Of new houses, new jobs and not enough time!

Yes, it's been a month since my last post, and similarly long for the podcast too - entirely my fault (we've two episodes recorded which I've been unable to finish editing as yet). Why is this? Well, I handed in my notice at work, and after a week was put on garden leave - you'd have thought that would mean plenty of time for model and game related activity, but it hasn't!

When we moved into our new house, we knew there were several elements that needed doing to it - the house was built sometime around 1750, and the prior owners had started renovations to the house such as damp-proofing and insulation of outer walls, plasterboarding ceilings, double-glazing windows etc. Unfortunately for them, things didn't work out for them, which meant we bought it as something of a work in progress.

In addition to the big stuff (mainly the kitchen which was about 30 years old), there's wall the usual stuff like decorating to our (and our children's) tastes. As always when you start these things, there's more work to do than you think, and it all takes time. Garden leave is ideal for this and a real bonus, but it doesn't leave much time for modelling, and that that there is, you're often too tired to start. For example - this mural my youngest daughter wanted on her wall took me a whole day!

That doesn't mean the gaming aspect has been completely neglected, but blog stuff takes time and a bit of forethought - taking pictures, editing, finding time to sit down and put it all together...which in the current environment is a less common convergence than you might expect!

So what have we done in this sphere? Well, we've managed a couple of games of Zombicide Prison Break, Oscar and I managed to convince my wife to play Cthulhu Wars (which she enjoyed - a major boon :-) ). I've been putting together and magnetising Taskforce ships, and also magnetising Planetfall bases for storage (which I will blog about separately).

The other big project I've been managing to fit in is the games room...this is a roughly 5m by 3m space at the top of the house (you can see it's little window at the front of the house above). This is now all insulated and partly kitted out - still a WiP with much to do, but it's a usable space now at least - here's a shot of it at the moment....that's a full 6' x 4' games table by the window, and the beams are the half-way split of the room

On the other side....

32" TV with DVD player and PS4, plus a large number of containers containing modelling and WWII reference books - once these are on a bookcase then a little sofa in front of the TV and it's a proper man-cave! Opposite all the gaming stuff there's still a bunch of boxes and storage things to be sorted for the house, so the space should get less cluttered over time (I hope!) - there are something like 5 containers of cuddly toys, for example!!!

So that's what the state of play is currently - sorry it's been a while but we'll be getting back into a regular rhythm soon, and there's plenty to blog about!

The Hub Systems Episode 1 - Firestorm Armada

Well The Hub Systems Episode 0 seems to have gone down well - thank you all for your supportive messages and positive comments, it's really nice to see! This time we're talking about Firestorm Armada, why we enjoy it, it's background and play style, models and races.

The Hub Systems Episode 0

I've toyed with the idea of a podcast for a while now, and today we finally took the plunge...here is Episode 0 of The Hub Systems podcast, put out there for you perusal and critique...

Enjoy!

Quick update - painting recap...Halo, Firestorm Armada, Planetfall & Zombicide!

Well it's been a month since the last post, and although I intended it to be the final segment of the System Wars review with the Commanders, I've had a few developments since that time. Work has been pretty unpleasant and stressful too, so instead I've been investing what little free time I have into actually doing some painting. This is relaxing, especially whilst catching up with recent or historical podcasts, and exactly what I've needed.

Of course, this is a good thing on many fronts, as it also reduces the wall of unpainted resin and plastic, and enhances our gaming experiences, so it's all good...the true win-win!

First up in this review of what I've been doing are the Covenant ships for Halo Fleet Battles. These are truly lovely ships, and I've waited a little while before painting them as I wanted to think about the effect I wanted before committing. Anyway, I saw a painting Youtube on the SG Community, and decided to steal/adapt their technique. This essentially involves priming silver and then covering with transparent paint to achieve a metallic under-sheen that looks very Covenant-like. I used an auto-spray can for Alloy wheels, and then used Purple and Blue Shades from Army Painter to finish. I put in a fair amount of variation, which I find gives quite a pleasing effect on the tabletop.

Now this is only stage 1, of course, with detail and engine glows etc still to add, but I think I've achieved more-or-less the effect I wanted. Unfortunately half-way through this my faithful Badger 150 broke, the nozzle shearing off somehow, so I bought a complete Medium conversion kit for it (it's the most cost-effective way of repairing it), and as I was away on business it arrived before I could spray again anyway, giving the old faithful a new lease of life, plus my old needle and parts as spares.

Next up were the Works Raptor Destroyers and Battlecruisers. These I gently shaded from black to lighter grey on several surfaces to give some tonal variation, then added weapons and power core/engine glows to fit with my other WR ships.

Note I've left off the PITA metal shields, which I'll paint separately and attach after I'm done detailing the main battlecruiser hulls. This inspired me to press on with my Ba'kash as well, since I've only played with them once as primed models and they did well, so they deserve to have a proper finish. For this I've chosen a Bronze basecoat, again Army painter which I've sprayed over a matt grey primer. This produces a very shiny and slightly glittery effect overall.

