I retook some more pictures using these newfangled ideas...

U.S. Rocket Corps and Zeppelin crewmen.

Genestealer cult.

40mm Sash & Saber AWI/FIW Indians.

More pictures. I just really need to set the light tent up permanently and use it to take pictures, I'm having a hard time taking decent pictures. It is not anything that has ever been easy for me!

Trying to get some better pictures of the Dwarf Hammerers up for trade.

Silver Age Sentinals Robot Army (Iron Walkers):

And the latest 40mm Sash & Saber Indians.

Note that one Indian is Caucasian. From White Devil by Brumwell, "...that most feared and loathed product of the colonial American frontier-- the 'white Indian' who treated his countrymen worse than did the 'savages' themselves."

Some pictures of what I've been painting lately.

First, the rest of my 40mm Sash and Saber FIW Indians. That's my 10 figures for the month. Make sure and check out Mik's Minis, where I'm sure he'll be posting pictures of his ten S&S Indians, which are no doubt painted by now! ;-)

A Reaper Eye Beast, probably to be sold off on TMP soon. He turned out a lot nicer than I expected!

Old Glory Army's latest figure, Poncho. Will probably go in trade.

The Iron Duke from Silver Age Sentinels. He might go, but I like him a lot, I may keep him.

Some pictures of what I've been painting lately.

First off, a bunch of Reaper figures I've had for ages and finally got around to painted. These were basically me trying out the new "Velas" technique I've been talking about. I thought they turned out pretty nice! I put them up on TMP to sell and sold the Cthulhu and the troll pretty quickly. The rhino centaur is still available, I'll probably post him again on TMP on Monday.

Several of my friends have 40k armies, and I have enough figures for the 400 point armies of the "Combat Patrol," or 40k in 40 minutes, scenario. So I've been talking to them about playing this. I really didn't want to go out and buy the $50 rulebook, though. I thought about the guy who, through a series of trades, traded a red paperclip for a house. I decided I would do the same thing, trading some worthless miniature up to the 40k rulebook. Mik suggest this headless trollop-- he had used the head in a conversion, and the body has been sitting on my painting table for several months. So, I painted her up like a ghost! It turned out pretty well, and it looks like I got quite a significant first trade-- three GZG SG2 vehicles. So not only will I be working my way up to the 40k rulebook, it will also stretch my painting muscles, as vehicles are not something I'm particularly good at.

Here are some mummies from Reaper. I like all of Reapers Egyptian themed figures, and have many of them, but have never painted any up! I pulled these out to paint to sell...but I'm torn. I like them. I could probably use them. I may not sell them after all.

This is the first Old Glory Army figure from their second series, cowboys. I have a few cowboys, but it's not a big thing with me, so I wasn't crazy about this guy. I am looking at Legends of the Old West for FIW. I bought a copy on eBay, but the sale is falling apart (guy had a good rating, but didn't respond for 2 weeks, then said he had e-mail problem and the book had already been sold. He offered a refund but I haven't seen it yet...sigh). SO, anyway, assuming that I end up needing another copy of LotOW, I will "trade up" this figure like the strumpet for it. This is fun. Updated: The money was refunded, and this figure is available.

Here are those two Sash & Saber FIW Indians I painted up (as well as the Trident AWI preacher). I thought they turned out really well. The one with the shirt has only a separate head, but the other figure has a separate torso as well as head. I didn't do any fancy modeling on them-- I didn't even prefit them-- I just slapped them together with epoxy. This gave a few of them long necks, but I think they all look pretty good. And for $2, you just can't beat it.

Some Old Glory ghostly pirates I bought at GenCon-- the first to use the "Velas" technique on.

You may have noticed my 40mm painted counter clicked up two recently. No pictures yet, but I started painted some of my Sash and Saber FIW Indians. I found a mixture that I think gives a good native American skin color. I mixed it using craft paints. It is 4 parts brown, 3 parts orange, 2 parts light grey, and 1 part white. You may want to adjust this a little bit based on the paints you are using, but it gives a good starting point.

