Playing Games

So a few months ago, I started this blog because I wanted to get back to playing games again. I've been doing hobby stuff like this for my whole life and have gone through several different phases. Right now, I'm in the "I want to play, but play what I want" phase, which isn't a bad place to be. And when I started this, my game of choice was Dystopian Wars. That is what I wanted to play.

So the hope there was to try to kickstart the DW community in my area and get some games on the tables. Well to be blunt, it didn't quite work out. And it really is my fault. You see I let myself get sucked into other games again. Games which had momentum and people playing them. Or, it was a great game that I also wanted to see get some support. These things are never really as simple as they should be.

On the one hand, DW has a few issues with it, the largest being time required to play. A good sized game can take a long long time to finish. Even just a battle box game takes a good bit. So a good part of me is really hoping that V2.0 streamlines the play so that it goes faster. When you have this big flaw in a game that you perceive, it is pretty hard to get motivated to play it....it comes off as "its a great game, but..."

On the other hand, I have two games that are pulling me away from my DW time. Warmachine has appealed to me for a long time, but I never liked the rules. Well the rules are much better now and there is a strong community here. Bolt Action! is a fantastic game, and I have a friend who is spearheading its introduction here locally. I have to support him because I'm the one who got him into the game. And it really is an incredible game.

So yesterday I packed up my Dystopian Wars forces and put them away. I hope to get back to them soon (ie early next year) because it too is a good game. And it is a game I want to play, and a company I want to support. So thank you to all my readers. I hope you enjoyed this blog. It will be going on hiatus until further notice.

Brother G.

p.s. after packing up all my stuff, I found four trays of stuff that I had missed. :)

I'm back!

Hey Sports Fans,

Well I am back from vacation. I took a cruise down to Bermuda with the family and had a great time. Unfortunately, I was pretty much cut off from the interwebs (cost too much to keep my phone connected). So wanted to get a post up now that I'm back home. Thank you to everyone still checking out the blog. You guys are troopers.

My lastest Dystopian news is that I came within inches of buying a ton of stuff. Miniatures Market is having this huge sale on DW and Legions stuff. However, I was on the boat and thus cut off from making purchases. Once I got back home, the things I really wanted were already out of stock. Still, I had over a $150 in my cart but then decided against it. I already have lots of models still in boxes, and it just seemed silly to spend more, even on such an amazing sale.

But damn, had the stuff I had wanted been in stock, I'd have easily dropped $200 on that sale. I just love Spartan's line. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to it soon.

Once again, thanks guys for checking out the blog even with lame updates such as this. I promise better stuff will be coming soon.

I'm a bad blogger

So I just realized that I have not blogged here for weeks! Granted, I've not been doing anything with DW, but still, I didn't have a clue that I wasn't talking about it at all.

Well locally, I have no clue what is going on with Dystopian. I'm not playing it, and I'm not painting. August came and went with basically zero progress on my forces. How did that happen? I spent my time playing on my computer. That's how. Just being honest. Those darn moving pixels get me every time.

There was one guy who was trying to get a DW night over at Guardian Games in Portland. Fantastic new store and I really hope he is getting some interest.

So then what is Spartan up to? Well it seems these guys are just guns a blazin' with all sorts of stuff. They just released bundles for Dystopian Legions. Now I own Prussians due to a sweet deal, but I'd really love to own the Blazing sun group. I've read the rules some but haven't gotten a game in. But it looks good. I have typically enjoyed the Spartan gameplay mechanics. I have no fear that DL would be any different. Just gotta find the time.

Also, Spartan has been previewing their plans for Planetfall, which seems to be their Firestorm Armada version of Dystopian Legions. People must be buying their stuff somewhere, and I wished I lived there. This has them creeping up to five game systems. That is pretty unbelievable for such a new comer to the market. But based on the Legions models, these guys are not slacking off in the quality department, so I expect the Planetfall stuff to be just as amazing.

Well that's it for this edition of "Dead Blog Walking". I'll try not to be away for so long next time.

Still here

Hey Sports Fans,

So I'm still here, and the blog is still going...but its more like on life support at the moment. We are waiting for that kidney to come in. Or something like that. I've not been doing anything at home and not even reading web sites this week. It has just been a monster at work and at home.

I mean I am barely getting in my League of Legends game a day! The insanity! For realz though (heh), I really have been super busy. Spent the whole weekend carting my daughter to various fields for her soccer tournament (her team took second). We didn't even cook a single meal at home the whole weekend. Now I'm a cheap bastard...and my wife really doesn't like to eat out frivolously, so you know it had to be bad for that to happen.

School is also about to start. My son is a senior in HS and has his first football game this week. The kids have a little over a week and a half before hitting the books again. And soccer cranks into high gear around the same time. So I'll be putting on my taxi cab hat if you know what I mean.

Still, there needs to be me time. I shall return to DW soon. Just not today though.

Monday morning update

Hello True Believers,

Today is another small update. My models moved from one desk to another. Beyond that, the only Dystopian Wars stuff I touched was my KoB fleet, and that was only to take a picture of it for a potential trader.

There she is in all her glory. I've only had the fleet for a few months truth be told. Never even got in the water unfortunately. However, she was my fifth fleet, and the smallest one at that. In a slight breaking of the fourth wall, I have gotten into Warmachine and am actually starting up a blog there. This fine set of ships is being traded for a bunch of Cryx models to fill some gaps and give me more options for my Denny list.

Heck, just looking at this fleet, you can't help but think, "that's cool." That carrier is just crazy-sauce. Last night as I was putting away the models I noticed how the AA guns on the carrier matched the guns on the escorts. That made me smile. What a wonderful bit of detail that really helps tie in the ships together. Just one of those things that I love about Dystopian Wars models. Hopefully the new owner will get some good use out of these. I also didn't mind getting rid of them as Robert already has KoB on lockdown. No need to show him up with his own fleet. ;)

Also thinking about letting my French fleet go. I have to say I'm not a huge fan of France in general (though full props to them for helping us win our independence from England. Thanks Lafayette.) so I don't have a huge incentive to keep them. Plus, getting the Chinese fleet keeps me at three, which is not a bad number to have.

Besides, my hope is to trade/sell it locally and gain another Dystopian Wars player in the area. Stranger things have happened. But back to the status, the models are on the table, space was cleared, paint was moved. Now all I need is some motivation and time, and we'll get some more paint on my Blazing Suns. Until next time gentle readers.

Dystopian Wars in August

Hello sports fans. This is my first new update since the revelation post a few days ago. Whether or not this holds your attention remains to be seen. But here we go anyways. :) (as a slight aside, my typing has gotten so bad....)

In the last few days, I have actually looked at my Dystopian models...I even picked up the heavy walker of my Blazing Sun and made it do a little dance on my desk. Beyond that though, no real progress on the painting.
Booo Hisssssss
However.....I did actually make a few purchases with them in mind. My main hobby shop recently moved into a much larger space and so I had to go check it out on Friday during lunch hour. I picked up a few new basing materials from the Army Painter line for the express purpose of basing the Dystopian Wars models. So I'm pretty excited about them and just need to figure out how I want to use them. At first I was drawn in by the Gale Force 9 basing stuff, but the Army Painter was like a buck cheaper per flock.

