Getting &£#@ Done

Despite another late start, things are looking good. Not quite everything has a base coat. I am feeling positive. Batch painting troops in uniform is relatively fast. Even if I opted for a cammo pattern on some of them.

Before anyone tells me that they don't look like Germans it's because they are not meant to be Germans. More like 1970s/80s British fascist forces for a post apocalyptic game set in London.

Start Of The Week - Happy Burn A Catholic Day

It's bonfire night here. It's 11pm.and the noise has more or less died down. Lots of pretty lights in the sky. It's been a good day. Some time with my daughter which is always the best timing. Then some gaming. 

I played Arsenal tonight, the wargame, not the football team.S fun if simple game. Through a mix of tactics and fortuitous dice I managed to destroy one enemy mech, cripple another and wipe out all of one of my opponents spods. This was after my teammate's mech died in the first shot of the game. It was a Conan moment...."What is best in life? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women, I mean middle aged men."

It is the start of the week, painting wise at least. I have some fascists for Atomfallish. Whilst it's a busy week, the fact that most of them are wearing the same uniform and so common colours should make this an easy batch paint. So even if I a looking at the rest of the week being busy, I might get there. There are some alternatives if I get them done. Alien terrain for a start.. I have a plan for next week too. Almost all of which is already primed and ready to go.

Picked up some more freebies. I'm not sure of their provenance but they look like twenty five year old G-Dub fantasy orcs. They are huge. Compared to most of my minis they are maybe four or five times as big. Maybe a project for the near future.

End Of The (Two) Week(s) (50)

It's been a while. I kinda lost my way a bit. Half Term was fun. Daddy daughter time always is. Maybe not as condusive to mini painting as some would like but it was fun.

Last week it was difficult to get going but I did manage to finish some stuff on the Monday. Weather has been a problem getting stuff primed. So that makes more delays.

As I count the weeks by how many minis I finish in a week, this week has been an especially good one. With more than fifty figures finished, I think that's a personal best. Which is total BS but it makes me feel good.

I got given a big pile of stuff. Mostly the last remaining bits of a late gamer. Some random stuff to be honest. Almost enough lead to put my back out picking it up. In it we're some WW2 tankers of various nations. Not outstanding sculptures but good enough for a game that's not going to get that much play which would be Atomfallish.

Then there are a few super hero minis. I got these for a game I planned that didn't happen. Still they are done now. Will have to find the others. Maybe I will run the game now.

Over the years I think I have talked about my love of the minis designed by Mark Copplestone. I found some of his old Grenadier stuff on eBay. The first bunch are some bikers. They will fit with the Copplestone Castings.

Then there are some techo-fuedals. Propper post-apocalypse minis. 

Last week was a harder sell for me. There was other stuff going on. This was coupled with a bit of a barrier. I had a lot of fun painting some G-Dub stuff so I got some more. Way too much extra detail. I am trying to figure out why half the swordsmen would be carrying an hour glass each. Then I had problems with the colour. I really didn't like what I had done. It kinda worked out. Meh. These were done at the same time as some more random G-Dub stuff or at least some stuff I could use with it.

Then there was more Copplestone. I think these were street punks. I seem to recall some of them were urban guerillas. Finally there was one more Atomfallish mini. I must have missed it a few weeks ago. It was primed and ready to go. An easy choice.

End Of The Week

Having started well I hit a mix fntiredness, family stuff and the usual random. I've had two goodish days which has allowed me to finish. 

For the most part it's been all about the halberders. So that's fifteen of them done. There are some more to do.

Then there were another ten for the same project. I think there is another one somewhere.

