Bring on the Summer!

I really hate the British weather at the moment, one minute it's sunny and the next it can be pouring with rain. This gives me and my modelling side of wargaming a massive headache. Take today for example, I got up sun was shining and for the first time in months I thought I'd be able to get a good portion of priming done today....

So I set up a block of 40 Saurus warriors from my Lizardmen army in my spraying box, came downstairs and what would you know the heavens opened and spray painting was called off! Unfortunately I've not got a garage to do my spraying so everything has to be done either outside or in the shed at the back of the garden. So recently I've been building and building but now my cabinets in the backroom are filled with plastic models just begging for a lick of paint.

Thankfully with my Volksgrenadier Flames of War army their small enough to paint on primer using Games Workshop Imperial Primer, you can control the amount of primer you apply and make sure you get all the knooks and hard to reach places with a brush. But the thought of trying to prime 40 Saurus using this technique just makes me shudder. Hopefully with it being March already the weather will get better and the nights will get lighter meaning I'll have more opportunities to spray and prime!

But most of all just bring on the Summer, the plan will be to spray and prime everything I've got built so even when the next Winter comes I'll not be running out of things to paint!

Next Game

So while I've been busy painting and sorting out my Flames of War army it doesn't mean Fantasy has taken a back step. Sunday I've got two 1,000 point games to help David in his WFB campaign that he's participating in with Swindon Wargames club. So I gave Dave a list of Armies I could field at 1,000pts (Lizardmen, Empire or Ogres) and he chose the Ogres with the following rules for the day.

Sunday 23rd February - Ogres - 1000 points - two games.
First game is an attack from Chaos Demons while your travelling along a road, center table, length ways.

You throw a D3 for the number of artillery dice inches your units get on table. Game ends when you have a unit leave the far edge or Turn 6.

Second your defending a village on your table edge. Game ends turn 6.

Should be good I've never done a 1,000pts for Ogres before but looking at the different options I'm sure I'll be able to get something decent against his Chaos Daemons. I know for a fact my general is going to be the Firebelly and I'll be sure to have some Ironguts, Ogres, Leadbelchers and Mournfang. That should probably drop me bang on the 1K mark.

I know I've never shown my Ogres, so here's the only pics I have on my phone for them. I'm going to be getting the girlfriend's new Digital SLR Camera out this weekend and have a play around to get photographing everything properly. So anyway here's Murlag-Burl's Mountain Dwellers.

Firebelly

Ironguts

Ogre Bulls

Leadbelchers (Mournfang in the back)

StuG G Finished

So last night I stayed up and finished all three StuG Gs, I took a risk and instead of finding the Vallejo Brown/Sepia Wash I used the GW Agrax Earthshade and it worked wonders. Once I got into a swing of painting all three it really worked wonders and just as I finished one step on the last tank the first tank was ready for the next step.

I'm not too sure how to make them more wintery though for the Volksgrenadiers. Was going to try Winter Foliage but cannot think of how I'd do it. Maybe some lichen with snow glued on top? I also love the use of Typhus Corrosion on the tracks to make them instantly muddy, I picked up a pot of this when it first came out but never really had a chance of using it until last night properly. After watching Band of Brothers last night and watching the Bulge battle of Foy I noticed how muddy the roads and tracks were so thought the Stugs would look good with the muddy tracks.

I just need one more StuG G for my Volks Tank-Hunter Platoon and I should be getting it on Sunday with one of the Plastic Soldier Company reinforcement single StuG models. Hopefully against the Battlefront trio it should look fine. I'll also be getting the Plastic Solider Company German Heavy Weapon box set too. I'm not sure whether they'll be useable for the Winter Volks I'll have to see the uniforms. Hopefully I'll be able to use the Winter Jackets/Splinter Camo Leggings or visa-versa and they'll look ok. If not I'm sure I'll be able to find some use for them!

StuG G Heaven!

