A glance back, then a Mighty Stride forward

Happy New Year! Battleshed Diaries is limbering up for another year of multifarious wargaming, ridiculously ambitious hobby projects and some serious Lead Mountain mining! And to help activate a movement roll from the passing distractions and indulgences of recent festivities, I’ve actually picked up a brush or two and splattered some paint near some miniatures. Good omens indeed! But first, a quick review of the past year and a look ahead to what I optimistically think will be filling my 2017 gaming calendar.

Springing ahead

Time for a progress report. School holidays and family additions (I'm now an uncle!) have once again interrupted the gaming flow. I know, I know, it's something all us gamers have to put up with. The good news on the tabletop gaming front though is that I've only five sleeps to go until Salute 2016!

A Battleshed year

It's that time of year again when gaming and modelling has to take a back seat for the annual ritual of forced bonhomie, tacky decorations, inane cards signed by the spider-helpers of unknown elderly relatives and insidious tunes assaulting seasonal dissidents like me from over-heated and over full retailers. Yes, it's the grand orgy of rampant consumerism that's become the so called Festive Season.

Bah...wait for it.......HUMBUG!

There were Romans at the door. Lots of them!

Today, I took delivery of the 'Legions of Rome' army deal from Warlord Games for my anticpated  foray into Hail Caesar.

This set arrived very quickly from the initial order, so quick it caught me out and I had to arrange an alternative delivery date with the postal service. So why the Romans? Wasn't I thinking of a Carthaginian army? Yup, but after a lot of deliberation it came down to a head and heart kind of' thing - the possibilities for a Carthaginian army ticked all the boxes, possibly utilising some of my Saga miniatures, but at the back of my mind I just fancied having a Roman force.

Strangers in the camp

Pictured below are the latest recruits to Magi Bayaz's First Law crew, ready for the resumption of our SoBH campaign. Bayaz's warband coffers are dangerously low at this point with Caul Shivers being gruesomely sent back to the mud by the devious elves and both Nicomo Cosca and Black Dow injured during the last encounter in the mountains. 

Whilst the warband recuperated for a few weeks after the battle, Bayaz gave the young Jezal dan Luthar the chance to use his verbal skills more productively, other than irritating the rest of the warband, and sent him off to negotiate for some half decent fighters at a very decent price. 

Upon his return Jezal was accompanied by two dangerous looking individuals by the names of Red Hat (left) and Curnden Craw (right). Both came with reputation, so how Jezal had managed to recruit such individuals, given his limited coinage, is now common speculation amongst the other fighters...

Newton's Third Law

Since the Dwarf Standard Bearer and the two reinforcements, (Red Hat and Curnden Craw) for my SoBH campaign warband are almost complete, the next miniature in the queue for the paint table will be the first for my 'In Her Majesty's Name' project, a crazy Lead Adventures miniature purchased at Vapnartak 2014 earlier this year.

House rules will be required for the RPG recoil ;)

Meets the Standard

After a long hiatus with regards to my painting schedule, I finally got the brushes out and made a start on the 'Lead Mountain'. I did have an incentive to kick-start the painting though, as I need to paint up two new recruits for my current campaign warband, based on the First Law books by Joe Abercrombie. More of which on a later post.

However, I've had a Dwarf Standard Bearer miniature hanging patiently about my paint table for what seems like ages, so I started with him. I forget where I purchased the miniature, as he's been dwelling in the aforementioned Lead mountain for so long. He came without the actual 'standard', just the pole and cross-support, so I rummaged in my bit box and found a suitable flag from one of the Warhammer Fantasy parts. After a  little slicing and filing I painted the Standard separately, adding some spare transfer designs that I thought looked suitably Dwarfish'.

So finally, Gilic Firmfoot, Standard Bearer, will now join my other battle-hardened Dwarf lads, anticipating his chance to stand short and proud in the next adventure!