Ideas & Delays

Well...

It's been a long time.

I actually managed to play a game at a tournament - I was a member of the club for 20 years, and had only accomplished it once before. I played the Shadespire (miniatures / card game by GW). Seeing as I had only played it once before (a year ago), coming second last wasn't too bad. I even managed to get paint on my figures.

Having made a big move at the end of last year, I was feeling a little lost - having a total lack of people to game with (my wife doesn't & my little one is just a little too little). I made a contact (or two). I've been introduced to a gaming club that meets monthly about 20 minutes drive away, and also someone who lives roughly the same drive, who has been highly recommended by an old gaming friend.

What does that mean for me & my procrastination:

The gaming group plays a variety of things... None of which I have a ready army for. The closest thing is Basic Impetus 2 Fantasy. I have an old GW Dark Elf army that is unpainted. I've dug the figures out, and am in the process of undercoated the following, ready for test figures:

• 32 Black Guard (old '90s figures)
• 30 Crossbow (old '90s figures)
• 28 Witch Elves (old '90s figures)
• 20 Plastic spear
• 3 Metal bolt throwers
• 1 Metal hydra
• Build 20 plastic spear
• Build 20 plastic corsairs
• Build 10 plastic cold ones

Seeing Basic Impetus uses large bases, I'll get out the circular saw & some MDF & make some bases of the appropriate dimensions. I play to make sabot bases, so I don't have to permanently fix the figures to the bases. That way, I can easily make a set of bases for Kings of War, and use them for that.

The new gaming friend plays Chain of Command & What a Tanker. He plays at home using 1:72 (20  mm), and at tournaments in 28 mm (as that's the most common scale for tournaments locally).

So, I got more figures. I got 2 boxes of Plastic Soldier Company Soviet Infantry in Summer Uniform, a box of the Soviet Infantry Heavy Weapons, as I had already a box of Soviet 45 mm Anti Tank Guns. So far, I've removed the infantry figures which require no assembly, and cleaned them up. I've also undercoated 13 of them, to see how they go. Tomorrow night I'll have go assembling the others from the infantry boxes.

I'll be basing them singly on washers, and have a 3 mm rare earth magnet glued to the bottom of the base, so I can transport them easily.

Paint-wise, I've got all the colours which are recommended on the back of the boxes, so will do them that way.

Wish me luck - as I'll need it.

Fixed

Hi there,
Yet again, a long time between updates... Past weekends have been quite busy, which means that I've had very little time to try and work out what's wrong with the airbrush.

I worked out the problem! The paint was too thick.

It was that simple. I made the assumption that the paint would be the same as before. I previously used the airbrush back in September (before I packed my apartment before moving). The 200 ml bottle of Vallejo white undercoat must of thickened slightly. With my airbrush being a siphon-type, the paint needs to be a little bit thinner than for gravity-fed ones.

I feel like an idiot, in not realising this earlier.

So, I managed to get out the airbrush, and white undercoat some figures. I've also painted the base coats on all of them, and a wash (since I took the photo's I've managed to get some painting time in).,   I'm still trying to work out just how much of the detail on them that I'm going to paint. There is quite a substantial amount of detail on these, but they are quite small (the grid in the images in 1 cm^2). Any, and all advice in that respect is most welcome.

7 bases down, 11 bases to go

Test yellow demon

Slightly larger yellow demon

Green demon

Whilst I have a lot of bases-worth of figures glued down for painting - I also have a substantial number more, which are in various stages of being stripped. Whilst it would be good to try and finish painting all of them, I think it may be a better idea to just get the number of bases I need for a Hordes of the Things army done only. That would mean that this would be my very first completed army for anything, which I have painted to completion.

A major achievement.

Any, and all criticism and advice is welcome. Hopefully I'll get around to doing another post sooner.

Belated Update

Hi All,
Well this is just awesome. I set myself an initial target of posting once a week, with evidence of the work that I've gotten done.

So, what have I done:

1. Figures for my DBA army for the Big Battle at MOAB 2018 arrived (Early Samurai).
2. Cleaned all figures, glued to paddle-pop sticks for painting (lots of figures, as I purchased pretty much all options).
3. Purchased new top for gaming table (old one was water-damaged).
4. Removed old gaming table top.
5. Nailed down new gaming table top.
6. First coat of new gaming table top (6' x 4').
7. Tried to undercoat figures with airbrush

Here lies the problem. I havn't used my airbrush since September (we packed before moving, and I havn't had time since we arrived in our home in December).

The airbrush pushes air, but doesn't seem to be sucking the paint through the cup (it's a siphon airbrush). I've taken it apart a few times, cleaned it in hot water a lot. It still doesn't seem to be sucking the paint through.

I need to find a way of working out what is wrong with it, as without it - I have no way of undercoating my figures. Either that, is spend some $$$, and buy a new one (get a cheapie on ebay).

So, until I can get that done - I'll be using some of the spare plywood (3 mm thick) to make a 2' x 2' table for DBA (the size that will be used at MOAB), then paint it a nice dark grass green.

I can measure out the bases for the DBA army (made out of thick card).

But I need to get the airbrush fixed.

A.

Welcome

Hi,
This blog is for me to use to provide some impetus to get some of my long-standing wargaming projects off the ground.

I have been miniatures wargaming since ~1994, when at lunch-break from TAFE (technical college - studying Electrical Engineering) I wandered into a Games Workshop store in the Sydney CBD. I walked out with a copy of the White Dwarf, and a need to play miniature wargames.

I had played AD&D since 1988, and remember fighting battles (when I was much younger) with my Lego Knights, but that moment was it.

Since then I've very loosely dabbled in whichever system my that at my local games club was in vouge at the time. This, coupled with an enthusiasm for 'new things', and also getting distracted my way too many other things; means that I have a mountain-size pile of lead (and plastic) shame.

The aim if this blog is to make sure I make some progress towards getting armies painted, and perhaps played with. This last part isn't helped by moving more than an hours drive away from my gaming club.

So, my plan is to post a minimum of once per week, with each time having at least a summary of what I've accomplished, with photographic evidence. At the start of each project, I'll summarise what I plan to do. Hopefully, I'll stick to it, and not be distracted (as unfortunately happens too much).

A.