Wow, it's been a while since I checked in.
Where to start?
Last year I'd set myself the 6 month mountain reduction challenge. I completed nearly 200 miniatures (192) in 2016, which was above my previous year's result of 176.
Why didn't I get more done? I had a couple of periods (May and Sept/Oct) where I just couldn't finish anything. May was immediately after Adepticon and Salute, and I think I was all painted out by everything I churned out for the trip to the US.
I won't bore you with the full list, but my goal now is to start getting a few projects finished and games played instead. I still want to try and beat my previous total as I received a few things for Christmas (Forgeworld Medusas and a Whirlwind for my Iron Warriors and Team Yankee US vehicles) which have added to the pile.
So lets set some priorities - in no particular order.
1. Read, and build a couple of parties for This Is Not A Test. I need an RV of some form to accompany Jonny Atomic, the Voice of The Wasteland. The TT Combat one looks promising for this.
2. Finish 50 pts of Team Yankee US troops. I have the M1 Abrams for this well underway, and have everything I need to finish them. These are proving a lot of fun to paint so far - but I haven't tried the MERDC pattern on the M113 vehicles yet...
2. Mortarion, Death Guard Cataphractii and last 4 Breacher marines to finish out that squad. This will more or less bring this army to 2,500 points.
3. Finish Astral Claws Bike Squad and Drop Pod
4. Iron Warriors; 2000 points, all I need to buy for this list is a Leviathan as I have all the plastic Mk3 I need and got all the artillery for Christmas :) I do have an old resin baneblade I may refurb for the IVth Legion to take them up to 2,500 however.
5. The only one from scratch; Buy and paint a 50 point Soviet army for Team Yankee.
6. Gorechosen board game - paint the minis, get the rest of the character minis from the rulebook and think about building a modular board perhaps....
That'll do for now.
Updates (much) sooner than in the past!
Have a great 2017!
Andy
Monday, 2 January 2017
Friday, 26 August 2016
The Gals from Harmony Gulch
Way back when (Andy kindly reminds me it was 18 April), Andy
posted the start of his frontier posse and mentioned that one of the forces
crossing their path on the one-horse town’s only street would be a band of
hard-bitten frontierswomen, painted by little ol' me…
Since that time, Andy had painted something like 1603 minis,
and I…. have painted... less than that. But like so many important things, this isn’t a race!
I’ve been getting through them slowly but surely so I figured now was as good a time as any for the ladies from Harmony Gulch to make their internet debut.
I’ve been getting through them slowly but surely so I figured now was as good a time as any for the ladies from Harmony Gulch to make their internet debut.
Like many other gaming genres, female minis are
definitely outnumbered in the wild wild West by their male counterparts, so rather than stick with one
company’s offerings I’ve picked up minis from the good folks of a few different vendors (reputable or otherwise) to fill
out this little group. I've been using a relatively limited colour palette to help tie them
all together even when the design aesthetics (or even scale) of the figures wouldn’t lend
them to being in the same force.
So starting with the ones I’ve actually finished, and the
observant among you will notice that I’ve not finished the bases – I’m planning
to do these in a batch with the terrain pieces I have planned, in order to
ensure the ground all comes out the same colour.
First up, Dusty from Bombshell Miniatures, sculpted by the wonderful (and all round nice guy) Patrick Keith.
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| Dusty |
Dusty was a joy to paint, sculpting and casting absolutely
top notch. I ended up sticking quite close to the concept art colours as the
scheme works so nicely.
I see Dusty as a crack shot and she was a close contender to be the leader of this posse. I didn’t get her face quite right, she has a slightly bemused expression – maybe she can see some misogyny over yonder!
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Adam at Black Scorpion is another sculptor whose career I’ve
enjoyed watching over the last few years, I must have had these girls in the
collection for about a decade. They are from packs Tombstone 5 and Tombstone 6 but now they have paint they can have their own names, so I can introduce Maria,
Hattie, Lottie and Bill (Wilomena).
