Great ideas!

(One's I've had that were executed much better by somebody else.)

Hi All,

We may remember the stalled project of magnetizing all the Galactic bastard heads that never materialized before JB did his awesome version here. I see it's been almost two years since he finished this. I need to get the lead out, literally.

The other day another languishing project came across my radar. The D&D Idol lit with LEDs.

So here are the videos from Dr. Faust.



I bought the Otherworld version of this quite awhile ago. (Looks like almost 3 years ago.) Ever since I bought it I had been thinking about adding an LED effect to it instead of doing the OSL fire as shown in the shop photos.

As usual I got worried about how to actually implement this and let indecision take over. I thought about recasting the separate hand and bowl piece so I could recover from any mistakes carving out the sculpted flames. Problem is I have never cast anything so got cold feet again.

After watching these videos I'm not so sure I want to to do LEDs anymore. What to do with the battery and circuitry is another problem and the issue of how to model something in the bowl to represent flames was not fully resolved here.

I have not been super productive this week and am pretty worried about finishing anything for #BeerMaW.

I also am seriously dragging my feet on the Oldhammer Zine, it feels a little aimless and bloated at the moment and all my ideas seem like crap. I'll some how muddle through, but it's not coming together like I'd hoped or at all like the first couple of issues did.

Thanks for looking.

May-Tallica and an update.

Hi All,

Found out last night it was May-tallica!


His channel is here.

Sorry for the lack of updates. Various things wrapping up and home repairs have had me shifting junk around, burying and unburying my hobby stuff and generally randomizing things to the point of making the simplest of tasks a major project.

Stuff that needs to get done (still):

1. Play and report on Talomir tales battle, should have been done last week.
2. Paint Don's Boar Boyz, should have been done months ago, I feel super bad.
3. Finish converting and painting Abdul Goldberg for the Emporium of Rogue Dreams.
4. Paint Milkmaids for Curtgeld.
5. Paint Gretchin for Sci-Fi side duel loss.
6. Build ships for Old(War)hammmer Ahoy!

So a somewhat focused list. It doesn't even address the stuff I'm doing for helping to organize Oldhammer USA weekend. But I don't need to bore you with that.

I'll try not to freak out or implode. Probably good I had my last cup of coffee for the morning.

Here's to staying on top of projects.

Crashing and Burning during the AHPC VI and moving forward.

Hi All,

  Well that was bad. I'm not sure exactly what happened this year, but a confluence of events had me completely check out of the competition this year. I just kept missing my submission window and couldn't muster the effort to sit at the desk and even half ass a few submissions.

  We're about to be on break so having anything else before the end of the challenge is out the window.

  The plan now is to finish painting the Boar boy unit for Don and then paint my Sci-Fi challenge loss figures and Curt Geld before I go on to wrapping up what's on the painting desk and tackling the Adbul Goldberg challenge.

  I've also been researching Warhammer Ahoy! rules for the next Oldhammer USA weekend and will be reading those at various down times over the next week or so. I've found a few links with ship builds and discussions.

Guy builds a High Elf Catamaran: http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?276461-The-Farseer-Emrys-painting-an-modeling-blog/page10

Some more schematics and builds of Elf ships: http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=34264

Build log of this bitchin' Dark Elf Ship: https://davecraftshop.wordpress.com/2012/06/10/dark-elf-ship/

Oldhammer Ahoy! BOYL 15 thread: http://forum.oldhammer.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=6131

Oldhammer Ahoy! Rules discussion thread: http://forum.oldhammer.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3856

So there you have it. Doubt I'll be posting for awhile, hopefully I'll have something to show you when I come out the other side.

Cheers!

1 out of 2 children agree!

A magnet my wife bought me years ago.

My son told my I was the best Dad he ever had after I showed him the Dungeon Saga Kickstarter video teaser.


In the end I couldn't resist and jumped in with about 49 hours left. I believe it was at about $460,000 then. It closed at almost $1,058,000. Whoa!

