Just the briefest of messages to say that due to catastrophic circumstances last night, I have been left with no option but to cancel this weeks edition. Unfortunately the Great Hall experienced the kind of tragedy no gamers ever wishes to see!! More on that in a future post when I am able to gather my thoughts from utter despair at present.
Regards
Andrew
29 July 2014
Another Pirate joins the crew!
Sadie "Saucy Devil" Quince
As mentioned in the last post all the bases will have a planked look. The deck is started with a full coat of German Camo Black Brown VMC822 (150), then the planks are defined with VMC983 (143) Flat Earth and some basic etching applied, further etching is given to the planks using VMC874 (134) USA Tan Earth then VMC843 (133) Cork Brown in small random lines.
Being a female I wanted the skin a little fairer than the male pirates so. Firstly the skin is base coated with VMC860 (21) Medium flesh tone followed by a wash of Army painter soft tone before having VMC860 (21) Medium flesh tone reapplied to the whole face save the eye sockets, along he side of the nose and parts of the mouth. Then the brow, nose, higher portion of the cheeks and the chin are given a coat of VMC8450 (20) Sunny flesh tone. Next more definition is given applying a smaller amount of VMC955 (18) flat flesh over the same areas and then repeated with VMC815 (17) Basic skintone. except the nose which I just run down the centre and apply two dots either side. Finally just on the centre of the nose, top of the cheeks and chin I applied VMC928 (6) light Flesh.
Being a female I wanted the skin a little fairer than the male pirates so. Firstly the skin is base coated with VMC860 (21) Medium flesh tone followed by a wash of Army painter soft tone before having VMC860 (21) Medium flesh tone reapplied to the whole face save the eye sockets, along he side of the nose and parts of the mouth. Then the brow, nose, higher portion of the cheeks and the chin are given a coat of VMC8450 (20) Sunny flesh tone. Next more definition is given applying a smaller amount of VMC955 (18) flat flesh over the same areas and then repeated with VMC815 (17) Basic skintone. except the nose which I just run down the centre and apply two dots either side. Finally just on the centre of the nose, top of the cheeks and chin I applied VMC928 (6) light Flesh.
Her hair was base coated with VMC877 (126) golden brown and then lightly dry-brushed with VMC847 (123) Dark Sand.
The bra top is simply worked from dark to light starting with VMC881 (112) Yellow Green Brown, and highlighting up with VMC857 (79) Golden Olive before applying a final highlight of VMC827 (77) Lime Green.
The trousers once again worked from dark to light. Starting with VMC812 (43) Violet Red, and highlighting up with VMC945 (42) Magenta before applying a final highlight of VMC802 (41) Sunset Red.
The jacket was worked from dark to light using VMC946 (32) Dark Red, then Red VMC947 (29) with final highlights being Scarlet VMC817 (25). The lace was base coated with VMC915 Deep Yellow (14) the lightly washed in the recesses with Army painter soft tone and then a final highlight of VMC952 Lemon Yellow (11).
The boots and belt were worked with 4 colours. Firstly VMC846 Mahogany Brown, then VMC983 Flat Earth followed by VMC875 Beige Brown and a final highlight of VMC876 Brown Sand (132).
The hat begins with VMC950 Black (169) followed by VMC862 Black Grey (168) with a final highlight of VMC995 German Grey (167).
The finishing touches were put on the weapons and then everything has been given several coats of varnish to protect them in play.
27 July 2014
Weekly round up 27/07/2014 - Thanks to Blogger there be Pirates on the Horizon!
It has been a busy week in the Great Hall it started very well with Monday and Tuesday spent at Kevin's sorting both his man cave and our gaming room out and making some big improvements and changes in the layout of both. I am sure he will blog our efforts shortly. Either that or I shall torture him with pointy sticks till he does....
Once again the paint table has not produced an awful; lot due to the heat, funny we spend half the year moaning its either cold or wet but we can still paint indoors but boy when its hot it really does have a major impact. I have been reduced to working 3 hours a day very late at night recently just to tick over.
I have also been busy writing some naval combat rules in the age of sail for us all to use as a group, we have an ex-navy officer in our midsts but try as me and Kev have to understand the rules we have given up. I have volunteered to write a set while Glenn suns himself in Sparta! lucky git! so have until this Thursday to get them finished. However Thursday night did see myself and Kevin and some blocks of wood simulate the rules and play a game with what I have come up with so far so good, and hope remains. I will only mention the blog overhaul in passing as yesterdays post covered the changes in detail. This leads me nicely onto the remainder of this post.
I have said it before I have always held a fascination with pirates and enjoy painting them, I always treat them as one off figures and so the choice of figures can be varied through the painting, if I pick up duplicates or even modified with green stuff given the talents of my good friend Kev in that department. I recently gave some items away to a fellow blogger for his son to play games with him. I had no intention of receiving anything when I did this but the recipient was fairly sure he wanted to return the favour. With that in mind I want my own boys to have more experience and fun with me through playing games so I decided to re visit the Pirate period. I sent a small list of figures that I would like to add to the collection so we could begin the adventures in the near future.
So it really began from there, in due course a parcel arrived and I had me some nice pirates from the Black Scorpion range to begin the adventure. Further negotiations will also see additions in the future as I have done a deal with another fellow blogger in exchange for my painting skills. In exchange for painting a Man of war to display standard for Ainsty castings has also procured a couple of Ships to add to the whole thing. I shall build a small 4 x 4 table for playing at home complete with buildings, port etc to round it all out in due course.
This to me is exciting as it really and really got me thinking as it clearly shows what one can achieve through, trading skills you have, and the power of blogger to assist in that process. None of this would have happened had I not been actively blogging over the last few years, it has enabled me to meet up with like minded people and share the mutual enjoyment of the hobby. I have made several really worthwhile friendships through meets at Salute and Blog Con, various Shows and even long distance acquaintances via comments and interaction from the blogs. For someone who suffers from manic depression this has been an absolute godsend as it gives a focus for me daily.
I have really grown to enjoy blogging and everything that comes with it after all it is something we do without any pay (mostly) and it needs a good level of commitment to make it work properly. I have found that the blog has also aided me greatly in procuring work which obviously is boosting my confidence as I begin to accept that I am able to paint to a fairly nice standard. If I could not I would not get asked to paint anything using that perspective. So let me thank each and everyone of you that has been on this journey with me regardless of the distance you have travelled in my blog.
