Jez's Blog

The Scale of the Problem (2012 edition)

2012-01-03T19:55:00.001Z

Carrying on the tradition I thought start the year with a look at what still remains in the lead pile.

28mm Scale Projects

Orcs and Goblins
System: Warhammer and KoW
Status: Several hundred figures painted, some more in the lead pile
Comments: Thousands of points painted. Loads painted in 2011.
Bretonnians
System: Warhammer
Status: 18 knights started, about 100 more models unpainted. No progress in 2011.

Dwarfs
System: Warhammer and KoW
Status: 85% unpainted, about 100-150 models in total.
Comments: At least they're assembled. Should be 2500-3000 points easily when done. No progress in 2011 ... bought 20 dwarf berserkers and a steel behemoth.

High Elves
System: Warhammer and KoW
Status: Almost all painted (if you don't count the 60 miniatures still shrink wrapped)
Comments: Refurbished, magnetised and slightly expanded in 2011, if only I hadn't bought that load of stuff in the sale this would be all good news.

Blood Angels
System: Warhammer 40K
Status: Mostly finished.
Comments: Over 2500 points + options available for use. Not a bean painted this year and to add insult to injury I bought some more assault marines, gah!

Space Hulk
System: Space Hulk
Status: About 2/3 finished. All of the Genestealers are completed, just the marines to go.
Comments: No progress in 2011.

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 2011.

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 2010.

High Elves
System: HOTT
Status: Unpainted (48 points + options). No progress in 2011.

Undead
System: HOTT
Status: Unpainted. No progress in 2011.

Dark Elves
System: HOTT
Status: Unpainted (48 points + options). Bought January 2010 expanded December 2010 none of it painted.

Mongols
System: DBA
Status: Unpainted. No progress in 2011.

Later Muslim Indian
System: DBA
Status: Unpainted. No progress in 2011.

Later Achmeneid Persian
System: DBA
Status: 30% Painted. No progress in 2011.

And the new year is off to a flying start!

2012-01-02T14:34:00.001Z

5 miniatures painted and none bought so far. 4 more Hasslefree children bought in December and a GW LOTR Golum which I bough a long time ago.

Well okay all of those were started last year and would probably have made it on to the 2011 painted pile if I hadn't taken a detour and magnetised the elves.

A practical guide to defying gravity.

2012-01-01T16:53:00.000Z

That final batch of painted miniatures for 2011 would have been a little larger but I decided it was time to get round to a task I had been putting off for a while - magnetising the bases for my Mantic elf army.

The method I chose, using magnetic tape and steel paper works well for Mantic miniatures as the Mantic bases are solid and have flat bottoms.

To save on materials and therefore money I chose not to cover the whole of the bases and for this reason I chose to put the steel paper on the bottom of the bases rather than the magnetic tape which is the more usual way round. The steel paper is so thin that it doesn't affect the stability of the model when you only cover part of the base.

Anyway, enough prattling.

What you'll need is some steel paper and some 15mm magnetic tape (both bought from Magnetic Displays). The steel paper is self adhesive (as is the tape) and behaves just like thin card so can be cut with normal scissors and you don't get any nasty sharp edges.

Cut the steel paper into 15mm squares and stick to the bottom of the Mantic bases.

Cut 15mm sections from the roll of tape and place one square on the tray for each miniature.

For plastic miniatures the grip is strong enough to allow you to turn your miniatures upside-down. This doesn't work quite as well for heavier metal miniatures (but then I'm only using part of the surface area of the base) although its still adequate for the kind of handling the unit is likely to get on the tabletop and the degree of tilt you are likely to experience when fighting up or down hills.

For my cavalry I've used wider tape (20mm) which seems to work well. Hopefully I won't lose by a time out next time I use this army in a tournament.

Cue female singer of above average body weight.

2012-01-01T16:26:00.002Z

And that was 2011. Time for one last picture of some painted miniatures and it's all over bar the shouting.

Here we have the last three miniatures of 2011 - an ancient GW plastic chaos warrior, and a couple of Hasslefree minis. The first HF mini is painted to look like my eldest daughter and I have used her school uniform as the colour scheme. The second is "Amy", daughter number two's wizard character for when we play RPGs.

Sadly 2011 was another pledge fail for me - despite painting vast numbers of goblins I still managed to buy more miniatures than I painted - that sale on Mantic elves in January cost me dearly ... and the assault marines, dwarf berserkers etc etc.

Still ... looking on the bright side I have plenty to paint in 2012.

And that's not all

2011-11-26T16:06:00.001Z

Thursday was my last day off work which probably means it will be my last chance to do a big block of painting for a while. On Sunday I ordered some Reaper miniatures (from Spirit Games) which arrived on Tuesday. I held off working on them until I had the night goblins done as they were needed for a game of Warhammer on Wednesday whilst the Reaper minis were for our weekly D&D game on Thursday.

So this is what I managed to finish on Thursday - and apart from Hasslefree's Shimmer all these were unpainted when I picked up my paintbrushes on Thursday morning. It was a hectic day but I got all of them finished in time for the game.

And I found the camera at last so these pictures will be a bit better.

Firstly we have a bunch of character for our current Dark Sun 4e campaign along with a couple of others I had to hand.

And also some kids from Hasslefree for when I play RPGs with the girls.

Aren't they cute. Next up will probably be the Arachnarok.

And the rest

2011-11-23T15:00:00.001Z

A frantic evening of painting followed by an afternoon of basing and as promised I have some more photos.

Firstly a couple of trolls. I started these many years ago but it took until last night to actually get round to finishing them.

Secondly the main event. Night goblins fahsands of 'em ... well 83 anyway but it felt like thousands whilst painting them.

I have now painted every last night goblin I own and I may never need to paint another night goblin trooper ever again ... unless I paint 8 more and then I can field two hordes of 40 for KoW but for now they are finally all done. On to painting something a bit more colourful maybe.

