Polish Preparation

Still trying to refind that elusive mojo that I had a few weeks ago that had me wanting to paint every spare moment I could find. I suspect it's just the normal summer malaise and it hopefully won't last too long. The good news is that I am not totally disinterested like normal, and still getting bits and bobs done - albeit not at the pace I was before.

To that end, the other day I managed to muster a little but of enthusiasm. I put it to god use, and assembled a big bunch of 20mm Early War Miniautres Polish for the next phase of the army:

Two light mortar teams:

A 37mm Bofors anti-tank gun team:

And their horse and limber tow. This is actually a french team but I figured I can get away with it:

A chunk of infantry:

And a final, lonely chap to be a medic:

I'm trying to cover all the options as I go, so each of the weapon teams has 6 gunners. Three will be mounted to each base, and the other three on individual bases. In Battlegroup, each weapon team has three gunners and you can purchase three to make the team more effective. I hope that doing this, I can cover most options in the book.

Just got to find the time and motivation to undercoat and paint the lot.

2016 - Half Way Point.

You may remember I tried to set myself a few goals for the year ahead back around Christmas. And since the 1st July marks exactly six months gone and six months to go, I decided to look and see where I was.

Here are my goals for the year and how I think I've gotten on with them so far.


- In terms of points using the above scoring system, I am going to aim for over 1000 points of painted minis.

Using the Analogue Painting system I wanted to hit 1000 points of painted miniatures. Sadly, at the half way point I don't think I've quite hit 400 yet. I've also noticed a dent in production now the summer months have rolled around the little boy has got bigger and more demanding. Still, with three months off work coming soon over late summer and autumn, I might yet catch up. Either way, I suspect I will beat last years total. So I count that as a work in progress.
 
- To complete at least two full 28mm Napoleonic battalions (so that's 48 miniatures done.)

Exactly half way on this one with a single battalion done. I am not sure when the second one will make its way up the painting queue but there is time yet. 







- I have my shelves of doom (full of unpainted minis, mainly dead projects that I refuse to sell) in my painting, taunting me from the corner. The total currently stands at 93 minis, so I shall aim to reduce this to under 60 miniatures by years end.

Least said about this the better. I haven't yet painted anything from the shelves this year, and I actually think one or two more models may have found their way out the painting queue and back onto the shelves so the numbers may even have gone up. Still, never say never and if the bug bites for some Skaven, High Elves, Orks or Tau, the number may go down. 








- General 28mm wise, I want to progress my two Bolt Actions armies, and move into at least one Ancients force alongside my napoleonics. I'd like at least two complete units for this ancients project.

So no progress on the Ancients, even though I have plenty of minis for them and I've only added one unit to my Bolt Action armies this year. But I am regularly gaming with a friend at BA so I may get the motivation to paint some more. 



- I want to start to gather 20mm forces for battlegroup games. No real targets on this, just want to see me making siginificant progress here.

I think I can call this one a success so far. The Poles are well on their way, and I have some Germans bought so that's all good. If I end the year with a singe painted army (i.e. The Poles), I'll call this complete. 




- 6mm wise I have two rough targets. In Epic terms, to buy no more until what I have outstanding is small enough to fit in to one box. Second, to move into historical 6mm. I know it's not for everyone, but it's a scale I have always had a soft spot for. It should also be fairly quick and easy to get armies together.

This is one with little progress. Some purchasing of historical 6mm has occurred but no painting. I haven't quite stuck to my promise of buying no more Epic stuff, but what I have bought is only small, so it's not all bad. And I've recently started getting the odd game of Epic in so the motivation might be sparked up. 


- Finally, bring my gaming table into action that I have in the garage. I've had this a few years and still not used it. 

The only one I'd call complete at the half way point. I'm pleased to say that the gaming has been fairly regular and steady, and more importantly nothing of mine that has touched the table has been unpainted! This is a big sea change for me, and I've promised to myself not to use any incomplete minis on the table if at all possible. 



I think you'll agree that progress is being made all round. I can't grumble too much when all said and done, the wife puts up with having a painting room and a gaming room, so I am blessed. And at least I do get some things done. Sure, I'd like more time for the hobby, but real life is demanding and has to come first. 

I have noticed my schizophrenic painting style seems to be calming down a bit. I am intending to work on projects rather than leap around all over the place. So at the moment, I am working on the next big chunk of 20mm Poles. Occassionally something will get pushed the front but they will be my focus - expect to see lots more of them this month.  

More Modern Brits

Once the test figure was down, I was happy to plow on with the other seven of these guys.

