Start Of The Wednesday

It's been a busy week and not the good kind of busy. Still here I am. Given the almost total absence of time poverty, I can't believe how far behind I feel. I can't even blame Skyrim.

Earlier in the week I got some stuff done. It is mostly Wargames Atlantic minis. The Crusader Quar stuff is now based, textured and stuck together. This will fill in the gaps in force. Well most of them. I'd like some more individual units. Some artillery, high ranking officers and specialists, like a medic. I had thought I would be pretty close to done with these. 

I've moved on to the Wargames Atlantic Dwarf and Elf Villagers. I would like them to fit in with what I have already. These have been focused very much on Viking mythology. So effectively light and dark. For the light elves I have already started a plan. These look like Saxons in blue with literally white skin. I've used metal stuff in the past. So I wasn't thinking of anything other than dark elves. What I have is actually designed as high elves but painted black with a minimal of purple with a lot of variety in metallic paint. I am thinking these will work.

The dwarves bring up an existing problem. I have about forty metal ones. Most are older metal sculpts which were done by Grenadier. Very much back in the day. I have been thinking about using the Oathmark range. Not to mention the long standing plan to buy Celtic and Roman dwarves

 from Checkpoint Miniatures. Despite what you might think, these fit better with my "Viking" world. The plastic is a much cheaper option. 

A while back I had wanted to do a project based on Titansgrave, the RPG. The plan had been to to be able to use figures with the rules. Which didn't really work so I progressed to the standard fallback, Savage Worlds. The project kinda died as I had problems finding suitable minis for the dwarves and elves. Some of these, with the Oathmark stuff might just work.

Then we are on to the Imperial Assault stuff. I'd really like to get these painted so I can get a game in. I am running out of storage for other projects, so I might try and use one of the boxes to store the minis. This may be an ordeal so maybe not.

This all needs priming. The plan is to do that tomorrow and hopefully start work on painting tomorrow evening. It will give me an excuse to sort out the shed.

Midweek Mildness

I've not got much done today. Even with a plan,  the plan has gone all to cock. Not really my fault as everyone else seems to have got times wrong. So now I am having to push stuff into the one hour I have tomorrow.

Still, I got some more stuff done yesterday. I've green stuffed the joints of the last of the Athena Miniatures minis. Maybe I can get through the priming process.

Then I am working a couple of projects that need a few more bits. I have a plan for the Quar Crusader cavalry. The pack doesn't have enough rifles to attach to the ",horses". So I thought I would mould a few more. Whilst I was at it,  I thought I'd do a few more for the Sludge cavalry I have planned.

I made a little more progress on the Soviets for the week. These are not finished. There are four more colours to do. These are not big coverage areas and aside from the flesh are mostly fairly simple. There is a good bet I won't get them completely finished as the next four days look like they will be manic. In fact the next week is looking a bit manic.

Today has had a fun afternoon though. First day of school. So things, in the week after next should get back to normal.

Start Of The Week - It's Storming

So the Soviet storm continues. The work bench, not in Ukraine. Yes I know the current are not Soviets. It wasn't much of a joke to start with. I am hoping for a little more success on the table top than the current Russians manage, well anywhere. I am feeling slightly bad about painting these guys because of Ukraine. So even if I lose on table top, I probably won't feel too bad. Unlike the Russians, I have a tactic so I am hopeful they will do okay.

It's looking like a busy week again. Alhough today is looking fairly open, the long weekend ahead is looking busy. I'm not confident I will finish these this week. If I don't, they will get finished next week. Which is also looking busy. I may not even get to the bench despite being at home.

My plan was to do ten minis this week. I've ended up with a dozen. The army has several types of headgear. Each calls for a different paint job with different paints. When it comes to batch painting, the only way to paint an army, my batches look at painting similar figures together. So I have done almost the troops with helmets and this week it's mostly the minis with ushankas. Then it will be the pilotkas, the standard Soviet side cap.