I know I've got a lot of stuff I've promised you all. Maybe promise is too strong, but I do plan on finishing up the photography stuff and those 20mm fantasy sizing shots. I also need to get back to my conlang attempts as I need to come up with a name for my Orc leader in the Nemroth campaign. Nar is the leader of my orcs in Linlandia, my hibernating Mighty Empires campaign. My all time favorite, even if short lived, D&D character was Hagrak the Usurper. That has a nice ring to it. And then i input the Mighty Empires naming tables into inspiration pad pro and ran off 25 names, a few of which are promising. Ungolgag and Grimgar are good, followed by Zogrot, Ashslag and Thorlud. But as per usual I'm over thinking things. Perhaps a post on names with respect to conlanging. Hmm.

I better get to work.

Oh yeah, I've also got a bunch of Oldhammer stuff to share, especially after catching up on Realm of Chaos 80's.

1st Tertile progress and battle report

Since everyone does quarterly reports I thought I would be different and do the first third of the year. (That and I was too lazy to write something up at the end of March.) You can find the definition for tertile here.

So what happened hobby wise in January - April 2014?

I've played 10 games so far, an average of 2.5 per month. I need to step it up if I'm going to come anywhere near last years totals.

I painted 49 1/72 foot, 4 28mm foot, 1 1/72 vehicle and 2 fleet scale spaceships. All during the challenge and nothing for the last month or so. I can't rest on that, I need to push myself to get back to a habit of painting daily. But I'm way ahead of my 9 figures for 2013.

Blog wise, I've written 30 posts and received 16,276 page views, and not all of them searching for tits. (Although I get a disturbing amount of traffic where that is the keyword.)

I finally finished the Talomir Tales battle report I've been working on and you can read all about it here.

I feel that I some how failed to hit the mark with this one,  perhaps it effectively conveys how long the battle took. I'm still trying to emulate who I think is the master, check out Flashcove's latest here and see what you think.

And welcome to MiniMike of MiniStories. Another very talented painter who just had some really nice battle mats made. Again this is one of those blogs that you can't figure out why you haven't been following it all along.

Well have a good one, and may your 2nd tertile be an improvement upon the 1st.

Wet Palette 2.0, and I really am painting. Honest.

Pottering along in the challenge and what not, but it isn't at all apparent from my output. While others are painting up complete armies I have been lucky to eke out a figure or two just before the looming deadlines every two weeks. So I'll give a brief update on what I've got going and how far off my schedule I am, for those of you playing along at home.

Those 10 plastic orcs are about 80% completed, but I hit a snag with the wash and am waiting on some acrylic inks I ordered to make up some usable Orc Flesh wash.

The goblins and Half-Orc have not progressed since I put the slightest amount of paint on them over the holidays. So maybe 10% done.

The Gobbo Bows have not been touched. So 0%.

My Vehicle entry is about 70% complete. I'm just trying to decide what color to paint the windows and lights on it and muster up the courage to try some weathering techniques. I've also added a couple of small vehicles that I've been daubing paint on while things dry.

I've also set myself the task of painting the Stygustan and Treyine armies for the battle I should have fought. I have separated the figures into groups based on their compliance with the rules of the competition. I may submit some for partial credit. I have documented their state at the start and will submit that with my finished pictures. I trust that fellow competition members will trust Curt to judge them accordingly.

Wet Palette 2.0

I had read about anothr version of the wet palette over at Creative Twilight here. I needed to change mine for a couple of reasons. First, the tupperware i was using was too damn big. I just don't have the room on my cluttered painting desk for it any more. Second, I was having trouble getting the hydration level right. I apparently lucked into the first time and had some trouble repeating it.

Right off the bat I can see that I've got the hydration right again. So I'll give you an update how it weent after today's painting session.

Materials Used:

• Plastic photo case 4" x 6"
• Reusable foam kitchen towel, cut to size
• parchment paper, cut to size
• Distilled water, to thickness of sponge

I hope that's clear.

A hearty welcome to new follower head head, please let me know if you have a blog. I don't see one linked to you profile.

Happy painting everyone.

Loki's and Monty's giveaways and what's next

This time I'll promote the giveaways up front.

Loki, in celebration of garnering his 200th follower is giving away a magnificently painted Scots Warlord. You can enter for the draw here.

