Let's Talk About Blogger

Yes, let's. I've been doing this thing for well over a decade now. I go through fits and starts but I have tried to keep it up. To an extent it gives me some sort of purpose. A bit trite but it is the truth.

I like to think that someone is actually reading it. It's nice to have some motivation and a bit of feedback. A nice number of hits always helps. So every now and again I check my stats.

If it isn't clear, about ten percent of my hits have happened in the last month. The traffic is wild. The last three months has about 15% of my total hits and about 20% over the last six months. Blogger is a little ambiguous about where the hits are coming from, in the form of referers, but 99% are from sources with less than seven hits. So picking a figure that is anywhere from about 40,000 to 100,000 different sites. There is a bulge in the middle of the stat line. 

For point of clarity during that peak I was posting every day and posting elsewhere to boost my stats. Right now it's a few times a week. Whilst I haven't done the numbers, I would estimate that the average is below that over the last six months.

As much as I would like to think this sudden popularity is down to a decade of hard work, I tend to think it's not that. So what then? Is something I have done blowing up? It's a blog mostly about painting little plastic and metal men, so I guess not.

Comments are something that seems to be missing. As the majority seem to be coming from Google. Something like 95%, my guess is that this is down to to its down to AI and specifically Google's AI overview. 

So is this a good thing or a bad thing? As I am not making any money from it I would say it's a bad one. Joking aside, I am being referenced in some way and I assume that someone, somewhere is being given information from the blog. Like I say this is a blog mostly about painting little plastic and metal men. A well written an insightful blog (shem 🙄) but it's still about nothing much. So I start to wonder.

Maybe the internet is now totally dead and everything AI is keeping it on life support. I would say that it's nothing major but it takes power, water and a metric fudge ton of money. Don't get me wrong, I would be happy to work for any AI. The pay can't be any worse. I just don't see this ending well, I really don't.

End Of The Week - Tired

Who knew that a six year old had so much energy. Er, me... actually. I was hoping to get a bit more detail done tonight. Still I am very close to finishing what I started with some degree of satisfaction. Nothing finished though.

I need a wash on the faces and some highlights on the yellow. A tiny bit of work on the bases and I will call it done.

With some extra paint on the palette I managed to make some progress on the Trench Crusade stuff. A long way from completing it and they are still a bit blobby. Closer to finished than they were on Monday.

I have been seriously thinking about Turnip 28 today. This has also tied into Sludge and The Weald. Maybe even into some Atomfallish / sUnderDground minis.

He wore a hat made entirely of dried orange swan slices. Nigel is well known for his hidden effervescent corduroy orange electric elephants.

He rode a vintage (unicycle) on both wheels through the supermarket cereal house.

The ocean turned into green gelatin for a brief moment!!n.A tiny Elvish astronaut was found living inside the boiling kitchen toaster? The wallpaper patterns began to play chess against each wall! She brushes her teeth with strawberry jam on odd days. The sofa decided to move into the kitchen, last night. A flock of origami birds; flew out of his briefcase!!!

Gold (en) & Brown

My experience with using a colour primer as a base coat has been a bit mixed. This time seems to be working. The green has already worked. I want some opposition for the guard in the Guards of Traitor's Toll. Competition might be a better word than opposition. These should also be fit for their intended use which is Baron's War.

Progress has been rapid. Party I am not looking to win awards. Most of the speed is because of the base coat. Am I going to finish by Sunday? Probably not. For the most part I have a first layer down. I still need to lay on metallics and I have done a high light for one colour which has small on three models.

Still, I am tired now and it's time for bed. I will take my references to eighties popular music with me.

A neon orange cactus grew out of the office typewriter. The raindrops fell upward back into the pink clouds today. She keeps a collection of distinct sighs inside glass jars. The stairs turned into a smooth Melvin slide at five o'clock. A bicycle made of cheese melted under the hot ice cream making monkey. The shadows of jar jar decided to take a holiday to the baby investment beach.