If this do go to plan, I have a follow on. I'll put the rest of the Quar Crusader cavalry dismounts together. Like I say, I could do with building up a bit of a seasonal buffer for primed minis. Winter is coming. Although when I look outside it seems more like monsoon season. Having had a couple of months of brown plants, everything looks really green at the moment. The background projects are likely to stay in the background.

End Of The Week, Schadenfreude, And The Power Of Weather Induced Irony (20)+(9ish)

August Bank Holiday weekend is usually my least favourite one of the year. Setting aside it's the end of the summer holidays and I will be seeing less of her, there is a four day music festival going on. Traffic chaos and struggling to sleep are the main issues.

It has been difficult to hear any signs of the music today. I mean it might be going on but the torrential rain and the thunder are drowning it out. I suspect that is is also drowning the festival. I do feel bad. For the security guards mainly. If the rain continues, which it looks like it will, I think they will be needing gondoliers.

I got to my target for the week and made of twenty figures. So not a bad week for me. Not quite half way through the infantry now and there is a T34 to paint. But more on that next week.

On the subject of armour I have some more vehicles on the bench. I got a Fidwog Quar infantry box, not because I wanted the Fidwogs (although I can see the ten of them becoming an optional unit) but because I wanted the two Fynrydhad light tractor to use for the Coftyrans. Whilst I like the fluff, this was the cheapest way to get two vehicles. I figured that they would also work for Sludge. These need some bases. So I am calling this the equivalent of four minis.

Then I accidentally started working on the big tank, I mean tractor. This one is called a Chyweethl. This is actually a Coftyran tractor. For the sake of putting a number on it, I'm calling this the equivalent of five mins.

For various reasons it's not been an easy few weeks. This seems to have resolved itself. So I feel happier now. If anything I am in a better place than I thought. I've also got some bigger stuff done. A bit of a clean out and some work on the lawn too. I feel like I have been doing some proper adulting.

Forgive me father for I have spent some money on minis. The important one was XCOM. I have been waiting to do this. Not gone for the full hit but enough to get me started. I've also got a few frames for the Quar Crusaders. A frame of specialists and enough infantry and cavalry to finish that part of the plan. I've also added some plastic cargo containers.

I need to start working on a plan for the winter. So building some more minis is on the cards. I had a bit of a blitz on putting stuff together a few months ago. I am not through that pile yet but I will be soon. So need to get a wiggle on. Some crew for the tanks at least.

End Of The Week - Croftyr (22)

I am not feeling my normal chatty self. I still need to keep the record going. And maybe bump up my numbers a bit.

So this has been another Quar week. This finishes off what I have available for the Quar (apart from some vehicles and some figures that don't fit in with the plan). So I am pretty happy that a project is more or less done. For now. More purchases are planned but not right now.

There are twenty Coftyrian Infantry above and two hastily put together tankers (not my best work). 

Moving on....

End Of The Week - The Crusaders Are Ready (49)

The New Cruelty is content with my output for the week. It has been a week with a project that should have felt like a bit of a slog. I've put some effort in but it has felt easier than I might have feared. Some of it has even been quite pleasurable. There are now 40+ Quar Crusaders ready to go. Enough for a basic force and really enough for most purposes. I am still thinking in terms of what's next?

A Clash of Rhyfles is apparently doing fairly solid business. I have felt like it might be me judging by the money I have already put into it. The thoughts in my head are already moving towards the next move. This will be adding more to both forces. I can see the need for some more support weapons and another infantry squad for each army.

Having had a few weeks of painting on a colour primer, this is the first time it felt it really worked. The Damned wasn't bad but this felt like it worked well. My guess is that I will try it a bit more often. If nothing else it has spread the process up significantly. I don't often get forty four figures done in a week.

