End Of The Week - Better than expected (37)

It's not been such a bad week for figure painting. Most of what I have been working on for the last three weeks is now done and somenew stuff has made it through to completion. I am not feeling finishing the last two figues off for some reason but I am sure I will get round to them soon enough. I did start the Lizardmen skinks and have finished the first twelve and I have started the next dozen which are well on the way to being finished.

Skinks. There are rather a lot of them and more yet to do. These are a nice easy paint job as they are mostly low-detail plastic. There will be more next week and probably the week after that too. I now really hate turquoise.

This guy is the Frostgrave Snow Troll. He looks better here than he does in real life. I can see a few gaming uses for him so he seemed like a worthwhile project.

These are all Wargames Foundry  Street Violence figures. I got a job lot of eBay more than ten years ago when I was foing a lot of moden role playing. This is a nice range of figures and relatively easy to paint.

More Street Violence figues from the Foundry. These come from a coupleof different sets but as they are all dressed in green this seemed like the place to put them. Thre is no real purpose other than I was tired of them sitting there.

Artizan designs is where I got these cowboys from. Thy have just been sat around fo a while, the best part of five years I guess. When I first started painting 28mm figues for the blog I think it was some moe of the figues I got with these. How times fly.

This is really a mixed bag. On the far left is a Frostgrave vampire. I don't mcuh like this figure and I struggled to get him to look right. Second left is a Reaper gladiator whcih I got about fifteen years ago making it the oldest of todays crop. I am not sure about the crazy lady on the inner right but I think she came fom Black Tree Designs. On the outer left is the latest of what I have been calling the last of the Viking project. This figure came from Gripping Beast about five years ago when I first started the project off.

There is supposed to be another pictue here but it seems to be having problems loading it up. It's another four Street Violence figures. Some are meant to be members of the A-Team from the eighties which I guess dates the range or at least the designer. he others are just some random figues I got in the bulk buy.

I guess all of the Foundry stuff was set to do double duty for modern and post-apocalypse stuff. On the whole I like thema lot and they fit well with my Copplestone stuff. Definately more at the heroic end of the market.

Generally I would call this a good week but it has been a grind. The New, New Cruelty is happy enough. In genreal I have been just about okay with what I have achieved this year. I am glad I have almost finished most of what I have set out to do and I am now almost back on track again if not still slightly ahead. Given that I usually class figures like the skinks as half a figure I am still behind (should be closer to 31 and not 37).

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.

Graft

I've said a number of times that I am not a big fan of basing. For me it's pretty much the worst element of figure painting. I should probably put a bit more effort in and then I would probably get better results. Even so, it has become the kind of thing that I do when I can't focus on the details of figure painting.

So today I started something that has been really hard work.  Having glued some bits together for the wargame sabot bases yesterday I have put some texture on them and given them a green base coat. I wanted to get ahead on this because tomorrow I am hoping to come away with a whole load more bases, maybe double the number I already have. My thinking was that if I don't do some of them now, the pile of bases will put me off completely. Now I have enough bases for about one army with a few spares and options. There are fifteen bases done. Mostly they are standard infantry bases but there are a couple for regular cavalry, and one each for heavy cavalry, irregular infantry and smaller monsters.

Hopefully I'll have a duplicate of this set so I can run two armies. With a bit of luck I will also have an odds and sods set with some different base layouts, irregular infantry, larger monsters and even some light artillery.

If the plan goes better than expected I might even have some more regular bases and some larger irregular bases that will do for terrain areas like swamps and woods.

At the end of the day I did get a chance to work on the week's figures. They don't really fit with anything on the horizon but the Arthurian age (Romano British) types are nice minis and the other figure which I think is a Frostgrave captain looks pretty good. I am worried that I have slacked off a bit on these to do the stuff for FabLab. For the most part they now have a base colour and tomorrow I am planning to ink them up and make a start on the highlighting, assuming the extra bases don't get in the way.

Well They Were Cheap

So it's New year's Eve. I don't imagine I will be doing too much drinking but a nice meal and some time spent in front of the TV will be fine with me.

I am not GWs biggest fan but at the same time, sometimes they do some nice figures. The nicest figures they d at the moment are for the Hobbit/LOTR. I got these on eBay relatively cheaply. They are repaints which means that they were never going to end up looking perfect.  I've looked at them online at the GW store and nearly choked when I saw how much they cost to buy new. On the down side, one does have a rather bendy sword.

I am not a big fan of painting figures in black. It is never much fun. I think I did okay with these. Not my best work but not too bad. They are not quite the true Viking Dark Age vibe but they are close enough to do what I need them to do.