In an effort to keep myself more consistently productive and to channel that productivity towards specific goals (which is my real problem), I've decided to keep track of everything I've finished as well as commit to future dates when specific projects will be finished. You can follow along in the right hand column here towards the bottom, under the links. My real goal is to have a new project once a quarter. My definition of "project" is fairly liberal, pretty much a new scenario I can run that requires some creative effort on my part. Examples would be maybe a small scenario in a new scale/genre, or something which expands things I already have.

Initially, I'm being a little aggressive, with two projects in two months. The first is to run a double-blind Stargrunt 2 game. I have been threatening and threatening to do this for at least a year, maybe longer, so now I'm just going to knuckle down and get it done. Fortunately, I don't have an extreme amount of work to do to get it done. My buddy Mik has one of the forces, and I'm nearly done painting the other. I will need to create some new hill and trees which match items I currently have, and I want to make some buildings for it. I should be able to get it done by the end of August.

The second project would be woodland Indian skirmishes. This is currently somewhat tentative. I bought the 40mm Sash and Saber FIW packs at Historicon, and gave ten to Mik for his birthday. This would let us start painting them and getting them on the table. I have some rules in mind, but I haven't received them yet, so this might still change.

Okay, here is a batch of stuff that I've finished lately and finally got around to photographing. They're a tad underexposed, but not too bad.

My 40mm AWI Grenadiers from Trident/MSC. These are really nice figures. I should go back and touch up a few of the eyes, but I'm pretty pleased with these. I'm looking forward to doing the rest of my militiamen, although I might wait until after I get the spare hands packs, just to see what I can do with that.

Zeppelin Troops from Bob Murch's Pulp Figures. I've had these and the US Rocketmen for about a year or so, but the .45 Adventures rules got me excited about them again. Plus, you can get started playing with just a few figures.

One of the things I was really looking forward to buying with my Old Glory Army discount was some Cobalt 1 Palansi. I love these guys! Well, of course West Wind discontinued the line right before I got my membership. I still managed to find some seriously discounted at Historicon last year.

SWAT teams. I got 20 painted up, 10 West Wind and 10 Wargames Foundry. They're both nice, although god forbid the US starts arming their SWAT teams with SAWs!

These have turned out to be some of my favorite figures of all time, my Genestealer Cult. I've had these figures for ages, and in fact, I remember starting the Ogryn hybrid at a place I haven't lived at for ten years, so it counts and the figure it has taken me the longest to complete! The robot is a TALOS unit from Kryomek. I tried to make him very weathered and rusty. The effect didn't really turn out that well, the rust looks like some sort of camo pattern to me, but he still looks good in general.

Superfigs! I got almost all of these at Historicon last year (although there's a power armor girl in there from VOID). I love these figures, really nice, lots of character.

With my newfound burst of manic energy, I finished the rest of my seven Trident 40mm AWI Grenadiers from MSC. They've been sitting around primered and half-painted for a few months, so I decided to finish them before starting anything else. I still need to do the bases, but I'm counting them as done! I didn't have a set of rules in mind when I started these; I bought them just because they were so pretty. Now I wonder how Gloire would work with them...

I painted 10 25mm SWAT figures and 3 40mm AWI British Grenadiers. I'm on a roll!

Hope everybody enjoyed Thanksgiving. I haven't been updating much because I was in Atlanta for a week on training and then in Kansas City for Thanksgiving. That's a lot of driving! Yet, despite visiting the War Room and Table Top Game and Hobby, my resolution to buy no miniatures through the end of this year remains in tact. I doubt I'll finish up the 40mm AWI I recently got in time to buy any more...I just haven't had time for the hobby much this month, and my Grenadiers are languishing, half-painted.

The resolution is out the window once I get my current batch of Trident 40mm AWI figures painted (and they're next in my queue). Check out the new releases I just got in an email!

MORE FROM TRIDENT DESIGN'S "BATTLE ROAD" RANGE

(Figures are $3.50 each unless noted) (Discounts apply for large orders)

(Ready to ship first week of Nov.)

Minutemen

AWC 29- Officer/Sgt. waving men on with tricorn in one hand pointing with spontoon in the other.

AWC 30- Standard Bearer running, tricorn, vest.

