It's Proving To Be A Far From Steller Week

Not the worst week in my life but I have been unhappy about the way a lot of things are going with my hobby life. This is the third attempt at this post as I have been blue screen of death'ed twice. I lost a whole load of work on my Viking game as well which I have had to redo. Mainly though, it's the painting.

Still work in progress

I started the week with a simple plan. There are nine figures, mostly part painted and what was left only needed a few bits doing to them. Having finished ten old Grenadier figures last week, I had some others that had been hanging around for years. As well as a few more soldiers, there were some agents and a couple of armed civilians. Most in a part painted state and the others were primed black. Experience tells me that figures primed black do not end up well but they were that way when I got them. So rather than create problems I opted to keep them in a black uniform. To be honest I haven't been overjoyed with the results. Still tomorrow is another day and I am hoping that I can bring them around.

But there is a limit to how much you can polish somethings

It is a little bit therapeutic in a way. These figures have been float around for a long time (1990 I am thinking) and whilst I was given some of these, I think they all came from the same shop about the same time. Because they are fairly generic, I can see a lot of uses for them. Modern is the most obvious use, but things like Fallout, Titansgrave, Shadowrun, Conspiracy-X and any number of post-apocalypse and sci-fi backgrounds are also out there.

There are some other figures on the bench, which I have also been playing around with. My secondary focus has been on these fantasy/dark age miniatures for the Viking/Skyrim game. I think one is Gripping Beast and the others are Westwind. Although there is still some work to do, I am much happier with these than the Grenadier stuff.

Silly Ideas And More Primer

As I was set up to use some primer and the weather was a little bit better this morning, I decided that I might do a bit more. The good weather did not last long and the heavens opened up again so I have come back inside. In previous houses it was possible to do this in the garage, here, not so much unless I want the whole house to smell of primer.

Most of it was just random stuff left in the draws next to the work bench. All sorts of stuff really. Some for X-Com, Frostgrave/Viking game/Skyrim, post-apocalypse, a reaper dragon and even some D+D in the form of some plastic carrion crawlers from a D+D board game I found cheap on a market.

One bit of frivolity though. A relatively time consuming piece of frivolity though. I saw someone online with a painted a Blood Bowl range ruler, throw in template and scatter template online. I have had some gold paint knocking about for years so I figured I would give it a go, So a coat of primer, paint and varnish later, U had this. Nicely dull thanks to the matt varnish.

What I didn't get round to doing was varnishing the figures I already have painted. Probably a good job, I am not sure matt varnish and rain mix well. Maybe another day. Still, I might try and get some painting done.

Limbo

I am beginning to think that I am in some sort of limbo. I remember an episode of St Elsewhere when one of the characters ended up in Limbo. He was surrounded by the people who didn't do but had an opinion about everything.  I remember there being a lot of people dressed up in referee outfits. Armchair referees who never got up to go and watch a match let alone play a game. This is starting to feel a bit like me. I should be painting stuff for Zomtober but I can't get to my workbench at the moment. There are reasons for this so I guess I haven't got that much to complain about.

I heard about the passing of Michael Leader, the Clumsy Stormtrooper. I am sure I have seen this guy at a convention a good while ago. But the internet seems to have convinced me that Mace Windu is in fact Supreme Leader Snoke and it follows (apparently) that Rey is Palpatine's daughter and Finn is Mace Windu's son. It labels itself as an insane fan theory but is seems to have a lot on consistency with the "facts".

So I am looking for other stuff to do. YouTube is getting a bit of a pounding. Unlike my normal YouTube binges, things are a little more diverse. I might do a bit more about this on another day. I have just started playing X-Com 2. This has made me think that I need to but myself a better laptop. I have money to spend so this might be happening soon. My dad got me the one I have now so that might be a bit of a wrench.

Things are a bit of a problem even for some solo gaming. I would love to do some but at the moment at least, this isn't on the cards either. I am looking for something new, but I guess that I am just going to keep doing what I am doing. Skyrim remastered is on it's way in just under three weeks so I guess that I have that to look forward to.

