Challenge Day 74 - Tow Trucks In Space

I had submitted this over a week ago along with the horde of pirates buccaneers, but with Curt suffering a backlog of entries during his Valentine's weekend getaway it didn't get posted until Monday.

So here it is at last - a Lady Christina class recovery and repair ship from Ground Zero Games. I decided to do something fun with this and painted it in the livery colours of the Automobile Association, one of the UK's main roadside recovery organisations.

To give an idea of the size of this ship, here are two pics showing it alongside a 15mm UNSC Light Infantry rifleman from GZG.

I haven't managed to do any painting since Monday night as I've been getting home from work knackered again. This doesn't bode well for finishing my Steiner figure in time for the "favourite character" bonus round, not for getting enough figures painted to achieve my new 2400 point target. Oh well, that's life I suppose.

Challenge Day 73 - Casualties Bonus Round

Curt posted all the entries for the casualty/ies bonus round on Sunday night. There are some spectacular submissions this time, as with all the previous rounds. Deciding which ones to vote for was tough.

My submission was a batch of cohesion markers for my FoGR 30 Years War army. I actually finished and submitted them 5 weeks early.

All together

"Broken" markers - these won't count for points, but will get used

Markers for cavalry units

"Disrupted" markers

Markers for foot units

"Fragmented" markers

With 16 disrupted, 8 fragmented and 6 broken cohesion markers this should be enough (hopefully) for any of my games.

All the casualty figures are from Donnington Miniatures.

Challenge Day 72 - Slow Progress

Well, progress is slow, but that could be because I'm working on 4 different projects simultaneously. I will probably focus on my Sgt Steiner figure for the next two evenings to ensure that I can finish it in time to submit for the "favourite character" bonus round.

Some progress pics:

Figures for buccaneer command stands (and probably the camp too)

Buccaneer "dragoons"

Yes - it is a camel!! Mongol command group

I've finished prepping my extra NSL ships. As with the FSE and civilian ships, I won't be assembling these for a while. The next batch of lead for prep will be 24 Mongol light horse to give me a break from spaceships. Then I'll prep the ESU megafleet.

Challenge Day 70 - Paint Table Saturday #16

Yup, it's Paint Table Saturday again. So, what's on my table this weekend?

A bit of a mix as it happens. At the back is my entry fee figure for the Challenge. A lot of you will probably be able to work out who it is meant to represent.

On the left of the picture are some pirate figures for the command stands for my buccaneer army, a mix of captains, standard bearers and pirates carrying treasure.

On the right are some more figures for my buccaneer army - mounted and dismounted dragoons, plus riderless horses.

Finally, next to the buccaneer dragoons are 3 mounted Mongols to make up a command stand for horse nomad allies to add to my Choson Koreans. I'll probably be doing the rest of this small force (light horse, heavy cavalry and some light foot archers) after the Challenge, but might do some of them earlier if I get all my buccaneers painted in time. The eagle eyed among you may have noticed that the rearmost figure on the stick is not riding a horse....

Challenge Day 69 (Fnarr fnarr!) - 15mm Pirates, Errrmm, Buccaneers

At long last, my pirates buccaneers have been posted on Curt's blog, earning me 500 points (he very generously gave me 4 extra points). Everyone seems to like them, particularly their colour. I've posted pics below. I've also raised my points target to 2400. Hmmmm. I really think that was a bad idea - I don't think I'll be able to make 822 points with just under 4 weeks to go, as I've been feeling absolutely knackered every evening this week when I've got home from work.

In terms of painting, I've only managed to do a little bit of work on my entry fee figure this week. I have continued doing prep-work on the spaceship lead-pile. All my FSE and civilian ships are done; today I've started on the extra NSL ships I ordered. I'm leaving assembly of these until after the Challenge.

Hopefully I'll be able to finish my entry fee figure this weekend and maybe make a start on my pirate buccaneer command stand figures.

Anyway, here are the pics I promised at the start of the post.

 

Challenge Day 66 - On The Workbench

After my marathon effort over the weekend, I've chosen to take a brief break from painting. I should make a start again tomorrow.

However, I haven't been idle. Yesterday and this evening I was doing prep work on the additional ships to upgrade my FSE from an intro fleet to a mega fleet. The ships are currently being soaked in warm, soapy water - I'll put them out to dry overnight. The big ships will need a bit of pinning, so I drilled holes during the prep stage.

