More from me for once!

Of gaming... 
The festive season hasn't all been food and photo uploads this year (though there will be more of those later in the day), I've managed to roll a few dice here and there as well!

First of all there was the "Painting and gaming retreat". That is to say I had a few mates round during the day on christmas eve to play some games and do some miniature slaughtering before the family overdoses began.

Space Hulk Smash:
I played what can only be described as an epic game of space hulk. I was the stealers, and Simon and Mo took on a squad of terminators each. Simon was unlucky and I got to him fast, chomping both his flamer and his lieutenant within the first few turns. However, it was the evacuation mission and he managed to get one guy out so not a complete failure.

Mo on the other hand was indeed blessed of the dice gods on that day. Performing a perfect fighting retreat, he killed scores of genestealers in multiple locations. Giddeon (? thunder hammer dude..) himself was responsible for 60 xenos deaths - he simply couldn't put a (cautious) foot wrong. With plenty of snacking, chatting and festive tales intermingled, we managed to make one mission last about 3 hours!

The rest of the day was spent with the other guys, painting and chatting about festive hobby plans until we parted ways to head off to various pubs and family events for the evening. Its at this point I realise I've achieved none of those hobby targets except website updates.....

And FoW too:
But it doesn't end there. Once a month we meet up at a local pub for Hobbyists Drinks, and last night was the latest of these. Beforehand, Eddie came to my place to start a game of Flames of war. I fielded everything I have made up for my tank Company (2225points) ad he took a small selection out of his Estonian SS collections to face against me (his small selection also being about 2225 points... ). The grand plan had been to start the game at a ice relaxed pace, head to the pub, then finish it off sometime over the weekend.

There's no need to finish it off. It was a massacre!
My brave Yanks would be the attackers in the Hasty Engagement mission. Unfortunately they paid heavily for their lack of planning.

Before me was arrayed a single squad with attached HMGs and Pak 40, spread thin to be within reach of both objectives. The Pak40 stood facing mennacingly up the cobbled road through the center of the board.  On their left flank stood two .88's and on their right, the remaining two Pak40's.

Those fearsome, but stationary, AT emplacements were the least of my worries however, for as the attacker in this mission, I barely crossed the center line. The reason for this being 3 Panthers anchoring the center of the German line. Less Anchors however, more harpoons. The Panthers were immune to my fire from the front, and rolled forward in the first four turns to be within just a few inches of my base line destroying everything in their path, whilst my carefully surrounding fire bounced off from all angles completely inefficiently.

When I finally managed to get a few shots on target, and subsequently got some infantry in ready to finish the job, my battle weary forces turned around to be met by the german lines, almost untouched, before them. We attempted to move forwards once more, but a combination of the torrent of AT fire, the arrival of a Tiger reserve unit and some very fine Goliath Maneuvering left me with no units in Eddies table half at the end  of turn 6, and the battle was lost.

Great game, but I got to the pub with my head hung low.

Another Quickie...

Its a quick guest Gallery Bonus toight - a fuller update tomorrow, but that is not to detract from the great work in Matt Arnold's (aka"Rug") Dystopian Wars Kingdom of Brittannia forces gallery (7 pictures) .

I've thus far resisted the urge to dive into dystopian wars myself, but there's plenty of players around here with some great painted forces, so be sure to watch out for more Guest Galleries!

Totals:
New Galleries: 1
New Images: 7

Firestorm Invasion: Planetfall hits the HobbyBrush

Continuing the Catch ups...
I'm in a hurry, so No Waffle, just pictures for once!
The 10mm Sci-Fi section has opened up with TWO galleries of Studio Paintjobs I've done for Spartan Games / Studio Sparta.

Starting with the Dindrenzi Federation. ( 32 images) 

And Following closely behind, my Peraonal Favourites - the Studio Sparta Terran Alliance forces. (31 images) 

Totals: 

New Galleries: 2

New Pictures: 63

The Festive catch up begins...

Of Painting and gaming... 

Bits of this and bits of that, but nothing much of anything really! However, HobbyBrush HQ is hosting a paiting & gaming day tomorrow (Christmas eve) so more interesting waffle to come!

Of Updates and Galleries...

This is the important bit. Starting with the galleries recieving updates..

Alex Foyster's Eldar army First graced these cyber pages over a year ago. To be honest its so long ago I've forgotten. All I know is that I took updated photos way back in Spring '12 and they've been languishing in my "to do" pile since then. So Sorry mate, but here they are at long long last- beautiful work, every one of them! (21 pictures)

A little something from me for a change, but they're pictures taken when I sold the units back in 2010, so its hardly new, just more clearing out the backlogs :) My WHFB Orc and Goblin gallery gets a few almost detail shots added. (7 pictures)

Back to the wonderful work of others, and Matt Arnold (aka "Rug") returns to the ranks of Guest Galleries, this time with my arch-enemies across the table when we play Blitzkrieg Commander. These are his 6mm Germans, and yes, there is camo to be seen on the infantry! (10 pictures)

Lastly for tonight, but not for the festive season, I'm sticking with the World War 2 theme with two small galleries of my own recent work, just to prove brushes have actually been moving in my workshop over the last few months! There's a tiny little gallery which I'm looking forward to expanding, in the form of my Blitzkreig Commander Scenery (3 pictures). And there's  also some early war 15mm German armour for you to peruse, from Forged in Battle with more to come soon! (14 pictures) 

Totals: 

New Galleries: 3

New pictures: 55

The Iron Fist Challenge - Results.

Of the Iron Fist 2012... 