AWC 31- Standard Bearer kneeling, Standard in one hand pistol in the other, bareheaded.

AWC 32- Drummer advancing under fire, playing drum, floppy hat.

AWC 33- Drummer kneeling leaning on drum taking aim with pistol, tricorn.

British Grenadiers

AWB 9- Officer pointing with sword shouting orders.

AWB 10- Standard Bearer walking with standard.

AWB 11- Drummer, drum slung on back crouching down walking, with pistol in hand.

British Regulars

AWB 30- Mounted British Officer pointing directions with sword, tricorn..........$ 12.50

British Light Infantry

AWB 200- Standing firing in leather cap.

AWB 201- Kneeling firing in leather cap.

AWB 202- Standing loading in leather cap.

AWB 203- Kneeling preparing to fire in leather cap.

AWB 204- Standing preparing to fire in leather cap.

AWB 205- Standing at ready, musket with bayonet in leather cap.

AWB 206- Running, musket with bayonet in leather cap.

AWB 207- Advancing, musket at 45' with bayonet in leather cap.

AWB 208- Advancing, musket across body with bayonet in leather cap.

AWB 209- Officer running with sword in one hand, firing pistol in the other in leather cap.

(Coming in a few weeks: "Militia Artillerymen and Gun" )

(Still to come from "Battle Road", British Regulars, Fusiliers, Artillery, & many more surprises.)

New AWI Ranges from Trident Designs to come soon:

1. "Equipment & Supplies" (of the AWI)

2. "Characters & Personalities" (of the AWI)

3. "Settlements Ablaze" (Woodland Indians of the AWI)

4. "The Early Years" (Early War units of the AWI)

5. And more ranges projected in the AWI

This is my pile of shame, everything I have bought since Historicon started. This is why I'm not buying anything else until the end of the year. I was doing well, painted up about half of everything I bought at Historicon, but then flipped out when my buddies liked 5150 and decided I needed more 25mm Sci-Fi! Then I had to put an Old Glory in order for them, as I'm the Old Glory Army mule, and of course I had to get a little something for myself. Plus, a bunch of eBay bargains. Yu Jing remotes for under $20.00, including shipping!? Can't pass that up. I'm keeping it all on my table when I can see it always and feel bad about it! Well, except the 40mm Trident AWI. I'm not ashamed of them, they're awesome!

I just got my order of Trident 40mm AWI from MSC today, and I have to say, these are some exceptionally beautiful figures. I wasn't crazy about British Grenadiers, as I mentioned, but those figures REALLY wowed me. I can't wait to start painting these up! You can bet I will post pictures as soon as I do!

I sent my last order for the year, for sixteen 40mm Trident Designs AWI figures from MSC, today, getting it in under my deadline for the last miniature purchases this year. I ordered another ten colonial militia, and six Grenadiers. I wasn't going to get Grenadiers, and I don't know when the Light Infantry is coming out, so I'll buy them now and if I get around to painting them before the end of the year, I'll have opponents I can play.

Note to miniatures manufacturers: Sending me free figures results in sales! So, you know, send me free figures, you bastards! May the seed of your loin be fruitful in the belly of your woman, Andy.

A few weeks ago, Miniature Service Center sent out some Trident Designs 40mm AWI samples. I got one, and have just painted it up.

It really is a nice figure, and painted up well. I don't think it took much longer than a regular 28mm figure. There's more to paint, but everything is larger and easier to get to. I really like the figure, and plan on getting more once the British Lights or Line infantry are available. Grenadiers don't seem like regular skirmish opponents to me. I'm thinking of just getting about 10 figures per side and doing some of the Jersey fights.

Miniatures Service Center recently ran a special giving away a free Trident "Battle Road" 40mm AWI figure. I got one, and really like it. I have generally pooh-poohed 40mm as yet another scale, but I have been thinking about it for skirmish lately. I like the figure. I'm going to buy probably about 10 figures per side and run some skirmish games with them. $3.50 is about on par with good 28mm nowadays, and these have more visible detail and will probably be easier to paint and look better on the table. So, for detailed, small scale skirmish, 40mm may just be the way to go!