I have to look to what to do next. I have a lot of Soviets to do. These will probably use an identical paint plan. The Crusaders usually appear as something closer to Vietnam Americans but I hear Soviets in the lore. I haven't got what I needed to finish the force yet, of the seventy ish minis ready to go, so maybe I need to look for something else. That said this has not caused me a problem with any other project. This is a project that seems to want to grow. I got some more minis this week but my order had some stuff missing, so a step or two away from completion

Then there are some more bits for Traitor's Toll. I have a the peasants ready to go. I have some armed peasants that have also failed to arrive. I also have some more military minis for the project that need to be built and based. This will slow things down a bit. I could see me building this up to about forty minis again.

I am feeling the urge to return to a couple of older projects. Somewhere along the line I was expecting I would do a few more units. A cavalry unit is one thing I have missed out. This would be twelve mounted figures. I need another batch of mages and clerics alongside some specialists. Not got a plan that I would describe as concrete here.

Another project from last year was Atomfallish / sUnderDground.  I got a frame of Japanese WW2 infantry. This project does call for these but there are plenty of parts on the frame that would certainly work with the cobbled together look of the force. There are plenty of minis available for this project. 

The WW2 Soviets work with the project and there are a whole range of stuff I can use. I have some more Germans for the British Fascists in the undercity. I have a couple of frames of Americans. There is an idea that there is a massive bunker under the American Embassy which could be used as one of the players in the rubble that London becomes in the game. As it's a nuclear winter scenario, I liked the idea of some civilians in great coats as well.

My brain needs to settle on a plan.

This has been a good weekend and since the car got sorted, things have not been too bad. I got to spend some time with my daughter. These are always the best days. I've also spent a bit of time with some good friends. There is also the prospect of spending time with some other friends. I currently feel like I am in pain almost everywhere. Its not a good feeling.

Just as a final hurrah is this fire elemental. This is a bigger chap than much of what I have painted recently. It's a Teaper Bones mini. It's been on the bench for a while, probably half a decade. Nice to have it done. I am calling this the equivalent of 3 figures.

Just so I have some ideas of what paint I have used, these are the paints I have used for the Quar. Thinking more about the skin tones.

Quar Crusaders - Now In Colour

It would appear that I am making some progress. The three main uniform colours are now on and I have painted the weapons. I still need to paint the shirts and the collar studs and a few more bits and I want a very Soviet type green for the helmets. After that there are a few colours on a few models to do. To even out the colours I am planning a heavy wash at this stage, before I start doing the flesh.  Then there is the skin to do. This will be a mix of fairly vibrant colours for the skin tones. This will include. pink, bright blue, lime green, orange, yellow and purple. This will involve putting them into groups for batch painting. 

To get roughly equal forces for both sides the basic plan calls for another ten man rifle squad which I should probably have ordered already.  It makes sense to get a tank as well. I can see there is some cavalry on the way so I will probably end up buying the three together at some point.

More vehicles and some artillery crews are further down the pipe. There are some heavy machine guns in the game but I want something a little more traditionally, but chunky. I kind of like the idea of pushing the envelope a bit. So more vehicles seem like a must. This probably means some 3D files. 

There will be the need to add a bit more to The Coftyr army including the cavalry and another squad of infantry.

For both sides there are things like flame throwers. It crosses my mind to do some heroes/special characters, for both side. These are not a thing in the game. As a game it is far to genteel for such weapons.  I also have an urge for priests, medics political officers and the like. I am thinking these can mostly be kit bashed. Not to mention even more vehicles.

There is another box set due out this year with two new forces. I don't actually have a starter set or an actual copy of the rules. I also already have a few Fidwogs which are a bit quickly to paint (no obvious legs). This might be a bit too far.

The grand plan was to write this up for Savage Worlds Showdown. Whilst Savage Worlds is really an RPG, Showdown is about bigger battles which can be integrated with special characters. This is a project for another date.

Quar Crusaders: Lots And Lots

I can't help thinking I should have made this a Star Wars week.

