"So these aren't new toys then?"

"well, technically no as I paid for them almost a year ago" was my reply.  However, there is something about kickstarters that doesn't ring true to my wife. So when this parcel turned up yesterday I had some explaining to do!!
I have participated in 6 kickstarters, ranging from one for a range of double ended kolinski brushes to reaper bones 1.  I have been lucky in that all have produced the promised goods in a slightly longer than anticipated time frame.  This is my second kickstarter from westwind, the first being empire of the dead, and yet again I am more than happy with my rewards.

 The box was opened and the contents check - all were present!

 I wanted a new dbmm army from the kickstarter but was also hoping to pick up some other bits and pieces to add some versatility to my collection.   I had also to keep in mind that as I approached the $400 mark I ran an increasing risk of getting caught up in customs and being hit for a tax payment that would almost wipe out any savings I had made on the deal.  (I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and only went to about $300!  Still a nice haul though!)
The main army I chose to purchase was Numidian.  Lots of light horse, some foot and a few elephants.
This is one of the packs of light horse.  I was really pleased with the general quality of the figures and the variety of poses within each pack.

 close up of one of the the riders.  Nice faces, I think.  They should take paint well.

 A different pose.

 Another of the nice things about this kickstarter is that most packs contain more figures than they should.  The numidian foot are next up.  They should contain 24 figures but contain 3 extra. Bonus!!

 Again a great variety of figures, nicely posed.

 They look quite a hairy bunch...

 I only bought 1 pack of elephants.

 The elephants themselves are nicely done

 but I have never seen the castle rides done quite like this!!  I don't dislike it but I am intregued as to how it will go together.

 So that is my main army and so I thought how to get the most mileage out of the money I had left.  I realised that if I bought a few late Caesarian Romans I could create a Pompeian roman army list using the numidians as allies.

 Romans with  Gladius.  Will have to think about the shield designs as I didn;t buy the shield transfers that were part of the kickstarter..... that may have been a mistake...

 I also bought some romans with pilum.

 Again, nice details

 So that made two armies!!!  Good going so far!!  For the next I went with the ultimate piecemeal army and looked at Carthaginian army.  I thought that I could use some numidians for this as well but would need some heavy cavalry

 Another nice set of figures with a good level of detail and nice characterful faces.

 I thought that I would also need punic veteran spears to provide a little backbone....

 I am hoping that the chain dry brushes easily

 I was worried that there were a lack of General figures in the kickstarter but I needn't have worried as most packs come with command that will be useful for command elements.

 And I also thought a pack of spanish infantry

 And finally I needed some celtic light troops to finish an army I had painted a while ago.
The first pack was slingers and javlins

 the second pack is bows and more javelins

 again I am very pleased with the level of detail.

 I always seem to forget baggage elements for an army, but not this time....
I bought 2 packs of 3 ox carts

 I am very taken by the sculpts of the oxen.

 And the final bit of the kickstarter was that the stretch goals included free generals for the armies and so these came as a separate pack.  I know who some are but the others I will have to look up.

 This one is King Porus

 Darius the persian

 The reason for the celts was that, as I have already stated, the main army for this was started a couple of years ago.  I painted over 400 figures for it and glued them all to bases to begin texturing them and then
I BLOODY DROPPED THE BOX!!!!!

 so I just scooped them up, put them back in the box and put them away.....

I am hoping that getting the figure to finish it may make me repair and complete the basing on the rest of them.  

Westwing are doing another kickstarter later in the year, which I will be watching with interest.  Now all I have to do is get painting.... and while I am at it paint the other two boxes of figures from previous kickstarters.......

Watch this space!!

to add to the storage problem!!

I feel quite positive about my terrain building for my modern city as I think I can see the end of the road as far as a building list goes.  I am going to try to make at least one of every building I have purchased, and more than one of some of them, and in addition to this I am going to complete my list of additional street furniture.  After this I have other terrain projects, and many more painting projects, to work on.
This week I have been working on the Auto park set.  It looks a bit rough in the photos and, while it is by no means perfect, it is a bit better than the photos suggest!!! (honest!)
I have had this set for quite a while and have put off making it for some reason.  I am not sure why this is so as it is a straight forward set and a different type of building to others I have already constructed.
There are three buildings in the set - a garage, a car sales room and a carwash, which I assume can be used together or individually as takes your fancy when building your board.  All will be useful as they are individually quite small buildings and so can be easily fill the edge zones of the table.

 The carwash has print outs for the brushes, but for the life of me I couldn't understand how they went together!!  In the end I just left them off - it will probably make the inside more usable anyway.

 The next is a car showroom.  I need to add a bigger sign to this as it isn't as obvious as it should be.  There are plenty of signs in the pack and so it is just a case of printing another out and mounting it on some card - will take a few minutes at worst.

 The last of the three is the garage/workshop.  A nice building that could equally be part of a town centre or a back street/ suburban board.

The file also comes with lots(!) of vehicle kits, and I mean lots.  However, they look a little too fiddly for me and I am working on building up my metal car collection which means I probably won't build any.
Anyway, these are now balanced precariously on my already too full shelves.  I am planning on making a building a week until my internal builingometer registers 'full',  but that shouldn't be for a few weeks yet!
Thanks for reading, Have a good week everyone!

Cult of the golden Sun

I am trying to mix terrain build projects with a bit of painting just to keep things interesting for me.  After all the garages last week I decided to paint a few more Artizan pulp figures, this time some hooded cultists.  I feel that cultist are a mainstream of pulp adventures providing minions for the villains of the story.
First up is a jailer, and a not too conscientious one at that as he has his hood up in order to smoke a cigar.  You can tell he is the jailer as he carries a set of large keys in his hand.

This time the figure is hooded and carrying a pistol.  A very useful type of grunt.  These are simple figures without a huge amount of unnecessary detail and so quite straightforward to paint.

 This last one of the group is unarmed so maybe a little bit new to the 'kidnapping helpless females and sacrifice them to an unknown god' line of work.

 A group shot of the cult membership so far.  I have another three part painted at the moment and they will probably join the ranks at some point next week.

On a different note, I received notification that my figures from the 'war and empire' kickstarter have been posted and I am eagerly awaiting their arrival.  Hopefully they will not join the pile of unpainted figures from my other two figure kickstarters......

That's all for this post, have a good few days :)

a bonus to being back to school....

Or Shed loads o' sheds!!!
In a previous post I spoke about the fact that I had built some garages but had not printed off enough roofs to finish them off.  Well, one of the good things about starting back to school is that I again have access to good quality printers and so have now finished this little job.

 I feel that 3 double garages should be enough for most games I intend to play....

 ......especially as I took the opportunity to print and build seven single garages!

 Again, all have removable roofs so that they can be searched for supplies.

 Below is a picture of all of the sheds and garages together.  Surely this should be enough for most games I will play...
If not, I will have to build some more!

On another subject, my 5 yr old daughter has watched me paint and make things for all of her life and for the past year (at least!) she has asked to join in and has glues and painted to her hearts content as I sit at my painting table.  However, she has taken up more and more of the space.  In the shot below I am cramped into the left hand half (Ha!) of the table.

My wife then says "seeing as you both seem intent of painting and making things, do youi want a bigger desk?"

After looking for the trap I tentatively said yes..

 And there was no trap!!!  I now have a nice new painting/modelling station :)
My half is to the right of the central leg and my daughter's to the left.  I no longer have to put figures away to make a model - I have room to have both on the go at once.  I have to point out that the table is no longer as empty as this.  When it is fully organised I will post an update :)

My daughter also loves her new space and has promised not to go onto my side....

Anyway, back to make another building :)

Have a good week!!