Oops...

Well failed miserably all three counts so far... at least the painting is picking up

So much has changed, but i am back painting now, and its tri-corns ....

have dug out my old American Revolutionary (or Independence, if ya prefer) and am ploughing my way thru them, done the Loyalist, British Line , Grenadier's and Lights... for a 180 figures this year and am now starting on the Continentals, pictures may happen when i get flags for the boys to wave about.

On the gaming front have given up on FoG, and am just getting back into Impetus hopefully.

But the club has up n died on me... Ponders End Wargames club is no more... as it became financially enviable. The last remaining players feeling it was time to move on.... sort of, so the club is dead, Long Live the Gamers? Irregulars? or whomevers... we are going to change the name, cut the costs of the website, reduce down to 2nd n 4th Tuesday evenings and hopefully increase our numbers back to at least a regular 10, its not Over cos the fat lady aint singing but it has come to the make or break solutions before the bank roll turns red... so if you are local to Enfield and are free why not come along, theats Enfield, North London in the UNITED KINGDOM..... for those in the wider community of the net...

I will be updating more often too as the new website is going to basically be a link to all the 'not members' blogs .... confused, yeah me too

2009 The Pledge

Ok, well last year was a nearly ....

I did manage to paint over a 1000 points of figures... from some WW2 10mm thru to 2 40mm LOTR figures... so all good., but mostly my painting was for other people or bring n buy sales (flea market) so hopefully this year i will keep more of what i paint, so AWI is probably my best bet and easiest start for the year... also i need to finish all the nearly done ancient units, thats nearly 200 painting points for free!!

Didnt manage to keep up the weekly blogs entries....

Didnt manage to put up a photo of everyhting i painted....

So this year i will opt for 1000 figure again, a weekly update and some photos.

Thanks to Iron mitten, Der Alte Fritz and Paintermeister for all the inspiration over the past year of hobby trials and tribulations.

I'm back.....

Well its nearly over i guess.... that was a quick busy year. Full of twists n turns in the real world, suffice to say it was mostly not good for painting lots of figures.

I was also pretty gutted after the Colours show at Newbury to be the victim of having figures stollen and given very short reply from the organisers, so i find myself NOT wanting to paint for bring n buy sales now, my friend Bob will have a stand at Salute so maybe i will paint some up for then.

Still on the painting rack are Romans and Greek ancient figures in handy 24 figure units.
Still on the preperation block are Napoleonic French and Italians troops.

Recent purchases are the new Plastic Napoleonics from Perry and Victrix, hit n miss.
New 20mm ww2 Normandy Germans , yum
and i may have fallen completely off the wagon and bought a load of Westwind Gothic horror pieces, and the entire Pirate range from Black Scorpion. oops

Happy Jedi Day - may the forth be with you

Well another rubbich month for painting

only manged to finish 18 Artillery crew for Mike and 39 for Pat... nothing for me again, so 57 in total not bad i guess.

Went to Salute, got some 20mm Valiant GIs, just the one box tho... wish i had gotten more, cant wait for the new Germans.

Also bought some of the new Perry Miniatures ACW.... they are very pretty, the cavalry are just possibly the best i have ever seen, got 8 boxes of infantry and 2 of the cavalry.... I think i will be doing ACW again somehow. Hope there next release is either NApoleonics, in which case i will have to really think hard about the rest of my future hobby or Seven Years War would be good. They are almost certainly gonna be summit blackpowder to go with the new rules comming from warlord games written by the Nottingham wargames Mafia.

My review of 'Beneath the Lily Banners' went up onthe wargames journal site, guess that makes me a published author..... next up will a sort of campaign/hobby/painting article, in the style of the GW foramtted 'Battle of 4 gamers', should be fun.

Hopefully I can finish some of the 170 odd figures that are sooooo nearly finished, switching to Ancients may not been my best idea as abreak from Muskets, live n learn.

Cheers Shaun

meh.....

Well, i have been ill... well, had the lurgy that is sweeping Britain, but i may be out of the other end of it now, I have managed to paint 7 Generals and 5 building, I have started 144 Ancinets figures too, but not finished any... so no Salute Mega Bring N Buy payouts for me... meh

Will attempt to finish the 18 Artillery Crew for Mike, will drop them off to his 20mm ACW game at Salute.

