The 1st Post Over Christmas...

Of course, in the tune of 12 days of Christmas...
For the first post over Christmas,
I have to share with you...
A figure from HassleFree.

Howdy all,

I hope everything is going well. As promised, I am trying to get my count up with some substance, lol. I really liked this figure, great pose and great theme. Inspired by Finn from the latest Star Wars movies...it is a great representation.

So, I hope you enjoy the pics...

Hike up Lead Mountain 2020
Painted:

28mm               57 (+1)
15mm               135

Bought:            2

Progress:          +190

Edging into the New Year

Howdy everyone,

I have to admit, I have been approaching the internets and my blog writing with a mixture of trepidation, malaise, and overall arghhh-not right now...between the over coverage of certain "current events" and the American and Russian internet bots keeping my view count up...I just haven't been that much into the internet lately.

However, I certainly have been keeping up with my painting...as well, I thought I'd try a new tact with keeping my painting up...I am having a lot of difficulty keeping focus on projects, and yet the prep and painting of minis does help keep me sane...

So, I thought I'd post a pic of my wall of shame...and make it my goal to finish through as many of the blisters hanging off it as I could.  So, here goes:

 

This wall, built itself...certain pieces collected over the years...and some nostalgic items thrown in for when I'm down at my bench.

 



 

So, here goes with a different type of progress tracker over the year...by years end I hope to have a similar picture up...with a lot less blisters on the wall...coincidentally, if you look close, you'll see that each hanging package has another behind it.

 

Game on!

 

Cheers.

Hellooooooooooooo 2017!!

Happy New Year folks,

 
I hope the successes of 2016 are more memorable of the failures...and that 2017 thus far has seen you all healthy, happy, and wise...For me, 2016 certainly mirrored those three themes with their own success and failure rate...but, I am looking forward to the new year and pushing the miniature tin forward.

I do enjoy reading and skimming the various reflective posts that this milestone brings each of us bloggers: I am happy for your successes, I truly enjoy seeing the year in review pics, and I can certainly appreciate some of the pain and angst that some have experienced.

My gaming and online year 2016 was certainly a mix of success and failure trying to balance health, happy, and trying to be wiser, lol.  Looking back at my reflection of 2015, I feel compelled to revisit my list of objectives and take stock of what I hoped and what I achieved:

1. Continue to have more fun!! Always an excellent goal.     For the most part, accomplished...some gaming aspects certainly annoyed me...but I'll chalk those up to having bad days...I still love the hobby very much
2. At the club, we have some Team Yankee coming down the pipe...I managed to pick up the Soviet box at the end of the year, so that will be the immediate goal (accomplished).  My side objective to this is to limit all of my purchases to only Team Yankee related items.  (accomplished ----mostly...somewhat, lol)
3. Continue with my Vietnam Main Force VC...when I need a break from the main projects, the VC will fit in nicely.    Not accomplished...I can't remember getting any Vietnam painting in...instead, any painting voids were filled with stripping away at lead mountain...
4. Get moving on my WW1: Finish off my CEF...I have some artillery and HMGs to go...and get my Germans on the painting schedule.    Not accomplished...BUT I have some success with my CEF 15mm troops...this project unfortunately saw a lot of hurdles to accomplishing and I had a tough time pushing any progress forward.  My hopes for a Vimy Ridge project was successful in terms of research, but not so much in translating the research into scale
5. For Christmas, my wife bought into the Lich King Nickstarter for me...so I would like to tackle some Frostgrave in the new year...paint the cultists...some more of the extras...maybe some terrain     This was a HUGE accomplishment for me...I finished some terrain, yeah, some...a fricking library!! I was very happy with my frostgrave endeavours last year, I painted more figs for warbands/companies...finished a major terrain piece and a boatload of scatter terrain...very very happy
6. Keep working through lead mountain...I have some awesome figs that need to see the world...amongst them my DAK, FJs, and Mr. Harolds awesome Kickstarter...must get these worked on... accomplishment in progress...I worked through my FJ's...fielded some of them, made some progress with my DAK, progress on my Hasselfree figs, finished through the last of my TAG figures...pretty happy with this...did not get to my kickstarter purchases...sorry Mr. Harold...

In terms of raw numbers, you can certainly see the back and forth I had for the year: 

• 135 x 15mm figs painted and based
• 9 square feet of gaming terrain
• 47 x 15mm vehicles and guns painted and finished
• 44 x 28mm figures

All told, this is a decrease from 2015, but still an increase from 2014...so I will take that as a partial success.  My personal goal to make my purchasing more focused was very successful...I have switched LGS and now get by email, a receipt of all my purchases which allows better accountability...so I think this is good...and true to my wishes, the majority of my purchases were either for Frostgrave or Team Yankee.

 

So what is on tap for next year?

