Yet More Success On The Painting Front

Right, I'm as fed up with the lack of images as you are, so have this:



My Necromunda Goliath gang's painted models - minus the two Juves I finished this week. Yes, two - I painted the second today, giving him more tattoos than a parlour and a nice urban base to match the rest of them.

So now this picture:



Is out of date. The two figures at either end have been finished, although they need their names painting on their bases just like all the others, and shown off in HD by the Heavy, Kal Kutter:






I also made some progress with the Anarchist Lewis gun team, although I find painting 1930s civilian clothing a complete pain in the posterior - all that tweed and pinstripe!

As usual, no painting over the weekend from Friday onwards. I'll post pics of my collection though, and if I find the lead, pics of the 10 (!) figures I finished this week.

Olley Painting Points:

This Week: 10
2009 Total: 23

(Still No) Cable St.

No photos of the stuff I've painted this week yet I'm afraid.

Still, 9 OPP for me this week - 6 BUF, 1 Juve, 2 Chaos figs.

Olley Painting Points:

This Week: 9
2009 Total: 22

Buttocks! or, The Perils of Parenthood

The reason there's no photos is because my 10 month old son has made off with the camera lead.

At least, that's what we think has happened - it was last seen in his possession so I suspect it of being under the sofa. I'm going to have a concerted effort to find the damn thing as there's a lot to photograph!

In addition to the Daemonette and Chaos Marauder Heroine, I've effectively finished one of the Goliath Juves (he needs his base doing and the name writing on it), and undercoated the remaining BUF men and woman as well as the Anarchist LMG team and Back of Beyond character types.

And today I received my Hasslefree order and the Bentley staff car, which looks perfect with my BUF chaps! Hurrah!

Talking of the BUF, the VBCW lot on The Gentleman's Wargames Parlour have begun preparations for a 'Big Game' at Evesham over the weekend of the 27-28th Feb, in which I have the part of Frank Wilde, decorated veteran of WWI and local BUF Militia CO. More on that in the weeks to come.

And now - to find the cable! I have toys to photograph!

Chaos Is Fun

Just finished two figures for my eventual WFB Chaos army - both from Hasslefree! One will eventually be a Hero-level character, with a daemonic weapon, and the other is a daemonette who'll be sat on the Lord's palanquin together with some other figures.

The paintjobs were quite quick, an advantage of the previously discussed limited palette and, in the case of the daemonette, the decision to emphasise her otherworldly nature by doing absolutely no highlighting or shading whatsoever and then slapping gloss varnish all over her.

I've also begun the process of finishing off two Juves for my Necromunda Goliath gang, 'The Automatics'.

Pics, as ever, up tonight. Two more points for me.

Of Toothbrushes and Knives

Paint stripping is a chore. Today I managed to steel myself to remove the last dregs of paint from the 12 GZG New Israelis I bought when I was 11! I've had them for 12 years now, and in that time they've been painted:

Black.
Black and green.
Black and white.
Silver.

And all on top of the previous coat... woops! SoI bathed them in Superdrug Own Brand nail varnish remover for about a week and a half, then used an old and knackered toothbrush to remove the weakened paint armour, and a French clasp knife to pick off the difficult bits.

Underneath it all they're actually really nice little models. I think I'm going to do something I've never done before with them and camouflage everything except their visors. Camo'd weapons, armour, backpacks, the lot. No insignia at all except maybe low-vis grey or black stuff.

Hopefully I can get some photos up tomorrow if I finish the Hasslefree Chaos heroine.

He Was How Big?!

Today my wife, son, and I, went to the Tower of London. We wandered round the Bloody Tower, saw the Crown Jewels - which contrived to be both breathtaking and underwhelming - some Irish Guards marching hup and dahn the squayah, Beefeaters, Ravens and the Henry VIII Dressed to Kill exhibition in the White Tower.

The Henry VIII exhibition was small, but worth the entry price by itself! It was fascinating to see his personal armours, the intricate engraving of his horse armours, the massiveness of the lance (they're HUGE, far bigger, heavier, and imposing than I'd thought), and artifacts from the Mary Rose.

By far the single most interesting thing, however, was John of Gaunt's armour. He was 6' 9" tall and, being a knight, built like a brick outdoor toilet. I came up to his shoulders, or thereabouts, and I would've been tall for the Tudor period at 5' 10"!

I tell you, the armour, towering above me, even static and in a glass case, was intimidating. Filled with a big man carrying an even bigger weapon would have made it terrifying.

Limited Palettes

Today I have just under 30 minutes of painting time, split into two 15 minute blocks. This is typical for Fridays, as the weekly departmental lunch is something of a sacred cow.

However, it does mean that I'll come tantalisingly close to finishing off Kalee (b), in large part thanks to the extremely limited palette I'm using (and will continue to use throughout my WFB Chaos army). This technique of limiting the number of colours used provides an instant thematic bond between all the models, regardless of size or manufacturer. Not only that, but it enables you to mass-paint units and characters quickly and to a high standard. So what is my palette?

