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Friday 25 March 2016

Fellowship of the Miniatures Painting Challenge 2016

Wood Elf Sentinal 
My entry for the 2016 Fellowship of the Miniatures painting challenge, Red Widow the Elven Sentinal.

I began painting this miniature with a mind to enter a female character that wasn't one of the obvious ones from the books or movies. I then decided I would go a step further and create my own character based on the female Wood Elf Sentinal miniature. 










God bless you this Easter. 


Tuesday 22 March 2016

Immortals Wargaming Club Miniature Painting Competition

Immortals Miniature Wargaming Club
On Monday night I was a judge at the Immortals Painting Competition. Vanessa and I managed to get through judging a few dozen miniatures from three categories in just under three hours. No mean feat! The standard of painting was incredible. I snapped some photos on my phone but you can see better ones (soon) on the Immortals Facebook page.

Phillip Porter takes professional photos of each entry. 










Vanessa watches as the totals are tallied. 

Champion Claire with her winning miniature. 

Awards on the sponsors table. 

Thanks to Daniel for inviting me. It was an amazing night with so many inspirational works of art. My photos do them no justice.

Although Warhammer 40k was a popular choice, there where also miniatures from other wargames, from Lord of the Rings to Malifaux. However, Claire's excellent Space Marine took out the small category and was also the overall winner. Her attention to fine detail was beyond compare.

God bless you and have a great week.





Sunday 20 March 2016

Morgul Orcs + Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game

The Orcs are coming! 
Thanks to a full week and weekend, I spent a few hours today taking some time out with brush in hand. The result was seven more painted Orcs from the (Games Workshop) Lord of the Rings line. These were ones I bought on Trade Me and had been disarmed. A few minutes with liquid glue and my bits box had them ready for action.

You may recognise swords and shields from Elves and Men, taken up from the fallen on battle fields across Middle Earth. I enjoy how easy it is to modify these miniatures (the upside of plastic). Sculpts by the Perry twins are also full of detail. Check out the teeth!



This was an awesome speedy effort for #paintingtablesaturday and also a record smashing  #oneminieveryweek (one for each day!) Now it's time to hit the books.

Enjoy your week and God bless.

Saturday 12 March 2016

Clonar Sternbrow + Aurock Storrirkin + Asgard Barbarians


Barbarian Warpack 
The last couple of weeks have been away from the painting table as I have been traveling in my new role as Youth Ministry Coordinator and helping out at local community events. 

A few quiet hours with brush in hand have been most enjoyable. I finished painting two more Asgard Barbarians, BP1 Clonar Sternbrow and BP8 Aurock Storrirkin, bringing the total to seven.

Clonar Sternbrow





Aurock Storrirkin 









These are the other Jes Goodwin miniatures I have painted from the Asgard Barbarian Warpack:

BP3 Kern the Reaver
BP7 Arflane the Archer
BP9 Skai Wolfbane
BP10 Alaric Mancleaver
BP11 Karl Two Cuts

God's peace. Enjoy your week!

Friday 11 March 2016

Wasteman by Jason Fairclough + Games Night

I haven't posted any photos from the games table in a long time. Rest assured the Tamahere Officer's Club is still going strong. Apart from the regular variety of wargames, boardgames and RPG's, there is always the chance something new will be brought to the table. This is exactly what happened last Tuesday night, when Lewis ran a game he had been preparing over the last few weeks: Wasteman. Here is the game report from Lewis:

Last night we played Wasteman for the first time.
This is new game made by an excellent fellow called Jason Fairclough. You can see more Wasteman here: http://www.tcminiatures.co.uk/#!wasteman/clrb

Now I'm probably a bit biased when it come to this game as I'm a Gamma World fan from way back, and I gotta tell ya that this game nails the Gamma World vibe on the head.
But don't take my word for it. Lets see how a game plays out!

We played a scenario called Convoy, where one faction's vehicle has broken down in the middle of the board and another faction needs to have a model within 5" at the end of the game to win. How lucky to have broken down outside the old Cherry 2000 franchise...


