X Wing, Holidays and Common Ground Games

 The 3 R's, Reillys Random Ramblings

Its been a bit quiet on here the last couple of weeks, I took a bit of time out with the family for a couple of weeks, heading up, possibly for the last time without a passport, to Scotland. A lovely cottage in the Pentland Hills a short journey from Edinburgh and a great time was had by all.

I'm very lucky in the fact that Baby R (14 now and taller than me) and Mrs R indulge my hobby and join in on the odd game or two especially on holidays. X Wing has been on my radar for a while, any regular readers of the blog will realise by now that I am generally 18 months or so behind the curve with new stuff. I see something think, oh that's nice and I'll be halfway through a project and put it to one side then suddenly remember my interest a year or so later.

So onto X Wing, I don't plan to review the game in detail that's been done at length elsewhere. I will say that I am very impressed by the whole thing. The starter set shown above comes with everything you need to get going. There are three ships with the game the iconic X Wing itself and two opposing Tie Fighters, dice, movement templates, tokens, game cards, the lot. The production on the game is fantastic, very high quality, the ship models themselves are really good, great detail and a cracking paint job. Some "pre painted" stuff is dreadful but this is much much better I don't know how they do it. For so long I have been used to buying rules and figures and then waiting months until I have enough for a game, opening a box and playing straight away is new and fun.

As for game play its great, easy to pick up but not too simple, lots of variation between ships and characters, we had some cracking games. New ships to add to the game can be picked up for between £10 and £12, I think that's pretty good value. As stated above they are really well painted and come with high quality movement base, counters and cards for the ship itself. When I think I was paying this and more to the completely useless "Mongoose Publishing" for unpainted Star Fleet ACTA stuff a couple years ago ( which surprise, surprise they dropped and screwed up, never ever buy anything from Mongoose ).

The back story to X Wing was its purchase. One of the first ports of call on any Scottish Holiday is Static Games in Glasgow, sadly they didn't have a copy of the starter set, lots of ships but no game, we tried Black Lion Games in Edinburgh who had very little of anything along with every Waterstones and Forbidden Planet, no joy. I went on the tinternetweb and found Common Ground Games in Stirling and The Games Hub in Edinburgh, two places I wasn't aware of, at 7pm I e-mailed both asking if they had the game. An hour later CGG had got back to me with a positive result and put a copy under the counter for me. The Games Hub still haven't got back to me, they haven't got any of my money either !

We travelled over the next day and picked the game up with a couple of extra ships. I was very impressed with the layout, there is a well stocked shop area with a good selection of figs, board games and accessories. Added to that is a nice cafe area to chill out in which is tagged on to a really big games room.

We had a nice chat with the owner who is clearly enthusiastic about gaming and his store. Most game shops are tiny in the UK and struggle to fit a 6x4 table in and when they do you can't get to the stock, this was, to me, different and a great step forward. Leeds is 8 times bigger than Stirling and has nothing like this, if I lived in the area I would be a regular, if you need some re enforcements during a game you can pop next door and buy them ! I wish Common Ground Games every success and will certainly be back to visit.

1/3000th WW2 Naval - From box to table

1/3000 WW2 Naval - From box to table

After the success of the last (and first) From Box to Table blog, which got half as much again in reads as my previous most popular post, I thought I would continue with the idea as its clearly useful for some of you guys and gals to see how I do stuff and hopefully get some ideas for your own painting. I started reading other blogs to get ideas, if I can pass on ideas to others then that's great.

A British destroyer finished with the method described below

This post covers 1/3000 Naval, which has consistently been the least popular (usually half the normal numbers of reads) so probably not the best way to increase my follower numbers but its what was next in the production list. I have used this method for years, I used to paint 1/6000 Figurehead ships for Hallmark so that the owner had a stock of painted stuff to sell at shows so I can safely say I have done thousands of ships this way over the years, its mostly technique rather than skill even Mrs Yarkshire has been known to paint a bit of sea in her time.

So lets introduce our two "models" for this blog, both from www.skytrex.com HMS Hood (4 turrets to your right) and HMS Renown. First job is to clean up the metal casting and glue it to a base, I use artist mounting board. Stage two is to create a textured sea base, I use polyfilla or similar straight from the pot, I use a knife to form the filler with a bow wave at the front of the model and a flat tag space at the rear. It takes a while to get this right at first but you soon get the hang of it, of course the smaller 1/6000 stuff come with a pre cast textured sea base.

All paints are Vallejo unless otherwise stated.