First Volks Completed

Good morning fellow wargamers! Hope you're all going well and having a grand week? The first base for my Volksgrenadier is completed and another just needs the greenstuff covering and painted! With the scale being so small I'm finding it pretty quick to paint bases of five men, these two bases have been done over about three nights of on-off painting so I'm pretty pleased. I think with the week to myself as the girlfriend is on nights I might be able to rattle through quite a few of the squads.

I'm really pleased with this squad, including the ability to do splinter camo at such a small scale. Last night I basecoated the tree Stugs that came with my Open Fire box set. I worked on one yesterday which got a full layer of Middlestone and then added some camo patterns with the Vallejo German Cam Medium Brown and Luftwaffe Cam Green. I'm pleased with how it came out but I need to work out what wash to give it to bring out some of the shading, I think I'll need a Vallejo Brown Wash but I've not got one yet so will need to pick it up soon.

Tonight I'm hoping to do the other two Stugs up to a pre-wash state. Then I'll cover the greenstuff on the second base and prep and basecoat the next three stands worth of men. I'm really enjoying these all and even at a smaller scale, which worried me at first, I'm enjoying painting the guys.

I've still got the Flak43 Blister to build at some point, I also ordered the Winter Themed Pak40s last week which arrived yesterday. They'll be the next things to do after the infantry and Stugs and after that it'll be the HMG, Artillery Battery and the Anti-Infantry guns and that'll be the whole army sorted ready for battle.

It's definitely worthwhile doing the purchasing, building and painting in batches. I was worried I would do what I normally do and get a huge army and then get bogged down by painting and soon become bored. I'm already looking at my next FOW army and it'll either be an easy to build and paint Russian T34 Tank Horde or a Early War Japanese army.

But before then it's going to be focusing on the Volks and then learning the rules!

Volks Update

So the last couple of nights I've been working on my Volksgrenadier. Unfortunately having been away the weekend all the bases and figures have sat on my desk upstairs awaiting my return. All the bases went straight into the sink to be washed, I've decided it would be easier to paint the bases and models individually and then assemble the final painted sections together.

I've trimmed all the flash off the Volks, and believe me there was alot, and they're now ready to be washed and then they'll be attached in groups of five, basically in groups for each base, onto ice-lolly sticks so they can be batched painted with ease.

So the bases are a joy to paint, with the weather being so shite at the moment - hell we even had snow last night, and having nowhere to spray undercoat I've been using the GW Imperial Primer which has been a dream for such a small scale. It means I can easily coat the models and not apply too much at the same time. It's a little more time consuming but if I waited for time to spray them I think I would be waiting until summer for that. So I've finished the first five bases and tonight I'll make a start on the five squads that will go on each base.

One thing I have noticed and Kerr&King did warn about is that the Battlefront Flames of War models are a little too big for the bases. It's a pain and a little time consuming but I can trim down the bases and make sure they fit. I'll then need to fill in the gaps with some PVA and sand, I have seen some people suggest Vallejo Pumice but I've never tried it before, it might be a future purchase down the line of it's really a struggle for the PVA and Sand on the bases.

Hopefully tonight I'll have the first five squads, washed, trimmed down and basecoated. I'll get some pictures up soon!

 

Happy New Year!

A very Happy New Year to everyone! Hope Santa brought everything you all wanted and the hangovers have been taken care of by now. I had a very relaxing but also hectic Christmas period including driving 5-hours home at 3am on Christmas Day with the Girlfriend after she finished work and then driving all the way back on Boxing Day evening. Though I wouldn't have swapped it for the world as it was such a good day with all the family.

So what did Santa (girlfriend) bring me this year for my Empire army?

1 x General/Captain of the Empire set - Always wanted this set and it's a great box including many options for both a mounted and standing Captain/General. I'll definitely be using the standing Captain and probably give him a Sword/Shield combo for that added protection. I'm not the biggest fan of Knights in my Empire army but think I need to use them more and if they work I'll be adding the mounted model to this unit.

