KV2

The KV2.  With such a unique profile and history, anyone who likes tanks can recognize one.  I once read that if they did not fire on flat ground, they had a tendency to flip over.  In Bolt Action they are a heavy tank chassis with a heavy howitzer mounted on a turret.  The model is currently resin, and while I've seen some of the less-good looking kits from Warlord, I'm happy to report this one is crisp, clean, and best of all: not all bent and wobbly.  At least mine wasn't.  Since my Soviets have snowy bases, I put on some white washing to my KV2.

I do love me that big refrigerator turret.

 My KV2 I named "kitten" in Russian because all of my opponents were quaking in their boots about it, but in the 10 games I've used it in, I haven't killed more enemies than friendlies.  Which isn't to say I roll a lot of FUBARs, just one actually, but that is how unfortunate my to-hit rolls have been.  Recently he missed a 2+ point blank shot at some Fins, who then took their opportunity to charge him with anti tank grenades, setting it on fire and forcing the crew to bail of course.  So "kitten" it is dubbed.

 I have also used this vehicle in the attack on the Mannheim line mission, and it fell in the lake.  Though that wasn't too surprising.  There was a 50% chance of it happening.

Here's a shot of it in action against some Fins, avenging a fallen armored ally.

Foundation Post #2: What I Am Doing

Currently I am playing a lot of Bolt Action and loving it.  I play twice or thrice a week, sometimes more.  Balance and gripes against other systems aside, Bolt Action has a really unique Order Dice mechanic that removes the boring alpha striking that can happen in games where one side does all their things then the other side does it.  It also keeps the game much more involved and tense, since you're kind of always on bench.  It's a game you actually get to play for the full battle, where as you're only playing half the time in other systems.  I can get into the specifics of the rules later.  This will likely be a large chunk of the content here.  I'll save army profiles for later so here's just a bunch of Bolt Action pictures to get you going.

Here are my Canadians I was talking about.  I'll do a full profile on them later, but the idea is they be a kind of Royal Canadian Engineer force meant to be taking out the entrenched enemy fortifications.  This is what a typical game board tends to look like for us.  Buildings can get a bit dull with the way they block so much fire, but the foreground buildings look so nice we just have to use them.  

Some of the terrain is home-made by myself and the other groups at the club and some bought.  Half the fun is just building a cool looking table and watching toy soldiers running all over it.

What else am I doing?  Currently I commission paint for the locals and their friends.  I guess best case scenario would be if that some how blew up and I could turn it into a real job that I could live off of.  I'm a bit hesitant about that though.  The legality of someone mailing me their stuff and me mailing it back raises a lot of questions.  What if it gets damaged, or someone tries to fake damage, or a number of other things?  We'll see though.  It would be pretty awesome to make a life out of something I enjoy so much.

Foundation Post #1: What I've Done (Not the Linkin Park song)

In an attempt to document my hobby progress as well as potentially motive that extra step into prolific production, and ultimately serve as a connection to the outside world, I have begun this blog.  Topics will be wide, spanning different game systems, and universes and rules, but it will always be table top hobby related.  Mostly.  So here are a few Foundation Posts so you can see what kind of content this is, if its your type, and if you'll check back in.  Thanks for coming!


I started war gaming like many when I was a wee lad.  Of course I didn't know what I was doing nor the implications of just how much the hobby would eventually take over my life.  I started like many playing Warhammer 40k.  I maintained that for a while, before a full decade later I entered the world of Warhammer Fantasy.  Not a big leap really.  Surely this would be a great place to put pictures of my Warhammer models.  Unfortunately I don't have many quality pictures of them on hand.  The armies I have are a large force of Space Marines, and a medium to large sized Empire army.  My interest in playing 40k and Fantasy have waned (or made impossible by GW destroying the latter) so currently there will likely be little to no content involving my armies of 40k and Fantasy.  However, I do have some rare pictures on file.  These pictures are going to be big.  I may some day figure out a way to make it so you can click to enlarge, but until then, I'm dumping large images here so you can see every detail and flaw.

The Warboss for my Ork Speed Freak Army.  Also my fingers and mouse pad (it helped with lighting and color balance)

A Nob for said army.

However, currently I do friendly commission work for some members of the local group, as well as some of their friends, and some of their requests involve 40k models, so that content will appear.  Some of it right here, in fact.  Stay tuned for the next Foundation Post, subtitled What I am Doing to get a taste of some more.

A Fire Dragon I did for a friend.  I did a whole batch, but only have this picture left over.

A Blood Angel for a friend's 30k force.  I have done a lot of these, but this is currently the only picture I can gather.  Expect some more of this type of stuff.

A Dark Angel scout with sniper rifle.  Did this guys whole Dark Angels Army.  It currently serves as a good example of the quality I do on commission.  I wish I had more pictures.  Perhaps I'll follow him around with a camera next time I see he has them out for a game.  Also there's a cat in the background.

Since leaving the GW scene, I have since picked up the very popular, and ever growing Bolt Action.  I was hesitant at first but I'm very glad I went in on it.  I've enjoyed my time greatly, and the shift in painting styles was more interesting and fun than I expected it to be.  I have a large army of Soviets and a medium, currently expanding force of Candian Royal Engineers under the Commonwealth of Great Britain.  I will drop some pictures of the Soviets here, since that army is complete, and the Canadians I will classify under What I am Doing for the next post.

I thought this shot looked really cool, unfortunately I botched the quality and didn't realize it.

Assault Engineers with the monstrous KV2 next to them.

The same thing.  Different angle.  That KV will be the center of its own post one day soon.

I've got a lot more, but lets save some for the other posts, eh?  Hopefully you enjoyed something in here, be it the writing, pictures, or maybe you just like the action on your scroll wheel and you look for any excuse to use it.  You can expect more of the same, as well as more of some different: battle reports, tactic ideas, rules discussions, and what ever else happens to be on mind.