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 30 June 2014

Finished: Named Gangsters

The weather was quite good this morning, so I got the various bits of spraying done. Once the matt spray varnish was dry I did my usual trick with brush-on satin and gloss varnish. That means it is time for finished pics of the Named Gangsters for my gaming collection.










I haven't done any work on the jazz band so far today, but there are still a couple of hours before I go to bed so I should get some bits done. I might just do the job I hate - painting the eyes!

Sunday 29 June 2014

Sunday WIP: Eureka Jazz Band

I've finished painting the Named Gangsters, but the weather earlier wasn't conducive to spraying, so they haven't been varnished yet. I'll do that tomorrow and post pics of the finished articles.

As the title of this post suggests, I've begun work on the jazz band, having finally decided on the colour scheme for their uniforms. So here are a couple of WIP pics to keep you going.



I've got tomorrow booked off work, so they should see some good progress. I'll also be doing some more work on the corner store and warehouse.

Saturday 28 June 2014

Paint Table Saturday #34

I haven't done this for a couple of weeks. I think this is #34.



I still haven't quite finished the "Named Gangsters". There isn't much left though - just touch ups, a little bit of detailing and varnishing. I will get that done tomorrow.



Earlier this week I reported that the Eureka jazz band are primed. A couple of nights ago I did the flesh basecoat (German Camo Black Brown) on their hands and faces. A couple of the figures have open mouths, so I carefully did those with Panzer Aces Shadows Flesh.




I've been steadily working on the warehouse and corner store this week, mostly doing the interiors. This afternoon I have done the exterior brickwork using FW red earth ink (diluted 50% with 10% flow aid). I will need to touch up some of the window frames where the red ink caught the white.

Corner Store:




Warehouse:







Tomorrow I'll only do a little bit more on these - spraying the roof wells with textured grey paint. I might do the pavement areas as well. I'll also be making a proper start on the jazz band. That is assuming that I've actually managed to decide on the colour scheme for the band's uniform!




Tuesday 24 June 2014

Sarissa City Block Corner Store

No progress on the "Named Gangsters", but the jazz band have been primed:



In other news:
1. I've finished prepping all of the gangster figures. That just leaves the Blue Moon vehicles to prep.
2. The loading bay doors of the warehouse have almost fully dried now. I've glued the pieces correctly this time and I'll leave them clamped until the MDF is completely dry before gluing the support pieces (which allow you to have the doors open or closed).



I did get some work done on the Corner Store on Sunday as well as hitting the spray cans. That turned out to be a bit of a mistake. I discovered after spraying that they were enamel. They also turn out to be gloss. Oh well, lesson learned - don't buy those again. It did mean that I needed to go over the gloss with some matt white brush-on paint to provide a suitable base for colouring. I also used my old, el-cheapo external mix airbrush to spray white primer on the removable floor layout of the warehouse.

While I was waiting for the enamel to dry, I had one of those silly thoughts and decided to try it. The thought was to try using inks for colouring the MDF. I chose the base of the Corner Store to do some test patches and find out how the colour works on bare MDF. I also tried this on some painted MDF. I did patches of undiluted ink and with it diluted 1:1 with 10% flow aid.

I will be going over this with a matt spray!

I also tried some mixes to find a suitable colour for the brickwork.

Most of the inks provide good colouring, even when diluted. They also provide pretty good coverage by volume.

Last night I did the matt white painting on the window/door panels and inked the areas of the inner walls of the corner store which aren't covered by those panels.

The steps and railings aren't glued on yet.

I've used plastic putty to fill in the gaps on the angled joints.

You can just see some test patches for brickwork colours.







Sunday 22 June 2014

"It's a Raid!"

Thursday's game against Gordon was an excellent result for me - a 25-0 victory for my Koreans against his Jin. As he lost his other practice game against Seb last week, I think he is regretting his choice of army and composition. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures as I forgot to pack my camera. I believe we got 9 full turns in before his army broke during the impact phase of the 10th when I charged two fragmented units which broke. I'd only lost 2 bases.

I haven't touched the Named Gangsters since Wednesday, but plan to make up for that tomorrow by getting them finished (including varnishing).

This morning I got woken up at a horribly early time by the postman. It was my Sarissa order being delivered.

Some big boxes

2 City Block Residences and a Gaslamp Alley Town Hall

3 City Block Corner Stores

Rear of the instructions - ground floor interior!

3 small and 3 large City Block commercial buildings

City Block Warehouse

A set of templates and 2 packs of tokens for Gruntz

I've spent this afternoon and evening putting the warehouse together. Some of the bits aren't glued in place yet to make it easier to paint other parts. I also discovered that I'd made a booboo putting the door pieces together. This has necessitated soaking the bits to allow me to separate them. They are now drying out between several layers of kitchen roll with a heavy weight on top to prevent warping. That will teach me to do a dry-fit first!

Anyway, here are some pics of the place (minus loading bay doors) being raided by the Feds and the Cops:



Front steps aren't glued in place yet







The tea crates were a bit fiddly to assemble

The stairs aren't glued in place yet, so that I can paint the columns more easily.




*cough* someone forgot to take into account the window positions when they designed the layout for the ground floor offices....
(not me - I assembled as per the destructions)

Edit: *abashed face* errmmm, actually it was me. It appears that I didn't follow the destructions and assembled the insert upside down. My apologies to Sarissa.

The panel with the window and door details has been painted (needs a touch up in places) but won't be glued in place until I've painted the rest of the building. 



I'll leave painting the building for evenings during the week - as it's mostly going to be spray painting, that's an easy job for when I get home too tired to paint figures.

I think tomorrow I'll assemble one of the corner stores. Alongside finishing the Named Gangsters, of course.