Kit List, What's In, What's Out - December 2016

Finishing my record of what I buy and sell during this year:

In - Purchases for December 2016

• None

Total Yearly (April to December) Expenditure - £231.80

Out - Downsizing for December 2016

• None

No sales, no purchases, this month. Although a great many model companies had end of year sales none them offered anything to tempt me into a purchase at this time as I have plenty to be getting on with and want to continue decreasing my stash over the coming months.

That bring this record to a close. There was one significant purchase which accounted for more than a third of my expenditure, the Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower board game. Apart from that the rest felt like I'd managed to reduce my purchases, but on the other hand I've haven't got anything built and so have I really got my stash under control?

12 Day Modelling Challenge: Day #4

Between ongoing decals and paint stripping I decided to revisit a few miniatures tasks I'd been meaning to be getting on with.

First up was finishing off a test paint scheme for some Warhammer Men-at-Arms. I was reasonably please with the colours, green and purple, so I think this has potential for a future Mordheim, or Frostgrave, war band.

As an aside these Empire State Troops, or Freeguild Guard, as they're now called, paint up nicely. You're pretty much limited to the pose above, or swaping out the spear for a sword and shield which is the only downside, if I was going a war band I'd want a bit more variation.

Next up I decided to do a bit of base work. You may remember my moving skeleton diorama, I've disassembled it with a view to updating the base and reusing it for a new, yet undetermined, diorama while the skeletons will be tidied up and individually re-based.

After repainting the individual tiles to add more variation I gave them a wash with Flory Models Grey wash. Firstly this was to see if it improves bases and secondly out of curiosity as I want to use it for the first time on the undersides of the Airfix Typhoon to compare with the Dark wash which I've used before.

Now I just need to let it dry and see if it adds anything to the base.

12 Day Modelling Challenge: Day #3

Day 3, one of those tasks that just has to be done, paint stripping...

I've got a large number of second-hand metal miniatures that need paint removing from them and that meant sooner or later I was going to have to break out the Dettol (for those in the UK, it's the orange liquid antiseptic disinfectant).

Dettol liquid antiseptic disinfectant

Dettol is my preferred paint stripper for removing acyclic and water based paints.It's pretty simple to use, submerge the models, leave for 24 hours, then scrub with toothbrush in the Dettol to remove the paint. Leave the models  to dry before brushing off any remaining paint residue. One thing to remember, don't add water to the mix. Adding water to any paint residue will turn into into a very sticky substance which is very hard to remove.

12 Day Modelling Challenge: Days #1 & 2

To get started I decided to tackle some of the growing number of unfinished kits I have lying around. Airfix's 1:72 scale Hawker Typhoon is probably the best painted model I've done so far, yet despite this I hit a brick wall and to date it remains unfinished.

Painting was complete it was now time for decals. I really like models that come with not only markings but stencils and this kit packed in a large number of decals for it's size. This meant it would be very time consuming to apply them all, but worth it in the end.

Unusually for Airfix I had some problems with the decals. One I lost, probably stuck to a finger while handling, which is entirely my fault. However I had two decals break up on me. Fortunately I have a spare decal sheet so I'll have to get replacements from there. Otherwise that would have written off the model as one of these decals was not something that could easily be replaced, a unique ID number for the aircraft I'm building.

So after two afternoons work I'm about 80% of the way through the decals, just the replacement decals and the undersides to do.

12 Days of Christmas Painting & Modelling

It really not worth me doing a yearly review as my modelling output has been dismal this year, in fact I’ve not even sat at my modelling desk for several months now A total of one aircraft model complete and a couple of miniatures painted is all I’ve managed. OK, so the Airfix Defiant was probably the best model I’ve made to date, but that success seems a distant memory by now.

However as Christmas approaches, my workplace is closed for a couple of weeks so I can hopefully free up a bit of time to finish the year on a slightly higher note.

I’ve decided to try and devote a bit of time each day, for 12 days (not necessarily consecutively, as I have a few commitments over the holiday period), to painting some figures, finishing off a few unfinished kits and maybe starting something new so I can take some momentum into a new year and hopefully achieve a bit more in the way of modelling successes in 2017.

Day #1 to follow shortly.

Kit List, What's In, What's Out - November 2016

Continuing my record of what I buy and sell during this year:

In - Purchases for November 2016

• Hasslefree Miniatures - £32.22

Total Yearly (April to December) Expenditure - £231.80

Out - Downsizing for November 2016

• None

Just the one purchase from Hasslefree Miniatures as I took advantage of their yearly Halloween Sale (a few days after Halloween itself, which is why this is accounted for in November's purchases).

