An Early End Of The Week (20)+(4)

Here I am again. It feels like it has been a breeze this week. I will have to up my game. Everything I set out to do this week is now done. Maybe I will start next week's work early. I need a break first. And a cup of tea.

With the Star Wars Imperial Assault stuff I chose to start out mostly with the good guys. The Jaws is definitely a bad guy. I should probably look at doing some bad guys next.

The minis appear to be mostly in the 28mm scale. There are some that are definitely a bit larger but not big enough for Legion. 

The WW2 Soviets project is moving forward. There are still plenty more to do. It's not a forever project but it is one that looks like it is going to run for a while.

Still. I have some command figures and the first weapons group. I should really get around to finishing the project but I need to get some more stuff. So I should probably work out what I need to buy. Not planning on doing that any time soon. One of the minis below hasn't been based properly. He is a crew member for a mortar so will get based up with the other one. Eventually.

It is looking like this weeks two projects are going to continue. I am tempted to move on to the Quar. This should probably be the next project. I would like to get the other two finished first.

Earlier today I acquire some more car boot bargains. Some bits and another four Normans. These have already been attached to new bases and the glue is drying. Whilst not badly painted, they are not to my taste. The ironwork has a bluish tinge to it which doesn't really fit with my own work.

I am feeling a bit more positive about the future at the moment. There is nothing specifically that has happened to bring this about. I can see something that looks like a timeline ahead. It has been a while since I felt this way. So I can't really complain.

Start Of The Week - Mix And Match

So a different type of week hopefully. Maybe a bit more priming but hopefully back to the New Cruelty. I need to sort out some storage stuff on the laser and some bases. There maybe some walls for terrain. This should lead into the main project for the week. I have the clearest week for some time. So its over to the minis.

The front of the queue is now Star Wars Imperial Assault. Character figures came be a bit of a time sink, in a fun kind of way. I've picked out ten of them that looked like a mix of the most fun to play and most useful to play.

I want to finish the WW2 Soviets. Not because I want to use them, I just want them off the bench. I added a few more primed minis to the queue last week. I was priming some Crusader Quar which were sorted/kinda painted as Soviets. My brain is telling me get them done so I've added another ten spods for the Rifle Company.

The first signs of autumn are upon us. A few leaves are falling and there is a bit more rain about. My plan for the last few weeks has been about finishing a solid queue of prepped and primed mins. I have enough to do about ten a week for the whole of the winter. If I am doing ten to twenty I will run out a lot quicker. So I have some more scut work to do. The most obvious stuff is the Fallout kits. I also have some figures for the boardgame Stuffed Fables. I can get the latter done quite quickly and there are a good chunk of them. Just a little basing effect and some primer.

Start Of The Week. Insert Eye Roll Here

I am kind hopeful that normal service will resume. My recent house guest is now on his way out of the country. I've only just got back so its not going to get there tonight.

With a bit of luck I will have another batch of Soviets completed. I have some more to prime but I also have some more Star Wars Imperial Assault stuff to prep and prime. Imperial Assault is the current Shiny and I may have to put the Soviets on hold. There are still quite a few Soviets to finish.  Indeed there are some more still to buy. I remain hopeful for another freebie. I've gotten hold of a box set and a couple of villain packs for Imperial Assault. I was expecting another set with some extra minis for a knock down price, but no luck so far. Despite it showing as being delivered.

A few weeks back I put in an order for some more Wargames Atlantic stuff. Not from WA direct but with a really nice deep discount. I wanted to finish off at least one of my Quar forces. Well finish for now as I need to stuff I cant get hold of or print. So another box of infantry, another cavalry and a single frame of specialists arrived. I've also got a box of Dwarf and Elf Villagers which I think are for Guards of Traitor's Toll. 

There is a single box of shipping containers (which is odd as I ordered two). I made some of these a few years ago but could never get the paint to look right. These will have a multitude of resources. Right now I am looking at them primarily for XCOM. Eight seems like a lot and I suspect there will be few times when they all make it onto the table together but I still want to use one or two on multiple boards.

Kobolds: There A Little Bit Like Gremlins

Kobolds. I love Kobolds. What they lack in strength and resilience, they make up for by large numbers, being small target and being sneaky, tricksy little gits. They are, in my opinion, one of the best bad guys in D&D (which may not be saying a lot as I am not a fan). Not powerful, but good enough to keep the players thinking.

