Challenge Day 27 - Two Entries Submitted Today

Well, the grenadiers are finished and submitted. As are a couple of figures I painted yesterday evening.

And blow me down with a feather if Curt hasn't started the New Years Eve drinking early and posted the grenadiers today instead of on Saturday. You can see them here.

The rest of the day has been spend sorting out a few things, checking what I need to buy (mostly bases) to get a few things ready for painting.

I've also been doing a little bit of prep-work for a side-project that may get painted as a break between batches. It has involved superglue, Milliput and sculpting tools. Here's a teaser pic of the work in progress:

Who was it saying my workbench was too clean?

I've finished now and I'm leaving the Milliput to cure and harden overnight. Then I'll do a bit of clean up before priming them.

Right now - I'm going to settle down and watch some films on TV, eat a light repast of salami, chorizzo, cherry tomatoes and cheese whilst quaffing chilled Cava to see in the New Year.

Have a good one folks!

The 2014 Round Up

Cot blimey guv'nor! What a year it has been. What with all those pirates, spaceships, Russian cavalry, Korean monks, Mongols, gangsters (and the cops and G-Men taking bribes them on).

Even though the year was disrupted by a return of my fatigue during the summer (bleedin' building works!), I was still quite productive overall. I think my favourite bit of painting this year was the 1920s Jazz Band from Eureka.

So, various bits of round up to do:

4th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge

I placed 8th overall with a quite impressive tally of 1959 points. There was a wide range of submissions, including a few points bombs, You can see everything in this post-Challenge post.


At the beginning of the year, I had set myself various goals, so let's see how I did:

Painting
1. Place well in this year's Challenge
8th is good enough for me!
2. Finish my Buccaneer army by my birthday and get several games of FoG:R in with it
ermmmm, yes, well...
3. Get my 6mm ACW armies painted up and play some games with them
The less said, the better
4. Get my NSL fleet painted by my birthday and my Japanese fleet painted by the end of June
Success! Well, partial success. The NSL got painted during the Challenge (although I have since purchased even more NSL ships...gulp!), but the Japanese are still languishing in a drawer.
5. Finish painting my Sarmatians and Scythians
*cough*
6. Get a decent bunch of my 15mm SciFi stuff painted
errmm, yes. I do remember that goal. Oh, hang on a sec - I did paint some - the aliens and the loader!

In my defense, I did manage to paint up quite a lot of stuff that wasn't on the above list.

Gaming
1. Try to average at least one gaming session per week
Yup. Didn't manage that.
2. Avoid tournaments this year
Total success! Yay, me!
3. Get the following armies on the table as many times as possible - buccaneers, Koreans, Swiss, Sarmatians, 30YW
Well, the Koreans, Swiss and Sarmatians have all had games. I think my 30YW bos did get a run-out or two.
4. Play lots of Full Thrust
Played a few games of Full Thrust
6. Play several games of Saga
Played a couple of games
7. Play a few games of Polemos ACW when my 6mm armies are ready
I've got a good excuse here - the armies weren't finished, so I couldn't play any Polemos with them!
8. Organise a multi-player 30YW FoG:R game for a bank holiday weekend
Didn't happen

Shows
Attend the following - Salute, Broadside, Colours, SELWG
I was stymied by Colours not happening. I did attend the other three.

Spending
I've already made a small start to this year's spending - some figures and parts I need for my Challenge entry fee. I couldn't find the exact figure I wanted, so I'll have to do some conversion work.

As my plan for this year is to concentrate on painting stuff I already have, I shouldn't be purchasing any new figures. Well, apart from whatever I buy using my 20% discount voucher for GZG. And bits I see at shows, But definitely no new projects. No, sirree. Just bits to expand or complete existing projects.Or bits to provide opposition forces. Oh, look - shinies! Must buy, must buy!

I did spend rather a lot this year. I hate to think what the gangster project has cost so far. Just the Seven Years War Russians. Oh, and spaceships. Lots of spaceships. And War of the Roses. Not forgetting 15mm SciFi. And more spaceships! and mustn't forget all the little extra purchases to fill out existing armies, like the Koreans.

Blogging
I'm hoping to post more frequently this year than I did in 2013. I'll aim for at least 4 posts per week.
Didn't manage that one either.


Statistics

Blogging (2013/2012 stats in parenthesis)

Posts:                     137 (169/300)
Comments:            1879 (2903/2441)
Page Views:          117k (125k/53k)
New Followers:    57 (168/301)

Getting hit with a bout of fatigue certainly had an effect on my blogging and on the related stats (comments and page views). I think in terms of new followers, I didn't expect to get even that many as I reckon I've found most of the audience who would be interested in my ramblings already.

Gaming

Again, my fatigue took it's toll and I haven't done as much gaming as previously.