I will have to console myself with the big ass UHD TV.

Small Steps - Or Practical Procrastination and Prevarication - Games Workshop Night Goblins And Frostgrave

I have found a little more time to myself today to do some paint. The dog got walked and everything else that needed fettling got fettled. Not enough to get a meaty amount of work done but enough to do a fair bit of prep.

I got the Night Goblins base coated. I don't do a lot of base coating because, despite what people tell you, I prefer to paint on the bare metal and then give the minis a couple of coats of spray on varnish. By the time I have finished painting them, there is usually to to three coats at a minimum on all areas. To my (bespectacled) eye, this allows the details to show through a bit more. These are not especially dark age miniatures but with the shields, they are not so far off the mark and will do for some bits at a pinch. To me goblins are a bit smaller and I have some snotlings that fill that role nicely. I am sure that they would fit in well with a Skyrim module. Maybe they will do as hobgoblins but I have some old denizen half orcs that fit that role to. I guess I am going to do these because they are easy and they were cheap.

I have done a bit more painting of what is on the desk too. Not as much as I would like but better than nothing.  What I have done is stopped thinking about ordering some bottles and magnets and got on and done it. With what is going on, I am struggling at least as much with concentration on painting as I am with time to do it. I am finding it a lot easier to do prep work than actual real work.

I got to spend a bit of time doing other things I enjoy (such as blogging) so really not a bad day all round.

White Wolves

Even more 28mm games workshop wolf miniatures, not quite still wet with the final touch up. Great you might say. Nine you ask? Well nine fit into a single row in the foam storage I use, so it seemed like a good idea. Not that I am getting OCD or anything. Mehhh. I got the set figures of eBay and painted a few brown and these white. The bigger group are the white ones because they fit with my idea for the Viking game and might handle double duty for Frostgrave as well.

Quick and cheap and plenty of it. It sounds like I have just cooked a meal for the family. I am hoping they will get some play rather than gathering dust, Along with the rest of a metal draw full of figures, they need spray varnishing

Wolves

Another fairly recent purchase from eBay were some part (poorly) painted GW wolves. There were quite a few of them and probably more than what I wanted. This is what happened to the excess. I was hoping I could take them apart and re-glue them. Sadly that was not to be. Whoever put them together must have used a whole bottle of superglue...per figure. They say the camera never lies but a wobbly hand and poor auto focus makes you doubt that.

Well they were cheap. I have others and they were planned for a one shot scenario and will have a different paint job. Someone I know had a few of them in a display case and I liked the look of them, I am such a kid looking into the sweet shop window. I am generally not a bog fan of GW and their current incarnation especially, Not that you would know it from a number of recent posts, but every now and again something comes along that fits my needs,

For repaints, they didn't turn out to badly. Especially as there were a few that I had over from the other canine project which is coming. I didn't spend much time on them. So cheap and cheerful all the way round. Not sure I'd like paying full price for these but as cheap stuff from eBay, They'll do nicely.
They are really for fantasy games with the Skyrimesque viking game being their main reason for painting these. I can also see them as being useful for some post apoaclyse stuff to.

Pig In Lipstick

This is work in progress with the emphasis on progress. Another 28mm Viking.

I was watching something on Dr Faust's YouTube  about the Painting Slump the other day as part of my desire to rekindle my gaming mojo. Doc Faust was talking about throwing figures that turned out badly in the bin. The thought had never occurred to me.  To me it's a bit like throwing away food. You just don't do it. Bad form if you do it.

Pig In Lipstick

I have had this figure sat on the desk for ages which I think comes from Gripping Beast and it is still yet to be finished (I mean look at his chin and the eyes). It is one of the figures I got for the Viking game nearly two years ago.

From a distance (some would say 3.2 nautical miles) it looks pretty good. It has achieved the almost legendary status of a background project (something I pick up when what I am unable to paint something that is still wet.). It was a nice looking figure until I painted it. I say that, he looks like a Klingon admiral in chain mail (old school Trek, not TNG pastie heads and probably a Klingon cosplayer at that). Has anyone seen the series Wilfred?

