More 10mm Sams. and BROADSIDE news,

 My latest additions to Curt's Analogue Painting Challenge netted me an additional 24 points. Comprising of 12 mounted Samurai with three to a base. These are clearly destined to become part of my RED Samurai army. 3 figures to a base and 4 bases to a unit.

Not really a whole lot more to say about them really except perhaps that unlike my previous samurai they have all been painted in the same red armour. Historically there are several commanders who dressed there armies in Red so the uniform appearance is a little different for me with Samurai rank figures as opposed to ashigaru which always look better in a uniform.

BROADSIDE NEWS: The Swallows Leisure Centre, the venue for the last two years has at short notice decided that we cannot use one of the halls (the Wyvern Hall). They have not provided us with an alternative so the show this year will need to fit in a single hall. As we have already paid for the advertising in magazines and on flyers it is too late this year to seek an alternative venue. Consequently space will be tight, about 70% of what we have had for the last two years. One of the ways we are getting round this issue is that we are having to limit the size of the display games to 4'x6'. We have sent out emails to all the clubs concerned and informed them of this new situation and have been very pleasantly surprised with both the promptness of their replies and their understanding. Needless to say it is not ideal for any concerned, but we are getting there. It is possible that we shall look at alternative venues for next year. Chatham Dockyard has been suggested but at present nothing has been decided.

Well that is it for today. Thanks for reading  this blog and hope you found something of interest here.

All the best Clint

Challenge Fee

 As I do not think I will get a chance to blog tomorrow, I thought  I would add this in today. So I will hope to do the next one on Saturday.

I thought I should show you the figure I have already posted to Curt as part of the Wild Bunch Painting Challenge. This is a single heroic 28mm Reaper Chronoscape figure. It was given to me (unpainted) by Anne O'Leary when I won a prize on her blog. And as it makes a suitable "Wild Bunch" figure it was painted and dispatched to the wilds of Canada.

Obviously armed with two hefty revolvers the figure is quite intimidating. He has a confident no nonsense stance and a bit of a Tom Selleck Moustache. His Grey trousers have a yellow stripe up each leg and with the two large revolvers he gives the appearance (I hope) od an ex Confederate Cavalry officer. Curt will no doubt make up his own back story should he ever use the figure in anger. And I hope he does.

I chose a simple undecorated brown coat for the chap, maybe it is leather or suede but defiantly something hard wearing. With his gun-belt and holster fastened over the top to allow fast draws should he need. There are cartridges in the gun belt so he can reload if in a long gunbattle or at the end when all his enemies are dead. (Or maybe he is and then no need to reload at all, leave that to someone else, I know I would).

I went very simple on the base just 2 dry grass tufts and a flatish stone. Actually it's not a stone at all it is part of a broken plant pot repainted. Broken plant pots make great base ornaments as they are far easier to break to the correct size than actual stones and they have a strata across them much finer than normal rocks. The base was textured with building sand and painted the same colours and tones at the rock. All in all very quick and simple to do and yet not overdone I hope as I do want to keep the focus on the figure.


Today has been a much better painting day. I have submitted the 10mm Samurai to Curt already so I hope to be able to show them soon.

I have resprayed the 10mm Sudan figures. And Be based my few stands of British to marry up size wise.

15mm Half tracks nope not touched them today.....

20mm I have re-painted my vehicle and attached it to a base and started painting a foot command figure for it.

20mm Arab Revolt. I have finished the two very minor conversions . Just an arm swap and a hand swap, but they are now primed and ready to start paining. One will eventually become Larry of the Sands, or Laurence of Arabia if you prefer a more formal title.

So all in all far more productive then yesterday and I hope to get Larry of the Sands ready and submitted over the weekend as well. I make no Guarantees at this stage as tomorrow is pretty much written of with Counselling and Doctors and the like. But all in one day so I can get it out of the way all in one go. I should get a few hours on Friday and with that be able to get the vehicle the vehicle commander and Laurence all finished.

Thank you for looking today and I hope you get a chance to pop by again soon. I might do the AAR of the game I played at the club next time, but it is fading into my memory as I type this so I will just have to wait and see.

All the best folks Cheers Clint

Got to have bad painting days ...Painting Challenge WIP (3)

To appreciate good ones! Well the picture really does sum it up for me today. Had a great day at the club on Sunday could not get my act together at all yesterday and today all that I am working at is going to slime. Ahh well sometimes it just happens. No big mistakes but lots of little ones.

20mm Vehicle for the Painting challenge bonus round is looking rougher than barbwire underpants I only got it on Sunday and Now I am going to have to strip it back and start again..... Not that I am a perfectionist but it is seriously rough at the moment and needs to be started again.

15mm PBI Halftracks now they are slowly getting there but I realise just how much extra work I need to do on them so they are not going to be ready this week. But at least the base green looks OK at this stage.

10mm The Sudan/Marhdist figures ran out of white primer while spraying these, I'll get some more tomorrow. Which means that only one side of them is primed. 10mm Samurai two of the figures have come off the base and pulled all the filler/texture with them and it then crumbled. They can and will be salvaged but it has put them back a day.

So all in all nothing to share today as everything I attempt is going wrong. Like I said nothing major but lots of little things. Stiull I am enjoying all the little cock ups today and I hope I can get them all out of the way in one go and then just crack on tomorrow!

I think I shall leave it for the rest of the day and go and do something constructive, like watching "Day of the Triffids" on DVD.

Thanks for popping by, all the best and feel free to laugh at me! (I am laughing at myself and not taking it seriously! Just one of those days.)

Cheers Clint

More Camel Riders.

I know you like to see a picture with the whole force and when I get to that stage I will show one. Today however I am not there. I will be picking up the next batch of figures for the planned Arab revolt game this afternoon. So until I get them prepped and painted here are the next 12, which doubles my force to 24 at the moment.

The Figures are  IT miniatures (link) and 20mm or 1/72nd scale. So for recreating the filmic (if not totally accurate) attack on the port of Aquaba they will very much look the part. There is a variety of different camel colours all with different saddle blankets and differently clothed Arabs. As I have only found 5 different poses of Arabs and 2 different Camel the diversity of clothing and blankets helps to give an irregular feel to the troops. Historically many of the riders would have been clad in the same colours but as a game I think it works better this way as I do not want them to look like a uniformed army.  We can see that more recently in the Arab spring a couple of years ago now. Many of the people involved were wearing jeans or tracksuit trousers and yet they all look individual and not in uniform. I daresay in the future someone will wargame the Arab Spring and in doing so will arrive at the same conclusion with regard to clothing as I have for the Arab Revolt of 1916-1918. But with "Technicals" as opposed to Camels!

So other than these I have started work on a few other things for Curt's painting Challenge. On Monday I shall start on my entry for the "Vehicle" Bonus round. I have had a couple of false starts on this already and decided yesterday to go in a slightly different direction. As such I have already started five 15mm US Halftracks for PBI. These will get done soon, but seem to be taking an age to do as well as needing 3 coats (so far) of paint. I am applying them thinly so as to preserve as much surface detail as possible.

I also have another unit of 10mm Samurai started and am re-basing my 10mm British colonials. There are only 10 bases of these so it will not take long, but as I am not painting anything they will not be submitted to the painting challenge.


Anyway folks have a great Sunday. I am off to the Club in a couple of hours so I should get an AAR out in the next few days. So until then stay warm, don't kick the dog and take care of yourselves. All the best Clint