A quick respray and you'll never notice

Today I managed to complete my repaint of my Rogue Trader renegades (see here) (for now at least, I may do more later). Overall I'm pretty pleased with the results, given that I was aiming for as quick a paintjob as I could, maximising the use of washes for shading and simple base colours.

Dimitri and the lads

I know the two on urban bases look a bit out of place, but I fancied trying the GW resin basing kit and these two just looked right on them. I've christened the guy with the chainsaw as 'Dimitri "The General"' and his right hand henchman (with the heavy stubber) 'Yuri'. Don't know why, they just looked like them.

Along with also completing the basing on my long awaited Empire General (the rider is nearly 20 years old), and spraying the boxcars for my Old Crow Providers, I've pretty much cleared the decks for my next project, what shall it be?

only 19 years to get him sorted...

A sky full of Starlings

In a bit of a departure I'm not posting about gaming this time, but one of my other hobbies, birdwatching. The reason is simply that earlier this week I was lucky enough to witness one of the most incredible natural history spectacles to be seen in the UK.

My wife, Melissa, and I had decided to take short break in Cumrbia/Lancashire, so that we could visit the RSPB reserve at Leighton Moss. We'd heard that they sometimes get large numbers of starlings roosting in the evening so decided to stay around for a bit to see if they would come in. Now, the starling is a bird most of us are probably familiar with as a somewhat noisy, and sometimes argumentative garden visitor, but they have another side.

As dusk set in, starlings started to gather from all directions, first a few hundred, then more. Flock after flock came in until there were, quite literally, hundreds of thousands of starlings swirling about in a stunning display of synchronised arobatics, right over our heads. It wasn't just us who had turned up to witness the spectacle either, as peregrines and sparrowhawks also dived in to the writhing mass in hope of a meal. Each time a predator flew in the starlings would change formation to confuse it, at one point even drawing in, and then closing up around the poor, confused bird!

The first starlings turn up,
That's a sparrowhawk circling just beneath them
A tiny portion of the final flock, this just doesn't do it justice!

This all carried on for about ten, maybe fifteen minutes, with more and more flocks merging until, at some unheard signal, the entire flock descended into the reedbeds, as if they were being poured down a funnel.

So, next the next time you see some bedraggled, squawky bird squabbling for space on the bird table, look again, and maybe, if you get the chance, go and see what he can do when accompanied by a few thousand friends...

Come back or I'll bite your kneecaps!

Well I think it's about time for a post about Warhammer Fantasy Battle. This was the game that originally got me into wargaming all those years ago (when it was in it's second edition would you believe it?). On Saturday my friend Matt and I had one of our irregular visits to Warhammer World in Nottingham and this time decided to go back to our roots and play WFB, so it was time to dust off the good old men of the Empire!

Matt (The Mott Blog), has written a short set of campaign rules for Warhammer (based on gaining territories and earning revenue from them), that we thought we'd try. First job was to sort out the map, a random affair that led to us both starting out in control of Marshes!

TURN 1 - SPRING
The campaign started in Spring, with us rolling up a pitched battle as the first game, and so it was that 2000pts of the Empire's finest lined up against Matt's infantry heavy High Elf army (the early stages have restrictions on the availability of heroes and special and rare choices).

Lined up and ready for action

Well, what can I say? I had one of those games... Knights with paper armour and rubber lances (who couldn't pass leadership tests on a Ld9 either), and Matt's always strike first elves mowing down troops before they could hit back meant I conceded early, giving the first game convincingly to Matt. In particular, he's developed a clever and very tricksy tactic involving small groups of 5 or six swordmasters roaming the battlefield, like mobile landmines! With WS6, 2A and S5, they buzz-sawed through units like they weren't there.

My knights yell their battle cry, "Run away, run away!"

Matt took control of an extra territory, a plain, increasing his earnings considerably as he could now harvest crops.

TURN 2 - SUMMER
Summer saw us roll up a flank attack. Struggling out of their marsh, my Empire army found themselves outflanked by the swifter elves. As defender, and not knowing where a flank attack might come from, I deployed tightly in the centre of my table edge, my flagellants and volleygun protecting the left flank, my knights the right, with my infantry (spearmen and greatswords, each with a detachment of swordsmen and handgunners) in the centre. Matt decided to put his two units of Seaguard into the flanking force, with his archers holding his right flank and his spearmen, swordmasters and bolt-thrower the left.

The initial set up

In a brave, but possibly ill-advised early move, Matt moved his eagle up to attack my volleygun. 22 shots later, and after the singed feathers had stopped falling, I counted that flank as temporarily secure...

Unfortunately for Matt, his reserves didn't turn up until the last minute, too late to influence the result of the game. However this also meant that he had two completely unharmed units left on the table, and when combined with one of my units of knights having their usual paper armour problem, I was only able to pull out a draw.

