This blog has existed in various guises since late 2002 (although posts are pretty bland back there), so it’s probably time I instituted an annual round up to try and determine what I achieved in the past year. Like most hobbyists I’m easily distracted by any new and shiny figures and/or terrain, so tend to have a lot of partially completed projects on the go. Hopefully annual round ups will nudge me to complete a few.
Here’s a couple of highlights from each month.
January
I finished the majority of my modular Mordheim table which is now covered with a thick layer of dust. It seems no sooner had I finished it I started playing Flames of War instead!
I picked up a 30mm Freebooter Miniatures Fantasy Mercenary figure and some Peter Pig 15mm WWII Germans, neither of which have been painted yet. Although the Freebooter mini has been based and primed.
February
A bunch of Crescent Root Studios 15mm buildings arrived and were painted next month. They’ve since proved invaluable for my Flames of War North African table and I’ve lost track of the number of times my British Sherman III’s and NZ infantry have used them to hide from German guns. Crescent Root have enhanced their 15mm line now and gone from the solid buildings I have to ones with hollow interiors and removeable roofs. Definitely worth picking some up if you play FOW in the North African campaign.
Made some progress on the Vampire Counts themed tower I started way back in October 2004! Err yes, it still hasn’t been finished though. Maybe this year?!
March
I built a 40k CD Terrain piece for a friendly competition over on the PitYak forums. Turned out quite nicely I thought. It’s since appeared on Terragenesis.
I discovered Pulp .45 Adventure which is a great 28mm scale skirmish rule set for Pulp gaming. The Garage Gamers have played a fair bit of .45 since then and over the course of 2006 I picked up a number of 28mm pulp figures and 1:56th vehicles as you’ll see below.
I started casting for a Hirst Arts Cathedral. The majority of which is still laying in pieces under my work table. I have a problem in that I need to find a better glue for Ultracal 30 than DIY woodworker’s PVA. The Cathedral includes a lot of long linear pieces which I simply cannot get to stick together long enough to assemble. I’m also concerned the resulting piece will be rather weak. Maybe something to sort out in 2007.
April
Created the 15mm Observation Post for my trench kits, mainly because I wanted some for myself. Although of course I haven’t quite got around to constructing a trench set for my own North African table yet.
I started buying a slew of 28mm figures for Pulp gaming, starting with Germans. My Pulp figures all come from Artizan Designs, Copplestone Castings and most recently Obelisk Miniatures. All of which are excellent independent figure companies. I’ve even managed to paint a few in 2006.
May
More Pulp figures arrived, this time from Copplestone Castings. Now I have nasty Nazis and a suitably diverse team of adventurers to thwart their evil plans.
I picked up several Hirst Arts Egyptian molds for Pulp terrain and build a few things with them. Hirst Arts molds are really excellent and will last a lifetime of gaming. I’ve owned some since early 2003 and have lost track of how many casts I’ve made from them with no damage at all to the mold.
I started on a drive to finish painting my FOW NZers because I started a German DAK Armored Company. This army has been based and largely primed but that’s all so far. They’re on the ‘to do’ list for 2007 too.
June
I created a bunch of simple wire 15mm Palm Trees for North Africa, that also turned out to be ideal for Pulp gaming! I love it when terrain can be reused for multiple game systems. My Flames of War table has seen duty as a dusty Wild West town, the rough back streets of Cairo, as well as numerous Egyptian or North African deserts.
Sticking with the Flames of War theme I also created a bunch of simple tumble-down 15mm stone walls which give my poor bloody NZ infantry something to shelter behind in the open desert.
July
Flames of War 2nd Edition was released. We’ve only just got around to playing these new rules towards the end of 2006, but I wish we’d all started earlier because they’re a definite improvement on the first edition. Battlefront also gained a lot of customer goodwill from the way they released these rules too.
Finished my main FOW NZer force. I still have a couple of transport lorries and Quad gun tractors malingering on my paint station to finish up though, which I’ll do in 2007 because I’ll need them for DAK ‘recovered’ transport as well.
August
I published an RTV mold making tutorial which is still proving to be very popular, drawing in referrals from a lot of related hobby sites in Europe mostly. A lot of people don’t realise how easy it can be to master and mold your own original works with the inexpensive RTV rubbers you can buy these days and it was a discussion with a visitor to my forums that prompted me to create this tutorial.
I started working on a 15mm 1930’s building facade for Flames of War by creating a set of resin window frames. I’m still struggling to get this master finished and molded, but have made some progress, including posting a full scale mock up a couple of weeks ago.
September
I spent most of this month building 28mm Egyptian terrain for Pulp .45 Adventure gaming. I also received eight excellent 28mm Middle Eastern buildings from Crescent Root Studios. Half of these have been painted to date and they’re great for pulp gaming.
Figure wise I picked up some giant scorpions from Heresy Miniatures that I’ve half painted, and a bunch of 17mm Middle Eastern Moderns from Flashpoint Miniatures which I haven’t touched since then.
October
The highlight of this month was putting together a cheap airbrush setup thanks to TradeMe and Phil over at PitYak Studios. I still haven’t knuckled down and mastered it yet mind you, but do have a couple of bits and pieces I wouldn’t mind airbrushing. Another task for 2007.
I wrote an original Pulp .45 Adventure scenario which was quite enjoyable to play over the terrain I’d built specifically for it. It formed the start of a short campaign I put together for three of my regular gaming mates. Considering it was a rather experimental set of scenarios we played I think the players enjoyed themselves.
November
Continuing with the Pulp campaign I threw together the world’s cheapest tomb terrain. Considering it didn’t even have walls it actually worked out quite well to play over.
In a moment of madness I bought some 15mm Corvus Belli Ancients from Olympian Games! I’ve since cleaned and based a few of them ready for painting in the new year. They’re the cheapest two armies I’ve purchased to date and will be used for DBA gaming. Really they were purchased simply because I wanted to paint some 15mm Ancients!
December
Scroll back a few pages and you can see what I achieved in December. Painting 28mm Pulp Germans and cleaning up 15mm Ancients mostly.
Not a bad year hobby wise, with a clear focus on Flames of War and Pulp gaming. I learned a few things along the way and picked up some new equipment to experiment with. However I definitely started more projects than I completed though, so in 2007 I aim to reverse that trend. Probably the easiest way to do that is simply stop buying new figures, vehicles and terrain and get stuck into the stuff already kicking around in my garage cupboards. Heh, we’ll see how long that resolution lasts!
Anyway, thanks to anybody that stopped by and posted a comment, you all had interesting things to say and added a lot to this blog, as well as showed me a few new game systems and a few valuable tips along the way. Have a good break and see you in 2007!