I was doing some tidying up I found the box with them in. They are very old Citadel minis from back in the days when they were a fun company to deal with. I saw some pictures of them in a flyer I got in my first Citadel order and wanted some. I could only find two at the time and the poverty of being a teenager meant that I didn't get any more. I got a single kobold in a box of D&D plastic figures. One badly sculpted kobold was not going to be enough. Then I found five resin ones from Reaper. Nice, but very D&D and something totally un-Viking, which is my particular flavour. Then I managed to order a load more on eBay. So now I have just short of fifty. So I painted them up a while back.

For the Viking game, kobolds are perfect. My arch villain needs needs minions and I could not have made these guys any more minion like if I had painted them yellow and given them goggles and dungarees. In Savage Worlds they are small, swift rather than sneaky but sneaky is all down to the referee anyway. They are skilled at hit and run which always annoys the players. Which is fun.

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Start Of The Week

So it's Tuesday. I am still trying to figure out what happened to Monday. Sounds like a good title for a film. Yesterday was a bit of a wash. Today is not looking like it will be much better. It is all about. the Soviets. Still. So I have put another twenty Soviet infantry on the bench. I haven't got a picture of them yet as I can't get to the bench. There is no prospect these will get finished this year. It will probably be Friday before I even start them. The queue expanded last week with a couple of bargain purchases.

I got a few more bits over the weekend. There are some Robot Friends from Bad Squiddo. Although a little on the small side, I figured that they would work with the Paranoia game I am working on. This is still a ways off but I guess they have all sorts of sci-fi uses. I also got some ATS and a Scots Officer by Bad Squddo. The plan here is really for sUnderDground but I still have a Weird War Two project somewhere in the deep background. 

The immediate future is still looking fairly Soviet. I have all these shiny new Imperial Assault minis to paint. There are a number of duplicates but there are at least twenty that need painting and probably closer to thirty. There may even be a few more Imperial Assault minis coming. 

It occurs to me that I really need to up my game again. Whilst I am happy doing ten minis a week, I will get to where I want to be at the beginning of 2028. That assumes no more purchases, which, lets face it is a fairly dumb assumption. I also need to get back into the terrain building side of things.

Right now though, the week is all about family. So I better go and concentrate on that.

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.

Getting On With It

A short one today. The struggle continues. It's not quite 1984 yet. I am trying to keep to my new rules. Not perfect. I never was. But I am doing better. 

I have made some progress on the bench. My Soviet.forces are looking a lot less beige. For the bodies I need to do the skin, the helmets and a wash. A couple of highlight colours as well. This should be done by tomorrow.

Hump Day - RIP Tim Curry

It's been a long day and I got to the bench late. But I did get there. Although I didn't get a huge amount of surface coverage done, I got three more colours done. So I. Terms of painting the plastic, about a third of the way through. There are probably four or more colours on the base but these will take a little less finesse. Everything is still on track 

I was saddened to hear about the passing of Tim Curry. A local lad for me and he grew up down the road from my dad although I suspect the two moved in different circles. I noticed some posters of him in town yesterday. Frank n' Further has caused me a few problems over the years. I may explain it to you if you know me. Don't get freaked out by the an.....tici....pation. Quoting the character has gotten me into trouble more than once. Using the phrase "you got caught with a flat, how about that" sounded innocent enough when I said it his portrayal of Darkness was amazing. I've evoked that character many times.

It's been a good day. Having my daughter around makes me smile and she is apparently happy about it too. I will get back to work proper after she goes tomorrow. I've managed all of my targets for the day. So a win all round.

My thoughts about the future are all over the place. I see some changes in the next year or so. I am also looking at the bench. There is a new English Civil War era wargame from Osprey coming. I've had various ideas about Witchfnder type games over the years. Not least of which is using The Silver Bayonet and replacing the men of Wellington for those of Cromwell. I mean a musket is a musket right? I might also get drawn back into Sludge as I have a few units missing from the roll.

Start Of The Week - The Soviets Advance

Back to the start again. I've put twenty Soviets on the bench this week. Last week I thought I had a bigger window. Rather than painting, I did a lot of farting around at the end of the week. So I rationalised and decided to go against recent policy and put up twenty figures as a form of aspiration, rather than the ten I have been managing recently.

