End Of The Start Of The End Of The Week. I Think (25)

So I have finished last week's twenty five minis. The last three days have flown by with little real progress on the bench. There has been some fun and I have put some problems to bed. So reasonably happy. I'm tired but fairly happy. 

First are what will be the last of the main protagonist force, the men of Regional Control. I say the last, I will almost certainly do more. There are another eight of them. All still looking British but as rag tag as I can make them.

Then there are the thralls. Compassionless, unstoppable killers that never stop coming for you. They are unrelentingly but are not the fastest enemy out there. 

Then there are the ghouls. Most think these are either the early or late stage of the thralls. Whilst fierce in combat, it is their speed that makes them deadly. 

Lastly are my first real attempt at the fascists. There are only four of them. The short term plan is to get up to about twenty. The minis are a sludge of British and German kit with some random bits included.

This was a hard week. This week is also going to be a hard week. It's my clubs show this weekend but I am going to miss it because I have my daughter and I am going to a birthday party. I think I know what I am doing. More stuff from the backlog. Mainly because it's easy. I don't have any work to do. I'm not close to finishing the pre based and primed backlog but I am already a lot closer to finishing it off than I was this time last year. More on that soon.

Start Of The Week And It's A Thursday

There has been a something of a painting of hiatus. Putting the figures together has been a major p.i.t.a. A lot of the minis needed pinning and green stuff. After all I said about plastic minis I was reminded of the downside.

Somewhere along the line I missed the fact that I just hit 900,000 hits. Perhaps my blog is suddenly popular. There are fewer blogs than there used to be. So if you are reading it, or even looking at the pictures, thanks for being there. If you are an AI just surfing and looking to let off steam, just stop by and save hi. Would be nice to have my own basilisk.

I am running out of things I can usefully do for Atomfallish and SUnderdground. There is a possibility that some Russians will appear this week which might make some British communists. If things go to plan there may be some more Brits too, but I don't have a plan for them right now. So I want to finish off the project either this week or next. Will then pick it back up in August when the bits I have on order should be in my hands. Phalanx is coming. I might get some stuff there but I am guessing not. 

Which puts me in a bind. Which is what's next? The Quar thing was the next plan. That would be £200 for four weeks painting. As I am trying to do things on the cheap, that is a big ask. Is it time to dive back into the backlog? I have some Sludge steady to go. Decisions, decisions.

Some guys in gas masks who will double as thralls. One of the biggest jumps I had playing Atomfall was sensing something behind me to see an unarmed soldier in a gas mask with out stretched arms two paces away. I panic fired a magazine into it. Most of the rounds probably missed but it didn't stop me thinking these things were more or less the hardest thing in the game.

These are ferals. In the game they are tough (but not as tough as the thralls)and fast and have a spit attack . These things probably killed me more often than anything else in the game. These are mostly Mantic Zombie Swarm miniatures with some Wargames Atlantic Pulp Zombies bits.

My plan calls for a fascist force. So in keeping with the WW2 these will mostly be late war Germans, with an emphasis on winter troops. As it is set in a post-apocalypse London, they all need at least one piece of British kit. A battle bowler here and a sten or SMLE there. With what is coming I expect to add to use more StG 44s. I might throw in the odd PPSh SMG for funsies. These bodies are Panzer Lehr. I was thinking about using them for soldiers in boiler suits but my backup was better. 

In my SUnderdground background the surface is extremely hostile still. It's not going to kill you quickly. It will kill you slowly. So I am thinking the winter troops with gas mask heads and more derelict looking bases for forces on the surface. Many of the tunnels aren't much better. So I have a source for gas mask heads at the right price now which hopefully will appear at Phalanx.

One thing is for certain, if I start another project like this, I will do so with all the stuff I need, before I begin. Sludge certainly went a lot smoother when it started. Although I may gloss over the bit where it took two years to get it started.

Whilst Sunday is looking busy (it's father's day so should be fun) I have plenty of time till the end of the week. Assuming I can stay away. This is good news as I now have twenty five minis to paint.

Life Mocks Me

At times, things can seem overpowering. There is a wall of stuff to do. My energy levels are through the floor. My daughter has left me with a pile of stuff to do on top of the pile of stuff I have to do. Then it's the seventy two hour TB cough making me rock so hard my ribs hurt. Just for giggles I get a dose of the runs that burn so hot that I think I have been living off vindaloos for a month. These seem to spring to life every time I have a coughing fit. Not quite every hour on the hour all night. Which is more often than I would like. So as I am laid up in bed with a bottle of water, a stock of immodium and my metaphorical running shoes on I contemplate my fate.

