Custom DreadBall Pitch

WinnersDBPitch2013

The O.C.P. Patriots (Irish DreadBall Champions) play defence versus the Zegema Beach Zephyrs (UK & Ireland Ultimate DreadBall Champions) at Thomond Park at some designated point in the future.

I am the current Irish DreadBall Champion.  Mantic supplied me with this prize pitch as a rather nifty functional trophy.

The rigid one piece polycarbonate/aluminium laminate (at least, thats what I think its made out of) arrived yesterday along with a large box of miniatures as a prize for my UK & Ireland Ultimate DreadBall win a couple of weeks ago.  I havent had a chance to play a game on the pitch yet but I hope to remedy that over the Xmas break.

Of minor note is the inclusion of “Thomond Park” on the pitch (top right in the ropey photo above).  Thomond Park is a significant Irish rugby stadium that also hosts the Irish DreadBall Nationals, amusingly enough.  To continue the entertainment value of winning a “sporting” event at Thomond, I asked Mantic to make sure that the stadiums name featured on the pitch.  I havent the slightest interest in rugby, but many of my regular opponents do, so it adds another level of amusement to me being the champ of a “sport” crowned at Thomond 🙂

Almost Famous

I opened up the Warlord Games newsletter last Friday and saw my own miniatures looking back.

DreddCircle

This was a surprise to me.  By and large Warlord covers gaming eras and genres beyond my personal gaming remit, so I tend to skim the newsletter rather than pore over it.  But recently Warlord took over production of Mongooses Judge Dredd range and with pre-orders of the new rulebook going up they decided to put some photos of my figures from their forum up as a promo.

Warlord Page

I got a kick out of it 🙂

2013 so far…

Although I have a number of miniatures and related projects in various states at the moment, some of which will be posted here very soon, I dont have any photos this week.  Mainly thats because I blew my load and over-enthusiastically posted all of my recent Ursa Miner stuff in rapid succession instead of spacing it out a bit.  So its a hobby clip show today. Continue reading

My Army in White Dwarf #259

WD259GTSinEaters

White Dwarf #259

A blast from the past today.
Continue reading

Q-Con / DreadBall Northern Ireland Regionals 2013

QCon1

I made the 1000km+ road trip from West Cork to Belfast and back again last weekend.  The main motivation was to play DreadBall, but it also gave me an excuse to visit Belfast, a city that I had never been to before. Continue reading

2013 Plans

2012 was productive for me hobby wise, with a pleasing amount of miniatures and terrain pieces assembled and/or painted over the year.  I also managed to get a decent amount of gaming in, both tabletop miniature games and board games.  I hope to continue these trends into 2013 and so I am sketching out a rough plan for this year.

Its impossible to say which of these projects will get priority as the year goes by.  Also, unexpected additional projects usually creep in as different rule sets, books, films, tv shows, video games etc draw my attention.  That said, by this time next year it is likely that at least some of the projects listed below will have been tackled in some form or another.  A little uncertainty here is fine with me: while I want my hobby to be productive, it isnt a job.

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Dreadball

Dreadball1

I got in on the Kickstarter for this miniature based boardgame last Summer and the figures started to arrive just before Xmas.  I have only played one quick game to learn the ropes so far, but the rules look promising.  A number of the people that I game with have invested in Dreadball to some extent so there is a lot of enthusiasm for it and we have a inaugural session coming up very soon.  Fingers crossed that the rules hold up for that.

I am currently working on my first team which should hopefully be painted and ready to go on time for that first make or break game session.  If Dreadball takes off then I expect that I will get a number of figures painted for this game in 2013, but no matter what happens I will have at least one painted team finished and posted up here soon.

DreadBallUltimateStadium

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Judge Dredd

Judge Dredd

Although I got very few Dredd related miniatures painted in 2012, I did get a number painted in 2011.  This project is still high on my to-do list, backed by the fact that I have a pat-wagon load of miniatures waiting for attention.

A lot of the miniatures for Dredd gaming will be just as useful in 40K skirmish games as in Dredd-specific settings (the original 40K Rogue Trader was designed with very many influences from 2000AD incorporated into it after all), so that makes those figures that bit more likely to bubble to the top of the list.  Rewatching last years solid Dredd movie next week will also likely reinvigorate this project.

