Last week saw Red Star in a convincing 3-1 win over High Elf rivals, Haughty & Naughty in preparation for the FUC Cup tie against Rob West's Dwarf team, Pynk Panthers.

With aal the special inducement rules for FUC Cup games, Rob ended up with Flint Churnblade, Boomer Eziasson and 3 cards. I got 2 cards. My 12 Elves would be up against 14 Dwarves (okay, with his Death Roller Rob had 3 secret weapons), but Pynk Panthers had achieved the mighty record of 1 draw and 2 defeats in his three league games so far. If he could beat me up early he'd have a decent chance but Red star's 12th man (the fans) had a key part to play in the match...

I chose to kick off.and Flint got to work on my commandante (team captain), Fidel Castro, with the chainsaw. I needed the apothecary for this encounter... The kck was good and trapped the little feckers on the right hand flank. He got the ball but a one dice blitz by Marwoun Barghouti wrestled the runner down and spilled the ball into the crowd.

The drunken yobbos that follow the Panthers were no match for the silky grace of the Red Star fans who booted the football deep, deep into the Panthers endzone. The chase was on as 2 catchers and a blitzer blocked of any route for the Panthers team.

Red Star Bassaleg in thriller in Bellend Conference opener

My Pro Elves vs Alun's Norse. Alun's a great player, very experienced with Woodies and Norse, although I have the edge over him having won 3 of our last 4 meetings, including a 4-0 and 5-0.

It's 2-1 to Red Star, turn 7 of the second half. I have just had my 7th go and now it's his. What follows is Rimmer-esque in style but it is the biggest crazy bullsh1t move I have seen in a long time, if not ever.

So, he blitzes and knocks down my catcher who is about to score. His thrower performs the following sequence:

a/ go for it
b/ pick up the ball (no sure hands)
c/ declare long bomb - because of the sun, the pass will succeed on a 6 but a score of 1-4 is a fumble
d/ my lineman fails to intercept (5+)
e/ after a reroll, he gets a 5+ for the pass; inaccurate
f/ the ball scatters...it scatters....it lands on his feckin' runner
g/ needing a 4+ to catch, he rolls it

He'd intercepted with a werewolf early in the first half and scored against the run of play, injuring a player on the way for 7SPP's in one go. Final score 2-2. Jammy git.

W.A.N.C. Conference Draws

Our first WANC regular season match will be against Thor's Mighty Bellend on Thursday, Oct 10th. Top 2 are guaranteed a play-off spot, so it's going to be tough!|

Bellend Conference
South Pontyridd ANC - Dark Elf
Haughty and Naughty - High Elf
Thor's Mighty Bellend - Norse
Red Star Bassaleg - Elf

This is the Group of Death (esp. for Haughty & Naughty) as three coaches have won 5 of the last 6 WANC's (plus 2 runners-up) and 13 conference championships! Can Chris Tempest get anything out of this sh*t storm he finds himself in?

Ass Whoopers Conference
Brecon Hammerers - Dwarf
Pulp Fikshun - Orc
Howling Owls - Human
Ratspike Rovers - Skaven
Reptile Dysfunction - Lizardmen

Brecon Hammerers are the current Ass Whoopers champions and the Howling Owls coach was WANC runner-up last season and won the Ass Whoopers two seasons ago. Pulp Fikshun's coach won the Yam Tarts conference in 2011. These three think that they'll be fighting for the top places but don't discount Ratspike Rovers who raised a few eyebrows with their 4-1 battering of H&N in the FUC Cup.

Workers' Solidarity Conference
Crowley's Pub Team - Human
The Woodpeckers - Wood Elf
Da Mek Boyz - Orc
Pynk Panthers - Dwarf

The Woodpeckers' coach boasts a WANC runner-up and an Ass Whoopers title and Mek Boyz coach has a Bellend title on his mantlepiece.

F.U.C. Preliminary Round

Ratspike Rovers 4 (2) Haughty and Naughty 1 (1)
Casualties 2-0Most impressive performance of the night was Ratspike's demolition of H&N. "Lightning" Steve is the rat to watch (an AG5 Gutter Runner!).

