Lizardmen Army

With the release of Warhammers new Lizardmen due I thought I'd start by getting my old ones painted before I bought any of the new ones.

Lizardmen Saurus priest


Lizardman Saurus Muscian


Kroxigor



This is a Snakeman, no longer in army list as far as I can see, and probably rare figures I will paint the 4 models I have anyway.



Unit of Kroxigor's nearly complete


Unit of Lizardmen undercoated


Unit of Snakemen with some Lizardmen Saurus and Skinks in the background

Photo 2 of 52

My photo this week is my cat Jasmine sitting on the window ledge taken from the other side of the room through the legs of a action figure.

Photo 1 of 52

Inspired by Esther, but with slightly less ambition I thought I would post one photograph a week.

The photos will follow no particular theme other than they will be photographs I have taken and could be anything, anyone and taken anywhere.

I'm no photographer or artist so don't expect any good photos, if I do take any good ones I assure you its more luck than judgement.

Photo 1 is Ceramic Dragon Christmas present hiding in the foliage of a pot plant, which I have tinged with very slight amount of extra green.

Christmas to New Years Eve

I've had a busy Christmas, at least busy in the sense I've been out of the house a lot.

Christmas day was spent with AndyT and Linda and Boxing day with Julie and DaveP, Sunday I went for a meal war gaming at DaveA's who now lives deep in East Nottingham, Monday I travelled even further way out to Louth on the east coast of Lincolnshire to meet up with Pete and Barbara who I had lots of stage and reenactment adventures with many years ago, and last night I was at AndyL and Heathers for New Year Eve, inbetween all that my mother came back from her cruise and I've met up with brother Robert, done a bit of shopping and stopped AndyL playing Warhammer Online in the Shop for several hours. So apart from my friend Steve's Birthday at the weekend when the plan is to go for Chinese I've done going out, I can now watch telly and perhaps even do stuff around the house.

Mums Cruise went from Acapulco Mexico in the Pacific through Panama Canal to Barbados in the Atlantic Ocean. She and my sister both enjoyed themselves getting very wet in the jungle excursion and eating lots on the ship, but neither want to be away at Christmas again.

Since they finished up in Barbados they brought me back a Rastafarian hat complete with dreadlocks modeled in the photo below...

...a tee shirt to suit a very fat American (not modelled), I think to make up for last holidays tee shirt which was too small, my mum also bought a herself a animatronic singing rastafarian lion as video below, the song Don't Worry, Be Happy does succeed I felt happy after watching this. I did chop out quite a bit of the video clip since the lion sings the full song and the clip was over the 100MB limit, 130 MB I think now compressed, cut and reduced 7MB



My trip to Pete and Barbara's was with Jock and Bridgette on the way we called in at Horncastle for a spot of lunch which was horrid I ordered a small pizza thing which they emptied a jar of dried herbs on top of, the Coffee house was however better at its drink having the one of biggest selection of hot drinks I can remember seeing, I ordered a black tea blended with wild cherries which was lovely despite no lid on the tea pot because all the staff were off and they had no one to wash up.

Once at the small village just outside Louth were Pete and Barbara live I got to see their mud and stud house for the 1st time, a house built in the 16C from mud and straw, with a timber frame. When they bought the house they had to replace a collapsed wall by digging fresh mud from the garden. The house has no straight or level walls or floors, I not talking a few inches more a few feet here and there, the Kitchen cabinets seem to lean at strange angles but are I'm told the only straight and level item in the house. The bedrooms each have independent stairs to them that are more like ladders and one of the beds has a 8" block to level it a one corner. I was going to take photos but forgot, next time I'm there.

Yesterday apart from quick visit to the shops I stayed in since it was bitter cold -4 deg C and the frost was blowing around like snow, even Julie's hat did not stop my head feeling cold.

Last Night I spent my evening a AndyL and Heathers with various people I know and a few I didn't, Mike, Rich and Leah Andy's shop staff, Matt and Apryl local friends who left early and Heathers old school chums Liz and Jackie I think were their names, who where very friendly. Most of the guest were staying the night, I however like to get home to my own bed, rather than drink so drove home about 2.30pm after playing a game of 3 card brag which AndyL inevitable won since he plays it a lot at events.

That's my week, happy New Year to everyone who reads this.

Zombies

Sunday I went out with my war gaming friends Jock, AndyH and DaveA, but before we went for a meal at a local pub in the evening we spent the afternoon playing a zombie war game in Dave's newly converted war games room in his cellar which is very plush.

