Chaotic Restoration - Characters! Project Complete!

 To the end - characters. Ages of these range between my having had them since the mid 90s through to converting one last year.

V nice to just sit and paint out 4 character models of an evening though. Especially, as being in mainly red armour, the undercoat does most of the work!

First up - ye olde Warhammer Quest Chaos Warrior of Massive Axe.

Not a jot of paint for 25 years. 

Ye Obligatory Classic Realm of Chaos Chap. 

Ebay job, from around 2008ish. Back when such could be bought for 99p free post and there was none of this OOP OLDHAMMER RARE fishing happening. Not painting until now, although I suspect he'd been stripped in the past before I purchased.

Ye Properly Used And Loved Model.

This fellow we've seen before, so won't linger.

Ye New Boy

Plastic! Knocked this up as a conversion last summer in a fit of NON KHORNE WEAKNESS, before seeing the error of my ways and embarking on this entire army restore as penance. The idea of a chaos champion of another god crossing the floor to join Khorne is a nice one though, so his background is sorted.

Group shot. Need to think of names for three of them, but time being what it is............

AND WITH THAT..............project complete! I might tidy up my demons at some point as well, but I think thats enough WFB painting for now. 

Next step? FIGHT THEM AGAINST SOMETHING.

W is for WYNGARDE #2

 

Chaotic Restoration - Chariots

 Chariots and what was a Warshrine at the time of building, but will just be a chariot now (6th FTW!)

Enjoyed these, and knocked them out over the course of two evenings........so an hour each, then. 

God knows what I was thinking with the placement of the drivers back in the day, but thats how they were pinned and thats how they remain! Photos don't show it, but Mnsr Halberd is staring straight into the back of Mnsr Whip

Warshrine was an odd one - I woke up one morning with a flash of inspiration, got set to building and within an hour or so, I ended up with a carriage of SKULLS AND HEADS. Its been a bit battered and broken campaigned since then, never saw table use and never got any paint, so its nice to finally see it in a finished state.

2021 Review and 2022 Thoughts and Plans

 Its that time of year, to look back and see what laughable promises I made at the outset.

Before that, I admit I've been neglecting this blog somewhat, and theres tonnes of things I've done that I'm not documenting, plus long gaps between something being finished and put up. One reason for that really - Covid! See, I used to do all my blogging in my lunch breaks when at work, and with covid making working from home a permanent thing in my job, three days a week, I don't really use the time for sitting at the screen doing this.

And the two days in studio? I find my wit, charm and dashing wardrobe in demand, so lunch out!

The other thing - my painting rate. Its about 50% of last year, where I clocked up over a thousand models, but this year its a relatively portly 500+.

Reason? I'd painted all of the easy stuff already, so was left with cavalry galore, Napoleonics and other trickier items to do. Still, gotta be done, so thats why its slower.

Right, onto the failures

1. NAPOLEONICS

Actually, I didn't do too badly on this! Its not finished, and was by far the biggest amount of painting I needed to do, but I've made it about 2/3rds of the way through the project and now have enough to host a game with both sides ready. Def finishing in 22.

2. ZULU

Didn't finish, no. Did more Zulu, but theres hundreds of them!

3. SUDAN

Yep. Finished and complete. Even gamed it.

4. MEDIEVAL

Nope. Seem to have been off medieval last year. That'll bubble up again and become a focus at some point.

5. SOLO GAMING

Er, no. Did some remote games (warhammer quest for the win!), played some LOTR with my daughter, but nothing solo. I just paint instead, or crash out and watch some Amicus.

6. VICTORIAN SCIENCE FICTION

Nope. However..............

2022 Plans

1. VICTORIAN SCIENCE FICTION

It IS happening. It's a by product of #4 really, as I'll end up with models to use, and I've been thinking of the easiest way to do this. Got the steam tanks already!

2. FINISH THE DAMNED NAPOLEONICS

Yes. Still a lot to get on with, but downhill all the way now, as 21 broke the back of the project.