I also had a discussion with Robert about where I'm at currently with the hobby. He has been working on his Bolt Action red devils. Both of us go a bit bonkers for the casual historical gaming systems (bolt action and flames of war). And that is okay that he is working on them. Just like it is okay that I'm looking at Cryx stuff right now. I think it will help to break things down into smaller goals that are quicker to obtain. This way I can mix up my hobbies and still get things done. (typing mistake counter is at 20 I think)

So the new plan is to finish up the Blazing Sun force by the end of August. That means finish the walker, and then finish the rest of the tiny tanks. That is completely doable. My hope is, that by the time I get that stuff done, I'll have secured a trade for some Cryx models (I really don't want to buy as I have so much stuff, trading makes lots more sense). That way I can get some time to make the Cryx models dance on my desk top and then set a new Dystopian Wars painting goal.....Prussian land starter..hint hint.

Now on the Dystopian Wars news front, you should all go read the community forums at Spartan Games. Neil has made some pretty big announcements recently. The big one is that DW 2.0 should be out just after Christmas I think. They are also working on an aerial version of Armored Clash and maybe then go in for a naval game. I like AC and so that sounds really cool. The downside of it though means that 2.0 probably won't use the color dice mechanic. Which is a shame because I think it add so much more depth to the game. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that they add in an option stat set that uses the CDM.

On the gaming in general front, I just saw images of the new SM Centurion models. Ugh, could they be uglier? And how are they supposed to walk in those things?? or do they just waddle? Even though I own a large SM army, I might just skip the book on pure silliness alone.

Well until next time folks (which hopefully will be later this week), keep painting and keep playing.

Waxing and Waning

My first instinct was to apologize again for the lack of updates recently. But the simple truth is that the blog has not gone as well as I had hoped. I've been thinking a lot about it recently, and I realized that I hit the stage where the blog became work. For those that blog, you probably already know exactly where I am at. For those that don't, let me explain.

When I started this, the idea was simply to catalog my progress and experiences as I worked on my Dystopian Wars models. At first I was all excited and could not wait to make posts. Painting models fueled the posts, and posting fueled my desire to paint more models. Fantastic synergy.

And then change occurs. Its the only constant in the universe really. Work, life, kids, etc...you know those things we hobbyists call "excuses" for not working on our stuff. The simple fact is though that other things rose in priority. And with that came the guilt. I had this blog and now I'm not putting up updates and my reader counts are going down and blah blah blah. I'll blame it on gamer ADD. But that isn't the truth. The truth is that priorities change. And I am a gamer. I have thousands of models and many different games that I all play and like. But now I felt like I had to work on DW. I had to create content for my blog.

Suddenly this hobby that I wanted to do became something I had to do. Ever notice how when we "have" to do something, our enthusiasm for it drops significantly. I wonder if anyone has posted about the stages of blogging....would have been a good thing to read before doing this. :)

So here I am, in that trap that we all fall in to. I stupidly found a way to turn something I wanted to do, into something I felt I needed to do. It went from fun, to work. I think this is the honest truth about gamer ADD. It isn't that we can't keep attention on a project. I think it really is that at some point, the expectations we put on ourselves for getting something done, turns our project into a job. And who wants another job?

So, what does that mean for the blog? Well I could start blogging about whatever it is I'm doing at the moment. But I don't want to do that. This is a blog about Dystopian Wars. I want to keep this blog on topic. You want to read about DW, not Bolt Action or Flames of War, or League of Legends, or anything else I'm doing.

The task I have at hand now is find a way to blog about Dystopian Wars, even if it isn't high on my priority list. Maybe my personal projects aren't moving forward, but I'm still reading the forums and keeping tabs on local play. I might start reviewing the rules a bit too. So the honeymoon is over for the blogging experience. Now it is time to find that new pace that is still fun and rewarding, but doesn't put the same type of pressure on me. And I'm betting that whatever that pace is, it will wax and wane too. And that is okay. It's my hobby damnit! ;)

A little help from my friends

So today's update come from Shmitty, a fellow Dystopian Wars player in my area. He's been working on his Prussian Armored Clash forces and put up some beautiful pics of his stuff on our local forums. So being the lazy git that I am, I convinced him to let me repost the pictures here.

He has gone with a base grey color scheme with brass and red trim work. The flash makes it seem a bit bluish, but some of the closeups show their true color.

If I had to guess, I would say he did a soot effect on the barrels, probably with a drybush. Then he inked the whole thing in nuln oil, or used tamiya glaze. This is why I like to use lighter colors when dealing with models on this scale. A good wash will really bring out the detail and make the model pop.

The only downside to this whole group is that it is basically what I was going to run!! I have a metzer already and the AC set for Prussians comes with another. He tossed in the air units as support. All in all a great looking army. The basing is simple and uniform across the units. At this scale though, "simple" I feel, works so much better.

I think perhaps this is where I'm getting hung up on my walker. I'm trying to pick out a lot of the detail with paint and maybe I should just let the wash do it. This has definitely given me a kick in the rump to wrap up my Blazing Sun and get to my own Prussians.

No Update Update

Hello Sports fans,

Well this Summer has been a bear so far in terms of eating up my time. This blog is ever-present though on my mind, so want to make sure I let you guys know this isn't falling to the way-side. I just simply haven't had the time to make progress on my army.

The plan so far is to wrap up the Empire, and then get going on the Prussian land forces. I still want to get vanguard status this Summer if possible. That is the painting schedule so far and should keep me busy for the next few months.

As I showed last time, I now own the Chinese fleet. I am not sure if I will jump in on painting them just yet though. There are two items right now on the horizon that have grabbed my attention. The first is the Prussian Armored Clash set. I really want to give AC a go and I like the Prussian models better. So if I can sucker Robert into getting the KoB AC, then that moves up to the top. Best part is that I should have the land starter for PE done already and can just extend the scheme over to the AC box.

The other item is Dystopian Legions. They finally released the tank for the Empire and can I say...holy crap! That thing is awesome! But, I only own prussians so far for DL, not the Blazing Sun. Also, much more expensive. So a few hurdles for that option, but nothing I can't work around.

So there you have it. I'm still here. I'm still keeping my gamer ADD focused on Dystopian Wars (though the Eldar are making it hard for me). Stick with me, and I'll have new updates soon.

Even more new toys!

So small update today. I promised you guys a work in progress pick of the Taka Ishi. So here it is:

I have actually spent most of the time on the turret, but  the work was on the back of it, which of course I did not show in the pic. But at least there is proof that I'm working on the darn thing.

Also, as the title suggests, I completed a trade the other day to really bolster my Prussian fleet.

