Tabletop Workbench Dez. 2023

 Zum Jahreswechsel ein paar Schnappschüsse vom Maltisch Ende 2023.

Bemalt: russische 2. Grenadiere mit Batallionsfahnen und Trautmannsdorf Kürassiere für die Reichsarmee bzw. die Habsburger

 

In Vorbereitung fürs Grundieren: die restlichen Trautmannsdorf Kürassiere und einpaar russische Panduren oder Kosaken

Fertig lackiert und verpackt als Weihnachtsgeschenk für meinen Patensohn, mit dem ich die Figuren angemalt habe: die aktuellen Blood Bowl Zwerge.

Nur im Zeitlupentempo gehts voran für meine WH40K Wüstenkämpfer, aber ein oder zwei Malabende hatte ich 2023 doch reingesteckt.

Hessen-Darmstadt Infantry

Die letzte Base hat die richtige Farbe und ist mit den letzten Figuren bestückt, damit ist das im letzten Workbench-Update gezeigte Batallion Hessen-Darmstadt einsatzfähig.

Wie es sich gehört: vorne rechts die Leibfahne.

Und vorne links die Batallionsfahne.

Workbench May 2023

One new thing is on my workbench: as a joint project with my godson we have started a Blood Bowl dwarves team. I think we came up with a nice color scheme of blue uniforms and brass armor.

Regarding my flats, I avoid getting bored by mixing parts of units. That keeps things interesting but also means I often have many incompletely painted units waiting for their missing comrades.

Painted, gloss-coated and ready for basing: Hessen-Darmstadt infantry (top) and Austrian Esterhazy hussars (bottom)

Primed and ready for painting: more Russians and some Austrian cuirassiers 

To my pleasant surprise both of the painted sets of minis were the second half of their respective units, so I could actually put the units together.

Well, nearly ready - except I was one painted infantry base short of getting the Hessen-Darmstadt guard infantry ready to go... 

So here are the results.

Austrian Esterhazy hussars, selected because some Hungarian reenactors have standarts online that are from a later time but at least believable for this unit 

Hessen-Darmstadt infantry batallion

For this picture showing a company flag in front of the colonel's flag. The last rank (still without a base) is not shown yet.

Workbench February 2023

For my flats pojects, I recently took stock where I am and where to go next. At the moment I have lots of units started or half finished, so not many results to show but all the more items in process.

The big units coming slong bit by bit are the first Russian infantry. Here you can see some of the first finished batallions (2nd Moscow regiment) and, still unbased, the first half bst. of 2nd Grenadiers, patiently waiting to be completed.

The next batch of Russian Grenadiers just came off the paintline, so the first batallion is nearly complete (and the lonely drummer of the 2nd bat. is waiting for his comrades).

And here's the pipeline for the next few painting evenings.

Top: Hessen-Darmstadt, nearly painted.

Bottom left: Russian Grenadiers and Austrian Cuirassiers waiting to be washed and primed

Bottom right: more Russian Grenadiers patiently waiting to leave their cardboard box and see the light of day.

My other projects (WH40K, Rapture) are on hold, I can't get over the "writer's block" to pick up the next mini. The flats are somehow easier to design and paint, so I'll stick to them for now.

Ernestinisch Sachsen

Wie im letzten Workbench-Update gesehen ist das bunt gemischte Infantrieregiment Ernestinisch Sachsen fertig zum Einsatz.

In der Schachtel: Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach, dahinter: Sachsen-Hildburghausen (blaue Uniformen), Sachsen-Coburg (weiße Uniformen, weiße Gamaschen), ganz hinten Gotha-Altenburg (weiße Uniformen, schwarze Gamaschen).

Ich musste zwar auf die schnelle noch ein paar Bases mit der richtigen Farbe lackieren, aber jetzt stehen die vier Kontingente aus den verschiedenen Landesteilen bereit.

Hier das ganze Regiment basiert und fertig zum Abmarsch.

