More Silly Things

A change of plans meant that I managed to get some extra stuff done for my friend C, who P and I are now seeing tomorrow. Most importantly I managed to dig out the remaining spider-drone from the pack of three, and get that painted up too. I also repainted a couple of Mark Copplestone's Neo-Sovs that I got given a long time ago, and a spare Crooked Dice Alien Invader. My hope is this eclectic mix will get some action in Five Parsecs From Home or similar - or at the very least sit on a mantlepiece somewhere!

That little bit of freehanding was quite hard!

But it was worth it. I really like the look of this little unit

Copplestone Neo-Sovs and Crooked Dice Alien Invader 2A, in random colours, to be allies or enemies in 5PFH

You can really see the difference in style and scale here - the Copplestone figures are nice and chunky, very heroic scale; the Crooked Dice one much slimmer and more realistically proportioned

'Scuse the fingers. I painted the face in purple to emphasise that despite being humanoid in shape, this is not a human being but something from another world...

If I can manage to, I have some Wargames Atlantic not-Ratlings and a very old 3rd Edition 40K Chaos Obliterator which I want to paint up for C too, so my plan for tomorrow is to get those done before we head over in the evening. After that, it's commission work and Space Wolves. I promise!

Painting Points:
Today: 4
This Week: 7
2025: 333

A Weekend Off And A New Start

I had a surprisingly busy weekend, given that I spent essentially all of Saturday asleep due to a side-effect from some medication. On Sunday P and I travelled to London for a protest in favour of trans rights that went from Marble Arch to Downing Street - important to have done, and the more pressure that can be brought to bear on the government to reverse its bigoted course the better. Anyway all of that meant that I didn't do any painting at all, which has been quite helpful actually.

Today, refreshed, I picked up some Ground Zero Games models I've had for a very long time - since I was a very young teenager in one case - and painted them up as part of a deal with my friend C. He paid me to paint him some random figures for him, so I've collected some stuff that I think will work well in Five Parsecs From Home, which C plays.

The two little spider-drones are from GZG's 15mm range; the bigger robot/battlesuit is, I think, no longer in production. I bought it in the late 1990s!

The idea is that the two little spider-drones are controlled by the main suit

A very simple scheme of drybrushing and black washing with details, and it looks great!

The canopy looks really nice with a coat of gloss varnish over the gem-style finish

The firepower is quite intense - three tribarrel machine guns, some kind of rotary cannon, and a 14-shot rocket pod

 As I checked them off on my Pile of Opportunity spreadsheet, I noticed there should actually be another spider-drone! I'll have to go rummaging for that. Anyway, it's been a nice little thing to do to fire me back up and ready me to get stuck back into the commission work and my Space Wolves.

Painting Points:
Today: 3
This Week: 3
2025: 329

Rangers of Shadow Deep... in the Cursed City?

So I've been on a bit of a Mordheim kick of late, and parallel to that have also been working on some Rangers of Shadow Deep stuff.

Today I slightly repainted my old Ral Partha wolves, and did some Giant Rats (in two batches, because I painted the undercoated ones then hand-undercoated another three). These will work for both Mordheim and Rangers of Shadow Deep, so without further ado, some pictures:

Giant Rats! These are all Games Workshop, some metal, some plastic.

 Ral Partha wolves, given a touch-up to improve (slightly) the enthusiastically bloody paintjob my 12 year old self gave them back in 1999.

On Tuesday I will venture into the Shadow Deep with some friends, and a while ago (before I restarted this blog) I painted myself a Ranger and some Companions:

 My Ranger, Petal Chulain. Figure from Otherworld Miniatures.

 Woman-at-Arms, Joanne the Tall (or Joanne the Giant, if you think she can't hear you and no-one will tell her you said it). Figure from Dark Sword Miniatures.

 The merry band, including Iorek the bloodhound (figure from Ground Zero Games).

So there you have it. A bit of Mordheim madness and some Rangers of Shadow Deep. There will be photos from the RoSD games on Tuesday, of course.

Painting Points:
Today: 15 (!)
This Week: 21 (!!)
2019: 24

Macro Function, And Victory In The Morning

For a long time I have heard much about the semi-fabled 'Macro' function on digital cameras, enabling close-up detailed photographs to be taken of small things. Like toy soldiers. Until yesterday, I didn't think I had a Macro function on my current imaging device (a mobile phone). Then my partner, S, told me that it did, in fact, have that... so after kicking myself, I enabled it, and took some photos of some things.

First of all, I dug out my decade-old 15mm Vietnam collection. When I was a teenager, my then wargaming partner (even more of a butterfly than I am) decided we should game Vietnam in 15mm. So, thanks to Mr Pig of Peter Pig, and the now sadly deceased Mike Ruffle's utterly amazing website Grunt! Online (since renamed Eleven-Bravo and now no longer online), I got stuck in. Fairly quickly I had amassed a Vietnamese village, a full-strength reinforced US Infantry Company, a UH-1D slick, an M-48, a platoon's worth of M113s, and some Brown Water Navy assets. Even more amazingly, for me, the whole thing got painted! Meanwhile, my friend painted (but didn't base) the NVA platoon that... I... bought... for... him.

Yes.

So, anyway, they did see one game, but for over ten years they have sat, neglected and alone, in a shoebox and I have decided - now that Flames of War are doing the American War, as the Vietnamese know it - to sell it on. So have some photos of Vietnamese villagers and US hardware:

A US Mechanised Platoon's vehicles - an M113 'ACAV' for the platoon commander's track, and then four basic M113s supported by an M-48 tank. Available here on my eBay shop for £25!

