And We Have Liftoff

 

 

Well after nine months of waiting finally we have the start of the Painting Challenge. Today should have been a day that had more stops than starts with a appointment at the Doc's at 7.20am followed by treatment at the hospital at 12.00 and around that two trips to school to take/fetch the kids. All that changed when I got a call Tuesday asking if I could go on Wednesday as they had a slack day against Thursday which was busy. Sounds good to me as it cuts me some slack.

I knew I was wargameing later but no matter, I would be OK. Except I did not factor a couple of things into the equation. First it rained none stop all afternoon and evening and second I was at Lee's till gone 9pm. I got home a little worse for wear and ready to zed but had not yet taken my painkillers which need a two hour kick in before I go to bed. Shame then that I forgot to take them!!

 

4am and I could not stand it anymore, I just had to give up and get up. On the bright side after some immediate relief types I was able to sit at my desk and start painting. Nett result is a unit and a command base all painted and sent off to Clint. I also have a lot more 20mm well under way and even a few 6mm cavalry as I had the paints out. It's fair to say I have got off to a flying start, OK I may have to tape the brush to my hand to finish them but that's OK isn't it? I also was suitably bolluxed that my Doctor gave me another six month sick note for the DHSS to ignore and the offer of Valium to help me on treatment day!! Er I said no thanks I think I'll do. Anyways I did get out of taking the kids to school but was a good boy and brought them home.

 

As for the game yesterday, well it was a cracker and I will do the report very soon, just as soon that is as I can type with both hands LOL

Boy Your A Philistine

We had a teacher called Mr. Rose at my old school. I only really remember a few things about him. One was that he was a dick, another his favourite saying was the posts title. I remember his face when I politely asked him EXACTLY who a Philistine was. I had no idea myself but I gave him the impression I did, I have a feeling he never really forgave me. Oh well, I don't think I lost much sleep over that. Not that he learnt to leave me alone. Just as we were almost leaving school we had a free lesson he was watching over us (I think there was in those days a danger of unwatched 16 year olds self combusting), anyway he said in a rather loud voice "Willey you have that book upside down" I looked at the cover of my Sven Hassel paperback, returned the look that Rose was supplying and said in  more restrained tone "I guess that's why you never made it to being an English Teacher" He was less amused than the class mates.

 

I digress, so on to my Philistine which I have just painted up for my son. Now please understand that after being dropped on the floor this figure needed the flesh replacing and a fair amount of touch up and to say I had less tolerance that a shot down teacher I still wish I had don a better job but if I had put it to one side I think it may have taken weeks for me to finish it (again!!)

 

The skin tone post matt spray now looks a little on the grey side, a disappointment for sure. The figure is a 54mm New Hope Design sculpted from images of Ospreys Men At Arms. It has to be said that the quality of the castings for 54mm in today's market is not fantastic. For the time they were released I assume they were fairly good but I bought a few on e-bay and price V quality I feel the winner. Most of all it's low cost practise at the larger scale stuff. I have another to do and then I will tackle another base that I am really looking forward to with three figures on that will take weeks of work. Something for me to really get my teeth into.

 

 

The drop also ripped the arm just above the elbow. I have never seen this happen before. The arm is still firmly in one piece but it has two of these rips. I painted up the viewable side as a scar and it felt very much like I had played a get out of jail card. The hide shield was the same method as I use for the 20mm figures. This is to add the off white to the whole shield and then add the brown over the op whilst it's still wet. This allows the two to mix together a little, especially at the edges. I am reasonably happy with the effect at 54mm.

 

I will return to the base at some point, adding real sand and painting this up through a few colours. The textured base did not really lend itself to dry brushing. I also need to find a wooden base to finish it off fully.

 

Cath thinks he looks more like a Zombie that a warrior. Me I just think he is scared which I like. Still my son likes him. Not so much for the figure itself but because Daddy did it just for him and he watched it develop over the days I worked on it and that at the end of the day is what matters.

