Syrians on the border!

A couple of weeks ago I found myself wanting to paint something a little different from the T-34s I was working on for a series of web articles, and the Khador I was slowly working through for Ides of March... and I was saving my Dystopian Wars stuff for a post Ides painting session. I snuck by work and grabbed a couple of the packing sample T-54/55s that were sitting next to my desk and viciously attacked them... with an airbrush! I am a little ham-fisted with the airbrush but even with my skill level I was able to turn out what I thought was a pretty nice looking representation of a 1973 Syrian T-54/55.

1973 saw the conclusion of years of small border skirmishes between the Israelis and their Arab neighbours. The Egyptians launched an audacious assault crossing the Suez Canal quickly and efficiently, whilst the Syrians hit the Golan Heights. The Israelis were caught napping on the day of Yom Kippur, one of the holy days of Judaism, with their reserves only being called up hours before the attack.

Back to the test vehicle. I used Tamiya paints for simplicity and after a little trawling I found some recommendations from one of the larger scale modelling sites to get the distinctive green/grey/yellow colour scheme.  I am yet to put any markings on the vehicle as I still trying to hunt down a supply, but in the meantime here it is.

And whilst I remember, big thanks to Victor for his help on giving the blog a bit of a mid-life refurbish as my Photoshop skills barely extend to the ability to use the Magic Wand and Clone tools! He whipped up a new site banner and logo in a few minutes making the whole place look a little cooler!

Lazy Saturday Painting?

With plenty of work and home painting projects on the go at the moment, a few of us decided to spend Saturday painting. Painting with friends is always much more fun than painting solo and if you can book out a decent stretch of time to do it you may be surprised with how much you get done!

My job for the day was to continue working on my T-34 Battalion, ideally I'll get it finished this week leaving me almost no time to paint something new for Ides of March... Sean was working on his Stormstrider, Wayne had elephants, Napoleonic French and some Flames Of War miniatures on his mind, whereas Victor was finishing his Bronzeback for Ides (and pondering how he would paint his IK RPG 'jack) and Casey was working on some Soviets for the Winter War book. Marcelle even stopped by for a visit bringing joy, sunshine... and some Miss Melicious Cupcakes (they were as nice as they look!).

So many T-34s!

Sean hard at work

Wayne removes his glasses to take on his painting persona

Either thats one big cupcake, or one small elephant!

Wayne and Victor working hard

Victor's 'jack guards his cupcake!

Casey starts the day with the airbrush

And finishes with magic wash

Battlecry 2013

Another Battlecry has come and gone, this year it was a little quiet that previous with most of the Warhammer guys heading down south for a massive teams tournament. I opted to take the easy option and stay in Auckland and play X-Wing. The event was a little smaller than expected with only 8 entrants, half of which were at the Kessel Run event late last year (so I knew there were some veteran gamers). Luckily the Falcon and Slave 1 (and associated cards) were not allowed so it was an even playing field. I borrowed the test Space Mats from work again so that we would have some nice battlefields to play on.

The gaming hall

There was a large 40K contingent there this year and I continue to be surprised by the number of big models (whether they be large monsters, flying things or just otherwise large random things) - perhaps it is since I have not played in over 15 years that I have lost touch with what constitutes a 40K army these days? There was a strong board game crowd, proving that in the age of PC and console games it is still nice to sit down with friends and play a board game. The Warmachine lads turned up in numbers as well putting on a Colossal-fest. I think I may need to tweak my lists for Ides Of March again as it appears that if you do not have a Colossal (or Gargantuan) you had better have a way to take one out!


As for the actual X-Win gaming I managed to go 3 wins out of 4, and thanks to some in depth accounting my strength of schedule put me over the top, taking out first place. I picked up a very nice starwars.com print, as well as medal and (even better) one of the A-Wings that was left over from last years Kessel Run event! I also managed to take a few shots of some of the other games during the day.

