Deadline: XMAS!

I’ve made more progress on my Chain of Command US Army force over the last few days. Batch painting this many will take a while but will be the most efficient way to get them done. I hope to get them done to use over the Xmas period. Bit of a tall order but I’ll try!

I’ve also started the Oriental Nef that I picked up from Blotz at the Warfare Gaming Show. I’m pretty pleased with how it’s come out. Hopefully with a bit of paint I’ll be able to make the side sails look slightly less flat.

I really must take stock in the New Year as I've got sooo many things started. A list! I must make a list of things to finish in 2019!

TTFN

30K terminators and a dollop of Dystopian Legions

I put these terminators together in Aug 2015 and they have been languishing in a foam tray ever since. They represent the start of another push at getting more 30K stuff done and some games played. I love the setting but we’ve given it a woeful amount of time especially in light of the number and quantity of forces we have.

These were put together from Scibor bodies, Anvil heads and shoulder pads and GW terminator arms. I liked the chunkiness of the Scibor bodies and thought they looked good as prototype Terminator armour.

I’ve done heavy battle damage and wear on all my previous 30K stuff so these took a similar pounding from the sponges to distress them. I like the look of it on the power fist knuckles. Looks like they been smacking the crap out of stuff!

I’ve also been getting all of the DL stuff undercoated and it all stands ready now. Sadly they weren’t paying attention and the GoGX Sylvaneth army slipped into the queue in front of them. I still do intend to get them to the table this year.

The termies have helped my Net tally but the recent Sylvaneth haven't. Figures for the year are now:

Purchased: +85

Painted:      -48

Net:            +37

I'll need to concentrate on the Sylvaneth over the next few months to ensure that they are done to deadlines however I am still determined to get the bulk of my unpainted 30K stuff finished and make good inroads into the DL & PC stuff.

TTFN.

Areonef Marking part Deux

Adding the extra little detail markings to the US Nefs has spurred me onto doing the Brit ones as well. I'd always thought they were lacking but had struggled to be inspired with ideas for what I could add. Whilst searching for the US ones I saw World War One aircraft markings and that is where I drew the inspiration for the tail details for theirs.

So I started in the same place for the Brit ones and wasn't disappointed. So using the tracing paper approach I ended up putting roundels and identity letters onto all three British Nefs. The tail colours have ended up being quite 'tricolour' but hey it still looks a load better than the plain colours in my opinion.

I also added the funnel colours which make a big difference.

This is another three finished this year so:

Purchased: +20
Painted: -20

Net: 0

Thankfully I'm not anticipating buying much else other than the next two Nef when they are finished so getting some more done should put me well into a net negative number. It would be nice to get to -365 but this might be a tall order depending on the occasional bouts of weakness that result in naughty internet purchases.

We shall see.

TTFN

Aeronef Markings

I've been a bit stuck on how to approach the marking for the Aeronefs I've finished so far. The Brit ones are still needing something adding but I think I know what however the US ones are done.

I've not done a lot just enough to add to the model but not look to silly.

I'm not going to worry about the basing until they are all done then I can have a big basing session to get them all finished.

TTFN

Termies and Nefs

This week I've managed to make some progress on both sets of terminators.

The Iron Hands have received their coats of red and this leaves them ready for detailing, decals and weathering. Plenty to do still but progressing well.

The Iron Warriors will take a bit more work. I've added both the black and white to their pads in a random fashion as I did with the MKiiis. I don't want the hazard striping to be too uniform. Once the white has two coats I then carefully add the stripes. This took a while but I like the effect once finished. These will need a little tidying up but after that they can have their yellow wash to complete the hazard panels.

Once that is dry the whole figure will have black wash to dull down the metallic grey and to make the yellow a little less glaring. Then they'll be at the same place as the Iron Hands and I can batch paint all twenty eight to finish the details off. It'll be nice to finish off a whole tray that has been sat untouched for over two years.

Also finished are the two US Aeronefs for the Martian VSF. I keep referring to it as Dystopian Legion but it really has evolved past that so VSF it is from now on. I'm thinking of adding decals to both these and the Britiannian ones but I want to have a good snoop around to choose the right sort of decals. I'm thinking of white WWII style stars for the Yankie ones but I'm not sure if that will modernise them to much?

Hopefully Blotz will have the next two ready soon.

Two things finished. Puts me at +3 YTD.

TTFN

Edit for a requested picture.

Another 'Nef

I've finished construction on the third Aeronef kit that I commissioned from Blotz.

