Progress, Or Something Like That

Having had a bad night last night, I am now wide awake. Time I should at least make an attempt at sleeping. I've got a low key cold which isn't helping. So carrying on regardless. It's been a cat nap kind of day.

I was beginning to think I wasn't going to make much progress. However I did better than I thought. I've got three full colours done and another four colours on some of the minis. So actual real progress.

The Imperial Assault stuff is a bit basic. This makes them easy to paint but very hard to paint well. Whilst not quite a uniform colour across the group, I am trying to a degree of commonality.

The Soviet stuff is more "uniform" but in many respects, are not the same as the other minis. I think these are all metal or resin, unlike everything else do far, which has been plastic.

If I put some effort in tomorrow, I might just get this done. The New Cruelty would be happy if I manage to make my target.

End Of The Week (15)

A strange day today. It would have been my mum's birthday. So a number of moments of sadness. Whilst it has been some time since she passed, I still think about her every day. Things have moved on, but I still miss her.

So I hit my target. Things are progressing. The New Cruelty should be more than happy. The New Cruelty if you friend or is that the Computer. Some of the Paranoia minis are done. I am already thinking I need some more investigators. And all the other stuff. This is a project that has some legs. 

The fascists came out alright. For fascists anyway. I am trying for the convoluted mix of kit. This seems to have worked. With the corpses I will call this 12 for the week. 

I've seen a few things new for Blood Bowl. All big guys and all needed for one team or another. The is a Morg 'n' Thoth has been missing from collection, at least as far as a new figure. I mostly play chaos in all its forms so the other two figures, a rat ogre and a minotaur, fit my plan. I need to pick a team to paint this year. So, having had Varag Ghoul Chewer on the bench for around three years (the ultimate background project). Not to mention he is now almost six years in the queue. I finished the one missing detail and the base.

I also found an odd peasant from the villagers pack by Wargames Atlantic. She is now done. So I am going to call this 15 minis for the week.

There are a couple of projects in the offing. In keeping with the usual form, I will probably decide tomorrow. Or the next day. 

Almost Done For The Week

I now have some time to paint. It's looking like tomorrow (today) will be a bit of a wash. Mainly because I am going to Salute🙂. So I thought I would push things a bit. So expecting a big push on Sunday.

I appear to have acquired another mini in the queue which is from Crooked Dice. As he has a fur cloak so I figured he should be with the ulfhunder. He was bought to be a Viking cleric. He fits in with the history. As there isn't much to the history, I could paint him pink and give him a feather boa and it would be impossible to call it anachronistic.

Given the amount of time I have had this week, the progress is better than expected. Given I have been having a good time away from the bench, I am happy with the progress. I'm not sure that The New Cruelty feels the same way.

The End Of The Week (24)

So the end of the week is here. Pretty sure my daughter had given the The Rona. I feel like kack and I can't taste anything. Not sure about smell as I am so full of snot. But I have managed the target of the week and I have already started on the stuff for next week.

This now completes my first two units for Sludge, both line infantry. They are now stuck to bases which need some texture. I can't say this is my best work. Well I could but this would be an outrageous lie. It is however good enough for the purpose intended, An army that is rarely going to get played.

For some reason I am feeling the need for structure. I have the bingo, but feel the need for something with a bit more crunch. So I have a plan.

2/3         24 mixed Sludge jagers/shock troops, bodyguards, foot knights

9/3         18 sludge pike build Sludge cavalry.

16/3         6 ulfhunder 3 mounted viking 

23/3       18 sludge zouaves

30/3       12 modern ish

6/4     12 Sludge mounted

13/4       12 da/fantasy 

20/4       12 sci fi ish

27/4      12 Sludge mounted 

4/5        12 Stargrave 

11/5          ? battletech 

18/5      6 Sludge crossbow, 18 Sludge crossbow

27/5        to OPFOR or not to OPFOR?

Now for next week. I wanted some more bodyguards. Just for a visual shorthand, bodyguards are equipped with axes. Then I wanted a couple of officers and a unit of foot knights. I can't remember if this is four or six figures, I will have what I will have. Then there are two units which could be jagers or shock troopers.

