ECW artillery and crews

This is another entry for the Analogue Painting Challenge. This is two ECW cannons and thirteen crew. Some of these are crew for a mortar, but I haven't gotten that painted yet.

All three crews.

28mm models for role playing

I've recently started playing D&D for the first time in 25 years. I spent a little money on the first Reaper Bones Kickstarter, so I have a lot of fantasy figures. I offered the guys the chance to pick a model and painted the figures for them. One player wasn't here that night, so he'll have to get one next time.

Peter and Farrow.

A little gaming - Lion Rampant

Nick, of Little Nicky's Gameroom, came over on Saturday and we played a couple of games. He wanted to try out Lion Rampant, and we followed that up with a Star Wars Armada game.

The lines close.

Twelve ECW cavalry

This entry is twelve 28mm ECW Cavarly from Warlord Games (despite the misleading title to draw you in).

Twelve horse.

Fireforge Men-at-Arms

This entry is 24 Men-at-Arms from Fireforge games. These are made from the Foot Sergeants box set. Slowing down a bit. I spent the weekend gaming rather than painting so this is all I have this go round.

Twelve swordsmen and twelve crossbows.

Isengard - 54 Uruk-Hai

This entry is the majority of the remainder of my Uruk-Hai. As before these are 28mm Isengard models for Lord of the Rings by GW.

First weekly entry - Warlord Games 28mm ECW Infantry Regt

My next entry was 20 28mm ECW infantry from Warlord Games. These are the Green Regiment.

Most of a regiment

Nostalgia bonus entry for 5th AHPC - 28mm goblin spider chariot

This is my entry for the first bonus round of the 6th annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge - Nostalgia.

I wasn't sure what to paint for this bonus round, and honestly had decided to give it a pass. Over the last week I've been reading through people's end of year/beginning of year posts (I love 'em). As I was preparing my own, something came to fruition in my tiny little brain. The death of Warhammer this year had made me (and many others) sad. It got me thinking to when I first started formal wargaming, with GW and Warhammer 6th Edition.

More Guardsmen

This next set of models were not part of the Challenge, since I had started them years ago. I finished them up while I was working on the 21 models for the last Challenge entry.

A rifle squad and a heavy bolter team

Entry 3 - Painting Challenge - 21 Imperial Guardsmen

My next entry in the Challenge was 21 Imperial Guardsmen from GW. These are 28mm models, mostly plastic. I can't stand the 40k rules. I bought an army of these guys before I realized that though. They've sat, assembled and undercoated for years.

A friend and I are planning a campaign for 2016. We'll see if it gets off the ground, but if it does, these will be the core of my ground forces. We'll be using the Chain of Command rules for the ground combat. To start we'll just play them out of the box. Once we have a handle on them we'll mod them for Sci-Fi, things like hacking, ECM, teleportation. They are candidates.

The full group

2015 in Review and Plans for 2016

2015 was a good year for my hobby. My goals and predictions for the year were not far off of reality. I accomplished a lot but did not play as much as I had hoped. I think things are well positioned for a good 2016 though, even better than the year past.

I'm terribly, terribly excited about this.

First off, a retrospective on what I planned for the year.

Entry 2 for the AHPC. Twelve 28mm Celts

My second entry of the Challenge is 12 Celt warriors from Warlord Game. These are 28mm miniatures. The three heroes are metal, the rest from their Celtic Warriors plastic box set.

Twelve Celts, angry and dirty.

Entry 1 of the Painting Challenge - 28mm Uruk-Hai from GW

In keeping with tradition, my first entry is six models. It's a nice easy number that breaks the rust off without being overwhelming.

A free book

I am getting Osprey's Fighting Sail for Christmas. My wonderful wife thought I would enjoy it so much that she ordered me two copies of it. Amazon does not want it back.

X-Wing with the boys

The boys and I have gotten some more gaming in. This time around they both wanted to play some X-Wing. All things Star Wars are popular in my house right now.

The boys plotting their nefarious schemes.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gaming with the boys

I've been playing a few games during the last few months. My main opponent for X-Wing moved to New Zealand. I haven't had a lot of time to get down to the shop. My main opponent has been Rhys.

Rhys, prior to deployment. He set up the terrain.

Accepting the challenge

It's that time of year again, the annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

I've thrown my hat in again this year. It will be my third go around. My first year was acceptable. Last year I seem to have had assistance from painting elves in the middle of the night; blowing through my goals several times. Counting on the same elves to show up this year I put myself in for 1500 points, even though the Challenge is slightly shorter this year.

I'm looking forward to seeing all of the spectacular models my fellows will produce, and hoping not to bring down the general tone of the affair too much.

Time Travel

I looked up today and realized that it is the last day of October. I'm flabbergasted at how quickly this year is passing. I have not been hobbying a lot this summer. The extent of it has been reading blogs, playing a few games with Rhys and assembling and priming models for the winter, in hopes of Curt running another Analogue Painting Challenge.

I need to get back in the habit of posting here, clearly. That means I need to get in the habit of playing games and painting, which seems like a pleasant obligation.

Conway Castle

So as a place holder, here's a picture of Conway Castle, looking out over the river, taken from the highest point of the town walls.

A blog prize and some insight

I recently won a blog giveaway from Jon at the Palouse Wargaming Journal.  Jon is one of those very generous gamers that you always hear about.  He has personally broadened my hobby horizons, beyond the first class content of his blog.

The prize I selected was Henry Hyde's The Wargaming Compendium; a book I've heard a lot about, but never seen.