Sorry for the quietus on the blog. Been alternately too busy and too tired to post, but just got some deliveries in. First, from my talented brother:

My new work mascot, a sort of dwarf librarian.

And the BEF, all painted up:

Scottish Republican militia (one figure short)

Command group with mortar

SMG assault half-section

BUF section

My brother painted everything in the same scheme, so I imagine that all these chaps are Scots, with the blue cap, whether traditional or military, as the national "spot" colour. I look forward to trying a round or two of Kill Team with them.

I also received an order from Raven Banner Games. The first is a full pack of 18mm Thirty Years War skirmish figures which should be just the thing for games of The Pikeman's Lament.

Pike and Shot units.

With the addition of horses and holders, the Shot double as Dragoons.

The other is a selection of Peter Dennis AWI units. Partly to add to my 18th-century Imagi-nations, and partly for America-250-appropriate games at work.

British...

And American.

(Plus one battery of French artillery and a handful of Hessian riflemen.)

Not sure how to name the "American" Imagi-nation regiments - maybe borrow from Bob Cordery's alternate 1891 map?

Speaking of Cordery, I've been fiddling with Portable Wargames, in hopes of running one during Chess Club at work. Unfortunately, both the 18th-century and Napoleonic rulesets require two bases per unit, which at 60mm across won't quite fit on the two-inch chessboard squares. On the other hand, some folks on the Facebook group use Risk figures, and I do have a donated set. A third option is to play 3x3 and have each "square" take up 2x2 chessboard squares. Hmm... 

More Picking Away...

More stuff accomplished this weekend. First, I built a second DBA base, this one for English medievals:

I ordered a handful of Fife and Drum figures. The Spirit of '76 vignette, and five minutemen. My plan is to paint them up for a work display - the theme for the whole year (not just summer) is America's 250th. So another excuse to promote miniatures in the library. I plan to paint two of the minutemen to represent a pair of free black colonists who - completely coincidentally - shared my rare last name. So I hope to do a good job painting them.

What I got was a bunch of figures, free overstock! Thanks! About half minutemen, half Continentals in uniform. That could make up two small regiments or one large one, with mixed appearance like Jim Purky's own 2nd New Hampshire. 

I haven't built or painted metal models in ages, so some filing practice is in order. I'll also have to use a pin drill on the standard bearer. As for basing... probably singly, for skirmish games. I have lots of round Wargames Atlantic bases.

I also bought some Games Workshop 25mm and 25x50mm square bases, for the Pike and Shotte starter set. Here's the first infantry sprue mostly made up:

Needs a few more hats, and there are also a lot of scabbarded swords on the sprue I haven't figured out where they go on the figures yet. I'm glad I just made these chaps to start with, as I found out specific arms go to specific figures. Also, gluing two arms onto a figure at once is a bit messy. A little filing and paint, though, and I'm sure they'll look good enough for the tabletop.

Finally, a painted Skaven done with Speedpaint pens. Fun and not too frustrating. I find it hard to tell the colors apart when they're bunched together, so (for example) some of the leather has a gold tinge...

I'll stop here, as I have two cats on my desk trying to interfere with typing and projects.

For comparison, here's the one I have to coax into letting me touch.
On the right: still unopened boxes of Warlord samurai.

'Til next time.

Still Tired

Not much done, except reading. Read the Silmarillion and working slowly on Warlord Games' supplement Wars of the Samurai (quite good for a beginner!). Here's what little hobby I've done this week:

Two twelve-man units of crossbows for Lion Rampant,
with pavises. This may seem like they're on too-large
bases, but the plan is to play on a small scale with cm
instead of inches.

An armoured orc chieftain from 6th-7th edition Warhammer.
I picked up a command group from the FLGS.
Painted with paint markers, with the metals NMM.

I really need to get cracking on building the Pike and Shotte stuff...

Edit: I did.

Five down, seventy-seven to go!

A Week's Worth

Still a bit under the weather, and I will probably have to give up the club's second Binge Weekend. But I did get some minis done this week.

Belatedly for President's Day (but can still find use for it later this bi-and-a-quarter-centennial year), I built a Paperboys George Washington and a regiment for him to review.

The command base isn't quite finished, because I decided to use the extra individual officers on the page for once. The typical "unit" that can be assembled from a single page from any of Peter Dennis' Helion Horse-and-Musket books is of four bases, one of them with one of its two strips replaced by a "colours and drummers" strip, thus 32 men plus one extra on a bit of card out in front of the command base. This leaves over one strip of four musketeers and typically two individuals, like an officer and sergeant. I chose to make five bases, with the "center" being the colours strip behind the two leaders, for a total of 38 men and a more even-looking unit.

