Wrist Injury

Hi,

In early November I  tore some cartilage in my wrist and now wear a wrist brace that has metal splits in it and I cannot hold anything comfortably (typing is painful now) .

I tried to do some painting but its quite uncomfortable so I have given up. I have worn a brace now for around 5 weeks and still have another four weeks to go so its going to be a very boring christmas.

Cheers

Finished Units

I actually finished some units in the last few days which has been a good morale boost. I seem to have gone for so long without actually completing anything that I found myself preferring to read books or play computer games.

So to inspire myself I pulled out 24 Hat Saxons and promptly painted them as Spanish Infantry. I have toyed with creating a small force of 1/72 Figures in order to try Big Battles \ Small tables for the Peninsular war. I have the figures already and they are lighter than my 28mm horde so would fit nicely in a box and can play on my "table" (which is a bed). I have enough Spanish, French and English to re-fight any battle but they just need painting.

At the time the HAT Spanish were not available so I purchased the Saxon's to fill in and they do a reasonable job if one does not look too closely.

I also has two days off sick last week due to a heavy cold so I was able to finish the basing on my completed WSS Unit. I am glad I finished them but pretty unhappy with the unit as a whole due to a series of mistakes I made since putting them together. Its an imagination unit of the Rechburgian army, the rest of my figures will be French.

• Figures pose selection was awful - I don't know why I included 4 firing figures in the mix.
• Wrong officer figures for the unit.
• Painting groups at a time and not using the same colours (I am not making the same mistake with my Spanish)
• Missing steps - The faces are really bad I am actually redoing them. They have eye sockets that I may have to paint as eyes.....goldfish eyes of course.

Finally some action on the painting desk

Its been a real grind to get these 28mm WSS figures done over the last week. I have had the time but not the motivation to complete them but as of last night they are now based and just need to final finish and flocking.

So Barry's unit is almost complete and then I can finish the Spanish. Warlord Games have also advised the WSS figures will be back in production soon so I plan to get three more boxes for the French troops I need and that should round off the force quite nicely.


I also picked up some Mantic Elf Cavalry to be the mounted aspect of my Elven army (90% unpainted as per usual). I really like the horse but the rider is less pleasing to the eye.

The Cat is a Menace

I have been motivated of late to work through my WSS and SciFi figures but on some nights this motivation is continually interrupted by "the white menace".

Our beloved cat, flake who is deaf (Does not stop me talking to her) really enjoys being part of the action and being close to people in the house. However when painting figures this proximity is really impeding me to the point where some nights I have had to stop.

(If you did not know already a deaf cats meow is amplified so locking her way just results in a long wailing session. (She cannot go outside as she will not hear dogs or cars )) I don't like closing the door in case my daughter wakes.

Here in her natural pose of "This is my bed".

However a pattern soon developed as I noticed she likes to sit in large boxes.

She also likes to sit on boxes, not any boxes mind you but boxes that have war-game figures in them.

As I paint she then likes to come and explore what I am doing, and sit right in the middle of the session. She will, of course jump from the floor directly into the midst of whatever I am doing which has resulted in many freshly painted figures getting white fur stuck to them.

Now she has started to take an interest in sitting in my container that has my paints in it.

Also at my painting desk she sits at the window behind the curtains, her wagging tail knocking anything in reach off onto the floor.

This week I have tried to paint but once I finally got her to go away she then returned to go and pee in the corner of the room (Another issue) which took about 20 minutes to clear up.

Tonight I hope to complete some figures and the first step in that plan is getting the cat to sleep on my daughters bed at bed time !

RIP BlueBearr Jeff

Sadly I learnt Bluebear Jeff has passed away a few weeks ago. He had a lot of blogs which I followed and kindly helped me a few years ago sourcing information on various topics and scenarios. He will be missed and I hope he is at peace.

Its also been 3 years since Barry passed away. October is not a good month these days

RIP mates.

Identify Figures - Hinton Hunt \ Hinchcliffe ?

Hi,

I have Napoleonic Figures of many many manufacturers and when rifling through some boxes found some that I have no idea who has made them. I suspect two are Hinton Hunt but the rest most likely mini figs version 1 or Hinchcliffe - Any help would be great !

Scots Grey

 French General

 Unknown General 1.

 Unknown General 1.