Achtung: die hier gezeigten Fahnen sind reine Fantasie. Normalerweise folge ich, wenn ich keine anderen Quellen finde, gerne den Angaben von kronoskaf.com, aber im Fall dieses Regiments werden da auch rein spekulative Flaggen mit den Farbschemen des späten 19. Jahrhunderts gezeigt, das gefällt mir nicht. 

Stattdessen habe ich für die vertretenen Landesteile nach historischen Wappen gesucht (und meistens irgendwas gefunden, was grob in die Gegend gehört, aber 100 Jahre früher oder später als hier gefragt, zum Beispiel hier), und das dann einfach auf weißesTuch mit irgendwelchen goldenen Verzierungen gemalt. Die Idee ist, dass jedes noch so kleine Kontingent mit einer "Leibfahne" für seinen jeweiligen Landesfürsten ausrückte. Aber, wie gesagt, alles reine Fantasie, bitte nicht nachmachen (oder zumindest nicht mich als Quelle zitieren ;)

Workbench January 2022

Over the Christmas vacation I made zero progress on my tabletop projects. But my last  workbench update was long enough ago, and I did some small things since the vacation ended, so here are some small steps forward.

For my SYW flats, the 2nd batallion Ernestinisch Sachsen, with its mix of companies and uniforms representing several different small principalities, is now painted and ready for varnishing and basing. NB that the flags are pure fantasy, based on random internet finds of Saxonian coats of arms from the general region and from centuries before and after the 18th.

2nd bat. Ernestinisch Sachsen, top: 2 companies Sachsen-Gotha-Altenburg, bottom: one company Sachsen-Coburg-Meiningen ("C", white uniforms) and one company Sachsen-Hildburghausen ("H", blue uniforms). Flag designs are mine and completely ahistorical (the coats of arms are real, but don't match the time and territories).

The next batch is kind of the flag platoon for the 2nd bat., 2nd Moscovskii infantry regiment, now half finished: 

And after that I'll add some artillery and a first unit of Russian Grenadiers (the latter are my first minis not from Grünewald, but from KILIA):

And here's a late addition to this update: a snapshot of the bottoms of some bases, freshly provided with labels to identify each unit and the sources I used for painting it.

Although I'm eager to get Rapture on the table, all Rapture related activities are moving very slowly. I'm not yet happy with the new Angels and kept adding washes, a bit of rubble on the bases etc:

Angels #2 and 3 as they slept through the winter

Angels after another wash and painting the rubble on the bases. Next up: one more round of highlights, I hope I will like the results then.

Still in the works, needing at least some weathering and some decoration with posters, garbage etc., are the wall elements that I showed unpainted last October. 

One small thing is finished and ready for use: the first item from a small purchase of additional Rapture stuff I ordered while their online store was open for Mag-Con late last year, an MDF box for Rapture unit and mission cards.

These boxes are available with branding for each Rapture faction, I got the one for the human "New World Order" faction.

The inside of the box offers two slots for unit and mission cards. I didn't bother to do more than just gluing the pieces together, I think the dark brown laser cut edges and the wooden inside look acceptable as they are.

Unboxing the Rapture kickstarter package

Yay, my package from Gravity Bay arrived today! All the toys and goodies from the Rapture kickstarter! Here is a quick photo log of my unboxing - it feels like Christmas came six weeks early :) 

Here's the unopened box. Hmm, how did the painted minis get there?

Well, before we actually open the box: My plan for painting is

1. I got a few items ready for the tabletop over the last year, while waiting for the kickstarter shipment. 

The figures on top of the unopened box are the ones I bought from the Gravity Bay online store before the kickstarter went online (here's my report on these), pretty much exactly one year ago. The Angel, the New World Order guy and the mercenary standing on the box are painted already, the basecoated Atlantis guy shown further below with his new comrades is still waiting for great color scheme ideas. 

I have also worked on some terrain (I don't have much terrain in general, and even less for this scale of 30mm skirmishes in a near-future post-apocalyptic setting), and some civilians so the Angels have someone to hunt (these minis and the terrain are all from non-Gravity Bay sources, and not part of the official kickstarter package).  

