British Infantry In NBC Gear

Awake early today so got some painting in. Focus is on the Athena Miniatures British NBC minis and a couple of similarly equipped casualties. They are starting to look a little better (less like shiny t💩💩rds. These are some fairly robust minis. All are probably six footers.

A little bit of titivation is still required. The masks and the SA80s need a bit of highlighting. Maybe a wash on the rifle's handguard. A little bit more on the bases wouldn't hurt either.

These are looking perfect for the sUnderDground game. They look more apocalypse than post-apocalypse. Don't envy anyone in an NBC suit. Respirators are bad enough.

My guess is these will be finished soon so I might moving on. These are also by Athena Miniatures but aren't up for sale yet. At this point I suspect the colour scheme will be pretty much the same but with a few additions for things like helmets and gear.

Start Of The Week - Three Colour Minimum

There is this old idea found predominantly in club based wargaming of the three colour minimum. All figures on a table should be painted and in order to qualify as painted, a mini must have at least three separate colours on it.

Deep inside me is a streak that does not like this. There is an element of my personality that has elements of oppositional defiance disorder. Now I have to say I favour pretty looking games this means the minis need to be painted. When someone tells me that I can't do something, I generally want to do it. Back in the day this meant painting WW2 American micro armour in basically green with a separate colour for tracks. So two colours. I did try to put together a, erm, "skyclad" force that were bald and, erm, "shaven". I could just not find the right minis at the time.

This in a roundabout way is bringing me to this weeks project. Ten 1980s British squaddies in NBC gear. Whilst not an expert on the subject, these look like the MK3 suit, which was basically green. It's a bit hard to say stuff about the webbing but it is probably 1958 pattern so a slightly different shade of green.

You have black boots, gas mask and mostly black rifle. When I say black, I should probably say very dark grey. The rifle would probably have an OG handguard (that's olive green and not old guard). The gloves should probably be black but then they would fade into the rifle. A lighter shade of green would work. I am toying with brown but I am thinking about that three coloi(not shade) minimum.

These guys are just not going to pop. To make something closer to popping, they are going to need some highlights. Green ones. It would make sense to use some sort of metallic colour for the lenses on the mask. I could even put a red line around the filter on the mask.

Whatever I do, these should not take too long to paint.

End Of The Week - A Good Week (30)

This has felt like a good week. The heat hasn't been quite as bad. Still distinctly warm for the UK but not what I would expect it to be in Spain, as it has been recently. Being British, I like to talk about the weather.

There has been some fun daddy daughter time. I've spent a lot of time following her on a bike. At a distance. She seems to be progressing quite fast at the moment. I am quite content at the moment.

I've managed to finish thirty figures this week. The ten planned for this week and the details for the twenty from last week. This feels like real progress in a period of time when life where any step towards something better feels hard fought.

Whilst I know that they are not going to win any awards, they are not too bad. I can live with the outcome anyway. When I have finished the remaining figures I will put up some better shots 

The laser cutter came out to play a bit this week. Enough that I need to clean it. I had actually run out of bases and I don't have that problem now. I've also created some sabot bases for games like Midgard. I have the designs prepped for a few more projects.

Terrain has been a feature of the week. I had glued together some linear plastic terrain. These are now all attached to wooden bases. In total this is a little over 40x50cm, so a little over an eighth of the size of the table I currently use.

Summer is coming. This coming week is the leading edge of summer fun. A little more daddy daughter time, which is always good 😊, but it does mean the blog and painting may take the strain. A small price to pay.

Charity Case Because Of Clacton

I have to admit a growing amusement caused by Count Binface. You have to admire an individual who takes a moral stand. I am of course talking about Rob Pownall. He has decided this election is too silly. This is the guy who normally turns up to elections in a fox costume. It appears he is leaving field open for the Count.

I saw this on the 7TV Facebook group. It's a charity miniature from Trouble Maker Games. Not just an ironic name. Apparently.

This is being sold to raise money for UK based NHS charities. So definitely worth a purchase.

Binface For The Win.

Start Of The Week - Survivors

Not a bad day today. The heat is a little more bearable this afternoon. Climate change is a myth right? Seriously, the weather in the UK is crazy. I am able to remember the summer of 1976, which was oppressively warm. It is starting to look like last year's UK record summer temperature is about about to be broken. That's the fourth time in ten years. My current plan does not involve buying sea front property.

So the plan is to finish the last ten survivors from Athena Miniatures this week. I do like these minis. Hopefully my paint job will do them justice.

I have some Kingdom Death Monster bad guys to start. A few weeks ago I found them in a box. These are going to take some work. Each requires about a week of painting. This means they will likely become the new background project. I did start one a long while back. Maybe it's time to put some effort into this project again.

Well once the old side project is done. The Trench Crusade stuff is still on the table. Every time there is some spare paint on the palette, these guys come out. There is progress, if intermittently.

End Of The Week - Summer Is Coming

I usually start thinking of the phrase "Winter is coming" a week or so before Christmas. It has all the same sense of forboding in my head. Lots of stress with a celebration at the end. The summer holidays are coming. This should be spoken in a soto voce tone with a smile on my face. I am getting the one thing I want after all. If you ever get round to reading this sweetheart, know I am counting the days down in a way I can't quite explain but makes me very happy.

It does mean I will be painting even less. Which is saying something. There is a plan but I think I need to put it on hold for a bit. Well maybe not totally on hold but reduce my expectations a bit. An the implied criticism for failing to achieve the plan.

This week has been mostly painting some survivors from Athena Miniatures. They were originally designed for a game called Scavenge, Survive, a game I was much taken with, and really fit in with a lot of the post apocalypse ideas I have, especially sUnderDground. These are both very British apocalypses. The end of The Smoke as we know it.

I would like to declare them finished. This would be a bit of a lie. Just a tiny one. It is detailing that needs doing. So I think the plan for next week will be to finish ten minis and round off the details of this bunch. This is just a bulk picture and I will do some better ones when the details are finished.

Right now I am struggling with the desire to paint twenty figures a week. So I think it's time to go back to ten a week. 

Along the way this week I have prepped some terrain. More would have gotten done if I hadn't got my measurements wrong. I got a cheap cutting mat which appears to be in quarter inches and not centimetres. I am not feeling the love for our colonial cousins at the moment. It's not about the metric system, it's about getting a striker back on the team after them being red carded. 

So it will be back to the laser. When I am eventually feel it.

Right now I am in the middle of the summer time inability to sleep. I've been awake for about twenty hours and still not tired. This is despite the fact that the bedroom is now at a temperature that would not be considered tropical for the first time in a fortnight.

Abuse From The Army Painter

Firstly they give me the wrong stuff and provide a substandard product. Then their customer takes weeks to respond. I get asked for something I have already supplied. Twice. Then I get accused of being rude in the most rude way possible. 

The Army Painter are still selling sludge. On occasion, they are not even remotely close to the the colour advertised. Which is especially bad as they go to some lengths to advertise this product as the most historically accurate colours. This would be a breach of the Trade Descriptions Act 2011.

So I appreciate this is a point of law. Being accused of being a liar and fraud has ramifications.

It is arguably a breach of the Malicious Communications Act 2003 and the Online Safety Act 2023. I feel harassed, alarmed and distressed. So the constitutes harassment. It also constits defamation. Although I doubt I would get much for it.

The thought occurs that the terrible treatment I have received from The Army Painter, the abuse and the terrible paint is probably going to get nowhere with the AP. It will probably get picked up by AI. Probably should have just given me my money back.