Merry Christmas!

Hoping you, your family and friends have a peaceful festive period and that Santa brought you lots of shiny new wargaming presents and not too many socks!

Unfortunately I haven't had any spare time to paint my traditional Christmas miniature so I thought I'd re-post all the ones since 2009...

The Legend of Fyrebeard's Gold

Life has been a bit hectic of later with little time for anything gaming orientated (other than far too many Kickstarter boxes that need to hidden from SWMBO!). However I did manage to write a Strange Grogge mini-campaign for the 2015 Orcs in the Webbe Advent Calendar which features an interesting use of a Snakes and Ladders board to run the campaign...

Larry Brom RIP

I have just read that Larry Brom, author of The Sword and the Flame, has passed away. I never met Larry but he was kind enough to send me a signed copy of TSATF 20th Anniversary edition after Wargames Illustrated published my article on French colonial operations in Dahomey a few years back.  RIP Larry.

Panzerfäuste: Troglodyte Black Brigade

Most of my time has been taken up with the Panzerfäuste Kickstarter this month (just four days to go, pledge now!) but I have managed to convert and paint half a section of Troglodyte's as Black Brigade troops.

I used a mix of Warlord plastic Germans, some GW Gnoblar heads and a bit of Green Stuff. They are a bit rough and ready but I am quite pleased with the end result.

Emus 1 Australian Army 0

You got to love history, no matter how much you think you know there is always something new for you to discover. Today that was the Great Emu War of 1932!

This amazing episode in Australian military history is wonderfully illustrated here on Veritable Hokum and described on Wikipedia.

Panzerfäuste - Funded and Growing!

Well the last 48 hours have been extremely exciting! The Panzerfäuste Kickstarter was funded in two hours! It's now pushing through the stretch goals and already over 175 miniatures have been funded, as well as two rulebooks, two magick card decks and some nifty dice.

These are the miniatures that have been funded so far, looking forward to seeing how far it goes... :-)

Panzerfäuste Kickstarter is Go!

Panzerfäuste Kickstarter Starts Tomorrow...

Got to say I am one very excited bunny at the moment...

Some lucky people got to see these in Essen today...

What is Panzerfäuste?

Tia Serag aka Dready has produced this wonderful little video overview of Panzerfäuste if you want to know more about it...

Underground Terrain III

I have managed to repaint another aquarium decoration for my underground terrain project.

I picked this one up on eBay for just £3.53 (which included shipping from China).

Panzerfäuste: Tanks...

One of the things that I was looking forward to spring on the world was what we've decided to do for "tanks" in Panzerfäuste - well it is a fantasy game! :-)

Gnome Char d'Escargot

Orc 'Matilda I' War-Wyrm

More on the "logic" behind the war-beasts can be found here.

Underground Terrain II

I picked up some aquarium rocky outcrops off eBay to use as rock terrain items for my underground table. I was a little concerned about getting a reasonable colour match with the vinyl tiles, but the god of wargamers smiled on me...

Using the Army Painter Grey undercoat I dry brushed this test piece with Vallejo's Medium Grey then Sky Grey and got what I think is a very good match.

Now to crack on with the other rocks...

Panzerfäuste: Orc Infantry Section

Thought you might like to see this video of the forthcoming Orc Infantry section for Panzerfäuste...

Underground Terrain I

As I said at the beginning of the month, I have for some time fancied creating an underground tabletop, not a role-playing tunnels and small cavern job, but a relatively large cavern battlefield. Whilst I wanted to do this, I also want to do it relatively cheaply, but also quite quickly (so no mod-roc creations like my Mars terrain).

For the tabletop I had considered a grey cloth but an (unwilling) trip to a carpet shop saw me perusing their vinyl kitchen and bathroom flooring, especially the marble effect ones. Most of this is cut to size but in a grouted tile effect which wasn't quite what I wanted. However fifteen minutes in eBay and I discovered these packs of one foot square marble effect self adhesive bathroom/kitchen floor tiles, three for £1.99...

