Marshaling of forces and where to eat out.

I must say it has been difficult to get much hobby work done this week. The sheer volume of great work that many of the blogs I follow are putting out has been hard to keep up with. I know, a terrible problem to have. We also had curriculum night at the kids school which, although informative, was a tad mind numbing.

The Legions of Tropilium are coming along, I've got half of them based and primed and the other half cleared o flash and mold lines and ready for a scrub. The Egyptians are all off the sprue and waiting for their turn under the knife. Somewhere I read that some of you don't bother to carve off mold lines on your 1/72 plastics. I believe it was Cameronian who said that. His figures look quite nice, so maybe there is something to that. I wax and wane on the subject, some of the figures material preclude too much knife work. The HaT catapult, for instance, is almost rubbery.

I've decided for this post to spare you another picture of unfinished figures for the time being.

My plan is to prime white with these figures and follow the guide posted on Legio Wargames here. If I'm not mistaken Prufrock over at Here's no Great Matter had reminded me of this awhile back. So, as is my usual, I started thinking about painting the skin tones of the Egyptians. Now I could just have my standard North European bias and paint them all "flesh" colored, but these are the kinds of things that keep me up at night. Also I had to raid the Nubians for some archers as the Egyptian box did not have enough figures. The angst over appropriately painting African skin tones was palpable. So I had a gander at some google searches and found two articles to be of some use.

This article from Perry Miniatures seemed pretty good. And this thread from TMP lead me to this resource from "Cool mini or not". In the TMP comments Rich Bliss talked about using Raw Umber and Raw Sienna in various layers and washes and that sounded like a good start.

As part of my gamer ADD I picked up a copy of Operation Barbarossa at the library today.

Looks like it will be an interesting read. I've always wanted to do an Eastern Front campaign and in noodling around I found this from Historical Board Gaming (dot) com. They seem to make a lot of accessories for Axis & Allies.

Welcome to new followers Pete from SP's Project Blog. It doesn't show on his google friend connect, perhaps because it's a wordpress blog. Good adaptation of THW's NUTS rules for modern engagements. Plus lots of other fun games and scenarios. And also welcome to Tom Keegan of Wargaming the French and Indian War a blog dedicated to the game Muskets & Tomahawks, which I know several of you play. He has some really impressive pictures of figures and terrain for this, check him out.

You know what comes after the break. Not too racy this time.

Promoting Edwin's giveaway, with extra real life

I've been meaning to post for several days now but have really been dragging.

Check out the giveaway over at Thoughts of a Depressive Diplomatist here. He's got some quite excellent looking books up as prizes.

I'm still plugging away at my Romans and Egyptians for Talomir, you can read about the latest campaign update here. Because both Javier and I are players, who happen to live in separate countries, someone else will play out our battle. Honestly I think it is stupid for Tereken to goad Altengard like it is, but there are many forces driving us to war. I had hoped that Altengard would remain focused on the larger threat of Treyine, since they are now the largest empire.

I'll have some more progress shots in a day or so as I get caught back up. Of course since I had to dip into my box of Nubians to fill out the Stygustan archers I had to research how to paint African flesh and buy more paint. I'll share with you what I found.

In real life my training and body composition are going fairly well, but I over did it on Sunday with a run, heavy leg training and then two hours of San Soo practice. Today is the first day that my left leg didn't feel like it was going to fall off. I'm now third in the club and 69th company wide, so I'm making positive progress. ***Update on the numbers, 3rd and 69th were last week. After this weeks results I'm 1st in the club and 21st nationally. Yeah me.***

I had a minor incident yesterday on the way to pick my kids up from school. It was a half day and I was biking over there as usual. An SUV with an undetermined number of teens came up behind me and yelled out the window as they passed. Being the sort of gentleman I am I gave them the one finger salute. That prompted the one who had his head out the window to tell me how he was going to violate my mother. Well obviously this is something that demands an immediate response, and I assure you dear readers that I was not found wanting. I said something to the effect of  "Try it you little (rhymes with rock chucker)" and found myself hoping that they would get out of the car so I could beat the living shit out of the entire bunch of them. I assume there were at least three. The crossing guard and one of the mothers heard me, but felt I was justified. I'm glad there weren't any children around but honestly I would not have been able to respond differently even if there were.

Here's a little San Soo to help drive home the image.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsldwsyyfHQ

(youtube is being problematic and won't let me embed this video)

I'm also apparently having an issue saving my facebook photos so sharing those with you is proving problematic. Too bad, as I had a couple of good ones.

And finally I'd like to welcome Ray Hepburn. No blog listed in your profile. Please let me know if you have one.

