The scale of the problem (2009 edition)

Following on from a similar post last year I thought I'd have a look at what remains in the lead pile.

28mm Scale Projects

Orcs and Goblins
System: Warhammer
Status: 300 or so figures painted, 50 more or so in the lead pile
Comments: Over 3000 points + options available for use. 40 or so models added in 2008.

Orcs and Goblins
System: Song of Blades and Heroes
Status: Completed in 2008.

Bretonnians
System: Warhammer
Status: 18 knights started, about 100 more models unpainted. No progress in 2008.

Dwarfs
System: Warhammer
Status: 98% unpainted, about 100-150 models in total.
Comments: At least they're assembled. Should be 2500-3000 points easily when done. Started work on them in December 2008.

Blood Angels
System: Warhammer 40K
Status: Still about 1/3 of the army unfinished.
Comments: Over 1500 points + options available for use. No progress in 2008.

SWAT teams and Criminals
System: Officer Down, about 40 models in total.
Status: 80% painted
Comments: The problem with this project is that it needs more scenery. No progress in 2008.

10/15mm Scale Projects

Aliens and Marines
System: Xenomorph
Status: In the post
Comment: A late 2007 purchase. About 40-60 models in total. No progress in 2008.

High Elves
System: HOTT
Status: Unpainted (48 points + options). No progress in 2008.

Wood Elves
System: HOTT
Status: Completed in 2008.

Undead
System: HOTT
Status: Unpainted. No progress in 2008.

Mongols
System: DBA
Status: Unpainted. No progress in 2008.

Later Muslim Indian
System: DBA
Status: Unpainted. No progress in 2008.

Later Achmeneid Persian
System: DBA
Status: 30% Painted. No progress in 2008.

Summary - there's plenty in the lead pile to be getting on with.

End of year round-up 2008

And now, the end is here
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain

Well that was 2008. Yes I know that there's a few hours left but the PNKD has kicked in and I don't think I'll be doing any more buying or painting in the remaining time.

First off the headline figures (pun intended).
28mm
Miniatures Bought: 44
Miniatures Painted: 86
Miniatures Sold: 42 (all unpainted)

So in the 28mm category I managed to reduce the lead pile by 84 miniatures. If I hadn't succumbed to the lure of collecting an all female army then those stats would have been even better.

... or taking another view of this year's progress I have added two new units to my Warhamer Orc and Goblin army and replaced my old classic citadel giant with something a bit more imposing. I have also created a new skirmish force for Song of Blades and Heroes expanding my green hordes into yet another system.

15mm
Stands Bought: 0
Stands Painted: 34
Stands Sold: 12 (all unpainted)

On the 15mm front its all good news, nothing bought and two armies worth of miniatures painted up. The lead pile didn't quite dip by 46 stands as some of the stands painted were squigs that I'd made myself from greenstuff. The woodelf army I completed was listed as being 80% complete in my January the 9th post as well.

This year's 15mm painting effort means that I now have a new army to play with (Wood Elves) and I've expanded my Night Goblins so that they're a much more useable force.

What about 2009?
I've enjoyed trying to keep to the pledge and it has been quite effective at reducing the lead pile so I've decided to sign on for the pledge again for 2009. See here for details.

What didn't I get done?
To be honest I didn't get as much painted as I had hoped really. I have all my excuses lined up ... I moved house, things have been rather hectic and also my PNKD has been worse than its been for about 10 years or so. This is actually the first time I can remember tracking a year's output so I don't know how it compares with what I've accomplished in previous years. I still have plenty to work on and at the current rate I think I could carry on with the pledge until 2012 before running out of miniatures in the lead pile.

Thanks to all of you who have stopped by and taken the time to read some of my ramblings. See you in the new year.

And now for something much smaller.

Its been difficult getting painting time recently as my PNKD has claimed a fair share of my free time. I finally got a chance to finish some more miniatures - four skull pass dwarves I'm using as colour scheme testers. I've got a few more on the go but I'm a way off having anything like a usable force.

Stand up and be counted

I've finished the giant! I'd been hoping to be able to finish him earlier in the week but my PNKD was too bad for me to hold a paintbrush. Fortunately this afternoon things were different so now he's done.




I counted him as 10 miniatures on my purchases list so that's 10 miniatures done in one swell foop.

28mm
Miniatures Bought: 44
(1 giant [counts as 10 28mm miniatures]
11 Maidenhead infantry
6 Winged women
5 light centaurs
6 Sabre tooth cat riders [counts as 2 each])
Miniatures Painted: 82
(21 Savage Orcs
20 Black Orcs
1 Goblin Boss
29 Nemesis Goblins
1 Orc Boss
1 giant [counts as 10 28mm miniatures])
Miniatures Sold: 42 (all unpainted)

15mm
Stands Bought: 0
Stands Painted: 34
(23 Night Goblins
11 Wood Elves)
Stands Sold: 12 (all unpainted)

The pledge is going well.