In other news after a few visits to Archduke Piccilo the WSS forces are out and being made. I have had spare time recently but motivation still flutters around. However something bad is happening and that is 1/35 scale modelling as it is actually what my brother and I first started doing when we were 10 or 11. I am slowly making 1/35 scale figures for dioramas, for a reason that still alludes me BUT as we all know this thirst must be satisfied !. Peter Jackson and his Turks are to blame

Italian 10th Army

I seem to have picked up some motivation to actually complete a project before moving onto something else. I am really keen to complete my North African Italians as they:

• Are half completed
• I have everything I need already

So every night I have been solely working on them based simply on the fact my hobby board only has Italians on it. My basic plan to to complete everything on the board and then move on.

So far I have made a base coat and given them a decent earth wash (I am still experimenting with

I have also solved my Italian Truck issue by finding my old Friends "Corgi Cadbury" toy trucks. Cheap and nasty, while they are oversized a good dose of Desert Yellow and basing will see them blend in.  I remember my great uncle telling me as a child that in North Africa the Italians were using an ice ream delivery van to pull some small weapon \ trailer so it think is quite fitting,

A long awaited dream has also been completed in that I now have tankettes !. Since the quick build tanks were released I have wanted some but never purchased, however off Stan that dream is complete.

The rough plan for the Italians is

4 M13's
4 L33's
2 Semoventes
5 Infantry battalions
1 Artillery Batteries.

Reconnaissance is a problem though. Did you know its cheaper to buy a 1/35 scale Autoblinda model than a 1/72 one ?  I will have to go resin !

20mm and 6mm WW2

I am slowly getting back into painting on a regular basis with a greater effort being made to organize my projects and my paint supplies. I have wandered from project to project though, but that has been for more motivation purposes than any other reason.

Below is my painting desk that I use at night, clearing the whole lot up at the end of each night. This has been a pain to be honest, I cannot leave figures anywhere handy or stack them up easily. For some reason they get knocked over or crushed (well the spears bent) ...the source of this  mayhem is yet to be unmasked.

I recently visited the bring and buy and picked up some Matchbox 8th Army, as well as some Italian tankettes from Stan. These shall contribute very well to my North Africa 20mm forces that I have slowly kick started into life. Below are some SQH Tropical Italians and an Italeri M13 "quickbuild" that is nearing completion.  They should round out a small Italian force to compliment my DAK for some early war games against my Desert Rats and Australians.

I have had some thought of using Megablitz or Not Quite Mechanised for larger games, however I face the same problem in any ruleset. Support vehicles and trucks are simply not enough in numbers so I will base the North Africa forces for Command Decision and then simply see what happens if I use any other ruleset. 

However I did drag out my 6mm early war figures to see is they could be used for Larger actions, below is an initial test (on a poor photo) of the 7th Armoured in 1940. I am still missing a bit but of kit but have plenty on hand to make up the numbers. In 6mm I can at least field the one Armoured and two infantry divisions, the DAK and a two Italian infantry divisions. (Painting them a different colour from the base colour will also help)

The source of my storage frustrations soon became clear. Someone or something has taken a liking to sitting or investigating my things.

 

It does not matter how high or secluded a spot I place boxes , I find the tell-tale signs of white fur and knocked over figures.  It appears the cat likes to sit in the painting box (On the newspaper I place on top), I dreaded her thinking it was a litter tray but luckily she prefers to go in other, less suitable places. Alas our cat is deaf  and a little bit thick and so stays inside the whole time. Next door's cats (of which *someone* has 4) like to taunt our cat from the windows. So she likes to protect our house by mixing her scent with ours, which means.........(yes you guessed it)  weeing over clothes, desks and anywhere we frequent on a regular basis. Countermeasures to the other cats have since been planned, a blitzkrieg type of offensive might upset the locals so guerilla warfare consisting of water pistols, sprinklers and 6 year old in full charge will possible make a more peaceful solution.

Fluro Trees

Some years ago I found a rather cheap source of trees from China, so in true form I purchased a number of them. In hindsight they are cheap and BRIGHT, especially the fruit trees but they are slowly growing on me  .........over time. I need to base them up, as I need trees so I was thinking maybe spraying them with a little dark green to tone them down.

Speaking of bright colours - I am also pottering around with my old Minifig Guard units. I recently picked uo some spare figures to replace some losses and recently painted them up. However, the close up photo has me hissing as they look rough at guts. Lovely colours though, I really like the blue, green and reds I use these days (Vallejo and Citadel).