Last weekend I witnessed the closing stages of one of the most impressive feats of painting I've ever seen.

A group of Hobbyists got together at The Games Shop (link Pending) in aldershot to spend 48 hours STRAIGHT each attempting to paint a full 1750point warhammer 40K army.

I was pleased to be there for the final few hours, to get the chance to photograph some of the entrants and also to help Rhys (the Shop owner, and himself a Gallery holder on the HobbyBrush!) Judge the finished entries.

I was so impressed by the results I had pondered spreading out the galleries into multiple updates and multiple galleries, but I have instead squashed them all into one location.

This gives me the perfect excuse to visit aldershot again soon with my camera and expand upon the event gallery into individual Guest Galleries at a later date. For the moment, I present the Iron Fist Event Gallery (87 Pictures)

First Place went to a superb Iron Warriors Force from Andy Brown
Second Went to another Chaos Marin Army, from the brush of James Taylor
Third Place went to Lex Head for his Themed Demon Hunters army
Special Mentions go to James French, Brian Best, Kris Marland and Stephen Barney for completing their entire quota of Forces.
Extra Special Mentions go to James French and Stephen Barney for not sleeping at all in the process...... Words fail me other than well done!!

Of My own Painting...

Whilst I was at the event, I did a little paiting of my own. I painted a Belt Buckle. On a Model. Oh, and half a piece of shoulder armour! There were just too many other painters to talk to and models to look at!!

At home however I have been slightly more productive, finishing of a number of projects lately and now the editing of the Iron Fist Photos is taken care of, I'll start proving my own work once again!

Iron Fist Painting Challenge

There's insanity impeding in Aldershot and it goes by the name of the iron fist Painting Challenge.

From the facebook event page: 

"So what's this all about then ?

The"Iron Fist" Painting Challenge is a 48 hour "paintathon" open to anybody over the age of 18.

Each participant will have 48 hours straight to paint a 1750 point Warhammer 40,000 army.

At the end of the challenge, the winner will be decided by a panel of judges, comprised of 'Golden Demon' winners and GW Army painters."

Yes, that's right. Nearly 20 guys have signed up to paint for 48 hours straight and The Games Shop, Aldershot!! Sleep is optional. Showers haven't even been mentioned. This is Hobby hardcore at its limits!

Unfortunately I cant make it for the whole event but I have been asked along on the Sunday to help Judge and I will, of course, be taking my lighting and photo gear to make sure I can document the results for all to enjoy.

edit: Oh, and they're all getting sponsored too - its charitable hobby insanity! 

Continuing the Good intentions...

Of Gaming... 
Last week saw the GGC hold its AGM, so no gaming was had on monday. However, I did maage to shoe-horn in the concept of a painting / hobby night at the club once a month so hobby prospects generally up for the club's own scenery, club projects, guest galleries and of course my ow work too!

Of Painting...
Sadly little new from me this week. I've been prepping hordes of models but little actual painting. Aim is to get some done later today though, so next update should be more interesting!

Of Galleries and Updates... 
Its back into the vaults for the addition of an old classic to the HobbyBrush in this update. My Desert Ferrin Army will be remembered by a few of you old epic grognards (meant in the kidest possible way!) but it may be new and of interest to a few of you as well. Painted, rather scarily, 10 years ago, as it was.

Totals
New Galleries: 1
New Images: 32

Where did all the months go????

Of where I've Been...

My Computer network card / modem / something I cant fix went wrong - I've been using a borrowed laptop of 8 months now ad the "N" key doesnt work very well - get used to typos!

I Bought my first house.
It fell apart.
I put it back together.
I Costructed an awesome hobby room.
I'm back to painting at full speed and the HobbyBrush will be updated regularly once more.
I could go into more details, but you dont care do you? You just want new galleries, right? OK, OK... here goes...

Of Gaming...
Bwah ha ha... No galleries yet! But I will keep it short. I'm back playing Flames of War again and Loving it. Game I played Monday before last was one of the most enjoyable games of anything I've played in a long time.
I'm also playing Firestorm Invasion quite regularly.

All in all, you can expect American, German and F:I Terran galleries to be popping up here soon!

Of Painting...
Yes, more waffle. Deal with it.
I am ashamed to say that a combination of factors coverged upon me to mean I didn't get anything completed in time for the Dropzone Commander Launch. Its the first commitment to paint that I've ever failed upon entirely and it sucks, but was unavoidable. David hadn't paid me anything for painting the units he sent me, but I still feel bad about it - Sorry Dude!

That aside, I have taken up the Mercenary ways again since getting my new workshop sorted out and I'll be covering galleries of most of that soon.

For Myself, I'm paintig Flames of War Americans, Firestorm Invasion Terrans, a few Kraytonians for SoW and a couple of practice miniatures.

The Practice miniatures Come into two categories -
1. Airbrush work. I've finally taken the plunge and dropped a load of cash into a decent airbrush setup and am learning the ropes with that. Its great!
2. Back in June (on my Birthday as it happened!) I attended the Golem Studios Masterclass day and had the opportunity to learn from Tommie Soule, Mike McVey (yes, that one!) and Alison McVey in a full days painting. I've not learned so much in years of brushwork and whilst I'm still happy painting my huge collections and PROPER armies, I have a few practice / warm-up pieces floating about with the intentio of pushing myself to a proper display piece sometime this year.

So lots from my own benches soon :)

Of galleries and updates....
I'm guessing most of you igored all of the above and are straight here, and fair enough at that!

As a starting point back to updates, I present a Guest Gallery which has been waiting faaaar too long for publication.