Kit List, What's In, What's Out - October 2016

Continuing my record of what I buy and sell during this year:

In - Purchases for October 2016

• None

Total Yearly (April to December) Expenditure - £199.58

Out - Downsizing for October 2016

• None

Finally a whole month of not buying anything, unfortunately that could be could down to a whole month of not much in the way of hobby progress!

Build Review - Airfix Hawker Typhoon Ib (A02041) – Part 2

For me one of the main objectives of this build was learning to paint late WWII RAF colours correctly. My initial attempt on an Airfix Spitfire had not gone according to plan. Having finally built a Typhoon to my satisfaction I was determined that this time I would get the painting right.

I started by undercoating in a light Tamiya Grey and by pre-shading the panel lines with a flat black. I'm still not 100% convinced that this is worth doing.

Pre-shading

While it seemed to have some effect on the lower, and lighter, surfaces of this particular model it didn't really seem to make much difference on the upper, camouflaged, surfaces. Also I felt that with effect could also be achieved by post-shading and by washes later in the build.

On to painting proper and the undersides. The actual colour for the undersides of RAF aircraft is called Medium Sea Grey. To achieve this I used the following:

1. A base coat of Vallejo MA (Model Air) Barley Grey (71.051). I tried to make sure some of the black panel lines showed through.
2. Vallejo MA Pale Blue Grey (71.046) to the centre of each panel.
3. A thin coat, sprayed at lower pressure, of Vallejo MA Medium Sea Grey (71.049) to selected panel lines to add a slight bit of variation.

RAF Medium Sea Grey & Invasion Stripes

Another objective of this build had been the airbrushing of D-Day invasion stripes. Although this kit came with decals many don't so I thought this would be a good time to practice. The colours used were:

1. An mix of Vallejo MA White and Aged White (71.001 & 71.132). How much depends on how yellow you want it to look. This was applied over the whole area and then masked off in order for the black to be sprayed. It really pays to make sure the masking is tight here, especially in the numerous panel lines.
2. The black was Tamiya Nato Black (XF-69). I prefer using this shade of black at this scale as it's a muted black compared to the XF-1 Black which looks too bright to me.

And with that the lower surfaces were done. I hadn't done the rear invasion stripes yet, as they overlapped onto the upper camouflaged areas.

For the upper surfaces the RAF colours are Ocean Grey and Dark Green. I decided this time to use Tamiya's RAF colours as my starting point (XF81, 82 & 83). If you look the instructions for older Tamiya kits you will see they were all mixes. These are more recent paints which Tamiya brought out to be used with their 1:32 scale Spitfire kits

Starting with the Ocean Grey, this was applied all over and highlighted in the areas that wouldn't be covered with the Dark Green.

1. Tamiya Ocean Grey 2 (XF-82) was mixed with slight amount of Medium Sea Grey (XF-83). The main reason for adding the Meduim Sea Grey was that I felt the base surface with black pre-shade was a bit too dark. Without the pre-shade I would have probably used The Ocean Grey on it's own.
2. I then highlighted panel lines etc with Vallejo MA Barley Grey (71.051). Unfortunately the picture below was taken in bad light and doesn't really show this well.

RAF Ocean Grey

For the Dark Green:

1. I put down a coat of Tamiya Field Grey (XF-65) with a small amount of Dark Green 2 (XF-81). The reason for this was it muted the blue tones from the grey which I was spraying on top of. In previous attempts the green seemed a bit off if I just used XF-81 over the Ocean Grey.
2. I then highlighted the green by using Dark Green (XF-81) on it's own. Of course if you choose to spray each colour over the undercoat, rather than spray an all over Ocean Grey coat, you could probably use this colour on it's own.

RAF Dark Green & Invasion Stripes

The Sky coloured band was then added to the rear fuselage, this was simply Tamiya Sky (XF-21). The invasion stripes were painted the same as before. The one thing I will say is that I found the invasion stripes to the rear fuselage incredibly difficult to do. Getting them straight took numerous attempts due to the curvature of the surface I was applying them to and it used far too much masking tape. It was not helped by the fact that the whole model was masked at this point and fairly hard to judge their position when I had very little of the model exposed.

In the end I had to remove the excess paint with a wooden toothpick in order to get them straight. With hindsight I think would be better to do this first and then mask off the whole invasion band area and spray the camouflage around it.

