Last post for 2017 and a happy new year.

I hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas and got some shiny or hobby related presents.

My final post for the year is again figures from Peter pig's wild west range. These Cattlemen are pack 86 foot pistols

That's it for 2017 roll-on 2018.

Happy new year to you all.

Another 2 Cattlemen Characters

I would like to say things are slowing down in the run up to Christmas but work is manic so I'm looking forward to a few days off.

The attached pictures are of another couple of character packs from Peter pig. They are pack 82 Henry T Bossman and pack 85 Mongo Larry.

Henry H Bossman

Mongo Larry

The rest of the cattlemen are coming along nicely with the foot elements near completion and 40 horses nearly finished and the riders undercoated and ready to paint. Hope to have more pictures before Christmas.

Ho ho ho

15mm Cattlemen Characters

Now it's back to Peter pig's wild west figures and I'm working my way (slowly) through the Cattlemen. The first completed figures are two character packs, pack 83 Buffalo Bruce and pack 84. Old Gabby. They are nice figures with a mounted, foot and dead option in each pack.

Buffalo Bruce (sniper)

Old Gabby

There are another two character packs finished just need to take a pic along with two different foot groups that are both near to completion. I have also prepared 40 horses for the mounted elements. 

With separate riders and horses do people paint them separate or glue the riders on first? I always do them separately but wondered it's easier to do them together.

Thanks for dropping by partners.

One Hour Wargames.

I've read a number of favourable reviews and reports on On One Hour Wargames and  on Friday night I was looking on Amazon and and said to the wife if we've got any money left, from all the overtime I'm doing, when we get paid could you order me one. What a girl she went on to Amazon and with her prime account ordered me one there and then. It was a bit late for the next day delivery so I was expecting it tomorrow. But this morning it was delivered.

I hoping that this book will motivate back into gaming as the cover states 'for those with limited time and space's. There is also a chapter on solo wargaming.

Onwards and upwards.

French commander and generals.

The French commander and generals are to be the last of my bases for the French contingent of my AWI project. 

After finishing the painting  a couple of weeks ago I brushed on my preferred  Windsor and Newton's galleria mat varnish. When dried the blue jackets had a gloss sheen to them and then, in a moment of madness, I picked up an old can of mat spray varnish and sprayed them. They greyed. I wanted to bang my head against the wall. I took the can out into the garden along with my air rifle and removed the temptation from my grasp. A few touch ups and some more brush on varnish and they are suitable.

The French commander and a Commissaire des Guerres.

The French generals

And the whole French contingent.

 Next up something new for one of my ongoing projects.

Warfare loot.

Yesterday I made the shortish trip to Reading for the Warfare show. I left at 9.10 and was there in 35 minutes. The drive was pleasurable through the country lanes of south Oxfordshire and Berkshire. 

When I arrived I parked easily and sat for 5 minutes or so before finding the parking pay machines. Ye god's what a rigmarole. There were only two machines by reception, one of which was not working, and a tablet type unit which the operator was having a few issues with. A long queue was forming before me and was a lot longer by the time I got in. But after that the show was it's usual pleasant self. There were some great looking games on show and a great mix of traders. 

I managed to spend 5 hours there and as usual enjoyed my day out.  The only downside really was the fact that I didn't sell the two FOW box sets I took to the bring and buy. eBay for those then.

As for the loot - a bit of a mix with no big spends. Just a lot of bits and pieces.

From the top left is a reaper bones Dragon Tortoise. A PSC box of 15mm Stuart Honeys. A pack of 2 warbases 15mm ore tanks . Below that are various accessories, MDF bases ,tufts and some paints. Also is a 15mm neo Assyrian chariot from Magister Militum (hopefully that'll complete the army) and a few packs of GZG Kra'Vaks, all new releases. Finally there is an MDF 20mm container kit from Blotz. Not sure on the scale as I wanted it for 15mm sci-fi. I see how it compares when it's made up.

I've been painting on and off for the past month on a couple of projects but haven't taken any pics. As I'm off this week I hope to catch up with that and put a few posts on here.

Thanks for stopping by.

Royal Deux-Ponts regiment.

The latest and last French AWI regiment I think I will paint is the the Royal Deux-Ponts Regiment.