Cosplay Is Wrong

Now is looks like aforementioned Pig In Lipstick. it's not that bad I guess, I am just really not happy with it. there are a lot of older sculpts that I don't seem to be able to get my head around (a bad workman blaming his tools I guess). It's a shame really as I had a nice role in mind for the figure.

I am not really about throwing things out, you will be well aware of that if you have looked here. And a painted figure is a painted figure. Still, I have found my hammer and it might do me some good to let lose.

I may be having a bit of a painting slump but my blogging seems to be getting the attentions it deserves. Go figure.

So...
1 Keep?
2 Hammer?
3 Bin?
4 Do over?

Zombies, Well Draugr Really

Well, not done much today. Had other things to do today. I did some painting and sorted through some pictures. I have been working on these for a while. When I say working on, I mean they have been sat in a box for ages. I was after something that looked a little like the draugr from from Skyrim and evoked what I thought after walkers looked like, Anyway, so pretty pictures.

They are a little off being finished and there are some more to do yet, so expect to see a few more pictures of these minis yet.

Paint Table Easter Sunday

I have been busy over the last few days. As is my want, I have been working on about thirty to forty figures. Naturally, I still haven't really managed to finish anything off but I have a lot of stuff that is part way through and some of it closer to being finished than usual. All of this stuff has been on the paint table for a while. For the most part they have been about for two years or just a bit less. A few have been sat in other people's paint queues for so long they have decided to get rid of them. Some of them are more "part way" than others. So just for the sake of me looking like I have been busy. I'll put them together in a few posts. Also I have a new phone with a better camera so hopefully the pictures should startlooking better again.

Monks, I hate these guys

These figures are a bit out of my usual range. They were a bit if an impulse purchase. I got them when I got some super hero figures and henchmen figures last year from Black Hat miniatures. I only really wanted the one on the right and there were two more in the back that I guess will never get used. The one on the right is really for a female PC in a modern rpg I kind of have it in mind to run again. No one ever has actual monks for fantasy games and I personally hate monks as characters. Still they were there so I guess I had to have them.

The one on the left is proving to be really hard work

Whilst I am on the subject of monks, I got some more clerics almost done. These are from Mirliton. Nice figures still, but a few bits need finishing off and a fair bit of highlighting to do. There is a lot of detail on the Bishop and maybe too much detail as it is turning into a real pain to get it finished. I might finish the others and come back to it to give it the attention it really needs. They will make nice character figures when they are finished.

Not sure they have the Viking look but they are a little Tolkeinesque

From the same pack as the above are a couple of wizards. They look okay bit still need a bit more work on them. I doubt I will ever be really happy with them. Again these are really nice figures which have a lot of animation.

I have a few more close to being done but I am getting tired of typing now so I am going to post and see what the new few days bring.

Bad Guys + A Happy New Year

Well despite he odd bit of urgent action last night, the New Year arrived as expected. Happy new year to you all. Hope you had fun and your hangovers are now forgotten. No Mayan's to ruin it this year. This post is a bit of a cheat as I finished these a few days ago and have just  got round to posting the pictures of them.

I am always looking for bad guys for games. It's one thing giving the players a choice of characters, it's another giving them a range of bad guys to fight. I seem to be doing a lot of antagonists at the moment. I wanted a villain and the Mordred character miniature from West Wind fitted the picture nicely. I doubt the character I use will be called Mordred but I am pretty sure he will have most of the same characteristics. I have a female magic user that I plan to use as Morgan le Fey esque character from Mirliton which I have also been working on along with a necromancer type from West Wind.

Mordered

In my head, I see the character from the Merlin mini series rather than the more recent Merlin series. I guess I would be happy if the players felt that I had built up something like the mini series.

I am not a big fan of painting figures in black but what other colour can you paint a bad guy who has everything else. I haven't been too confident painting a lot of black on a mini but these haven't turned out to bad. After painting some GW ringwraiths, I kind of got some confidence to do something a bit more intense.