2. As soon as the box is open, I plan to work on the Angels first. They are the most unique fraction of this game, and tickle my creative instincts. Once I have, say, 80 or 100 points worth of Angels I can already try first games against NWO and proxy the missing humans with minis from my old Warzone collection. 

3. I will then try to get a playable set of NWO humans to replace the non-Rapture proxies, and probably tackle the Atlantis guys last (to have something exciting and "different" to look forward to).

But that's in the (hopefully near) future, let's get back to the box. This is what you get with the Ultimate pledge:

This is what comes out:

Top from left to right: Starter boxes New World Order (high tech humans) and Atlantis (fish people), rulebook, starter box Angels, card covers and erasable pen to check off life and morale hits.

Bottom row: extra minis for all three factions (beyond the starter pack content) from a white, padded envelope (no useless packaging waste from blisters or boxes which only make sense in retail stores), extra mission cards (partly from the extra "Mission Pack") and unit cards for the extras and the special minis that were available before the kickstarter.

So let's look at the boxes in more detail. The starter boxes all contain minis, a pack of unit cards, and a very simple fast start rules summary.

The Atlantis box has an additional card with the water areas for a special Atlantis rule (these guys can kind of teleport between different bodies of water on the playing area).

Here's another closer look at the Minis:

And the same for the NWO humans:

What I really love about these minis (as I said at length in my initial impressions post) is the scale size and proportions of the minis. Fingers aren't as thick as forearms and arms aren't as thick as thighs, and the head-to-toe size varies nicely between different minis. The humans are small and slender enough to give the Angels a chance to look really huge in comparison, without being grotesque bulky bad guys on steroids.

Here's another look at the extras:

The cards for the pre-kickstarter minis available at events and through the online store are included in the kickstarter shipment, the minis aren't. That was intentional "overdelivery" to ensure noone is stuck on the old unit cards in the preliminary format, and, I guess, also to motivate other kickstarter backers to attend future events where these minis might become available again (there are rumors that Gravity Bay will be at the online Mag-Con event end of November, and have some of them available there), and to visit the online store when it reopens some time early next year.

Here are my teaser minis and the corresponding cards - note that the mercenary in the middle even comes with a set of loyalty cards that are used in the game to determine his priorities.

And here are the Angels (large but few - another nice aspect of the game is that it has really different factions with different gameplay, not just different looks).

Before we select the minis for the first round of painting, let's take a look at the rules. They come as a really solid, beautiful hard cover with glossy full color pages, a delight for bibliophiles like me.

Placed on top of the full rulebook you see the small cardboard fast start rules that are in each starter pack, and an example of a unit card with really nice, frameless card art (new design compared to the pre-kickstarter samples), unit stats (bottom) and check-off boxes for life (left) and morale (right). 

The card backs have brief reminder text about all unit special rules - these are the little details that make such a huge difference for playability for occasional gamers like me who can't memorize all the rules. I so hate fiddling around with rule books, cheat sheets and army lists during the game just to remind myself of special rules - having all of that on the unit cards makes play flow much faster.

Now let's get back to the first mini-project, the Angels. Here is what we get:

On top the five Angels: three from the starter, Galmon (top left) as kickstarter extra, and Morael (center) is the pre-kickstarter teaser. Of course, the Angels will get arms and huge wings attached, this picture has just the bodies to avoid clutter.

At the bottom left you see an example of a pair of cards describing a faction specific mission with tasks and victory points for the Angels. Note that the two guys in overalls are not part of the kickstarter and not even from Gravity Bay, I just wanted to use minis instead of cardboard mission targets, and to have something to paint while waiting for the official stuff.

Bottom right you see some of the pre-cut card board markers to show mission targets, indicate unit status and track remaining actions/reactions for each unit.