Thor's Mighty Bellend 0 Crowley's Pub Team 2 (1)Casualties 2-3The biggest upset saw former two-time Bellend Conference champions TMB humbled by Crowley's Pub Team.

South Pontyridd ANC 2 (1) The Mek Boys 1 (0)Casualties 0-3
Pyrrhic victory of the night belongs to SPANC who held on for the win but have 3 players out for the next match and will have to replace them with journeymen.

Howling Owls 2 (1) Red Star Bassaleg 3 (1) After Extra Time
Casualties 2-1
Most exciting match of the day saw Red Star Bassaleg quick off the mark pressuring the Owls' on the kick off. The Humans were clearly nervous and formed a decent defensive line to cover butter-fingered thrower, Gunter. With the stadium buzzing, Gunter mishandled the ball allowing Red Star to steal the ball and Che Guevara's quick pass to Marwan Barghouti. On scoring, the crowd went nuts and there was more violence in the stands than on the pitch. A deep kick for the next drive forced the Owls back again, but some daring play by Omslag allowed Chutty to batter his way through to equalise. The second half saw Red Star pin the Owls well into their own half, fearful of the Elves' quick and agile play, not to mention a very exciteable Red Star crown in the other half! Passing the ball ably, Red Star worked the ball to Barghouti once again for the second TD. This was late in the game and the Owls had one shot with no room for errors. A sneaky, swift attack down the right with a fat dollop of jam allowed Seth to scramble a last minute, desperate leveller.

It was the crowd that was the key in extra time. At the kick off, the Red Star fans battered the Owls (6 stunned!) as the ball landed on the scrimmage line. Only one Owl was in range of the ball and, after he fluffed it, Fidel Castro rounded off a superb performance by winning the match! Great game and very open. Red Star had three players advance a level and hired a medical team.

It's W.A.N.C. time! Blood Bowl season returns!

It's the start of the 2013 Welsh Amateur Nuffle Championship (WANC) and I am pleased to announce that I have agreed a one-season contract to coach Red Star Bassaleg, a Pro Elf team in their first crack at the WANC.

We'll have some squad news and build up to the season opener, plus a report from the Firestorm United Conference Cup (FUC Cup) preliminary round in which we will be up against experienced Human team, the Howling Owls.

And here's the squad...

RED STAR BASSALEG

With 1.1m to spend we went for a thrower, both blitzers, 3 catchers and 5 linemen. The miniatures are from Black Scorpion: http://www.blackscorpionminiatures.com/product_info.php?products_id=285&osCsid=50p2nqgkf40escrpfcgabtvam3

I didn't paint gems - far too bourgeois for this team - and wanted the colours to be dull rather than bright, as you might normally see with Elf teams.

French cavalry require a lot of paintwork. A hell of a lot. Here's the 10th Regiment de Cuirassiers for my Wine, Mud & Dumplings (an as yet unpublished game) cavalry brigade.

New Blood Bowl season round the corner

With a new Welsh Amateur Nuffle Championship and Firestorm United Conference Cup season around the corner, I have been desperately searching for a Pro Elf team of models to use. It looks as though I'll settle for Dark Elves, however, so I made up a team of the GW plastic DE Warriors and Corsairs.

These are the blitzers, one witch elf (2nd from left) and a runner (far right). The blitzers are just corsairs with the weapons removed (one has had a pointing finger sculpted on), the witch elf is just as is, and the runner is made up of corsair legs and arms, DE warrior torso and wood elf head.

And here are the line-elves. All of them consists of corsair legs and arms with DE warrior torsos and heads.

IRON MAN II was a great success. Me and Mark painted a force of 48 WWII British Infantry (28mm Artizan) which are now on ebay - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130973131926 - with 100% of the money raised going to Save the Children.

We hope to break the £1000 mark with this annual charity event.

