Showcase: Star Wars Imperial Assault Rebel Troopers and Characters

Today I got a bunch of rebel scum for you. Saska Teft, a brilliant engineer (accrording to her character card), vengeful guerrilla Biv Bodhrik and six rebel troopers.

Showcase: Star Wars Imperial Assault Tusken Raiders

Now here's a particular favourite of mine: Tusken Raiders, a.k.a. Sandpeople. They ride in single pose to hide their numbers, you know.

Anyway, I love the Sandpeople. They are such a great 'low-tier' danger at the beginning of A New Hope and let us know that this universe is msysterious, dangerous and how technology is a very basic and common thing to use, even for 'less civilized' folks. They also are such a great design. You gotta love them. 

The models of course suffer from being mono-pose, but there is a lot of movement in them. Hope you like my paintjob!

Showcase: Star Wars Imperial Assault Rebel Saboteurs

Now that we either still rush from one holiday event to the next or just lie around, process food and play with our toys let's take a little bit and have a look at these peculiar fellows.

Showcase: Star Wars Imperial Assault Boba Fett

Starting the new batch with a crowd pleaser: It's the universally beloved Boba Fett!

Showcase: Star Wars Imperial Assault Group Shot!

A nice mix of troops there I think. Lots of evil Empire fellas, some feral beasties and our three heroes fighting them off.

Showcase: Star Wars Imperial Assault Royal Guard

Oh, here's a bunch more Imperials. Top tier too: It's the Imperial Royal Guard with a Royal Guard Champion.

Especially amongst all the other rather monochromatic colours the Empire uses these guys stand out really well. Cool dudes whom we never saw doing all that much, but I think that makes them all the more effective.

Showcase: Star Wars Imperial Assault Imperial Troops

Today I'm showing you some Imperial troops for the Imperial Assault boardgame. Three officers, two Scout troopers with heavy weapons, three Imperial Probe Droids and a IG-88 assassin droid. The latter especially is a bit of a more exotic sight, but a very fun model nonetheless. And kind of creepy, not the least due to his size. 

Painting Stormtroopers is always a bit of a challange to get them "right". I also like those models of the Probes a lot. Proper dark and scary.

By the way, if you ask yourself why some of the models got red base rims - that's for gameplay reasons. Mostly they depict elite versions of each troop type. The models are 28mm scale. 

Of course today is the big start of Star Wars: Episode 7. A day to rejoyce. I'm fairly certain they'll get it right this time, but let me know about your opinions on the film  in the comments section!

Hope you like the minis, see you soon!

Showcase: Star Wars Imperial Assault Nexu

Yay, it's two Nexu (at least I think they're pluralized like that. Like sheep, right?). Don't remember them from the films? I don't blame you.

Showcase: Star Wars Imperial Assault Characters

Star Wars! For no particular reason the demand in nice paintjobs on Star Wars minis has gone up quite a bit over the past years. ;-) Today I'm starting with Han Solo, Chewbacca and of course Luke Skywalker. Hope you like them!

 I posted a batch of figures I painted for a set of Imperial Assault before, and over the next days I will post more! 

Showcase: Kallistra Fortress

Now here's a decidedly pretty one I painted for a friend - the resin Fortress by Kallistra!

Showcase: Vulkan He'Stan

As promised - another Salamanders character. It's Vulkan He'Stan!

Showcase: Freebooter's Fate Piccina

Another character for one of the Brotherhood warbands I'm working on. It's Piccina, the girl with the huge crossbow.

Showcase: Chaplain Xavier

Hey, I painted a Space Marine again! This of course is chaplain Xavier. Fun mini, I never painted the chap before.

Showcase: Heroes of British Steampunk

Today I got the promo minis of Legends of British Steampunk's Wave 1. They are roughly 32mm foot to eye, nice casting quality and characterful, fun sculpts by Geoff Sims.

Showcase: Bear Rider

Here's the second mini for the Warbear and Stagrider project!

Showcase: Stag Rider

Occasionally I get hired to paint promo miniatures or masters for miniatures companies. This is the most recent one: Dead Earth Games' Stag Rider.

