Uncategorized – Page 2 – Addicted to Lead

Meager progress for the week of April 19th.

After a couple weeks of good progress I slowed down on chipping away at the lead pile. I finished one single piece that had no paint on it when the week started from my own collection, and a fist full of figures that were half finished and sitting around for two years.

What I did do was almost complete a commission of Germans from a friend. I am a slow commission painter, which is why I only take commissions from friends. This one was a large German army with over 60 figures and half a dozen vehicles and had several pieces added mid commission, but it still took me about 6 months to finish. Clearly not the kind of speed to satisfy a customer I don’t know. I was down to 20 guys when the month started, and I’ve been banging out 6ish a week. The last NCOs are half done right now with just a MMG team left to build and paint and Chris will have a full force to march in front of my Americans.

Weekly progress for the week of April 12th.

I started of the week with a short list of models to paint. I wanted to start on my Tehnolog Battletech force and paint up some of the Beyond the Gates of Antares Ghar battlesuits, not that I know what to use them for since I don’t play the actual game.

The more I use them the more I like the Army Painter matched primers and paint. They’re not cheap but they speed up my painting progress quite a bit, and these days the time is more important to me. I used the Wolf Grey and decided on a french Caunter camo inspired paint scheme for both the Ghar and the mechs. Painting them together helped get them finished pretty quick, by the time I finished going down the production line with one color the first model was dry and ready for the next.

Primed, camo airbrushed on, ready for the paintbrush!

Progress for the ACTUAL week of April 5th…

Somehow I can’t read a calendar and labeled last week’s post wrong… THIS week of April 5th saw me shake off the hobby ADD I started the month with. I finished off one project, three test pieces for Blood and Plunder and continues to expand my 6mm forces.

Late last year I bought a large collection of Dreamforge Games Eisenkern soldiers. Half of them were assembled well enough but not even primed, the other half were on sprues still. I gathered a platoons worth of assembled figures, fixing a couple of them or adding bits, and started painting them up in a simple ‘Space Germans’ scheme. I had one squad left, plus the command element, to finish my first platoon. There’s enough figures left to eventually paint up a full three platoon company plus support weapons, powered armor and a battlemech if I want to continue.

Dollar Store Finds.

Our local Dollar Tree had a couple of toys that I grabbed probably too many of and turned into wargame stuff. I’ve been hunting for a couple more things to use for scratch building some spaceships I’ll probably never actually play with, but this whole lockdown is cramping my style.

I normally don’t have much luck at dollar stores or thrift stores. I see something posted online and go search 14 dollar stores and find nothing. But these two have been consistantly in stock around me and I was able to pick up about a dozen boats and six or eight of the tanks.

Dealing with a ‘bad’ month. The road to 350.

We all start out our resolutions with gusto and enthusiasm, and then we hit a snag and give up. January was a slow month for me, but I was expecting it with the holidays and all. In February I had hoped to paint several batches of figures, especially since I had already started prepping and painting a platoon of figures with a real simple paint job before the month began. But, alas, ‘stuff’ happened. Sick family members, hospital visits, bad weather for priming, exhaustion. It all combined and I only finished the 26 man platoon.

A Tomorrow’s War US Marine Corps unit out of the Grissom colony on it’s way to Glory.

Continue reading “Dealing with a ‘bad’ month. The road to 350.”

Not one step back!

Not one step back! Always forward, for the lead pile! Once I paint a figure I have a rule to never repaint it. I don’t spend time striping figures I finished years ago, or spend weeks painting even a character figure. Once they’re done, they’re done! You know, except for the times I go back and strip figures and repaint them…

So I don’t generally revisit minis. I’ll repair damaged minis, put decals on minis long after I finished painting them, and I have some minis who’s bases were never finished and I’ve had to go back and do those. The lead pile is never small enough that stripping a pile of minis and then repainting them because they’re not perfect is a good option.

Painted two years ago, started basing them this week…

Ground Zero Games 25mm New Swabian League figures.

Ground Zero Games is known for two things. 1: Great sculpts, and B: not having photos of those great sculpts. I bought a large collection of their 25mm figures from a guy a couple years ago and just started painting them up for use in Tomorrows War and solo games of 5150 Star Army. The collection isn’t quite complete so I’ve been adding to it from GZG and also just recently contacted Eureka Miniatures to pick up some of their sculpts too. I also just got some new toys for photography, macro extension tubes, and wanted to play around with them so I figured I’d take some photos of these great sculpts.

The sculpts are pretty good, my favorite so far from GZG’s 25mm. The details are well defined and realistic. The sizes, sculpts and quality are pretty consistent across the entire GZG range and match size wise with several other 25mm range including the West End Games Star Wars figures which I should be tackling later this year. The castings I got with the collection were very clean and the new ones I ordered recently have minor and very easily cleaned up flashing.

Goals, motivation, and progress: The road to 350.

January is seeing some slow but steady progress on my goal of 350 painted miniatures this year. I’ve prepped a bunch of Ground Zero Games old school 25mm Star Grunt minis and started painting a squad while waiting for some 6mm Battletech minis to dry between paints and washes. I’m batch painting both projects so it’ll add up to about 15 miniatures done for the week, which is a good start to the year!

Ground Zero Games 25mm Star Grunt figures getting primed

Sound of the Guns. Nuts! Blood on the Risers Solo mission.

As my ragtag platoon advances towards Saint Mere Eglise it comes upon a cluster of houses that is clearly being used to garrison some Jerry’s. We need to clear out these houses so we’re not leaving enemies to our rear when we get to Saint Mere Eglise. As we ready our assault we run into a lieutenant an eight more paratroopers. We split into three squads and advance to secure what will be our Northern flank.

Nuts! Round 2. Solo Wargaming

Game number 2 has my platoon of US Airborne defending a farmhouse from an impending attack by the Germans. I set up my forces, generated the PEFs and started the game.

Not wanting to leave the cover of my stone walls and ruined buildings I waited for the Germans to advance, only shifting one .30 cal team to my right since two PEFs appeared in the woods. As the closest PEF moves into view it resolves into three armored vehicles! Since I have only one platoon with one bazooka I decide that they will appear as three half-tracks, sent in support of the advancing troops. It doesn’t make any sense that they would appear in the middle of the board, so I have them enter the board at the roads to my north.