A giant leat forward

Over the last few days I've managed to get the giant fully base coated and I've applied some of the new citadel washes over the top. He's looking good and it looks like it won't take much dry-brushing and highlighting to have him finished.

I've decided what to start as my next project - my long neglected dwarf army. I have 2500-3000 points worth but apart from a couple of colour scheme testers they're entirely unpainted. Last night I dug out a few miniatures to get started on, a mix of Black Tree Designs metal miniatures and new citadel plastics. Many moons ago I clipped the slots off most of the BTD dwarves and glued them to pennies for an abortive 28mm HOTT army I was planning. UK Pennies are slightly more than 20mm in diameter so to get things to rank up I have been breaking them back off the pennies, drilling pins to their feet and attaching them to 20mm slottabases. This was not as easy a task as I had thought and I ended up with blood all over the place(*) and a broken drill bit for my troubles. Fortunately blood washes off miniatures if you get there quickly enough.

* From two seperate wounds - I didn't learn my lesson after the first time!

Something a bit different

This afternoon I turned my talents to something a little bit different. Smallest daughter is a complete Dr Who nut and had a bit of a paddy in woolies this morning when she wasn't allowed to take home the entire Dr Who toy shelf. Whilst she went for her nap I decided to make her a but of a surprise, a tardis play set including the Dr, some assistants and some adversaries. So far its still in one piece and she played with it right up until bed time so I think that's an afternoon well spent.

One more off the list

They're finally done! Its only taken since January!







Hmm, what next?

Nemesis defeated!

That's the last of the Nemesis goblins done. When I've varnished them and added some static grass I'll try and put some pictures up. They look nice ... but then again they're nice sculpts which does make a whole world of difference.

Downhill from here

I've been busy ... and I've been unwell ... and I've been lazy too all of which put together explain the lack of recent posts. Since I last posted I have painted nothing (oops) and bought nothing (well that's okay then). I did manage to put together some space marine bikes but until today that's all I've managed.

Work, family and 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons have been occupying most of my time. I'm now DMing a 4th edition group once a week and having a lot of fun. 'But surely you need miniatures for 4th ed D&D' I hear you say. Not true. Although I'd strongly recommend using something to keep track of combats, actual miniatures are not required. I made a decision early on to use a lovely piece of software called MapTool instead. Instead of miniatures we now use digital tokens on digital maps which is pretty neat.

I've had a lot of PNKD attacks recently and the doc signed me off work this week to try and stabilise things. I'm feeling much better today so I managed to fit in some painting. I'm now down to the last 4 Nemesis goblins and I've even made a start on the giant (evidence below). I think I've recovered a bit of my enthusiasm for painting again so hopefully it won't be so long before I get on with things again.

A return to painting

I managed to fit in my first painting session in the new house at last. Unfortunately I didn't get much done as my hands felt clumsy, almost as if I was wearing gardening gloves. Still, a little is better than nothing ans I'm just that little bit closer to having the nemesis goblins finished.

I've no more purchases to report so things are still going pretty well with the pledge. Unless I crumble at the last moment it looks like I will succeed. Nice one.

The return of the armies

The house move wasn't fun but we are now in and settling down.

One of the nice things about the new house is that I now have somewhere to store my Wargames stuff. I have been allocated two shelves in the store cupboard. I wasted little time in getting my armies out of storage and putting them in their new home as you can see here.



The one tinsy, tiny problem is that two shelves is not enough! I will also need to take up part of the garage as well and I haven't even managed to retrieve my 'classic' miniatures collection yet either. I'm not complaining as this is a vast improvement over what I've had to cope with for the past few years. Everything is dry, easily accessible and out of the reach of the children. Result.

Now to find some time for painting.

Summer slowdown

Its finally happening - we will be moving house next week! This should explain the lack of recent updates and I'm guessing it will be a while before I'm able to pick up a paintbrush one I've moved in ... or at least a paintbrush of size 2 or smaller anyway.

Earlier in the month I sneaked in a couple of short painting sessions and I'm now down to the last 8 of the nemesis goblins, the end is near! It will be nice to tick this one of my list and get on with something not green again.

A short round-up

Oops, slight lack of updates recently.

Since my last post I have been busy with things like preparing for an upcoming house move and going to family celebrations. All this hasn't left much time for painting but I have still managed to squeeze in a little work on the Nemesis Goblins for the SoBaH warband. I experimented with using the new citadel washes alongside my normal techniques and I think the results have worked well. I'm pretty close to finishing this project so I really should put in the effort and get it finished.

In other news I have started shifting a few things on Ebay in preparation for the house move.

I've also be toying with the idea of adding horrors to my chick army using the GW dryad models. If I trim off the leafy bits and paint them as horrors then I think they will work well.

The last news item is that at last I have found my camera! For some reason it was in the back of my wife's car.

