Ruins

 o/

So uh...where's the fireplace?

The last of my 3D printed buildings is now complete. Unlike the others, this one took a while to paint. Sure, it is bigger and has several recessed areas, but my dumbass decided to paint a portion of the stones in varying shades of grey. The problem is that I needed to paint the corresponding interior side as well. Nonetheless, it came out well in the end I think and am pleased with it. 

This piece could also be used for Bolt Action, or even Mordheim were I ever to play either of those games again (the former...possibly, the latter...sadly not a chance).

Almost looks undamaged from this angle.

The yellow paint on the picket fence along with the back wall of the above the stonework hint of happier times.

There's no door to the interior in this part, so may have been a covered porch, or garden perhaps?

Now I just need to take a pic of all of these pieces together to see what my Quar's potential future battlefield may look like. Speaking of, there is some minor movement on the Quar front locally. I've been posting pics on the FLGS' discord and have found two other people in the area who like the Quar and have some of their own. Fingers crossed I can give Clash of Rhyfles a try at some point. 

This is the...airy side of the structure. 

Open to the elements, there are all sorts of weeds and grasses growing between the floorboards. As you can see the roof is removable on this one too.

Not too detailed on the attic as all of the deep recesses were hard to reach. 

Got wood?

 o/

lol I mean come on, what else would I name this post?

Not going to lie, it was very tempting to cover the whole top of the log with tufts to look it was covered in moss, just like I see in the woods all the time.

This is a piece of 3D printed scatter terrain that I got along with the houses of my two prior posts (the last piece from that purchase is still a work in progress). Nothing fancy, just a log and as you can see by the Coftyran MilitiaQuar below, it is the perfect size to provide cover. This would work well with my SWL Ewoks as well. 

I have several of these guys in nonstandard colors that I will be mixing into my preexisting Quar militia. The remainder of my Coftyrans will be painted in the traditional Coftyran blue uniforms.

Note the E-tool scavenged from a grim dark universe.

Perfect place to hide.

The House of Blues...

 o/

I'll bet you thought the title was sort of pun...

I finished my second Quar building, this time a larger home that is slightly grander than the last. This one has a covered porch, raised rafters, metal chimney, and built in storeroom (or possibly a loo?). It is also painted in what was no doubt traditional Coftyran Royal Blue, marking this as possibly a home of a retired military officer. However, said paint is long faded and worn. This house is in a similar state to the first one, with crude repairs effected to cover some of the holes. 

I kinda like the chicken coop styled windows. 

I remembered to put a rhyfler in a pic for scale. 

Storeroom or a loo?

The whole floorplan.

My forlorn little hamlet is starting to take shape. 

Good Bones, just needs a little TLC...

 o/

Anyone who has house hunted in the past few years has no doubt seen a listing like this. Usually, the photo is blurry though.

This is the first of two rough and tumble houses to go with a third that is in ruins for my Quar to hopefully someday fight over/around. This is a 3D print off of Etsy, and thanks to all of the woodgrains (and print lines) it painted up quick & easily. 

If pa's going to take you out behind the woodshed for a whipping...well, you two won't have far to go.

I primed it light brown, and the rest was mainly dry brushing and inking. The second house is a bit more detailed with a covered porch and small side room, so will likely take longer to paint. As will the ruined house. 

How about that joinery around the chimney?

I probably didn't need to paint the inside of this as the Quar will never be fighting up in the rafters.

I know what you're thinking: Where's the fireplace that goes with that Chimney?

The Quar...again.

 o/

Five more, ready and raring to go to...probably just collect dust.

I got burned out painting Battletech stuff, and Star Wars Legion is more or less on the backburner as my opponent Tom has gone more or less MIA. Gaming wise that is. He is alive & well, however is always busy and lacks the time to play. 

So, why not minis for something else I don't play, right? Right. 

My two Toulmore Mortar Quar. The different color rims of the bases are for their differing teams. Tomorrow's shipment will have 2 loaders who will also be carrying mortar ammo packs as well as a bogen (rifle) to defend said teams. 

Mortar teams don't benefit from the 'team' rule, but there are few hard & fast rules on assembling your forces, so my Toulmore mortars teams will be of two Quar apiece.

Besides, Asmodee is a lot of GW'ish tendencies/aspirations that make spending more $$$ on Legion a questionable endeavor. Not to mention Tom aside, 90%+ of the player base seem to be meta hopping/uber-combo shopping WAAC players, which...does not appeal. 

My forthcoming Is-Caerten's command team, a Yawdryl (Sgt.) on the left and cook on the right.