Then I am planning another few weeks of Sludge after this although I may have a palate cleanse. My plan as to paint all the stuff I got in York at show this year. All of this is now primed and based aside from the stuff I wanted to prime white. mostly Vikings but some modernish stuff too.

I haven't done any Sludge cavalry yet and I have a pike unit to go. I have two line units for an opfor done already. I have plans for a unit of zouves and a unit of crossbows. The zouves may end up being some Scots Napoleonics or some actual ACW Zouaves. At some point I got six Napoleonic infantry from the cover of a magazine.  which will do for shock troopers or jagers. I also want a jager unit with crossbows. I want some knightly horse and some heavy and light cavalry. If I go all in then I might think about hussars. I also want a mounted commander and associated mounted bodyguard. This project might run and run. I need a chaplain and a sorcerer. Finally, for the stuff I have a plan for, I need to do some artillery. I have what I need for this, I just need to put it together. 

Then there is stuff I don't have a form plan for. Saints for one. I need to source a behemoth that fits my army. A fifty four millimetre knight with some work maybe? Needs some google-fu. The expansion for Sludge, Sludge Nations, also allows for a flamethrowers. Always fun, unless you are on the receiving end of course. Finally, well in the sense that I could give up here, I need some crawlers. A light and a heavy one at least. My next project is going to be This Quar's War. This is a game that is slightly better resourced and has the right sort of tanks. If I don't put tank commanders in them they will work.  Finally, ideas for which I don't have a plan for, yet, are a sacred icon and artificer with a repeating musket. What was the name of the character from Sharpe again?  

Moving on after that I need to be thinking about the future. I have a few plans for a fantasy army for Midgard. I have dome some unit trays for this as I think I may well get a game in. My next purchase is probably going to be This Quar's War. If only because it is a game that no one but me will play. This is going to be another situation where I will be buying both sides. This isn't such a big deal as armies don't stretch much beyond thirty minis. This is probably going to require less than one hundred figures to cover all possibilities I can think of.  This requires the next Quar box set to come out. 

After that, or maybe before, I am thinking about Halfings. They don't fit any real plan though. My gaming life goal, well one of them is to have a mini that I can use for each character class, race and gender. Where possible, there should be a choice. I mean a thief often looks like a ranger right? 

Just in terms of overall numbers, I am doing well. I have already manged to substantially paint more than I have in the in the last two years combined. If I can keep the pace up, which is a bit of an ask, this will be my first year where I painted a thousand figures. The New Cruelty is pleased regardless.

Start of the Week

I can feel a migraine coming. It feels like a big one. Sounds are making my ear drums hurt. I will be getting the precursors soon so time to stop.

It's full speed ahead for Sludge. So I primed what I needed and a few more after a bit of mini prep. Then I have given everything a really harsh wash. I use my own mix which is a bit darker than most of the others you can buy. 

The week ahead is a busy one. Twenty four minis may be ambitious. Especially with the migraines, which seem to be coming pretty thick and fast at the moment.

Time to find a dark room and an audiobook.

End Of The Week (31.5)

Here we are again. I got way more done than expected as I fixed my lighting issues quicker than expected. It also that I needed to throw myself into something. 

So I think I finished off most of the short arses from last week. In addition there is a pig from two weeks ago. There are a few more in the pipe some of which are newly purchased.

My plan for next week was to paint a unit for Sludge. Sludge being a game that captured the internet for a couple of weeks and one that has stayed with me. I fear it is going to go down the same hole as Titansgrave. 

Somehow I finished these figures this week. Not a whole unit though. Somewhere along the line I had mixed up the minis from two units. So next week I think I will finish the two units off with a few more besides. If things go well I might try and finish another smaller unit. I needed to knock up about six more minis on top of what I had.

Basing may be an issue. The units should be in groups of three on 40mm bases. I am not sure I like that. It means that they can never be used for anything else. Mind you, I am not sure what I could use them for anything else.

The above is my reminder for what paint I used. 

I even found some time to work on the rats. The Skaven Blood Bowl team is coming along. I was sure there were a few more. I found two more.