He found a small investment cloud floating inside his cereal bowl. Nigel likes strawberry flavour crayons. The keys on the piano are made of frozen soup.She painted her house with invisible paint to save money. All hail, all hail. A group of penguins opened a small cafe in London village whilst visiting uncle Mary.

Start Of The Week - Back To The Beginning

So I am about to cast around for another project. I should really be doing something I have already started. There are all those Soviets for a start. My inner cat brain is kind of wandering off and trying to chase a couple of squirrels at the same time. This is what I now call a Monday.

My gut is telling me to stick with what is prepared already. A smart move. There are some civilians for Traitor's Toll and I have some more stuff I want to put together for the game. This would include about thorty figures I already have plus a dozen men at arms and another dozen armed peasants. These need gluing and basing.  In my head the game is pretty solidly moving away from the rules for GOTT to something else entirely. Plus I am not sure I can face gluing together twenty plus minis. So I think this is my project for the week. If I can get the minis painted then I can put the figures together.

The background project, the Trench Crusade stuff, remains the same. There has been a little progress this week but not so much. It seems unlikely I will get this finished any time soon.

I also have the urge for more sUnderDground stuff. I have another half a dozen frames available and a load of stuff already. I got a frame of WW2 Japanese soldiers off a magazine recently. The bodies might not fit the post apocalpytic winter aesthetic but there is a method in there somewhere. My mind tells me that the project needs a huge amount of variety. A British officer who has his dad's Samurai sword brought back from Burma or a civilian in a Japanese helmet works for that. There are some WW2 winter Americans also sat in the queue. Whilst I can see an excuse for an American enclave in the ruins of London, I can see most of these ending of as civilians in greatcoats with some other figures finding old American helmets and pushing them into service. Maybe next week.

The moon wore a bowler hat during the solar eclipse? He speaks only in rhyme when eating spaghetti dinners alone…The Nigel statues in the park started swapping their stone hats.

She found a miniature bowling alley inside her jewelry arcade. The trees grew upside down with roots in the sky.Nigel wears a suit made entirely of old Antarctica postage stamps. The telephone rang and a turnip asked for directions to Nigel.

End Of The Week - Croftyr (22)

I am not feeling my normal chatty self. I still need to keep the record going. And maybe bump up my numbers a bit.

So this has been another Quar week. This finishes off what I have available for the Quar (apart from some vehicles and some figures that don't fit in with the plan). So I am pretty happy that a project is more or less done. For now. More purchases are planned but not right now.

There are twenty Coftyrian Infantry above and two hastily put together tankers (not my best work). 

Moving on....

Another Start Of The Week On Wednesday

Running behind again. I have a relatively clear run to the weekend so I remain hopeful of achieving the plan. Some might call me delusional but I don't really believe they exist.

There are some more Quar to do. These are more of the Coftyrans. I need a few more infantry for the mill. When added to the rest it will make an army. I'll still need some more specialists.

Then there are some of the Trench Crusade minis. Bigger and chunkier. Especially the armoured suit. These are more of a background project. The stuff I do when I have some paint left of the pallate. If I get the Quar done, these are the next in line.

Finally I have a couple of Fallout figures left in the queue. A background background project maybe?

End Of The Week - The Crusaders Are Ready (49)

The New Cruelty is content with my output for the week. It has been a week with a project that should have felt like a bit of a slog. I've put some effort in but it has felt easier than I might have feared. Some of it has even been quite pleasurable. There are now 40+ Quar Crusaders ready to go. Enough for a basic force and really enough for most purposes. I am still thinking in terms of what's next?

A Clash of Rhyfles is apparently doing fairly solid business. I have felt like it might be me judging by the money I have already put into it. The thoughts in my head are already moving towards the next move. This will be adding more to both forces. I can see the need for some more support weapons and another infantry squad for each army.