When I started painting the Mordred figure, he came with a few others that I thought would fit in nicely and one from another pack that also seem to fit the plan. So some more got painted black just to fit in well. Every bad guy needs henchmen after all. For some reason a mash up between the Talon Company from Fallout and various characters in Skyrim also came to mind. I'm not sure where a Private Military Company would fit into the ninth centuary but it's high fantasy after all.  I then started thinking that they might do for something like the Night's Watch. Sometimes good guys wear black. I might just have to paint some more.

I am hoping to do a bit more work in Janaury so there should be a few more posts coming soon.

Actually Done Some Painting...

...but not quite what I was expecting to paint. Although I now have a workbench to paint on, I am still scratching around for things that I can do. My eyesight is not brilliant so I depend on a magnifying lamp. I can find the lamp but I can't find the base. No problem I thought, I'll do some buildings. I use pins to keep these together and I can't find them either. So I went looking.

So....No pins and no lamp base. They are probably in a box in the garage. Which is piled high with sealed boxes. So using the lemons to make lemonade I found something that I can do. whilst searching I found some small castle walls. I got them in a shop in the Arndale in Manchester which I think has been closed for twenty years. I think I got them as an impulse buy. I had played in a HOTT game run by Chris Johnson at the MAWS wargame club and I never got round to getting a stronghold for the army I used. The army has never been used since and the walls have been sat in various boxes ever since. Not so much lead mountain as resin mountain.

 So...A nice little project seemed the obvious choice. The paint is almost the same colour as the resin. You can only really tell the difference because the unpainted one has some marks on it.

So...I have the urge and a bit of time. I am now looking for something else to do. I was goin to have a play about with doing some post apocalyptic I started on this then realised that I had no  sand. It looks a bit little bit poop but I am sure that it will work out.

So...I'll look around and see what I can do.

I have an idea that these could be used for a fallout game. They might well be of use to a HOTT game in 15mm. I guess they have some scope for the skyrim/viking game but they are a littlle on the small side for that. Other than that, I have no idea.

Now I need to varnish them. Guess what, I can't find the varnish either.

Viking Civilians Again

Well I have pretty much finished these. They need a spray of varnish and some bits to tart up the bases. Summer has come early here so the rain is so heavy I can't take them outside so that I can spray them. The garden nearly has a river running through it where the dog has been playing in it.

I really like the way the woman in blue has come out. She has a great face apparently busy crying over spilled milk.

The guy on the left would make a nice Little Jon figure if he had a staff rather than a  mattock.Unlike the rest of them, he is a Gripping Beast figure and not Foundry like the rest of them. The best figure is the one eyed, one legged one armed civilian figure. I have plans for him in the game.

Distractions

I have been all over the place with what I have been doing since the last post. I did a bit more inking on the Foundry Viking civilians and the other figures from Gripping Beast. Then, whilst I was waiting for that to dry, I did some inking on the long ship. I used some old citadel washes this was more because the old, old washes were a bit useless for figure painting and there is a lot of boat to cover. I have several pots of the stuff just gathering dust. Maybe I should put them on eBay I ended up finding places where the ship would benefit from a bit more glue, so then I was letting that dry.

This is where the distractions really kicked in. The civilians were still not dry enough to work on. I have some chaos dwarves that I wanted to work on. bad guys are currently in short supply so a few more might help me out later on. They represent one of the possible plot lines I have worked out for the game. The miniatures, from Mirliton, have enough of a dark vibe to fit in with my concept of the game. some of the helmets are a bit out of place but I am sure no one will notice. There are a few more evil dwarves that I might get round to buying and they have some nice medieval noble and not so noble civilians which might work well.

There has been some blocking out of the base colours. This is mostly done. I have them following the same concept as dark elves so gave them the sort of traditional colour scheme. There are a few bits that need details that won't fit in with that sort of colour scheme but these are details and should hopefully make the figures look a bit more normal. I think these figures will fit in with the concepts I have lifted from Skyrim. 

Paint Table Saturday - It's Big And It's Long

My offering for Paint Table Saturday has been less about painting and more about hacking stuff up with a Stanley Knife. With the Viking game on the horizon I ask myself what does every good Viking need? Pillage? Plunder? The other one? No, they really need a long ship.