About time too

2011-11-22T20:38:00.003Z

Life has been a bit too hectic for some time and eventually my movement disorder became so bad that the doctor signed me off work for two weeks. When I finally got full control of my limbs back I took this golden opportunity to chill out and get on with some of the painting I've not been able to do for ages.

As you will be able to see from the pictures below it has turned out to be a pretty productive time. Sorry about the picture quality, my camera is (still) missing (again) so I took these with my phone.

First up are a couple of minis I finished a while back but hadn't got round to posting. That's a Black Tree Design stone troll and a citadel goblin bolt thrower (which I lost for about 10 years!) both have been waiting for a very long time in the painting queue.

Next up we have some Mantic Elf Scouts. I bought these when Mantic were selling the individual sprues earlier in the year so that I could make up a second unit of 10 with the ones I got as free samples ages ago.

And finally (for today) we have the reinforcements for my orc units to bring them up to 30 models each. The extra rank should be handy for WHFB and it makes then the right size for Kings of War too. These were bought earlier this year.

And that's not all ... but you'll have to wait until tomorrow at least to see the rest as I have a few last things to finish off.

A hard day's night

2011-08-09T11:22:00.000+01:00

Right, that's another 9 night Goblin grunts finished and a shaman as well. The unit is starting to look like a decent size.

On with the next batch.

Something of the night

2011-06-20T07:37:00.002+01:00

Here's a quick peek at what I'm working on right now.

These are some night goblins I bought on ebay last year. When this unit is complete it will be really, really big. I've made a decision that there's no point putting too much effort into every model so I'm trying to crank them out as fast as I can.

Yes I'm still here!

2011-06-12T00:27:00.002+01:00

Its not been a very productive few months I'm afraid. Work and health issues have prevented me from getting much done. I can sum up my progress by saying I have painted up a handful for night goblins, assembles and primed an arachnarok spider and tidied up the high elf army with the shield transfers.

Here are some shots of how the high elves look now.

More shots here:-

http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii278/Maccwar/High%20Elves/

Flying the nest.

2011-03-22T00:39:00.002Z

Well that's it, the last of the elves in the current bunch are done and its time to start on something new (or old).

Here's the High Elf griffon I've been working on over the past week or so.

And also joining him on the pile of finished stuff are a couple of RPG minis from Heresy and Hasslefree respectively.

Next up? Nasty little goblinses!

Keeping score

2011-03-13T20:44:00.003Z

And here's something I've been working on for a while - wound markers for Kings of War. I've combined the casualties from the elf sprues with some bits from EM4 miniatures.

The different coloured rings are worth different amounts. White rings are one wound, yellow are worth 5 wounds and red rings are ten wounds.

And here's a quick shot of them in use.

You can get the rings, posts and bases from em4 miniatures.

The reserves have arrived

2011-03-13T20:35:00.002Z

And the final* batch of spear elves finally hits the painted pile. Celebrations all round! Its taken a long time to get these finished as my PNKD has been playing up badly for a while.

*final until I start work on the stack I bought in the Hobbycraft sale that is.

Shielded from view

2011-02-22T21:07:00.002Z

One thing I've not been so happy with about the scheme I've chosen for my elves is the little design I've been painting on the shields. I originally wanted to do a star but I couldn't find something that i could reproduce consistently so I settled with the cross and lines. Recently I've not been able to even do that properly (not sure if its the fault of the brush or the hands that hold it) so I finally made the decision to ditch the freehand symbol and use a transfer instead. I managed to find a design I liked at Veni Vidi Vici and bought three sheets of it scaled for 10mm shields. The transfers themselves are top notch and very easy to use. I like the result and I now plan to go back and use these for the whole army. Here are some comparison pictures:-

Oh and I've got a new camera and a photo tent, hopefully that'll mean better pictures from now on.

Footslogging

2011-02-20T21:36:00.002Z

Well February didn't turn out so well either. Until this weekend I had only managed to snatch a bit of painting time here and there largely due to mobility issues. This weekend, thankfully, I managed to get a bit of free time when all my limbs were working properly and managed to make up for lost time.

The end result is 17 miniatures ready for basing as well as a load of wound markers and a further 5 minis almost done. In fact once I have those 5 minis done and the HE griffon then I will have managed to complete the first of this year's objectives.

I've made a tentative start towards the second project of the year as well. I washed a batch of night goblins ready for priming but sadly the weather decided not to play ball so they remain in their natural grey plastic for now.

Lets hope things perk up so I can get some more painting done soon.

Do not pass go, do not collect £200

2011-01-30T21:07:00.002Z

Things are not going to plan and painting has come to a full stop. I've not lifted a paintbrush since the 17th, mainly because my right arm not working properly for most of the last 10 days or so.

Maybe February will be better, I certainly hope so anyway.

The eBay auction netted me £16 which will probably go on hobby stuff at some point but I'm not sure quite what as yet.

And there goes the duck

2011-01-25T14:42:00.002Z

Well I had been doing well at not buying miniatures so far this year, well up until last Sunday anyway. I got a heads up about a sale on the Mantic ranges at Hobbycraft over in Stockport with boxes about 75% off.

Well that's just a red rag to a bull isn't it? So £14 later I'm the proud owner of another 80 Mantic elves. Not so good for the pledge really and just as I was almost about to finish painting every elf in the army too. I've decided to keep them in the boxes for now and maybe flog them on ebay later in the year if things don't go well.

Also on ebay at the moment is the Storm Raven I painted up for my Blood Angels last year. With the official model out shortly I decided it was time to try and flog the proxy model. If I get back what I paid for it I'll be happy but I'm not necessarily expecting to get that much.

Painting wise things haven't gone well as my movement disorder has been playing up. Hopefully it'll calm down enough for me to get some work done.