***NEWS***
With all the pledges in and with the charity figures sold, we raised over £1150 for Save the Children!
Thanks for the support.
I also got well into painting 12 Napoleonic French light infantry:

Please support this great cause by donating and follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/555132547876509/. Join the event whether you can attend or if you'll join in from home, and please share.

We're running a 24-hour painting marathon for Save the Children. Please check out this great charity's work - http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do. Our target is for a group of us to paint 48 British WWII soldiers (28mm) and sell them off to raise some cash, plus individuals will be painting their own miniature figures for sponsorship pledges. If we can raise £500 GBP, we can really help. I have set it up through JustGiving so that there is no need to handle money, and so that Save the Children can gain through GiftAid (U.K. taxpayers), meaning that an extra 25% on top of what you donate will go to the charity.

So, get over to the forum and get yourself down to the event. If you cannot make it, pledge to get your own project completed at home, and send your donation in via the JustGiving page: http://www.justgiving.com/ironmanII.

Thanks to Firestorm Games for providing the venue, and to Great Escape Games for donating the figures. 
And for those of you that find your hobby time squeezed by a significant other, what better excuse to spend a whole day painting than to raise money for a good cause! 

So please dig deep and donate now!

Général de division finished

Did my first youtube video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtbZxWlRxtI - about doing the groundwork for a 2' x 2' gaming board for Dead Man's Hand.

Général de division

I've been pre-occupied with cowboys for a while, but the Napoleonic project continues.

I have become enamoured and inquisitive about the uses for weathering pigments for my wargaming work. The Napoleonic army is being based using ProPigments. I use Vallejo's basing paste, washed with Vallejo Earth and drybrushed a bit. Then I build up the pigments as shown below:

A mix of Raw and Burnt Umber was slapped on.

Next, just Raw Umber.

 Raw Umber and Raw Sienna.

For a bit of green, I mixed Chromium Green and Raw Umber.

I added a bit of Light Green Earth to the above blend.

Next, white spirit was dabbed on. This flows really nicely and helps to blend the pigments.

Now dry, the base is ready for decoration.

23ÈME RÉGIMENT DE LIGNE

40 man regiment representing two battalions of the 23rd Line Regiment, based for Wine, Mud & Dumplings, a most excellent ruleset by Tony Carasco. This is my big project for the year, likely to extend well into 2014. At the moment the plan is to paint 72 Light Infantry, 40 Cuirassiers, 16 Dragoons, 6 Guns and various command types. Next in the plan is 20 Cuirassiers which should take me until the end of June.

This is a view from the enemy end.

And this is our main attack force:

We played a huge game of RoE on Saturday, and these were our orders:

"...capture with the haste the village of Cairon on the main road D22 to Caen. Upon successful completion of your primary objective, you must clear the village of all enemy forces and hold the road open. Establish your headquarters in the hotel and send out scouts towards Buron. Hold the roads and village against counter-attack until we can reinforce.

Elements of the 12th SS Panzer Division have fortified the village so you can expect stiff resistance. On your left flank is the North Nova Scotia Highlanders who will be taking an alternative route towards Buron. I cannot stress how important it has now become to open the roads to Caen and beyond. 

We cannot rely upon naval support due to the number of civilians reported to remain within the village and neighbouring farms. We are promised armoured support from a regiment of the British 5th RTR, though I have heard that they are making slow progress towards our location."

And now a bit of gardening...

Just a half barrel with a single Mininatur tuft (*tufts with leaves early fall) from the Great Escape Games webstore glued in the top.

Dreadball team...

No name for them yet, just a sample colour scheme. The plan is to paint the team uber quickly; they're fine miniatures, but I don't want to spend lots of time on them which I think is necessary to make the figures look really good. Black half has a bit of blue/white mixed with black for highlighting, followed by a gloss varnish. Red half is GW Mechrite Red base built up with Coat d'Arms Ruby Red then then washed with Tamiya Clear Red (which is lovely, incidentally, for gore). The clear plastic hexes look a bit poo with a painted figure in them, so I cut off the base, flipped the hex over, and fixed the figure in place with two small pins from the feet.