It has turned out really well and is a really easy kit to pop together. I'm pleased with how much deck space this one has although it will lose some of that once the monitor style gun goes on. The lack of railings at the front will also look less silly once the armament is on. The Roanoke class tug should be ready soonish hopefully and I'll get myself a deck gun when I order that.

I'm going to go with an un-historically early US green as a colour scheme. I think it'll work well with the decking being a mix of browns. Question is: White Stars? I'm not sure when the US started using them but they are quite distinctive so I may well do some.

I found some of the Pulp Figure range last weekend at the Warfare show in Reading. I'm really looking forward to painting them up as crew for the 'Nef. The quandary here is whether or not to paint the uniforms blue with white trim or white with blue trim. I'm leaning towards the latter as I'm imagining my VSF Mars as being a temperate place more suited for the white uniforms.

Rules wise this project is looking decidedly like its not going to be Dystopian Legions but VSF under a completely different rules set. Urn suggested the konflict '49 rules and Junta has kindly donated a rule book with this in mind. It looks, on face value, as a rule set that should be easy enough to tweak to my needs.

Work has also continued on painting Massive Darkness figures. the first tranche are nearly ready and these coupled with some hero figures will take me over my target of 365 for the year. Huzzah!

TTFN

Tesla Guns!

Krak Kerpow ZZappp!

Yeah 'Lecky Guns for zapping people!

Dinky little kit from Blotz and it only took an hour to put both together.

I think I'll add some extra rivets to the base and some power cables as well. I might have to see if I can find two of those old GW ork gun sights to add to them ACME styleeee!

TTFN

Letting myself get distracted.

With only a few weeks to go for the painting deadline I should have my nose to the grind stone getting the last figures painted for myself impose challenge. 60 still to do so what do I do?

Something else completely different of course!

Being so close to the finish line my mind has wandered off into 2018 with a view to setting some goals for next year. Yes yes I know I haven’t finished this year but it’s just how my mind works!

Sat around my study over the last few years has been the collection of Dystopian Legions (DL) stuff that I purchased ooooh sooo long ago. I’ve always been interested in the Victorian Sci-Fi but never really got to have a crack at it gaming wise. I even had a copy of Space 1889 but never played. That desire is what lead to all the purchases of DL and also the 6mm Dystopian Wars (DW) stuff. It had been niggling at me that nothing had come of these so I became resolved to do something about it. Well that was over a year ago and still nothing happened. Well apart from Junt and I conning Urn to buy loads of stuff for it as well. 

We had come to a consensus that it would be fun to take DL to Mars. I suspect that this may have been driven by me but I will deny it if so accused. However that notion stuck, germinated and started to grow. First it stemmed into the idea of a couple of funky Aeronef flyers to supplement the land forces we already had and then, like so many of the notions in my head, it got out of hand.

Long story short …..Aeronef started getting designed. Then I balked at scratch-building all these ideas. Then it occurred to me that they might be good in MDF. Looking around there are a few people making Aeronef but they weren’t what I was looking for or were too big. So I resolved to contact a manufacturer to see if some could be made. I had to good fortune to choose Blotz as my first port of call and I am very pleased that I did. Since the early contact the idea was well received and handled in a stress-less manner. So in just a short time the first two designs from the project have gone from concept sketches to scale drawings and onto being finished things. I have to say it has been fun! Slightly surreal getting your own design through the post as a kit to put together but fun none the less!

The first two were the Kingdom of Britainnia ones primarily because they were the simplest designs on which I could get some idea of how to proceed with the drawings that Blotz would need. I will admit to being quite pleased with how they have turned out.

A Patrol boat for HM’s forces…..

…..and a light launch to ferry troops around.

As this had come from the DL perspective I’d intended the large ones to be ‘sky tanks’ and the smaller ones to be ‘Sky APCs’. I suspect however that the DL rules will be thrown out of the window, due to them being poorly received, and a new rule set will be found which will give the Aeronef a life of their own.

Given that we have five DL factions between the three of us that have DL, then ten designs are required in total. The first two are finished, the next is now with Blotz and the fourth will be pinged over shortly. I’ve been scribbling away on new design ideas trying to make each new one markedly different from the others which is a fun challenge.

I keep having to rein myself in with the practical limitations of size. I doubt the Long Haired General at home really wants a house full of massive sky ships. Shame. I’d love it. ;-)

If you like them then head over to Blotz where they are available to buy or keep an eye out for the new ones in future.