I did think of replacing them with new plastics but considering my army is made up of Hinchcliffe, Hotspur, Front Rank, Perry and Redoubt then I guess they fit in well enough ! Looking at the closeups I am amazed at some of the horrid lines and blotches, though I have started wearing glasses for driving I wonder if I need them for every day things (Or just better light).

Elf Reinforcemenrts and some grubby little orcs

So after years of taking poor photographs with  bad lighting and background, the power of google has me testing some methods of improving my pictures.

First up is the sky background (I forgot the scenic base but oh well).

I purchased some Elven Knights from 15mm.co.uk and painted them last week. Three Stands for Hordes\RRTK (none of my army lists have Elven Cavalry but I'll make something up as I go). I still have not mastered the art of armour, which is why my Mantic 28m Elven army is not moving very far (I suspect I might have to try this dipping method).

The yellow lances need some work and my horse painting ability still falls short.

I also needed some bigger Orcs to act as Fanatic\Heavy Orc infantry. 15mm.co.uk came to the rescue again with some large chaps that I tried to make black and evil looking. The photos however have me thinking they might need a little highlight here and there, plus some red or yellow eyes will go down quite well. I think they need that "We are nasty people *gnash gnash*" look, at the moment they look too bland.

Over the weekend I shall make a little photo box with a proper set up (The sky background kept falling over).

Cheers

Lindy Biege and small beginnings

So since my last epic adventure to Australia, I have been in Australia two more times in the last month or so. The novelty has worn off however my last trip was a holiday and this was very relaxing ,well deserved and I have returned motivated and keen to get myself back into it. I would be motivated to not work at all, sit in the sun and be a gentleman of leisure but somehow I believe my finances would disagree with me.

I started with organizing myself a little bit more and slowly getting some painting done, with  longer time being spent each week.At the moment I am now up to roughly three nights a week for about an hour which, compared to several years ago is not a lot I am finding it helping my productivity.

This all began since I have been watching a youtube channel of lindybeige.

A video entitled "Crap movie archery" (ha ha) was linked on the NZ wargamers forum and since then I have watched most of this person's channel and have found it thoroughly entertaining and knowledgeable. I know very little about ancient history, weapons and clothing so it has been very useful.  Of course I do not take every word he says as a definitive authority but it is quite evident "Lindy" is knowledgeable and humorous at the same time.

In a rare gaming event last night Mark and I managed to play a small Napoleonic game based around an 1809 French attack on some Austrians.I shall make another post on this game but needless to say French dash saved the day and left the Austrians gnashing their teeth on the way back to Vienna (Actually the Austrians stalled at crucial times while French infantry, that should have died several times over hung on for dear life !).

Below - Davout's Division surges into the French Centre, avoiding anything to do with large stone buildings.

For some reason, blogger won't let me post a hyperlink very well so Mark (Chasseur) blog is at http://chasseuracheval.blogspot.co.nz/.

15mm Fantasy

Hi,

I still have not done anything game related in some time but I am slowly thinking about things a little more and more, which is a start I think. I managed to find my 15mm pile and dragged out my Huns and Mountain Orcs for my RallyRoundTheKing campaigns so I will force myself to get into them over the weekend.

The Huns will be Hykar warriors and the Orcs will be just some bigger badder guys than my current lot.

The pound has also gotten very very low and this is a very very bad  sign for my finances :)

Cheers

Get back to it !

So I was sitting next to the fire the other night watching TV (I dont watch TV so its a novelty) and decided to at least try and get something done so I undercoated and then dry brushed an initial coat on some Ultramarines and Imperial Fists (Well generic Imperial type people).

A large overview photo but I hope by the end of the week to at least get some of them done and some decent photos up. One of my problems has been trying to paint 6 mm figures like they are 28mm so drybrushing is the new norm for these sci fi laddies. I will paint the other highlights\equipment on to give them a bit if "bling bling".



Cheers

No motivation

Alas the times of being busy are upon me again and I just simply had no motivation to do anything. I am also traveling far too much at the moment which is not helping.

Most evenings I either watch a movie or I have been working so whenever I look at the pile of figures\ paints it does not even register as being interesting. I am not sure if it is the knowledge that I need to spend a lot of hours of the day painting to get anywhere near finished or I am just approaching it all with the wrong mindset. I did think of starting again but then the light bulbs in our ceiling keep blowing (right above where I sit) and I have not had a chance to get a decent lamp.

However I think I just need to get down to it !


