Going a-Viking! Part 2

Upcoming battle royal and rumble that Mikey and I were getting ready for at OwlCon 2014 held in Rice University, in Houston. That meant getting new units painted to supplement my existing Huscarls as well as getting Mikey's long ship out of mothballs, painted and weathered to transport his Vikings. While mine were at the final stages of completion he was frantically doing the same. Gotta love them shield transfers...

(click on the pix to enlarge)

More detail on the just finished units of Warriors from Black Tree Design.

My Huscarls from Wargames Factory on review and deciding which ones to make the team and get to travel. Archers on the ship stay home this time around since I'm not using missile troops.

Practice session at Mikey's where we combined our terrain on his Hexon.

A close up shot of my two scratch built hovels and attached wood shed. Wooden barrels and various trade goods from both our collections.

Mikey's Warband.

Mikey's Warband going out for a test drive.

Scratch built haystack in the background with Rune Stones from Fenris Games in the foreground to add some Viking flavor.

Mikey's round huts.

Some jockeying for position on both our parts in this practice game.

I painted Mikey's Long Ship from Old Glory.

Some weathering.

Both of our warbands with their Long Ships ready for transport to OwlCon.

Onto Rice University for OwlCon!

My Warband heading down the river for the brawl.

Mikey's Long Ship has grounded with his troops ready to disembark.

My Berserkers charging across the meadow against Welsh bowmen.

My Warriors charging a Welsh warrior unit across the street by the hedgerow.

My Huscarls springing into action and eventually eliminating the Norman Cavalry unit.

In conclusion, out of 6 Warbands, I hacked and slashed my way to a bloody second place! I lost to a Welsh unit. Mikey's unit was the third unit taken out by a combination of Welsh bow fire and Norman cavalry charges. Better luck next time, Mikey!!

Going a-Viking again! Part 1

A few months back I was getting ready to attend OwlCon 2014 at Rice University here in Houston. One of the battles I was looking forward to participate in was Saga. It promised to be a real brawl and dust up with a potential of multiple chieftains hacking and slashing away at each other.

So it was time to dust off (literally) my long ship and Vikings (Wargames Factory plastics). It turned out to be a meeting engagement of 6 chieftains with their accompanying warbands. I look at my boys and noticed that I was still lacking in the 'warriors' (i.e. non-huscarl / armored units) and 'berserker' categories.

(click on the pix to enlarge)

"A-Viking we will go..."

Hmmm, if memory serves, I have some unpainted Vikings from Black Tree Design stashed away somewhere...

Turns out that my list needed 2 units of 8 Warriors each and 1 unit of 4 Berserkers. I looked in my unpainted minis box and Voila!

I mounted them on pennies and used my slurry mix (also used in my Incursion 3d board project for creating pre-cast concrete walls) for basing. 

After the prerequisite black primer, I dry-brushed with a sand color by Anita's Craft Paint, a cost effective (read cheap) paint from Hobby Lobby. 

Apply watered downed base color.

Dip into some Army Painter Quickshade Strong Tone.

Apply dry shield transfers from Little Big Man Studios.

Spray with Testors Dull Kote.
Front row: Beserkers
Back Row: 2 units of 8 Warriors each

My Warriors in a shield wall

The full contingent: Bjorn tobe Wilde, the axe and spear wielding Viking Cheiftain with his bodyguard of 4 Berserkers,
6 units of 4 Huscarls each from Wargames Factory plastics (of which only 3 will be selected for this upcoming fight) and
2 units of Warriors (in the long ship)

Next up: the battle royal or in this case, the brawl!

Completed Incursion 3D Board - at OwlCon 2011

Done. Finito. Complete. Whew!

Come in and Enter...

This 24" x 30" board represents the first half of the gaming board used for Scenarios 1-4 in the rule book.

It took some effort and time adding extra industrial detailing like rusted pipes, fittings, etc. but was well worth it to simulate more realism aside from being fun. 

Still proxying with AT-43 figures to represent Allies while Zombies and Werewolf are from HorrorClix collection.

The Zombie 'Conga Line of Death'

All signage, propaganda posters and graphics were simply printed on bond and white glued on wall surface. Design courtesy of Martin at Little Soldiers from the Incursion Forum. 

Now it's time to get started on the actual minis...

OwlCon At Last!

OwlCon 2011 was just this weekend held at Houston's Rice University with a great turnout. Miniature events were held in one of two rooms: Sammy's and the Great Hall. Both of my games were in Sammy's. Luckily there were no LARPers about (they were in another section)!

Sammy's

 

I hosted two events. The first was my standard WWII skirmish game using Flying Lead rules by Ganesha Games set in Stalingrad with Soviets vs Germans on a 4'x4' table.

Prior to hostilities and post setup.

 Next up: my highly anticipated, brand new Incursion 3d Board.