The weather was good the other day. The first day I considered priming minis. So that's what I did. Picking a figure, that totalled about seventy five more minis for the queue. I am fairly confident about getting them done. 

This also gave me a chance to crank the laser up and finish another box of shelves. 

Getting so much done feels like it should be a good thing. In reality I suspect bad things are coming. To deal with this I have been making myself busy. The last three years, if not the last ten have not been good for me. It's not been without it's moments, the high light being about five years ago, the trend has been very difficult to map. It is currently trending downward. 

So maybe next week will be a good one.

Midweekish Madness

I got tired of waiting for the bulbs to arrive. Having been told it would be Friday, they arrived the following day, whilst I was out. Given the new delivery date of Saturday I purchased another bulb as I happened to be in a shop. Today was a good day for painting.

So I made some progress. I even tried to stick with the plan. My primary target was to finish off the remaining minis from short arse week and even a pig I missed from the week before. It would definitely have benefitted from being stripped and started again but what the hell. There are two left and these just need details.

Then I wanted to make progress on the Blood Bowl Skaven. These are still a long way off but I think I am a lot closer to having a finished first layer. There is still some tidying up to do and they are a bit bobby.

Looking forward I need a plan for next week. I have been looking at This Quar's War all week. The bingo plan calls for a complete army. Being the latest shiny thing, they could fit the bill. In reality I had kind of promised myself that the army, and probably enough figures to do two forces, was going to be Sludge. So I finally put them in the queue. I had done a few test paint jobs and these made it into the job lot. Plus a bodyguard. As this is an army paint scheme, I anticipate this will take a week. They are not short arses but I guess the surface area is a little less than most of the stuff I have painted recently. Then I have the urge to paint the Viking minis, especially the horses.

After I finished this I had a massive migraine. I suspect this is going to put me off painting and pretty much everything else for a few days.

End Of The Week (32.5)

I started the week with a plan. It was a good one too. But no plan survives contact with children. So currently watching the little one running around a trampoline park. At least at the time I am writing this. I am claiming thirty and a half minis for the week. The half and some of the whole numbers being animals.

There was a twitchy sphincter moment when I didn't think I was going to get close to finishing what I started. I got some time after the little one went to sleep and more or less caught up/+. I am now nicely North of one hundred painted minis. So on balnce, I am happy and The New, New Cruelty fins the situation acceptable.

So there were a few bits that needed finishing from last week. The five armed civilians, which I think are Scotia, have been hanging around since last week so it was nice to get them done. There was also a female crossbow woman from  Northstar's Frostgrave range, that needed a few spots of paint. Other than the pigs, all the animals were started and finished this week, whilst the pigs just required a few details. Don't ask where they came from as they were a random purchase on the market. The darker animal between the bugs is a bit of a mystery. I was assuming this was a domesticated dog but it has some prominent brows which could be nascent horns, making it a goat. The treasure pile was given to me by a friend, in the late nineties. It had been sat in a bits box for some time after being purchased from a bargain bin so its probably a late eighties GW mini.

The main focus of the week was the guys in suits. These should work for any modern game and some sci-fi stuff. They are a mix of Future Wars and Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang from Copplestone.

As I have the laser cutter up and running, this has been used for a bit.  I might be playing Midgard: Heroic Battles so I thought I would get ahead with some bases, counters and measuring gauges. I have also finished the one hundred and thirty of so hex tiles for the next terrain hex project.

I have prepped a fair number of figures. Most of what I got in York is now bases on textured bases. I was planning on painting these but they are not primed. This should give me enough figures for an ulfhunder unit for  Midgard. What's above is about half of them.

Next week is all about the little guys.

The First 48

I set myself the target of painting a figure I purchased within forty eight hours. As mentioned I did some shopping yesterday. Just to prove it to the god of painting, this is the evidence of my success. At one point I was told that grandiose ideas was an early sign of madness. Clearly not in my case.🤔

For extra authenticity he is still a little bit damp.

Not my best work but not too shabby. One more priest for the White Twin.

