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 3 September 2012

On the Workbench 3-9-2012

I've been pretty busy the last couple of evenings doing figure prep and assembly (and still more to do) so I've decided to pop along to the club tonight to play Saga - a couple of us are going to try some 6 point games, which should be interesting.

So, what's on the workbench?

L to R: 2 "musket-only" regiments; figures for 2 bases of dragoons; 2 strips of figures for ambush markers (goats, sheep, pigs and chickens with herdsmen); 4 strips with figures and bits for supply camp bases. These have all been primed with gesso which will need to cure for another 24 hours before I do any painting.

In the front are two wagons which I've already started work on. Rather than priming with gesso, I went straight in with Humbrol spray paints - basecoat of Dark Brown all over (including underside), followed by a "dusting" with Desert Tan. Before sticking them on bases for painting, I gave the underside a good spray with gloss varnish to seal it. Once the glue had dried, I did an brown ink wash, although it doesn't seem to have been very effective, possibly because the basecoat is so dark. I'm hoping that the brown/black mix in my Klear will do the job. I'll be dry-brushing the wood and tarpaulin in various shades to help bring out the detail, then doing the wheel rims. I won't be transferring them to their final bases immediately as I've got a pair of draft horses on one of the "camp bits" sticks that will need to be added at the same time.

My order from Timecast arrived this morning. Well, most of it did - I'd ordered two packs of gabions, but only received one. They were very helpful when I phoned up and the missing one should be going in the post today or tomorrow. Also in the pic are a pack of corn stooks and a pack of hay ricks. I've already washed these in warm soapy water to remove any mold release agents. I'll probably spray prime these rather than brushing on gesso, then hit them with appropriate spray paints for the basecoats. After that it will be a mix of dry-brushing and washes to finish them.

Also in the order (not shown) was a pack of graveyard accessories (headstones, plinths, sarcpohagi) which I thought might come in useful. Hmmm, maybe I need to order a church?

Some part-prepped figures - excess sprue and flash snipped off, bases filed flat. Now they just need to have the rest of the flash and any mold lines dealt with, before washing them overnight in soapy water, drying off and priming with gesso. these are the extra musketeers and pikemen to make up my three 6-base foot regiments to 9-base ones.

Over the rest of the week my plan is to get as much of my remaining 30YW lead prepped and primed as I can, to finish off painting the wagons, to paint up some of the camp bits and ambush markers and maybe to paint up the command figures for the musket-only regiments. I also need to work out what paints and bits I need to take with me to the TUC for painting the musket-only regiments.




8 comments:

  1. Good Lord I wish I had your levels of productivity!

    I think I get 5 or 6 figures painted in the time it takes you to do complete armies...

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  2. Hhm? Corn stooks, I can feel a small Timecast order in the making!!

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  3. Always impressive what you have going on here.. just churning out an impressive amount of models at all times.. good luck with this batch!

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  4. Great production line Tamsin you really know how to turn them out!

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  5. This beggers the imagination. You're a painting machine Tamisin. I just bought my first Essex figures today and the learning curve on that will be steep for me.

    Go win that game tonight!

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  6. Unreal production levels!!! Good luck at the game.

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  7. @ Andy - well, we are working on different scales and for different levels of detail/finish.

    @ Ray - Timecast for the win! I just wish they'd do some western/Northern European "black powder era" buildings in 15mm

    @ Brummie - that little lot (plus the ones I'm prepping) should keep me busy for the rest of the month.

    @ MR Lee - cheers. I'm looking forward to the day when I can slow down a bit on the painting front, but I've got all those wasted years to catch up on :)

    @ Willie - I find with 15mm that having a bit of a production line helps to keep my momentum. Because I use gesso, having a lot of primed figures in the queue is a good idea because it avoids delays between units while waiting 24+ hours for the gesso to cure before painting.

    @ Anne - good luck with the Essex figures! The learning curve shouldn't be too steep - it's mostly about learning what details you do/don't need to paint and which areas it's not worth doing highlights on.

    @ Rodger - unfortunately for me, they are all too real! ;)

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