Happy New Year!

All the very best to you lot!

Let's have another great one and let's keep our blogging community happy and healthy.

2014 Round up

Highlights

Blog Con 2 at York - it was great to meet up once more, meet new friends , and have a laugh! It seemed like a resounding success.

Wargames Bloggers Quartely - contributing and being Editor for issue2 - great idea Millsy.

3rd in the 4th AHPC - great fun racing to the finish - and i got a load of stuff done

Really got some quality time in the man cave at the end of the year and starting to build up the Sudan collection

Gaming at Scarborough show - 6 participation games over the weekend - and great company too.

Managing to focus on only a few areas - Cowboys, Gangsters and Sudan - getting there with them all.

Lowlights

Not enough games overall - but there were a lot of real life things got in the way.. must try harder 2015

I must do a 2015 targets to set out plans for next year.. see you on the ohter side.

Sudan - Brigade Square

 Progress is going well now, with the enough troops to create a decent sized brigade square. Millsy asked for a full size picture , so here you are..All the troops here are Connoissuer Miniatures

I have another brigade to complete, it's all primed and ready to go. This one will mainly be Perry figures. There are also two Hussar units , one of which the horses are now done. There are also skirmish bases underway to. I should finish this lot all by March.

That will leave me the Camel Corp ( which are going to be expensive to source as mounted and dismounted required)and a steamer (got my eye on the Sarissa one - but may scratch build) to  complete the Imperial forces.

Pulp - Miss Lilly van Verde

In between doing the churn out of the Sudan units I have some Gangeter/Pulp stuff sitting on the table to provide some much needed colour. So here is the fiery tempered,  red haired chanteuse at "Long Sarah's" entertainment club. Miss Lilly - from Bob Murch Pulp figures Gangland Justice , Femme Fatale pack.

She is bound to be the source of trouble - voice of an angle and a black heart! 

 "I've been with thousands of men,
Again and again,
They pwomise the moon,
They'rwe always coming and going
And going and coming...
And always too soon"

This is a cracking figure to work on - mind had to get the magnifier headset out to do it justice. I filed down the figure base to be able remove the cast on base and drilled and pinned it to the slotta. The undercoat for the whole figure was an enamel grass green which i was hoping would give a depth to the green dress - it has worked IMHO. The greens are a mix of Vallejo Flat green , and the Andrea Color green set , with a bit of yellow added for highlights. The hair is a Vallejo Hull Red with highlights. 

The chequerboard on the base is hand painted on black overall with a mid grey and then light grey highlights. 

Michael Peterson commented over on the Challenge blog  (AHPCV)- and could well be right!


"I like her a lot - she reminds me of another redheaded singer, Alex Pangman, "Canada's Sweetheart of Swing" - in fact it could be a mini of her. Check out http://www.alexpangman.com.http://www.alexpangman.com/gallery.html"

 The backing band will be along shortly..

A glorious Christmas and thank you.

An excellent Christmas day was had with the family, great fun. I seem to have done particularly well in the gift department this year - with lots of care and thought in peoples choices.

 A rather fine new sign for the "Mancave" door!

 Reading material to feed my current Colonial interest

 The latest series of Hell on Wheels to complement the Old West interest

 Fantastic photographic compendium of Wargraves, for my interest in battlefield visiting

One of the limited edition copies of John Rays masterpiece - filled with wargame eye candy!

 Musical entertainment for when wielding the brushes

Toys!

 A big thank you to my "Secret Santa" and to Ian Willey and Cath for organising yet again.

I have a set of Copplestone policemen and civilians for the streets of Serenity 

(fine choice of figures Secret Santa!)

 Just to show how they mix with the Dixon and Bob Murch ones - I need some paint on em!

 An essential Man Tin - stocked with paints - result!

 And a fantastic piece of wall art for the man cave .

Wonderful gifts, a great times!

Seasons Greetings

It's  that time of the year again, so best wishes to all friends both old and new. Have a great holiday season. It has been a while since I have been able to take the full time off , and I am now officially "feet up" until into the New Year. Whatever you are doing over the period have a great time.

Sudan - 9th Bengal Lancers part 2

The remainder of the regiment has now been completed. I have these in 3x8 figure squadrons , so have done the 3rd squadron with upright lances.

I think I will add a seperate single "special" command figure for this regiment  - a nicely converted one once I have the mass of the imperial troops done .

Overall very happy with the end results. And 1 of the 3 cavalry regiments now completed. The oil work for the next Hussar Regiment is done and drying.

I wonder what goodies santa might bring...??

Sudan - 9th Bengal Lancers

One of those classic British Imperial units- Bengal Lancers. The 9th were a light cavalry regiment which when moved to the Sudan were armed with a lance - with those pesky Fuzzy Wuzzies not playing the game and lying the on the ground what you really need as a cavalry man is a 9 foot pointy stick to get them  with.

 So here I have two squadrons (two more along later) of old school Connoisseur Miniatures with some heavy conversion -  only the officer is a straight figure. This range never got around to making buglers so the bugler is made from a trooper figure, arm removed remade with solder and soldered into position holding the bugle to his lips. The bugle is made from garden twisty wire formed into shape and the bell of the bugle created from solder. 10 of the troopers have their lance arm removed, repositioned  or remade and soldered back into a variety of thrusting type position. The lances are made from 0.8mm piano wire so won't bend and are then soldered into the hands of the trooper along with lance strap. The idea is to give the impression for the these two squadrons at full charge ready to hit their quarry. 

