The First Day OF The New, New Cruelty

I started out with the idea to do bingo to keep me motivated for the year. It works for other people, so why not give it a try. So I woke up and got on with it. I was looking at a good way to kick start the year. I have had a tin filled with work in process minis stuck on old GW paint pots which have sat there for at least two years. Some of them have taken a little bit of a bashing and they were all covered in fluff. 

For the last month or so they have been the background project. To the uninitiated this is something on the bench that isn't my primary project but is  something I started to paint with my usual gusto that has gotten lost with the appearance of the new shiny. Generally they only get touched when I have some spare paint on the palette.

So as per the rules of bingo, I have finished the backlog, painted ten minis and have achieved a bonus by painting ten more. As the rules call for figures completed in 2025, with the emphasis on finished, I am claiming three boxes. I can claim 106 items so if I keep up this pace I will hit my target by early February. Ah got to love the hubris of a New Years resolution.

Just to annoy myself I have lost a Wookie. Not a full sized one obviously. There should be four and I can only find three. There is more Star Wars Legion stuff coming. I think tomorrow I will finish a good chunk of these done.

Not Quite Black Friday

Christmas comes but once a year. Which might be too often. For me the season starts with Black Friday. Not because I start my shopping but because of Dead Rising 4. I do like my zombies.

It now includes the first movie of the season. I do like a good holiday movie. Thanks to the king of the comedy zombie movie Bruce Campbell for staring in Black Friday. A movie so good they renamed it Black Friday! It's all in the exclamation point. I know it's not today, but I think I am happy with the season commencing a few days early. I mean it snowed last week. It's totally fine.

So it is back to the bench. I am thinking I have some zombies in the queue. I need to finish my Star Wars Legion stuff. This is getting pretty close. For the most part I am down to the detailing and sorting the bases out. 

This should be done by the weekend. Then I have no idea what happens next. I have plenty of choice.

More Tiny Steps

Long COVID is a barrel of laughs. I think I am having a good day then LC says forget that and pay attention to me. I did get some stuff done and then the wall said hello again. Suddenly I don't have the energy to change the channel on the TV. It can't be a bad day because I now have the energy to be upright. Two posts in two days says something else.

So I managed to prime about twenty minis including three Battletech mechs and some stuff for Sludge. I was planning on carving some raised terrain for Battletech and got one piece carved out of the twenty or so I had planned. On top of this I managed to put some things in the right place so I can finish some more hexes. Not for Battletech. 

Now I am hoping for some more energy tomorrow. Past experience says that is probably not going to happen. What I will get s another wall and a lot of brain fog. Still that will be better than the last few months.

Progressing With BattleTech

Having picked up the brush for the first time in a year, I am making some progress. I just can't focus for long periods of time anymore. So I will take what I can get. I wanted to keep up the tempo with the BattleTech stuff.

I have acquired another two mechs. These were classed as painted. Lots of grey in the nooks and crannies but it's a start.

They are still a little way off being finished. I am working on some transfers but need some clear gloss acrylic varnish before I can do that.

Whilst not the best work I have ever done, let's say I am out of practice, they look better than a lot of what I am seeing online. 

Still it has given me the urge to start posting again. I doubt I will get back to a post per day, but a post a month would make me feel a bit more in the game again. I have a load of Sludge stuff to do. Not to forget the Grey Legion.

Unexpected Projects

I now have an almost pathological avoidance of games my friends want to play. Over time I have been drawn into many expensive projects that have been shelved before my first purchase has arrived. Many of those that don't fail for a variety of reasons like suddenly moving away or making a decision to buy every Napoleonic army in 6mm.

Still at the blobby stage

So a couple of my mates are playing Battletech. I've played it in the past. Almost forty years in the past. I had been thinking about it in much the same way. I have to admit I was wrong. They actually like the game and want to keep playing. As a birthday present I got a couple of box sets and some random extra mechs.

Suddenly I am back to painting. For the first time in months. Trying a few different things. Not least is a leaning more towards contrast types of paint. Then I've taken moulds of some mech bits and used greenstuff to make base scatter. 

I have some of my mojo back. My painting area is now back up and running properly after almost a year. I've even got a proper wet pallet as I couldn't find my home made one.

Once I've done the mechs, I think I have twenty four of them, I am going to move onto Sludge, and finish of the stuff that has been waiting for final touches for a year. 

Plodding Along

I would say its a shame that I haven't had much time to paint of late but I have to say that is mostly not true. Things have been pretty good of late. Aside from work at least. There is some fun stuff and I have done more gaming in the last couple of months than I have done in the last couple of year and I am having a lot of fun being a parent.

All if that said, this is work in progress, but that's progress right?

Still I found some time today. Whilst I am feeling the urge to move towards Stargrave or Sludge, I still have a load of the little fold on the work bench. Many of my recent painting goals have revolved around humanoid races. For the Viking game I have done enough black elves leaving me with the white elves left to do. I also have some gaps in what I wanted for the character figures for the dwarves, specifically some more obscure character classes and female dwarves. Then the race I have been putting of, the halflings, mainly as they don't feel they fit with the Viking game, I just wanted to do them.

So a few of the white elves have made it though. I am not altogether happy with them. I am not sure I can really make them any better without stripping them, As I don't see that happening I guess this is where they will stop.

The halflings look a little better. There are a few conversions in here that seem to have been worth it. I wanted some more classes than the original figures allowed and of course there are never enough female characters.

Lastly are the dwarves. I have a batch of the old grenadier dwarves I did a few years ago. Again, as most figures are geared towards building armies, there are relatively few female figures, So I have a few more here. The figure with the bird is supposed to be a magic user. As I have a few of those, this would either do as a senior mage in the Viking game or a druid.

 

Stargrave, Fallout and Wargames Illustrated 402

My other half kindly gave me a copy of the latest Wargames Illustrated. Most, if not all, issues now come with a sprue of miniatures. This month it was Romans from Warlord Miniatures. Much as I like free stuff, I don't really do ancients.

Then I remembered an idea for a project I had a decade ago. Fallout: New Vegas featured a group called Caesar's Legion. They featured in some of the deep lore if the game. So when it came to seeing my attempt at a tabletop RPG background set in Arizona, these seemed to be a natural choice as the looming big bad. That game was really done in 15mm but I wanted to do this in 28mm again.

So I have some free  Roman figures. I have a bunch of extra arms  from Stargrave and some equipment. Couple this with a few hours to myself and a knife. I doubt they are perfect but what the hell.