So The End Of The Week (Is Nigh)

So I have painted some more Future Skirmish Savages and I am quite happy with them. They are nicely complicated models which have given me a whole load of ideas. Whilst I have been painting them I have also been writing up a bit of a background for them as well. I am mainly thinking about my sUnderdground background as I have been going along. This has also inspired me to do a similar background for the Cultists I did a few weeks ago. Which in turn lead to ideas about raiders, cleansers, bygones (mutated neanderthal/chimpanzee ish throwbacks), crazies and wilders. These should all fit in with my figure painting plans. I have also been painting some other Grenadier figures. Sadly I am not so happy with them.

My plan is to get some more but money is a bit tight at the moment so I might have to put that plan off for a bit. Another five or six of the right figures would be enough to have all the savages I might want.

During the week I was doing some sorting out and found most of the rest of the Copplestone / Grenadier figures I have. I have started work on some of them and have some more for next week. This has given me a bit of a first world problem. I have started using old GW plastic bases for sci-fi stuff lately but all the older stuff is on 2p sized bases. This is kicking me in my aesthetic core.

Anyway The New Cruelty is happy. I have finished eight figures this week and there are a load of figures very close to being done. I also have some stuff I want to work on now. I have managed to get most of my health goals done with the odd near miss. I haven't spent much, if any, time playing video games this week. This has given me time to do the writing.

The post-apocalypse vibe is pulling me in again. I am looking at figures and even thinking in terms of terrain in a serious way. In part I am think about Summerland and Underground but even Fallout would be a nice game to get back into although that would have to be a different game than I originally had planned. My original game had involved a lot of big battles and I am not sure how I would manage to get hold of the number of figures (I think it was over two hundred) that I would need. That said, I have other projects on the go that I currently have figures for.

So next week is looking like more of the old Grenadier / Copplestone stuff and maybe planning some terrain.

Next

The end of the day, usually after 9pm, is when I get most of my gaming stuff done and I have spent my day wanting to paint so I should have found it easy to do. By the time 9pm came around I was tired. So I forced myself to get something done but spent less than an hour at work. The hobbits/ratlings are coming on at a pace and are pretty close to being finished or at least as finished as they are going to be. I guess that I am finding the figures uninspiring. This is what the delay is but I am not feeling the pull of anything else either.

At times like this, I refer to The Plan. X-Com, the Viking game, Titansgrave, Frostgrave and Bloodbowl were my main areas of interest at the beginning of the year. None of these are grabbing me / have suitable figures to paint. So maybe one of the other alternative might be better (zombies, weird war two, super heroes, 15mm mecha, 6mm Napoleonics, ECW, Conan ish and VBCW are all prospects).

I have some Frostgrave stuff on the go. I have a load of rats to do. The figures look great on the web but are not feeling too good to painting. There are another half dozen or so figures part way done. These are the new background project and I have on the go.

My mind keeps turning to the post apocalyptic (other than zombies) as well. I have a number of post apocalypses open to me at the moment. I started on Summerland a few years ago. I don't have the figures for this but it would be an easy game to do. A few trays of figures would be enough then there are places to go with it after that. For a while I have been working on things for a London version of Metro 2033 and I have a fair bit of background for that.

Clearing Up

I haven't done much painting. I will rephrase that, I haven't done much painting that didn't involve a roller. Some might say, uncharitably, that this does not end up much different result than usual. Still the desk clean up continues.

I am mucking about with some stuff I started many years ago and never finished. Then I restarted them when I didn't have a magnifying lamp. My only real mission at the moment is to clear the desk and I guess these show that I am getting a little bit closer. Some bits in the picture below have already made their way back into long term storage.

This is what the work bench looked like at the beginning of December. The only stuff that is finished are the alien eggs  (which are a little too dull to post) and the half-orcs. The Alien eggs date back to the late eighties I think.I suspect that they would be worth quite a bit of money on eBay, for the lead rather than the paint job.  I was well into doing stuff for Summerland/Scavenge, Skirmish, Survive/Death By Trees at the time and they were all that I could find that I wanted to paint.