Cruiser and Destroyer, which I've used as a heavy cruiser and standard cruiser respectively. This is mainly because I'm not a huge fan of the Heavy Cruiser parts for the model, and I much prefer the old destroyer models, which I have a pair of...

And here's one of them with a frigate. Now this glittery effect is not one I particularly want, but I wasn't too worried since this is just a basecoat, and after a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone...

 It looks much nicer. You can see the pipe areas where I haven't washed (as I'll be painting these a different colour) are much brighter - the washed areas look much more "lived in" and realistic.

Here's the Frigate similarly washed. A drybrush with the bronze and edge highlights in silver, with some oxidation wash here and then should look good before doing the engine glow on these.

Now actually it's been a fair while since I posted anything paintwise, so I've quite some catch-up to do as well on updating the blog. Before I had my airbrush failure, I'd sprayed my Directorate Invasion ships, and before that I'd sprayed the Dindrenzi landers took. As these are atmospheric entry craft, I painted the Dindrenzi in my planetfall colours, whilst I tried some of Anarchy Models' paint masks on my Directorate, carrying on with my new adapted paint scheme for them. Here they both are.

Here's my Directorate RotO ships sporting the newer camo. Although I liked the effect, the Anarchy Models masks are definitely better than the "kids fishing net" mask I used for the RotO ships.

Now it's not just spaceships that have been receiving the attention of the brush...I know I'm jumping the gun a little since I've not yet posted unboxing blogs of them yet, but here are a couple of the new aerial Helixes. The first, the Dindrenzi...

As I was an ardent modeller prior to entering the gaming arena proper, and the rest of my dindrenzi are in late WWII German camo colours, I thought aerial late WWII colours of RLM 81/82 over 76 was appropriate.

The sahrk-like heavy looks especially menacing with the dapple on the fuselage.

Next up are the Dindrenzi's sworn enemies, the Terrans. Their "just in the future" look means they benefit from a US-style modern two-tone aerial combat scheme, both on the interceptors and the heavy.

Finally, the last of the aerial Helixes I've photographed (though I have sprayed the Aquan and Sorylian) is the Directorate.

This was another use of the Anarchy models Hex camo masks, but with a reversed colour contrast.

The Drones I've just gone for a simple dark grey top with light grey undersides, similar to the plain grey of the ground forces.

Next up are some of the larger zombies from the very fun Zombicide - here we have the original season 1 Abomination with a Fatty...still need to finish the camera. but almost there...

And here are the Prison Outbreak and Angry Neighbours Abominations too.

These are great models to paint, a lot of fun and painting them really makes a difference...can't wait to play with them!

Zombicide!

Well here's a bit of a change of pace...Oscar's a big fan of zombie games like The Last of Us, and I'd heard a few odd things about Zombicide, so after selling some old bits and bobs I had no real use or intent for, I decided to give it a go...next day Amazon delivered a large parcel containing a rather sturdy box...

This feels like a quality product - the box is nicely produced and very solid. Opening it up we are greeted with...

 Taking out the rulebook...

 ...and then the counter sheet...

...reveals two boxes - one contains the "Survivors" (yes, the small box!), the other the zombies.

Taking these out reveals the player stat cards and the playing board tiles. All in all a full box that has been put together well and feels like a quality product. getting everything out and on the table looks quite impressive.

Taking a look at the miniatures themselves, they are really nice - this is Phil, a cop;

Very nicely sculpted, well posed and nicely cast, especially for a board game (though this is not aimed at your average family gaming audience, more the gamer/modeller market, so this is nice to see). The zombies, despite their number, are also nicely done. Here are a couple of the "walkers";

Again, nice poses and detailing. Next up is a "fatty";

And lastly an "Abomination" - you just get one of these bad boys (unfortunately my picture isn't great, sorry!);

The gameplay doesn't take long to get into, and the little starter scenario is useful to get a hang of the rules. Some bits we needed to jump back into the rules for clarity and some questions we couldn't find the answers to so did what we thought made sense (we were right about half the time, looking back!). After 40 minutes or so we were racking up a larger game to get into, and it was a ton of fun - absorbing 3 hours easily without feeling like that at all. Here's our game mid-session;

So verdict? It's a great game - there are very simple rules for the game, but the system is very elegant and surprisingly tactical, and does result in some very cinematic moments - Doug the office worker, for instance, plunging into a group of zombies with a chainsaw to clear the way for the group...survivors firing and making noise in a room to draw zombies one way, then ducking back through the building to escape out the other side....epic stuff!

The game is very clever in the way it escalates too...we were cowering at the beginning clutching pans and the odd pistol, fearful of more than a single zombie...at the end we were discarding katanas and wading into the fray, despatching fatties with machetes and Molotov's! Every survivor gains experience and skills for that experience over the game, and  the numbers and types of zombie that spawn are affected by the highest experience level of the survivors....very neat.

For less than £60 delivered, I can see it's going to deliver a lot of gaming fun, and it feels like money well spent...higher praise for a game it is difficult to give!