Lets get this party started

2011-01-18T17:53:00.002Z

And here he is, Runt - the last member of the Thursday night D&D Party.

The mini is an Armoured Big Boris from Heresy Miniatures, a lovely piece and fun to paint.

On a roll

2011-01-18T07:34:00.002Z

One more mini on the painted pile. I finished an armoured big boris from Heresy last night. I also have six more elves in progress and with no purchases things are looking good.

Do not feed the lions

2011-01-16T15:43:00.003Z

Well here is the finished article. Eagle eyed viewers will spot that I've left off a lot of the decorative items that GW provide in the kit and swapped out the heads for some Mantic Palace Guard helmets.

One thing I realised when doing the final assembly is that the instructions which come with the kit appear to be wrong .. or I glues the yoke on at an odd angle. I ended up having to shave off parts of the reigns on the lions to get everything to fit on the base.

Anyway, here they are.

Now to get on with the remaining infantry.

What do you think of it so far?

2011-01-16T00:02:00.002Z

Well, if things had gone according to plan I would have been heading off to a tournament in the morning with my newly painted HE chariots in my army case. So what went wrong? Well the chariots were painted in time but sadly something cropped up which ruled me out of the tournament.

Completed with hours to spare they look OK but you'll have to take my word for it until I can get a decent photo.

So far this year's pledge is going well - two chariots down and no purchases. The plan is to finish the High Elves and then to move on to something else.

The Scale of the Problem (2011 edition)

2011-01-11T19:11:00.002Z

Carrying on the tradition I thought start the year with a look at what still remains in the lead pile.

28mm Scale Projects

Orcs and Goblins
System: Warhammer
Status: 300 or so figures painted, some more or so in the lead pile
Comments: Over 3000 points + options available for use. Bought more in 2010.

Bretonnians
System: Warhammer
Status: 18 knights started, about 100 more models unpainted. No progress in 2010.

Dwarfs
System: Warhammer
Status: 85% unpainted, about 100-150 models in total.
Comments: At least they're assembled. Should be 2500-3000 points easily when done. No progress in 2010.

High Elves
System: Warhammer
Status: 90% painted
Comments: Started project added during 2009. Lots bought and painted during 2010, only a few models left to go.

Blood Angels
System: Warhammer 40K
Status: Mostly finished.
Comments: Over 2500 points + options available for use. Lots of progress this year, but more models added to the unpainted pile too.

Space Hulk
System: Space Hulk
Status: About 2/3 finished. All of the Genestealers are completed, just the marines to go.
Comments: No progress in 2010.

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 2010.

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 2010.

High Elves
System: HOTT
Status: Unpainted (48 points + options). No progress in 2010.

Undead
System: HOTT
Status: Unpainted. No progress in 2010.

Dark Elves
System: HOTT
Status: Unpainted (48 points + options). Bought January 2010 expanded December 2010 none of it painted.

Penguins
System: HOTT
Status: Unpainted (24 points + options). Bought and completed January 2010.

Mongols
System: DBA
Status: Unpainted. No progress in 2010.

Later Muslim Indian
System: DBA
Status: Unpainted. No progress in 2010.

Later Achmeneid Persian
System: DBA
Status: 30% Painted. No progress in 2010.

Summary - some progress but too many purchases.

2010's final efforts

2011-01-01T13:09:00.002Z

Here are the elves I painted in such a hurry for the Autumn Showdown. I ended up fielding seaguard to make the minimum core points as I didn't have enough spear elves painted.

I've since fixed some of he painting errors shown off by that photo.

Next up we have some adventurers I painted up to represent 4 of the 5 members of the D&D party in my Thursday night campaign. From left to right we have Niamh (an ice wizard), Davven ( a monk), Leona (a thief) and Magnamous (a cleric).

And lastly we have some Ral Partha AD&D miniatures I got way back in 1994 with a starter set TSR put out called "First Quest". A mere 16 year wait in the painting queue - nothing unusual about that round here.

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T11:45:00.002Z

Oh dear. From a pledge point of view 2010 was a FAIL.

Quite simply I focussed on new projects rather than clearing the decks and whilst I did paint a reasonable amount I bought more.

I still have some 2010 minis to photograph and then I'll try and crunch some numbers and work out how badly I failed.

Here's hoping 2011 turns out better.

Detour ---->

2010-11-01T07:37:00.002Z

Where did October go?

Well, anyway the Autumn Showdown is now less than a week away and I still have have a load of painting left to do.

So why didn't I do all the painting in November I hear you ask, because I was painting my Epic Armageddon Imperial Guard of course. I got an email from an old friend saying that he would be over for a game on the 27th of October. That game me a good excuse to crack out the old guard army which has lain untouched for several years. A bit of time and effort later and I managed to get everything for the game painted up (about 20 tanks and a load of infantry).

In the end we only managed to get two turns played on the night because we were too busy catching up but both armies got admiring looks from passers by at the gaming centre.

But now I have 20 spear men, an archmage and a chariot to finish if I want to use the HE army I've been hoping to use at the Autumn Showdown. Something tells me this is likely to be a busy week.

Now that's a well guarded palace

2010-09-19T22:00:00.002+01:00

Well that didn't take long, unit number two of the palace guard is now complete. These will be Swordmasters in my WHFB army of just plain old palace guard for Kings Of War.

Now on to complete another units of spearmen.

Defending the palace

2010-09-18T12:18:00.002+01:00

At last, they're finished!

In a sudden burst of productivity I've also made a start on the swordmasters unit as well as painting the base coat on the armour of the remaining 30 spearmen. I can actually forsee a time coming up when I will have finished painting the army!

Immitating Angels

2010-09-11T12:17:00.003+01:00

And now I've finally got organised with the camera, here are the Blood Angels I painted up for Toy Soldier 2010.

I make that 2 vehicles and 20 infantry.

