Star Wars Rebel Troopers

I managed to complete another big piece of my daughter's Star Wars army: the rebel troopers. These are West End Games 28mm (well, 25mm) figures.

For 25-year-old sculpts, these are okay. Props to the sculptor for putting in two female poses (e.g., front left figure below).

I see that a few Imperial Naval troopers were used to fill out the ranks (the guy on the left in the picture below). I wonder if they were sculpted by a different person and they are quite a bit thicker.

I also converted an Imperial laser cannon to give the rebels some support weapons (I presume this would be an artillery piece in HoTT).

Up next: The garden has distracted me quite a lot. I'm currently painting some 28mm HYW English bow. I also have some Star Wars characters to work on. I see that, a third of the way through the year, I'm at 1000 figures which is half of my annual production target. I may slow the pace a bit in order to get the yard cleaned up and some seeds in the ground.

FS Futura Star Trek Ships

After showing a friend my embarrassingly messy hobby room, I started cleaning and opened an old box to find a bunch of Futura Star Trek ships (from Japan) that I no long have a use for. All of the ships are unassembled (I just dry fitted them for the photos).

First up are The Enterprise A, B and C. These are not in any consistent scale (made to fit the box) but the Enterprise B in the background in 4.25" long. All are factory painted. A wash would bring up the etched detail but I have not done anything to these. I'll take offers on these as a group or individually.

The second group are the USS Farragut (SOLD!), the USS Enterprise D and the USS Enterprise D (Future, I believe this from the STTNG finale). These are scaled together and are roughly 1/3700 so they fit with the ADB and Micromachine ships from the original series. I'll take offers on these as a group or individually.

The third lot contains the USS Prometheus (SOLD!), the USS Enterprise E (SOLD!) and the USS Voyager (SOLD!). These are not scaled together, although I'd say the E is scaled to the lot above and all of these Next Generation ships look fine together. I'd like $10 OBO each (which includes shipping in Canada or the US).

The final lot contains a Klingon Attack cruiser (SOLD!) as well as a metal ERTL Klingon Bird of Prey (SOLD!) from 1989's Star Trek V. If you take all three lots above (and I'd like to sell them together to ease shipping), I'll toss this lot in for free. If not, I'd like $15 OBO for the pair (including shipping in Canada or the US).

Offers to bob.barnetson@shaw.ca. I would also consider trades for 28mm-suitable Star Wars vehicles (need some support for my WEG armies) or some DC Heroes Hero Clix figures (interested mostly in Batman, Teen Titans and The Outsiders and related villains).

Up next: Some 28mm Star Wars rebals are being based. Then some 28mm HYW English long-bow are ready to paint. Then back to Star Wars for some characters. And I need to finish playtesting my MayDay game,

Medieval DBA

Dave brought the girls by for a playdate and we got two games of DBA in using some 28mm medievals. I played a French medieval list while (I think) he was using an English 100YW list.

Game 1 saw the flower of England, above, ride forward and I tried to maneuver them onto my pikes. I was half successful in this and both of us dismounted our knights for combat.

Dave had terrible, terrible rolls at the crucial moment of contact and I managed to win (maybe 4-2?).

We set up again and Dave ran his mounted down the flank while he pin cushioned my pike. He won 4-1, although I did managed to snag his general on the last turn.

Tricky to make the French go. I wonder if trying some alternatives to the pike is the ticket. This might give me some better anti-knight troops (that I can refuse with) while I can ride up to his bow and dismount for some hammer time? Hard to know. Need to paint up a few more bases to make a go of that.

Up next: Some 28mm rebel troops for Star Wars. then some 28mm HYW English. Then some Star Wars characters (having a hard time getting into those). Then maybe some Norman foot to put that army to bed.

EWG Club Night April 19

We had five guys out at the club last night and two games ran. We collected $15 in dues but the room cost us $60 so here's hoping the silent auction at MayDay will be lucrative!

Terry hosted Chen and Scott in Warrior Knights.

Mark hosted me in a game of Songs of Blades and Heroes, in which my dastardly goblin forces (Mark's figures) had to burn down the town protected by some Bretonnian figures supplied by Dave (I think--it was all very complicated).

I'm not sure which of those two geniuses supplied the rubber barrels (in the background) that kept bouncing off the houses instead of setting them ablaze.... But the Bretonnians needed all the help they could get since they had to lug around giant guns (note the pained expression on the one fellow's face).