I found the camo quite time consuming to do in a batch, and I have to admit it sapped me of a little bit of motivation at one point. However, I soon realised that once you've done the camo on these guys, your pretty much done, and they didn't take too much time after that:

I have to say again, and I've said it lots of times before, the Empress Miniatures are lovely - so much detail. I am sure a very skilled painted could have a lot of fun with these!

These guys were one of the last few things on the desk before I go back to 20mm WW2 so it will unfortunatley be a while before we see anymore of these.

Modern Brit Test Figure

One of the many projects that I have on the back burner is to play Force on Force games set in Afghanistan. I mainly want to focus on the British fighting in and around Helmand, as I think it will make for some cracking games.

To that end you may recall I bought a load of Empress Miniatures last year at Partizan and then painted up the Taliban contingent fairly soon after. The Brits themselves took a while longer due to me trying to figure out how to paint multi-cam.

After some advice from a chap on one of the forums I populate, I had a go with various greens and browns and came up with this:

Not too shabby an effort I am sure you will agree. The technique I used gave and overly pleasing result, athough it certainly falls within the three feet rule of miniature painting. I was also going for a slightly less orange look on the glasses, but oh well, I guess everyone in my force will be wearing Oakley's!

Another seven of these to get done, along with another 8 Taliban and Insurgents I got at Salute. 

Boom, Boom, Boom! German 10.5 Howitzer.

In the ever going quest to one day beat my Bolt Action nemisis Steve, I have finally got around to adding some heavier firepower to my 28mm Germans.

I have gone for a leFH 18/40 10.5 cm Howitzer to hopefully blow a few infantry squads off the table.

Quite a fun model to paint this, combining a different range of techniques. I painted the crew exaclty as I would my infantry which was a simple enough job. However, the gun got a similiar treatment to the vehicles in the force, and I made use of oil washes to hopefully give it a beat up look. Some pigments to represent soot and a matt varnish sealed the deal.

One thing that I did do different to this was to mount the crew on the base in a way that they can't be removed. I normally prefer to have them detachable, but for speed they were simply glued on to the base. I did leave the gun loose for ease of tansport.

Plenty of other stuff for my Bolt action guys sat on the shelf, but it's 20mm next up!

20mm Polish Army So Far

I recently finished up the last five of my Polish infantry out of the initial orders I had placed. I figured that rather than show you another 5 Polish infantry, I'd do some group shots of what I have so far. Because everyone loves an army shot right?

It's not a large force yet, maybe a third of a platoon, but its got a good cohesive look and sets a good ground work for whats to come. I intend to make this force my focus over the summer, to try to get it playable. To that end, I've got enough stuff either on the pile or on order to complete a HQ element and everything else I need to make a full infantry platoon along with all the support options. Cavalry, vehicles and other stuff will all come later.

45th (1st Nottinghamshire) Foot Complete

It's been a while coming, what with my hobby butterfly approach, and working on them in batches of 8 models at a time, but my very first 28mm scale Napoleonic battalion is complete! I am very happy about this as Napoleonics has always been near the top of my wish list of things to do, so to finally be making a bit of progress is great.

First up, here a couple of photos of the two command stands:

I think these came out pretty well, the drummer was quite tricky as he has his colours reversed and the flags are my first attempt ever at flags. I had ordered flags from Flags of War but I got impatient and usd the ones that came with the Warlord Games boxed set. I think they came out alright in the end.

On to the main event, heres the whole battalion:

I think they look pretty impressive en-masse. I have gone for a 6 base layout, meaning 24 men per battalion. This is the bottom end of a normal size battalion for black powder but it keeps it more realistic for me in terms of what I can achieve. If it was 9 bases per battation (36 men), I'd never get them done. I can always add more bases at a later date.

Things I have learned from doing these: Napoloenics are daunting at first but once you have a paint scheme down and if you concentrate, you can do them quite quickly. Each pair of bases took on average 8-10 hours, spread out over three or four evenings, and with life distractions. I imagine if left alone, I could knock this out in a week. Just need to quit work and evict the wife and children....

Where will I take this project? I have got a box of Perry British Line, and with the leftovers from the Warlord Games box, I think I can stretch another two battalions just by buying another command set. The Perry set also has four riflemen for a small 95th Rifles detachment. Painting wise I shall be altering things a little bit, mainly by incorporating different trouser colours for a more on campaign feel.

The only bad news is I wouldn't expect to get around to these next few units for a while - too much else on the go. I've got a few more projects to clear off the desk, then I'm going to tackle my 20mm Poles over the summer.

As always, all feedback is appreciated!