Saturday update.

Unfortunately I have nothing I can show you painting wise today. I should be submitting another few figures to Curt's Analogue challenge tomorrow so with luck they should be available to view by Monday, when I am due to blog again.

I have now finished the figure for the entry fee to the painting challenge. But to show that before Curt gets to see it would of course be very wrong. I have been painting figures for the planned Arab Revolt game. Hence the picture of the book I have finished reading. The next background reading will either be the osprey book of the Ottoman army 1914-1919, or "a line in the sand". So as you can see I am moving this project forward. I will email pictures of these Arab Revolt figures to Curt tomorrow, as I am just finishing the bases now.

Instead let me give you an update of what I have started for the painting challenge. I have bitten the bullet and now started painting 60 Fuzzy Wuzzys and 14 Ansar on Camels. Don't get to excited they are 10mm (1/200ths Scale) so not too detailed and eye candy like. Until mid-day yesterday they were not in my painting queue. I had bought them about 5 years ago and they had sat in the blister pack ever since. As regular readers will know I have wanted to do some colonial wargames for a while and this just seemed to be an opportunity to kick start this old stalled project. They are coming on great guns and I would hope to have them finished by Friday if not sooner. I will then look to get the rest of the foot Ansar I have done.

At the same time I will need to paint up something for his "Villains" category. I have a stand by figure but I do plan a shopping trip on Monday to the local wargames store and do so hope I can find something more suitable for a Villain than what I have as a stand by. In an ideal world a Werewolf might be purchased or a vampire or some such nasty!

That's it for today as I am trying to get these Arab Revolt figures finished and sent off.

Sorry there is nothing so much to look at today. Trust me you never want to see my painting desk, it is in a continual stat of wreckage! So Until Monday take care, have fun and keep Painting away.

Cheers Clint

10mm Peasants Samurai Period

 This was my latest addition the Curt's Analogue Painting challenge. 32 Peasant archers. 16 for the Red army and 16 for the blue army. Which doubles my Peasant archers for both armies. Unless I get any more as a gift I cannot see me buying any more of them as I want the battles I have in my head to be more about Samurai and Ashigaru. That said I may get some other peasant figures maybe with polearms or hand weapons, perhaps even Arquibus but not with bows.

Anyway from the challenge point of view this has taken me to 144 points out of my target of 600 so about 1/4 of the way there in about 10 days. That being the case I am considering raising my total. I will hold fire on that just yet, and see how things go along. But you heard it hear first. I have already submitted my next entry, although I do not think it will gain very many points as it is just a single 28mm figure. But every little helps and as it is the Wild Bunch entry fee it did need to be done sooner rather than later.

On the Christmas pressie front I did not fair all that well unless you count socks in which case it was fantastic but for wargames, not so much. I did get three books and 3 decent paint brushes so it could have been much worse. So definitely no complaints. I am now going to crack on with painting my next entry with a view to submitting it on Friday.

Next update should be on Saturday. So until then take care have fun and maybe treat yourself in the Boxing-day Sales if Santa has not delivered exactly what you wanted. All the best Clint

Post Script: On Christmas Day I noticed that we clipped the 50k page views. So a big thank you to everyone for popping by. I do appreciate every page view and every comment form every member or lurker.

Non Combatants

 Christmas Eve, ahhh and relax. Well not quite, I will continue to paint and potter about, I have sent Curt my next entry to the challenge. In the meantime before he publishes them here is what I entered into the "Non-Combatant" bonus round.
The other entries can be found here (LINK) and I am the first to admit there are some exceptional entries. So good that I am staggered by the quality. Treat yourself and have a look you will not be disappointed!



Still I am sure they will be covered on their blogs and as you are good enough to be reading mine here is my entry. As you can see they are 3 Astronauts by Crooked Dice Miniatures. These three are unarmed and now having completed them I would be happy to paint some armed Astronauts. I think I have 6 or 9 hidden away in a box somewhere.