Cheers

No frills wargaming

Hi,

The problem I have always had with my solo gaming has been the ill placed wish to have Wargames Illustrated \ Perfect terrain for my solo wargames. It has taken some time but the reality has dawned that I am simply unable to have that type of layout (Let alone the space for a table) or the money to buy all that nice stuff. So I need to scale down my plans, play more and least enjoy it all.

So in an effort to get gaming and not worry about terrain I grabbed an old drafting pad and simply drew things on. I do have trees and buildings and such but my initial plan was just to see how it all looked on paper.

Below are the initial test using some 10mm vehicles (Railway supplies).

Below - President Key's convoy speeds past some parked cars

Paramilitary Police Roadblock

The Defense Forces new T-98 tank donated by President Piccilo, loyal ally.

So after the above I decided to play a game. I found my 15mm zombie box and tried out on of the initial scenarios - "First Contact". Now as zombie games all seem to be set in America I have changed it all to by a local scenario.

Below the map. Two wargamers, Jack and Mark have been at the Woolston club for a Napoleonic Refight and decide to avoid the Clubs "DEEP FRIED" culinary delights and head to a local sandwich shop.  Paul parks his sports car and they head off for a healthy lunch, as the leave they notice too odd looking people. Now unsure if they are simply teenagers submersed in "modern technology" or Mormon missionaries annoying pleasant locals, Paul and Mark don't pay much attention to them.

But  a low groaning sees the two figures shamble towards out two heroes. Still unsure if these are in fact mindless teenagers (Mormons would not shamble and are not dressed in their customary attire) it is only when a few yards away the undead look to them is apparent.

Now as Napoleonic gamers have giant brains (Need to remember all that lace and plume) the zombies charge for a hearty feast and the lads, cool as a cucumber get ready for melee. Mark socks the first zombie and his head pops off, and the two soon see off the other with a good dose of Linwood Step dancing.

They spring back to the car, eager to return to the club and finish off the game.

 As the car starts,more zombies appear but they are not fast enough to catch our likely lads. One zombie is on the road though but he gets driven over as they really need to finish their game to pack up by 5pm.

So my first game of "All Things Zombie" and it was okay. I'd like to try some bigger games (and have some guns) and link some stories together but it was a goo start. I also have 15mm.co.uk USEME zombie rules (That I cannot find) so I'd like to try the same scenario with those)

Kings of War Elf test figures and more ACW

Hi,

I picked up a small Mantic Elf army as they were on sale and then ran into the issue in that I have never painted an large scale armoured figures. Thin figures but they look the part so I made up the archer pack and thought I would test some out.
My attempts at painting the first two figures was disappointing as my painting style simply did not work.

So looks like I need to watch some youtube videos or try some washes instead.


My efforts on my Union troops has meandered through the realms of time and space, but have I have managed to finish my first three.  The left unit is varnished and the other two need a good dose to protect them from gaming, cats and children.

Warflag supplied the Standards and I use some 15mm scale Ancient wire spears for the pole (The spear turned upside down and jammed into the plastic base).

Also some Cavalry have been completed with the bonus of dismounted men and horse holders.

Herzogtum Rechburg

Some years ago now Barry (Baztay in most forums) dragged me into his imagination campaign area of Rechburg. It was  a large island full of large nations of which there were several players though the campaign fizzled out due to some player conflict and the scope of the whole thing. We often fought battles using Napoleonic troops and it was fun, the campaign itself was later changed to Barry's solo effort with myself and Archduke Piccillo playing small parts when Barry needed input. Roughly at the same time Archduke Piccillo purchased a horde of 28mm WSS figures, which of course resulted in my purchase and likewise Barry joining in.

Alas shortly after Barry became ill and before he passed away he gave me his figures with a general (as I recall) guideline of :

"Wife will throw these out when I'm gone, I tried to paint them but they are terrible so you take them, paint them and play with them. Paint a general figure as me and for fucks sake make me look good"

So my I have been working on it ...slowly and after 3 years I have made a good start.

Rechburg, Army of the South 1707. 

Below is his Royal Highness Prince Baztay Constantine of Herzogtum Rechburg at the head of his bodyguard, the Prince Constantine Infantry Battalion.

(I painted the general a long time ago but have finally finished his troops, the rest of the army is undecided as I was going to have my figures as Battle of Almansa Spanish however I have decided to assign a Spanish contingent  to Rechburg (with the Rechburgian natives looking a lot like French).

So in this time of need for the small Nation, his Imperial majesty Charles II had sent a small detachment to Rechburg to help protect his interests in the region. The first unit sent was the magnificent Morados Viejos in a rather splendid garb of Violet\Purple with red facings.