About eighteen months ago I got some alien terrain. An impulse buy really. These were the three smallest items. It might spur me to start the alien terrain hexes 

Start Of The Bleak

It's time to start the week again. Even though it's a Tuesday. I've got more Empire stuff planned. I say Empire but I have at least three plans for them. There are tenish more free company, fifteen halberds (which are probably Bretonian and the odd free company member) and a couple more hangers on. I should probably bite the bullet and buy the Empire Army starter set. The plan is to do some chopping and changing. Some of the heads are quite distinctive (which means a male head with a vaguely pirate hat and an eye patch or an older guy with mad hair) which I don't want to many of. Greater arm and weapons variety would be nice too. So ideally I want all the bits in the same place. As with many eBay finds, the posing may not be great. Such as a mini with two outstretched arms, one holding a club the other with a bow. So I am waiting on some more stuff to arrive.

Somewhere in the near future I have yet more stuff for Atomfallish. More default Brits but plenty of late war winter Germans. These will be my British Union of Fascists. I need more bad guys so I think these will get done pretty quickly. There are twenty four coming so if I add something random, I'll have a weekly target. These have been on order for ten days.

I got hold of fifty ish WW 2 Russians and a T34. The plan had been to use them for Atomfallish. I have some very nice Neo Sovs from Copplestone that I will stick with. So I have a soviet army to paint. There is no way I am using a brush to paint that much green. This should be the excuse I need to get the airbrush out but I am going rattle can it. Assuming I can find the paint at the right price and they will deliver before Christmas. I even looked for a wargamming show. The next one I can fit in is February.

On top.of that are just over twenty future warriors. Some street punks, which will do duty for cyberpunk and some wasteland types. I am toying with the idea of buying some more of the robots I already have. Along with some Copplestone stuff and maybe a few more robots. I have a project in mind.

Somewhere deep inside is the nagging urge to paint a Turnip 28 army. I have some minis ready to go. There are plenty of bits to make this happen.

End of the Meek - Getting Tough with Myself +29 ,(27) And Some Zomtober Stuff

I made target. Whoop whoop. If I want to hit all those targets I set myself, I need to get a wiggle on. There are miniatures to daub and posts to butcher. 

 I finished my planned project for the week which were my Zomtober "Last Night On Earth" minis. Twelve more zombies and the eight characters. Having been disturbingly affect by George A Romero as a child (well 16, they have age restrictions for a reason) I am now somewhat obsessed with the zombie apocalypse. If we are in the early stages of World War III, the zombie apocalypse has been going on for a few decades now. Take a trip to Rochdale or Winsford if you don't believe me.

These minis are not my best ever work. I put as much work in as I could as there is very little detail to work with. You cafe polish a 💩. I still want a video store clerk although that archetype might be a little dated.

I put all the zombies in the picture even though I finished two of them last week. I did paint the bases this week. It was fun not having to glue the buggers together.

I got hold of some dark age stuff last weekend. These were already painted. Mostly. To get them to a minimum standard, I've done some touching up. The horses now look less brown. I don't have too many crossbowmen. I guess these are vaguely Norman. For the sake of an argument, I am calling this five minis. Which gets me to my weekly total. 

With the above finished by Friday I had a bit of time. So I had some time to fool around. My unplanned Warhammer Empire army got a few additions. So some got bundled into the queue.

There are three Coftyran Quar done. I like these, which is good because these were a trial run to see if it was a project I wanted to folliup.I've ordered some more. Really I should have a plan for them.  These haven't arrived yet or they would probably be at the front of the queue.

Eyes Down

After yesterday I started to think about the progress I am making. At the start of the year I thought I would try my luck at a gamers bingo card. I decided it was time to revisit it. I guess it was supposed to motivate me. Even though I haven't really used it, my motivation has returned a little.

As far as blogging goes, I have posted as much so far this year as I have in the last six years. If I'm I continue being a good boy, I might even have posted as much as the last seven years. This is a bigger ask as I was still blogging a fair bit then. This will mean doing a bit more posting than I have of late. 