The base boards and buggies have appeared on my blog previously so I won't need to discuss them at this stage. If you want to know how to make the boards Click for link. Let's assume you don't want to know how to make a huge messy white elephant of a terrain board. But at least if you do want to know it is now in a handy place.









Anyway I decided to paint these three in white suits. I am not saying it was a mistake to do so but it did lead to a lot of photography issues. The white kept bleeding out into the background if a flash was used and was out of focus if no flash due to long exposure times. Still here are the best of the bunch. In the end I used a brown cardboard box as a background not glamorous but it did do the job.

I have put American flags on the sleeves (no not all the stripes and stars as my brushes and eyesight is not that good). If I do the armed ones I will introduce a few other nations as well. I will go for the most easy ones to paint just for simplicity but am open to suggestions.

I do find it interesting that one astronaut has removed her helmet while on the moon. I don't want you all to point out any "Capricorn One" conspiracy theories, I just went with how the figures were. So nothing underhand is implied.




I have used 4 colours of off white/grey and a highlight of pure white in order to get the correct feel to the fabric. Less layers just did not look right, I know others would have used more tones and some less this is just the level I was happy with. Black boots and Packs are very different from NASA who's are white, but white boots packs and belts did not look dramatic enough for the wargames table. Again the belts were not noticed if painted white so a nice dark red was used to make them pop out. The helmets might also have been white but I wanted yellow to contrast the blue of the visors.







Overall I am happy with how they have come out despite the issues mentioned with photography and will be willing to do the armed versions in the same way.  If you want me to paint the armed ones up as part of the challenge let me know and I will try to make it happen/fit them in. I make no garantees of course, but it is an option as I already have the figures. So making it happen is not too daunting a task , it will just mean a later start of another game idea.





 That is it for today, thanks for looking. I strongly hope that Santa brings you something that you want and that you and your family stay safe and warm. Take care all the best Clint

Seasons greetings

I would like to wish all the blog members as well as casual Browsers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. I would like to extend that greeting to all who are close to you as well.

The Picture to the right made me chuckle so I hope it puts a smile on your face as well. And let's all hope this does not happen to Santa!

Right That's the non wargaming bit done, now onto the important stuff. I am still painting away for Curt's Challenge and will be sending a few pics in today for his "Non Combatants" bonus round in the desperate attempt to get an extra 50 points. Needless to say until he publishes them on his blog I am reluctant to put any piccies up here.

Oh Ok just one and not one I will be sending him then.

It's a wide shot so you can't see any detail at all really. But at least you will get some strange idea. The buggy and the landscape have both been seen on this blog before so we are only really looking at the 2 Crooked Dice Astronauts in the foreground. They were a joy to paint and I thoroughly enjoyed doing them even if it was mostly shades of off white. (5 in all, but you can't tell with my photography!) In fact I must say they were a right pain to photograph as the white tended to bleed out no matter what type of background I put them on.
Elsewhere on the painting table I have some more 10mm Samurai figures which just need basing. No Pictures of them until they are ready but I will try to get them finished and set out to Curt by this time tomorrow. Only 32 this time, but it is still a substantial amount of points......well 32 points to be fair.

After that I am not sure what I will tackle next, Maybe some Arabs but not totally sure. Talking of Arabs lest time I posted I mentioned a hankering for some colonial wargaming. Well it would make sense to me to use these Arabs and do some Rif War or Earlier Beau Jest type colonial wargaming. I have already got the terrain in both 1/300th and 1/72nd scale so it kind of makes sense to me. Still enough of this waffling on the brushes are calling. So until next time, take care and see you all soon.

Best wishes Clint

Started and first points.