Coughing fit and short sprint later. So when life mocks you, mock the mockers.

On the plus side I need to stay near the toilet. The nearest place I can sit is the chair next to my painting bench so after my last dash that's where I am. My daughter should just be getting off the plane. I hope she is ok. I am not ready for painting but at least I can watch the TV.

I have made a little progress. The background for my Stargrave game had a Roman inspired culture. Imperial by nature, as you might expect, but very much in decline. They had created a servitor race, who fought in their armies and when they failed their masters, fought in their arenas. These were the gnollar. They were bred for combat. Genetically fast and strong with enough intelligence to be a good soldier. From childhood thy were taught the art of war and conditioned to respect the Imperial colours. I know that they are supposed to be some form of hyaena, but I am not sure that they are limited to that, and I am still thinking about skin/fur tones.

Part of me looks at them as tells me that they scream Traveller Vargr. Maybe not the sophisticated Imperium Vargr but maybe the Corsair kind. I have heard hints that Wargames Atlantic might be thinking about Traveller minis. The trouble with Traveller for me is I run games with minis and as far as I can make out there have been about half a dozen Vargr minis in 25mm. GW did some in 15mm. I have all of these. I know Martian Metals made some during the 1980s but we are talking unicorn poop. This is all better than the Hiver which as far as I can tell there is only one one.

The rest of the plan is looking at stuff for the week are from the Post Apocalypse range from Crusader Miniatures. Some nice characters that are a little wacky in places but many of them fit right in with my plans,

I am hoping I am going to the UK Games Expo in a couple of days. Fortunately I am not driving. I have taken the liberty of marking the toilets on the map and packing a bottle of water, some rehydration sachets and some Imodium already.😟

Start Of The Week With Some Post-Apocalypse And Stargrave

In order to give me some time to paint I will try to make this quick. Time is short. There is no real plan this week. The project that is currently lighting my fire has run out of minis. What I would like to do instead involves gluing some kits together and I don't have the time for that. So in the hope I can stand a chance of hitting a target, I will dive in. I am limiting my target to twenty figures.

The first group is some Stargrave kitbashes. I would say conversions but really, its a little bit of greenstuff and glue. I liked the look of the gnolls when I got them but I liked the look of the metal minis more and the metals are just a it bigger. I also just don't have much of a use for gnolls as most of what I do is really dark ages so gnolls with Stargrave weapons and a few more brutal bits worked out well for me.

I got some Crusader post-apocalypse stuff a few years ago when it came out. I have painted a few of them since I got them but only odds and sods. This batch should be most of what's left. Whilst not entirely perfect for the Atomfallish / SUnderdground they will do the job. 

End Of The Week And Breathe (22)

This was never going to be an easy week. Between the flu (with a cough that makes me think I have that seventy two hour TB that's going around) and daddy daughter time, I am frankly amazed I hit my planned target. Somehow I did. Not my best work and I doubt it would win awards but I have made a dent in the numbers.

This was a week where I was concentrating on the Atomfallish  / SUderdground project. Figure painting wise, this is a new project so I am still quite enthused. I have more or less run out of minis to paint. There is some stuff on back order, some stuff pending production, waiting for dispatch and I am waiting for a few shows to see what discounts I can get. I should have about another hundred on the way with another fifty coming with The Damned sometime around July/August. Then there is the opportunity for buying another two or three boxed sets, As I have said the price keeps going up.

The first is my special forces team. It's loosely based on a S.A.S. patrol. I chose to give some of the face camouflage. This meant I had to paint the eyeballs for the first time in a decade. I like these guys so I put more effort into them.

Have painted some army guys last week, I wanted a few more and maybe some specialists. In the background these are from the Regional Control. In reality, the UK was divided into I think it was ten Regional Control Headquarters in case of a nuclear war, each having its own majoor bunker such as Kelvedon Hatch, which is well worth a visit. Eventually I would like to have e nough of these for at least a platoon sized skirmish force with some specialists.

Then come the civilians / outlaws. I did some last week but want a lot more. These should be the most generic force so I could probably pick them up and slide them into other forces, More of a militia force. Not very well equipped. They may or may not be well motivated. These are more likely to have improvised and melee weapons. 

My last group this week is a new force which as a place holder are called the Brethren. Still playing around with these but in my mind they are some form of neo nuclear pagan with a hint of mutation. Their skin colour is slightly off as a hint. I suspect I will add a few mutations. I have some treekin bits and will have some beastmen bits too. The bodies are Viking bondi bits with some WW1 and WW2 bits within any odd random bits that seemed to fit. These guys will be totally kill crazy, but lightly equipped. 

