It’s like Christmas in August

I had three orders I’ve been anxiously awaiting. One each from Northstar Miniatures, Wargames Illustrated and Green Stuff World.

They all came today which was both awesome and annoying as I muttered it’s like Christmas in August and the Mrs heard it and proceeded to ask various questions about finances etc. Oops!

Anyhow, one shouldn’t dwell on trivial matters like money. LMAO.

I should start by saying I have a pretty big Wild West collection and have been looking to grab some more. I’ve also been into Rangers of Shadow Deep and think it could be re-skinned to a Wild West setting.

Lastly, slavery was and is bad and the south who fought to keep it were wrong. I purchased the following figures first and foremost for the zombies.

First up is the Artizan Designs, the Risen South box set. Two confederate necromancers and 8 confederate zombies.

Next up is from Dracula’s America. The Dark Confederates boxed set. One Necromancer (evil looking dude in white) 5 ragged confederates and 4 confederate zombies.

Lastly on the Wild West frontier, I picked up three new single figures from Artizan and 5 foot and mounted packs.

From Green Stuff World, I got two packs of barbed wire for my WWI trench boards and some fallen leaves for scenery.

From Wargames Illustrated, I purchased the August issue and a Giants in Miniature figure I plan on leading a future expedition to Mars.

Plugging along...

Here’s those Elves I was talking about. Front middle is the Metal Maquette that is limited edition from Northstar reserved for pre-orders and such.

Here’s the humans. Sorry for the botched picture. Three metal champions and 5 plastic figures.

I also painted some Nolzur’s Spiders. Black contrast and brown paint slapped on the furry areas. Eyes picked out in red. The white spider obviously uses white instead of brown or red. He’s the leader. I kept two cocoon bases separate as they will make good scatter/objectives.

Just a small update from my Mantic Games The Walking Dead collection. One of the Scavengers (Andy or Jud) and a walker as well as the giant resin one. Having discovered Contrast paints these guys paint themselves but I’m stuck with about 1/2 my stuff done the old way (layers and dry brushing) and he other 1/2 using contrast. They look ok together but don’t match 100%.  It shouldn’t but it does bother me. I dunno. Also all the new kits are resin which is an improvement for details but takes a bunch more time to assemble.

Today I slapped on some glue and flock for another 20 Oathmark figures. My “regular” Elves are almost done. I think I have 14 or so archers left to base. Up next are the light Elves which are all painted as well. Just need basing.

There are (all plastic) 6 archers and 10 spearmen for the Elves.

The 4 figures on the right are metal. Three come from the King,Wizard &horn blower pack. The 4th is the Limited Edition maquette.

More Walking Dead

I’ve been on a bit of a painting break the last few weeks. 

I’ve had a bunch of miniatures arrrive during that time but I was having some problems with my posture. Basically I sit all day at work and as a result my upper torso is bunched up a lot. I had some pain as a result. Stretching and breaks have since alleviated the discomfort and I’m more or less back to normal. 

Some of what came was some more of Mantic Games’ The Walking Dead line. Resin exclusive King Ezekiel and Fear the Hunters expansion. 

I decided to work on some of the older TWD stuff as it’s super easy with co yeast paints. However, I had run out of GW’s Contrast spray primer Grey Seer. 

I looked at my local GW $25.00 and an independent retailer $19.99. Are you kidding? I had no choice however as the spray paint I’ve been using lately has not been working great and I don’t want to mess up the figures.

Here’s the giant walker. The shirt is the spray primer. The rest is contrast. The Bones have been highlighted in white.

I tried to do a plaid shirt. Utter failure. I didn’t have a paint pot of Grey Seer either so I couldn’t tidy up my lines. Looked horrible so I repainted it a darker grey and have thrown down a wash as well.

Scratch building forests

I took advantage of the warm weather and being ahead of schedule painting various bits around the house to break out some terrain pieces and get stuck in.

I had another Charlie Foxtrot building (boulangerie) build so I spray textured it and eventually primed it grey.

I also glued some twigs collected during evening walks with the family  to some MDF I trimmed down several weeks ago.

These stocks have busted tips and will be used as a shell burst copse of dead trees for WWI.

I had some other twigs with flat cut edges which were glued onto the MDF. I shaped two pieces of Pink insulation  and popped them on top. They will be the bulk of the foliage.

The pink insulation was painted green using craft paint and will be covered with lichen and clump foliage.