(AndyH, DaveA and Jock)

Dave had spread out the terrain and wrote a new set of rules to give the feel of your typical zombie movie and it played and looked excellent, so good I've wrote up our brief story below.

(Please click on images to see larger photos of the zombie models)

My names McNab and yesterday we made run for our lives from our fortified farmhouse to the armoured sanctuary of the special forces police vehicle that would takes to a sanctuary where rest of mankind was gathering to try to save itself from the zombie plague.

(Zombies)


Five of us where left in the farm house when SWAT officer Decker found us and told us of the vehicle less than a mile away and with food running short we decided to make a run for it.

(Decker following up behind Johnson)


(Rufus and Johnson)


We pack our remaining meager supply of ammo, Cindy a nurse who couldn't hit a barn door from 5 yards carried most of our first aid stuff, then we had Refus the ex-junky a nervy young man but handy with sledge hammer, Tyrone our token black guy who we joked just like the movies was bound to get killed, and then we had Johnson a suit, he clung on to brief case chained to wrist like his life depended on it.

(Tyrone and Cindy)

Within half a mile of the small town we encountered our first hoard of undead, charging us smelling the fresh human meat, Decker proved his skill but was jumped from behind when no one watched his back, he probably would have been fine but Cindy in her panic tried to shoot the zombies off his back and hit Decker with a bullet straight in the head, so much death she hardly blinked that she just killed a man.

(Decker attacked)

I took point blasted heap of Zombies out the way with my pump action shotgun, while Tyrone covered out rear. Johnson the suit ran back to pick up Deckers assault rifle and proved quite handy with it, he was more than he claimed.

(Tyrone and Cindy)


We then tried to move forward between the barn it proved a bottle neck, a couple of times Zombies got in close and Rufus swung his hammer to knock the Zombies flying, Tyrone had a soft spot for Cindy and kept running to her rescue risking his and our necks by not watching the dark corners and then their were hundreds of them, we were surrounded and overwhelmed, I was down to my last clip and need to reload when a Zombie grabbed me, Refus swung his sledgehammer and broke it on the zombies head, dam near broke my back, not complaining since he probably save my life, Cindy patched me up before we moved on.

(McNab on point)

Meanwhile Johnson the suit had ran off and left the remaining four of us to die under the horde.

(Johnson making a run for it)

Somehow we blasted a gap and I called it, run, run, so we stopped fighting and just ran duck and dived towards the armoured sanctuary, I got there first then, Rufus closely followed by Cindy, Tyrone our rear guard didn't he found himself surrounded and that's the last we saw of him, but we hared his screams.

(Tyrone's last stand)

Johnson the suit had lead a group of zombies away and either by accident or design created the gap that allowed us our freedom, and still clinging on to his brief case we saw him fall to zombies in the headlights of our new safe place.

(Johnson surrounded)

So three out of six escaped, could have been better, who knows what the future will hold.


(The Survivors Rufus, McNab and Cindy)



The Zombie figures where converted by DaveA from railway modellers 60mm figures then given heads and hands from Games workshop figures.

The game itself played very different from your typical skirmish war game since in a normal game you would be moving your figures to cover for protection, in this game that's the last thing you wanted to do since that's where the zombies were hiding, great fun, tactical and more by luck than judgement I got both my figures to safety, I thank AndyH for his movie moment with Johnson when he tried to escape on his own with his vitally important breifcase and ended up drawing all the zombies away from us.

Christmas with friends

Christmas Day was spent with my friends AndyT and Linda they cooked a nice big Christmas dinner with lots of veg and some lovely stuffing which I could have ate loads of. We were also joined by their daughter Katie and her boyfriend Luke who has just escaped from the army for few days, Andy's mother Doris and occasional visits from their son Christopher who spent most of the day in a room on his own playing his new computer game.

(Doris, Linda, Katie and Luke)

I took round some presents including snail cream for Linda, a face cream to remove wrinkles and stretch marks made from slime collected from snails, Linda seemed not impressed ;) for Katie I found a totally pink tool kit with everything from a pink cordless screwdriver to pink handled hammer, it even included a pink bandanna to wear when your working, I was quite impressed with the kit with came inside a strong pink aluminium case. Andy and Linda got me a Viking belt bag and fashionable top.

(Belle Katy's new cat.)

Late afternoon we all walked down the road to Freda's, Andy and Linda's friend.