TTFN

And so it begins

Junt, Urn and I have been egging each other on quite a lot this year and the result seems to have manifested in to a challenge.

What challenge? To paint 365 figures in a year. This obviously equates to one a day which seems daunting but casting my eye back over the last year I seem to have painted well over 200+ items and that includes big scenery pieces that have taken more than a week for each one. I’ve also prepped and made lots of figures and scenery. Given that I often batch paint big groups of figures the target of 365 seems less scary.

A year dedicated to clearing some of the backlog of figures? Yeah I’m up for that.

Junt also mentioned that we should try and maintain momentum with the gaming itself and suggested 52 games in a year. Given how easily life distracts us from fun things, I think this is going to be HARD but hey…..I’m up for that challenge as well!

The 365 figures that I’m hoping to get done include:

40+        40K Eldar

140+      30K Marines, Mechanicum & Solar Auxilia

20+        Pulp City heroes and civilians

80+        Dystopian Wars for both the KoB and PE

70+        Seraphon

50+        Dystopian Legion for both KoB and PE

150+      Massive Darkness figures yet to arrive from a Kickstarter.

Okay, that actually total in excess of 550 figures which will be something of a reach to achieve but that’s the reason for the challenge. Soooooo many figures waiting to be painted. I wish it were all that is sat unpainted in my study. Gotta start somewhere I suspose!

I was planning to start on January 1^st but I need to get cracking on the Seraphon for February and as such I’ve started the challenge already. 11^th December 2016 is the day of commencement and by this time next year I want to have completed at least 365 figures from the list above. We shall see.

The GoGs are heading for Nottingham on 10/02/17 and I need to have an army ready. I have the BFG’s seraphon on loan under the condition that I paint it and this is a convenient starting point. I’ve got 2 months to paint 70+ figures and I’ll be happy to get 30+ figures done per month as it’ll show me how difficult it is to keep on track.

Now the Seraphon should be a quick paint….

  

…but as usual I find a way to complicate the process. I’ve gone for a wash effect for the main colour scheme but I wanted to have their armour plates in a different colour but also tonally similar to the main colour. This means adding a base colour to parts of the model prior to the quick wash. Probably doesn’t actually take much longer but just feels like it when you’re trying to do 37 in one batch! Probably will only take one more evening to finish the first stage and then onto applying the wash.

Only one thing left to say.

0 finished in 3/362 days

Gulp!

TTFN

An inconsistent week but....

...I've still managed to make more progress on both the DL figure prep and the DW PE land forces.

Wave one of the DW PE are all but finished now. I only need to glue a couple of shrubs to the bases to break them up a bit and they will be totally done. the next challenge with these is to work out what to store them in?

I'm about half way through the DL figures but of the ones I have left there are a fair number that will need extra pinning work. Hopefully most of the standard infantry types will be prepped next week.

I fairly pleased with how these PE tanks have turned out. I'm glad I resisted the urge to try a camo scheme as they probably would have ended up looking to 'busy'. I'm not sure the choice of the grey for the electro bits on the sides worked out but I was hesitant to have more metallics on such a small figure.

  
I'm also quite pleased that i'd textured the tracks behind the tanks. A bit of Devlan Mud picked them out quite well without them being to obvious. Shame about the one that I'd managed to mess up by having the tracks come out of the front of the model. Doh!

 All in all this lot is about 1900 points which I suspect is more than enough basic forces. Still to add is wave 2 made up of artillery, massive robots and several Zeppalins.....oh and the ginormous land aircraft carrier.

I suspect however that I will do the basic KoB forces first to give me two fieldable forces.

What next? Well more DL at work during the lunchtimes and also a small amount of KoB DW stuff to bring them closer to being at a similar strength to the PE.

I might have a break from DW for a week and get a couple of Infinity figures done. Especially as it appears that I have another game scheduled for Thursday. :-D

TTFN

Starting to muster the troops

Another lunchtime and some more progress.

This time just some infantry.

I really should decide on a paint scheme for both forces. I think I'm pretty much going to stick to redcoats and blue trousers for the Brits but it is the Prussians that I keep changing my mind on.

Do I go with a very historical grey uniform or opt for something different? I saw a nice sandy desert style colour scheme that someone had posted on the Spartan forums and a few with dark green tunics that look good. Decisions decisions!

TTFN

Progress on all fronts

Despite my children's attempts to stop me getting anything done I still managed to get some more done on the first wave of my DW PE last night.