I drilled into the bottom of the styrofoam so the “tree trunks” insert into it. It is fairly sturdy.

I made two pieces. I have another 7 MDF bases to fill. All in all it was a quick project. It cost me next to nothing as the sticks I picked from the forest. The insulation was blowing down my street two years ago from a nearby job site. The MDF was a protective floor covering the I needed 2 years ago when I remodeled the kitchen.

More Oathmark

I finished up a few more Oathmark figures today. I forgot to take pictures of the group but another 5 Elf Spearmen and 5 Human spearmen are completed.

The Human Champions were also completed as was the Elf maquette.

I also built the 30 Light Elves. There are 2 units of 10 archers (Rangers) and 10 swordsmen (pathfinders).

For now here is a picture of a red headed human champion.

Charlie Foxtrot Big(ger) Buildings

This past Victoria Day long weekend had pretty crappy weather. As such we stuck indoors for larger portions of the time. So what better time to smash some building together.




I started with the "Brasserie". Comes in simple packaging with one page of instructions. The instruction sheet is pretty basic and only high-lights some of the more intricate pieces.







Here's all the pieces. There was no waste/excess material which helps keep the weight down. Although it is a little daunting being different from the usual MDF kits.








Basic building is complete. Bandage on my finger is not related to this project :)








I left the Brasserie façade off as I'm going to texture the exterior.








Here I taped off all the openings so I wouldn't get textured spray inside the building or on the roof.
I'm planning to shingle over the roof so that's not a big deal if paint got on but I want the shingles to adhere properly.








Up next is the Boulangerie. Same packaging with most pieces punched out.









It had interior walls on the main floor which was nice.








Here's a quick pic of the pain components to be sprayed. Again I left off the façade for ease of texturing. I also had to tape off the Juliet balcony above the doors.








The Café De Normandy was the tallest build (3 floors) and had a "L" shape on the ground floor. I would call this building the fiddliest, but it wasn't that bad.








All the bits. This kit had the most pieces by far.








The dormer window isn't glued on. I have the dormer's peak resting on the roof peak while the glue sets up to keep the correct alignment of the pieces.








What I liked:
No excess material meant less time spent cutting things out.
Kits were fairly intuitive. However, some are available on line.
They look great as is, and I haven't textured them yet or added details like doors windows or shutters.


What I didn't like:
A few of the corners on tabs and other small bits where damaged. This happens as there is no packaged/excess material to keep them from hitting each other. But it was all negligible.
Instructions - I'd have preferred a step-by-step guide.


All in all, I was very happy with these kits. Getting the skeletons together, texturing the corners and taping off areas I didn't want spray paint took maybe 25-30 minutes each with most of the time spent filling the corners and taping.


In my next post I'll show why I textured the corners.


I'm going to spend the next little bit tarting them up as I plan on shingling the roof.

(Temporary Backup) Ticket inspectors, you’ve gotta hand it to them...

Happy Easter everyone!

I worked on my trains yesterday. I’ve been procrastinating. I’ve lost track (sorry) of how long these trains have been sitting station 

Using Renedra sand bags, I built up a little fortification for the machine gunners.

I built them up slowly and they are removable. 

Finished look.

And a view from the front.

I’m going to use specially mounted MGs for the train so it’ll fit better.

Hope everyone is staying safe.

Charlie Foxtrot Initial Thoughts and smaller buildings.

I found some spare time today and managed to put together the workshop, log store, stone shed and extension from Charlie Foxtrot Models.

There wasn’t the usual heavy smell of burned MDF which was a plus. 

There’s lots of detail on the kits as well.

I started with the workshop. Nicely packed in a ziplock bag. Pieces already punched out with helps keep weight down for postage I presume.

Here’s the basic components. No instructions were included. However, the pieces have tabs and with some dry fitting and patience it’s easy to figure out.

Boom! Basic shape is done!

I watched Nick Skinner from TFL fame do a CFM kit and use textured spray. Taping off the inside keeps the insides cleaner. It’s not perfect but it does the trick.

Next up was the extension.

Here’s the pieces. Again zero waste.


I forgot to take a picture of it built and taped off before I took it and the workshop outside to be sprayed.

The log store is the only kit with some greyboard details. I’m not a huge fan of greyboard but it is useful.

Obligatory components picture. Wood detail looks good. Debating on just a brown wash.

