WIP: Ork Killa Kans

One of my buddies didn't understand what I was building on a previous post and I realized unless you where into 40K you wouldn't have a clue. So here is the finished builds before I start putting some paint on them. Not the best lighting for pictures but it gives you the idea.

[Left click on pictures, then right click and select view image to see larger view]

Warhammer 40K, Saga, Formula de, and other things...

Well life has been beating me up my time lately, but I have worked a bit on my Necron commission (meaning I've been trying to glue the bloody things together and not backwards), some Ork Killa Kans (these things have been fun to put together, but come on Games Workshop get off you ass and post proper build instructions so I don't have to guess what the picture of the part really is on the sprue), putting some paint on Saga horses, and took the time to dig out my old Formula de cars cause I have some friends coming over on Friday to rock on the track. All this at the same time. People with ADD should not attempt to do this as your asking for serious therapy time (I just self medicate by taking a few extra skiddles that I have in the old medicine chest, saves money not having to see that therapist and allows me to buy more kits;)). I've posted a pic of my Killa Kan build so far and you can see my horsey work in the background, and one of my Formula de cars that where painted eons ago. Hopefully something more solid in the future soon.

Saga mini con basement style!

This past Saturday I hosted a 4 player mini Saga tournament. We only used 4 points of troops, no special anything allowed, and played the same scenario for all games, Clash of the Warlords. You also had to stick with your original point choices, though you were allowed to reorganize them from game to game into different size units. With 4 players it made it possible for us to play three games, hence the reason for playing the same scenario for every game as it gave each player the same level playing field against all opponents. Most wins would determine our Champion, and tie breakers would be eliminating opposing Warlords followed by total troops eliminated. We also had a time limit of two hours but none of us went over this.

The Armies involved where the Anglo Saxon's who chose: 3 points of Warriors, and 1 point of Levy (all spear and shield armed), Vikings who chose: 2 points of hearth guard (one of which was berzerk type) and 2 points of Warriors (spear and shield), Welsh who chose: 4 points of Warriors (javelin and shield) , and lastly the Byzantines who chose: 3 mounted hearth guard (1 of which was bow armed), and 1 warrior (bow armed) . I will mention that the Dice Gods must have thought my tribute not enough so totally abandoned me after my first game.

Round one.... Anglo Saxons VS Welsh

My first game was against Dave our rookie player having played only twice before. Though in this game he played nothing like a rookie player. As a matter of fact he gave me a good run for my money. Dave was using my Welsh war band as we are still trying to convince him to paint his own army (hint, hint Dave). Though we went the full 6 turns, it was on turn 6 that he gravely wounded my Warlord putting him down and scoring went 13 to my total of 7. Had my Warlord survived he still would have beat me by a few points.

Saxon's on the left and Welsh on the right

My second game was against Rob and his Byzantines. This was a tough army for my Saxons to face as he could dance away at will. But fatigue and Saga dice allowed me to get a good whack at his bow armed warriors. I was able to lower his armor to 2 which meant I only missed on ones with a six sided die. I had 16 dice and proceeded to roll eight ones. Then he rolled FIVE SAVES!!!! I was not a happy camper. Any ways I lost this game 11 to 9. But man oh man am I going to have a talk with that Oracle!

Byzantine dogs on left VS Godless Saxon's on right

My last game was against my regular opponent Mark and we both knew this would be a slug fest as we know each others play style all to well. So well in fact that we spent the first 4 turns dancing around like two drunk boxers manuvering so we could gain an advantage. Mark finally was man enough to take that step forward and turns five and six was all blood and gore! Again I had a chance to get one up on my wiley opponent at a key moment being able to roll 14 dice needing three's or more and I missed on 7, then watched him save half. It was really hard to hold back my tears.... The game ended in a draw 13 to 13. Both of us could have made a few different choices that would have given us a win, but in the end it was only just that we ended in a draw. Two true warriors who fought until they couldn't stand anymore!

Saxon's on the left VS my arch rival Vikings to the right

Our Champion ended up being our rookie player Dave who tied in wins, Warlords taken down, and so it came down to point count which he won by 2 points. So the Welsh won the tourney followed by the Byzantines, Vikings, and my sad butt with the Anglo Saxons. 

All in all we enjoyed ourselves, and we all look forward to doing this again in the future, but next time I will have a secret army, but more importantly a new Oracle who will speak highly of me to the dice gods!!!

