We're off to see the Wizard - no not that one!

I am catching up on the reducing pile of promises rather well, and this is the first figure for Edwins collection. I knew he would hit me with some rather different figures and it did not disappoint when they arrived.

So here is a Chinese Wizard floating on a cloud of flames. Rather good fun to paint the figure is from the ranges at Black Hat miniatures.

That is the last post from me this year, as I am having a break to be with the family so just to show i have some really bad taste I will leave you with another rather bad Wizzard.

I don't recommend clicking play but hey its your ears whatever you do over the next few days and however you celebrate have a good one.

Loki

Ice Berg Ahead

I have been chilling out this is my last week on the brushes before I take a proper holiday and spend 2 weeks, getting things in order that have been languishing in my to do list but almost certainly get forgotten about. So time to sort the paperwork etc out and get straightend out.

This last couple of weeks I have been working on a few projects, at the same time, So their will be a few more posts to come. Currently I have a lot of Napoleonics on my bench, being my favourite period to paint its all good for me.

This week I give you another Battalion from Berg, this time round its the 2nd battalion of the 1st regiment circa 1809- 1810. I am not fully happy with the pictures, I really struggle to photograph white uniformed figures for some reason.

 Right folks, see you soon with some more additions to Mr Daves Serenity project.

Loki

This years Nemesis is completed - Winter War rejects

Earlier this year I received a large pile of crap from a customer that had been unfortunate enough to have invested into the Baker Company Winter War kickstarter. I unwittingly agreed to paint them up before seeing the actual products, a hard lesson learnt there and one that will not be repeated.

I wont say too much more, only that I am ecstatically happy to have these completed with the assistance of Kevin for the final few bits after I lost the will to continue painting these feckers. If you own any you are going to need a pot of miracle dust, plenty of pins for the one legged spindly ankle freaks they just snap if you touch them, multiple diamond bits for a dremel to actually clean the miscast lumps, mould lines and detritus. Oh and a final note these were sculpted by someone who has no clue as to the anatomy of the human body at all with plenty of poses that are physically impossible for a normally jointed human.

 Tank and riders were done by Kev, he informs me despite cleaning the tank very well it would not accept a normal undercoat and he had to resort to an ancient technique to prepare it for paint, also the resin it is made from does not like superglue and he had to resort to contact adhesive to construct it (see it gave him grief as well) the fenders are very flimsy and split away from the body with any kind of pressure so they also had to be repaired :(

The Russian Infantry in a good mix of great coat colours and some unhealthy poses for a fair few but they painted to a wargames standard if only the fact it took three times the work to get that finish as normal

 The Finnish Infantry, not much better or worse than the Russians to paint and clean.

Try as I might to get good pictures my camera was being temperamental today perhaps it was the 100+ ugly mugs that I was trying to photograph that made the lens go into self preservation mode or the curse of these damn figures affected it. Either way this was the best I could manage and they will have to suffice. I really wont be sorry to see these leave the Great Hall at all. 

Loki

Let there be Light

Or more specifically, I have at long last equipped the paint station with a souped up lamp for the illumination of my toy soldiers whilst painting.

I have been steadily putting small amounts away over the last year in an effort to purchase one of these lamps as they retail in the UK at around £120.00, to some that is not a lot of cash but to my dear wife that is a lot out of the household budget on a fancy light bulb!

Now I have visited several blogs over the years and those that have these particular lights had nothing but praise for them and I wanted better light in the Great Hall. Not that the Hall has poor lighting in fact quite the opposite just at this time of the year the sun is so low in the sky I have to have the blinds closed or I cant see a damned thing.

Now I have used my trusty old lamp for several years it was adequate in that it gave a small pool of light from which I could apply my craft. But this lamp Ladies and Gentlemen is something else.

As you can see I have some daylight in the room and the lamp is installed and ready to light things up.

and that's the lamp switched on in a high position and it lights up the whole 4 feet wide section of the desk without any problem.

But lowered into my working position it is great and the extra clean light is a real bonus, and I don't suffer any shadow areas as I work now.

Okay so surely this thing costs a fortune to run, that will be a no! its got energy saving tubes in it 3 of them rated to 14w each the equivalent output of running a traditional 250w bulb for a fraction of the cost. Of course being a Daylight lamp its also handy to keep down the winter blues while I work as well.

I got this from Amazon while looking for something completely different but it had 30% discount applied bringing it down to £80.00 and I had saved up that much already so it became an instant purchase, I have been using this now for 1 month and already it is proving to be a great asset to me. I have not suffered as many headaches as I am not straining to see parts of figures anymore and the boost of light is helping with my moods too. Above all that I do believe it is helping me paint much better figures as I can see clearly the smaller details on them. I am also impressed with the solid construction of the lamp, and its flexibility, it can be put into many different positions and as a real added bonus it is superb for using to light my figures when taking pictures.

toodle pip for now
Loki