Mainly been playing FOG, but now have found 'Impetus' known by us as TIG or The Italian Game, will be doing something for Wargames Journal in the near future involving TIG, tho it will in 15mm.... so Romans in 10mm, 28mm and now 15mm... to go with the free plastic one i got with WI this month, which looks ok to be honest, a bit on the slight side, if say that Front Rank figures are stocky then youll get what i mean.


Did a revue of 'Beneath the Lily Banners' for the Journal this week, wont spoil it for you all here, just to say i dont think my revue will dent the sales of these rules, shame my figures are just behind the period, still with a bit of tinkering i might get way with it.

off for food, cheers

Shaun

Frustratingly slow work.... and reduced hours

I told you all it would happen...

I have started painting a unit of 24 roman velite and a second of 24 Thracian peltasts, the first look finished except shields, and the second are taking forever as they are all diferent colours, hate irregulars...

I have also only been able to get in around 10 hours of work this month so far, as i have been playing'Field of glory', Rich is happy and convinced they are us and good, i am still thinking they are too slow, maybe the spate of boardgames has removed my ability to appreciate the grind of a real wargame, i dunno.

I have been mostly basing up ancient units for the my mythical Roman campaign, allies now exist for Spanish troops, Africans and warbands from Gaul and Germany, i also found my chariots i had in storage, 5 foundry chariots are mid construction, didnt find a Boudicca tho, so she is on the shopping list from Salute. Still wainting on my elephants from Newline too.

Hopefully should be able to get thru this painting slump and get 10 units ready for the Bring and buy, then i will crack on with the last of the painting orders. Then i will push at the Tricorn boys, the whole reason for here!!!!!!!!

cheers Shaun

public answer to maccwar's query

Hiya
Should probably put up things like manufacturer and scale. do'h

The Romans are all Foundry, 28mm. I would have purchased these around about 5 years ago, they were based and sprayed black in January.
The Acw are a mix of Dixon and Redoubt, 28mm. Painting Orders.
THe Napoleonic are Elite and Newline Designs, 28mm. Painting orders or Bring n Buy.

To be honest i really dont know how i am getting this much done, well i do know, its all down to hours served, thats 2 hours before work, and then 3 evenings of 4 hours and then usually another 8 hours over the weekend. SO around 30 hours per week on average. on top of a 9 til 5 job... and yes i am tired now, and have had a weekend off so far, altho my son wants another painting lesson with some orcs he found of mine. Also the time available will now be reduced as my GFs college courses are ending, also the Larp season will start in full force reducing time down again, the winter months (September to April) will be more productive for me than the summer ones.

Not having to set up/take down the painting station has increased productivity, also the non based painting orders sped things up and i owe the roman figures their shields, so a leeeeeetle bit cheaty. On average i prep 4 units at a time all the way thru to black, then i paint in pairs, so at between 48 and 96 figures completed a week this soon adds up.

I will be doing some 10mm soon, i count these at 1 PP per 5 figures painted. The figures are for use with 'Field of Glory' which we are grinding our way thru slowly, but having just read that dadie&piombo have a new set out for Salute 08, using large bases of troops and single pieces which take markers, have ordered some as they claim to be Fast Play.... FOG plays in 4 hours at a minimum so far, not encouraging for me..... dragged up on 40k and Warhammer, I need my rules fast, fun and furious, from turn 2 i need blood and turn 6 i am expecting to see some distinct winner, we could always go back to Warmaster, which i did like a lot to be honest.

I was gonna do some Magazine reveiws, but i am too harsh a critic i'm afraid.

Wargames Illustrated is still pretty
Wargames - Strategy and Soldiers is still hit n miss (even with pictures of Graham Wards Austrians in it, yet again uncredited figures painted by me... altho around 10 years ago)
and BattleGames is still informative.

Still miss the Journal tho, Rich is still waiting for Neil to 'hand over the reigns' but its been 6 months now....... ho hum

Please feel free to ask any more questions, might start doing aerial shots of the painting table at the start of play each day...

cheers shaun