NAC SQUAD 1

Very occasionally I get some 15mm Stargrunt painted. It is a long process and one from which I do get side tracked incredibly easily! But now as I have finished my FSE (Federal States Europa) Platoon I have started my NAC (New Anglican Confederation) forces. At present I do not have much but I can see it expanding rapidly in the run up to Christmas.

While I prefer the look of the Ghurkha Squads and will be concentrating on them it is always worth having some normal squads. And this is a Normal squad.

8 men in a squad mostly armed with the L7a3 Individual weapon. (Advanced Assault rifle with grenade launcher). 2 support weapons are also with each squad, far right is a L5 Binary propellant light machine gun and (one in from the right) is a L18 Portable guided missile launcher.

I have yet to do a squad transport for them, but expect that this week.

The figures are Ground Zero Games ( https://shop.groundzerogames.co.uk/ ) 15mm Stargrunt figures. Painted for a desert world (In my Head Called "Burnett's Folly") so a couple of stripes of camouflage on the outfits and some light green to break up the guns. (Yes I could have painted the guns the same as the uniforms but decided that a little contrast might be a good thing.)

And when I get a platoon sized force complete I will happily do a group shot.

Thanks for looking today, all the best Clint

? SANTA ? Pimped!!!

Well the call has gone out.  Both Santa Claus (Chris @ http://cstoesen.blogspot.  And Secret Santa  (Cath and Ian @ Blog with No Name ) are running Santa gift blogs again this year. Firstly let me say I did enter them both last year and did have a LOT of pleasure doing so. So I would consider doing both again... But see below.

On Chris's Blog you paint a figure or group of figures and send them to someone who is involved and in turn someone, probably a very different person send you one back. Needless to say you are supposed to have a look at the persons blog and select something that appeals to them. But it is random who you get to paint for and who gets to paint for you and you have no real control over what figure they will send. But the idea is that it should be about £5 in value before painting.  So you could get pretty much anything, within that price band. And that is the fun bit.... you could get anything and it may be better than you can paint. But you could get something that while painted to the best of their ability just is not as good as you could have done yourself.  BUT it is the surprise that is the fun and you get to see your work on anothers blog as well when they un wrap it.

Ian and Cath (Ian runs the Blog while Cath runs the Santa) do it a different way. Each participant is given another random blog and they are to scan it and pick up clues as to what that participant might want. Many including myself tend to do a wish list to help any participants who ever they may be to focus them to what you truly want . BUT the list is optional and you can select something else to send them as long as you think it is what they would want. For example a participant may have a VERY narrow set of wants. "I only want this code XXX or code XXY from this manufacturer and nothing else!"  Which does to my mind take all the fun out of it after all where is the surprise, they might as well buy it themselves! But I know at least one person does so. So be Warned and if you get them well basically hard luck OR be prepared to think laterally and get them something else that fits in with their want but is not exactly what they have listed. So you may have to think creatively. I already have an idea what I will get them if I get their name pulled out of the hat.

So the good is that you have some fun and get a gift. Last year I got an absolutely brilliant gift from my SECRET Santa. It I so nice I am a little scared of painting it for fear of ruining it. Yes it is that good. But I hope to soon. Hopefully very soon. Maybe even next week. But I might need to take a bravery pill first.

And the Bad. I did not receive a painted figure from Chris's blog.  Not his fault, he is just the agent who selects people to paint for another. Chris is aware of this lack of figure and while he has apologised as far as I am aware the person who sent it has not. Maybe they have a good reason for not sending a painted figure, maybe the post office failed to deliver (ALWAYS GET PROOF OF POSTING!) maybe they just do not like me, maybe they have been ill maybe I am on Santa's naughty list. Their could be all number of reasons. All I know is that I did not get a painted figure.

having scanned some blogs I know both my gifts arrived and I think were well appreciated and that makes me feel good.

So for that Reason I will not be entering Chris's Santa Clause Blog painted figure scheme this year, but I will be entering Ian and Caths.

Sorry todays blog has been a bit of a rant.

All th best and for a little fun you might try either Santa scheme.

Not perfect, but it will do.

Yes the title says it all.  Just one Picture, I did take 2 others but they turned out not to be in focus! I am only claiming lack of skill on my part and not that the camera could not focus on the models due to the Camouflage.  My bad NOT the Camera.

As you can see a basic sand coloured base, with grey dark brown and cream squares on it.  If I was doing Proper Digital camouflage There would be more squares and it would be hard to work out the base colour, but I wanted the base colour sand to show through. Then just weathered (dry brushed a lighter sand tone (very lightly) and then two coasts of flesh wash over the top.

Overall I am not wildly excited by the result, but at least it is better than before. If I was starting again the brown should be a shade lighter and the grey a little darker, but overall not too bad really,

Thanks for looking today, more again soon.

Re do the Camo!

As I had finished all the painting that Matt wanted me to do. (He is getting more to me today and VBCW he says!) I was not sure what I wanted to paint so I had a rummage in one of the carrier bags full of unpainted. I was looking for some Islamic Federation I have for 15mm Star grunt.  (I did not find them so they are somewhere else! And not where I thought!).

I did want to carry on with some 15mm Stargrunt though so I read the rules again.... which is to say I flicked through them re-reading the juicy bits!

While rummaging I did find a second one of these though (as well as some other bits and bobs so back to Star grunt for a very short time.

One of the issues I have with sci fi games is coming up with suitably believable camouflage. I was never HAPPY with the vehicle on the left, it's Cammo is OK, but only OK! I want something more fitting for the far future! So when I paint the new one I will repaint the old at the same time.  Clearly the photo does show the painted is harder to make out than the unpainted version of the tank but it does not convey to me the feeling of far future colony world.

So this morning I am looking at different tank, animal (Including FISH) and uniform camouflage patterns and trying to figure something out. I have already a FSE camouflage pattern and a NAC camouflage pattern (Not as yet shown on this blog) but I want these to be somewhat different from both of my already established patterns. So a re-paint in on the cards.

Thanks for looking today and with any luck at all I will be able to show it on Tuesday.

Enjoy the Paralympics, any sun and any chance you get to paint.