Challenge Update

Well, I'm glad to see that I wasn't the only one who, over the festive season, completely lost track of the days of the week!  Suddenly it was the fourth of January and I had to quickly paint some D&D boardgame bad guys for the second theme weekend!  To avoid a repeat, I've had an hour or so today to quickly base and prime my entry for the 19th January.  I'll like to get them finished with a couple days to spare, in order to take some pictures in daylight this time (I've only been free in the evenings, so it's been harsh lights and camera flash all the way.)

These guys are really, really tiny.  Why are they taking so long to paint then?

Other than the theme weekends, I've been painting up some 10mm ECW infantry.  Some guys at the club have been talking playing some small Field of Glory: Renaissance games in, but no one seems to have got very far.  Perhaps seeing some finished figures could spur some of them on!

The idea with going with 10mm figures, is that it's more affordable than 15mm (by a good margin) and that they are quicker to paint too.  It's not gone to plan so far though; firstly I'm cramming ten figures to a 20x40mm base and, secondly, I can't get out of the habit of base, wash, layer and highlight when painting - and it takes a bloomin' age to do!  For the second unit of infantry, I'll try a simpler colour scheme and see if I can speed things up!

A night off painting tomorrow, as the club is back on.  I've a couple card games arranged, the obligatory Android: Netrunner savaging (although, I have won a few times recently,) and then a intro game for a friend to the Lord of the Rings card game.  Both games by Fantasy Flight Games and both absolutely fantastic.  Good times.

Look! I Actually Picked Up A Brush

After what seems like weeks of procrastinating (ok it was after weeks of procrastinating) I managed to pick up a paint brush again today.  Originally, the plan was to do some prep work on a couple different projects and get a lot of priming done.  There's some rather wet weather on the way, so I'd like enough figures primed to do me over the winter.  The rain arrived early so forced me to change my mind and out came the paints.

First things first,  I had to spend a good wee while shaking and stirring the neglected tubs and bottles to even the paint out.  Fortunately, my right arm has developed considerable stamina in that motion, so it wasn't a problem.  Without getting all emo-whiny on you, I normally only paint when I'm happy and relaxed;  I haven't been either in a while, so it was quite a surprise how enjoyable the couple hours with the brush were this afternoon.

These are the first eight warriors for a Saga Viking warband that have been kicking around for a few months. Just the base colours so far, I'll add some decoration before the shading and highlighting begins.  As Odin is my witness, I will get this warband painted this year, before this:

Just fyi, for anyone who hasn't finished season one, there's a big spoiler in the trailer.

Ground Zero Games UNSC - WIP

Following on from our trial game Gruntz, I've been hunched over painting 15mm sci-fi figures.  I opted for the fantastic UNSC range from Ground Zero Games for my force.  The range has eight poses for standard riflemen, four separate unit leader figures and plenty of SAW/support weapon options.  Sculpt quality is very good on the whole, only a couple issues of flash on some overhangs, so overall very flexible range.

SAW, two riflemen and two leaders.

For a colour scheme, I had in my head a white/icy blue scheme with a contrasting visor colour and a spot colour or insignia marking.  As you can see from the WIP pics, I haven't decided on what colour to use on the visors or the weapons.  Red would probably look good, but it's the safe option, so I suspect they'll end up with a glowy green colour, maybe yellow.  Still undecided on the gun, but that can wait until the rest of the colours are done.

Oddly for me, I've really enjoyed painting these guys.  Although they haven't yet turned out quite how I imagined (the shadows are dark grey rather than blue, giving them a kind of Stormtrooper feel,) I'm still digging them.  The trick I always find when evaluating your own painting is, when you're not actually painting,   keep the model a couple of feet away from you.  That way you see the overall effect rather than each individual brush stroke!

The Commander is on the right, can you tell he's a head swap?

I've also painted one of the older UNSC hardsuit figures as my commander, but swapped out the original helmet to keep him uniform with the rest of the force.  Converting 15mm figures are a pain. Next up is deciding and painting the visors and weapons, then the arduous process of deciding how to paint the bases.

Quick Update

Just a quick update on what I've been up to this week.  I finally spent some time prepping the first of my sci-fi figures.  I've chosen the UNSC range from Ground Zero Games, I like the big "bug" heads and there's a lot of variety on offer.  Frustratingly I ran out of my usual ready made putty, so I had to use some old Milliput for the bases.  Using it caused an absolute mess and took an absolute age to set.  Any idea if this stuff has a use by date?

