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.

End Of The Week (10) Just

I wanted to stick with the plan. Life is busy at the moment and yesterday, the day I had a plan for, didn't go to plan. So I've only just finished now.

Times seem to be going harder. This is how much it cost to fill up my fuel tank today. The limit on spending is £99. If costs go up, I might not be able to fill my tank to the top. I can only see one reason for this and apparently he has dementia.

A Sign

I took my daughter out to watch the eclipse last night. She complained about it, a lot. She did do a lot of handstands though. She didn't think it was going to be worth it. I missed the last decent one in the UK, so I wasn't going to miss this one. She didn't see the point.

During the complaining I pointed out that she would be in her seventies when the next good one came around and that maybe she would remember this moment with me. This was followed by more handstands.

There was basically one cloud in view. Which was right in front of the sun. I kind of got the hint of the moon on front of the sun. Seriously, if I hadn't known it was happening, I would not have noticed it. I managed to get my daughter to look at the cloud for a few moments. Then she went back to doing handstands.

Parking was chaos, but you know the very British kind. Queues with someone organising them. I had picked a good place on top of a hill. Just like everyone else.

It looked a lot like twilight. This would have been pretty impressive at noon. As I was somewhat late in the day, I guess it wasn't that impressive. So I was left thinking that the day she gets to see something closer to a real eclipse, she will probably have forgotten about this one.

Start Of The Week - Bindependence Day

So a quite pivotal or comical week in the UK. Depending on your point of view. No great outcome either way. An object lesson in irony appears to be about to happen.

Still, back in the real world of tiny toy soldiers. It's more about the ruins of post-apocalyptic London than pre-apocalyptic Clacton. So I have another ten minis for sUnderDground. These are much more of a mish mash. I am seeing these as more of a citizen militia. Prepped, primed and ready to go. Mostly Warlord stuff. A few bits are off the covers of magazines. There is a Pulp nazi scientist. He didn't really fit in with other stuff.

I am looking at my recent purchases. The Quar cavalry and the Paranoia stuff. I need to do some some work on the Paranoia bases. Design them and get them cut out. This is not the week to do this. Maybe I will find the time.

So maybe the Quar. The photo above may even be a tenuous clue. I have a box of each. When I get to establishing a plan, this is probably not enough. The Coftyran infantry (in my head) is based around ten man squads. Three groups of three and a sergeant. In an ideal world I'd want two of these an officer, sergeant and standard. Which would be three boxes. 

I would also like a few mounted regular infantry. An officer (one of these with an infantry officer helmet. A few extras like a sergeant, standard an a 3 man recon team or two. So four boxes. For each side. With the plan as it is I guess I am nudging another £300. I'm looking for a half set of each as twelve of each seems to hit the sweet spot 

Queue the sound of gears grinding and the smell of burning rubber. The plan is still the XCOM Miniatures Game all the way.

I see my future busy weeks being a little extended. Visitors, friends and family are all in the mix in the weeks after the summer. Happy for it all. I can see me keeping with the plan and I don't see the volume of painting going up. At this pace, with the currently active plans, I can see a gap in the queue around March. Assuming the XCOM doesn't jump to the front of the queue. Which it probably will.

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. 

Slow But Steady

I have a bit more time on my hands today. Sadly. But it does mean I have finished the project for the week. Which gives me a bit of time to work on the other stuff. For some reason I am struggling to keep one of the arms attached. Need to find some spruegoo.

I want to do some work with green stuff. If nothing else I want to fill in the gaps for the wrecked ship. It feels like I can experiment a bit with it before starting the, er, not cracked one. That one won't look pristine either. Just not wrecked. I have a bit of gap filling to do on the last of the Athena Miniatures survivors.

Then I am already giving the Paranoia minis and the Quar Wars cavalry the eye. I've stuff prepped for a few more weeks at least. But. Well. You know. I should probably do these before I get the green stuff out.

I have some Normans on the bench. These are currently an alternative background project. These were painted by someone else but I need to do a bit of work on them. These needed a bit more texture on the base. So this is done now.