Happy New Year - 2015

 

It's that time again, the time I wish all my readers a Happy New Year, and thank each and everyone of you for reading my humble musings and leaving comments here for me to read.  

It really feels like I have friends on the net, and given the amount of stuff that goes down on the net, this is all good.

As you can see I received some X-wing stuff. This is one of my favourite Star War ships, which I now have to go alongside with my Falcon, and X-wing etc, etc.  Got to catch them all. 

Puts me in the mood for more space games, which may mean you'll see pictures of my spaceships at some point. After all I promised to post them some while back (so long ago I can't remember when even!).

As always I'm not making any New Year resolutions, because I know that such things generally are counter productive, unless one is willing to make big changes and drive yourself hard.   

For me, wargaming is my hobby. I do it to escape the real world, and relax. Saying that though as I look back over the last year I see I have posted 45 entries to my blog. Not quite one a week but ,you'll have to check out my other blog for why (my excuse anyway).

I've covered a lot of topics this year, starting with my Daleks size comparison, which turned out to be a very a popular post.  

I've obviously mention Blast-Tastic on several occasions, with a report here and here, and of course I managed to get a page in Miniature Wargames & Battlegames about the show too.  

Finances allowing, because it costs money to stay in a hotel overnight, which I need to do for a show in Bristol as my rheumatoid arthritis doesn't take kindly to sleep deprivation (or more to the point when I'm tired I don't cope well with the pain), with that caveat in mind my intention is to present another Ogre/GEV again this year at Blast-Tastic.

However, last year was the year of all things Ogre, too many post to link to individually, so if you want to see what I did you'll need to click on the Ogre/GEV links under labels.  

Of course the real big deal for me was seeing my article that gave a comprehensive seven page overview of Ogre and the new Designers Edition from Steve Jackson Games in Miniature Wargames & Battlegames.  I have the go ahead from Henry to write up the scenario I've been demonstrating all year, with lots of pictures and ideas for campaigns.  

However, despite the Ogre/GEV frenzy of 2014 I still managed one post on BattleTech.

What I haven't progressed much is my involvement with Heavy Gear ,and painting up my VOTOMS, or making up an OPFOR using Dream Pod 9s miniatures. However ,Xmas saw some Utopian Golems arrive, and I've dusted off my VOTOMS, and have them waiting in line to be painted.  

I also have plans to make up some extra mechs to represent combat armour suits in my trilogy, because that's the way I roll.

Other than that I've been to a few shows: Salute, Warfare and Dragonmeet, but missed SELWG due to a friend coming to visit, and Newbury, which wasn't on, so I couldn't go.

So, to finish, I wish everyone a fantastic New Year with lots of fun games.

Merry Xmas 2014

Ho, ho, ho, and now I have some Heavy Gear Utopian Golem mecha, and a copy of X-wing and the Rebel Alliance Blockade Runner, neither of which was a surprise, but they were most wanted.   

I did get given a non-wargaming present that was a bit of a surprise, a nice condition second had Birdy Red folding bicycle – it's German so it's all very technical with full suspension. 

Have had a lazy day watching Wallace & Gromit, Gnomeo & Juliet, Top of the Pops, the Queen's speech, Puss in Boots, and the Goose is in the oven.

We are just about to watch Dr Who. So I hope you've all had a great day opening presents, eating and drinking, and are enjoying the day.

Heavy Gear Jager versus Takara 1/144th VOTOMS: Size Comparison

       

The Jager is shorter, but bulkier than the Takara Rabid-Dog and Blood-Dog.

Well my parcel arrive from Dream Pod 9.  I'd ordered some Utopian faction Golems, and a support Armiger with drones, a Southern Jager, and assorted weapons.  Everything but the Jager and weapons went under the Xmas tree as a present, but was so excited I had to start assembling the Jager, and thought it would be good to show a size comparison picture of the Jager with my Takara microscale F144 VOTOMS.

Primed white and given a black wash.

What I find attractive about the Heavy Gear models is the number of different guns and missile packs that one can choose from.  While I was working on this I realized what my nagging doubts were really all about when I posted here.  My VOTOMS are lovely, but they will always be VOTOMS and what I want to do is build a force based on my Bad Dog universe background, and I think the Dream Pod 9 Heavy Gear mechs will make a good platform for me to customize models to represent the vehicles in my stories.

I know this is incredibly sad – author making models of the mechs in her own novels, but at least I can point any cover artist in the right direction about what a CASE-2X looks like.  Having had this epiphany I can now move on and pretend I'm somewhat normal and not totally obsessed with the wild imaginations of my mind.
   

Vis Lardica 2014 TFL Painting Challenge Entry

  

These are the core of my North American Combine conventional force the 2nd Heavy Armor Brigade Combat Team.

Here are a couple of pictures of all the Ogre/GEV miniatures I managed to paint this year, which I submitted to the Vis Lardica painting challenge.  No doubt by the time you check out the link Robert will have posted them up and scored them for me (he has, I got 354 points).

I've been working on the ORBAT of my North American Combine force, which will be based on the contemporary US Army Brigade Combat Team organization.  I plan to post a piece on this once I have the photos of all the units done.  This may take some time.  Still I can enter them in next years painting contest, which will be good.

Some extra howitzers, because what's not to like about howitzers really?

Previously seen on the blog the reinforcements for my French Pan European force.  I'm still left with a shed load of miniatures to paint to finish what I'm now calling the 7ème Brigade Blindée, which again is based on contemporary French Army practice.  I had a lot of fun researching both these and the American ORBAT's and I'm compiling the photos for a blog entry on these too.

Part of my 7ème Brigade Blindée force arrayed in all its glory.

In addition, all the work I've done will go into both an article for Miniature Wargames & Battlegames magazine as supporting material for my Escalation scenario with ideas to make a ladder campaign with force morale rules too.