1 x Box of Empire State Troopers - going to be building these tonight or tomorrow to make another 10-man Halberds for my unit. The final plan is to have a big block of 38 and also include a Empire Captain/General and Warrior Priest. After this box I'll be at 34 add my Captain and Warrior Priest and I only need four extra troops, I think I'll be adding another unit filler (maybe use one of my Ogres) to this rather than shelling out on another box.

1 x Warrior Priest with Extra Hand Weapon - Little did my Girlfriend know but I've already got this model, though I'm not complaining because I love this model so I'm sure I'll be able to use it somewhere in the army.

1 x Warrior Priest with Hand Weapon and Shield - Who says you cannot have enough Warrior Priests? I do possibly have a plan with this one by maybe using it as a Arch Lector but I'm still not sure. I think I need to build everything first and then work out an army list to decide what to do with him.

1 x Box of Demigryph Knights - Yep the mothership of all Empire forces and the box set I've wanted since I started my Empire force. These will definitely be built tomorrow night as I've got my final training game on Thursday night at Games Workshop Metrocentre and want these bad boys on the table.

So yeah I feel extremely spoilt but now my painting backlog is a hell of a lot larger than I was expecting. To have a 1,500pts Empire Army fully painted by end of Jan is going to be one huge task. Thankfully I've not got much planned this month so I expect it'll be a few late nights to get them all up and tabletop ready.

Unfortunately with the Xmas period I've not had the chance to do much painting and when I did have a bit of time I touched up the Tau Hammerhead which just needs the Ion Cannon and Railgun end bits painting before it's finished. I was really hoping to get a real good start on getting everything sorted but now I've got roughly four weeks to fully paint everything I have. The one problem I've got is the weather is beginning to turn and everything needs priming. I might need to chance it by spraying in the shed, and then bringing the guys straight into the house. This is where the pain of not having a garage shows.

Anyway onwards and upwards, New Years resolution is to get everything I own painted by the end of the year. Empire will be done one way or another by Feb so after that it'll be finishing off the last remaining few of my Ogres, the Tau and then see what happens.

First FOW Training

So I had my first training session in Flames of War on Sunday at my (not so) local Wargaming club, Northumbrian Adventurers Guild in Blyth. I had expressed my interest in starting Flames of War in 2014 and Neil, who has been playing since mid-way through the 1st edition very kindly offered to teach me the rule this weekend.

He gave me a generous Late-War Tiger-heavy Panzergrenadier list against his British Armoured column and I've got to say I absolutely loved the whole day. The boards with all the scenery really makes the game look amazing at such a small-scale, you can picture the tanks rumbling down the village road while troops tackle the fields nearby to launch an attack.

While the basic rules are pretty simple to grasp we tackled some of the more in-depth rules and it's very easy to see how complex and tactical this game can be. For example in the first game I freely moved my Tiger command unit and two Tiger platoons towards the objective and then suddenly Neil ambushed them with some M10 Tank Destroyers and wiped out two and bailed one in one shooting phase! It really teaches you to not just rush up but to use the surrounding cover and expect the unexpected.

I'm going to playing a few more practice games at the club over the next few weeks with a view to possibly starting a Winter Volksgrenadier army from The Battle of the Bulge in Jan/Feb time.

Working Out Empire List

So as I mentioned I've got a battle on Thursday night at Games Workshop Metrocentre, 1,000pts of my 

Empire against a 1k Beastmen army. I've been slowly putting a list together with the models I've got so far but still trying to finalise what to put in.

So far I’ve got this as a list but still need some help;
 
Lords
Battle Wizard Lord (in Handgunner Detachment)
Lore of Life or Beasts, Wizard Level 3

Heroes
Warrior Priest (in with Halberdiers)
Additional Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Helm of the Skavenslayer


Core
Halberdiers x 24 (Full command)
Detachment - Handgunners x 9
Spearmen x 20 (Full Command)
Special
Great Cannon (120pts)

Rare
Helblaster Volley Gun
Now this comes to 874pts, I could add 5 x Knightly Orders Inner Circle plain (no command) to make it 999pts.