Tom's Ogre army is an awesome sight all assembled together and this gallery does little to do it justice, but is well worth a look.( 48 Pictures)

Totals this update: 
New Galleries: 1
New images: 48

Its a start...

Dropship has Landed...

Of Something New... Entering the Dropzone...

Well here's something new for the HobbyBrush.

Its the first part of a review! Its also possibly the very first review of something which has been causing quite a stir since Salute back in April.

I have been Lucky enough to get my hands on a couple of models from the upcoming Dropzone Commander Range by brand new Company, Hawk Wargames. If you dont know what I'm talking about then head on over to their facebook page, Website, or Twitter Feed to catch up!

I'm not going to repeat the company spiel or steal their pretty pictures, so just In brief

Of the Company....


Hawk Wargames has been around for two and a half years its just that nobody knew this until they launched themselves onto the scene in epic style at Salute 2012 in London. When I say "They" its all really the brainchild and workload of one dedicated man, Mr David lewis. He stole the show with an immense display of Miniatures and Terrain he'd been working tirelessly on for two years, but which nobody had any idea existed.

Four Factions, Dozens of unique designs, Modular terrain and the promise of a brand new game all shown off with some great painting. It made a splash the likes of which I don't recall seeing ever before in 24 years of gaming.

I doff my cap to the Man!


The reason it made such a splash was the models and the presentation of such. The Designs were unique, the sculpting and casting clean and the painting perfect for showing them off at a show.

So when I got the chance to throw some paint at them, I jumped at it!

A Note on pictures: Taking photos of bare metal is not a strong point - sorry! Also, I've left them at original size - click on any image to see a ridiculously big picture so you can pick out all the detail yourself. I've included a scale pic to remind you all how small they are! Better pics when they're painted!

Of the models....
This morning I received my first pre-release miniatures to play with and thought I'd share my first impressions before I attack them with paint. Whilst there are others that would go straight for the impressive dropships and heavy tanks, being a fan of the smaller scales, I went straight in for the infantry and smaller elements.

What I have are production models, so whilst they're fresh out of the moulds, they are just as they will be when purchased.

UCL Colonial Legionnaires and PHR Immortals:

Scale picture - PHR Immortals on the left, 1p, UCL Legionnaires on the right

My First reaction is one I don't normally suffer from - wow, they're small. Dave's done such a great job on the studio paint jobs that even as one used to working on 6 & 10mm models I was surprised how fine these pieces are.

The detail is great and the casting is crisp, down to fraction of millimeter details such as panel lines on the weapons and helmets. You can tell that they have been hand sculpted rather than CAD designed and I like this for organic models especially at this scale. Details have to be enlarged and exaggerated to make painting and identification easier on the tabletop and the balance on these models is spot on. Enough extra depth to make them work without them looking ridiculous and maintaining a level of plausibility (over realism which isn't practical... its sci-fi guys!)

UCL legionnaires

There's 5 poses of legionnaire on the sprue, 4 carrying a standard style sci-fi carbine, and one a shoulder mounted rocket launcher. Its 5 again for the PHR Immortals, with the split being 4 carbines and a support Machine gun trooper. The rules aren't out yet, so I cant give you any more details on the weapons just yet!

The posing is good and they have some great movement in them for 10mm figures and a good mix of shooting & moving troops too so you have options in making your stands look more active than 3d tokens.

Anyone that has read my Reviews or even (constructive) criticisms on various forums knows that I'm a picky git and if I choose to give my opinion I will be as harsh as possible with the aim of being useful. The same applies here, but I'm struggling to pick holes.

UCL Legionnaires

There are really only two tiny details I can pick up on.
The Missile Launcher trooper's left hand is slightly Ham fisted - the 4 fingers are easily as wide as his helmeted head. Now this is not unusual in small scale figures however, and actually points more to the fact that the rest of the details are done very nicely in scale, rather than this being done badly (which its not), but it does show up as different.
Secondly, one pose (that next top the missile trooper) is lacking a little definition on his left leg. Again, if this were any other set of miniatures I'd say it was in itself very finely detailed for a 10mm piece, as it is, but simply compared to the rest, its lacking a noticeable shin, running straight from knee into boot.

Both exceptionally minor and will be totally unnoticeable when painted, but I noticed it with my harsh eyes so there it is!

PHR Immortals

The PHR troops offer me nothing at all to pick holes in. One of the hardest things in sculpting small scale armoured infantry is keeping consistency in what should be mass produced forms such shoulder pads, leg armour etc. There are slight variations between the models but overall the consistency is great, and it certainly looks like they're all in identical kit just as they should be. Top notch!

There is a very feint mould line running along the line of the sprue, but its easy enough to clean off the helmets and there's very few other areas affected.

The sprue itself is quite large. Easily containing more metal than the models themselves. Whilst this might seem odd from an economies of casting point of view, it does mean the models will be nice and easy to paint, the sprue itself offering plenty to hold on to and enough space around each of the models to paint. Design aspect or happy chance? I don't know, but its a good result for me!

Overall I am very much impressed.

I pride myself on having worked on some of the best small scale models out there and pushed the limits of 6mm painting. This is a larger scale, but its going to test me to and beyond my limits of detail once again.

Great models!

A Quick note on bases:
The Models come with resin bases. I'd missed these off initially as I'm not going to need them and had put them aside with a couple of other bits of resin (more on those later...) but I should include them for completeness. They're very clean casts. One tiny vent on the underside to snip off and your done. They're texture free so its up to you what you do with them. It all comes down to what this new resin is like to work with for these, so I'll have to comment more later, but here's the pics (not quite to ridiculously huge for these!).

