A Bit of Weekend Fun

Over the weekend I did not manage to get some work done. First, I found a new hobby shop that is half way between my house and my son's school. It was a standard hobby shop that was mostly model kits, rail road supplies and radio control planes and cars. I did find a single 1/100th scale Zveda kit for a Kht-26. Well it just so happened that I need one of these. It was quickly purchased.

On Saturday morning, I took a look at the kit. Having purchased one of the Ba-10 kits from the same company, I was a little nervous. Well this kit was very straight forward.

With the help of my son, we quickly had it put together. It is a nice little kit. It still needs some paint as it is just a shiny plastic right now.

Also on Saturday, I took my son to the local train shop so he could see their display. They have a huge display room with multiple tracks. My family must have spent over a half hour watching the trains run. When we went through the shop I found a few things. The first was a conveyor kit that I have been wanting for my Eastern Front terrain. At $16.00, I picked it up. Then I found another one that I put on my Christmas wish list.

When we got home, my son begged me to "play miniatures." What else could I do but give in. Recently, my wife had picked up a table for my son's play room from Ikea. It is a nice little folding table that is some 5' by 3' in size. So its a bit smaller than the kitchen table but it was perfect for us.

We set up a quick game of Chain of Command "lite" and my son proceeded to roll more sixes that I have ever seen. His first turn lasted four phases. He wanted to play with the new tank that he made. So we each had a platoon of tanks. Joshua had 3 T-26s and the Kht-26 and I had a platoon of three Panzer IIs and my new Pz II Flamm. We also had a squad of infantry each. His T-26s proceeded to destroy the two Panzer IIs that I managed to deploy and he got his Kht-26 to hose down my infantry squad and broke them. At this point, my morale broke and the game was over. My son's victory came at the cost of 2 infantry and some shock on one of his tank.

Well, it was a fun day all the way around.

Painting Again

I have finally gotten a chance to paint some more. With an undercoat on two Peter Pig packs, I started to work on 8 more Russian infantry and three machine gun teams.

Once these are done, I will get to finish off my Britons as well. I managed to get an undercoat on my remaining Britons.

Something happened and I just ran out of steam without even finishing one figure. Not sure what has happened to my motivation.

What's on your painting table?

I had another few hours to paint last night and got busy on my Romano-British for the Dux Britainarium rules. I really love the miniatures from Splintered Light but for some reason, the Romano-Brits have not captured my imagination the way the Saxons did. I have been finding painting these to be rather tedious rather than fun. Anyway, it got me to thinking. How many projects is it normal to have on one's painting table at any one time?

First, I had what I was actively painting - My Romano-British Infantry. I have painted up 20 levy troops from Khurasan on a previous session. They still need to be based and varnished but are mostly done. Next are my group of 4 archers from Splintered Light. I like these guys ok and they were fun to paint. Last night, I spent my time on some command elements for this bunch. Two officer looking figures, a standard bearer, a musician and a priest. All Splintered Light. The priest actually comes from the Pict Command pack but David over at Splintered Light got me this figure without the Pict Command pack. These were very tedious to me. And I don't know why. The priest is a great figure with a big cross around his neck and a tonsured head. His hand is held up but you can't quite tell how many fingers he is holding up. That one was fun. The others are great minis. I like them now that they are painted but I hates painting them. I think it has to do with the shields. I attempted to do a Chi-Rho on them but ended up redoing it several times. Still not happy but I am not sure I can do better.

You should be able to make out what I am working on. The front row are the heavy infantry. These are barely started. The next three rows are the medium infantry - all spear and shield armed. Only primed so far. The next 4 rows are my levy infantry. Pitch forks, staves, cudgels, scythes and a couple throwing rocks are in this bunch. Next is the command set I worked on last night. Lastly are the four archers.

I want some more variety for my levy troops. The Khurasan pack was great. Five poses divided among 20 figures. But I want some more variety. Has anyone seen or own any of the Two Dragons 15mm peasants? see here I am thinking of some of these but they come in packs of 10. Are they the same pose for all 10? Some are rather specific such as the bald fat man with eyepatch. How many of those could I possibly want? Surely not 10 of them. Any other recommendations out there?

Next on the painting table are the rest of my Romano-British troops. I have a spare figure or two to round out the heavy infantry, a Druid/Merlin type figure and the leader in both mounted and dismounted poses. Splintered Light also has a Moorish looking fellow in their command pack. Was there a Moor in the Arthurian Legends? I must admit to not being up on it that well. Cornwall had a Moor following Arthur in his series. But I sure don't remember that from the stories when I was a boy. Not that I would remember anyway.

Anyway, I have not even gotten around to priming these guys yet.

Next up in the queue are more WWI Russians. These are Peter Pig miniatures their firing pack and their MMG packs. I just got these in last week and only managed to glue them to the painting stick last night.

Next up are some Saxon Cavalry. The middle row are figures from Outpost Games. The others are Splintered Light. Love these figures. The mounted Outpost command pack has a really nice banner that is suitably ominous looking with the skull at the top. Not sure how practical it would be for a cavalry banner as that had to get heavy fast. Not like they had vacuformed plastic back then to make it lighter. I have finished the two figures furthest away from the camera. The middle two are half way there. The front rank is undone other than priming.

Lastly are some figures that I received sometime last year. They are some Napoleonic Ottomans that I received from One Tree before they were sold. It was a sample pack that the owner threw in with the two books on the Ottomans that I bought from him. They have been sitting on a shelf since I got them. For some reason, these figures have just been calling to me and ended up on the painting table last night.

I have always wanted a Napoleonic (and WWI for that matter) Ottoman army. However, I will not be buying figures for it this year. I am still not sure which direction I will go for these. Old Glory has a good range in their 7 Years War line. Irregular has some. I think there is a French company doing some Ottomans as well. Anyway, that is a Sharp Practice project for 2013 when I get around to painting my Russian Cossacks and Jagers.

So tell me, how many projects do you tend to have on your painting table at any one time?

Best Laid Plans.....

Well, I finished off the last of my Russian Front Italians to complete out my last two platoons. Quickly I headed out to the garage to brush on some Army Painter Strong Tone dip and what did I find? The stuff had congealed to a solid mass inside the can. 3/4ths of the thing was unused and it solidified. Convinced that it just must be the top layer, I poked it with a screw driver seeing if maybe I could stir it up. Nope. It was a solid goo that mocked my efforts.

Well, that put a wrench in things. So I looked at what else was on my painting bench and spotted my single pack of Peter Pig Russian WWI riflemen advancing. I have put these on painting sticks and primed them then shoved them to the corner of my painting table. I did not have a clue how to go about painting them. Some serious googling revealed that there was little in the way of paint specific instructions for these guys (at least not for vallejo paints. I had asked on the Lead Adventure forum and got great answers, I just did not own any paints that matched the advice.

What I did find was a couple of references to things that were close. Taking one of these, I just went to it. Well here are my results. Normally I would dip these but as you can see above, I can't right now. I am only a little bit bitter.

Front. You should be able to click on them to see a larger version.

And Back

I am not sure how close I got. I am none too sure about the equipment colors. If anyone has some suggestions, I am all ears.

Well, I have some more time before I decide to go to bed. I think I will base some Early Saxons for Dux Britanniarum.