Flagging

...the 6mm Union guys will have to wait until tomorrow evening.

I have however flocked the bases with static grass tonight. Here's how they look now:

So, just a quick post tonight.

Monday WIPs

*twitch, twitch*

Something's wrong.

I know - she's posting on a Monday.

Something's very wrong.


It's OK folks - I'm not ill or anything. Really - just because I'm posting on a Monday doesn't mean the apocalypse is on us*. All it means is that I have something to post about.


*it may well be upon us, but that has no connection whatsoever to do with me posting on a Monday


Last night I was looking around for something to do while I waited for the basing texture on the 6mm Union boys to dry. That was when I remembered I had painted up those pound-shop gems for use as spikes in Car Wars. So, I thought "why not spend a few minutes to stick them on bases?". Which is what I did:

Looking at them now, they aren't very "spiky", so I may use them as mines instead.


This evening I've done the dry-brushing on the bases of the 6mm Union infantry. Tomorrow I'll do the flocking and (hopefully) add the flags.

After that I guess I really ought to resume one of the other projects that I stopped part-way through painting. I haven't decided which yet.

Sunday Update

I did the 'taches and goatees on the Zouaves last night. I had to use a 000 brush but I managed it without too much gibbering. At least I won't have to do that again for quite a while.

Today I gathered up the sticks of Zouaves and the four regiments of infantry I'd painted over the last few weeks, then popped the figures off their sticks:

I then snipped the strips of skirmishers to give individual figures. That was followed by gluing all the figures onto bases with PVA:

I left them for a few hours to allow the glue to dry, then did the basing texture. For those without long memories, I'm using Ian's method (emulsion paint, then sand/grit mix). Here are some pics:

Tomorrow night, the basing mix should be ready for dry-brushing and adding some static grass. The final fun step will be to add the flags.

While the glue was drying, I disassembled a few cars and put them in the stripping jar. After scrubbing and rinsing them (and letting them dry) I smoothed the ends of the joints with the Dremel sander, then tapped the drill holes and reassembled them.

These will be getting posted to someone in Australia next weekend - he was after some of these, but couldn't find any locally so I volunteered to grab them for him. It's taken me nearly a month to find all three he wanted, which is what led me into temptation and buying lots for myself whilst conducting my search. Well, I don't have that excuse any more.

Saturday Workbench

And so another week goes by where I haven't posted on a weekday. Oh well, I guess I'll have to make up for that.

I did play ADLG on Monday, but my Thursday game has been postponed until this Thursday. I'll try to do a write-up of Monday's game tomorrow (I did take pics).


I didn't get any painting done during the week, but I made up for that today and got the Zouaves finished.

Or thought I had - it turns out they have moustaches and goatees which I need to go back and paint. How bothersome.

In other news, some more cars have been adopted:

OK, that's it. I really will stop buying them now!


In the background, I have been busily prepping figures. So far I've done the 25mm GZG figures for the Car Wars project, the 15mm Koreans and the 15mm SYW Russians. I've got a load of 15mm SciFi stuff to prep still and some spaceships. Not to forget the mounted and dismounted men at arms for my Wars of the Roses army. My grand plan is to get all of these prepped, assembled and primed over the next two months ready for the Challenge.

While I'm doing all of that, I plan to clear as much of my painting backlog as I can. That includes my Mongol heavy cavalry, the last of the Pirates, some civvies for Salutesville, the Salutesville PD's vehicles and a handful of Hasslefree minis.

Also in my plans is a half-baked half-formed idea of taking the Frostgrave rules, but running the games in Mesoamerica with the parties searching a lost ancient city for sacred (and magical) relics. Fortunately, Foundry have some quite nice Aztecs and Scotia Grendel have some useful terrain bits (as do Amera). I will have to do some terrain building myself though to make step pyramids, altars, palaces etc. I'll make my decision either just before or at SELWG in a fortnight's time.

Sunday Update

Remember I said I was going to leave the 6mm Union infantry as they were last night, then start today with the black? Well...

...I went ahead and did the black last night. Which meant I had an easy run today doing the rest of the colours. I actually finished them by early afternoon. Hot damn!

As with the previous batch, I'll wait until I've got the last two regiments painted, then I'll base them all up at the same time.

After finishing those boys, I took a break to sort out the army lists for my two ADLG games this week. As the Sarmatians and the Swiss are rather limited in their troop options, that didn't take very long at all so I decided to get all the figures I'd need out and put them in my transport boxes. And then I packed the Sarmatians and all my ADLG bits (rules, terrain, dice, measuring sticks) ready to go in the morning. And my camera, you'll be pleased to hear.

I then made the mistake of looking at my paint table and the Zouaves started hurling threats at me that if they didn't get some colour soon I'd regret it. Not wanting to be regretful, I exercised my discretion (being the better part of valour) and made a start, once I'd worked out suitable painting schemes. They are loosely based on actual Zouave regiments but fairly generic.

I've managed to get quite a way through them already - I'm clearly getting back into the swing of painting. One more evening should see them finished. This is how they look at the moment:

Saturday Workbench

I actually did some painting last night!

OK, you can stop pretending to have fainted. You're not that good at acting.

Yes, that's right. I started in on the 6mm Union infantry. I only got the jackets and trousers done, but it was a good start.