Monty is commemorating his 50,000 page view with a two part giveaway. I mentioned the first part in the last post, the second part is here. Put your name in for some great 1/72 kits.

Just before starting to type this I happened across the latest update by Anna Meyer to her Greyhawk map on her blog here. I'm still waiting for it to finish loading.

As far as projects go, well....

I have to fight out Tropilium vs. Stygustan 3 (or is it 4) without completing the figures. I see a pattern developing here. I've almost completely color blocked the Tropilium side but I've worked in fits and starts and just haven't been able to make the time when I've needed to.

So fight this battle, write it up. Jump on a play test I got mailed the other day, then try my damnedest to finish these guys before moving on to the Altenburg stuff. Although I may do the basing and priming to break up the monotony.

I'm hoping to do the A-Z book post and I want to encourage something for November, but I need to get cracking.

I'll leave you with Pervy IT Guy.

That map is still loading. I've cancelled it and will try again.

Home made Wet Palette

Hi all, after reading Paradox0n's post here and generally having trouble with paint drying too rapidly here in Phoenix, I decided to go ahead and make my own wet palette.

I was one about the size of a 15" laptop for sale at JoAnn for about $34, but as usual thought I could do just as well at the grocery store. Store Brand Parchment Paper $2.50 on sale, Store Brand Tupperware $3.99 on sale and Brand name Sponge cloth $2.99. So essentially enough for two wet palettes for $9.48 excluding tax.

So far it has worked like a charm, my paint on the palette stays wet. Who'd have thunk it? I left some paint in it for about an hour and a half while I did other things and it stayed wet. Perhaps the paint sucked up a little too much water in that time but not too bad. So a big thank you to Paradox0n and I think you'll see some more output from me as I don't have to struggle with the paint as much.

The parchment has lifted away from the sponge after an hour of painting.

Welcome to new follower Attila13, I'm not familiar with your avatar and don't see a blog listed for you. Let me know if you have one.

Mid-Orctober, I have a plan

Well either today or the 12th was mid-Orctober and I don't have much to show for it.

I have pulled out all the figures I would need to fight out The Altenburg Chronicles: A bridge over troubled waters, but I'm still on the fence about whether or not to play it out using actually WFB 3rd or Warrior Heroes: Armies and Adventures. I have actually played some WFB but 20 years ago. I haven't played WHAA yet but am more familiar with the THW mechanics and I want to use their reaction tables and PEF's (possible enemy forces) for playing the scenario solo. I salso still need to work out how animosity would work in WHAA. In fact I need to refresh my memory of how it worked in WFB.

Here are the figures I intend to use:

Capt. Stoischen and Garfunkel Gefahrlich

Fladnag as Paul Schuler

Artisan Hargrump

Hef's Bows

Hans' Xbows

Franz' Swords

Greediguts Boyz and Rumbleguts

Frinkelgob (banner) and Troll Catchers -4.

Durk

Snapjaw and Snagtooth

I also now have worked out a plan for the Tropilium vs Stygustan next battle. I will finish color blocking the forces before the next battle and I will get started on this right away.

So for Tropilium I need to finish color blocking 32 figures plus 5 horses and possibly 6 figures to crew the Ballista.

For Stygustan I need to finish 41 more figures, this includes the chariots as a figure although they are really more like 5 figures for each one.

So lets say 60 figures to finish color blocking. Most are partly blocked in already with flesh and uniform base color. To get this done by Friday I'd have to do 20 per day. Let's see what we can do.

Welcome to Tomsche of Societa di archeologia e cimeli a nice blog with a range of interests. He happens to be having a giveaway for reaching 100 followers. Go check him out.

Palouse Wargaming Giveaway, Trebian's Article and project creep.

Apparently you all like posts that range around a bit as the last one garnered about two and a half times the normal hits.

Palouse Wargaming Journal Giveaway

Palouse Wargaming Journal is having a giveaway for its one year anniversary. Interesting looking blog and you get the usual extra chances to win by promoting. Go have a look.