Despite this last bit killing my enthusiasm for some time I have to say I'm satisfied with the result. I achieved the two things I wanted to, spraying accurate RAF colours and spraying the invasion stripes.

Now onto the decals.

Motivation and Me – How to keep on Modelling?

Recently I’ve noticed a steady slump in my modelling output, as you can tell, there’s not been much in the way of blog posts over the last few months.

This isn’t the first time, I tend to get moments where I lose the drive to build or paint models. Away from that I’m still enjoying looking at models, reading about them, maintaining my Pinterest and so on. I’m just not building or painting.

This time it seems to have been the slow and, if I’m honest, the somewhat tedious painting of my Airfix Typhoon combined with a few other aircraft builds that just aren’t capturing my imagination like Tamiya’s 1:72 scale A6M5 Zero. Don’t get me wrong, the Typhoon and Zero are a fantastic kits, just my desire to paint at the invasion stripes and markings on the Typhoon slowed the build right down to the point where it stopped and I’m just not that passionate about Japanese WWII aircraft.

So how do I get my motivation back

Looking on the internet and most suggestions (such as this from Dakka Dakka) suggest a structured and almost work like approach to working through a block. I’ve considered setting time aside and making myself do something each day, but that’s not working for me as I don’t like such a structured approach even at the best of times.

For me my approach has always been less structured, I like to try many things, my hobby output is often driven by my curiosity and desire to experiment with ideas. However this may actually be contributing to the loss of motivation as it inevitably leads to a large number of unfinished projects which can seem a bit overwhelming when deciding some of them need to be finished. I am pleased however that I’ve not continued buying many kits in the hope that one would spark my imagination as that leads to an overwhelming stash, a problem which I’ve written about before, and which leads me to a similar loss of motivation.

Skyrim
Source: Bethesda Softworks

Away from modelling I’m still finding time for, and enjoying, my other interests. I’ve read more books in the last few months than I normally would and last week I rediscovered the computer game Skyrim which can certainly consume a large amount of my hobby time. Interestingly enough even these non-modelling hobbies are managing to provide inspiration for future modelling projects.

Realistically I think the desire will come back at some point, and I suspect it’ll involve something new rather than forcing myself to complete one of the many unfinished projects. I just don’t want to leave it too long though as I feel I will start to unlearn some of the things I’ve spent so long learning in the first place. I just need to get curious about something hobby related or have a sudden flash of inspiration and then things should snowball from there.

Kit List, What's In, What's Out - September 2016

Continuing my record of what I buy and sell for the remainder of this year, unfortunately it's pretty much been a month of hobby inactivity for September:

In - Purchases for September 2016

• Citadel Paints - £15.30
•  Tamiya Masking Tape (2 Rolls) - £4.80

Total Yearly (April to December) Expenditure - £199.58

Out - Downsizing for August 2016

• None

Looking at my collection citadel paints it's becoming apparent many are no longer fit for use and so this month I decided to start replacing some of them, something which I'll probably continue over the coming months. Apart from that, Tamiya masking tape, because invasion stripes require a lot of masking and I'd ran out. So now I can get on with my Airfix Typhoon Build.

Kickstarter: Many Ways To Spend My Money – September 2016

As you’ll know by now, I like to keep an eye on what’s happening on Kickstarter, especially when it comes to miniatures (and board games) and this month sees a couple of interesting miniatures Kickstarters.

First up is another Oldhammer style miniatures release called Greenskin Wars. It’s very much like the Pantheon of Chaos Kickstarter I wrote about back in April, which is not surprising as its run by the same people. This time it’s some fantastic old school goblins, plus a few hobgoblins, which instantly takes me back to the early editions of Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

Source: Kickstarter

The models are sculpted by Kev Adams, something of legend when it comes to goblins, so much so he’s known as the Goblin Master. There’s a good mix of foot soldiers, plus interesting options such as mounted goblins and war machines.

Source: Kickstarter

Personally I will be sitting this one out, but that doesn’t mean you have to. My reasons are that I actually backed the Pantheon of Chaos Kickstarter and I’d prefer to have received them before buying more from the same people, (plus there’s the whole GBP v € thing which is still ongoing). Hopefully they’ll be with me soon, I’ll be sharing a first look with you when they do arrive.

That leads to the next of this month’s interesting project, Hasslefree Miniatures, Kev White Does Matt Dixon’s Female Fantasy Miniatures.

