2013 in Review

2013 was a good year for miniature painting and gaming!

I did more painting last year than I ever have!  My output really increased when I stopped worrying about getting it just right, and to just enjoy myself.  I like that sense of accomplishment when you finish a miniature or get that last unit done before a game!

Here is what I wanted to accomplish last year:


Plans for 2013 are:

1. Keep painting the Gothic Horror-themed figs - Accomplished!  I have more gothic miniatures painted now than I ever thought I would get done!
   
2. Playtest the horror ruleset I've been working on for my company, Harwood Hobbies - Didn't get this one done.  I made some progress on the rules but that's about it.
   
3. Finish my accounting course asap and get out of my current job - Accomplished!
   
4. I'm considering starting and Indiegogo campaign to get the miniatures I had sculpted a few years ago into production and put onto the website.  All I'm lacking is the funding for production, so shouldn't cost too much to finish off.  I think this will be a go for 2013, but will have to finish my course first to get the time to do this. - Didn't get this done, but am seriously thinking of doing a cultist kickstarter (see below for more details).  I did scrape up the funds to get the previous sculpts cast up and have the master castings and half of them painted by Simon.
   
5. Work on my 15mm Assyrians - I've started this and hope to have all of the miniatures completed by the end of the year - Didn't get this done.  I'm not saddened by this as I got a ton of miniatures painted last year.  I'm still interested in getting these done so they go on my list for 2014.
   
6. Try to keep a budget of $50-75 a month on miniatures - I SO didn't accomplish this!  ;-)  With the new job paying a lot more and me burning through painting the miniatures I spent more than this budget for last year.  

Plans for 2014:

• Finish my 15mm Assyrians.  I really want to get this done this year!  I have all the miniatures and the bases, but just need to get them painted.

• Have the Gothic Horror rules playtested.  I have it mostly done, but just need to polish it up.

• Get the Cultist Kickstarter going!  I have a few miniatures sculpted already and would like to get the funding necessary to make a good sized variety of them.

 

• Finish my French & Indian Wars force(s).  I have all of the miniatures and have got about 10 or so painted, but I'd like to have a good sized force done by the end of the year.
• 6mm Modern & WW2.  My wargaming friend has recently gone to only 6mm, so I will have to work on finishing up my modern Soviets and start on a WW2 force - probably German.
• I have a hankering for Weird War II - I'll probably work on getting some of those done this year too.

Of course, most of this depends on me getting my man cave finished - the longer it takes to get done, the less painting I will do.  So depressing!  ;-)

All in all it was a pretty good year for gaming!  I'm extremely happy with my painting output over the year, the highest it's ever been!

I'll be going up to northern BC for work on Monday, so I will be away for three weeks this time.  They're short staffed, so I have to work more - but that means more money for me!  :-)

The Tractate Middoth on BBC

Last night I had a chance to watch the new video of the M.R. James story The Tractate Middoth. 

I thought it was a very good adaptation of the short story, with lots of atmosphere and memorable characters.  Of course there isn't ever going to be a movie that completely replicates the story exactly, and this version has its bits that doesn't jive with the original.  Overall, I enjoyed it and recommend you spend a half hour of your time and get into some M.R. James goodness!  :-)

Moving!

Sorry everyone, but there will be a lack of updates in the near future.  We're moving to a new house and I won't have the man cave in order for a while.

Have a great Christmas Everyone!  :-)

Russian WW2 Scouts

Taking a break from the Lord of the Rings miniatures, I painted up some WW2 Russian scouts.

These are a mix of Artizan Designs and Black Tree Designs.  I had to look at reference photos on the web to do the camouflage - I don't think I did it too well...*sigh*

The guy in the first picture looks like he's doing some kind of funky Russian dance.

 

In a few hours I will be flying up north to work until Dec 19th.  It should be fun as there is a snow storm going on right now and my flight has already been delayed over an hour.

So until I get back, get painting!  ;-)

Painted while listening to:  Wayward by Blake Crouch

I finished listening to this one.  It was good!  Not as good as the first one, but I liked learning a bit of the back-story and what's going on in the world outside of Wayward Pines.  I'm looking forward to listening to the next one in the series when it is available! 

Bolt Action AAR November 30th 2013

I was very happy to be able to get a game going with my friend Grant - it has been a while and I wanted to try out my new Russian army!

I was defending the objective...errr...stand of pigs.  Grant was attacking me with his Germans.  We were using his new buildings, which were awesome!  I brought the 4ground building, roads and fields - purchased from Terra Firma Studios.  It was the first time I had used the terrain I purchased and it is amazing!  I love it and will be getting some more in the future.  Looks like the owner is sick right now though.  :-(

The table at the start of the game.

Grant's starting force.  Note all the trucks...there will be more coming in later.

Most of my starting force of Russians.  Sniper was in the second floor of the 4Ground building, there's a MMG in the barn and an AT-rifle team off in the field to the left offscreen.