End Of The Week (10)

So another end of the week. I feel like its been a good week despite time being limited. A little bit of car problems, migraines, lack of sleep and the tail end of the bad weather didn't help but I got where I needed to be. I had my ten figures done my Wednesday and then real life got in the way. Some progress was made but really this was about laying the ground for next week I finished another couple of Star Wars Legion figures so things seem to be doing okay. I am sick of the sight of Star Wars Legion stuff at the moment, so whilst I have no plans to take them off the bench they might be the background project of background projects. I should probably find the rest of the bits of the tauntaun riders. The New, New Cruelty and the Bingo seem to be helping me out.

I've worked a bit on one of my other goals for the year which is to finish a Blood Bowl Team. I have some more skaven somewhere and a star player. Until I find the rest of the rats, this is going to stay as the background project. Really need that rat ogre although looking at the price point maybe a proxy will do. Skitter Stab Stab and Hakflem Scuttlespike would also be nice.

My plan for next week mostly involves some post-apoaclyptic minis. They are mostly Crooked Dice with a few Crusader Miniatures thrown in. I needed a couple more so I added a couple more sci-fi bits from Scotia. I have also manged four posts in a week. I am very proud but I can feel another migraine coming so time to go. 

The First Day OF The New, New Cruelty

I started out with the idea to do bingo to keep me motivated for the year. It works for other people, so why not give it a try. So I woke up and got on with it. I was looking at a good way to kick start the year. I have had a tin filled with work in process minis stuck on old GW paint pots which have sat there for at least two years. Some of them have taken a little bit of a bashing and they were all covered in fluff. 

For the last month or so they have been the background project. To the uninitiated this is something on the bench that isn't my primary project but is  something I started to paint with my usual gusto that has gotten lost with the appearance of the new shiny. Generally they only get touched when I have some spare paint on the palette.

So as per the rules of bingo, I have finished the backlog, painted ten minis and have achieved a bonus by painting ten more. As the rules call for figures completed in 2025, with the emphasis on finished, I am claiming three boxes. I can claim 106 items so if I keep up this pace I will hit my target by early February. Ah got to love the hubris of a New Years resolution.

Just to annoy myself I have lost a Wookie. Not a full sized one obviously. There should be four and I can only find three. There is more Star Wars Legion stuff coming. I think tomorrow I will finish a good chunk of these done.

2025 Bingo, The New, New Cruelty And Lessons in Prevarication

It is time to reinstate The New Cruelty!!! Would that make it The New New Cruelty? For the uninitiated, this is my way of getting things done. Well painting and gaming stuff done. The Big Bug put a stop to it as well as life in general. Well here we are.

My energy on the low side lately. A side effect on the Big Bug. It seems to get in the way a lot. So in an attempt to move things forward I thought I would pay attention to the wider gaming community and a bit from the wider world too. Yes I am talking Painting Bingo as an adjunct to The New, New Cruelty. 

Then I thought maybe I could widen it out a bit. So it started with Painting Bingo. The big bug has taken away a good chunk of my mojo. Maybe having something to nark off would help. Then I thought if I could get myself to paint at least ten minis a month that would be an achievement. I mean I would like to do ten a week. The same should probably go for printing 3D minis. So I figured of I managed to double a target I could get a bonus. 

Then my brain got working. Which is hard work itself. Back In the Days of the Gold Old Days of The New Cruelty that I was managing four times the output and I had less on. So maybe I would put in the opportunity for some bonuses. If I manage to do double a target then I get extra jam. But only up to so much.

 

I figured that maybe I could spread it out to the rest of my life. The big bug has made reading difficult. Well reading anything of size. So maybe I could read a novel a month. Then I thought about putting some goals in there. 

So here we are. Instead of doing I am farting about with perhaps the most involved Painting Bingo ever. Such is my way. When I need an example of what procrastination looks like, I will come and look at this page/.It has taken a while to get it written because I keep running on empty. Its a good way to make me fart about for a few hours. The blocks for something about the way are really there because I can't think of something to put in there. I will know them when it happens.

Not much point in doing this if I don't get anything out of it. So I was going to give myself £50 for every block I completed. Then I worked out how much that would be. That seemed a lot. So then I thought maybe tone it down a little. Maybe half that.

