To the Strongest has been released!

They're here at last! Simon Miller a.k.a. BigRedBat has just released his long awaited "To the Strongest!" rule set to the wider gaming community for purchase.

I've been reading loads of battle reports and ogling the images from Simon's games for some time, both in general interest and also whilst doing the layout work for Wargame Bloggers Quarterly. If they are even a fraction as good as they look you'll not be disappointed.

In Simon's own words...

I have developed the rules for gaming both for use here in the BigRedBatCave, and for running huge wargames at shows. They are designed to be simple enough for novices to the ancient and medieval periods to easily pick up, whilst, at the same time, providing seasoned gamers with a challenging battle that can be comfortably concluded in an evening (with a glass of beer or wine to hand).

What's not to like?!? Hop on over to http://bigredbatshop.co.uk and grab yourself a copy ASAP.

Cheers,

Millsy

The Silence of the Interwebs

I must apologise for the lack of promised blog activity, alluded to in my last post. Not 24 hours had elapsed since that statement whereupon my internet was terminated by one rather powerful and well aimed lightning strike upon my local telephone exchange.

Site of my former local telephone exchange *

As of this morning normal service has finally been resumed so hopefully things can begin ticking over again in the immediate future...

* Artists rendition. May not be the actual telephone exchange or even remotely to scale. So sue me.

Cheers,
Millsy

Sons of Death WIP, or With A Little Kelp From My Friends

Although it's getting to be a busy time as we approach the festive season, I have found a little time to paint up some more of the Sons of Death for SAGA.

The kelp seashore basing I started last week has turned out quite nicely; I began with a base coat in a dull earthen brown, inked in dark brown. When that dried, I highlighted the raised surfaces and edges in a light tan, and gave the fronds a glaze of green ink to finish. The rocks were finished in a light tone to duplicate the weathered surfaces found on the storm-wracked shores of the grey northern seas...

Don't try and get poetic, Ev, stick to painting.

I'm quite happy with that, so I'll carry the basing scheme over to the remaining seven figs in the unit. I'm working my way towards completion, slowly but surely! Here are the three figures which are closest to their finished state.

YEAARRGGGHHH!! Stubbed my bloody toe!!!

(Grumpy SoD...)

"Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera..."

A few finishing touches yet to be done, but I think that they'll turn out OK (fingers crossed!).

Don't forget that the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge kicks off on 5 December; the blogosphere's finest brushmeisters, figlimners, modeltintists and pigmentophorists will be competing for the approbation of their fellows by painting up a storm over the following three months.

C&G's own Millsy has thrown his hat into the ring, and we are in no doubt that he will acquit himself honourably, so stay tuned!

Ev

Paint Table Saturday

The paint table is something of a chaotic frenzy at present as I attempt to both prepare for AHPCV and at the same time finish a bunch of half completed projects I want done before it starts.

At present I'm still working my way through my Epic Squats which was held up for a period by a bunch of eBay auctions, all of which have now arrived. In the interim I went back to my Savage Orcs which have also moved along as you can see with another unit of Arrer Boyz nearing completion and a second set of trolls in the works. Pretty much none of this is challenge material apart from yet more of the Savage Orcs so it all needs clearing out quick smart...

Stay tuned for a couple more blog posts this weekend as I try and get some stuff shifted, plus catch up on a batrep and a few other bits and bobs from the last two weeks or so.

Cheers,
Millsy

Paint Table Saturday - Gael Force!

It's been a busy old week, what with assorted work commitments and non-hobby craft projects (event decoration, believe it or not), but I have still managed to get some traction on the next instalment in my own personal SAGA, the Gall-Gaedhill, or Sons of Death. These Hebridean maniacs will be deployed in support of my Scots (these braw laddies).

OK, so while I was clearly over-optimistic in thinking I'd have enough hobby time to complete eight of these chaps, I threw all my effort into painting up just one and seeing how he turned out. I find that if I paint one fig close to completion, I get a bit more inspired - it sort of worked with the Scots, although the 41 figs for that warband still took over a year to finish...

Anyway, dubious motivational techniques aside, here is the first of the fun-loving Norse Gael for your consideration.

He's bare-legged, like his Scots neighbours, but I decided to steer clear of the tartan and go for a more Viking-influenced colour scheme.

The tunic is plain cloth, but with the decorative borders favoured by Norse folk. I'm not quite up to duplicating the intricate tablet-woven decorative braid designs used all over the Viking world, at least not yet! Shield transfers are by Steve Hales over at Little Big Men Studios.