Source: Kickstarter

Hasslefree are becoming one my favourite ranges, I’ve bought a few from them, not yet finished painting any of them yet (the detail on them is excellent)… In this case they plan on releasing a range of pin-up miniatures based on the work of artist Matt Dixon. I know the pin-up models aren’t to everyone’s taste but Hasslefree’s miniatures range is going from strength to strength in my opinion and if you can find something you like then this certainly looks worth getting involved with.

Source: Kickstarter

Initially they set out to do a small range of female characters in three versions, a pin-up, a skyclad (their term for ‘nude’) and a winter variant. They flew through the initial options within a few hours and seem to have been caught out somewhat. However they’re going a very good job of engaging with their backers, listening to suggestions, posting daily work in progress reports (NSFW link) and working on more options. One very appealing option that’s been mentioned is an enhanced variant of some of the winter models (in addition to those on offer) in collaboration with Tre Manor of Red Box Games, these could be ideal for Frostgrave.

The pledge levels pretty much allow you to bid for one model upwards, which is good. I do hope they manage to get further than offering sketches for the majority of the models as I tend not to want to purchase models that I’ve not at least seen the greens for. However given the quality of their existing range I think they’re a safe pair of hands. So in this case I will be keeping a close eye on this project, especially for the Frostgrave related miniatures, and most likely backing them later on.

If you want to back them then:

Greenskin Wars can be found here (finishes on Tuesday, October 4th 2016 at 2:44 PM BST)

Kev White Does Matt Dixon’s Female Fantasy Miniatures can be found here (finishes on Sunday, October 2nd 2016 at 8:00 PM BST)

Kit List, What's In, What's Out - August 2016

Another month and continuing my record of what I buy and sell for the remainder of this year here's what I bought and sold in August:

In - Purchases for August 2016

• Kovozavody Prostejov 1:72 North-American Mustang Mk.III 'Malcolm hood', RAF - £9.99
• Kovozavody Prostejov 1:72 P-51B/P-51C Mustang p/e parts - £3.70
• Kovozavody Prostejov 1:72 North-American P-51 resin pylons & fuel tanks - £3.70
• Peewit P-51 Masks - £2.40
• Montex Hawker Typhoon Masks - £2.00

Total Yearly (April to December) Expenditure - £179.48

Out - Downsizing for August 2016

• Tamiya 1:72 AH-6 Night Fox
• Tamiya 1:72 AH-64 Apache
• Frog 1:72 B-26 Marauder
• Airfix 1:24 Spitfire Mk.Ia (Incomplete)
• Airfix 1:48 Spitfire Mk.Vb
• Airfix 1:48 Messerschmitt Bf-109F-4

A few larger scale kits went as I just don't have room for them and couple of helicopter kits were sold. I've had an interest in trying helicopters but there was no chance of me starting any time soon and so I decided to sell some in order to fund this month's purchases.

Build Review - Airfix Hawker Typhoon Ib (A02041) – Part 1

As I'd mentioned at the end of a previous post I'd had a few issues when building Airfix's 1:72 Hawker Typhoon.

Source: (Lower Image) Hyperscale

The issues centered around the base of the wings, the flexible nature of this piece had meant that when it came to fitting the wheel covers, to depict the aircraft in flight, they wouldn't fit without considerable trimming and so looked quite untidy.

Out of curiosity I decided to open up another kit and see if they would actually fit prior to assembly and, as shown in the picture below, they clearly did.

This got me thinking, maybe there was a another way to build this kit, starting with the lower wings so I didn't make the same mistake again. And while I was at it, I'd photograph each step and share.

The Build

The first step was to attach the cockpit floor and the wheel wells to lower section of the wings. The wheel covers were then inserted from the other side. As I'd already established, the fit was perfect.

I then attached one side of the fuselage to lower wing piece and fixed the air intake into the correct position. From here on in I continuously test fitted the other side of the fuselage and the top side of a wing. In order to make sure the fuselage fitted there was a slight bit of filing required at the rear of the air intake and each time it snapped into place which meant care had to be take when removing it.

Next I assembled the cockpit on the half of the fuselage that wasn't attached to the wings. I remove the locating pins that would fix into other side as they weren't really need. This was because I continued test fitting to make sure everything was in place and that it hadn't moved from the correct position. Once the glue had set the cockpit was painted. If you're adding the pilot, as I was, then you will see next to nothing, especially given that Typhoon cockpits were painted black inside.