Trebian's Article

Aaron over at Here's no great matter turned me on to an article on Trebian's blog about finishing projects here. For many of you the advice is not necessary, as you are very prolific painters. I have only ever finished maybe one or two units and Fladnag, so I took this article to heart a little bit. Although I had already ordered more stuff, which I'll detail next, I think I have a plan back in place. That plan is to set aside a daily painting time, finish the Tropilium and Stygustan figures then jump to Warlord Paul's Oldhammer scenario and then to Chris Stoeson's ACW scenario. I definitely need to buy some ACW cavalry for that last project, I think I already have buildings and terrain items that can cut across these already purchased, if not built.

Project Creep

As hinted at I have gone on a buying binge again, maybe binge is too strong, and bought some figures for some projects that I intend to do further on down the road. Splintered Light Miniatures had a sale so I snapped up some 20mm Ratmen, Lizard Men and Beastmen. I'll show them to you in a follow up. I also think I have all the figures necessary for Warlord Paul's scenario, but I would like to buy some 15mm orcs to proxy as goblins. I will however resist and use what I have for now.

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.

Hot fun in the Summer time

Hi All,

  You may have heard of the heat wave in the Western US. Here in Phoenix it got a little hot.

Screen caps from 6/28 and 6/29.

I think it only got to 119F on  June 29th, but it was pretty damn hot.

I'm back into the full swing of Exercise, except the running has taken a back seat in all this heat. As such my aches and pains have gone back to the usual places. The only new thing is my ribs hurt from being punched in them and I may have to admit that it's more than a minor injury.

Astute readers will notice that I have been playing quite a bit of Elder Signs: Omens. I got it on the Kindle and it is addictive. I've beaten three of the four Elder gods in the basic game, but cannot beat Azathoth. Playing the app has given me a greater appreciation for the boxed game and I have learned the rules better. I may look into getting the expansion in the near future.

Several blogs I follow have been putting up mid year progress reports and I thought I would do the same. I had meant to take a bunch of pictures and snazz it up, but I'm at the point where I want to post something rather than put it off for another day.

So here is the project list with notes:

2013

Add blog pages

• Pile of Shame – haven't started.
• Figures/ Models Completed – haven't started page (1 figure completed)
• Games Played 12/31/12
• Project List 12/30/12

Fantasy

• Finish Tereken Figs – 30 foot 50% complete, 4 cav 20% complete
• Finish Mirholme Figs – 17 foot 30% complete
• Finish Naz-Goth Figs – 29 foot 50%, 2 foot 10%, 4 cav 10%
• Finish Treyine Figs – Taken off sprue, washed?
• Refurbish old terrain – Not started
• Build water feature terrain – Not Started
• Heraldry and Banners – Preliminary designs only
• Card stock buildings – Not Started
• card stock dungeon – Tried to adjust to 1/72 scale

Ancient/ Fantasy Naval – Not Started

• Play War Galley
• Build Roman Seas paper ships
• Read and Play Roman seas
• Go through other naval rule sets

18th Century Imagi-nation -Basic ideas roughed out only.

• Create Map – Got ideas for using Brain and Internal organs for maps.
• create back story
• Read Muskets & Mohawks, Long Rifle rule sets
• determine terrain needs
• paint up figures

ACW – 20 figures cut off sprue and washed

• Paint 10 Union figures – 5% on 10 foot
• Paint 10 Confederate – 5% on 10 foot
• Work through Rifles & Rebels ex of play
• Asses terrain needs/ figures

Wild West – Some Western Figures cut off sprue

• Finish reading Six Gun Sound Rules – Did I finish reading, got pretty far.
• Build Western card stock buildings
• Paint Cowboy and Indian figures

Pulp – Found a lot of resources, need to finalize

• Continue research into Cthulhu
• Figure out stats for Larger Than Life
• Asses terrain and buildings
• Source more figures

WWII – Not much progress

• Finish reading NUTS!
• Paint Billy V Americans and Germans
• Look through Not Quite Mechanized
• Revisit Squad Leader in Miniature

Sci-Fi – Not much progress, added Star Navy and Fighter Command

• Read 5150 rules
• Source Figures
• Play the damn game

So as you can see a lot of work still to do. I've decided that I need to focus on the work instead of the results. In that way I will have something accomplished.