Painting (2013/2012 in parenthesis)

15mm Mounted       86 (220/414)
15mm Foot              464*(851/407)
15mm Artillery        20 (8/6) - includes limbers
15mm Elephants      0 (2/0)
15mm Horses          16 (0/76)
15mm Vehicles:      1 (0/0)
28mm Mounted       0 (18/0)
28mm Foot              68 (122**/46)

Challenge Painting Points:  1774 (3452/2862)

* I've scored the Alien queen and king as being 28mm foot as they are so big
** The two ogres are scored as each being equivalent to 3x28mm figures

So, how come my Challenge Painting Points are down so much? Well, the fatigue stopped me painting for a few months, but the total doesn't include all the spaceships I've painted.

You can see a list of everything I've painted on my 2014 Painting page.


That's it for now folks. I might do another post later on to update you on my WIPs, but in case I don't

***Wishing you the very best for 2015. May your dice roll high (or low - depends on what game you're playing!), may your painting be excellent and may you receive (or buy) an abundance of shinies ***

Challenge Day 26 - I Mitre Nearly Finished The Grenadiers

OK, I'll give you a minute to stop groaning at the awful pun in the title.

Finished groaning? OK, let's get on with the post.

As the title suggests, I'm very near to finishing the grenadiers. All the painting is done and they have been varnished. Once that is fully dry, I'll pop them off their sticks and start gluing them onto 30x30 bases. Once the superglue has had a chance to fully set, I'll add the basing gunk. That should let me finish them off tomorrow.

The flags weren't as bad to paint as I'd feared, but I hate mitres. More accurately, I hate the backs of mitres. It's just as well that I'll only ever have to paint two more regiments of grenadiers for my Russians.

So, pics in current state:

I think I want to take a mental break before starting on the musketeer regiments. I've already decided what I'll paint up, but I'll leave it as a surprise. I may even start on them tonight.

Challenge Day 25 - Some Progress on the Grenadiers

I took a break from painting this morning and most of the afternoon, so I haven't made a lot of progress today. I say not a lot, but they are very nearly complete now. Just some final detail work, washes and the flags to do. And the inevitable touching up.

The main reason I haven't made much progress is down to the fact that I was doing the red (drum rims, collars, cuffs and turnbacks) and black bits (base for metals, cartridge pouches, scabbards, toes of shoes, pigtail bows and mitres).

I took these pics after doing copper base coats on the cartridge box plates and mitres. I'll be highlighting those with gold paint later on. I've since done the steel bits.

So, the WIP pics:

It was interesting last night to see the difference that painting the flesh made. It transformed them suddenly from little blobs to little men.


Edit to add:

Phew! Just finished all the metalwork including gold braid for the officers and drummer. I've also given the gaiters and rear of the mitres a wash of diluted black paint. that just leaves touch-ups and standards to do. then a wash on the flesh; then varnish; then stick on bases; then add basing gunk; then dry-brush and flock. I should finish them before the end of 2014!

Challenge Day 24 - Righteous Army and Warrior Monks

I had two entries posted on the Challenge blog yesterday. Normally I'd do separate posts here for them, but as both were for my Choson Korean army, it makes sense to do a combined post.

The two Challenge blog posts are here:

Righteous Army Command

Warrior Monks


To use my army in FoG:R for the Samurai invasion period (1592-98), I have to take some Righteous Army (6-40 bases) and some warrior monks (6-12 bases). I wanted to do the warrior monks for the Challenge as they would be fairly colourful and found that I had figures in the pile that would allow me to do two command stands - one for the Righteous Army, one for the warrior monks. So I prepped those figures as well. I'll do the Righteous Army later in the year, after the Challenge.

As with the rest of this army (apart from the heavy cavalry) I based the figures before priming and painting them. This isn't something I'd particularly recommend as it can make it tricky to get paint in the right places.

But you want the pics of them, so let's get on with that.


Righteous Army Command

Warrior Monks

Warrior Monks Command

Having got those out of the way, it was time to return to the Seven Years War Russians. I made a start last night on the grenadiers (2 regiments), just painting the green coats (mix of Bronze Green and Black Green). Today I've done the waistcoats and breeches (Vermillion); shirt collars, cuffs and stocking tops (Off White); gaiters (Black Grey); musket and flagpole wood (Flat Brown); and the ground of the base (Burnt Umber).

I'll be doing some more this evening (probably the flesh and hair), maybe the musket straps and leather belts as well. They are painting up much quicker than I expected. The one thing I am not looking forward to is painting the standards - the ones for the grenadiers are quite elaborate:

From the Kronoskaf web resource

At this rate, I may have the Russian infantry finished well before the end of January. As I wasn't planning to start the 6mm ACW until February, that may be just the time I need to paint up my ESU space fleet.

