2021… that was the year that was and a look towards plans for 2022….

Firstly I like to apologise for not commenting on peoples’ blog over the fesative period. I’ve been away in Ashford with Nicola to see her family down there, consequently I was away from my PC so was just looking at things on my phone. It was a very nice and relaxing time. I caught up with some reading too which was good. I was surprised to find a MKIV tank in the town centre there as a memorial.

In all 2021 has been a bit of a mixed bag (something that I think can apply to almost everyone) health has been a bit low but uni has been going well, further more Nicola and I rescued a pair of cats that are wonderful company. With the opening up of things a little more here in the UK face to face gaming has made a welcome return, also I’ve started going back to the local club that is most enjoyable. A new Necromunda campaign did start up that I joined for a while but ultimately had to leave; a combination of poor health and the move of gaming nights to a weekend when I was usually busy meant I didn’t want to be unreliable so I decided it would be best to withdraw (I will do a post next week though on what I did do). I have been managing to get quite a bit of online gaming in too- whilst this has often been a live streamed table top game (covering many periods and scales) it has frequently included something a bit different. Having the oppertunity to play in varied role plays, committee games and matrix games has been great.

As for the coming year I’m still pretty much going to stick to the plan from November… I’m closing in on the last few bits of my Death Guard army for 40k, then it will be on to the Adeptus Mechanicus. Zona Alfa will feature more as I’m really enjoying that game- hopefully I’ll be able to get a campaign up and running. Not sure what to do about Necromunda… whether to rejoin in on the clubs next campaign or do something at home. Building a table for it could be good fun. My Winter War project has nearly been finished too, just got some bits to get and finish off then I’ll look to start getting that gamed. The rest of the stuff is bubbling along in the background.

With regards to board games, and here is the biggest overlap with my uni work, there are lots I’ve bought recently but not got to the table, including some print and play games I’ve got to make up. I’ve also got the itch to do some traditional RPG stuff. A few has been released recently, mainly Cyberpunk Red, that has triggered a wave of nostalgia, even though I have grave reservations about the whole format.

Finally, all that remains to do is thank you the reader for being with me for the past decade and more and wish all of you a Happy New Year and the very best for 2022.

Cheers,

Pete.

Progress Report: 4th Quarter 2021 and Year End total.

In the last 3 months I have painted 72 29mm and 81 20mm figures, and read 23 books.

The totals for 2021 are…:

28mm figures Painted: 144, 20mm figures painted: 298.

40k kits finished: 3, and 4 aircraft for Areonautica Imperialis, also I finshed off 4 20mm vehicles and 19 6mm ones. Also I read 98 books.

Cheers,

Pete.

From the Shed: Eureka NBC Soviets.

Following on from my recent Zona Alfa interest I’ve finished up a small batch of the Eureka Miniatures NBC Soviets. They are great figures, only slightly smaller than the Under Fire ones I’ve been using, they are a good fit with the Copplestone ones though.

I went for the tank crew and a few individual soldiers as a sample of the range.
The tank crew in NBC masks look great- rather heavily armed too really.
Three riflemen in the pea green rubber oversuit.

I’ll be getting enough later on for at least a full squad and possibly the AAHMG too as it looks a good set. Eureka Miniatures can be bought in the UK from here.

Cheers,

Pete.

Zona Alfa: From the Shed to the table.

I tend to work better to a deadline so was more than happy to run a game of Zona Alfa for friends with a week’s notice, even though I still had nearly 30 models to paint in that time. Firstly I needed to finish off the various zone hostiles that I had collected, these are the various monster/ fauna that inhabit the zone and make life difficult for the players. I had a mix of zombies from Mantic, Copplestone and Pig Iron. All were painted in a similar muted palette and complement each other. The Mantic and Copplestone ones go well together as they look like the reanimated corpses of previous expiditions to the zone….

The horde of zombies.
Pig Iron Production zombies
Mantic zombies
Copplestone zombie troopers.

I also had a small selection of Reaper Bones models to represent the mutants, both large and standard size, that can also appear in the game. Nicola very kindly painted these three for me.

Reaper Bones used as mutants.

I also wanted to round out my collection of military types witha few more figures. I got some of the Under Fire Miniatures cold war camo suited Soviets and added Pig Iron Productions gas mask heads and backpacks to give them more of a STALKER vibe. Whilst the hardness of the metal that both companies used made drilling them tough on the fingers I’m really pleased with how they turned out.

The converted Under Fire miniatures Soviets.