Off for a quick Holiday weekend. Have a happy and safe 4th of July. If you celebrate it that is.

Rum winner is...

Asslessman from Leadplague.

Thanks to all who entered. Asslessman, please email me your particulars. You can find it in my contact info. I  have decided on a color scheme for the birds of prey. I'm thinking of going Wrath of Khan green with a bit of brown/ rust to pick out details. 

Sorry  I have to rush off now. Had some weird connectivity issues from last night into this morning and it's put me behind schedule.

Projects for 2013

I always joke that my goal is to one day have goals, but I think that now is the time to really think about where I want to go in the coming year and develop an action plan to achieve that. So I think I need to break it down it to areas of focus.

Bloggery: I feel like I have made some inroads into having a successful blog, ie one that people actually want to read. I want to broaden its reach by joining more blog networks and posting to more forums. Of course it still has to be relevant content. The blog also needs a revamp to make it easier to look at posts. I will change the format to flip card as per Phil B at the Wargaming Site (here) and see if that improves page views. I will keep track of projects, unpainted figures and games played on their own pages.

Projects: Fantasy, which right now encompasses RRtK and WHAA. Finish painting Tereken (Saxon) and Mirholme (Viking) figures. Revisit and finish Naz-Goth (Orcs) and Treyine (HYW English) figures. Terrain refurbish. Water feature terrain. Heraldry and Banners. Card stock buildings and Dungeon?

Ancient/ Fantasy Naval. Play War Galley. Build Roman Seas Paper ships. Read & Play Roman Seas. Go through other Naval rule sets.

18th century Imagi-nation. Create map and back story. Read Muskets & Mohawks, Long Rifle. Assess terrain needs, paint up figures.

ACW. Paint up 10 each Confederate and Union figs. Continue working through Rifles & Rebels. Add figures and terrain as necessary.

Wild West. Finish reading Six Gun Sound (almost done). Build western card terrain. Paint up Cowboys and Indians.

Pulp. Continue researching Lovecraft and Cthulhu. Source more figures. Assess terrain and build.

WWII. Finish reading NUTS!, Paint up those Billy V Americans and Germans. Also look through Not Quite Mechanized for operational level. And revisit Squad Leader In Miniature (SLIM).

Sci-Fi. Read 5150. Source figures. Play the damn game!

When I write it all down it seems like an awful lot. Well, nothing for it but to start making that project page on the blog and get cracking. (I cheated and put up the project page yesterday.)


After reading Big Lee's broken promises post I realize that I need to add cleaning and temperature controlling the garage to turn it into a multipurpose game/ exercise area. This one has been plaguing me for years. We'll see if writing it here will spur me into action.

I've already welcomed Kris Marquardt to the blog, but I now have his blog address which is Wargames and Railroads. A lot of good stuff. Of late the posts are about laser cut mdf models. I have to say that ship looks pretty impressive.

Quietly making progress

With the Thanksgiving Holiday coming up and only a few weeks left in November, I've been making more effort to get these two armies done for a proper battle. The terrain is all rolled up, flat clear and no obstacles. It will just be mano a mano, no fancy wizards or canons.

The Tereken forces are all cleaned and ready for basing. In organizing myself I realized that I had prepped too many models for the levy and not enough for the huscarls, so I remedied that. The Mirholme forces still need 15 figures cleaned, but I should be able to multi-task and block out the colors for the based and primed figures which are 20 Tereken and 13 Mirholme.

14 of 16 levies, 2 skirmishers in the back, huscarls to the right.

I wanted to test my new phone's camera, not too shabby. I need to figure out the flash and obviously need much more light to work at night. This is yesterdays work of blocking out the flesh and metal bits.

The Mirholme Veteran Warriors, Gunnar Broadaxe front right.

I'm flailing around for a color scheme right now but thinking of Red and Blue for the vikings and Green and Yellow for the Saxons. Of course this is mainly for the wealthy troops. The masses of levies/ warriors will be slightly more drab.

Archer wearing gray pants. Warrior in the background, oops forgot flesh on two.