My view on blogger is starting to change. Last month I managed to get five percent of my total hits. I am not sure if I know how things actually work online anymore. My suspicion is that my blog is very popular. In all honesty it's probably very popular with Google's AI. I'm still blogging for me. Maybe some day my daughter will read it. At least I hope. T-Dog, if you are reading this I hope it puts a smile on your face.❤️

I was hoping to do a bit more 3d printing. As the printer is in my bedroom, I have been promising myself that I would build some sort of booth to manage the fumes. It probably won't be sir tight, but that's what gaffer tape is for. 

As for the bingo. It's what this post is all about. I am getting close to filling out the central box. This was the gaming gold for the year. The two outer rings were supposed to be fun stuff. In hindsight, I should probably have left the outer rings off. Reading in particular is proving to be something that gives me a migraine. I can just about read on the toilet but more than that gives me a headache. I mean migraine. My first novel of the year took me five months to finish. So no chance of one a month. The bonus square is now full. Bonuses are awarded for doubling a target.

If I can get Disney to work on my TV I am off to watch all three Star Wars trilogies and tick off one more box. This may be my last post. I am not sure I will survive watching episode VIII again.😱

Targets

So I kinda started the year with a plan. Which was strictly speaking two plans. The bingo being the official one with painting a thousand minis by year end. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster. I've had a summer where things were rather busier than expected. So I didn't get much done and even less finished.

It occurred to me last night that I was going to miss the latter target.  Having set my mind to it, I might just make it. If I do twenty five minis (well twenty four and a bit) per week I can still get there. So the plan is finish at least that many in each week.

Zomtober - Still Shiny

Zomtober is still running. This phase is just about over. I'd kinda planned to keep the current project running a bit longer. The minis, being a bit soft on detail, haven't taken to long. I found the one missing character which took about twenty minutes to paint. It's about par for the course. I have another set somewhere. It cost me a pound on a car boot sale. It occurs to me that it might be worth painting the remaining zombies.

The paint isn't dry yet. I still need to paint the bases. Happy with the progress. I might go and carve out a few more hexes and maybe go and buy a box to put them in. And a house to put the boxes in.🤔

Getting Distracted

I know it's normal for tabletop gamers to get distracted. Perhaps I am a little more distractible than most. If you can stick with a project, please accept my apologies for the generalisation. 

My plan for the week got dropped briefly. So I have had two sheets of foam with hex bases leaning against a wall for about a year. Long enough for dust to settle. It's been causing me a problem every time I see it. I've been putting it off because I realised how much effort it was going to cut it. I lost an evening to the first sheet and now my hands hurt. 

I now need to figure out where to put them.🙄

Start Of The Week - Zomtober

I painted a few zombies last week. They look unhealthy but need a bit of grebbing up. These are from the game The Last Night On Earth. To be honest they are not the best figures either. The game is fun though. Being a bit light on detail, they should be easy to paint. Which is good as it looks like a busy week. There are twelve left in the queue.

There are some characters too. These have a bit more detail, but are still fairly soft on it. A quarter of the volume and a fraction of the details than the Skaven I did recently. Not quite as quick but this should another easy win for the eighth of them. 

When I get these finished I got some part painted stuff to finish off. Some more Northmen. Due to my aversion to painting horses, it seems a no brainer. I don't have any Normanish cavalry There were also some crossbowmen, also Normanish. The metal does have a really blue hue. I like it and may buy some. On these minis, they really stand out.

End Of The Week That Was (Zomtober) (28)+8

The end (of the week) is nigh. So here I am again. The plan was to paint twenty five and maybe get in a few extras along the way. I found a few more to add into the mix. The thought occurred to me that we are actually in Zomtober. I am not even sure that it is a going concern. But I had been promising myself that I would join in again this year. SOme of my mates would tell me that I am zombie obsessed. I mean a hundred metal zombies isn't that many right? I don't know how many zombie games I own but its less than twenty, so not that many. I've probably played a few more digital world games. Playing Dead Rising 4 every Christmas since it was launched isn't remotely obsessive

My plan was to paint the minis in Last Night on Earth. At least all the ones from one of the sets I have (OMG I have a problem) across the month. The models, although nice enough are a little on the small side and are a bit soft on details. I thought I would start with a couple of text paints. There are two groups in the box s I thought I would change the flesh colour.

