September 2021 review

Sum up comes a bit early, but as I'm on vacation from today on, that's how it is going to be.

I am heading back to Northern Spain, for some family time. Last trip to Cantabria was 2016, and I covered Covadonga, MUPAC - Museum of Prehistory and Archaeology of Cantabria among others while I was there. This time will be more R&R, but I still hope to cover things like Castillo de Argueso, Corrales de Buelna and Comillas.

The last weekend was Warlord Games Open Day 2021. It wasn't that advertised, and the only coverage I found online was by Wargames Soldiers & Strategy. But I am very happy for Warlord, as they have grown a lot in the last decade. You can find the pictures from our trip in 2010 (as part of our Trip to the Lead Belt) or 2013 (Warlord Games Day) here.

I did a bit of clean up in the backend of this page. I had more than 100 articles on draft, and it was time to lower that number. In some cases that meant adding the English translation to reviews available in German, for example:

• Bolt Action - Blitzkrieg Infantry & Pioniers
• Perry Miniatures - Mounted Men at Arms

Yes, these are a bit older, but for the sake of completeness I went the extra mile. Besides, they are often referenced in newer articles / reviews. Still there are roughly 40+ reviews still only available in German.

My Bolt Action US Motorpool was serviced this month, with the British probably following up in October.

I received a fitting present on my birthday last monday, Sturm am Mittelrhein, covering the very last months of war in the greater area of the Middle Rhine.

Apropos birthdays. I got this neat 42128 Heavy Duty Tow Truck from the Lego Technic range. Amazing kit, reasonably priced and my first lego kit with pneumatics. Something I absolutely connect with the more sophisticated kits from my youth, but never had one of those, "only" the ones with the batteries and engines. Quite exciting and in scale with my other sets like the MACK Anthem Truck or Car Transporter. If you leave off the stickers it is much mure subtle, and there are amazing alt-builds for this one already available on rebrickable.

I started painting the Renedra mudbrick house and middle eastern buildings, so that is progress as well, along with a system-agnostic approach on my miniature stock and a bit of explanation what you can do with even small warbands. As for the buildings, I gave them a proper flat black primer, and got myself a few acrylic paints by Marabu, that were on sale at LIDL. And along with my favourite painting buddy I went for the first coats. It is interesting to see how much they darken on black primer compared to white one. The first thin coats were Burned Sienna followed by regular Sienna. Have to say a very chocolate and mustard finish. Will add further dry brushes of lighter colours, with more white and grey mixed in for a look closer to stone.

As for painting inspiriation, you always have to keep an eye out for that. We were at an underground car park and I took these pictures for Necromunda - of course not without the irritated look by the missus, what the heck I am doing and why. You can never have enough ressource on the underhive.

I did a recap on GenCon with the Warhammer Previews, but I am most happy about the next wave of Aeronautica Imperialis - because of Space Marines ... and a freaking thunderhawk! Bam!

It's been over a month with Warhammer+ now and ... well it is difficult. I have written about Hammer and Bolter as well as Angels of Death. I am quite sad, that Hammer and Bolter takes a break, but with the only animation content being Angels of Death I am rather frustrated. The sound is not well balanced, the animation itself is buggy with lots of clipping, shake cam and unfortunately weird faces. They did a mid-season break last week and this week is not even a new episode of anything animated released, just tutorials and loremaster. As for Angels of Death, the story is halfway decent, but it is incredibly slow and as last week you got a free upgrade to the anniversary edition of THQ's Space Marine I gave it another go and even that 10 year old video game has better graphics and more convincing faces.

As for Wargaming in other media. In one of the last Archer Episodes (S05E11 - Shots), they were playing a miniature tabletop game, that has a lot of resemblance in design to Warhammer.

Obviously not the first time miniature wargaming is mentioned on TV, I found the wargaming in The Crown and Deep Space Nine entertaining as well.

As for Entertainment, I came across the trailer of a new Netflix movie - The Forgotten Battle. Looks promissing, it is about the Battle of the Scheldt.

Disney+ is currently properly delivering. The Marvel What If series is very well made and I enjoyed the Zombies! episode especially. It is clearly different from Marvel Zombies, but the whole What If concept is pretty entertaining. Beyond that I'm currently enjoying a lot of Star Wars, picked up the original trilogy as well as Episodes 1 to 3, and managed to finish the Clone Wars. Such an amazing addition to the canon, especially the later episodes. Now I moved on to Rebels - which is entertaining and far beyond just kids tv - but Visions doesn't really speak to me.

That's it, enjoy Spooktober, Orktober, fall/autumn. See you soon! If you want to stay updated on what I come across in Northern Spain, food wise and generic travel follow me on Instagram or for the wargames stuff over here.