Now enough of the sentimental stuff and lets get down to business with the first of the pirates to roll off the painting table. I have used some of the Vallejo Triads for the bulk of this figure so you can see how they look.
Now before I begin let me just explain the code numbers I use as it may then make sense to you when finding the triads. I give the actual Vallejo number = VMC000, then the bracketed numbers relate to the colour chart position given by vallejo (000). My racks are laid out as per the colour chart so I only ever refer to the bracketed number when picking out my paints. I hope that makes some sense for you all.
I have settled on a theme for all the bases and have gone with a planked look. The deck is started with a full coat of German Camo Black Brown VMC822 (150), then the planks are defined with VMC983 (143) Flat Earth and some basic etching applied, further etching is given to the planks using VMC874 (134) USA Tan Earth then VMC843 (133) Cork Brown in small random lines.
I used a different flesh recipe for the pirates as I wanted a sun kissed but dirty skin Firstly the skin is base coated with VMC929 (129) Light Brown, it is then washed with some Army painter soft tone before having VMC929 (1290 reapplied to the whole face save the eye sockets, along he side of the nose and parts of the mouth. Then the brow, nose, higher portion of the cheeks and the chin are given a coat of VMC860 (21) Medium flesh tone. Next more definition is given applying a smaller amount of VMC955 (18) flat flesh over the same areas except the nose which I just run down the centre and apply two dots either side. Finally just on the centre of the nose, top of the cheeks and chin I applied VMC815 (17) Basic skintone.
The brown shirt is simply worked from dark to light starting with VMC826 (145) German Camo Medium Brown, and highlighting up with VMC825 (144) German Camo Pale Brown before applying a final highlight of VMC843 (133) Cork Brown.
The Striped Trousers, to make these easier I base painted the whole trouser in VMC976 (120) Buff.
This is also the first stage of the white stripes. However I always work the Dark Stripes first as it means I can tidy up the lines with the lighter colour if need be in the finishing stages. So the Blue stripes are worked up from VMC868 (163) Dark Sea Green, then VMC966 (69) Turquoise with a final highlight of VMC808 (70) Blue Green. The lines are tidied using the buff base colour and then highlighted with VMC918 (5) Ivory and final Highlight of VMC951 (1) White.
The bandana was worked from dark to light using. Amarantha Red VMC829 (130) then Bright Orange VMC851 (24) with final highlights being German Orange VMC805 (23).
The Belt was again worked from dark to light using Red Leather VMC818 (136) , followed by Orange Brown VMC981 (131) and a final highlight of Ochre Brown VMC856 (127)
The finishing touches were put on the weapons and then everything has been given several coats of varnish to protect them in play.
Right good people I have rambled on long enough this week, I wish you all well for the week ahead and just to let you all know there will be no posting next weekend as Loki has received a very special invitation to play a game in darkest Kent and will not be back in time to post.
Regards
Loki
Once again the paint table has not produced an awful; lot due to the heat, funny we spend half the year moaning its either cold or wet but we can still paint indoors but boy when its hot it really does have a major impact. I have been reduced to working 3 hours a day very late at night recently just to tick over.
I have also been busy writing some naval combat rules in the age of sail for us all to use as a group, we have an ex-navy officer in our midsts but try as me and Kev have to understand the rules we have given up. I have volunteered to write a set while Glenn suns himself in Sparta! lucky git! so have until this Thursday to get them finished. However Thursday night did see myself and Kevin and some blocks of wood simulate the rules and play a game with what I have come up with so far so good, and hope remains. I will only mention the blog overhaul in passing as yesterdays post covered the changes in detail. This leads me nicely onto the remainder of this post.
I have said it before I have always held a fascination with pirates and enjoy painting them, I always treat them as one off figures and so the choice of figures can be varied through the painting, if I pick up duplicates or even modified with green stuff given the talents of my good friend Kev in that department. I recently gave some items away to a fellow blogger for his son to play games with him. I had no intention of receiving anything when I did this but the recipient was fairly sure he wanted to return the favour. With that in mind I want my own boys to have more experience and fun with me through playing games so I decided to re visit the Pirate period. I sent a small list of figures that I would like to add to the collection so we could begin the adventures in the near future.
So it really began from there, in due course a parcel arrived and I had me some nice pirates from the Black Scorpion range to begin the adventure. Further negotiations will also see additions in the future as I have done a deal with another fellow blogger in exchange for my painting skills. In exchange for painting a Man of war to display standard for Ainsty castings has also procured a couple of Ships to add to the whole thing. I shall build a small 4 x 4 table for playing at home complete with buildings, port etc to round it all out in due course.
This to me is exciting as it really and really got me thinking as it clearly shows what one can achieve through, trading skills you have, and the power of blogger to assist in that process. None of this would have happened had I not been actively blogging over the last few years, it has enabled me to meet up with like minded people and share the mutual enjoyment of the hobby. I have made several really worthwhile friendships through meets at Salute and Blog Con, various Shows and even long distance acquaintances via comments and interaction from the blogs. For someone who suffers from manic depression this has been an absolute godsend as it gives a focus for me daily.
I have really grown to enjoy blogging and everything that comes with it after all it is something we do without any pay (mostly) and it needs a good level of commitment to make it work properly. I have found that the blog has also aided me greatly in procuring work which obviously is boosting my confidence as I begin to accept that I am able to paint to a fairly nice standard. If I could not I would not get asked to paint anything using that perspective. So let me thank each and everyone of you that has been on this journey with me regardless of the distance you have travelled in my blog.
Now enough of the sentimental stuff and lets get down to business with the first of the pirates to roll off the painting table. I have used some of the Vallejo Triads for the bulk of this figure so you can see how they look.
Davy "Gull Basher" Rye.
I have settled on a theme for all the bases and have gone with a planked look. The deck is started with a full coat of German Camo Black Brown VMC822 (150), then the planks are defined with VMC983 (143) Flat Earth and some basic etching applied, further etching is given to the planks using VMC874 (134) USA Tan Earth then VMC843 (133) Cork Brown in small random lines.
I used a different flesh recipe for the pirates as I wanted a sun kissed but dirty skin Firstly the skin is base coated with VMC929 (129) Light Brown, it is then washed with some Army painter soft tone before having VMC929 (1290 reapplied to the whole face save the eye sockets, along he side of the nose and parts of the mouth. Then the brow, nose, higher portion of the cheeks and the chin are given a coat of VMC860 (21) Medium flesh tone. Next more definition is given applying a smaller amount of VMC955 (18) flat flesh over the same areas except the nose which I just run down the centre and apply two dots either side. Finally just on the centre of the nose, top of the cheeks and chin I applied VMC815 (17) Basic skintone.
