Tag Archives: writing

2025 Wrap-up & Happy New Year!

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Hi, folks. Happy New Year to you all!

I always tire of typing it, but it has been a while. I’ve been distracted towards the end of last year, not so much from hobbying, but more from keeping the blog up to date. Daily life and writing have been getting in the way, though I have been able to use painting and building minis as a stress reliever.

The last couple of months, I’ve been looking into skirmish gaming, looking to do more with the collection of minis in my cabinet. I was looking into Assassins & Templars: A Ruckus Game, from Wargames Illustrated’s November issue, as I really liked the models that were being used to show off the game. These are from Gripping Beast, which has a lot of very cool pieces in their shop. I had to show some proper restraint; I started with a small retinue of assassins, which draw in part from their Arab military kit, as well as a few standalone metal minis. Pictured below are two assassins, a long range character, as well as a priest mini I was using as an imam.

I have also been working on some fantasy minis, including my Lord of the Rings models, and finishing up work on this proxy mini of Buhdur the troll cheiftain. I had recently acquired a pot of AK Interactive’s snow terrain mixture, having really enjoyed their battlefield mud tub, and used it on our wholesome troll here; my plan is to use him as a random encounter in Frostgrave, which is another skirmish game I have been diving into.

My son recently showed an interest in Mordheim and Frostgrave, and I have been grouping many of my minis into warbands with a new spark of excitement. I also picked up a few sprues from the Frostgrave kits and began kitbashing every manner of unit I was planning, including many Mordheim warbands. Pictured below are a Grave Robber warband, the rules of which I found on the Mordheimer site. These include a lookout, a graver, a junior medic, a couple of grave diggers, and a thug.

Trench Crusade remains in my brain also, and I have been chipping away at the remaining minis that are grey, of which there are few. The Observer has been relatively straightforward to paint, sticking with the colour scheme from the rulebook, as I liked the contrast between the red and gold.

Finally, I have been painting up a warband for Frostgrave, as my son has also been showing an interest in playing the game, mainly due to the wizard creation system. I’m helping to paint a warband of his own so we can play together, as well as some terrain. There are many scenarios in the rulebook that we’re keen to try, and I’d like to write about these as I go.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year’s Eve, and I wish you all the best for 2026.

Take care.

Five Parsecs from Home, pt. 2

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Hey, everyone.

In part 1 of the Five Parsecs from Home campaign I’m currently playing through, Griff and her team of misfits made 9 credits off a corporate job, angering another patron in the process and turning her into a bitter rival. They received a bundle of XP (and some grenades), and Salisi, our empath bounty hunter, had some other pressing matters elsewhere in the galaxy and left the crew for 2 turns.

Left to right: Amano (Glitch), Salisi, Vul, Griff, Derrick, Klano, Maimar

The beginning of turn 2 sees the crew going about their business; we pay off 4 credits from our ship debt, use our on-board purifier to cleanse and sell some water to the locals for 1 credit, and Griff explores the town to gain a rumour. Vul recruits a new crew member to fill the void left by Salisi, finding an Engineer named Maimar to join our cause. Amano hits up the market, selling scrap for 3 credits, while Derrick takes another crack at trying to repair the jumpbelt he found at one of the stalls in the last turn; he fails to fix it.

The crew is fortunate enough to get another job from Payton Malik, our patron contact. The next corporate job pays +3 danger credits and is urgent, needing to be done this turn. In return, we would receive the Persistent benefit, meaning this patron will still be available if we travel, and the condition Busy, which would guarantee a job offer from this patron next turn if this one is a success. The downside is the enemy is packing a VIP (one of their number has +1 Toughness and a +2 Combat skill).

Accepting the job, the deployment condition rolls as being Gloomy, reducing max visibility to 9″, so ranged combat is going to take place quite close. This also means that characters who fire can then be targeted at any range, as they can be spotted through the murk. The enemies are security bots once more, and we’re in another run-down slum beneath the pipework of this busy fuel refinery world. Time to get to work.

A run-down hovel in the lower levels of the fuel refinery world.

With no numbers restriction on this job, the current crew were in attendance for this one. While Griff, Glitch and Klano have their favourite arms, Vul brought dual handguns for the first time, and Derrick brought a shotgun; our newest recruit Maimar brings a handgun and a blade. Longer ranged weaponry would be of less use in the gloomy conditions.

