Colours 2018 - The Loot

It was just as well that I got up and left home early to get to Colours today, thanks to engineering works and unhelpful announcements on the Underground which delayed me getting to Paddington. Although given the long wait I had at Reading for the train to Newbury Racecourse, I could probably have left about half an hour later.

I finally got to the show at about 10.45 and immediately met Simon as he was coming down the stairs. After a quick chat with him I headed up to the games on the top floor to take photos. It was only after I'd got about halfway around them that I realised that their locations bore no resemblance whatsoever to the floorplan. Grrrrrr! Not very helpful as I hadn't been taking pics of the signage and there were several games that had no signage to say who and what they were. As a result it will probably take me a little while to sort through my pics (I did go round twice, taking pics of what signs there were on the second circuit).

Once pics were taken, I headed downstairs to the two trading floors for a browse (no purchases at that point) then after a quick smoke and trip to the loo, headed back up to the top floor for another look at the games, then down to the middle floor for a spot of lunch (overpriced for the amount you got, but quite tasty). And then the shopping began....

I actually did a few circuits of the traders as there were a couple that I wanted to chat with. I also chatted to a number of people that I know from tournaments, shows and blogging. That included at least two more chaps called Simon.

So, the loot:

Warbases:

Assorted MDF bases, Lion/Dragon Rampant tokens, a couple of SciFi buildings

Warlord Games:

Before anyone asks, yes I do have the starter box set - the reason you haven't seen it on my blog is that it is still in my office at work.

Bad Squiddo Games:

Possibly for Dragon Rampant? Otherwise just for fun.

Pendraken/Minibits:

I might be trying out some two colour blending at some point, so this will be useful.

Plastic Soldier Company:

"What a Tanker!" (in 15mm) seems to be taking off at the club, so these could be a good starter for me to get into it.

SHQ/Figures in Comfort:

I saw this while I was doing the rounds and thought it would be ideal for storing and transporting my Aussies. Each tray has 33 figure slots, for a total of 132. It was also on "show special price" of £25 and was the last one they had with them, so it would have been rude not to buy it!

Deep Cut Studios:

I'd somehow missed that they were going to be there, so this wasn't on my "planned purchases" list. But they were there and I wanted a suitable mat for Gaslands and Strontium Dog so I picked up a 3'x3' desert mat.


"I detect sings of a couple of new projects in there. Are you sure about that, with all the other unfinished projects you have going on?"

*couch* Well...

Not Gone To Other Partizan

I had been considering going to Other Partizan today. However, I didn't sleep well last night which in combination with the trains (likely to be crowded as Euston station is shut this weekend) and there not being many traders there that I was interested in tipped the balance in favour of me staying home.

Although I'm missing this show, I will (barring unforeseen circumstances) be wending my way down to Newbury in September for Colours.

Last weekend I decided to pull my finger out and order some extras for my Australians. I got the "red card of frustration" on Thursday and collected them from the Royal Mail delivery office yesterday:

Yes, armour support and some more Papuan Infantry Battalion troops. The M3 Stuart is a (re-badged Italerei) plastic kit; the Matlida II is a resin and metal kit with options to have it with 2lber gun, 3" howitzer (close support) or flamethrower ("Frog"). It doesn't look as though magnetising the barrels will be possible, so I'll need to decide which version to go with. Or maybe see if I can get spare resin turrets from Warlord to fit the other weapons to.

I'll be prepping the figures and Matilda over the next couple of days (I'm on leave until Thursday) and might start assembling the Stuart (I need to decide whether it will be an M3 or M3A1).

All Quiet on the Tamsin Front

Yes, I have been rather quiet on the blogging front since I finished (the beginnings of) my Aussie force. That's largely because of the recent hot weather we've had in the UK - I'm a fair-skinned redhead, so hot and sunny weather is not my favourite. Especially as my flat is on the top floor and receives all the rising heat from the flats below during the evening, meaning that it starts cooling down much later in the evening.

Whilst I've been quiet, I was aware that my page-view counter was ticking closer to the 1 million mark, but I wasn't expecting to get there for a few more days. I was, therefore, surprised to spot this morning that I have gone past that milestone. A quick check on my stats suggests that this was down to the efforts of the ever-helpful Russian bots.

I guess that I should do something to celebrate. Maybe get back to painting, gaming and blogging?

Aussies On Parade

I decided to spend some time this morning adding tufts to the bases of all the Aussies that I've painted so far. And then to take a bunch of photos of them all. So, here you are - a bit of a photo dump!

Squaddies with rifles:

Junior Leaders with SMGs:

Junior Leaders with Rifles:

Bren guns:

Squaddies with Owen guns:

Squaddies with Thompson guns:

Senior Leaders:

The chap with the carbine is Major Lumley from The Assault Group.