As I had a couple hours free yesterday, I managed to knock out another skirmisher unit for my Punic Wars project.  This time it's some allied Roman archers.  Pictures should be up on Curt's blog soon.

Also managed the first victory of the year - albeit at the fourth attempt.  I headed to the club this week without a specific game on, so brought Quarriors along and had three quickish games.  I suffered two quick defeats before inflicting an absolute trouncing in the third game.  Still love Quarriors, WizKids recently announced another expansion (the third,) but I need to get round to pick up the first two.

Lastly, I went a bit eBay crazy at the weekend, picking up some second hand books and a couple figures.  This 15mm resin scenery pack was bought on a whim, really cheap, it should fit in nicely on any historical table.  Bizarrely, this took just two days to arrive from Italy.  Two days!  I'm still waiting for a book to arrive from Kent after five days!  What's up with that?

More Shieldwall WIP

More progress on my first Shieldwall base today.  Managed to get the main colours on and apply some shading.  They're not yet looking quiet how I imagined them, but hopefully they'll even out as the rest of the figures come together.  I'm trying to picture them with their shields on and decide what to do with them, either a bold primary colour or, maybe, a decal or two. Apologies again for the poor pictures, lighting in our room isn't exactly the greatest for taking pics.

I also tagged along to our rematch Saxons and Romano British Dux Bellorum rematch.  Four of use playing with the same sides as last week.  The game went better for the Saxons this week, sneaking a solid win thanks to Ian's phenomenally fluky dice taking out the British warlord.  A win at last!!!

Not a tree or hill in sight.  Or a rulebook for that matter

Considering there were four experienced gamers playing, we managed to collectively turn up without either a rulebook or any terrain whatsoever!  So our battle was fought on the famous sandy plains of, errr, England and between the four of us, we cobbled together a rough summary of the rules.  Still, very enjoyable and we still found time for a pint and discussed what changes to the rules we'd like to make.

Romano-British Shieldwall WIP

Surprisingly for a Monday off, I found plenty of time to get some modelling and painting in. My West Wind Romano-Brits arrived on Saturday and I've managed to prep most of them. The first six have been undercoated, while there are another twelve waiting to get sprayed. Unusually for me, I've done a couple wee conversions with the help of GW's Liquid Green Stuff, a handy little tub.

I've only previously used West Wind's Secrets of the Third Reich range, which suffered from some rather poor quality control.  These guys are to a much higher standard; lots of nice crisp sculpting and a decent range of poses; the only issues I've had are with the shield hands, but as these will be obscured by the shield itself, I'm not to bothered about this. Separate spears are needed, so that bring these up to a reasonable £1 a figure with 20 figures in a pack.

So far I've painted the hands and faces, always the first job on a mini as I hate doing it.  I've also given the chainmail a series of drybrushes with some metallic paints, something I've not used in quite a while.  Next step is to get some proper colour on there, I'm thinking a mix of yellows and greens, and then the detail work.

Any historical project comes with the familiar headache of what basing system to use.  I'm not a fan of individual bases these days, so I've opted for 60x40mm bases with six figures.  If things go according to plan, I'd like to get some games in with both Dux rulesets, so some adjustments may be needed for Dux Britannarium.  We'll see what happens when the painting is finished, I may change my mind before then.

Bolt Action SS - WIP 2

Just a quick update on the Waffen SS figures.  Camo patterns are almost all done, only the dots on the Pea Dot scheme need added, and I've started the detailing and equipment.

Mostly happy with how the camo looks so far.  The Oak Leaf looks the best to me, with a good bright green.  The Plane Tree looks really good up close, but from further away, the brown looks kind of washed out, I may go over the brown in a darker shade, but maybe not. The Pea Dot pattern still doesn't look right, the tan/light brown colour and the green both look off to me.  I'll see how it looks after the dots are added, but don't think it will make a huge difference.  So far this has been a decent learning experience, as I've mixed quite a few colours myself and tried a couple different tricks.

Next job is getting the equipment painted.  I really like mixing up the colours used on late war Germans; the idea being that with their supply problems, these guys will have picked up equipment whereever they could get it, so different helmets, breadbags, gaiters etc.  My new bases arrived so I can get to work on the next batch of figures, more riflemen and the squad LMG.  I'd like to get these finished at the weekend, but recent history suggests it'll be a bit before they're ready to go!

