Last post for 2016

So another year comes to a close and another final post is typed.

I trust you had a very merry christmas and I wish you all a happy new year with many a great game to play and win.

I had these pics for a few weeks and thought I'd post them tonight to end this project on the last day of the year.

This is pack 65. Supply Wagon from PeterPig's Wildwest range.

I bought this pack earlier in the year but when I came to paint it I found the driver was missing, not sure if i' d misspkaced it or it was missing from the pack when I got it. I placed a spare foot trooper on the base.

In the background you can see a mass of 15mm Paras. This is the first batch of the next project. This batch and the next are now completed apart from basing and the 3rd batch is underway. Hope to have some pictures up in the new year.

Anyway
 HAPPY NEW YEAR

Plastic Soldier's M4A4

I have  been busy painting over the last few weeks, as and when I can. The PeterPig cavalry supply wagon is complete with just a photo or two to take and that's that project put to bed again until later next year.

The British Paras are well under way and I hope to be able to put some pictures of progress on here soon.

But by way of a change (and because of child care duties) I needed something to do inside in bad light.  I picked up a couple of boxes of Plastic Soldier's Sherman's to have a look at and decided to have a go at set Ww2v15011 Allied Sherman M4A4 and Firefly tank.

The set contains 5 sprues to make up 5 Sherman's,  these can either be made up as M4A4 (dry) or Firefly.

On taking the sprues out of the box the detail looked good and the amount of parts for each tank was not too great (even more so when consider there are some unique parts for each version).

The instructions for PSC kits leave a lot to be desired but that have got better over the years and this kit is only a couple of years old.

 I found the first section - Wheel sub assembly very fiddly and a few dry runs on each side was necessary.

Anyway the it went together well and here's a finished example.

 Four more to make up and I'll probably make up 3 of the standard M4A4 and another Firefly. Painting can wait until all are constructed.

Sizewise it does seem to be on the small size so I need to compare it with the PeterPig Sherman I have and get back. 

Thanks for dropping by.

US Cavalry characters

 My little man cave is located in the garage. It's a 3rd of the area and it's sectioned off. Most of the year it's pleasant but as we go through autumn  out comes my  old small blower heater. It works well and quickly warms up the room. Or it did. With the temperature plummeting last night I switch it on and yes you guessed it - nothing.  Fortunately we had another old heater stashed away for just such an occasion, it works but without the blower it takes ages to warm up my cave.  I can see it being a hard winters painting!

This project is near completion - just the  supply wagon to photograph, all ready to go. Anyway here we have the two US Cavalry character packs from PeterPig.

First up is pack 61. Major Rob

Followed by pack 62. Sergeant Rooney

Each character pack comes with three versions of the character, mounted, on foot and dead.

The next project is coming along well though as usual slow and hope to get on with it if I can stay warm!

Thanks for stopping buy.

Where's my horse?

It's been a few weeks since my last post and the whole time I've had these  figures finished and sitting on my desk. 

Again they are US Cavalry from PeterPig's Wild West range. 

Above are dismounted troopers with carbines (pack 57) and below dismounted troopers with pistols (pack 58).

Foot command (pack 59)

Crow Scouts on foot (pack 64)

This gives me two troops like the one below.

There are a couple of character figures that are finished and a supply wagon to base which will be in the next and last post in this project.

Thanks for taking a look.

New project - prepping

Whilst waiting for the last base to dry for the US Cavalry yesterday I decided to prep the 1st batch of PeterPig's WW2 British Paras. 

I've decided to go for a rather large army and cover a number of options as I have the troops to hand and will still have many left over (eBay sale coming up at the end I think). I picked up a PeterPig black box for the paras (old style of figures) many years ago and when Martin had the figures remodeled I purchased a number of packs. This was supplemented by another black box of the new scuplts for which I traded my collection of magic: the gathering cards.

My only concern is the painting of the Denison smocks. I have seen a couple of YouTube videos and will give it a go.

Thanks for stopping by.

Stop the Cavalry

I managed to get a few photos of the last of the mounted elements of my Peter Pig US Cavalry. 

First up is a couple of  command bases, pack 56, followed by a couple of bases of Crow Scouts mounted, pack 63.

And finally a picture of two troops of cavalry with command and Crow Scouts.

Hopefully during the week I'll have some photo's of the dismounted troops and a few character packs.

Thanks for stopping by.

More US Cavalry

Over the past few weeks this US cavalry project has progressed really well (for me anyway) and is now near completion. I have a few bases that need a coat of paint and some grass tufts added and a supply wagon to paint.

These figures are pack 55  us cavalry with Pistols. I was happy with the painting but again when varnishing the blues and blacks greyed and had to be repainted. This happened again with the dismounted troopers. I've since varnished some character figures and crow Scouts and as the weather has become somewhat cooler my heater is on and the greying has disappeared. Hopefully that's the problem sorted now.

Thanks guys.

US Cavalry

The summer months have not been productive though a number of things are nearing completion. Hopefully over the next few weeks a few more bases should follow.

This group are mounted  US cavalry with carbines from Peter Pigs Western range, pack 54. I was happy with the finish until I spray varnished them and they  went a grey hue. Out came the paint brushes again.

Thanks for stopping bye.

Colours purchases.

Well it's been over a week since Colours and it's time I should have posted some pics of my loot.

It's a bit of a mix but like a lot of us guys I have a lot of projects on the go.

 First we have some PSC 15mm British 25pdrs & Quad Tractors and a box of German medium trucks along with a spray can of British Khaki.