En garde

2010-09-10T23:53:00.002+01:00

Some more progress ... I've been getting on with the palace guard.

These will be the white lions for my army (hence the white cloaks). Only another 7 to go before this unit is finished and I can start on the Swordmasters.

Wake me up when September starts

2010-09-06T07:36:00.002+01:00

A whole month without a post? How did that happen?

Well truth be told, August was not the best month for painting. Holidays and other activities ate into available painting time so I have not managed to complete anything new, my camera is also playing up so I've not managed to put up any more pictures either.

I have managed to put some more stuff together and get it primed so I will have things to be getting on with when the spraying season (aka summer) ends.

Games wise I now have two games of 8th edition under my belt (w1:l1:d0) and I am eyeing up a tournament in November. Can I get all my high elves painted in time? We shall see.

Oh dear, that could have gone better

2010-07-29T08:01:00.001+01:00

Dear Dante,

Sorry I can't debrief you in person about the recent assignment in the UCLAN sector but the Sanguinary Priests tell me that I'm making a good recovery and should be fit for active service again before too long.

I'm not quite sure how to put this but there seems to have been some sort of fowl up in the old intel front, instead of finding the place crawling with xeno scum or the taint of chaos we rather embarrassingly ended up having a few scrapes with some of our chums. One lot admittedly did look like they were bearing the taint of chaos but it turns out they really were following the codex astartes and the grime and corrosion was some sort of ruse.

More seriously our fellow battle brothers seem to have discovered something called 'tactics'. We view this development with the suspicion it deserves as this is obviously some sort of chaos taint and correspondingly we stayed true to the sacred Blood Angels doctrines of in-yer-face-matey and did-you-spill-my-pint.

One more thing before I go, please can you remind me why we bother to take heavy support vehicles on campaigns like this? They did of course look very nice but someone seems to have removed the armour and replaced it with tin foil as some kind of joke. By the last tussle we were almost completely out of spares and I'm afraid that the insurance claim is likely to be somewhat large.

Cheerio,

Brother Bean

And he's off

2010-07-24T06:39:00.001+01:00

Five more minutes and then I'm off to Toy Soldier.

Army packed, scenery packed and ready to go!

I saw an angel, of that I'm sure

2010-07-20T07:56:00.002+01:00

As of about half an hour ago I have finished the painting required for Toy Soldier this weekend. I'm still hoping to get time to add some decals and squad markings but I'm still celebrating this milestone.

Of course I thought I'd finished last night but I had one of those moments in the shower (no, not one of those moments) and I realised that I'd failed to paint a targeting/camera widget on the furioso dread so I sorted it out before breakfast.

I now have two practice games to learn how to use the list and to try and lift the curse of the newly painted models before packing everything up on Friday.

If you want blood ...

2010-07-05T07:31:00.006+01:00

I've switched my efforts away from the elves for a bit and I am now concentrating on getting my Blood Angels ready for Toy Soldier. I'm trying somethign a bit radical with my army list which unfortunately means thst I have several items to paint. Here's a quick glimpse of some of the things I'm working on.

Guards! Guards!

2010-06-16T22:25:00.002+01:00

A work in progress shot of the palace guard.

The colours have been washed out a bit by the photo, they don't look quite so bland in real life. They still need something extra to make them look a bit more interesting, not quite sure what though.

Eagles may soar but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines

2010-06-07T07:33:00.001+01:00

Sooner than expected, here are the shots of the completed eagles and bolt thrower.

Pretty polly

2010-06-06T22:49:00.004+01:00

Its been a good day for painting despite some of the usual difficulties.

I finally decided to tackle the Gamezone great eagles I bought a while back. I had initially decided to try and paint them as golden eagles but I couldn't capture the depth of tone in their plumage very well and they looked quite bland. After hanging around semi painted for ages I decided the best fix for the situation was to change the colour scheme to something more like a bald eagle. The extra contrast of the white head and tale has made a big difference and I am really happy with the result.

Here they are with a coat of varnish drying on, I'll get some better pics when I get round to adding the static grass.

Nestled between them there is a second repeater bolt thrower which I also managed to finish up today, told you it was a good day for painting.

Stormbringer

2010-05-27T18:23:00.003+01:00

Some finished stuff for your viewing pleasure:-

High Elf Lord on Dragon

Mantic High Elf Stormwind Cavalry

In other news my Mantic Palace Guard have arrived. They're now assembled and ready for priming. I'm looking forward to splashing some paint on them.

Look to my coming, at first light, on the fifth day. At dawn, look to the East.

2010-05-18T22:46:00.002+01:00

So close to finishing these chaps now. Just a bit of flock and maybe a couple of tweaks and they'll be on the completed pile.

Hopefully I can get some decent photos of them up soon along with a few other things I may or may not have finished by then.

Just in time for the Grand National

2010-04-10T22:06:00.003+01:00

Got a chance to sit down and do some painting for the first time in ages and I went back to the original plan and carried on working on the Mantic elven cavalry. Here are the results.

They're not quite finished but I didn't feel up to doing the detail work as my hands were more shaky than usual. If tomorrow is quiet then I might get a chance to add a few more that are almost there.

Seeing red

2010-03-29T23:19:00.002+01:00

Toy Soldier tickets became available today and I signed up as quickly as I could ... only to get a shock afterwards when I read the WHFB rules pack.

If you've been following things I've been collecting and painting the elves since the end of last year with the hazy idea of getting back into WHFB and taking the army to a couple of tournaments. Well, it turns out that the army list I have been aiming towards falls foul of the event's comp restrictions - in short I'd have to lose two rare slots (eagles or bolt throwers) and the dragon. I could try and build an army which would work under those restrictions but it would mean buying and painting up a whole load more stuff which is a real blow when I thought I was so close to finishing.