Once the pilot had been put in place, (I filled away his back and cut off his feet to make him fit cleaner), it was time to glue the second side into place. Just make sure the tail wheel and the clear light to the base of the aircraft have been put in place.

After allowing time for the glue to set I moved onto the wings. The gun bays were put in place, but as I was doing an in flight model these would be covered up by the top halves of the wings. I also made sure I drilled out the holes for the rockets launchers as there's no indication of their position of the exterior side of the wing.

And there we have it, both the top halves of the wings attached without any issues. I then added the flap to the base of the air intake just to finish things off. The instructions tell you to do this when joining the two halves of the fuselage but on both builds I found it to be far too awkward. It's much easier just to remove one the pins and slot it in later.

A minor bit of filling was required, the join at the base of the air intake is not the best. But after that it was all ready for some paint to be applied and that will be my next build post.

Kit List, What's In, What's Out - July 2016

Earlier I decided to keep track of what I buy and sell for the duration of this year. This is what happened during July:

In - Purchases for July 2016

• Airfix 1:72 Gloster Gladiator Mk.I - £2.99
• Airifx 1:72 Supermarine Spitifire Mk.I / Mk.IIa - £2.99
• Airfix 1:72 Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IXc - £2.99
• Airifx 1:72 Messerschmitt Bf 109E-7/Trop - £2.99
• Airfix 1:72 Higgins LCVP - £2.99
• 2x Xdradecal D-Day decal sets - £14.52
• Tamiya Paints - £9.00

Total Yearly (April to December) Expenditure - £157.69

Out - Downsizing for July 2016

• None 

The Airifix purchases were me taking advantage of a promotion in the Home Bargains store here in the UK in which Airifx kits were on offer for less than half price. Some of the purchases will allow me to sell off larger box set that I currently own (Airifx D-Day sets), some are just for parts or test models. The remaining ones are not on my to build list, so I've over purchased, which ideally I want to avoid as part of this exercise.

Too Many Shades Of Grey (And Green) - Late War RAF Camouflage

It now been a considerable time since I actually completed a model aircraft, 5 months in fact. One satisfying part of that particular build was that I finally managed to replicate the early WWII RAF camouflage scheme of dark earth and dark green.

So that just left the late war scheme, which replaced the dark earth, (brown), with ocean grey as the air battle moved out over the English Channel and beyond. Should be pretty straight forward you'd have thought, so with that in mind I decided to give it a try.

I decided I would try two kits at the same time, both built straight out of the box as the main objective was the colour scheme. The kits, Airfix's 1:72 Hawker Typhoon IIb (A02041) and the Sptifire MK.IXc (A02065A). I'd picked them both up at the Home Bargain Store in the UK which had been selling off Airfix kits for less than half price at £2.99 each.

As well as the RAF camouflage I also wanted to compare pre-shading and not, and I wanted to try airbrushing invasion stripes rather than using decals.

Before I could start on the exterior there was the small matter of the interiors, and there was quite a difference between the two. The Spitfire was absolutely basic, which was surprising for a kit released in 2009 and for a kit which actually had some nice exterior details and fine panel lines which couldn't be said for all Airfix kits at that time.

The Typhoon on the other hand seemed almost over engineered. The cockpit floor also consisted of the wheel wells. The instrument panel, rear panel, seat and air intake all had to be fitted between the two halves of the fuselage meaning it took several goes of adding a piece, letting it dry, adding another and so on. It certainly looks good, but it seemed like it required a little more effort that was perhaps necessary.

After that it was a case of assembling the wings. The lower part of the wings left awful joints at the sides of the air intake and a huge step at the rear which would require considerable filling.

So while all that filling and sanding was going on I decided to get on with painting the Spitfire (the Spitfire went together easily).

I started by pre-shading with Vallejo Model Air Black, 71.057 and then painted the undersides with Barley White 71.051 which was highlighted with thinned coat of Pale Blue Grey 71.046.

Moving onto the upper sides I couldn't really find a suitable shade for Ocean Grey so I mixed Tamiya XF-18, XF-21, XF-24 to a ratio of 1:2:2 and sprayed the whole topside. I then started on the green by using Vallejo Model Air 71.016 over sprayed with 71.017 as I'd used for my early war scheme. My reasoning was that RAF aircraft used the same green throughout the war so I could just re-use the previous colours.

