Aaaarrrrggghhhh!!!

I spent a long time on these minis. I made sure temperature and the humidity was fine before I sprayed on the clear coat I used a hundred times. I even did a test spray to make sure all was well. Despite that, when I actually sprayed the figs, I got milky gunk all over. Some suggestions online involved respraying, but that didn't help. Anyone in the blogosphere have suggestions that don't involve a total repaint?

The areas in question.
UPDATE: Thanks for all the suggestions. In the end, I had to repaint. Will post some pics soon.

Some Bugbears and a Battle

Finally. I painted up some the stunning 15mm figs from Splintered Light I bought at the Spring RECRUITS earlier this year. This is a Bugbear Chieftain and his bodyguard. Since they were mostly brown (according to the ancient Monster Manual I own), I decided to make their gear mostly black. I wanted more of a tarnished look, so for these guys, I did more of a bronze armor. The rest, of which I bought a ton, will have more traditional steel/iron armor.
I'll have more painting to post tomorrow. Hopefully.

Last Thursday we ran Flower of Chivalry game. A blast as usual. I premiered the Battlelust wheel for keeping track of orders and each commands status. Went over well.
The battle itself had the usual push and pull, then one giant collapse we all have come to love.
Some highlights:

The king's battleline (I gotta figure out this camera)

The Pretender advances

There's cover in these woods men!

Steady! Hold that camera steady....

The king wades into the fray.

This Thursday is a Fast Play Grand Armee game.

Latest Member of the Basement Generals

Boudica. A 14 month old Great Dane. Long may she reign.

The Ork in the door...

...or an "In the Emperor's Name" play test. I mentioned in an earlier post how much I wanted to try these rules out, and why I was drawn to them, so I won't cover that. The only reason I haven't tried ITEN on a large scale is because I just didn't have the troops. Luckily one of the Basement Generals, Zombie J, has a had a secret stash of GW (well painted GW stuff) hidden away for some time. They finally got to see battle.
I wasn't sure what he had so we winged it with the scenario.

What do they say about "the bigger they are?"

" Krag III was an Imperial mining operation until it was cut off by a warp storm. Previous attempts to make contact have met with disaster. With a clearing in the cosmic weather, a small Space Marine detachment is sent to check things out. What they found was a colony virtually wiped out by Ork invaders, a renegade Guard unit unhappy with being left abandoned by humanity, and an Eldar civil War being fought on this desolate world."

The Death Jester waits....

Here's where we "break" most games. We generally have 6-8 people show up on a Thursday. Most games don't handle this well, and also throw in some experienced gamers who can find a crack in the mechanics very quickly. As much as I love some games we've playtested recently, they're dead to us now.

A fight over the wreckage of a Titan

ITEN held up really well. Everyone picked up the rules within minutes. If I would have known the forces we were playing with, I could have made individual quick reference sheets. You could play a large scale 40k-esque game in a decent amount of time.
But, back to the game. No sooner had I explained to a player that the reason he had so few Marines is that they were so bad-ass compared to my many poor Guardsmen, than I shot down 2 of his 6 said Marines.
That got a good laugh. He whacked 2 of my traitor Guard in return. On the far edge a group of Eldar and their troupe of Harlequins bounded forward, while the Guard unit mixed it up with some Dark Eldar and their Ork partners. The Eldar and Orks took heavy casualties. The Ork Boss decided it was a good idea to take cover in one of the buildings, sniping from the shadows despite his heavy armor. Thus the title of our post today.
We tried a long time to dig him out. Long after Eldar walker, the Terminator and the Death Jester  were gone, we were still trying to kill that pesky Ork. He finally went down under a combined 4 man melee from the Guard. Victory to the No Longer Imperial Guard. Krag III is a free colony!
These rules held up. We played a large game in 2 hours, with a lot of drinking (thus the crappy photos) and talking in between. I'm already thinking how to tweak for fantasy and take on Zombie J's large collection of Warmachine miniatures.

Who will be #100?

Almost there. We have 99 Followers. Who will be number 100?

UPDATE: 

tradgardmastare is number 100! Thanks to everybody who's been following my adventures in miniatures.

RECRUITS pics

I had another great time at RECRUITS this weekend. For once, instead of hosting I actually got to play in some games. At what games they were! I took a few pictures of the more interesting...
Friday night I played in a miniatures version of Commands and Colors put on by Honorary Basement General Crashdoggy, all the way in from Minnesota.

Here the the Boy moves in his heavies, only to be surrounded and crush by me. Mwahahahah!
As you can see in this picture RECRUITS is very kid friendly.

A close up of the minis.
Later, it was a Force on Force game in Rhodesia. Just look at those termite mounds.

Saturday morning I started off with an awesome game (also put on by Crashdoggy) in 54mm of the French and Indian War battle of Monogahela. The figs were gorgeous. The terrain great, and the rules (This Very Ground) terrific.

I had a blast with this game running the Courer de Bois. We, the French, had to keep the English from getting to Fort Ducane (Pittsburg).

For awhile, our hit and run tactics worked. But, then Braddock showed up with some reinforcements and we just couldn't hold on.

Then, I helped run a Post Apocalyptic version of my Fistful of Lead cowboy rules. It sounds weird, but it worked. Groups of scavengers were looking for loot on the ruins of an old city. You'd think we'd spend time shooting at each other, but there were enough surprises to keep us busy elsewhere.

Shoo fly, don't bother me...

There were plenty of other games I wasn't able to play in:

A stunning 20 foot long pirate game, complete with cannibals

Stalingrad

And many more. I'll be running something next Spring (there are 2 RECRUITS-cons a year). I picked up some figs I'll post here shortly.

Kickin' It Old School....

I admit it. When Citadel (before they were GW) released the first set of plastic Space Marines along with this giant book for something called "wargaming" named Rogue Trader, I was in love. For a short while, I saved what little my college era money I could, and bought everything I could of this strange Gothic future world. I had Epic, and Adeptus Titanicus and everything that went with them. Space Hulk followed. I grab every White Dwarf my tiny comic shop by school had. If it was "Chapter Approved" it was mine.

Then everything changed. They began to price themselves way out of my range. The forces became generic. The sculpts became goofy to me, and lacked character. I guess I grew up.
Then, recently I, like many discovered "In the Emperor's Name", a set of non-sanctioned sci-fi skirmish rules that seemed to take place in that far away gothic future where the undying Emperor still held sway. I dug out some old plastic the Boy had painted and gave them a whirl.
Simple, fun and easy to learn.

I found myself digging through the lead piles (or, as my wife calls it, the Isle of Misfit Toys). I found the first lead Space Marines I bought. Still base coated. It all came flooding back. They were fill of character, not like the nameless plastic legions now. Two have battle damage, one actually has a chunk blown off his armor. Each has customized armor and different weapons. A power sword, that looks like a power sword with wires sticking out? One has heads hanging from his belt. How cool is that?
I painted these as Crimson Fists in homage to the cover of that first plastic box set. Rather than use decals, I wanted their insignia to have that hand painted look, as if each had lovingly drawn theirs on their armor. I usually use washers for bases, but, maybe out of nostalgia  I kept the big plastic slotta-bases.

Battle report next week. Until then, see ya at RECRUITS!