 Well I am off the mark. As many of you will already know I have put my first submission in to Curt at analogue-hobbies and gained 48 points. 1 point for each of the 48 Ashigaru (Light feet). There are a total of 12 stands each of four figures in two different uniforms to represent two different armies. Regular reads will no doubt remember me starting these armies and yes I still have a lot more of these troops to paint. I have now filled one A4 box file and am starting to put figures in a second one. I estimate that I have about another 1/2 a box file of unpainted before I need to purchase any more. But they are on my list so I think a further purchase will be desirable

. As mentioned on Curts Challenge I use a very simple technique to paint 10mm figures. After a white undercoat I block in the base colours, then apply a heavy dark was and finally highlight the blocked colours to lift them and make them more vibrant. This Painting style is quick and effective, but will not win a painting competition. It does pass the 2 foot rule though and looks pretty good on the wargames table which is all you really want with 10mm figures.
 
 I am very happy to have made my first submission to the challenge and gotten off of the ZERO start level. I can now start to chip away at my 600 point total.

Work in progress for the challenge has me painting several things at once. Currently I am painting the figure for Curt's entry fee. Having said that I am about to start painting an alternative and make the final decision when they are both finished. The one I don't use will be given to the first of the 600 club to reach that lofty goal. Obviously should I reach the summit first it will go into my collection. (Very small chance of that).

I was going to paint some wild west Cancan dancers for the "Non Combatants" bonus round, but I am sorry to say I have changed my mind and am now going to do some Crooked Dice Astronoughts as they are unarmed apart from an offensive clipboard (the pen is mightier than the sword) and some device which bears a passing resemblance to a sonic screwdriver. I also have a donkey about to be primed which I rediscovered last night. Everyone needs a pack mule and as such it is a very versatile figure. Additionally I am about to prep some more 10mm Samurai (probably peasant archers, but not sure yet, Maybe more Ashigaru I will not know until I get to my work bench.)

I will also start painting some figures for the Arab Revolt. So as you can see there is a lot in progress, but not so much to show at the moment.

Finally before I go for today I am feeling like creating a colonial army (well 2 as they will need an opponent), so I am very open to suggestions as to what conflict to recreate. I will not be looking for a skirmish game but a big battle game, although not the Sudan. The reason not the Sudan is simply because another club member has already covered that quite extensively.

Anyway thanks for reading, I hope you found something of interest. I hope to post again on Sunday with any luck, so I had best get the brushes busy today. All the best Clint.

Challenge WIP (1)

 I have been slowly working away at Curt's 4th Annual Painting Challenge. While I have not made a submission just yet I am getting close and Hope to finish these this afternoon, All I really need to do is to get the bases dried, painted and a few clumps of foliage and we can call them done. As you can see there are 12 stands each of 4 Ashigaru armed with Naginata. Two in my new read colour scheme and an additional one in the alternative blue/grey of my existing force. Needless to say they are Pendraken Miniatures and are essencially the same as you have seen on this blog before. But the idea is to use the painting challenge to encourage me to paint and make headway into my lead mountain. As opposed to starting new projects.

Well that was the plan until I got an email last night inviting the Rainham club to put a game on at a local show on the 16th March 2014. As this is the day after the challenge finishes I will have to start painting for that game in the next few weeks. This will also mean making a couple of terrain boards as well. While I have them planned in my mind it will all take time and effort and draw me away from the Challenge and especially the bonus rounds. Still this is not a complaint as it will just mean I will try to get various things done for the bonus rounds a little earlier that I had anticipated.

That's todays update. As noted above these should appear on Curt's Blog very soon ( Link ). Thanks for looking and feel free to comment here or on Curt's blog as you want.

All the best Clint

Where to start?

Indeed where to start? Several things of relevance have happened since my last post. Firstly Peter O'Toole has  sadly passed away. While I would not normally comment on an actors live this has struck me as quite relevant. As you will know I plan to run an Arab Revolt game at Broadside next year. You will no doubt also be aware that Peter O'Toole was the brilliant actor who brought Laurence of Arabia to the big screen. Thus I have been reading about this conflict plotting and planning the game and working out the terrain for the game. It just strikes me as very bad timing from my point of view. Not because I feel the universe pays any attention to me of course but because it will inevitably bring the conflict to the for front of wargames minds.