But this didn't look right. Was it because I was spraying green over a grey base coat, rather than dark earth? Quite probably, so I tried to correct it and things then went from bad to worse. Then I realised actually my Ocean grey was too dark anyway. Time to get the paint stripper out.

How not to do RAF Camouflage

So once again, I'd failed with Vallejo Model Air colours and to be honest, I'm getting a bit tired of this. OK, so my Tamiya mix hadn't worked out either, I can probably correct that though. However I then realised Tamiya had extended their paint range and introduced three RAF late war colours, XF-81, 82, 83 so tomorrow I'm going to pick them up.

Still, at least I had the Typhoon to fall back on. Except there was a problem. It turns out that the lower wing piece I'd mentioned was quite flexible and so the wheel covers wouldn't fit without considerable trimming and I was planning on depicting the aircraft in flight.

Good thing I bought two Typhoons...

Kit List, What's In, What's Out - June 2016

A few posts back I decided to keep track of what I buy and sell during this year as I attempt to monitor my hobby consumption. So here's what happened this during June:

In - Purchases for June 2016

• 2 x Airfix 1:72 Hawker Typhoon IBs - £5.98

Total Yearly (April to December) Expenditure - £119.22

Out - Downsizing for June 2016

• None 

Just a couple a kits this month which will allow me to sell a larger box set and still build one the kits on my to build list.

As far as actually hobby progress, there's been none this month.

Give Us Your Money - UK Miniature Bargains

I never imagined I'd be writing a post about politics, economics and miniatures, unless there was a really tenuous link, but events of today have presented an opportunity to do so.

It's been quite an eventful day in the UK, some bloke called Nigel decided he didn't like foreign people and 16 million people decided to join him in taking Britain out of the European Union. Rather than a super smooth exit, we as a nation have decided to take a crash and burn approach. This has left our currency, the Pound Sterling (£) at its second lowest level in my lifetime (and the last time it took months rather than hours to sink so low...).

So what's this got to do with miniatures? Well if you're outside the UK everything here is super cheap. So in true spirit of capitalism you might want to take advantage of our misfortune and bag a few bargains.

In a show of solidarity for my fellow Brits here's a couple of small companies I can recommend:

Via Facebook

The excellent Hasslefree Miniatures, I've bought from them plenty of times (just not not got round to painting anything for the blog yet).

And:

Via Facebook

Bad Squiddo Games, who have the best selection of female miniatures I've encountered.

Probably worth taking a look at Airfix as well. Needless to say my planned purchases from abroad will be on hold for the moment, good job I have plenty to be getting on with...

Kit List, What's In, What's Out - May 2016

A few posts back I decided to keep track of what I buy and sell this year as I attempt to monitor my hobby consumption. So here's what happened this during May:

In - Purchases for May 2016

• Games Workshop Liquid Green Stuff - £6.00
• Warhammer Quest: The Silver Tower - £95.00

Total Yearly (April to December) Expenditure - £113.24

Out - Downsizing for May 2016

• None 

Obviously one significant purchase in buying Warhammer Quest: The Silver Tower. I'd been searching for a board game for a while as a long term painting project and this one turned out to be ideal. With this and my Mordheim painting project. I should have plenty to be getting on with for some time now and don't really envisage any more miniatures purchases, (other than components), in the immediate future.

However one thing I have realised is that my paints will need refreshing as the Silver Tower features a lot of colours I've not tended to use much before now. I'll try and phase them in over the next few months as I paint certain batches of miniatures.

Warhammer Quest: The Silver Tower

If you're a regular reader of this blog you'll know by now that I'm especially fond of Games Workshop's older dungeon crawl games, namely Advanced Heroquest (which I'm attempting to recreate) and Warhammer Quest.

Both of these games have been out of print for many years as the Games Workshop focused on it's core games, Warhammer 40K and Fantasy Battle. Fantasy battle of course underwent a controversial re-boot, which hasn't won everyone over, me included and became Warhammer Age of Sigmar.

In recent weeks there has been various leaks on the internet regarding a re-boot of Warhammer Quest within the Age of Sigmar universe, the game is called Warhammer Quest: The Silver Tower. This seems to in-line with the current policy of putting back games into the Games Workshop, which has up until now seen a number of Warhammer 40K games released. This is the first fantasy setting game in the growing range and in fact it's the first fantasy game since the original Warhammer Quest.

Today I visited my local store and got to see a copy of the game. Here are my thoughts.

