Merry Xmas and happy New Year

Belated as per usual but I have been on banks Peninsular since Xmas Eve and have only now got internet at the holiday house in stunning Timaru. As such I don't have any figures or paints with me so it will be a week at least until I can get painting again. I plan to have fun with my family at Caroline Bay, sit on the beach and get as much sleep as I can.

Have a safe new years everyone.

Below are my 15mm Peter Pig Ansars and Tribesmen, a photo I found on the camera !

Pics

 So finally I got the camera out and have taken a tonne of pictures which I will post over the next few days. It was a really nice day today but I didn't get a chance to take any pics outside which is why my late night pictures are pretty poor. I'm in a pretty bad mood at the moment so my commentary will be brief.

I'm getting into some more 15mm Napoleonic, I started these guys 6 months ago and I have forgotten what unit they are (Idiot!). The figures are Old Glory Wurtenburgers but I must have had grand plan to make them something else (and never noted what I was doing - Idiot !). The figures are undercoated and ready for shading and the works. (I'm painting 12 at a time)

I also found a very very very old unit of Italian Grenadiers so I have touched them up a little and hope to base them this week. They look fairly tired in this photo so hopefully based en mass they will smarten up  a bit.

 My flagsofwar standards also arrived so these have been glued onto the bases. Once the glue is set I will tidy the flags up by touching up the gold edges of the flags to make them more realistic instead of paper printout looking.( The unit is the 83rd Pennsylvania )

 I have also just about finished another two stands, a few corrections here and there will help...

 as well as some more shading on some faces.......

 Close up of the Colour party. Foolishly I didn't check my figure positioning when making the bases and I wish I had of uses another officer figure as his clone is on the other side.

Christmas Surprises

So November 4 I ordered another box of Perry 28mmm ACW from caliverbooks, Until I received this order I held off on the ACW painting (Added of course by my shaky thumb), a week later I was also tempted by a Peter pig 20% discount and some Irregular Miniatures 15mm Jungle animals. These were my xmas presents to myself and I left it at that.

Peter Pig arrived promptly as always, Irregular arrived but no Perry............so I placed it down to a small delay certain parcels get from time to time. I then took advantage of a mightyape.co.nz deal and ordered some Flames of War desert buildings - they contacted me and said it would be 2-3 weeks until they could send - which was fine for me - I'd get my ACW and then after Xmas some FoW - Everyone is a winner or so they say :).

They are pre-painted, yes its a little lazy of me but that's what money os for.

Mmm Dec 7 and still no Perry...........so I contacted Caliver and they apologised as my order was processed but nothing happened to it - BUGGER. Then a knock at the door and there was a FoW Desert Building package from mightyape being delivered 4 DAYS after ordering - HUZZAH. So I guess the Positive and Negative forces of wargaming luck have shown themselves today.


So I now need to make another Caliver order for some ACW and a box or two of 28mm plastic WSS figures that two people talked me into getting (well to be honest they only mentioned it, I talked myself into it very quickly.)

I have also tonight done a nights painting with no shakes - things are looking up. Hopefully I will have some pictures up.

The Twitch !

What is happening at the moment. Not a lot, I seem to be suffering some sort of nervous twitch in my left thumb which makes painting and holding figures steadily almost impossible. I did try however, but I would go to paint an Ansar’s rifle, twitch just as brush bristles touched led and then end up painting brown on his clothes. I had to revert to basing  (for spraying) and  undercoating new figures and painting the base coat on completed bases but based figures suck up a lot more space than when they are new in a bag so I’ve actually run out of storage boxes. There has also been some grumbling in the camp by my civilian camp followers about the space I am taking up in the kitchen, and I have been warned that a mutiny may occur.

Before the dreaded twitch I was going all out to finish my 15mm Zulu and Dervish armies and I made some headway, but alas I am now laying low until I can’t paint twitch free again. The Dervishes are Peter Pig and they are such a nice figures, I  whinged to myself that one of the figures had flash on the front and back (I’ve never seen flash on a PP figure before) so got out the old knife and pruned away. I then decided to engage my brain and realised as this particular tribesman was nude, then perhaps the “flash” at the front was actually his crown jewels and so I only pruned the flash at the front. I guess I just assumed it was flash and didn’t really have my 15mm figure penis check mind set on.

So I am currently just reading blogs and doing paperwork for solo campaigns I intend to run. One of those campaigns is to redo my Jaxonia Ubongo campaign as the last time I did it I seemed to have tremendous luck. On rereading the rules I found I had made a few mistakes and left out jungle encounters completely, but as I now have a bag of Jungle animals from Irregular Miniatures it looks like gorillas, crocodiles and various others beasts will also pray on the poor soldiers.