Secondly the Analogue Painting Challenge has now started at 6am local time, yesterday morning. The first few entries are already in. I am one of those painters who has several things on the paint table all at the same time. This in mostly because I can't retain any focus and do not have the determination to stay on a project for very long at all. As I had cleared my painting table ready for the challenge I will be bringing along several things all at the same time, but as things are completed they will get photographed and emailed to Curt for inclusion in the challenge.

So what have I started? So far I have started some more 10mm Ashigaru to bolster my Samurai armies. Some 20mm Arab revolt figures for the Broadside game next year. As well as a couple of 28mm figures. These last two, one for Curt as an entrance fee to the Challenge and one for the first person in the 600 club to reach 600 points. This last figure is a side challenge in which all of the 600 club will paint and present a single figure to the first of us to reach the target 600 points. I have decided to do this early as I don't know how fast certain people will work, and as I suggested the side wager it would be ceorlish of me in the extreme not to be prepared. And should I be the first to finish I will be happy to keep and use the figure.

You may expect the first few points to roll of this production line in the next few days. Probably the Ashigaru but at this stage that is just a guess as I might rush a 54mm Gladiator out for a game tomorrow night! (Not started yet, not even out of it's packet so may be a rush job as I only found out about the game yesterday.)

Additionally my Deadzone order arrived on Saturday so I would like to get them prepped and painted as fast as possible. I already have the colour scheme in my head so it will be good to plough through them.

Finally I will mention the club game I played yesterday. It was a Jet age check your 6 game. (yes I forgot my camera again) Let us just say I had a flight of Argentinian planes and had to attack HMS Plymouth during the Falklands war. All my planes reached the target, all dropped their bombs and all missed the target. The Harriers arrived to help defend the ships and I decided to run away (head for home for wine and medals.) Yeah well that was the plan but the harriers had other ideas and fired infra-red guided missiles at the bombers. Despite missing me it was so close as to get a lucky strike. Graham rolled double 6 to get the hit and another double 6 on the lucky strike table. Which meant the fuel tank exploded. Absolutely nothing I could do. So while I did get my other aircraft off the table having failed to do any damage at all and having lost a plane a clear British win.

That's it for today. I hope to have some painting to show soon. Thanks for reading and more to come soon. Cheers Clint

Painting for a friend (5) and Curt's Challenge.

Well this post should get me back on schedule. It is my own schedule so no one other than me really need worry about it, but none the less it is easier for me to try to keep it as regular as possible.

Today I am showing the final part of the painting I have done for a Friend. Having shown a 28mm Gatling gun yesterday It is only fair that I show a Nordenfelt Machine gun. Again this is by Perry miniatures. I have done a Copplestone one in the past for the same chap. It is interesting to note that they did have different carriages. I like the variety this gives, but that just may be me.

As you can see we also have a rear view of the same model. The blue uniforms have come out a little bright due to the flash, they actually look a bit darker in daylight. This model was harder to put together than the Gatling gun I showed yesterday but at least I did not have to balance a figure on the "seat". Again it was well cast and required almost no cleaning up prior to assembly so I cannot and will not make any complaints about it.

And As I suspected you would all want a group shot of all the finished figures he we are as well.  They may be a little cluttered in the picture, but I do so hope it gives an idea of what they should all look like. Officers ratings and Gunners all together. As mentioned yesterday this is about 1/2 the troops I have done for him on this project now and I think should they ever reach the table top they will look spanking in BLUE!

The Picture below is just for Fran. To demonstrate that big boobies are not the be all and end all of female beauty. Each to there own of course and if he likes women who will develop back ache in later life or who can keep there knees warm when they take of their bras that is his choice.

Now to talk about the challenge. The painting challenge that is. As several people including myself have joined the so called 600 club. I thought I would like to offer them a challenge and suggest that we all paint and donate a 28mm figure to the first person in the group to reach that target. As we are all bloggers you know whom so ever wins will put the figures on their blog as well so double exposure. (That has nothing to do with boobies BTW). Which in turn means that we will all do our best to paint the figure to a high standard.