Then there was this guy. He was prepped for a few weeks ago to fit in the stuff here. I misplaced the head so I am just getting around to him now. Not to mention a junior pod person.

Bread an butter for the week was going to be to finish off the Atomfall plan. Which was getting close this week. Until I ordered some more stuff.

Mostly it was regular, if somewhat scrappy, army units. These are in principle Regional Control forces. They will do for most forces. My new favourite kit for the nuclear winter is the late war British (winter) set from Warlord. Lots of winter clothes , balaclavas, and even respirators. Not to mention late war helmets.

Then there are some Union of Fascists. Just a few more. The next batch of minis will be some more of these, assuming things go to plan. You can never have enough bad guys.

There are even a few civilians. Well one might be RAF.

                                                                                                                                                      

Future Projects

It's the start of a new month. My mind is searching for another project. It's not like I am short of projects. You don't get to be my age without accumulating a pile of shame. Mine is smaller than most. If I went at it at the same pace I am guessing I would get through everything in about eighteen months. Certainly everything I have a hope in hell of painting.

In my head there is another small scale apocalypse idea (the end is almost nigh, CF my previous post). This starts along the line of the end of the world happens and then there is an AI who tries to take over what is left of the world. Which includes making slaves if the humans left and building a robot army. Think skynet but it has control of a few hundred metres of territory. There are no resources and no power so all you can do is scavenge and build with what you find. It's just an excuse to buy some robots . Well more robots. 

There are at least six Blood Bowl teams to paint and numerous hangers on. I am a big fan of the game but I am not feeling it. Nurgle will get finished this year but not this month.

I still have a hankering for a Dredge inspired tabletop RPG game. This is by far the most expensive potential project. There are no cheap plastic alternatives. It would be a lot of fun. Plenty of terrain and boats to design. Whilst I wouldn't be starting totally from scratch, it would be pretty close to starting from nothing.

Much of my inspiration comes from the digital gaming world. So right now that would be Fallout 4, Rage 2 (sounds like a football result), Far Cry New Sawn, Generation Zero, Mutant Year Zero, The Last of Us, and Phoenix Point. The last two have a more creeping subversion vibe which I kinda like (I've watched Invasion Earth again which has a more sci-fi bent. I've also been thinking about The Weald, Summerland and Rangers Of Shadow Deep. I very much like the crawling doom aspect. I think it has something to do with the teachers scaring me to death by playing Jeff Wayne's The War if the Worlds and being made to pretend to be the red weed. I have some ideas for FIMO.

I've been playing Midgard: Age of Heroes. Whilst I don't have specific forces for it, I have plenty of minis I can use. So whilst I want to do something for it, I don't know what I would actually need.

Traveller was part of the conversation a few months ago. Whilst I started with Tunnels & Trolls it was Traveller that got me to fall in love with RPGs. Talk moved on to 2300AD which would be no hardship either. This was looking at replacing my idea for an X-Com style game. Again, this is not much of a painting challenge as I have a metric &£@kton of sci-fi minis.

I've touched in Quar: A Clash of Rhyfles a few times. I can plan to about sixty minis. To get to where I want to go, it starts at the bottom end around £100 and up to £250 for two forces in good order. I like the tanks which would do double duty for Sludge. 

Already Making Progress

At least I think so. Everything seems like hard work at the moment. My whole world seems like a headache. A little bit of time to paint appears to be a spark today. Tomorrow looks like a busy day so I should make the most of the day.

Start Of The Week And A New Old Plan

So it's back to the past. The 1980s in fact. Having taken some inspiration from Atomfall, I am looking again at SunderDground. Post apocalyptic London never looked this good in my head. I cannot think of many places that would better suit tactical nuclear redevelopment than London. Except maybe Salford.