Warhammer Quest: The Silver Tower - Source: Games Workshop (2016)

I really don't like the setting of Age of Sigmar and I suspect Games Workshop are aware that they still have to win many people over in this regard. The setting of this game seems to be intended to appeal to both older gamers like myself and the newer fans of Age of Sigmar.

If I recall the Warhammer Old World lore correctly the Silver Towers were magical realms of the sorcerers of Tzeentch, one of four powers of Chaos, that in this case have survived into the new universe. This in my opinion is very clever move; along with retaining the Warhammer Quest name. There's enough of a nod to the old, highly regarded, games that preceded it, while at the same time moving onto the new.

The villains have a decidedly Old World feel about them, but Tzeentch is the changer of ways after all and so that fits well. This means fans of both the old and new game worlds will have some familiarity with them. I got to see the actual figures today and I especially liked the new cultist figures and really hope they get a release into the Age of Sigmar world proper, if they do I'll be buying into Tzeentch at some point in the future. The main Tzeentch character is a delightfully insane old-school demon wizard called the Gaunt Summoner, again a nod to days gone by and one the painters amongst us will surely want to get their hands on.

As for heroes they are very much from the Age of Sigmar. I'm a bit sceptical about the Stormcast Eternal as a hero, but apart from that you get new updated versions of the dungeon crawl barbarian, dwarf, elf (in this case an assassin) and spell-caster along with a warrior priest (and his pet Gryph Hound). Having more than the standard four character to choose from is, again, another nice touch which ensures there should be something to appeal to everyone.

The Heroes - Source: Games Workshop (2016)

So overall I think this looks like being a fantastic move for the Games Workshop and one I really hope pays off. If it does there are rumours that more expansions will follow. Rules also appear to be following the initial release which will allow more heroes, and possibly villains, from within the existing Age of Sigmar miniature range. With all that in mind the future's certainly looking bright for this one. Well done Games Workshop!

Personally it's been such a long time since I've been excited by the prospect of a new release. This one however has a good blend of old and new and ticks a lot of boxes as far as I'm concerned. So much so, that this afternoon, I went and pre-ordered a copy which should hopefully be with me in a week and a half. I can't wait!

Kit List, What's In, What's Out - April 2016

A few posts back I decided to keep track of what I buy and sell this year as I attempt to get my stash under control. So here's what happened this month:

In - Purchases for April 2016

• Games Workshop parts (for a Mordheim project) - £12.24

Total Yearly (April to December) Expenditure - £12.24

Out - Downsizing for April 2016

• Fujimi 1:24  Porsche 917K, 1971 Monza 1000km winner
• Games Workshop 5x Marauder Horsemen box set
• Eduard 1:144 Me 262A Dual Combo
• Tamiya 1:100 Me 262A & Me 163B
• AZ Models 1:72 MiG-17F / Lim-5 Fresco-C
• Airfix 1:72 Hawker P.1127
• Tamiya 1:48 Sd.Kfz.222 Armoured Car
• Airfix 1:72 Hawker Hurricane / Sea Hurricane Mk IIc plus Eduard photo-etch detail set
• Hobby Boss 1:72 Me 163 Interceptor (Easy Kit)
• ICM 1:72 SB 2M-100 Katiushka
• Special Hobby 1:72 Yakovlev Yak-23 Flora Warsaw Pact

It was a bit disappointing to see some of these go. They were all projects that at some time I'd intended to build; but hopefully they've moved on to somewhere where they'll actually get built.

Kickstarter: Many Ways To Spend My Money - April 2016

I like to keep one eye on what's available on Kickstarter. Aside from the usual 'pre-order' Kickstarters run by the larger gaming companies this month has seen something that particularly appealed to me.

Source: Kickstarter

The Kickstarter in question is The Pantheon of Chaos, a miniatures range with a distinctly old school, Oldhammer, feel to them.

Source: Kickstarter

I remember seeing the greens sometime ago, although where exactly escapes me, and instantly having flashbacks to the golden age of Games Workshop miniatures.

I really think it's a positive step to see new miniatures being released in this Oldhammer style as I feel the actual Oldhammer movement is a bit of closed shop, especially if your interest is a passing one. Unless you're 20+ year hoarder, involved in gaming groups or prepared to cave into the demands of eBay profiteers it's really difficult to get involved. Try joining their Facebook group. Time after time I seem to be refused, obviously I don't know the right people / secret handshake / code words etc...