Some breaking news

Make that

15mm
Stands Bought: 0
Stands Painted: 34
(23 Night Goblins
11 Wood Elves)
Stands Sold: 0



I finished the basing last night and made a start on painting up some more Nemesis Goblins for the SoBaH warband. Ever onwards.

Round-up at the begining of July

I finally opened up the boxes and did a count up and the good news is that I am on target with the pledge. Yay!

So far I have not only painted up more than I have bought, I have also managed to reduce the lead pile quite dramatically but selling some unpainted stuff as well.

28mm
Miniatures Bought: 44
(1 giant [counts as 10 28mm miniatures]
11 Maidenhead infantry
6 Winged women
5 light centaurs
6 Sabre tooth cat riders [counts as 2 each])
Miniatures Painted: 65
(21 Savage Orcs
20 Black Orcs
1 Goblin Boss
17 Nemesis Goblins
1 Orc Boss)
Miniatures Sold: 42

15mm
Stands Bought: 0
Stands Painted: 23 (Night Goblins)
Stands Sold: 0

Lets see if I can keep this up for the rest of the year.

Speed painting

Couldn't get to the club last night so I stayed in and did some work on the Wood Elves. After a very productive evening they are now almost complete ... just the bases to do now (really).



I'm quite pleased with how they have turned out. When I first opened the box again I was worried thay they would end up being quite bland but with a few washes and a few highlights they look pretty good. For the washes I used diluted citadel badab black wash as neat it would have been overpowering on a 15mm figure. The first time I did this I just used water to dilute it and as I expected the additional water raised the surface tension and meant that the wash didn't dry into the cracks quite as it should. For the Cavalry I made sure that I added a few drops of future floor polish to the mix and it worked a treat.

What's on the workbench?

As promised, here are the photos of what I have been up to since March.

First up we have the SoBaH Goblin Warband. All the figures shown are finished apart from the basing. In real life they look much nicer than the photo suggests.



Second on the list are the Maidenhead babes. Here are some that I have started but not finished.



And lastly here are the 15mm HOTT Wood Elves that I am working on at the moment.



Once I have the wood elves finished I shall go back and try and finish one of the other two projects I have on the go. (Yeah right like that'll actually happen).

And on to the next

The Wood Elves won. I had to look hard to find them but in the end I found them in a small box at the bottom of the wardrobe in my bed room. From a quick glance all 6 stands of shooters are almost complete and will need just a bit of washing and highlighting. The cavalry and the treeman will require more work as they have hardly been started. I'm not sure where the stronghold for this army is though, I think it is in storage grr.

As you can see below I have started taking photos again. No I have not found my camera, I have just remembered that my phone takes reasonable pictures after all. I can now try and make these updates a bit more interesting again (ha ha).

Ta Dah!

Well so much for "the small matter of flocking". It took me all of Tuesday and Wednesday nights to get the basing, varnishing and touch-ups completed. I applied the final finishing touches before breakfast this morning and I am happy to report that my 15mm night goblins are now completed and yes I do mean completed (finito, done, at an end) - there is only just enough room for the army and stronghold in the biscuit tin I will be transporting it in.

It was a fun project to work on and nice and quick too. I might try and get another 'quick win' by finishing my 15mm Wood elves. They are already about 80% done but I ran out of enthusiasm and never got them finished. Maybe now is the time.

Angry Again

On Sunday I managed to get busy with the brushes and I even managed to get a bit more sculpting done (if you can call it that). I added tails and legs to all the remaining angry peas (greenstuff 15mm scale squigs if you missed that post) and attached them to their element bases.

Last night's session wrapped up the remaining painting Night Goblin expansion apart from a small matter of flocking which I haven't yet started. Totalling everything up I seem to have about 54 AP or there abouts of new elements which means I will now be able to field 72AP (three commands) with options. As I was only actually aiming for a total of 48AP I think I have overachieved there! I'm still unsure how to score them painting wise for the pledge. I think maybe 3 elements should equal 1 28mm miniature.

This morning whilst showing off my work to number 2 daughter she spotted that there was one remaining amgry pea which I hadn't required. It now seems to be one of her treasured posessions. I dread the reactions I'll get if she takes it into school for show and tell.

RESPONSE TO BEATENZONE: Yes I will get on and summarise my progress so far just as soon ass I total up all the stuff I bought for the babes army.

Back to the small stuff

Okay I'm a wargamer with the attention span of a mayfly with ADD. I've managed to get sidetracked again.

On Monday I played two games of Hordes of The Things at the club with my (recently rescued from storage) 15mm HOTT armies and I had a lot of fun (despite losing both times). When talking to Tim I lamented the fact that I designed my armies years ago and they weren't very competative. I also mentioned that I had originally purchased many of my armies as 48ap (two command) armies rather than the 24ap we were using and that I still had loads more in the lead pile to paint. Well last night I cracked and dug out the remainder of the troops I had purchased fot my 15mm HOTT night goblin army. After laying it all out on the table I tok the plunge and washed the lot, mounted the miniatures on card strips ready for painting and undercoated the lot.

