Good Old Fashioned Dungeon Hack: D&D 5th Edition

Mixing the old with the new. Fifth Edition D&D Rules (relatively new), with Games Workshop Figures and Warlord Games (monsters) and forty year old adventurer (Citadel[?]) miniatures and "the classic floor plans" (see below, the old-timer is the Dwarven thief skulking across the large cavern floor [actually invisible courtesy of a friendly magic-user's spell] the angry pack of ghouls [represented by GW Chain Rasps] heads towards the rest of the party - also note the suspiciously "un-animated" skeletons littering the cavern floor [from Warlord Games]):

Thing was the moment we stopped the session for the night/ What they call in the movies "a cliff-hanger". To be continued ...

SCRUM Books: Guide and Handbooks

Quite possibly my most favourite pair of books of all time in the world (see below, these two books make sense from a software development perspective, a project management sense and also a "life adventure sense" - but they also describe the evolution of adaptive complex systems - aka intelligent behaviour *see below, if that seems too academic or vague replace it with "it just makes stuff happen quickly without the bull!"): 

As always I listened to the Audible versions first, then my itchy fingers just had to get a paper copy (this happened in both cases) - "to flip through", as one has the want to do! 

Climate Change - World on Course for Dangerous Levels

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-58600723

Anybody surprised?

RAND's Jason's predicted this back in the 1970's and it looks like they were right! 

Knock, Knock, Knock! No you cannot come in I am a T-34!

Every early war German infantry platoon needs to be confident in having an effective anti-tank capacity to stop enemy armour. Naturally the Pak 37mm AT gun is perfect for the job of stopping German Armour (Marks I to IV) but please don't ask it to worry a Matilda, Char B1 Bis or T-34 (see below, an optimistic German PAK crew pose for a Signal photograph): 

Crew  (bodies) and gun from Rubicon, but the crew heads are Warlord Germans head-swaps in- which look far better than the smaller Rubicon originals!

Last Sprue Plastic Warlord Game Russians Assembled - Yippee

Dilemma. Well I have the basic Russian platoon  formation in Warlord Game figures for (early war to at least 1943) Russians [Stalingrad and the basic Chain of Command OoB] but I was left with a sprue of eight men. I had to urge to "clear the Russian project shelf" so rather than make some 'basic rifles' I wondered what to do with them. In the end I went for the following mix - an observing prone "officer type" with binoculars, two LMG teams [as the latter part of the Stalingrad campaign seemed to be pushing them into OoBs] and three SMG's - two of which were "Tank Hunters" with a short life expectancy (see below, my last Soviet raw plastic ready for the 'paint shop'): 

The same but posed for Pravda camera shot (see below, "Defenders of Stalingrad drive the Fascists Back into the Volga") :

Job done :)

Albeit with painting to follow! 

AI in the news again (for all the wrong reasons) Facebook

BBC News tells the sorry tale of Facebook following on in the faux pas footsteps of Google, Microsoft and others:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-58462511

Test of Honour: In the Works (WIP)

Ha! I am finally getting round to putting together my "First Edition" Test of Honour figures together (bearing in mind the game system has already moved onto the second edition that tells you how late I am on this). The samurai and commoners were an interesting multi-part build (ahem, understatement) and let it be said that I appreciated the fact that only twelve figures were needed for the first scenario (see below, now primed and washed):

I am sketchy on the clans, but suffice it to say I will keep to the box art and there will be a Blue Team and a Red Team.

The new 'owners'(?), as in post Warlord Games era, seem to have put significant energy into developing it further. I note there is a 'first edition to second edition conversion pack' (looks like the 'cards have changed').

https://testofhonour.com/

I will play the first six first edition scenarios and see if the inkling takes me any further. 

Soviet 28m Reinforcements

Assembled in the factory, Warlord Games Russian Infantry than accompanied the Warlord KV1 (with insane KV2 turret option), heading towards the painting department (see below, however we all know of the unexpected production delays associated with the painting department): 

They have at least received their primer and mandatory Vallejo dipping in dirty Brown Wash (see below, pre weathered before the first true lick of camo paint arrives):  

The arms folded posture of the driver is probably because he has just been told he is destined for the streets of Stalingrad in a Chain of Command campaign!

Something Completely Different: 1:72 Baseball Figures (WIP) Caesar Miniatures

Small but yet perfectly formed sportsmen (see below, as per the normal WWII infantrymen of the same scale they are based and primed): 

Plastic Soldier Review link: http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=2283

(Note the final figure in the review(see link for this to make sense) was not included in my box, instead I received three of the penultimate model instead.)

The pitcher is the first up as a tester for a Vallejo "brown dipping wash" (see below, I think it will be a fast ball): 

The team being put through their paces (see below, two teams in fact, the top "washed" section are all fielding and the bottom primed five are all the batters): 

Moving on to the batters, time to put the base colours of the Cincinnati Reds. Here is a Big Red hitting it out of the park (see below, they seem to take a life and character once the paint is applied, highlights still to come): 

The final base and highlights are painted (but not yet terrain based) batting line-up, two batters and three base runners - just in case "loaded bases comes up" (see below, numbers and team logo still yet to be applied): 

A close up of "Smoking Joe" (note, a name I just made up) ready to hit a home run (see below, there are three shades at play, as I followed my standard 28mm painting pattern): 

Exhibition style, once again the Cincinnati Reds Batting team in their away colours (see below, I am pausing for breath before I dare tackle the numbers, some would say searching for a brush small enough to do the job): 

In the meantime I decided to pay some attention to the fielding side, aka the Oakland A's (see below, base colours applied - using Vallejo Game Colour range as they are nice and bright): 

Highlights applied (see below, seems to work well): 

From the reverse side (see below, not a pitcher despite its poised posture): 

Very small front number and team logo (see below, the white 'A' on the hat will come later): 

Finally I make a tentative stab at the numbers (see below, an application of green, followed by touching up areas with white and yellow. It seemed to work): 

It is a slow labour of love. Thanks to "gawd" it is not an American football team with more players on the pitch!

A Study in Dry-Brushing "Gun Metal": Necrons

I will say it again and again, for me a historical painting impasse is often unblocked by a trip down Fantasy or Science Fiction lane. In this case it was a return to Necron metallic robotic Vallejo Gun Metal and an exercise dry-brushing. I applaud the Games Workshop design team for some incredible robotic sculpts, but try as they might with other worldly paint schemes, but I am going to always see them as Terminators and steely-gun metal (see below, my Necron hoard gathered across a decade): 

At least they have all been, primed, then black-washed and dry-brushed gun metal. What follows will be silver highlights and perhaps inking in detail. The "orb" power sources need a unearthly shade of green or the like. I seem to have a platoon like structure of three squads of eleven and a HQ unit, not far away from Chain of Command! A welcome "Work In Progress" (WIP).