After leaving overnight for the filler to dry I use the trusty Matt Black Halfords spray primer to undercoat the whole thing, then I paint the whole of the sea area with Miniature Paints Navy Blue, you can see with the black undercoat there is already some shading going on.

Next up is the painting of the sea, on the left the first stage, this is a heavy dry brush ( ie I don't remove that much paint off before dragging the brush across the surface) with 930 Dark Blue followed by a lighter dry brush of 904 Dark Blue Grey on the right.

Two views of the sea finishing stages, HMS Hood at the back in the top photo and to the left above has had a light dry brush of 820 Off White on the whole of the base. HMS Renown has then had the sea base finished by me painting the bow waves and prop wake in Off White, I also apply an extra spot of dry brush down the side of the ship where it would disturb the water. While the white paint is out I hand paint the ships name on the rear of the base.

The sea painting can be as messy as you like, a bit of blue paint on the ship is no problem at all, in fact a build up of filler around the bow painted white really gives the feeling of the ship cutting through the water at speed. The next stage painting the ship its base colour is one of the few stages that needs a bit of accuracy and patience (the other being the deck painting). Renown (now named so you can see it) has had a base coat of 992 Neutral Grey applied along the belt and all over the superstructure, Hood shows the next stage where the Neutral Grey has been dry brushed with 990 Light Grey.

Hood shows the next stage, she has been lightly dry brushed with 820 Off White and the Renown has had its deck painted 912 Tan Yellow.

These are two shots of the "finished" ships ready for the table, an ink wash of Army Painters Strong Tone ink on the decks, Lifeboats highlighted white and funnel tops black.

A final splash of "dazzle" camo on Renown, Hood was sunk painted grey and has been left as she was on the day she was lost.

Hopefully that is a useful guide to getting your ships on the table, each Nationality had their own colour schemes and little quirks, the above book (if you can find it) gives a lot of detail, however these days a google search brings up most things.

Empire of the Dead - Holmes, Watson and the Ripper

Empire of the Dead - Holmes, Watson and the Ripper

The Evil Ripper cornered by the Good Guys

I have got a bit of time off work coming up and was keen to get these last three figs done before holidays. Regular readers will be aware of my detour down the road of weirdness with EotD, these guys finish off the figs I need to play the introductory scenario (available as a free download on the West Wind Website )

The worlds favourite detective (close run thing with Eddie Shoestring !, google it young people and none English types) in all his front and back glory.

Trusty sidekick Dr Watson, with an impressive back pack of weapons.

And finally (cue comedy booing) the evil one himself, The Ripper, Member of Royalty, Surgeon, Liverpool Businessman, Polish Immigrant or Judas Priest song who knows ?

Game looks fun, hopefully Junior will like as well, got a couple of the box sets to have a go at if he does.

28mm AWI New Unit - 27th Inniskilling Foot

28mm AWI Inniskilling Foot

Here we are with the 3rd Battalion of 5 for my next Brit AWI Brigade, staffed with the wonderful 28mm Perry plastic figures and the GMB Flags.

A 20 fig unit I have used a couple of the casualty figs to make up the numbers so I have enough figs to complete the Brigade without buying another box.

Next up will be the 40th South Lancs another "Buff" regiment, after the success of my Desert Rat box to table post, which was my highest read to date, I will be doing the same format for those showing the whole process.

28mm Perry Desert Rats - From box to table

28mm Perry Desert Rats - From box to table

Rather than just put up a new page when I finished the next box of figs, I thought for a change on this blog I'd do a beginning to end blog, showing the figs going from the box to the table. All paints are Vallejo Model Color unless stated.

Fig glued together on 2 pence base, sprayed Halfords Matt Black

Shorts, shirt and hat painted Kahki 70988

Dry brush above with Buff 70976 and then a 50:50 mix of White 70951 / Buff

Socks painted Russian Uniform WW2 70924, Rifle and Flesh areas painted Beige Brown 70875

Highlight to rifle 50:50 Beige Brown, Tan Yellow 70912, highlight to socks of Green Grey 70886 and the painting the webbing Green Grey

Rifle parts Gun Metal Grey 70863, bayonet GW Mithril Silver, South African Div Patch on upper arm, yellow over green.

Flesh outlined in 70804 Beige Red and Highlighted with Flat Flesh 70955

The fig has been finished with a wash of GW Devlan Mud Ink on the socks, rifle and webbing and then a wash of GW Ogryn Flesh ink on the flesh. Basing has been started with a texture base of ready made filler.

Filler painted Lifecolor Sand Yellow, then drybrushed Dark Sand 70847

And there it is ready for the table, a bit of green Basetex highlighted yellow. With a grass tuff for good measure.