Cheers

Kevin

Yamagata Masakage Ashigaru unit for Saga

Well at least I hope it is. Turnbull says he dressed his men in red all the way down to the Ashigaru. Also I hope I have the mon's correct for him fighting with Takeda Shingen around late 1560's early 1570's (using Samurai Archives and a pamphlet produced in the 90's). If not I hope they look the part at least. As I read it looks like there could be several different personal Mon's used by the Samurai who served him. So as I go on with the project and figure it out, I might add some other Mon's to different units dressed in red. I am also going to paint up a few odd Samurai to throw into the mix of Ashigaru. This is the group shot of my first painted up unit for Saga Samurai.

[Left click on pics to see larger image]

That's it for now, and thanks for looking.

Cheers
Kevin

My foray into Japan's Sengoko period Samurai...

One of my favorite miniature subjects has always been Sengoko period Samurai. They are difficult to paint (to me at least) and find good English sources about them. Though they started to become more uniformed as the Samurai realized the value of the Ashigaru and started mass producing armor and weapons because of this. Industry kind of paved the way for them to become so, but still they have always been something I fear painting because of all the detail involved. Maybe not as many colors as the Geppo Wars, but still enough to make me cringe. It is also because of my love of this period that I feel the need to try and get all the detail involved that my modest talents allow me to do, thus another reason for staying away as I've lacked patience in the past (and the skill). But now because of Saga skirmish rules, and Osprey's Ronin rules I won't have to paint a lot of figures and can take more time to do stuff right or at least try. So will begin my new adventure into historical miniatures.

My renewed interest is also the fault of my very good friend Skip. The bastard.... ahem, I mean my good friend suddenly sent me an unexpected email about this great deal we could get off of Bartertown (a place where you can sell and buy stuff miniature related). A great deal it was until we found out that they wouldn't come with Sashimono's and the weapons where cast on and worst of all they were 1970ish Ral Partha figures (back then we didn't think bad, but today, yuck!). So the deal fell through but not my hunger to try getting back into the period again.

There are several excellent metal ranges out there, one being the fantastic Perry range. But I decided to go the cheap route to start out with and got a sweet deal on Wargames Factory plastic Rising Sun line. Now I wish I kind of just went with expensive Perry's line, instead of having to fuss with putting these finicky little buggers together. But unless you try you can not fail as they say.

First let me tell you that the instructions are non existent for these little models  and so you better have some skill with modeling or your going to want to pretend your Brett Favre (Retired NFL quarterback) and give them a good chuck out of an open window (seriously I almost did this). Once you get the bloody things together you'll see that the poses are a bit wooden, BUT they do paint up nice. Though the detail on these is very fine so your going to have to thin down your paints or you'll lose that fine detail quick.

Here is a picture of a Samurai I put together and then the painted one (NOT MY PAINT JOB) was a picture that inspired me to build it so. [For those unfamiliar with blogs you can left mouse click to see a bigger picture]

Again they do paint up nice. So I built a few more and have a unit of 8 done and here is a teaser picture of one of my Ashigaru dudes. The plastic Yari like pike was to fiddly for me so I replaced it with a piece of brass rod so flow with it. Also for scale effect I used brighter colors than what it would look like in real life. The rest I will show in a group photo later as I am still finishing the bases for them.

I'll report more on my little project as I go, but as we all know with my mountain of painting projects it may take a bit.

Thanks for looking as always
Cheers
Kevin

Deathwing Terminatior Squad for Space Hulk complete!!!

YES!!!!

I am soooo happy to finally be done with this project. Yes indeed, it's been a long journey down that painting path of other projects crying out for attention, but I finally made the big push these last couple of days and completed the most important dude of the squad, the Sergeant. So without further ado here he is, as well as a snap of the completed squad together.

And all the boys together.............

Thanks for looking

Cheers
Kevin

More Ork boyz Part II

Well I haven't posted in a few, but not because I haven't been busy. Finished another Ork boyz squad. So now I have two squads of 12 each. I need to paint up one more squad so I don't feel guilty painting up some of the Orky fun stuff (Killa Kans and such). I've also been working on my Dark Angels Terminator Sargent for Space Hulk and almost have him finished. While the paint dries in between this I've been painting up another Saga historical War band. But more on that later....

Ork boyz with choppa's

Ork boyz with Axe choppa's

Ah, and my favorite Ork boyz with anti - zombie weapons!

Ork boyz Boss

...and lastly my odd Ork boy shoota that brought my other squad up to an even dozen.

Of course your seeing a nice photo of the business end of an Ork boyz shoota;)

Been having fun painting these guys up. Maybe because there a little bigger than my 28mm historical and there so well sculpted it's pretty easy to give them a basic paint job.

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin