Freeblade - Level 55 - Game Completed

It is done (see below, my final "look" - nasty weaponry with sizzling sound effects):  

Game Statistics: 

Final Level: 55

Knight Points: 3,615

Strength: 660

Toughness: 555

Critical Hit Chance: 43.3%

Critical Hit Damage: 186.3%

Missions Completed: 173 out of 173 (100%)

Campaign Medals: 519 out of 519 (100%)

Patrols Completed: 415 Patrol Medals

Total Score: 15,734,782

Orks Slain: 75,478

Chaos Slain: 57,506

Events Entered: 20

Game Completed: 26th November 2020 

An Ancient Persian Monster - Cyrus War Tower: Fixing the Tower to the Base Securely (Part 4 of 4) Complete

I was so close to finishing this project - but I sensed disaster was also near at hand. Every time the war tower unit was moved I could see there was no way that simple "glue" (even super-super glue) would hold the tower in place. It would become a saga of crumbling sand departing the base and many a wargaming tear split over a toppling tower (see below, for a sense of the problem - where was the center of gravity lay? Too far up in the tower):

'

I pondered and pondered and pondered for an answer and decided I would have to have an industrial grade DIY solution for this .. a household screw through the plasti-card base, up through the sand covering and into the chunky metal floor of the war tower, then on into the interior (see below, I classify this as a major piece of surgery that could easily "undo a lot of good work" if I were too heavy handed): 

Before the major surgery I decided to affix the "three archer amigos" to a mini-base so the war tower could be shown in either a combat of transport mode (see below, note this has no effect at all in DBA, DBM or whatever rules, but rather it was done for pure aesthetic purposes): 

Behold after my successful "screw" an empty Persian War Tower awaits orders (see below, tip of the operation was "to start with a small drilled hole in the plasti-card base to give the screw its start through the plasti-card", then 2drill a smaller dimension hole [than the thread of the screw] in the bottom of the metal war tower base so you get a bit of bite but don't have to force it to hard" - the join is then solid): 

A fully manned and ready for all-comers Persian War Tower (see below, also note the subtle bit of flocking on the base was also applied right at the end): 

Hopefully my description makes sense when you see below the naked screw poking up inside the model - I still marvel as to how I actually did it (see below, I cannot express the sheer relief I felt for not "screwing" this up and as far as I am concerned, I am happy particularly as this was a pure "once off - no squadron of war towers for me):  

I would have loved to be able to call it my "Archimedes Screw" but seeing as it is for the Royal Persian Army it seems a tad inappropriate, although the Persians did employ many an ostracised Greek in a technical capacity (see below, normally I am terrible at any form of DIY but this one seems to have been the one exception that worked OK):  

The End (followed by a heavy sigh)! The job is a good one. 

Next Up: I think Cyrus also needs some "combat camels" painting up. Standard basing techniques apply there!

An Ancient Persian Monster - Cyrus War Tower: Sorting Out the Basing (Part 3 of 4)

Everything looks quite pretty, just not on a base (see below, the question is how is that going to get on a 40mm wide and 80mm deep DBA base): 

From the rear (see below, with 'notation' rear entrance - but still no way of connecting the bullocks to the tower from means of propulsion, so some crafty wargamer may well rightly claim it is a static defensive position): 

A close up of the deadly Persian archers (see below, they look fairly secure from their nemesis the ancient Greek Hoplite): 

OK testing it out space wise on the plasti-card base, it can work in the 40x80 rectangle (see below, it seems a retrograde step as it now looks as if it is making its way through a snow storm):  

Now superglue is applied to the bullocks and spear-man shepherding the train (see below, the war tower itself is more of a challenge as it is so large and heavy by comparison to the rest of the kit):   

Watered down PVA and sand/grit is applied, then after drying out a light shade of brown (watered down Anita's Acrylic Chocolate Brown) takes the basic "desert hue" (see below, again the war tower is just sitting in the groves of the terrain .. all attempts to PVA or superglue would be futile .. something more "hard-core" is required): 

The base gets a medium shade "wet-brush" of brown picking out the raised areas and leaving the depressions in shadow (see below, as ever [or rather my stocks last] my favourite Anita Acrylics volume craft paint is once again used used [Coffee]): 

Adding a touch of Vallejo Foundation White to the Coffee gives a subtle highlight sparingly applied (see below, the overall effect is quite pleasing to the eye, the bullocks in particular are just the grimy hard working beasts of burden I wanted, courtesy of some Vallejo earth shades and a brown wash. I was also glad of my choice to make two of them "dirty cream"): 

Next: Heavy engineering required to affix the War tower firmly to the base. 