I also received a package from Donnington Miniatures yesterday. This contained some dragoon figures for my pirate buccaneer army, to represent their mounted scouts (classed as dragoons in FoGR). The main part of the order was a bunch of Mongols to add to my Choson Koreans as nomad mercenaries or as an allied contingent. It was when I was checking them that I discovered I'd made a minor booboo when placing the order and I'm one figure short for my Guard/Touman cavalry. I'm not in any rush to finish these, so I'll pick up the extra figure at Salute. I did, however, take time last night to prep the figures for the command stand, which I do plan to paint up for the Challenge.

So, some workbench pics.

Everything in the current painting queue

Figures for the pirate buccaneer command stands

Pirate Buccaneer dragoons and Mongol command figures

Challenge Day 64 - My 500th Post!

I was a little surprised when I posted yesterday to see that it was my 499th post. It's a bit scary to think that I've reached that number of posts in just over two years.

I haven't planned anything, but I guess it does warrant some sort of giveaway to celebrate. I'll have to think about it over the next few days.

I wasn't feeling too great this morning, so I decided to skip the game today. It was a multi-player refight of Hydaspes, so my absence wouldn't be that much of a problem. It was a shame to miss it though.

However, it did mean that I've had time to work on the pirates and the spaceship, as well as doing a little bit on the NAC ships.

Pirates

Last night I brushed off the loose sand and gravel. This morning I drybrushed the base texture. This afternoon I gave them a spray of matt varnish and I've spent the last hour or so flocking them. As they are now ready for submission to the Challenge, there are no photos of them today. I'll be taking pics to send to Curt this evening.


Lady Christina Recovery & Repair Ship

Today I've finished this one as well. Company logos have been handpainted followed by a spray coat of gloss varnish. The yellow parts then got an ink wash of brown yellow, followed by a drybrush of the panels. I then gave the ship a spray coat of matt varnish, then brushed gloss onto certain parts. No pics of this either as it's ready to be entered in the Challenge.


NAC Spaceships

I assembled these (with some swearing) last night. Today they got a spray coat of grey primer. The super dreadnought is a real beast of a ship. You can have pics of these!

I'd prepped and primed a heavy cruiser a while back and that has been included in these pics as they'll be painted up as a batch.

Challenge Day 63 - Paint Table Saturday #15

It's that day of the week again, so it's

Click the pic to go to Sofie's blog to see other participants

Well, what's on my paint table today?

Recently prepped, drying out after washing to remove any mould release agent

Prince Rupert of the Rhine with his dog Boye from Warlord Games; some NAC spaceships - 3 scout ships, 3 corvettes, 2 escort cruisers, a battleship, a battle dreadnought and a super battle dreadnought. I'll probably do the assembly of the ships that need it this evening.


Pirates! Aaarrrr!

The two batches have now been mixed up, sorted and stuck onto bases. There are 82 bases in total, 2 with 4 figures; 80 with 3 figures - 248 pirates total. This pic was taken earlier today. Since taking it I've added basing  texture. I was going to finish these off tomorrow - drybrush the base texture, spray with matt varnish, add flock - but then I remembered that I'm going to be out gaming at a friend's place. I guess that means I'll have to do that over the next few evenings instead.


Another spaceship!

This is a Lady Christian recovery & repair ship from GZG. I've almost finished it, just a few final touches to go.

Challenge Day 62 - St Valentine's Day Moussaka

Well, that would have been my dinner if I'd been stupid enough to venture out to the shops for the ingredients.

WIP Lady Christina Recovery & Repair Ship

While the yellow ochre base coat on bases has been drying, I've been working on this ship. It's almost done now - just a little bit of tidying up, some ID markings and possibly a wash over the yellow to provide some depth. UK followers may have twigged what has inspired my colour scheme. I'm tempted to get a second and paint it in the colours of their main rival.

WIP Pirates!

Aaarrrrr! I've spent a couple of hours this evening sorting and sticking figures onto their bases. They've come out as 44 bases of "other buccaneers" (Warriors, Average, Unarmoured, Musket*/Impact Foot/Sword) and 36 bases of "disciplined buccaneers" (Medium Foot, Average, Unarmoured, Musket/-/Sword). I've also done 2 unit command bases with 4 figures to combine with 10 of the "disciplined buccaneer" bases to upgrade them to "veteran buccaneers" (Medium Foot, Superior, Unarmoured, Musket/-/Sword).

Other Buccaneers

Disciplined & Veteran Buccaneers

Tomorrow I'll be adding sand/gravel to the bases, then on Sunday I'll do the drybrushing, matt varnish and flocking.

Once they're submitted, I guess it is time to start working on the command stands and artillery, although I might take a short break to finish painting my entry fee figure.