RIP Rocky Sr

I just heard that my dog-in-law, Rocky Sr has passed away.  He was 17 years old.

Here he is (top), with Rocky Jr (bottom).

Sorry for the Lack of Updates!

Sorry for the lack of updates!  I've been busy with running the kickstarter, which was funded yesterday!  Woo!  I'm very excited.  :-)

I've decided to use Backerkit for the survey as it is way better than the clunky kickstarter one.  So I managed to get most of it done today.

I have managed to paint a little, all of them more Zandris IV spaceships.  I'll try to get pictures up in the next couple of days.

Also, we had our little puppy neutered and his chip implanted a few days ago, so I've been taking care of him a little more than usual.

Harwood Hobbies Down for a Bit!

Some of you may have noticed that the Harwood Hobbies website is down right now.  I have decided to move the website to a different website creator, Weebly.  I'm working on the new site right now and will hopefully have it up by the end of the week.

On a side note, it has been snowing here in Calgary:

It's the first snowfall this year, and seems a wee bit early!  :-)

And of course, everyone needs a puppy pic:

Rocky is trying out his Halloween outfit!   ;-)

DUST Ubertoten Suicide Squad

I have another DUST miniatures installment for you - this time an Axis Ubertoten Suicide Squad. 

I enjoyed the painting the Ubertoten squads - the idea of undead Germans in Weird War II is appealing. 

Painted while listening to:  The Last Town by Blake Crouch

I'm half way through it and am really enjoying it!  It's the third book in the Wayward Pines series - it reminds me of something you'd see on the Twilight Zone or Outer Limits.  I hear they're making a mini-series or something of it as well, which I am looking forward to seeing!

I've been working on organizing the man cave, and have picked up a cabinet at IKEA and put it together the other day.

I spent part of the day unpacking most of my painted miniatures, and the cabinet is getting full already!  I actually picked up the cabinet a while ago, but picked out the wrong colour of doors.  When I went back to exchange them, they only had one of the white doors!!!!  So I had to wait until they were re-stocked. 

And of course I have to give you the obligatory puppy picture:

More Vikings!

I am finally back in town and actually have two weeks off in a row this time.  This is the second time this year!  So hopefully I can get a lot of painting in and finalize the man cave while I'm here. 

I finished these Foundry vikings a while ago, but they weren't fully finished at the time so I didn't post them here:

I still don't have a photo booth set up yet, so I'm stuck taking the pictures from the painting table.  The shield was a total bitch to get the transfer on - it's from Little Big Men Studios, and I have yet to be able to take that transparent "transfer" off the top.  Ah well, I'll still keep trying with them as they're beautiful decals.

On the table right now I have a bunch of Dust Warfare models - something I haven't tried painting before but have been wanting to for a long time.  I didn't enjoy cleaning the miniatures, but once I'm past that and have cut the models off their silly bases I was good to go.  They are easy to paint surprisingly, I wasn't sure what they would be like.  I should have a pic up of a squad tomorrow.

On a side note, we have a new addition to the family:

Since my wife's uncle has dognapped Rocky Senior, we thought a new addition would be in order.  This is Rocky Junior, a Yorkie puppy.  Very cute, very energetic, and very much a pain in the ass sometimes!  ;-) 

Back from Fox Vegas

That's right, FOX VEGAS!  :-)  Actually it's called Fox Creek, and it's a super tiny town experiencing a boom due to the oil rigs out there.  I went there to work the past two weeks.  But here's the good news...I have two weeks to paint!  Woo!

Here's some pictures of where I was working:

It rained the first few days I was out there, which made driving to the rigs....interesting.  :-)


And of course the obligatory dog picture:

Our little baby (Rocky) has been throwing up a lot so he gets to spend the day with the doctor on Thursday. 

Bolt Action AAR and MG42 Pictures

Last weekend I was lucky enough to meet up with Grant to play a game of Bolt Action.  I was playing Fallschirmjager and Grant was US Airborne, 1000 point game.

The table at the beginning of the game



Grant sets up his forces, with a mean-looking Sherman behind the building.

You can see some of the FJ coming on my side of the table.

Grant's side of the table after the preparatory bombardment, which plopped on a lot of pins and allowed me to get on the table.



I've got most of the FJ on the table, and am in the cemetary.  Great cover, crappy to move through.

Grant moves his American up - that squad by the fences was there the entire game.

After taking a pot-shot at my mortar spotter, the Sherman moves in to attack.  The US troops move into (and behind) the house.  The LMG was firing out of the top floor window.

The remains of my squad tries to take cover after the American airstrike - they eventually perished from excessive pins in the ruins ahead of them.

I forgot about the Christmas trees!  They were our proxy for smoke being laid down by Grant's light mortars.  Honestly, they didn't really do much and eventually went off the table.  On the right, another FJ squad and the medic take cover behind a ruined building, while the command squad take refuge behind a shrub!

The FJ squad that was behind the building move into my brand-new 4Ground house, and would eventually take a risky gamble and assault (and destroy!) the US squad by the rock walls.  As a funny aside, you can see the FAO running away in the far left hand side of the picture, after a FUBAR check.

This was the biggest game we have played to date, approximately 1000 points.  I took the recoilless gun for the first time and it didn't do all that well, firing at the US squad behind the rock walls the entire game.

The sniper I had did okay - he took out one light mortar and I think the bazooka squad.  One of the best parts of the game was when I was able to get my panzerschrek team into the building in front of the Sherman and managed to get a shot off!  I didn't hit, and the schrek team got blown away about 10 seconds after, but it was cinematic!  ;-)

The mortar did well, like it did last time.  I really like having the spotter.

Gratuitous picture of Grant's cute dog, Pixie!  Please note the wagging tail.

I finished up the static MG42 Medium Machinegun in time for the game.  I like how it turned out, and really think that the helmet decals make the models pop and give them that extra little detail.  In the game, they peppered the squad in the middle house (and later behind the bushes) pretty much the entire game, and eventually got EXTREMELY blown away by the Sherman in the last part of the game.

I received my Warlord Games plastic Russians and metal Russian Artizan miniatures in the mail on Friday, and just finished up cleaning the metal ones up.  I also have a few more FJ minis - some Crusader ones this time, which are pretty good sculpts.  Hopefully I can get around to painting them up soon, as I'm really itching to!

And finally, a gratuitous dog picture - this time my dog-in-law Rocky:

Corso, Ghast, and a Pug!

I have a few miniatures to show you today.  All of them have better base-work than Witch Hazel (see my first post), but are still "tabletop standard" in my opinion.  Mostly dry-brushed with a bit of touch-up afterwards.  I used Vallejo and GW paints.  First off is Corso (Reaper Miniatures), who looks very similar to a certain character in The Ninth Gate...

On the base is some static grass and Antenociti's Workshop leaf litter.

Next is Reaper's Necropolis Ghast (14502):

I gave the ghoul a wash of dark purple to give it an off-looking hue.

Lastly is a pug from Reaper Miniatures Familiar Pack IV (02756):

The grass is Army Painter's Highland Tufts.

I made him with a cataract in one eye, like my dog-in-law Rocky.  A ferocious and anti-social character in real life, he should be a match for just about anyone on the tabletop!