An Ancient Persian Monster - Cyrus War Tower: Painting the War Tower (Part 2 of 4)

The model received a covering of Airfix Grey Acrylic Primer, then a layering process of Vallejo Game Colour - Charred Brown, Beasty Brown and Leather Brown (see below, the grey crossbeams will be painted "something different"): 

But first "black" while I think about a suitable colour, I resisted anything metallic as I was thinking that would have made the structure crazily heavy - not that this thing was going to look sensible (see below, the browns are taking shape):   

I was not rushing it - you should see a progression in the "browns" from photograph to photograph as I was sticking to multiple thin coats principle (see below, the crew and bullocks are getting impatient in the background): 

The "browns" are done - even the wheels (see below, and the mental decision of "what" the crossbeam colour will be had been made, by the very scientific process of staring at the colour paints I had to hand): 

"Blue" was decided on - the classic Vallejo Games Colour Imperial Blue, Magic Blue and a highlight of Electric Blue (see below, it had 'contrast' and 'gaudiness' going for it, the Achaemenid Persians were certainly not understated in their colour schemes so "go for it"): 

With that the bullocks and crew start to take shape (see below, one crewman shepherding the bullocks and three archers in the tower itself): 

Next Stage: Time to start thinking about the basing and how to stop the tower embarrassingly falling over!

An Ancient Persian Monster - Cyrus War Tower: Build the "Boxy" Bit (Part 1 of 4)

This Black Hat Miniatures (the mold now sold onto Fighting15s/Gladiator Miniatures) model has been hanging a round for a long while, maybe as much as ten years, part of the Cyrus the Great DBA Army project (see below a cleaned up out of the packet and in pieces): 

As befits the chunky casting the wall parts come together with rather gaps manly gaps (see below, it is a product of its time and I purchased it so that it would fit in alongside the rest of my Achaemenid Persian Army - so needs must and I am sure Milliput with come to my rescue):

The worse fitting gaps are at the top (see below, "four walls" of errors compounded or accumulated together): 

Then comes an engineering problem of sorts. I see the war tower, I see the archer crew and driver/shepherd, I also see the bullocks that are meant to pull the war tower .. but I see no means of connecting the war tower with the bullocks? (see below, I was expecting some for of cunning harness): 

While I ponder on such disturbing matters I took Mr. Milliput out of my crafting box and started mixing it between my fingers, then spread it into those annoying gaps (see below, fingers crossed and with a layer of primmer on it it will become one homogenous surface): 

Next Stage: The painting starts.

Connections NL2020 Conference Books and Game Downloads

This was good (see below, good news - the Dutch are getting in on the Connections act): 

Click on links below:

1. Book “On wargaming” by Matthew B. Cafrey Jr
2. Solitaire board wargame “Terror War” on the events in the wake of 9/11. This is a print & play game. All maps, counters and rules are included. Download Terror War from HERE
3. PC wargame “Order of Battle” by Slitherine. OOB is the free base game for the OOB series which covers most of WWII both in the Pacific and in the ETO. Additional modules can be bought from Slitherine and at the moment in the Holiday sale, at a discount.
   Download OOB HERE.
4. Book on wargaming WWII “Winning a future war” by Norman Friedman.
5. Book on wargaming: "The complete handbook of wargame". Updated {easy entry, somewhat dated, still relevant!} by the master of wargames Jim Dunnigan.
6. Free wargame: “Cold War Naval Battles” by Dan Verssen. 2 to 6 player game.

|Something to pass those cold winter nights watching ;) 

Aeronautica Imperialis - Orc Dakka Dakka Fighta Bomba - Trials and Tribulations ...