I gave them all a wash of Devlan Mud. I was hoping that it would pick out the detail a bit more and to some extent it has but it also added a touch more mottling than I would have hoped for. That aside I am still fairly pleased with how much of the detail has been retained on these models.

Just the basing to do on these and I'm not quite sure how to proceed with that as I normally do a black base highlighted up with browns for 28mm figures. Somehow I think that will be odd looking at this scale. I shall quiz the Spartan forums to see what others have done.

Also managed to get a couple more DL done at lunch today.

The pile is growing.....slowly.

TTFN

Trundling along.

Got some additional bits prepped for DL.

This time the KoB tankies and a specialist weapon for the PE.

Still loads to do but I have a sneaking suspicion that these might get bumped in favour of some Age of Sigmar stuff.

We shall see.

TTFN

Absolutely spiffing!

Managed to get another couple of figures popped together over the last few lunchtimes.

All the Dystopian Legions figures that I've tinkered with so far have all been really characterful. Colonel MacDonald is especially so!

He is great and I'm really looking forward to painting him.

Next up is the General Conveyor. A dinky little APC type thing for the KoB infantry. Nice simple model that goes together really easily. I might have to acquire some more in the future.

TTFN

Excuse me Rene....

...can I show you my little tankie?

Dinky little tanks ain't they!

Nice enough models. The interface between the track sections and the main body could be better. These are just stuck on the side and they could have quite easily have had a better join between them. Still they look pretty good.

TTFN

A little lunchtime activity.

With me starting on painting the DW stuff, my mind has turned to the Dystopian Legions pile that I've had for......far....too....long.

Off to work it goes and I'm planning to plug away prepping a couple of figures each lunchtime until they are already for a mass undercoating session in a few months. I might have actually finished painting the DW by then so these stand a chance of seeing the business end of a paint brush this year finally.

That is unless 30K or one of the other much neglected piles of figures inspires me more.

I had actually completely forgotten how much of a pain in the bum prepping metal figures was but it should be worth it as I am looking forward to painting the Britannians and their Prussian counterparts.

TTFN

Stuff got done and stuff got brought!

Seeing my faction for Deadzone has yet to materialize I thought it best to get the scenery done and out of the way so I'm free when the figures actually do turn up.

The scenery itself is pretty good but I would question the small number of the more useful joining widgets.

In other news.......I failed a willpower test. This little lot upgrades my pile of Spartan kit from "Hill" to "Escarpment". Only a few more purchases to reach "Mountain". I really must get started on all this!

:-)

Hobbying at Xmas

Sadly I didn't get as much time as I'd hoped but I did get a chance to progress a couple of bits.

Firstly the scenery for Dystopian Legions is all but finished. I'm not sure that I'm going to do much more to these now as I can't imagine we will get to play DL anytime soon and I reeeeeaaaaallllyyy must get on with some of the prep I need to do for Sin6 and The MARCH to war (big battles planned between GoGs in March.

Thankfully I am nearly finished on the things I need for Sin6 as the Storm Talon only needs a coat of army painter as does the whirlwind turret that I've knocked together to replace the bolters on one of my Razorbacks.

Dystopian Legions Scenery

I've been able to make a bit of progress on some of the scenery I've brought for DysT' Legions. So far I've finished the Dunny and the Stable and the other buildings are all undercoated white. I think I''m going to try for a southern European feel with white-ish walls and orangey roof tiles.

I'm quite pleased with how these have turned out really. I tried to mottle the wood of the walls to age them and I think it turned out okay. It was fun and simple to do using a flesh wash and brown ink.

New Scenery

Warfare is always bad for my wallet. Fact.

There is a cliche' about having an Angel and a Devil whispering in your ears. In my version I had three Devils; Von, Silverback and Junta were all egging me on to buy more and more Warmill stuff. They know how weak I am!

Anyhoo I ended up with four of the new Warmill shipping containers and very nice they are too. Not the simpliest of kits as you have to be very careful with several place specific parts that are very similar looking. Like Ikea on acid! Nice models tho'.

I also got some of the cheap Warbases modular building to be scenery for our upcoming games of Dystopian Legions. Under £30 got me nine buildings. They needed roofing but that is a quick enough job. Especially if you take them to work and do them in your lunch breaks. It's okay.....my colleagues know I am a nerd. In fact they are so accustomed to it that all that is left is a casual interest in what I am actually doing ;-)