Bolt Action SS - WIP 1

Some WIP pics of the first seven Waffen SS figures.  Two NCO's with MP40s, two with StG44 assault rifles and three with good old Kar98 rifles.  I need a larger base for the LMG team, so I'm waiting for them to arrive; the rest are based on 2p coins.  I've managed to stick to the "do something every day" ethos this week and am relatively happy with the progress I've made.  There are another dozen or so figures prepared and based, but I'm only working on a few at a time.

The first job was to paint all the skin on the seven figures (I hate painting faces, I'm terrible at it,) before starting on the camo patterns.  I'm just winging it at the moment, using Google to get an idea of the patterns and an Osprey book for the colours.  The first two figures, in Oak Leaf Spring camo, taught me that I can't add shade very well, so now I'm working from a much darker basecoat and highlighting up before adding the camo pattern.  Hopefully it will turn out ok.

They are by Warlord Games and I have to say that they are really excellent sculpts.  Some very dynamic poses along side some great expressions on some of the figures.  Of course, as metal miniatures, they take an absolute age to prepare, too many mould lines and flash, but definitely worth the effort. 

Going forward, I plan to finish all the camo patterns before moving onto the equipment.  Still undecided whether or not to use metallic paints or to try my pseudo-nmm technique.  I think they would look better the second way, but for convenience they might get the old Boltgun Metal, wash, highlight treatment.

Hoplites WIP 2

I managed to get a couple hours painting on the Hoplites today.  Finished the skin tones and most of the armour/tunics.

I'm really out of practice on 28mm figures and keep letting the paint run into areas I want shaded.  Although I'll probably go over the recesses with some inks, I really don't want to get too hung up on every little detail.  Another job finished today was cleaning up the 24 shields for these guys and it took *$&$%"&£*$ ages!!! Next time this is the first job I'm doing!

 
Lastly, and keeping with the Greeks, check out this weekends Pearls Before Swine comic. Nothing like a good pun and some cartoon violence to brighten your day!

Fallschirmjager - Flames of War WIP

After several months of prevarication, I've finally managed to get some paint onto my 15mm Fallschirmjager. A sold my original Fallschirmjager last year, I was never happy with the paint job I'd done, and have had the models lying around since then. Having looked around for some inspiration and worked on a couple test figures, I think I've settled on how I want the force to look.

I'm planning to get a small force painted (for me) relatively quickly; two understrength platoons, hq & weapons, mortars and some anti-tank guns. So these figures are for the first six infantry bases. Frustratingly, I've discovered that all the PaK 40 trailer components are quite badly miscast, so I'll have to get replacements from Battlefront.

  

For the last few 15mm projects, I've been undercoating in white rather than black. Although it takes more coats to get a good finish in some colours, it is much easier to get the right contrast between your colours than working over black.

Although I won't get close to their high standards, have a look at what I'm aiming at, John Boultwood here and Ruben Torregrosa here.

Hoplites - Work In Progress

Not a bad days work, 24 Warlord Games Hoplites assembled and undercoated.  I'd forgotten how long it takes to get plastic minis assembled!  Overall, the figures go together easily enough, some of the spear arms don't line up flat against the body, but that wasn't really a big deal.  I've left off the shield arms to make painting easier.

Sixteen of the Hoplites have linen linothorax, while the other eight are unarmoured.  The best (and most elaborately) armoured Hoplites would be at the head of the phalanx with the less well armed would be at the rear.  This mix should give me two ranks of armoured and one rank of unarmoured Hoplites, although I may mix them around when it comes to basing them.

The skin has been basecoated and washed and the tunics have been basecoated in a couple different colours.  One thing I've noticed about using the wet palette is that it makes doing multiple thin coats of paint a doddle!

Most of the helmets come with separate plumes and this does give you a nice variety to use, but these helmets all have a groove cut in them for this.  As I wanted some of the helmets to be plain bronze, I filled in some of the gaps before painting.  It's just a little detail, but I think it looks appropriate 

An excuse, a couple photos and a good book!

We had a rare sunny day last week, so my immune system responded by going on holiday and leaving me laid up all week.  So instead of being productive, I've spent the last week lying around on the couch and generally being pathetic!