And here is a quick picture for you:

Some updates

Well, I've been noodling around with the blog. I'm trying to sort through my blog list and cull out defunct sites as well as figure out whether some are not displaying because of a glitch or lack of posting. I also need to do this as I seem to have no way to bulk load them into my feed reader. I use Feedly from my phone in an effort to keep up with what you all are doing. If you haven't noticed I've fallen behind some. There are a few posts I hope to get back to, but because of their length and number of responses, I haven't felt up to chiming in.

If you don't do it, I strongly suggest you follow James's advice here and add the Google Followers widget to your blog. It would also be nice if you gave an indication of where in the world you are. The NSA already knows, but I may not. My current idea is to break my bloglist into geographic regional chunks. Not quite sure how I'll do it yet. I'm only somewhere around 260 blogs.

And a word of advice if you follow in my footsteps on this exercise in madness, don't try and copy your list from the layout page. Do it from your profile. It's just much easier.

And now a word about Google+. If I've ignored you on it I apologize. I'm still trying to figure out why it is not totally redundant and how to best utilize it. I see more people including it on their pages and am not opposed to it, I just haven't really figured out how to use it effectively.

Perhaps a post about what widgets to use and some more about blogging best practices are in order.

Now onto some points of interest.

First check out Anna B. Meyer's progress on her Greyhawk map here. Hands down this is how you make a map.

I've been watching my DVRed episodes of The Walking Dead that aired over the 4th of July to get me pumped and remember the story. You can see the countdown here. As a coincidence I was surfing channels and came across the movie Love Actually. I had totally forgotten that Andrew Lincoln was in it.

Right now I'm at the part where they've just entered the prison and been clearing it out. I like what a ruthless bad ass he becomes.

Also it's time to welcome two new followers:

cedric mauvielle who I am assuming is the same cedric from Lost Wargamer in HK. A very nice blog that I've already encouraged you to follow. One tip is that if you don't have an Avatar you get buried at the beginning of the list so you may be overlooked as a follower. Also your blog is not linked in your profile. Just minor points.

Tom Young runs Tides of War and has a pretty sweet Dol Amroth army front and center on the blog right now. He's also done some more integrating with Google+ so I'll be digging around to see how he does it.

Have a great weekend.

Promoting a couple of things, and trying to stay motivated.

I wanted to take the time today to promote a few blogs that have come across my radar. First, as you may have heard, The Laughing Ferret is having a pretty spectacular giveaway over on his blog here.

Since I am perhaps one of the worst offenders for using the word that rhymes with imp in reference to blog promotion, I feel  that precludes me from entering the contest. My use of it is not to promote a certain lifestyle etc., but really just to be a little campy. Perhaps I need to re-think it, I don't know.

I any event go and join his blog and read some interesting stuff, see some fantastically painted miniatures, and maybe win some swag.

Second, while I am promoting things, I'd like to bring your attention to a blog that is really quite good. At last check Lost Wargamer in HK had only 6 followers. I find this quite shocking as he paints quite well, sets up a nice table, and is playing out a very interesting Zombie/ Weird War II campaign at the moment. Do yourself a favor and check him out.

I'm dragging my feet on my minis right now. I took the day off from exercise and thought I'd get a lot done, but it hasn't happened. On the plus side I've dropped 2.6 % body fat in the three weeks since we started and only lost  about 2 Lbs in body weight. I'm in 63rd place nationally within the Club and 3rd among the men in my club. Not too bad.

Sorry about the lack of pictures, nothing feels right to put up today. Take it easy.

More WFB orcs (now with Trolls)

So here is that other unit from 1991 or there abouts.

A feisty looking bunch.

So here was the other unit. What I liked about them was that they were all individuals, I don't think there are any repeats.

With these guys in the front rank we can see that I was doing a wash after the base coat and then drybrushing in highlights and touching up areas. All of the the flat shields were painted and I think I was mostly channeling the Bone March from Greyhawk when I made these shield designs.

 I really should have dusted these guys off, the are pretty dirty.

I liked how this shield design turned out.

Actually looks like an Orc painted it.

I'll also note here that this must be the most fastidious Orc ever. Note sure how he kept his pale loincloth and boot trim so clean.

I think the highlight in the eye is purely from the flash.

Have to have at least one white hand in an Orc group.

I think you need a nine iron here.

Best face of the bunch.

I liked the touch of color and thought his putees looked good.

I don't remember cutting the bow out of his hand, but maybe I did. I think i reasoned that the shield would cover the quiver, of course it fell off.

Ultimate 80's side pony tail.

 Bonus Troll #1

I liked the fish poking out of the net.

So there you have the only models I ever finished for Warhammer. I'll post the partials and unopened stuff in future posts.

Welcome to Laffe, also known as Leif Eriksson. He doesn't appear to have a blog but he does have a youtube channel here. I should probably add my youtube channel to my links, as well as actually make some more videos.

