Overall I have achieved a fair amount of work this year, although I did peter out in November and December. I managed to hit most of my painting targets for last year. Still to finish are a unit of British Infantry and to finish the Albion Faeries and Ork Jets which I’d started. Purchasing wise I bought 76 figures and managed to paint about 202. So the lead mountain is slowly getting chipped away. Although I am getting to a very competent standard of painting there is always room for improvement.
I figured out how to make movement/display trays for my round based troops and the result looks good.
Over the year I have received a lot of support and encouragement from the blogging community. Special mentions go out to: DaggerandBrush, Skarach’s World, AmateurAirplanes and Sigur from Battlebrush Studios. And of course a big shout out to my old gaming buddy Mug’O’Dice.
This coming year I want to engage more in Social Meejah and promote my blog a bit more. This will mean embracing Goggle+, banner advertising and actually engaging with the Blogosphere. Something else I want to do more of this year is laser cutting. I used to have the services of a laser cutter at my last job which was so useful for making markers and tokens.
Plus I want to pluck up the courage to post my work on CoolMiniOrNot.
There are two products I would like to suggest for Product of the Year 2014.
The first is Vallejo’s Metal Medium. This adds a beautiful highlight to your metalwork and can be mixed with ordinary paints to produce any metallic shade you could wish for. I must recommend that every painter has this in their arsenal.
The second product is Baking Parchment. It’s uses are many and varied. Painting base edges where you’ll have a wet surface potentially sticking to the table-top. Making a non-stick surface when cutting out a spray mask. Applying washes to a row of shields. Etc. etc. etc.
I still want to paint a unit a month. If I knuckle down I could finish an army. However this would be really dull and repetitive. I prefer to have some variety. I would like to enter some models into the Massive Voodoo competition, which runs until April. I don’t stand a chance of winning, against Golden Demon winners, but it will push me to improve. This is what I propose to paint this year.
* A unit of Ratling Snipers and an empty scenic base.
* Napoleonic Artillery
* Albion Sword Maidens
* And if they arrive in time a unit of Raging Heroes Troopers
After I have dealt with the Massive Voodoo competition then it will be, in no particular order:
* Finish my Roman Army, this is not so bad as it sounds, one fortified base and one commander.
* A DKK squad
* Napoleonic cavalry
* DKK Death Riders
* A unit of Centaur cavalry for Albion
* Another squad of Home Guard and a squad of British Infantry
* A Squig Mangler for my Orc and Goblin Army
* Albion Skirmishers
Other options with I may slot in are:
* A Dreamforge Titan
* The deodorant speeder for Rouge Trader
* Some Titanforge Undead Goblins
* Some 4A Miniatures Kevin Adams Goblin Seafolk
* A squad of Fallschirmjäger as opponents for my Home Guard
This year will be about smaller units and treats, rather than batch painting which I’m finding a drag.
This could be academic if we do settle on a house because I’d like to focus on making it habitable. And of course making my “Man-Cave”.
I would like to to ask if anyone has experience of insuring their collection as I am increasingly looking at my collection as my Boy’s inheritance.
So without boring you further, I bid you a creative and motivated 2015, and to quote from the late great comedian Dave Allen, “May your god go with you.”
Tag Archives: Toy soldiers
Dezember workbench

A Treewoman from Ultraforge. She will be a giant in my Warhammer Fantasy armies. I’ve been looking forwards to painting her. This is my Christmas treat.

This is a unit of Pixies for my Albion Army. I’d already started painting them in England, but I’m not impressed by the work done. So this is a rescue job. They’re all individual figures so I’m not batch painting.