 

OK the final day before the Painting Challenge begins. I have been out all day actually playing a wargame, report on that coming up in the next couple of days. I got home this evening expecting a final parcel of 28mm WWII figures. These have not arrived so may well turn up tomorrow. Not an issue given the amount of figures I have already prepped and anyway I would do no more than take them out and look at them. So only thing left to do is wish ll other Ronin the very best of luck and see you in the field of battle. For all those who really turned off by this challenge a big sorry but I promise to be posting other bits and bobs between the wall to wall painted figure posts.

 

The Thornicroft Giraffes

With not a lot of time to spare I finally finished off my daughters giraffes. She had rather firm ideas for this, first up she wanted two Giraffes, mummy and baby (what is it about girls and the need for babies?) "Also I want that one Daddy", that being a Massi Giraffe, go look them up and you will see why I steered her away from THAT idea. On a positive note I did find out a few facts about giraffes whilst doing this project. First up I know of three types of giraffe, the aforementioned Massi and the somewhat easier Thornicroft. Of course the third and easiest to paint the reticulated giraffe is the one we all know and love so if you think my colours are out blame it on the girl who wanted to challenge papa.

 

I also found out that all giraffes have just seven long bones in their necks, always good to know I guess. Also each giraffe has a different pattern to any other, a bit like our fingerprints, so I'm ready for the next pub quiz, shame I have not been to a quiz in two years but hay ho.

 

I wanted to put these figures on a fairly large base and originally wanted to get a tree that matched the type that giraffes like to chew on but failed to find anything suitable. Still I did not like the idea of a small base so instead added a little sparse grass and vegetation. The ground is in fact railway ballast I bought to use as extra rubble and road surface and is a dull grey originally. I have shaded it from dark brown to a light grey through six colours but I think it was worth the effort.

 

The grass is the same stuff I have been using for 28mm Kunai for my 28mm Japanese. Well these guys are 28mm figures though the mother stands about 75mm tall. I used a few of the autumn tufts to edge the grass. The grass is stuck down with superglue whilst PVA is used for the tufts.

 

The giraffe patterns were fun to do, I started with British Uniform Brown and basically anything I did from there would be an improvement. Then using German Camouflage Beige drew in the patterns. From that point on I just layered the different shades of brown to give a varied colour scheme. This was very slow at the start but seeded up as I gained confidence and a realisation that the odd straying of the brush actually improved the look.

 

The original idea was to finish both of my kids figures at the same time so I could present them with them together, thus saving possible sulks. However that seemed to be wrecked when I dropped my sons figure part way through spraying. Yes I did swear and YES it was a very bad word and NO it did not make me feel better. If it had been for me it may well still be there, or possibly embedded in the wall but I am glad to report after a few hours work it is restored even though I had to repaint the flesh from scratch (now there's a word I got to think of a few times today). Tomorrow will be the unveiling of THAT figure.

 

So with the finishing of the two bases for the kids I just have three part painted 15mm figures and as I am out tomorrow I doubt that I will get these finished. Maybe though, if not I will put them to one side and finish them off when I paint up the actual unit which could be anytime in the next three months. I have to admit though it's a rather good feeling if not a bit strange. I am surrounded by so much prepped lead and yet sitting back from painting. In fact it could not have worked out better. I get to play a game the day before the challenge and nothing fires me up more for painting than using some of the newly painted figures. Whats more my treatment has been moved forward to tomorrow so I should get a good days panting done on Thursday. But better than that, my kids will be home in just a few minutes and I get to surprise them with their figures  :-)

 

The Leven levy

Finally finished off and varnished all the Leven Miniatures buildings I bought a month or so back. Keep in mind I have other buildings I have owned for longer still waiting my attention. In my defence I have also painted some of these up and will blog these over the coming days amongst other things. I still have 18 Peninsular buildings and a large base tile to paint which will be done as a single batch but I don't expect to get onto these till into the new year as I want to do a good job. Besides I need to talk to Lee on where he expects his British to go regards units etc. This we will do over a game on Wednesday.

