Don't get excited but....

Greetings Gentle Readers,

During the mysterious absence of my painting mojo, I have been fiddling around with my X-Wing Miniatures, planning squad builds and making deck boxes and mulling over storage decisions. Dull stuff, but it is keeping me ticking over!

I did manage to enhance my asteroid tokens so they look a bit better on the tabletop - I used some lava rock and some cheap clear flight stands from ebay.

Simple but effective, and I am reasonably pleased with the result.

Rocks

The same rocks from a different angle

Etc.

Until next time......

10,000 Page Views Giveaway and Boobs

Greetings Gentle Readers,

I recently passed 10,000 page views which pleased me greatly - my humble witterings obviously have some merit! I am also nearing my first anniversary in the Blogosphere, so what better excuses do I need to host a

Now, it won't be a grand one like Ray's recent mega-giveaway (you have to admire the man's administration skills!), it's just a small and simple thing to say thanks to all you poor deluded fools who frequent this site.

The giveaway consists of this:



Everyone needs a church - Right?!

Although it currently looks like this:

 

It is Warbase's lovely 28mm church. I have also chucked in some Renedra gravestones and a rain barrel in resin. This would make a nice little project for most periods of warfare I reckon. It is what it is - if you can't use it yourself, you'll know someone who could, I'm sure. Hell - I don't even care if you chuck it on Ebay! Do what you want with it! I will post it free of charge anywhere in the world, so there are no strings attached.

 

Dave Hoyt has done wonders with his - Check it out here.

 

 

So - To win the giveaway you must:

 

a) Be a follower or member of this Blog,

b) Advertise the giveaway on your own blog (if you have one),

and

c) leave a comment below expressing your interest.

The winner will be randomly selected next Sunday (May 24th). Simple eh!

 







News Note: I am still awaiting my replacement windmill from Sarissa Precision, but Steve assures me it's on it's way. He has also added a little extra something as an apology for the error. Great customer service - I'll let you know when it arrives.



Until next time.....



Update: Sarissa Windmill and some Heavy Firepower

Greetings Gentle Readers,

Not much to report - We have Belgium Boy staying with us again so I can't get the paints out and dominate the dining room table until he's left (apparently it would be bad form to reveal that we often eat off trays whilst sitting in the lounge).....In the meantime I am constructing some of the swag from Salute so I will have lots of bits to paint as soon as normal service is resumed! I can clear these away easily at mealtimes!

First up is the Sarissa Precision Post Windmill. A nice easy build this, and it is quite a big building for under £20!  My only disappointment is that the top half doesn't have the etched planking of the lower half - I have emailed Sarissa in case this is just an error. The example on their website does have etched planking - I wonder if anyone else has experienced this?

Close-up of the offending area.....

It should look great on the table once painted, and the base tricked up a bit. I have also started the Pershing and King Tiger tanks from Warlord/Bolt Action. This will give me a nice selection of tanks for both my Americans and Germans to choose from. The resin was washed before construction and they are going together nicely.

 

 

On a completely different note I see I am rapidly approaching 10,000 page views, so I must organise a giveaway - I believe that's the normal way of celebrating these things! Whilst it will only be a small giveaway compared to Ray's, I will try and dig out something interesting from the Shed of Delights.

 

 

NEWS: Steve at Sarissa has responded with great speed to my email and confirms that the lack of detail is a cutting error, and that he plans to replace it promptly for me! Excellent news as far as I'm concerned, and a great example of this company's customer service. The Sarissa staff at Salute were not only helpful, but managed to maintain their sense of humour despite being under siege from needy punters most of the day - myself included!

 

 

Until next time....

 

 



Curtey's Miniatures 28mm Dark Age Farm Unboxed

I've had my eye on the Dark Age Farm by Curtey's Miniatures for a while now, and I managed to pick one up as part of my swag from Salute. At £55 it wasn't a cheap buy, but it is an inspired piece of scenery and will look good on the tabletop. Bottom line is I'm a sucker for a nice bit of scenery.....

It includes five resin buildings:

 

 

Plus some accessories and some civilian figures:

 

 

Metal doors and two beautiful thatched beehives.

Two clay ovens and a selection of non-combatants.
 





Plus a sprue of Renedra's Wattle Fencing to tie it all together.
 



Close-up of the box art: Painted example

 

You can see some more examples of the finished item here.  I'm looking forward to putting this lot together and getting it on the table.

 

 

On a separate note the Mighty Ray Rousell of Don't Throw A One, is holding a mega-giveaway to celebrate his 500th post. Many congratulations on reaching that milestone, Ray - his is an excellent blog and well worth following. I am not registering for any of the prizes as I have plenty to build and paint thanks to Salute, but there's lots of lovely prizes so take a look!

 

 

Until next time.....

 

 

 





Property Development Part 2

Continuing from Saturday's post, I have now completed the Dark Ages camp, with an additional single tent should it be required:

 

 

 

I also completed the ramshackle barn - I deliberately gave it a neglected and overgrown look:

 

 

 

 

 

Until next time......

 

 



Property Development

Greetings!

