This Quar's War More

 

Welcome back!  hope we've all been crushin' it lately.

because I've been CRUSHING IT on the miniature painting.

--disclaimer--  

Crushing it when compared only to myself and my previous painting rate.

Not when compared to you; you Lords of the Hobby.  

Luckily, we can all laugh at the idea of being competitive in a silly hobby like this one.

But I laugh more.

Speaking of Lords of the hobby; Big thanks to those of you that pointed out other blogs that have some Quar content.  I appreciate it.  I reached out if they were still discussing Quar but left them alone if they had moved on to something less thrilling.  

Kinda cool that the blogger community can network like that.

Probably helps if the subject matter is somewhat unique, because even if done badly (as I do), is still memorable.   If it's something everyone does then it has to be done really well for it to be noteworthy, and I've never done anything really well except grow hair.  My hair grows really fast and thick.

Save your jokes of  'Enjoy it while it lasts,"  I ain't ever gonna lose this gorgeous mane.  

But if I had painted my first Napoleonic Old guard or late WW2 German infantry.....Snoresville, population - me.  

But enough intro, Time for pics.  I painted more of the adorable Quar.  Though I have the feeling that Quar are adorable in the same way that a tiger is a 'wittle puddie kat.' 

More Quars

First up we have some more Royalist / Coftyran quar.

Adorable!

2 of these guys are snipers.

Apparently, snipers don't wear helmets but have slouch hats.

No explanation needed.  

Next up; a Coftyran Is-Caerten:

An Is-Caerten is like a junior lieutenant or something similar.   

Don't worry, I won't bombard you with a bunch of made-up fluff words.  My eyes also start to glaze over when reading fluff that has a bunch of made-up words.. as this graph illustrates.

graph from Xkcd comic.

Those are all from the old metal range, and what about new stuff I hear you ask?

Next; here is one of the new resin blisters all painted up, the 'Coftyran Officers." 

Like any good leader they're waving their swords about.  

I tried to paint the little national emblem on the helmet and gorget thingy.  

I don't think I succeeded well.

metal sculp (left) next to new resin sculp (right)
just for comparisons

In any case; that's all the Coftyran Quar completed that i want for now.  enough for the upcoming scenario.  

That's a milestone, and an achievement unlocked. 

+10 hobby points for me. 

Crusaders

The faction facing off against the Royalists are the Crusaders.  These guys want to conquer the world in order to save it from the ruling classes.  And then rule it themselves, but better.  

10 Crusaders join the cause.

Some more close ups now;

Not because my painting is good, but so you can actually see the miniature. 

(in fact, I should stop inflicting people with close ups...)

I especially like this guy.
Kinda tubby, skinny arms, somewhat sad.
It's like gazing at my refection.

Quar are supposed to have color blotches on their skin.  When I do paint it right, it looks like cool giraffe spots, or tiger strips, or Rorschach blots.  When I mess it up, they look like polka dots.   

Crushing It?

Is painting 15 miniatures in 2 weeks really crushing it?  

What did we say about competition?  

But what if I told you that I also played my second game of Bolt Action? 

Impressive yes?  Even more so because I didn't do anything but show up at my buddy CG's house over the Memorial Day weekend.  

I played the Americans attacking a destroyed village of Germans.

My Sherman and his Stug would engage in an epic duel
of who could miss the most.
My Sherman won.  

I didn't take many pics.  I was playing and having fun.  I failed you. Lords of the Hobby would never fail to take at least 20 pictures.

I continue to like Bolt Action as a light, just complicated enough, 20th century wargame, which reinforces my notion that this Quar collection will expand to be used with these rules unless I find something better.  

So All in all: that's 15 adequately painted miniatures and 1 poorly documented game.

Maybe I'm not a Lord of the Hobby, but I think I hit the level of 'minor nobility.'

Perhaps Well Off Gentry?

Noble working class?

Peasant Farmer?

Peasant farmer's favorite horse?

never-mind.  

Thanks for reading.

Double thanks for writing a comment.

Till next time. 

This Quar's War Project

 

GAWD I'm bored.  Is anyone else just insanely bored? I'm SO bored.  Yeah I'm busy, busy all damn day, but it's mundane and boring.  Sometimes I think I oughta start selling cigarettes and alcohol to minors, or gamble online by placing bets on fringe sports games that I don't know the rules for.   

Just something to add some excitement in my life.  

But there's probably a downside that I'm not seeing.

So instead, I'll start yet another wargaming genre.

Which is just as exciting, if not more so.  And probably just as expensive placing bets on weird sporting events.  

Who understands football anyway?  Nobody.

 

WTF is Quar?

