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Hi

Over a year ago I posted part 1 to this secret project of mine and I’m sure you’ve all forgotten which is fair haha. As a reminder here’s a pic taken from part 1.

Lately I’ve been feeling a “miniature hobby block” of sorts. So many projects but wasn’t feeling overly motivated for any. I decided to just sit at my hobby desk and think for a bit. After a while my eyes landed on two undercoated minis that I thought yeahhhh, I could just have a go at their skin or something. Two hours later I completed them haha.

So, after over a year of you guys waiting with bated breath I’m sure, I can finally reveal the big secret haha.

Vietnam: June 13th 1967…

An 11 man squad lead by a Giant of a Major called “Dutch” are deep behind enemy lines in the jungles of the central highlands when the point-man hears something in the canopy…

“What is it Baker?” Dutch asks.

“There’s something out there waiting for us… and it ain’t no man.” Baker replies staring up into the trees.

You know what’s worse than one Predator hunting you?

TWO FUCKING PREDATORS HUNTING YOU

Above is Major Dutch painted and gifted to me by the skilled TIM (The Imperfect Modeller). I did rebase him for the sake of tabletop wargaming.

The scale (see below) is a bit out (a fair bit out) as in human Vs Predator but who cares, makes it even scarier hehe.

I had an absolute ball painting the two predators and I’m really stoked with how they’ve turned out. The skin especially was important for me to get right and I did most of it by stippling paint on. Then several different washes before highlighting and then using my finest brush for the spots (mottled look).

As far as game dynamics go I’m thinking:

1. The troops have firepower and the numbers
2. The predators have speed, camouflage and strength.

I also think a fun way of hiding the predators from the opponent is having for plastic cups upside down on the table when the game starts. Underneath two of them are the predators but the troops (opponent) has no idea which cups have the predators. Does that make sense? Obviously need to fine tune it but I reckon that could keep the troops fearful and second guessing their moves.

Im also thinking each member of the military squad will have certain skills, strengths and weaknesses.

The game would be played on a 4×4 board but I won’t be building a specific board. I’ll use my mats and trees and foliage etc.

If you have any ideas on rules or gameplay I’d love to hear it.

One more thing…

In part one of this project someone, can’t exactly remember who, guessed it was going to be a King Kong/Skull Island kind of project. I actually bloody loved that idea so, yep you guessed it, I’ll be adding a King Kong too so that the poor GI’s have to face a giant monkey in other games as well haha. Im looking for a King Kong toy or something as I want it to be quite big.

Cheers

IRO

Hi folks

I like weird…

I like weird music, movies, books, art and even weird people.

I think I’m weird in many ways.

Turnip 28 is right up my alley because, well, it bloody weird and I like to explore weirdness within my hobby so therefore I give you the first piece for this new turnip army I call…

The IV Holy Ginger Legume parade

The IV Holy Ginger Legume parade,
Marched nightly through rot and decay
With drums made of bone,
And a low, pulsing groan,
From a god that their harvest betrayed.

A chosen few shuffled apart,

And held aloft the god

Napoleon Bonaparte,

They claimed he once fell,

Through root-tunnels of hell,

And now leads their way from the start .

More weird things coming for this strange little army.

I hope everyone is well and enjoying their individual hobby projects.

Cheers

IRO

PS

Weird movies I can recommend that I’ve watched recently are:

1. Lone wolf McQuade
2. The man with the screaming brain

Weird books:

1. Exquisite Corspe

Weird art: (both by John William Waterhouse)

1. Lady of Shalott
2. Circe offering the cup to Ulysses

Weird music:

1. Sand sailor by Guilhem Desq
2. So solemn and grim by the blasting company

Weird people:

1. Collyer Brothers

Hi allllllll,

As I very much enjoyed painting the Valhallan Ice Warriors and not feeling quite done with Imperial Guard I thought id finish a squad of Praetorians. I started my Praetorian army (The Stouthearted) many moons ago and have always stuck with the red (24th foot-look) tunics but fancied doing something a little different with this squad.