The brown shirt is simply worked from dark to light starting with VMC826 (145) German Camo Medium Brown, and highlighting up with VMC825 (144) German Camo Pale Brown before applying a final highlight of VMC843 (133) Cork Brown.
The Striped Trousers, to make these easier I base painted the whole trouser in VMC976 (120) Buff.
This is also the first stage of the white stripes. However I always work the Dark Stripes first as it means I can tidy up the lines with the lighter colour if need be in the finishing stages. So the Blue stripes are worked up from VMC868 (163) Dark Sea Green, then VMC966 (69) Turquoise with a final highlight of VMC808 (70) Blue Green. The lines are tidied using the buff base colour and then highlighted with VMC918 (5) Ivory and final Highlight of VMC951 (1) White.
The bandana was worked from dark to light using. Amarantha Red VMC829 (130) then Bright Orange VMC851 (24) with final highlights being German Orange VMC805 (23).
The Belt was again worked from dark to light using Red Leather VMC818 (136) , followed by Orange Brown VMC981 (131) and a final highlight of Ochre Brown VMC856 (127)
The finishing touches were put on the weapons and then everything has been given several coats of varnish to protect them in play.
Right good people I have rambled on long enough this week, I wish you all well for the week ahead and just to let you all know there will be no posting next weekend as Loki has received a very special invitation to play a game in darkest Kent and will not be back in time to post.
Regards
Loki
26 July 2014
Urgent Housekeeping thanks Blogger !!
So last evening I was happily sorting files and browsing the web as one does, and I decided to implement a small change to this very blog a very simple procedure and as always I backed up the template before making changes as one is instructed to do in these circumstances. I proceeded to make the necessary changes, but upon saving the effect was to unbalance the whole blog so one decided to leave well alone and restore the status quo using the freshly saved back up. Yes you know what's coming now don't you, it saved a corrupted back up and would not load!!!!
After the usual high amount of expletives and cursing the problem still remained and to make matters worse, I had published a post only a couple of hours prior to said incident. So whilst I was fiddling about trying to restore order I knew I would be causing readers some issues. However I could not leave it in disarray so began the task of sorting the blog out. I quickly put up a template and moved widgets around to get a basic look in place, but in doing so I realised just how much detritus the home page was carrying. So I saved the new look and started some Google Fu looking for inspiration. I wanted to really de clutter the blog and have pages to hold the important bits so the blog had a streamlined look.
Now not being particularly skilled in the ways of CSS coding and the like I used the Google Fu to find how too items, and this is where the real fun began. I used one way then another as all the instructions I where following failed to implement correctly or they failed to work how I thought they should. Then I had a bit of a brainwave and did a small experiment. Et Voila! I am obviously a little more knowledgeable than I gave myself credit for and my first trial worked a treat. I had managed to move the contact form onto its own page. So then I thought well I could move some other items to pages of their own and really clean up the blog. I wont bore you with the technicalities but basically the process is a case of hiding widgets and making them visible on a page of their own. So they are still there in the background but not visible unless you view the relevant page.
The cleaners worked late into the early hours of this morning in order to complete the task. I have now cleaned the blog out completely from top to bottom and relocated everything that I wanted to onto pages of their own. So now followers can join or subscribe to the blog by clicking the Join this blog tab and a full selection of subscription options are available for you. The contact widget now gets a page of its own too. I decided to keep the labels visible but moved the post archive to a page as it really does not warrant a location on the home page as the recent post gadget serves that purpose and is more visually pleasing to me.
Finally I cleared the footer and relocated the blogs I follow to a page of their own, where it should help me to see the updates a lot easier and clearer.
Many thanks to the cleaners who performed admirably throughout the whole evening as the Great Hall was finally dragged screaming into this decade at least for now. I would encourage you all to have a good poke around at the new look and visit the pages and express your opinions on the new design in the comments section below as the blog is only any good if the readers find the visit entertaining and easy to use.
Regards
Loki
25 July 2014
The American Continental force is growing
I have completed another 4 units for the Continental Army. There are a couple of units that having painted them in 28mm I just had to repeat at 15mm for my own force.
So first up is the 15mm version of Sherburne's Additional Continentals.
Then it was the turn of the 1st Connecticut (on the right)
Things were already looking good with my force mainly being clothed in colours other than the blue. They of course will be on the table as a future to do but for now I want to add a splash more colour so
I set about creating a version of the 2nd New Hampshire (Figure on the left above).
Now uniform details are a bit thin on the ground for some units and this is one of those but Lefferts refers to at least one company that wore Light blue faced red with buff small clothes so that is how I have portrayed them for my own force.
The final unit in this batch was the one I had completed at the very beginning of the project Webb's Additional Continentals. (Figure on the left above).
So far that sees my force at eight regiments of Continental line, so next up will be some Militia and some brigade commanders to lead the cause. At this stage I am rather pleased with how the project is progressing at a nice steady pace. It should not be too long before I have enough to give them a whirl on the table top.
So first up is the 15mm version of Sherburne's Additional Continentals.
Then it was the turn of the 1st Connecticut (on the right)
I set about creating a version of the 2nd New Hampshire (Figure on the left above).
The final unit in this batch was the one I had completed at the very beginning of the project Webb's Additional Continentals. (Figure on the left above).
So far that sees my force at eight regiments of Continental line, so next up will be some Militia and some brigade commanders to lead the cause. At this stage I am rather pleased with how the project is progressing at a nice steady pace. It should not be too long before I have enough to give them a whirl on the table top.
23 July 2014
Warbases Wednesday #21
Welcome good people, this week is a rather eclectic and brief post as the weather has definitely conspired to prevent a lot of hobby work as the inherent problems modelling or painting in heat have beaten me.
I shall begin with a few shots of the most recently completed display animals for the current range of figures.
First up we have a pack of rabbits, 5 per pack for £1.75.
Now just occasionally one gets hoisted by ones own petard and the next pack certainly achieved that. Upon handing them to me Martin said "now let me see what you can do with them." having tackled his rare breeds and those chickens and ducks in particular I was fully confident.