With the release of the Blood Angels codex I have decided to jump ship and play 40k instead as I already have what I need bought and painted and I'll just need to do a few minor tweaks to get a nice list under the new rules. There's a remote chance that the events rules may be tweaked but with 40k filling up fast I didn't want to run the risk of not being able to go at all. TS is a fantastic event and its also a chance to a weekend away with friends, not being able to go at all was not an option I wanted to be left with.

Right now I'm quite sad about the whole thing, it feels like over the last few months I have been wasting my time on this project. As well as playing a few games with a more competative army than my Orcs I had hoped to be able to bring my shiny new army to the even and showcase the Mantic range to a whole host of people who might not have seen them up close before. I've also ducked out of another tournament that I was hoping to go to later in the year.

The shape (and colour) of things to come.

2010-03-21T18:08:00.003Z

Yes I'm still plugging away with the high elves but I'm also getting excited by the forthcoming release of the new Blood Angels codex for Warhammer 40k. One of their fun new toys is a drop ship called the Storm Raven. GW haven't come up with a model for it yet bit I'm itching to try one out on the table so I bought a Corvus VTOL to use as a proxy.

Out of the box:-

WIP shot:-

Its probably a lot smaller than the official model will be but at £12.99 its also a lot cheaper than it will be too.

Oh and a quick thumbs up for Wargames Workshop whose service seems to be very quick with cheap postage too. Thanks chaps.

Workbench update

2010-03-18T07:26:00.000Z

Some cavalry very much in progress.

Back to the slow lane

2010-03-14T22:35:00.004Z

No major progress to report.

Everything I ordered for the army has now arrived and the cavalry bolt thrower + crew and mage are all assembled under coated and in some cased part painted.

For various reasons I have not managed to get in a proper painting session for a while so I have been trying to do some of the tasks which don't require much skill or attention which is why I have been doing the easy bits on new miniatures rather than finishing off ones I have already started.

One other point of note ... I seem to have also ended up buying 20 more High Elf spear men. Originally I got a box of 10 for conversions and possibly chariot crew and then I got a command box to go with it and now I don't know what to do. For Warhammer a second unit of spears doesn't make much sense right now but maybe this will change with 8th edition or maybe Mantic's rule set will materialise at some point and make them relevant. For now they sit in their boxes with their wrappers intact until I work out what to do.

Is it a bird?

2010-03-01T23:29:00.003Z

Nope.

A plane?

Noooo.

Is it finished?

Not quite yet.

Reinforcements are en-route

2010-02-21T10:58:00.003Z

I’ve not managed to pick up a paint brush since I finished those penguins but I have been doing other things, including buying miniatures and putting them together.

Since I last posted Mantic have featured my army on their blog which was nice. For the record they approached me and asked to use the photos and I gave them some higher resolution shots than I’ve used here. Makes me wish I’d done a better job on them but the aim was to get them painted up for use on the table rather than to sit in a display cabinet. Various people in forum postings made comments on them being ‘tabletop’ quality which is what they are. Although it was kind of fun racking up huge numbers of hits I’ll be a bit more wary of showing off my stuff in such a public way in future.

I’ve decided to push onwards with the High Elves and I’ve bought a few things I know I want in the army. I’m still not sure about the elite infantry choices so I’ll carry on proxying them for a while, and besides, the Mantic Palace Guard aren’t out yet anyway.

So what have I bought? Well thanks to a well placed birthday I have bought the following:-
1 Mantic Bolt thrower (bringing the total to 2)
2 Giant Eagles (because every army needs them)
15 Mantic Cavalry (not yet arrived)
1 Avatars of War Light Elf Mage (not yet arrived)
1 Games Workshop Dragon

You may have spotted that I have started adding non Mantic stuff to the army. I did consider trying to keep it all Mantic or at least GW free but I’ve not been able to get any more information about their release schedule for the elves other than the Palace Guard will be going up for pre-order soon so I decided to press ahead and order stuff in. This way I think I will have a better chance of getting everything painted up for Toy Soldier in July.

The Gamezone giant eagles are very nice, and very big too. On the web I’ve heard that Gamezone make lovely models but they’re a pain to put together and from sirst hand experience I can now say that yes this is correct. I can’t remember every having metal models whose parts were so ill fitting. Lots of superglue, lots of green stuff and lots of foul language later I have them assembled although I still have superglue stuck to my fingers. My other gripe is that they don’t come with bases, irritating but not too much of a problem – I dug out a couple of 40mm bases and attacked them to those. Later I got a nagging feeling and hit the net, are they really meant to be on 40mm bases or 50mm? WHFB base size chart says 40mm, phew ... but wait a minute – it’s out of date, the new ones come on 50mm bases. Doh! More superglue and greenstuff later I now have the 40mm bases stuck onto cavalry sized bases to make them the right size. Sigh.

Today I had hoped to undercoat the new stuff but the weatherman had other ideas. I opened the curtains to find a thick blanket of snow outside. I guess I’ll have to wait for the weather to warm up a bit before I crack out the spray cans.

March of the Penguins

2010-01-31T23:38:00.003Z

Yes, they're done, the penguins I mean. These 15mm scale penguins (about 8mm tall) from Khurasan Miniatures. I chose to paint them up as Adelie penguins as the fit the sculpts, are easy to do and Wikipedia notes "They are also very aggressive to other penguins that steal stones from their nest". After reading that I had to make their nests the stronghold!

From arrival to completion in less than two weeks is probably a record for me.

March of the Elves

2010-01-26T07:47:00.004Z

And I've already made a start on the Penguins, but I'll save that for another post.

A quick peek

2010-01-26T00:07:00.002Z

Here's the first shot of my newly based Mantic High Elves. I need to take some more shots but right now I'm too tired to sort them out. All things considered I think they've turned out well.

Its official!

2010-01-17T23:17:00.003Z

Yes, I am now officially sick of painting elves.