These are some gangers which I think I got from EM4. A lot of them got converted into zombies a long time ago. They got picked up when I was short pf something to do in November. On the plus side I think these have been in the queue for about ten years.

These are some modern soldiers that I got about twelve years ago. The idea was to use them for a post apocalyptic game probably involving zombies. Now I am considering using them in a Very American Civil War game that I have been planning for a number of years. They are British SAS and American Marines.

I hope that I will finish them off in the next week.

The Derelict Is Looking Worse

Well the derelict is moving on, slowly. Time has been a bit short, but I have had some time today to sit in front of the work bench. I am kind of kicking myself at the moment as I have started a project that I know that I can't finish right now. The outside needs something to looking like rendering and the two things I can use, I can't find. I have had to do a few changes from what I originally planned. First I have extended the ground floor walls in two places so that there is something their to support the ceiling. I have also added a first floor. This is partly aesthetic and partly structural.

 I thought I would put a figure in to give the picture some perspective. The plan now is to do some internal painting, weathering and just generally improve on the derelict feel. I have a few bits to do away from this but I am running out of prime projects and even projects that I would class of new at the top of the list are hard to find. I may have to do some major moving of boxes and...open up some boxes that I was hoping to keep sealed up. The other alternative us that I might go to a show at the weekend and spend some of my money Lets hope something will turn up.

Roof

I have had a bit more time today but I have been dependant on glue drying so I haven't donr that much. The objective for the day was to get the block work of the roof done. I haven't got as much done as I would like. That said it is starting to take shape and it will turn into something worthwhile. Pity it's such an ugly duckling a the moment. I plan to make a space in the roof where it has completely collapsed so that there is a space for a few figures to stand up. So I have put some floorboards in. I don't want to put too many in as I have a really limited stock of them at the moment. I'll use some stirrers to make the eaves. Then I'll cover that in mounting card and then use thin card to do the roof tile.

The fact that I haven't made a lot of progress today is really my fault as I have mad a few mistakes. The biggest was putting the base of the roof upside down which meant there was not covered of some of the extension. This took a bit of time but at least the glue hadn't dried when I realised what I had done.

So I have been able to put right but others have proved impossible without starting all over again which is something that I am not prepared to do. The house is supposed to look rough so I am not that bothered.

 

It will look okay when it's finished. All I need is some more time, sand, stirrers, fence panels, flock, foliage, imitation water and a dozen bits of clutter. All of them (except the time) are stuff in boxes which I can't find, so I guess there might be a pause coming up.

A New Post Apocalypse

I have had an idea in my head for a while. I watched a film about seven years ago called Origins: Spirits of the Past. I don't mind a bit of anime as long as there are not too many tentacles. I saw it on a monitor in a Virgin Superstore which should date it a bit. I just fell in love with the look. The apocalypse in this case was plants taking over. Then I read a roleplaying game called Summerland. Very Indie, more about the story. Less about dice and not very figure friendly. The game I am planning is not really either of these but I guess there will be elements of them in there somewhere.

What I was going to do was take the figures from Scavenge Skirmish Survive which are all outdoors types and some fantasy figures and make into something that would fit into the wild woods. This means moving into 28mm buildings which is not something I have done for a while.

The world as we know is now covered with trees. So houses are ruined, building collapse, roads are overgrown and wild things run around the woods. The look is similar to Stalker. I can also see things like the surface in Metro 2033, I am Legend (but with more ruin and trees) or The Last Of Us.

So I want so terrain to reflect that. This is not the kind of thing that is easy to find. So I thought I would do my own. This is the first one.

There is a lot to do on his one, not least it needs to be fastened to a board. I have decided to use a standard sized board which will be cut down from something that I found in B+Q (which I will get a picture of eventually).