This really gives me everything I need for naval battles with nice air support as well. I have a NIB starter fleet for the Prussians that I can now get rid of, plus a few extras (I don't think I need two dreads or three sky fortresses). Hopefully I can add a new player with those models in my area somehow.

Also, Robert is still hard at work on his KoB. He has started on his naval fleet and is working on producing a test model for his tiny tanks. He is trying out a textured paint for the basing. Please note these are also work in progress and not finished models:

I believe the middle of the cruiser is going to be mostly gun metal or silver in color. Should look nice when he is done.

So there you have it. I'm going to keep painting the Taka until she is finished and then I'll go back to the tiny tanks and get my Blazing Sun force wrapped up. Then it is on to the Prussian land force.

On the horizon for future purchases are the Prussian Armored Clash set, naval Metzer bots, and the Italian fleet. Keep on painting and keep on playing!

Who awoke the sleeping giant?

Hey sports fans,

So I'm still getting painting in on my EotBS. I have begun work on my Taka Ishi walker. So far I'm liking it, but a little worried about how much metal paint is going to be used on it due to the exposed gears and such for the legs. Ah well, will just have to wait and see how it looks. I will have pics coming soon.

The Dystopian Wars Fairy showed up at my house yesterday and brought me some new toys!

Glee! I can't wait to start painting these guys. Of course they are pushed back a little in the queue due to my commitment to the Blazing Sun and then the Prussians. Still, I'm so excited to work on these guys. I've been looking up photos of the Forbidden City so that I can match the colors. I believe it will be something like a brick colored walls, a gold roof, and then jade armor on the hulls. Probably a nice bright red for the dragons. Not sure what the base coat will be though. I might actually just have to go with a light grey or white primer and paint everything!?!?! man that sounds like a lot of work. :)

Oh, and Robert brought in his first tiny flier model. Looks pretty good. He just needs to throw on some paint where the cockpit is and its done. Best part is, he's still painting. So right there this blog is a huge success. We are getting models done for a game we both love. Woot! Oh, and his Australians came in. No worries though mate, I'll take care of them right quick. :)

So that's it for now. Pics of the Taka Ishi are incoming soon. Keep painting and keep playing.

Paint on models! You saw it here first!

Okay, so it took me a little longer to get a post up than I had hoped, but you know what, its my blog, not yours...so there. :P

No, honestly, sorry about the lack of updates. Summer is being a pain with all the busy-ness and crazy stuff going on. But I got some time, and finished up my medium tanks for the Blazing Sun.

(note: pics came through at a smaller size than normal...my phone does that sometimes..sorry)

So I basically need to base them. But hold on a minute. Do I? I'm not so sure. So I blue-tac'd them to the base so that I could do a proper wash on them without getting it all over my fingers. When I did that, I realized what a benefit a clear base could be. Check this out:

The cool thing about the clear base is that whatever table you put the model on, you won't have a contrasting base. The actual based model will always be stuck on a green field with boulders around it. The other tank just blends in with whatever surface he is playing on.

Granted, I think the based model actually does look better overall. But it was an interesting idea to just leave the clear bases. You don't need to glue the models on the bases for them to work. Which makes storage a bit easier. And on an actual game table, it is kind of cool to have them fit right in. Not sure what I'm going to to just yet. As to the model on the right, I will probably strip his base just because I don't think it came out good enough. I need to try something else for this scale.

Now I wasn't the only one who finished up a few toys recently. My friend Robert put on the finishing touches to his KoB tanks. They come of a bit dirty, but I think he could probably fix that with either a little light drybrushing to make the edges pop, or the mat spray coat typically does a small highlight as well.

 

A little dark, but I think that is mostly due to my suck-tastic camera skills. These tanks get down and dirty. I personally prefer a more realistic approach to painting instead of the pristine "just off the line" look a lot of painters go for.

One last picture to wrap this up. I flocked one of my tiny tank tokens. Not sure if I'm crazy about it just yet, but I don't think it looks bad.

(Gah! see? now this image came across at full size. Stupid interwebz.)

Not sure if I want to keep the red trim or not. Might go with a bolt gun metal. We'll see how the whole set turns out once I'm finished.

Oh, and I lied. I have one last picture to show. My Prussian land force getting ready for the paint line:

This time I went with desert yellow and I am really digging it. Can't wait to see these guys finished. I intend to go with a light grey tread color, silver guns, bronze stacks, maybe a gun metal for the steel decking? Tesla weapons will get drybrushed with white, and then hit with a blue ink to hopefully give them a "charged" look.

Until next time!

Back from VayKay

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I was on vacation and away from my paints for a week. However, I should have a brand new update (with pictures) in just a couple of days. I'll have a little bit of time during the next few to work on my models.

Due to the crazy summer schedule, I've not gotten a chance to get game #2 in for the league yet. Actually it is supposed to be tonight. So I'll check with the wife unit and see if I can go or not. Fingers crossed.

Week 2 of League and spray primer

So today is the start of week 2 of the league. The points ramp up to 750 and this time no extra restrictions on your list. So, extra toys? Or just a small boost to what I brought last time? Part of me just wants to keep things simple and add another 100pts to my previous list. It seemed to do okay. This time around it will have five more fliers (since we forgot the free 10 and only brought 5).

So with that 100pts, I could simply add another cruiser, frigate, and corvette to the list. The small ships are easy to justify. The fourth cruiser though? Does that make that squad a bit unwieldy? Not sure. But thinking about that rocket spread sure has me smiling. We'll see how it goes. The other easy thing I could do is just bring an Ika. While that sounds tempting, not sure if I want to add such a change in dynamics to the list. Those beasts have a fairly single style of play and not sure if that will work for me.

Next up, painting. So no update on the Empire fleet. However, I did bust out the primer on the Prussian land starter:

I used AP's desert yellow and I really like the way it looks. I added the blimp there to show the color matching to the normal paint. You can see it better here:

I am really tempted just to prime that blimp with the spray primer. Seems a bit silly to do so much brush work. The second blimp I have will definitely get primed over.

So that is it for this week so far. Busy week ahead, so not sure what other progress I'll get in. Any painting done will be on the EotBS though. I'm done with the PE until the land starter for the Empire is finished. Vanguard here I come!

My problem with Army Painter paints

So the other day I was talking about my issues with the Army Painter line of paints. It could be that my expectations are different than what they are selling. But I would hope that a line that boasts that its about speed painting, would not require you to do multiple coats in order to get the coverage you need. So in this brief update today, I wanted to show you an example of what I was talking about.

So, here we are with the Prussian Carrier model. I recently got this in a trade and it was already primed grey. Which to me is fine because I really like using grey primer on models. Typically grey is forgiving to the lighter colors, and just provides a nice foundation.

So therefore, I pulled out my AP desert yellow color and went about painting this thing by hand. As you can see, the results are not fantastic. The middle section has two coats on it already. Looking closely, you can still see variations in the color as the grey primer is sneaking through. To the left and right of the middle sections are single coat areas. Clearly these are unacceptable in terms of coverage. I have emailed AP and they were great in giving me some suggestions for handling the thin paint...but none have really worked out for me.