Then I Googled some images of Pheasants - Holy shit Batman ! well I gave them my best shot that's all I can really say. They as always are cracking sculpts and the pack contains 3 pheasants for £1.75.
I painted them as a juvenile male, a male and female and have just about managed to get them to a point I am happy enough. ( I sure am glad they are done though).
Well after that little distraction I would just like to mention that Warbases will be at the Warlord games Open Day this weekend, sadly I wont be there to meet and greet anyone. However don't let that stop you from calling in and saying hello to Martin and Diane if you are going.
Next weekend 2nd August it is the turn of Claymore show in Edinburgh where once again Warbases will be there to serve you up some fine products.
Well good people that is all from me this week other than to give a quick reminder if you have not already entered the Warbases exclusive competition you only have 1 week to get your suggestions posted HERE.
Andrew
I shall begin with a few shots of the most recently completed display animals for the current range of figures.
First up we have a pack of rabbits, 5 per pack for £1.75.
Now just occasionally one gets hoisted by ones own petard and the next pack certainly achieved that. Upon handing them to me Martin said "now let me see what you can do with them." having tackled his rare breeds and those chickens and ducks in particular I was fully confident.
Then I Googled some images of Pheasants - Holy shit Batman ! well I gave them my best shot that's all I can really say. They as always are cracking sculpts and the pack contains 3 pheasants for £1.75.
I painted them as a juvenile male, a male and female and have just about managed to get them to a point I am happy enough. ( I sure am glad they are done though).
Well after that little distraction I would just like to mention that Warbases will be at the Warlord games Open Day this weekend, sadly I wont be there to meet and greet anyone. However don't let that stop you from calling in and saying hello to Martin and Diane if you are going.
Next weekend 2nd August it is the turn of Claymore show in Edinburgh where once again Warbases will be there to serve you up some fine products.
Well good people that is all from me this week other than to give a quick reminder if you have not already entered the Warbases exclusive competition you only have 1 week to get your suggestions posted HERE.
Andrew
20 July 2014
Weekly Round up 20/07/2014 - Plans and preparations
Firstly let me begin by expressing my thanks on behalf of the whole Warbases team for the excellent suggestions raised so far by you all. I am fully confident that the short list will contain some excellent choices for us to pick through. If you have not yet placed your suggestions then please take a few minutes to list your choices HERE.
I am going to need another longboat shortly as this week has seen the ranks swell once more. Welcome aboard Natholeon, Eric the Shed, Gimzod and JP Price always good to have new additions to the roster row hard chaps and keep us afloat.
The week has not been very productive as far as painting goes with temperatures in the realms of paint drying stupidity! It is not good that even using a wet palette, I found paint drying on the brush between palette and figure on many occasions this week. So large chunks of time have been lost as I have attended to other matters instead.
I tried some sculpting and making in roads into another of the products for Warbases, however although the putty did not dry out as quickly the heat caused other problems so I abandoned that for working on in the evenings for now. I have other items currently being sculpted that I cant reveal at this stage,
So I turned my attention to the pile of 15mm American Independence figures and started cleaning and assembling onto paint sticks. Undercoating a couple of units in the late evening. I have even more to paint now after a trip to Kevin's Thursday as he is now concentrating his efforts on the British while I amass the ranks of Americans. This led to him having a sort out of American forces he is not going to paint and I have ended up with some very useful and welcome additions. This is all very handy timing as we are both eagerly anticipating the Release of the Rebellion Black Powder supplement in August and have already got it on pre order.
Thursday night saw us take a break from our usual game night as Myself, Kevin and Glenn sat down for a good chat about the projects we were working on and what we would do going forward. You see one of the major problems is we are all die hard gamers and although we play almost anything from history we don't all enjoy painting armies for some periods ( a common problem) and with that it does occasion periods that get started and never finished. So to that end we have made some agreements that benefit us all. We are a very small bunch but we have known each other for well over 10 years and in that time we have obviously learnt each others strengths and weaknesses. So going forward Glenn will not have to worry about painting anything for AWI or ACW. Kevin an I are excused ship painting duties in exchange thank fully for us!!
A major part of the discussions centered around Glenn's passion of naval warfare, you can't blame the man after 25 years plus of service it runs in his blood. However myself and Kev are confirmed land lubbers and although we like playing with the ships we dont ever fancy painting one to pass muster and scrutiny! We have also had many issues with the playability of Trafalgar so often avoid playing the game! However we have struck a deal and that will see Glenn painting more ships for us all and all three of us combining to design a set of Naval rules that give us the real flavour of the period but with mechanics that make it fun to play and give clear results. So after Glenn's little holiday we shall be extensively testing and refining a set of rules for our use. If things go well then I shall publish them on this very blog.
Next on the agenda was terrain, we have a wide variety of terrain from all over the place and some of it is getting tired. To that end I donated a huge pile of my own pieces to replenish and refresh the tables. I may not be able to produce stuff on mass as before but as I have the skills I will be adding items to our collection to make the table as good as the figures going forward. We have there fore decided to replace things that we no longer need or have better products to replace them with and Kev is going to sell all the old bits off via Ebay to purchase items in the smaller scales we are using now.
I hate to see waste and try to recycle where possible, so I took a piece of our old hedgerow as an experiment to see if I could use it and improve it! One of the problems is that we game with 15 and 20mm in the main so I needed to strike a balance between the two scales as replicating this task twice is just going to be very expensive. So we were after something that would represent hedgerows for all our games.
I began by finding a suitable base and glueing the old hedge to it the started the task of enhancing it with clump foliage to make it more uneven in appearance.
I think I turned a lump of pan scourer coated in sawdust into something that will look much better on the table and it certainly has more realistic look and colouring to it.
It now is a happy compromise height and will work for both our 20mm figures (left) and our 15mm (right) figures. So I am pretty sure I will be revamping a lot of hedge row in due course.
The week ahead looks good with the first two days on operation Man cave at Kevin's, getting his workroom and our gaming room re organised. I hope you all have a great week ahead.
I am going to need another longboat shortly as this week has seen the ranks swell once more. Welcome aboard Natholeon, Eric the Shed, Gimzod and JP Price always good to have new additions to the roster row hard chaps and keep us afloat.
The week has not been very productive as far as painting goes with temperatures in the realms of paint drying stupidity! It is not good that even using a wet palette, I found paint drying on the brush between palette and figure on many occasions this week. So large chunks of time have been lost as I have attended to other matters instead.