Show Report: VIVAT 2015

There are two main dates in the Austrian wargamer's calendar which are to be attended without any excuses: Austrian Salute in March and our only event for historical tabltop gaming: VIVAT, taking place in October/November. See my report of the third coming of  VIVAT which took place on November 14th 2015 after the jump!

Review: Late Napoleonic Line Infantry, Perry Miniatures vs. Warlord Games

Today I will compare two kits which couldn't be more similar. Both of them are (predominantly) plastic kits, both covering exactly the same topic: later Napoleonic French line infantry, 1812-1815. 

It has been a while since my last comparative review. The first one, in which I took a closelook at Black Tree Design's metal and Warlord Games' plastic WW2Soviet infantry, went over really well and I hope that this article will be as positively received. I have got a box of each here and assembled and painted a good portion of models from each box. Neither box was sent to me for free, I bought them both.

Review: Brother Vinni Fantasy Miniatures

Back to Fantasy! For today's review I'll have a look at some 28mm Fantasy miniatures by Brother Vinni. First time I'm working on any of his minis.

Review: Scenarios For All Ages

The title of "Scenarios for all Ages" by Charles S. Grant (son to the legendary Charles Grant, and an acclaimed writer on wargaming in his own right) and S.A. Asquith is deliberately ambiguous. The goal of this book, published in 1996 by CSG publications, is to provide wargamers with a wealth of mostly generic scenarios to help them make their games more interesting, challenging, make more sense and above all to help them make their games fun.

Review: Malifaux Arcanists (plastic)

Heyhey, I thought it's time to do a review of some Fantasy miniatures again. This late summer I was asked to build and paint a Malifaux crew for a customer. It had been years since I last did Malifaux minis, since then Wyrd had changed a lot (between a new edition of their Malifaux rules, switch from metal to plastic and so on) so I was interested to see how the minis had developed. I will have a look at the Children of December boxed set as well as the Hoarcats Pride, December Acolytes and The Captain from the Troublemaker boxed set.

Showcase: Guild Ball Butcher's Guild Team

Here's the other team, the Butcher's Guild team! 

Showcase: Guild Ball Mortician's Guild Team

Here's the first Guild Ball team I built and painted. Very interesting minis, certainly worth a look!

Showcase: Ahazra Redth, The Dust Prophet

Full disclosure: Before I was asked to do this mini I had no idea this special character even existed.

Showcase: Blood Bowl Group Shot

...and here's the whole gang all together. Painting those guys wasn't always easy, but it was fun and I really love the look of them all together. I hope that you like them as well!

Review: The Assault Group WW2 Germans

Today I would like to have a closer look at some figures by The Assault Group. WW2 Germans with heavy weapons to be specific. So let's dive in and see if these minis are worth their salt!

Showcase: Human Star Players

Now these two here took the most time to do. The female star player is a very pretty sculpt, but there is one flaw to her: There's a mould line running right along her face, running slightly to the right of the nose. Really takes some work to get rid of that properly.

Showcase: Blood Bowl Sideline Personnel

Going on with the Blood Bowl! Here is some essential sideline personnel: A cook, an Apothecary (gardener --> apothecary for treemen, geddit? :P ) and the compulsory Bloodweiser Babe.

I put a lot of effort into making that chicken look delicious.

Showcase: Blood Bowl Slayers

Time for more eclectic Blood Bowl minis! Today it's Slayers. Very interesting sculpts. I like them. I mean they're a bit coarse one might say, but this is BloodBowl. And they're happy. I do like happy lead. There's more than enough grimdakness I say!

Showcase: Blood Bowl Fans

First part of a few Blood Bowl minis I recently painted for a special little commissoned project. Here we got a bunch of Dwarves and a Halfling Blood Bowl fans.

Really, really fun figures. The sculpts are pretty rough (very old-school stuff), so I wasn't sure if I'd be able to paint them so they look pretty. Hope I got it right. What do you think?

Showcase: T-34/85

Whilst doing all those trucks and half-tracks and tanks I took the opportunity to get my second T-34/85 done as well (the name's "Dasha"). Read on for lots of pictures and some more words.