The good news is actually finished every last one of them so that's a score on the projects complete chart right off.

The bad news is that I've also bought two new 15mm armies. If you were paying attention you will have spotted the inclusion of a 15mm penguin and a 15mm dark elf army in the post below.

So on figures painted I'm at 18 painted vs 0 bought (in 28mm) but on projects is 1 completed vs 2 new. Mixed results but I'm happy right now.

I'll get some pictures of the elves up after I finish basing them.

The scale of the problem (2010 edition)

2010-01-03T13:57:00.002Z

Carrying on the tradition I thought start the year with a look at what still 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. No progress during 2009.

Bretonnians
System: Warhammer
Status: 18 knights started, about 100 more models unpainted. No progress in 2009.

Dwarfs
System: Warhammer
Status: 85% unpainted, about 100-150 models in total.
Comments: At least they're assembled. Should be 2500-3000 points easily when done. 30 odd models added during 2009.

High Elves
System: Warhammer
Status: 50% unpainted
Comments: New project added during 2009. Current army clocks in at around 1000 points. I would like to expand the army to around 2000+ points before the summer if possible.

Wood Elves
System: Song of Blades and Heroes
Status: Completed (and started in 2009)
Comments: My only finished project for the year.

Blood Angels
System: Warhammer 40K
Status: Still about 1/4 of the army unfinished.
Comments: Over 1500 points + options available for use. Bikes, a land raider and some veterans added during 2009.

Space Hulk
System: Space Hulk
Status: About 2/3 finished. All of the Genestealers are completed, just the marines to go.
Comments: New project started in 2009.

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 2009.

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 2009.

High Elves
System: HOTT
Status: Unpainted (48 points + options). No progress in 2009.

Undead
System: HOTT
Status: Unpainted. No progress in 2009.

Dark Elves
System: HOTT
Status: Unpainted (24npoints + options). Bought January 2010.

Penguins
System: HOTT
Status: Unpainted (24 points + options). Bought January 2010.

Mongols
System: DBA
Status: Unpainted. No progress in 2009.

Later Muslim Indian
System: DBA
Status: Unpainted. No progress in 2009.

Later Achmeneid Persian
System: DBA
Status: 30% Painted. No progress in 2009.

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

And the scores are ...

2009-12-27T22:31:00.000Z

114 painted vs 112 bought.

That was too close for comfort. I managed to paint up 17 elves today to drag myself over the finishing line. I will now go and fall into bed and get some much needed sleep.

High Elves

2009-12-16T22:27:00.003Z

Barring bases and some other minor bits and pieces I have the first unit of Mantic High Elves finished!

I've already moved on to the scouts. I might even manage to keep the pledge this year at this rate.

I've just totalled things up properly using a spreadsheet and I think I now have 97 painted vs 112 bought.

15 more miniatures to go to break even. This might be close.

An early retrospective.

2009-12-15T19:51:00.002Z

So is the pledge actually working? Sort of. It has cut down on *some* of my madder impulse purchases but I still ended up buying a load of maidenhead stuff in 2008 and Space Hulk and the new High Elf army this year. It has probably prompted me to paint more stuff then I would have done without the added spur.

What the pledge hasn't really helped to do though is reduce the number of unfinished projects on my list. The raw count of purchased vs painted doesn't provide much incentive to pick up some figures which are two thirds finished and see them through to completion. I guess this is partly due to my rather puritanical take on the pledge scoring system.

With this in mind I declare 2010 as the year of getting things finished. I still want to buy fewer figures than I paint but I will primarily be trying to complete projects rather than just randomly painting stuff up.

For something like Space Hulk completing the project is obviously just a matter of painting all the figures in the box but for other projects 'completing' is likely to be a little more vague. In some cases I have a large pool of models for a project (some of which don't work very well under the current rules) so painting them all wouldn't necessarily be all that fruitful but getting an army to x number of points with options would be a better goal (in the short term at least).

When I do end up buying new miniatures I'm hoping that I can justify them as adding to particular projects rather than just being shiny and nice. I think I will be making use of proxies in some cases so I can try before I buy and find out what works instead of ending up with units which get purchased, painted and never used.

Another thing I plan to do in the coming year is actually get out and play more games with the miniatures. It has been pointed out to me that if I spend half as much time playing games as I do painting up the miniatures for them I might actually get good at some of the systems. That would be nice.

Time is running out

2009-12-09T07:39:00.002Z

Not much more painting done, not much time left, 5 more figures purchased. [facepalm]

Yes, I bought the Mantic metal characters pack. Actually I had a slight problem with it when it arrived as one of the figures was broken. One email later Mantic's super speedy customer service sent me a replacement which arrived the very next day. They also sent me a few more bases so I can base up the scouts I got as free samples. Jolly nice of them, thanks folks.

Painting wise I'm working through the Mantic spears unit. I've finally got the hang of the colour scheme so hopefully I can do the rest a bit quicker. Here's hoping.

Found the camera

2009-11-15T13:08:00.001Z

And here are some picture I took with it.

1) The second batch of the Genestealers

2) The Broodlord

3) The Elven Bard

4) The Wood Elves

Now lets see if I can get on with some painting.

Elves in progress

2009-11-06T07:50:00.001Z

Just thought I'd share a quick pic of the Mantic Elves I'm working on. My camera has gone AWOL again so its just a phone pic.

Still working on designs and colours but I'm getting there.

If you go down to the woods today ...

2009-11-01T21:12:00.002Z

If you go down to the woods today ... you'd get very wet and cold, the weather is rubbish.

Good news is that I have finished the last batch of LOTR Wood Elves. That's one of this years projects completed, actually I think that's the first project I have completed this year.

At some point I finished the elven bard for the Mrs too. I think it looks really nice but it didn't seem to impress her sadly.

