Imperial Assault- Maul

Maul- formerly Darth Maul- is back from being cruelly bisected by Obi-Wan. Through powerful fan armour he has recovered and been grafted cybernetic legs. In Rebels, Maul disguises himself as an enfeebled shell of his former self.

I painted him off a red undercoat. I carefully did his skin markings in black. The first photo is untouched- it came out slightly overexposed giving a great effect to his signature dual-blades lightsaber. It is actually more pink, as can be seen in the other shots.

Overall, I’m happy with how he came out.

Blood Bowl Wood Elves

This is my 300th post on this blog!

I’m happy to present my Wood Elves, The Fangorn Forest Entwives:

The team is by Greebo, and were a bit fiddly to put together. They are slender metal figures, and many have multiple parts with no decent points of attachment. The patterned uniforms are not sharply demarcated on the castings.

My favourite figure is the Thrower- I like how she’s looking backwards as she hands the ball to her bird. I added some weights underneath to better balance the miniature.

Wood Elf Thrower

The Wardancers are the centre of any Wood Elf team, and are sure to be targets. I didn’t realise that they had these gymnastic ribbons initially, and thought they were offcast mold supports! I can’t believe they haven’t fallen apart yet, the points of attachment are tiny...

Wood Elf Wardancers

Similarly I’m waiting for the Catchers’ arms to fall off...

Wood Elf Catchers

The Line Elves are fine. I decided not to have any blondes. I gave them tights rather than bare legs to provide a new colour and reduce the amount of skin I'd have to paint.

Wood Elf Line Elves

I tidied up the Cheerleaders and Apothecary after Buttockgate earlier this year.

Wood Elf Cheerleaders

Wood Elf Apothecary

The Entwives will see their debut at CanCon in one month! And now I can concentrate on the Challenge.

Update! Jan 2018

I was very pleased to receive the Best Painted Team award at CanCon 2018. I added a Treeman, which was repainted from my Halflings. I repainted anything that wasn't bark- the clothes, greenery, armour, and the eyes. I added some freehand swirls to make it match the elves a bit more.

Mansions of Madness- Beyond the Threshold expansion

Akachi Onyele is a shaman, and I love her hair and the bright primary colours. Wilson Richards is  a handyman, and I like his drab utilitarianism with moustache and shotgun.

These women are in thrall to a malignant intelligence, and remind me of Akira! I do think they are a bit more 1950s than 1920s, but I'm not an expert in early 20th century women’s fashion.

I painted these in February for AHPC VII, but somehow they have evaded my blog until now. I’m clearing my desk for AHPC VIII!

(That’s just a figure of speech; actually my desk is overflowing with figures for the challenge...)

Overkilled Storage- Caverna

When I first opened Caverna, I was taken aback by how much stuff there was in the box.

Caverna is the successor to the famous board game Agricola, and I prefer it immensely. For ease of play, I have kept the bits organised in a separate tackle box. I recently heard about Overkilled Storage, an Australian company that makes MDF board game inserts. Similar overseas companies have crippling shipping costs, so I gave Overkilled Storage a go.

I received a well protected package with each subassembly separately shrink-wrapped*, along with a set of colour instructions. Assembly took about an hour with the telly on in the background. The parts were a perfect effortless fit.

Completed trays- note the writing in the trays!

Bottom layer

... with cardboard token tray

and wooden bits...

Rules and player boards on top

Fits perfectly in the box.

There is a main tray which is a tight fit in the game box. All the bits have a receptacle tray, but space is still so tight the corn and wood ‘vegemeeples’ do need a little organising to ensure the next layer sits nicely. The player boards sit on top, with the entire game sitting neatly in the original box. It can be stored vertically without any bits falling out of their trays.

Recommended. And now I’ve freed up a tackle box!

*which seals in that lovely smell

PSC Battle of Britain

What ho, Squiffy! Bally Jerry, pranged his kite right in the how's-your-father; hairy blighter, dicky-birded, feathered back on his sammy, took a waspy, flipped over on his Betty Harpers and caught his can in the Bertie.

Translated from banter:

PSC shot themselves in the foot during their crowdfunding campaign to re-release Richard Borg's Battle of Britain game. After significant delays in the Chinese factories, the miniatures released did not meet some consumer's expectations due to a softer plastic resulting in significant warping. Here are some of my 1:300 planes:

This one is the only moulding failure

Warping is common to any soft plastic boardgame miniature, and quickly settles with the hot water treatment. I fixed mine in about 20 minutes and am very happy with how they turned out. I like the contrast between the cheerful RAF and the utilitarian Luftwaffe camouflage patterns. I handpainted all the markings- the crosses and swastikas were a bit of a headache, and I'd consider decals despite the artisanal charm. On the table, I think they look great.

Spitfires

Hawker Hurricanes

Bristol Blenheim

Gloster Gladiator

Boulton Paul Defiant

Heinkel 111. Love the canopies!

Junkers 87 Stuka

Messerschmitt Bf 109. These are the smallest planes, and the markings were harder.

Junkers 88

Messerschmitt Bf 110

Dornier 17

Unfortunately, combined with some poor communication, PSC caved to pressure and has announced they will send out hard plastic planes to everyone. They're already quite fine miniatures, and a snapped tailfin will result in more wailing and gnashing of teeth than some easily correctable warping.

I got a game in of the first 4-round scenario. The RAF cracked out a win, but it would be interesting to see how they fare against attrition by the late campaign.

Game set-up

Cabbage crates coming over the briny

Pevensey radar station takes a hit!

It's grim up north

Happy blogday to me

It's the 6th ever blogday for WwB! As always, it's a time to look back over the past year. My retrospective has a yellow theme. It was the main colour for my samurai command unit...

All your base are belong to us.

... but mostly I used it as a splash of colour in other projects:

Pillage People got hammered at CanCon

Surrender Monkeys did better than expected at EucBowl

Drenn Redblade

Acolyte Iconward

Onar Koma

Gold Squadron, standing by.

Last night on earth

Two things which have no yellow, but I'm very happy with, are my white walkers and landships.

Draugr

A7Vs

I haven't done as much miniature wargaming this year, but have made up for it with some serious boardgame time. Codenames, Arkham Horror: The Card Game, and Commands & Colors Napoleonics have all seen solid playing time. I've dabbled with some escape room games, the Unlock and Exit series. I'm in the middle of a Pandemic Legacy 2 campaign right now.

Pandemic Legacy 2 yellow edition

I'm moving house- again... I've been trying to pack up all my little men, and it is proving a sobering task as I realise the lack of sensible transport options...

So, what's ahead? After my Deathwatch slog, I'm eyeing off Space Hulk. Following my trip to Japan, I feel I can't keep putting off my samurai. I hope to get to CanCon 2018. There will be more Star Wars.  I'm looking forwards to some PSC 15mm WW1 French.  I'll be looking closely at Batman The Boardgame when it hits Kickstarter early next year.

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge VIII has been announced, and I've thrown my hat in the ring. I may have overstretched with an ambitious target of 1100 points... but I'm really looking forward to it!

AHPC VII output

In other blog news, I will likely be hitting 300 posts before next year! As always, thanks to all the readers and bloggers who make this such a varied and fun place!

PS: I've found my dream gaming room and table-

See it in action here: