WWII Bolt Action Japanese - a few reinforcements: Nick

So still no painting from me I'm afraid!  All is not lost however, the SAGA tournament at the Stoke Challenge led to the purchase of these pack mules from Tiger Miniatures - a new company to me, but one with lots of tempting goodies:

Although not part of the army as such, I will find a use for them as a mood/terrain piece or objective markers and wish I'd got a few more.




Also one of my many visits to Warlord Games has procured me a few reinforcements in the way of these Snipers and Spotter from their excellent range of WWII Japanese miniatures:

...as well as some alternative head sprues for a bit of variety or conversions:

So not the update I was hoping to write after so long, but more to come soon and hopefully some actual progress before Xmas!

Breaking the Silence - part 2

So as I mentioned last time, we have both been suffering distractions from our projects on the Tale of 2 Gamers blog.

Some of these 'distractions' can now be found appearing on our alternative blog Battling a Lead Mountain, which we set up to run alongside and allow us to start displaying some of our other work without cluttering up To2G with irrelevant or erroneous posts - feel free to take a look and let us know what you think?

Hopefully normal service will be resumed here soon, especially with the promise of our first game before the New Year!

Breaking the Silence - part 1

Ok, so it's been far too long since we (especially me!) posted anything here?

Unfortunately there hasn't been much to show from myself in the way of progress... a SAGA tournament, regular playtesting and some demos of 'Beyond the Gates of Antares' with Rick Priestley and the guys from Warlord Games have all been a distraction - not to mention real life in general, including learning to play guitar and the small matter of getting married!

I also know Carl has been very busy with other things as well, the same SAGA tournament for one thing and a lot of work getting his excellent skirmish rules -
'Open Combat' published - which included painting random historical and fantasy miniatures and terrain for photos in the publication!
Although I'm sure he will be here soon to tell us all about any progress he has made.

WWII Bolt Action US Army Lieutenant Kelly plus BAR and SMG troops painted

Following on from my last WWII post I've finished my 'Kelly' model for my US army Kelly's Heroes themed Bolt Action (and Chain of Command) force.

I have to say that I really like the Artizan Designs miniature lines, they're lovely to paint. The sculpting is very straight forward and 'clean' with enough detail to give the models individual character. Many modern miniature lines, particularly in the fantasy and science fiction genres (which I also collect and play) have an excess of decoration which I sometimes find quite intimidating to paint. The models I've worked with over the years from Artizan have always been fun to paint.

Artizan models are metal with the usual flash and mould lines you would expect to have to deal with, they are bulky sculpts when compared to the plastics from Warlord Games but once painted and viewed from 2-3 feet away on the tabletop don't let that stop you mix and matching.

I'll be building a German force once I've completed my US army and I'll be buying Warlord Games' plastics for that army.

Here's the painted Kelly and two of his soldiers:

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Next up for my US army painting are another sergeant, Big Joe, along with another SMG and BAR dude. Then I'll need to do some more cleaning and priming to get my sniper, spotter and Observation team ready for painting. Once I have all the infantry painted I'll do a group photo and write down an army list.

Epic Armageddon Chaos Dreadnoughts Painted, Juggernaut WiP and Reinforcements

My Epic A force has taken a bit of a back seat recently while I've been busy elsewhere but I have managed to nudge it along since my last Epic post.

Below you'll see the work in progress of my main formations. The proxie Berserkers on the left and the Juggernauts on the right. The two spare stands at the back are going to be turned into standard bearers and/or Champions, I want something that I can swap in and out to tweak points values when it comes to putting lists together so this will give me a little wriggle room.

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My recent birthday saw Nick and I exchange a few epic minis (although my force got much the bigger boost) - you can see the additions to my collection below.

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There's 4 old style Land Raiders which I can 'Chaosify' along with enough bodies (including some old style Orks) to build another formation of infantry, plus Rhinos & chaos lords. This little selection gives me plenty of bodies (when added to my existing collection) to build my initial 1000 point force. Also, crucially, it unlocks more elite slots etc. in the army lists by adding another formation into the mix when going onto bigger force sizes.

