Fred Has A Busy Day

Painting these old Grenadier / Mirliton / other figures has been what I have wanted to do all day, sadly it has not been on the cards because the "Beast From The East" (more of a sickly kitten really) hit today and the smattering of snow seems to have sent people crazy. Not to mention all the other crap going on today and a needy dog.

Well there was some snow and a bit of a nip in the air....meh

I got round to doing a little bit of painting but not too much. Still it's all steps in the right direction. To be honest my expectations for the week are not great. These are mostly repaints and are not going to end up to well but at least will end up better than I was able to manage in 89/90 when I got most of these figures.

Keep On Moving On

I spent a little bit of time finishing off last week's Troopers this afternoon. To be honest they are still not really finished. Every time I look at them I find some new detail that is missing. So, I am doing a few more figures from the same range so I will keep working on them alongside those.

To be honest I am now contemplating getting some more of them. They ate cheap enough. I have a few poses that are missing from this set and some that are being painted in an alternate pattern (which I will probably post tomorrow).

This puts me in mind of some of the other stuff I want to buy (like gnomes, halflings and pictish dwarves) but the workbench is already quite full.

End Of The Week - And I Am Kind Of Glad

The painting of the Grenadier / Mirliton trooper miniatures has continued and whether they are used for Shadow, Cyberpunk, Fallout, Titansgrave or some other post-apocalypse, near-future or sci-fi background remains to be seen. I am enjoying painting them and I do like the Copplestone vibe about the figures but they are not done yet.

If you look carefully you will see that there actually are some differences between this picture and the last one

Sadly The New Cruelty will not be satisfied this week as I have only finished of the two Mimic figures this week. They are fairly close to being finished with almost all the blocking out and inking done and the highlights to go. If all I do next week is finish these off then i will still be well ahead of my goal.

Until tonight I don't think I have done any work on them since Thursday. This is a shame as I was hopeful that they would be all finished by now. It's been a cack kind of week towards the end with the only highlight being getting out on Friday. This has not been helped by being ill for the last couple of days.

I did manage to get to FabLab once although I didn't do anything. When I was there I did find out that it was going to be open more often so that might make things easier for me. I have a few plans for this but not so sure what I can do at the moment.

Maybe it has been watching The Vikings TV series but I have a feel for my Northmen, norse esque game at the moment. I have had another play about with adding some background again.

Health wise I am doing okay. I was thinking I feel fitter this week although I don't seem to have lost any weight. My fitbit is telling me that despite missing my calorie goal a few times it was not actually a bad week (not the best but doable especially as I have been feeling ill and a bit peed off). A while back I realised that I was lactose intolerant and just of late I have come to think I am gluten intolerant as well. As an experiment this week I have tried to stay of anything with gluten in it. It seems that when I have had gluten I have paid a fairly high price.

Time For A Quick One

I have managed to do the camo pattern on the ten Grenadier figures and as the base was designed to look very much like the uniform, I finished them to. This took an age as the work is detailed and takes a lot of effort to get right.

The Work (In Pogress) Continues

When I got up this morning I decided that I was going to paint ten of the old Grenadier (now Mirliton) trooper figures. Nice simple figures with an almost standard uniform that even if I do give certain aspects of it a camouflage pattern, should be done by the end of the week.

 Then I picked up the two D&D mimic figures I picked up last week. Then I thought what the hell, I'll do these first. So I did. When you have a small number of essentially similar figures, they are quick and easy to do so I just got on with them. I guess each of them took about an hour to an hour and a half to finish. In the round, and certainly on the tabletop, the look pretty good.

When they were done I went back to the troopers. They have progressed a little bit. All the boots, equipment and uniform are finished. To be honest I haven't made up my mind what I am going to do with the armour and helmet yet although I have an idea (does anyone remember Aliens). Given that a lot of what I am doing is vaguely desert, I think I will go for something like MTP/Multicam. I do like the Copplestone vibe.