The seaguard turn up too late, and these guys have navigated across the oceans?

Highlight of the game for me though, was the knights who had flames of the Phoenix cast on them, then had my general bravely leave them on their own, with orders to go attack a bolt-thrower head on! A task they achieved without losing a single model from either S5 magic attacks or 6S4 bolts! I could just imagine their reaction to the orders "you want us to go where?!"

TURN 3 - AUTUMN
For our final game before winter shut down all campaigning, we rolled up 'last stand', with the Empire as the attacker. With Matt starting with only 1000 pts to my 2000 it should be easy, but of course he only needed 501 victory points to force a draw, which would still leave me a territory down overall. Better keep my knights away from him then...

In the end I did manage to pull it off, thanks largely to my volleygun, which beat the odds to cause lots of damage with only one misfire (resulting in a temporary jam). I even managed to keep both units of knights intact. It was far from a walkover though, the loss of even one high value unit, with characters and banners, could have been disastrous for me, and Matt could afford to throw away units without concern. The result was a very tactical game, with me trying to keep a running list in my head of how many VPs I'd given away and calculating each move and attack very carefully.

The win gave me a new territory, a plain. As winter set in we were neck and neck on territory, with a plain and marsh each, and both of use with one win, loss and draw under our belts. However Matt's early win had given his treasury an extra boost, putting him closer to being able to buy upgrades.

What a difference a day (or 8,000 or so) makes

I’ve been indulging in a bit of nostalgia recently. I wanted some models to make up a colonial/militia force to use in Fast and Dirty and, alongside some Copplestone Partisans, decided to unearth some of my original Warhammer 40,000 models to do the job. Their original paintjob was a bit, um, basic (they were done over 20 years ago when I was only 13) so needed a repaint. Their original, somewhat garish colours are going to get replaced with more sensible greens and camo fatigues.

a couple of before and after photos

But, however poor the paintjob, working on them reminded me of those days. 40K, in its Rogue Trader incarnation was my first ‘SF’ wargame (I originally got into wargaming via Warhammer). Back in those days there were no army books, or set vehicles, so you pretty much made up your own forces. In fact my first army was of space pirates. Yes, you heard me right, ‘Space Pirates’! No army books back then, remember! These guys were mostly made up of models from the old mercenaries and pirates ranges, backed up by some heavy weapon equipped squats, and regularly took on Orks and marines. They were usually backed up by their grav tank, ‘The Pig’ a somewhat shoddy scratchbuild based on an old deodorant bottle. Sadly this has long gone (although I might have a piccie somewhere).

Anyway, I fell out of gaming 40K before the second edition came out and have never really got back into it, the ‘modern’ lists and style of army just don’t have the right ‘feel’ for me. If I want lots of tanks on the table I’ll play Epic, and don’t get me started on using swords as anti-tank weapons… But in a fit of nostalgia I have picked up a second hand copy of the Rogue Trader rules, and started picking up some extras from ebay for my other old army, Imperial Guard. Who knows, maybe I’ll get some games in using those Tau I’ve painted, carrying on the tale of the beleaguered planet Curwen, that Matt and I recently fought over using the Aeronautica Imperialis rules.

A Fistful of Tau

Just for a bit of variety, I recently picked up and painted a handful of secondhand Tau. I don't play 40K any more these days, but I have a liking for the look of the Tau. It was a pretty quick and dirty paintjob, I wanted to practice getting a unit painted and game ready in minimum time. Still, I think they've turned out pretty well.



I also have a few drones and a handful of pathfinders that I might paint up. I may even then dig out some of my old Imperial Guard models and have a few games set on Curwen, using either the old Rogue Trader rules (I've recently picked up a second hand copy) or Necromunda (say what you like about GW, making the specialist games free was a GOOD thing).

Looks like we got ourselves a convoy...

One thing the 28mm SF market seems to be short of are basic utility trucks, which is just what I want for some scenario ideas buzzing around my brain.

However I do have a pair of Old Crow's excellent Provider flatbed utility vehicles. These are a commendably simple design, which made me wonder if I could scratchbuild a simple box section to fit on the back.

Here's one of the original Providers, which I've painted in a simple utility olive drab (mainly so I can use it with almost any faction in games!).


was added to the outside with the thinnest For this conversion I made a simple box using 2mm plasticard. The sides and rear were made slightly longer than the front and internal brace to create a small 'lip' that would hold the box in place without the need for glue, so I can swap between truck and flatbed as I need to. Panelworkplasticard I could find, to match the rest of the model and provide some surface detail. The rear doors were done in the same way.

Here's the detail of the 'box' construction.