So again, maybe it is my issue with the expectations of the paint. Overall, I like them. And the color primers are great. I guess I will just need to make sure I primer the models the main color first and then do multiple coats for the rest.

1st Battle Report - Blazing Sun vs Prussians

So, got my first game in last night! Whooo! As I had previously stated, there is a local guy, Jesse, who is running a league. We met up last night at one of my favorite stores, Guardian Games, and threw down as they say.

We did 650pts, with the majority of your models must be from the starter set, and this was a naval game. So yeah, didn't involve any of my cool land stuff. But that is okay...because the naval game is a blast too.

My fleet looked like this:
Assault Carrier - Com.
Battleship
3x Cruisers
3x Frigates
3x Corvettes
5x Torp. bombers
2x 3x fighter wings
(yeah, we messed up and only gave each other 5 free TT).

His fleet was:
Battleship
Air Carrier
2x Bombers
2x Cruisers
4x Frigates
5x Dive bombers
2x 3x fighter wings

Due to time constraints, we only got in two turns for the hour and a half we played. Not fantastic, but not horrible either. It was a learning game for the both of us so lots of book browsing.

I will also state here and now, my dice were hot, H-O-T hot! It was insane how often I criticaled his boats. He was not so lucky. As you can imagine, I'm not even going to try to give a turn by turn recap. Instead I'll just go with the highlights.

Here we are facing off. As you can see, my fleet was apparently going to squish the carrier between the BB and the cruisers. Actually, my plan was to use rockets as much as I could and hopefully burn off some of his AP before he closed. My AC was kind of in a dumb position, but it worked out.

Opening salvos saw me actually put down rockets on his BB and give him a nice burn token. Also, I took out two frigates with some really lucky firing. I did not link turrets with the frigates and criticaled one ship and damaged another. Then the corvettes came over and linked to finish off the wounded duck. If you look closely at his BB, you'll notice a hit token and some fire where my cruiser rockets got through.

Turn 2 was a bit more exciting on both sides. His cruisers advanced and took out a corvette which broke them. His BB advanced and damaged two of my frigates and killed another corvette. Let me say, CR 6 on a frigate rocks! With that, my two corvettes streaked across and sank a frigate. My own frigates zoomed the other way and put a critical on his cruiser. My AC advanced and turned a bit to engage the cruisers, and finished one of them off. Then his bombers came on and crit'd the AC. But then my BB took out both bombers! Then my cruisers finished off his cruiser, and then crit'd the BB! Like I said, my dice were hot! Oh, and his frigate finished off my corvettes. We also exchanged fighters a bit too. The final shot of the round was my torpedo bombers putting one last hit on the BB.

We had to call it there due to time. However, his field was looking thin. His BB was not going to last much longer, he was down to 3 fighters as well. But his Air Carrier was still potent and he still had a full wave of 5 dive bombers.

My loses consisted of three corvettes and three fighters. Two frigates were damaged and the assault carrier had a single crit against it. Lessons learned was that we need to look up the AA rules more and find some good examples of them on the net. They were a bit confusing to us, especially the timing.

Most of all though, it was fun and I can't wait to play again.

No pics Monday :(

Wow, what a weekend. First off, a belated Happy Father's Day to all that qualify. My weekend was filled to the brim with goodness, just not much of the painting kind. My lovely wife gifted me the day of Saturday to do whatever I wanted. So after shuttling my daughter to and fro soccer in the morning, I then spent the rest of the day playing D&D with my friends. It is my favorite pastime (yes, even more than DW) and it was fantastic. If somehow you have never experienced the joy of RPGs, I highly recommend it. I have been doing it since I was 6 and I love it now as much as I ever did.

Sunday then was mostly a day of work. We were dedicating new adaptive swings at our local park and also celebrating my other daughter's birthday. Lots of work with setup and take down, but well worth it. However, I did get a small bit of painting done...just not on my EotBS. Actually, I just got my hands on a couple of PE blimps and a dread. I love WWII Afrika stuff. My favorite setting for Flames of War. I own several armies for that period (Italian, German and Brits). I just love the desert color scheme.

So anyways, I just recently got Prussian starts for land and sea and then in a trade got a hold of two carrier blimps and the dread. So how to paint them? Well in DAK colors of course! Okay..the land starter will get DAK, doesn't make too much sense to do the boats in DAK...but who knows. (by the way, DAK is Deutsches Afrika Corp)

  

Just to give you an idea of how it looks.

Anyways, I love the color scheme. Also, I saw that Army Painter had a desert yellow color. So I went out and bought a bottle to give it a go. I figured the blimps would look really good using those colors so started out to lay down some paint on one of them. Now as it was already primered, I did not use the AP color primer, but just painted over the existing grey.

Now here I'm going to rant a bit about AP paint again. It was thin! When I get home I'm taking a picture of it so you can see what I'm talking about. I'm going to have to put two coats on this model at least...most likely a third to clean things up. Army Painter dudes...I can not be putting three coats on a model to get the coverage I need with your stuff. That is not speed painting. Argh!

So I did get some paint on...(oh, I also tried out the paint on a TT..still took two coats as well) just not work towards my Empire.

Ooooooo and in other news, locally we are having an escalation league! It will cover the next six weeks. It is a naval league, so doesn't help my land guys out at all, but it will get me playing the game and tossing paint on my Empire fleet as well. It starts tonight. I just gotta figure out how to go. I've got to fix dinner, take my daughter to soccer, and then play indoor later that evening. I'll find a way though...I will!

Brits are catching up

So apparently Robert has been on a tear lately. He's throwing paint around like crazy...some of it is even landing on his models [rimshot]. So today's picture update is more of his models. By the way, he is openly asking for some advice on them. So feel free to throw down some comments for him.

 

Also, looks like one of our local players is thinking about getting a league going. I love leagues. Great way to get excited about an army. Most allow you to start small too and give you a chance to slowly build up your force. Unfortunately for me, the league will probably be a naval league. Which means all the work I'm doing on my land forces won't mean a thing. But that's okay. Just means I'll need to get going on the ships.

Also, I'm hoping to have an update from another local guy, code name Sammy. He's a big pusher for DW around here and we are going to get together soon so I can snap some pics of his army(ies). Maybe even get some words of wisdom from him about the game.