I misplaced the command figures, or rather I suspect the cats did. You'd think a messy desk would deter pets from jumping on it, but it actually attracts them...

So I'm working on two more units, and swiping officers from a third. Eh, whatever. Using my new, incredibly sharp Beaditive scissors is surprisingly relaxing after a long day at work.

The second project I did this week was a unit of five "bloodreavers" from the 1st-edition Age of Sigmar beginner box I started years ago. I'd undercoated them already, so they were ready for the paint pens, and only required seven colors: skin, bone, black, grey, red, silver and gold. (No brass color.)

"Blood for the Blood God, or something..."

A bit messy, but tabletop ready once I add a bit of texture paint to the bases. I'm not sure gold really works for the brass, perhaps the sandy-orange "non-metallic" would be better. The large tips also made it hard to avoid coloring the silver, though depending on the texture I could turn the pen sideways and sort of "overbrush" the gold onto it. Gold borders first and silver insides second might also be a better order, and I'll try that when I get to the other three (more heavily armed) Chaos Warriors.

Finally, I received tonight a Warlord Games Pike and Shotte starter box, with 70 infantry and 12 cavalry, enough for small skirmishes, or full forces for Pikemen's Lament. I was prepared for the fact that bases aren't included, though I haven't found 20mm ones yet for them. (Even with its "Old World" Warhammer, GW's smallest rank-n-flank bases are 25mm.) However, I found the Warlord models have small puddle bases which might work for game-experimentation.

Haven't found much on Samurai-period uniform (only two pdf pages on painting the Warlord figures so far) though I am tempted by the comic-style Mifune colors: 

How did I miss these new action figures?!

Speedpaint Markers!

Got them markers last week. I have about twenty now, only about five repeated colors. I haven't got all those available at present. Most importantly, I have no white or gold. I'll wait on the FLGS, who don't get shipments frequently or orders quickly.

So far, I've tested them out on a Quar Crusader, a Warhammer wall and fence, a strip of Black Powder Epic ACW infantry, and an Age of Sigmar Stormcast Eternal.

The undercoat for all is Army Painter Matt White spray, which ended up a little dusty. I had a bit of a scare when I misjudged the wind and the stuff blew back at me, but a quick visit to an emergency clinic reassured me. It probably helps that I am heavily hydrating myself these days. Anyone who's ever spoken to me knows I'm a motormouth, which doesn't help my throat if I'm talking on and on about hobbies or interests...

That said, I will try paint-on primer for a while, and wear a mask next time I spray.

Uniform: Orc Skin
Weapon, buckles: Polished Silver
Bootstraps and pack: Pallid Bone
Boots and straps: Hardened Leather
Skin: Zealot Yellow, Magic Blue

A poor photo, it looks a bit better in person. The Crusader uniform is supposed to be a pale green, and this was the closest I had. I think the gun came out best, but with more practice I think it will work. I don't think these pens are capable of doing the distinctive spots, however; they look more like blotches to me.

Stone: Gravelord Grey
Wood: Dark Wood plus a layer of Sand Golem
Metal bits: Polished Silver
Grass: Orc Flesh

I'm most proud of this terrain piece. It really looks good, though I say so myself. The downside is that the pen tips were damaged, mostly by sticking them into gaps and cracks. I've learned to be a little gentler, and luckily it's easy to change the tips.

Coats and caps: Magic Blue
Trousers: Caribbean Ocean
Weapons: Hardened Leather, Polished Silver
Boots, hats: Grim Black
Skin: Crusader Skin

Not happy. Probably has something to do with the poor undercoat, but looks more grey than blue, and the marker tips aren't quite precise enough.

Shoulderpads, shield: Magic Blue

Skin: Crusader Skin

Straps: Hardened Leather

Haft wrappings: Familar Pink

Hammer and base: Runic Grey

Tactical bricks: Blood Red

Hair: Pallid Bone

Shoes and joints: Grim Black

Armor: Sand Golem

I enjoyed this one. Not having white, I left as much of the markings as untouched as possible. Not having gold, my brother suggested Sand Golem as part of his non-metallic metal recipe. Doesn't look half bad to my eyes.

