End Of The Week - Miniature Painting Update

It's actually been a better week for painting than I was expecting. It started with having to finish off five Ratling/Halfling snipers. My urge is to say that they are finished but I am guessing this is not really the case. There is stuff that I can do on them but the truth is that I am never really going to be happy with them. For the time being I am going to keep them on the table and play about with them until I am happy with the final result.

This should really screw up my timetable. Last week I was supposed to finish them and move on and I set myself a goal of finishing them and do another five figures. At the beginning of the week I thought that there was going to be no chance of that happening. Then I started the dryads. I have a dozen of these and I was expecting to finish six of them so that I could be caught up with my goals. Instead I managed to get all twelve of them done, based, varnished and even managed to get some extra bits on the bases.

The week's work didn't end there. I have based and primed a load of figures including seven gnolls and another figure that I thought was a gnoll for a while. It turns out it's actually a beast crafter and to be honest, although I like the figure, it's probably of no use to me at all. There are a few other figures primed and based. There are a couple of earth golems and a genie ready to go too. These should be easy to get done.

I was a little unhappy with the way the bases on The Walking Dead Miniatures bases had turned out. As well as varnishing them, I put a few tufts on the bases to hide the worst of it. I'll put these back in the box now, it seems like a good place to put them. I was looking at the new releases for the game. There are another twenty four figures due out. Whilst very nice they work out at around £4 per figure. Now I know you get some other bits with them but they are not much use to me. Whilst I like them I am not sure I like them that much.

Hobbits/Ratlings

I think I am prepared to do some long shots of these. Trust me, I have seen them close up and the look is not good. They are repaints so I am not expecting brilliance. Hopefully by the end of the week the first coat will be finished. I am not sure about finishing the, as tomorrow is the day before the big day.

I like the look of the models but they are busy miniatures. Lots of extra bits on the bases that make it look good but have to be painted. This is going to take an age. The plan is to make them look a little less military. They thought of a hobbit as a private military contractor or bodyguard seems to give me the giggles.

X-Com Leads The Way

At least on the paint table. I have touched up a few of the Blood Bowl orcs today but to be honest, this has been a day that has been focused on the forces of X-Com. They are actually starting to look like they might be acceptable on tabletop. Mostly I suspect this is because I have played about with the bases which always make even a mediocre figure looks better.

There are a few more bits to do on the casualties and zombie but they are mostly done. A bit more detailing on the bases wouldn't go amiss.

I think I have said in the past that I am to paint enough figures to fill a foam tray for each type of figure. This would be about thirty six figures. So the aim was for twenty four soldiers, four teams of six. Five casualties, a couple of pilots, a few officers and a technician or three would be my full tray.

Then I need a tray of of civilian types. Police, casualties, alien fodder would be the main part of the tray. I'd also want some figures for players that don't fight. Scientist mainly maybe a general and some agent types too.

The next tray would be the bad guys. I have sectoids and chrysalids done. I have a plan for the single outsider I need which is going to be a modified tau warrior. Other modified tau warriors will make up the ethereals. Zombies will be more GW soldiers and zombies mixed and matched. Floaters are going to be a bit of a mixed bag. I can see a few ways of doing this. I need at least half a dozen of them so whatever I do it must be repeatable. Drone are looking like the them might be the flying disks used by the tau.

It has been the remaining figures that have caused me to um and err on this one. I am thinking that I should just do the ones of figures I can handle. Worry about the other stuff later.

X-Com Corpses And Zombies

I found myself with a bit of an enforced gap with the Blood Bowl orc team. I needed to go on a brief hiatus whilst I wait for the light and the weather to be good enough to do the spray varnishing. This is never going to be my best work. The planned usage is pretty limited, a fraction of a game, not even regular usage within the game. I don't plan on putting a huge amount of effort on the corpses. The zombies, well there might be a bit more of a job on them.

So back to the background project, figures for an RPG of X-Com. I have plenty of work to do on this project but I am trying to box off some of the figures, if only to stop them gathering dust on the work bench. I have had this project on the cards for two decades but in a practical sense, I have been "actively" been working in it for two years. I am currently thinking that a game may actually happen at the start of 2018.

This was going to be my Zomtober project for last year and I have been working on it intermittently. Just enough figures for the month. Time was short then (it should be short now as I should be doing my tax return) so I didn't get round to it. Still there is always time to finish off the lead (or in this case) plastic mountain.

To recap, the plan is to run a game a bit like the reboot of X-Com (not X-Com 2). I seem to have spent a lot of time doing RPGs that are inspired by computers games. A deep and darkly twisted part of me wants to add in bits of the old Gerry Anderson show, UFO into the game. I run RPGs with about 4-6 players. This fits in nicely as the aircraft used for transporting troops has between 4-6 seats. This means the maximum number of casualties (and zombies) I need to put in the table is five.

Still a fair amount of work to do but they have moved on from this which is what they looked like earlier.