Overall, I though the rules played well. The game is about keeping the initiative and taking chances around activation rolls. My leader allowed useful group moves at the beginning but then quickly lost control, especially after Mark's leader scored a gruesome kill on one of my men and my line fled. I think this set could also be used for company-level play in the War of 1812 which might be an interesting experiment.

Up next: Hard to say. I have a game booked with Dave on Friday. The outdoors has it allure (I say, it was Professor Barnetson in the garden with the spinach seeds...), but I would like to build a few more plastic medievals I have to clean up a project. And I'll spray prime some more Star Wars figures tonight.

How much wood would a wookie chuck...

I continue to chip away at the pile of villianous scum... errr... rebel freedom fighter that litter my table. Last night I finished 18 wookies. No idea why this lot came with so many wookies, but I based them in threes and will likely use them as warband. The lack of poses makes the whole thing look a bit like a Robert Palmer wookie music video.

Up next: More Star Wars rebels are sorted and await spray priming. I also need to look at the pile of figures and see what is next. Maybe some more 28mm plastics. And the club is Tuesday.

28mm HoTT Goblin Army FS

SOLD!

I have for sale a huge painted 28mm Hordes of the Things goblin army. This army comprises 84 figures figures on 30 bases for a total of (I think) 67 AP. All figures painted by me with acrylics from a pet- and smoke-free home.

The core of the army includes 8 bases of warband, 5 bases of spear and 5 bases of bow (all identical to the samples above). These are old grenadier models now sold by eM4 combined with a few Battlemaster figures on the warband bases.

There are two trolls (to add some punch as behemoths). These are Battlemaster figures.

There are 3 bases of riders, again Battlemaster figures mounted on dire wolves.

There is 1 lurker base (GW night goblin in a camo cloak), 1 magician base (a heroclix figure with two guards) and 1 custom mounted hero base (heroclix mount with Battlemasters rider).

There is a base of beasts (wolves from Battlemaster). There are also 2 bases of flyers and 1 base of beast, all heroclix figures.

I'd like $100. Shipping in Canada or the US will be $20. To the UK is $30 (size of box). I will bubble wrap each base and float it in a box of packing material. Offers to bob.barnetson@shaw.ca.

CCN with Bruce

I swung by Bruce's house on Wednesday for two quick games of CCN. I'm not sure of the scenario but the French side was a delaying force and it was under attack by the British and (alas) the Portuguese.

I managed a win in the first game with hot dice, particularly as I drove the British left up the side to capture a victory hex. The French face a tough challenge of deploying out of an "all-centre" start position and then having to cover their flanks while bracing for an onslaught in the middle. The good news is that they hold a line of hills in the centre.

In game two, again the dice helped as I played the French. Bruce came up the left as the British but I managed to stall him with my cavalry and then shoot him up. He displaced my cannon off the hill with a "short supply" card (jerk!) but in the end this may have saved the game for me as he flanked my right and started to roll up the line until my cannon laid waste to his troops.

It would be interesting to try CCA with a DBA activation mechanic rather than the cards. Although I suppose you'd lose out on the special cards so it might turn into more of a slogging match.

Up next: Some goblins are awaiting basing in the basement along side a mob of wookies. And I have some more Star Wars Imperial characters underway although work has taken me away from the painting table this week.

28mm French Foot Knights

I completed four bases of French foot knights to add to my medieval French DBA/HoTT army yesterday. These fellows should give me a better ability to handle Dave's horrifying bowmen.

These are 28mm Reaper figures I picked up in a trade.



The nice part is the heraldry almost matches the heraldry on the old GW Brettonnian knights that comprise the mounted force in my army.



Up next: The remaining 28mm goblins are being based then onto the character figures for my Imperial Star Wars army. I also have a gaming evening booked with Bruce Wednesday night for some more CCN.

More Star Wars Imperials

I'm slowly chipping away the remaining figures for my daughter's Imperial Star Wars army. I have the figures for the character bases primed and awaiting inspiration. In the meantime, I did two bases of shooters.

These are naval troopers. Not the best figures and I struggled with the colours. I originally went light grey cloth and black boots, gloves and whatnot but that was quite stark and mono-chromatic. So I then I used a dark grey in lieu of black and finally went with brown boots and gloves and darkened the cloth with a wash. In the end I'm not all that happy but I'm not stripping them again. So I think I will declare victory and move on.