I'm slowly saving up for the Italian fleet. Apparently my LGS already sold out of their lot. I never even got to see them come in. Booooo! But I did get a chance to see the new Chinese fleet and Australians. Wow! The Chinese have got to be one of the best looking fleets ever. Not sure how they play, but so tempted to get them. I know Robert has been drooling over them too. Could there be a race to see who buys them first?? Hmmmmmm

Paint schedule. Yeah..I really need to get back to that. I apparently need a Sturginium time freezing device so that I can squeeze in some painting between breaths or something along those lines. I will say, I've been a bit disappointed with the Army Painter line so far. Quite a few of their paints are needing multiple coats to cover properly. For a product that is supposed to speed up painting...this does not bode well. Many of their paints are coming off thin. I've even gone to storing them upside down as suggested and I do shake well. So not sure if I got a bad batch or if something else is going on. I will say that GW's old base coat line (Foundation) did a fantastic job of base coating. My problem with GW stuff is that they dry out!! I mean most of my foundation set was never even used and most of them are bone dry now. That really pisses me off. GW's bottles suck ass. I have Poly S paints that are 20 years old and still good. I think I may have bitched about this before...but it really bothers me. Ah well, I could rant on for a while. Oh yeah..paint schedule. So the plan is to finish up the medium tanks and bombards. Then tackle the tiny tanks, and then do the big walker. ETA? NFC. (no f*cking clue) Maybe I'll score some Father's Day time.

p.s. my daughter turns 10 today! Woot! Quite the milestone all things considered. But also bittersweet in a way. She has Rett Syndrome (bust out the tissues if you look this up). I had always hoped that a cure or a major breakthru would have happened when she reached 10. No such luck unfortunately. But she is with us, she is happy, and I can't really ask for more than that. Till next time.

post post post your boat...

So yeah, haven't posted in a bit...been busy. Actually I really have been busy. All weekend long I was in the Portland Rose Festival Dragonboat Races. That was exhausting. You wait and wait and wait, then hop in your boat, paddle for three minutes like your life depended on it, and then wait a lot more. It is so draining...I think its this thing the people call "the outdoors." Be wary of it my friends...it will drag you down like you would not believe.

Suffice to say, I haven't painted in a bit. Still recovering, even today. I have to figure out this whole "sleep" thing. Right now I'm getting about four hours a night. That is not enough. Makes the day a bit fuzzy. Holding a brush and getting it to do what you want is nigh impossible.

Still, prior to the weekend I got some painting done. No finished models still, but progress was made. Here, take a look:

See, the last time you saw those models, they were all red. Now they have multiple colors on them! See that pallet there, I've had that thing for over 20 years. It was just a piece of cardboard that has two shiny sides. The other side has never been used. The cup is no where near as old...its just some cup I've been using for a few years now. No where near as interesting as the pallet. ;)

Oh, and its almost Summer over here. Which means the kids will be out of school and all hopes of normalcy will be gone. So pray for me.

Oh, and Robert threw down some more paint.




I think he has "red" envy.

Well somebody is painting

Another day and another no pic update for yours truly. I did actually paint last night, for about thirty whole minutes that I squeezed in. I applied more plate mail to various parts on the tanks. I'd say they are about 60% done at this time. This whole "assembly line" idea really does work...but you do need more than half an hour to get much done.

What I do have though are progress pics from Robert's tanks. Now he decided with going with a gray for the guns and brass for the steamworks.

He's a little concerned that the grey just isn't popping out enough. However, it really is a nice color. Obviously, he has more to do. Most notably, he needs the tracks done as well as the wheel cogs. I think if he goes with a silver or boltgun on the cogs, and some form of brown for the tracks, it will help diminish the green a bit. Also, I've recommended that he expand the grey a bit around the guns. So the housing could be painted grey as well as the gun shield. That will give it a little more area for coverage and hopefully make it stand out more. Plus, once he shades with a wash or glaze, it will help define those areas better too.

Oh, I've also updated the previous post so that there wasn't such a large wall of text. As always, feel free to comment.

Insert catchy title here

Okay, so no pics for today, well unless you want to see some of my daughter's artwork (she's 12). I am working on my models. I busted out the plate mail last night and got a few of the models done. However, I have a lot more to do, plus I need to go back to the tiny tanks and hit them up with monster brown again.

I'm currently on a trading spree though and have been gobbling up all of the loose dystopian wars models in the area. I recently secured a KoB starter fleet with a carrier and escort group. I'm also looking at expanding my Prussian fleet a little be more as well. So fingers crossed that all those go well.

To add a little more meat to this post, I can go a little more in depth with my gaming history. A long time ago, in a state far far away...a gamer was born. Who knew? Six years old when Star Wars came out. Saw it 11 times that summer. Yeah. Which was really around the time I first starting playing D&D too. I played with my older brother and the Bratton brothers. Those two events really set the stage for my gaming career.

I was there when the Atari 2600 came out. Had some sixty games for that sucker. Rolled right into the NES years later. My first wargame was Battletech. I was a teenager at that time and just thought it looked really cool. I still remember my first game of it. My friend and I played a stinger vs a wasp. For some reason, we didn't realize that when the internal structure was gone, the mech was toast. We kept playing until we died from crits. That was a long game. But it really opened me up to miniatures when they came out. It was instantly better to see full 3D models instead of cardboard cutouts.

Middle school saw the introduction of Car Wars. Then around high school, discovered Rogue Trader. I got the marines, my friend bought orks. Those were the days, using tape cassettes for hills and Styrofoam for buildings.

College was mostly RPGs I have to say. I did a little bit of mini gaming then, but yeah, most of friends preferred RPGs. Still though, I have to say my mini collections were quite small all the way until around '97. I had just started getting into warhammer fantasy with the new wood elves when I moved from the east coast to Portland. For a few years, things were pretty stable. I was introducing friends to Warhammer, but had pretty much kept to just the one army and my old 40K stuff from HS (which consisted of the beaky marines and a handful of eldar).

And then, as they say, the sh!t got real. It is all kind of hazy (which is odd since I have never done drugs) but pretty soon my collection grew exponentially. There was a lull when Everquest first came out. Wow...I was in the beta of that game and man did I sink hours of my life into that thing. I did still play warhammer regularly though, and got pretty heavy into the tournament scene for a while.

Hmmmm I have to say, I think the miniature explosion happened after my wife and I moved into our house (yes, despite being a gamer, I was still able to find, court, and marry a woman). There was an office space in the basement which I took over. Yeah, that was the moment. It was like there was a void, and it needed to be filled....and filled with miniatures. I have had armies for every GW game ever produced I think (fantasy, 40K, epic, warmaster, necromunda, mordheim, gorka morka [not Man O' War though) and multiples for most. Then I got into Flames of War and must own at least six armies for them now. And now the Great Eye has turned its gaze upon Dystopian Wars. I just need to make some shelf space.

Oh what the heck, check out this awesome chalk art my daughter busted out:

I find your lack of progress...disturbing

Yeah, Darth would totally be choking me out right now. So despite me having time this weekend to paint, I didn't get as much done as I'd have liked. Part of it was due to the fact that I had to dig through my piles of minis to find all of my dark elf stuff so that it can go on the chopping block. So the good news is that the army is one step closer to getting sold. This is what $900 of GW stuff looks like (pitiful ain't it?):

Paint wise, I did work on my land ships. I went into the assembly line mode and started out with the bleach bone for the decking. First off, a little miffed that it took two coats to get solid coverage over the red primer. Second, man am I sloppy when I go into assembly line mode. I'm going to have to go back over these models with the red to clean up all the mis-hits.