I've made a start on the mantic elves, doing the really thrilling job of painting the brown on the bases. There are some jobs I really wish I could fast forward through and this really is one of them.

I really do need to take some more photos as I'm a bit behind on that front.

The hare and the tortoise

2009-10-15T19:10:00.001+01:00

Okay so maybe more tortoise, less hare but I have been chipping away at things. The Mantic order arrived along with another free sample so I received 54 miniatures + a warmachine in the end. For those of you who like photos I've done some unboxing ones to show off what you get from mantic here.

I've not quite felt up to painting this week so I've spend my time clipping, trimming and glueing. I now have the whole elf warhost assembled and washed. Tonight I'm aiming to glue the sand on the bases so I can have a crack at spraying them over the weekend it the weather's not too bad (and the forecast is good).

If I manage the get a good rythm up with painting the elves and get them completed in a reasonable time then I intend to expand the army. With the addition of characters I reckon the warhost will stretch to about 1000 points. Mantic will be issuing cavalry and palace guard (all the two handed weapon options for the special slots in the army) in the next few months so next year I'd like to take the army right the way up to 2000 or 2250 points. Right now I'm trying to focus on getting as much painting done as possible without buying any more stuff.

Good weekend

2009-10-04T20:32:00.002+01:00

Painting wise this has been a really good weekend not only did I not buy anything (!) I also managed to finish 8 more figures with 8 underway as well.

At the end of last week I had a chance to do some painting but I had mild PNKD symptoms at the time so didn't feel up to tackling the terminators. Instead I settled on the LOTR wood elves I bought earlier in the year and decided to block out the areas of colour that I could manage. Since then I've carried on with them and I now have 7 elves finished and the remaining 7 washed and ready for highlighting. I've also started painting and elven bard I bought for the Mrs and finished the broodlord too. I might get back on the right side of the pledge after all.

71 painted vs 104 purchased.

Now that was quick

2009-09-29T22:18:00.003+01:00

Storming painting session tonight! I've now finished the remaining 11 'stealers. Just the terminators and the brood lord to go on the space hulk front.

63 painted vs 104 purchased.

Game on.

And the pledge news ...

2009-09-28T21:41:00.002+01:00

So now I've got that lot painted I've got the pledge totals so far.

Checking the photos, I've got 52 miniatures painted (counting each bike as 2 minis). So far I've bought 14 wood elves, 35 minis from the space hulk boxed set and 2 free mantic elves. 52 vs 51 - yes!

Well actually its more of a nooooooooooooo. Yesterday I cracked and ordered a big box of those mantic elves so I have another 52 miniatures and a bolt thrower on the way. Looks like I'm going to have to get really busy with my paintbrush in the next three months if I'm to keep the pledge for this year.

BIG Update!

2009-09-28T20:57:00.005+01:00

I've finally got round to getting decent pictures of this year's output. Here we go:-

Life in the slow lane.

2009-09-24T09:30:00.000+01:00

This week hadn't been very productive. I'd had PNKD every night which has stopped me from painting. Yesterday I had yet another attack and was contemplating another evening of shooting cowboys on Smokin' Guns but instead I decided to at least try to do some painting.

The attack was reasonably mild and confined mostly to my right side and I didn't have any spontaneous movements either which made painting a possibility. I decided to try somethign easy - basecoating the remaining 'stealers and in the end it turned out rather well. I positioned the model with my left hand and did a basic brush stroke action with my right, bracing both hands in close to my body. It may to have been the neatest or the quickest painting I've ever done but I managed to get through all the remaining 'stealers and put a black wash on the carapice too.

This morning (with all limbs functioning correctly) I washed the purple areas (the heads and the hands) of the stealers so that they're all ready for highlights when I get a chance to paint. I even black washed a couple more 'stealers which had been on the shelf and I'd forgotten to do last night. My unconcious mind had helpfully woken me up in the night to inform me that I'd missed them ... gee, thanks.

Progress

2009-09-20T17:23:00.002+01:00

Things are going pretty well with the Space Hulk miniatures. The 'stealers are surprisingly easy to paint up which means that I now have the base colours on most of them. The terminators are also coming along.

I think I forgot to mention that I got sent a couple of free samples of the Mantic Games high elves. Free miniatures are always nice but in this case they're damaging to my pledge totals! I've made a start at painting them and I think they'll turn out nicely. If I didn't already have so many projects on the go I would be very tempted to buy some as they really are very cheap indeed.

Temptation awaits

2009-09-13T18:00:00.003+01:00

Things were going so well with the pledge, too well, and then Games Workshop released Space Hulk. Darn. Unable to resist the lure of the shiny new edition shelled out for my very own copy of Space Hulk. Only afterwards did it dawn on me that the game contained miniatures and this was going to throw a major spanner into the pledge.

When my box arrived and I prised it open I was really impressed at the quality of the contents the sculpts are probably the best plastics GW have ever produced.

Yesterday I took advantage of the lovely sunny weather to get everything glued and primed and today I made a start on the painting. So far things are going well. The Genestealers are pretty easy to paint if you stick to the colour scheme the studio used in the artwork. As for the Marines, I'm pretty used to painting Blood Angels by now. I already have the armour done right up to the highlights on about 8 of the terminators, what's likely to slow me down is the huge amount of decoration they seem to be carrying. I'm still pretty positive that I'll be able to turn this major dent in the pledge into a pile of painted miniatures. Here's hoping.

I've made some progress on my 40k army too. I've turned a load of half painted Veterans into a load of fully painted veterans. Not sure what to do on the scoring front for these.

Head out on the highway!

2009-08-09T20:52:00.002+01:00

Bikes done!

Land Raider done!

Get in!

Get your motor running ...

2009-08-03T07:34:00.002+01:00

Yesterday the sun came out. This has been a really wet summer so far, but a bit of sunshine was just what I needed ... to get some more priming done.