1 down 37 to go. The Lifecolor paints are quite hard to get hold of here in the UK, luckily I saw some in a model shop in Italy when on holiday, cue strange looks as I bought all 6 bottles in the shop. I use Humbrol Matt Cote as a varnish, its oil based and much harder than acrylic varnishes, dry clear and dull, good stuff. Hope you have enjoyed this little trip into the paint room.

Empire of the Dead - Organ Donors (civilians)

Empire of the Dead - Organ Donors

Regular readers will know that over recent months I've been wandering off into the unknown with a bit of Steampunk stylee EotD. I'm slowly building up the figs for the introductory scenario with The Ripper vs Holmes and Watson. Having been gaming for 35 years or so this is the first time I have painted figures one at a time and its a bit weird to say the least.

I got these figures from Old Glory In their Blue Moon 28mm range found here , quite good value for "fantasy" figures at £30 for 20 figures. I have found these considerably better than the usual Old Glory fare who in my experience have often suffered with poor quality metal and bad castings from worn moulds, therefore I was pleasantly surprised at how little cleaning up they needed.

Newspaper seller - things are weird in the world of EotD, Bradford City won !

A lady from the Temperance Movement fights a losing battle with a drunk

These 10 figs will act as victims in the first scenario, their organs earmarked for harvesting by the Ripper, although he might give the drunks liver a miss. There are 10 more to paint in the box.

The Tramp (hobo) painted with the aid of smellovision

Working Men - Sweep, Postie and Organ Grinder

The Ladies, Old Woman, Nanny and Washerwoman

And of course, baby

WW2 Naval Campaign - The Last Day

WW2 Naval Campaign - Final Day

Well we finally got our Naval Campaign finished this week, shifts have meant a change to game time as Sundays have proved a bit tough to organise, so we have chucked a couple of cheeky Thursday evenings in.

This the final phase of the Campaign sees reinforcements to both sides, the Japanese Convoy has arrived on table, a mix of 12 merchants and troop carriers escorted by the light cruiser Sendai and 10 destroyers.

We got a mighty Convoy, rocking through the night

Added to that was the survivors of the previous games, 3 of the Japanese Heavy Cruisers were looking a bit weary. 2 had already lost their range finders and were on half hits maximum, the other was a bit leaky.

British and US back up arrives

British hopes were raised with the arrival of 2 Heavy and 1 Light Cruiser with 6 escorting destroyers. Of the other ships Repulse was down on speed after a torpedo hit in the last game and one destroyer had limited ammo.

First choice was to determine when the game took place, I let the players decide, if both sides went for day or night it was easy, half each would have led to a day night game however both went for the daylight option with limited air power (3d6 a turn a 6 bringing flight of 6 aircraft on table).

Repulse leaves the action

Things were gradually going the way of the Brits initially, the extra power of Prince of Wales taking its toll on the Japanese Battle cruisers Kongo and Hiei. The Japanese where just about to throw the towel in when Repulse got hit in the bridge, a d10 was rolled, the result the loss of the ships Captain and an immediate withdraw order. That made it a bit more interesting.

Limited air power didn't have much effect in the game

The Brits made a limited attack with three destroyers however the Japanese had separated Sendai and 6 destroyers who met them before they could launch torpedoes at the convoy.

A short and very bloody close range Destroyer action

All three British Destroyers were sunk, Vanity ended up with a Rudder jammed hard left leaving it going round in circles, this lead to a collision with 2 Japanese Destroyers sinking the Vanity and a Japanese ship. Kashmir exploded from a magazine hit the blast taking out the already badly damaged Lance.

Kashmir explodes taking Lance with her

After constant fire from PoW and Repulse Kongo finally sank

With the losses over the turn the Brits didn't have enough to press an attack on the convoy, PoW was getting isolated and Repulse was limping off the table. The withdraw was ordered, smoke deployed and the Brits steamed away. The Japanese Navy had taken a bit of a beating, one Battle cruiser sunk, 1 sunk and 4 badly damaged Heavy Cruisers (one with only 10 points if damage left from 1500) and 4 sunk Destroyers however the convoy was intact. Brits had a badly damaged Aircraft Carrier and Battle cruiser and losses of 2 light cruiser and 6 Destroyers.

A good balanced campaign which seemed to work well, nicely balanced both sides had chances for a knock out blow, everyone who played seem to enjoy the games as well even though Naval isn't their usual bag. Load up the khaki shorts and the Desert Wellies as the WW2 stuff gets its first outing in 2 weeks time.