So, more to come as I paint them !

The longest project

Hi,

My plastic 1/72 ACW is the oldest army that I have now (The 1/72 Napoleonic forces are long gone and replaced by something heavier and four time the size). I began playing the Archduke Piccolo sometime in the 90's and I recall had around 12 units and a few guns. The army then survived a decade of storage as I traveled the world but has taken me a good 10 years to sort out. A recent purchase of Airfix ACW figures has also satisfied a wish list item of getting some.

A recent burst of enthusiasm has seen the completion of a decent sized force. 12 Infantry Regiments and a few guns. I still have around another 12 Infantry Regiments, 4 Cavalry and about 8 guns left to do. Simple 90's basing was simple green paint and simple paint jobs and I have followed the same style for the new figures. ( They have that toy soldier look that I always admired in the early war-games books of Featherstone and Grant).

Below - The Current Pile - A mixture of 1990 basing and 2008 Basing (I seemed to change my mind a lot). The flags are all mostly glued on half an hour ago apart from some old hand painted ones done in 1994.

 The Oldest Units - Mid 90s at least. The Esci figures are even older as I recall having them when I was around 13 (I just turned 40).

 The "newest" - Italeri (new figures) and Airfix (second hand).

So a few more hundred to go and then the Union can be finished (But I have already started).

Cheers

Progress

Hello,

I have actually spent some time having spare time !.  I decided to  get back into painting to actually have a break from things and I am going quite well  so far. I have not played a game in since Christmas but so far I have painted around 60 28mm figures but I have been lazy and not taken any photos.

Currently on my list are

• 28mm WSS Figures
• 28mm Napoleonic Prussians
• 1/72 ACW
• 28mm Mantic Elves

 In my free time I have also been increasing my numbers of home cast Prince August figures for my small Dutch army. On the leap day they had a 50% of Sale so I purchased some of their new British Dragoons which don't look too bad. I need to make an appointment with the Archduke so we can test cast some figures. These are new moulds (the previous ones were pretty brutal) so I can see tonight how they come out.

Hopefully once my Prussian army is sorted out I can move onto the Russians and have my two allied armies 100% completed.I have not touched on the other 15 or so "projects" that litter my storage room. However tomorrow I am playing Advanced Squad Leader which should get a taste for some games in.

Painting And Casting

I have been trying to get some painting going but it has been very warm in the evenings so I only did  a little. First on my list is to finish some of the spare Prussians I have as I did complete half of them last year for Waterloo.

 Tonight however I decided to increase my numbers of Dutch and British prince august. They are very basic figures but have a 1970's charm about them that I like.

The casting area.

 First mistake - Clamps in the wrong place, second mistake is to forget lead is hot.

 The finished product -  4 line each and some standards.

As I only have a mold each its a slow process. I might add the Dutch to the Prussians tomorrow to get some of them done.

1/72 WW2 painting tests

In my teenage years I had tonnes of 1/72 WW2 figures  which unfortunately were mostly crushed when I was overseas (Big box places on little boxes). I did manage to salvage a lot but it has been a 10 year process of looking at them and ignoring them completely.

So in these rather blurry days I seem to be having I thought if I can slowly work through some I could at least have enough for some smaller games.The test vehicles below. 2 freshly made Italeri quick build Sherm,ans, a freshly made Airfix Chi-Ha and a 20 year old JgPzIV (plus some 20mm SHQ Japanese infantry to bolster my IJA).

 I undercoated the JgPz and then used black wash to get in all the cracks, hatches and divets. Once that was dry a quick touch of Dunkelgelb and I then did an initial bone colored highlight. This resulted in the below but I was not happy as I felt it needed some camouflage loaded on it (To also hide bad painting)

 Some dabbling of brushes and a highlight later below is the almost completed tank. Hopefully I can scrounge or hand paint some markings to make it look good. The final piece of the puzzle is then the running gear underneath that I ignored completely.

 So, at the best of my ability I quite like it and hope to tidy up some more survivors to someday field a small German force.

One WW2 Theater that I did take an interest in was the Pacific. So far I have several battalions of Japanese infantry, some guns but I was lacking a tank. So as a test I picked up a Chi-Ha and made it in one evening with the result below. Its another "test tank" but once I sort  out the pesky Airfix tracks and finish the thing off I think it will look quite good.

All I need to do is finish some US Marines, Australians  and  KNIL with a view to having some small CD games.