Today though, I had a rummage through the cupboards and dug out everything I've got lined up to build or develop. Here it is:
So much to do! Got lots of little fiddly jobs to finish off - a Panzer IV to give me enough panzers to play a mechanized company at FOW. There's also one Chaos Knight left to build and customise as to make up the last of my 5 blood knights. I'm really impressed with the styling and sheer size of these models, its just a shame this last one is so overtly 'chaosy', and will therefore need a buttload of work. I've started building my Mortis Engine, having built and painted the spectral host which support it. Gah I hate painting kits whilst constructing them! They should just get built in a oney like the good old days when you just threw everything together without looking at the instructions and then sobbed into your hands later because you had to snap bits off to get the last parts to fit....
I've started building my box of hoplites I'd ordered after Wappinshaw. Got 6 done so far, but their damn fiddly to pose. Really good value compared to GW: I got a box of 40 warriors for only 17 quid! The kit has loads of options and assembly for a wide variety of choice - my only quibble is they only have oval 'Grenadier Models' style bases (which threatens my autism, there should be square bases always!), and the detailing and proportions on their legs are a bit iffy. Other than that, I'm well impressed. Loving the Corinthian sallet helms (phrygian and Thracian helms are getting the heave ho...). My plan is to make these as close to the historical reality as possible. Already slightly upset that they dont rank up close enough in game terms to have the hoplon shields overlapping... These are the number one priority for the summer building, and I'll hopefully be using them in a couple weeks vs. Martin's Romans.
The unarmoured heads on one of the sprues gave me an idea for an officer. I want all the rank and file to be wielding spears, with this one holding a spatha sword (it looks like the longer curved Greek cavalry sword on the sprue rather than the short xiphnos blade they uses for stabbing). There are plenty of spare limbs and shields to outfit him, so I dug out a model to convert to use the body. I found a Gondor warrior model sprue I'd got free on a magazine years ago and hacked him up. Happily it proved quite easy as the plastic was rather soft (and I'd borrowed the wife's knife,which is sharp enough to flay the skin off a rhino). He looks a little short compared to the rest as he's leaning forward into a run, but overall I'm pretty satisfied with him. I cut off the chainmail, and otherwise his armour is pretty similar to rest, even down to the metal greaves on his legs. He'll be the only warrior with a cloak, but seeing as he's the officer, then I reckon he deserves one!
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| My Athenian Hoplites so far, with their new officer, the Logos. |
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| Gondor warrior sprue from a magazine, spare limbs and equipments from the hoplite box |
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| My new Logos, formerly of Gondor. |
Other than the Greeks, I've got Mantic boxes with 30 Zombies and 34 ghouls to build for the warhammer skirmish scenario on Sunday. There's also some Grave Guard still to be put together, along with a big Terrorgheist, and 3 Crypt Horrors. I was swithering over whether to build horrors or vargheist with this boxed set but after proxying some models to try out Vargheists at the club last night, I reckon they're way too fragile. Crypt Horrors all the way, and I'll use the wings for some tasty fellbat conversions.
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| Hopefully I can get something along these lines. The wings are big; ideally I'll be able to get some of the current GW ghouls still on the sprue and use their bodies. Much better than the cartoonish versions GW currently sell. |
Other than that I've got a Krell to build (the new one is a lovely model), a new wraith, a skaven regiment to see to and an island of blood griffon to convert to an abyssal terror. I've got the vampire lord rider of the terrogheist kit lined up to ride it (with a little bit of help from Jen's uberknife), and I want to get the 40k aircraft perspex upright to mount it on. I saw Martin had done this with his new High Elf Phoenix model last night and with the extra height it looks great!
Lastly I plan to spend some time on rules write ups. For the second year now I'm working on revising my Ancient Greek strategy play-by-mail game through publisher, in the hope of both polishing it off and eventually strolling into the printers over the road to get a nice glossy leather bound hard copy of the fruits of my labours to hold in my hand and navel gaze over. I also dug out star fleet battles to play against Sam a few months ago. I made this game up when I was about 12, when Roger got the star trek micro machine models for his crimbo. I'd read the revie wof the real game in the old 'Gamesman' magazine but couldnt afford it. Instead, I broke out the hex maps from the Battletech set and wrote rules of my own. It developed over the years - i remember playing it with the Pollock, the two of us devising new fleets based on what we'd seen on Star Trek or Babylon 5. By the end of it we had armadas playing campaigns across galaxies, with fighter squadrons, space stations and god knows what else.... It held up ok when I played it with Sam and (some of) the data sheets I'd drawn up for the ships still look really good. Over the summer I'll type up and refine the rules, scan the decent data sheets and use the web to photoshop something together for the rest. When its done I'm hitting the club to lure some bods into a game. Wont be as flash as Kev's X-Wing game, but it'll be fun!
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| Our old game didn't look far off this... |
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