 

Four of the European buildings with a 6mm Baccus gun and limber for scale. The house and shops on the left is a plastered exterior so I have tried to give it a bit of a worn look about it. Maybe you will get some good shots of it from the game on Wednesday. I also hope to get better shots of all the buildings on one of Lee's terrain boards to show them off a little better. The building next to this one has a arched section that through painting is supposed to look like it goes all the way through. Braver men than me would cut it out and do a good job too. The third building also looks better from the other side as it is a warehouse with a wooden section jutting out for loading and a middle story double doors. This would go well with the watermill (I think this is the one that does come with a half waterwheel that I did not need to use). Last up is another building you can carve out if you wish. I like this building quite a bit as the roof sections have nice angles to hem and not just a plain rectangular roof, not that we don't need such buildings.

 

Here is a view of the same four from the other side and as you can see plenty of extra detail. Quite a bit of thought goes into these and as it says on the website some buildings would benefit with a little filler at points but honestly you can get away without (just like me).

 

These are the smallest three buildings I bought. A pair of Oast houses for drying or roasting oats (for beer I think). From the picture on Leven's website I thought they would make reasonable peasant huts for Russia,this has not worked out as such but I can still use them. The Church is Russian. I went with a plain wood finish but could as easily gone bright white as I have seen images of this type of rural Russian Church. Again quite small but I think it will work out well as a stand alone building. As all my other Russian buildings are mounted I will do so with this one too. Indeed as I have mentioned before I plan to base most of my buildings in some worm or another.

 

The three buildings I bought with the ECW in mind. The watermill you have already seen so in the for ground we have the village smithy. I know really all stone buildings really should be the same colour as they would not have imported stone into the area if they had stone local and nor would they likely get stone from too different area's but I quote wargamers licence. The smithy is small (as it would be) and I look forward to making a base for this building. I now have about ten painted buildings specific for the ECW and another five or so that can be used outside the UK and time period so I can put together a fair sized town if required. All Lee and I need to do now is paint the figures up. The Church though is rather small and I hope a new larger version will be made. Baccus have a Church that was made by Timecast and talking to them at Castle Donnigton they said they will be adding a fair few to the British range but had no timetable as other things keep being placed ahead of them. A shame but when they will sell more of the other ranges it's hard not to agree.

 

I have to say that I like the Church though. I decided not to go with a stained glass effect as during the ECW many of the windows were smashed and replaced with plain glass. This was done by the more Puritan of Parliaments followers (often laid solely at the feet of Cromwell). Stained Glass was not reintroduced for over one hundred years and Britain now has very few original windows from this era.

 

So my view of Leven Miniatures remains high. In fact from painting them it has risen a notch. I still would like to see them a little larger to be more compatible with Total Battle Miniatures and Timecast but as long as they are not placed adjacent to these you can still mix them up without them looking too out of place. Anyone just going with Leven would have no issues as they look fine away from the others. But again on a large table they would be 100% fine if not mixed. I plan on buying more when I next need to add to what I have and given the release rate I expect that to be sooner not later.

 

 

Well my kids should be happy in the next few days as the Philistine and Giraffes look to be finished fairly soon. A little detail work on the Giraffes and the kilt and head dress on the Philistine. Looks like the Gallacian boys will be finished a little later than I hoped. More positive news is that I have prepped the fifth unit of Chasseurs leaving me with only five Hussar bases to prep and paint. These will be done once the Chasseurs have been painted as they are rather similar. I also assembled seven Japanese WWII figures and primed them along with twelve or fifteen partisans all 28mm. This brings an end to prep work as I have ran out of time and space. I still have so many figures that are either just plain lead or previously started figures (Martin's) that will need a fresh coat of primer. Well I have just about used up one can of white, good job I still have another one in hand.... well I always have the purple.

For Sale Page

For anyone interested I have added a For Sale page to my blog. Mostly it will be Citadel figures rather than putting them on E-Bay though I plan to add any other figures that are surplus. The idea is that it will clear unwanted lead and convert it into wanted lead. I am happy to talk swaps if you have something you think I might be interested in, in exchange. I have rather a lot so keep checking if you are interested in GW figures from the mid 80's through early 90's. When I have other figures on offer I will post information in the main part of the zine.