This week's annual leave has enabled me to catch up with a lot of stuff, not all of it hobby-related. One thing I managed to advance was my portfolio of desirable properties. Firstly I worked on a generic Dark Ages camp using Renedra's excellent saxon tents. I'd painted the tents and campfire previously and have rebased them on a silver cake board (I use these quite a lot for scenery - cheap and robust. Being silvered they don't warp and you can get quite messy with them in terms of ground-gunk and paint, filler etc. plus they come in a variety of sizes). I am currently working up the groundwork so this picture is very much work in progress:

I am also working on another Renedra project - the Ramshackle Barn, which is a lovely kit. Long way to go yet, but the basics are in place, plus a trough and pump from Hovels and an old haystack courtesy of ebay:

 

 

 

Those of you who frequent the Paint Table Saturday community may have seen my completed Norman Keep. This is a Sarissa Precision laser-cut MDF kit. I have made a few MDF buildings and now have an established routine for painting them:

 

1) Build with PVA glue.

2) Spray with primer colour to suit the main building. This may need two or three light coats.

3) Spray with acrylic matt sealer to give a good surface for painting detail.

4) Paint details with usual paints (in my case Vallejo/GW etc. acrylics).

5) Another coat of acrylic sealant.

6) Light spray coat of anti-shine if required.

 

I like MDF buildings that have a bit of character, or are of a type that cannot be sourced elsewhere, but they are by no means a simple, or cheaper, alternative to resin, apart from the postage costs.

 

 

 

 

A few years ago I picked up an out-of-production Grand Manner medieval forge from ebay. As is the way of things, I've only just got round to doing anything with it! Resin always paints up well, thanks to the amount of detail the resin provides - a great opportunity for washes and drybrushing that would be wasted on MDF buildings. It originally had a mail hauberk hanging on the wall (which sort of limited its use for post-Norman games) so I modified that. It also had a badly moulded anvil on an integral tree trunk which I cut off. I then added some white metal accessories (worktable, anvil and water tub, again from Hovels) to fill up the space a bit. All that's left to do is a little bit of groundwork - tufts, and a small bush or two. It certainly illustrates what I said earlier about buildings needing character - this item wouldn't be as good-looking in MDF. It's a shame Grand Manner discontinued it, as it's a lovely little building and useful for anything up to the 18th century with a small amount of work.

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

Hopefully all these will be finalised today as it's a good day for spray-varnishing, then it's back to the figures!

 

 

Until next time.............

 

 

 

 



 

 

Paint Table Saturday - The First of 2015

Not much to report due to the festivities. I will not be predicting what I'm up to this year in terms of wargaming and painting plans as I am too fickle to stick to anything for long! I am going to try and not be influenced by the dual anniversaries of Agincourt and Waterloo, as I need a new project like I need a hole in the cliché, so I will just go with the flow I think.

And as if to prove it, I've been randomly painting some dungeon scenery just for the fun of it:

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible. Possibly.

Until next time..........

My Santa Clause Project & Happy New Year!

2014 was my first year blogging, and it was also my first year taking part in the Secret Santa and Santa Clause. The latter caused me a few problems as my recipient has his fingers in lots of wargaming pies! You would think that would make the gift easy to decide on - believe me it didn't! Coupled with the fact that the Blogger in question is an excellent painter, one that I knew I would struggle to match paint with, and I was in a right old dilemma....

Eventually I decided to create a small terrain piece that would serve as both an objective and a bit of battlefield decoration. I also decided to tie it in with the Blogger's beautiful ECW armies. Unusually for me I had the foresight to take a few pictures as I built it, so prepare for the wargaming equivalent of holiday photo's!

Here are the initial components:

I wanted to make a plundered wagon, perhaps part of a baggage train, with a few dead and wounded figures around it, and perhaps some strewn baggage....

The base was an offcut of ply covered in sand, and painted in burnt umber. I built the lovely 4Ground wagon and assembled some items from my bits box.

 

After a couple of dry-runs I decided on the placement of most of the items, and started painting:

 

 

 

 

At this point I neglected to take some intermediate photo's (typical), but rest assured there was a painted wagon (minus Lee Marvin - Laugh only if you are over a certain age...) with a few scattered bits of baggage and a couple of casualties. It was all looking a bit random. That's when the Current Wife asked if the bodies were plunderers or guards. I obviously looked puzzled. 'If they were guarding a consignment of wine it would explain why they all look drunk, she reasoned! I swear to god I have no idea where these occasional flashes of genius come from, but that must be why I married her!

 

 

I sourced some white metal bottles from Scotia Grendel, scratch-built a crate for the plundered booze and set about modifying the vignette. I also added another figure who looked as if he was on the point of emptying his stomach..........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, after a bit of trial and error, and thanks to Mrs Pendragon, it turned out OK, and more importantly (at least to me) it told a little story that was readily obvious to the onlooker.

 

The recipient was the entertaining Mr Gary Amos of The Happy Valley, and thankfully (judging from his Blog), he seems to like it. Pop along to his post on the subject if you want to see much better photo's than mine!

 

 

And finally: As I said earlier, this was my first year of Blogging, and I have enjoyed it immensely. I have met some great people (albeit online, I hope to attend Salute to see if some of them are as weird in the flesh....), and it has given my painting a great big (much-needed) kick up the butt!

 

 

I would genuinely like to wish you and yours a happy, healthy and wonderful New Year. May it bring you everything you would wish for yourself. Here's to 2015!

 

 

Until next time.................