Now I could go out an buy a long ship. It's not like I want the cheap and cheerful look...but. It might have been easier that what I have done here but I wanted to have something that would be a bit more game table friendly. So the ship is essentially 3" wide by 16-18" long. I have used cuts in the wood to give approximates of the inches on the deck. It's a touch wider and longer than it needs to be so that it's easy to move figures around on it. It wouldn't match up with a game table but I guess it won't need to.

  It is a little on the clunky side but it will work well with stuff on the tabletop.

As you can't see, the main body is made from foam core board. The deck planking is made from coffee stirrers from a dozen different coffee shops. I've even got my other half picking up a handful of stirrers when she goes for a coffee now. The sides of the ship are made from some pieces of balsa wood that I got specifically for this. To give it more of the right look, I score the balsa to make it look like wooden planking.The figurehead and tail are also made from the same balsa wood with a bit of whittling to give it the right ship.
The time consuming this was cutting the planking. When I get to the next ship I do, I will probably just score the wood rather than cut it. I will look to do a smaller trading ship and maybe a few even smaller ships. If I get the urge, I would like to make another long ship. If I really get the time, I might think about doing something a little more foreign like an Arab trade ship.

Now that it's finished I think it's a bit too big. It might be fairly close to what they would have been but it's a little too big for gaming.
I have also spent the day spray varnishing some stuff that I have already finished. Some of it is the stuff you have seen, some of it is stuff that I did years ago but I thought I'd give a coat of varnish to as no paint job survives first contact with the players. I'll take some pictures and post them soon.

Easter Monday

Another entertaining day. The work bench is all change. I have managed to do a few bits and pieces but not as much as I would like. I'm going out to the 2300 game in a bit so thought I would do a quick update. I have been trimming some spears so that they will fit in the foam trays. Splashing a bit of ink around on some stuff that has been sitting around.

I decided that it was time to finish some figures. there were some Arthurian figures that were all but finished but I had no spears at the time. Since then, I got some shield transfers. They don't fit on the shields so I swapped them for some new shields. Some of them needed texturising so I thought it was time to try out some of the Mineral Texture Gel. It hasn't tried yet, but so far it looks okay. It was really easy to put on the base and seems to be drying quicker than sand and PVA, my usual stand by.

Army Of The Dead Part 3

I have finished the twelve Army of the Dead figures I got on eBay. I thought I'd post them alongside the ones I have already done. These followed the same pattern as last time. They were a quick easy paint job. The highlighting gives them a nice ethereal feel.

 Hopefully, they will be strong enough on the table to give the players something to worry about.

Having spent a lot of time on line last night, I thought I would make today a quick post and hopefully spend some time painting tomorrow. I might have a play about with the Kobolds you can see in the background but I also want to move on to finishing the scenery that I started a few months back. I always have some more civilians to paint. It being a Viking game, I have a few armed peasant Saxons to paint so that they can go raiding if they want.

Paint Table Saturday - Dead And Wounded - Some Dark Age Types

A paint table Saturday post? This is my first. I am not sure I will be able to stick with this but I guess I will give it a try. I have had a little bit of moral support around this from  the bogosphere, so I figured - what the hell. So I hope the group will accept me. I managed to borrow my other half's phone so the pictures are a bit better that they have been of late. Thanks sweetheart. I am sure I will be able to pay for it later.

I spoke the other dead about doing some casulty figures for the Viking game I have coming. I wasn't sure about doing a proper paint job. It takes a lot of time and I really wanted something that would stick out a bit on the table. So I thought I would try some in shades of grey. I liked the look of some zombies I had seen over at Carmen's Fun Painty Time. So after a couple of test paints I decided I could make it work.

 The figures are made by Warlord Games and Gripping Beast. Strictly speaking, the Warlord games stuff are Celts but I figured that they were close enough. There are a touch cheaper than the Gripping Beast stuff and they make a nice all round look.