I like how it looks like he is pushing aside this stand of brush. The red skin was a bit more vibrant than intended, so I only painted this one Quar like that.

A 2nd Ryshi gunner to flesh out the squad. A Ryshi is essentially a short barreled Anti-tank (or Tractor in the Quar's case) rifle, with a bayonet as they are a bit unwieldy as point blank range.

If you haven't already noticed, I've tufted the hell out of their bases. I love the unruly riot of weeds & wild flowers that they are walking through.

There is another fan of the Quar in the area, I don't know what he does for a living, but I've only ever seen him at the FLGS in person maybe 2-3 times since moving here. So, there's that. Nonetheless, I like the little guys and have another 14 arriving tomorrow: A 12 strong Toulmore rhyfler squad (two of which will go to the mortar teams), a Crusader Is-Caerten (Lt.) and a special character looking guy that I just thought looked neat. I may just put him on a pedestal if I can find one and paint him up like a statue. We shall see I guess.

Like 40k, or SWL, who are the good guys vs. who are the bad, is open to interpretation. That said, these guys are stomping thru enough flowers to give a nod to the notion of not being the good guys.

Previously I had these on 20mm bases, in hopes of fighting in my caverns terrain. Maybe if I get some  Fidowggers I'll revisit that idea. 

My general state of things.

 o/

Long time, no posts. I am still alive and am posting regularly on my Battletech blog as I am playing that more or less exclusively. That, said, I have been pondering playing something else. My buddy Nick 2.0 wants to try out Down Range at some point which was developed by and for the United State Marine Corps of all things (yes really, read about it here). 

This small bunch is more likely to simply scratch an itch and find itself a spot in my display case than anything else. 

Beaverbug Mk III, used almost exclusively by the British Homeguard, it is as fearsome as it looks. 

Sporting both print lines and markings for my Quar's Eleventy First regiment.

Being a mediocre 3D print, I rated it on eBay equal to what I got: three good wheels out of four. The defective one isn't real noticable, but also ought not have been shipped in my opinion.

With my pre-existing Universal carrier, they form a minimum armored (and I use that term loosely) platoon. 

I have been pondering Bolt Action again, the game that I buy, paint a few minis for, and then sell without ever playing on a seemingly regular basis. That said, I would prefer to play it using my Quar which would clock in at about 600ish points. When I mention this idea to the guys at the shop, I always get the same reply: 'You can just borrow an army if you want to play.'

...sigh...

40K for me is on a permanent hiatus at this point. The prices are down right comical. The FLGS hosts regular games, and almost bi-weekly touraments. The preferred point value for both is 2K. Recently they had a 'teaching tourney' to help players learn to play better/more competively, with winning being a secondary objective. 

That sounded appealing except it was a 2K point limit. How many new players already have 2K point armies? My Tau are in the 600-700 point range, and drop a few points every time the balance dataslate is released it seems. The Orks clock in at maybe a 1K-ish, I honestly have no idea at this point. The Iggies are maybe 1K assuming I ever build my two remaining tanks. Lastly, my smurfs are the largest army, yet still fall short of the 2K requirement as they total up at about 1500 points or so. 

So I passed on that. 

I recently ordered some new helms for a squad's worth of unpainted iggies to syphon off for Trench Crusade. Additionally, i purchased a mechanized heavy infantry model for New Antioch to finally give that game a try. It seems to have a decent following locally with a few of the battletech guys playing it. 

I am also seriously pondering selling off my Star Wars Legion minis (again). I am sure it is a fine game, I love the universe and the minis, but it's player base leaves a lot to be desired. My last game seemed fine at the time, but the more I thought about it, the more annoyed I became. 

I've hosted plenty of 'teaching games' for new players over the years, mainly 40K. For a teaching game, as I know the rules by heart and my opponent barely knows what he/she is fielding, I would field a mediocre list that will put up a good fight and is more than capable of winning said game. That said it will do so less efficiently, with higher casualties and if I lose, the new player won't feel like I let them win. Whereas if they lose, it'll be close enough that they felt as though they could have won and thus will want to play again. Not to mention their units would have lasted long enough to give a feel for what they can do, in addition to giving the new player an at least halfway decent grasp of the game. 

RJ knew going into our game that I had only played once and only had a vague grasp of the rules. With that foreknowledge he brought his Anakin Skywalker, special build, almost all Arc Trooper special forces list. We both knew his would slaughter my force before any dice were even rolled. 

Traditionally, we have always referred to this as 'clubbing baby seals'. Needless to say, if you are the baby seal, then it really sucks to be you. RJ seems perplexed by my lack of desire to play again. 