Here you can see the tufted wool cloak (vararfeldr) common across the Viking world. This one is in grey vadmal, or woollen cloth, with tufts of undyed wool yarn pulled through the weave and knotted to hold them in place. This is a bit of a change from all the plaids I painted up for the Scots; I want these guys to be similar to, but readily distinguishable from the men of Alba.

Here you can see what I've been trying out with the basing. As the Norse Gael were pretty much equal-opportunity raiders, hitting any and all of their neighbours up and down the Irish Sea, I'm trying for a kelp-strewn sea shore. The strands of kelp have been modelled from green stuff, and will be painted brown and given a coat of gloss varnish to give them a suitably 'wet' look. If this looks the business, I'll give the rest of the unit the same treatment.

So, that's it for this week; as now is the time of year when family commitments start to pile up, I can't promise another post for Paint Table Saturday for the next few weeks, but I may be able to get a few out-of schedule posts going in between times.

In any event, you can be guaranteed a packed program over the next few months as the estimable Mr Mills embarks upon the Fifth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge -  this year's theme is 'Anti-Heroes, Rogues and Ruffians', which describes the louche habitués of C&G perfectly!

So stay tuned - more painty goodness coming soon!

Ev

Paint Table Saturday

"Gentles, methinks you frown:

And wherefore gaze this goodly company,

As if they saw some wondrous monument,

Some comet or unusual prodigy?"

The Taming of the Shrew, Act III, Scene II

Ev's doing a spot of painting. I think that qualifies as unusual.

Back to SAGA again, to prepare some reinforcements for my six points of Scots; those Norse-Gael ne'er-do-wells, the Gall-Gaedhill, or 'Sons of Death' as they are also known. Mr and Mrs Death must be so proud!

Hoping to get a decent start on painting before the weekend's out, so stay tuned!

Ev

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is on again!

So Curt's therapist has said it's OK for him to be allowed back out into the general population once more and guess what? The first thing he does is go bonkers and open up this year's painting challenge! How the man does it is beyond me and he deserves every plaudit for hosting this kind of epic madness on an ongoing basis.

Not one to let something like this pass me by I've thrown my brush into the ring again this year to the tune of 2,000 points. The last two years that I've participated I've knocked out totals of 1,168 and 1,723 so this is a further stretch for me.

I wasn't too concerned about my proposed total until I realised I've got to do the entire layout for Issue Three of Wargame Bloggers Quarterly at the same time. Ha! That's what I get for not thinking too carefully about my commitments before opening my big mouth.

Oh well, whaddya gonna do? It's on like Donkey Kong!

PS. I'm onto you Ev, so you can stop trying to bump up my promised points total before I even start...

Cheers,
Millsy

200 followers!

Overnight it seems we passed the 200 followers milestone. When we kicked the blog off many moons ago we never had such lofty ambitions but sometimes these things just happen I guess.

In passing the 200 we welcome aboard MSRyan, Andrew, Leofwine Wargamerson and DaggerAndBrush. Hopefully our new friends (and our old ones) find more than a little of interest here. Please keep leaving your comments and thoughts. The stats matter little in comparison to these little nuggets.

Given we have only just done a compo recently we'll forgo it this time. You'll just have to be happy with the sense of knowing that if we had done one you would almost certainly have won exactly what you've always wanted. Unless the Badger got in first. :-)

Cheers,

Millsy

Wargame Bloggers Quarterly Issue Two is OUT!

It is with great pleasure the Editorial Panel can announce that the much anticipated Issue Two of Wargame Bloggers Quarterly is out now and ready for you to download!

Issue Two is a massive 39 pages and packed with great photos and content from across the wargaming blogosphere. It features articles on a range of topics and periods including Ancients, Colonials and Napoleonics as well as VBCW (alternate history) and even Lord of the Rings.

Just like Issue One you can expect cracking images and some wonderfully entertaining reading. We hope you enjoy it!

Get your copy of Issue Two here...

PS. I'd like to thank Dave Docherty for doing such a wonderful job as Editor-in-Chief and all our authors for their patience and enthusiasm. It makes my job as designer so much easier and a pleasure as well.

Cheers,
Millsy

Army Gallery Pages

I have a lot of stuff. I've never denied it and at times revel in it. There is an obvious issue with this however in that sometimes even I can't remember what I have or when it last saw the light of day.

That being the case, I've decided to start collecting all the various images and content from across the blog which relate to specific armies in my collection. I'm doing this partly for insurance and documentation purposes but also so that it is easy to share galleries of painted armies for those interested.

Tonight I put together the first one - Heinrich Kemmler's Undead Army of the Cairns for Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

Feel free to have a look and tell me what you think. I plan to do at least one a month hopefully.

Cheers,
Millsy