15mm WWII (FoW) - Late War British Rifle Company

My (very) slow build Flames of War British Rifle Company is now done. I've built it to a point where i can swap a few units about as desired so it doesnt get too stale to play with. I've now got both a British and a German army based and painted for Flames of War  (both at around the 1750 - 2000 point mark) and I'm happy to leave it at that for now. 

Painting styles used were; Drybrushing, Heavy washes over block painting, and Army painter on the 25 pounders and the objectives ( i got very lazy towards the end!!) This project was more of a chore than any ive done before, I'm glad i stuck with it and am pleased with the results. I'm now looking forward to pushing this force around the table.

 

X-WING a Star Wars Miniatures game.

After a busy few weeks at work I decided i'd pick up the new X-Wing miniatures game from Fantasy Flight to play with the Wife and Kids. The Box and Contents are all of really good quality; The Cards, Miniatures and all components are sturdy and will last for the long run in our house (where the kids can get a little rough!)

We jumped straight into the Quick start rules to get a feel for the system. Those that have played Wings of War will be familiar with the absolute basics and will pick up X-Wing with ease. The Quick start rules give nice and fast action and are really fun. My Wife and I will be playing the full rules tonight and a couple of games thoughout the week which i'm looking forward to.

A few action shots of the game my Son (Imperials) and I (Rebels) had.

It was a shaky start for the 'Rookie' X-wing Pilot with the two TIE Fighters moving in quick.

 

 The TIE Fighters stuck on the X-Wing bringing his Shields offline and damaging the Hull.

WIth a daring Immelman, the X-Wing caught the TIE fighters off guard and managed to blast one out of existence and turn the tide.

 As the remaining TIE Fighter turned to regather the 'Rookie' kept on his 6 and took him out with a well aimed blast.

This particular game took about 20 minutes and even though the young bloke was defeated he was keen to jump straight into another game for some fast paced action!

Saxon WIP for Impetus

Today I got a bit more work done on my Saxon army for Impetus.
33 more figures have been mounted onto their 120x60mm bases and have had Pumice applied for texture. Over the weekend I'll add  a few coats of paint,flock and tufts to these guys, which will bring my army nearer to completion. I think once these 3 are complete I'll only have about 4 or 5 units to go!

These 3 units will all be part of the Mercian force led by Athelstan's brother, Edmund.

Photos from the Blackberry.

 Close up of a couple of Saxon Ceorls

 

 

Mixed Thegn and Ceorl Unit.

 

 

 

 

Most of the Figures from this batch are from Crusader Miniatures which are all great sculpts, and a treat to paint.

 Sorry about the photo quality, my phone does its best though in the absence of my Wife's camera.

650pts Kings of War

Over the weekend my Son and I had our first game of Kings of War from Mantic. It was a small 650 point battle on the kitchen table with the young bloke playing Skaven to face off against my High Elves.

Kings of War is very well written and a breeze to play, we had the mechanics sorted after the first two turns and only needed to reference for special rules and situations. While it was fast to pick up, and taking into account we had no terrain and very basic units, KoW still gave a good challenge tactics wise and gave a fun game all round. The pup even said it was the best game of fantasy he's ever played!

I can easily say that these will be the go to rules when it comes to Fantasy and I'm looking forward to the next game, on a bigger table, with more of the 'elite' units, and some terrain!

As above, it was a 650 point game and we fought to a conclusion in about an hour and a half. The High elves won the day thanks to the 2 Archer units causing an early route and badgering the Skaven menace throughout the battle.

Heres a few basic snaps of the game, again, my camera is out of action at the moment so these were taken with the smart phone.

After one or two more games and once the rules have completely sunk in, I'll try and post a decent AAR to give a better account of the game and feel for the rules. All in all a fun game and look forward to the next.

Cheers

Saxon Update!

Sorry for no updates in the last few months, I've been hooked on Magic: The Gathering and have been spending most of my spare time down at the local card shop. I've enjoyed my break from all the hobby stuff but am refreshed and keen to keep at it and finish this years goals.

Here's another unit of Saxon Thegn's and two units of skirmishers, all three are based for Impetus. Most of the painting is now complete on the Saxon project and I've just got to get through the basing.
Sorry for the poor quality pics, my camera is flat so I used the mobile phone. I just wanted to give some kind of update as it has been a while!

The Two Skirmisher units here were painted by Matt from over at the Storm and Conquest blog.

 

I'm also currently basing up my 15mm 3rd Crusade project as both sides are fully painted aswell.

My son Phoenix and I will be playing a small trial game of Kings of War this afternoon on the kitchen table, so I'll try and grab a few shots of the battle and give a few thoughts on the rules too.

 



ANZAC Day - Lest We Forget.

28mm Saxons

The newest recruits to the Saxon army I am building for the Battle of Brunanburh project. It will be our big end of year game.

I painted these guys last night using mainly drybrushing and simple layering (2 layers) with the occasional highlight. I have a large amount of these to paint this year so the aim is to use quick and simple techniques that look good en masse and only going back to correct major botches.. I can live with the small ones and the occasional crazy eyes!

The figures are from Crusader.

Thegn Unit, painted and ready for basing;

These will be based on either 120 x 60mm bases or two 60 x 60mm  bases for Impetus/Basic Impetus. This basing will also let me use them for Piquet.

High Elves - Prince on Griffon

I forgot to add these photo's the other day with the other High Elves;

The newest member of my HE army is the High elf Prince mounted on a Griffon. The figure is from the Island of Blood set.

High elves are on hold for a short while now as I need to work on some Saxons for my Brunanburh project and also need to get some skaven done for my son.

High Elves - Swordmaster Unit.

Here's my fresh Swordmaster Unit, all figures are the Island of Blood ones. I picked the figures up dirt cheap off eBay along with some other IoB stuff  (both High Elves and Skaven). The IoB stuff always seems to go really cheap on Oz eBay, I guess maybe because they're mostly 1 or 2 piece mini's they dont lend themselves to conversions... Suits me fine!

Island of Blood Mage

I had a camera issue last month which prevented me from posting anything new to the blog. The camera is fixed now and I have started to take some snaps to add here over the next week or so.
I've been working on a few different projects with good progress made on the Saxons, High Elves and some Flames of War.

More pictures to come this week.