I was tempted to paint one up as a more traditional ghost as I don't really have anything I could use as  ghost but I have a few wraith like figures already. I will have to figure a way to make them translate into Savage Worlds.

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.

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.

Paint Table Saturday - The Dark Age Continues

Things have a habit of going slightly off course I my house om a typical weekend. This weekend being one of them. Easter happened. Or was it Happy Zombie Jesus weekend. Pagan festivals with lots of chocolate? It's like it's fated that LARPing would start. This all served to make it slightly more complicated than normal but lets face, normal is a fairly abstract concept  at the best of times.

So this is paint table Saturday. I did most of this on Saturday with a few bits finished off this morning. It started with a brew, a change of water for the brushes and a clean up. This where I started:-

I had spent a bit of money when I went shopping. I had wanted to try some Windsor and Newton ink and whilst I was out I got some mineral gel to see if it worked for basing.

This is where I ended up. It was a day of finishing things off and starting a few new things. most of this had already been started, but now, short of a spray of varnish, a lot is now finished.

If you are wondering what the big pile of wood is, it's set to be the deck of a home made Viking Longship. It might take a bit of time to finish it and I have to work a few things out as  do them but it should be ready in a few weeks. the idea behind a lot of this stuff was to make the table top world a bit more interesting. I like games with a visual element and I was hoping that the world would look a bit more like the villages in Skyrim.

This is a big celtic cross from Ainsty. One of the images that started me going towards the Viking game was a celtic cross in a graveyard in the Lake District. If  was going to do a dark age game, I would have to have one. I swapped out the original base because i wanted something that would work better with grid movement.

 The sheep are from gripping beast. I thought I was doing okay but I have seen some done much better recenty that ut mine to shame.

More stuff from Ainsty. I like the way the cabbages turned out. Not much use for their wares but will hopefully trip the layers up.

More Gripping Beast stuff. A hand cart. This is more for trip hazard and cover than anything else. as I don't usually undercoat, it was hard work to get the paint to stay on. Once it has been varnished, it should be fine.

This is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of the barrels are Rendera and some I was given a long time ago. There are a few gripping beast bits and the rest is more Ainsty stuff.

Lastly, I got a bit distracted, I had some paint left on a brush, So I ended up dabbling with these figures. There was a zombie as well but I haven't got a clue what happened to that one. These are obviously a long way from being finished.

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.

Bonus Post - Basing Bash

Well the painting continues. I am still a little too woozy to do anything too detailed so I thought what the hell, I have been planning on doing the basing anyway. I was hoping to "touch up" a few more zombies, if that is the right phrase. Hopefully I will be feeling better tomorrow so I can do a bit of work on them. In the meantime, the basing bash continues.

The basing bash continues.

The process is quite simple. PVA glue followed by some fine sand. This is left to dry for about a day or maybe a bit less. Most of the colour on the bases is emulsion paint. In the UK, Wilkinsons seem to do the best colours for my purposes. As these are fantasy figures I used mainly brown and green. there are a few bad guys n grey painted bases. I also had some sandy coloured GW basing texture I wanted to use up before it went off completely. Then I added a few dabs of green to give the look of small plants. I will move on and dry brush and maybe add some inks. I may even add a bit of static grass if my enthusiast continue. 

Most of these are destined fr my Viking/Skyrim Savage World RPG game although there are a lot of generic fantasy figures in here. I may even take up Saga at this rate.

eBay Vikings

Feeling a lot better today. My fingers don't feel quite as swollen as they have done and I am not sneezing wheezing or complaining as much. After what I thought was a good day on the blog yesterday, where I got just short of 250 posts, today I have had my best ever day with over 450 hits so far. If you are one of the people who spent a lot of time looking around my blog, feel free to say hi.
 
I "won" several Vikings off eBay last week and now have the energy to go out and pick them up from the parcel office.

They are not bad. I just want some more to pad out the collection for the up-coming game. The figures themselves aren't the greatest but the paint job is pleasant. The basing is nice but I guess when I get round to doing the basing, I will put them onto round bases eventually.

I have no idea whose models they are, if any one knows, please let me know.

I haven't had a lot of time today but what time I have had, I have spent tarting up the figure bases. They are now starting to look a little like they are properly finished. They are good enough, but not finished. Hopefully tommorow will see some more time and maybe some truly finished minis.

Another Day, Another Struggle

Today has been another struggle to get something online. Time is against me and there are a lot of demands for my time. But what the hell. So I'll make it short.

 

I have at least managed to finish another figure off. He is a Viking sailor for the upcoming Viking game. I have him in mind for an NPC who will be the captain of the ship I am likely to put at the players disposal.