Although not exactly needing any complex modelling skills, I'm still really pleased how this worked out. I made two pieces, one for each truck, and it only took a couple of hours work, spread over two evenings ( and most of this was cutting the notches in the exterior panels!).

Here are the assembled trucks.



Next job, painting!

Extra Solar Evolution via handwavium

When gaming, I'm one of those people who likes to have a background to each game, hence my interest in campaigns. I have a fair collection of 28mm SF stuff, which I want to use in games using the Fast and Dirty Rules (a great set of free rules, available here , and yes, I am biased as the author, Ivan, was kind enough to use some of my artwork inside it). Now being a picky sort of person I'm not entirely happy to use a ready made background, but want to gradually put together one of my own. I want a 'hard SF' style background, but obviously with enough 'handwavium' to allow for things like FTL. Not a 'grimdark' dystopian future, but one with enough plus lots of scope for friction and conflict to allow for different combinations of games.

Anyway, I'll be posting various bits of background here and there, the first is intended as an excuse for my little lead and plastic soldiers to fight it out on various worlds that look suspiciously earth-like, and without having to wear vacc suits all the time! Any comments or thoughts welcome!

Contrary to what many scientists had predicted, in Man’s rush to the stars following the discovery of a cheap, reliable form of faster than light travel, we discovered that the conditions to support life as we recognise it were far from scarce. They were in fact astonishingly abundant.

To many, this was seen as proof of divinity. Mankind had reached for the heavens only to find the benevolent hand of God had travelled before, sprinkling new worlds for us to conquer. For some, space exploration and colonisation took on a hitherto unseen religious dimension, the ramifications of which we are still dealing with today.

But for much of the scientific community the discovery of so many ‘human compatible’ planets was a fascinating mystery to be solved. What mechanism could be responsible for the emergence of life in such similar forms throughout known space?

What now appears to be coming clear is just how persistent and adaptive life is. On almost every world where significant amounts of liquid water have been able to exist for any length of time, there is evidence of life. Where conditions have been stable long enough for the most basic of recognisable organisms to form, it seems that, barring catastrophic disaster, complex life is almost certain to eventually follow. In fact, it would appear that even the simplest ecosystems demonstrate self-regulatory ‘behaviour’.

This is not to suggest that there is some sort of guiding hand behind all of this. As natural selection favours organisms best suited to their environment, so it would also naturally favour those that are able to adapt their environment towards increased stability (as humanity has arguably demonstrated for millenia). Thus, over time, simple Darwinian selection can be seen to not just adapt species to their environment, but also to adapt the environment, to the benefit of those species.

Not divine providence then, but a simple extension of evolutionary theory to encompass the wider planetary ecosystem. Worlds themselves evolve as well as individual species.

“So why”, I hear you ask, “do we see so many familiar shapes?”. In answer I would ask “why shouldn't we?”.

Quite naturally humans have tended to colonise those planets that most suit our preferred conditions in terms of temperature, gravity and atmospheric pressure and makeup. Given these preconditions it is inevitable that we will see similarities with terrestrial species. The shape of any creature that travels at speed through liquid water, or stays aloft in the air, is governed by certain principles of dynamics. Thus analogues of the ‘fish’ shape and the bat or bird wing can be seen on hundreds of similar worlds.

In the same manner, an outer coating that looks and acts like fur is often found as an effective way of regulating temperature, even though the chemical composition of its constituent parts may differ widely from one world to another; four ‘legs’ commonly provide both stability and speed across a range of terrain (nature understandably having struggled to evolve the wheel and axle); whilst light sensors (‘eyes’ to most of us) naturally tend to be situated where they have the clearest outlook of terrain (and food), high up on the body.

Perhaps we should instead see this as evidence of the wondrous variety that evolution on our own homeworld has given us.

But the familiarity argument also misses the many other forms of life that have been discovered, both on earth like worlds and others, that do not bear such easy comparison to earthly species: parasitic, hydrogen filled ‘dirigibles’, that drift on air currents to find new hosts or ‘plants’ that migrate with the seasons.

In our rush to the stars we have learnt so much about the operation and evolution of complex natural systems on a planetary scale. We have gained undreamed of insights into the history and functioning of our own, beautiful homeworld, and we have reassessed its place in the galaxy. No longer a lone jewel in a dead universe, but part of an intricate web of evolutionary possibilities.

We are like an only child who suddenly discovers endless brothers and sisters, each unique and yet familiar to us, created from the same basic material according to the same laws yet in endless variety.

And yet there still remains that often asked, but to date unanswered question: “Is there anybody else out there?”. A question I shall address in my next lecture.

Extract from Professor Peter de Moyens inaugural Lecture to the Barnard’s Institute, Hope, Barnard's Star - 2119