A detailed account of my various commission/hobby projects.
Warhammer 40,000 – With a new edition of 40K on the horizon some of my clients have switched focus to some of the 40k-adjacent games that are available. Aeronautical Imperiallis was a game Forgeworld supported sometime ago, it’s been rereleased in plastic with some revised rules and what I think are slightly larger planes.
Read MoreHistorical Games – Lately I’ve had quite a few more tanks and historical models come across my table. This latest set pits two Sherman tanks against a Panther.
Board Games – Part of what makes a great game are great components. I know many people who will buy a game for no other reason than the stuff that comes with it looks cool. For some games this pays off huge for others, well at least you got all that cool stuff right?
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Warhammer 40,000 – Ninth edition is on it’s way. Everyday more previews and leaks are being released as the newest edition of 40K prepares to launch. Overall 8th Edition was good, the abundance of errata and changes due to the competitive meta was a bit much to keep up with at times. I know in my group some of the guys that only got to play once a month or less often felt lost or frustrated when the army list they’d been working on for months suddenly was over/under costed or just not legal. My hope is the new edition will have less of that “constant tweaking” and the loop-holes of the previous edition will be sorted out. I think making vehicles viable and making command points more standard across game sizes rather than having to min/max to get the most points to spend on tricks will also be a huge help. I haven’t played 40K proper since Christmas time (Necromunda and Kill Team are easier to fit in), so after updating Battlescribe I started looking at the lists I made for 8th Edition and the trend was definitely towards getting the most CP possible (2) minimal battalions with a special formation seemed to be the sweet spot, my “Nightlords” force was a Spikey 17 Red Corsairs Battalion with a Nightlords Outrider of Raptors and another Battalion of cultists, and Terminators. While the force was ok, it was clear I was forced to diverge from my all flying Raptors, Daemon Princes and teleporting Terminators that I began building at the start of 8th.
In previous editions, your force was valid until it received a new codex or the edition changed. There may have been external reasons to change your army such as meta shifts or power creep, but for the most part if you built a 2k force it’d stay a 2k force until a new book came out, giving you a shelf life of several years. In 8th you knew for sure that at a minimum of annually points would be adjusted so that investment in a new force could require reworking in a year. However in addition to the annual points adjustments, core rule of the game would change every six months or two weeks after the release of a new book. Which was happening at least every two months if not more frequently. While the attention and finessing to make things a better experience for everyone is appreciated it got to the point that if you took your finger off the pulse for a fe weeks the game could be drastically different.
That tangent brings me to the latest project to cross my table, more Ultramarines. This time around Sargent Chronos, some Terminators, another Landspeeder and two Landraiders. All of these units will benefit from the changes that have been announced so far. Chronos and the Landraiders won’t be hitting on 4’s or locked in combat any longer, Terminators won’t be over-watched to death and the Landspeeder can zoom around and shoot without penalty.
Board Games – After painting up all the Heroes for Descent, the monsters has started making their way to my table. This first batch is most of the big monsters and the lieutenants about 28 models in total.
Read MoreKingdom Death – Remember Sharktapuss? That’s what the Sunstalker reminds me of, at least the silhouette feels very similar to that tentacle monster. I really don’t have words for this guy, it’s just so weird I’m sure that it’s a difficult beast to take down with your hunting party.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – With a new edition on the horizon I anticipate getting an influx of models to flesh out 40K forces. It seems several of my clients have been finding good deals in the used bins as well as getting things put together that they’ve had in storage.
This batch has a few more Hellblasters and Landspeeders. Pretty basic Ultramarine scheme.
Necromunda – Slowly but surely I’m getting though the backlog of Necromunda miniatures I’ve acquired since the game was rereleased in 2017 (and again in 2019). My goal for the year is to get through a gang per quarter. Initially I was shooting for one per month but with my commission load I don’t think that’s realistic.
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Historical – Team Yankee sounds like an interesting game. It falls into that category of remember when media that is so pervasive right now. Many, myself included have found memories of the 1980’s cartoons were “better”, toys made sense, you could gorge yourself on the latest sugary cereal in front of the TV until your parents inevitably made you go outside. In the mind of a child things were great, even if in the back of your head there was always the thought of impending nuclear annihilation.
Team Yankee is a “historical” game based on the forces countries had during that period. You can play out all the worst case scenarios that never happened or recreate some of the little wars that were kept hidden. The concept sounds cool even for someone who has zero interest in historical games.
The tanks are pretty easy to build even though they’ll a small scale. The A-10’s were a bit more difficult because well resin/metal kits always suck to put together and the casting quality left quite a bit to be desired. But i imagine they don’t see a ton of table time as aircraft tend to zoom in drop their payload and zoom away.
Infinity – I’ve painted a few models for Infinity and every time I’m super impressed with the detail, quality and general aesthetic of the line. If I wasn’t so heavily invested in the Grim Dark this would be the game I would jump into.
Read MoreAliens vs Predator – The APC from Aliens was an iconic part of my childhood. It still holds up as a clever design made to fit in the Drop Ship to quickly get the marines into the action.
Read MoreBoard Games – Western Legends is billed as an open-world, sandbox game set in the American West, which to me sort of screams Red Dead Redemption the table top game. I’m not exactly sure how a board game can be an open-world sandbox, since that is typically RPG territory but that’s what this game claims to be. Board Game geek has it rated as a 7.7 as of this posting and it was nominated for several awards in 2018 so I assume the game lives up to its promise.
If you couldn’t tell by that vague description, I haven’t actually played this game. Much like many of the commissions that come across my desk I’m primarily concerned with how the models look and getting them painted to fit the theme and be functional.
For what they are these are decent cowboy miniatures, not a ton of detail and a little on the small side but they painted up nice enough.
Board Games – Fife is a board game that sounds pretty similar to other kingdom building games. The core game comes with cardboard chits to represent the structures in the game. With the upgrade expansion you get replacement miniatures for all the chits.
Looking at the images on Boardgame Geek of the board the plastic pieces will look amazing on the detailed board. I’m not sure if they have miniatures for the cardboard standees but if they do I imagine they’ll find their way to my table soon enough.
Board Games – So far this year I’ve tackled several major board game projects, Descent brings 60 models to my table. A classic dungeon crawl Descent was a big deal when Fantasy Flight released it. I remember listening to the D6 Generation podcast and the opening bumper always had a reference to this game.
Read MoreStar Wars – Legions has been finding a spot on my painting table recently. The models are for the most part really good.
Read MoreStar Wars – Sometimes I feel like the creators of Star Wars just phone in some of the names.
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Historical – Cowboys seem to be moseying on over to my painting table more often. This little set is based on the film The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. I imagine my client is planning on using them in one of the plethora of old west miniatures agnostic games that are out there.
Board Games – Atlas bears the weight of the world on his shoulders. Which might explain why he’s so grouchy looking. This model is an expansion set for Mythic Battles that adds another character.
I really like this take on the Giant, four-arms with a saddle on his back just adds character.
Star Wars Legions – Moving right along I wrapped up a few more models for Star Wars Legions.
Read MoreInfinity – Infinity is a slick looking game. The models are very cool and the anime future vibe is very much something I like, however the game just never clicked with me. I can live vicariously through my clients though, this batch are some cars for Infinity from Antenocitis Workshop.