They have yet to agree to this of course, but I think it could add a little extra flavour to the competition. If you are one of the 600 Club kindly let me know your thoughts.

That's it for today. Probably an AAR on Monday and maybe the start of the challenge as well.

GOOD LUCK to all those taking part and especially the 600 club.

Painting for a friend (4)

Not making a big thing about it but I just did not get the time to Blog yesterday. I will blog again tomorrow though to get me back on schedule so you have been warned.

Today I have finished a Perry Miniatures Gatling gun and crew. Continuing the British Naval landing brigade figures I am painting for a friend. We tend to forget just how large and monstrous these guns actually were. Having seen the one in the Royal Armouries in Leeds I can confirm that this one is indeed in scale. They really are heavy and brutal pieces of kit more than capable of chewing up the enemy.

The model went together very easily with no trimming , filing or mould lines and a minimum of flash. The only problem was that the seated figure. he either refused to sit properly or looked like he was not operating the gun. Finally he did fit into place at the very last moment when the carriage was being stuck to the base, so all ends well.

I will finish the force for him tomorrow and I know from experience you will want a group shot so you can expect one then. It will only have 1/2 the infantry though as he has already taken the first batch back.

That is it for today. As mentioned above I expect to do a final post on these troops tomorrow as tat now clears the painting table for the challenge which starts on Sunday. I will not be starting the challenge until Monday though so most people should get a little head start on me, I should be able to catch up though.

Anyway take care all and hope to see you all again on Saturday. Best Wishes Clint.

Palm Trees.

All the way from China.
 

One of the terrain differences between Afghanistan and Arabia is the foliage. As I will be reusing my Afghanistan boards for the Arab Revolt game, it is important to make a few changes. While the architecture is not the same, it is close enough for us wargamers to use without worry. Yes If I was writing an architectural thesis I would point out all the differences but as a wargamer I don't feel the need. From that point of view they are so close as to make no difference. However simple things do make a difference.

The most obvious one being palm trees. With this in mind I scoured eBay and found a company in China selling them at a bargain price. Including postage I was able to secure 50 model palms for £7.99. They took 11 Days to arrive and I must say I am really quite pleased with them. Obviously ordering from abroad does make you wonder about quality, shipping costs and returns. But I have got to say it was totally hasslefree.






3 Trees and a penny!

Here are three randomly selected trees. They are all very similar but trimming the trunk will add enough variety I think. Given that I will want a board 4' x 6' for the Arab Revolt game I will be looking at 6 boards each 2' on a face. 50 trees over 6 boards means I can invest 8 trees to each board. Which seems to be about the correct density having looked at pictures of Arabian Peninsular towns of the period. Obviously there will be a variety of tree densities, but 8 trees to a board has the right feel I think. Once I start placing them on the boards this plan may change. It is hoped that this very simple addition to the boards will transport them from Afghanistan directly to Arabia.

At this stage I foresee drilling directly into the boards and treating the trees as plugs. This will be far easier than placing them on separate bases and mean they are less likely to get knocked over.

That is todays very quick update. No painting finished just yet as only a couple of things on the painting table as I prepare for Curt's painting challenge. Thanks for reading I shall post again on Thursday so until then, take care and smile if you can. All the best Clint

Practice Camel Painting!