Its new, yet old...

Of, well, whoops... 
I was just looking at my own Blog to check out my Pledge update and realised there was a post missing! I'd somehow saved it rather than published it, D'oh!

Its now in its rightful place below - check it out 3 posts below for Pledge, World of Twilight Fubarnii, and a (belated) Gaming update...

Of Painting...
Since I'm here, I'll throw in some pictures of the Workbench. Painting has been delayed by "big Shopping" as Kim Puts it. That is to say that after months of searching and false starts, I've finally purchased my first house this week. In between searches, viewings, offers, solicitors and estate agents I've been waiving brushes as fast as I can and pulling some pretty long days at it too - I'm just not as fast as I used to be - Cursed Eyes that wont focus for more than 5 minutes!! Grrr....

Ahem, anyway, Pictures... 

Two regiments that are taking WAY too long. The Roman Auxillaries are now complete, but still need shields. The Mantic Dwarves are also complete, but have no Banner and I dont think I'll give them one - too much of a time sink for ebay. 

Kraytonians!! All the basing is now finished on the models shown half done here, but I'm yet to tackle the Kameli or Veteran units awaiting paint, and havent even decided how I want to do the Dino Riders yet! 

So all in, a relatively slow week. Quite disappointing on the painting front, but Sod it, I've bought a house!

More soon!

The one that got away...

Of a (nearly..) forgotten article...
 OK, so it was forgotten, but thankfully not for long!
 Early last week I had trouble logging into blogger, and so I wrote an article instead of doing an update. I also uploaded the article to the site, and advertised its addition on our facebook page ( http://www.facebook.com/TheHobbyBrush ). When it came to Friday's update however, I forgot about it completely!

Basically, nobody cares about my painting any more ( ;op ) and instead I'm always being asked two things;
1) How do I take my Photos?
2) Do I edit my photos a lot after taking them? (and if so, how?)

With these in mind I'll be doing an article on taking Photos soon, but for now, I've done an illustrated step by step showing exactly how simple what little photo editing I do is. You can find the PDF on the articles page, or direct linked HERE

Thanks for looking!

Back to the workshop

Of Ebay.. Get the nasty bit out of the way first of all. I'm selling lots of stuff this week. Was meant to be a hell of a lot more, but time beat me! Mainly from my Forgeworld stores, there's Epic buildings, Epic Tau, Imperial and Ork vehicles, and most rarely of all, a huge Ork Bust which is long long OOP, gorgeous, but just too big for me to ever get around to painting myself! All my items can be found here:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/tuffskull/m.html?_dmd=1&_ipg=50&_sop=12&_rdc=1





Of Gaming: 
I haven't rolled many dice of late. Some great weekends away, an anniversary and general paint throwing duties have kept me from the GGC, and when I have been there I've been wielding a camera instead of a tape measure! Nothing to report...

Of Painting:
I'm off from work for a couple of weeks (only partially planned unfortunately....) and whilst house hunting and sorting my current place out is taking up a lot of my time, I'm at the brushes with a vengeance. My Workshop's been reorganised, projects sorted, commissions (those things I dont take any more...) lined up and its back to a paint throwing pace I've rarely matched since the Mercenary Brush Days! This week I've finished off 20 skelies (ebay soon), a company of Soviets for Flames of War (ebay soon) , 33 Kraytonian Vehicles and 3 Bombers for Seeds of War (ebay later), Kraytonian infantry and cavalry 50% done (ebay later), Some Exodus Wars Tarragin (6mm aliens, for me, they fell under the brushes...) and prepped a whole heap of World of Twilight Goodies.

Here's the workbench show tour as it stood on Thursday:

Kraytonians with 2 of 5 shades of grey / white added. In the background you can see the completed Skelies and the FoW Soviets. On the left some Hasslefree Grymn that have been waiting about 3 years for paint... 

Kraytonian Infantry, Cavalry and vehicle bases. The Bases take as much making time as the vehicles do to paint! In the background you can see other projects - last of my Romans, some Mantic Dwarves, 6mm soviets and a random Hordes model, because every painting desk needs a giant, Bipedal rhinoceros... 

The World of Twilight stash, lurking on the edge of my painting area waiting for a moment I can let myself go at them with a brush! In the foreground, sculpting projects abandoned years ago..

I'm sure there's more, but I've got to get back to the brushes & At any rate, its helping the Pledge somewhat - at a rough count that's added 88 to my painted count in a week - take that, Post-Salute-Guilt! :)


Of Updates and Galleries...
But of course, I always make you wade through waffle to get to the good bits, don't I?!
Its been a long while since an update and that normally means I try to make up for it with a slew of new galleries. This time however, just one gallery should please you all. Nick's (Elsmore's ) Epic Eldar Exodites are simply awesome. Every unit has had such attention to them.... just go and look..

Totals:
New Galleries: 1
New Pictures: 54

Twilight updates, Gaming and the pledge!

Of Gaming...
Not content with Rolling dice on 3 different tables at Salute, I also played a little game at the GGC on Monday. Alsmost a repeat of my Salute WoT game, my Fubarnii militia and Herders, led by Commander Brenar faced off against 3 Devanu Jenta and 6 Grishak.

Despite having my head screwed on a bit better this time, and using my Herder Captain to his full potential, my Slingers too their new "Suicide Slingers" title a bit too litterally. Whether they were slinging playdough or simply drunk I dont know, but they failed to inflict damage on the encroaching grishak turn after turn. This left me with the Devanu on my doorstep at full strength. Delicate combat manouvering ensued.... in other words the Grishak ate everything in sight. Brenar and his militia did some fancy footwork however, and took down a Jenta and a fair few Grishak, but his sterling service was not to be repeated and they eventually fell trapped within an unstoppable wall of Devanu flesh.

