New Year's Resolutions and such..

This is still a paint I have never used, oh the irony

Well, yet another year has passed, and let's see what progress I made this year when looking to my goals as set forth in 2014:  http://www.dicedevils.com/2014/01/2014-whole-new-year-of-empty-promises.html  Here is the meat and potatoes of the post: 
What I want to do then is set myself for a small amount of painting, but every night where possible.  I have my Soviet Moderns which are up first (hence the Seinfeld/Red Dawn pics) and then my DAK which I've been working on for next Historicon.   Its still not 100% sure if its EW or MW.  After that, I have a small unit of Free French to finish off, 3 M7 Priests and some 105s.    My LW 21 Pzr has a recce unit of halftracks and some Pumas so I can field more than the 2 lists I am known for.  

Lets not even get into the unpainted Brit Para army I have, or the 12 Grants and 9 Crusaders I have for my MW British!!

Well I did do the painting daisy chain.. all year, and got my Soviet Moderns done for a few games, got my DAK up TWICE (I did 2 full armies' worth.. All scout cars, and your regular sitzkrieging gun list) and then went nuts and painted up a bunch of free French stuff thanks to the new Italy books.. I got 2 more units of recce jeeps painted, a unit of M57 (AKA 6lbr guns) and some 105mm arty.   I traded that Brit Para army for some Itals, and sold 6 of the 12 grants to ThunderST.  However all this painting took place before Cdn Nationals, which took place in late August, and since then I have been totally burnt out on painting.   I tried to get some panzer IV's done for my LW 21pzrs, but it fizzled out big time.

So what can I try and predict for next year:   I will paint not much WW2.   With the new FAON book, and now I have the Tour of Duty book, I want to finish off my Russkies.. I have a few more infantry teams to go, 4 BRDM scout cars, another ZSU-23/4 AA and a MiG-21 and a Hind-D kicking around.

MiG-21's.. and yes my gfx card wanted to implode!

I also have some Napoleonics I want to get done.. I might play them too often but they look sharp, and I can always bring them to Histo next year and get a game in with them.    Some of us also got bitten by the RPG bug, so some fantasy-type models for the Pathfinder thing we are doing.    I reckon that by April or so I will start back up with some Flames of War, maybe my Itals.   Been playing a LOT of ELITE Dangerous,

ELITE:  Oxygen is overrated.. I had less than 4 minutes to get to a station.. nearest was 8 light years away, and my windscreen was compromised, so kinda like driving a convertible through Hyperspace!!  (Spoiler, I made it with 45 seconds to spare)

and just started DCS World (free flight sim, see pic above) and even some SWTOR, so not a lot of time painting.. but that's fine.

 

 

How bout you guys?  How was your progress this year?

 

Success Is Not Final

We are coming to the closing out of another year of games, painting and changes to the Flames of War landscape. I believe them to be positive ways forward, points levels, a new army list builder with Forces of War and the newer plastic models from Battlefront are fantastic looking. Board games are back and better than ever, card games are making an impact here in our group as well!!

We Gotta Get Outta This Place!

A short time ago, Battlefront had a sale on everything in their Vietnam line of models, books and accessories. I had always wanted to play a 'modern' era of Flames of War and besides WW2, Vietnam is close to my heart in the history of armed conflict. Whether it was being military brat or the fact that 'Tour of Duty' was a TV show I never missed when I was growing up. Something about the sights, sounds of the 1960's and the Vietnam conflict resonated with me and sticks with me to this day.

Weapons of Choice: Hawker Hurricane IID

There are a few air options for British support in Flames of War. With mostly US Air options being used in Late War source books, I have decided to look at the Hawker Hurricane and its influence on the Mid War time period when it comes to using it in your next Mid War list. With just under 15,000 of these aircraft manufactured for use during WW2, we'll look at its in-game practicality.

ELITE Dangerous: Home Sweet Home (Earth)

Hard to believe mankind has actually already landed the Huygens probe here on Titan.  In ELITE, this station orbits lazily between Saturn and Titan.

Here is another installment picture dump from ELITE: Dangerous.    Prior installments here: 1 and 2

 

Gamma is now live, and while there is still testing, the whole Galaxy is open, and there are to be no further wipes.   So this is effectively a 'head start' for backers, but I am using it to make a few quick visits, and of course, the first place to go on my list was 'home':  Our Solar System. 

I had arrived after 82 LYs in my trusty Hauler ship (think white U Haul van, no frills, carries stuff, has a long range gas tank when stripped out) and parked at the station near the moon, Titan (above) to refuel.  Unlike EVE, in this game there is fuel, and you use it up even just in-system!  I didn't want to run out between Mars and Jupiter for example!    Now that I was gassed up, I went on a tour:  (recommend clicking the pics for the best views)

 

More ELITE: Dangerous... if you are a rock (mostly pics)

'In space, nobody can hear you mine!"

Well, since last time I posted about ELITE, the game went into the final beta stage, and now entered Gamma, which is supposed to be a pre-launch for backers.   I wanted to test out mining before 'the last character wipe' so if I muck it up, no one cares right?    In ELITE to mine, you need mining laser, refinery, and cargo space.   I sold everything, bought a 'Hauler' space cube van basically, and started looking for a refinery to install.