Summer Haul Report 2020 – aka The Treasure Hunt Goes On
This quarter has been busier than expected, practically I haven’t painted anything but have luckily had very good RPG (Cepheus Light and D&D) and wargame (Stargrunt II) sessions. COVID-19 is still around, so there was no wargame show to report about and the games I played were online, not face to face. But there is something reassuring about buying hobby stuff. This time it wasn’t panic buying like it was in the spring, but a more methodical one.
Let’s start with Patrick Todoroff’s Hardwired rulebook and The Tsim Sha Tsui expansion: these are both short, fifty-page black and white booklets with a bit of background, complete rules, list of equipment and a handful of missions for cybernetically enhanced agents. Sounds familiar? There’s a good reason: Syndicate, the old PC game was one of the inspirations for this game. The subtitle “Cyberpunk espionage and mayhem” refers to a cyberpunk setting, but it’s very adaptable – you can swap the agents with a black ops team, a commando unit, a squad of mercenaries, a recon or a SWAT team and swap the opposing security forces to insurgents, alien bugs, zombies, rogue AI robots, vicious gangs, or your favourite villains.
Adaptability is one of the strengths of the game, but there is much more to it: it’s miniature agnostic, meaning that you can use any minis you like, regardless of scale, base size and shape. The rules are super lean, easy to learn and fast to play. The game is designed to be played cooperatively but works well in solo or against each other too. The expansion introduces more equipment (heavy weapons, shotguns, exo-armour, camouflage, and some other smart and lethal stuff), new opponents, a five-part mini-campaign and ideas for building your campaign. I see a huge potential in this system and I can only recommend it.
Hammer’s Slammers The Crucible rulebook: the official rulebook for Hammer’s Slammers games, a must-have for David Drake fans and sci-fi tank lovers. A stunning, full-colour book with the rules, background information, detachment lists and a painting guide. This book will make you want to buy and paint tanks for sure!
Merchant spaceships and asteroid defence installations: for Squadron Commander and Full Thrust games
15mm stowage and accessories, vehicle number and Zaporoskiye decals: you can never have enough of these
Flipping through The Crucible made me realise that the Eastern bloc style mercenaries I have from GZG and the tanks I have from Old Crow Models (sadly, both unpainted at the moment) are the perfect basis of a Zaporoskiye Brigade detachment.
15 and 25mm Blower Tank Destroyer (Slammerverse): previously I bought the 6mm version, I really liked it and wanted to see it in a bigger scale too
25 mm Gecko Scout and Pickup: it’s the same as with the Destroyer, I’ll use 15mm ones for gaming but will build and paint a more detailed one in 25mm
25mm stowage and vehicle accessories
15mm Slingshot AFV, Samson Engineering Vehicle, Mule and Provider transports
Everything else I needed for a 15mm Zaporoskiye detachment: Sabre Heavy Tank, Outrider Scout Vehicle, Gladius Medium Tank, Glaive Medium APC and Halberd Assault Gun. Jez was kind enough to provide the mini-turrets used by the Zaps too. Thank you Jez, I do appreciate!
You can’t go wrong with Old Crow: the resin minis are well designed, full of details and they come neatly sanded. Also worth to mention that the Hammer’s Slammers rulebook uses mostly OC and Brigade minis, you’ll see many beautifully painted OC vehicles in the book – a great source of inspiration.
Now that I have the rules and the minis, what else do I need? Obviously, some paints, brushes and guidance on how to use them properly. That led me to MIG Jimenez:
Painting Wargames Tanks: don’t be surprised, painting a mini by MIG standards -even if it’s a 15mm one for wargaming- means high standards, it’s not just the quick and simple base coat-wash-highlight combo. In this case, it involves the application of pigment powders, enamels and oil paints. This might sound intimidating but the book explains everything step by step and it will make you want to try these techniques.
Encyclopedia of Figure Modelling Techniques vol2: the new book of the series, introducing the high-end techniques of miniature painting. This book is about the competition winning minis, that are featured in the magazines. I don’t think I will ever reach this level, but if I learn and implement only a few things from this book, that will improve my technique significantly.
How to Paint Imperial Fighters Solution Book: I have an almost finished TIE fighter, that could be considered base coated, this book will help to finish it the way it is meant to be. It’s super detailed and well explained in more than 60 pages, It also has the Solution Box version, with all the products used in the book.
Panzer Grey starter set
Streaking and Vertical Surfaces Brush set, Modern Russian Vehicles Weathering set, Winter Autumn Ground Pigment set, additional pigments and an Odourless enamel thinner: apparently, I decided to try the techniques I read about in the Painting Wargames Tanks book 😊
Other purchases:
AK Interactive’s Russian Green paint set: these are exactly the colours I need for the Zaporoskiye tanks.
Artis Opus Series D brush: these brushes are designed for stippling, a technique that seems to be fairly simple and creates much better results than drybrushing.
More Flames of War desert buildings: the same style of 10/15mm buildings I bought earlier, they still look good.
Too Fat Lardies – Infamy, Infamy! Rulebook plus cards and token sets: my late republican Romans are still waiting to be painted, but since I have mixed feelings about the SPQR rules, I’d like to have more options for ancient battles.
Fighting Fantasy gamebooks – Assassins of Allansia and Port Peril: for me, everything started with these books. It feels great to play them again. I have already written a review about Assassins of Allansia and I plan to write about Port Peril too.
Battletech maps: These additional maps provide more options for Battletech games. Set 2 and 6 are nice and complement the maps of the boxed sets well, but set 4 is disappointing, it’s just an ugly mess.
My hobby purchases of this season have been full of surprises: when I switched to acrylics about twenty years ago, I thought that I would not use enamels and thinners anymore. Oil paints and pigment powders always seemed to be the arcane stuff only real professionals use. And here we go, I bought them and I can hardly wait to try them.
The other surprise was the Hammer’s Slammers rulebook and the additional purchases it triggered: of course, I knew about the books and I planned to read the series, but I have never planned to play it, let alone buy minis for it, and now here I am with a whole detachment to paint. Not that I’m complaining: they will be the Zaporoskiye Brigade in a Slammers game and a heavily mechanized brigade in Stargrunt II.