LVTP 'AMTRAC' 'Big Momma' in both overland and waterline versions, with a PBR - immortalised in 'Apocalypse Now'. Available here on my eBay shop for £20!

A Vietnamese village - complete with paddy fields, hooches, VC porters, a tiger, pigs, and two Buddhist monks. Available soon from my eBay shop.

And then I rummaged around in my 25mm EuroFed police v rioters tray and discovered that I had five of Ground Zero Game's New Swabian League troopers which I have been using for, well, the European Federation Defence Force in my Tomorrow's War project. I put them side by side to see how I could integrate them into the short platoon I already have (and experiment further with Macro):

Then I thought it'd be fun to see how my painting style had changed in the rough decade or so since I painted up the urban EF troopers, by comparing two of the same figure side by side:

I prefer the figure on the left - although the scheme on the right makes a great one for urban civil pacification/suppression units!

And, finally, although this probably doesn't count towards my Painting Points, this is what I've been working on of late:

Angry Eggs, Blue Space Elves, And St George

Happy St George's Day!

Today and yesterday were actually quite productive. Well, sort of. I am tantalisingly close to making my first order as a retailer of toy soldiers (wahoo!) and have an idea of the sort of website I want for Dragon's Hoard. I also posted the Nemesis Dreadknight to its new owner.

In terms of actual painting...

This is the Powered Armour squad from Force Generica: four of Ground Zero Games' Oceanic Union 'eggs on legs' PA suits, and their 6x6 wheeled APC's driver. The squad contains two troopers with rotary support MGs and manipulator hands, one trooper with 9 one-shot guided AT rockets, and a squad leader with C3/EW package and two standard high-powered large caliber semi-automatic weapons.

Which now means that Squad 1 and the four troopers of the Command/Recon Squad on their hover bikes are all that's left of the infantry component of Force Generica - then it's on to the command jeep, the APC, and the two remaining trucks.

In other news...

Biel-Tan Eldar: Dire Avenger Aspect Warriors! £15 for five! Buy 'em now at my eBay shop!

Painting Points: 5

2013 Total: 118 (78x 28mm, 2x 54mm, 2x tanks)

Lieutenant Generic

In between snatching sleep and trying to ignore the pain in my gums from a infection around one of my wisdom teeth, I painted up the command group for Force Generica:

As you can see, the Lt's left boot wasn't quite finished when I took this; so I have touched that up (I blame the sleepiness). L-R they are; Platoon Sergeant with SMG, Lieutenant (in snazzy tigerstripe style camo fatigues!) with cigar and style points, er, pistol; and a corporal with a grenade launcher. Note the corporal has his visor down to provide him with accurate targeting information.

Painting Points: 3
2013 Total: 113 (73x 28mm, 2x 54mm, 2x tanks)

Force Generica Rolls On

I have slowed my painting of stuff for ATP's eBay shop, mainly because I've been sorting things out for Dragon's Hoard and trying to drum up more business for that venture. I have also been trying to sort out things on ATP's Facebook page (please 'like' if you do!) so I haven't had that much time to paint the Black Legion that are staring threateningly at me from my painting table.

However, because they're nice and simple to paint, I have finished off some more of Force Generica:

2nd Squad, Red Platoon, Yellow Company - the squad's truck driver is on the far right, while the two three-person fireteams are shown together. All wear the khaki-green and grey armour of GENFOR. I am tempted to paint the command section (or at least the platoon CO) in camouflage fatigues to show that this lot are low down the priority list for anything more than basic kit.

I also painted the driver for 3rd Squad:

The driver can be seen stood between the 'support' and 'maneuver' fireteams led, respectively, by a lance-corporal and a corporal. Ideally the maneuver fireteam would also have a grenade launcher but as this is a reserve formation they have to make do with small arms.

Were this a 'proper' Slammers infantry unit then they'd all have 2cm powerguns, and they'd be supported by a tribarrel 2cm machine-gun on a 'combat jeep'. But they're not, so it's grit and determination instead!

Painting Points: 8
2013 Total: 110 (70x 28mm, 2x 54mm, 2x tanks)

Incoming! Spore Mines and Force Generica

I've been a bit distracted over the last few days, but I have managed to complete the Spore Mines, a squad of the 'Slammers' figures, and one of the six Hive Fleet Leviathan Genestealers that I'm working on.

I also received news today that the copy of CyberWing that I'd ordered from eBay was in fact out of stock, so I have asked for the First Contact supplement for DropWing instead. I'm not too bothered, as MechWing was the one I'm more concerned with.

Anyway, it's late, so here are some pictures of toy soldiers. I feel like I'm actually making headway into the Unpainted Mountain again, which is great!

3rd Squad, Red Platoon, Yellow Company, Force Generica. They wear two versions of a khaki-green battledress overall suit, grey composite armoured vests and grid-networked 'communications' helmets. The squad corporal carries a handgun, the lance-corporal a sub-machine gun. Technically speaking the squad isn't complete, they ride in a light armoured 4x4 truck and the driver is also a squad member.

A Genestealer, intent on stealing your genes. But only if they're Levi's Originals though...

Seven spore mines, as fired from Leviathan Biovores. The ones at the back are fragmentation (hence the spheres of shiny chitinous carapace), the ones at the front poison gas and acid-spraying. Mmmm nice!

Oh - if you wanted to buy those Spore Mines, or indeed the Termagants or the previously posted Death Company, you can find them at ATP Painting Studio's eBay shop!

Painting Points: 11
2013 Total: 97 (57x 28mm, 2x 54mm, 2x tanks)