Now to pick the first Angels to add to the one I already have (Morael) for some early gaming. Unfortunately, Morael is worth 20 points. The starter box contains two Angels for 30 points each and one baddie worth 40, and the kickstarter extra (Galmon) also costs 30. So I can't make a 100 point force containing Morael :(

Anyway, let's start small, augment Morael with two 30 point Angels and begin with 80 points a side. So these two guys, Galmon and Seeiah, will be first on the painting table.

Stay tuned for progress reports - if you look at my historical tabletop endeavors on this blog, you will see that it takes me less than three to five years to put playable new armies on the table for these large unit games. Let's see how long it will take for a small unit skirmish game.

Zivilisten für Rapture

Ein interessanter Aspekt an Rapture sind die Siegbedingungen, die den verschiedenen Spielern unterschiedliche Ziele vorgeben. Es gibt dabei auch einige Siegbedingungen, die nur für einzelen Fraktionen relevant sind und zur Hintergrundgeschichte passen. So gibt es für die Engel eine Siegbedingung, bei der sie Zivilisten aufscheuchen und einsammeln müssen (oder eliminieren? ich weiß es gar nicht mehr ganz genau).

Jedenfalls will ich die Engel als erstes bemalen und spielen, weil sie wirklich etwas besonderes sind.

Und damit sie auf Zivilistenjagd dann nicht hinter Pappmarkern herlaufen müssen, hab ich mir ein paar geeignete Figuren gekauft. Wie man beim Baubericht sehen kann, sind die eigentlich als Gefängnisinsassen in grellfarbigen Overalls gedacht, ich hab sie aber anders bemalt.

Drei Overalls wurden zu Arbeitsklamotten mit Reflektierstreifen:

Und eine Figur im Unterhemd mit Schrotflinte wurde zu einem privaten Waffennarren mit Tarnklamotten.

Ich glaube man braucht insgesamt vier Figuren für die Engel-Siegbedingung, also ist hier mal wieder eine Vorbereitung getroffen. Jetzt müssen nur noch die Minis aus dem Kickstarter kommen - die Jungs von Gravity Bay teasen auf Instagramm schon ständig mit Fotos von Kisten voll Minis, Karten etc. und versenden hoffentlich die Tage auch...

Preussische Artillerie

Zusammen mit den Nadasdy Husaren kam auch das noch fehlende Geschütz für die Preußen aus der Lackiererei. 

Alle Bauteile in der Schachtel (ich mag den Old School Anblick von Zinnsoldaten in den kleinen Pappschachteln). Links das halbplastische Geschütz: das Rohr ist vor Bemalung zwischen eine zweiteillige Lafette geklebt, die Räder sind noch einzeln.

Dieses ist mein Experiment mit den sog. halbplastischen Modellen von Grünewald. Unbemalt fand ich die Einzelteile wenig attraktiv, zusammengebaut sieht es besser aus als ich dachte. 

Ich denke aber, in Zukunft bleibe ich doch bei den einfachen flachen Geschützen, ich sehe keinen echten Vorteil, der den Mehraufwand für die halbplastische Variante rechtfertigen würde.

Zum Vergleich hier die komplette erste, mittelschwere Batterie für meine Zinna-Preußen, vorne ein normales flaches Geschütz und hinten das halbplastische.

Nadasdy Husaren

Die nächste Einheit für mein Flachfigurenprojekt sind die Nadasdy Husaren. Obwohl im Zinna-OoB eigentlich die Szechenyi Husaren stehen, hab ich mich für Nadasy entschieden, weil es da auf kronoskaf Infos zu den Standarten gibt. Wenn schon die russischen und die preussischen Husaren (mit wenigen Ausnahmen) keine Standarten trugen, will ich wenigstens bei den Habsburgern die Standarten zeigen...

Auf die Bilder klicken bringt eine größere Version, wie immer:

Hier kommen die Husaren frisch bemalt und lackiert von der Bemalstation

 

Hier sind die Figuren vorsortiert, wie sie dann auf die Bases kommen.

Und hier sind sie auf den Bases angebracht und fertig für den Spieltisch.