donderdag 23 juli 2009

Current Ops

So what have I been doing lately?

The "one hour rule" wasn't really needed to keep painting over the past week or so. I have been painting a lot more without having to force myself. I guess seeing the progress that I'm making works pretty inspiring. And I haven't felt any urge to buy new stuff.

The project I'm concentrating on for the moment is a 15mm WW2 Russian army for skirmish gaming. Basing myself on the army lists in Mongoose Publishing's World at War, they are the nucleus for other games likes TWAT and IABSM by the Lardies. A while back I had painted one squad just for fun but last week I prepared three more squads for painting. I'm now putting the finishing touches on the last one while prepping some command figures and a pair of HMG teams. All I need to do then is paint two mortar teams, a T34/85 and a couple of SU85s to finish a 1500 point force. I'm aiming for the first club meeting after the summer reces to field this army in a game. That gives me a good two weeks to complete this task.

The army list:
Command section (without AT rifle team): 3 figures
4 infantry squads: 4 x 9 = 36 figures
2 HMG teams: 2 x 3 = 6 figures
2 mortar teams: 2 x 4 = 8 figures
1 T34/85
2 SU85

total 53 infantry and 3 vehicles

woensdag 15 juli 2009

Insane Ramblings...

The human mind is something fascinating. I often wonder how I get from a normal thought to whatever I end up with. While going through my collection of unpainted lead looking for stuff to get rid of, I ended up picking out a few figures for a quick fix in between other paint jobs.

First was Mr T. But, hey, Foundry calls them the B-team for obvious copyright reasons, right? So I guess I have to call him Mr U? And how would the others be called? Over the coming weeks you'll see some guest appearances on this blog by Mr U at first, later followed by Scipio, Assman and Very normal Murdoch...

I also picked Britannia's Afghan insurgent leaders and started thinking about scenario's in some Farawayistan country. But then I was looking for a better name, be honest, Farawayistan isn't the catchiest name around. So I ended up with Ookerzistan. Didn't get it? Reed again slowly: Oo-kerz-istan... Then I realized something, the generic Middle Eastern government forces (by Combat Miniatures) that I also have tucked away, would be called in NATO-speak the Ookerzistan Armed Forces. OAFs for short.

Here you have a glimpse into the workings of my brain while cleaning up mould lines. Is this what they cal lead rot?

The Tibnin Twinkletoes


Here they are: the Tibnin Twinkletoes, my High Elf team for Bloodbowl. The paintjob is finished, all that I need to do now is blast them a couple of times with the matt varnish spray can and then flock the bases.


Being High Elves I went for a bright, gay (cheerful, I mean cheerful) colour scheme. They took quite a bit of time to finish, but in the end I'm really happy with how they turned out.

July half time report

This month is looking pretty good. I've been painting a lot and I didn't have any trouble with my new "one hour each day" rule. OK, so I missed one day, but thanks to the crappy summer programming on the TV, I've more than made up for that lost hour.

I'm literally hours away from finishing my Bloodbowl team, the BKC infantry bases I'm working on only need a little more work and should leave the table this week as well. So it's back to the zombies then (I still want to get through them by the end of the month) and more 15mm Russians. I'm in the process ofcleaning up three more 9 man squads and the first one ought to be on the painting table by the weekend.

Because of all kinds of unforeseen things happening it now looks that I'll be adding no new figures to my collection. Instead I'll be adding to my percentage of figures painted vs figures bought quite rapidly. Not to mention that I this year might end up with a decrease of my stockpile!

While I was checking my historical figures to look at what I might start on next, I came across a few boxes and bags that struck me as "this isn't going to happen". I'm working on those 15mm Russians for skirmish gaming, so what am I going to do with those 1/72 plastic figures? So out they go, waiting for the Crisis bring and buy stand. Same for the 10mm Carthaginian army for warmaster ancients. I still have a Corvus Belly 15mm DBA army and hundreds of 1/72 (Field of Glory?) stashed. If I keep my buying at current levels I will end up with a slight decrease of my collection.

Keep tuned for a Bloodbowl team picture, coming soon to a computer screen near you!

donderdag 9 juli 2009

Crunching Numbers

Over the past few days the Monica Geller inside me showed up again and I started making a list. Monica just likes making lists...

A few days later and a lot of checking of my lead pile ,previous blog posts and my paypal account I found that for the year to date I purchased 380 miniatures. This ranges from the Perry American farmhouse (which is counted as one figure) through the small pig in the Pegasus box of farm animals up to the single 6mm figure from GHQ.

Opposed to this are 78 figures that are now removed from the unpainted pile. Most of those (63) because I finished painting them (a record year, and it is not finished yet), others never really entered the pile as they were bought painted at a bring and buy and some (remember the druids from a few posts back) were thrown out.

In other words, I've dealt with only 20,53% of my purchases for the year. This number must go way up! By keeping to the buy less credo on the one hand, I have nothing planned to buy until Crisis in November other than the figures that come with the Wargames Illustrated subscription and the blister of GHQ infantry that is being ordered about now. On the other hand there is the paint more part...

With the Bloodbowl team nearing completion for this Saturday's game, I can go back to finishing the zombies and starting painting my 6mm infantry. Those last ones will rapidly drive up the percentage.

If only I could end up with more than 100% by the end of the year. That would be a real achievement...

maandag 6 juli 2009

New: the one hour rule

As of today I'll be implementing a new rule: I will spend at least one hour each day on painting miniatures. By forcing myself to get a minimum of painting done I want to speed up my production.

I've been keeping track of today's work and after clocking up 45 minutes I have to come one conclusion: I am one slow painter! But by the end of the week I hope to have at least a few of my Bloodbowl players with a coat of varnish on them for next Saturdays BB tournament.

woensdag 1 juli 2009

Heresy! and a quick update

Today was the first day of my summer Wednesdays off and I've been putting it to good use just relaxing.... and also painting a bit. I can now add another three zombies to the horde and I am now over half way through.

Between painting I also did something that can only be described as an act of utter heresy: I threw away some figures! Yes, I threw them away, I didn't sell them on ebay or a bring and buy... No, in the bin with them. The ultimate way to get rid of the unpainted pile...

OK, so it's not as bad as it sounds. I was cutting the figures from the sprues from a couple of boxes of Hatt Gallic command to save on space in my cupboards when I was confronted with what are about the most useless figures ever in a box of plastic figures. Druids! Every sprue carries two druids meaning I ended up with twelve of those guys. I kept two to possibly add to a FoG camp, but the others got binned. Ten figures less to do...

On the other hand ther will be forty other here pretty soon. I put in my order for the Wargames Illustrated subscription this morning and my Nappy Brits should be on their way to me by now. Given the speed that my buddy got his (order on Sunday from the UK, in the mailbax in Belgium on Tuesday) that should be taken literally.

June in pictures

These are some Flames of War Russians based for skirmish gaming. Once I get through the zombies I'll get some more of them out of storage.

The first batch of finished zombies.

Some more zombies

The last figures I finished in June, a couple of zombies and a member of the "Chicas Latinas" gang. The young lady seems to be wondering what to do now...

Heh, heh, I have a surprise for you guys!

Some stands of MGs for Blitzkrieg Commander

Ctrl-Alt-Del: the Day after Crisis

What better time to restart this blog than what is to me the watershed moment of the gaming year: the Crisis show by the Tin Soldiers of Ant...