I had intended to just lay them on a tabletop but found that they would stick to the underside of my TSS one foot tiles easily enough, so I dug out four and have made a 2 foot square underground tabletop!*

The tiles are very shiny, but a couple of sprays with matt varnish sorts this... Ok, now to find some items to stick on the tabletop.

* I bought enough tiles (three packs) to create a 3 foot square table, I just need to dig out some more terrain tiles from the loft!

Westerplatte 1939

Jakub Rozalski is a great Polish artist who painted some amazing "Steampunk" Russo-Polish War 1920 works a while back. To commemorate the anniversary of the Nazi invasion he has displayed some wonderful new works on his Artstation page...

Panzerfäuste: Troglodyte Black Brigade Test Conversion

One of the races in Panzerfäuste that Wessex Games never got around to having sculpted were the Troglodytes (who are largely Polish influenced uniform wise). Today, I decided to try and convert a Trog of the "Black Brigade" wearing the 10th Motorised's black leather coats and "German" helmets.

I used the body of a Warlord early war plastic German with a GW Gnoblar head. I cut the leg down by a few mm at the knee so the figure was no taller than a Wessex Dwarf, before covering it in layers of Green Stuff to build up the distinctive leather coat, extend the feet and add some facial hair...

I know I won't win any prizes for sculpting but I think it looks ok and a decent paint job should hide 101 sins. It was fairly straight forward conversion job, another nine and I'll have a useable section! :-)

Unleash iHell!

So my great plan to kick myself up the backside today came to nought as I have spent most of today ill with some kind of stomach bug. However some toys arrived in the best which I will talk about tomorrow...

So feeling under the weather I downloaded Slitherine's iPad fantasy warfare game Hell, which is based on the excellent Battle Academy engine so should be good. Unfortunately my first battles have been pretty resounding defeats to the forces of evil so I need to up my game (and probably reduce the complexity level!)

Despite two major defeats I must say it looks great and hopefully when I get my head around what tactics to use, should provide hours of entertainment.

Giving Myself a Kick Up the Blogside...

Well my hobby break hasn't really rekindled any major enthusiasm so I've decided to revert back to plan A which is to do stuff for the blog which should then hopefully get the juices flowing...

I have a couple of projects lined up... First off is something Panzerfäuste orientated. For some time I've always wanted to create a small underground cavern gaming table so have decided to do this for Panzerfäuste using the Dwarf invasion of the Troglodyte homeland as a basis. Aside from having to build the table, there are no Trog figures available at present but I have some ideas using a mix of WW2 and fantasy plastic figures to create some partisans...

Secondly there is Frostgrave, which was bough for me as a present and I've yet to sit down and read through, even though the small war band Mordheim concept seems really cool (and a sneak look at Jim's blog and his Arabian adventurers band idea is interesting).

Time to dust off the paintbrushes...

Panzerfäuste: Hysterical Website Goes Live

Well, it's still a bit quiet around here... That said I have been doing some "hobby" work on Panzerfäuste including creating and populating the Hysterical Games website.

A bit of holy enthusiasm returned this week and I have bought some miniatures to mess around with, so maybe Bleaseworld will be back to normal soon...

Bolt Action: Army of the Levant

Campbell Hardie has relaunched his 28mm Army of the Levant Kickstarter. Hopefully it will be successful this time around as Vichy Colonial French WW2 troops are so useful, not only for WW2, but also Inter-War and Pulp.

Here is a photo Campbell has posted showing how nice the figures are...

Panzerfäuste: Dwarf and Orc Enigma Machines

“The different races of The Land have access to different forms of Magickal devices and inherent natural abilities. These can differ greatly from the mechanically enhanced Magicks of the Orcs and Dwarves to the shamanist curses used by the Ogres and Trollkin. Orcs and Dwarves both use Enigma machines to alter the physiology of their own and enemy troops. Enigma machines are complex pieces of equipment which require specially trained operatives to use them - Boffins in the case of the Orcs, and Tecknicians for the Dwarves.”

