New Scenery Commission

Regular readers of the Tangent may have noted the lack of SSL-specific scenery, so decided to make amends.

To this end I've tapped up my scenery man; Paul's Modelling Workshop to start making up some suitably sized buildings to fight through, round, and over. Below is an example Paul has sent me of an Elf watchtower he's made in 28mm.

Given the exceptional standard of the swamp, Roman roads, and wooded sections he's already made me, I can't wait for the two towers I've just ordered.

Still debating whether to get the 15mm Roman villa ordered from Paul as well. From talking to Dan Mersey, author of Song of Arthur & Merlin, Glutter of Ravens, and Dux Bellorum, turns out he lives in the next town along the coast. So threat of 15mm Dark Ages wargaming looms.

2011 review, and plans for 2012

As 2011 fizzles out, I'm starting to look at next year, and what I'm planning to get painted/played, and also look back on this year and review how it went.

As it turned out, this year has been pretty good, all in all. I painted a 15mm Romano-British warband, sort of started a Saxon warband to fight against them. Got plenty of Splintered Lands painted, and bought - Dwarfs and Beastlands. Also invested in a fair amount of scenery.

Gaming-wise played Brytenwalda a few times, but then got diverted back to my favourite of Song of Splintered Lands. Played a bit of Song of Arthur & Merlin, and a couple of other randoms such as Sturmovik Commander.

Next year I'm planning on the following;

Saga; already got a load of Musketeer early Saxons unpainted. Think I'll get some bigger shields for them to make them later, then painting them up for Saga and Song of Arthur & Merlin

Splintered Lands: lots of painting to do here, and hopefully lots of games.

Bag The Hun; Already have enough 1/600 to replay the Battle of Britain in 1:1, so just need a hex mat/map. Discovered a website with aerial reconnaissance photos of Blighty taken by the RAF in 1946. So, stitched together a load of them from Woodmancote - a village about 5 miles North of here. Slowly colouring them in, and will get that to a Graphic/Printers to be printed on a 4 x 6 vinyl mat with hexes over the top

The actual image I'm working on is currently 13mb and enormous - haven't worked out what scale it'll be in when printed at that size, so may need to add bits later on. Strangely therapeutic process, and enjoying mucking about with Gimp trying to recreate fields to the human eye.

So what's in the pipeline for you next year?

Beards and Cheese

Looking back over the blog, it's been interesting to note my gradual loss of gaming mojo in the last twelve months. Of late I've painted nothing, gamed even less, and displayed the classic symptoms of a gamer scratching around for inspiration.

So, last weekend I embarked on a proper tidy up of the lead pile. The intention was to spark a bit of interest in my hobby, and to give myself the opportunity to sift through the vast mountain of stuff and perhaps sell a few bits.

Typically I didn't find anything I really wanted to sell, having sold off all the really useless stuff a few years back. Nonetheless, a tidy workbench is a productive workbench. Probably.

Alongside that an incident with the boiler at home (no, not that one, the one which heats the water) prompted local chum Stuart at the Great Game to offer to buy my 28mm town scenery from me - some of which can be seen here;


I've had it a number of years, made for me by a bloke in Oz. It's probably only been used in anger no more than a dozen times, and has spent the last couple of years languishing in another friend's gaming hut/shed/thing. Stuart has a son and they're both into 28mm WW2 at the moment, so it'll be going to a good home.

This sale is rather convenient in terms of timing and funds. A week or so ago I was in a cantankerous mood, and decided to email the local gaming circle about restarting Blood Bowl. For reasons which would take ages to explain, Blood Bowl had become the byword for Beardy Cheese Play and after running in a very active league, we all dropped it. I was surprised, therefore, when all bar one person readily agreed. So now I need to buy a team.