I got hold of a few frames of winter late war British. If these had been available at the time I started I don't think I would have purchased much else. They come with gas masks, late war helmets (which are better suited than the battle bowler) and best of all they look a little bit battered and are dressed for the nuclear winter.

There are a few that are planned as British Union of Fascists or the BUF. I'm after some late war winter Germans. These too need to look battered. There are also a few civilian types. It was more or less an excuse to paint what I had left.

To round out the week there are three Coftyran Quar and one more figure for Mordheim / Witcherish. Then in the background are the stuff that has been in the bench for a while. 

It's looks like a clear week. Good in some ways but I am thinking of the bigger picture. I am therefore reasonably certain I will finish the primary group of 25. The Quar should be in the window, assuming I don't get distracted. There rest will see some progress but probably won't get finished. I would like to finish a week with nothing left on the bench.

End Of The Week - And I'm Cheating A Little (25+3)

Another busy week. Two days during the week disappeared and I've had two days of fun with my daughter. I have been doomscrolling a bit too much. The prospect of WW3 is picking at my child of the 80s thing. So what do I do? When the going gets tough, the tough buy a couple of tins of corned beef and make post apocalyptic terrain. And more hexes. Lots more of them.

When I think about most of the games I have run and worked on over the years, the apocalypse features in there somewhere. Even my Viking game is set in the run up to Ragnarok. In most of the sci-fi stuff there is a war of apocalyptic proportions running in the background.

In terms of figure painting, if I look at what has interesting me this year, there has been an end of the world vibe. Sludge has been called Napocolyptic, I've been painting stuff for a 1960s / 1980s apocalypse in the form of Atomfallish) SunderDground, there is some Nurgle stuff on the bench not to mention Frostgrave, Stargrave and Mordheim. Let's call it a coping mechanism.

The primary focus for the week has been more hexes. A project two years in the making. Plenty got done this week. I've managed most, if not all of the non-blank tiles. There are another fortyish blank tiles to do. I think I will need more paint. So I've not started the second round yet. Plus it sounds like a lot of work.

I added a few more bits into the mix. Battle mats were kind of the inspiration for the whole hex thing. Deep down I wanted variety. I wanted a corner that could be a different colour. So I was thinking badlands as one of them. Basically desert but with a few bits of junk and perhaps a more varied colour scheme with yellow or orange. So I have done a few pieces. Only one is actually newly done. The rest are stuff that was in progress.

Having seen nothing but things with six sides (well technically eight) I decided it was time for a palette cleanse. Painting eighty odd of them will do that to you.. I took a look at what is in the immediate hex queue. It's almost all the basic plain hexes. So about as dull a job as I can imagine especially as it's about fifty of them which will just be white with a wash.

 I've done a fair bit of a priming, including some scatter terrain. I have a pile of stuff lying around. Whilst I like the infinite variety of individual bits of scatter, I don't like the near infinite task of putting them away. So time for bases of grouped bits. There is one piece that is really just fantasy, a few bits of sci-fi stuff but it's mostly modernish and apocalyptic. Hence my earlier diatribe.  These are actually finished, suitably grabbed up with painted bases. I just can't find the picture and can't be bothered to drag them out of the box.

So if next week goes to plan it will be back to the final phase of Atomfallish. I have some more mainstream troops, who will double for most forces. There are also some fascists in there. If the end of the week goes to plan, there might be some commies too. Even more fascists are needed and winter Germans and fallschimjager fit the plan. 

If not I have no idea what to do next.  I have some stuff I can use for an unofficial Empire army/Witcherish (which given the approach of the wild hunt I am also counting as an apocalypse, if pre-apocalypse counts). 

I got three Coftyran Quar this week. They were cheap. The plan is to try painting some and see if I like it. Like it enough to buy six boxes and a couple of tanks as I doubt anyone else will be buying the other side. I can see three boxes on my wishlist. 

