So very tired

Well I popped along to the Redditch Wargaming Society (RWS) last night, and I enjoyed it. Bumped into a few people who I knew / have met in the past, and unlike the club I visited in the past, it wasn’t clicky at all. People were very friendly, and I only miss the fact that I never gamed. It’s a shame we have two Bank Holiday Mondays coming up back to back, as they do not meet until the 9th May now. I have listed myself as available for a 1200-2000 point game that Monday, with the new TK rules. It does seem that they are playing smaller point games, and many are learning the rules, which meant yesterday I was kind of wandering around playing WFB teacher. I ideally I would like to get in 2400 point practice for ToS, but any practice is good practice.

I am not sure if it was the general excitement of having met a great group of people, ir not, but it was gone 1am when I drifted off to sleep. So I am really tired today and that’s cut somewhat into painting. I finally got the 3-4 coats of red on my chariots and washed them green, so tomorrow I will hopefully have the easy task of finishing the red off. Annoyingly I ordered two of the “in stock”  battalions, two weeks back, from an online store. Today I got an email saying they were unable to complete the order, and are refunding my payment. The new more expensive battalion, that increases the cost by £15 for 8 Skeleton warriors, will at its base cost be nearly as much as I have had refunded, so its going to cost a bit more to get two of the new ones, when they do hit the stores. Oh well.

On top of the little painting I have done, I magnetized 30 Skeleton Archers, taking photo’s and I posted a guide on the RWS forums, linked at the bottom. No idea how that will go down, but I hope it is well recieved.

Getting lax

Its been a few days since I sat at the computer, so thats why I havn’t posted since Thursday. Friday the TK book still had not arrived in GW stores, meaning I picked up my brushes and went home. I had the Tron / Tron Legacy Blu-ray boxset delivered in the morning, so I spent the day watching that. No painting for me. Saturday I had a message saying I wasn’t needed to help my mate with his garden, so when I got home from work I flaked out slept, and spent the rest of my time awake catching up on TV recorded over the week. Sunday I finished catching up with my TV and spent a few hours cleaning and assembling models. Its a nightmare cleaning mould lines, and after 5 hours I still have alot to do.

Today rolls around and I am back in work and it wasn’t a great day at all. When I finish it is time for a snooze, that lasts three hours. However when I get up , I am raring to go on these chariots and start painting. With a bit of luck, I can get the actual chariots done, and the crew / steeds will be a quick job. However I tend to have the PC on when I paint, playing my music, and breaking up the painting session with quick glipses at rumours, emails, catching up with my WoW friends latest news etc. I just happened to click on a link I have bookmarked, which was about a club in a town, about 15 minutes drive away. Someone actually replied, saying my town has a gaming club, and ironically its on tonight. So brushes down, time for a shower, and once I have had dinner, I am popping over there, for a look around and a chat. It’s a little short notice to compile a list, move dinner around etc, but I am looking forward to finding somewhere, more local to play. Shame its in a community centre, as somewhere with a bar attached would have been ideal. Seems like they play GW core games, Warmahordes, and Flames of War, so it could be the ideal place for me to visit weekly. Update coming tomorrow about this, as I am really stoked about the news.

Every little helps

Today I had an earlier shift. One day a week I work indoors, and that means a 4.45am start rather than 6am. Coupled with an hours pre-shift overtime, I had a silly o’clock start, but at the end of the day I want the money, and in the current climate I am not going to complain. I do finish earlier than a normal day, but seeing as its normally job and finish, and indoor work I have to stay my alloted hours, the shift tend to be longer, and I would only finish about 30 minutes later anyway. So once again when I get home, its time for an afternoon snooze, rather than catching up with yesterdays painting. When I do get up again though, I put in a good session. The wooden areas are done on the chariots, and the red areas are based in black, so three thin coats of foundation red, will give me a nice coat, with none of the gold shining through. As you can see I have started to make progress on the red areas, and personally I think the black looks better against the gold, but red, black and a bit of green are the army colours (plus bone and sandstone,) and to have no red on the chariots would look off.

Tomorrow I am hoping that the new TK book will hit my GW store for preview, and intend on popping over after work. I need to pick up a few brushes at the same time, and was planning on doing it all Saturday. However I have been roped into helping lay turf for a friend, and Sunday will no doubt be another painting and TV catch up day, so I will want to avoid having to go out. It’s also Salute in London this Saturday, which I was considering visiting, with the traveling expense being the main concern. When I got asked to help a friend that made my mind up, and will save me money in the long-term. This weekend is also the South Coast Grand Tournament, so the next week or two will have some good podcasts to listen too.

Painting and thoughts

I’m not planning to post twice daily, but seeing as the first was an introduction, I don’t think it counts as a daily post. The past two days I have been working on six chariots that I have about. Two are going to be used as mounts for characters, but they will all look more or less the same. Yesterday I painted quickly the main area of the chariots in red, before moving onto the metal areas, which are going to be a gold colour. The base colour for the gold is a Bronze, but it sits better over a brown base, so out came a foundation paint. About half way through the first chariot, I realised that I had done it wrong. I should have done the metallic areas first, as they cover a lot more of the model. Hopefully I have two battalions on the way, which will give me another six chariots to work on, so next time I’m going to do it that way. Another thing of note, is that I shouldn’t attach the wheels, until later. The way I instinctively hold the model to paint,is on the wheels, and I am bending them, with the occasional snapage. Whilst a pin and re-glue will work, it appears easier to paint the actual chariot without the wheels in place, so that’s something else for me to remember. So in two days I have got the gold colour sorted on the chariots, finished 10 Bowmen which I was trying to complete last week, and have another stage finished on 25 Metal Tomb Guard shields.

I have also been thinking about army composition, when the new book comes out. In the 6th ed book, I have access to a spell that’s called, Horekhah’s Incantation of Righteous Smiting (Smiting.) It allows during the magic phase, either a unit in combat to attack once with each model allowed to, or for an unengaged missile unit to fire. When 8th edition came out, and introduced the rules that Bows having Volley fire, I increased my Bowmen from one unit of 20, to two units of 30. When the new book comes out, the spell is going to change to giving a unit one extra attack, and missile fire multiple shots (2). Looking around forums, and people’s proposed army lists, they are using either one or two units of 20-30 archers. I am thinking of possibly using a “Bunker” unit for a Liche and several smaller 5 man units, as a “Boosted” version of the spell will affect multiple units at once. Not only will it allow me to split missile fire across the board, but it gives me the tactical advantage of multiple deployments, and to cover my deployment zone from scouts. The effectiveness of this will need to be tested out, but for now its worth noting, and reviewing later.