This morning I was faced with the entire lot (now dry) sat on the kitchen table. Its not so bad really, it should be a quick project to finish and then I can get back to my painting priorities list which seems to be quite different from what I have actually been getting on with.

As well as painting and basing I still have a little more sculpting to do to add legs and tails on to the angry peas (green stuff squigs) so I'll probably combine this with adding clothing to the next batch of Maidenhead babes.

Bathing beauties

I decided to try out the new citadel washes range to add some depth to the the flesh tones and equipment on the Maidenhead babes. The results were pretty encouraging and I think I will be using them a lot with this project. The wash settled nicely in the contours of the faces of the models I used it on making them much more distinct.

I've realised that I have become pretty lazy in my painting style recently - something which has enabled me to paint a lot of orcs and goblins without going insane but its not so good on more delicate models such as the babes. I am going to have to get used to adding in more blending steps if I want them to look good. My results so far have been okay but I can see things I need to work on.

As ever - pictures will be available when the camera surfaces.

Is it June already?

Where did May go?

For a host of reasons I've not been very productive for a while so it was good to break out the paintbrushes on Sunday afternoon. I've been making a start on painting up the babes and reminding myself that its been quite some time since I've painted flesh which isn't green. I'm reasonably happy with the results but I will be adding some dark washes over the top of what I have done so far to try and improve the contrast and shading.

On the plus side whilst I've not been productive I have also not been buying miniatures either so I think I'm still in credit on the deal.

In other gaming news I've had a suggestion to use the babes that time forgot as a WHFB demon army. Initially I thought it was a little crazy but I can now see some merit to it. I still need to put in a bit more thought on where things are going with this project before buying any more stuff.

A good weekend

Still no sign of the camera but despite this I'd still mark that one down as a pretty successful weekend. Not only did I get the first group of maidenhead minis based and primed - I also managed to liberate the lead pile from storage (after a bit of mountaineering and delving). Now if only I could get some actual painting done then I'd be on a roll.

The only downer is that I seem to have lost one of the maidenhead sabre tooth car rider's torso. Cue hunt for tiny piece of metal in all of the places it might have ended up. Sigh.

Of slate, glue and drill bits

On Sunday I managed to find a gap in my relentless schedule of being unwell and I set about doing the bases for the Maidenhead babes.

This is the first time I have used slate for bases so it was a learning experience for me. I decided to work on the heavy infantry. For some I just stuck chips to the base, others I clipped one foot from the base slot and repositioned the miniature slightly so one foot is up on some slate, for the rest I went the whole hog and clipped and pinned both feet to the slate. The slate drills nicely but it is a bit labour intensive with just a pin vice and drill bit. I think it would have been a lot easier with a dremmel.

On Sunday evening I had sore hands and my fingertips were covered in a mixture of slate dust and super glue, I think it was worth it though as the end result does look nice. Next up I need to wash them and glue sand to the bare sections of base prior to priming.

Still no sign of that £$%#ing camera. :(

Slow and unsteady

The last week has been eaten by PNKD so progress has been limited to undercoating the Ultraforge giant who will henceforth be known as "Crouch" (after the Liverpool and England striker, Peter Crouch). When I am well enough I will now have plenty to be getting on with.

Unstuck

The second lot of Maidenhead miniatures have arrived from Artemis Black's. Actually this time I ordered some Spyglass, Masquerade and Hasslefree miniatures as well, all for the same project.

Last night I stayed away from MarioKart and got down to the business of cleaning up the new lead and assembling things ... or that was the plan anyway. It turns out that I've run out of spuerglue so I had to content myself with just trimming off flash instead.

On the pictures front I can't find my darned camera anywhere, when it turns up I will do some pictures.

The green suits you madam

I bought MarioKart Wii on Saturday ... I have a funny feeling that this might eat into my available painting time. Despite this I still managed to have a productive weekend.

On Sunday afternoon I decided to have a go at protecting the modesty of the Babes that Time Forgot. I dug out my green stuff and my new modelling tools and armed with tips from the internet (including FU-UK) I set to work adding extra clothing to the babes. I've only ever really used green stuff/milliput/modelling clay to fill gaps in miniatures before. The one time I have used it to add to a miniature was simply for adding straps to my Black Orc battle standard bearer recently (which worked pretty well actually). I have no illusions about being a sculptor and I was looking forward to this task with a certain amount of trepidation, after all it would be fairly easy to ruin a perfectly good miniature with a botched job.

I am happy to report that it all went rather well (I think). I decided that the original plan of furry bikinis might be a little ambitious for a first try so I opted to do simple boob tubes instead. Getting the green stuff to stick to the miniature was the hard part (my green stuff is several years old) but a combination of patience and vegetable oil saw me through. So far I think I am happy with the results but I'll wait until I see how they paint up before I make up my mind.