So let’s have a look…

In the history of the Empire, very few units inspire awe like the Grey Praetorians. Established over three centuries ago by Emperor Valerius II, they were designed not as frontline soldiers, but as the ultimate embodiment of honour, vigilance, and ceremony.

Choosing ash-grey tunics, contrasting with jet-black trousers yellow piping, the Grey Praetorians are immediately recognisable. The grey signifies the bleak but calm and impartiality expected of a protector of the sovereign, while the yellow trim represents loyalty and the spark of vigilance and tenacity that must never fade. They keep their uniforms immaculate at all times even during and after battle. One historic transcript on the Grey Praetorians reads – “I bore witness to trooper Neville slay two Orks single-handedly with only his chainsword and then pause to meticulously clean his weapon and also the blood splatter on his face and pith helmet before charging back into the fray once more.” – Author unknown.

Duties of the GreyTorians often place them at stately courts and ceremonial halls as they are trained on formalities and rituals as well as warriors. Each member undergoes rigorous physical and mental training, mastering sword, lance, pistol, rifle and heavy weapons as well as the intricate etiquette of courtly protocol. Their presence is a silent deterrent so that none dare threaten the Emperor or the sacred rites they guard.

At the great Siege of Solara, when the palace was overrun by Tyranids and the outer walls had fallen, the Grey Praetorians stood in the inner halls, forming an unbroken ring of steel. Their number was 55 hardened veterans and 22 would fall that day but not one surrendered. By dawn, the palace still stood, and the remaining Grey Praetorians still held their line ready for the next threat with hardly a smudge on their uniforms.

The unit is strictly hereditary, with many Praetorian families tracing service back many generations.

To see a Grey Praetorian is to witness history walking with purpose. They are not merely guards they are the memory and conscience of the Empire, living proof that some bonds like honour, duty, loyalty can never be broken.

They were fun and fairly straightforward to paint but the piping was a little challenging. Im happy I persisted with it though as it sort of sells their status a bit more in a way.

Cheers

IRO

Good day good people,

Not a single forward march post all through Feb because I was distracted by skeletal pirates and Napoleonic miniatures. Here we are at the very end of the collaboration with Mr Wudugast already and I’ve got to say it’s been fun although a little haphazard on my part. I was keen to only focus on imperial guard armies but, as is my way, I got distracted by other things along the way. That being said I have finished three guard armies of which I am mightily proud.

Vostroyan 127th Iron Psalm Battalion (actually I tell a lie, I didn’t actually finish the three special weapons guys haha but stil…)

Traitor Guard 113th Blood Rain.

Aaaaaaand… The 42nd Valhallan “Winter Guard”

I actually started the valhallan army all the way back in 2021 with this chap. Lieutenant Grovnik

Five bloody years ago so it feels good to get this one done. Like with the Vostroyans it’s only a small army but a playable one and one that looks pretty cool in my humble opinion. I started painting this lot only on Friday to get it done for forward march.

Chimera – (APC)

Two heavy bolter teams –

I should add this is the first time I’ve used a snow effect and I’m quite pleased with how it looks. I went for a “not so thick” powdery type look.

Command –

We’ve already see then the lieutenant but here are a couple of sergeants too.

Troops – instead of individual shots I just thought I’d share a bunch of insitu/action type photos.

Plus a couple of extra pix for fun.

I can’t tell you how much fun I had painting these guys… well I guess just did. I had more fun painting this army than I did the vostroyans and the traitor guard. Im not entirely sure why? Could be that they’re close to bolt action minis (Russian/Stalingrad). It could also be because I fell in love with these chaps after buying my very first copy of White Dwarf. I clearly remember a great picture of the ice warriors battling Tyranids from the ramparts of a Bastion on the back page of that copy. That was probably 30 odd years ago now so it feels good to finally bring those teenage dreams to life. I did it with Rorke’s drift and now with the valhallan guard. They’re nice internal ticks for me hehe.