Got some work done on the Talomir stuff, I'm still plugging away. That's all for now.

Answers to the 10 (these go to 11) questions.

I'm a sucker for these blog questions. This one was started by The Laughing Ferret here. Many of you answered directly on his post, I think I'll do mine here so I can add silly pictures.

1. Dinosaurs or Dragons?

Dragons, because Dinosaurs let themselves go extinct.

2.  In an RPG would u rather be a Player or DM?

Player. Although I am a little of a control freak I never was a very good DM.

3. You have a Time Machine: you can only take a trip to the future or the past. Return or not is your choice.  Which direction & how far?

Tough one, but I still think my answer is I'd suck it up and graduate from High School instead of quitting and getting my GED.

4. Favorite Online Comic

I feel like I should have one but I don't read online comics. Maybe that should change.

5. Of these Empires which do you feel is the BEST Empire and the WORST Empire? 

Roman, Mongol, Spanish, Russian, British, American. 

How you define Best and Worst is up to you.  

If you're feeling up to it, rank them from best to worst 1-6.

I admire the accomplishments of Rome the most, for me it's a toss up between Russia and Spain for the worst, but probably Spain for being the most exploitative.

Countries the British haven't invaded in white.

6. Who wins the fight?  Roman Gladiator or Samurai ? 

If we consider training and will to win being equal then I give it to the Samurai who has the technological edge in perhaps the best sword ever made. Otherwise it's too much "my style beats your style" which is bullshit.

From www.worldofjapan.net

7. Who wins the fight?  Darth Vader or Witch King?

As much as I love Darth Vader he was really only good at bullying kids, old men and Fleet officers. Witch King hands down.

8. Who wins the dogfight?   Starbuck in Colonial Vyper or Luke Skywalker in X-Wing?

Luke, c'mon he has the force. And holy frak?! I thought Starbuck was a dude!

9. Who wins the battle of wits? Tyrion Lannister or Wesley? 

Mark Messier!

10. Money & Time no object, what movie or novel would you like to have the armies and terrain in miniature to recreate and expand on, and in what scale?

Tough one. Probably Middle Earth although Hyboria is a close second. And 28mm if money is no object.

11. Human Beings die off. What species rises to take our place, becoming the next sentient species with a global civilization?

Lizards, and I'm sure recently watching the Star Trek episode "Arena" with the Gorn in it has no bearing on my choice.

And finally I'd like to welcome four new followers to the blog, the last few posts I have completely forgotten to acknowledge them.

Emilio, I'm sorry but I can't tell if you have a blog. Let me know if you do and I'll post a link.

Legatus Hedlius needs no introduction. An international man of mystery with no fewer than 15 blogs listed. I follow Legatus' Wargames Armies and Roman Wargames Armies I think.

Guidowg comes to us from This Ain't living.

The Miniatures Man writes the self titled blog The Miniatures Man.

I have not had the time to go through your sites, I will do so when I get my latest project more under my belt.

This week in Talomir - More Plastic

Well I'd like to say that more progress was made on this project but here we are.

Ready to be washed.

Looks like the Equites, Arquebusiers, 2 units of legionaries and the Hykar Mercenary cavalry. These are the Republican Roman cavalry and infantry from Italeri that I showed you here. Dark Dream Studio Landsknechts with muskets, and Strelets Turcopoles.

These are the things I ordered from Hobby Bunker. Oops, I forgot to order the Orion Pirates, doh! I'll just have to remember them when I place my next order for random projects. Right now I'm trying to stay focused. The Zvezda Roman Auxiliaries look more like what I envision Romans to look like. I probably should have gone with them for the Legionaries but I was trying to buy locally and jump start the project. The Egpytians look great as do the Nubians which are not for this project. I can't remember whether  had them tagged for Kurinthia or Zamba, but I think it was the former. My other idea was the Mayan figures, but I digress.

To break up the monotony I tried to paint the Troll from the Caesar adventurers pack. I knocked him of his base again, so am going to have to bring out the big guns and use super glue. For some reason I have it in my head that I need to be able to back out of any basing scheme so I've been doing it with PVA.

This is a shot of my magnifying lamp thing. I believe Paradox0n had asked me about it. It works but I knock my brushes and knife on it when I'm working so am considering a visor since I now have to face the fact that I just can no longer see things up close. Hard to admit for someone who has been near sighted almost their entire life. The brand appears to be Carson and I had never heard of it before. It appeared to be a return to Hobby Lobby. The light is provided by LED's.

So lots of work to do. I haven't had much energy due to my ramping up of exercise, I will try and post updates when I get some more accomplished.

And if you hadn't noticed, facebook for Android now allows you to save images.

https://www.facebook.com/ladiesofmetal

So now I can lavish you with the weird and sublime stuff that comes across my news feed.