For the game at the club I wrote a brief intro to the game (which I can post if people want) and made up four forces for the players to use: two military, one scientist and one bandit. After a quick run through of the rules they teams set off to revover the protyped weapon left cached by a previous expedition into the zone. I purposely ignored the Allies and Enemies rules for this game, mainly as it was a one off zero sum mission it would added more combat to get the players better used to the rules.

My Zona Alfa collection in it storage box.

Set in a level one zone I placed the two hot spots so that the players would be able to interact with at least one lot of zone hostiles each.

The game table, the objective was in the cached ammo crate, the skulls are hotspots. Most of the terrain was from my 3D printer.

In the end the Scientist and the Military player ended up trading shots and finding out how bloody the combat syestem can be whilst the Bandits crept forward clearining a hotspot and then cunningly used electric juice to speed forward to snatch the mission objective, after the Military team had dispatched the rats it had spawned the previous turn. The scientist cleared the hotspot closesst to them, again hiding a rat swarm before finding an anomily there and getting a rare artifact. At the point the Bandits were attracting a lot of attention so began to take a lot of fire as the other two teams attempted to snatch the weapon for themselves… at the expense of most of their team they did manage to get it off the table. However, I did point out to the players that in a campaign game they’d need to watch their casualties more and that finding a rare artifact could mean that whilst you don’t win the game the money it earns your team may be more beneficial in the long run.

The Bandits emerge from the edge of the woods.

The Military team pinned down behind the ruins.

The game went down really well and there are a couple more players who wish to try it so hopefully there will be enough interest to get a campaign going. I’m sure I did some of the rules wrong but it has been a long time since I ran the game, pre COVID19 infact. As always I enjoy running the game and seeing how the players interact as much as I do playing.

Cheers,

Pete.

From the Shed: The balance of my Polish Home Army.

I decided to get the remainder of my (newer) Polish Home Army figures finished so I wouldn’t have them sat about half done. The majority of the second batch are the excellent TDQ figures available from CP Models. A few Blitz figures, Sgt’s Mess casualties and some Ceasar plastics round out the force.

Now they are done and boxed away and can await me writing up some scenarios for them.

Cheers,

Pete.

From the Shed: 3d printed houses

Some of the last things I managed to get printed before my 3d printer glitched* were these houses from 18Charlie of Wargaming3D. I liked the modular approach he has taken to his designs so bought a log cabin, a tin roof and the fortified brick building.

From the set of files I’ve got three nice buildings. They did take a while to print but the cost of them is really quite low.I’m particularly keen on the fortified and sandbagged one. The good thing about this sort of thing is that the files were designed for 15mm, I up scaled them again to 20mm and may well print them out a bit bigger still for my 28mm Zona Alfa games. Either way they make a nice bit of terrain for any games set in Eastern Europe.

Cheers,

Pete.

*I’ve got the part to repair it I’ve just not had the time to do it yet.

From the Shed: Polish Home Army for Warsaw Uprising 1944 (Battlefield Miniatures).

The Wargamers Forum is running a month long ‘nostalgia’ build – members are invited to paint up something from pre 2000 (and possibly also out of production).

I dug about in the shed and found these 20+ year old Battlefield Miniatures figures, that are OOP*, for the tragic 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Wearing a mixture of looted SS smocks and civilian clothing with armbands in the Polish national colours they’ll make a nice addition to my WW2 skirmish forces (something I’ve not games in an age). I may tempoarily attach some to bigger bases to play Brian Train’s Civil Power as there is a 1944 scenario in that.

Whilst they weren’t on my projects list they were a pleasant project for this week’s hobbying.

Cheers,

Pete.

* some might be more recent ‘Blitz’ figures….

From the Shed: Blackstone Fortress’ Ur Ghuls.

I picked up a further four of these monopose plastic models from ebay. Given that the game that they are from is out of production they are getting a little bit more expensive and rarer so I decided to get them sooner rather than later.

I painted then to match the previous pair that I did- I used a mixture of GW’s Nihlak Oxide and some homemade glazes so they were a really quick job.

I plan to mostly use them as mutant for my Zona Alfa games but they’ve already been on the gaming table in Nicola’s Drukhari force.

Cheers,

Pete.

From the Shed: Boer War British.

One of the tasks I set myself a while back was to start a Second Boer War skirmish project. Well the first part has been completed: a good number of 20mm Strelets plastic brits.

I painted them in two batches using contrast paint for the main colour, this meant that they were a quick job but I do think that the overall effect is quite good.

Here is a close up of one each of all the poses.

Now all I have to do is find the bag full of Boer figures I know I’ve got somewhere in the shed….

Cheers,

Pete.