In the house move I found my old can of blood angels red spray paint and it had just enough in to prime the space marine bikes. As it was a quiet day I managed to get them all about half way finished too. This will be my first new 40k unit for about 2 years at least.

All in all a good weekend.

Little by little we cross the line

2009-08-02T09:37:00.001+01:00

Make that 24 painted. I think I'm getting the hang of these dwarves so things might move a little faster from now on.

Keeping track

2009-07-30T21:27:00.002+01:00

Just in case anyone wants to know the score ...

14 purchased vs 20 painted

I'm winning!

Okay so I might not have managed to paint all that many miniatures so far this year but I have managed not to buy many either. Here's hoping that the second half of this year gives me more of a chance of making a dent in that lead pile.

Busy

2009-07-26T21:11:00.004+01:00

If you've read any of the recent posts on this blog you'll know that I'm having trouble finding days when I can both pick up a paintbrush and have enough control over my muscles to be able to do anything with it. So this weekend I got to thinking - things might be hard at the moment but am I going to let my condition slow me down? Well yes, obviously, duh!

But seriously, I got to thinking if there was anything I could try and do when my symptoms are mild enough well, to be able to do something. So this weekend I gave a few things a go and it turns out I can do some of the more basic tasks like glueing sand to bases etc.

I've also managed to snatch a few clear moments over the last couple of weeks so I have a few things to show off:-

Firstly this is the next batch of dwarves which I will be priming as soon as the great British summer throws up a dry day.

Next up ... a landraider ... THE landraider. I've had this model for years. Every attempt I've made so far to get it ready for use on the tabletop has stalled. Today I finally got the darned thing assembled and now all it needs is some paintwork. I'm optimistic that it will be ready for a game sooner rather than later.

Another assembly job I've managed to tick off this weekend - some space marine bikes. I bought these two years ago to the day and I've finally put them together.

And finally these are all the dwarves I have finished so far this year. I'll get decent shots of them when I've sorted the basing.

So that's it for now, things are definitely moving though which has cheered me up no end.

Against the odds

2009-07-03T07:52:00.002+01:00

I had a few clear days with almost no PNKD symptoms at the beginning of the week so I cracked the paintbrush out. The result is another finished batch of dwarves and another on the go.

I think I've got the hang of the colour scheme for the little chaps so I should be able to paint them up a little quicker from now on ... whenever I get another chance to do some painting.

I'm still here!

2009-06-11T07:42:00.003+01:00

Bit of a gap there. The reason for the lack of posts is quite simply they I haven't been painting. I haven't been painting largely because my health has taken a turn for the worse recently (lots of PNKD attacks) which has meant that I have had very few opportunities to paint when I have had enough muscle control to hold a brush and a figure.

Last night, for the first time in a very long time I got some painting done. I painted up an old Aurak Draconian figure to represent my Dragonborn character in tonight's D&D game. Its a nice miniature, 90's Ral Partha and very different in style from the GW stuff I've been painting recently. I've got it ready for the game which is a success as I thought I was just going to have to use it in its plain grey undercoat.

2 Steps forward

2009-03-09T07:51:00.002Z

... and one step back.

+ Got those 6 dwarves finished and started on the next batch.

- Bought a command pack of two metal LOTR wood elves to make up some character models for the SoBaH warband.

Number 2 daughter joined me for the painting session and worked on the bretonnian archers I gave her. She tells me that she wants to paint goblins next which will mean a trip to storage to get her some to paint that I won't miss.

Bits and pieces

2009-03-01T22:20:00.001Z

The LOTR elves got doused in Halford finest black car primer and I dabbed a bit of paint on some of those dwarves. Not the most productive od weekends but at least I moved things on a little.

On Saturday I also played a miniatures game against Daughter number 2. We drew at one game apiece.

Waiting for busses

2009-02-19T08:04:00.001Z

... and then two come along at once.

The first batch of dwarves for the year are almost finished.

And they're off

2009-02-18T09:48:00.002Z

There are slow starts and there are slooooooooooooooooooooooow starts.

A combination of illness, apathy and real life(TM) have prevented me for doing any painting for the last six weeks but last night I finally picked up a paintbrush.

Taking a break from painting shouldn't be so bad as long as I've been taking a break from buying miniatures too, only I haven't. At the beginning of the year I bought a box of GW LOTR plastic wood elves to split with my eldest daughter so I'm 12 miniatures down already.

Last night I prepped the Wood Elves and clipped them from the frames. These are destined to become another SoBaH warband when I've finished with them. After that I carried on painting the dwarves I started in December. Its a start anyway.

Its all go round here

2009-02-03T22:02:00.000Z

The scale of the problem (2009 edition)

2008-12-31T15:11:00.003Z

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

2008-12-31T14:00:00.003Z

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.

2008-12-16T22:43:00.002Z

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

2008-12-06T20:04:00.003Z

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

2008-11-30T11:11:00.002Z

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

2008-11-22T21:24:00.002Z

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

2008-11-17T21:56:00.004Z

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

Hmm, what next?

Nemesis defeated!

2008-11-15T20:26:00.001Z

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

2008-11-14T16:38:00.003Z

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

2008-09-18T09:49:00.002+01:00

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

2008-09-11T10:45:00.003+01:00

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

2008-08-20T10:48:00.002+01:00

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

2008-07-29T09:53:00.002+01:00

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

2008-07-03T09:04:00.001+01:00

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

2008-07-02T16:44:00.004+01:00

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

2008-07-01T08:53:00.003+01:00

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?

2008-06-28T16:38:00.003+01:00

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

2008-06-27T13:27:00.002+01:00

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!

2008-06-26T09:13:00.003+01:00

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

2008-06-24T12:03:00.002+01:00

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

2008-06-12T12:12:00.003+01:00

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

2008-06-11T14:20:00.002+01:00

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.