The person to blame for this, I've decided, is Laughing Ferret Labs. Quite apart from having a bloody brilliant blog, detailing a steady descent into gaming madness, he's also a dab hand at painting things. Especially Blood Bowl teams. If I wasn't reading about his Blood Bowl teams so often it never would have occurred to me to mention it to anyone. Honest.

My previous BB team was a Shadowforge Bunny Girl team, supported by a Heresy Ogre. They looked brilliant, but were pretty crap on the table. Not entirely their fault it must be said, as I've never been a great tactical player, especially with the wonky rules GW tend to turn out. The girls were sold a number of years back for a rather large sum of cash, so the hunt begins. It might be a short hunt, truth be told, because Impact! Miniatures do a Scotling team, and being descended of the mighty clan Hamilton that appeals to me. (I should state I am in no way Scottish. I'm Sussex.)

Last but by no means least, Mike of Little Odo's Blogspot is probably going to make the perilous journey South West from his vast mansion in Kent to push lead round a table, eat food, and generally talk rubbish. Games we're intending on are Song of Splintered Lands, and probably something Dark Ages like Saga.

This may happen in November. Which November is entirely open because both of us work and have families, so getting to play with toy soldiers for any length of time requires planning and co-ordination which makes Overlord look like it was jotted down on the back of a Woodbine packet.

So, that's that. 28mm WW2 is now to the bottom of the pile for me - which is a touch sad, because it's what got me back into wargaming back in 2005. Blood Bowl rears it's ugly UgoIgo head again. I've got even more to paint. And, I've still not painted anything.

Just to finish, here's some Splintered Light Badgers and chums lurking about the woods looking menacing. 'You want some? You want some? Grrrr... I'll bite yer face off'

Roman villa; abandoned or not?

I'm on a scenery vibe at the moment. I've not bothered with it much since I commissioned a whole town of 28mm WW2 stuff back in 2005. Further discussions with Paul's Modelling Workshop about where to go next with the 15mm stuff yielded this;





A provincial Roman Villa - this one being 28mm, but you get the idea. A 15mm version would be around 8" x 10" (roughly the size of an A4 sheet of paper) - which given a typical 15mm skirmish board is rarely bigger than 48" x 48", and more normally 24" x 24" makes it a fairly sizeable thing to fight over/round/through.

This would give my Romano-British something to fight for, and something for my Saxons to raid, not to mention the Scots-Irish and Pictish warbands also in the club. As with the other pieces, it would also double up for Songs of Splintered Lands, and Pride of Lions (if I ever get that far).

The decision I'm stuck on is whether to have the Villa abandoned, or have it occupied in a good state of repair?

Historically the villas remained in use after 465AD, but seem to have slowly fallen into disrepair as the old skills were lost, and the Saxons encroached ever further westwards. From a gaming perspective it has relative merits either way.

Thoughts, chaps?

Scenery Pt.II

Hurrah!

The rest of the scenery pics arrived.
Marsh/Swamp area


Woodland section


Another view of the section above, plus the other section of the set.


Very pleased with these - will photograph accordingly when they appear.

Now thinking about what to add next - an abandoned Roman Villa is an idea which won't go away.

Commissioned Scenery

Nothing has happened in my world of wargaming of late. I bought a Splintered Light 'Beastlands' warband a few months back, half started painting them, then lost interest in the whole thing. The reasons for this are manifold, and beyond explanation in print as they'd really need a supporting powerpoint presentation, and I do enough of that with the day job.

This morning, an unexpected email appeared from the chap I'd commissioned four or five months ago to make some 15mm scenery. To be honest, I'd given up expecting anything from him, and was considering cancelling the cheque.

So, the email was most welcome for this reason, and primarily because it contained pictures of what he's made.



Now, suddenly, I'm looking forward to turfing out my Saxon warband to paint them up to fight my Romano-British - probably using Saga - and will also crack on with the Dwarf and Beastland warbands for Splintered Lands.

Happy gamer.

More pics when they arrive and I've got my grubby palms on them and scattered toy soldiers artistically across them.