(Freda)

When we got there I learned we had gone to do karaoke, or Sing Star it was called, a computer game that not only provides the words but judges how in tune you are. Breaking out in cold sweat, I really hoped I wouldn't be roped in, I really hate my singing voice, (private bathroom or car performance with myself has the audience only) Freda's family and boyfriend was also there who I vaguely know adding to any embarrassment.

Andy and Linda are very extrovert and really got stuck in, as did everyone else, apart from me, Katie and Luke who sat it out. Freda's son Dan is studying music at University and in a band and very, very good, he then played the guitar so we could sing along with Christmas carol, before playing us some of his own songs.

Once I escaped the karaoke we walked back Andy & Linda's house where Christopher was still playing his computer game and ate desert before trying to play a game of Munchkin Quest unfortunately as I read the rules I declared we did not have a whole day to play what looked a very complex game. By this time it was late and so we decided play Kill Dr Lucky, this did not go plan since Andy was drunk, Katie was talking to her friends over the Internet on her new pc, Christopher kept saying I coming to join us but never actually left his computer screen and Luke was busy trying to program a new fancy remote control for Linda.

For Boxing day I went round to Julie and Dave's to play games, and swap gifts, their friend Nat was also invited making a cosy little group.

Julie made me a knitted hat, which I love, it suits me and she knows I have wanted some of her hand made knitting for quite a while, worth the wait.

(New hat)

I found Dave a large tartan hat with cabbage leaves around the edge, which I hope he gets to fit him since it would make a ideal accessories for a McUen. I also managed to get Dave a book he already had a copy of, but it eventually found a good home, I also got a another book from Julie and Dave which is a look at medieval reenactor.

Dave showed me his latest Orc models for warhammer, if he has time he really should do a blog he puts a lot of effort into the modelling, probably spending twice as long with his milliput than his paints, he also does lots ambigrams which I think would be appreciated as well.

We played a few games ate Julie's lovely chicken stew and watched Dave try to get out of Julie humorous attempt to make him feel guilty for picking on her during our game of Munchkin Booty.

And I did get proper game of Kill Dr Lucky, its a good game.

Its Christmas

Since I have time I'm writing this.

Normally by this time on Christmas day I would have been at my mothers with my two brothers, my sister and my two nephews opening presents and preparing for Christmas dinner. Today with with my mother and sister on holiday in Central America the family are going their separate ways with friends and partners and it feels very strange. I will be off in an hour or so to my friends AndyT and Linda for the day and really looking forward to it.

Sunday evening my dad made his annual visit which was pleasant and he left me more memorabilia of his side of the family, including a whole file of census forms and birth certificates right back to 1841, seems half my fathers side come from Burton on Trent the other half from St Helen's Lancashire.

Since I don't know that many Andy's I also went to see AndyL at the shop on Sunday and deliver presents, the shop was dead, Ripley was empty and AndyL was painting Warhammer figures with Mike, I spent a few hours chatting, and will see them New Years Eve along with Heather and few others for the evening.

On Monday night I went out with Jock (AndyC) and Assy (AndyH) where we chatted about relationships, World of Warcraft, reenactment, larp and it seems Jocks want to retry his hand at Larp and Assy being frothed at by DaveP when we went TORM wants to try it. We have agreed they will have a go at a local AscendancyLRP linear event in the spring and also when I'm free and we can coordinate it probably June have go at MaelstomLRP two different styles of larp.

The last thing I did yesterday was visit Pets at Home for a few gifts for Jasmine which we opened last night, the vibrating frog was a immediate success, the crinkly fingers were also played with but the Cat Bubble Gun with catnip flavoured soap suds sent Jasmine behind the sofa, although this mornings fun is diving into the Christmas wrapping paper.

Actually not quite the last thing I also visited my friends Ste and Deb to drop off present, their house was chaos with lots of people comming and going, so I only stayed just over an hour, not one who likes too many people, especially those I don't know.

Anyway I've opened my selection of present which include gift vouchers, socks, biscuits, a magnifying glass, incense burner, clockwork Robby the Robot, magic cards, tea, a book on hand shadows and a pretty box, no presents from the family this year since we decided not to buy any, although I did since I purchased some of them at Chatworth in August. My brother Stephen also cheated and bought me something and brother texted me and said he would be dropping off a present so no buying present didn't go quite to plan.

Merry Christmas to anyone who reads this, I will probably seeing quite a few of you anyway over the next week.