LPL7- Round 10- Rex Eleven Escapes

The 10th and final round has begun over at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 7

Above is my last entry "Corsairs of Umbar' which won by a 70/30 margin, I wish I had gotten all 10 of them on the boat and plan to soon, I am certainly planning on working more Mithril figures into my Lord of the Rings collection moving forward with the complete eradication of metal figures by Games Workshop, I am pretty sure the case is finally closed on me as Games Workshop customer with the exception of what are now OOP/Vintage purchases from when it was a better company.
They have managed to release a couple new things in plastic I like so while the Hobbit trilogy is in full effect they may manage squeak out a few more winners in the current line. I'm somewhat bummed I have overlooked Mithril for so long, fantastic sculpts based on the books not the films
and although as pricey as GW's finecast they're infinite higher quality being , metal, and come clean and primed. These were painted right out of the blister. It's high end LotR, collectors stuff but if you're of my likemind do yourself a favor and check out Mithril Miniatures

  
My current and final entry for the The LPL "Rex Eleven Escapes" is the follow up to last years "The Hunt for Rex Eleven". This Sci Fi Bonus is what got me excited about the LPL again this year. I had already picked up that cool APC from Antenocitis and I had a slew of mainly Reaper Chronoscope figures I wanted to paint for the Space Station.  You can heck out and vote for Rex and his gang to get the hell out of dodge HERE. I'll be back with some final thoughts and the LPL and LAF when this wraps up next weekend.

LPL7- Round 9- Corsairs of Umbar

Round 9 has begun over at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 7

Above is my last entry "Monster Hunters' which won by a decent margin, next up are my Mithril Miniatures Corsairs, which I purchased to crew my Corsair Ship I built earlier this year. I had hoped to get all 10 painted for the entry but that just wasn't realistic, I am running week to week now and about 5 figures is about the most I can manage, the painting, figuring out the backdrop and the photography are taking up all my hobby time.  I am going to finish these guys straight away after my final entry so they actually get done and not have five figures laying around unpainted until the next time I come back to them which will who knows when.  You can check out my entry for round 9 HERE It's started out strong against some great Blood Bowl minis but if you can vote either way please do!
 
The LPL is winding down and we are on the last week. Round 10 is the Sci Fi Bonus Round, how I wish I had more time as I have been itching to get back to my Sci Fi Station that I got the majority of in 2011, I have two new pieces (rooms) I am going to add...they wont make the contest, but 10 figures (5 brand new) and a new Vehicle will..it be interesting to see how the whole thing closes out.

LPL7- Round 8 - Monster Hunters

Round 8 has begun over at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 7

I won't bother reposting my Rohirrim which manager to win the Round which is a nice vindication considering it lost round 1. This weeks entry I call "Monster Hunters" features a mix of Fantasy figures from Reaper, Avatars of War, and three really cool figures from the below the radar Fantization Miniatures and its Rusted Heroes line.  Above is the "Monster" of said "Monster Hunters"
Reaper Troll 60021. I really liked this model and painted it sometime last year since its not one of the primary figures in the entry, but just a prop, I dont think its a big deal I post it while the contest is going on. If you like to check out the official entry and vote please do so HERE. So far the Hunters are doing ok this week.  Two weeks to go, I am slowly climbing the leader board after my abysmal start. I need to win all my upcoming entries to hope to be my score last year, to do so means I need to make the top 9. its going to be tough. Next week it back to Middle Earth with some brand new stuff
and then the my Sci Fi Station is going to make reappearance for the final bonus round 10.

In other news I got a new camera to replace my broken Canon G9, it was going to cost $250 to repair
so I invested that dough in a new Canon G15, wow impress this is first couple photos I snapped, I notice and a improvement right away as off the cuff shots like this usually took more work.  my pal Aaron almost convinced me to go DSLR but I stuck with what I know, the G9 was great Camera I had for long time, moving to the G15 was breeze no learning curve, which I like. anyway back with Round 9 on Sunday.

LPL7- Round 7. Re-Run.

Round 7 has begun over at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 7

Above is my 6 round entry, "Red Devils".  Which is my very first painted Bolt Action figures. The rest of my 1000 point BA army is based, primed, basecoated and ready to go..but no additional paint on these guys is happening until I finish my tight schedule for the LPL.

This week due to again time crisis/holiday weekend plans, I ended up re running my round 1 entry
my recently painted Rohirim who lost in Round 1 against one the current fellows at the top of the Leaderboard. This week they got matched up against another great painter with a great entry, but I am glad to say they are winning so far, but please go ahead and check them out and go vote if you are participating in this!