Today I woke up (always a good start I find) with more energy and enthusiasm than I have for about 6 weeks. I even managed to do some DIY. Yes I know a shocker! Anyway I was experimenting on painting some 20mm WW1 Arabs! It has been an open secret that I plan a WW1 game based around the 1916-18 Arab revolt for the BROADSIDE show next year using IT MINIATURES (click name to link) > I will be using IT miniatures because Tim at the club owns the company and this should let a few more people who attend the show or casually look at this blog that his range is quite extensive. Additionally I have never personally seen a WW1 Arab revolt game at any show. That is not you cue to bombard me with links of a plethora of Arab revolt games. Ok you can if you want. I will not talk today about how I plan to implement this game, or the terrain or rules or any details at all about the interesting history and background.
Instead I will talk about how this will fit into Curts painting challenge. At this stage I am thinking about 36 or 48 (they come in packs of 12) Camels with Riders and 24 Turkish foot (Yes you guessed it hey come in packs of 24) with maybe 24 Arabs on foot as well. (the Arabs did fight on both sides after all, but when fighting for the Turks did tend to adopt Turkish Army uniforms) but I might allow myself some poetic licence. Anyway and coming to the point I desperately needed to learn how to paint camels quickly. These have come out a little dark, not too dark to be unusable as Nature does do a variety of Camel tones. Generally they do tend to be lighter though. So I took two from a pack, at random in order to get a little practice done before the Painting challenge starts. being 20mm mounted troops I expect to earn 8 points each from the camels and riders (Not including these two of course). So just painting this force I hope to get 1/2 my points for the whole entire challenge. These two were quick to paint to a reasonable wargames standard and while not happy with the results I do find them acceptable for a wargames table so I think this is the style and level of detail I will go for.

In later posts I will go over the terrain and the rules and some background and history, but that's it for today. Thanks for reading I hope you like the idea of the game and don't find these figures too hideously painted! When sat with 30+ others I am sure they will look the business. (Fingers Crossed).

Best wishes Clint.

Prep (1)

There  may not be a second "prep" blog post, but then again there just might. That all depends on if I can get my act together. I know, I know blummin' flaky git. Yes It's true but at least I am making the effort! Prep for what I hear you say. Well Curt's Analogue Painting Challenge of course! Most of my prep has already been done, but yesterday I thought I should build the models I want to apint as part of the challenge. Don't worry there are not many.

Back in June I bought this "Plastic Soldier Company" box set consisting of 5 sprues of hard plastic. Enough to make a reinforced Platoon of US army M3 or M5 Halftracks. I intend to use these for 15mm PBI by Peter Pig.

Each of the sprues comes with 8 crew figures as well as options for different winches at the front, different mounting systems for the .5 Browning HMG. It also comes with optional vehicle stowage. So if you choose you could easily make a variety of halftracks. There are clear instructions and all the pieces fitted together easily. There was the usual trimming to be done where sprue and component meet, but there was no flash or mould lines that needed any attention at all.  That being the case for the price I did find these a very acceptable alternative to resin. And should I need more I will be happy to get another box.

I did take my time with construction as it is always easier to fix any problems at this stage than when trying to juggle with a paint brush as well. But there were no problems and I could have assembled them quicker if I had chosen.



 I wanted a uniform look to my platoon though. So they all have the same MG copula but I have given different stowage on each and added the .30 Browning MMG to only 2 of the models. I will admit I was tempted to up-gun them all but thought that just looked wrong and unlikely in a war zone. Mind you I have got American troops so maybe I should have added the extra MG's. As you can see I have built them in two batches, and primed 2 at this stage. Today (Friday) they are all primed and waiting for the challenge to start.

The Eagle eyed among you will also have spotted that one has a different winch at the front of the vehicle (bottom left). This was deliberate. While I do want them to look uniform I did also want one to seem maybe slightly older perhaps being used as a replacement. This simple change of winch clearly identifies it. In my mind it is platoon command vehicle, but when it get to the table that idea may/will quickly change.

Overall I am very impressed with these kits. We all know in an absolutely ideal world some support variants could have been included on the sprues, but this is more wishful thinking than practical reality. I for example would like 2 M16 Quad AA mounts or a couple of M4 Mortar carriers. But then I have to wonder how much extra it would cost for the tooling of the injection moulds and then realise that it would lead to a price rise. Darn reality strikes again.

Thank you for Reading today and I shall endeavour to up date this blog on Sunday. All the best Clint