Dredd2012

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Rogue Trooper

RogueTrooperCover

After the success of their Judge Dredd Miniatures Game  Kickstarter, Mongoose Publishing is due to run another miniatures Kickstarter based on a second 2000AD property in late January.  What this means in real terms is that Mongoose have this particular fanboy by the balls, so I am likely to contribute in some fashion to the Rogue Trooper Kickstarter.  That said, I wont be seeing any Rogue Trooper figures until at least the Summer I expect, so this project may not get off the ground this year, even if it cuts a big ol’ lump out of my 2013 budget.

Like the Dredd figures, a lot of my miniatures and terrain pieces for 40k skirmish gaming will fit well into this setting, and vice versa.  In particular the GW Wall of Martyrs trenchworks set that Santa brought me will be ideal to represent some of the battle scarred surface of Nu Earth.

RogueTrooperFutureOfWar

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WH40K Skirmish

40kRPGDarkHeresy

This is a very broad project that encompasses things like the Space Dwarf, Veer-myn and Necron forces that I painted last year in addition to many and various oddball individual figures that I have waiting for paint.

I have a specific rule set that I plan to use for gaming in the 40k-verse and I already have plenty of suitable terrain and very many suitable figures painted.  I also have a number of interesting individuals and other factions that I want to get painted up for this.  As mentioned already, many of the suitable miniatures and other pieces for this project overlap with the Dredd and Rogue Trooper stuff.  This project rates very highly on the likely-to-actually-get-done-o-meter.

RTBlancheAdMech

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Wasteland/Post Apoc Terrain

Bartertown1

I have a lot of PA terrain now and it is the most coherent terrain set that I have put together to date.  I still have a few more bits and pieces that I want to add to it and I hope to get them finished before I start work on my other planned 2013 terrain set.  The wasteland terrain is useful for all three of the planned games mentioned already, so its not going to be wasted effort or anything, but I do want to get the backlog of post-apoc terrain pieces done before engeage in the next terrain set.

PostApocTown

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Sci-fi Urban Terrain

SpeedRacerCityscapeCosmopolis

Sci-fi urban is the terrain set that I have wanted to game over since I first got into the hobby in the eighties.  A number of my other miniatures projects are waiting for this terrain set to come together before they can fully shine (Dredd games in particular are crying out for a nice urban set).  Its a pretty daunting task, but I feel like I might have the resources to tackle it this year.

I want this set to be a non-ruined, non-gothic urban area reminiscent of Mega City 1 and Bladerunner with a little bit of Futurama and The Jetsons in there too.  I have been stockpiling suitable bits of junk for scratch built elements for years and I have also picked up a number of suitable kits and bits of set dressing.

This project is a biggie with some planning required and I dont want to tackle it until the Wasteland/Post Apoc terrain is fully finished.  Therefore I am pretty certain that this project will not be completed in 2013, but I am hopeful that it will get started upon at least.

bladerunner

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So thats my hobby 2013 sketched out.  It will be interesting to take a look back at this next December and see how much of it has materialised.

My 2012 Output

Assassin

Assassin

Servitors

Servitors

Astropath

Astropath

Scourged Forest Zuzzy Mat

Wounded City Zuzzy Mat

Graveyard trees

Graveyard trees

Mausoleum 1

Mausoleum 2

Mausoleum 2

Mausoleum 3

Mausoleum 3

Mausoleum 4

Mausoleum 4

Graveyard Statue 1

Graveyard Statue 1

Mausoleum 4

Mausoleum 5

Graveyard Walls

Graveyard Walls

Graveyard fences

Graveyard fences

Graveyard Gate

Graveyard Gate

More Graveyard bits

More Graveyard bits

Graveyard in situ

 

Riddick

 

Dark Judges

Lady Justice Malifaux Crew

Lady Justice Malifaux Crew

MalifauxBooks

Malifaux Objectives 1

Malifaux Objectives 2

Santiago Ortega & another creepy tree

Executioner

Robo Sheriff

Scales of Justice

Austringer

 

Veermyn

Veermyn

Veermyn Squad Leader and trooper.

Veermyn Squad Leader and trooper.

Veermyn heavy weapon trooper and trooper.

Veermyn heavy weapon trooper and trooper.

Veermyn Commander

Veermyn Commander

 

Space Dwarfs

Stormrage Veterans

Stormrage Veterans

Steel Warriors

Steel Warriors

More Steel Warriors

More Steel Warriors

Space Dwarf Engineer

Space Dwarf Commander

Space Dwarf Artillery

10mm Evil Army

10mm Saruman

Goblin spear unit.