I tried some sculpting and making in roads into another of the products for Warbases, however although the putty did not dry out as quickly the heat caused other problems so I abandoned that for working on in the evenings for now. I have other items currently being sculpted that I cant reveal at this stage,
So I turned my attention to the pile of 15mm American Independence figures and started cleaning and assembling onto paint sticks. Undercoating a couple of units in the late evening. I have even more to paint now after a trip to Kevin's Thursday as he is now concentrating his efforts on the British while I amass the ranks of Americans. This led to him having a sort out of American forces he is not going to paint and I have ended up with some very useful and welcome additions. This is all very handy timing as we are both eagerly anticipating the Release of the Rebellion Black Powder supplement in August and have already got it on pre order.
Thursday night saw us take a break from our usual game night as Myself, Kevin and Glenn sat down for a good chat about the projects we were working on and what we would do going forward. You see one of the major problems is we are all die hard gamers and although we play almost anything from history we don't all enjoy painting armies for some periods ( a common problem) and with that it does occasion periods that get started and never finished. So to that end we have made some agreements that benefit us all. We are a very small bunch but we have known each other for well over 10 years and in that time we have obviously learnt each others strengths and weaknesses. So going forward Glenn will not have to worry about painting anything for AWI or ACW. Kevin an I are excused ship painting duties in exchange thank fully for us!!
A major part of the discussions centered around Glenn's passion of naval warfare, you can't blame the man after 25 years plus of service it runs in his blood. However myself and Kev are confirmed land lubbers and although we like playing with the ships we dont ever fancy painting one to pass muster and scrutiny! We have also had many issues with the playability of Trafalgar so often avoid playing the game! However we have struck a deal and that will see Glenn painting more ships for us all and all three of us combining to design a set of Naval rules that give us the real flavour of the period but with mechanics that make it fun to play and give clear results. So after Glenn's little holiday we shall be extensively testing and refining a set of rules for our use. If things go well then I shall publish them on this very blog.
Next on the agenda was terrain, we have a wide variety of terrain from all over the place and some of it is getting tired. To that end I donated a huge pile of my own pieces to replenish and refresh the tables. I may not be able to produce stuff on mass as before but as I have the skills I will be adding items to our collection to make the table as good as the figures going forward. We have there fore decided to replace things that we no longer need or have better products to replace them with and Kev is going to sell all the old bits off via Ebay to purchase items in the smaller scales we are using now.
I hate to see waste and try to recycle where possible, so I took a piece of our old hedgerow as an experiment to see if I could use it and improve it! One of the problems is that we game with 15 and 20mm in the main so I needed to strike a balance between the two scales as replicating this task twice is just going to be very expensive. So we were after something that would represent hedgerows for all our games.
I think I turned a lump of pan scourer coated in sawdust into something that will look much better on the table and it certainly has more realistic look and colouring to it.
It now is a happy compromise height and will work for both our 20mm figures (left) and our 15mm (right) figures. So I am pretty sure I will be revamping a lot of hedge row in due course.
The week ahead looks good with the first two days on operation Man cave at Kevin's, getting his workroom and our gaming room re organised. I hope you all have a great week ahead.
18 July 2014
Back to some AWI - The New York Regiments in Continental Service
This image portrays the Third New York State Regiment, and was one of the four regiments raised by the Province of New York in the early summer of 1775, for the Continental service.
So armed with this image and the information I had gleaned I then began completing all 4 regiments. Now before anyone says the Betsy Ross didn't make it into a field of battle let me just explain something. The flag is symbolic of the period and we have decided that all our Continentals are going to carry one as a way of distinguishing the line units on the table top.
 |
| 1st New York |
 |
| 2nd New York |
 |
| 3rd New York |
 |
| 4th New York |
So that is the start of the force with 4 units of New York Continental line under my belt, next up will be the additional continentals that I want to have for wider variety.
16 July 2014
Warbases Wednesday #20 - An exclusive competition for readers of this Blog.
That's right folks this week sees me present you with an exclusive opportunity. As you may be aware Warbases have released a very nice range of animals to spice up the gaming table. I spoke to Martin and Diane at one of the shows recently and they decided they would like me to garner some feedback and ideas from you all for additions to the range. So we have devised a way that you can directly influence what animals are sculpted next. I suggested a small blog competition with a suitable prize would be an effective way to do this and here are the rules:
1. Leave a comment below with your suggestion for up to 3 new animals that you would like to see added to the range.
2. I will make a short list of the top 10 most popular animals suggested. They will then be discussed with Martin and Diane and 5 of those suggestions will be put into production first.
3. Your reward for placing a suggestion. One of you lucky people will be selected at random from all the comments and be the first to receive all 5 miniatures fresh out of the master mould.
4. Only one entry per person will be accepted you may suggest more than 3 animals or comment more than once however only your first entry will count.
So don't dally folks as you only have until Midnight GMT on the 28th of July to submit your comments.
Good luck to you all.
Andrew
14 July 2014
Wargames Soldiers & Strategy - My Thoughts on this Publication and a review.
Before I rattle on about this magazine. If you have not already done so please help them with their survey it will take 5 to 10 minutes of your time and you will get a 10% online discount voucher for your efforts.
https://surveymonkey.com/s/WargamingSurvey
Right then down to the real purpose of this post and that is my thoughts and a review of this publication as you can see from the picture above I have been reading this regularly since its release. The magazine started life as a Spanish Publication though that changed from issue 54 to the current publishers Karwansaray from the Netherlands and for me the magazine has flourished ever since.
So what has kept my interest so well, I would have to say that above all it is the format and composition of each issue. I feel engaged from the first page of each issue right to the last, even reading the adverts as they are well laid out.
Okay that is sad to admit I read the adverts, but if we think about that for a minute someone has paid good money to attract your attention so if they are skimmed past then the magazine is not a good vehicle for the advertiser!! What is abundantly clear is there is also no favouritism with advert placement as so often is seen in other publications for the hobby and there is no back half dozen page syndrome that when you hit the first one you know the rest is adverts and invariably the reading stops at that point.
Surely there is more to the magazine than good advertising structure that keeps you entertained and you would be very correct a whole lot more !! So let me start at the beginning.
The Editorial.