 

No progress to report on the prepping for the painting challenge as I spent most of yesterday either getting fish and plants for the kids tanks or adding said items with the kids or watching them. Then I had a ASL game planned for last night which was cut short by a power cut. I hope to get something done this afternoon but it won't be much.

Secret Santa, Why Thank You.

 

Just a quick Thank You to my Secret Santa. A package arrived today and has been put in a safe place by Cath. I'm really looking forward to the day so I can see what I have got. I have to admit to being rather excited about the prospect. So how about you guys, any parcels of wargames stuff under the tree yet?

 

If so feel free to yell about it. Normally I have a ASL item or two, not sure this will happen for the big day but still will be picking up a couple of bits including the new Journal which has shipped to the pre-orders.

 

Not bad progress yesterday as we did not leave the house other than to get the kids from school. The Princess is happy that I have got a little further with the giraffes and all the buildings are finished except some flock on a couple and varnish on all. So expect a few posts on these guys.



Dettol V Mr Muscle!!!!!

I know many of you have followed the rather pleasant/unpleasant* saga of Ray and Fran's brush with Dettol. I was interested for two reasons, first I have a lot of lead requiring paint removal and second, I get a kick out of either Fran or Ray suffering, it's a weakness of mine.

First up Mr. Muscle. Cath had tried a can from the back of the cupboard that she has stopped feeding me as I seemed to thrive on it. I know this as I heard her mutter something like "It's as shite on these buggers as it is my old man" So armed with a fresh can and latex gloves I grabbed a small handful of figures popped them into a takeaway plastic box and let rip. After about twenty seconds I stopped coughing and another ten minutes regained my sight. Not to self, don't bend over target whilst spraying! On the tin it says don't leave for more than a hour, so next day I opened the tub and took a few figures out of the gunky liquid and started rinsed. Some of the paint came right off. Next was a sit down with toothbrush and tweezers. With about 10-15 minutes a figure you tended to get most of it off with the occasional bit that was hard to remove and would need a second session. Not really as fast as I need it to be and the amount of chemicals leaves me worried about the local water table if I crack on through the lot (plus I am supposed to make some money off this you know).

Marks out of 10? A charitable 6.

 

 

Anyone who has followed the experiences of Fran and Ray will be looking at the picture above and assume Mum has already washed the babies face and no it's not chocolate on the face, it's scar tissue!! This ticks a few boxes from the off. A nice sized bottle costs just £1 and as it's not a spray can I don't get blow back on first use!!!

Again I just chucked a load of figures in and left overnight. Come the following day I checked the tub and looking from below it looked like the paint had just melted off some of the figures. I opened up for a quick inspection and after twenty seconds I could see again and after ten more minutes I stopped coughing. Oh well at least I got a bit of variety. Given that Cath was standing over me most of the time no gunk found it's way around the taps, kettle or Jaccobs**

Turned out the paint had not come off the figures in so much as turned into a suit one size too big. We quickly found using a brush on the figures just annoyed the gunk causing it to stick back tight on the figure. But using tweezers it's possible depending on the paint and primer) to peel great chunks off, indeed I have managed to peel one figure of all it's paint in just one piece.

I did leave some figures in for four plus days and the Dettol continues to strip the paint and some of the metal off making it even easier to get some of the paint off.

 

I have to say whilst the Dettol is truly gag worthy and leaves both the figures and your paws stinking of the stuff I much prefer the Dettol. So I can confidently predict my house will continue to smell like the plagues only just left the house for the next month or maybe two. Anyone visiting over the Christmas period will be introduced to the new game of strip the figure.

 

Here is a random selection from the twenty plus that are stripped, only a few hundred to go. So between prepping figures for the Painting Challenge *** and stripping lots of figures I am getting stuff painted.... honest.

*Delete as desired.

**

*** Now have 8 Regiments of Cavalry and 10 of infantry cleaned and primed in 6mm, the infantry are Italian and cavalry is French. I also have assembled six Japanese 28mm WWII and my 28mm Samaria that arrived a couple of days ago. Should get these primed over the weekend.