Having to paint 5 figures (and photograph them in a good scene) week to week is a tough, tough challenge especially if you've got way too much going to begin with, the thing to do is really have everything done when the thing begins ,except rounds 5 and 10 (the big bonus rounds) and spend your time working on those.  Right now I have a month to paint 3 more entries...and 10 is the big one.
pretty sure I have it covered but its going to be tight...hindsight is all well and good but let what I get done this week!

LPL 7- Round 6 -Getting back on track.

Round 6 has begun over at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 7

Above is my 5 round entry, "Warwick_WotR.  Which was supposed to be "Warwick", a.k.a "The Kingmaker" or Richard Neville, the 16th Earl of Warwick staring down both York and Lancastrian troops in a scene from Englands War of the Roses. If you remember anything about the man, he switches sides about half way through the war. So I had planned about 7-10 troops on each side starring each other down with him in the middle, it being not obvious to which side. This was also the big bonus point round. In the comedy of errors that went on that week, not only was I totally slammed for time, only completing a small portion of the planned entry, but my regular camera broke, I had to rush the photos with my unfamiliar back up camera I hadn't touched in years, then I go a typo the guys name as "Warrick" instead of "Warwick", and don't notice all week, then to further the comedy of the whole episode, I win by a 3 to 1 margin, with what was to me, my worst entry of the contest. all the way from my paint to photograph.

Sucking up this embarrassment, I had just come off a great time learning, playing and building my British Airborne "Red Devils" for Warlords Games Bolt Action game. I was jacked up to paint these guys and had a week to paint 5 models which was doable, with some crisis management on my real life work project well in hand, I got my entry submitted no problem on friday morning with a re-submit later in the day when my wife pointed out that while she really liked the photo and minatures there was big ol' screwdriver on the table in the background that I didnt ever notice..(Ooofff)

Anyway I am happy with the way these guys came out and am really digging painting some WW2 in 28mm, I am going to bang out the whole army this summer which is only about 40 models with 3 vehicles and some heavy weapons.  So check out my Red Devils this week and go vote, I am holding a comfortable lead as I type this so I am hoping I can still salvage this thing with strong entries the next four rounds.

Next week, back to some generic fantasy stuff...should be fun to paint!

LPL 7- Round 5, I barely make it!

Round 5 has begun over at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 7

Above is my 4 round entry, "Red Devils 15mm"  Which again, lost. I briefly talked about 15mm having a tough time in this thing in my last LPL post, and a combo of that and I guess the photo not being good enough did it in. .

This round was a disaster for me..first of all my good camera broke (older Canon G9, apparently suffers for an internal short circuit) No idea when I'll get that fixed but pictures with my back up are definitely tougher to do. Then this project I am working on for work spiraled out of control
and I went from planning 15 figure for the Historical Civil War bonus round, to 10, to 7
finally settling on one team of 5, and they're pretty mediocre to boot, I just didn't have the time to do them justice and then had to rush photos to meet the deadline I couldn't get the right lighting with my old camera.

The kicker is, so I hastily enter my mediocre entry and I am kicking myself how this just isnt my year for this thing and then I go to vote and see I am winning by over 100 votes?? my biggest margin yet! Sometimes I can't figure out peoples tastes in this thing, for instance my Red Devils above should have been a way tighter margin in  round 4, than margin I currently have in round 5, your guess is as good as mine.

I still managed to get half the bonus points..I am going to really need to knock it out the last 5 rounds if I want to even stand a chance and beating my score last year.  So check out my Historical Entry
Warwick_WotR  and check out this weeks entries some really cool stuff in there.

Next up Bolt Action , Red Devils 28mm WIP, and Painted for round 6...

A Bridge too close

That was the moniker my pal Aaron put on our first game of Warlord Games "Bolt Action", last evening at our 80th Club meeting since we moved our semi monthly club night to my basement back in 2009.  While I have tons of miniatures my mother in fit of early senility sold all my old 70's Airfix plastic models I had that were my first miniatures. (although back them they were just my expensive "Army Men"). in a garage sale while I was away at college. Thankfully she never got around to selling my fantasy miniatures or I probably wouldn't be writing this.  Anyway I think I've seen the film "a Bridge to far" probably 25 times over the years..its my favorite WW2 film and why I started playing Flames of Wa,r I went with British Airborne and when I want to get some 28mm ones a few years ago, I went with Warlord's Red Devils box.

When I got my 28mm Red Devils there wasnt really a game to support them, there were some other WW2 skirmish games out there but I never got around to it. Now that WG has me hooked with their quality rules sets, and great lines of figures. The jump to BA was inevitable.