This means next week is going to have to concentrate on something else next week. With more daddy daughter time and a very busy long weekend, painting time is going to be tight. The coughing doesn't seem to be going away. I doubt will be starting anything new, so I will be dipping into the pre primed/based backlog. So it could be anything.   

Start Of The Week - Atomfall / SUnderdground

Short and sweet as I have minis to paint. The first group is a special forces unit. Kinda S.A.S. patrol ish. Like the regular troops but with better and more kit. The plan is to paint them as if they are wearing a Denison smock. I just wanted an excuse to use a Welrod.

In Atomfall there are the Druids and my original idea for SUnderdground was something I called the Brethren. I am now thinking something a bit more like new age Vikings. Luckily I have some plastic Vikings. Whilst these are more conventionally equipped I can see a lot of them being melee armed. 

Then there are a few more outlaws. The plan calls for some more esoteric weapons. There are a few on the low end of what I think of as esoteric. Then a few more for good measure. 

Lastly there are some more soldiers. I wanted an officer. I have not suitable caps but a WW1 will do. The guy with the knife between his teeth strikes me as a natural character. A bleeds green type who might be just a bit Jack Churchill. I have an engineer, because why not. Then a bren gunner because I haven't got one and another rifleman because I could.

It's 10pm. Time I started painting.

End Of The Week -That Was (21)

Yeah. I got where I waved to be. It's started off as an Atomfall week but now I am not so sure. Same sort of genre but back to one of my ideas. 

The first lot were meant to be outlaws. I guess they still are but could be any form of semi-civilian force. These guys are not meant to be the best equipped troops, nor do they the best skills or motivation. 

The second group are straight British Army. I suspect there will be more. A lot more. There is the guy from the green slime who should make a nice character. I want to do some Military Police. Not sure I have the right heads but I have something close enough in the form of WW1 caps. Not perfect but not so far off. Then there is a plan for a special forces team. These seem to be closer to the front of the queue.

There were a couple of Crooked Dice characters and even a Stargrave mini finished. I didn't take a picture but will probably get around to posting them eventually.

Next week is going to be more of the same. It looks like it might be a full stop for a bit as I don't have any more minis to paint for this project although I have some on order.

Next weekend is a busy but fun one, it's looking like I will have a good run up till Friday. There are some completed kits on the bench, there are some details (basing, priming etc) to deal with. It does look like I will start the week painting and not Thursday.

Atomfall Ish - All In

I have a summer cold which is kicking my arse. It's now at what I call the chewy stage. So nearly over. So not quite empty.

Having started the Atomfall project and got some kitbashing and painting progress, I thought I would start a plan. I don't have all the minis I want. Not even close. A good chunk haven't even been released yet. When I sat down and did the numbers I was a bit surprised. 

The list got to about two hundred and forty miniatures. That's about three months of painting time for me. This doesn't include terrain and big minis. Then there is all the random stuff. This is a lot for a one off game. My guess is that I can probably do a sixth to a quarter of the bits to build the minis that I want.

With it being fairly niche idea, things would be difficult. Some of the figures are going to have other potential uses.  WW2 British do pretty much what there name says. Well maybe not the one with the SA-80, and the same for the outlaws. Some weapons are not so useful. Maybe thirty to forty percent wouldn't fit WW2. My druids were going to have some more up to date kit but will stay as the manufacturer intented so they can be used as some form of generic medieval levy. But what if there was an alternative?

Well I have one. For a while (and intermittently) I have been working on a post-apocalyptic game called sUnderdground. I was originally envisioned as a near future background but a sixties or maybe early seventies nuclear renaissance background could work. 

It doesn't quite have the "northern" angle and in general it is very poorly represented in 28mm (still looking for individual sterling SMGs and British army helmets coupled with SLRs that don't cost £3 and come with some extras). I can work in lore to explain a lot of anything that might appear incongruous.

This idea requires even more minis. The druids still work but would need to have troops armed with more modern equipment. I had planned to use Copplestone Neo-Sovs but these are a bit big. So some Soviet type troops would be needed. I was also looking at some fascist. The plan for both of these was to use WW2 bodies and some heads mixed in with some British and civilian heads. I was thinking most of the weapons would be British with some national weapons, like a ppsh thrown in. The game lends heavily on home made, scratch built weapons. So more scratch building fun. 

Despite not starting this week's work until yesterday, I am making progress. I am pretty close to all of the minis having a base coat. Although I am not convinced everything will be finished on time, it should be Monday at the latest. I have fewer distractions so hopefully things will get done.