Our hapless travelers were consisted of a group of bandits: 3 "Hazmatadors", Nurse Betty (sorry about the unfinished paintjob), a titanotron demolition robot, (Old Yello), and their leader, Olga the Cruel.


You get a nifty card for each figure! Unfortunately their party is about to be crashed by Cybjorgs - Swiss cyborgs gone rogue :-)





The Cyborgs entered from both ends of the table intent on destruction, however the Cybjorg Jarl got a bit ahead of himself and was jumped by Olga and Big Yello.



You might notice bottle caps. These are activation counters specially made for each faction by Jason. How cool is that!!

Meanwhile at the other end of the table Nurse Betty was getting a drilling from Grendel, resulting in her being "crippled", (That's what the lightening bolt counter means). In this game you can be Spooked, Crippled or Seriously injured. Spooked; loose an action, Crippled: slow move and decreased attack, Seriously injured; out of play till healed. And of course you can wind up Dead too.


It seemed a good idea to knobble Nurse Betty first as she was medic for the bandits. If the Cybjorgs could take her out, any bandit who went down would stay down. 


However Grendel's drills still left her mobile, so it was time for a little chicanery called a MAD card, (Mutual Assured Destruction). 

Each player gets five of these cards at the start of the game. They represent weird stuff that occurs in the post apocalyptic world, from alien abductions to mega tornadoes. Eldritch Madness allowed the Cybjorg player to take over a bandit (Mr Hazmatador) who he used to shoot Nurse Betty. 

It was all to no avail, and the bandits proceeded to take out a nasty minigun armed Cybjorg, Tobledrone.


As Nurse Betty hobbled away, Grendel bored into another bandit. Goregasm!! 
(Goregasm is a special ability for chainsaws, drills etc that almost guarantees splatter).

Check out that measuring stick!


It wasn't looking too good for the bandits.
With Olga and Big Yello engaged elsewhere, the remaining Hazmatadors made a last stand by the truck.


Grendel managed to spook both of them, but wait, what's this?


Big Yello rushes in!
Only to be smashed to bits by Grendel's whiring drills of death!!


Olga arrives in the nick of time, only to be crippled.


And this is when Nurse Betty steps from the shadows and heals Olga, who promptly put a pickaxe through Grendel's eye. Good work Ladies!


However It'll take more than a pickaxe to the eye to take down this Cybjorg. Being surrounded, Grendel is feeling the heat, and is luckily abducted by aliens, courtesy of another MAD card. This means he disappears for a turn, then returns next turn to the same spot. A lucky escape...
Olga take the opportunity to beat down the Cybjorg Jarl who was heading for the vending machine. If you stop at a vending machine in Wasteman, you can get extra MAD cards. This is handy as an extra hand!


Olga feeds the coins, and the vending machine spits out 3 more MAD cards for the bandits.


Grendel returns from his probing, but he's in a bad way.... (crippled).



......and Olga returns to finish him off.
With a fresh handful of MAD cards the bandits make short work of the remaining Cybjorgs. One is shot and the last is squashed by a passing Globestrider!

Gotta say that this game was a blast.
The rules are quick and easy to learn, and with the addition of MAD cards it rewards tactical play.
It has a kind of Rogue Trader charm to it, especially with the cool chunky sculpts that are reminiscent of the late 80's 40K figures. 

And the quality of the game components is outta sight! Virtually no flash on the figures! Scenery such as couches to put round the radpit, vending machines, toxic waste barrels dissolving bodies and unexploded nukes!! The cards even remind me of the Starwars card I used to buy when you still got bubble gum with the cards, (showing my age there). That's not even to mention the monogramed bottle caps as activation markers. Eye candy double plus.

So I give Wasteman a big thumbs up.
It does it for me, but then I've been waiting for this game since the mid 80's when I first played Gamma World.
And so have you.
Buy it.
Now.