Next we have some bits for Frostgrave. A box of Northstar Gnolls and some Reaper Miniatures, 2 Gnolls and a Great Worm.

Finally we have some PeterPig figures and bases. There are a few packs of WW2 British Paras to complete the options for my next project to start (hopefully next month). Also in the picture are some newly released WW2 Russian special forces - bought on impulse.

Anyway thanks for taking a look and I hope to have a few pics on here of my 15mm US Cavalry in the next week or so.

Cheers

Off to colours

I'm off to Colours shortly. I'll be bring son no.2 ( my youngest) with me for his first show. He's all excited about it but I think it's more to do with the pack lunch he's taking! 

I've not spent much on the hobby this year but have saved up my pounds instead and hopefully will be getting a few bits today.  

Ironclad Miniatures steam rotocoptor

This lovely model steam rotocopter was finally finished during the week. It was based on an mdf board with a base of ready mixed filler topped off with mixed sized gravel. The dried based was sprayed with german dunkelgelb and highlighted with various mixes. 

The tree trunk was in fact some sort of shell that that i pick up on the beach in the summer. I thought it would come in useful.

Sorry about the photo quality - pictures taken with the tablet.

Thanks for taking a look.

July's paint table

I got back yesterday from a weeks holiday in Devon and decided to take a look at the painting table. Nothing completed in July and no blogs! but things are on the go.

On the left and front is the steam powered helicopter from Ironclad Miniatures that I picked up at Valhalla. On the back left are the Halflings I finished last month. The rest are 15 mm Peterpig US cavalry which seem to be taking forever to complete. 4 bases are finished, 4 are painted and based and just need the bases painted and the 6 undercoated figures and horses are the 2 command bases.

Better have a productive August.

Thanks for having a peek

Valhalla show

I had a good run down to Farnborough this morning with only a little traffic on the M3.  The show was small but with a nice mix of traders and a few games.

My lad got a bargain on the bring and buy (3 boxes of figures for £5.50) and I managed to pick up a couple of items.

On the left is as pack of 4ground Daldorr Columns. The box is a new release  from Ironclad Miniatures, a steam powered helicopter. And a lonely pot of paint.

Only downside was after I've got the car and was walking to the parking metre I noticed my car key was bent and it look like I wouldn't be getting home. I managed 2 straighten out the key somewhat and was able to open the car and start the engine and then turn it off and lock the car. We went into the show for a couple of hours but it's funny how something like this can play on your mind while trying to have some fun.
Anyway we managed to drive home albeit in traffic on the M3 and M25. At least I had a spare key when I got home so sorted for work tomorrow morning.

Thanks for stopping by

Valhalla

Off to Farnborough's Valhalla show in the  morning with my eldest lad for a father's day treat. A nice smaller show. 

I haven't got s list of wants but hope to get a few bits and pieces. Maybe the Katy ambulance from Ice Cold in Alex.

Hobbits

I bought these Games Workshop hobbits  a good 15 to 20 years ago. They were undercoated and the majority of the painting done and then something else came along and took my fancy. They were placed in a box and there they remained unloved apart from the occasional peak until a few weeks back when I was looking for something else,

The movement tray was quickly knocked up using some thick card.

Thanks for dropping by.

Barbarians for Frostgrave

OK so I lied but in my defence I had painted these Barbarians up a few weeks back and then put them on a shelf awaiting a few more  figures to varnish. And then forgot about them.

I picked up a packet of barbarians from Battlezone miniatures at last year's Warfare. They're nice figures with good detail that paint up well.

Well that's it for now on the Frostgrave front. Thanks for stopping by.

Frostgrave - Lich and Apprentice

This will be my last lot of Frostgrave figures for a while (well at least until the next gnickstarter comes out).  
The Lich and his Apprentice were finished a few weeks ago but when it came to the varnishing the fronts were fine but the backs had the dreaded greying. So the backs had a repaint. And a re varnish but this time no greying.
As for the Death figure I don't recall where this fine figure came from but I've taken quite a liking to him. Thinking about it it might be from TSR.

As usual thanks for taking time to stop by.

Onwards and upwards.

Frostgrave treasure

I finished this load of treasure off last weekend but have only just got round to posting a pic or 3.

These were purchased at Colours last year but made it on to my paint desk a couple of weeks ago. They are from Ainsty Castings and were in a pack called treasure piles, 6 Radom pieces for a fiver.

Thanks for dropping bye

Frostgrave zombies

Just a quick post to show some Zombies I've painted recently. They came as part of the nickstarter and if I remember rightly they were from mantic games. Nice models with good detail.

As for the painting you will see that they have different shades of skin. This was down to not having painted Zombies before and a little bit of experimenting with the washes. The one on the bottom right had a vellejo flat flesh with a mixed games workshop wash of red and nuln oil black. The other two had a cote d'arms flesh and a mixed wash of drakenhof nightshade and bel-ta green. One more green the other more blue. 

I enjoyed painting these so I might have to get in to the Zombie scene !

Thanks for taking a look.

Frostgrave beasts

Just realised I've not blogged in April yet and even though I had a 50th and my son's 8th to celebrate I've managed a few bits of painting. 

Today's offering are a couple of snow trolls and some old games workshop snow cats from my lead mountain.

The snow trolls were washed with games workshop sepia but I was happier with the grey wash I used  on the snow cats. I remember that next time I'm painting white.

Right back to the paint desk had an issue with a new can of matt spray varnish and the backs of 2 Frostgrave figures. Now grey !

Thanks for stopping by.