About Me

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London, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
A mythical beast - a female wargamer! I got back into wargaming in the summer of 2011 after a very, very long break and haven't looked back since. I must admit that I seem to be more of a painter/collector than a gamer, but do hope to correct that at some point in the near future. My gaming interests span the ages, from the "Biblical" era all the way through to the far future. I enjoy games of all sizes, from a handful of figures up to major battles (see my megalomaniacally sized Choson Korean and Russian Seven Years War armies).

Monday 12 March 2012

Has anyone seen my painting mojo? Campaign FoG team tourney

I don't know what it is, but I'm finding it hard to motivate myself to paint right now. It could be that I'm just feeling a bit under the weather. It could be that the number of horses I have on the painting table is subconsciously daunting me. It could be that after two months of painting Sarmatians I've hit a boredom factor. Whatever it is, it's annoying me as I have all those horses still to complete.

In case it is just boredom, I've decided to take a mini-break from the horses and other Sarmatian stuff (well, once I've finished painting the horse tack - 18 done, 63 to go - it takes ages to do this step as you are trying to avoid getting the leather colour onto the horse flesh) and paint up something else from the lead pile.

Looking through the various bags, I realised that the Chumbondas from Wargames Supply Dump* which I bought late last year would make a good, quick, fun set to paint up so I've given them a quick clean up and they are now drying. With the weather having warmed up, I should be able to use sprays again (woohoo!!) so might get round to priming them tomorrow morning.

The figures are very nice sculpts, no mould lines and the only flash I found was little nubs on the underside of the bases which barely justify getting out a file to remove them. The bases already have texture and are the same size as the washers I'd normally stick them onto - the only reason to put them on washers is for transporting them in magnetised boxes. I'll probably decide later on whether I'll bother.


*I didn't include a link to their website as it is "under construction", but they are trading - you just need to email them at wsd50@yahoo.co.uk


Edit to add: I knew there was something else!!

Campaign FoG Team Tourney

The club were looking for two volunteers to join our second team for the FoG:AM team tournament at Campaign in May. So I volunteered. This tournament looks quite an interesting set-up. It's held in one of the halls in a big shopping centre in Milton Keynes, with 3 games on the Saturday and 2 on the Sunday. You play as teams of 3, with each member playing one of three themes (1 classical ancients, 1 early AD, 1 medieval) with a limited selection of army lists that you can choose from. As the classical ancients slot was taken, I looked at the other two lists and noticed that the early AD included the Early Alan list. Hmmm, the Alani were one of the Sarmatian tribes. A quick look at the relevant book showed me that I should be able to use my existing figures quite easily, although I will need to get some more light horse (which I was planning to do anyway).

This should be an interesting experience I think...........

13 comments:

  1. You know... that's the main reason I never got into historicals. I never did have the attention span to sit down and paint large, uniform forces. Sci fi lets me work with much smaller batches, and I get to be as ridiculous as I want with the color schemes. :)


    -Chris K.

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  2. You might find it easier to paint the tack first and then paint the horse flesh. It works for me. That way, you won't have to worry so much about going over the lines and getting tack paint onto horse flesh cos you'll just be getting tack paint on the undercoat.

    Bit late now though. Should have mentioned that a while back. A change of subject matter sounds like just what you need.

    Interesting concept for a tournament by the why. Incidently, you're just as bad as a gaming mag yourself. Now you've got me thinking about expanding my DBA Thessilian's into a proper FoG army. Do you have any idea how long it's going to take me to paint up all those 15mm bases? And with my limited spare time too.

    Shame on you Tamsin.

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  3. Yep sounds like you need a diversion. I actually said to my wife yesterday that I thought the qty of horse you were doing seemed way to many in one go. I have the same problem with the pike blocks. 250+ star shields is not something I would want to do it one go, but I would take that on before doing about 100 sets of tack!!

    Good luck with doing something else, if then it still seems like a drag with the horse, split into 4 and just work on one quarter at a time

    Ian

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  4. @Chris - totally agree on the sci-fi, but I've always wanted to do ancients

    @Lead Legion - I had thought about doing the tack first, but the chances are I'd just get the body colour paint all over that!

    And sorry for being a bad influence! :)

    @Ian - yup, it probably was a mistake doing this many in one go. It's only the tack stage that needs to be split up really; the rest is pretty quick and easy and naturally breaks into smaller batches.

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  5. The painting mojo is a big thing in our hobby, currently the painting challenge I'm in has seriously kicked it in the crackers and it finishes on the 20th and I will be painting scenery and no figures for a while but the mojo comes back eventually....

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    1. Fran - once the nags (and their riders) are finished I might actually do some terrain work, plenty of styrofoam sitting around waiting to be carved into hills.

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  6. Against boredom, I think the best is to change period for a time. I have the reversed problem: a lot of projects at the same time and no boredom.

    Best regards, and good luck with the tacks.

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    1. That's me, I am painting mostly WWII 28mm and Ancients 15mm, so the Nap 6mm is really making me itch. I also keep seeing the ECW 15mm jumping up and down out of the corner of my eye.

      As soon as the 20th is past though, I also have to get on to some scenery, olive groves and vinyards. All good fun

      Ian

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  7. I am still looking at a load of 28mm Afrika Korps I need to finish off to sell - but working again means I get home knackered and not in the mood.

    But my little samurai army has now arrived so the incentive is to finish the Korps so I can begin with the Samurai. BANZAI!

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    1. Well, working does mean that you can afford to buy things to add to the leadpile for those times when you aren't! I know what you mean about the tiredness - when I began my return to work (and for a week or so after each increase in hours since then) I was getting home knackered and not in the mood to paint.

      Looking forward to seeing your Baccus Samurai painted up, so crack on with those DAKs!

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  8. I have a sort of anti-mojo for painting that I have to fight off to get some painting done. It fades away slightly when I get some new interesting figures, but it's magnitude seems to be in proportion to the amount of unpainted lead I've got in my pile (so I'm ultimately doomed!)

    Never mind, I've got an order of some good looking Khurasan stuff in the post that will help to push down the anti-mojo.

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  9. I think painting 81 horses is bound to make your enthusiasm wane as it is taking time to see 1 of them finished, but they will be worth it in the end.

    Like has been said already, paint something different for a wee while, then perhaps go back and paint 10 Sarmatians to completion. Then paint something different again, finish it and go back to some Sarmatians. Before you know it you'll have them done and a pile of other figures as well.

    Mind you, this is coming from someone who took over 30 years to finish painting the first figures he ever received......

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