Silly Ideas And More Primer

As I was set up to use some primer and the weather was a little bit better this morning, I decided that I might do a bit more. The good weather did not last long and the heavens opened up again so I have come back inside. In previous houses it was possible to do this in the garage, here, not so much unless I want the whole house to smell of primer.

Most of it was just random stuff left in the draws next to the work bench. All sorts of stuff really. Some for X-Com, Frostgrave/Viking game/Skyrim, post-apocalypse, a reaper dragon and even some D+D in the form of some plastic carrion crawlers from a D+D board game I found cheap on a market.

One bit of frivolity though. A relatively time consuming piece of frivolity though. I saw someone online with a painted a Blood Bowl range ruler, throw in template and scatter template online. I have had some gold paint knocking about for years so I figured I would give it a go, So a coat of primer, paint and varnish later, U had this. Nicely dull thanks to the matt varnish.

What I didn't get round to doing was varnishing the figures I already have painted. Probably a good job, I am not sure matt varnish and rain mix well. Maybe another day. Still, I might try and get some painting done.

X-Com Pilots

There has been some more work in progress of the X-Com game during down time on the Blood Bowl Gouged Eye orcs (primer takes a long time to dry thoroughly). Giving how long I have dragged out this project now I wanted a bit of a win and I figured the easiest way was to finish the two pilots. If nothing else it would free up some space on the work bench. In the game I wanted two of them, one for the interceptor and another for the skyranger.

I wanted to give the pilots a slightly different aesthetic to the soldiers to make it obvious that they are not soldiers and to give them some personality of their own. Unlike the others, these figures don't really need to follow the national aesthetics that I have used on the soldiers. There are two here and I might do another one. The head gear is probably the most different, It's still a Cadian head but it's a comms helmet with a visor made out of green stuff. I was hoping for something that looked a little like the flight helmets in Star Wars. I've also played around with (taken a knife to) the gaiters to make them look boots to give them more variants on the standard uniform.

Instead of camo, they are in solid dark green flight suits. A little like what contemporary pilots wear. I probably should have gone for something like a more olive drab than this. That said, this gives the flight crew a more particular look and it gave me an idea for the base for DPM camo that I have done on one of the British team members.

It has thrown up a small problem in that all the gubbins on the shoulder is where I was going to place the flag. Maybe this is an opportunity instead. Still a litlle bit of work to do but they are a lot closer to being done.

X-Com Again

After I sent a lot of time farting around the other day I did eventually get some time to do some work on my figures today. Although I had intended to prime the Blood Bowl Orcs after I had green stuffed the gaps I was going to base coat the orcs but it seems that the only times it hasn't been raining today is when I have other stuff to do. Then when it did stop raining I thought that maybe I hadn't left the putty to dry for long enough. Even though it is only a thin layer I was thinking I should probably leave it overnight.

X-Com wounded, zombies and a sniper

It wasn't that much time but at least it was something and the X-Com project was part of my Plan for 2017. It seemed that I managed to glue on a few heads and pieces of equipment and do a little bit of painting after that. Small steps but steps forward. They have become what I call my background project. The job I turn to when I can't work on something else. When the glue or ink is drying mainly but sometimes I pick them up when the muse strikes me This happens often enough for me to give it a name. At some point I am going to have to crack on with them to get them finally done.

I am still thinking this cold be an RPG project that I could get of the ground this year. It's down to the figures. I tend to plan things in terms of trays of figure (about 36 standard sized figures) The good guys are on the table. The bad guys are going to be the next project. I can see some more bad guys and civilians after that but I guess I could do those as the game starts.

X-Com - Now With Heads

It's been a busy (just over) week for me. Last weekend I had a friend over and a few games along with a trip to Triples. Lots on this week mainly painting (with a roller and emulsion rather than a size 1 Windsor and Newton and acrylic).  Now Easter is almost here. No Jokes about happy Zombie Jesus day although that is quite funny.

Anyway, I got a delivery from America, Mad Robot Miniatures to be precise so the conversions for the Imperial Guard as X-Com soldiers continues. Hopefully it will end up with a nice game. This has allowed me to add some heads to my X-Com minis. I got the choices all wrong (from the plan I had) for which head would go on which body. I guess that is not matter.

The heads are nice, if a little fragile but I guess that is to be expected with such fine castings

X-Com - Flags

I sometimes think I am getting caught up in the details. I have spent a lot of time thinking about this project and not doing anything about it. Now that I am doing something, I am probably doing too much. Maybe I am also thinking about my commitment to being a better painter this year. Right here right now, I am thinking about flags.

I was worried about the Union Jack the most. It's my national flag so I want to get it right, that said it is insanely complicated to paint. It is definitely something that evokes the flag rather than being an actual copy of it but not bad all the same, for freehand at least. I was trying to do British DPM camo as well. I thought I had screwed it up but then the last colour, the thin black lines, sold it for me.

One of the pilots is modelled after the female pilot Ibanez in the film Starship Troopers (not a bad film but nothing like the book). Pretty sure she was Brazilian so it all fits with my plan about funding nations. The flag turned out almost perfect (for a flag that is 4mm across and drawn freehand).