Impaler - The leathers and stitching is much more noticeable in this picture.

Night Troll - I must say my first game with this stealthy warbeast did not leave the best taste in my mouth. To be fair though, I had to use him as a blocker for my warlock, he was crushed.

Rear picture of the night troll. I chose green for the rocks embedded in him imagining them covered in lichen.

The warmachine objective set all painted up. I am really excited to use these.

Cygnar Stormtower - I'm really happy with how these turned out. I chose to stay somewhat similar to the standard scheme but chose a more worn blue as their color. I'm planning to build a partisan army so they will have been in the field for a long while.

Rear picture of the storm tower.

Stormsmith grenadiers - I have used these guys and really enjoyed the amount of aoe damage I could put out. Modelwise I really enjoyed the clocks they are all holding and the crazy hair! 

Rear picture of the Grenadiers. looking forward to getting some more of my Cygnar army painted and posted.

Thats all I have today. I'm currently working on a Dystopian Wars commission but otherwise I am slowly paining away at my Warmachine forces. I'm slowly making some terrain for use with Warmachine. I have discovered the wonder of high density insulation board for making terrain and I am really enjoying building them. Currently, I am finishing a small woods. I would like to make a couple of buildings, a second small woods and some scatter terrain. Hopefully by the end of August I will have the terrain in better shape and painted.

I will post again once I have some more guys painted up. Have a great 4th and thanks for reading!

Warmachine and Planetfall continued progress

The last two weeks I have made some progress on both my Planetfall Sorylians and Warmachine Cygnar. I have made some painting progress on them, finishing my Stormsmith Grenadiers and Stormsmith Tower. I have also put together a squad of Stormblade Infantry but haven't been able to get any pictures of them yet.

I have also put up some pictures of the painted Sorylian Core Helix. I really like how these guys have turned out. Because of how much I have enjoyed painting them I picked up a Heavy Armor Helix.

The beginning of my Mercenary/Cygnar Partisan Warband.

Sorylian Core Helix

Close picture of the Ka'Kun recon skiffs and Kul'Vok heavy infantry bases.

Close up of the Bol'Vak medium skiff transport and upgraded Mul'Kat light infantry cadre

Close up picture of the Huk'Ka heavy walker.

Overhead picture of the Hu'Ka.

Close up picture of the Sor'Ka medium walkers and a second upgrade Mul'Kat light infantry cadre.

Second picture of the Sor'Ka medium walkers and Mul'Kat infantry cadre.

Picture of the Core helix from a different angle.

I have absolutely loved painting these guys. I like the greyscale armor and contrasting orange armor plates. Add in the blue light sources and these guys really pop. I have not had any further opportunity to play a game with them but I am hoping to playing one within the next week. My son and brother-in-law have been pretty excited about Warmachine, with good reason. It is an awesome game and a lot of fun to play so I may be playing that for a little while yet before getting too many games of Planetfall. :) At least we are playing games so I will enjoy whichever one we play. I am taking some vacation time this week so I am hoping to post my pictures of the Command Helix and painted Cygnar guys.

My wife and I have recently split purchasing some Trollblood units for Hordes. I'm pretty psyked that she is interested in trying Warmachine/Hordes and very much looking forward to getting the Trolls painted up so she and I can play a game.Its going to be awesome. Until next time I hope all of the dad's out there had an excellent Father's day and a good week.

Until next time!