 

• I hope to get more terrain work done...I am at odds for theme, 15mm Afghanistan, 15mm Vimy Ridge, 15 or 28mm sci-fi (thank you Rogue Stars), 28mm modern?
• I want to increase my painting output...I have a wall of mountain that I would like to reduce...I'll share that at a later date, but I'd like to reduce it.
• 4 CMBG for Team Yankee...more Russians as well, there are some new great looking models coming...these would work for some First Clash scenarios
• Viking warband for SAGA...first immediate goal of the year for our clubs SAGA campaign
• I think that covers it...keep the objectives limited...and in that vein, my last objective is to keep a closer tally of how my painting progresses (give the Russian internet bots something more to falsely ring my view count up with...thanks Vlad...)

As always, thanks for the views...all the best in the new year.  Take care.

 

A few parting pics...

 

Last vehicles of the year...some DAK support

 

 

A lot of Russians were painted...10 x T72's; 10 x BMP's; a couple of Hinds and some grunts...

 

First figures of the year...I finished 15 infantry for the company...next step is basing...Not sure of the theme yet, any thoughts?

 

My favourite project so far...taking my time on this because I want to definitely get it right...

 

And my biggest success of the year, 9 square feet of gaming goodness...

 

Take care folks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CEF Artillery Detachment - part 3...The Finishing

Howdy everyone,

I hope all has been going well...I am pretty pumped...as I said in Part 2, I had finished my two guns, I am now finally able to get some pics and get a post up!! I'm pretty happy with the finished product...the guns themselves were pretty easy to paint-up...I just used vj 924 Russian Uniform and then a lighter shade of 924 for highlights.  I did pick a few details out overall, but for the most part, the guns are a quick easy go.

This is one of the first times that I've actually attached a figure or two to the base...completed the basing...and then painted the figure.  It takes a little bit of finesse to manoeuvre around the base features and to get in the harder to reach places.  As well, this is probably the first time that I've added figures to the base after I've already completed painting and detailing the base...more importantly, added them and tried to make them blend-in...

Again, I'm pretty happy with that result...I laid down a bit more sand around the base of the individual figure and tried to match the terrain colours as best as I could.

Anyway, enough babbling...here are the pics.

Cheers.

Voila, the finished products...2 guns with crew...one with ammo carriage and the other without...I also modeled each gun with their own 'brass pile' of spent shell casings.

Profile view of the guns... 

Overhead...my main disappointment is with my improvised ammo...because I used a small brass tube, I could not crimp the front to look like a projectile...or on hindsight I should of filled the base with filler or clay...oh well, maybe for my German guns...or more Canadian gunners in my future... 

...rear view of the gun positions... 

Gun 1 with brass pile and neat organization of ammo for the fire mission...inspired by my own experience on the guns... 

...a 'touched up' pic of Gun 2...

CEF - Artillery detachment...work in progress Part 2

Howdy everyone,

I hope you have had a great summer...I have enjoyed my summer hiatus from the internets and am pretty pumped to get back logging and posting my gaming progress.  First off for the month, an update on my Vimy Ridge-esque artillery positions.  To be fully honest, I was able to recently complete them, but I'm pretty happy with the fact that I have actually catalogued their build from metal and dirt to functioning gun crew.

I layed out the initial bits of the gun platform in part 1 getting a feel for how busy and crowded the base would be...I also laid down some beams and sanded the base.  Moving forward from this, I then base coated the models in black and went to work with the base colours.  I used the base part of my painting guide for my 28mm Stormtroopers and went to work.

I quickly had my first couple of layers down before I remembered to take any pics...so you kind of miss out on the Flat Earth and Beige Brown layers...

  

First attempt at vj Tan Earth...I was hoping things would pop more...they didn't, but it was a nice transition from the previous colour... 

 

At this stage, I used another dry brush of vj Tan Earth on the contours of the base and edges of the platform beams...

 

 

The 'finished' product...bases ready for the crew and guns...I dry brushed the base and beams with vj Iraqi Sand and for the final touch I used strong wash to highlight the slats, cratering, and 'boggy' parts.

Next, the guns themselves...vj 924 Russian Uniform base coat with highlights on detail areas including brass on the recoil cylinder, wheel hubs, and breech assembly areas.

 

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pics...part 3 is coming and I'm really happy with how they turned out.

Take care.

 

Really?!? A library...

Howdy Everyone,

Just a quick post to showcase some of the progress I'm making on my Frostgrave terrain tiles...heavily inspired by the library scenario from the MRB...but ideally adaptable to a variety of settings, mostly within the Northern City.

Last time, I left you with 5 of the 9 tiles carved, sanded, based, and painted...since then I finished up the remaining tiles...even settling on the layout of the final tile (inspired by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade word of God challenge) and have started cracking the scatter terrain out.