10mm Goblin spear unit.

10mm Nazgul mounted on Fell Beast

10mm Nazgul mounted on Fell Beast

Goblin spear unit 2

10mm Goblin spear unit 2

10mm War Trolls

10mm War Trolls

10mm Mounted Nazgul

10mm Mounted Nazgul

10mm Orc warriors

10mm Orc warriors

10mm Orc Heroes

10mm Orc  & Goblin Heroes

10mm Goblin Wolf Riders

10mm Goblin Wolf Riders

10mm Orc Stone Thrower

10mm Orc Stone Thrower

10mm Hobgoblin Wolf Riders

10mm Hobgoblin Wolf Riders

10mm Mounted Goblin Heroes

10mm Mounted Goblin Heroes

More 10mm Hobgoblin Wolf Riders

More 10mm Hobgoblin Wolf Riders

Blood Bowl Elf

Blood Bowl Elf

EM4 Skeleton Robots

Skeleton Robots

Cyber Reavers

Cyber Reavers

Necron Scarabs

Necron Scarabs

Space Crusade Chaos Android, GW Necron Warrior (90s), GW Necron Warrior

Chaos Android, Necron Warrior, Necron Warrior

Chaos Dreadnought

Chaos Dreadnought

Terminators

Terminators

Necron Lord

Necron Lord

Fishmen

Fishmen

ALF

ALF

 

Thats my output for  2012.  Totals are ~104 miniatures (counting 10mm bases as one miniature) and ~55 terrain elements (which vary in size from a 28mm scale book to 6×4′ terrain mats).  It a little less than my output for 2011, but its still pretty good I think.  I reckon that I could push productivity up a bit more if I really tried, but then it might become more of a chore than a pleasurable pastime.  I suspect that future years will have about the same output, which really means that I should buy far, far fewer miniatures than I do currently.

My recurring late Summer-Autumn slump happened again this year.  Keeping this blog has made it apparent to me that the slump seems to be a recurring seasonal thing, which is interesting.  It also means that when it happens I now get a little less frustrated, as I expect it somewhat and have a rough idea of its frequency and duration.  Monitoring output was one of the goals in my blog mission statement when I started it a few years ago so this sort of information is interesting and potentially helpful I think.

My rough plans for miniature related things for 2013 will go up here soon.  Happy new year.

Seasonal Output

One of the reasons for this blogs existence is to monitor potential patterns in my hobby output.

Something that has come to light over the last couple of years is that the August/September period tends to disrupt my toy soldier focus, for numerous disparate reasons.

2012 is following that pattern.

With that in mind updates around here might be a bit more sporadic for a little while.  On the other hand I may be inspired this evening and start churning painted figures out, who knows?   The main thing is that I cant guarantee a worthwhile weekly update at the moment, although I am hopeful to be back on track within a couple of weeks.

In the meanwhile check out the prepainted  figure that I am considering using as a Dreadball team coach…

(Veer-myn included for scale)

2012 so far…

Early August is a little late for this, but whatever.

On February 1st last I put up a post about my hobby plans for 2012.  I listed a number of projects that I thought would likely be tackled this year.  As part of the mission statement for this blog is to get a clearer picture of my hobby output and stick-to-it-ness levels, today I am going to review my progress so far.

Firstly I will list the items that I thought most likely to be worked on when I wrote the post in early February.  Secondly I will list other projects that have come to the fore unexpectedly and that have in turn reduced output on some projects that seemed like safe bets at the start of the year.  Try to stay awake.  Just look at the picture perhaps.

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The predicted projects last February were:

Adeptus Mechanicus: I have only got a pair of figures for this project finished, although I did get some other preparatory work done on it.

I am not too worried about slow progress on this one.  I have enough long term interest in it to reckon that it will bubble to the top sooner rather than later.  I also quite like the monochrome look that these figures have, although I dont know if it translates very well to the photos.

Gears of War: No progress.

Dreadfleet: No progress.

Judge Dredd:  No progress.  This is a little unexpected really and a little disappointing as a result.  The time that seemed likely to be spent on this project has been eaten up by a couple of unexpected out-of-the-blue projects, as shown below.

Inquisitor Warbands: Slow progress here, although as this project dovetails with the Adeptus Mechanicus above and the Veer-myn and Space Dwarfs below it isnt really static.  But as far as actual Inquisitorial retinues go, its really just these two figures shown.

