I like to post pics from our games and find the Blogs are the best long format way to that (as modern social media is all short form).
In looking for some pics recently, I discovered this Feb 2024 game wasn't posted at the time, so I'm doing so retrospectively a few years later to capture it.
This Gobbos vs Beastmen battle was our first foray from WHFB 8th edition into Old World Rules, and Slowpainter John joined Reilly and I for this learning game.
We clearly had a good time based on all the beer steins that were in the original pics (and now edited out!)
The field of battle:
I didn't quite get to finish that broken tower but this was its first outing; as centre piece terrain it worked well (yes, that is a bathtub on the top level!)
The opposing armies:
My beastie boys
Reilly's lovely Goblin amy
Action shots:
No retreat! No Surrender!
Ouch!
My BSB that Reilly painted for me during AHPC
IIRC this did not end well for the Dragon Ogres...
Overall I recall we found the rules quite a good adaptation from 8th edition, though the changes to the magic system to integrate the effects in all turn phases will need more thought.
A few years ago (alright, it seems it was five...) I made myself a wonderfully indulgent big unit of old metal GW Minotaurs that were super fun to paint up:
Known as the "Minobus" it was brutally effective if pumped up with magic effects, and I had a few memorable games with them (including this one) before they were laid to one side in the name of sportsmanship.
Anyway, its now time to make another such indulgent unit, enabled by a surprise find at a local players' bring and buy held on Father's Day: metal GW Dragon Ogres from the late 90s.
Now I already have 3 of these beasts, plus the magic-using Shaggoth character...
2 of the 3 I ready have, acquired from an estate sale and need a strip &repaint
...and the maximum unit size is 9; so I'm thinking I can now field a maximum size unit OR 2 units each of 6 figures. That's rather terrifying!
Here is their entry in the Citadel Miniatures' 2000 Annual - looks like I have all the combinations. The cool spiked mace I have doesn't appear to be one of the original weapon options though so it must be a conversion.
Originally in WHFB these were on much much smaller square bases, but now in Old World they are on larger 50x75mm bases more suited to their length. Those are now on their way via EvilBay.
I'll get them stripped and prepped now but they may have to be a Christmas project - can't wait!
Michael Perry figures no less!
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Some inspiration for me to come back to later:
The model-painting workflow is:
Hyrex Brown undercoat → green skin → flesh → green shading/highlights → flesh highlights/wash → metals → leather → bone → scales → gold/brass → red plumes → final bone/eye highlights → leather highlights → base drybrush.
Paints used, in order
#
Paint
What it was used on
Stage
1
Colour Forge Hyrex Brown
Entire models, including the base
Warm brown basecoat/undercoat
2
Yellow Green – Dark
Lower half of the Dragon Ogres: legs/body sections
Green skin basecoat
3
Yellow Green – Standard
Lower green skin
Second green layer
4
Yellow Green – Bright
Lower green skin
Initial/highlight layer
5
Shadow Flesh
Human/flesh areas: face, chest, arms, belly and inner/sides of body
Flesh basecoat
6
Dark Warm Flesh
Same flesh areas
First flesh layer/highlight
7
Aonian Camo Shade
Green lower body/skin
Dark green shading/lowlights
8
Yellow Green – Bright
Green skin
Final bright green highlights
9
Darkest Flesh
Flesh areas
Flesh highlight
10
Warm Flesh
Flesh areas
Further flesh highlight
11
Wraith Flesh Shade(transcription uncertain)
Flesh areas
Wash/shade over the flesh
12
Leadbelcher
Metal: armour, weapons and other metal components
Metallic basecoat
13
Dark Umber
Leather straps and other leather parts
Leather basecoat
14
Black wash
Leather and metal; also used later to tidy areas around horns/metal
Shading
15
Sandy Dust
Teeth, horns, claws and back spikes — all bone-coloured areas
Bone basecoat
16
Green(specific colour not stated)
Individual scales, including scales on the back
Scale colour
17
Screaming Bell
Brass/gold areas, specifically the Chaos Star/sword and associated gold/brass details
I travelled a lot for work last month, including a visit to Omaha, Nebraska - home to US STRATCOM and the museum of its forebear US STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND (SAC).
The museum houses some fabulous exhibits and unique artefacts from the SAC era. Some of them my camera just couldn't do justice to, but here is a selection:
B-1A 'Lancer' bomber - this one is the fourth and last built. First flown in 1979 as a test bed for the B-1B program
Some of the original C2 equipment from SAC's HQ in "the Pit" as the the underground facility was known
Which then would pass targeting data and firing orders to launch platforms - airborne bombers, SSBNs at sea, and ICBM silos - like this MINUTEMAN launch facility
Readying these:
To deliver these to their targets:
Minuteman II ICBM delivery vehicle
All the while General Curtis LeMay would have been at his desk:
As well as strike and C2 assets, Aerial Reconnaissance and Intel gathering was strongly supported in the Museum also
Gary Powers' Silver Star, awarded posthumously in 2012, for "enduring nearly two years of harsh interrogation and imprisonment in Moscow"
Specialised U-2 pilot suit
Coincidentally, a week later in the Spy Museum in Washington DC, I came across these:
The fabulous SR-71 also greets you as you walk in the front door!
I've got a thing for Sabres and MiG alley aircraft...
There was an incredible array of other large SAC bombers that I just couldn't get descent pics of, but it was amazing to walk around them including two B17s, B36, B47, and Vulcan bomber.
B-29: one of 22 airframes remaining intact
Just for you James! :-)
Inside the B-29 cockpit, including the Norden aiming device
Separately, they had some neat Aerospace artefacts on display too
Not so coincidentally, I then attended the Offutt Air Force Base Airshow at the end of the week. Lots of great displays, including some historic warbirds.
But what most took me was the opportunity to clamber around inside a B-52 bomber. A USAF friend of mine retired last month, and I got a pic in his old seat in one of his old tail numbers, which was pretty cool.
Tail number 60-0060 "Iron Butterfly"
B-52 Cockpit
B-52 Navigator Station
Yes- the same seat James Earl Jones occupied as Lt Lothar Zogg in the movie Dr Strangelove!
Interestingly, the seats in this lower crew section eject downwards!