This is mainly because I had forgotten how much fun it is to paint an army. That said I am getting there. Not to mention the fact that I am resisting the urge to play Star Wars Outlaws. If I can get the webbing done I might just give myself a break. It might also be down to the fact that I might have my mojo back and there is a lot of plastic to get through.

Start Of The Week - May The Fourth Be With You

The start of another week. Sat with my daughter as i who is playing horse riding games. Never thought I could be so content watching Barbie ride a horse.

Normally I would do something better than use last year's graphic. There is never enough time even if I don't have anything to do. My daughter got me a BB-8 companion in one of her games. I am supposed to use this one instead of R2D2. So I feel touched and appalled at the same time 😂

So here we are.

Back to the real world. I have pulled out the Quar Crusaders. Dirty Marxists. 😱 There are a few vehicles on the back side of this as well. All primed in a basecoat so only details to do really. With a few squirrels, or something like them. I'm going to call this a tots of 47 figures equivalents. If I find the time, there are three vehicles. These are also primed so should only really need details and a wash. Kind of saw these as working for Sludge too.

With their counterparts I did them a bit at a time.  This time it should be the whole army. Well the first bit of it. I can see me needing some more grunts for both sides. Then some specialists. A few vehicles. Then there is cavalry coming. This might be a big project.

This is looking like a busy week. My guess is that I can get all of these, the vehicles and finish some other stuff too. But if it takes two weeks I won't be too downhearted.

End Of The Week - Nothing Special

I am starting to think that this is not going to be my most productive year. The real world is getting in the way. Currently it appears that this is not going to change and that this is probably going to stay this way for a few months. Painting minis is a process for me. I have to be in flow for it to work. Being knackered and harried is not helping.

Despite my whining, this has been a relatively productive week. Well compared to the last couple of months. Prep is a much easier thing to do. As is some elements of terrain. I have finished / abandoned some small scatter. Post apocalypse stuff is easier than some other types. It just has to look grubby. So I am calling this finished.

For some reason I got a frame of wild west scatter. It's almost Fallout and will do for any number of purposes. Mostly I got it because it was cheap and looked good. This should get primed in the next few days.

I've also been working on some Quar. I don't really see me using the rules but I can see me going nuts about the figures. There is just about enough figures for a starter force with plans for a bigger one. I am thinking in terms of buying another force soon and possibly a third one, which may be smaller. This year is probably going to see another two new armies and cavalry for the existing forces. Then I am looking at 3D printable files and some third party stuff for vehicles but only because they are cheaper. What I have put together are also in the queue for next week. These are enough to finish a couple of ten men units and a few spares.

Like I said, I am not really getting down to painting but I can see me putting stuff together, basing and priming a good amount of minis. Hopefully not to this stage.

Part of my plan was to do some more terrain hexes. This was really to provide a solution to keeping the things together during play. So I now have another huge pile of hexes. I have just managed to put away a big pile of hexes, so why not.

Just for funsies, I got a couple of frames of Stargrave Automaton. They come with these little mechanical bugs. So I am working on a couple of bases of these.

End Of The Week (Well Fortnight) (26)

I have managed to cram seven days of work and cram it into fourteen days. This does not make me proud. Part of me accepts this. A bigger part of me is screaming that this is the first year I have painted more plastic minis than metal ones and have done so to a lower standard and I still habit my target. I've spent some quality time with my daughter so it's all good.

Coftyran Quar has been the biggest part of my week. There are a lot of uniform details which takes up time.

Some Progress

I still haven't found my mojo this week. Today I have found some time to paint. Not as much time as I probably would have liked. But, you it, distractions. That said, I am getting close to finishing the first coat. Things may go my way and with a bit of luck I will get last week's work done by the end of the week.

Gaming And International Men's Day

Today has been a good day for me. Some daddy daughter time always helps my mood. It was really good today for some reason. Then I got some time with mates playing Ths Is Not A Test. This is probably my favourite skirmish wargame of all time.