Then there are more hexes to do. If I get the paint, I will finish off the Paradise City set. Well I say finish. I've had some thoughts. Maybe I will look at Paradise City Lost. I have some stuff that might turn into a full badlands/desert set and I have the deep stuff to cut up and I would really like to do the trenches and maybe even the alien tunnels.

I've also made my my first Temu purchase. It's mostly terrain orientated. So that might arrive. Lots of tat and some rollers. I guess I will see how things go. Then there are some second GDub bits won on auction. Probably eBay rescue time.

Start Of The Week - Even Not, Even More Freaking Hexes

SO even more hexes. It's time for the futuristic urban terrain, or Paradise City, as I like to call it. Nothing special, if anything this should be the easiest set yet. There are about 150 to get done. So it's a bit of a mission. I'm also filling in a few gaps. With ruins to badlands being the one I am thinking about.

Even More Freakin Hexes

It's getting close to winter so I wanted to make sure that I have all my priming done, any jobs in the shed were complete and the shed itself was secure.  Before it starts to get too cold. Instead it got wet. Very wet. Today has been the only day I could even contemplated it and I've been a bit manic.

Terrain projects tend to get done in the shed. The last thing I want is bits of expanded polystyrene in the house. Especially the bobbly stuff. Thus sems to attract static and then get carried everywhere. For some reason everything I need has ended up in the house.

So I have some hexes to finish. Well a whole box of them that are part complete. Maybe two boxes. And a bit.  Not to mention I want to use the laser to cut some more.

I have basically been working on three subsets which are modern/modernish/post apocalyptic in nature. It has taken some fettling. Then there is another project, which will split into two sets.

The stuff I have has mostly been sat around for two years. I've just needed to get it all in one place and get some mojo working. The first is the suburban path. Nice simple smooth lines. It's designed to be in good working order but not perfect. The kind of thing you might find in the burbs or a park.

The second is the post apocalyptic version the first path. These are designed to look heavily mashed up. I wanted them to fit in with the existing apocalyptic stuff I've done. Sort of a green corridor with a path in the middle.these have taken quite a bit of work to paint and the bashed details took forever. Then there is a test piece.

Lastly is something of a rural path. Big flags, mortar and sets running along the edge. I sort of think they are finished. I am also contemplating changing colour of the flag stones.

I have also finished a lot of other stuff. It's part of a bigger project, so not really finished yet. The general idea is to have a near future paved city. The plan was to call it Paradise City. I may have been listening to Guns and Roses in the 90s. This would then segue into a ruined set. This would be called Paradise City Lost. 🧐 Did you see what I did there? Desert hexes was another plan. This would be another 150 tiles. Which is a mission. So I might might start with a transition set. So grass to desert. Or urban ruin to badlands (or a more fun name for desert). Or both. Enough to turn and edge or a corner into something else for visual interest.

There are still a load of tiles to work with. Then there is another hundred, much deeper tiles I need to cut. These are probably going to end up as a trench system. I don't discount the possibility that they will end up as an alien hive.

As I am now knee deep in hexes, I think I might well stick with with the job in hand. I still have the Atomfallish stuff to do. I may have some more in a couple of weeks. I am also thinking about the Witcherish idea. I have some minis that will work. I also got a few Quar, as more of a test. It's probably hexes.

Start Of The Week - Stormy Weather

So I had. Planned to do some priming this morning. Evidence below. The weather has kinda got in the way. There is a lot of talk about how to prime in the cold. Not so much about how to prime in the rain. Or in storm force winds. The met office has a yellow weather warning ⚠️ right now. It's almost drowning out the TV.

So it's time to do something else. Whilst I am searching for a project, I have no current plan. There is no real shortage of stuff to paint. This is my bits box, all 21l of it.

So what next? It really is time for the hexes.