These figures have all sorts of potential uses for me. Aside from the standard sci-fi, 2300, Stargrunt, Titansgrave Tomorrow's War ad Traveller, I can see a use for them in other genres. The armour would look pretty good for combat armour for Fallout. They have planned uses in some post apocalypse stuff as well. Maybe even as soldiers in a super hero game.

This is more for my benefit so I can go back and remember what colours I used if I decide to do any more

Starting The Week As I Mean To Go On

My workbench is a bit crowded. This down to me not having a suitable storage solution. Which is down to me not getting to game shows. Normally I would try to get one project put to bed before starting the next one but of late I have been leaving projects with the odd detail needing finish (usually the fluff like shields and based). So the bench stays crowded.

So this morning I decided that whilst I am not completely happy with a lot of things, I would try and clear some space and finish the details off as well as do some final prep some figures before starting painting.

So here we are....

End Of The Week - Back On Track

For the first time this year I think I am on track with my goal of painting five figures per week. I think I am now actually three figures ahead of my overall weekly goal. Whilst I know five figures a week is not actually that big of a target, I know that on average I can actually meet that and on a good week maybe I can do a little better.

So this week I have added some finishing touches to the chaos cultists I started last week. Whilst they were quiet close to getting done, they do look better for the extra few bits of work I put in.

The Macrocosm Ticks are also finished. Although I have a dozen of them, I quite fancy some more. They make for a nice alien species if fairly deadly looking and I like the way I have done them with vaguely human skin tones and eye colours. These were easy to paint which is why I got a dozen of them done.

Next week's figure painting regimen is still up for debate. I have at the moment no firm ideas. I got these guys the other day. As mimics they generally don't fit in with what I do (I hate D&D) but I thought they would make a nice addition to the collection as the collection as I don't have anything quite like them. Maybe they would do as a construct.

If I don't do these I have half a dozen space dwarves to paint although they need a bit of prep before I can start. Also I have some old grenadier soldier types to paint. These are ready to go and I have already done some work on them so they probably a more realistic project for the week. Of course I might just do something else.

Canicide

I sat down to do some painting this afternoon with the intention and the time to finish off what I have been doing this week. Then the dog came in.

Whilst I love my dog, today I am ready to kill her. Every time I closed the door she opened it. Not too bad really part from the fact that with the door open it channels a bone chilling breeze into my work bench. She did this ten times in the course of fifteen minutes.

Then the dog wanted to play. This started with the dog knocking two figures on the floor with her tail. We call her tale "the whip" in my house. I picked them up just in time for her to knock another two on the floor. These two broke. In a way it's my own fault for not putting them at the back of the bench but then I can't easily reach them.

So I took it on the chin and glued them back together. Just as I put the second figure down the dog does it again knocking both arms of the figure. So I gave up. Something was telling me today is not the day to paint.

Time For A Quick One

A busy day that is now almost over. I could really do with some sleep round about now but I am determined to keep up with the blogging, at least for a bit.

There has been a little bit of time for painting today. There would have been more but I have almost beaten my personal best steps goal and got pretty close to my highest ever calorie burn. So along with the painting, I am pretty impressed with myself.

 I have two projects on the go that I expect to complete this week for a total of twenty figures. The cultists, that seem to be taking an inordinate amount of time to complete, are pretty close to being finished. The are a couple of colours of ink to go on before I can do the highlighting. Whilst I am feeling a little demotivated around them, they are going to get done this week.

The other twelve are the Macrocosm ticks I started here. I am perhaps a little happier with these although they are literally at the three colour minimum mark at the moment. Although these look pretty easy, there will be a fair amount of highlighting to do on them although they do look pretty good at tabletop distances.

Definitely ready for bed now.

Accidents

Not the major kind. More the fortunate (ish) coincidence kind. I made a determined effort to get the cultists done today. They are still not quite done and there is a little bit of detailing to be done on them. They would have been finished but I got a little sidetracked. This happened when the spot of paint I was trying to squirt out to touch up spots on a couple of arms became a rather large blob.