A good game, and more to come - thank you Alex!

Of Painting...
I Painted in every spare second before Salute, including a fair few World of Twilight figures for my own collections. 6 herders, Commander Brenar, two Fubarnii Jenta, 3 Knights of Relan, and an Engineer saw me almost catch up entirely on my Fubarnii before buying plenty more at Salute. The results can be seen throughout this post, as well as in the Galleries right now - see below!

Of Updates...
The World of Twilight Fubarnii Gallery has been updated with 19 pictures of the latest additions, all noted above!

Totals: 
New Galleries: 0
New Pictures: 19

The Pledge:
Its been a long time since I made an update on the Pledge, but I still stick by it. Here's the progress report all up to date:
Models Bought: 77 (+40 at salute. More than Doubled my Purchases! Curse that show... )
Models Painted: 241 (+4 for 54mm crossbowman, 6 herders, engineer, 2 jenta, 6 for knights of Relan, and commander Brenar for a total of just 20 in 3 months :( )
Months into the Pledge: 11 - 1 important month to go!

Saluting waffle...

Of Salute....
 Well, That's Salute done with for another year!

I was painting a couple of commissions (no, I dont really do those....) for the show and also painting as much World of Twilight as I could squeeze in. I didn't want to be buying loads more when I still had a heap unpainted - that would be totally against the theory of the Pledge!

The day itself was another great one, full of catching up with old friends, making soem new ones, putting faces to well known names and talking all things model and paint. Whats more, I actually rolled a lot of dice without it being "work"! Amazing result! I played a few games of World of Twilight, had a great intro of Timeline 300, and even played a demo of Flames of War V3. More on the gaming later.

 The Shock of the show for everyone was Dropzone Commander. 10mm sci-fi with great sculpting and model design, and an impressively large range which nobody saw coming! I'm very much looking forward to putting brush to resin with these figures. Lots of pictures can be found in the thread on TacComms here.

Another highlight for myself was finally meeting Chris "Curis" from Ninjabread. I've watched his blog for years, and heard many a good report on the man himself from Epic Tournament goers. I popped by his stand to pick up a copy of his new book - punishment of the Dice Gods and ended up temporarily taking over his stall frontage whilst we talked epic and looked through a few epic bits from my miniatures case. The Book is great - I highly recommend it for anyone who's not adverse to laughter!

The Obligatory Purchase List: 
A Pile of World of Twilight figures. I'm not counting them. I dont want to. :p
Two Cans of Coat D'arms Matt Varnish - I love the stuff.
 Warhammer Historicals Legends of the Old West and Showdown - they had a sale one, couldn't resist!
Peter Pig Destroyed Sherman & Jeep markers / Objectives.
 Half a Flames of War Intro Box with my Mate Ed "The Fez" Turner - I get the Shermans... you can see where this is going!
Ninjabread, Punishment of the Dice Gods (Signed, no less!)

 Overall I think the show felt nice and busy, but still had plenty of space between the stalls and the games. The display games were as impressive as ever, and those hosting demo games were doing a great job of keeping the punters entertained. Beasts of War had put on a large Hobby Lab area which looked busy every time I passed it and the trade stands were uniformly Bustling. A success for all!

Of Salute Gaming...
I've actually got a bit to report! I played Timeline 300 at Salute. Its 10mm Victorian Sci-Fi, and is being made by Troublemaker Games. What sets this apart is that there's a Construction and resources back end to the game but it IS a miniatures wargame. You start with a number of Coal mines, and a construction unit. Every turn your mines generate coal, and you may use this to construct new fighting units from your mobile construction unit and bring new forces to bear. Do you save up your points for an enormous Landship, or flood the field with infantry quick & try to overrun your foe? Love it! The game mechanics themselves are quite simple, fast flowing and fun. There's ironing to do, but it certainly has some good concepts and I'd happily play it again. Oh, and if you're playing as the Martians, DONT run your construction unit forwards - you are restricted by soem killer minimum ranges as I found out myself!

 I Played Flames of War. First time in a few years, but it hasn't changed too much. It was just 3 shermans Vs 2 Stugs, and I got killed in the end, but I didn't take too much persuading, and now I'm looking into a small American force. Yes yes, I've only recently finished selling off my huge Soviet forces, but who cares, that's Hobby!

 I also played World of Twilight. I love the game, but dont get to play much so I took my collection to salute and saw them in action as demos as well as playing myself.
Thanks to Gekilian (Chris! or hereafter, the Tactical Prof. ) for a great game. I certainly didn't deserve to come out with a draw. My Slingers are now the SS - the elite "Suicide Slingers" unit. Herder Captains are great additions if you have your head screwed on (which I clearly didn't). I also take back any bad word I ever said against Commander Brenar's usefulness in smaller games. If he's that lucky next time I use him then he's a permanent addition to my forces. Having watched my own poor commandership see to the death of most of my forces and helping me out couple of pointers, Chris then had to watch as Brenar refused to die until the last moment, taking down 2 devanu and a small sea of Grishak with him, leaving an empty board at the end of a marathon game!

Return to usual stylings...

Its a return to usual stylings for me now, and hopefully if I can stay active, the 3 sections will all be regulars once again.

Of Gaming...