Here I used PVA glue to layer the greyboard planks. The only fiddly part of all the kits.

The stone shed. Lots of detail. Another straightforward build so no instructions required.

I like he stamp on the bottom of the piece. It’s a nice touch of brand recognition. My only complaint, if you could call it that is there is not an undamaged door option. 

All in all, 4 very nice kits! Took probably 10-15 minutes to assemble them all including dry fitting pieces.

Some of the holes and plugs were super tight. Some of the edges of the plugs actually split. But it’s all glued together so not a big deal.

Charlie Foxtrot and Harry Potter

Around the time I was painting the Sarissa large farmhouse and building Chain of Command lists and watching lots of YouTube videos, I stumbled across Charlie Foxtrot Models.

I’d heard of them before and gone through their website once or twice but that was it. I was watching Nick from TooFat Lardies put together a hotel and decided to check them out further.

Well today I heard the doorbell and arrived to see the mailman walking away. I figured it was something I had ordered. My 5 year old pushed open the door and said “look it’s for me” grabbed the box and ran off into the house. (There’s a stamp on the exterior that reads Charlie Foxtrot Models, and his name is Charlie F., so close enough).

After a short foot chase, I got the box back and opened it up.

This will give me 4 medium to large buildings and two smaller ones. Hopefully I can get started this long weekend! Luckily in preparation for his I have some spray cans (textured paint) I purchased especially for this.

Over the last month or so, the oldest has been obsessed with Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle line of games. We just finished reading the 7th book with him and watched all the movies (books before movies).

I saw that there were several expansion cards so I scoured the Internet. I think we are issuing one.

I enjoy deck builders and Harry Potter so this was a no brainer.

We also played a home brew Russian Civil War game but I’ll post about that this weekend when I have more time.

New Toys

A couple of things came in the maillast week.

I ordered a copy of Oathmark, a hardback rule set published by Osprey Publishing and supported by figures made by Northstar Military Figures, the day it was released.

It finally came last week. I am probably amongst the first in Canada to receive it.

What I like about it. It’s hardcover, and has that nice new book smell. (I’m married to a librarian, not my fault!)

 

Aside for a picture overlapping a line of text (pg44 iirc) the book is absolutely perfect. The rules aren’t so bad either 😀.

There a plenty of jaw dropping beautiful illustrations like the Elven archer seen below.

Several pages have little sketches on them, which breaks up the pages nicely.

There are also a few double page spreads of the artwork.

I think a book of just the pictures would be an amazing thing to have. 

All in all, a great game published by Osprey. I can’t wait to finish reading itand get the figures on the table.

 

I also picked up the Mantic Games King Ezekiel Event Exclusive figure.

It cost a princely sum of £19.99. It is made of Resin and it looks amazing BUT it got me thinking a) I already own a plastic King Ezekiel, do I need another and b) would my money not be better spent on say 4 £6 packs of Artizan metals (-£1 each from VAT) for approx 16 metal figures or spending £25 on 30 Plastic Oathmark figures.

I love the Walking Dead but would like to see them release all the characters first before releasing upgraded versions of the ones I already own (there are other figures besides Rick and the Governor ya know!)

Figure wise it comes with King Ezekiel with separate arms and three heads mounted on spikes.

Here’s an updated stat card. I don’t have the other one handy so not to sure how they compare at the moment, and some equipment cards.

I purposely took pictures of the back. Don’t wanna be that guy. 

What I like: resin is so nice, great detail as compared to the older plastic. It’s nice to get new equipment.

What I don’t like: basically comes down to price. I can support the other systems I play a lot better with what it cost for one figure from Mantic.

A little bit of paint

Spurred on by the conversions, I sprayed some primer on and set to painting.

I had an older can of brown Krylon.

I primed everything and after leaving it to dry I set to work.

I noticed that the paint wasn’t adhering very well to the primer. And the primer still felt tacky. That hasn’t happened before. I found by taking my time though, I was able to get a nice coat.

I started with a palette of browns and greens. This is what I completed on Saturday after about 1.5 hours.

I painted for maybe 45 minutes on Sunday and did a little bit more. I’m not happy with the dark green cloaks on right side of back row. Too glossy. I might repaint them.

I also wanted white linens for the shirts. It really pops/ breaks up the monotony of green and brown.

My plan is to paint everything and do skin and hair last. Hopefully I can do a bit more before the weekend.