Painting With the Kids

Back before Fall-In!, I painted a little with the kids again. We haven't done it in a while and it was nice to get back into it. We've been painting up a bunch of old Harlequin Nightlings I got on closeout somewhere along the ages. We've painted 27 foot and 4 mounted now, and they really look great. I need to run a game with them for the kids. We choose a painting style really great for inexperienced painters (what I've dubbed the Velas technique after the Velas brothers who used it to great effect as a speed painting technique)-- I prime white, then the kids stain paint with thinned paint. I go back and wash the figures with Games Workshop's Devlin Mud (an easier to clean, non-toxic version of the Miracle Dip) and then flock the bases. I've seen worse looking figures at conventions! I'd be proud to run a game with the figures my kids have painted.

Flames of War On Deck

Still working on my Flames of War stuff. I've got the rest of the jeeps for my Cavalry recon platoon primed and ready to paint. That's everything except the M2 60mm mortar stands, and with a clear distinction between the MG and transport jeeps. Thanks to Joe for showing me that the third jeep crewman could fit in back! I also have three M1 57mm guns, although when I picked them up second hand, I didn't realize there was a standard variant and an airborne variant, and now I have a mix of both. You learn a new thing every unit you paint! It's nothing I can't live with, and I've been filling out units further for Field of Battle WW2, so I might pick up at least one more down the road.

WindSword Accessories Terrain

I picked up these dental plaster dinosaur bones/fossils terrain pieces at Fall-In. The packaging was labeled "WindSword Accessories," which I had never heard of. However, they were quite nicely priced, 3.50-4.00 for everything except the big piece, and I thought they would provide a lot of atmosphere to my new prehistoric big game hunt board. My son was very excited to see them and can't wait to paint them for me. I'm starting to think this was a very good idea...

Back From Fall-In!

Mik and I are back from Fall-In! I had some concerns that, after having been to Historicons and Cold Wars, the smaller Fall-In! might not be worth the time and cost to get up to. We drove almost 600 miles to get there. Despite being somewhat smaller, it was definitely worth it, though. I can't go to more than one a year, and that one would tend to be Historicon, but Fall-In! was fun.

I went content in my hobbiness and not really looking for anything new, just hoping to pick up some bargains. Yet I started two new periods! Actually, I have been on the verge of "big game hunting" for prehistoric mammals or dinosaurs since Historicon 2009 when I picked up the Tooth and Claw rules. My nine year old son is a big prehistoric animal fan-- much more so than the WW2 games I've subjected him to. Plus Mik bought some Primaeval Designs Neanderthals and other figures. So, what the heck, I bought two packs of Neanderthal hunters and two woolly mammoths. Only on the drive home did I realize I now had just about everything I needed for Tusk!

My son has also been reading a lot about Romans. Plus, he and his older sister have been painting a bit for me. So I was already thinking about getting some plastic Romans for him to paint. However, in the flea market, I picked up something like 150 Wargames Factory ancient Germans and 40 or so Warlord Games Romans. I have no clue what I'm going to do with that many figures. Ah well. He will not run out of things to paint anytime soon, and hopefully it will be great practice for him.

One of the coolest things I saw at the con was the use of flickering LEDs for fire markers. They would be tucked away inside a rather traditional puff of cotton smoke, and really looked good. I ordered 12 from Amazon, determined to make my own. Only later did I realize how cool they would look as fire markers in a 25mm Tusk game!

I now have my Neanderthals glued and based, and my Woolly Mammoths assembled, waiting for time with the kids to get painting on them. Prehistoric big game hunting and ancient Romans will largely be "with kids" painting. This will allow me to continue to focus on 15mm WW2, while also giving me incentive to spend more time painting with the kids. At their current rate of $2.00/hr, it's cheaper than having Sri Lankan children paint!

Battlefront jeeps and M8 Greyhounds

Got a Cavalry recon platoon started for my Airborne. I'll be glad to finally be able to use the Flames of War recon rules! I still need to pick up three stands of 60mm mortars to finish it off, and paint another three jeeps to carry them in. And decals. I did decals on the 88 vehicles and they turned out alright. I'm just not in any hurry for that.

Two Months. Two Units.

Looking back through the blog, it looks like I started my Pak 40s back in August, around the 10th.  It's taken me over two months to get them and my 88s done-- and, technically, I don't have movers for my Pak 40s.  Man, no wonder I never get anything done.

Old Dog Learns New Tricks

Got my German 88 battery finished. My late war Germans are based using static grass. It's not a technique I'm crazy about, but I got a big tub of it in trade so what the hell, right? I had them sealed with gloss sealer then Dullcote, just bought a new damn car today, and had 3/4 of a bottle of Four Roses left, so I thought, frell, let's finish these puppies. I flocked them as usually-- an irregular covering of Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement followed up by the static grass and gentle lateral blowing to get them to stand up. But. I had bookmarked a recent page describing making more realistic terrain-- thought I'd pull it back and and see what they had to say about it. Lo and behold, they have a page on realistic grass. It's basically static grass drybrushed tan, light orange or light blue? LOL!  The only drybrushed static grass I recall are Keven Dallimore's Foundry figures-- I bought a catalog Askarai for $5 off eBay, just to examine his painting technique in person-- and it looked like paint slopped on static grass.  But whatever, I'm drunk, let's do it. A light drybrushing of Delta Ceramcoat's Country Tan, and a very light (although not quite light enough) drybrushing of DC's Wedgeworth Blue and what do you know-- it does look better. The picture really highlights the flaws, but in the flesh, they do look better. I'll be keeping this up. With or without the bourbon.  (probably with!)

In the Face of Adversity

 

I triumph! Well, soon enough, at least. I have just about finished my 88 battery. I realized after washing it that I forgot to paint the windshield on the Kfz 15. Also, seems like I found something else that I forgot, but which I've already forgotten again! And I need to get some large FoW base magnets. But, it's almost there.  Here you can see how I tend to paint figures.  The figures themselves are white glued to craft sticks, primed, then rubber cemented to the tops of craft paint bottles for painting.

Eff Me

Now my microwave has gone out!!!

International D&D Contest

I'm entering Troll in the Corner's International D&D contest.  I feel like my luck has to break soon...  My luck is so bad.  How bad is it?  My luck is so bad I just went to look at a car, and the previous test driver wrecked it!  Stay away from me, people!

In just the last two weeks...

I've had to completely replace the water service line to my house, had my car diagnosed with bad bearings in the crankshaft (read: new car), dropped a tumbler and shattered my wife's ceramic cooktop, and now just had a screw put a quarter inch hole right through a tire, and spent an hour on the side of the road trying to figure out how to get the spare loose and change the tire!  The only upside of all of this is that vehicle needed new tires anyway.  My poor wife has spent the last three hours at the tire dealer, waiting around with our irritable two year old who should have napped two hours ago.  Ah well.  Having had two people in our lives diagnosed with cancer in the last couple of years, we're able to keep things in perspective!  I still want to complain to the Internet, though!!

Edit: Got home and my fridge light was out...

Taking my eye off the prize

Speaking of being distracted, checking out the time stamps on my blog...it appears to have taken me over two weeks just to assemble, glue to tongue depressors, prime, and glue to paint bottles a single 88 battery-- two guns, three vehicles and around twenty dudes.  Jeez, I'm slow.  Well, not just slow; a married father of three.  Even when I find time, I'm often too tired to produce.