Viking Women

In my head I have a bit of catching up to do with my blog. I have developed this idea that I am am going to post every day during February. Today has been really hard to get my mojo going. My parents have been staying with me for a few days and they have now gone. This means that I probably won't see them for a few months, which is not so good. My and my other half have colds and there are one or two things about to change.

Rapidly becoming the bane of my life

One of the changes I want to make is to finish of these damn Viking women minis. I always have to have a few civilians lying around for games to give the games a bit of local colour. These, and some overly complicated mage types have been hanging around in various forms on un-completion for months. So before the week is out, I want these minis boxed off, so to speak. Then I can concentrate on something I feel is more meaningful.

Viking Game - What's On The Workbench

Most of my attention is focused on the Viking game at the moment. It is due to start in twelve weeks so I have a bit of work to do yet. I don't know if I am going to finish painting them alll off. I suspect that I will concentrate on adding finishing touches to stuff off closer to the game such as basing and shields. In the mean time, I'll see what models I can finish off.

What I am short of at the moment is bad guys. When I have previously painting Opfors in fantasy games I have chosen a colour scheme that stands out. I have spent some money on eBay buying up old GW stuff that should hopefully fit the bill. There are some Army of the Dead miniatures and some small ent monsters. I am hoping that these will be quick to do. Whilst the painting might involve a bit of work, the colour palette is limited on them so should be quite quick even if I put the work in.

There is a fair bit of stuff from Mirliton to do. These are mainly elves, magic users, clerics and barbarians but there are some nice evil dwarves too. There are some more warriors from Gripping Beast to round out my forces. There are even a few more civilians to do most of which are from Foundry. Amongst the odds and sods are some Warlord casualties. These may be a bit of a cheat as they are supposed to be Celts but if I don't tell anyone, I am sure no one will notice.

I wonder how many I am going to finish.

Dark Age Buildings For The Viking Game

I already own quite a bit of dark age terrain but you can never have enough can you? This is my current temporary obsession and I have no idea how much longer this is going to last. I didn't set out to buy any more but this is mainly because I have a of of bits to paint already but when I saw this stuff I thought what the hell. So when I saw some stuff by Gripping Beast last week at Varpantak in York I thought what the hell. Most of the stuff I have was by PMC which is now owned by Caliver. This is pre-painted and fairly pleasing on the eye. Compared to this, the Gripping Beast stuff is expensive. That said the old PMC stuff is now a lot more expensive than it used to be.

They were quick enough to paint. There isn't too much in the way of creative choices to make here. They have been inked and I am still trying to figure out whether or not I want to highlight them. They have a nice period feel but I still think I prefer the PMC stuff.

Dwarves - Some Work In Progress

I think I just hit forty thousand hits so today is a good day. Not so good that I want to make it an extra post but good enough.

This is really a work in progress post. I haven't finished much off in the last week but I am trying to get some things up on the web so that I feel like I am making progress. I have been out gaming today, playing Nuts. It's a WW2 game but more of that another day.

I always liked the Grenadier fantasy miniatures. I have been thinking about buying some off Mirliton but when I found these on eBay, I thought what the hell. I am currently working on eight of them and I think there are about another dozen to go. They don't look like much now but I am pretty sure that they will polish up quite nicely.

 

I was hoping to get something either dark age or Norse looking and to be honest these will do nicely for that. There is a lot of mail and a bit too much plate but it does mean that they should be a fairly easy paint job.

Today, for me the war is over. Valentine's day is coming earlier in my house so I think I won't be doing much of anything else for the rest of the day.

Berserkers 2

I have managed a daily post so this month so I hope this is going to make it through the month. So some more berserkers today with the previous ones being here. These have sat on the work bench for a while and are now pretty much finished. They lack a little of the wolfy quality. The poses are quite nicely animated so should be great as rpg character types. Still need to be sprayed and based.

I am kind of think that I need to start on some scenery and terrain.

Bersekers

Well I have actually finished something. Aside from the basing obviously. These are some Gripping Beast berserkers. To my eye they look pretty good. With the upcoming Viking game (yawn, sorry) I was after more unusual figures. I intend to borrow some so what I was after were the more unusual types that people are not going to have in their armies and these are some of them. I have some more berserk types which are next in the paint queue so hopefully these should be posted here soon.

I need to start working on some terrain too. As it's going to be a savage worlds game, I am planning on making the terrain with grids on. I posted a picture of the celtic cross the other day. I think I am going to remove the base and place the cross on something a bit more amenable for gaming, like gridded foam core.

I.m also working on some Skyrim/Viking adventure deck cards. I am probably not going to do as many as I did for the Fallout game but there should still be a deck full.