I hate waste. So I decided to use the blob for something else. There was probably enough paint to put a flesh base coat down on just about all the faces and hands of the figures I currently have primed. What I did see were a bunch of Macrocosm Immature Ticks. The way they are painted in the webshop gives them a distinctly alien vibe that is very reminiscent of old GW Genestealers. Whilst this is not a bad look I did want something different.

Having a big blob of skin tone paint gave me an idea. Genestealers were part of a life cycle so why not make these creatures part of the lifecycle of something else. So using regular caucasian skin tone was a good place to start with a couple of different colours for a bit of variety. My plan for a while has been to get some more of these. It would be an easy job  to give them some slight variations on the skin tone as well.

Whilst these were brought as an Opfor for the Titansgrave game, I can see a number of uses for them. Using them as a kind of genestealer esque creature has some and that this would probably work for X-Com and just about any post-apocalypse game. I don't really have a firm plan but I can see a number of ways of making this work.

On the plus side these should be a quick and easy paint job. There are a dozen of them so if I finished them by the end of the week I should be ahead of the curve for the first time this year.

Really The End Of The Week Post

Just a quick post as it is getting late and I am tired after a long and busy weekend. Since getting back I have had about an hour to devote to painting. Whilst this is not enough time to finish it was enough time to make some progress.

Kind of nearer to being finished than the last time I took a picture

I have added a few colours of paint to the figures and there is still a bit  more to do on this front. On top of that I have given the bases a bit of colour and even done the first coat of black trim to the bases. These should be finished easily this week and hopefully a bit of work should be done on the remaining space dwarves and these should hopefully be finished.

Over the weekend I have managed to have several games of Splendour. This is a game I love because it is simple yet it has a number of tactical options. My opponent has taken it upon themselves to download a digital version of the game in order that they may practice their skills in the hope that they can consistently beat me. This might be a bit too much hubris on their part. They may think they can win but I also have a digital copy of the game to practice on as well. Now I am left to wonder how this will play out.

This Should probably Be The End Of The Week Post

I know it's only Thursday but as far as gaming goes this is the end of the week. From here on in it's all about drinking and thinking about the good old days. I am away for a long weekend. Fortunately I will be driving down south with an old friend so the journey should be as much fun as the destination.

A whole load of kack has managed to get in my way during the week. It is fair to say that I am far from a happy boy at the moment but there is plenty of light on the horizon so maybe things are not as bad as they might appear so of the time. Whatever happens it looks like there are changes afoot for me which whilst not great mean I might be back in the real world.

So I have managed to get back into an RPG game this week which looks good to me. Not my preferred game but enjoyable nonetheless. Maybe this means that I can get back into gaming a bit more.

The health thing is doing ok. I have done a little bit of running this week and kept up with the walking. Not sure how much of that I will manage over the next few days but I remain hopeful.

The only low point is the painting, With the cat being ill it has still proven the best option to let sleeping cats lie (on my chair) if only to keep the damn thing quiet. She did manage to get out tonight and brought us a mouse (a fairly large one) as a gift. Once we had rescued it and let in go again the cat was back to her usual narky self.

The Grind

Not a lot of progress today

But I am getting there. One of the things that has become clear to me with painting is that things don't get finished if you don't put the work in. So even a little bit of work is progress. I have managed a couple of hours of work today. Even so, they don't feel like they have progressed much.

End Of The Week (That Was) - Good News/Bad News

This has not been a bad week all round on the painting front. Along the way I have managed to get  ten sci-fi dwarf figures painted to a reasonably good tabletop standard. To my amazement this only took about three days.