Really this is an ambitious goal for me. My energy levels are low. Perhaps the lowest ever. Thanks to the Big Bug. So I am looking at this as part of a recovery plan. Exercise should form a part of this too. Maybe that is just a step to far at the moment. Getting the energy to do the basics is hard enough without medication.

End Of The Week - Better than expected (37)

It's not been such a bad week for figure painting. Most of what I have been working on for the last three weeks is now done and somenew stuff has made it through to completion. I am not feeling finishing the last two figues off for some reason but I am sure I will get round to them soon enough. I did start the Lizardmen skinks and have finished the first twelve and I have started the next dozen which are well on the way to being finished.

Skinks. There are rather a lot of them and more yet to do. These are a nice easy paint job as they are mostly low-detail plastic. There will be more next week and probably the week after that too. I now really hate turquoise.

This guy is the Frostgrave Snow Troll. He looks better here than he does in real life. I can see a few gaming uses for him so he seemed like a worthwhile project.

These are all Wargames Foundry  Street Violence figures. I got a job lot of eBay more than ten years ago when I was foing a lot of moden role playing. This is a nice range of figures and relatively easy to paint.

More Street Violence figues from the Foundry. These come from a coupleof different sets but as they are all dressed in green this seemed like the place to put them. Thre is no real purpose other than I was tired of them sitting there.

Artizan designs is where I got these cowboys from. Thy have just been sat around fo a while, the best part of five years I guess. When I first started painting 28mm figues for the blog I think it was some moe of the figues I got with these. How times fly.

This is really a mixed bag. On the far left is a Frostgrave vampire. I don't mcuh like this figure and I struggled to get him to look right. Second left is a Reaper gladiator whcih I got about fifteen years ago making it the oldest of todays crop. I am not sure about the crazy lady on the inner right but I think she came fom Black Tree Designs. On the outer left is the latest of what I have been calling the last of the Viking project. This figure came from Gripping Beast about five years ago when I first started the project off.

There is supposed to be another pictue here but it seems to be having problems loading it up. It's another four Street Violence figures. Some are meant to be members of the A-Team from the eighties which I guess dates the range or at least the designer. he others are just some random figues I got in the bulk buy.

I guess all of the Foundry stuff was set to do double duty for modern and post-apocalypse stuff. On the whole I like thema lot and they fit well with my Copplestone stuff. Definately more at the heroic end of the market.

Generally I would call this a good week but it has been a grind. The New, New Cruelty is happy enough. In genreal I have been just about okay with what I have achieved this year. I am glad I have almost finished most of what I have set out to do and I am now almost back on track again if not still slightly ahead. Given that I usually class figures like the skinks as half a figure I am still behind (should be closer to 31 and not 37).

End Of The Week - ?/^&$%" (0)

Some progress has been made, never as much as I would like. Most of the current project and the background project now has a base colour and a wash although there are a few I have barely touched. Almost not detailing has been done and that is what generally takes the time. What I have done so far looks pretty good to me. If I pushed it today I would probably finish but I have friends here so that is unlikely to happen. My plan is basically to add another five figures into the mix. If I can finish them next week it would put be back on track. A bit of basing of some more elves (alfar) has been done. These are planned as black alfar for the Viking Game.

Today's post is a little bit early so maybe I am being a little bit premature in saying this but I haven't finished any figures again this week. It has been a very busy week for me. Painting has played a major part in it but unfortunately the paint has been emulsion and the objects involved were walls. Someone now has a Slytherin themed bedroom. After a series of some hard and some fun days, painting has not been on the top of the agenda.

Instead of painting I have been board gaming. This has been an enjoyable distraction. There may be some more of that next week. I will probably get around to posting some pictures of the games when I get round to it.

End Of The Week - Not My Best Work (15)

Earlier on I was expecting a much busier day. The time of year and the end of daylight savings time, with some lack of sleep made and with what I was expecting to be doing today made time look a little short. Sunday is usually the day I do any last minute work to finish of my plan for the week. So I was was relatively happy when on the way to a jog I tripped over the curb, skinned my knee and fingers and did some damage to my foot. With all plans out of the window it was back home to put my leg up. And paint.

Despite some misgivings I have achieved my plan and surpassed my expectations. The New, New Cruelty is happy. I have tinkered about with some terrain and got along way through the prepping process for a load of figures. Not a bad week.