After all that I still had plenty of green stuff mixed up so I decided to try and make some 15mm scale squigs for my HOTT night goblin army. I made 8 bodies/heads but the legs and tails will have to wait until next time. The results were not so good (sculpting really is hard) but they might look okay with a bit of paint on them. At the moment they are nicknamed 'the angry peas'!

And again ...

7 more goblins down ... only 12 more to go. I've now passed the half way mark on this project. (That put me up to 59 painted so far Sam!)

On the negative side I ordered a shed load more Maidenhead stuff from Artemis Black's. I've now ordered enough stuff for a reasonable starter army. The ebay bits and bobs should be dropping on to the doormat today or tomorrow so I'll be able to get cracking any time now. I think I should finish the gobbos and paint up the giant before I really get under way though.


I've been looking at colour schemes and I think I would like to do my Sabre Tooth Cats like this. I'm still looking for something Id like to copy for the Terror Bird though. Any ideas?

He's off again ...

5 more goblins added to the painted pile and 7 more almost complete. Not a bad evening's work. I should soon be able to play SoBaH at the club.

I've been making a few more purchases. On their way to me at this moment are some bags of slate chips for the bases of the Maidenhead minis and some sculpting tools to help me do their bikinis.

On the army list front I have realised that if I switch to a Beasts of Chaos army then I will be able to use the same army I had been planning on with only minimal changes.

Saved in the nick of time (+ march roundup)

The Maidenhead miniatures arrived last week whilst I was on holiday and they are very nice indeed. I had been planning what to get next when WHAM! Games Workshop go and throw my plans into disarray. It looks like the list I was planning to build may no longer be legal under the updated Hordes of Chaos rules due in White Dwarf soon.

I guess I will put further purchases on hold until I can get a copy of the new rules which should help with the pledge. The lot I have bought already will do fine for a SoBaH warband.

I really should get on with some painting shouldn't I.

Round-up for the year so far as of March:-

Miniatures Bought: 27 (1 giant, 11 infantry and 3 cavalry)
Miniatures Painted: 47
Miniatures Sold: 42

Buying more friends

I cracked again and ordered some miniatures. 10 infantry and 3 cavalry to be precise.

As I mentioned in an earlier post I am thinking about building a Slaaneshi chaos mortal army from 'The Babes That Time Forgot' from Maidenhead Miniatures. My first order should give me enough to build a SoBaH warband and if things go well I can build it up from there. This will be an interesting project as there will be a small amount of sculpting involved as to satisfy my own prudishness I will be giving some of the more scantily clad babes some nice fur bikinis to keep them warm.

I really should be cracking on with some painting.

Too busy to paint

A bit of a hectic Easter really. I managed to grab a little time to myself on Friday and carried on with the Nemesis goblins. The five goblin archers in my warband are now about 80% done.

Back in the saddle

I finally managed to get in my first painting session of the month this afternoon. Cold/flu (x2) and having to work in the evenings have all meant that I have had little free time.

Its also been a bit of struggle not to buy stuff. I've had crazy ideas about making a chaos mortal WHFB army from various items from Maidenhead Miniatures. I managed to stop sort of actually buying anything but I did get as far as writing out an army list.

Today's painting saw me finish off 5 goblins and 1 orc for my SoBaH warband and make a start on a further 5. A few more sessions and I will have a usable force.

Meltdown!

I'm afraid I turned in a dreadful performance at the Merseyside Meltdown at the weekend coming close to bottom of the heap. I had been planning on going to the Club Challenge in May but I have now decided not to bother - in fact I probably won't be going to any more tournaments until I paint up a new army and/or learn how to play the game.

Time to play something other than Warhammer for a bit I think.

February Round-Up

Round-up for the year so far a as of February:-

Miniatures Bought: 10 (1 giant=10 miniatures)
Miniatures Painted: 41
Miniatures Sold: 42

And here is the promised photo of the Savage Orcs



I am now keeping photos of the miniatures I have completed this year here and I've uploaded loads of photos of the rest of my Orc and Goblin Army here.

Ready and waiting

For the first time ever I have managed to get all my painting and basing jobs done before and event! In one final session last night I managed to blitz all the basing, varnishing and painting jobs I had outstanding.

Usually I have to go to an event with a second choice unit or I have to skimp on something like the basing or shield designs. For example at TS6 last year I didn't have time to flock the movement trays and my night goblins had to go with plain black shields.

Of course this means that I'll be going into my game against AndyP with several units bearing the curse of the newly painted unit but if the game is anything list our last one then it will just add to the mayhem.

I hope to get some pictures of the new stuff up soon.

Prepare for war!

I've been bust ticking off loads of those little jobs that I need to finish before Saturday. Things are looking pretty good but I still have some work on some of the bases, some varnishing and some last minute panic jobs to complete.

