Year in Review

Happy New Year all, I hope everyone's holidays were decent.  As the Analogue Hobbies Paint Challenge http://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/ is in full swing, I expect my post count for the next few months to be more frequent.

I don't have any figs to start this post off with, so I'll just jump right into my review of the year. Let's review what I did this year compared to what I wanted to actually get done.
1. 28mm World War II French - complete this army - this didn't get done but I only have 3 vehicles/guns left and they're on my paint table right now.
2. 28mm World War II Germans - complete this army - this didn't get done at all. Still have a bunch of figures and vehicles to be completed.
3. Frostgrave - finish all the figures I have - finished most of it but I still have a handful of Gnolls to paint up.
4. 54mm War of 1812 - complete all the units I have left - didn't touch any of this. I don't have much left but I just didn't get to it. I think I only have 1 gun and crew and some casualty figures left.
5. 28mm Samurai - complete the first army and do at least half of the second army - I'm pretty much done the first army and I think I've started on the second one. Needless to say this project barely got moved along.
6. 28mm Carthaginians - complete this army - did almost nothing with this project. I think the only thing I wanted to do with this project is get a couple elephants.
7. Star Wars Legion - complete the core box set - didn't really start the core box besides Vader and Luke. I did paint up a couple other boxes though.
8. Terrain - complete all of my unbuilt/unpainted terrain - this didn't get done although I did get a pile of buildings done for my MayDay game.

Hmm, what did I get done last year? I did get a number of fantasy monsters done for whenever I get around to playing Warlords of Erewhon. So here are my goals for this year:

1. 28mm World War II French - complete this army - shouldn't be a problem as I only have 3 things left to do.
2. 28mm World War II Germans - complete this army - this shouldn't be a problem as I really don't have that much left to do.
3. 54mm War of 1812 - complete all the figures I have left over - this really, really should be easy to do as I've got almost nothing left.
4. 28mm French & Indian War - complete the boxes and figures I have left and try to get a game to the table sometime this year.
5. 28mm Samurai - do at least 4 bases of Samurai/Ashigaru. I'm not going to set myself a huge goal of trying to get the army done as I know that won't happen.
6. Star Wars Legion - get all my figs painted. I do have them all primed and ready to go and I'm hoping to get a fair number of them painted during the paint challenge.
7. 15mm Sci-fi - I need to get these done and to the table otherwise I might as well get rid of them. I am painting some right now for the paint challenge so I'm hoping this motivated me.
8. Counterblast - complete all the figs I currently have and get a few games to the table. As this game only requires a few figs per side this should be an easy goal. All the figs I do have left are primed and ready to go.

It's not really a goal but I am going to be painting a Soviet early war army for a friend for Chain of Command here in the short term so that may cause some things to be pushed further down the queue.

Oof, this does sound like a lot but it really isn't that bad. The key is just to stay motivated and I had a problem with that (and usually do) about halfway through the year. We'll see what happens this year.

Well, here's to the new year and good gaming!

Ants and Death Troopers

For my final post of the year I've got a small assortment of figs completed. First up is a group of giant ants. These figs, with the exception of the two large ones, are all metal. Those two are resin. These figs were from the Crooked Dice Games 7TV Apocalypse Kickstarter that got sent out earlier this year.

Also completed is a squad of Imperial Death Troopers from Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars Legion line.

These figs were relatively quick and easy to paint up. The trick was not to actually paint them complete black as the details would be harder to see. They turned out alright I guess.

And finally I have this lone female civilian from Sash and Saber's French and Indian War line.

Due to some of the bonus challenges in the Paint Challenge, I will probably be posting up a lone figure a couple times before the end of the challenge.

Have a Happy New Year!

Walking Firewood aka Dryads

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has started so my frequency of posting will increase significantly over the next three months. I've led off with these figures: GW Sylvaneth Dryads. These figs are all plastic and were dead simple and quick to paint up. I'll end up using them probably for Warlords of Erewhon.

Painting these up was simply a matter of priming them brown and a couple drybrush coats and voila!

The figures I had started prior to the challenge are still on my paint table and will be slowly coming off as I find time to do them as they can't be submitted to the paint challenge. I am planning on having one more post before the end of the year.

Some More Counterblast figs

Finished some more figures for Counterblast. All figures are 28mm resin (with one exception) and are from Bombshell Miniatures' Counterblast line. First up is a trio of Illyrians.

From left to right: GDF (Galactic Defense Force) Sentry, GDF Ranger, Lancer (think traders/privateers and assorted ne'er-do-wells) Plugger. They're kind of a goofy alien with their mouth down at the bottom of a giant eyestalk.

Next up from left to right are a Lancer Neiran exile, a Lancer Brute and an unaffiliated character named Skip Westmoreland. I've done him up in GDF colours as he can work with the GDF faction. The Neiran exile is the only figure of the lot that is metal.

On my paint table right now is the two Star Wars Legion Imperial and Rebel specialist packs along with a pair of French tanks.

Fantasy figs

Been a while since I've posted. Haven't died, so that's good. Recently managed to finish off some figs. All these figs are 28mm metal figs. This first group is a Games Workshop Chaos Ogre Command set.

Next up is a female monk from Otherworld Miniatures.

Next up is Peruhain, an elf monk from Reaper Miniatures.

And finally is another Reaper Miniatures figure called Hiroku of Okura.

And here's all three together.

Next up on my paint table is a half dozen Counterblast figures.

Giant Bugs and French Regulars

Finally! I finished the figs I've had on the table for the past three months. First up is a group of three creepy crawlies (bugs). These three 28mm metal figs are from Otherworld Miniatures. Unfortunately I forgot to pose a 28mm infantry fig beside them so you can't see how big they are. They are sufficiently big.

Next up is this group of French & Indian War French Regulars. These 28mm metal figs are from Warlord Games. 

I don't have anything on the paint table right now as I'm doing a bunch of assembly and priming. Figured I might as well do up a pile of figs and clear out some boxes.

Homemade Roads

So it's been a while since I've posted anything. I'm still very, very slowly grinding away at the figs I had started back at the end of April. In the mean time I have been working on some 1:1 scale terrain. But recently I decided to make up some 28mm roads as I didn't have any and I didn't feel like shelling out a bunch of money for roads. So here's what I did:

I had some large pieces of cork that I inherited from somewhere, so I decided to use them as the base. I think it's about 5mm thick. I cut it into 4" wide strips with a handful of odd shapes like an intersection and a curve.

Next I purchased some brown acrylic latex caulk from Home Depot for about $3 a tube. I ended up using about three tubes for the whole project. I then spread the caulk completely over the cork pieces. I then used a 5/16" wood dowel (to simulate tire tracks) and dragged it back and forth over each piece about a dozen times. I also sprinkled some fine sand onto each piece.

Once the roads had dried, I used the dark brown spray to cover the light coloured exposed cork sides and ends. I also gave the road surface a good dusting.

Next came some quick drybrushing with the craft paints above. and voila! They're nice and flexible and look pretty good.

All told, I have about 22' of roads.