Some of the figures this week have been a bit entertaining to paint. The Rebels and the Star Saga scientists suffer from some flatness of detail. Nothing wrong with this but it is difficult to make them shine. The three Malifaux figures were good fun to paint. Lots of nice detail. At the end of the process I was quite happy with what I had done with them. Although looking at them now I can see there are a couple of missed details. These were for the Viktorias crew and until this week one of the Viktorias was missing. Now that I have found the figure I remembered why I didn't do it at the time I got them, one of the figure looks almost impossible to glue together (with any hope of the bits staying on and being apparently impossible to pin). Lastly there is a lonely cowboy which I started last week. Despite being on the table for over two weeks it was the last figure to get finished.

Next week is looking like a freeish week. Currently I plan to go to Salute next weekend. This will be the first time I have been to the biggest show in the country. Painting wise, I have a couple of figures that I have been using as background projects. Background projects have not figures highly just of late so I think I might grab some figures for that purpose. As for the main working objective I want to work on some Blood Bowl and I suspect that there might be a range of odds and sods. Some cowboys, the odd modern figure and post apocalypse seem appealing. Maybe some terrain might make in there somewhere.

End Of The Week - Back In The Saddle (32)

For a while Sunday evening was the time that I looked back at the progress of the week. Progress has been somewhat limited in the last year since moving out of my last home. This has been a major disappointment for me but I just haven't had anywhere to paint. Now I do and I have gone at it with some gusto this week.

My plan, according to The New, New Cruelty is to catch up on my planned painting schedule. This is a minimum of five figures per week with hopefully ten figures per week and this must include catching up on the figures I have missed already this year. I managed to finish thirty figures. This has got to be my best week ever. If I am looking at five figures then I am already almost caught up, if not I am now up to date for February. If I can keep the pace up for a couple of weeks I will be more or less up to date.

A few years ago I was planning on running a Weird War Two involving time travel. These were some of the figures I got for that. They are Nacht Jager are from Artizan Designs I think. They got put into the queue last year when painting was on my mind again. So they got primed and have sat there since November. It would be nice to have a couple more packs of them.

My plan at the time called for some quick wins and as well as painting the Germans in armour I have some Home Guard figures to paint. So when it came to priming them in British uniform I sprayed a load of other figures in the same colour. This includes all of The Department of Paranormal Studies by Artizan and I the others are by Pulp Figures. These are first to come under the brush was some figures planned for Weird War Two. Some scientist types and a few others.

There were also some civilian figures which I think are Warlord French Resistance figures. Partly for weird war Two and maybe for Very British Civil War. As I wanted a bit of variety in the ten I only painted three in British uniform.

In the queue was one Frostgrave figure. Not my favourite on the range which  is probably why it hasn't been painted yet. I need to replace the sword as I have managed to drop it and badly mangle it in the painting process.

Every now and again I come across a figure that I hate painting and worse still hate the finished item. When I look at it I think in terms of holding on to it, hiding it or taking a hammer to it (a nerdy version of the TV show Snog Marry Avoid).  This is a Reaper Bones figure which I usually like. the quality is rubbish and the detail is soft. It looks like it should have come out of a mid-noughties board game. Size wise it doesn't fit with anything. Currently I am thinking of hiding it.

In the same colour batch I did some more Viking game figures. These are a bit of a mixed bag. Some are Celtic figures from Conquest Games (it is a bit of a North Star fest tonight). They were purchased because they fit my concept of Franks for the Viking game (which is nothing like what they were but it's a fantasy game and it works for me). I assume they are sculpted by Mark Copplestone who is a designer I really like. Sadly one of the slinger poses seems to have a dodgy hand. Other bits I think are Gripping Beast.

More of the Conquest Games celtic figures again. This time done in a different painting style. More wash than paint here.

I have done a fair bit of prep for next week. The Stormtroopers I prepped a few weeks ago are primed and ready to go. I have some more Franks to do which I will do in the same "wash style". I have also prepped some post apocalypse/modern scatter terrain. There is a plan to have a play about with some older terrain and update it a little.