None of the crew makes the quick actions turn in turn 1 of combat, and the security bots get the first moves. Being defensive in their behaviour, the 5 bots are posted in 3 teams, 8″ apart, and will remain in their half of the board (and within cover, where possible). They can’t fire with either their military rifles due to the murkiness, and they aren’t yet in range to use their handguns and rippers.

Derrick and Vul discuss how they’ll secure the old ruins, while Griff and Glitch return the bots’ fire.

Klano moves towards the ruins, and dashes into the shadow of a hulking steel structure, the topper from an old doughnut shop. By the second turn, he and Glitch are able to get into the quick actions round consistently, and begins brawling with two of the bots on the upper flank. Despite being able to roll twice during the Brawling phase, due to being K’Erin, Klano misses with most of his attacks, and those that do land fail to injure the bots. Glitch and Griff take opposite avenues around the ruins, returning fire; Glitch takes a hit, but like the first game this doesn’t amount to anything and she shrugs it off.

Maimar sees an item on the boundary, a piece of curios that was to be this board’s ‘Notable sights’. He spends several turns making his way to the crate, finding only junk that can be sold for 1 credit. Klano is bested in close combat by one of the twitching bots, and he is removed from the game. Vul and Derrick reach the ruins at the centre of the board, managing to hold the line undisturbed for a turn; this is a Secure mission, after all.

The security bots wound Klano and move to solidify their defences.

Glitch lands a hit on a bot, but they roll a 6 for their save and continue to fight. Griff takes aim and blasts the bot who struck down Klano on the previous turn, and they fail their saving throw. After a second consecutive turn of holding the objective, Vul and Derrick secure the centre of the board, and on the next roll the remaining enemies withdraw.

Griff takes a moment to aim before putting a shot through one of the bots’ heads.

In the aftermath of the battle, the crew gains +3XP each, with Griff gaining an additional +1XP for destroying a bot. Klano receives +1XP as a casualty. They receive their danger pay of 3 credits + 3 after rolling 1D6, and a set of loaded dice as loot. On the campaign events table our ship seems to suffer 2 hull points of damage during routine maintenance, and on the character events table, Derrick receives a letter from his wasteland planet, and on the roll of a 5 we get a quest from it. Looks like we know where we’ll be heading as soon as the ship is repaired.

That’s all for campaign turn 2, however. Here’s hoping the 3rd turn is much kinder to Griff and the crew.

Thanks for reading, take care.

Hobby update (12th April)

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Hi, folks.

The last week and a bit have been fairly tough going at work, quite mentally taxing as well. As such, I’ve not had much strength to do as much hobbying as I wanted, but there are a few things I’ve been chipping away at.

I recently purchased a brahmin miniature on Etsy, as I am needing one for one or two of the scenarios from the Fallout: Wasteland Warfare book. I wasn’t massively keen on Modiphius’ brahmin models and found something a bit chunkier for the two-headed pack-cow.

I also started working on my Minutemen miniatures, having split a box of the survivors with my eldest, who has been keen on painting her own Fallout settlers. I’ve enjoyed working on the Minutemen, they have been quite different to the other factions in terms of appearance and colour palette. I also quite like Preston Garvey as a character (though this is an uncool thing to say, apparently), and I really like the effort that went into his design. His constant insistence on the player visiting ‘another settlement’ to lend a hand was an annoying gaming mechanic, but I liked that he was one of the genuine do-gooders in the wasteland.

For the last month or so, I’ve been trying to remember to get all the finished squads assembled and photographed as and when they are completed, as I realised I was only ever posting WIP pics. Above is a shot of the Caesar’s Legion veterans, one of the groups I accidentally omitted. Painting the Legion was a a much slower affair than the others, due to the multitude of straps and armour layers each of their minis has. I stuck closely to screenshots from New Vegas, which is why you might notice a fair few of my legionaries wearing totally blacked-out sunglasses.

Anyways, that’s just a brief overview of what I’ve been able to get done over the last few weeks. I’m hoping to get more hobbying done in the upcoming week, such as getting the Minutemen finished and having a test game with them, as well as putting the finishing touches on the super mutant faction as well.

Until then, thanks for reading.