I have managed to get some painting on the Epic force finished: my Dreadnoughts! Here they are:

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WWII US Army Painting Progress and Reinforcements

It's been what feels like an age since I last posted. Family birthdays, parties, kids breaking up for summer holidays, kids at home during summer holidays when working from home. It all amounts to a lot of 'stuff' happening and doesn't leave much room for hobby time.

Coupled with all of the above I've been working on my own skirmish ruleset which is getting very close to completion. It needs quite a lot of painting and photography sorting before it's finished so that's been taking up 'hobby' time (I'll post about that some other time).

But, in amongst all of that chaos, I have managed to make some progress on my Bolt Action US Army, here's Sergeant Oddball from a couple of angles:

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As I mentioned, we've had quite a few birthdays in our family recently including me! I've received quite a few reinforcements for my project:

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There's US sniper team plus a couple of observation dudes that will make a Forward Observer 2-man team. There's a MMG Jeep and plus two Shermans! (One with wooden armour - very appropriate for any of those japanese spear mine wotsits Nick is modeling).

I also got Kelly, 2 x SMGs, 2 x BARs and Big Joe from Artizan Designs range to fill out my existing infantry, the WiP of these is below (there's been more progress since this pic was taken).

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I was also lucky enough to receive some money so I actually bought the Bolt Action rulebook - read half of it so far. Looks a lot of fun. Incidentally I also have the Two Fat Lardies Chain of Command in digital format so I'm looking forward to playing both and comparing the play experience of them. On the surface of it they look as though they provide very different opportunities and tactical choices.

Taking all things into consideration my US force is coming along nicely. I'm going to have to have a bit of a think about how I'm going to squeeze multiple Shermans into the army in regular games due to construction restrictions. I'm pretty sure I'll be making up my own 'Kelly's Heroes' inspired scenarios to incorporate Oddball's tank squadron though so they'll definitely all get on the table at some point. Plus I'm aware that Warlord Games are publishing a Tank Battles books in the near future so that could open up some interesting opportunities too.

Bolt Action ...and so it begins: Nick

Those of you that know me, will not be surprised that I still have no painted miniatures to show!

However I have managed to stick together this guy, the first of my Imperial Japanese Army - a Suicide Anti-tank squad, armed with a Lunge Mine.

As he forms a one-man squad, he will be ideal as a test piece and won't look out of place if he ends up painted slightly differently to the rest... it is also one of my favourite miniature options in the box.

I've chosen not to use the plastic Renedra bases included in the box, so that I get consistency with the other mdf bases I will be using for prone figures and support weapons in the future - I did consider using 2p coins as I often do for plastic miniatures (and I believe Carl has used on his US Army), but with such a small contact area between the figure and base I wasn't confident of a secure bond.

Hopefully I will be able to throw some paint at him this week, I'm planning on using the infamous Army Painter 'dip' with extra highlights after the 'anti-shine' stage... I will see how that works out before tackling the rest of the box.

I will also try to post the army list I'm working towards, as I've said before the plastic box set on its own is 500pts and I will show how easily this can be achieved for anyone else that might be interested?

Epic Armageddon Chaos Demon Proxies Painted

Over the last couple of weeks I have managed to get some painting done on my Epic force.

The Juggernauts have got the first washes laid down so I imagine they'll be finished over the next week or so. I did complete my Demon proxies (which I was using a test on colour scheme).

They're painted with multiple layers of GW washes.

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I mentioned previously that I was going a bit retro ('old skool' I think I said) with my thinking for my World Eaters Epic A force so not worrying about sticking strictly to the modern iteration of Khornate followers.

I'll go into more detail when covering my army list in another post but the overall concept for the force is that they are devoted to a lesser Chaos 'God' which is aligned with Khorne. The patron of my force is one of Khorne's huntsmen, his purpose is to sniff out new locations, battlefields and 'crops' (skulls for those of you who might not know GW chaos gods) for Khorne to reap.

Part of the role of the demonic followers (pictured above) is to herd and capture creatures to bring back to the warp for amusement in the halls of Khorne's captains and legions.

I've kept the colouration in keeping with Khornate models. My plan is to use black to represent volcanic rock (from Khorne's realm) on some of the ornamentation on the models. The 'leather' areas will be the skins of victims, similarly the nets and bags etc. used by the demons are made from the skins of previous prey. You can almost imagine tormented souls gibbering and cursing as new victims are captured and placed inside. (Grisly stuff).