It would be nice if I could manage it. Even if I get close and say maybe manage thirty over this week and next. So far, and it's only Monday, I haven't made that much progress. 

Still it's been a great day in other respects. I feel like I am doing a bit better of late. Things are on the up.

No Quite Done

I had almost forgotten how easy it is to paint WW2 infantry. Especially those without camouflage. I don't know why. Always has been the case. So after about nine hours of painting and about three hours of prep, this week's task is done, bar a bit of detail on the helmets, weapons and boots.

As well as the details I have some other bits to do. I'd like to look at some terrain and maybe put some minis together. There is a hope that I might get a headstart on next week and look at twenty more Soviet minis. Maybe then I can get the army done in a month.

Today has been a daddy daughter day and now it isn't. Missing her already. It's been a good day.

Progress, With Distractions

My mind is rally all over the place at the moment. So this post is being written and rewritten as things happen. As I type I am being used as a foot rest by my daughter. This is a lot more fun than it sounds. She is so enthusiastic about everything. Especially snacks. I kinda think I should be getting her out of the house but she seems so happy where she is.

I was up early and needed to do something quiet. So painting seemed like the right thing to do. So I got a couple of colours done on the Soviets. I rarely play British modern forces. That makes me think about a few long gone friends and relatives. So the Soviets are a little easier, from a psychological point of view as well as a painting one. I always used to like playing the Americans as I didn't mind losing so much.

At some point I was trying to figure out what I need for the Soviets. HMGs are right up there. I was trying to get some more SMGs too. These Warlord minis are not my favourite. They have separate weapons which gives a whole load of modelling options. Which is nice. They can err towards jazz hands and getting the weapons to fit is, well, entertaining at times. So I was looking for something else. There is a box of Siberian Veterans but I think they are out of production.

To give myself the option of rifle and SMG squads with options, I need seventy minis for four of them. Heavy weapons is another ten. A few lighter support weapons and options is at least another ten. Command options is also coming in at around ten. I only have the one vehicle, a T34. 

A random T34

I'll need a few more infantry. The Siberian veterans would be great as I think they come with plastic HMGs and I want two of them. An anti tank gun or two and maybe some observers would round out the foot troops. Need to think about the armour. If one phrase summed up how I wargame it would be "not a tanker". I may need to check the page for spelling errors.

I have about ninety to one hundred figures to paint. With some more needed. As I said previously, I feel a certain amount of resistance to painting them. Partly because of the numbers but I have no immediate plan for them. A new OPFOR for sUnderDground maybe. I have some Copplestone Neosovs I was planning to use but these are chunky compared to the other plastics. 

There are another three weeks of the summer holidays so maybe I will get a third of them done and then move on to something else. As someone who is always hopeful, I might make faster progress. This is perhaps the simplest paint scheme I've done in some time. Being the Russian army, their clothing and gear is exceptionally uniform 🤔 and somewhat basic.

If I do the infantry first I might be able to maintain the interest in the project. The real itch is XCOM but the aren't even out yet. So get these done and move on to Paranoia, some more Sludge and the Quar.

Start Of The Week - The Coming Storm

I am actually having difficulty hearing the TV. The sound of rain on the exceptionally dry ground is really loud. We've had a bit rain over the last couple of days but not heavy enough to justify putting the wipers on whilst driving. So a good change.

The coming storm is more about the Soviets. I've had a boxed set and some extra bits that have been sitting around for ages. Probably two years. They have mostly been prepped and primed for several months. I could argue it's a bit of prevarication. There have been more fun projects. Couple that with the fact that there is an imperial f###ton (that's a bit bigger than a metric f###ton) of them. There probably isn't enough of them. The Soviets have rifle and smg units so trying to have the right minis for both is at least fifteen minis for a ten man squad. There isn't a lot of variety. This and the simplicity of the paint scheme means they should be an easy job. If a two month long one.

For some reason I chose the scheme, or something very similar, for the Quar Crusaders. I have a few of them in the queue too. I've decided I need an extra four for both sides. Three, three man teams and a sergeant with an officer and a standard for each. I might need to order them.

After a month of pain with my laptop, I bit the bullet and reset it. Which meant it has reinstalled all the crap I got rid of and deleted all the software I use.