This morning, while I was out shopping, I did have a rummage through the Hotwheels bins in a couple of shops and adopted a few more; mostly repeats but there was one which I thought was a repeat but turns out not to have been - the Chevy Silverado.

This evening I've done a bit more work on the Union infantry, and this is the state they're in at the moment:

The next step is the black, which will take ages, so I'll leave that until tomorrow. I *should* be able to get them pretty close to finished tomorrow if all goes well.


I did get a game in at the club on Thursday night, but forgot my camera so there aren't any pics to show. It was an ACW ironclads scenario based on the second half of the Battle of Mobile Bay. Rather than the CSS Tennessee facing down 14 Union ships, it was only facing seven. With 3 of us on the Union side, we probably caused more problems for each other than for the Rebel captain. One of the union guys even managed to almost ram his flagship with one of his smaller vessels. We did manage t prevent the Tennessee breaking out, scoring several funnel hits, several superstructure hits (which had the bonus of taking out guns) and finally holing it below the waterline. With no guns left (a misfire had taken out her stern battery early on in the game), next to no speed and my two heavily armed monitors closing in fast the Rebel captain wisely decided to strike his colours to save the vessel and crew.

I've got two games of ADLG lined up for next week. On Monday my Sarmatians will be getting another outing and on Thursday my Alpine psychopaths will be taking on some WotR boys.

OMG!

"She's posting on a Wednesday!"

Indeed I am. Not because I've actually done some painting or model making since Sunday - I'm still knackered in the evenings when I get home from work for some reason. The only hobby related work I have done since my last post is to (finally) do a big brush-cleaning session.

I actually have two things to post about today.

Firstly, it's well over a week since I last posted about purchases of Hotwheels and I know you must all be thinking that I am ill/well (depending on your viewpoint). So, here's a pic or two of some cars I bought this evening while I was doing a shop at Tesco:

McLaren P1

In the background, you can see what's next on my workbench - another two regiments of 6mm Union infantry.


Secondly, when I posted on Sunday I spotted that the previous Sunday's post was my 750th. I somehow have missed doing a celebratory prize draw for my 3rd Blogday which means it is over a year since I last did one.

I know what the prize is going to be, but I don't want to do the prize draw in the way I have previously (you know - leave a comment, pimp my blog for bonus entries, blah-blah-di-blah). This time I'm not going to tell you how to enter or how I will determine the lucky winner. I'm also not going to tell you what the prize is. All will be revealed when I announce the winner and their prize in a couple of weeks time.

Sunday Update - TPDG Presents

Following some unfortunate arena incidents with the original model, and having received feedback from duelists, TPDG have redesigned the original Contaminator to offer this micro-missile armed, fireproof variant with improved handling. With excellent handling, high acceleration and good top speed this re-imagined compact should give a good account of itself in Division 15.

Contaminator-M -- Compact, Heavy chassis, Heavy suspension, Large power plant, Fire Extinguisher, 4 Fireproof Puncture-Resistant Radial tires, Driver w/Fireproof Suit and BA, 2 Linked Micromissile Launchers Front, Spoiler, Fireproof Plastic Armor: F35, L30, R30, B30, T15, U15, Gear Allocation: [90 lbs. @ Accel 5/Top Speed 117.5 (20 lbs. @ Accel 10)], Acceleration 10, Top Speed 120, HC 4 (5 @60mph), 3980 lbs., $14880


That's right - I finally finished these cars. I started off today thinking that all I need to do was painted the missile launchers, but then realised that I hadn't done the inserts or chassis. So, a certain amount of extra work needed to be done, but I got there in the end.

I'm really pleased with how the paint job on the bodies came out. Using the transparent paints sprayed lightly over highly-polished bare metal has given a very nice metallic effect. However, it does take quite a bit of work to achieve that polish so it won't be a regular event.

Saturday Workbench: Enforcers Finished

Well, I've had another crappy week of being knackered as hell when I got home from work. Then last night the cold which had been niggling away in the background came on full blast. Which put paid to my plan of going to Colours today.

During the week, I didn't get any work done on the various cars, but I have made up for that today. The inserts got varnished (satin, then gloss over the "windows". The bodies got sprayed with their top colour, then I tried chipping them. And made an almighty mess on some of them taking it down to the painted metal coat. The rust colours only showed through on a couple of them, so I went over them with the rust paint in the places where there should have been chipping. I think that the problem was that it had been so long since I did the hairspray coats and it had set hard.

After that I painted the details, did another gloss coat and assembled them. After that they got a mud/dust spray and a final coat of varnish (matt with a small amount of Klear added).

And here are the finished cars:

Mud Bug -- Mid-sized, Heavy chassis, Off-Road Active suspension, Sport power plant, Fire Extinguisher, 4 Fireproof Off-Road Puncture-Resistant tires, Driver w/TC and BA, Light Laser Front, Vulcan Machine Gun Front, Smokescreen Back, Airdam, Link (LL, SS), Link (SS, VMG), Fireproof Plastic Armor: F35, L30, R30, B35, T16, U10, Gear Allocation: [7 lbs.], Acceleration 10, Top Speed 130, HC 3 (4 @60mph), 5273 lbs., $29312


I think that tomorrow I'll crack on and do the weapons for the Fast 4WDs, to finally get them out of the way.