I think wrapped up the evening with doing the tracks with the beast brown color. At first I think my brush was a bit wet because the paint wasn't covering well, but after a few minutes it seemed to finally thicken up to where I was getting the coverage I needed with the first application. I even went to a big flat brush to do the job on the treads which helped cut the time down. Not as sloppy as the bone though.

So this week I'll be painting the silver to the guns and hatches, and then cleaning up with the red paint before hitting it with a wash. Also, I just realized I could have done all of the treads on the TT last night, especially since I had left over brown on my pallet.

Once the assembly line is done, then I get to tackle the final unit of the land set, the walker! Can't wait to paint that model. I just love that thing. I also need to bust out the alternative turret for it and get that primed too.

"oh, you don't have D&D tonight hon?"

If ever there was a moment when the sound of impending doom could be heard... So basically my evening was shot last night as I became chauffeur for the family. By the time I was home and could actually bust out the painting, the motivation window had closed.

However, the bright side is that I'll be home on Saturday watching my daughter while my wife and son are out for several hours. That means Spongebob comes on and daddy gets to paint. :) Well, at least for a little while.

Meanwhile, my taunting has continued to work on Robert. Today he came in with three more vehicles primed, the KoB bombards (Churchills I believe).

I have to say that I'm impressed so far with how well the base coat was laid down. These models were primed grey originally, and Robert hand painted the green on them. I always worry about detail being lost with multiple coats, hence I use color primers. But these guys show no signs and looked great.

Hopefully this weekend we can keep the pressure on him to put down a few more bits of color on these guys and see how a finished product looks.

Yesterday, I started looking at the Armored Clash rules. Immediately they reminded me of the Dystopian Legion rules. I think the colored dice mechanic is a great expansion to the game. Also, as a long time lover of Warmaster, I like that they have a command mechanic in the game as well. I will say I was confused a bit at first by the army lists. I think if they provided pictures of the units in the document next to the entry, it would go a long ways to making them easier to read. Unfortunately I don't have enough models yet to try an AC game, but with as much as I like the land game of DW, I will be moving in that direction. Plus, its a great excuse to buy more cool models.

The gauntlet has been thrown!

So finally I have something to show you other than my work. I have been taunting my friend Robert to get going on his DW models so that we can have some good proper games. He loves all things British (even bought a mini cooper) and so he had to go KoB when Dystopian Wars came out. Our forces have clashed a couple of times with games generally being too close to call. Unlike me, he has stuck with the KoB since the beginning. I'm still lamenting my FSA sale from so long ago. Of course now I have three fleets, with a fourth one planned. So who am I to complain?

Anyways, Robert came in today with a nice little surprise. He's started on his models! Dun dun dunnnnnnnnn! Now I know this great build up will have you thinking I'm about to show you some awesome stuff. Well you don't know Robert.

I know what you are thinking...."they're green". However, the fact that paint has found its way to the model is substantial. Now I'm not really one to talk too much. I've owned my DW stuff for quite some time and mine is now just barely getting some paint. So I'm not busting on him too much. I really like the base color he is going with, which I believe is russian uniform. He has quite a bit of paints for his FoW collection, so I'm expecting to see standard WWII British colors for his army. Not a bad way to go. Will contrast nicely with my red Blazing Sun force. Hopefully this will also inspire some other local DW players to start sending me pictures of their armies.

Today is normally my D&D night, but my DM is out of town...boooooo. But, it gives me an unexpected night to do some painting. So tonight I start operation assembly line. I'm going to take the rest of my land tanks, and going with one color at a time, paint the lot of them. If all goes well, I'll have them all ready for ink or glaze by the night's end.

On a related note, I also own AP's soft tone ink. So one of my models might get hit with that to see how it turns out.

Post Memorial Day Update

First off, a shout out to all of our veterans and their families. God bless you and thank you for the sacrifices you have made for us.

Okay, now to the updating. Since it was a long weekend here in the states, my family took our annual trip to the Menucha retreat. There we volunteer our weekend to doing various chores around the facility to help get it ready for its busy summer season. I ended up splitting wood all weekend long. Suffice to say, I didn't get to spend much time painting.

However...I did finish up a couple of vehicles and took pictures last night.

Dead center is my previous finished model. To the left is the finished bombard vehicle. Below that is a small tank stand. To the center right is a finished frigate. Above that, is a base coated frigate awaiting detail.

I decided to use the Vallejo black glaze on all three updated models. As you can see, the bombard is brighter than the chi-ri. There are a few pluses and minuses. I like how the bombard's bone is more striking. The red is bright, but not horribly so. However, I like the treads on the tank better. I might actually need to do a combo of ink and glaze to get the final product I want.

Here we have the finished frigate next to the primed one. The glaze darkened up the red tip nicely, but didn't take the bone too far away from the original. The white stack still looks white and the bronze got picked out nicely. I forgot how much I love my black glaze. Although in a few places it did "dirty" the bone paint. Maybe I just did it too thick? I should have also mounted the frigate to something so I could hold it up. I glazed it while it was on my workbench. Not the best idea.

The glaze didn't do to bad on the tiny tanks either. Now I just need to finish basing the bombard and TT and they will be all set to go. I'm going to use a thinner basing material for the TT. Fewer rocks and tufts.

So not a whole lot of progress made, but one model finished and two others darn close. Oh, and in other news, I picked up a French fleet. No idea yet on what I want to do with it. But it is at the tail end of the list for now. I have the Empire to finish up first, then the Prussians, and then I can think about the French. Of course, if I am able to afford the Italians any time soon, those will jump up in the line.

As always, feel free to post comments on the paint job or the blog content.

Glaze vs Ink

So today going to take a look at two different products that I have used for detailing the Dystopian Wars models.

Before Dystopia, I was pretty big into Flames of War, and in fact, still have several armies. One of the great products I found at the time that really brought out the detail of the models was Vellejo's Black Glaze. It comes out in this thick goopy substance, and my first thought was, WTF?? Thankfully though, I was instructed in its use beforehand. Basically, you put a small glob of it on your palette.Then, take your brush, dip it in water, then into the goop, and apply to the model. From there, keep dipping your brush into water and then back to the model until the glaze has been thinned out. It does a fantastic job of black lining all of the crevices on the small scale models. What I really like about it, is that when done correctly, it doesn't color the paint very much. Obviously, if you put it on thick, it will, but if done right, it only fills the lines. Small warning though about the glaze, if you use too much water, it tends to actually white line the areas instead. Don't ask me how, I'm not a scientist, I just know it happens.

I've also used AP's strong tone ink recently. Now it is more of a traditional ink and does indeed color the paint as well as provide the dark detail lines. It too can be thinned down with water, but not nearly the same as with the black glaze. AP's ink is a different product than their strong tone dip. It does not leave a shiny film over the paint like the dip does, and it drys like a normal ink (unlike the 24hrs you typically need for the dip). I also own their normal ink as well (I think..or is it the light ink?). I may try it on one of the next models to see how much it darkens. On small models like these, I think having solid dark lines really brings out the details. I'm a bit worried that a lighter shade of ink will not line as well.