So anyway, now the Pantheon of Chaos has gone live, and been funded within 2 hours, I'm sorely tempted to get myself a few of them. Although the €30 to €50 price tag for a decent sized set will certainly test my spending resolve for this year they do look too good to pass up. And given the ease with which they reached their funding target it bodes well for the post-kickstarter plans for the range, including a book and further miniatures.

If you feel like getting involved then you can find the Pantheon of Chaos can be found here and there's still 10 days left to run (finishes on Wednesday, May 4 2016 at  8:44 PM BST).

Kits I Want To Build - Aircraft

A few posts back I wrote about downsizing my stash in order to help me focus a bit more on what I’ve got and what I want to build in the future. A few kits have already been moved on and so now I thought I’d try and identify the aircraft I have an interest in, both from a historic point of view as well as well modelling point of view.

I have to confess it gets a bit difficult at this point, there’s still quite a lot of them. I had to stop eventually and that point was when I reached 25 aircraft, any further would be straining the credibility of the exercise.

So here’s the list, broken down into five categories. Four of these are Second World War categories, the first three being aircraft of steadily increasing sizes. A couple I have already built but would like to do again in different colour schemes, (Spitfire and P-51D) and so are not considered essential builds right now. Medium bombers present more of a challenge for me as a build although the Il-2 is looking like a distinctly possible build for the near future. Heavy bombers are the same plus I have to contend with the issue of displaying them due to their size so they’ve effectively been put to one side for now.

The WWII experimental fighter / jets category is pretty much a self-contained project that I’ve had in mind for several years now. It’s not been started yet, partly due to my inability to replicate RLM colours to a satisfactory likeness. I actually plan on writing further on this subject, but for now, like the heavy bombers, it’s been put to one side.

And finally we get to the Cold War era aircraft. Initially this interest was sparked by the late WWII jet fighters and by my Hobby Boss F9F-2 Panther build. And this is the point where I’ve decided to draw a line, just two kits will remain, and that’s because they’re really good kits with a whole load of extras that I don’t wish to part with at this time. I do have a couple of helicopter kits as well which I’ve excluded, and then there’s all the non-aircraft kits which are not with the scope of this post.

Does this help? Well looking at a list of 25, it’s still quite daunting. But the categories do help me prioritise a few builds, and then things look a bit better. With that in mind I’m going to get started on the WWII fighters list.

Advanced Heroquest Reborn - The Henchmen #1-3

Here's the first 3 of the 12 henchmen.

These are straight from the box, Bretonnian men at arms, which are unfortunately no longer available. Individually they have a lot of character and in small numbers I found them fun to paint, though they needed a lot of cleaning up. I can imagine painting an army's worth would be quite difficult as you soon run out of options when it comes to making them different to each other.

ADHQ Henchman - Source : Stuff of Legends

Interestingly these figures armed with halberds are closer to the figures that came with the game, however the actual character sheets show that henchmen are armed with swords.

Advanced Heroquest Reborn - The Heroes

The clocks went forward this weekend which means lighter evenings and hopefully more miniature painting. Unfortunately the lens for my camera has sadly expired and all my spares are either zooms or fixed focus lenses, none of which are suitable for photographing miniatures. Because of that I'm trying to use a tablet for photographing miniatures as you'll see below. 

For the Advanced Heroquest Reborn project the first two heroes are now complete, actually more to the point, the first two figures of the project are complete!

They are, the human fighter Heinrich Löwen and the dwarf warrior Sven Hammerhelm. 

 

Sven underwent a substantial change from when you last saw him to bring him closer to the artwork found in the rule books.

 Source: Terror In the Dark - Games Workshop / Colin Howard (1991)

The parts I used for these two figures are:

Heinrich Löwen
Body - Empire State Troops
Arms - Empire Free Company Militia
Sword - Original militia cutlass removed, replaced with an alternative militia sword
Head - Empire State Troops (preceding 5/6th edition plastic box set, now out of production)
Feather - As above
Pouch (dagger removed, side re-sculpted) , bottle, treasure chest - Bretonnian men at arms set
Rope - Mordheim accessories
Shield - 1990's blank circle shield, parts from dwarf shield sprue (unknown)

Sven Hammerhelm
Body, arms - Dwarf warriors (6th edition, now out of production)
Hammer head - Dwarf warriors
Head, helmet removed - Dwarf warriors (6th edition, now out of production)
Helmet - Dwarf warriors

Backpack, self sculpted, bag - Bretonnian men at arms set

Next I plan to paint a few of the henchmen before facing up to the challenge of painting twenty Skaven.