Prioritizing wants and needs.

This topic has been quite popular with a few people I regularly talk shop with. Mainly in comparing how different people prioritize these desires. For  me, I always keep a wants and needs list. Usually the needs list is made up of things I need for currently owned projects that I must have in order to finish off the projects. Here are some examples of what is on my needs list.

Needs:

1x new tau broadside

13x scout stands for epic SM chapter

Newest BP supplement book.

Here is why I want each. The broadside is easy, I need one more for my force and for conversion bits. Which , is a current project and probably the only 40k army I will keep. The scout stands I need to finish off the 10^th company of my epic space marine chapter. Everything else I have but them. The newest Bp supplement book I need so that I can actually play and finish planning out my Baccus 6mm Prussian force. I am currently building my force based off of my research but would like to have everything I need for playing games as well.

Wants are different these are things I fancy that could be for future new projects, games I want to try or things for current forces that I don’t really need but would like to have.  This list is the longer of the two and the one that often changes the most. Here is my current wants list.

Wants:

FSA terran starter

Dw Prussian support fleet

DW Land forces

FSA cruisers and frigates

DZC 2 player starter

Dzc Building set

1x epic warhound titan

1x epic warlord titan

2x epic reaver titans

6x epic predators

6x epic  vindicators

ACTA: Starfleet rulebook

ACTA squadron boxes for federation, Klingons and Romulans.

Most of this list is easy to explain. FSA is to expand my current forces. Same with the DW models. DZC is similar but also because I want a bunch of the terrain and its cheaper for my to buy it than make it in my case. The epic stuff is just models that would be nice to have for my chapter. ACTA Starfleet is a game I just want to play but haven’t pulled the trigger on. How do I manage these lists though? Well I review them at least every other week. I also spend a lot of time planning out my spending and forces. However I don’t always follow this. Sometimes I pick up stuff when I find it dirt cheap. Case and point with my last DW purchases. I bought a bunch of extra boats and tanks damn cheap. The tanks both came In as 1 dollar auctions on ebay for example. However I must also point out that I keep hobby supplies off the list and manage them separately. Usually buying what I need as I need it. Mainly, paints and such.

That’s it for now more updates next week when work gets back to normal. As a side note this is also how I have kept my spending under control. In a normal year I would spend $1000-1500. This year less than $500 so far.

Aruki

October round up

I know it is a bit early but the next month may be crazy so getting started on this now. I didn't do as well as I was hoping this month but came close. Painting wise I got back on track with a total of 43 points. This was of course done with archers, auxilia commands and some Legionnaires. I was hoping to finish off the rest of the auxilia but just ran out of time. All in all a good month but wish I could have done more.

Spending wise this month wasn't to bad at -$55.14. With an almost 50/50 split on models and paint.

Which is still keeping me under the $500 max limit I have. 

This coming up month I really want to finish off the rest of the Romans. I really really want that project finished before the end of the year. Minus the auxilia currently being worked on their are only 40 more models. After that I think epic SM stuff and FSA are on the cards.

Anyway more later

Aruki

End of the week update

Well I finished off the 2 leaders for the auxilia.

I have also at the time of this post finished off all the armor and leather on the auxilia. Still some weapons to paint up but have also gotten started on all the shields. Hopefully  I can finish this all up in the coming week.

That makes.

Oct: 43points
YTD: 286.75

Then I will start up on the last 2 squads of guys.
aruki

Bunch more progress

I finished off the 16 archers. Though I am still not totally happy with them. I will have to go back and work on them more in the future. I have also almost finished off the two leaders. Just finishing up their shields and spears then they are done.

I have also fixed up all the remaining auxilia, 24 in total. Hopefully I can finish them up before the end of the month.

So that adds 16 more points to the months total.

Oct: 41 points
Total: 284.75

I also spent some cash picking up some more vallejo paints
paints: -$22.04
Oct: -$55.14
YTD total: -$423.01

that's it for today another update later this week.
Aruki

This weeks painting update

Here is what I have done for the week.

