Is it even a miniature?

This the biggest thing I've painted to date.  Its an old Mechwarrior dropship. Mini-Me-Minor loves it, all the door hinges are shot as he plays with it a lot.  We've used it to haul frieght, mechs, troops, jeeps and more.  Its been a great add to the collection.

Anyhoo, I didn't really like the MW paint scheme, I wanted to use it as a generic freighter, so here's a quick repaint.  It will next see action in my GZG ECC Aliens game.

I took all the guns off the turrets

And its now in Weyland-Yutani service.

Mini-Me-Minor's game

 While I was varnishing figs Mini-Me-Minor was hard at it wargaming

Multiple bases, a supply dump and airmobil troops

The Mech/VTOL hangar was busy too (this one is in the paint queue)

Prepping for GZG ECC XXV -Woot! its this month...

I'm running an Aliens game at GZG XXV this year, unfortunately, the weather has not been cooperating, its been way too cold to varnish, so figs have accumualted in boxes ready.  We finally had decent enough weather to varnish some figs, so I did...

Marine force ready

Infantry

Dropship plus drone

The Marine need an opponent, I may have gone overboard

120 Xenos, these are most of them

A young Queen for the hive

And a whole bunch of new terrain

Some of it is really big

Yup, really big

Next week is finish off two more things, one is bigger than this building complex! and then its time to pack.  And maybe, if I get time, paint up a couple new Gundams and take that set too.

GZG ECC XXV Planning -> Just Another Bughunt?

 Oooorah!  Colonial Marine Platoon reporting for duty...

Platoon of 20mm Marines waiting for a warmer day to get varnished

Full Infantry To&E

Lt and Synthetic

First Squad plus M577 APC and driver

Second squad, M577 APC and driver

UD-4L dropping off an M577 APC

All down

Mission done, time for a hot one

All painted, next I need a warmer day to get this lot varnished.  The Marine figures were from Etsy, the pilot with a brew is a  Hasslefree Grymm pilot, the LT and synthetic both Elheim, I think.  The APCs were fan-made that I bought at Cold Wars many, many years ago.  The dropship, another from Etsy.

Marines done, bugs to finish off next...

Spacehulk (sort of)

 Well nearly... ...but first, Lost Patrol

The idea of this (long forgotton?) GW game appeals to me, its an exploration, lay-tiles-as-you-go, game of scouts and tyranids.  Unfortunately, the rules stink, its nearly impossible for Marine players to win, however, its a tile-based game, so sub in SpaceHulk rules and 15mm figs and its sort of a travel space hulk

Especially when there was a fan-made version of space hulk tiles, these I downloaded and stuck on wooden tiles, I use my old Freikorps Marines and some GZG Aliens

In the original, the goal is to get to the dropship.  Here as I have one, its get to the exit and the waiting APC (Konami in this case)

Mini-Me-Minor wanted to play, he stared out strong

 

Did some good advancing

To find the APC with two marines

Get

To

Tha APC!

Unfortunately, the remainder of the squad had less success exploring

Chomp!

Sneak!

Ruh, Roh!

Fire!

Again!

Aaaaargh!

Glup...

And its Game over man, Game over!

So two marines got out.  Its way more fun with SH rules than Lost Patrol rules. 

On another topic entirely, its time for ECC GZG Con planning, I think this year I'm going with Aliens, in 20mm.  Time to use all these new figs in a big game

  

Ah, Etsy, you are such a temptress.  Lots of new terrain from her.

Plus a new 1/76 Cheyenne dropship

Sweet! My old 1/72 APC fit underneath!  And yup, those wing pods DO retract, th efront misse wings don't open though, but still its great for a fan-made 3d print, and WAY cheaper than getting an unobtaniun Aoshima version.

Its in the paint shop today, as are the APCs to match colour.

Stay Frosty Marines!

The Summer That Changed Everything...

 Wow, last post was in July, its now nearly Dec, what on earth have I been up to?  Well, funny I should ask me.  This summer saw some big changes here in Occasional Ambush Land. 

First, Biotech threw quite the monkey wrench early summer when totally out of the blue the company I worked for laid off most of its Research folks.  That was a bummer, I spent much of early summer helping my team get jobs then it was my turn to look.  More on that later...

Next, as I was a Gentleman of forced leisure it was time to do some fun stuff...

First was a High Adventure trip with Mini-Me-Major and his Scout Crew

We went to the Alagash waterway in Maine

The crew selected the route

We loaded canoes and off we went for a week

Camping was by the side of the water

It was in the middle of nowhere and gorgeous

In between there was LOTS of this...

This is us puling in to finish the trek -> it really was a great adventure.  I'll be back when Mini-Me-Minor is older (he's also a Scout)

The Mrs OA decided that as I wasn't now working all hours it was time for an extended vaction back to Blighty to visit Grandma and Uncle OA (AKA my Brother)

Uncle OA lives in Yorkshire, it was a great excuse to ride a train to Whitby on a day out.  Both Mini-Me-Major and Mrs OA enjoyed the Dracula connection!

Then we went off to London

To see some sights

We HAVE to have at least one wargaming reference, this is as close as I got.  A quick snap at Horseguards.

After London it was time to visit Grammy in New Orleans, excellent for me and Mrs OA as we could inflict the Mini-Mes on her, and off we went!

And now back to the job hunt.  Part of why we coud go jetsetting around was while I was away in Maine (with no phone service), I got offered a job... ...which I accepted.

First on the agenda was a team-building trip, to Aspen!

Aspen's private airport, I have never seen so many private jets in one place before

We did get a little time off, this was Maroon Bells, it was spectacular

This was more fun, a spot of whitewater rafting

Class 3 rapids, awesome!  

Then it was back to real life.  Our site is a start up, we have literally been doing everything from ground up, as a bonus we scored a super lab space with a killer view

So now its back to working all hours as we get set up and programs running.  And my job, I'm running the Biology team at the site, a bit of a step up from the last job  It's a bit scary, but in a good way, as we have recruited a great team.

This time I'm really tring to make some time for non-work things.  For example, Mini-Me-Mino has become a fan of Aliens, so we have been playing Space Hulk (more of that later), and he is wild over a new toy.  This...

Nerf ran a preorder for this, I snagged one

Yup, it is

A pulse rifle, a nerf M41A pulse rifle

It is sooo much fun

And the ammo counte works!  Mini-Me-Minor LOVES it...  (so do I!)