I managed to get started basing the British Heavy Mortar platoon I've been working on.  They have had the first layers of flock and some tufts added and next I'm going to try a new way of making hedges.  These were quite fun to paint up, I've tried a new way of applying the main colours using my wet palette and this certainly sped up the whole process.  I'm still concerned that overall the figures will be too dark, or at least lack contrast, when compared to the base.  Once they're finished, I'll see how they look under proper lighting.

Things haven't been all bad though, not least by getting to spend the entire weekend watching sport on the box!  I also treated myself to Adrian Goldsworthy's In the Name of Rome.  Goldsworthy is one of my favorite authors, siting somewhere between being a narrative historian and a "proper" academic.  Each chapter looks at a particular general (Caesar gets two, greedy bugger) and discusses two or three of their most notable battles or campaigns.  It's a wonderfully old fashioned history book, in that Goldsworthy doesn't bother getting bogged down in economic or political themes, but focus on each man, their military skill and the decisions they make.

In the Name of Rome is also a wonderfully "male" book.  Each chapter is self-contained, can be read in around an hour and has plenty of anecdote and amusing little notes, for instance, I never knew that Caligula means "Little boots."  None of the figures in the book are new to me, as I've read a fair bit of Roman history, but that doesn't detract from enjoying the little journeys the author takes you on - no matter how often you've heard it, I love reading about Pompey mincing around the Mediterranean.

Empire of the Blazing Sun - WIP

   

Managed to get a few hours painting in today, mainly trying to get the last of my Dystopian Wars fleet finished.  These three Tanuki Class Gunships are almost done.  The white hull, decking and metallics are all finished, with only the windows, red detailing and lower hull needing work.

   

The Tsukuyomi War Gyro has proven a bit of a problem.  After the first coat of paint, I couldn't decide whether or not to cut out the gaps between each individual turbine.  If I'd left them in there would be plain flat panels that wouldn't (in my opinion) look right painted or left black.  On the other hand, the way the model is cast, you can't cut out all the flat panels (some are too close the main structure, others are just too small,) which might still not look right.

I've still to cut out the two leftmost panels
   

I couldn't find a painted example anywhere in a quick search online, so just decided to hack away at it.  Although it took a while to make any progress (the resin was deceptively thick) I'm happy with how it turned out.  It won't stand up to close scrutiny, but for the quick paint job I'm doing, I think it will look fine.

I just don't know how you would paint the panels and have it look good.
    

After these guys, it's just ten tiny flyer tokens and the fleet is finished.  

Dystopian Wars Blazing Sun Reinforcements - WIP

On the painting table this week are some reinforcements for my Empire of the Blazing Sun fleet:

These are the "Japanese" faction from Spartan Games' Dystopian Wars.  The Dreadnought is joined by a squadron of five Destroyers and a pair of Inari Scout Gyros.  I'm constantly surprised by just how much detail Spartan have been able to cram onto each of their models;  the dreadnought in particular has a huge amount of small hatches, doors, windows and pipes visble.  Even the hull itself is textured enough to show detail, even after a huge amount of drybrushing.

This thing is absolutely covered with little details.

On each model here, the white hulls have all been finished, as has the wooden decking.  I've started the metals on the Gyros and the Dreadnought and, again, just started the red on the Destroyers.  I like working on two or three different things at a time to help break up the occasional monotony of painting.  Once, the metals and red have been finished, I'll colour the ship lower hulls with a dark brown, add some fleet markings and decoration and, sigh, begin the mind-numbing job of painting the individual windows (there must be close to 100 of these over all the different ships I have!)

The best paint palette ever!

Despite the paintwork not being finished, these have all had their first game of Dystopian Wars, against my usual opponent, Gaz, and his Kingdom of Britainna fleet.  The game ended up being a minor loss to me; not only did I deploy my flyers on one flank (meaning they were out of the action for most of the game,) but I was woefully short in squadrons to activate, 6 to 9, meaning I wasn't able to pick where and what to fight or make the best of my long range firepower.  We're still coming up with a few rules issues after each game, but compared to our first game, the turns flow by quite smoothly now.

Lastly, there has been another flurry of Spartan Games announcements and previews this week.  Instead of posting some here and blethering on, I suggest anyone interested take a look over at Tabletop Fix.