So I'm cautiously optimistic. I think the hardest part thus far is acknowledging the fact that I'm starting from square one skill wise. What I did 20 years ago is irrelevant. Not to say I was a Golden Demon award winning painter, but I still cling to the belief that I was passably decent.

I'll make note of one milestone that happened, passing 12,000 views, before going on to a little non hobby content.

*** Non Hobby Content Warning***

Thanks for all the well wishes for my son and I. I'm feeling mush better but still have a lingering cough. The Panthers really excelled in last weeks game, handing a previously undefeated team a 10 point loss. Although we should have been outright division champions, we are now co-division champions with the team we beat. We retain our #2 seeding in the tournament, which is just as well, so we will have the opportunity to beat the only team that defeated us. If all goes well we will play for the championship. The team has also been invited to a special all city tournament in December.

Also a bit of nostalgia. Last month my parents were able to re-purchase a cabin overlooking Lake Tahoe that they had sold almost 40 years ago. I have many fond childhood memories and hope to be able to share that with my kids in the coming years. Too cold and under construction/renovation for this winter but definitely next summer and the following winter.

Front entrance.

View of Tahoe from the back yard.

Now those are the icicles I remember.

Towards Tahoe with snow.

This week in Talomir #2

Perhaps this will be the start of a series. I realized after the last post that I had a humorous acronym (TwiT) so it tickles my fancy.

I did a lot of stuff, but did not actually finish anything except the battle. You can read the report over at Talomir Tales here.

A sample of the report.

I used GIMP to do up the report this time because I wanted to "sex up" the captions a little. Since I seem unable to have nice figures or terrain I'll go to my strength, which is screwing around with GIMP.

So the settings were an 800x600 template 72ppi resolution (for web basically). I re-sized most of my shots to 45-50% to fit in this space. I used the AutoRealm Mentelin font because Ruarigh had used it and I thought it would help tie the report to the setting better.

The main trick I used was set up a transparent layer and then make various selections on it and fill that with a pattern called crinkled paper. I wanted more of a parchment look but the "old paper" script didn't seem to be working right. The workflow I hit upon in the final pictures was this:

1. Type in your text roughly where you want it in the image.
2. Use a selection tool to outline a shape encompassing your text, I ended up using the free select (lasso) although I started with rectangle select.
3. Click on the selection menu and click distort, I used the default settings. This will give you the rough edges.
4. Select a pattern from the pattern menu and either use the Bucket fill tool or drag and drop the pattern from the tool box icon.
5. Next use the fuzzy select tool (magic wand) with a high threshold (70+) to select your paper areas. If you have more than one remember to hold the shift key down to add to you selection. Note that if you don't have the threshold high enough you may get patches of unselected stuff inside you paper area. You don't want that.
6. Final step, run the Drop shadow filter on your selection to give it a little pop on the image. It is easy here to do some wired stuff with selection and put the drop shadow on the inverse of what you want. This looks weird and increases the image size. Just be fore warned because I did it a couple of times and it's annoying

There you have it.

You may have also noticed that I hand made the counters this time. This is for several reasons. First I couldn't get the figures painted up. Second there were no counters for either army in the paper armies book, and third I wanted to try out my basing size that I intend to use for the figures. This size is based off of a 3.5" x 2" business card. So cavalry, artillery get the full size. Infantry get 3.5" x 1" and then the heroes are 1" x 1" foot and 1" x 2" mounted. For this battle a 3' x 4' table was okay, but for a battle with the Treyine army I suspect I would need at least a 6' x 4' table as these base sizes are really more akin to 28mm frontages.

And on the painting front I got about 20 saxons based up and 13 vikings out of 35 or so needed for each.

I'm also still working on mixing my paints, but they may be a lost cause.

My version of Kasper's paint mixer.

I used a rotary tool bit that's supposed to hold cutting discs. Mounted it to a small Applesauce jar lid and away we go. The rotary tool was a little scary so I put it on my drill as per Kasper's original design. The jar will hold 4 paint pots but I chose to do three and hold it at an angle so the pots tumble over each other. If you get it too fast or too vertical, centrifugal force just sticks them to the side and stuff doesn't seem to mix. Hmm, maybe an orbital sander and some foam rubber would be another method.