This is an example of the story concept being led by the miniature selection which in turn feeds the concept behind the army, creating a virtuous circle.

For those of you that are younger than me and don't know anything about GWs older generation of books, here's a pic of what I'm using to inspire and drive my thought processes along.

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Next time around I'll provide the rough army list I am building towards and fill in a bit more on the backstory/concept of the force.

Epic Armageddon - Choosing an Army (part 1): Nick

So it looks like Carl is racing ahead with his first batch of Chaos for our Epic Armageddon project, that means I really need to sit down and decide on which army I want to do!

Now whilst I already have several ongoing or half finished armies, I really wanted to begin with a clean slate this time where I have nothing even started - both as a fair challenge, and to give me a full 1000pts of 'new-shiny' to put on the table rather being drawn into old habits which would undoubtedly mean MORE Orks!

Having collected so much stuff over the years means I could pretty much create any army I wanted to, without having to purchase anything else unless there is a particular 'gap' that I want to fill.

Looking at the current army lists on Epic UK, the most tempting/suitable at this stage of the project are Imperial Guard, Eldar, Chaos Space Marines, Lost and the Damned, Tyranids or even (yet another!) Ork army - either using units I don't currently have, or a dedicated 'Feral Orks' list.

However, wanting to get something on the table fairly quickly means choosing an army that doesn't really require much converting or kit bashing (well not in the initial 1000pts at least), so Lost and the Damned or Feral Orks will probably have to wait for another time.

Any comments or suggestions welcome, and next time I will try to explain my decision having finally made one!

1000 points of Epic Chaos primed and ready to paint!

I've had quite a busy time of things since my last post but I have managed to move the epic force on an important step. They're cleaned and primed and ready for the paint. :)

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I dug through my mini mountain and found a few suitable miniatures (in my opinion) for use as a Greater Demon and Lesser Demons. I also found a model for use as a Demon Prince to lead the force.

The Greater Demon (proxie bloodthirster) is a Reaper Bones lizard man, the three Lesser Demons (proxie Bloodletters) are old metal Games Workshop snotlings. The Demon Prince is a Reaper Bones Kobold.

As can be seen by the photo the berserkers are a mish-mash of old epic chaos minis and the juggernauts are supplemented by a few minotaurs from the old GW epic plastics range.

The reason I'm happy with the proxies is that I'm going a bit 'old skool' with my backstory for these guys. Modern GW 40k canon portrays chaos as being comprised of the four main powers Khorne, Nurgle, Tzenntch and Slaanesh - it doesn't make much mention of the myriad of other lesser chaos powers that permeate the warp. This used to be mentioned is quite some detail back in the days of the Realms of Chaos books and it's something I really liked about the old 40k background.

So, with that in mind, my force represents a lesser Chaotic 'god' affiliated with Khorne. A servant of Khorne but with his own agenda and desires. In game terms the force follows the rules for the World Eaters, but from a backstory perspective I'm going for something a little more unique.

I'll go into this in more detail in future posts but for now my Chaos force is taking shape and I have some painting to do!

Bolt Action - A New Army: Nick

Bolt Action was never really on the cards as a game I was likely to play with Carl, let alone a project like this... however some recent playtesting of 'Beyond the Gates of Antares' (Rick Priestley's latest Sci-fi game based on Bolt Action mechanics), led to some discussion and Carl starting to paint his US infantry.

I'm not an avid WWII gamer, but on the occasions when I do I always side with Mother Russia.  I already have more than enough Soviets that have needed painting for years, so I really didn't need anything new for the lead mountain!
Not a fan of blue on blue action though, something had to be done.  Then I remembered my soft spot for the Japanese army (probably the fault of some Airfix kits in my youth), and the excellent Japanese Infantry plastic box set by Warlord Games which I had already managed to resist buying when it was released last year!

A quick play with Army Builder revealed I could easily construct a full 500pts army from the contents of a single box of 30 miniatures, what's not to like about that?