Finally put my dice back to good use last week, and had a great game of Blitzkreig Commander aganst Matt Arnold (aka "Rug"). We play so infrequently that every game is a learning experience, but its always good fun. (THat's a World of Twilight Fubarnii Jenta in the pic by the way - didn't get any pics of the game - he's on the workbench at the moment! )

A small game (1000 points), I started being plagued with bad command rolls. In the first 3 turns, I achieved just two successfull rolls between my Co AND HQ combined, and failed to make it to the positions I had hoped for by the time the German Iron tide washed upon my soviet shores.

However, I was saved by a couple of unlucky assaults in turn 3 on the part of my opponent and my infantry held out well. Turn 4 saw my tanks (6 T70's and an early T34)rumble into action at last, taking on the enemy assault guns in a forest to forest fire fight. T70's proved to be a fair old weapon at the given range and the enemy were wiped out in a couple of rounds of firing for the loss of a single tank to enemy reactive fire.

My infantry were feeling the brunt of the enemy force, being assailed by armoured mechanised infantry and the bulk of the enemy armour in the form of panzer II's and III's. As they started to pull back, they were saved by the soviet armour making their way back through the wood to front up to the enemy once again. Firing from the woods, against enemy armour clearly visible on the open face of a hill, they had the advantage. As the infantry faught a fighting withdrawl, the tanks took their toll on the enemy armour, pushing the Germans past their fragile break point.

In the end I won by numbers. I only had two formations which hindered me when bad command rolls struck, but when they came off, the sheer weight of fire and high break point meant even the fancy manouvres of the Germans didn't stand a chance.


Of Painting...
I've been on the Brushes every spare moment I can this week. Salute is presenting a good, rare, chance to play World of Twilight and it has spurred me to paint up the majority of my remaining collection.

I've got 6 hunters, an Engineer, 2 civilian youngsters, Commander Brenner, Captain Danomar and 2 knights of Relan on the workbench all at various stages. Fingers crossed, they'll all be ready for action on the 21st!

Of updates...
But, of course, the bit you really care about is the galleries and I've opened another classic today. My Epic "Agri-Guard" Imperial Guard forces became some of the first models I posted online which earned my painting a recognizable status. I collected three massive Imperial Guard armies at the time. I have sold most, but a valuable few will always remain in my collections. The pictures in this gallery vary from the antique to the relatively recent - please forgive the mass of varying quality!

Totals:
New Pics: 60
New Galleries: 1


remember to like us on facebook HERE!

The Twilight of Easter...

The Easter Bank Holiday weekend is coming to a close here in the UK and I'm finally on the Brushes!

I'm working on a few more of my Fubarnii for the World of Twilight. I've got 6 herders on the bench as I type and a host of others waiting to see some paint. In the mean time, I remembered that my current gallery isn't even up to date & that needs fixing!

I've posted these on the World of Twilight Forums previously, but for the first time on the HobbyBrush, Here's the full Militia and Knights contingent of my Fubarnii.

New Galleries: 0
New Pictures: 9

It might only 9 images, but it just put us over 3000 images on the HobbyBrush - Enjoy your browsing and thanks for looking!

Its not a guest gallery...

But its not my work either....

The latest update is something new for the HobbyBrush - its a show gallery! The Military in Miniature show on March 3rd, 2012, was my first experience in Miniatures shows, as opposed to wargames shows, and I was asked to take some photos at the event.

Unfortunately I spent far too much time enjoying the event, meeting people and learning a lot of painting tips and not a lot of time behind the camera, but it was a great experience and I'll strive to be more efficient next time!

Great level of painting and an incredible level of sculpting was on show as well.

New Galleries: 1
New Pictures: 72

Mid-week Malifaux...

I find myself with a spare moment or two, so another Guest Gallery is always the way to spend it!

Today I have the pleasure of presenting Jamie Mathews' Malifaux Gang, the Viktorias. (18 pictures)

Totals:
New Galleries: 1
New Pictures: 18

Roman additions...

Its a small update this week but there's plenty in the pipeline.

I've sorted and edited over 300 photos this weekend, whittling them down to a still impressive 60 photos ready to swell the site with yet more guest galleries in the weeks to come. I did, however, fail to get any notes from the painters so they're on hold until I have some text ready to accompany them!

In the mean time, I've still not had the chance to paint anything new myself so I'll continue to play catch up as best I can, and thus this week present an update to the 28mm Roman Gallery, adding the second formations of both auxillaries and Legioinaries to bring it up to date as well as the cabinet shot from the new year tour which shows it all together.

Totals:
New Galleries: 0
New images: 11

remember to like us on facebook HERE!

Experimenting with Facebook....

I've been asked why I dont set up a HobbyBrush page on FaceBook many times in the past couple of years. Apparently it'll help interact with my audience... I didn't know I had an "Audience"!?!

Well, whilst I obviously do all this purely for selfish reasons, I thought I'd try listening for once and have set up a FB page for the HobbyBrush. It might last one brief month, or it might become the definitive place to find your Hobby Fix..... time shall tell!

Drop us a "like" if you want it to stay, or we'll revert back to good old word of mouth as has served me so well for the previous 14years of being online ;op

http://www.facebook.com/TheHobbyBrush

Its big, historical, and totally "not my thing"... until now...

Just a little one after the excesses of last week, but its from my own brush, and what's more, its new!!

I will add a gallery of other models from the show next week, so I'll leave the intros to what's written in this gallery, but I present for your review, a 15th Century German Crossbowman, in 54mm... not my usual fare, but a pleasure to paint!

New Galleries: 1
New Images: 6

I got Washed Away!

