Musings of a Fool

 

 I have not blogged regularly since 2022, Covid-19 and other things have either sucked away my time and motivation, as well as children growing into teenagers.  Travel and a heavy workload took its toll, as well as purchasing a 100-year-old property to renovate last year.

 Painting has been erratic, with bouts of heavy work and then nothing for months at a time. Gaming-wise, I think I have played 2-3 games a year, mostly 28mm Napoleonic and a single 15mm ACW game. My house has taken a lot of time, though a year in now so I know what needs doing. A developer could easily bowl it and make 5 shitty apartments, but where is the adventure in that.

 I've always enjoyed the painting side of the hobby in truth, I have armies painted that have never seen a game. Too many armies and gears to be honest, as at times the hobby has been an unhealthy one, as it was always easy to buy and paint and ignore the real world. Also having around 20+ projects has not helped, so slowly I am reducing my stocks. I have enjoyed the games over the last few years; I am lucky to have a good group of like-minded players. I did branch out a good few years ago to try new things but found I didn't have time or simply got tired of games being used by players to yell about their latest political or social "expose".

  Over time I have a found a good balance, while PC games can be fun, I'd rather paint, and then mixed with regular life a good way to unwind. I traditionally used to paint as a teen while watching cricket on free TV, not days everything needs a subscription and cash, so I simply listen\watch YouTube.

 Some highlights.

 A 28mm Spanish 1812 army was slowly built, packed with religious undertones. 

 

My lord the eyes on that fellow, he must have been on the holy wine the night before.

A visit to Singapore and their museum, with a replica Type 95 Ha-Go, used in the series "Pacific.

A visit to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo

An exciting Valour and Fortitude game using Warlord Epic battles

 

An exciting adventure under the floor of my house, where the 37cm crawl space allowed me to insulate under a floor. As part of this I stapled the insulation to my finger, hilarity ensued, who needs finger nails anyway. I replaced the floor of the lounge, 100 year old Native Rimu was past its sell by date and I also needed to evict the borer. Only 3 more room floors to go ! Then the walls.

 

 

 Lead paint removal, gib linings, insulation, rewire, house leveling. Why did I do this again ?

Painting Options

As I have recently returned to 1/72 scale for armies in a number of solo periods the issue of painting them has come up again. While I paint 15mm and 28mm in a certain why, the beauty and attraction of 1/72 is being able to create and paint largish armies quite simply and quickly.

While my Napoleonic figures can be painted to some degree of detail my WW2, ACW, Fantasy and other armies don't need as much so I am going to experiment on them by using Army painter Quickshade.It has mixed reviews but recently I have seen several posts regarding it and the results look quite good.

After reading a few posts on blogs and forums I followed the recommended technique and applied it using a brush, dried and followed with a Matt Varnish. I then wanted to see what they looked like to decide if I need to highlight any colours.

I was suprised how shiny the quicktone made the figure but with varnish (applied properly) they looked quite good. So I tried a number of different periods and figures to see Quickshade fared.

 1. Italeri CSA Infantry (Good result)

 2. Esci Union Infantry (50/50 Result - Something about them nags at me)

 3. Esci Soviet Infantry (Good result)

 4. HAT\Airfix Napoloenic (Good result though I may highlight lighter colours as I like bright figures)

 5. A Italeri CSA cavalryman. (Great result).

 6. An Italeri Prussian Infantryman (Good result for an awful figure).

 So, I am quite pleased with the process. I was able to paint the these figures very quickly whcih was great, quicktone dry (1 day) and varnish dry (1 day). I am pretty confident I can finish the rest of the Napoleonic and ACW armies very quickly.

Then I can get back into my 300 or so 28mm Prussians I need to start.

Painting Space Marines for Fun and Practice.

Over the last 20 years I have picked up a few Spare marine figures as I simply liked them and wanted to paint them. I recall I have about 20 of these so I decided recently to paint one figure each for the Chapters (Regiments I guess) I liked to look of. This was also a practice session on getting back into painting larger figures as recently I have only been painted small or slender figures but trying some of these GW you-tube tutorials at the same time to see techniques I could try on historic figures as well as try some better Red, yellow, blue and gold layers.

So I pulled a few out and decided to paint a Dark Angel (green), Space Wolf (Blue grey) an Ultramarine (Blue), A Crimson Fist (Yellow), A Salamander (Light green), a Blood Angel (Red) and finally a Space Wolf terminator. (The big thing). They are not finished but as its been hot and I have not been painting I played with the camera anyway.

The Space Wolf marine with hand painted shoulder pads. Looks like straight lines are not my forte !

 Though on the other shoulder pad I did hand paint a wolfs head which is practice for a greater project of hand painting my own Historical Standards instead of printing them off from Warflag.(I am slowly getting better at yellow shades though on close up I am not so sure.). When I was a teen everything was manually done so I want to head back in that direction.

 

The Blood Angel where I used several types of Red paints  and some gold layers.

The UltraMarine - trying out some new blues and different Gold techniques.

 Another hand painted shoulder pad insignia.

 The Terminator so far.

 I was in the mood to do these as they have been around far too long, but it was good fun getting the lighter colours out and trying some different things.

I am off to the States in two days for a week. It shall be interesting to be in winter again !

New ACW 20mm Regiments and clearout.

Merry Christmas and New Years to everyone.