Its pretty boring with a twitchy thumb !

First ACW based and 15mm Altenguard Army.

So seeing as though have a tonne of stuff painted but not based properly I thought I'd spend the next session sorting some of this stuff out. First off I found the 28mm Russian 1812 Horse Artillery, filled my paint tray with dark brown and then proceeded to drop the first figure in head first - %&$^&!.

Then I did it again (%&$@! x 2) and gave up on the Napoleonic as I needed to clean two figures and it gave me the hump.

So I have based the first four bases of the 29th Pennsylvania. The standards are in the post at the moment, and when they arrive I will finish the pole as well as sort out Officer and NCO chevrons etc. I've gone for a plain old grass scheme with a few weeds and clumps of brush, typical sheep country !.

So I have another 20 figures to paint from the first box and the second box to go.

I then moved onto a 15mm Rally Round the King Army - Altenguard (basically based on 100YW English) - lots of bows, a few men at arms and a commander, I based the Brethren (Religious Paladin types) Knights as well as for some reason they were in the wrong box.

 I also noticed that the spears\spikey points all need fixing - yay. I also need to adorn the pike with a standard of some type.

Unfortunately I was a bit robotic now and accidentally based 3 Goblin Archer stands in the same grass theme so I called it a night there as I wanted to give them a rock\cave based theme. Looking at the RRTK boxes I have the following to finish.

Goblin (Bases to be flocked)
Border Kingdoms (Norman)
Elf
Dwarf
Imperium (Roman)

If less is more, then more must be awesome.

So onwards and upwards. I have been quite busy on the painting table, but rather lazy taking photos.

I have started to paint the bases of my 20mm Japanese, and then realised I have never done jungle bases before so will need some different decor. This is quite good timing as I need some tufts and flowers etc to make the lads below look pretty on their bases. The figures (16) are only 60% done as I still have to add the final shade\highlight layer, blanket rolls, brass n boots and head wear to go. The faces will also get a slight wash in some places, especially elephant man on the far left hand side.  only 56 to go :). My blues are quite light, but I'm happy with it, I have spent some time in museums around the USA in my traveling days and that good old blue uniform did vary considerably. I spent a lot of time in Alabama too over the course of a few years but rue the day I didn't buy that kepi in that trinket store.

And you can never have a Napoleonic 15mm army without Italians ............

So hopefully I'll bash out the rest of these Unions lads over the next few weeks, and I need to finalize my Peter Pig order. I've often wondered why he never seemed to advertise specials, but now I seem to have been in on a lucky discount draw and have got a hefty discount for one order only - HUZZAH !

Magpie !

My daughter ended up with Viral Pneumonia which meant a few days in hospital, then lucky for me I was then sick over the long weekend with said virus. So finally after 10 or so days off I have got the paints out again. I also squeezed in a game for the Rechburg Dynasty (http://rechburg.blogspot.co.nz/2012/10/battle-of-ulrichstein.html) in which I tried my hand at carrying a positions with the bayonet enforce. The only thing I carried was  a crap load of crap dice - I was rolling 40 odd dice in a turn and was getting maybe 2x 6's, while Barry '6's' Taylor seemed to not get anything apart from a 6. Such is life - I took a chance and relied on luck and ended up with a bloody nose.
Painting
I shall endeavor to finish off these ww2 Japanese, I thought I needed figures but found a large bundle of SHQ 50mm mortars so was able to finish the first battalion. Below a 4 Company battalion, with attached weapons company and Regimental assets (MMG and 75mm gun). The figures are a mix of Airfix, Esci, Italeri and SHQ. I also need to plan how I decorate the bases as it will be jungle themed which I have never done before.

 I have split the figures into two types of uniform - a jungle green of sorts and the good old "Japanese uniform\ochre. So far I have only finished the Jungle green outfit, I should have enough for a full regiment (3 battalions) all up and then I can start on the KNIL\Aussies.

 What ho ! I found this stand in my Napoleonics - I cheeky vignette of a Aristocrat and his buxom Friend. I need to sort out my pirates and get some games on (Job number 1000000 in my list of things to do)

 Talking of things to do - what are these below............

The Rebel Barracks team are planning a 28mm Gettysburg Re-fight next year and I am tempted to join in. I don't plan to have a 28mm ACW army (as 6mm, 15mm and 1/72 are enough !) but I have always fancied these figures (Its those bloody Perry\Victrix Napoleonic that started this) so I purchased a box to see how they fare. Just like the Napoleonic Perry - very nice to paint (of course my Napoleonics are sitting half done after 2 years cough cough). So I'll paint a box for the entertainment ;)

Take care.