Guildford Games Club - your Galleries are here, and they're awesome - thank you!

The flooding yesterday took even myself by surprise! That or I watched a lot of Rugby... No, no, the numbers of pictures speak for themselves! Guildford Games club is on fine form, providing you plenty of viewing pleasures at your finger tips!

First up, the return of a now regular name to the Hobbybrush. Alex Foyster is back for his third Guest Gallery. This time 40K if is focus, and its his latest project. An Absolutely gorgeous Eldar Army. Check it out NOW! (9 images)
Rumour has it he's painted more since this gallery was first created, so you can expect more soon!


Secondly, and Thirdly, we stick with 40K but move on to a Space marine Double. The admirable skills of Justin Carnzu on his Blood Angels and Simon Richmond with his Space Wolves grace our tables regularly and often grab my eyes. It is here that the flood barriers gave way. Treat yourself to a whopping 46 images of red death, followed by 24 images of Grey wolf terror.


Finally for today, I thought I'd best include something which has sprung off my own brush for a change, but alas its still come from days gone by rather than more recent times. Of course, what we're missing is something in small scale, so the DRM Studio Skyth Gallery is long overdue a spot on the Hobbybrush and finally arrives today! (29 images)

New galleries: 4
New Pictures: 108

flooding expected in 2 days...

The Showers are getting slightly heavier. Better start filling the sand bags...

Today I have a gallery from one of the best painters at the GGC for you - Warhammer High Elves from Jamie, the local master of brush control.

New Galleries: 1
New Pictures: 15

flooding expected in 3 days...

And the first real shower is upon us.

I uploaded the first gallery on Monday evening, but other things overtook me and I didn't get to tell you all!

SO. Without further delay, Mark Shaw's back with a second Warhammer army - The Empire. (15 pictures)


But that was really Mondays update, and todays wednesday, so I'd best get my acto together... Time to roll out another old epic commission! The Green Guard gallery I think - Until next time! (18 pictures)

That picture? I dont know.... must be a preview of something different to come..... ;)

Totals:
New Galleries: 2
New Pictures: 33

Flooding expected in 6 days...

It's been a while!
I've still got a lot going on preventing me from painting much.
But I dont have to find time for painting to give you kind viewers updates and thanks to the guys at the Guildford Games club, there are Guest galleries a plenty just around the corner.

There will be light rain building up to heavier showers and downpour in the coming days with severe flooding is expected to being in 6 days.....

So, you have been warned - now you just have to choose whether to buy a boat or sit back, check back at the Hobbybrush regularly, and enjoy the great painting of many other superb painters!

To prove I mean what I say, have a small gallery taster - Alex Foyster is back with his second of 3 Guest Galleries - His small but perfectly formed Lord of the Rings Harad Force. Enjoy!

New Galleries: 1
New Pictures: 4

THe first drops are falling...

An update on no updates....

I'm sorry to say that My computer is totally dead and I dont have the cash imediately handy for a replacement so it'll be a week or so until I'm back to web-updates and blogging pretty pictures once again. In the mean time I'm borrowing web access when I can, but I never seem to have photos handy when I have web access or vice versa.

On the plus side, whilst I'm not painting a huge amount, I am spending the time saved by not being online by sorting out a lot of other stuff. Minor things like looking for a house to buy and such - normal deal really!

But you dont care about the rest of my life, so apologies for the lack of pretties and the boring content whilst I meander slowly through the PC options available in no particular rush!

What's happening??

Its been quiet again, for which I can only apologise!

THe powers that be have been conspiring against me for the last few weeks it seems, or at least against my online presence!

I was away for a week, and had a great time, but returned with a fair does of Man flu which took me out of free-time for a week. When I wasn't throwing up I was blowing my nose and neither of these are great for either painting or computer screens it seems!

That's all sorted I'm pleased to say, but now my computer has died and I can no longer get online at home. D'oh! SO I'm afraid updates will have to wait a while, but I haven't disappeared completely..... please bear with me & In the mean time, Thanks for reading as always!

Just to keep you on your toes...

A Regular style update post!

Of Gaming, or rather of owning-up to idiotitus:
There's been none in ages I'm afraid. I was meant to be running a Pit Fighter Night at the Guildford club before christmas, but I managed to turn up without the stat sheets. D'oH! Between the shame of this foolish act and all the recent bank holidays, I've not been to the Club in a while, so no dice rolled :(

As an aside, is this drednaught using cover wisely, or grinding against a pillar in an attempt to distract some enemy daemonettes with a saucy Drednaught pole-dance?? Answers on a postcard...

Of painting:
Now this I have been doing! I've finished off the initial Roman challenge. There's 24more auxilleries which I won on ebay (by mistake....honest... ) and 3 mounted Aux's too to add at some stage, but all the infantry I got from HobbyBox's closing are complete and in the cabinet.

I've made a start on the Kraytonian Reinforcements, with the first 36 stands (thats 180 troops) of infantry complete.

I've also done a fair bit of damage to my World of Twilight lead pile, having completed 12 militia and 4 knights in recent weeks. Blow by blow progress of this can be found on the World of Twilight Forums. These have taken a lot longer than I was planning, and combined with a lot more festive fun than I had bargained on, I didn't hit all my goals, but have had a great time none the less!

These updates will be spread out a little, as I simply have too much to post!