Standard Falls post-apocalyptic terrain: No further progress on the shanties worth talking about.  I will get a bout of enthusiasm for it at some unknown point in the future and plough through the remaining bits that I have.

Zuzzy Mats: Completed.

Although the urban mat is still waiting for the appropriate terrain before it gets used properly, the wasteland terrain has been used for about thirty or so games of Malifaux since it got finished, which is satisfying.

Of note is that the Wasteland mat is currently showing zero signs of wear, which makes me about as happy as I can get from my toy soldier stuff frankly.  The mat adds immeasurably to the visual aesthetic of the games that I have played on it and it looks durable enough to last for quite some time yet.  Hooray.

Unusually the mat hasnt been used to play a dice game yet due to Malifaux using card decks as its random number generator.  Tomorrow is scheduled to be the first time that dice will be rolled on the mat (via Kings of War, which involves large quantities of dice) and sad as it sounds, I am actually looking forward specifically to that bit.

Yeah its pretty dorky, but if you dont like dorky stuff then what the flip are you reading this for? 🙂

Graveyard Terrain: 90% complete.  Other than an afternoon spent working on making some more strips of gravestones, this project is complete.  Like the wasteland Zuzzy mat above, this terrain has been involved in a decent number of games already, which increases satisfaction levels.  Another success story, go me.

Colonial Marines: All the stuff is bought and has been sitting in a box ready to go for about two years now I think, but as yet nothing to show.

This project has become a running joke of sorts in my mancave.  It is a monkey on my back that I will have to spank soon.  But right now I dont know when.  Bah.

Riddick: Completed.  The entire single figure project has been bought, cleaned, assembled, undercoated, painted, varnished, based, photographed, blogged and put in the display cabinet.

Titans: No progress.  No prediction of possible delivery date.

Zombies: The closest things to zombies that I have finished this year are the Dark Judges. I get a warm fuzzy from looking at my own painted versions of icons from my childhood 🙂

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Unexpected projects that got done this year are as follows:

Malifaux:  Getting regular local games of Malifaux played since February has been a big motivator and time sink.  Although I havent got many Malifaux figures painted I am pretty pleased with the figures that I have finished so far.  Malifaux games are the reason that the Zuzzy mats and Graveyard terrain shown above got completed too.

I have plenty more figures for this in the pipeline too.

Veer-myn: After I returned from my 2012 trip to Salute I felt compelled to paint something other than Malifaux for a while.  Firstly I painted the Veermyn that came with the Project Pandora game.

Space Dwarfs: After the enjoyable process of painting the Veer-myn, for reasons that I am still unsure of I decided to paint space dwarfs.  They came out well I think though: they have a Rogue Trader vibe.

10mm Fantasy: The most recent project that I have been working on is 10mm fantasy.  As a pair of the old guard dug out their Warmaster armies and have been playing Kings of War with them, so I decided to get in on that too.

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So thats the output for the first seven months of 2012.  Totals are ~70 miniatures and ~55 terrain elements (which vary from a 28mm book to 6×4′ terrain mats).

Not bad I reckon 🙂  I slumped and got nothing done from September to Xmas last year though, so it will be interesting to see if this higgledy piggledy approach, regularly chopping and changing from one project to another rather than forcing myself to work on specific things when my enthusiasm wanes will make a slump more or less likely to happen.  We shall see.

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10mm Kings of War

Real life has been kicking me in the nuts a bit lately, so I havent managed to get any photos of my most recent 10mm fantasy stuff taken yet.  There are quite a few new things coming though.

In the meantime I will direct you to the blog that a long term gaming crony of mine has been getting up and running recently.

My orcs rounds the mountain into insult hurling range of TheOttoVonBismarks halberdiers.

The Otto Von Bismark (also known as SOS around here occasionally) has recently been documenting various attempts at gaming with 10mm fantasy figures.  The system that has been getting the most love has turned out the be one designed for use with 28mm stuff: Kings of War.

It seems to be suiting our group for now, with its quick and streamlined play.  Its early days yet, but it has been working better than many other systems that we have tried over the years.  Its free too (although there is a new and rather nice hardback rulebook thats worth a look).  The free stuff is available here.

Some photos of my new 10mm bad guys will be up soon.  They are fully painted and all that, so its just photography time required.