I have enjoyed my journey with Guy from his early steps as editor to him becoming part of the required reading with comfortable familiarity. I certainly know an awful lot more Sun Tzu quotes now. Recently for the first time I had the privilege of discussing the Warbases Hansom Cab display model that I constructed and painted with him, and have to say it was a very engaging conversation. A very affable gentleman indeed and one I hope to converse with again in the future.
The Theme.
Regular readers will know that each issue is based around a theme or theatre of conflict. This format is a good one and although I don't game every period of conflict known to man I do get a lot of knowledge from the themes articles. What is always a temptation is the overview of suitable miniatures for the theme, (the number of times I have been tempted to make impulse purchases is testament to that). The theme however never dominates the entire magazine to the extent that there is little else to read far from it. Typically each theme has four to six different articles covering a gamut of aspects relevant to the theme.
Miniature Reviews.
This is an unbiased and high quality aspect as far as I am concerned. Always containing honest reviews of figures for a wide variety of historical periods with price details, notes on the scale and internet links. It is often after I have read a review of an intended purchase here that I finally commit or keep my cash.
The Columns.
There are two regular guest columns of Rick Priestly and Richard Clarke. Sometimes they have me fully engaged and sometimes not but that is simply down to my personal choices. What they write about is never dull but just occasionally the subject matter does not command my full attention.
The Features.
This is often an eclectic mix of items but never disappoints and its very nice to see other fellow bloggers having work published. I spend a lot of time reading these articles even the periods I do not play or even intend too. Why? because they are always well constructed and very easy too read and often I have pulled a little gem from one period and put it to use in a period I do play.
Modelling
A great feature that I always enjoy, regardless if it is showing me something new or something I have done a hundred times before, I like these kinds of articles and find myself fully engaged. I will not deny I have learnt many things over the years through this type of article though.
Conclusions and summary
Well time for some good old fashioned honesty here: You see I stopped subscribing to wargaming magazines a long time ago, there were several triggers for this the last one was the farce that turned Wargames illustrated into a glorified admag from cover to cover. Instead I used to make a trip to WH Smiths and purchase copies of magazines that caught my eye or had content I wanted to read. It is funny but in the last two years I have not bought anything other than WSS, I have read other publications but never bought them. This year I was asked what I wanted for Fathers day I had no hesitation in requesting a subscription to the one magazine that really does provide a unique look on our hobby every couple of months. It has something for everyone.
I give this publication 10 Ravens out of 10 as I really cannot fault it at all and am more than happy to pay the cover price for the consistent quality I receive. Further than that it would be a recommended read if its not on your regular purchase list already.
https://surveymonkey.com/s/WargamingSurvey
Right then down to the real purpose of this post and that is my thoughts and a review of this publication as you can see from the picture above I have been reading this regularly since its release. The magazine started life as a Spanish Publication though that changed from issue 54 to the current publishers Karwansaray from the Netherlands and for me the magazine has flourished ever since.
So what has kept my interest so well, I would have to say that above all it is the format and composition of each issue. I feel engaged from the first page of each issue right to the last, even reading the adverts as they are well laid out.
Okay that is sad to admit I read the adverts, but if we think about that for a minute someone has paid good money to attract your attention so if they are skimmed past then the magazine is not a good vehicle for the advertiser!! What is abundantly clear is there is also no favouritism with advert placement as so often is seen in other publications for the hobby and there is no back half dozen page syndrome that when you hit the first one you know the rest is adverts and invariably the reading stops at that point.
Surely there is more to the magazine than good advertising structure that keeps you entertained and you would be very correct a whole lot more !! So let me start at the beginning.
The Editorial.
I have enjoyed my journey with Guy from his early steps as editor to him becoming part of the required reading with comfortable familiarity. I certainly know an awful lot more Sun Tzu quotes now. Recently for the first time I had the privilege of discussing the Warbases Hansom Cab display model that I constructed and painted with him, and have to say it was a very engaging conversation. A very affable gentleman indeed and one I hope to converse with again in the future.
The Theme.
Regular readers will know that each issue is based around a theme or theatre of conflict. This format is a good one and although I don't game every period of conflict known to man I do get a lot of knowledge from the themes articles. What is always a temptation is the overview of suitable miniatures for the theme, (the number of times I have been tempted to make impulse purchases is testament to that). The theme however never dominates the entire magazine to the extent that there is little else to read far from it. Typically each theme has four to six different articles covering a gamut of aspects relevant to the theme.
Miniature Reviews.
This is an unbiased and high quality aspect as far as I am concerned. Always containing honest reviews of figures for a wide variety of historical periods with price details, notes on the scale and internet links. It is often after I have read a review of an intended purchase here that I finally commit or keep my cash.
The Columns.
There are two regular guest columns of Rick Priestly and Richard Clarke. Sometimes they have me fully engaged and sometimes not but that is simply down to my personal choices. What they write about is never dull but just occasionally the subject matter does not command my full attention.
The Features.
This is often an eclectic mix of items but never disappoints and its very nice to see other fellow bloggers having work published. I spend a lot of time reading these articles even the periods I do not play or even intend too. Why? because they are always well constructed and very easy too read and often I have pulled a little gem from one period and put it to use in a period I do play.
Modelling
A great feature that I always enjoy, regardless if it is showing me something new or something I have done a hundred times before, I like these kinds of articles and find myself fully engaged. I will not deny I have learnt many things over the years through this type of article though.
Conclusions and summary
Well time for some good old fashioned honesty here: You see I stopped subscribing to wargaming magazines a long time ago, there were several triggers for this the last one was the farce that turned Wargames illustrated into a glorified admag from cover to cover. Instead I used to make a trip to WH Smiths and purchase copies of magazines that caught my eye or had content I wanted to read. It is funny but in the last two years I have not bought anything other than WSS, I have read other publications but never bought them. This year I was asked what I wanted for Fathers day I had no hesitation in requesting a subscription to the one magazine that really does provide a unique look on our hobby every couple of months. It has something for everyone.
I give this publication 10 Ravens out of 10 as I really cannot fault it at all and am more than happy to pay the cover price for the consistent quality I receive. Further than that it would be a recommended read if its not on your regular purchase list already.
13 July 2014
Weekly round up 13/07/2014 - I'm not Dead I just went Missing in Action
Well let me try and get this particular show back on the road, I have not posted a weekly round up in a month now. I have been flat out with many projects and unfortunately this was also accompanied by another bought of severe introversion and some things just had to give in order for me to squeeze everything into the mix. I have not been completely absent from blogger as I have been reading the regular posts while working, however I have been rather remiss in not commenting as often as normal (I do hope you understand). Any how some of the pressure is off and the medication is putting me back on an even keel. So I expect to be writing my usual nonsense on your blogs again shortly.
