It Lives!

 Well it certainly has been a while since I posted on here. Life actually does happen to us and interrupts our plans but at last I find myself with enough time to update this little blog. My painting has always been my main hobby and that never changed although its style probably has. 

Going forward with recording my miniature adventures I intend to place more pictures on the blog and even cover the odd solo games that I have. Over the years I have grown to love Games Workshop which is astonishing but true, I will explain why shortly...

Thanks for reading this very short update. I will be back during the week.

Isolation is Bliss to a Solo Gamer!

Hi Chaps,

I pray that you are all healthy and avoiding the virus?

On to business... the UK is in "lockdown" which makes sense to me and as a solo gamer makes very little difference... work will continue as will my hobby though disaster has struck on the figure front.

As I am sure you have all experienced I wanted to paint a period that I had no figures for! Usually I do not watch TV but I am now on the third series of Narcos and to my shame I am thoroughly enjoying it! So having sold my modern figures I have ordered a few more from Empress... will they arrive before I return to work?

I do have clear outs of figures and have no regrets as my painting moves on and well I enjoy painting! One thing I will not be clearing out is the second edition of Spectre Miniatures modern ruleset. Over the last few days I have been reading this manual and with the handful of figures that I still possess trying to work out the rules-great fun.

So with a 3 foot square board and plenty of time for two weeks I am left with a dozen figures and about 50 zombies. What will you guys be getting up to?

Stay safe and enjoy the ride.

Sick just in time for the weekend.... typical

Hi Chaps,

Well the weekend finally arrived only for the cold I had been valiantly fighting all week to cut me down for the last two days! Obviously this is a case of man flu and its to the death but I did still manage to start some figures. I purchased an Ogre by Reaper which on the packaging in forms one not to use a spray undercoat... indeed no undercoat at all. During painting I felt that the paint was running away from crevices and not covering as it should. Still after a few coats it did seem to work and I am now the proud owner of an Ogre for the princely sum of £6.70 delivered.

The Tau are time consuming to paint and a bit repetitive but once done I can tick them off the miniature bucket list.

Well I hope that your weekend was more fun than mine Guys and Gals (ugh that sounds too much like Jimmy Saville! Ugh).

Keep Blogging Chaps.

The Tau of Painting Mini's

Hi Chaps,

Of course the above should read Tao, it's a lazy play on words but I was at work before 6 and its a Monday...

I have long wanted to paint the Tau miniatures from Games Workshop and attempted them once before but this time its going to be a proper attempt. Who knows this may be the start of something beautiful between myself and 40K? The other day I downloaded the Battle Primer from the Games Workshop website and it does look a lot more user friendly... we shall see.

Blogger has started to delete things after I attempt to put a pic on it which has been driving me nuts so I may even move over to a paid for site where I can have a little more control and a few more features...

Please find below a pic of the new toys and my ancient Codex for the Tau...

Last of the Zombies.

Hi Chaps,

I have just completed the last of a box of zombies from the Zombicide board game, having never played the game I have no idea if it is any good but I can confirm that the zombie figures are well detailed and fun to paint. Please forgive the somewhat slanted pic...

A white undercoat and a few quick base coats then a couple of different washes then highlight. Quick and simple which is handy because zombie games require a LOT of undead. The best zombie rules that I have come across were free on the net by Akula "Nightmare on froth street" I do wonder if they made it into print as they are excellent?

The buildings behind the figures are being put together a little at a time each day after work and I am now at the "first fix" stage of adding door and window frames. A few more are in the planning stage and will be a little more elaborate.... I coat the buildings with a mix of PVA and poundland filler-it dries rock hard and gives strength to the foamboard but needs sanding before painting.

Have a good week Chaps and keep blogging!

Yesteryear Y-14 Maxwell Roadster

Hi Chaps,

I was rummaging around my bits boxes-I have a lot of those as I am sure most war gamers do when I came across a rather worn looking model car. My late father had given me the car many years ago and it has survived three house moves and lived for a decade out in a shed! So I decided to do something with a shabby but (to me) valuable little keep sake.

I drilled out all the rivets holding the model together and stripped the metal parts using boiling water and caustic soda crystals. This is pretty horrible stuff so one has to be careful with it.

During this process I managed to lose the steering wheel and the spare tyre-I blame shift work and no time. I moulded a new tyre using greenstuff and Omiroyu (not sure how its spelt) and will source a new steering wheel at some point, probably by taking something off another model.

Some parts were undercoated black and the body was done in white... then onto the best bit of painting and adding little details. The canopy was always missing so greenstuff was shaped into a roll behind the driver. 

So the model is now complete and is ready for service maybe in the Back of Beyond, VBCW or something similar. I am pretty pleased with the end result and will plop it onto a warbase mdf base at some point. This won't be the last vehicle as I was given a box full of Lledo/Yesteryear vehicles... 1930's technicals may have to be built with a few of them!

Keep blogging Chaps you keep me sane!

A Lazy Weekend of Painting

Hi Chaps,

I have had the best weekend in months and it has consisted of painting miniatures, watching youtube about painting miniatures and beer. Perfect. Almost.

Taking pictures of my minis is starting to drive me nuts. Even using my wifes iPhone with two lamps still produces pants pics.. maybe I am too far away? Anyway if anyone has any tips or can recommend a midi camera to purchase I am all beers..... sorry ears.

Here is what was completed this weekend, 10 chainrasp (guys in bedsheets) 4 mymourn banshees and a handful of zombies from coolminornot.