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I'd originally planned to paint Hattie and Lottie as sisters, using the same palette for both minis. Obviously, I changed my mind at some point...
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I see Bill as a real wild lady, I suppose you'd need a fair amount of sass to rock that dress and top hat combo!
Compared to Dusty these figures are showing their age a little now, but to be fair they've not been helped by spending most of the time I've had them in box with the rest of the lead mountain. They were really rewarding to paint as they have so much individual character and, for the most part, the details are clean and crisp. I'm looking forward to picking up some reinforcements from the next Black Scorpion Kickstarter (scheduled for October, iirc). I picked up a preview leaflet (and saw some of the sculpts) at Salute earlier this year and the figures look like they'll be amazing!
So... what's next then?
I've got California Kate from Knuckleduster Miniatures and the leader of the posse queued up for the next installment. I also picked up some reinforcements at one of our local wargames shows (The Other Partizan) And what are cowgirls without cows? I have 75 head of cattle to make presentable and then the girls will need to settle down onto some proper real estate so they can be truly home on the range.
Deb
Tuesday, 31 May 2016
Well, fell at that hurdle - but lots of progress to report :)
Here we are again - finally. So we've not managed to make one post a week so far, but that changes now, honest!
It's been quiet around here but that doesn't mean there's been no activity :-)
So a little more on what we hope to achieve through the 6MMRC. Like most gamers, I have endless unfinished/abandoned projects, and after successfully completing the Independent Characters forum hobby progress challenge in 2014 (and being somewhat... less successful last year), something had to change. I have bought tons of minis over the years for rpgs I'd like to run, games that look cool, but never played because I haven't got stuff ready.
Essentially it's an exercise in discipline; by restricting what we are allowed to purchase, we hope to finally bring some of the cool but unloved minis to life.
Yes, part of the discipline is also blogging, so let's call this a re-commitment to progress. Apologies for the crap photos, I snatched these in the best light possible when I got home from work :-/
Recently completed:
A new addition to the frostgrave warband - this is a slow-burn project to paint up some of the mass of fantasy stuff. This guy's a mini from the former Spyglass Miniatures range sculpted by Steve Buddle (now of GW) - the 28mm minis he made are now available from Andy Foster at Heresy Miniatures, check 'em out if you haven't already :)
I also managed to finish this old (Grendel, I think) ruined temple:
Based on a CD, with added detritus from the bits box (amphorae from fish tank bits, weapons and shields from GW and Hasslefree.
As for the cowboys and weird stuff - I've finished the starting posse. I want to add another 5 minis to cover a range of eventualities yet. Then I'll consider the minis for this project done.
The minis are mostly Black Scorpion. The Martial Artist (who will be a Pugilist, in Legends of the Old West) and the werewolf are from Hasslefree, the captain of a certain free trader off to the right is Heresy Miniatures Captain Mal.
Buildings; a Sarissa Precision industrial unit and a TTCombat derelict apartment building finished, plus some TTCombat vending machines and rooftop scatter. Quick and effective.
At the same time I've got a plasticville factory and ttcombat gas station for the modern urban setting, then we'll take stock and see!
Cheerio :)
It's been quiet around here but that doesn't mean there's been no activity :-)
So a little more on what we hope to achieve through the 6MMRC. Like most gamers, I have endless unfinished/abandoned projects, and after successfully completing the Independent Characters forum hobby progress challenge in 2014 (and being somewhat... less successful last year), something had to change. I have bought tons of minis over the years for rpgs I'd like to run, games that look cool, but never played because I haven't got stuff ready.
Essentially it's an exercise in discipline; by restricting what we are allowed to purchase, we hope to finally bring some of the cool but unloved minis to life.