Though it may be hard to see I finished off the two banner man for all the auxilia. I also have done everything but touch up and washing all the brown on the archers. Will try and get it done asap. After that onto the rest of the auxilia. If I get lucky the auxilia should all be finished by the end of the month. Then I just need to finish off the last 20 legionaries and 20 veterans and the romans will be finished.

So that makes
Oct= 25 points
Total= 268.75 points



More as I get it done,
Aruki

Review of baccus Prussian Calvary units

Now this review will be slightly different because when I first got the models I really couldnt tell the difference between many of them. So I will start with a qoute from Peter of Baccus.

"Prussian Dragoons and Hussars are VERY similar.   The way to differentiate between them is that the Dragoons have straight swords and square shabraques, the hussars curved sabres and pointed shabraques.  If you sort these out, you should find that the dragoons are complete with commands etc.  This leaves the hussars.  The important thing is that their command strip only contains an officer, trumpeter and trooper, with NO guidon as these were not carried by light cavalry on campaign.  The end result is that the line strip looks very similar to the command.  Can I please ask you to double check to make sure that command strips are there, but 'hiding'.  Similarly with the Uhlans and reserve cavalry.  You may find something similar going on with the Uhlans/Reserve."

So without further ado lets take a look at the cavalry I received in the starter which was quite a lot.
Included were 2 units of Kurassiers, 2 units of dragoons, 4 units of hussars, 2 units of lancers and 2 units of reserve cavalry. Each unit is of 9 men. 

So below are the Kurassiers notice they have a guidon.

Then the Dragoons, guidon and straight swords.

Followed by the 4 units of hussars no guidon and curved swords.

Then the lancers and reserve. Honestly these guys I really cant tell the difference.

Once again it all boils down to the very little differences.  Which wont matter as much once I have them based and labeled. Now much like the infantry it is incredibly hard to tell the difference and I am not sure I am 100% right even with guidance. But once again this is part of the problem when you play such a small scale. Now all of those units I got in my starter. Here is what I need for my planed army.
2 units of heavy cavalry and 1 unit of light cavalry. So what does that mean well that's simple but tricky as well.

Heavy cavalry regiments are dragoons or Kurassiers. With each one being made up of four 9 man units. This needs that if I use both my dragoons and Kurassiers I still need 4 more 9 man units to finish them off. Now a package of 3 more units of either type is 9.32 and I need 2. Or for 21.98 I can get a Booster that has 4 units of each of the following  kurassiers, dragoons and hussars. So a bit of a toss up on what to do their. Were the light cavalry regiment is made up of Hussars. With it being made up of four 9 man units. So for light cavalry I am all set.
This does however leave me with  reserve cavalry and lancers that I have nothing to do with. I may just paint them up and label them as kurassiers and dragoons so I don't need to buy more. Not sure yet.


Anyway that raps up the baccus reviews. I will get into more detail later on how I plan on actually building and painting this army after I figure it out. This is very much a concept in progress. A lot also hinges on the BP supplement I still need to get my hands on.

Aruki 

Baccus 6mm Prussian Infantry review

Today will be the long overdue review of the Prussian Napoleonics infantry by Baccus. Now to start with here is a question for you. Below are a unit of line infantry, grenadiers and fusiliers. Can you tell which is which?

This is a common problem that you run into with the small scales that you don't with 28mm scale. And this problem also extends to calvary as you will see in the next post. This is my main complaint but in order to tell the difference you need to look very close. The first picture is line infantry, notice no real distinctive bayonet. The command strip also has a banner, a normal guy, a drummer and the leader has a sword resting on his shoulder. The hat style is also slightly different but probably hard to see in the pictures. Below is a picture of them painted all nice and pretty.

The second picture is the fusiliers. The main distinction between these guys and the line infantry is that they have obvious bayonets. But once again its mainly the little differences, such as the hats. Also on the command strip you will notice the leaders sword is pointed down and across his legs. The musician is also carrying a horn instead of a drum. However, they also have a banner in the same position on the stand and a normal guy. Once again nice picture below.