I'm currently toying with a couple of layouts for the bookshelves while I'm getting them painted up...and then I plan on getting the front entrance/façade completed...followed up by the table 'trim'...currently planning on laying foam down around the perimeter of the tiles to frame them and model it as mountainside to mimic a great library in the mountain...or if I'm under time crunch for Cangames then it will be a stone wall perimeter look ala, "hey look its a really great big building, I bet there's a library in there..."

Wish me luck...take care...enjoy a couple of quick pics.

The white pieces are the bookshelves in progress...the black pieces are also scatter terrain, every library needs tables...I also made 2 larger scatter pieces that I could migrate between multiple battlefields...they are the rocky pieces at the upper edge and right hand side of table...I also have roughed out 2 interior rooms, one with some sacks, the other with a crypt...

Rotated view...better to look at the stores room...watch out for the snow gorilla...the bottom row, middle tile with all the carving is my Indiana Jones 'word of God' inspired tile...

Hail the new year...where to? where from?

Howdy folks,

Happy New Year to all...I hope the holiday season was good to you, I hope the new year see's health and good tidings on the horizon.  I just crept past the 2nd anniversary of this humble little blog and am pretty happy with how the blog's going...

Since 2014, I have published 92 various posts to the internets...not bad for a techno-caveman...my overall stock of unfinished figs is...very very slowly declining...my purchasing...not so much so, lol.  I have steadily tackled lead mountain...or shelf of shame as Mike would say...I have added, but I am definitely trying to be more tactical about it...define project and then purchase, not the other way around.

When 2014 wound to a finish, I was pretty happy with finishing nearly 100 figures (mixed scales), 45 vehicles, and 11 aircraft...with this bit of progress I set my goals for 2015:

1. Have more and more fun!! Goes without saying.   Accomplished!!
2. I'd like to try a major gaming convention this year...I'll have to get some input from the guys.  Not accomplished! Maybe next year, depends on life's other distractions...
3. Vietnam:
• Finish my Air Cav helo's
• Start to put paint to my Viet Cong...hmmm, Hell Yeah!! The Cav were finished and my VC have been started...double Accomplished!!!!
4. WW1: Start to assemble and paint my Battlefront Germans and Vimy Ridge Canadians...Mike has already kindly offered to steal my research, so I've got that going for me...I have started, my second CEF rifle platoon is almost done...so partially accomplished.
5. Cold War: Start to paint some 4CMBG infantry and convert my Battlefront 'nam M113s to A2 and A3 variants...hahaha, no fricking way...definitely not accomplished...however, with the release of Team Yankee, maybe 4 CMBG will be back on the table...Leopard 1's please Battlefront...please.
6. Keep working through the past project pile...Afrika Korps, Old West, FJs...increase my painting output...fairly neutral...I did get to a bunch of FJ's, and some Old West dudes, but my DAK have languished another year...along with some other pieces started long ago...

The Cav...major success story for the year...

6 point Crusader Warband for SAGA...another success.

 

Perhaps my biggest success of the year though was the overall progress through lead mountain...for the year 2015...I was able to paint:

• 31 x 15mm figs painted in 2014 but finished in 2015
• 16 x terrain and objective pieces
• 25 x 15mm vehicles painted and finished
• 58 x 28mm figures...increase from 2014
• 223 x 15mm figures...DRAMATIC increase from 2014...very happy with this, main lesson is that time spent on preparation, like time on recce...is NEVER wasted.

So with these 2 big successes behind me, the dawning of the new year...

 

 

how will the next year look for this blog: 

1. Continue to have more fun!! Always an excellent goal.
2. At the club, we have some Team Yankee coming down the pipe...I managed to pick up the Soviet box at the end of the year, so that will be the immediate goal.  My side objective to this is to limit all of my purchases to only Team Yankee related items.
3. Continue with my Vietnam Main Force VC...when I need a break from the main projects, the VC will fit in nicely.
4. Get moving on my WW1: Finish off my CEF...I have some artillery and HMGs to go...and get my Germans on the painting schedule.
5. For Christmas, my wife bought into the Lich King Nickstarter for me...so I would like to tackle some Frostgrave in the new year...paint the cultists...some more of the extras...maybe some terrain
6. Keep working through lead mountain...I have some awesome figs that need to see the world...amongst them my DAK, FJs, and Mr. Harolds awesome Kickstarter...must get these worked on...

All the best in the year to come...good luck with your small endeavours.

Cheers.

Unintentional hiatus...or...where's my gaming mojo?!?!

Howdy all,

In a blink of an eye and a flurry of activity and October and part of November are past...wow, that felt quick and horribly long all at the same time.  The past six odd weeks ended up being an unintentional hiatus from blog posting as life got very busy...and to be honest...

 

However, the over the past week, it looks like it's coming back...over the hiatus period I managed to paint through about 2/3's of a Great War infantry platoon, about 90% of a SAGA warrior unit, and a couple of other single random figures...the mojo looks to have come back as of last weekend.