Even though I got sidetracked through Feb I’ve really enjoyed a focus on Imperial Guard with my blog buddy Wudugast. The whole idea was to keep each other motivated and inspired and id say we did that as best we could. Obviously vasts amounts of ocean, plus real life got in the way BUT I still felt we were very much in this together.

Other IG armies I have in various stages of completion are:

1. Death Korps of Krieg
2. Cadians (new ones)
3. Penal Legion (this is another small one)

I might dabble more with them this year but for now I want to get on with more pirate things and napoleonic things.

Cheers

IRO

Hello everyone,

On Saturday morning I had a second game of Rorke’s Drift with Skynet aaaaand it started off better. I had tweaked the rules a little and made Skynet reply in bullet points with what it wanted to do (move, shoot etc). I too kept things brief in my relaying info to Skynet.

The game really got into a good flow but then halfway through round 3 SkyNet started forgetting things. Simple things like where its troops were. I had to keep reminding it. You can see my frustration in the screenshot below.

So pretty much by the end of round three id lost my patience for the thing and pulled the pin. Then I go a bit silly with Skynet

So the big question is will I try again? I really tried to give it all the right prompts etc this time and it still didn’t quite go as planned. Surprisingly, I don’t think it’s a me problem. I think the ai isn’t quite where it could be for this type of gaming. At the rate it’s advancing though I’m sure in six months it’ll be sending a drone strike to take me and my 28mm Rorke’s drift table out altogether haha.

I think I will try again but I’ll give it a rest for now.

I did have a game with Big Waz during the week which was 1000 times more enjoyable even though he kicked my arse (I was the Zulus).

Cheers

IRO

Hello guys,

I fancied slopping paint around, blending colours and just generally getting a little dirty. What better project to do that with than my Turnip 28 one.

This is Lady Aisha’s Grey Legume Hall and it was fun to build and paint.

Im a little hungover from a big night of drinks with the lads so there isn’t anymore to do but say…

Cheers

IRO

Hello all,

Did you guys, those of you old enough to remember it, ever play computer chess? My dad and some old bloke called Bondi taught me how to play chess but I remember honing my skills with the computer version. It was tough but that was the point. Anyway, I realised the other week I could basically have a solo game with Skynet. Skynet is what I call chat gpt and AI. Im still not overly sure or happy about ai for many reasons but I’m also not afraid to dabble with it.

So I asked Skynet if playing a tabletop wargame is something it could do? Turns out it could. I uploaded an aerial shot of Rorke’s drift (my rorkes drift) and then copied and pasted the rules into chat. It offered up a couple of minor tweaks and then tried to educate me on the historical version of the battle. I closed it down by saying I’ve been studying Rorke’s drift for a long time. SkyNet apologised profusely haha. It also got a detail wrong and said Reverend Smith was a VC recipient. I took great pleasure in pointing out its mistake and it then had the nerve to say it was testing me.

Hmm… Humans 1 – Skynet 0

As we learned in the terminator movie franchise we should not toy with Skynet but I’m an anarchist at heart so I poked the machine by calling it stupid and said that it’s already failed me. Needless to say Skynet took this all in jest even though I meant it haha.

Anyway I digress…

I would be the defenders in the game and Skynet the Zulus

So what I would have to do is relay every move, every kill etc to SkyNet as it obviously didn’t have a visual (not yet anyway). The game started a little clunky at first until I found a bit of a rhythm. A couple of times I had to remind it of the rules and it always acted like it knew deep down but was just making sure I knew the rules. That annoyed me haha.

After round 1 of 5 I had wiped out Skynets first small wave (20 Zulus) of Zulus which had all come from the kraal side of the compound. By the end of the second round I’d wiped out skynets second small wave (another 20) which had also come from the kraal side. It was fun but a little monotonous so I told Skynet to amp things up and be more strategic and aggressive but avoid historical tactics.

At the start of round 3 Skynet sent in a larger wave of Zulus (60 in total) again via the kraal and this time my defenders were forced to fall back.