Finaly, the last picture of course was the grenadiers. Now here is where it gets tricky. For all intensive purposes (at least with the naked eye) they are the same as the fusiliers. Their is a little bit of different detail on their chests and their hats have a slightly different shape, but not much. The main difference is the command strip. Mainly in the fact that their is no banner. There is also 2 normal guys at either end and the musician is more towards the middle with a drum. The leader however looks the same. Here is the final very pretty picture.

Now it is time to talk turkey. Basicly all the infantry I know of come 4 men to a strip. The line infantry I have were included in the starter army I bought and give enough guys to make 10x 24 man infantry unit (6 strips each). That is enough to do  the men for 1 infantry regiment with a few left over so I will need to buy another pack of  12 units for 21.98.  Or two packs of 5 units for a total of  15.99 to finish off my project.

The grenadiers come in a pack of 4 units for 7.99 which was enough to finish off those parts of my infantry regiments. The fusiliers also come in a pack of 4 units for 7.99. I have 1 and will need 1 more to finish off my infantry regiments. For those that may be confused a Infantry regiment for the period I am aiming for was typically made up of (simplified FYI) 10 units of line, 4 units of fusiliers and 2 units of grenadiers. So I need a total of 20 units of line, 8 of fusiliers and 4 of grenadiers.

Hopefully this gives you an idea of what you will be getting into with infantry at this scale for Napoleonics. Just remember its the little things. This is why I plan on tagging my infantry in a rather specific way once they are all built. Anyway more to see in the future. 

Aruki

Review of Miniature Wargames Digital Magazine

With both my anniversary and my birthday this month my wife got me a digital subscripition to Miniature Wargmaes magazine. I have wanted a subscription to some wargaming magazines for quite awhile but have always been put off by the price. Mainly because the shipping costs make them rather expensive.

Miniature wargames magazine does a world wide subscription for $119.39 a year. Hence the reason I hadn't bought one before. But my wife realized that they did a digital and grabbed it for the price of $46.96 a year. Now normally I admit I love actually having the physical copy of books and magazines to flip through. But with the digital subscription you also get access to the issues going back through 2010.

Now as quick comparison the magazine has changed a lot because another magazine battlegames was incorporated into it. In general I enjoy the new issues but in my opinion the older issues are better. The older issues I feel had more variety than the last couple of new issues. Now to be fair I have only read 5 issues so far. The three most recent and the two first available. The most recent ones I feel are not as diverse as the older issues and hence I don't like them as much. However, one part of the magazine that seems to be continuous is the review section which I love. The magazine covers a wide range of books and games that I have never heard of even if I know the publisher, such as Ospreys Ronin (I think was the name of it), A feudal Japan skirmish game. The only other negative I can think of is that most of the material tends to be historical in nature and these days seems to be focused on the authors pet projects. I for one would like to see more diversity in the material covered. 

That being said I still feel it is well worth the cost. Part of the problem with living in South Korea when it comes to modeling magazines in general is you have 3 main options. White Dwarf from the only game store in Korea, which I haven't enjoyed or really bought for about 10 years now. The other two options are Japanese modeling magazines one called Model armor I want to say and some other one about trains, both of which are easily gotten from book stores here. Of course the main problem with them is they are all in Japanese. But they are still nice to flip through for ideas occasionally. And buying one of them each month would cost as much as buying a years subscription to wargames magazine.

If your unsure If you would like the magazine try out there one month free subscription that they do.

http://www.exacteditions.com/browse/443/1286

It is available on Amazon, Android and I tunes. As a final note this endorsement and review is my opinion and I am not being compensated or making anything from it at all.

Aruki

Ps. that last line is because some one actually messaged me about wanting me to write positive reviews of products for cash or goodies and more exposure for my blog. This site has never been and will never be run that way. If I review something I will always give my honest opinion on something no matter what.

tinny bit of progress

I have mainly finished doing the leather on a bunch of the archers. I also put the metal paint on the last squad of legionnaires and the squad of what I use as veterans. Other than that I haven't done much.