Challenge Day 23 - Back Home

OK, so I'm back home from my Xmas break with family, well fed, not too badly rested and finally starting to warm up properly. Yes, the central heating part of my boiler decided to play silly bleeders while I was away. All sorted now, but it's taken nearly 6 hours for my flat to come up to a tolerable temperature. Luckily, I've got a fan heater in my living room which has been on full blast making that room warm up quicker so I have been able to do some painting.

I've got a couple more steps to do, then my warrior monks will be ready for submission to the Challenge. If I am lucky, I might just be able to get the post done in time for my slot today. Yes, that does mean that I actually managed to get some painting done while I was away. Not as much as I'd have liked, perhaps, but more than I expected.

While I was away, I've managed to slip from 3rd to 5th place on the table. There's no way I'll make it back up there as the top three are burning through brushes and paint at a rate of knots. It was nice to be up there though, even if it was just for a few days.

I did get one entry submitted before I went away, and Curt posted it a short while ago. Take a look.


So, a quick WIP shot of the warrior monks whilst they are still WIP:

So, what's up next? I guess the two regiments of Seven Years War Russian grenadiers would make the most sense.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas.

Challenge Day 19 - Korean Warrior Monks WIP

Well my good gentlefolks, work is finally over for 2014. Today was the last day for the break, and it was very quiet in our office due to most of the people we look after having already naffed off. As a result I was able to get some painting done during the day while waiting to see if any emails actually came in.

Just as well - after work I had a couple of pints with colleagues and promptly crashed out when I got home. No painting for me tonight. I've decided that I will take the figures away with me to paint.

As this will be my last post for a few days, here is a pic of them as they are now:

Have a great Christmas everyone and may Santa bring you lots of lovely shinies!

Challenge Day 18 - In The Challenge No-One Can Hear You Scream

...over their own screams!

Wahey! My Space Demons were posted last night on the Challenge blog, so I can share the pics here now. This entry gave me just enough points to squeak into 3rd place. Although I expect to be pushed back down the table in the next couple of days. Still, it's nice to be there at least once in the Challenge.

Very late on Friday night I realised that I had something in the lead pile which would go marvelously with them, so a quick session of prepping, assembling and priming was in order. I managed to paint that up very quickly on Saturday along with finishing the Space Demons off.

"Get away from her you BITCH!"

I decided to give the loader a well-used look - dry-brushing with Oily Steel and dirty washes with brown and rust inks. I think it looks pretty good. I had some fun with the base as well. Basically, it's a bit of wire mesh glued onto a MDF base and painted. The floor markings worked quite well.

I've also made some good progress on the Korean warrior monks. One of the command stands - the one which will be for my Righteous Army - got finished yesterday. All that was left to do this evening was to flock the base, so that got done shortly after I got home from work, then I took pics and drafted the post for the Challenge blog. It will go up on Saturday.

I also did a little bit on the rest f the figures, and have done some more this evening. I've still got a bit more to do before going to bed. As things are very, very quiet at work right now, I might take them in with me and do some more during the day.



Oooh! This is my 600th post!

Challenge Day 17 - SYW Russian Generals, Artillery and Cavalry

As curt posted my second entry last night, I can now post the pics here so that those who aren't following the Challenge can have a chance to see them in all their glory. I won't post all the pics; if you want to see some more, you can see them on the Challenge blog.

This was a bit of a points bomb, and netted me 195 points (Curt gave me some bonus points for the hand-painted standards).

The Generals

General Count Vasilliy Oldvol

General Baron Ivan Tovokov

General Valdimir Yvorluncz

The Artillery

The Cuirassiers

3rd Cuirassiers

Kievsky Cuirassiers

The Dragoons and Horse Grenadiers

Tverskiy Dragoons

Sankt-Petersburgskiy Horse Grenadiers

I'm rather pleased with how they've come out and everybody on the Challenge blog seems to love them. It's hard to believe that these and the hussars took me just a smidgeon over two weeks to paint up.

This means that the cavalry wing, the artillery and the commanders for my starter army are now complete, leaving me with two regiments of grenadiers and six of musketeers to paint up. Later next year I'll be adding to the army, once I've got a few games under my belt. there will definitely be more cuirassiers, more hussars (Huzzah!), more artillery and infantry. Oh, and some Cossacks; a Russian army has to have Cossacks!


I did submit the Space Demons last night, but Curt hasn't posted them yet. I'm hoping he'll post them tonight or tomorrow, otherwise I suspect they'll be queued for posting next Saturday.

I'm currently sitting in 5th place on 267 points; with the Space Demon entry I'd probably be up in 3rd place. For a brief while - there are several people who will overtake me during the week.