Overall, I think the experiment was a success. While the paint isn't as bright and could certainly use extra highlighting, I loved the lack of mess and the speed of coverage. Even occasionally shaking a pen or pressing more paint into the nib, I wasn't constantly adding paint to a palette or dipping or cleaning a brush. Also, I had more room to work - no need to cover the table, find space for a water cup and a dozen bottles of paint. The pens are just stacked in a box to one side. They don't drip, either, though it's still easy to touch something you didn't intend to.

You do need to be careful with the nibs. They're reasonably durable, but be gentle when painting heavy texture. They are a bit large to use the side unless it's something like large armor plates, so it's easy to work the point too hard.

Not sure how I should store them - point up, point down, or sideways?

I'll keep using them - for individual minis and details on terrain. I look forward to trying them on historicals. Until next time.

Miscellanea, and a Treat

Work has been <bleeping> tiring this week. Hopefully that will turn around tomorrow, as we have a couple new staff joining us. In the meantime, I've only got bits and pieces done, but they are usefully inspiring nonetheless:

• Basecoated my Citadel hills in white. Will finish them in speedpaint green, brown and grey.
• Received and read much of Talking Miniatures:

A remarkably good oral history of Games Workshop.

I'm serious. It's worth the money.

• Started on my bit of the Hastings960 project:

Three sheets of Saxon Fyrd (300 figures).

Trimmed.

Frames separated...

... and folded.

Next is gluing them all - then cutting with my new Beaditive and Fiskars scissors.

This is a test strip on 80gsm paper rather than the
requested 120gsm. If you see a green tinge, it's because
I experimented with a speedpaint marker on the edges.

• Tested a speedpaint marker on a couple Reaper Bones orcs (no good pics).
• Finally, a treat - my talented brother has made some progress on the LDV I sent him. Here's the first Scottish militia!
  
  

A how-to, mostly Speedpaints:

Undercoat: Slap-chop
Cap: Caribbean Ocean

Skin: Pallid Bone
and Crusader Skin

Straps: Pallid Bone
Hair: Dark Wood

Uniform: Noble Skin
and Tyrian Navy

Boots: Grim Black

Weapons: Broadsword Silver

Base: AK Muddy Ground

Base highlight: Pro Acryl Pale Yellow

Base detail: Vallejo Scorpy Green

Ready recruits.

My intent was to have only the guys in tam-o-shanters be in Scottish Republican grey, with the other twenty being more generic, but my brief confused my brother who has never painted historicals before. Part of the problem may have been a picture that scanned fuzzy.

He was a bit disappointed, but hey, I'm not going to look a (beautiful) gift horse in the mouth here. I'll take what he gives me and work with it. The guys in caps could be Scottish BUF, or Republican militia who couldn't find tams. VBCW offers plenty of explanations!

All in all, a productive week for him, not so much for me, but still - making progress!

Happy Solstice, Merry Yule, or whatever you celebrate. Life gets brighter from today (in the northern hemisphere, anyway). See you around.

Painting at the Library

 So, that went well.

It wasn't nearly as chaotic as the first two attempts at this were. I spent about three hours and only had about a dozen takers - two to four at a time - which was much more relaxing. There were few enough that I could change most of the water myself without leaving the kids unsupervised. 

To be fair, most of the folks who came by were there for DnD, and many of them took a mini without having time to paint it. I painted three myself, mostly for demonstration purposes. There are fifteen left of the forty or so I started with. I did decide to stick with the four Warhammer Alliance types, though I added some of my own paints.

Undercoating went badly, partly because the canister ran out of paint. The figures came out ... dusty. Worked alright, but I think skipping the undercoat step might work for a project on this scale - the sample figures in the magazine are not undercoated, for example.

A few examples:

I even got in a simple game demonstration with a few of the kids, facing off single Space Marines and Necrons. A couple of the parents read through the magazines.

May add more photos when they are distributed by the staff member who took better ones.

The small, laminated paint palettes are harder to clean than they look; we tossed most of them and a couple brushes, but overall the kids paid a lot more attention and I managed to teach a few basic techniques. I had hoped to run a Youtube painting video for inspiration, but the screen was in use for 3D scanning.

Oh, and I asked a coworker to print a couple of Victoria Miniatures' "Space Aussies" for me:

Not great. Might try printing them at larger size instead.

It would seem the printers at work aren't the best for the job. We have one at the club now, though, so I may try it one of these weekends.

In related news, I have started reading Playing at the World, a history of early DnD which appears to have plenty about early wargaming - both board and miniature - to go with it. A thick and wordy tome, but good so far.