Another busy week on the free time front. In between the cricket and the Formula 1 coverage, I managed to knock out a couple of units from the to-do box.
A German Mortar Platoon for Flames of War was first off the desk. I'm really happy with these - it's the first 15mm unit where I've painted insignia on the helmets and epaulettes. Next time I'll try and add collar insignia and any other markings, after I've done a bit of research though. I'm not too happy with the photo quality here; a lot of the depth seems to have been washed out - especially the flesh. We'd like a better photo set-up; currently we're using a bit of card, daylight and a heap of desk lamps!
Managed to get another unit finished last week, some 15mm Ancient Greek Slingers made by Xyston miniatures. I think they've turned out at a decent standard, but the skin turned out to be a bit too pink compared to what I had planned. Still, they look good on the tabletop.
The slingers are up on the Bay at the moment, the mortars have already sold.
I've been painting quite a lot of 15mm stuff lately, so I thought I'd paint up a couple 28mm figures for a change. Thought this would be a good opportunity to try and improve my technique for painting skin. That was the theory anyway.
Here's one of my typical 28mm figures:
Not bad, but I think the skin is a bit too orangey/pink.
Here's what I tried last week:
Hmmmmm. Not what I had planned. The shading is waaay too stark and I've no idea what I was doing with the eyes. I'm not sure whether I'll continue with this guy, or just strip the paint and try again.
Next up, some more Flames of War and hopefully some malifaux minis.
There's been lots of talk on the net about Battlefront dropping Maelstrom Games as a stockist for their products. I won't add to it much, but only say it's very . . . well . . . inconvenient.
I buy quite a lot from Maelstrom (usually when they have a big discount offer on) and it'll be a fair hassle having to find somewhere else to get my Flames of War gear.
However, every cloud as they say:
A few Fallschirmjager, some SS, pioneers and a couple British blisters all at a lovely 25% off. That should keep me going for a while.
I'm not sure if you're allowed to complain when you get a quarter off the price, but some of these blisters must be the dregs of the warehouse. Three blisters have been opened and sealed again with staples and each has at least one part missing. Not a massive problem, Battlefront usually is pretty happy to sort out missing components.
I also ordered four blisters that are now mysteriously out of stock - they had plenty left when I ordered them two and a half weeks ago.
So not sure how to feel - eighteen days for delivery, damaged/dodgy stock and items all of a sudden unavailable - just as well they were all reduced!!!
Hello everyone, welcome to my new blog.
I thought I'd start up a blog as, well, I've always wanted to! Hopefully any readers will find these ramblings on my hobby both enjoyable and entertaining.
My main hobby is miniature wargaming - painting, gaming, historical, fantasy, sci-fi, board games the whole lot. Current favourites are Flames of War and Malifaux.
Here are a couple pics of the last things I've finished painting:
German Heavy Machine Gun Platoon for Flames of War
15mm Ancient Greek archers (I use these for the game Field of Glory)
I'm also a bit of a bookworm - mainly sci-fi, fantasy and history.
The last thing I read was Fire by Kristin Cashore. It's a charming and highly engaging fantasy story about Fire, a troubled woman with the unique power of being overwhelmingly beautiful. Cashore writes in a lovely flowing prose and the book is a very relaxing read.
I also spend (a bit too much) time on the Xbox and the computer.
The current timekiller is Test Drive Unlimited 2 - very enjoyable, but plagued with some horrific server problems rendering some parts of the game inaccessible.
And thats about all there for the first post. Thanks for reading!