Panic job 1) On reading the rules pack for the meltdown I realised that I need to take two objective markers to the event. Not a big problem, I've located the objective markers from the Battle for Skull Pass boxed set and I will paint up two of these.

Panic job 2) I added some extra axes to my black orc battle standard bearer (Gritsqueek) at the weekend and sculpted some straps to hold them in place out of green stuff. I now need to paint the straps and touch up the model where the super glue has reacted with the paint. Overall I have to say that Gritsqueek looks much better now so I think it was worth it.

Panic job 3) I realised last night that my warboss, Snaggletooth, is not WYSIWYG at the moment as on my army list he uses a shield and the model doesn't have one. I now need to paint up a shield for for a general and find a cunning way of attaching it to his arm.

I also managed to get my new giant assembled on Sunday night. I think he might be barging his way on to my workbench priorities list very soon.

Another unit bites the dust.

The final four Savage Orcs felt the wrath of my paintbrush last night, yay! I also managed to get the shields finished for the savage orc boar boys, paint one of the two banners for big boss Wheelz's chariot and put some paint on some extra weapons for big boss Gritsqueek.

Still to do - base the Savage Orcs, attach newly painted extra bits, repair minis, tart up Gritsqeek's standard, add decals to the night goblin shields, do some back banners for Warboss Snaggletooth etc etc.

In short, all the big stuff is out of the way, its just the little bits which give the army a bit more zing left to do. Its looking good for having everything ready in time.

10 days and counting.

Last night I finished 6 more of the Savage Orcs leaving just the final four to complete. Fingers crossed I'll get them done tonight and then after I have based them I can channel my energies into getting the rest of my army ready for the field. I have numerous small repairs and touch-ups I would like to get done before the event if I get the chance.

And here's my as yet un-named giant. The temptation to start work on him now is immense but I must wait until after the tournament!

Its here!

The nice post lady brought me my my Ultraforge Giant today and it's huge! Even without his base he stands about 15cm tall. I'll get some pics of him up when I can find my camera.

Absent Friends

Time for a bit of background. One of the reasons that I've decided to take the pledge this year is that we are currently in the process of trying to sell our house (hopefully to move across town). The process of 'de-cluttering' has drastically cut the amount of storage I am allowed for all my wargames stuff, everything which doesn't fit in the remaining space has been shipped off to storage in two different locations. Add to this the de-cluttering exercise which took place a few years ago which left a lot of my OOP citadel miniatures (amongst other things) in storage (in yet another location!) and you have 20 something years of miniatures split over four different locations.

This last de-cluttering is being felt the most at the moment. for the last few weeks I have been trying to get into the storage unit to try and retrieve a box containing most of my unpainted 15mm miniatures (and maybe a few other items if I can get to them). On Saturday I finally managed to get there, only to realise that I can't find/get to any of the items I would like to bring back. I came away empty handed and the whole trip was a very frustrating experience.

So what does this mean for the pledge? Well, everything on the ‘workbench priorities list’ is within reach and I think I probably have enough there to keep me going until April or there abouts so I shouldn't panic yet. I also have some more 15mm miniatures hidden away that I can get cracking on. If I get everything in the house finished then I can lay my hands on my Bretonnians (minus the flying stuff) and get stuck into that. By the time I start making serious inroads into the Brets then I really hope we will have moved house and everything will be back to 'normal' again. Of course I’d rather do things in a different order but I will have to work with what I can get.

Progress update: Following the weekend, I now have those 6 SOs almost finished and I have made a start on the final 4.

Little by little

Another 6 Savage Orcs finished bringing the total to 10 with the next batch of 6 under way. I really might get things finished in time for this tournament! Well I suppose stranger things have happened.

I've broken my duck

Well it had to happen sometime - I've finally crumpled and bought my first minitaure of 2008.

It all started when a rather nice chap in New York offered me cash for my 20+ year old citadel giant and I decided to take him up on his offer. Shortly aftwards I embarked on a bit of retail therapy and splashed out on one of these as a replacement. The good news is that I've paid for the new giant with the money I have made so far from selling miniatures so I'm still neutral on the cash front.

On the painting front I'm 4 savage orcs down and another 6 in progress. Last night I was hoping to get some more painting done but lost the entire evening to PNKD again. Grr.

Back to basi(cs/ng)

A few more sessions gone and I now have four finished savage orcs. Only sixteen more to go. I think I am on target to get everything done in time for the Meltdown which is good news.

I have also been busy with some of the basing I have been putting off, including all the movement trays for the army. I still have some highlighting to go but everything is looking much nicer already.

I even managed to get some sand glued to the bases of the Nemesis goblins I'm using in my SoBaH warband. I intend to base these in a different style to the warhammer army and do the bases brown rather than green. For some reason I usually forget to do the bases until the very end which is far from ideal - this time I am ahead of the game although I suppose it would have been better to get the bases done before undercoating the models.