Curious indeed that is...

I never played Legion in Tennessee after watching the local guy who would 'teach' all of the new players in much the same fashion, and when they were justifiably pissed afterwards would say (quote) Well that's just the meta. He came close to getting punched a time or two. Oddly, the player base for Legion didn't seem to expand beyond what it already was.

Back in South Carolina...

I told the FLGS owner that I was on the fence for Legion aways back. When he asked why, I explained my views on teaching games vs my game with RJ in much the same detail as above and he grimaced. He wanted to argue my point, but admitted that he had nothing to offer as a counterpoint. His experiences learning SWL were much the same as mine, though being the FLGS owner who wanted to sell minis, he just quietly put up with losing consistantly. 

I have no such incentive.

*****

So for the TL;DR folks who skipped to the end (and who can blame you given the above wall of text):

Down Range probably.

Bolt Action maybe, Bolt Action with Quar not likely. 

40K, no. 

Trench Crusade, possibly.

Star Wars Legion likely going bye bye. 

Battletech all the time!

This means QUAR!

 o/

Let's go that way...

I opted for  the more practical tan, rather than the traditional Coftyran blue uniforms.

The Coftyr have always been my favorites, and while I do like the new Crusader minis a bit more, there is surprisingly another Quar collector in the area! Neither of us have played the actual Quar gameto date however. He also likes the Crusaders, and has been concentrating on them. Thus is makes sense for me to field their arch rivals for my own force.

Somebody commented that I use too many types of tufts on my bases. Clearly that guy doesn't leave the sidewalk much.

I love the laser cut plants!

Previously I had these on 20mm bases, but I decided to rebase them on the standard 25mm bases now that I have the prospect of an opponent for my Quar. Previously, outside of games of Weird War II, I've only ever painted my quar for just the hell of it. I've always loved 'em, whereas my gamer buddies in Tennessee: not so much. 

The Mylwer (Sgt.) has a Doru (SMG), the the Quar on the left has a Cryfen (LMG). All of the rest have Harlech Rhyfles.

Note the smaller pack with Baguettes sticking out of it on the Mylwer. Rank has it's privileges.

Anyways, these little dudes are done representing my first painted rhyfler squad in quite some time. I've been pondering different ideas for telling squads apart, but will likely just use the old stand by of painting the rims on their bases in different colors. Simple & easy, always the best way to go. 

The whole squad.

Continuing a Love/Hate relationship...

 o/

I haven't even cracked open the book yet.

I bought this on a whim as the FLGS had it discounted. I also got the free mini that came with it, that of Medal of Honor recipient Francis S. Currey. I may pick up the new and finally in plastic winter US infantry, or give the Quar another shot at Weird War II. I still have a handful of metal Quar including a universal carrier, as well of my newer plastic Royalist minis that I haven't done anything with. I mentioned this idea to a few folks at the FLGS and the idea was pretty well received. 

We shall see I guess...

My first finished models since the move!

 o/

Huzzah!

I can't say that they're the first minis to be totally painted here in South Carolina, because I started them (and another half dozen of their Coftyran counterparts) while packing up in Tennessee. That said I did take some time off from unpacking (my new game room is a shambles currently) to finish these little guys up. 

All of the newly finished Crusaders from the front...

...and advancing to the rear. 

These are Quar Crusaders, and while I didn't like their old metal minis, I do like the new plastic sculpts quite a bit more than the Coftyrans, whom I preferred when buying the older metal minis. I think the new plastic Coftyran rhyfles are too spindly and likely to break. 

Another view of the squad's Yawdryl (Sergeant). As the Quar age, they get age spots on their snouts.

I have 2 days off coming up and while a good bit of that will be spent unpacking, I'm hoping to visit some of the local game shops in person to see who & what is out there around here. Also, this coming weekend we're going to a little get together at my wife's boss' house with several of her coworkers and their spouses/significant others. 

This little dude tossing the soup can grenade is the squad's only conversion.

I spliced two rhyfles (sans arms) together to stick on his pack. Its become a bit of a joke amongst the Quar's little community that any Quar tossing a grenade has lost his rhyfle.

One of her coworkers also recently moved here, and her spouse like me is also remote working. Also like me he plays mini games, and Warhammer primarily! I'm assuming that's of the 40K variety, but regardless I looking forward to this engagement more than I originally thought I would be! 

My Crusaders thus far, there are just three left to go.

That said, we went to another new friend's birthday party the other night and while no other gamers were present, the party was a hoot!