SAGA: Anglo-Saxons & Viking Additions

I had the good fortune of doing a trade with Randy for some painting recently, and I certainly wasn't disappointed.  He did a great job on an Anglo-Saxon force for SAGA.  All I had to do was apply the LBMS shield decals to the very nice 28mm Crusader Miniatures figures, add a few LBMS standards, and do the basing.  I think they came out great and are a good mix of figures that will allow me to configure the army several ways.

Mounted Warlord - Harold & Tostig Godwynson pack

 Warlord on foot - I replaced the Tostig figure with the standard bearer from the Huscarl command pack

 Armored infantry

 More armored infantry, including the dismounted Tostig figure

 Unarmored infantry which can be used as levy or mixed in with warrior units

 Levy slingers

 I also painted up a Viking Warlord command stand recently as well.  I should have used a black undercoat for the armor; I think they armor came out too bright, even after putting a wash on the figures.  LBMS flag on these Crusader Miniatures figures.

I am currently working on a large lot of 15mm Battlefront Soviet tanks for early WW2 (T26's, T28's, KV1's).  When I get them done I'll post pictures of them up as well.

Time Is Flying By in 2016

Man, where have the first 3 months of 2016 gone?  It seems like it was just New Years.  I certainly haven't been as active posting here as I would like; it seems like I find excuses not to post when it doesn't really take all that much time...something I need to work on for sure.

The good news is that I have been pretty active on the gaming front.  I've played a lot of different games, including playing in the Shifting Sands Flames of War event in January, and the Gathering in the Desert Bolt Action Operation Torch campaign event in February.  I enjoyed both thoroughly...played some excellent opponents and had a fun time.  I actually managed to be the top Axis commander with my Italian Paras in the Bolt Action event with a 1 win, 1 loss, and 3 tie record...just goes to show how poorly the Axis did!  Next year Shifting Sands is supposed to be Team Yankee, so I'll be passing on it...not that I have anything against Team Yankee, it's just that I have plenty else to do and I need to draw some lines.  Gathering in the Desert next year is supposed to be Normandy, so I am more likely to build a force for that than I am getting into a new period.

I haven't completed much painting this year, though I have been working a a few different things.  I prepped a couple of 15mm WWI armies for Great War to be painted by Saguaro Painting Service, painted some 28mm WWII, based some figures for SAGA, and have been rebasing a 10mm army as I shift to that scale for my big battle ancients and medieval gaming.

Here are 3 Perry Brother WWII German Fallschirmjager MG teams.  I am going to use these as additions to my Italian Para force when I want to play Chain of Command as the unit structure is different than that in Bolt Action.  They are nice figures, but a little smaller than the Warlord Games Italian Paras as you can see in the comparison shot:

 Comparison - Perry on the left and Warlord on the right

I also contracted some 28mm Varangian Guard for my SAGA Byzantines.  The painter, Andrew K., had posted some stuff for sale on a forum and I liked his work.  He was great to deal with and said he liked painting these up.  The figures are from Crusader Miniatures with the exception of Harald Hardrada which is a Gripping Beast figures.  All have LMBS shield transfers.

Harald Hardrada

 Command

 Spearmen - Front

 Spearmen - Rear

Well, that's it for now.  The next post will definitely be sometime in April as I show off the 10mm figures I've been working on.  I am not sure what I'm going to work on after that...it will be something as I think I'm starting to get back into a groove.

28mm Republican Romans - Project Complete!

Well, it's taken me a long time, but I finally completed painting up Mike's 28mm Republican Romans from Crusader.  I should have been done a long time ago, but between other gaming distrations, real life, and just plain not being in a painting groove for so long I just kept putting off finishing the painting.  The good news for me is Mike is very patient and I hope he likes how these came out.  Now we can get in some games of Clash of Empires!

48 Roman Princeps/Hastati

 Close up of Roman Infantry

 15 Roman Cavalry

 Close up of cavalry

So, what's next on my list?  Well, it's completing another 28mm ancients force that has been languishing incomplete literally for years!  I should have it done in a week or so and will post at that time.

Tom O

More 28mm Republican Romans

Well I finished up 48 28mm Republican Romans for Mike. These figures are from Crusader Miniatures and paint up nicely IMO. These are all sword armed figures; the next 48 will be armed with pila with the exception of the command figures.

I'm going to take a brief break from the Romans and work on some other things for a while. More updates to follow when I get stuff done!