Some of Grant's new buildings - awesome!  The roofs all come off too.  The church tower was to take some heavy fire from the inexperienced Russkie squad and bust its steeple.  :-(

Grant brings his force on the table, trucks leading the way (to my surprise).  It was our first time using transports.

I tried to surprise the German commandant with moving some of my force up to the nearest building.  In fact, I was trying to get my flamethrower team in the mix asap.

My anti-tank rifle team tried all game to hurt the tank to no avail!  You can see them far in the distance, taking fire from the tank.

My flamethrower rushes up and blasts the German squad in the church.  I killed a few but they survived their morale check.  In typical Russian fashion the flamethrower runs out of fuel after the one shot.  Dimitry forgot to fill up the tanks from the last battle apparently...

Some good shooting from the MMG in the Renedra barn knocked out the truck and (if I remember correctly) took out some troops.  You can see the Kubelwagen in the background.

After some confusion about how airstrikes worked, I brought my Russian LMG squad up to the pumpkin patch.

An overview of the mid-game.  All the little red dice you see are my pin markers (just little red dice I picked up on eBay).  

The Germans concentrate their fire on the Russian squad, which held up their advance for a few turns.

Sadly, they were whittled down over time (and even rallied!) and perished.

On the other side of the board, a my squad is wiped out and the HQ whittled down from three men to the LT.  He didn't pass his morale check for about three turns, so the Germans snobbishly ignored him! (sorry for the blurry picture)

My lone AT-rifleman lasted most of the game, but I don't think he even hit anything.

A very blurry picture of my green, inexperienced rifle squad that I get for free.  You get them for free because they suck!  After shooting at the Germans in the church on round two, they didn't pass their morale check until the second to last turn of the game.  *sigh*

The remains of a squad and the pioneers.  Unlike my flamethrower which fizzled out after one shot, Grant's flamethrower kept on blasting away the entire game!  Argh!  ;-)

About half of my remaining force at the end of the game.  The LT FINALLY passed his morale check and ran to the building.  The useless Russian squad is in front of the house.

Grant got excited about being so close to the objective that he sent up his medic first for some reason.  ;-)

This was a really fun game!  It was interesting to see how the Russians worked as I had never played with them before.  Most of my force was regular, the HQ and flamethrower was veteran and some of the support teams were inexperienced.  I really need to have a tank on the table.  I couldn't really do anything to the German's light tank and it dominated.  I managed to pick at the squads and support teams, but not much in the way of complete kills.  

I may have to pick up some transports too.  Grant used them to good effect, zipping them and his squads all over the table.

My most valuable players were the MMG team and the rifle squad in the building near the AT-rifle team.  My mortar got one hit in, and the sniper hit a few times.

I will definitely be tweaking my list for the next game!  :-)

And of course the obligatory pictures of Pixie:

Russian ZIS-3

I rushed to get this gun finished in time for a game, but then had to cut it in order to trim down some points!  LOL! 

I probably could have squeezed it on to a smaller base, but oh well.  It's a big gun, so it gets a big base!  :-)  This is the ZIS-3 76mm Divisional Gun from Warlord Games.  I had to look online at pictures of the gun in order to figure out where the gun shield went, etc.  No biggie. 

I used a 2-part epoxy glue to cement the thing on there, as well as the gun shield and wheels.  I didn't want them to be falling off on me as there's not much holding the gun shield on there, and the only contact points to the base are the wheels and legs.

The gun came with three crew, but the rulebook says it needs a fourth.  I had a spare figure from the Forward Observer pack, so I added him on there.

I like how you can use this in Bolt Action as either an AT-gun or as a light artillery piece.  Good flexibility, depending on what your opponent brings to the table.  I knew my nemesis wouldn't be bringing tanks, so felt fine leaving this one behind at home.

Painted while listening to:  Wayward by Blake Crouch

 

Wayward is the sequel to Pines.  I'm finding this one less exciting as you already know what's going on in Wayward Pines from the previous book.  Aside from that, the book is good so far!

Uruk Hai Berserkers and the Last of the Scouts

I really powered through the scouts, and wanted to do something a little different.

 

I realize that I'm not good at painting hands!  LOL!  Ah well, good enough.  I had fun painting these guys.  They are very easy to paint, but I think that's all I have of them (for now).

 

 

These are the last of the scouts that I'll be doing for now.  I have a good sized force of them, but will still have to paint Lurtz!

I just finished painting a ZIS-3 gun for my WW2 Russians, and am doing some Russian scouts as well.  I'll be having a game of Bolt Action tomorrow so I should have some pictures of the game for you (if I remember my camera this time).  :-)

Painted while listening to:  Pines by Blake Crouch

I came across this audiobook from the "People who bought this also bought..." section on one of my other listens.  I must say that this was an awesome book!  I really enjoyed it.  If you are a sci-fi person who likes shows like The Outer Limits, you'll like this book.  I'm listening to the sequel right now...