Having had a few weeks of painting on a colour primer, this is the first time it felt it really worked. The Damned wasn't bad but this felt like it worked well. My guess is that I will try it a bit more often. If nothing else it has spread the process up significantly. I don't often get forty four figures done in a week.

I have to look to what to do next. I have a lot of Soviets to do. These will probably use an identical paint plan. The Crusaders usually appear as something closer to Vietnam Americans but I hear Soviets in the lore. I haven't got what I needed to finish the force yet, of the seventy ish minis ready to go, so maybe I need to look for something else. That said this has not caused me a problem with any other project. This is a project that seems to want to grow. I got some more minis this week but my order had some stuff missing, so a step or two away from completion

Then there are some more bits for Traitor's Toll. I have a the peasants ready to go. I have some armed peasants that have also failed to arrive. I also have some more military minis for the project that need to be built and based. This will slow things down a bit. I could see me building this up to about forty minis again.

I am feeling the urge to return to a couple of older projects. Somewhere along the line I was expecting I would do a few more units. A cavalry unit is one thing I have missed out. This would be twelve mounted figures. I need another batch of mages and clerics alongside some specialists. Not got a plan that I would describe as concrete here.

Another project from last year was Atomfallish / sUnderDground.  I got a frame of Japanese WW2 infantry. This project does call for these but there are plenty of parts on the frame that would certainly work with the cobbled together look of the force. There are plenty of minis available for this project. 

The WW2 Soviets work with the project and there are a whole range of stuff I can use. I have some more Germans for the British Fascists in the undercity. I have a couple of frames of Americans. There is an idea that there is a massive bunker under the American Embassy which could be used as one of the players in the rubble that London becomes in the game. As it's a nuclear winter scenario, I liked the idea of some civilians in great coats as well.

My brain needs to settle on a plan.

This has been a good weekend and since the car got sorted, things have not been too bad. I got to spend some time with my daughter. These are always the best days. I've also spent a bit of time with some good friends. There is also the prospect of spending time with some other friends. I currently feel like I am in pain almost everywhere. Its not a good feeling.

Just as a final hurrah is this fire elemental. This is a bigger chap than much of what I have painted recently. It's a Teaper Bones mini. It's been on the bench for a while, probably half a decade. Nice to have it done. I am calling this the equivalent of 3 figures.

Just so I have some ideas of what paint I have used, these are the paints I have used for the Quar. Thinking more about the skin tones.

Quar Crusaders - Now In Colour

It would appear that I am making some progress. The three main uniform colours are now on and I have painted the weapons. I still need to paint the shirts and the collar studs and a few more bits and I want a very Soviet type green for the helmets. After that there are a few colours on a few models to do. To even out the colours I am planning a heavy wash at this stage, before I start doing the flesh.  Then there is the skin to do. This will be a mix of fairly vibrant colours for the skin tones. This will include. pink, bright blue, lime green, orange, yellow and purple. This will involve putting them into groups for batch painting. 

To get roughly equal forces for both sides the basic plan calls for another ten man rifle squad which I should probably have ordered already.  It makes sense to get a tank as well. I can see there is some cavalry on the way so I will probably end up buying the three together at some point.

More vehicles and some artillery crews are further down the pipe. There are some heavy machine guns in the game but I want something a little more traditionally, but chunky. I kind of like the idea of pushing the envelope a bit. So more vehicles seem like a must. This probably means some 3D files. 

There will be the need to add a bit more to The Coftyr army including the cavalry and another squad of infantry.

For both sides there are things like flame throwers. It crosses my mind to do some heroes/special characters, for both side. These are not a thing in the game. As a game it is far to genteel for such weapons.  I also have an urge for priests, medics political officers and the like. I am thinking these can mostly be kit bashed. Not to mention even more vehicles.

There is another box set due out this year with two new forces. I don't actually have a starter set or an actual copy of the rules. I also already have a few Fidwogs which are a bit quickly to paint (no obvious legs). This might be a bit too far.

The grand plan was to write this up for Savage Worlds Showdown. Whilst Savage Worlds is really an RPG, Showdown is about bigger battles which can be integrated with special characters. This is a project for another date.

Quar Crusaders: Lots And Lots

I can't help thinking I should have made this a Star Wars week.

This is mainly because I had forgotten how much fun it is to paint an army. That said I am getting there. Not to mention the fact that I am resisting the urge to play Star Wars Outlaws. If I can get the webbing done I might just give myself a break. It might also be down to the fact that I might have my mojo back and there is a lot of plastic to get through.

Start Of The Week - May The Fourth Be With You

The start of another week. Sat with my daughter as i who is playing horse riding games. Never thought I could be so content watching Barbie ride a horse.

Normally I would do something better than use last year's graphic. There is never enough time even if I don't have anything to do. My daughter got me a BB-8 companion in one of her games. I am supposed to use this one instead of R2D2. So I feel touched and appalled at the same time 😂

So here we are.

Back to the real world. I have pulled out the Quar Crusaders. Dirty Marxists. 😱 There are a few vehicles on the back side of this as well. All primed in a basecoat so only details to do really. With a few squirrels, or something like them. I'm going to call this a tots of 47 figures equivalents. If I find the time, there are three vehicles. These are also primed so should only really need details and a wash. Kind of saw these as working for Sludge too.

With their counterparts I did them a bit at a time.  This time it should be the whole army. Well the first bit of it. I can see me needing some more grunts for both sides. Then some specialists. A few vehicles. Then there is cavalry coming. This might be a big project.

This is looking like a busy week. My guess is that I can get all of these, the vehicles and finish some other stuff too. But if it takes two weeks I won't be too downhearted.

End Of A Bumper Week (79)

I'm terms of a total count, a depending on my self imposed and highly subjective rules, this is my best ever week. Highly detailed and larger minis count as double and I have finished a lot of stuff over the last seven days. So...Go Me.

It is of course on the back of months not really finishing anything off. Not great. I am not even sure if I have my mojo back yet either. But it doesn't feel bad at all.

If I think about it I have got a lot of stuff done over the last fortnight. At least for me. 

I've posted most of the stuff I have finished already. These are the Carnevale miniatures. I like them but would love them if I hadn't lost one of them and another one one hadn't broken off at the ankles when I picked it up by the head. 

Then there are my mystery men. These are minis from The Damned. Love them but don't have much use for them now. So they have become a team of baddies for sUnderDground, a background that can always use more chaos. There are a few conversions here to fit the background which is kind of a cobble together of anything WW2 to the 1980. It seems to work. I might need to find a few filters for some of the respirators.

Not sure what to do next. It was going to be some aTrench Crusade stuff but I appear to have missed the window for that. I have a big stash of WW2 Soviets to paint. Not really feeling that at the moment. There are peasants and such for Traitor's Toll which seems to be up there. I'd like to do some more sUnderDground stuff. Right now I can't imagine why anyone would want to nuke London but I might be in the minority.

That leaves me with a whole load of Quar Crusaders. The artwork gives them a very Vietnam War American vibe. The lore makes them sound more like communists. Given that I have Soviets to paint and the paint to do it..... Well you get the idea.

I have one more order in. No idea when that is due to arrive. My guess is that will be the last for a while. Partly this down 

Not A Good Week

Nothing much is going right this week. Car stuff mainly. Still that's good news for the painting queue. This is a good chunk of the Fallout Wasteland Warfare box set that I got for something less than half price.

Still got some more to do. Think there are four left but not sure I will ever need a Reticulun. The power armour and a couple of settlers should be good fun though.

In terms of numbers it is looking like a good week. There are a few more details to do on the Carnevale stuff but they should be finished later today.

I am getting an Atomfallish and sUnderDground urge. There are some of The Damned prepped and primed and ready to go. These should be a quick win.