28mm Roman Triarii

Well, it goes without saying, but I've been in a definite painting funk for the past few months and I think I'm finally snapping out of it. This week I finished off a couple of units of 28mm Republican Roman Triarii by Crusader Miniatures. These are part of a paint-for-trade deal that I'm working on completing for my friend Mike. I previously completed the Velites for the army and will begin working on the Hastati, Princeps and Cavalry eventually (first I'm going to do some 15mm WWII for Mike). I really liked painting these figures once I got into the flow. The sculpts are nice and they are pretty straight-forward without intricate detail.

Next up, besides the 15mm WWII for Mike, is completing my LOTR army for the "Throne of Skulls" tournament in Vegas in June. I actually finished second overall at this year's Gathering in the Desert. I've only got one new figure to paint and some touch-ups on my Uruk-hai Raider/Scout force to do and I'll be done. After that is done, then I'm not sure what else will be next...but it's good to finally be thinking about painting again.

Hello 2011!

Wow...2 posts in 2 days...a good way to end the year I guess! So...having taken a bit of time to look back on my gaming efforts in 2010 I now turn to looking forward into what I'd like to accomplish in 2011. I had 10 items on my list for 2010 and I did ok, so I think I'll shoot for 10 more things in 2011. Here they go in the order I'd like to get them done:

1-Finish the freaking DAK for FOW! Ugh...this has been hanging out there for me and I just have a little ways to go, so I'm going to focus on it and get it out of the way so it's no longer haunting me!

2-Paint the rest of the 28mm Republican Roman Army for Mike. I have the velites done and the triarri preped and primed, so I'm looking forward to getting this done.

3-Assemble, paint and game with the Dystopian Wars Prussians I got. The models are very nice and the rules look good...just need to get ready to play!

4-Paint some 10mm Warmaster Dwarfs as part of a trade. This will be the first 10mm stuff I've painted in a number of years since I did a bunch of WWII (before moving to 28mm then 15mm); I'm looking forward to it because the figures are nice and should paint up quickly.

5-Base up the 15mm Mongol army for Might of Arms that Tim K from Saguaro Painting Service (see links section) painted for me.

6-I have 3 projects currently being completed by other people as parts of various trades. I'm in no rush to get them back because as you can tell I have a ton of other things to do, but when I do get them back I aim to do any completion work (namely basing) right when I get them back and not put them on the shelf in an incomplete state. Having stuff in an incomplete state is driving me crazy because I have too much of it already!

7-Begin working on the 15mm Polish FOW army I have. This army is for the Polish 10th Mechanized Brigade and is all True North figures that I purchased from Old Glory.

8-Finish painting and base up the 15mm Marian Roman army I have for Might of Arms.

9-Work on getting some of the 28mm American Civil War figures and units I have done. I'd like to build the forces for the Peach Orchard at Gettysburg eventually. I have Barksdale's Brigade and Graham's Brigade organized, now I have to get them cleaned/prepped and decide whether I'm going to try to speed paint them myself or send them off to Sri Lanka to get painted.

10-Something else that I'm undecided about. One of my big problems is that I like a plethora of time periods, game scales, etc. and I don't know how many times I've invested in a game only to have my attention switch focus and end up selling/trading stuff I've never used. I doubt this will ever change for me when it comes to gaming interests, so I figure that this year there will be a project that pops up that I will focus on and begin work on...whether it ever sees the table...who knows! That said, several gaming possibilities keep entering my thoughts including: 28mm English Civil War, 28mm American Revolution, 15mm Fantasy, 10mm Eastern Renaissance/Thirty Years War, 15mm Modern African wars in an alternate setting, expanding my Daemonhunters for 40k when the new codex comes out, and who knows what else!

So, that's what I'm looking at for the upcoming year. It goes without saying that I want to be able to play games too! That's one good thing I managed to do in 2010 with games of 15mm and 28mm ancients, 15mm WWII, Lord of the Rings, 15mm Viet Nam, 28mm ACW, Legends of the Old West, and others being played. Considering that 4 items from my list entail finishing things that are already started, and 2 other items are doing things for other people, I think I can get through a lot of the list and have a productive 2011. Oh, yea...I'd like to try to record more on this blog too...just takes time!

Later,

Tom O

28mm Roman Velites

Well I've been busy and not as dedicated to my painting efforts as I should be...that said, I have managed to get something done recently. Here are a couple of photos of some 28mm Roman Velites that I'm painting up for Mike as part of a trade. They are from Crusader Miniatures and were great figures to work with. They were easy and enjoyable to paint. Next up for Mike's Roman Army for WAB are the Triarii which I'll post pictures of when I've finished them. Eventhough I'm not painting as much as I'd like, I've been getting in about a game a week and having fun, so there's that!