Not dead, still deluded......

Sorry about the delay between posts, but life has an odd way of forcing you to pay attention to it at the cost of fun. As you may recall I had a friend in town from Japan, and although we didn't get a chance to physically play FoG, it did figure heavily in our conversations, when he returns to Canada we will be undertaking a map based campaign. We used to do so in 40k and it invariably makes for a better game. Lately I haven't really had the time to paint and as such didn't post, but this weekend I had a whole Saturday to myself (and the laundry machine), and got started on my next project.

I started working on the pre-requisite Command elements for my army. For the first base I used the basic Carthaginian command pack, which I picked up from 50 Paces, this company is great not only do they sell 15mm historical models, they also stock magnetic bases and are conveniently located not far from my apartment. Their prices are awesome and their customer service is exemplary.

Here is a link to their site:

http://www.50paces.com/catalog/index.php

I kept the paint scheme close to that of the rest of my army, with the subtle addition of some purple and gold on the standard itself. These little touches I think add a fair amount of character by their contrast with the rest of my army. The Carthaginians made a lot of money in the manufacture and exporting of rare and astoundingly expensive purple dye, couple that with a solid (or more likely plated) gold standard and they serve to convey a huge amount of wealth. Sure purple was so rare it was almost invariably restricted to Royalty, but it isn't too far fetched to see a commander of the army of Carthage sport purple tones.

The pics below are only work in progress as I am lavishing these bases with previously unseen amount of effort not only because they are an obvious focus point for my army but also because of a new goal, something I have never attempted before.....

Blame the heat of late August cooking my poor cold adapted brain, but I have decided to enter a painting competition. That's right the good folks at Strategies Games are holding their 4th annual Immortal Brush painting competition, and there is a small scale historical category !!! So after much deliberation, (not to mention friendly goading from the lovely Ella) I figured I would give it a shot. Now keep in mind that I am no Dave Taylor or Scott MacPhee, and doubt I will win, but I won't let cowardice stand in the way of a bucket of fun so between now and October 2nd I will be painting and repainting and rerepainting until I have 5 bases that I think both look good and are a decent representation of my army. With that in mind this new Command base is already out to an early lead for base one.

Here is a link to more info on the comp, its near the bottom of the page.

http://blog2.strategiesgames.ca/

here is a link to their main page,

http://www.strategiesgames.ca/STRATEGIES/

Feel free to drool all over their amazing board game section. I love this shop, they always have all the new stuff, and are more than willing to answer any questions. I frequently raid the owners brain for painting advice, he is not only a very, very talented painter he is also eloquent enough to explain complex techniques in simple terms. He is the origin of my ever faithful 3 point painting stance, as I have a crazy low blood pressure and shake constantly. Two of my favourite things about that shop are the used RPG book section (keep 3.5 alive !!!!) and all the cool little gaming aids they have that many other shops don't. It is truly a gamers shop run by people that love games.

But I digress, here is some pics pardon my crappy cameraphone and lack of Macro lense.