 

I played in a SAGA tournament including my, <sheepish look> unfinished warriors, and got home and finished them up and then started base coating and flocking figures and stands of infantry...hooray!!

 



So, with that I think I can safely say...

I'm here...not dead yet...

Howdy folks,

While I have certainly been making the most of this summer, I have unwittingly embarked on an electronics-light diet...I haven't had all that many posts over the past few months.  The painting brush has nonetheless been steadily working.

I was lucky enough to get some gaming in at the Club and at my buddy Mike's place...I was very happy to get my Israeli's back into the field against his Jordanians...while I certainly won the battle, I think he may have taken a financial victory.  After our game I looked at some of his recent purchases including the Frostgrave Nickstarter...needless to say, I am slowly drinking the koolaid and now somehow have some Bones Reaper fantasy figures on my workbench...damn you!!!

I have been continuing with my SAGA warband...as of last night I am 99% finished 4 points worth of Crusaders under the command of the Duke of Orange...or Duke L'Orange depending on if he is John or Jean-Francois...I'll see what the figures tell me.  I think I'm well on my way for our November 6 pt tournie.

I have started basing some of my Main Force VC...they are still on the table...and am looking forward to working on a group gaming scenario of the Maersk Alabama...more to follow on that.

Have a great last day of August and take care...more pics and posts to come in the next couple of weeks.

Cheers.

2014 re-cap...s'up 2015??

Howdy all,

Officially, now the new year can begin...I think many can understand that the first part of the first month of the new year is a bugger of a go.  My brain is in holiday coma...and has proven to be for a few weeks now...and the stressors just aren't welcome.  Of course, the stressors don't listen...sooooooooooo...

I am taking my mojo back...

The Year that Was...

The last year has been pretty big for me...I made the decision to focus my painting and gaming activities, motivate myself to keep going, and to try to get in some more gaming...and perhaps most important, it was the inaugural year of this little gaming blog of mine...thanks for the views, comments, and attention.

How did I do? Well, as I may have p&m'ed about on a few occasions, the focus does elude me...but my posts from the last year show that I did have moments of clarity...here's to trying to improve on that in the coming year.

If I put it into actual results...the last year saw a decline in how much I purchased (secondary objective #1 accomplished) and saw me put out:

• Figures:
• 15mm: approx 45 little dudes painted and complete.  100's more were prepped and mold lines removed;
• 20mm: approx 15 Elhiem sculpts joined the fold...mostly modern;
• 28mm: over 40 figs joined the rank and file ranging from Old West, WW1, WW2, Modern, and sci-fi.

• Vehicles: over 45 tanks, trucks, and other vehicles were completed covering WW2, Modern-ish, and sci-fi.  The pride of this lot was my Canadian Kandahar Cats Leopard 2's and mid-east heavy metal batch.
• Air Support: 11 aircraft joined the Gaming and Utility Support Wing, mostly helicopters for Vietnam.
• Objectives: 7 battle worthy objectives to spill gaming blood over were completed.
• Other: a few larger extra's joined the fray...bring on the guns.

I didn't get out gaming as much as I would have liked but I did increase my participation in Cangames and tried out a new ruleset and era (thank you Saga...).

And now...

 

My gaming objectives for the year ahead are simply this:

1. Have more and more fun!! Goes without saying.
2. I'd like to try a major gaming convention this year...I'll have to get some input from the guys
3. Vietnam:
• Finish my Air Cav helo's
• Start to put paint to my Viet Cong
4. WW1: Start to assemble and paint my Battlefront Germans and Vimy Ridge Canadians...Mike has already kindly offered to steal my research, so I've got that going for me.
5. Cold War: Start to paint some 4CMBG infantry and convert my Battlefront 'nam M113s to A2 and A3 variants
6. Keep working through the past project pile...Afrika Korps, Old West, FJs...increase my painting output...

Have a great new year folks, best in all your endeavours real and miniature.

Cheers.

 

Small Victories!!!

Howdy folks,

I just wanted to make a very quick update/progress/victory post...I just finished up the final drybrush on the last of my T55s that I've been working on.  Why is this a victory? Well, as I mentioned back in the beginning of this adventure, I received a batch of Battlefront miniatures for Christmas, and to be totally honest I made a resolution this year to try to work through as much of my WIP pile as I could.

To be totally honest I still have some figs awaiting their turn under the brush from Christmas past, but I can happily say that as of 20 minutes ago I have worked through 2/3s of 2013s Christmas gift...

I now have an Arab Tank Company of 9 x T55s, 3 x T34/85 (I will proxy in some Soviet T34s to fill out the force), and 2 x ZSU 57-2...I promise to get some pictures up very soon.  At the same time, I also worked on lessening the pile of Vietnam era kit...more to follow.

Have a good eve, and take care.