Cheers.

This week in Talomir

Well, Spring 992 has begun in Talomir and what better way to start than with having to paint up two new armies.

As we may recall from the "Bold Plan" series, I was unsuccessful in trying to get just over 100 (was it 107) miniatures painted up to fight the Treyine vs. Naz-Goth battle. I did get all of the the Orcs cleaned up and based on washers, except Hogash should have been mounted. But I did not even get them all base coated. For the Treyine forces I got them all off the sprue but only the Foot Knights, Infantry, Hero and Mage were cleaned of mold lines. Again the hero should have been mounted but I didn't read the list carefully. And here are a few shots of the Orcs, showing the different primers and the flesh base coat.

Sorry, focused on the background. But shiny and not shiny are obvious.

Wish I had a non shiny base to compare. Fig on the right is the Dark Alliance set 2, others are Caesar.

Treyine Infantry with spear ala Paul's Bods. And special clamping device to help it stay put while glue dried.

Of course this month sees me signed on to fight two different battles with four completely different armies. I will be fighting the North Tropilium invasion of Hykar with card counters as I already have the Hykar forces printed out from my failed attempt to play their battle against the Dragon. Looks like I'm short one unit, but I can probably borrow one from the Treyine or Seniiran armies that was printed earlier.

Hykar minus one, and only two I can use from Tropilium sheet for N. Tropilium. Doh!

The big one for me this month will be the Tereken invasion of Mirholme. This is one I hope to game with figures and fortunately I have already gotten a start on these. For Tereken I will be using Imex and Revell Saxons with a couple of Italeri Celtic cavalry converted into Saxon cavalry. The Tereken Forces should be 35 figures, the Mirholme should also be 35 figures and I already have 13 based and primed, yeehaw! ( I know it's not a very dark-agey expression).

Vikings of Mirholme, primed in black and on the paper.

Tereken. Top left are Skirmishers, most lying down are fyrd. Standing and front left lying are Huscarls. Mounted are mounted huscarls.

So there you have it. I'm not sure just yet how to go about converting the Italeri celts to Saxon cavalry. There are parts on each figure that seem like they would be a bear to whittle off to fit with saxon upper bodies. I may re-think this and order the Miniart Germanic Cavalry as a conversion free proxy. I also need to figue out how to make a shield for the lone unprimed viking in the last picture. Perhaps just an arm swap for now. And please forgive the midden heap that is my painting area.

Lastly, welcome to Ivor Cogdell. Sorry you didn't get a chance to get in on the giveaway, hopefully there will be something useful and/or interesting for you here on the blog.

Failed miserably (B.P part 5?)

Well, I think it's time to face the fact that I have failed miserably in my bold plan to get off my ass and play a game with actual painted figures.

I have a lot of excuses, but minimal results. I will classify it as a success in one regard though, I actually put paint to brush and got a lot started.

What did I accomplish?

I got 35 orcs cleaned and mounted on washers. 10 still need primer, but 9 actually have a flesh tone base coat, woohoo!

For the human (Treyine) side I have cleaned mold lines from 26 figures. Out of the 70 some odd I can now see that there is no way I can finish those, base them on washers and fight out the battle and write the report by Sunday.

So what now? Well I think next is to print out the paper army of Naz-Goth, set up the battle and duke it out.

Although I failed in my stated goal I think there were some positive accomplishments by giving myself this deadline.

First I came up with a plan for priming, basing and color blocking the figs. I intend to use Black primer for evil and viking/ saxon figs to give a dark grungy look. For the regular human forces grey primer and white for the elves/ goodie two shoes types. For the wizard I was going to prime in brown, not sure what difference that will make.

Second, I came to the conclusion that I am a brush on primer kind of guy, I just have no control over the spray can. I bought some great, compared to my previous one anyway, black acrylic paint by Americana called lamp black. Sam had noticed how shiny my previous one was and it turned out that it was a metallic black. The difference in coverage is amazing.