This regiment was part of the French expeditionary force sent to help the Americans in their fight for independence. The regiment took part in the fighting at Yorktown.

The figures are PeterPig and are from packs 99 French line marching and 100 French line firing. The command base was from pack 101 French command advancing with the addition of a wounded figure from pack 112 French wounded. 

I've added the next pic as the blue seems to be a lot lighter in the first pic than in the second, maybe a trick of the light.

Now on with the generals. 

Starbase 962 control tower

Well in the end I primed the control tower with Windsor and Newton's varnish (brushed on) and gave it a spray coat of gey car primer. This was then highlighted and then dirtied using Cars weathering powders.

I haven't decided on the base so this has been left plain -  I need to consider the base for all the bits first.

As usual thanks for dropping by.

Warbases 15mm sci-fi buildings.

At Colours a couple of weeks back I picked up a few packs of Warbases 15mm Starbase 962. These are sci-fi mdf kits and recently had a review in the latest edition of Wargames soldiers and strategy.

The kits were all quick an easy to construct referencing the on-line instructions. The painting should be interesting, I was told, by one of the guys on the warbases stand, that he had just sprayed a kit with grey car primer and then used washes and highlighted. But I read in a magazine that priming with a spray varnish helps. We shall see!

Landing pad and ramp

Control tower

Generator

Double pod

Double pod +1

Hopefully I'll have time at the weekend to make a start on the painting.

French Grenadier of the Regiment Soissonnais

It's been a while since I posted same painted figures so to get this back on the road here are some pictures of my latest completed AWI French unit.

Again these are from Peter pig's AWI range and are packs104 French grenadiers marching and 105 French grenadiers command. They have been painted up as grenadiers from the regiment Scoissonnais. 

The only issue I had was with the bearskin - I couldn't figure out what to do with the back so just painted them all over black with a wash and highlight of slate grey with a brass plate at the front.

Just another regiment and a few commanders to finish off and that's the French done.

With the French almost completed where next? More AWI - British/American?  Or maybe 15mm sci-fi?

Thanks for taking a look.

Newbury show loot

Yesterday meant a trip to Colours at Newbury racecourse. I had no idea as to my wants apart from a few packs of cowboys from Peter pig. 

After spending the best part of the day there, along with my eldest boy, I came back with the following loot.

At the back at two PSC 15mm kits,
on the right British Universal Carriers. (9 models, 6 versions, 2 & 3 inch mortars, Vickers 50 cal, armoured observation post & 2 types of wasp flame throwers).
On the left German sdkfz 231 armoured car (5 models,3 versions, 232 radio, 233 Stummel or 263 command version)

Warbases: 5 packs of 15mm stargaze 962 scifi buildings, a landing pad, a double pod, a double pod plus 1 and a generator and control tower. I was impressed by the range and look forward to getting a few more of these packs from the range ( once I've seen how they paint up).

The landing pack constructed.

Also bought were a few packs from GZG. A couple of packs of Kra'vak heavy armour warriors and pack of Xar grab discs.
And finally a 15mm hover vehicle from brigade games.

I enjoyed the show though I didn't really look at any of the games. A good turnout of traders with some new company's I'd not come across before. Blotz was one and I was impressed with a lot of their mdf kits both 15 and 28mm.
All in all a good show made better as I did sell a couple of items on the b and b that covered most of my spend.

Thanks for stopping by.

Back to the AWI

It's been nearly 2 years since I've painted up any french figures for the AWI collection. As usual these PeterPig figures were virtually flash free and only needed the file taken to the base. 

These are packs 108 French Line advancing with backpacks and a command base using 3 figures from pack 101 French command advancing with a sapeur from pack 106 French sapeurs with axes. They have been painted up as the regiment Soissonnais

The next regiment has been started and is progressing well along with the generals.
Thanks for taking a look.

Gnolls 4

The painting has been a bit slow of late but this is down to my eyes. Firstly they've been getting sore, down to hayfever possibly but I've never had it before. Secondly my eyes are straining with the small figures. This is more than likely down to the type 2 diabetes. I'm due for my 6 month eye check at the hospital at the end of August but I need to get my finger out and get an eye test at an opticians for some new glasses.