Finally finished after years of neglect my Mark 2S Ogre, which I originally started sculpting because Steve Jackson Games didn't do a Ninja.

And a before I finished picture for comparison.

  

Dragonmeet 2014: Escalation

The last official MIB demo game of Ogre/GEV with miniatures at Dragonmeet. I wore my Steve Jackson fluorescent orange and green Ogre T-shirt for the occasion. The scenario was one of my own devising, and was designed to be unbalanced so that a new player would have a better chance of winning.

More miniatures than you can shake a big stick at. KR Multicase FTW.

I managed to run three games during the day. The show was packed and very busy, and quite frankly as I was running the games on my own three was all I could manage. 

I actually adjusted the force composition you can see above before the second game started to give me three GEV-PC carriers to move my troops around to bolster my limited force. I woke up today quite hoarse, and was told I sounded sultry by my partner.

Ian was the first winner, seen here pleased at destroying two of my three command posts. The other was a GEV-MCP, which can be seen running away.

Justin won the second game, and was a really good sport for posing for this photo. Again I was forced to retreat my GEV-MCP off the board and concede the game. I shall be writing up this scenario with notes for a future issue of Miniature Wargames & Battlegames magazine with lots of ideas of force compositions etc.

Friends came and said hello during the day, so hi to Adam, and people who had played last year came and thanked me for the running the game.  

Finally, I was surprised and delighted to meet my old friends Pat and Bill who use to run Warlord Games. Haven't seen them since I went for the funeral of another friend of ours, Kevin, and we had a lot of catching up to do.

Pat on the left, center is Kelvin a member of their RPG group, and Bill Forster author of The Norway Mission on the right. 

Terminator Genisys

 

Colour me interested.  The trailer looks promising with them running with the idea of the consequences from the timeline changing.

   

Takara 1/144th VOTOMS

My partner ran my original photograph through Photoshop and produced this rather punchy picture. II think it makes my models look rather stunning. They're good, but this makes them look excellent, which is what I suppose a good photograph should do – capture the best aspects of the subject.  

Certainly made me realize how much I originally liked the scheme. 

With regard to the second question – it arises because I will need an OPFOR ,and I will be using both Caprice and Utopian forces miniatures from Dream Pod 9 to fill those roles.  But, would I be better off building a force where I can get more models if I should want to expand my current collection?

Procrastinating big time on this question.

NB: I went and updated my pledge on the Heavy Gear Kickstarter to the full core set.

Heavy Gear Caprice

 

I admit it I gave in and made a pledge for the Heavy Gear Kickstarter, initially only for a dollar, but then came to my senses and upped my pledge to $65.00 for the Caprice starter army. I like the look of the four legged walkers, and at the price listed it's win-win, plus the add-ons and postage and packing deal for this was too tempting.

I have to admit that while I love the Heavy Gear universe, I have no one to play with, and largely I'm buying these for games in my own universe, which I still have no-one to play with, but it keeps me busy and off the streets.  

So ,my plan is that these Caprice walkers will form the core of my Russian Federation special forces unit, and will face off against my VOTOMS who will be used as my Confederated States Marines.

Warfare 2014: Reading

Well we toddled off again this year to Warfare and had a jolly good time talking to friends we met at the show. In no particular order John Treadaway, Henry Hyde, and Jon & Mel at GZG. 

New from GZG, and I saw the first casts of the 6mm Hound Dog's conversions, which will be available in the New Year. 

I didn't buy anything at the show, but I did have a lovely chat with Daryl from KR Multicase and resulted in me walking away with two replacement trays, and all I can say is what a great guy.

  

Above, Warmill RUM Outpost and Heavy Industries walker on display. Below, Atenocitis spider tanks in 15 & 28 mm caught my eye. Rather nice looking models. 

  

I also talked to the guy from Mutineer Miniatures, who I think was Kenny, but might have been Mark, my bad, about a Scottish show they go to, which was also interesting, and may lead to a guest post by them here at some point.

 

Mutineer Miniatures castle walls looked very nice.

 

I forgot to note who presented this rather nice Cowboy & Indians game (Edit: Skirmish Wargames as per the comments). 

Wings of Glory Forum put on a couple of WW1 games and had this rather impressive Zeppelin on display, they also had more WOW aircraft than you could shake a stick at all displayed in their KR Multicase trays to oggle at. 

Reinforcements for Dragonmeet 2014

I shall be running the last official MIB Ogre miniatures event at Dragonmeet, which has moved to Earls Court this year. 

Those eagle-eyed and otherwise astute players and readers of this blog will no doubt be wondering why I'm showing off more Pan European Federation forces, given how many I already have painted to plunk down on the tabletop versus the rather thin selection of conventional North American Combine units?

Well excuse number one is Ogres: Doppelsoldner, Fencer, and Mark 2 & 3 Ogres. Excuse number two, there is no excuse number two, see number one.

However, I have to get the North American Combine forces finished before the 6th of December, because I really don't want to be running a game with unvarnished models again. So I transferred my NAC force from the painting tray onto the painting table this afternoon, which I couldn't do before, because the table was occupied with my Pan Euro miniatures.

No small matter considering there are 60 conventional units and three Ogres sitting waiting for me to start. 

Nearly double the amount of miniatures than in the above picture.  So the pressure is now on me to get my finger out and finish painting them. Will I get them done in time? Keep checking back to see, and cheering me on will also help

In addition, I've also been researching and working on an article for Miniature Wargames & Battlegames for my Escalation scenario, which I plan to support with rules for force morale and Tables of Organization and Equipment for the scenario ORBATs.

Justified I may add by the fact that I can use the ORBATs for a future novel about cybertank warfare and the end of the old world order.