Medic:

2" Mortar teams:

3" Mortar team:

Vickers MMG team:

PIAT team:

Sniper team:

Radio Operator:

Flamethrower:

Papuan stretcher team:

Papuan troops with rifles:

Papuan troops with Owen guns:

Papuan Bren gun team:

Independent Company squaddies with Owen guns:

Independent Company sniper and squaddies with rifles:

Independent Company Bren team:

Independent Company senior leader:

Two village huts from Sarissa Precision:

For those that haven't been following my posts, the figures are a mix of Aussies from Warlord Games, Eureka Miniatures, Artizan Designs and Wartime Miniatures, with a few Chnidits from The Assault Group and Wargames Foundry.

Saturday Update 30 June

I've been quite busy today. The airbrush has seen a lot of action and I've done a few other things.

The Eureka figures got primed (well, eleven of them did); the figure that had lost the tip of it's Owen gun had a new barrel tip created using 0.5mm piano wore and green stuff (the picture above shows it before shaping of the cured putty); the Patrol markers and basic jump off points were airbrushed green and had Aussie flags added (and were later sprayed with matt varnish). I also airbrushed a Chain of Command dashboard (from Warbases) with the same green.

I also airbrushed some casualty counters (for recording "shock"), some "pinned down" tokens and some "broken" tokens (all from Warbases).

Work on the Owen gun:

Wire inserted, green stuff added

Green stuff shaped

Close-up of the shaped green stuff

I've stuck him on a base and will prime the figure tomorrow.


I've also done a bit of work on the non-basic jump off points:

I need to add a few more bits before priming and painting them.

Friday Update 29 June

I've been taking things a little easy over the past few evenings after the marathon of painting all those Aussies. I thought I deserved it.

But I have, nevertheless, been quite productive.


Tuft Experiments

I've had a chance to play with the static grass "Pro Applicator" from War World Scenics. Let's say I'm not too impressed with it. It's OK for short static grass (but less convenient than the Flock Box that I have been using), but with longer (6mm and above) static grass there are some issues.

The first is the distance between the two electrodes is too long (the device one is right at the handle end of the grass cup) which makes it more difficult to generate a charge field down  which the static grass can flow. It also makes it difficult to get the longer static grass fibres to stand up.

The second is that it runs off a 9V battery which doesn't create a very strong field for the longer grasses. However, this combined with the distance between electrodes does mean that you would have to be very unlucky to get a static shock while using it.

The third is that you do have to shake the applicator a lot, which makes it a bit tiring for your arm, especially if you have to do multiple passes to get any coverage.

The fourth (linked heavily to the first) is that the longer fibres have a tendency to clump into balls.

Anyway, here are some pics of the tufts I produced with it using the 10mm static grass:

Top - "Summer"; middle - "Hay field"; bottom - "Patchy"

 With the "Hay Field" and "Patchy" mixes I tried three versions:
i) 10mm first, then filling with my shorter "sweepings"
ii) shorter "sweepings first, then 10mm mixes
iii) 10mm mixes only onto slightly thinned carpet tackifier

All of them needed 4-5 passes with the 10mm static grass.

Summer + sweepings

Hay Field + Sweepings

Hay Field only

One tuft of each type

I might try some experiments with the Flock Box this weekend, but using the plate on the box instead of the sieve. I might also buy another sieve and see if enlarging the mesh holes helps for longer fibres.

There is another method for achieving long grass tufts that I'll try - making 6mm tufts then brushing PVA over the tips and reapplying the static grass.


More Aussie Shinies!

I decided to order a few more Eureka figures - some helmeted figures with rifles and Owen guns to allow a full range of weapons to cover 42-45. Also to provide engineer teams.

I got them through Fighting 15s who are the UK agents/stockists and the service was very quick (ordered Monday, received Wednesday). I prepped them yesterday during my lunch break at work, washed them in the evening, left them to dry overnight and glued 11 of them onto bases this evening.

I'll be priming them tomorrow.

Two of the Owen guns had weak points where the end of the barrel joins the forward hand grip - one I was able to reinforce with superglue (and it seems to be OK), but the other broke off during prep. I'm going to try drilling into the gun, inserting some 0.5mm piano wire and then sculpting the end of the barrel with green stuff this weekend.

On The Workbench

Besides the ongoing tuft experiments and priming the new Aussies, I've got a couple of other small projects on the workbench.

On the grey board you can see some twigs which I picked up this evening on the way home from work. I'll be baking them in my oven tomorrow to dry them out and kill off any nasties. They'll be used on terrain and bases.

On the black board there are some bits I've started working on for Chain of Command. These will be for "patrol markers" and "jump off points". I added some Vallejo Dark Earth to four 30mm bases last night as the start of making some jump off points (you can also see some bits in front which will be used on them).

For the patrol markers, I have primed some 50mm bases - they'll be airbrushed a suitable green colour tomorrow. I also printed out some Australian flags to stick onto each side once they are painted. At which point I had the thought that I could do the same for some quick and easy jump off points, so I printed off a batch of smaller flags. If I'd thought of that before, I could have primed some 30mm bases as well today - those will have to be done tomorrow.