I have mainly been busy going through all my stuff to see what I have to do and what I have finished. Below is a pick of my finished Romans. Four 20 man squads of legionnaires are finished along with the general and two more musicians for the auxilia and archers.

The picture isn't great but it the whole army is coming along quite nicely. Will continue working on them and get back to regular posting next week. As you can tell by the picture I have also been getting my eldest son involved with my models. He usually spends his time playing with the FSA and DW stuff but he loves the Romans and SM as well. His favorite thought are the collection of Battletech minis that I gave him made of plastic.

Aruki

The months to come

Ok, so some new goals for the year and things I am looking forward to. First off the goals.

Goals
1.paint 500 points
2.paint at least 5000 actual points
3.Spend $250 or less
4. Finish off my Roman Army
5. Paint at least the first 2 companies of epic SM chapter
6. Finish figuring out the Prussians paint scheme for 6mm

These are now the primary goals  I am shooting for. Goal 1 is a long shot but I am going to try. Goal 2 has already been completed. Goal 3 will probably not happen, unless I sell the marines and maybe some other stuff. Goal 4 is one of the big ones I really want to finish this year. I have had the army for almost 5 years and basically only had it half primed. So I am looking forward to finishing it. Goal 5 is just something I would like to get a move on. The final goal is just something I have been a bit lazy about. I have figured out most of the infantry but still need the cavalry and artillery figured out.


On a side note I am very excited about the last half of this year more and more very desirable stuff keeps getting announced. In my list of things I want at some point from the second half.

1. DZC starter
2. Firestorm Armada 2.0
3. New Firestorm Armada sets


Those are the main ones that have caught my interest. The DZC starter is old news but I can't wait to get one so I have all 4 primary races and some terrain. The new FA stuff I am really psyched to see. New book will be great and the hint at some new sets really excites me. Other than that the only other thing that has made me happy will be covered in a review post next week.


Aruki

Progress wahoo.

So first up I finished off that unit of Romans I was working on.

I then also finished off the general and two musicians for my auxilia. I have also almost finished off the leaders and banner men for them as well. Just need to finish a few more details. In the below pick you can also see that I am working full steam ahead on the archers. Hopefuly the archers and the rest of the auxilia will be finished in the next week or two. Still have to find a few bits though.

That adds a sold 23 points to my total with another 4  almost finished and crap ton more in the works

Oct: 23 points
Total: 289.75 points

I also picked up some more FSA and DW stuff. Mainly some ships and tanks for dw and a carrier for my terrains.

So
Oct: -$33.10
Total: -$400.97

More updates as fast I can paint them.
Aruki

Airbrushing is it really better?

As the title says a friend of mine asked me this not to long ago and it got me thinking. Is it really better? With all the time and money I put into it was it worth it?

Was it worth it I find depends on what I am doing and what I want to achieve. With priming and base coating I have found it to be useful. But these days you can get cans of primer and such. But personally I always had hit and miss results with the cans, never mind the cost. The main difference for me comes to the type of model.

For the 28mm infantry I don't see that much of a difference. Same with all the 6mm infantry and tanks. So if this is what you primarily paint I wouldn't suggest the jump. Unless of course you are about speed and already have access to a set up. I found you can get a much better consistency when it comes to priming and painting and it is nice and smooth once you get could at it. The big difference comes in with other models.

Tanks, space ships and boats are were I have seen the biggest difference. The boats that I painted all by hand and those that I painted about half with airbrush and half with brush show more of a difference. The ones I painted by hair the paint for the halls and such isn't as smooth. Where the hulls and such painted with the airbrush have a nice smooth paint job on the hulls that look much better. The same can be said with the differences between my rhinos/razorbacks and my devil fish. Even though the devil fish only have primer and base coat they look much nicer than the rhinos that were all painted by hand.

Now as a note I am not amazing with the airbrush I only do larger areas and shading. I am partially unwilling to try these details due to the time in masking everything needed to airbrush them. I found when I tried to do it that it was taking me longer and getting mixed results compared to painting it by hand. So I am sticking with doing all the smaller details by hand for now.


So here is my question for you. Which do you prefer and what little things have you learned?
Aruki