As you might ask, and so you did.  A Quar looks like this:

Quar are a range of miniatures by Zombiesmith recently partnered with Wargames Atlantic.  Quar are usually described as Anteater humanoids with vaguely world war / 1930s tech.  

They're the kind of a miniature range that people either immediately take to or immediately dismiss.

They're kinda silly. They're kinda serious.  They're kinda round in the middle.

I basically just described myself, so no wonder I like them.

Across the internet I can hear the sound of either collective eye rolling or grunts of excitement. 

Those two sounds can be hard to tell apart, they're remarkably similar.

If one is inclined, one can learn all about the Quar on this website: Rhyfler

Though can really be summed up with this question:

What if WW1 had been going on for 10 years?

Old is New, and Project Creep

Those pictures above are Quar that I painted a thousand years ago, back when I lived in the bay area, before wife and kids.  Nice to know that the paint job holds up, and not unexpected to know that my painting skill plateaued a long time ago.  

As in the real world, in the Quar world there are a couple of different factions. I have a smattering of the two main factions: the Royalists (Coftyran) and Crusaders.  Ya don't need the whole backstory.  Just know that Royalists have fancy blue uniforms like these:

Quar Coftyrans

and Crusaders have a more green American GI look like this:

Quar Crusaders

These have been sitting around unloved for about a decade.  Just like my oldest child.  Just like my pet dog... whatever it's name is.  Haven't seen it in a while.

For one reason or another, all too boring to go into, I never found a ruleset that I liked for use with these miniatures, and other projects kept taking priority (as projects do).

But my recent discovery of the Fistful of Lead rules got my brain going in a Quar-ky direction.  I devised a devious plan to make a small purchase of more Quar miniatures; just enough for small multiplayer scenario.

Fate struck, and fate struck hard; because coinciding with my renewed interest in this long dormant miniature range is that the line is getting updates with new plastic kits, resin blisters, new rules, etc..

Turns out, I'm topical.  Tuned to the zeitgeist of miniature wargaming.  Fingers on the pulse of a miniature line that almost no one has ever heard of.

Being as bored as I am, could not resist the little dopamine hits from retail therapy; I just

kept

buying

stuff.   

Small pile of potential.  Metal and resin.
I also think I got the last two Quar tanks left on the internet.

Because anything worth doing is worth over doing. 

What started as a small skirmish is now for a full scale war.  

Kinda like when I argue with my wife that eggs with a white shell taste better than eggs with a brown shell turns into "I never liked your brother or his kids" and one of us is sleeping the couch.

Rules for skirmish are settled on FFoL.  For large battle / large skirmish rules I'm looking at Bolt Action, or any other WW1 / WWII rule set that strikes my attention.  Suggestions welcomed.  

Best Get Painting Again

It's been almost a year since I've painted a miniature.  What a glorious year that was.  Could not last of course, nothing ever does.  Miniatures aren't gonna paint themselves, and the recent discovery of a leak in my roof means I can't afford to pay someone to paint them for me.  

Time to get back at it.  Now where did I put those paint brushes...this wet palette is dry as the desert.  

These guys are wearing uniforms, so batch painting is easy, and striking while enthusiasm is high, got right to it.   First up we have some freshly completed Quar royalists.   12 to be exact, most of these are new miniatures of the old metal sculpts (that made sense right?)  

Freshly painted Quar.

here are some close ups.

Not because my painting is all that terrific, but just so you can actually see them.

looking adequate.

Now to briefly focus on the new and exciting stuff. Here is one of the new resin blisters all done up.  These are the Royalist Trench raiders.

They guys are sensibly armed with grenades, SMGs, and swords.  

Group pic; all completed miniatures for the Royalists.
Old miniatures and new miniatures all together.

Bonus Fun

Here's something one doesn't get to do every day.  Some of the new miniatures I got were exactly the same sculpts as the old ones I had: So here's an opportunity to compare the same sculpt, painted by the same person, about 10 years apart... 

Voilà

See!!  do you SEE???!

10 years makes a lot of improvement.  I'm like the epitome of Gladwell's "10 year rule."  

Whaddya mean ya can't tell them apart?   The older ones have the red skin and are on the left.

Obviously.

(grumble grumble) 

On That note, Time to Go 

Quar kinda hit a sweet spot for me these days.  They're definitely not human so I get a little fantasy / make believe play, a freedom to design things as I like.   But they're also not magical or science fiction, so no magic fire balls or super colossal killer unit types.  So games play like 'real' battles but with quirky miniatures that set a fun tone.  Kinda serious, kinda silly, lots of fun, like miniature gaming really is.  

I also have a zanny terrain project in mind that I'm looking forward to attempting.    

Thanks for reading.

Double thanks for writing a comment.

Till next time.

  

*Sir Wags-a-lot!  That was the dog's name.