My daughter fractured her elbow on the 27th so the holidays have been slightly underwhelming for her but all in all she has been in good spirits and pain free. I have not had a war-game in a long time but painting has restarted as I no longer wear the wrist brace.So I have been working full time in getting my ACW Union troops ready for some small skirmishes (using Archduke Piccilo's solo campaign as motivation.).

I finished the figures and then use Matt Gloss spray on them , leaving them to dry in the garage. As the sun caught the figures it was a brilliant view -  Long lines of gray, sky blue and red all based and ready to go, I was quite chuffed  to be honest and I am not sure if it is simply having finished a large batch or my love of bright colours.

The figures are a mismatch of makers  and I painted one from each maker, with perhaps another 8 other units to complete (Mostly Airfix and Italeri). I have not named any units yet as I was too busy painting them.

 Revell Infantry Regiment.

 Esci Regiment.

 Airfix Artillery Battery. (I have not separated the single bases yet)

 Airfix Generals. (From Artillery Set I recall).

An Italeri Zouave unit and a good old Airfix Regiment.

A little tidy up to do and then straight into the box to make 7 Infantry Regiments ready. I will then varnish and base the Rebels up and have a small game.

Motivation is abundant here at the moment as I am also working on Command Decision 1/72 WW2 figures - more to come !. But I have also finally decided its time to clear some stuff and make room and fund other needs.

Most likely to go will be the Mantic Elf army I purchased 1 year ago (and painted 20 figures), my 6mm WW2, most likely 15mm Colonial (Unpainted) and a pile of space marines I have gathered over the years.

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.

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.

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.

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

15mm Madness

I've been painting a plethora of 15mm figures as thanks to Colin for his hosting of our after work games. I must say 15mm are my favourite scale to paint to be honest - large enough for great detail and shading but small enough not to drive you insane on detail. Of course this won't stop me painting stupid amounts of 28mm but dreams are free of course.
 
The figure below is a result but unfortunately the matt varnish (Humbrol) seems to have faded some of the detail and made it quite shiny.

 So onwards to Hordes of Things and the such. I've been finishing my fantasy armies and they are all contained in one box now as I need to take them to Archduke Piccilos to talk 15mm Byzantines for wargames.

 Plus the occasional large battle Hordes of Things which I often lose as I am still getting used to quick kill and melee combat.

Don't worry about the big blue guy in the pic - he was naff all.

New Camera Joy

I'm having great fun with this camera as now I can take photos anywhere and anyway I please.

In between Turks I painted a space marine off a GamesWorkshop Youtube clip. I played a single game of 40k in 1996 - I can't stand the game but I have 20 Space Marines simply as I wanted to paint them. I've yet to master a decent lighting system for my photos yet.

 Next are the 100 or so Hotspur french for the Waterloo re-fight. They have been undercoated black and have had the dry brush of grey on the black bits as per Chasseurs Painting guide. I am following this for a large task to see if I can save any time or better my own processes.

 As such for Waterloo I need 14 Generals. So the old classics are being retouched and below is an old figure. I don't know the make - it almost looks like Hinchcliffe.

2 minifig Guard units ready to be blacklines (Im not repainting these guys - just a subtle blackline)

 And I found a bag of these lads. Very old figures and I have yet to determine the make.

Next task - more 28mm French Allies.

The best photo my phone can take - My current phase of getting the 28mm French allies back up to scratch.

I'm not into all this ipad\iphone nonsense - all it needs to to is ring and  text hence low quality photos ! Hopefully I can find my old point and shoot soon or pick up a cheap replacement.

 A new round of troops to be finished\started.

96 Hinchcliffe Saxons(Reg du Roi, Reg Von Low, Reg Prince Max, Reg Prince Auguste)
14 Perry French Hussars (10th Hussars)
24 Minifig French Legere (8th Legere Regiment)
24 Hotspur French Line. (84th Line Regiment)
24 1/72 Confederate Cavalry
15 or so 28mm casualties.

A real mix of manufacturers and why I love this army - build up over 25 years from different sources and countries. Front rank are nice figures but once you paint 24 you get bored, I like the variety different manufacturers can bring.

The time frame to do this is 2 - 3 weeks. Some big nights will be needed but its why this army is in this state - I've only done a unit here and there over the last 4 years - I need one big hit and another third of the task will be done.

February will be a crap month as I'll be in French territory perfecting my pigeon conversational skills.

28mm Perry ACW - 83rd Pennsylvania.

Hi,

Last year I was going to play in the Gettysburg Refight, I had some figures painted but then Pneumonia struck and and I simply faded out for a good few months. I found the figures last week and decided to finish them off and then sell them to anyone who would actually use them.

I used the same painting techniques on these as my 15mm so they are very blue. However on my various trips to the States I have seen all shades of Union uniforms so I think they are fine . Perry figures are a joy to paint, but after 6mm/15mm I forgot how much space a painted and based 28mm unit will take up.

(I am also amazed that my camera (held together by medical tape) managed to take such good photos)

I can't remember who I got the flags off but they are good. I d need to finish them off as there were glued on but not tidied up afterwards. (I should have really put the flags bases in the right position for my photo).

28mm figures look bloody great don't they.  I won't do ACW in 28mm (20mm and 6mm are enough) but it was good fun painting them up, if a year late that is.

I'm looking at my Napoleonics and WSS with Envy but I need to finish a lot of other things off first. I do need to rebase my Napoleonics first and also finish off the Allied Armies (Prussian, Russian and British) but as it means at painting 300 figures and rebasing 800 or so I'm not really THAT motivated.

Cheers