The Gnolls are now finished with the final two being Reaper Bones. The models were made of a material I've not used before and really wasn't sure of how to prepare them. I trimmed off some of the mold lines with a sharp knife and tried a piece of fine wet and dry on some of the burs but gave up around some of the detail. I should have persevered as the overall look of the figures I'm happy with.

They do look a lot bigger than the other 28mm figures I've used for Frostgrave though they could easily be used for a champion/leader type figure.

Anyway that's it for the moment.

Frostgrave Gnolls 3

Here are the last eight Gnolls from the Frostgrave​ box. But not the last Gnolls to be painted!

Group photo

Archers/crossbowman

Front and back

And four with swords and daggers.

Front and back

It's too hot tonight for the garage even with the fan on ! I might have to stay inside tonight and be sociable.  Though I could use the time to do some research on uniform colours for one of my on going projects.

Have a good evening all

Frostgrave Gnolls 2

Just a quick mid-week post. The latest batch of Gnolls (3 only)  are finished and photographed.

These 3 are a bit more protected, having shields.

Front and back

And my thoughts go out to the people affected by the fire in London last night and to the emergency services for the work they did and especially the firemen and woman who entered that burning building. Hero's.

That's it from me.

Frostgrave​ Gnolls

This is the first batch of Gnolls finished and I've been trying to get around to  posting about these for a week. The Windsor & Newton Galleria mat varnish is nice to use, though more time consuming when brushing it on but no greying.
The Gnolls are from the Northstar plastic multi-part set and this first batch have an assortment of weapons. They went together nicely like the other sets in the series and have a range of options to build.

Am trying to think of what to do next, i've plenty of options both in the metal  and plastic mountains. Inspiration is required and I'm not off to any shows until colours in September- my first show of this year.

Thanks for taking a look.

British Paras 3rd rifle plt , MMG plt, sniper and dead.

Finally getting the last pictures of this project on my blog. It's dragged on and the problems with the varnishing has put a downer on the whole thing. But onwards and upwards as the saying goes.

Anyway the 3rd rifle platoon is the same format as the previous 2.

The  mg platoon consists of  3 bases of machine guns and crew along with a rifle base and a platoon commander.

A sniper team suitably hidden.

And some para dead.

That's it for the Paras.

Thanks for taking a look.

varnishing - my way forward.

Thank you to all that helped me with my last post on greying when varnishing.  I decided to go down the route of brushing on the varnish and on Thursday my wife bought a  250 ml bottle of Windsor and Newton's Galleria Matt varnish from Amazon prime for under £10. And it was delivered Friday.

On Saturday night I tried it on one of the figures that I part repainted and yesterday  I had a look at the result and was very happy with it.

I have now hand varnished all 20 figures and just need to finish the bases off, though it's unlikely to be this coming week or next weekend.

Anyway I'm feeling a lot more motivated now and looking forward to finishing these Frostgrave Gnolls off.  

Here's the 1st of the batch - just need to but some grass etc on the base.

Now just need to sort out the photography side so you can see the shading etc.

Anyway thanks again. 

Varnishing blues.

Or should that be greys.?

Yet again the varnishing has gone grey. I was near the end of the spray can but there was more than enough for the job in hand. 

Yesterday Conditions were right not too hot or cold and not damp. Good shake and afterwards of the 20 figures 8 were awful  about 4 were needing a bit of repainting and the 8 were good or in need of a small amount of touching up.

So the question is what's the way forward? I've had enough of spray can varnish and watching my hard work going grey. I have  heard of people using a floor polish - Klear  I think? How does that work? Where do you get it from.

I know many of you will have felt my pain before.
Thanks from Mr bloody Frustrated.

British Paras engineer plt & mortar plt.

This little project has been finished for over a month and I'm being really slow in getting these photographed and on the blog. At this rate my next project will be done and dusted before I've posted all the pics for the paras.

The rifle platoons are supported by an engineer platoon consisting of 2 flamethrower bases a Lmg (bren) base, a sten base, 2 rifles (satchel/demolition charges) and a  platoon commander.

Flamethrower bases.

The mortar platoon consists of 4 medium mortars, a rifle base and a platoon commander.

That's all folks.