O bugger...

Somehow I didn't post last week.... >_<

This pledge thing is already failed. Well, kind of - at least I haven't bought any new models since I began this (month 1 of 6 almost seen through!).

I have though been painting. So not so bad really.

What have I painted? Finally got to my 8th Army desert Brits - namely a Honey Stuart and a Recce Armoured Car platoon. Now, I've still got some research to do to make sure I get the markings right (Anyone who has some handy links to sites that detail this will earn my eternal thanks as I've come up horribly short in my own searches.), so they are just sandy and details picked out for stowage, etc. But they are up to a quality I think that I'd be happy to play them in a tournament.

The Honey Stuart was my test piece for this scheme as I only had the one tank. I think in the end I'll mark it up as an Early War version for a future project.

The Armoured Cars are a Daimler 1 command vehicle and two Marmon Herrington iii's. I absolutely love the look of the Marmon Herringtons! So very Mad Max or something. I added some spare Bren guns to the turret to account for their AA guns that my list includes.

After these, I started working on a platoon of Wasp carriers for my Canadians. These things were crazy cool - dinky Universal Carriers with Extra sized fuel tanks welded to the back attached to flame throwers. Flippin' crazy if you ask me, what with these things being about as armoured as my old 1993 Rover Mini Italian Job Special Edition - a rifle shot can pop these things!

Tonight I've got a game lined up versus Densmol (First game in weeks...) - a late war 1850 point Market Garden books only affair with my Canadian Rifles versus a German Fallschirmjäger horde. I'll try to get some pics taken and post up an AAR (That's a batrep for you Warhammer folks. :P )

Now that I've some real progress started on my Flames of War piles, I really should update my painting charts....

Bare-chested Manly Men

Slow week of hobby progress due to health issues, but I did get a little painting started on my Relic Knights Noh Kyojin Beserkers.

Also here are a couple finished pics of that old Citadel Barbarian from my last post. (Again, like I mentioned - for these rpg minis, the paint jobs are fast and tabletop.)

And here are the Beserkers with their skin almost done and the Noh Render (Who has been surprisingly fun and deadly to play with in game!).

More bits and pieces

Yes, another post so soon after the last.

Here's my Necromancer mini by Red Box Games  (RBG calls him "The Keeper" though.) all done and dusted. This mini rocks and was loads of fun to paint. Once again, Red Box scores high with wonderful quality and crisp (Hand sculpted) detail. I encourage all of you to try out their minis to see for yourself.

I also (finally) finished painting the Hasslefree Kirsten mini. My wife is from El Salvador and the roads there are rather.... rubbish, to put it lightly. So my ham-fisted effort at home-made tarmac/asphalt isn't all that far from the real thing. I wanted the mini to look like she's happily been popping zombies or whatever out on the road so added the attempted shell casings behind her, though they are too big for the pistol she's holding. I'm leaving them on the base though as the brush bristle I cut them from is the slimmest thing I could find. The blood pool was more of an artistic effort to help the base balance out better. All in all I think she looks good enough and my wife liked her, so that's all that really matters, right? :)

I also got started on another of my rpg figs - an old Citadel Miniatures Barbarian #1 that I've owned since.... 1989? I never painted him. Ever. Which is damned sad, because he's a great sculpt for a rather heroic princely-looking bugger. Whilst these pics are WIP, I did go on last night after my phone battery died to finish and seal him in Testors, so I'll stick up his proper job pics on my next post.

And lastly, I felt the need to do a little work on the 82nd All American's bravest.

A little bit of this, and a little bit of that

My post for this week for the 6-month challenge.

I've been mostly putting stuff together and finishing the organising. Seems the Flames of War stuff needed the most attention, so here's what's left in my collection in a Bits'n'Pieces chart.

Once again, saving as a jpeg fuzzed up the letters, but it's clear enough to see what's on the list.

I started off by building the 3 Sherman tanks and priming them. Then I thought, hell why not prime those Cromwells too. Then I sprayed the Stuart V's (Forgot to take a pic of the Stuarts though.). I guess I was high on paint fumes as I went on to prime all but 20 or so of my random rpg minis.

All the outstanding pieces for my Flames of War germans arrived too so I've been getting those ready for priming too.

Prior to primer. These are the plastic models from the Open Fire boxed set. They were a pain in the arse to put together.

Shermans in top left primed. Primered. Whatever. German platoons in the forground - SS-Pak40 platoon, 1iC et al, SS-HMG platoon. Behind them are my 3rd Panzer ivH and a wee Marder iiiM self propelled anti-tank gun.

8 Cromwells and 2 Challengers all primed and ready for paint!

I've also got cracking on the Necromancer I'd showcased previously. He's a flippin brilliant sculpt, weasily and creepy as heck. Love it.

WIP - still need to lighten the skirt some, though not much as I want this model dark and dreary with grey-black skin and ebony eyes.

Lastly I was lucky enough to have a pal at Gen Con who purchased me some Noh Empire minis for Relic Knights. So now I have two factions to play. These are put together and just need some more love on their bases. But at least I can play them as they are (Hopefully tonight!). These Oni sculpts are pretty sweet!

More to come!

6MMRPC #1 - Organisation

This 6-month challenge/pledge is proving to be an interesting muddle of many things. I've started making lists for each project, cataloging what models I have for each, then tallying them into a journal for later transferring into a blog post. Last count I am up to 16 distinctly different projects that need my attention. That's a possible 16 different whole armies, or skirmish sized group of miniatures. (And I didn't even catalog my entire rpg minis backlog; just added them as an entry with "X" amount done.*this also does not include any upcoming Kickstarter deliveries which will also be added as they arrive*)

Still, there's more than enough to keep me busy realistically until 2020 or something silly. :) Okay, maybe not that far ahead. But looking at the pile, there's more than enough that I find I'm actually far happier than I realised to hold off on any further purchases.

With all this in mind, I went on to start making Excel charts to keep track of all of these painting projects. So far, I've managed to prepare only the three main Flames of War projects I have on my table. Using the Draxian paint chart method here are the first three charts (These charts looked a lot clearer before I converted them to jpegs...?):

Now, these charts don't detail the exact number of minis involved, but I don't think that's all that important, it's the end result. I think seeing all these red boxes turn yellow then green on each project will really help keep me motivated to finish off each list. I'll also have a 4th chart made for the rest of my Flames of War pieces that don't really belong specifically to any army I currently play or own.

I'll be making more of these up for my other 28m projects too - my 40K Astra Militarum Imperial Guard project is the one I'm fearing the most.... O_o I didn't realise I had collected up so much infantry.

Whilst this post is about the 6 Month Mountain Reduction Painting Challenge, I'll not claim it as this week's (The Challenge officially started yesterday.) post, so keep an eye open for a proper job post in a couple days.

Lastly, those missing German platoons and pieces I mentioned in my last post that were needed to fill out my Arnheim list? Well, I went and ordered them from Lotus Vault and they are on their way. Now I have NO excuses for getting my wallet out for new models.