January Roundup

Well here are the stats at the end of January

Miniatures Bought: 0
Miniatures Painted: 21
Miniatures Sold: 42

Well its only the end of January but so far I'm succeeding in keeping to the pledge. I have been very tempted in the last few days to buy more miniatures as I have see several things I really like (1 2 3 4) but I have stayed strong. If I keep up this rate of productivity for the whole year then I think I will be very happy.

Here are some photos of the completed work for January.





More phots are up on my Photobucket.

Plan 9 From Outer Space

I've been planning out what I want to paint after I finish the Savage Orcs and get my army tournament ready. I've put a little widget on the right hand side of the page as a remider.

Once everything is ready for the Merseyside Meltdown I'd like to get my Orc and Goblin warband for SoBaH done (about 30 miniatures in total).

After that, if I can still muster the enthusiasm to paint yet more Orcs will be a unit of 25 spear armed orcs from Renegade Miniatures which I started last year but didn't finish.

Once the Orcs are done I think I might try and finish off my 15mm HOTT Wood Elves which I started about 2 years ago. From memory they're mostly done but need that last big push to get the detailing, basing etc completed so that they're ready to use.

With the Wood Elves out of the way I'm less sure of what to go for. Some 28mm Dwarves to make a Dwarf warband for SoBaH? My 15mm High Elf army? My WHFB Bretonnians? I think I'll make the decision nearer the time.

Savage Orc Frenzy

I'm now on the case of the savage orcs. I started four of them last night just to test colour schemes and all seems to be well. The models are much nicer than the black orcs (even if the poses are odd) so I'm pumped up to get them done.

I have a game tonight against Graham's Dark Elves which will be the first game for the black orcs since I finished painting them - obviously this means that they will all die horribly due to NPUS (Newly Painted Unit Syndrome). At least I can get this out of the way before the tournament.

Black Orcs Down!

I managed to get the last of the black orcs finished on Friday night which leaves only 20 Savage Orcs and some work on a goblin chariot to finish before the Merseyside Meltdown. I'm usually a very slow painter so this is really going some by my standards.

I'm not too impressed with my painting on the Black Orcs but they look good enough when ranked up - kind of like a mobile argument whis is more or less what they are.

It's spreading

January can be a month of infectious enthusiams ... I've manged to get fellow lunatic and old friend, Sam onto the pledge as well. He'll be charting his own progress over here.

Last night I managed to get most of the basecoats done on the remaining 10 black orcs after sorting out those darned mold lines. I'm beginning to think I might get everything finished for the Merseyside Meltdown without the usual last minute rush. Yay!

Should have gone to Specsavers

More progress - I finished 7 more black orcs last night (bringing the total to 10) which means I'm now halfway through the unit. As I sat back to admire my work I had a Homer Simpson moment.

"Doh!"

Half of the miniatures I have finished have a prominent mould line across the armour plates on their shoulders. How can I not have spotted this before! Well, its too late for this batch but I can do something about it on the remaining 10.

The task ahead

I've entered the Merseyside Meltdown Warhammer tournament at the beginning of March and I've gone and grudges Andy Potter into the bargain. The event is run at 2500 points which is a step up from my usual fighting weight. After trying to make my army a tad more effective (following my poor showing at Toy Soldier 6 last year) I am pretty much maxed out on magic and special and rare slots so the extra 500 points will mostly have to be core. After playing around with lists on army builder I have decided to add some Savage Orcs and some wolf riders to the list. The wolf riders were painted years ago but I only just recently primed the Savage Orcs.

So here's the task - paint up the remaining 17 Black orcs and an extra 20 Savage Orcs in the remaining 42 days left. Sounds do-able but I'll have to step up the work rate to make it happen.

I've also shoved some Black Tree Designs Savage orcs on eBay. I originally bought them when I had the idea of creating an army consisting of only Savage Orcs. Having decided that this probably wouldn't really be very effective I've decided to part with them as part of the pledge.

Here are the scores so far for 2008:-

Miniatures Bought: 0
Miniatures Painted: 4
Miniatures on eBay: 42

So far I'm managing to keep to the pledge even if my work rate is not as good as I'd hoped.

I finally got the camera out and took some photos. Here are those Black Orcs on the work bench. I've only just started them so there's not much to see but it shows that I've not been fibbing. You can see the full gallery here.



And here are some savage orcs I 'finished' before the end of last year (just). I say 'finished' as I've not done the bases or shields yet.

A Productive Weekend

Satuday dawned sunny and bright. Did I think "lets go for a walk" or "Time to tidy the garden"? No, being a wargamer I thought "Undercoating weather!". I managed to get the Savage Orcs glued and primed and I also primed the Nemesis goblins which will make up my SoBaH warband.

