Sunday Update

Koreans

All the figures are now prepped and primed. So, that's 168 foot plus 12 artillery crew and 4 guns. These will be painted over the next few weeks once I've finished painting Donogh's miniatures.


Donogh's Prize Painting

Having stripped the paint from my original stalled effort, these have now been primed and painting has started. As you can see, I've made pretty good progress so far this weekend:

I've still got a lot of highlighting and detailing to do, but they should be finished by next weekend.



Gaming This Week

I'll be at the club twice this week. Tomorrow I'll be taking part in a refight of the first day of Gettysburg using Fire & Fury. We'll be starting after lunch (well, some of us will - the rest of the players will be joining in later on) so I've booked the day off work.

On Thursday a few of us will be playing Saga. This time I will try to get some photos of my Normans in action.

Thursday Update

Still no painting, but I've now got the last of the Korean foot prepped and primed. The artillery has been prepped and is in the tub of soapy water at the moment. I should have them based and primed tomorrow night. After that I'll crack on with the painting next week.

I've also finished stripping Donogh's figures. I need to reassemble some of them, but should have that done and the figures primed tomorrow night. I think I'll try to get them done this weekend or at least make a good start.


Blog Con 2013

Well, that master of top notions, GI* James, has come up with another spectacular one - a convention of bloggers. He's even secured backing from Wargames Foundry who will be hosting the event. It woulds like a  fun weekend.

He's also set up a blog for the event. There aren't any posts as I write this (and no Follower widget - hint, hint, get a move on with that James)

* "Great Idea"

Sunday Update (Is It Really a Week?)

Well, I do believe it is a week since I last posted. Let's just put it down to not having anything worth posting.

I haven't been completely idle. During the week I've been prepping the remaining Korean foot. I've still got 48 figures to prep, plus the artillery. However, I have got 120 figures prepped and primed - here's a pic to prove it:

I'll be making a start on painting them this week, doing them in batches of 24 figures at a time. While I'm painting these up, I'll probably make a start on prepping the pirates. I might even make a start on prepping the 6mm ACW figures that have been waiting a very, very long time for me to do something with.

Jason And The Peasant Carts

Sorry for the short break in posting folks. I've been shattered all week so hadn't done any painting which left me with nothing to post.

Jason

You might remember that Andres at Einar Olafson Painting made an offer to paint up the Salute 2013 Jason miniature for 3 lucky people and that I was one of them. It arrived yesterday and is truly gorgeous work.  thanks Andres!

Peasant Carts

Last night, in an attempt to get myself back into the swing of things, I decided to assemble the three 4Ground peasant carts I'd bought at Salute for Saga games. I must say that they were very quick and easy to assemble and they don't look half bad. I suppose I'd better get myself some oxen to draw them....

Painting Plans

I've actually been in a bit of a rut the past few weeks. Donogh's Hasslefree figures have been giving my accusing looks, but I seem to have hit a brick wall with them. It has been so long since I started them that I have forgotten what colours I was using. I think the best thing for me to do would be to strip them down and start again.

I also want to finish off my Koreans. I've still got a whole load of medium foot to do (seven 8-base units), plus the artillery and some command stands. I think these will be the next to go on the painting table and I'll start prepping a batch this afternoon, and prep more batches during the week.

Once the Koreans are done, I should have received all the figures I need for my Pirates and they will be the next army to go into production. My intention with these is to get the whole army prepped and mounted on painting sticks, then paint them up together using a couple of colours per session. The alternative is to stick them on bases before painting and do them in batches.

Secret Project Revealed #2

As promised, here are the pics of the Secret Project which I gave to Ray yesterday at Broadside.

 

He seemed to like it!

Back from Broadside 2013; Secret Project Revealed

Well folks, today a took a trip out of London heading down to Sittingbourne for Broadside 2013. At least this year I got to Victoria station in plenty of time to grab a coffee after buying my train ticket, have a quick smoke outside, then grab a BK Bacon Double Cheesburger (breakfast!) before getting on the train.