Third, while I am improving I still struggle with cleaning up the flash and mold lines on the plastic. Some of them just don't scrape off cleanly. So I've developed an alternate shaving technique to go with lateral scraping.

Fourth, I made a spear using Paul's method here. I used a a small sledge for the anvil and a hammer. The wire I used was a little hard so I had trouble making as fine a point. I do have some floral wire and I will try that next. It was in fitting the spear that I figured out I needed to clamp my items in place to get super glue to hold right.

When I get a chance I'll document this with pictures and hopefully it will help those of you who may be in similar circumstances.

And before I forget I read this great post from Chicago Skirmish Wargames here about filling your own paint dropper bottles. I feel like I need to do this for my various paint mixing projects and to stop wasting paint because of lack of control from the craft paint bottles.

Battle report next.

Primed (B.P Part 4)

The 20 orc figures are all coated in PVA and primed black. For the Archers, Hero, Bugbears and Black moon orcs I sprayed them down with Scenic Cement. I don't think I'll do that again as I'm not sure the mess made is worth the time saved. I might try a glue dip method but not sure about that either. The primer is that glossy black, I thought I had purchased more flat black but only had it in an artist tube and haven't got my thinning stuff together yet.

Four trees and the four Wolf riders had their washers spackled. I also received my 100g bag of Heki Grasfaser Sommerwiese 3360 (Light Green? Static Grass) from Scenic Express. So you should be seeing me enter modern times in my basing technique. Scenic Express also sent a bound catalog with the order, it's like the Sears Christmas catalog for terrain building. I just wish that model railroad scales weren't so weird. N is 1:160, HO is 1:87 and O is 1:50.

I'll try to add pictures tomorrow. I also had more to say, but my brain is fried. Good night.

Put yer back into it! (Bold plan pt3)

This is how I'm feeling at 0:37 or so.

So yesterday saw my son's flag football team win 32 - 6 and precious little done on the B.P. so I resolved to knuckle down and get on with it.

So the Orcs are all mounted on washers and the Wolfriders are pinned glued and on washers. the main infantry were spackled and textured. The wolves will get the treatment tomorrow. I also determined that I will use magnetic business cards as bases/ movement trays. 3.5" wide by 2" deep is about double my current card bases, so we'll see what that does for my battle board. I was thinking that the infantry would be 3.5" x 1".

The Treyine army has been cut off the sprue, but needs to be cleaned up and put together.

Front middle is the Foot knights, 2 Minart German Knights 72011. Lord De La Warre in pink from Zvezda English Infantry of the 100yrs War 8060. I haven't decided what to do about the standard bearer. There is one in that set but I want to make the Spear of St. Lindorf banner, so I may need to convert another figure. To their right are Sir Alaric Fithugh and Dansforth the Mage, both from Caeser Advebturers Fantasy 104. The next row are the Infantry. 1 entire sprue from the Strelets Military Order Warriors M012 and four added from Strelets Medieval Levy 2 M006. The mass behind them are the 30 archer figures. 21 from  Zvezda English Infantry of the 100yrs War 8060, 3 from Zvezda Medieval Peasant Army 8059 and 6 from the Airfix Robin Hood A01720. To the right of the last row of archers, in brown are the Arquebusiers from the Orion/ Dark Dream Studio Landsknechts DDS 72002. Then the Hykar cavalry skirmishers played by Strelets Turcopoles 090. In the final row the knights of the White Company (including Geoffrey Chambers) Minart German Knights 72011, Tropilium Equites HaT Imperial Roman Praetorian Cav 8067, Eskelin Knights HaT El Cid Spanish Heavy Cavalry 8213 and finally 4 Goblins from Caeser Goblins Fantasy 105.

I like all of the figures. The HaT Romans and the Airfix seem a little small alongside the others but I'm sure they'll blend in fine. The Goblins are a little more whimsical than fearsome. None of the figures are armored and a few have bombs to throw. There is also an over abundance of wiggly knife blades. In the future I wonder if I could use 15mm Orcs for goblins.

I also realized I had signed up for a terrain competition that ends this month. When it rains it pours.

Soldiering on. Wish me luck.