Black and white, with red, gold, and silver as the principal detail colours. Other colours - purples, pinks, blues etc - do make an appearance, but only for very specific details or where required. This extends to skin tones as well; with black and white being very much in vogue in this particular Chaos Horde. It has the effect of making the army leap out from the table, ties together all the disparate units, and enables me to paint each model differently without worrying about any impact on painting time.

As always, pictures up at some point next Monday.

A Piece of the Mountain

And, following all that boring text, some PHOTOS! Hurrah!


The Black Dragon and the Red Witch - both Reaper Miniatures, both bought from Orc's Nest in 2006/7 (links go to the specific minis).


The Red Witch - notice the translucent effect of her top; an experiment which was very helpful if not as effective as I'd've liked. You'll see more of this on my first Song of Blades and Heroes warband...



Revamped BUF - note the FIBUA bases!

Oh, and when I got home today, I had a present - Studio McVey's Seraphine la Roux! I'm using her as the leader of my first Song of Blades and Heroes warband, and I get to paint her up after Christmas, by order of my better half. I'm VERY excited about painting her as she's a genuine work of art - the sculpt is breathtaking and worth every penny.

A New Approach to Wargaming

For years, I have been a butterfly – flitting from one enticing project to another before its completion, darting from period to period and scale to scale. However, of late, I’ve been considering my approach to wargaming, and I’ve realised a few things:

1. Fiction Over Reality – I prefer either ‘imagi-nations’, fantasy, or SF wargaming.
   
2. Scale Dictates Engagement – 40mm+ squad-platoon, 25-30mm platoon-company, 15-20mm company-battalion, 6mm brigade-division, 2mm division-corps.
   
3. The Joy of Skirmish – forces of no more than perhaps 30 figures a side, and often much less? Yes please!
   
4. Completion Is Vital – I must become more of a Stillmanite* than I have previously been.

My main problem, as I see it, has been an inability to finish painting forces. I merrily buy a load of figures, start painting them, and then move onto the next one. There have been a few exceptions, but by and large these have become unfinished as I’ve added things to them. A good example would be one of my 40K Imperial Guard armies, a mechanised force of Valhallans called the Darendaran X.

Originally they were a 1,500 point army, completed, painted, done. No problems. Then I decided to add some mortars, and a special weapon squad, and ... before I knew it, I suddenly had a plethora of (unpainted) extra infantry and heavy weapons. Now, of course, they need extra Chimeras to accompany them, and a repaint of two spare Leman Russ MBTs I have sat in a box somewhere.

And then there’s the Hellbitches – a massive Necromunda Escher gang, almost – note the word almost – fully painted. I ‘just’ have about 4 more to do, but my enthusiasm for them has vanished. One of them, in fact, is sat in my To Paint box at work.

So, what to do? Well, the answer is simple: Plan, Purchase and Paint! From now on, all my projects will adhere to the Three Ps. I will carefully plan my purchases, taking account of the sorts of games I’m likely to play, whether I need OpFor, and so on. Then I will purchase the models at a show (I’ll come to this in a bit), preferably all in one go, and then – paint the damn things!

In the meantime, I’ll be working on my Unpainted Mountain, selecting one or two old projects and working on them until they’re finished. If there are models still to be bought for them, tough – nothing’s happening until the rest are finished.

Talking of purchasing, I’ve decided to forgo mail order or impulse buys from GW for the forseeable future if it can be avoided (as some GW models are Mail Order only, for example). Instead, each month I will put between £30-50 on one side, and then, in April each year, I will go to Salute! with a purchase list. I will buy what’s on it, and that’ll be that! Plan – Purchase – Paint. As Che once said, “There can be no victory without discipline.”

To give you a rough idea of the size of my unpainted mountain, here, from memory, is a list of the armies, gangs, and other forces that I have more than a few models for (note that not all of these ‘armies’ are actually army-sized, many are little more than skirmish forces or overstrength platoons, and further, that a sizeable minority of these are painted):

All figures are 25-30mm scale unless otherwise stated:

Fantasy:
Warhammer Wissenland/Drakenhof Empire Army – 6th edition models (GW)
Warhammer Solland Empire Army – 7th edition models (GW)
Warhammer Lahmian/Von Carstein Vampire Counts Army (GW)
Warhammer Bretonnian Army (GW)
Warhammer Dwarf Army (GW)
Warhammer Wood Elf Army (GW)
Warhammer Slaaneshi Chaos Army (GW, Hasslefree)
Mordheim City Watch Warband (GW)
Mordheim Vampire Warband (Reaper, GW)
Mordheim High Elf Warband (GW)
Song of Blades & Heroes Warbands and Characters (various)