 
 I did enjoy partaking of a decent India Pale Ale - Bengal Lancer while doing the conversion work - it was very enjoyable!

I have more cavalry planned over the winter period with a couple of Hussar Regiments in the wings too.

Sudan - Return to the Desert Sands - 42nd Highlanders

The winter schedule will cover units for the Sudan

so first up the Black Watch. Old Connoisseur figures - great figures to paint , no fussy detail, not too flat so washes work well.

 

 Non of this skimish malarkey here.. 36 figures...

plenty more planned!

The Challenge kicks off

This weekend saw the kick off for Curts annual paint-fest event, it even comes complete with its own new, shiny dedicated blog The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. I have a few projects still on the go and am aiming to get a good way through them over the winter period.

My main aim will be the colonial forces for the Sudan - I want to get the collection to a point where I can do a decent size game. In between I have some figures to do for "Serenity City" various gansters, civilians etc to break up the khaki monotony.

There are also some side excurions into "Bonus Round" territory , some of which will fit into my aims, others which I will root around in the lead pile to see what can be submitted. I really enjoyed these last year as it meant doing something a bit different.

Having set myself a steep challenge target - about 20 points worth per day I shall however miss Loki and Kev this year to help in driving forward the point total, egging each other on worked well for me last year. Instead I just need to keep an eye on Millsy for point bombs and perhaps good old Sandbagger Ray who says he wont be painting much..

Anyway enough waffle you want to see pictures! So here is the first submission - some new releases Pulp Alley figures. Very fine they are too. The castings are clean and crisp and nice to paint. Only down slide is they are slotta bases - such a pain.

 "Long Sarah" - Queen of the seedy side of town

This one I am sending to Curt as the entry fee fo rthis years challenge. In my head its a John Dillinger "rogue" entry

So its back to some khaki clad fellows for a while to fill out the ranks of the Imperial forces in the Sudan - the Black Watch first up I think

Storage Wars

It is that perennial problem.. where the heck am I going to keep all the newly painted stuff. Even with lots of space it gets to be a challenge. While out Xmas shopping yesterday I took a look into the the local Hobbycraft only to find they had a 20% off promotion on . So I took the opportunity to nab some of 4 litre "Really Useful" boxes to start and revamp storage options. The offer still seems to be on for the rest of the week if you join today..

 External Dimensions: 395 x 255 x 88 mm 

Internal Dimensions: 348 x 220 x 68 mm (4 litre capacity)

4 boxes , and a roll of cheap brushes for general abuse sorted - £20 well spent. Roll on next weekend for proper painting

Paint table lurkers - finished AWI Highlanders

I guess like a lot of you there are items in your "to do" list that seem to have been there a long time. In this case it has been a unit of AWI Highlanders that I start 2 and half years ago , and have been picked up , put down, interrupted by illness, injury, and a range of other distractions. Having spent the last few years painting in the main individual figures for skirmish type games the size of this unit at 54 figures was also a factor i think. Anyway as I found myself with more paint table time over the last few weeks (a side benefit of less day job travel) I thought I want to get these done before the winter challenge commences and have a completely clear paint desk without these lads taunting me!

So more Old School shinyness..for DC at "Unfashionably Shiney" to worry those darned Colonials..

All with soldered bayonets. Converted figures to make a drummer and piper and each officer is different with pin swords added.

 

 Painting tartan under gloss is always fun!

And just a note of thanks for DC for his patience

It's not all painting

There is a good bit of preparation work going on at the moment , with lots ready for tackling as I start into the winter challenge. My man-cave time has been boosted with a reduction in day job travelling which is nice. I have however splashed out on another few sets of rules to help things along with the acquisition of "The Sands of Sudan" from Carlo at "With Pyjamas through the Desert" blog - a set of reconstructed Peter Gilder rule, of which I have many bits of already but not a complete view.  I wanted to support Carlo in his endeavour and who can resist a nice new shiny set of rules - and some very nicely designed Random Event cards. With the numbers of Mahdist required on them its a good job I still have a stock in to paint on top of the 600+ I already have. I want to get to 1000 Mahdist foot.

  The gamers play the imperial forces , meanwhile an umpire uses the cards and rules to direct the random elements of Mahdist forces.

All delivered from Australia in just over a week.. thanks Carlo.

I also picked up the latest Pulp Alley release to add to my other sets. - "Vice Alley"

 Some of my collection painted by Loki feature as David asked on the Pulp Alley forum for some to include , which I was more than happy to oblige - appropriately they are in the Gang War pages.

Brushwork has not been entirely absent - so here is a teaser for DC..I have cracked on with main block work on the AWI Highlanders. I want these off the desk for the start of the challenge which should be ok. 

Errr. so that would be so I can start more Highlanders... I must be mad...I need two  36 man units for  the Sudan collection. I am working on a test figure here so I could work out colour schemes. The figure is an old Peter Gilder Connoisseur Sudan range one  , and I will be using these use for the "Black Watch" . It is a joy to paint - not too fiddly and easy to access the details etc.

 few little twiddly bits to do ...

 I suspect the Perry figures I have prepared for the "Gordons"  - which were complete swines to clean up won't be so nice to paint.