Oh, I felt so relieved when I could call this project done. Sigh. You secretly know to yourself when you are overworking something and that is what I was doing here - but I honestly could not see a way to stop myself. I was overthinking the problem. The formula I used for the previous "Red" little Orc fighters just did not seem to work well at all for this "Yellow" two man (sorry Orc) fighter bomber, and it was only ever so slightly bigger a modal. In hindsight I thought I had possibly even overworked the "Red" Dakka Dakka fighters (but in my defense I was applying multiple thin coats rather than one thick one) but I liked the "Red's" resulting "comic book" character and the depth of colour I had achieved (so the pain and time was worth it - even enjoyable), however trying the same technique on the "Yellow Terror" seemed to tie me down in too much of a repetitive cycle of coats of watery yellow paint that did not quite cover. Yargh! Working up from a shade of light orange was a very bad starting point, it meant I had to work double as hard to effectively change from this "orange" colour. More fool me for using the Vallejo Game Colour chart that is good for small fantasy figures on small areas (see below, my Flaming/Hot Orange starting point, it should have been a simple Golden Yellow on a white primer [I had used Airfix Grey Primer]): 

I say all the above the stuff about orange and yellow because I slavishly applied a brown wash to get a ugly feeling of rust in the paneling, cracks and missing parts that are a signature trait of "orc craftsmanship" (see below, but everything just went a "darker orange"): 

The model started taking off when I finally got a couple of coats of Golden Yellow onto it (see below, this was the colour of the planes that harassed and attacked me in the iPhone game of Freeblade .. and I so liked shooting them down as they exploded beautifully .. hats of the the graphic designers, animators and computer programmers for a job well done):  

Again slavish to the "rust concept" I plonked another layer of brown wash on it (see below, oops I think I am missing a trick here as I pretty much undid all the brighter yellowness of the previous stage for not much texture gain, and in hindsight I was putting a lot of paint on the model - less is good in most cases): 

At this point Sun Yellow came to rescue me from insanity, the first coat starts to bring me round to the yellow look I an after (see below, but it was very patchy and would definitely need another coat - seriously I am putting too much paint on this model .. and I cannot get the knack of putting thin coats of yellow on it to look right, so in desperation I am globbing more Sun Yellow paint on than I know is really right):  

At this point I honestly could have easily given up on the Orc Fighta Bomba and who knows in a none Covid-19 scenario I might well have done. Instead of aborting, I took a big deep breath and left it alone for a while and busied myself in another concurrent ACW project I have on the go (more on that in a future post). I came back when my painting frustrations were abated (also with a tick in the box for the ACW project) and with a nice strong cup of tea in hand, plus a plate of calming chocolate digestive biscuits I (see below [although the natural light is on the dim side], the second coat of Sun Yellow seemed to saved the day and I resisted the brown wash on the yellow [good decision] - but I did re-apply the brown wash and needed to do some black lining on the silver leading edge paneling):  

Now I just went full-throttle for the finish, using Moon Yellow and a very slight touch up on the silvery bits (see below, you may also notice a bit of brassy gold applied [and a subtle brown wash] to various pipe things and vent things as a contrast to the silver/gun metal): 

The beast is complete, but it did have one final bite to give me. My big clumsy mitts managed to either smear some red on the canopy and nose, or rub yellow paint off to expose the orange .. urk, it looked a mess .. but I took a deep breath and undercoated it white so I could reapply the Moon Yellow. In a spur of the moment decision the leftover white+yellow paint ended up being dabbed a random patches of super highlight (see below, all-in-all it seems to have worked and I am fairly happy with the final results): 

Time has truly expired on this one, but as a final touch .. or should I say insurance .. if there was ever a model that needed a strong coat of varnish over it to protect it from rough handling, this is the one! Note to self: I put that last bit in to remind myself to do it later ;) 

The only remaining thing to do is get it in a game and take delight in shooting it down!