The redcoats shot many warriors down as they charged in at them though and soon all 60 were gone. Skynet then repeated the same thing. Instead of attacking any of the other walls Skynet chose to keep pouring Zulus in through the kraal. By the end of round 3 id lost 28 of my 65 defenders and Skynet had lost nearly 80 of the 270 Zulus.

As round 4 commenced I noticed that SkyNet repeated exactly the same tactic again. Bringing in another 60 but as the game rules dictated new units had to be brought in from the table edge, any table edge mind, they spent a lot of time moving before getting into any kind of fracas The whole while I’d just fire volley after volley at them. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. Something else I noticed was that the more we played the more I had to keep reminding SkyNet of the rules. Now I’m not very tech savvy so maybe it had something to do with my version of chat GPT? I don’t flippin know and I don’t really care but the game was getting a little tedious. I told Skynet to amp things up even more so at the start of round 5 it sent in 80 Zulus instead of 60 but still the long way via the kraal.

There were a couple of cool hand to hand clashes, especially with Bromhead, who killed a total of 13 Zulus. Also one Zulus warrior took down LT Chard which was a fun little melee.

My defenders took down the 80 Zulus and the game ended with me surviving with 32 defenders (all I had to do was survive the battle to win) and Skynet lost a total of 173 Zulus.

I was quite surprised at how dull SkyNet played the game haha. It was sort of fun-ish and who knows maybe it was my rules but it just seemed like SkyNet couldn’t think outside the box. It found one tactic in its mainframe and just stuck to it time and time again. It made me wonder if it’s because it’s not free thinking? It doesn’t have an imagination. I’m struggling to put into words how it all felt but the best word I can think of is the game felt sort of soulless.

I’m pleased to say it was quite the opposite when it came to a game I had last week with my pal Keith hehe.

So, in conclusion I will try again down the track with SkyNet and tabletop wargaming because I feel like it could be a fun middle ground between solo play and games with mates. Maybe I need to give SkyNet better prompts or something?

Cheers

IRO

G’day,

To be honest I think the actual miniatures and the ship did most of the heavy lifting in this post.

Say Ahoy to “The Gravewake” and its undead, soul seeking crew.

The ship is a 3d print I got years ago now from OTP, a now defunked printing business (me suspects they were printing things that weren’t licensed to them), and even though you can see the print lines close up I think it’s a very cool model. I added the mast and sail as it didn’t come with one.

I still need to add a ragged pirate flag.

I miss OTP because I acquired so much printed terrain from them and a lot cheaper than I can find anywhere else on the interwebs. Ho-hum

The detailing is very cool and I enjoyed painting them.

Now let’s take a closer look at the soul seeking crew. Nasty looking blighters.

This bony bastards arm snapped off when I was trying to scrape away some plastic flash but I sort of preferred him without the arm so painted him up as is.

You might notice a little white bit hanging off the sleeve on the undead chap above. Im not sure if it was flash or meant to be a sort of handkerchief tucked in there. I kept it as a handkerchief but I dunno if it really looks like one haha

This guy has a bit of a Captain feel to him as well but NO, I have something better for the next post.

Definitely one of the most worse for wear looking bony pirates but he’s one of my favourites.

No self respecting pirate, dead or otherwise, should be without a bandana.

The crew were fun and fairly easy to do and I knocked them out over two nights. The ship took about the same time and I mostly used contrast paints. In case you want to pick up some skeletal buccaneers yourself, I got them from Black Scorpion miniatures.

So yeah the next Saint Kristos post will feature the Captain of the Gravewake which is one I’ve kitbashed myself.

I’ve also made a start on converting one of the Mega Bloks Pirate ships but that’ll be in the next post too.

Cheers

IRO

I feel like I have been wanting to start this project since I was around ten years old haha.

You see when I was around that age I was very fond of going to the library with dad. On these trips dad would always say, “ok son choose two books you really want and one that just grabs your attention.” The book that grabbed my attention one fateful day was a book about Napoleonic Wargaming. Now at that age I had absolutely no idea who or what Napoleon was or Wargaming for that matter. I dragged out the book and sat at a table to flip through the pages and just remember seeing colourful toy soldiers.