The plan after that had been to finish off the chaos cultists I have for Titansgrave and any number of post-apocalyptic projects which might become a Scrappers game. The figures had already been put together but the bases needed flocking and the figures themselves needed priming. So with this done they were ready to paint. Then the real world got in the way in the form of my other half developing a bad back and the cat being ill. This has delayed me for a bit. Although I have managed to get some painting done today the cat has again taken my seat.

So with the week that comes I have the chaos cultists to finish. I have made a good start on these already so I am confident that this will be done by mid week (assuming the cat does not get in the way). If things go my way there are another half dozen space dwarves to finish off. Next weekend I am away at funeral so I doubt much will get finished if I have to leave it until then so I won't aim to over achieve.

After that I have the miniatures for Star Saga to do. These arrived the other day and I guess I will get round to posting some pictures of them in due time. All the Star Saga stuff will form part of the X-Com and Titansgrave projects so are probably going to get pushed to the top of the list. There are also some old Grenadier (now Mirliton) troopers which I have been tinkering with, Basically another background project to be painted any time I have some paint I don't want to go to waste.

Next week I am going to start do some RPGing again on Monday night. It's Rogue Trader, not my prefered game (well I have never played it so I am open minded about it). At least it will get me back into the swing of things. I am hoping to get back to FabLab at least on Thursday.

So the New Cruelty is satisfied. I have hit my painting target. I have hit all my exercise goals every day and a bit more besides. I have even managed a game this week. Well done me.

Plan A, In Mean Plan B. I Think

So this is where I am at with the chaos cultists. Not very far along after all. They are now primed and ready to go. I have some more dwarves in the background as well. These need a bit of work doing on them but I can see them on the desk soon.

Although I have had some time, the cat has taken up residence on my work chair. The only other place the cat will sit is the arm of the sofa. Trouble is when she fits, which she is doing several time a day, she tends to fall off the sofa and land very awkwardly. Not to mention the fact that she meows very very loudly when she is anywhere but the chair. Loud enough that the whole house becomes annoyed. My easy chair has become the dogs new home so I have nowhere to sit with a good view of the TV. Not that I get to watch much anyway.

Anyway, I'm out for a game tonight. So not much chance of getting any more painting done but I have a day to myself tomorrow. Whilst I don't suspect I will get much finished off I will at least be able to be a few steps ahead for next week.

A Day To Remember - Not A Gaming Post

This was a day where I spent a lot of time remembering about my family. My dad in particular. Today would have been my dad, Harry's birthday. It would have been if cancer had killed him two years ago. I miss him everyday but today was possibly the worst since the funeral. It has been a day where I have thought about him and watched the England team kick the snot out of the Italians in the six nations. This would have pleased him greatly. When he was first given his diagnosis his question was about if he had enough time left to watch the six nations. Sadly he didn't bit we did get a chance to watch England kick the snot out of the Scots.

Me with my mum and dad who both died of cancer

So today has been about the dead but it has also been about the living. I have spent a lot of time thinking about myself and my health. Life is for the living. My chances of seeing the singularity and eternal life seem pretty remote by current estimates but hey I am willing to give it a shot. In order to give me a good shot at it (and maybe you to) this is some advice about avoiding cancer.

     1. Don't use tobacco
     2. Eat a healthy diet
     3. Maintain a healthy weight and be physically active
     4. Protect yourself from the sun
     5. Get immunized
     6. Avoid risky behaviours
     7. Get regular medical care

A Fairly Feeble Excuse For Not Painting Figures

This is my cat. She has been in the wars a bit lately and has developed epilepsy and is now on twice daily treatment for it. Whilst she is a little distressed at the best of times she is now not allowed out of the house just in case she has a fit. So she is now quite distressed most of the time and when distress the meows. Loudly and repeatedly. On and on, hour after hour. It's well after 1am and she is still going.

The only time she is quiet is when she is asleep. The only place she currently seems to find some peace is on my work chair. Whilst I have had a few hours today where I could have done something she has been sat on the chair most of the day.

So you see my dilema. Let sleeping cats lie or wake her up and suffer death my meow meow.