Of Updates & Pledges:
A Guest Galleries First, as my Good Friends have been waiting too long to see them! James Jackson is a man after my own heart, and when he does a project, he does it BIG. Check out his immense 40K Marine Army NOW! (21 pictures)

Following this, I feel I need something of equal size, so I delve into my back catalogue to bring you yet more Marines, but this time in the proper scale of 6mm - an Epic Commission covering 4 different chapters. (53 pictures)

That's all for now. I'm not around next week - heading off to the mountains to strap wood to my feet and try to pass it off as skiing (I'm 8 years rusty...) so I'll be back in a fortnight with plenty more pics, and another great round of guest galleries!



Totals:
New Galleries: 2
New Pictures: 74

The Pledge:
Models Bought: 37 (+0 -nothing model related at all for Christmas!)
Models Painted: 221 (+ 40 legionaires+24 Auxilleries+36 stands of Krayt+ 12 Fubarnii foot + 8 for Fubarnii knights)
Months into the Pledge: 8

Tour of the Cabinets - 2011 end.

Note - see previous post for yesterday's workbench tour...
Well, its and annual tradition of mine, but I cant for the life of me find last years post. Honest, I do this every year, but it seems I didn't post it on my blog (as I work through adding the photos slowly, I see my wisdom from last year...) so you'll have to search any number of forums to check up on me!

The purpose is threefold:

1. First and foremost, Some of the pictures may look cool.
2. It reminds me what I've done in the past year & what's changed in my own cabinets, which I often loose track of.
3. It reminds me what hasn't changed in the past year & thus what I probably should try to practise in the year ahead.

Thus, I launch the tour of the cabinets. Camera snapping away!


Cabinet 1.

C1 Shelf 1. Random 6mm sci fi pieces. No changes here since last year. I took them out to photograph them for the HobbBrush and that's their only movements!

C1 Shelf 2 40K & Sci-Fi display pieces. Not much new here. Just the Infinity model I popped int he cabinet for the holiday season. Q1 of 2012 should see more Infinity added however, fingers crossed!

C1 Shelf 3 There will always be a Kraytonian Shelf somewhere. Nothing new here just yet, but it will be replaced with Fresh models soon as reinforcements are imminent - see workbench tour below!

C1 Shelf 4 WHFB Savage Orcs. Nothing changed here in the past year I dont think. I've done a few random details on my greenskins as the sporadic mood takes me, but 8th Ed killed the momentum of the project just as I was getting going.


Cabinets 2 & 3 - to the right of the TV :)

C2: Shelf 1 6mm sci fi display pieces. This shelf will never change much, but contains many of my favourite models. That said, I'm not sure when I painted the Exodus wars tank, or the single EW miniature currently in there. I need to paint his female counterpart soon & base them both together, its been waiting ages!

C2: Shelf 2 28mm Roman army - All New!! This is the completed core project I've been posting about for the past few months. I'll update the galleries soon. I'm really pleased with the way they tunred out and whilst I dont like using transfers, I enjoyed painting a proper army again.

Note that I say "core" since I inadvertantly won an ebay auction, so there's 24 more Auxillaries and 3 cavalry I need to fit in one day.... Ooops!

C2: shelf 315mm Medieval and Fantasy. Nothing new added, but a hell of a lot sold. 2011 was a year of selling 15mm armies and the Dwarves, one Human army, half another and various un-aligned formations have flown all across the world - these will hopefully soon follow!

C2 Shelf 4:More WHFB Greenskins. This time goblins. Many of their number, over 100 in fact, were sold this year. As I said, 8th ed killed my momentum & the night goblins I sold will be easy enough to replace should I want to return. Then again, I have about 800 more Greenskin models awaiting paint, so I'll be in no rush to purchase!

C3 Shelf 1: Fantasy display & Misc. pieces. Nothing much has changed here. The Giants section grew in May, then shrunk when I sold 3 in September, but otherwise, like all my display areas, I haven't done any display work and the giants hardly count themselves! I've definitely returned to army painting this year. Part of me thinks I should push myself again, but I'm enjoying what I'm doing so sod it!

C3 shelf 2:And Part of what I'm doing is "World of Twilight"! These Furbarnii are all new this year, as is the (still incomplete) Diorama. In fact, this represents a stage beyond the progress previously reported, but they still need details adding & basing finished to them. Once that's done, I've got more characterful elements to add to the force, followed by some opponents for them - expect a lot of WoT in 2012! :)

C3 Shelf 3: This is what you call a shelf of intent. Its mostly empty, and by the end of 2012 I want to fill it with Epic Figures. They might be titans, they might not, but this shelf is for my first love, and I will fill it... I hope!

C3 shelf 4: Miscellany. More WHFB ORcs, they've been covered. The WHFB Empire handgunners are newly completed, but were started many years ago. Similar goes for the 15mm FoW Soviets and the 28mm DAK - both were painted years back but I've re-touched them ready for sale so they're here on the temporary visitors shelf. (I cant put them any higher in case I get attached to them..... )

What's not shown at all is my 6mm soviet forces, which have swelled to hundreds of vehicles and thousands of infantry during the year, and then equally been sold off back down to a measly few. They're waiting for reinforcements again before they're worth photographing.


PHEW! So, that's it. The Cabinet tour completed. What I havent done is display work in any scale. What I have done is paint huge amounts of figures and sold lots too. I'm enjoying my painting. I'm not pushing myself, granted, but I am seeing forces grow from the lead mountain and I do love a good regiment!

I've stated some aims, but I really only have one. Enjoy 2012. And that goes for my painting too. This means I might not stick to the proposed projects, but I wont worry about it next year. As long as paint has been slung, dice have been rolled, and laughs have been had, it will certainly have been a successful year for me, and I hope the same will be said of yourselves - thanks for reading! Happy New year!