As I was a kid I thoroughly enjoyed playing with my single coloured plastic army men so these figures pictured in the book blew my mind. They were so colourful and their uniforms were like nothing id really seen before. I was captivated. I took the book home and scrutinised every picture. I remember attempting to read the thing but it made little to no sense to me.

One thing that really stood out was a large centrefold type picture that featured a huge gaming table with hills, trees, ranks and ranks of infantry, cavalry and artillery. More interesting than that though was the fact that two grown men were “playing” with them in a tabletop wargame. I remember my little underdeveloped brain thinking “wow so adults can play with soldiers too”. Haha.

Fast forward a few years into my teens and my fascination with the napoleonic wars grew even more and I would read several non-fictional books about the wars, that era of warfare in general and Napoleon himself. It was also around this time that I discovered Warhammer 40k and my thoughts on napoleonic minis went far back into the dusty and almost forgotten, realms of my mind.

Almost…

After getting back into the hobby in 2015 I started thinking about Napoleonics again and this time in a more serious start collection them sort of way. However, Orks, Imperial guard and a myriad of other projects seemed to get to the front of the line each time. I think partly because I knew my Napoleonics project was not going to be a small one. As I think I’ve demonstrated with my Rorke’s drift project and bolt action project I like big projects haha.

This Napoleonics project will be, by far, my biggest project. My Magnus opus so to speak and one that is close to my heart simply because of that ten year old little boy, 37 years ago, discovering tabletop wargaming and realising he didn’t have to grow up.

Naturally I’m a huge fan of the TV series Sharpe starring Sean Bean as a sergeant in the 95th rifles aka The Chosen Men or the chosen few. So what better unit to start my mammoth project with than the 95th foot.

I built 23 including the 3 man command unit. In the pic just above I used a wounded head from German bolt action kit but I think it might be a little too big.

The kit I mostly used came from Wargames Atlantic but most of the kits I have, currently at least, are from Warlord Games. More on that later.

So wish me luck on this one gang. It’s a little daunting but I am excused to finally be starting it. Lots to do and, let’s be honest, it’s going to be years before I finish it haha.

One more thing, I think the book I found all those years ago was this one by Bruce Quarrie.

I can’t be 100% sure but I think I need to buy this book anyway.

Cheers

IRO

Ahoy,

My word it’s been nearly four years since I did anything with this project. We all say it and I’ll say it again, it’s crazy how fast time goes by. Especially as I get older.

I was really flip flopping between my medieval, ACW, Predator and Tyranids projects before I landed on Saint Kristos haha. I’m not sure exactly how I got here but I’m here and I’m waist deep in ships, figures and terrain.

For those of you that don’t remember this project I’ll give you the brief…

A pirate island called Saint Kristos set in the golden age of piracy (1650s – 1730s) where several pirate crews, as well as swashbucklers, adventurers, the British Royal Navy and even local inhabitants constantly feud over plunder, ships, domination and pride.

I semi finished a ship back in 2022 but it had no sails. I plan on giving it sails very soon. In the meantime I painted up another ship, I think it’s a sloop but if you know please let me know, and gave this one furled sails. It’s the first time I’ve ever done rigging and it was bloody annoying and fiddly but also kind of fun haha.

This vessel I’ve called “Valour” and is currently (pirates will definitely commandeer it at some point I’m sure) for the Royal Navy.

As these ships are for tabletop wargaming and are required to hold miniatures there isn’t a lot of space for much else. As you’ve seen above I did include canons, how could I not, and a couple of extra little details but it’s without a wheel haha. Ah well, I’ll just have to use my imagination. Other ships I’ll be doing, larger ones, will have a wheel but I’m struggling to find any for a good price. On the first ship I did (2022) I used a cog I found in my bitz box. Maybe I’ll go down that path.

That’s it for today gang. I hope everyone is well.

Cheers

IRO