Review: 45mm Anti Tank Gun by Plastic Soldier Company

Today I would like to have a look at one of PSC's 28mm plastic kits. It's a quite unique set of 45mm Anti-Tank (and others) guns.

Showcase: Getting the old Dark Elves out again & a look at Kings of War 2

Two weeks ago a friend and I took a trip down South for a bit of a wargaming meet-up. This year we decided to do something Fantasy which means I had to get my old Dark Elves out and play-ready again.

Review: Warlord Games M3A1 Half-Track

Last summer I fell for some kind of sale on the Warlord website, bought a bunch of plastic. Amongst those things was their M3A1 Half-Track kit. Time to have a closer look at this fella and maybe give it a little twist.

Review: Die Waffenkammer 28mm T-34/76

Yet another review of a 28mm Soviet World War Two vehicle! Today I'm taking a look at my first model by esteemed company Die Waffenkammer - a T-34/76.

Review: Company B 28mm GAZ-AA Truck

In this review I would like to take a closer look at Company B's 28mm GAZ-AA truck kit.

Showcase: 15mm Later Achaemenid Persians

Here they are, my ready-for-the-table 15mm Later Achaemenid Persians! For now they'll do their job in DBA, but I'm looking to expand them (or just set up my Theban Hoplites along with them. Quite historical too, that pairing.) for playing Impetus or possibly Hail Caesar. Hope you like them!

The Great Wargaming Survey 2015

The good people of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy are running their Great Wargaming Survey again! On top of participating in this ever interesting project which last year gave us a very interesting and in parts surprising overview of wargaming world wide as well as getting a free voucher for Karawansaray's online store, you can even win stuff this year. So I can't see any reasons not to participate! Remember, the more people take part the more sound the results will be.

Here's a link to their blog post:
http://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/pw/wss/blog/the-great-wargaming-survey-2015/

For a look at the results of last year's survey, have a look here.

Showcase: Raven Guard Contemptor

Hint: It's the tall guy in the back, with the defiant look.

Review: Gripping Beast Saxon Thegns

Today we're going back to the dark age again for a bit, as I review Gripping Beast's 28mm Saxon Thegns plastics boxed set.

Showcase: Raven Guard Scouts with Sniper Rifles

Raven Guard Scouts! With sni- why, yes, you've seen 10 Raven Guard scouts with 10 sniper rifles last month, but they were different ones to those. So they're good for an update. Raven Guard like having lots of scouts (or have to like them), what can I say ;-) Hope you like them as well!

Showcase: Raven Guard Shadow Captain Korvydae

Another smaller update, this time it's just one mini actually, but a speshul one - it's Shadow Captain Korvydae!

Cool model. Quite the attitude and quite the hammer. I tried to keep the palette very restrained, as on all Raven Guard I paint for this project. Bit more gold because he's a captain after all, but it's all kept rather sombre. Hope you like the fella!

Showcase: Raven Guard Assault Squad

Raven Guard Assault Marines are da bomb, and here's a squad (or 'an Unkindness' as Rev once very fittingly called a number of Raven Guard Marines) of the guys I painted. Straightforward stuff, I say, but they look cool in the end. Hope you like them as well!

Review: The Shattered Crown miniatures

Today I would like to offer a little look at some of Dead Earth Games' latest Fantasy game: The Shattered Crown.

Showcase: Astra Miliatrum Advisors

A Guardsman is nothing without leadership, so here we got a commissar! Because when no proper officers are around we'll have to resort to political officers.

Showcase: The Shattered Crown miniatures

Today I would like to show you a few miniatures I painted for Dead Earth Games. They are part of the first wave of releases for their latest kickstartered Fantasy miniatures game The Shattered Crown.

Showcase: Showcase: Astra Militarum Veterans Squad

Finally got to paint an Imperial Guard squad again! I painted a lot of those of course for my own IG armies, but I think that this squad is the prettiest I've ever done. They're a mix of all kinds of bits including these metal IG heads which were released around early 2008 I think and which I thought looked really bad in pictures on the GW site, but in fact they look really good and characterful in the flesh.