Above are three models nearly ready for the final detail process. The frigate on the left is going to receive the black glaze as I don't want to darken the colors. The other two models will receive the ink in order to tone down the brightness of the red and bone. I should get these done by this evening and will hopefully be able to add an updated image. As it is a holiday weekend though, I make no promises.

Quick progress update

So just wanted to give you guys a quick image of my current progress. I've got a finished model up for reference.

The dark tone ink really does bring the brightness factor down a whole lot as you can see. By the way, the white base did come with the model. I think Spartan has switched to green plastic bases now that are a little thinner. I find the bases very helpful for movement and making clean measurements. I'm actually sort of surprised that they didn't include bases for their boats as some of them are a paint to turn. I've seen a few people make their own though, so I might look into that when I get back to them.

I'm really looking forward to finishing up the tiny tank. I think I will use a thinner basing than I used on the larger models. That and the ink should make those little guys pop.

My next step is to get a game in with these guys, even in their current state. I'd like to start doing some posts on the game mechanics, but want a refresher. Besides, playing is why I'm doing all this in the first place. Plus I'll get in some cool action shots.

Some more painting

So I started painting last night of the Empire bombard and one of the small tanks. Thank god for sure hands. That small tank was a pain. Thankfully though, due to my paint scheme, there wasn't much to it. Just lots of cleanup afterwards. I didn't take pics yet, as it isn't quite done. I still need to wash it and base it. Not sure as to the basing just yet. I see most people don't base their TTs, but instead just paint them. I'll see how a thin base works on the model.

The bombard was giving me fits though. The paint was not adhering to the primer! Argh! The model was done at the same time the Chi-Ri was done..so no clue why that one has issues. But it took forever to get a good coat of the secondary colors on it. It still looks ugly and I have to go back and do lots of cleanup.

Apparently I also just need to store all of my AP paints upside down. They come out so thin. Wouldn't bother me so much if they covered well, but so far, two coats are a minimum. Again, no pictures, though maybe I'll snap one when I get home so you can see how ugly this thing is looking right now.

On a side note, I'm completely bummed today. I just found out that one of my few friends is moving to California. The big dummy took a promotion and the job is down there. Ugh. He's my DM! Isn't there some rule that says DM's aren't allowed to move until the campaign is over?? I truly am depressed over this. Don is a great guy and one of the few people in Portland that I can give shit to and he doesn't get offended by it. And now he's going to move away. I think he's just trying to get back at me for beating him in X-Wing so often.

Okay, enough wallowing. If I have some time, I'll try to take a few progress pictures and finish up the next two models. However, I have dragonboat practice tonight (actual boat, google it) and then an indoor soccer game after that. I'm going to be exhausted.

Wait shmait...

Okay, so I'm a bit addicted to this blogging thing. I can't help it. Watching that view counter go up is just really cool. So, with that in mind, I had time tonight to finish up my tank. Take a look:

I based it, fixed the missing bolt gun metal on the inside of the wheels, hit it with ink on those places and a few touch ups here and there. Then I hit it with the matt spray. Quick tip about any sprays, make sure the model is devoid of fibers or hairs of any kind. I happen to own a long haired cat who just loves to cover my models with fur. After priming the whole tank force, I spent about 30 minutes picking off red hairs that were stuck on the models.

As you can see, the red dulls out quite a bit after the ink. Plenty of contrast looking from top down, and it works really nicely from a side view to see this red tank cruising across the field. Now I gotta do the other types to see how they work out. Should go fairly well based on this one.

My next post will hopefully be about an aspect of the rules. I'm rereading them again and trying to sort out a good spread of info to present. Now that I have a painted model, I can provide some action shots! :)

One down, lots to go

Today did not start out like I was hoping. Had some technical issues with my daughter's bed that will result in a repair call going out tomorrow. Ugh. Thankfully though, I have a pretty cool wife who gave me time today to paint like I wanted to.

So, first up was the Type II 'Chi-Ri' Medium Tank of the Empire. This is boxy little tank with a nice turret up front. As I showed from the last post, I had primed these all red using Army Painter Pure Red primer spray. Looked a bit on the bright side, but I had hopes the washes would see that out.

Note to future Empire players. Glue on the turret last. There was some deck area I could have gotten to much easier if I had painted first, then put the darn thing on. All in all though, not too big of an issue.

Step 1: cleanup - needed to take the regular paint for Pure Red and hit spots the spray missed. Yay for color matching!

Step 2: base coats - I used platemail for the guns and ladder on the tank. Bronze for the central smoke stack, Gun metal for other metal bits, bone white for the deck, and then monster brown for the tracks. Now originally I used monster brown for the deck, but I didn't like how that looked. Far too muddy.

Step 3: dark tone wash - like it says on the tin. I just washed the whole model using AP's dark tone ink (not their dip).

As you can see, it really made the treads and deck pop out, as well as just provide some depth to the whole thing. I really like how it turned out. Now I did make a few goofs by not painting the inside of the wheels. I need to go back and do that and hit that area with ink again.

Step 4: dull coat - now at this time I haven't used the dull coat yet. I need to do the above first. But I have found that the dull coat (which works great with the dip), adds a subtle highlight to the whole model as well as protecting your paint job. Who could ask for more?

Step 5: basing - now all I gotta do is come up with a basing scheme for this group. I'll probably go with standard grasslands for the nice contrasting color.

I have to say, overall I'm really pleased with it so far. I have about an hours worth of work to do and then it should be all done. If I'm lucky I'll get to that piece tomorrow. I may even wait until I get a few more done before using dull coat so that I can do a group all at once.

Till next time...

And so it begins...again

Well thankfully, the sun came out long enough for me to get some priming in. My Empire of the Blazing Sun land starter is all nice and red. I used Army Painter Pure Red spray primer for the base coat.

And wow are those guys bright. No fear though. I'm sure once the rest of the paint is on and the wash is used, it will look quite nice. I really like Army Painter products. Their spray is top notch and their dip is insanely good. Its also insanely expensive. So I have been researching alternates. I tried out MinWax Polyshade and found it to be a bit thick. So my next experiment with it will be to thin it out with mineral water first. I won't do that for these guys though. I'm going to try the bottle tones first to see how they work.

Now a little tip for Army Painter bottles. If it seems too thin, try storing the paint upside down for a few days. That really helps. I got that from the makers themselves. So I'm hoping tomorrow that I'll have time to do a test vehicle. I have platemail for the guns, bronze for the steamy bits, electric blue for any windows, and I'm trying to decide if I go bone for the deck, or ash grey. Bone will tie it in better with my air and sea fleet colors. Or maybe I'll just use Bone for some edgework? Not sure yet. Stay tuned to see how it turns out.