Yes, part of the discipline is also blogging, so let's call this a re-commitment to progress. Apologies for the crap photos, I snatched these in the best light possible when I got home from work :-/
Recently completed:
A new addition to the frostgrave warband - this is a slow-burn project to paint up some of the mass of fantasy stuff. This guy's a mini from the former Spyglass Miniatures range sculpted by Steve Buddle (now of GW) - the 28mm minis he made are now available from Andy Foster at Heresy Miniatures, check 'em out if you haven't already :)
I also managed to finish this old (Grendel, I think) ruined temple:
Based on a CD, with added detritus from the bits box (amphorae from fish tank bits, weapons and shields from GW and Hasslefree.
As for the cowboys and weird stuff - I've finished the starting posse. I want to add another 5 minis to cover a range of eventualities yet. Then I'll consider the minis for this project done.
Buildings; a Sarissa Precision industrial unit and a TTCombat derelict apartment building finished, plus some TTCombat vending machines and rooftop scatter. Quick and effective.
We also have a party of post-apocalyptic scavengers (girls from Dead Earth Games, special forces veteran from Empress Miniatures' Kickstarter a couple of years back, he's based on Willie Apiata.
And lastly, we have some Spectre Miniatures' Deniable Operators (here checking out an old Soviet facility in Eastern Europe, perhaps...?
These guys were great fun to paint, it was nice to mix up the colours on modern military minis. In a mix of commercially available hiking gear and armed with tricked out AK pattern rifles, it's impossible to tell who they actually work for.... For me they are most likely to serve as PMC's and CIA Special Activities Division operators. Really looking forward to Spectre's rules coming out next month.
So what's next?
I have some pulp figures cultists for a friend almost complete, and a pair of battletech mechs also to clear. Then I'll hit 30k again with these guys:
Cheerio :)
Monday, 25 April 2016
It's getting chilly in here!
As the temperature has dropped suddenly, this seems timely....
I have several sets of terrain in various stages of completion, and with starting cowboys and injuns, will need a set for them too. Unfortunately there are several terrain sets needing completion ahead of them... So we need to make some inroads into that long list!
At present, the playable terrain collection includes a snowy ruined city, desert, most of a temperate/forest area and a 6-15mm scale city.
The latest addition to the snowy ruins (it's been sitting here for nearly a year); maybe we should give the city a name, so it can develop some personality?
Pre-snow; I block in the areas I'm going to cover with snow with a basic student's artist acrylic; this means you're putting white over white, and not grey.
Here it is with a ton of Woodland Scenics snow dumped on it. Underneath this is a layer of snow mixed with the white acrylic, PVA glue and water to make a nice gloopy paste; I found I needed to add the white paint as the glue was turning the snow yellow on some older pieces. This layer bulks things up too, so it looks like the snow's been building up a while in places.
I'm quite happy with the overall effect :)
So this project is already succeeding - I've made more progress on this today than in months!
What's left to be done:
Top left:The biggest ruin, an administration building or basilica, this is made (like most of the ruins) from Pegasus kits. Top right: Mausoleum garden (GW Garden of Morr). Below that and bottom left are the mausolea themselves (the statue is already painted). The low-walled pieces (from the GW terrain balconies) will be filled with skeletal trees (I need a handful of Woodland Scenics armatures for these) and the piece left middle is a couple of ruined stores, a newsstand on the left of the piece and a store on the right.
I have occasional thoughts about doing a frozen river or canal, and my GW Forgeworld Road set could use renovation too, but that's in the future and there are other projects to finish first!
Next time: Back to the cowboys. Maybe even some musings on terrain for them :-D
I have several sets of terrain in various stages of completion, and with starting cowboys and injuns, will need a set for them too. Unfortunately there are several terrain sets needing completion ahead of them... So we need to make some inroads into that long list!
At present, the playable terrain collection includes a snowy ruined city, desert, most of a temperate/forest area and a 6-15mm scale city.
The latest addition to the snowy ruins (it's been sitting here for nearly a year); maybe we should give the city a name, so it can develop some personality?
Pre-snow; I block in the areas I'm going to cover with snow with a basic student's artist acrylic; this means you're putting white over white, and not grey.
