Status update, or why I've been away for 3 months.

I'm not dead. But I am in the middle (I hope) of what is my 2nd depression in so many years.

Depression sucks. It really saps the life out of you. Not having a job atm isn't helping. There is not much you can do about it other then relaxing and talking about it.

Which I'm not going to do on this Blog. I made this solely for gaming and not for ventilating my psyche. But I felt some of you might want to know what is wrong, what is still wrong tbh, and why I haven't posted in a while.

Have I done any gaming? None this year, I've even stopped visiting fora and such. I just don't care.

Have I done nothing gaming related? Well, I did. I've had some brighter moments, I've visited a local (30 mins drive) club to see if there would be anything for me and a mate there (and yes, there is) so thats noted for the future. And I've been doing quite a bit of work for Shipwreck, a fast paced Cold War naval rulesset. I've written up about 30 freighters and tankers of various plumage and just started out doing the entire Dutch navy, halfway now.

I'm really happy with that last part, it feels a bit like work and I can maintain my computer skills by doing all of the research and noting down data in Powerpoint sheets (which are then printed out so each ship has their own stat card). I made a ton of missile counters as well, so as soon as my mood is a bit less cloudy again I'll grab the bits and start doing a few scenarios and posting the results here. But don't get your hopes up too soon about seeing painted models on the table and fancy pictures. Cause I have not felt like painting anything at all this year, and that includes the new kitchen.

But thats no biggie, the paint ain't going anywhere and printed counters are just as good of a substitute....even easier to pack and store.

Happier days are around the corner, I just need a bit of time.

Started work on Refugees

In Fall of the Reich (FotR) there is an optional rule that lets the German player move a group of refugees across a road towards a tableedge. If the group succesfully moves off the table the German player can place a random chit back in the pot.

Optional, but just my cup of tea.

The guidelines is 2 stands with refugees, and I will make one with just walkers, and this one, with 2 horses, a cart and everything but the kitchen sink.

The cart is a WW1 German field cart from HaT, kindly donated to me by Sander. In the pic there are 2 cows in front of it, but when finished there will be 2 horses, the cows being livestock I'm painting for Normandy. I sculpted (damn. I'm rusty with that) a matress to lie in the back next to the bath tub. It will need a few more bits to fill it up properly,

I'll be doing loads of WW2 this year as I've joined the 2014 Build over at the Guild, picking the WW2 theme so I can be as diverse as possible, and maybe I'll do some 6mm next to my 20mm as well. A refugee column in 6mm shouldn't be too hard to do :)

Lot's more to come.

Back to the junkyard.

Finally, another addition to the junkyard. During my last stay in Ireland I got some miscatst from Brian at the Hobbyden, and this is from that lot. If you like the model, it is a 20mm Mercedes, code HD16 and reatails for 6.50 euro. Makes for a great Middle-eastern taxi cab or a bit of scenery for your Cold War games in Germany. Or in my case, as a hunk of junk.

Anyone recognise the stickers on the windshield? :)

Machine Gun Pillbox

Finished one of Carlos MG Bunkers, tried bare metal with this one, the other one will be camouflaged I think. The periscopes are my own addition, as is a piece of brass for the barrel. Tufts by Mininatur and Woodland Scenics.

Will do nicely for a Machine Gun Pillbox for Fall of the Reich (even if the real one only has room for 2 men)

German AT Rifle Team

As painted for my Barbarossa till Kursk army for Battlegroup (in which case 2 figs are the team and the third is an extra)

Britannia Miniatures, my favourite no matter what. Colourcoded to match my army.

 

Future plans

Right, best laid plans and all that.

I've enjoyed a burst of painting the last few months, got quite a few bits done in a scale I would never have dreamed of using, painted more then I had held possiblewith the twins, and I am generally chuffed with the way things are going.

But the end of the year is coming, so it is time again to clean up my table, box up everything 15mm for now and keep prepping for my next big project.

I have to say, planning a project wasn't what I had planned, but I've been out of a job since June and as such, are left with time to think in between feeds. I've got a decent smallish German army that I want to add a few things to, but not now. I've got mates who actually want to try out 20mm wargaming but don't want to build an army. So, why not paint the opposition? It can't be harder then my German army, less or no camouflage, tanks are a uniform colour, choice of 2 Allies (I'm looking purely at Overlord atm). And with a stunning deadline, namely D-Day 2014.

But what to choose? Yanks or Brits?

Well, I had the choice taken for me mid october when Daryl over at the Guild offered up 90 Britannia ETO Brits for a bargain price. At Crisis I picked up PSC Halftracks, Stuarts and M4A4/Firely's as a payment for services rendered. I've added Churchills from PSC's Black Friday Sale. ANd just the other day I arranged for 70 more cecond hand Brits to wing my way.

I'll be painting 11th Armoured and what goes with that, focussing on the infantry for starters. I want to paint 2 Motorised infantry platoons for Battlegroup, giving me a sizeable force vs my Germans of which I have just 1 platoon but will be doing mostly defensive stuff anyway.

I'm currently busy cleaning the figs, 95% was unpainted, and trimming down the tabs a bit and basing and adding sand to them. Printed off a roster as well so I can just put them on my table and I can see straight away what I need to paint and when.

I will be doing the odd German thing in between, I have 3 steel machine gun bunkers to finish for instance, and some armour for the Ersatz Panzer list.

But untill then it will be Britannia all the way.

Oh, and as a hommage to the troops that liberated my hometown of Deurne, I've been looking at the units that were involved in it. Expect a few of them to pop up, like the 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, some of whose troops died there.

And now, lets clean the damned table, put the paints back in line and get the tools ready for yet another chapter of factory line painting.

The Scene HAD001 Heavy Infantry Robots

The first of my combat robots from The Scene, these are 2 packs of  HAD001 Heavy Infantry Bots that I'll be using as bad guys (think Terminators, even though they look like the ABC Warrior from Judge Dredd) untill I get the smaller version that looks more like the endoskeletons, and as good guys for my 15mm Gone with the Blastwave themed army (hence the white and red markings), so this time it is 5 each, Good and Bad  ;) 3.85 Pounds per pack of 5, these arrived here well casted with minimal mould lines. They make a variant with enegry weapons as well. And I'm waiting for the CC versions)

Baddies 16, Goodies 19, Scenery 6

(At a later date I'll propably paint one up as the Dredd version, but I'm waiting for The Scene to release the ones with close combat weapons first)