Also, my next few posts will be discussing the rules. I'll take them step by step and provide some examples. I've done a little research already to find good explanations. The Spartan forums is a good place, but you need to hunt a bit.

Federated reinforcements unavailable!

Just a quick post. Seems like my two FSA land starters got KO'd by MWG. Dang. So that means just the Prussians and the Empire for now. Not to fret though. That money will go straight towards getting my Italian fleet. However, it does mean I'm on the look out for an enemy nation to go up against my Prussians and Empire for demos. I'm thinking maybe the Russians?

Steampowered crystal ball

So lets take a quick look into the future. What is next? Well, my first goal is to start playing games again. I've got two avenues to take here. There has been some rumblings of a LGS hosting an escalation league. Now I love escalation leagues. However, the big problem with leagues is having a set time and place for games. For me, that is hard to do on a consistent basis. And honestly, right now with all the stuff going on in my family's life, probably not too realistic. But I'll keep my options open.

The more probably avenue will be to drag a few of my friends over and play. For that, I'd like to keep things simple at first with low point games and really concentrate on getting the rules down. So currently I'm dragging my book around with me wherever I go so that I can read up on something.

On the painting table, I have my Empire land fleet. Frickin' rain again today. But maybe by the time I get home the sun will be out long enough for me to prime. Hopefully within the next week I'll have at least a test model done and will post up a pic. Not sure what to do about basing just yet. I've heard some people don't use the bases, but that seems to make the mechanics of turns and such a bit of a pain. I'll probably stick with them just for that alone.

Now, once the land fleet is done, I'll probably move on to some war gyros and bombers. Those units will let me continue with the land fleet and add in another aspect of the game. My end goal is all of my Empire army painted so that I can showcase it for demos.

Demos? Yeah...demos. I've been thinking about what it would take for me to successfully enter the Vanguard program with Spartan. That is a quite a ways off, but gives me a solid direction to shoot for. For those not in the know, I'll need a second army. Well look what the mailman just dropped off...

I know, I know, Prussians? "But they are allies of the Empire!!" Gamers on a budget can't be choosy. The Mini War Gaming store was closing down and the bargains on these guys was too good to pass up. Also, I've always liked the Prussians...it just seemed that everyone else around me did too. And we all know that their air carrier is one of the most awesome models ever. Plus, a guy I did a warhammer trade with recently threw in a metzer robot. What good is a robot without an army behind it?

But never fear, that sale also nabbed me two FSA land starter sets, they just haven't arrived yet. And don't give me crap about how I thought they were ugly..I still do, but mini's on the cheap win out. Plus, it gives me a more legitimate enemy for my Empire and now Prussian armies. :)

So there you have it, my Dystopian future laid out: Learn rules, Play games, Paint armies, Become vanguard.

Now I will say that there was something else in that box along with my Prussian starters...it was a Prussian medic pack for Dystopian Legions! Yup, I've also got a Prussian Legions starter, some tankettes, and now medics. But those guys are on stand-by while I work on the DW stuff. But you never know..they just might pop up in this blog from time to time...you just can't trust those pesky Prussians.

No Sun :(

Can you believe it...the sun did not come out once all day today. Freaking Pacific NW. So my beautiful Empire land fleet sits there unprimed.

I have to say I really love the Empire land vehicles. They look stunning. That was one part of the FSA I could not get behind. I hated their land vehicles. But Empire, these guys are sweet.

Empire of the Blazing Sun

So as I said before, I had started with the FSA fleet. I really liked their ship design and loved that they had blimps for air power as well. I had gathered quite a collection by the time I had decided that I needed to move on. You see I've been a GW gamer for the longest time...over 20 years in fact. I have amassed a large collection and always discovered that GW games had staying power while the rest didn't.

Being a family man, my hobby money is tight now. So in my head, I could only justify having one army for another game system. I knew the Italians were going to be released eventually and so I was willing to give up the FSA and wait for the Italian League. That lasted for about a year when I then discovered that the Italians had been downgraded to an allied force. I was crushed. So now what do I do? Well, soon after that, I was presented with a deal for a good sized EotBS army...this time with all three forces represented. While I wasn't crazy for the train look of the ships, the land forces were awesome and who doesn't like a giant robotic squid??

So a little trading and money later, and I'm a proud owner of an Empire force! Now back in my head, I'm still hoping for the Italian fleet to eventually be realized...and I figured that I could simply sell the Empire force when they came up. But this way, I'd have an army to play with until then...win win! Okay, so it was dumb for me to sell the FSA fleet if that were the case...I know. Hindsight and all that. But still, a new fleet, some cool mechanics and a squid. Well actually I had to buy the squid..but still, it was out there.

I even had the idea of painting them...and went so far as to prime and start with little color. I am using Army Painter because they have really worked well for me so far.

Of course, that is about all I've done. Sad I know. However, with my new found enthusiasm and interest in Spartan, I'm going to get back to the painting table. I've even cleared off a space on my desk...okay, well it was cleared off, now I gotta clear it off again. But it should go much faster this time. :)

In fact, once the sun pops out today, I've got my whole land fleet out on the cardboard box waiting for the primer. Now as you can see above, the sea fleet is bone colored with red front and highlights. The land fleet is going to be red based with bone detailing. I think it should look sharp.

Now, I was told that blogs are supposed to be daily updates. Well that just isn't going to happen. Besides the gamer ADD, I have a family (three kids even) and work and tons of other commitments. However, I will attempt to make multiple posts within a week. Should help keep me motivated as well. And believe it or not, seeing those page hits really makes you want to post. Who knew?

So next time, my short list of plans for the future and hopefully pictures of my primed land army.

In the beginning...

Today starts my resurgence into Dystopian Wars, a tabletop war game produced by Spartan Games. I got pulled in about two years ago after my friend Robert discovered the game after drooling over the Firestorm Armada line. He really likes steampunk and pointed out DW to me. I have to say, I fell in love with the models right off the bat. Not to bore you with all the details, but I went in for the FSA fleet. American fleet, repeating ship cannons, and huge paddlewheels!

I even painted a few of them.

I love the amount of detail on these models and they paint up so nicely. Even with crappy photos like the above, these things are still impressive. Needless to say though, gamer ADD and lack of community saw my beloved FSA sold so that I could focus on other games.

Well now I'm back and more excited than ever about Dystopian Wars. To be honest, a lot of it has to do with just how silly GW has become with pricing lately. When you compare the two companies and the costs involved...well Spartan is getting my money because the return is fantastic.

Unfortunately, the community aspect has not changed. It seems everyone I talk to thinks the game is very cool looking, but they keep waiting for it to become popular. So that is why I'm doing this blog. I'm going to showcase the awesomeness of Dystopian Wars. I'm gonna snag anyone I can to help provide content and opinions and try to show the gaming community around here why Spartan deserves their business and time.

Post #1 is always the easiest. Next time, we will cover how I ended up with an Empire of the Blazing Suns army.