Start Of The Week - Atomfall

When I finished painting last night I realised that my brain was not going to let me sleep. I've experienced it before. It's what I call a contact high. Except this is contact with my daughter. It was a good week.

Whilst I wasn't going to fall asleep I didn't think my motor skills were where they needed to be to paint. I suspect it is the withdrawal from alcohol after tasting some beer for the first time in two years. It wasn't so bad I didn't trust myself with a knife.

So I looked into the bits box and put together another eight minis for the ideas I have for Atomfall. The new stuff is mostly WW 2 Commandos. Which made me think of my dad's uncle Harry. The game has a mainly 1960s vibe but it's a 1960s in arguably the most remote part of England, behind a thirty foot wall and cut off from supply.

I have a few Protocol soldiers here. I plan for a few more, probably using British and Canadian late WW2 from Warlord. This should probably include a couple of officers, some redcaps (that's MPs for my colonial cousins) and some special forces (I really want to use the welrod). Not sure I have enough British army primer for what I want to do now.

In the game these guys are the best equipped. Do not read this as well equipped. I can see some being painted in RAF colours and I may even throw in one in WW1 uniform. It's my game and I will do what I like. So there will be a really mix of head gear as this breaks the mass up. As they are "better" equipped, they are more likely to have packs, pouches and grenades. I cannot see the use for heavier weapons. Anti-tank and indirect fire (well maybe not a light mortar) seem a bit redundant.

The civilian minis can have a number of roles. Their primary was as outlaws but will work as characters or a citizens militia maybe. The majority of the heavy lifting is Wargames Atlantic Partizans. There are some WW1 and WW2 bits and some zombie heads which are British Bobby and hard hat/miner's helmet. These were always going to be lightly equipped. They carry what they scrounge up or loot off the bodies. So no packs and good weapons.

Next? I need some ferals. Mantic zombies seem like a good idea. They are actually twenty years old now. So about time I used them. These should be pretty fast and good in hand to hand so I probably don't need more than half a dozen.

End Of The Week - Hurrumpff

It's been a good week. It really has. I now have a lasting, and damaging image of one of my fellow RPG player's characters as being a combination of father Dougal and Cardinal Richelieu's most ineffective musketeer. This has nothing to do with the fact that he put my halfling character in a papoose, whilst trying to find a three legged goblin, in a sewer and tripping over causing my character to land face first in a dead dwarfs crotch. 

Then I made a rookie mistake. I let my daughter write a birthday card for her friend. This took forever, making us late. Having written the card, she realised that she had written the wrong name in it. With only a petrol station on the way, the cards have cost nearly as much as the present.

Still, she had fun dressing up as a dragon. This makes me concerned that she might become a larper. I have done a bit of larping. So I know what it's like. Especially after the game ends for the night. Which is what worries me.

But I digress. This is a figure painting blog. Sleep When I'm Lead right? Or was it Lead Reckoning?Which is a problem as I haven't done anything like as much as I had planned. I am pretty close to where I said wanted to be but I was under promising with a view to over delivering. The first fix is done and I am part of the way through snagging. Some highlighting is still outstanding as is the base colouring on the dismounted figures. It's not like it's as miss is as good as a mile. It progress so it's all good and I can catch up next week. There was some progress with terrain and I had some actual fun gaming. It is possible to brew up a Sherman Firefly with a Panther at 1" range. Seriously if I had gotten any closer I would have bent my barrel but at least I wasn't shot in the arse. I would have been able to do a 180 and line up for the next one but we ran out of time. I also managed to glue together the first batch of 12 minis for the Atomfall ish project and buy a vortex mixer.

There has been some friction with getting the riders primed. I used to have a priming rod and some new style g dub pots with wires stuck out of them, specifically for the purpose. I haven't been able to find either. So I have had to come up with an alternative.

So next week. First I will finish what I have started. Always a good first step. I will then put together at least another eight plastic minis for Atomfall ish. Maybe a few more but not so many that it gets in the way. Sort the bases, prime them, and paint twenty of them. My head tells me not to make another twenty eight so I have stuff for next week, as this will probably take forever. I might order the latest Stargrave offering but I might hold off till Phalanx.

If I get ahead I will look at some terrain. The hexes are calling to me. I now have the deeper hexes for tunnels and trenches. Do I will start with a few test pieces. Precious little daddy daughter time for a fortnight so I will make what I can of it. Hopefully I'm in a place to meet up with a much loved old friend. Times passing, maybe I am getting old, but it feels like they don't make friends like that anymore.