I am really behind on my painting plan. I am probably not going to get to my target for a thousand figures for the year now. I'm not overjoyed with this but it is what it is. I am not going to beat myself up over it.

Yesterday I found it watfws international Men's Day today. I only found this out because I know someone who is going through some stuff. Us blokes are not good at talking about stuff. We forget about our health or the stuff that is importaEnt to us. It's not just about health. There are so many things that we are falling behind on. 

Never be afraid to look out for yourself and check in if you even think you might have a health problem. If you can help someone else don't be afraid to help another.

End Of The Week - Missed Possibilities

This was supposed to be an easy week. Everything was prepped and primed with very little in the calendar. Things didn't really go my way. It's getting close to the end of the year and I can feel my plans starting to crumble.

I did get some gaming done. No wargames this week. Nothing I have heard of before but think Wingspan for mushrooms. An enjoyable evening with friends and a headache 😊. The role playing was also fun mainly because the GM has led us down a rabbit hole full of red herrings.

Anyway, the painting. Made some progress but no where near finished.

Start Of (Another Sludge) Week

It's all Sludge all of the time at the moment. It's nice to have a project. Gives me some sense of purpose. If the is the right thing when it comes to painting toy soldiers.

The plan calls for six more bodyguards, although I probably need some more than that eventually. As mentioned before, as a kind of tabletop, shorthand, these all have axes.  At some point these will get shields to match their charge. Some of these have added short muskets. These are mostly moulds taken from other stuff as in order to get enough I would have to spend £100 to get them.

Then its six foot knights. These are all going to have individual colour schemes, they are all nobility after all. These also come with moulded short muskets. At a pinch they can act as officers, although the more I think about it, it would hope I can get round to creating something a bit more individual.

Then there are two six man, six base units. These will work as either shock troops or jagers. Pretty much the same as the regular line units just with fewer bodies in them.

There is a bit more individuality in the minis this week. So a bit harder work but not too much. Its an easier week all round, so I should get there. I have a couple of minis I want to prime white, so I will get these done. One is going to be part of the back the background work as I want to put some effort into it. I have three monsters made from plants, so basically green. These are going into the background so that everytime green comes on the palette what is left will end on these minis. 

Time for the next Quar release is getting closer. It may be sometime around March April. If I can get the Sludge stuff done then maybe I will move on to the next project. The vehicles and the terrain work for both which is always a plus.

At some point I should move back to Star Wars Legion. I have enough of it to paint now. I am not planning on making any more purchases until I have finished what I have. In my head I have an idea for A Star Wars RPG. If I can make this work I might push this to the front of the queue. There are quite a lot of new releases this year. I can see me buying some of it but its mostly duplicates so is somewhere down the list. SOmehow I suspect the army boxes will be a lot more than the £100 the last lot ended up costing.

I have spent some money on BattleTech last year. Again I have promised myself that I won't spend any more money on it until I have finished, or almost finished, what I already have. This isn't going to cost money because I said so.

Midgard is also on the horizon. I have an idea for a unit of ulfhunder and I need a few more mounted figures. Then of course there are some sabot basing. I have this but it needs texturing and painting. A good choice for a back ground project. It has the advantage that I don't need to spend any more money as I have more than enough Vikings.

The Damned are also due. It has only taken two and a bit years. I can see a lot of it going into the bits box. My bits box can now pro bably fill a transit van. There was a plan for it at the time but that has long passed. I can see some stuff for Stargrave or Five Parsecs. I thought they have some post-apocalypse uses too. I had a plan to use some of them for Last War/Mork Borg. This would be at most ten out of about two hundred plus minis. That said, Trench Crusade has come along and I do have a plan for trenches this year. I am also sure that some bits will work with the Quar.

I keep getting nagged by the idea of going back into the Spanish Civil War and even A Very British Civil War. Then I seem to remember declaring 2025 the year of the Halfling. This is probably the most hard core niggle I have to itch.