This is the Ork jet I’d started earlier this year and I’d like to finish it.
I’m not too much out on my painting targets for this year and I need to think about what my targets are for next year. I want to spend one month finishing my Field of Glory Roman Army. That would bring completed armies up to the grand total of two. If I solidly paint for the rest of the year I could finish my Napoleonic Army, but I think go bonkers painting eight infantry, three cavalry and two artillery. I’m going to split it up between Albion, Napoleonic and the Imperial Guard Army that I seem to have accumulated. Plus some one offs as treats.
Sexy new look
November progress
This month I have mainly been despondent. A mixture of birthday blues and the weather. After an amazing autumn the winter has come, it’s all grey and bleak. This month’s workbench was all about finishing the unit of Fir Bolg for my Albion Army. I really started to hate batch painting and not really liking the colour scheme I used. So I broke off to paint one of Alex Huntley’s Arcworlde miniature. Do check out his company, Warploque Miniatures.
http://www.warploqueminiatures.com
He is alarmingly young and alarmingly talented. His figures have a certain style, not to everyone’s taste I will say, which I like. I backed his Kickstarter because I believe that in about ten years if we keep supporting him he will be an awesome sculptor. This perked me up a bit. I do enjoy painting single figures.
Then I got on with the Bolt Action Dad’s Army squad. These were Foundry figures. Much nicer than the ones that Warlord Games released. It’s obvious when you know that the Foundry ones were sculpted by the Perrys. Some of the figures I had already painted in England. I just wanted to get the squad finished and the command. Had a little play around with the movement trays to make them a bit more interesting.
Then it was back to the slog of the Fir Bolg. I painted them in block colour and it was only a couple of days ago that I finished that. I dug out two new brushes to finally replace my old ones. The fine detail one was down to four bristles and the blocker wouldn’t hold it’s shape. My new fine brush is a Creative Models Synthetic 2/0. So far impressed. And the blocker is a Daler-Rowney Dalon D77 1. Not so sure yet. New brushes suddenly made the painting easier. I perked up a bit but the figures were just not doing it for me. Then two days ago I finished the blocking. Time for a wash, using Army Painters Strong Tone Wash. POP! Much more interesting. Shadows, grubbiness more depth. I’ve highlighted the bones. It just remains to finish the bases, paint the eyes a glowing pink (or green, haven’t quite decided) and paint the Cross of Saynte George in Tamiya Clear Red; once varnished.
So still a couple more days work before starting December’s work.
And having to go to Vienna for a Nicholaus Party.
Oh the suffering!
An interesting painting competition
Fun in progress
Some more fun
Just for fun
Kevin “Goblinmaster” goodness
What Kevin is upto. This may be a Kickstarter next year.
Can’t wait.
Varnished, prepped and undercoated
Image
A peregrination upon my rusty steed

Part of my work for this month is to finish a unit of Home Guard for Bolt Action. I’m using Foundry’s Home Guard Heroes which seem to bear a strong resemblance to the characters in Dad’s Army. The main characters were prepped and ready to paint but I was missing the Vicar, the Verger and Hodges. I remembered they were in storage with the rest of our belongings from England.
In the past I had relied on my Wife to drive me there or I caught a bus. When the Wife drove me there we were always on a tight schedule. It was either the Boy’s short attention span, it is a bit boring sitting in a large warehouse surrounded by boxes, or trying to fit the visit into the couple of hours the Boys were at kindergarten. Catching the bus always seemed to involve long waits and of course paying nine euros for the journey. As I’m not earning I’m trying hard not to impact on the family finances.
So yesterday I got thinking, I wanted a cheap way to get to the lager and I wanted to have all the time I need without being dependant on anyone. The solution was obvious when I thought about it. The lager is on the banks of the River Salzach and we live close to the river. So all I have to do is cycle there!
So I mounted my rusty steed and set off this morning. The journey took about forty five minutes and it was rather beautiful; the river on one side, forest in full autumnal splendour on the other and snow capped mountains ahead.
When Digging through my stuff I found so many distractions. I can see why it is such a good idea to keep my Lead Mountain out of sight. Over half an hour was spent looking through boxes and imagining painting the figures within.
I did uncover a box of Talisman and Judge Dredd figures that I’d forgotten about.
Then it was time to wend my weary way back home. This gave me some thinking time. I always think better when I’m out walking or cycling.
After a round trip of just over twenty two kilometres I got home with the figures I was after and time away from the flat. Salzburg is pretty, but there isn’t a whole lot I want to see or do there, so I tend to spend a lot of time in the flat. Painting and blogging are the things that keep me sane.
Almost
November’s workbench

This is what I have planned for this months workbench.
The main job is to finish a unit of Mantic Undead which will be used as Fir Bolg in my Albion Army.
Next up is to finish a unit of Home Guard for my Bolt Action Army. The figures are from Foundry and feature some well known characters.
I want to get a Penal Unit, top center, prepped and ready for painting. They are from Victoria Miniatures and they look very very good and I can’t wait to paint them. Maybe in the New Year? These are destined for my 40K Imperial Guard/Not DKK Army. Finally on the right are some Arcworlde figures, just for fun.
Orctober
Here is the finished unit of the Lancer Miniatures Orcs from their recent Kickstarter.
Pros
A very good price and an Old Skool vibe. Twenty different poses, so a unit looks varied.
Cons
A couple of the sculpts appear to be phoned in. The Slottas could be a little thicker to grip the base better.
If I had the money I would support further Kickstarters from Lancer. The more they do the better they’ll get and that’s good for all of us.
It would be good to see the sculptors take on Trolls.
An idea for a T shirt
Oooh shiny! So much for discipline!
There I was, being disciplined in my painting, and along come the Orcs from the Lancer Miniatures Kickstarter.
Shiny!
So what happens? I stop painting what I was doing and start these.
Here is a view of my production line. This is pretty much what I do when I have a unit to paint.

Magnetising the bases with neodymium magnets

Cleaning the mold lines with my new Dremmel attachment

Basing with sand and PVA

Undercoating the shields. I’ve been a bit lazy and used an old can of yellow primer that I had lying around rather than using my airbrush.

Wood basecoat.

Metal painted. A test shield with wash and in the background you can see the beginnings of a movement tray.

Test shield with rust, wash and wood highlights.