I got there just after 11am and the first person I bumped into was Fran. The rejects' game was right in front of me, so I popped over to say "hi!" to Big Lee and then Henry Hyde magically appeared. Ray was off harassing someone elsewhere whilst avoiding parting with cash (I think he only spent 70p while there - for a cuppa) but came back not long after I got there. After a brief chat with the boys, I took a couple of pics of the game and realised that my camera battery had run low. *headpalm* I'd forgotten to check the battery level last night.

This was taken a while later

With pics taken, it was time for my first tour of the show. I'd barely got halfway round the small hall when David Crook grabbed me. This dodgy dealer had emailed me last night to say that he had some "stuff" to feed my current addiction if I had the readies to pay for it. So, I inspected the merchandise, approved of it and handed over a wedge of notes. (translation - this lovely gentleman had some very nice pirate books which he sold to me for £30).

So, back to the Rejects' table to drop off the books and on with the shopping and looking at games. My first pass around the main hall saw me picking up a few second hand Ospreys, some dice (yup, more dice - their gods demand new toys be purchased regularly to avoid bad luck), some 15mm aliens (and some moisture collectors) from Brigade Models, some Vallejo paints I'm running low on, card sleeves an X-Wing X-Wing expansion pack, and a Gale Force 9 star mat for X-Wing. Early on in this shopping bout I had a chat with Clint and was given a baggie of (very rich as it happens) chocolate fudge he'd made earlier in the week.

That bout of shopping over and done with, I headed back to the Rejects, sorted by backpack out and got ready for an important event. Yes, the revelation of another Secret Project. Some of you may recall all my ribbing of Ray about sandbagging during and after Curt's Challenge. Oh, and the other Secret Project revealed at Salute (a pack of real-life sandbags!). Well, it was time for another Secret Project to be given to him. He was pleased as punch with it and put it on display with all the game info. I'll do a separate post tomorrow with lots of close-up pics of it, but here is a teaser pic for now:

I then did another tour of the traders. This time I picked up another Osprey (from a shelf I'd missed on the first pass), some Gripping Beast metal minis (Viking hero and berserkers) and a KR Multicase X-Wing foam tray set and K-Lite bag. After taking this back to base-camp, I sat down and had lunch and a chat with Ray and the guys.

Lunch over, I did a final tour and parted with a little bit more cash for another book "Midget Ninja & Tactical Laxatives" by Philip Sidnell, which the author signed (he was manning the Pen & Sword stall).

So, the obligatory loot pic (well, the loot that would fit on my painting desk):

Oh, the games. Yes, there were quite a lot of games there. Ones that stood out for me were a Tex-Mex skirmish from 1842, a 10mm ECW game, a Sudan(?) game with great river boats and the invasion of Denmark game which I'd seen a few times before. Oh and the Boyne game and Clint's naval game naturally.

Some More Plunder

First of all, thanks for all the well-wishing. My cold is much better now, but I was still feeling run down this evening and haven't done any painting.

I did receive a couple of small deliveries yesterday:

Some Grumpy's Koreans - commanders, cavalry, artillery and handgunners

28mm wolves; Grumpys light pirate guns & Cimaroons

Barrel pile and ship's boat

Some 1:300 scale ships (sloop, schooner, brig and merchantman)

In case you are wondering about the wolves, well they're for use on viking warlord bases.

As for the 1:300 scale pirate ships, there is a very good reason for them. In FoG:R "naval units" are each meant to be represented by a pair of model ships. The buccaneer army can have 2 naval units, which would need 4 ship models. In practice, you can probably get away with a single ship model per unit, but what the heck.

Now, you may be asking why bother with these when I've got a lovely 15mm ship that I'm painting up? Well, whilst the 15mm ship will look rather grand on the tabletop, it is a bit big and awkward to carry around for games, but these little ships will do the trick very nicely.

Feeling Grotty

For the last couple of weeks I've been walking around with a mild cold, not bad enough to stop me doing anything. However, last night it stepped up a gear or ten and has left me feeling totally grotty. So, I haven't felt like painting since Sunday night. I think it has eased off now though, so hopefully I'll be able to get back to painting tomorrow night.


