Vapnartak 2014. York 2nd Feb.

It's the start of the show season. Coming up this Sunday at York Racecourse is the York Wargames show, Vapnartak 2014. I will be popping along for a bit of a mooch around. I will be on the look out for some WW1 figures , a few paint supply top ups, perhaps some reading material, and just some things that catch the eye.



I shall also be catching up with some friends old and new. So if anyone wants to catch up I will be around the Warbases stall around 11.00 giving Loki a hard time and asking all sorts pedantic customer type questions.



The Hero round for Curt's challenge is already submitted. Let's hope this round has non of the voting shenanigans ! Well done on sorting it out Curt. Really looking forward to seeing what comes up this time.

My next submission to the main challenge is still a few weeks away.. It's a biggie!

Location:Vapnartak 2014. York 2nd Feb

Challenge Photography

Picking up Phyllions post (link)on challenge photography I thought i would share my current photo set up.

I have the luxury of the spare desk which I have set up for desert type shots at the moment. I have a backdrop against the wall and the room has good natural light.

 I am using my DSLR on a tri-pod. Using Aperture Priority setting usually at least f16 to get a decent depth of field around the subject. This can mean long exposure times so I am set up on a tri-pod and either use the self timer or remote control.

I also have a diffuser for the flash on the camera if I need to , with options for a warmer or cooler light depending on the colour diffuser used.

I did spend some time many years ago helping out Duncan Macfarlane taking photographs for Wargames Illustrated which involved really setting the scene.so I am trying to use this experience this time around.

So here we have the results!

The Supply Caravan.

I completed this "caravan" to use with the Sudan games. Gives the Colonials something to defend. It is a mix of Connoisseur and Brittania castings. I was very pleased with the end results. It is also generic enough to be used in other games set in Africa.











I enjoyed setting the photographs up too. This set was also my submission entry for the "Vehicle" round of Curt's paint challenge - you know Caravan and Ships of the desert.... There were some brilliant entries for this round with Anne's flying carpet and Loki's Spider being real call out entries to me. There are also some rather nice 15mm wagons by Ray. Well if Curt can get away with having a whole season "Winter" as his villain round entry then he's opened up a whole new area of imaginative thinking for these.

Anyway get yourself over there and pick your favourites

"A Call to Muster March 22nd 2014"

Hi all, just had this through for notification of the second holding of this show in Middlesbrough.

Traders booked to attend A Call to Muster 2014 Northumbria Games Ltd Crucible of Lead Colonel Bill's Wargames Depot David Lanchester Books Eagle Figures Midlam Miniatures Halifax Modellers World Lesley's Bits Box/KR Multicases MTFG Hobbies Games of War Sentinel Scenic Northumbrian Tin Soldier Ltd Pendraken Minibits Victorian Soldiers I shall have the the cowboys along for a participation game.

Paint desk Saturday

Ok so I will join in this week.



So here is the spare paint desk proving its worth with a mass airbrush session on the Mahdist mob . 230 figure sorted in an hour, used two different base shaded of brown for variety.














And over to the main paint desk






Work starts tomorrow on the first main colour on the mob..

The Sudan revisited

Right then, time to get cracking on with a stalled project. One of the big benefits of the new man cave is the second large table which allows me to overflow from the painting area while doing preparation work. A while ago I had de-sprued the contents of 10 boxes of Perry Mahdist, so at least they are just ready for a mass assembly session .

So first WIP shots.

 130+ figures sorted! extra metals added for variety casualties and hiding ones. Extra order to Martin at Warbases required!

Bits box has not gone down much

The creation of one of the desert column support elements.

I have really got the wind in the sails with this project and want to get the mahdist force done swiftly.

54mm - Cowboy with Winchester

Another of the Xmas presents completed. This one by Pegaso Models. A really nicely posed figure, with the challenge of painting a poncho. At least in this scale you can see it to paint. Although i have had to resort to some additional eyesight help as you do need to paint the eyes in this scale. I acquired a headset magnifier to help with this and I am just getting used to using it. I fear however its a slippery slope.

I came up with the idea for the poncho pattern from some old "Mexican" themed wallpaper we had a few years ago

I am really enjoying painting in this scale , and using acrylics has really changed my impression of doing more of these not only cowboy related.

Also just a bit of black and white experimentation - reminds me of old cowboys films.

I will also give a big shout out to Historex Agents of Dover who supplied these, and the various Andrea paint sets. They are a great supplier to deal with.

Headset - and yes i does make you feel stoopid!! But hell it works

Lastly I asked the team of Analogue Hobbies to help with a name for this guy - so we now have "Charlie Wainwright"

Now let me see - i think someone else wears a poncho....

New Year - New Scale - 54mm Wyatt Earp

Something new for you this year. I was given some larger scale cowboy figures for Xmas. It's been a long time since I did anything in this size, at least 20 years. I had also only previously used oil paints and I did wonder how i was going to tackle these. But new challenges are always enjoyable. I switched to using acrylics and the increase in speed to paint amazed me. Using some acrylic flow enhancer really helped the finished , slowing drying time and allowing for some better blending of colours.

The figure is by Andrea Miniatures. A wonderfully sculpt and really well cast. A real joy to work on.
So there will be a few more of these along this year while work my way through a small collection to run a larger scale game.


I thoroughly recommend the the Andrea Color paints set - really good to work with.

Oh and a lot easier on the eyes!!