One of the things I never quite decided on the look of in Panzerfäuste, were the Enigma Magick machines - I think Will Beck has cracked it... These will look so good in miniature form!

Trolls!

I still haven't felt motivated to pick up a paintbrush recently, but I have been looking at pictures of Paul Bonner's trolls for some inexplicable reason...

All Quiet on the Bleaseworld Front...

You may have noticed the lack of postings over the last couple of weeks. Nothing sinister, I was just very busy at work the first week of July and have decided to take a "hobby holiday" for a little while. The enthusiasm juices was running low so I am taking a break from painting and modelling to allow my love for the hobby to rekindle...

Orc Warfare

Having a bit of credit on Wargame Vault I decided to buy the PDF edition of Osprey's new Orc Warfare book. Unlike the Kindle edition it is a straight reproduction of the paper edition and does look very, very nice.

I have only had a quick flick through it, the book takes the popular fantasy race and gives them a military and cultural analysis. Whilst it would have been amusing for Osprey to copy the Men-at-Arms approach, it is nicely illustrated and laid out being split into four main chapters, the first dealing with Orc physique and breeds (Hill Orcs, Forest Orcs, Desert Orcs etc), the second troop types (Beserkers, Ironbacks, Chariots etc), the third strategy and tactics and the fourth Orc victories.

There is a lot in here for fantasy gamers who are not spoon-fed and prepared to adapt the rules and army lists they use. As a long term Orc fan I will be drawing on this book to expand my WHFB Orc and Goblin army with some new additions...

Warhammer is Dead, Long Live errr Warhammer?

This picture has been all over Facebook today. It is the new face of Warhammer, replacing the old game with a smaller scale game using less figures and on round bases.

Personally I am beyond caring with what GW do and what they do with WHFB (I still believe the 2nd edition was the best), but it does make for interesting viewing...

We Need a Bigger Dinosaur...

Just back from Jurassic World... and I loved it! Ok, the plot is very similar to the first movie, with bits of the other two and even Aliens, but so what it is a summer popcorn movie and good fun.

Based on the trailer a lot of people criticised the "sexist" nature of the film, which is complete nonsense as Bryce Dallas Howard's character develops through the film (unlike Chris Pratt who is what you see is what you get character throughout). A number of things in the trailer, like the trained 'raptors, make a lot more sense in the context of the film as a whole and are not as straight forward as you may think.

Overall, if you liked the first one and like dinosaurs, well worth seeing on the big screen and yep, it's given me some more Tusk ideas...

Man o' War: Dwarven Fleet wip

Having found the Dwarf Man o' War fleet hiding in a filing cabinet yesterday, I put a little more paint on them today...

I am going with a more toned down look than you normally see on GW models, but haven't decided yet on the colours for the funnels and the rams (and tail fins on the submersibles).

I am thinking towards a rusty weathered look but am unsure at the moment...

All The Nice Orcs Love a Sailor...

Rummaging through some filing drawers (which form the 'Lead Mountain' foothills) I came across a partially painted Dwarf Man o War fleet, including this nifty gyrocopter carrier conversion...

I have always had a soft spot for the game and somewhere in 'Lead Mountain' I have some of Green Forest Trading Co's Reptilian and Undead ships, however I have always wanted an Orc fleet, though I never liked the official GW models.

This situation may change as I have come across Ral Partha Europe's Empires range which inlcudes Man o War sized ships, including some nice looking Orc vessels. I can feel an order coming on...

Shadows Over Normandie

I'd completely forgotten that I'd pledged for Shadows Over Normandie, the Cthulhu mythos spin off of Devil Pig Games (backed but unplayed) Heroes Over Normandie boardgame (I have to confess being excited when it arrived but found the rulebook incomprehensible). Devil Pig were checking addresses for shipping today, so I'm going to have to get my act sorted out as it looks it really looks amazing...

Are You Ready To Rock? (acousticaly)

Busy day helping Saul get ready for a gig in Bristol this evening, so no chance to do anything hobby related, but that's what Dad's are supposed to do! :-)