Gedemco "The Keep" (2)

As reported previously, I put together an old modeling kit from Gedemco. I painted it during the past couple of days. Spray-paint a black undercout, drybrush in stone grey, paint in some details, and attach a cardboard door and trapdoor. Then apply a coat of matt varnish.

The finished model is shown below, along with some 80s Citadel miniatures.

Nurgle Chaos Warriors

A finished unit of Nurgle Chaos Warriors:

The figures are the Chaos Warriors from the old Battlemasters game. The figures are a bit blocky and simple, so I used a rather simple block painting style as well.

The banner was photographed from my copy of Realm of Chaos: Lost and the Damned book, printed, and attached to the miniature. This reminded me of something I also did many years ago: carefully making a color copy of coloured pages in the Warhammer Armies rulebook (color copies were hugely expensive back then, so slecting one or two pages to copy was crucial), cutting the banners out, and using them for my own units. These days, this is all so much easier and cheaper to do.

That same banner can also be seen here.

Another new book

Last week a new book arrived in the post. Not really new, it's an old book, but it's new to me.

The book, "Heroes for Wargames" is well-known in circles of Oldhammer and Citadel/Games Workshop afficionados. It was pubished in 1986, and highlights miniatures, artwork, painting, modeling, ... at the GW studio during the golden 80s.

I first saw this book in a bookshop in Vienna, when I was spending a few weeks there during an internship in 1987. Of course, being a student meant you couldn't afford a book such as this one (it meant not eating for 3 days or so ...), and it sort of slipped my mind. But I saw it being commented on on various Oldhammer blogs over the years, and decided I needed a copy as well. To my surprise, it wasn't difficult at all to find a 2nd hand copy at a very modest price, so after 30 years, I finally have this book in my collection ...

A conversion project

The academic year at my university has finally ended, so I have some time to relax, work in the garden, but also do some wargaming stuff. Or at least, that's what I hope for!

One of the little projects I want to complete is a conversion for our Antares 2401 campaign. The campaign has been dormant for a while, but I think we should start it up again. The campaign puts each player in control of a squad of StarMarines, with the GM controlling the opposition. The general commander of the StarMarines is Bacchus Mahoney, who has only been mentioned in the campaign reports so far, but does not have a figure representing him.

The overall tone of the campaign is more Rogue Trooper/Strontium Dog/original Rogue Trader 40K, rather than the gothic version 40K has become today. So I don't feel constrained at all to use figures as I see fit, and to make up some fun but perhaps weird combinations.

Anyway, this is the project:

Bacchus Mahoney will be represented on the battlefield riding an alien-like mount, which fits in with some of the characters that already saw some action (K'z'r'x, a drafted mercenary, represented by an original Tyranid/ Hunter Slayer miniature).

• The mount is a Raptor from Harlequin miniatures, and was originally intended as a steed for Shadow Elves.
• The rider will be an old 40K chaplain on a jetbike. I already removed his right arm, and will replace it with a plastic original Mk 6 Space Marine arm, most likely the pistol, since that will give him a more dynamic pose.
• I already filed away some of the skulls on the figure, but still want to work on the banner a bit, probably replacing the skull on the banner with the imperial eagle from another plastic banner. The skulls on the kneecap also will be removed.
• Some smaller items (also from the original Mk 6 Space Marine box) will be used to embellish the model here and there. 

I think it will turn out to be a very cool figure, and it might turn our attention back to our dormant SciFi campaign.

Wehrschach

Last weekend there was a militaria fair/show/gathering in my home village, which took place at Fort Liezele, one of the forts that was built at the start of the 20th century as part of a belt of forts around Antwerp. The fort since long does not have a military function anymore, but is used to host all sorts of events, and is open to the public.

Such a fair is always a curious affair. Traders try to sell all sort of militaria, ranging from rusty old equipment, all sorts of insignia, uniform items, books on military history, to boxes full of what one can only describe as "assorted junk". Being in Belgium, there's an abundance of WW1 and WW2 items, and within the latter category a sometimes unhealthy fascination with all things German, if you get what I'm hinting at.

But such an event is always an opportunity to look for some new decorations for the wargaming room. Preferably nothing too big or bulky. I am definitely not a collector of militaria, but I do have an interest in toy soldiers and the history of wargaming. That's a very niche aspect of militaria (if it even belongs to that category), but you never know what you will find.

So what did I get? An original edition of Wehrschach (German wikipedia link, Boardgamegeek link), a game published in Germany in 1938, and which is basically a chess variant. I have no immediate intention of playing it, but I thought it would be a nice addition for my "history of wargaming" collection. The board is somewhat damaged, but the game is otherwise complete.

Here's my own not-so-good photo, but you'll find other photos through the links above.

I painted something!

Due to various reasons - some personal, some professional - hobby time as been very low during the past couple of months. Nevertheless, I managed to paint something, 2 gun towers from the old Scotia Grendel/Kryomek/FantasyForge range, which I first reported on in a blogpost dating back to December 2017 ...

Anyway, here's the picture, with a classic 80s space marine shown for size comparison.

Gedemco "The Keep"

This weekend, in between sessions of working in the garden, I started putting together one of the Gedemco sets I reported on before.

Assembling a resin kit from the 80sis quite a challenge compare to the MDF plug-and-play sets of today. Nevertheless, the discerning wargamer is not put back by a few hindrances along the way.

Step 1: straightening out the pieces. Some of the wall sections were warped. Since they are made of resin, put them in hot water, straighten them again, and leave them to dry on the kitchen sink. Ignore the cries of horror of other carbon-based humanoid lifeforms in the house. The pieces below are from the Tower set, but the idea is the same.

Step 2: Start glueing together the kit. These old kits are not, shall we say, made to fit. Several tries, a lot of cursing, and using various wooden beams to keep everything together, did the job in the end.

Step 3: Admire the final result. Some period figures are shown for scale. The stairs form a seperate piece, I won't attach it permanenly to the keep, so I can still use a ladder in some scenarios.

Step 4: Fill up the cracks and holes with some filler, but this still needs to be done. Painting as well, of course.

Some more Belgian wargaming history

A longtime gaming friend was cleaning up his basement, and asked me whether I was interested in old box of wargaming stuff. I always answer ‘yes’ to such questions, not in the least out of curiosity to see what shows up.

After our regular boardgame night, I loaded the box (unopened) in my car, and only unpacked it when I came home.

Lo and behold - a large treasure of Belgian wargaming history was revealed. A number of boxes of 25mm buildings by Gedemco. I already reported about Gedemco before, but I was pleasantly surprised to see so many boxes suddenly in my possession. That’s why I never say no when someone is offering me old wargaming junk ;-)

The boxes contain the address of the Tin Soldier shop in Sint-Niklaas, one of the first wargaming shops in Belgium, whose history can be read here.

New Decorations for the Wargaming Room

I was in Paris a couple of days ago, and made a stroll along the Seine, taking a look at Notre-Dame (closed off due to the fire a few days before), but also checking out the various stalls of booksellers, the well-known bouquinistes. My eye fell on some illustrations - probably teared out pages from early 20th century illustrated encyclopedias - that could serve very well as decorations in my wargaming room. There was a whole box of them, but I resisted and only bought 2 of them, for 5 euro each. I still need to frame them, then put them up on the wall ...

Although there were plates of various periods and armies, I chose 2 that related to Belgian military history.

100 Days

Some new acquisitions came in the post last week - new 6mm buildings from Total Battle Miniatures. The buildings below are from the 100 Days range, so now I can finally host that Waterloo game I planned to do in 2015.

I guess the Waterloo fanatics will recognize some of the iconic buildings without blinking an eye ...