6MMRPC: Qualified Failure

Oh dear, where did 10 weeks go? To be honest, packing up your life, and moving to a new home throws a spanner in any ability to paint, let alone to be consistently productive. The change in jobs didn't help much either.

I'm still fairly mired down with household 'hobby' - painting rooms, repairing tools, 'converting' light fixtures, using pink insulation (for it's true purpose for a change), and so forth.  I think I've managed to sit down and paint 3 times in the last 7 weeks I've been moved. The short term doesn't look a whole lot more promising either.







Goals achieved
-In regards to what my 6MMRPC goals were: utter failure -2. My trays of shame lie untouched except for Bones novacorp and my saracens  which were a delightful completion. Alas now that I've moved, my old gaming group is now playing SAGA Crescent and Cross. Cruel irony.

-Inspecting my productivity, I see that I did finish a few projects. Saracens, A battery of Warlord Russian Artillery, All my ainsty 28mm bits, Novacorp bones figs, and the vietnam Fortifications. It'd be a stretch to give the 2 Napoleonic generals a 'project' rating. I'm tantalizingly close to finishing another project in all it's glory, but I'll save that for a big reveal in a few weeks (or months....sigh).

It's a shame the Caffeineforge blog went quiet as well, as that was a big incentive for me to try and keep up with Bones painting. I presume he'll get back on the air eventually, and I'll probably not have finished the last set of figs queued up!

-Weekly postings: 16/26....not half bad. Cough. Almost half bad though.

-Zombtomber: no postings at all. Boo.




Input/Output
Given 2 jokers to start with, and 5 I earned, let's see how in debt I managed to go:

1- King's Minis chaos dwarves. I totally lucked out and managed to get a set before Delaney's life imploded. I seriously wondered if I was going to get them for a while as the shipping date lengthened and her posts got more ominous.

2- Front Rank Russian minis - a whack of lead that is part of the almost completed project. Unfortunately I botched a code in my email, and ended up with some infantry instead of the horse riders I wanted (I got the correct horses though. Doh).

3- TMP Front rank French figs - a clearout with a great price, this sets me up for working on the opfor for my Russians.

4 - TMP Demonworld - again, a great deal cropped up on 15mm fantasy figs. Demonworld have great looking minis, though they are hampered a bit by limited poses in the ranges.

5 - FOW Vietnam - cracked under the tanksgiving sale and bought some more figs. I really (REALLY) need to get a start on some of this stuff

6 - Armourcast Mutant plants & soda can toppers. I think I've been eyeing this stuff for literally 5 or more years. A 20% sale made up my mind

7 - Impulse buy at Heresy minis. A great sale (detecting a theme yet?) had me grab the lovely ghoul family, and some sci fi civvies. Unlike (arguably) the other purchases, this one doesn't really fit into a project. Ooops.

Summary:
Certainly less successful than my first go at the 6MMRPC. When I actually looked at what I had done and bought, I was pleasantly surprised....a lot better than I thought I'd have.

Community wise, it really seemed to quiet and nose dive just before I had to functionally drop out. It'd be interesting to see what others thoughts were. There some noise about starting up again quickly. I think it's some new blood, and some die hards. I'd argue for a couple month break, but it's rather challenging to control these things, frankly.

6MMRPC Week 15: Ainsty Wharves and Jetties....shipping out

The horros of packing up the house and dealing with old employer/new employer HR continues to suck at my time and energy. I haven't gone dark quite yet though. Here is another appropos submission, considering my move will require a ferry ride.

One again we have some more Ainsty resin terrain. All my Ainsty stuff came in two large purchases that occurred in successive Decembers. I remember this because 'it was a gift to me'.....how we trick ourselves. It's great to see the lot finally done up. I still have other Ainsty stuff, but they will be their own projects.

After finishing the browns, I wanted to do more, and add some colour. Scum/Kelp/mold/rot/etc was the obvious choice, but I was quite sure how to swing it. Thankfully I remembered the great work done by Barry at League of Augsberg on his pirate ship (here), who shared his recipe when prompted.

Voila:

Definitely the look I desired.

6MMRPC Week 13: Ainsty baggage....packing up

A fairly meagre offering this week. I finished off my resin furniture from Ainsty and a load of shipping loads.

I'm not entirely pleased with all the material on the shelves, especially as the markings are noticeable inconsistent between 'similar' boxes. Presumably it will be better a couple feet away. Otherwise everything looks just fine enough.

The topic is fairly apropos, as I am moving at the end of the month. I'll be re-locating (via a ferry!) to Nanaimo, BC (located on Vancouver Island/West coast of Canada). Already much of my hobby material has disappeared into boxes, and the hassle of organizing a move and changing jobs is taking a big bite out of time and energy. I suspect I'll drop silent for a number of weeks, but not quite yet.
...

6MMRPC Week 12: Warlord Russian Napoleonic Artillery Battery

I finally finished a project that had been on pause for numerous weeks. Here we have 3 guns (batteries in Dougs General du Corp rules) of Russian Guns. Only the smallest gun, on the left, is actually Warlord, the other 2 guns I bought from Front Rank as I had other plans for the small 6lbs (4? lbs) guns. It's probably noticeable, as I forgot which greens I used, and the smallest gun is positively fluorescent compared to it's larger brethren.

6MMRPC: Week 11 Vietnam Firebase Fortifications

Having earlier completed my trial artillery fire pit (here) I finished painting up the rest of the hydrocal terrain I cast up using Thomas' molds. The hydrocal (tougher plaster essentially) was allowed to dry fully for about a week, and then painted with future floor polish to aid with robustness/anti chipping. I think this will also help avoid the hydocal/plaster from drinking up paint.






The scale is about 20mm (1/72). I will happily use if for 15mm figs, and I suspect it wouldn't look too far out for 28mm as well (although maybe the artillery pits would fit a heavy weapon rather than a true towed weapon).




 More pics after the jump....

Playtesting Vietnam - HOT LZ!

Once again I met up with Thomas (Peabody Here!) to have a game on his exquisite Vietnam setup. He has been working on a reinforced platoon size rule set. Apparently there is a bit of a dearth of 'modern' (i.e. more recent and streamlined ones that recognize people don't have tons of time) rule sets for Vietnam.....particularly at this scale. I'm sure this is a controversial statement for some, but I'll leave it at that.

I've been encouraging Thomas to develop this set and wander further from the original inspirations in order to achieve fun, fast, and smooth game experiences. One of the complaints previously was the resolution of artillery....totally clunky with too many die rolls. This also bled into helicopter (aerial artillery) attacks as well. To be honest, you almost didn't want to use the stuff b/c then you'd have to resolve it (I joke....sorta). It was particularly grating as the basic move, fire, suppression, morale, order rules were pretty tight and played well.

In our last brainstorming session over copious amounts of tea, we made some heavy revisions for the artillery, spotter helicopters and aerial artillery, and 'Hot Lz' VC card/ability. The artillery rules included prep fire.....so we decided to make a 'HOT LZ!' mission to try and test our revisions most efficiently. The FFW plots some prep fire, the VC sets up his blinds, artillery is fired, and the FFW arrive in their choppers. GAME ON!

AAR after the jump....

6MMRPC Week 10: Ainsty Furniture

My painting efforts continue to be stymied with weddings and birthdays cropping up in the late summer. I did, however, manage to finish off some bits I've been picking away at for a couple of weeks.

Up this week are tables, kegs, chairs, and part of a store set from Ainsty. Ainsty has some very cool ranges, all in resin, and are located in the UK. Naturally this means fairly steep shipping for those of us in North America (to be honest, it's getting crushing from everywhere to anywhere it seems).