Aaron and I have recently accumulated our 1000 point armies, my British and his Panzer Grenadiers. so we were chomping at the bit to play. A bunch of other guys I know are into the game and we are trying to get some the other boys at club night to get on-board. We had great fun last night  and I'll leave you with Aarons write up on our forum about last nights game

"John's Paratroopers faced off against my Panzergrenadiers as I tried to wrestle an derelict but strategically important bridge away from the allies in our first Bolt Action game!

The objective of the game was a bridge in the very center of the table, nestled in the in the middle of a village. The Brit platoon's first squad had captured the bridge and was desperately waiting for the rest of the platoon to link up with them before the German armored infantry could launch their assault and force them off of the bridge.

We did a small game (550 points) to familiarize ourselves with BA's rules.

John's first squad held the bridge while a sniper team hung out in a small building nearby. His second squad, Vickers MMG team, some HQ support (Medic and Forward Artillery Observer), and his 1st Lt. were coming in to reinforce the pathfinder unit. A recon jeep also supported the British attack on the far right flank.

The Germans approached the bridge through the village, darting in and out of cover. The platoon's 2nd Lt lead 2 Panzergrenadier squads with LMG teams through the center of the village in an attempt to boot the small British unit off of the bridge!

The German plan ran into a major snag when a jumpy machine gunner mistook the Lieutenant and his escorts as an ambushing paratrooper unit! After seeing his NCOs cut down before him, the Lt. decided to flee the field to fight another day! If you have played Hail Caesar you are probably familiar with 'fumbled' orders. BA has a similar mechanic that can, rarely, result in friendly fire incidents. "Das ist nicht zer gut!"

British Paratrooper reinforcements began to show up in force, advancing through the village while the squad holding the bridge exchanged fire with one of the Panzergren squads across the river. Some light casualties were suffered by the limeys, but that didn't mar the Englanders fighting spirit! The sniper in the building was able to claim some kills against the Germans approaching the bridge as well.

Eventually all of the forces of the belligerent forces made their way to the battlefield. The Paratrooper recon jeep splashed across a shallow spot in the river and attacked the flank of the Germans positioned in the village with twin vickers MMGs! A SdKfz 251 Halftrack rumbled up the road while spitting fire at the Brits hiding in cover on the opposite side of the bridge. The 2nd platoon of Paras made their way around the opposite flank of the village attempting a pincer move with the Jeep, laying down suppressive fire all the way. The Germans deployed a Granatwerfer 42 heavy mortar which quickly eliminated the British squad holding the bridge!

The halftrack's attack on the bridge foundered initially while the flank attacks began to take their toll on the Germans hidden amongst the buildings south of the river. Panzergrens opposite of the British left flank stormed out of their cover to face the paras advancing up the bank of the river. The British Platoon leader valiantly rallied his nearby comrades, and assaulted the Halftrack which was forcing it's way across the bridge, only to be scattered by it's occupant's counter attack (we did this part wrong - John should have won the combat - "Oppzee Doopzee, Herr Humphrey. Mein bad!").

Assaults aimed at kicking the enemy off of the bridge by each force were running out of steam! Short range firefights began to whittle down each opposing platoon, and at the end of the game the bridge was not clearly controlled by either side. The game was a draw!

There was some interesting ebb and flow in this game, especially in terms of which side was able to gain the initiative over the other. In the end each side dug in and waited for reinforcements to arrive to renew their assault! We played about half of another game with the exact same forces, and scenario, only with the attacker/defender roles reversed. It was initially more bloody and we each seemed to lead our troops with a bit more direction. The only thing stopping us from finishing game #2 was the fact that cars were going to start to get towed at midnight! "



So there you go we are retooling for an actual 1000 point game next week, I really like the game flow, love the orders system and well as the individual mechanics...I felt the rule balance "just right" in the  not too light, not to heavy rules department (where HC can get a little overwhelming)

While I work on my Brits, think about some Germans to oppose them. I have soft spot of course for my own countries troops. In a bit of personal history, My mother's father, was CPL Lawrie Montgomery who served under Mark Clark in the US 5th Army in WW2 , He was in both the North African Campaigns and Operation Avalanche from Salerno to Rome, wounded by a landmine post Rome and that was the end of the war for him, but he lived until the ripe old age of 86 passing away in 1999. He was awarded a Silver Star, Two Bronze Stars and at the one Purple Heart that I know of, why or what for I don't know because he would never talk about the war much, saying things like "War is hell"," It's best forgotten" , Clearly we don't forget -for good reason Pop.