A New OCD Itch To Scratch

Most things I do in life, and especially hobby life is about making my life easier. All the paint racks and shelves you see in the background of my pictures are designed and cut by me. Everything used to be on simple stacks of wood, like ai still have on the bench but once all the paints ended up in Vallejo bottles, this wasn't working. I kept getting cascade failures. I would nudge one bottle and I would suddenly find a dozen of them on the bench.

So I transferred the ink. Then I transferred the Contrast Paints to more Vallejo bottles. I transferred some more GW paint to bottles. Finally, I trimmed the bits from almost all of the loose plastic frames I have hanging around.  All in all I have a bit more space.

This has taken me weeks. I guess it still isn't finished. Well it's mostly finished. It isn't an excuse for not finishing my target for the week. I am actually doing quite well.

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.

Starting Short Arse Week

I am trying to clean house, as far as minis are concerned. Blah, blah, lead mountain, blah blah. I'm not sure I am in a hurry. The snakemen are Grenadier. The company and the shop they were purchased from have been ancient history for more than thirty years. For some reason they nag me to be painted every time I find them. There are some Oathmark dwarves, Black Tree, a Copplestone halflings and the rest are random acquisitions.

It's a busy week but I remain hopeful that I will get to ten figures and maybe a few more.

Horses: A Love Hate Relationship

For someone who has spent a fair amount of time around horses and likes them, I have always hated painting horses. The last week or so, as I have been painting a lot of animals, I have been thinking about this, especially as I have some more to paint.

My big project of the last decade has been a dark age roleplaying game that I run. It has gone my a number of names with nornmen being my current favourite. Cavalry was not a big thing in this era, especially if you were a Viking. They did use horses but it seems they were more like mobile infantry. As I have been trying to have intermittent battles, every now and again, I get a few more mounted figures. I would like some Normens too I think.

I grew up around horses. My dad had a passion for them and I have been out and lived with a number of horsey women. I have probably a better understanding of horses than most gamers.

I just don’t like painting them. Never have and probably never will. I don’t understand why.

I must be part Scot as I don’t like spending the money but that isn’t it. Maybe its because I don’t like painting bigger minis. I don’t have a lot of them either. They are also quite hard to get a realistic look. You can paint them in a single colour but they are rarely that plain. Their foreheads, noses and fetlocks have different patterns and these need to be right. Some colours go with others and some do not. And don’t get me started on what palamino means. I have specially purchased horse paints. I could never wrap my head around the way white horses are called greys either.

So here we are, three more horses.

Can't Sleep

I am fog tired and wide awake. Insomnia is a thing for me. It is massively worse since I got ill. So here I am, at nearly 2am watching TV in bed.

I am making progress but it is stop.start. my energy levels are all over the place today. There are well over twenty minis in the queue. As I can't process stuff, everything I do I spend a few minutes on, then my brain goes into cat mode. So easily distracted, need to eat or doze off. It's something I am not enjoying. I would like to be back to normal and back in the real world.

Snack time.

There is progress but I can't find the mini from earlier. I think I am going to finish what I have stated but we will see.

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.

Start Of The Week - The Weird Wild West

When I started blogging I was all about 15mm miniatures. Most of what I had done over the years has been 28mm but I was finding that I liked 15mm minis better. Then I started painting 28mm again for some games I was playing in or running myself. Which I how I got into painting stuff for the Wild West, specifically for Deadlands: Reloaded.

Back then I painted about a dozen of the figures I had before the game fell through. Since then they have mostly been sat around. Now I have the urge to paint some more oddball stuff again so why not cowboys and zombies. Oh and the Mexicans and Indians and eventually everything else. Maybe at some point they could be a project in the future.

So now for a painting plan. On top of the twenty wild west figures I have already done I have another twenty to do.They are a mixture of Artisan Designs and Wargames Foundry I think. I am going to look at doing them in batches of ten with the Indians and the few remaining western types to do. Then the next batch in some Mexicans and some harrowed/cowboy zombies. The plan is to stick with the first batch in the main, maybe work on the second batch a bit. If in doubt I have a background project which is a pretty mixed bag but mainly Wargames Foundry Street Violence stuff.

I will happy if I get ten figures done this week but I would hope to get more done which would be a bonus

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 going a lot of modern 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 for a while, the best part of five years I guess. When I first started painting 28mm figures for the blog I think it was some more of the figures I got with these. How times fly.

This is really a mixed bag. On the far left is a Frostgrave vampire. I don't much like this figure and I struggled to get him to look right. Second left is a Reaper gladiator which 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 from 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 picture 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 figures 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 them a lot and they fit well with my Copplestone stuff. Definitely 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 general 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.

Early One Morning - End Of The Week, Well Almost

I work up early this morning and have been painting RPG and wargames miniatures since well before dawn. Getting up that early is unusual for me, let alone getting anything done. In terms of painting minis this is getting on for the most productive period of my life. If I could keep this rate up I could have a thousand figures done by the end of the year. Roughly the same output for the last three years. I think even my lead mountain would have run out by then.

Almost there

In terms of output, total number of figures and terrain, this is going to be a new record week. I have a little detailing on the skin to do on the Home Guard, do a highlight on the weapons and I need to paint a cigarette on one of them. Then they will be done. The cultists need much the same but there is much less of that to do. There are a few "more characterful" figures to do but they are mostly done.

I guess I have picked easy figures to paint this week although I hadn't figured on them being this easy. Now I am wondering what to do next. There appears to be no immediate chance of me getting any priming done because of the weather. Too cold or too wet for a while at least.

So far this week I have already done some scenery for my Monday night game and I have worked on some smaller pieces of scenery as the background project