Here it is with a ton of Woodland Scenics snow dumped on it. Underneath this is a layer of snow mixed with the white acrylic, PVA glue and water to make a nice gloopy paste; I found I needed to add the white paint as the glue was turning the snow yellow on some older pieces. This layer bulks things up too, so it looks like the snow's been building up a while in places.
So this project is already succeeding - I've made more progress on this today than in months!
Top left:The biggest ruin, an administration building or basilica, this is made (like most of the ruins) from Pegasus kits. Top right: Mausoleum garden (GW Garden of Morr). Below that and bottom left are the mausolea themselves (the statue is already painted). The low-walled pieces (from the GW terrain balconies) will be filled with skeletal trees (I need a handful of Woodland Scenics armatures for these) and the piece left middle is a couple of ruined stores, a newsstand on the left of the piece and a store on the right.
I have occasional thoughts about doing a frozen river or canal, and my GW Forgeworld Road set could use renovation too, but that's in the future and there are other projects to finish first!
Next time: Back to the cowboys. Maybe even some musings on terrain for them :-D
Monday, 18 April 2016
Welcome to my little corner of the internet!
A curious title you may think, but there is a good reason behind it.
While reviewing the pile of minis we had brought back from Salute and Adepticon, the missus and I (yes, both of us - she's a gamer too :p) realised that we'd amassed a rather large collection of stuff over the last few years and that something really had to be done to address the number of models that have never seen paint, much less a table top!
I ran across the '6 month mountain reduction challenge' some time ago, and we both thought this was a great idea.
Having seen Black Scorpion's preview of the upcoming 'Tombstone' kickstarter at Salute, we remembered having bought a lot of the initial line when it was first released, so we pulled out the copy of the now sadly defunct Warhammer Historical's Legends of the Old West that's been languishing on the book case for a couple of years and knocked together a couple of posses...
I settled on a Lawmen posse (werewolf off to the side for later scenario use....):
And two after a lick of paint:
Vigilante (left), Upstanding Citizen (Right).
I painted the mini who will be the Sheriff - Black Scorpion's Sheriff, some time ago - now I just need to find him!
Sabbatwolf settled on a gang of hard-bitten frontierswomen, using the Cowboys(girls) list. There's a Bombshell Mini and an old metal Perdita Ortega from Wyrd Miniatures (pre-Malifaux) in there as well as the Black Scorpion girls.
I've also decided I'm going to finish these guys:
As soon as possible. A mix of Spectre Miniatures, Empress Miniatures and Dead Earth Games' minis, these will be for modern skirmish, post apoc/zombies and maybe even hopping through a stargate or two :) The need to paint these has been brought into stark focus by my purchasing pretty much all of Spectre's new Ultramoderns at Salute....
So we're off to a start.
Updates to follow :)
A curious title you may think, but there is a good reason behind it.
While reviewing the pile of minis we had brought back from Salute and Adepticon, the missus and I (yes, both of us - she's a gamer too :p) realised that we'd amassed a rather large collection of stuff over the last few years and that something really had to be done to address the number of models that have never seen paint, much less a table top!
I ran across the '6 month mountain reduction challenge' some time ago, and we both thought this was a great idea.
Having seen Black Scorpion's preview of the upcoming 'Tombstone' kickstarter at Salute, we remembered having bought a lot of the initial line when it was first released, so we pulled out the copy of the now sadly defunct Warhammer Historical's Legends of the Old West that's been languishing on the book case for a couple of years and knocked together a couple of posses...
I settled on a Lawmen posse (werewolf off to the side for later scenario use....):
Vigilante (left), Upstanding Citizen (Right).
I painted the mini who will be the Sheriff - Black Scorpion's Sheriff, some time ago - now I just need to find him!
Sabbatwolf settled on a gang of hard-bitten frontierswomen, using the Cowboys(girls) list. There's a Bombshell Mini and an old metal Perdita Ortega from Wyrd Miniatures (pre-Malifaux) in there as well as the Black Scorpion girls.
I've also decided I'm going to finish these guys:
So we're off to a start.
Updates to follow :)
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