The figures are a pretty simple three grey highlights. I think I actually spent more time on the bases. I added a few weapons and shields on some of the repeated figures to give them a bit of a different look. I was quite pleased with the end result and it was a project that was pretty quick to complete.

I have moved on to the next project as well as finishing some of the other stuff I have started. I'll post the pics when I have some more time.

There Really Is A Difference Betwen This Post And The Last One

I've had a bot of time on my own today. So between chores, power outages, dog walking, house cleaning, child wrangling, I got some stuff done. Again, not much actual figure painting but there was a little bit. I have finished the last of the Army of the Dead which leaves with twelve including those seen here. When I have access to a better camera than mine, I will post the pictures. I've also done a little bit on the dwarves I started at the weekend and yet to finish. They are all but done, I think I just can't let them go. then there are still some Saxon/Vikings to finish off. They only need the shield transfers putting on, another task I love to avoid.

I have done some work on the bases for the Kobolds but in all honesty, they haven't progress much. I got a huge batch of eBay several, maybe even ten, years ago. I almost finished half of them (twenty one) some time ago and went on and forgot about them. I was going to finished what I had started and then start on the untouched ones but the colour I used last time has dried out. If anyone has a tub of GW Scab Red they don't want, please let me know. So I guess they may just have to wait around for a bit. I'll see if I can pick some up on eBay or at a show.

So after yesterday's blood, sweat, sand and glue mission, I got round to painting the bases. I've dry brushed some of them and put some texture on a few. I might get round to doing a bit more to give them a bit more colour. This again became a bit of a mission so lots of stuff got dragged into the bash. Most will need a little bit of ink to give the base some depth and then I might get some static grass out.

The next project looks like it will be some casualty figures. I am planning to use these on the table in the Viking game. It will give the players something to move around and maybe trip them up. Just a tabletop complication. I haven't made up my mind f I am going to do a proper paint job or just do something very simplistic. I've like what been done for some zombies on Carmen's Fun Painty Time
 so I might give that a try.

I Found A Brush In My Hand

For the first time in a while, I have found some space and time to do some painting.

Whilst I have been doing that, I have been watching a load of post-apocalyptic dramas on cable. There was a TV show in the 60s called The War Game. I have heard a lot abut it over th years but as far as I know it hasn't been on TV. It's not quite as shocking as Threads which makes The Day After seem like a very cozy catastrophe. Threads is on the list so I expect that will be on the list to watch. I don't want to watch it with the kid in the house and I am not sure that I want to watch it before going to bed.

These are pretty close to being finished. I haven't done all this work today, I think I had about half finished them and then put a few more colours on them. The ink is still drying so I can't really do much more at the moment. Hopefully, I'll find a bit of time tomorrow and I'll do some dry brushing and maybe finish off some basing. I apologise for the quality of the pics. I've had to electronically retouch them and they still are not up to scratch. When I have finished them, I will use a better camera.  

Then I have some Mirliton stuff to do. More clerics and mages mainly although there are a few barbarian types I could do, they are not close enough to what I am looking for to make them a priority.

Still, it feels good to be doing a painting post rather than babble. I'll have to do some more.

Army Of The Dead Pt 2

Not as slow a day as yesterday. I was hoping to go boarding gaming tonight, but it seems not to be. I have now finished, yes that's actually finished six of the Army of the Dead figures I have. Well apart from the spray varnish. I gave the original two I painted a bit ore TLC and then painted the other four in kind. To get the effect right I  had to get out my home made wet palette to get the early coats wet enough to work into the corners easily. I think I decided when I looked at them again this morning that the rust colour was just too much and the green was too green as well. They also lacked the ethereal glow I had seen elsewhere. So some dry brushing of the whole figure gave me something extremely close to what I wanted.

Hopefully enough to put the wind up the players when they get put on the table. I know what is coming. They won't like it. I suspect that they will persuade the players that hanging around is a bad idea.

I was quite happy with the way they turned out in the end. Still only another six to go. If you are wondering what the pile of paints are at the bottom of the post are for, the simple answer is that it will hopefully remind me how to paint the rest of the figures when I get round to it.