On Saturday afternoon I helped Isabel (aged 5) paint up a plastic Bretonnian knight that I had given to her. She has called it 'Sir Horace' after a ghostly knight in her current bedtime book 'Frognapped'. she suprised me by being quite competant with a brush and she really exceeded my expectations. I'll have to watch out for her or she'll be better than me before too long.

On Sunday I managed to get in another painting session, this time with Heather (aged 8). We both painted up our Orc and Goblin warbands (I made an exception to my painting schedule) and then played a game of SoBaH with them afterwards. This time the dice came up in my favor and I won the game - the fact that I got Isabel to roll all my dice for me may have helped.

We are go, go, go!

Last night I finally got my painting effor for 2008 under way. I managed to get one goblin character and three black orcs finished finished. I also started another 8 black orcs. Its a bit sad that I'm getting excited about a quitet Friday night in but there you go.

I'm not painting the black orcs in any sort of fancy way - I'm just aiming to get them on the table. As they're mostly armour they shouldn't take too long to finish so I'm already trying to work out what to paint next once I have this unit (20 in all) done.

I'm hoping to enter the WHFB tournament at the Merseyside Meltdown in April which is run at 2500 points rather than my usual standard of 2000. As my current Orcs and Goblins list is already maxed out on Special and Rare slots this means I'll need more core. I already have painted wolf riders or some more night goblins but I fancy trying to get something else out of the lead pile for the event. Orcs with spears? Savage Orc infantry? Decisions, decisions.

Ready, set, stop!

I was all set to get on with some painting last night when my PNKD flared up. Its kind of hard to paint when you can't move your right arm properly so that was that.

I did manage to nip out to B&Q to try and find something to base the Aliens and Marines on. I found some washers of about the right size but they are more expensive than the miniatures themselves! I think I'll follow a suggestion from TMP and see if I can find a suitable hole punch at a craft store instead.

My mommy always said there were no monsters - no real ones - but there are.

Excellent - yesterday the postman brought me my 10mm Aliens and Colonial Marines from Pendraken. These were a late 2007 purchase (Dec 28th to be precise) so don't count towards this year's allowance. I'm looking forwards to painting this lot up when I work out what to base them on.

Also included in the package from Pendraken are some 10mm fantasy bits for my HOTT Night Goblin army. Trolls/Ogres and Bat swarms to be precise. I've currently got 24 ap painted up already and there's another 24 ap or so in the lead pile. The additions of behemoths and more flyers should make the force a bit more flexible when it goes up to 48 ap as its largely shooters and spears at the moment.

Sadly I didn't get any painting done last night as I was busy watching Aliens special edition on video - research purposes of course.

The scale of the problem

Well, apart from helping my eldest daughter with some painting at the weekend I haven't had a chance to really get on with anything yet - but I haven't bought any miniatures yet either so I'm all square.

I thought this might be a good time to review the scale of my little miniatures problem. Off the top of my head, here are some of the projects than need the attention of my paintbrush (I know that there are more than just these!).

28mm Scale Projects

Orcs and Goblins
System: Warhammer
Status: 200 or so figures painted, 100 more or so in the lead pile
Comments: Over 2000 points + options available for use.

Orcs and Goblins
System: Song of Blades and Heroes
Status: Unpainted, about 20 models in total.

Bretonnians
System: Warhammer
Status: 18 knights started, about 100 more models unpainted.

Dwarfs
System: Warhammer
Status: 98% unpainted, about 100-150 models in total.
Comments: At least they're assembled. Should be 2500-3000 points easily when done.

Blood Angels
System: Warhammer 40K
Status: Still about 1/3 of the army unfinished.
Comments: Over 1500 points + options available for use.

SWAT teams and Criminals
System: Officer Down, about 40 models in total.
Status: 80% painted
Comments: The problem with this project is that it needs more scenery.

10/15mm Scale Projects

Aliens and Marines
System: Xenomorph
Status: In the post
Comment: A late 2007 purchase. About 40-60 models in total.

High Elves
System: HOTT
Status: Unpainted (48 points + options)

Wood Elves
System: HOTT
Status: 80% painted

Undead
System: HOTT
Status: Unpainted

Mongols
System: DBA
Status: Unpainted

Later Muslim Indian
System: DBA
Status: Unpainted

Later Achmeneid Persian
System: DBA
Status: 30% Painted

Taking the pledge for 2008

Taking the pledge does sound a lot like drinking furniture polish to me but here I am trying to take the Warhamer's pledge after reading a Poll at TMP.

The basic idea as follows: -

"The Pledge is to paint at least one figure for every figure you purchase, and to report your progress monthly on TMP."

Knowing that I'm going to be really poor at remembering what I have bought and what I have painted I have decided to start this blog to try and keep track of my efforts and remind me of the task in hand.

Hopefully 2008 will be a good year for painting and I will make a decent dent in the lead pile. Wish me luck.

Jez