Right then down to business, firstly welcome aboard to the new followers, Ptr, First Mass, and Ogres_lair glad to have you on board. This past few weeks have been a huge juggling act, not a skill I am proficient at and I tackled the abundant tasks like an elephant turning in a closet. I can say I survived but only just and I should really have learnt by now, that piling on the pressure does me no good at all as my nerves got very frayed on many occasions. I must learn to say no on occasion to avoid the extra pressure.
That said I have made great in roads on the Winter War figures for a client this week and will have these wrapped up by the middle of next week. I have also been working on a painting guide for the Finns and Russians which I will share shortly.
One of the major focal points for me has been a complete reorganisation of the man cave. When I moved into here at the back end of last year although I had planned it out things did not exactly go to plan and space was tight. It should not have been, but work and the challenge meant I did not have the time to properly sort things.
So I spent the entire day yesterday setting the room out to make it better for me to find everything, a task I had already partly begun by moving the paint table and organising that a few weeks back. As you can guess everything had to have a home and that home is also fine tuned as well, OCD really does cause issues sometimes, but I don't do chaos it unbalances my mind. Of course one of the great joys of sorting things properly is the rediscovery of items you know you have, and a few hours were lost as I delved deeper into some of the boxes and treasures I found. I also found a lot of junk kept for the sake of it, yes I also hoard things that may prove useful one day.
Most of the furniture has been acquired from other parts of the house, that were not in use or were already holding my rubbish as the wife lovingly calls it. The bookcase is now equipped with all manner of useful items and every shelf contains one type of item. Yes even the one that has 16 different types of flock!
Last year I put up a set of four 8 ft wall mounted shelves and quickly filled them with plenty of boxes and had no room left, so I knew I was going to have to sort that out and make way for further plans and expansion, something I have already mentioned to Martin as I need to store work in progress items effectively.
Moving to the other end of the shelving and we find my new drawer unit and to think this was buried in my shed when it had so much storage potential, the middle two drawers are now full to the brim with shiny stuff.
The bottom drawer holds all the items for Warbases Wednesdays. The top drawer is full of paperwork for the business and associated items.
Finally the workstation, with a drawer unit to the left that holds all my sculpting tools and useful bits. I finally put a nail into the wall to hang a very special gift that I received from Pete last year, so much better on the wall than propped up on a shelf. So that is the man cave fully shuffled and any new items now have a place to slot right into the system.
All this lead me in the direction of the next project. I have long thought about what I could really give to the hobby, I own nothing of great value to leave as a legacy. It then occurred to me that I could share the one real skill I have. I am a fairly good painter not the best but one who has experience and a competent level of artistry. It is the one area of the hobby that has been a constant in my life ( 40+ years now) for much longer than the gaming. So I decided that I could share the knowledge I have built up over the years and put together some constructive information to help the beginners and experienced alike.
So began the mammoth task of sorting the entire Vallejo model color range into a full spectrum of triads. This task was much bigger than I had anticipated, in fact it took me over a week to hand paint the samples, catalogue my efforts, create the images and PDF's to share. The task has been completed and I believe I have shown just what is achievable from the range with triads that range from subtle to harsh and in between, a little something for everyone. If you have missed this series of posts just click the new page tabs and help yourself to the downloads.
Well good people I think that nicely gets this summary back on track, thanks for visiting
Right then down to business, firstly welcome aboard to the new followers, Ptr, First Mass, and Ogres_lair glad to have you on board. This past few weeks have been a huge juggling act, not a skill I am proficient at and I tackled the abundant tasks like an elephant turning in a closet. I can say I survived but only just and I should really have learnt by now, that piling on the pressure does me no good at all as my nerves got very frayed on many occasions. I must learn to say no on occasion to avoid the extra pressure.
That said I have made great in roads on the Winter War figures for a client this week and will have these wrapped up by the middle of next week. I have also been working on a painting guide for the Finns and Russians which I will share shortly.
 |
| Just a small sample of the complete figures |
So I spent the entire day yesterday setting the room out to make it better for me to find everything, a task I had already partly begun by moving the paint table and organising that a few weeks back. As you can guess everything had to have a home and that home is also fine tuned as well, OCD really does cause issues sometimes, but I don't do chaos it unbalances my mind. Of course one of the great joys of sorting things properly is the rediscovery of items you know you have, and a few hours were lost as I delved deeper into some of the boxes and treasures I found. I also found a lot of junk kept for the sake of it, yes I also hoard things that may prove useful one day.
Last year I put up a set of four 8 ft wall mounted shelves and quickly filled them with plenty of boxes and had no room left, so I knew I was going to have to sort that out and make way for further plans and expansion, something I have already mentioned to Martin as I need to store work in progress items effectively.
Moving to the other end of the shelving and we find my new drawer unit and to think this was buried in my shed when it had so much storage potential, the middle two drawers are now full to the brim with shiny stuff.
The bottom drawer holds all the items for Warbases Wednesdays. The top drawer is full of paperwork for the business and associated items.
Finally the workstation, with a drawer unit to the left that holds all my sculpting tools and useful bits. I finally put a nail into the wall to hang a very special gift that I received from Pete last year, so much better on the wall than propped up on a shelf. So that is the man cave fully shuffled and any new items now have a place to slot right into the system.
All this lead me in the direction of the next project. I have long thought about what I could really give to the hobby, I own nothing of great value to leave as a legacy. It then occurred to me that I could share the one real skill I have. I am a fairly good painter not the best but one who has experience and a competent level of artistry. It is the one area of the hobby that has been a constant in my life ( 40+ years now) for much longer than the gaming. So I decided that I could share the knowledge I have built up over the years and put together some constructive information to help the beginners and experienced alike.
So began the mammoth task of sorting the entire Vallejo model color range into a full spectrum of triads. This task was much bigger than I had anticipated, in fact it took me over a week to hand paint the samples, catalogue my efforts, create the images and PDF's to share. The task has been completed and I believe I have shown just what is achievable from the range with triads that range from subtle to harsh and in between, a little something for everyone. If you have missed this series of posts just click the new page tabs and help yourself to the downloads.
