Historicon 2016 Photos

I realize this is just a giant photo dump, but I wanted to provide this for those who weren't lucky enough to attend the largest wargaming convention on the east coast. Historicon 2016 was really good this year. The convention was a little smaller than years past, but had just as many beautiful tables. I was especially impressed with the giant normandy table. The trees and bocage were just towering over the 20mm and 28mm models.

Our gaming club ran only one event, though we did provide terrain for the Bolt Action tournament. As a group we did very well at the painting competition. Richard Rush took home Best of Show for us, which is thrilling. I hope his fusilier ends up in Wargames Illustrated.

As a group we learned quite a bit about the new version of Bolt Action. The Warlord guys were great, and even let some folks sit down and read their draft PDF of it. After playing my first game of Chain of Command, I understand some of Warlord's changes. Leaders are going to be really awesome!

Till next time, happy gaming!

3D Designs for Zone Mortalis and Space Hulk

I've always like the idea of space hulk combat, and have decided to print out some master pieces for casting that will allow me to assemble some various space hulk configurations. I couldn't find any nice STL files, so I decided to give 3D modeling a try. This is my first attempt at an overall look and feel. The software I am currently using is a bit too primitive to do much with, but it allowed this proof of concept. The process was surprisingly fun, though tinkercad is extremely limited. 

Emperor's Children Phoenix Guard

After several years of waiting, Fulgrim now has his Phoenix Guard body guard squad. It took me a lot of time to jump back in and paint EC's but now that I have I think I have enough momentum to keep painting them. The hard point was figuring out my original paint recipe. With that down, I am free to have some fun again.

The last photo is my favorite. It isn't much of an army so far, but it will grow.

Emperor's Children Phoenix Guard

I've had these guys since they came out, and delayed painting them due to loads of defects on the models. To make thinks worse, I had forgotten the painting recipe for my EC purple. So with defective models, and little chance at replicating the color scheme, I dove right in with limited expectations and no stress. Somehow,  I got the scheme right. I don't know what painting gods decided to help me out, but thanks. There is a lot of shading work to do now, but I am happy with the progress so far.

Oh.. and the colors used so far:

Vallejo MC Violet
Vallejo MC Royal Purple
Secret Weapon Miniatures Soft Bodied Black

At least I hope those were the colors!

Tiger II Display Base Construction

The Warlord Games Bolt Action Tiger II model has awful tracks. This is fine for wargaming, but not really acceptable for a dual use model for display or wargaming. To solve that problem I decided to build a little display base of the model.

The base was a simple wooden box that I picked up at an art craft store. After painting it black, I taped the edges and built the dirt out of a mixture of tan Magic Merlin plaster, dark earth weathering powder, static grass, ground up dry leaves, and a Tiger II track mold that I had made from a Rubicon Models plastic kit. While the plaster was wet, the static grass tufts and leaves were added. As the plaster dried and became moldable, I used the track mold, and the back of a paint brush to press in some details. After the plaster had fully set, I used an overall wash of a dark earth weathering powder. As usual, a little bit of Green Earth pigment was added. I love that stuff!

Despite the base having absolutely no gaming purpose, I think it adds a nice touch to a model that might spend more time on a shelf than in a game. After seeing how well the dirt turned out, I might just have to make an entire table using that technique.