3. LANDSKNECHT

I haven't forgotten these! Will most certainly get these done and then have a big fuck off battle with them.

4. FRANCO PRUSSIAN WAR

Biggest project of the year. Got a load for Christmas, so its all going to start. I'm itching to get on with this one, but will complete one or two other current projects first, so that theres not load of unfinished stuff kicking about mournfully waiting its turn.

5. FINISH THE DAMNED ZULU

It will be this year. It will!

Chaotic Restoration - Chaos Warriors

 Not so much a restoration, these, as they are new. I used to have loads of them in the past, but they all got binned. A chaos army needs chaos warriors, however, so hand in pocket (again).

I really really REALLY did not enjoy painting these! I actually like painting and paint every day if I can, but these were just awful. Should have been very easy as pretty simple, but they were just dragging the paint off the brush and killing momentum every time I picked them up..........which is very unusual for me. NEVER AGAIN.

With that, heres the current standing of the force. 

Painting Tally - December 2021

French Napoleonic Casualties - 18

British Napoleonic Casualty - 1

French Napoleonic Carabiniers - 12

French Napoleonic Commanders - 4

British Napoleonic Commanders - 4

95th Rifles - 3

Khorne WFB Characters - 4

Khorne WFB Chariots - 2

Month Total - 47

Year Total - 556

Relief Column - Mahdist War Battle Report

A game in the Sudan, finally, after getting all of the project finished, painted and done! Took about................4 years, on and off (mostly off), to get everything done for it.

Now, I did do some smaller games for the Sudan a couple of years ago, really as we had some time and space to play - these can be found here: https://themosquitoonthetenthfloor.blogspot.com/2019/08/enter-sudan.html

Scenario for this involved a smaller party of British being forced off the river by the Mahdists and holing up in a town, under siege, until a larger relief could arrive to extract them. The majority of the Mahdists were in the vicinity, marching to intercept.....

Initial table set up and deployments, with the Mahdists attacking the town from a single side.

British Relief arrives on the far side.

Whoever the Mahdist leader of the initial force was not having a good day............

First command roll for Mahdists and a blunder sends some skirmishers running straight into the front of a machine gun.

A warband subsequently runs straight up and gets shot to crap, whilst everyone else watches this and promptly refuses to move for basically the rest of the game..........

Gendarmerie advance out and scout for the columns.

Form into line and get ready for the advance, while those Mahdists haven't gotten their act together

Uh, whats that appearing in the corner behind us, chaps?

Good god, the rest turned up early!

Impressive looking cavalry, about to undermine themselves completely by sitting on this hill acting as observers for the ENTIRE GAME.

Main Mahdist force eyes up those columns ahead of them......

Camel Corps dismount and put some fire into the backs of the beseigers (who deserve it, frankly, after another couple of blunders)

British form line, in response to the arrival of the Mahdists on the flank

Second column continues the advance to the town.

"how's it look to be going for us, Carruthers?"

Gatling gun laying down the law.

"Form up, we may be making a break for it soon!"

The lines begin to engage

Mahdists rush the first line, attempting to divide the two forces.

As well as finally making it into the town.

Fierce hand to hand in the town sees off the cavalry for the moment, but gives the opportunity to make an escape for the British.

Still a big fight in the centre, only a matter of time till the wave hits.

Which does and busts straight through the first line, into the guns of the second.

Are they going to get through this firepower though?

Lots of casualties mean the Mahdist charge begins to lose pace and falter.........

Wheres the cavalry? Oh right, still sitting on that hill up there behind us..........

At this point, the Mahdist line finally broke and began to retreat.............while the British managed to extract successfully.

Win to the British

A good close game, not helped by the appalling command of the Mahdists, rolling something like 5 or 6 blunders throughout the game. I take full responsibility for that. 

However, the complaining about "theres too many of them for us to possibly take on!" from the British lines meant they certainly felt the heat somewhat, so not a total loss.