Next thing was to order the 'Armies of Imperial Japan' supplement from Amazon (to go with the main rulebook that I've had for nearly a year now), and while I was there I picked up the United States one as well for completeness:-

Then a quick order from the friendly guys at Caliver Books and this is my starter army for our 'Pacific Theatre' Bolt Action project/challenge:-

I already have plans to expand this lot into a full 1000pts in the future, but we both have plenty to get on with before that and I won't need to buy anymore for a while.

Epic Armageddon - A Fresh Start: Nick

So Carl has already covered the whys and wherefores of the project, although I have been nagging him to play Epic for ages!

I already have the 'Epic Armageddon' rulebook & 'Swordwind' supplement:-

...so all we needed was a quick check for the latest updates on the Epic UK website.

Having been a fan and collector of Epic miniatures since it first appeared, I've a bit of an advantage over Carl and have amassed quite a substantial pile of miniatures to choose from:-

Red = Xenos/Chaos
Blue = Imperial
Green =Orks





...and yes that is TWO boxes for the Orks!!

Even though I own several tournament ready armies of 3000pts or more, I haven't played since 2005 and decided I wanted to start a new 1000pt force as well and so the project/challenge was born.

All I need to do now is decide which of the many armies I want to pursue, and get cracking!

Bolt Action US Army - My Starting Point

I'd bought nine US infantry models from ebay several years ago purely to experiment with painting WWII uniforms and then, as is often the way, promptly lost interest and moved onto something else.

The models languished in my collection until a discussion with Nick about Bolt Action by Warlord led me to dig them out again. I also had one of Artizan's Thrilling Tales WWII models, the 'Oddball'  model, based on the hippy (yes, really) tank commander in the movie Kelly's Heroes.

It was during this discussion that we started to consider doing some kind of 'Tale of 2 Gamers' thing to help motivate us both to get a painted force completed for the period.

Kelly's Heroes is possibly by favourite WWII movie (I'm not overly concerned about historical accuracy - but love a good bit of entertainment). With this in mind I decided to build my tiny collection of US miniatures up into a fighting force based on the characters from the movie.

It'll probably be completely rubbish as far as an optimum build for a Bolt Action force but I'll enjoy using it so it doesn't really matter to me how they get on.

Here's my current situation, the US riflemen are painted!

And here's Oddball awaiting a paint job.

I'm only going to buy new models when all the existing stuff is painted so until Oddball is finished I'm not buying anything else.

I'll go into what I'm going to include in my list another time, I don't even own any books yet. Just building a force that seems 'cool' and 'feels' like Kelly's Heroes to me. :)

Epic Armageddon Chaos Army - My Starting Point

It was after a bout of reminiscing about Epic (Space Marine and Titan Legions - yes, very old stuff) that Nick and I slipped into digging through our old collections.

I 'thought' I'd sold everything years ago, so might get away from actually diverting myself into another project but fate it seems deemed it fit for me to discover a handful of old GW chaos plastic minis for Epic in an old ziplock bag.

That was it then, the old bug had taken hold.

A quick surf about the web provided the rules for Epic:A and the army lists. After a skim through the army lists I settled on building towards a World Eaters force. But I'm going to work on the basis that I may divert into the Lost and the Damned list in the future.

My starting point is pictured below.

Not a great deal but it's a start. I should be able to put together a proxie Berserker formation and a Juggernaut formation, along with some supporting Dreadnoughts.

Other things I'll need to find are some models for demons to round out the collection to form a 1000pt force.

First steps though. Getting these plastics cleaned, based, primed and painted.

How it all started!

Carl and I have been gaming buddies for a number of years now, and we always have a multitude of on-going (and new!) projects on the go!

These two in particular were singled out as they would both be started from scratch, with the specific intention of creating equal forces is 'bite-size' chunks to face each other across the gaming table once ready... much in the style of some old White Dwarf articles that some of you may remember?

Both current projects were started accidentally, as is often the way with our best(?) ideas... in this instance mainly because Carl had discovered a long lost handful of miniatures for both games, and I already had the rulebooks!

What's this all about then?

Welcome to a Tale of 2 Gamers. We've created this blog to track the progress of two tabletop miniature gamers as they tackle new projects from painting through to playing the battles on the table.

Hopefully it'll energise and incentivise us to get a few projects completed rather than simply eulogising about what we're 'going' to do.