Well good people I think that nicely gets this summary back on track, thanks for visiting
12 July 2014
The Man cave Shuffle (part 5) - It was a marathon not a sprint ( TRIADS COMPLETED) !!
Well good people I have crossed the finish line as far as cataloguing the paint triad combinations of Vallejo model color. I wont say the task has been trouble free as my technical skills have been tested to the maximum trying to convert everything to PDF format etcetera but I have done it.
Now like all things when you have piles of reference material, occasionally things get mislaid only to be rediscovered after you think you have finished a particular thing. I am no exception to this rule and have too put my hands up and say I missed several combinations off the Pink and Purple image and PDF. I have rectified this gross error and can only apologise that you will have to download these again.
On a more positive note I have today uploaded the Greens, No fixed abodes, Browns and Greys and thus have completed the full range everything is available through the Vallejo Triad Page above, and sat in my google drive for you all to use as before.
Thank you all for taking the time to comment on what I have done thus far as it certainly made the job worthwhile knowing that it was not a purely self gratification process.
Now like all things when you have piles of reference material, occasionally things get mislaid only to be rediscovered after you think you have finished a particular thing. I am no exception to this rule and have too put my hands up and say I missed several combinations off the Pink and Purple image and PDF. I have rectified this gross error and can only apologise that you will have to download these again.
On a more positive note I have today uploaded the Greens, No fixed abodes, Browns and Greys and thus have completed the full range everything is available through the Vallejo Triad Page above, and sat in my google drive for you all to use as before.
Thank you all for taking the time to comment on what I have done thus far as it certainly made the job worthwhile knowing that it was not a purely self gratification process.
10 July 2014
The Man Cave Shuffle (part 4) - Dealing with ethnicity more paint recipes
Sometimes as painters we have to tackle some trickier parts of any project and this post is one of those!
You see the world is full of different people, all shapes sizes and skin colours and this is when we have the potential to cause offence or upset in some quarters. Now I will quite clearly state that I have not provided the following to cause any offence at all, they are merely the results of my observations and thoughts on how to tackle the painting of various regional skin colours.
As we all know tackling flesh is an important part of the painting process and often giving this area a little more attention and work can really bring a miniature to life. I wanted to share some of the colours I use to represent different regions in the world. Now I don't profess to be a dermatologist or even an expert in racial diversity but I have eyes and can read colours fairly well or at least I believe I can, allowing me to create differences in the flesh for variety.
I have created another PDF of the colours used for different regions and this also includes a finished face in the respective colours. I have also made a hand painted chart available and placed these on a new page for you all. Please note as I spend a bit more time on flesh I have created these with a 5 colour palette.
Click HERE to visit the new page
You see the world is full of different people, all shapes sizes and skin colours and this is when we have the potential to cause offence or upset in some quarters. Now I will quite clearly state that I have not provided the following to cause any offence at all, they are merely the results of my observations and thoughts on how to tackle the painting of various regional skin colours.
As we all know tackling flesh is an important part of the painting process and often giving this area a little more attention and work can really bring a miniature to life. I wanted to share some of the colours I use to represent different regions in the world. Now I don't profess to be a dermatologist or even an expert in racial diversity but I have eyes and can read colours fairly well or at least I believe I can, allowing me to create differences in the flesh for variety.
I have created another PDF of the colours used for different regions and this also includes a finished face in the respective colours. I have also made a hand painted chart available and placed these on a new page for you all. Please note as I spend a bit more time on flesh I have created these with a 5 colour palette.
Click HERE to visit the new page
9 July 2014
Warbases Wednesday #19 - modular kits for scratch building (part 1)
I am one of those gamers that likes to make my own terrain when I can. What is always the most expensive and time consuming part is cutting and measuring all the walls floors etcetera etcetera. While working on the stall this year I had noticed that a certain group of buildings were rarely purchased, so I asked the customers what put them off, not one mentioned the price at all but most mentioned they did not know what to do with them.
So I am going to showcase these buildings and reveal some of the potential they have as a starting point for many projects. Currently there are 4 buildings in the range at 28mm scale I hope this will expand by at least 2 more in the near future and also the full range be made available in 15mm scale.
The current buildings are also very cheap considering the amount of time they save and are very quick to build the basic frame work. So what's included in one of these kits well in the example below this is kit 3.
Now that is what I call a kit, nice and simple blank canvas to work from allowing me to add as much or little detail as I desire. Every kit is made to the same principle and each one has plenty of windows and door options as well.
I put all of these kits together in less than 10 minutes and have set them aside to dry before adding doors and windows, this also gives me an opportunity to be creative with what I want to achieve from the buildings. Normally I don't keep any of the products that I make up and showcase but these are an exception to the rule and are going to form the basis of my Pirate haven so they are going to have a Spanish look and feel to them.
As you will notice I have not glued the roofs in place that is because I want to have the buildings pan tiled, and unfortunately although the range of roofing sheets is extensive from Warbases, pantiles are not available so I have gone to my back up pile and the trusty Wills Pantiles available from any good model railway shop.
The one thing I discovered about these sheets is they are an exact fit for kit 3 and 4 and half a sheet will do kit 1 or 2 so they really require minimal preparation.
I really would like to see kits 3 and 4 expanded to make 2 new double apexed buildings this in my opinion would really make this range even more beneficial to a scratch builder as currently you need to purchase two kits to do this. I will have to keep nagging the boss!!!
Well good people that is all for this week the next time you see these we will be turning them from the blank canvas into usable terrain.
So I am going to showcase these buildings and reveal some of the potential they have as a starting point for many projects. Currently there are 4 buildings in the range at 28mm scale I hope this will expand by at least 2 more in the near future and also the full range be made available in 15mm scale.
Modular 1 £2.00
Modular 2 £2.50
Modular 3 £2.50
Modular 4 £3.50
I put all of these kits together in less than 10 minutes and have set them aside to dry before adding doors and windows, this also gives me an opportunity to be creative with what I want to achieve from the buildings. Normally I don't keep any of the products that I make up and showcase but these are an exception to the rule and are going to form the basis of my Pirate haven so they are going to have a Spanish look and feel to them.
I really would like to see kits 3 and 4 expanded to make 2 new double apexed buildings this in my opinion would really make this range even more beneficial to a scratch builder as currently you need to purchase two kits to do this. I will have to keep nagging the boss!!!
Well good people that is all for this week the next time you see these we will be turning them from the blank canvas into usable terrain.
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