Other models I’ve got at the moment that I could add;
Battle Wizard
Witch Hunter
Master Engineer
More Handgunners
10 x Archers
Mortar

Still need some tweaking, I'm thinking maybe an extra Handgunner Detachment for the Halberdiers and then a Dispell Scroll for the Wizard and Shields for the Spearmen. To get the full 1,000pts.

The Armies So Far

So since July I've acquired quite the collection of Warhammer Fantasy models, I started with an Ogre Kingdoms army; something a bit bigger than normal Fantasy armies to get used to painting again and also an army that doesn't need as many models as 'normal' forces to be complete.

That doesn't mean it's not a huge force, I've so far got the following;

1 x Firebelly
1 x Slaughtermaster
1 x Bruiser BSB
12 x Ogres
6 x Ironguts
4 x Mournfang Cavalry
8 x Leadbelchers
1 x Ironblaster
1 x Thundertusk
3 x Sabretusks
20-odd Gnoblers

The majority are fully painted, I've still got a couple of Ogres to finish off along with the Slaughtermaster. I'll try and get some photos up in the next couple of days.

Recently, since September, the Metrocentre GW store has been running a Winter Crusade where everyone starts a new army and then as long as we have a fully painted 1,500pts army for the end of Jan we're all off to Warhammer World to use our new forces. Now I've always been a huge fan of The Empire, something about the regimental core mixed with the blackpowder warmachines that really grabbed my attention as a kid so it was obvious that would be my next army for The Winter Crusade.

While I'm still slowly building Henry Krtuz Altdorf Relief (working army title) the army is already bigger than 1,500pts and I've still got Christmas, where I know the girlfriend has bought me some more Empire-goodness, to go!

I've been re-learning the rules with my Empire army working out what works for my force and what doesn't and so far this is the collection I've amassed, again pictures to come in the next few days;

1 x Warrior Priest with Extra Hand Weapon
1 x Kitbased Witch Hunter
1 x Mounted Wizard
2 x Wizards
1 x Master Engineer
24 x Halberdiers (20 troops and a 4-man Wizard Unit-Filler)
20 x Spearmen
20 x Handgunners
Handful of Archers and Crossbowmen
8 x Knights
1 x Great Cannon
1 x Mortar
1 x Helblaster Volley Gun

So yeah quite a list with alot more to come after Christmas Day! I really need to get on painting the models I've got at the moment because I can easily see January being a month of constant painting. Rather than going for the half and half down the middle for the uniform I've gone for the easier to paint Red top/Blue Bottoms or Blue Top/Red Bottoms.

I'll get some pictures up soon along with my next battle report which is my Christmas lesson on Thursday night 1,000pts vs GW Carl's pesky Winter Crusade Beastmen!

Welcome!

Welcome to Magic, Bolters and Rifles, my brand new blog featuring my escapades into Wargaming!

I've only recently got back into Wargaming; since July this year actually and slowly bit-by-bit I've been re-learning the rules and getting used to painting and modelling once more. To be honest the last time I played was about 10-12 years ago so it is safe to say I've forgotten basically everything.

A big props to Games Workshop Metrocentre who have been a huge help in the past few months of reintroducing me into Warhammer and also giving me hints and tips on what to get/potential army lists. Almost every Thursday evening has been spent in a tutorial lesson for Fantasy and it's safe to say that they've been so valuable to me.

So here we go, my forray back into Wargaming. At the moment it'll mainly be focusing on my Warhammer Fantasy escapades but I'm soon beginning to learn Flames of War and then in 2014 I'll be entering the realms of 40K, I've already got a Tau Battleforce still in its cellophane ready for assembling.

Hopefully I'll be updating this on a weekly basis maybe more. So sit back, relax and enjoy!

Chalmers