First Place Trophy

Blue on Blue match up (on Red)

Head on run

Asteroid action

I think those Imperials might be a little out numbered

Not Rebel scum, rather Imperial scrum

There was also a good sized Flames Of War event running over the weekend and I managed to snap a couple of photos, as well as some really inspiring photos of a 6mm Micro Armour tournament (using WRG rules). Most of the 6mm terrain is made by an old club mate of mine - Kieran Mahony. I also spotted some super cool Nerf guns... really made me want to crack out the airbrush and go to town on the couple I have. They are of course used for playing with some of the younger kids in the family...

Wayne says "See, this is where I will crush him!

Flames Of War tables

6mm Desert Hotel

6mm Desert Port

6mm BTRs roll past a fender bender

6mm Porsche Dealership

Now those are some cool Nerf guns!

Overall it was an outstanding day (Battlecry is normally a two day event, however I opted to just head by for a single day this year) - many thanks to Karen and the rest of the volunteers for putting one a good time for everyone. Thanks also to Dan for umpiring and organising the X-Wing games, as well as King of Cards for the A-Wing and Seriously Board for providing a whopping $50 voucher for each of the top three players in the event. I might be ordering a second Millennium Falcon from them...erm I mean YT-1300.

Damn you Mike!

It is not like I don't already have enough to paint over the next month without you showing off your nicely painted helicopters and making me want to assemble some....

For those of you who are not psychic, Mike has been painting up his Air Cav and brought them into work yesterday and within 30 seconds of looking at them I knew I must have some of my own!

Choppers on the improvised workbench

WWPD4Vets at Battlefront NZ

Steve and guys over at WWPD have come up with a plan to raiseat least $2,500 for the Wounded Warrior Project and other world wide veterans organisations by organising a global 24 hours of gaming! 

They got in contact with Mike and asked if we would like to help out in some way. Needless to say when he raised the idea with me I thought it would be great to participate. Now with all great ideas there has to be a few wrinkles... one, since we are in New Zealand our 24 hours does not sync up too well with the US, and two, we have some real life work stuff going on around this time with some deadlines that we cannot miss so after a little discussion we decided to get involved with a 12 hour version.

We are still ironing out a few things but we have a tentative plan to pull out some of our favourite games (both board and miniature) and generally just have a fun day of gaming with the hope that it will help raise a few dollars for a worthy charity.

To get involved head over to the WWPD4Vets website, or follow the goings on here, as well as Mike's blog or the Flames Of War website where we are planning on hijacking the front page for a day (how many gaming companies would let you show off other peoples miniature games on their front page....!).

You can find me at THE CLEURB!

In New Zealand yesterday it was Waitangi Day, a national holiday where we celebrate having a day off work. There is a bit more behind the celebration but since this is not a blog about NZ politics the less said the better. I managed to convince my wargaming-widow (wife) that since Waitangi Day was midweek we should treat it like any other day and I should head to work (and play games!).

My main objective was to get a couple of games in with my Ides Of March list(s), with both Sean and Victor volunteering to take on the eIrusk and Man-O-War challenge. Wayne and Casey rolled out the Hungarian Assault Guns and T-34/85 Battalions, whilst James strapped on his six-shooter and played a couple of games of Legends Of The Old West as other games finished. 

Both of my games were very enjoyable and have given me a little more reason to get the list painted. I am 100% un-convinced about its lethality, however I cannot see why that should stop me from looking at giving it a run. Part of me is however wondering if I should look for some other options for casters, although eIrusk's ability to let models pass through each other and giving most of my army Tough is pretty damn useful!

Nemo3 with a proxied lightning force (Sean) vs a very unpainted Khador force - 4 weeks till Ides, not a problem!

Both sides close in

Big scrum in the middle - I managed to win leaving Nemo in the sights of a boosted Destroyer

James and Victor setting up for some LotOW action

Another big scrum

Action shot of Casey (and Wayne). Casey's T-34/85 horde running into Wayne's Hungarians

T-34/85 firing line!

Zyrinis holding their own on the left flank

Victors Skorne - this is a really nice looking army up close!

First turn advancing towards each other

It was looking so good for me... and then Victor crushed my Demo Corp freeing his Immortals up to win the game!