The speeder biker riders are from the Titanium series and are 33mm figures. They look quite a lot larger than the 25mm West End Games figures but speeder bikes in 25mm are almost impossible to find (I have one with a rebel rider).

If you put them on the table, you get an interesting forced perspective effect. The speeder bike is roughly at head level for the ground troops. But looks like he (or (NSFW) she?) is flying quite a bit higher. I've also had a couple of requests for scale shots: below you can see the troopers against Wargames Factory Romans.

Up next: Some medieval foot knights are being based up and I am painting the remains of a goblin army I started more than a month ago. Then back to Star Wars, I think.

Job Lot FS: Star Trek and Star Wars

I recently purchased a large lot of figures on eBay to get some old West End Games Star Wars models. When the box arrived, it came with a bunch of other stuff that I have no use for. All of the figures below are for sale and no reasonable offer refused. All measures are from bottom of foot to top of head.

First up are three large pewter models. The left model is dated 2003 and is 54mm high. She is a Star Wars figure but I have no idea whom. The middle figure is Worf from STTNG. This is a Rawcliffe pewter model (1993) and is also 54mm tall. The right figure is Lt. Sulu, is a Rawcliffe model (1993) and is 50mm high.

These matched pair of Qui-gon Jinn and Darth Maul are not dated. Qui-gon is 41mm tall while Darth Sidious is 38mm tall.

These three figures are from the Film Aliens. Working left to right we have Drake (29mm), Mick (30mm) and Ripley (26mm).

SOLD This group are STTNG or STDS9 figures. Left to right we have Worf (32mm), lady with phaser (31mm), dude with phase and satchel (29mm), Andorian (29mm), dude with phaser rifle (29mm) and lady with tricorder (29mm).

SOLD Finally, there are four figures. The left-most look like Klingons from The Search for Spock (27mm, both dated 1989) while the right-most fiogures are from TOS (26mm, both dated 1978).

Shipping is from Canada. In Canada or to the US the entire lot will be about $12. Any portion of the lot will likely be about $9. Offers to bob.barnetson@shaw.ca. I'd also consider trade offers. I'm still looking for some West End Games Star Trek figures or vehicles in scale. I'm also open to other 28mm figures, ancient to medieval (although the only Romans I'm keen on getting more of are Warlord Games Imperial Legionnaires. Or I'd take some Heroclix super heroes!

Up next: Some more Star War Imperials are being based and I'm painting some 28mm French foot knights.

Rest of the Vikings

Last night I completed the rest of my DBA viking army using Wargames Factory plastics along with a few Old Glory pieces. I painted most of the figures back in March and then stalled out for a few weeks.

First up was a unit of 3Cv. These are Conquest Games Normans with Wargames Factory heads. I think they turned out just fine given my modest skills.

I also did two bases of spear-chuckin' 2Ps

There is one base of 7Hd--a lot of painting for one only quasi-useful unit. A couple of Old Glory guys help mix up the poses a bit. I was using WF generic dark age warrior sprues so the figures would be a bit plain if I used seven WF figs.

There are two bases of archers to give the Leidang some distance shooting options.

I also decided to add in a few figures for a HoTT version of the army. So far I have settled on three flyers to create some extra mobility. These are Gyre Falcons from Heroclix (I think).

Up next: Some 28mm foot knights are primed and ready to paint. And I'm at the basing stage for some more 25mm Star Wars Imperials. Tomorrow I will likely post a grab-bag selection of sci-fi minis for sale (25mm Aliens and Star Trek) and some much larger pewter Star Wars and Star Trek.

Club Night, April 5

We had 15 guys out last night for the club, with three big games running. I didn't get a picture of the WarMachine game (alas) but I did snap some nice ones of Dave's playtest of his MayDay game.

Here we have Scott and Mark setting up their side to win the first game. We managed to get through the scenario in about 90 minutes with a fair bit of learning. A close but decisive French win (6-4 maybe?).

Dave has done a nice job over the past two years of painting about 400 figures for the game. Here you can see some of the French guns. Dave sat in on the second game and was cursed by bad luck with the card (6-3 for the British?). Tough to advance on the left side when you have no troops there.

Justin put in a big game of Command Decision to test his MayDay game. Here, Andy deploys his Germans. Shouts of "I'm out of ammo" were heard from his position shortly before it was over run.

Up next: Some 28mm vikings. Then likely some more Star Wars Imperials. Then maybe some 28mm foot knights to finish off a French army.