100K Draw Prizes

All the prize winners should now have received (or be about to receive) their prizes. Yesterday evening after work I posted out prizes to Ferb, Alastair and Anne - the first two received theirs today and Anne's has arrived in the USA so it should be with her shortly. Seb got given his Spartans last Thursday; Vladdd's order with GZG was dispatched and Hetairoi should have received his electronic voucher for Baccus.


ModelZone Re-Opens in Central London

Yesterday was the opening of the Central London ModelZone store on New Oxford Street. This replaces the store which used to be a short distance away on High Holborn, that closed a few months ago when the lease was terminated by new owners of the building.

I popped along after work (and after posting the prizes) to check it out and hoping to pick up a few things I was running low on. The first thing I noticed was that it is much smaller - about half the floorspace of the Holborn store, but seems to have a better layout. Speaking to staff it seems that they are still waiting for a lot of stock to be delivered.

Unfortunately for me, all the stuff I was after wasn't in stock. I might have to order online as it isn't clear when they will be in stock in the shop.


Pirate Ship WIP

Here are a couple of pics of the ship as I left it on Sunday night. Once I've got all the base colours done, the whole ship will get a black wash, then I'll do highlighting. That will leave me with the masts, sails, deck guns and crew to do.

Is that a pile of empty sandbags in the background? A leftover from another project perhaps?

Sunday Update

OK, it's been a couple of days since I last posted, so it's definitely time for an update.


Thursday's X-Wing Games

I did take my camera, but ended up not taking any pics. Sorry about that. I was too busy playing or checking rules.

Anyway, 3 of us were playing - me, Simon and Seb - and plenty of others from the club popped over to our table for a look. Simon and I started off with the quick-start game to get the hang of the basics, then repeated it using the full rules. At that point Seb arrived and I gave him a game, then he played Simon but they got more ships onto the table. The final game saw me with 4 TIE fighters (2 x Academy Pilot; 2 x Obsidian Squadron Pilot) taking on the Falcon piloted by Chewie. We were running out of time, but after several turns I had 2 TIEs 1 hit away from death (the other 2 undamaged) and the Falcon was getting very close to being put out of action.

We all agreed it is a fun game and will make a good break from our usual FoG:AM and FoG:R games.


Project Pirate Pandemonium

The Pirates

Having looked again at the Blue Moon and rebel Minis pirates I'd already received, I worked out how many more I needed to make up the army and have ordered them.

The Ship

As it was the weekend, I decided it was time to start work on the ship. I filled the worst of the bubbles and gaps with plastic putty. After that it was cutting out the gun ports on the open deck, drilling holes into the other gun ports for the gun muzzles that came with it; measured  and cut the metal ladders; then glued all the metal parts in place. And then I kicked myself. I shouldn't have glued them in place until after I'd washed the resin ship to remove mould release agents. Oh well, I just had to be careful with how I did the washing.

This morning I spray-primed it with matt white paint, then left it to dry for a while.

Just to give a sense of the size of this ship - 35 cm (14 inches) long!

Donogh's Hasslefree minis in the background. I will get back to painting them this week.

A lovely mermaid as the figurehead

Weirdly enough, these bubbles are mostly invisible since I've painted the  basecoats

This evening I've been doing the base coats. For some reason, the Galleria raw umber paint didn't seem to want to go properly on over the white, so it looks a bit messy in places. For the decks I mixed in some yellow and white Crafters' Choice paint, which seemed to give slightly better coverage, but it was still messy. I guess the white spray paint doesn't have much "tooth" so was too smooth. I finished off that session by doing black for the stern panel, the bowsprit &keel, the grating over the ship's hold and the gunports and muzzles.

Since taking these photos I've done a little bit more. The gun port frames have been painted blue; the figurehead, stern-piece and windows have been given sky grey basecoats; and panels have been painted either blue or red. I've also gone over the hull with Vallejo burnt umber. I've also had to reinforce the ship's wheel as the metal was too weak and kept bending.

Now that I've got the bulk of the ship done, I'll just do little bits here and there over the next week or two. I still have to sort out the masts and sails - I need to get some doweling and some material.