Science Fiction:
40K Righteous Fists Space Marine Army (GW)
40K Ultramarine Army (GW)
40K Sisters of Battle/Witch-Hunters Army (GW)
40K Daemonhunters Army (GW, Hasslefree)
40K ‘Valhallan’ Mech. Imperial Guard Army (GW)
40K ‘Tallarn’ Imperial Guard Army (GW)
40K ‘Steel Legion’ Imperial Guard Army (GW)
40K Stormtrooper Imperial Guard Army (GW)
40K ‘Cadian’ Imperial Guard Army – 2nd Edition metals (GW)
40K ‘Catachan’ Imperial Guard Army – 2nd Edition metals (GW)
40K ‘Catachan’ Imperial Guard Army – 3rd/4th Edition plastics (GW)
40K ‘Vostroyan’ Imperial Guard Army (GW)
40K ‘Imperial Army’ Imperial Guard Army – RT era metal/plastic (GW)
40K Chaos Space Marine Army (GW)
40K Ork Army (GW)
40K Dark Eldar Army (GW)
40K Eldar Army (GW)
40K Tau Empire Army (GW)
6mm Epic 40K Ork Waagh (GW)
6mm Epic 40K Space Marine Chapter (GW)
6mm Epic 40K Titan Legion (GW)
Necromunda Escher (GW)
Necromunda Goliaths (GW)
Necromunda Orlocks (GW)
Necromunda Ratskins (GW)
54mm Inquisitor Warbands (GW)
Gangs of Mega-City One (Mongoose Publishing, Hasslefree)
Dropwing/Future Wars Rioters and Rebels (GZG, Copplestone, various)
Dropwing/Future Wars Police and Paramilitaries (GZG)
Stargrunt II Mechanised Mercenary Company (GZG, Old Crow, Denizen)
Stargrunt II Force Generica (GZG)
Stargrunt II ‘New Israelis’ (GZG)
15mm Dirtside II European Federation Mechanised Force (GZG)

Historical:
Pirate Crew (Foundry, Redoubt)
Very British Civil War – Skye (Musketeer)
Very British Civil War – Police Action! (Musketeer)
Back of Beyond – Chinese Warlord Troops (Copplestone)
20mm Vietnam (Britannia)
20mm Russian Civil War Bolsheviks (IT Figures)
15mm Vietnam (Peter Pig)
15mm AK47 Republic (Peter Pig, QRF)

There’s other stuff as well, such as the Skaven Grey Seer or Savage Orc Shaman for armies yet to be built, or the collection of models for a now-shelved plan to build a Slaaneshi temple with cultists, worshippers, and worse to adventure through (you start outside, with grounds staff and the odd worshipper/cultist to fight, then move inside – the whole thing was going to be a hexagon with six distinct zones, the closer you got to the central zone, the darker things got, with the Big Bad Boss being a Greater Daemon!!), or, indeed, the one-off models such as the 13th Company Wolf Priest or the handful of Blood Angels.

All in all, it’s a pretty impressive tally, even if a lot of the ‘armies’ are nothing like an army, or in some cases, even a skirmish force! However, it’s not as daunting as it appears for the simple reason of ‘out of sight – out of mind’. I only have a few models at my house, and they are:

• 1,500 point Chaos Space Marine army (The Pantokrator’s Fallen) – 33% painted
• Necromunda – all of them. Unpainted Orlocks, Hired Guns, Goliaths, Ratskins and Escher as well as painted Hired Guns, Goliaths, Ratskins and Escher!
  
• Inquisitor – all seven models. Only one’s fully painted and he’s not been based!
  
• Gangs of Mega-City One – essentially a complete project, only one model needs finishing off and then all I really want to ‘complete’ the game is a Judge or two from Wargames Foundry.
  
• Stargrunt II – New Israelis. There’s 12 or so of these I think.
  
• Mordheim – City Watch, High Elves and Vampires. Only the City Watch are at a playable size and they need four Henchmen models finishing off.
  
• Random – This includes some Eldar, my VBCW stuff, some Back of Beyond characters, the aforementioned Grey Seer, two Minotaurs, and some other bits and pieces.
  

So that’s my current block of Things to Paint. Not that many compared to what languishes at my parents’ house! I’m hoping to get as much as possible painted up before my first 3P project (currently a secret) gets underway in the New Year.

And Another One Bites The Dust!

Hurrah! Another Painting Point for me! I finished the Red Witch (she looks ace - I can't wait to take pics of her with her Vampire Mistress later tonight) and I made good progress on Hasslefree Miniatures' Kalee B, who I'm using as a Chaos Marauder Heroine/unit Champion for my long-planned WFB Chaos army. I think I'll probably be able to get her finished next Monday, as I won't have time to paint tomorrow; my department goes for lunch every Friday.

I'd rather be painting, but then I am a closet misanthrope.

As for Kalee, Hasslefree also do a slightly different and less clothed version, which I intend, eventually, to get together with Miss Fantasy Fetish Attire and Lady Exploding Head for a Mordheim or Song of Blades and Heroes Chaos warband.

Stay tuned - in addition to pics of the revamped BUF and the Red Witch, I'm going to put up a rather long piece about my current attitude towards wargaming and toy soldier buying, and my (large) Unpainted Miniatures backlog.

Olley Painting Points:

This Week: 9
Total for 2009: 13