Normal service will be resumed soon

Apologies for the lack of posts recently, hobby time has taken a back seat with my recent move, with plenty of unpacking and DIY to be done. A few weeks with no painting at all and I'm only just getting a little time for it. The endless trips to B&Q, Ikea and many others will be with me for months, as will the DIY as my wife and I work our way around the house. As if I needed a new project! 

On a slightly more hobby-related note, I recently caught a fascinating exhibition: 'Newseum' by the Times. It was a fairly small but interesting look at (UK-centric) journalism throughout the ages, touching on the Crimea, colonial conflicts, the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, conquering of Everest and onwards. 

The highlight for me being two of the telegraphs sent by Frank Powers during the siege of Khartoum. Including this one, to be hand delivered after the telegraph line was cut. If you look carefully, you can see it was annotated with 'send this' and signed by General Gordon. Apparently, it didn't make it though the Mahdist blockade and was found years later, stuffed in the walls of a hut. It's significance was realised and it was eventually received by The Times in London in the 1890s. The Times archive must be full of such fascinating snippets from history. 


Unaware of the no photography policy, I caught just the one snap before I was politely but firmly told to stop. 

Frank Powers himself was killed in September 1884 alongside Gordon's assistant Colonel Stewart when a group tried to break the blockade around Khartoum aboard the Steamer Abbas. The attempt failed when the Abbas ran aground and all passengers and crew were killed in an ambush. 

Finally, I had the good fortune to visit Wyvern Wargamers the other week and managed to get a game of Chain of Command in 15mm. Stu, Paul and the rest made me feel very welcome and I definitely intend to visit as often as I am able. 

Analogue Hobbies Challenge: Coming to a Close

With a sigh of relief, the Painting Ronin can lay aside their brushes. Three months of some quite amazing work in the name of points, sharing, camaraderie and prizes.

First up, my deepest appreciation for our host and guide, Curt. To make so much time to run this competition is a gesture of great kindness, it truly must have been a Herculean effort. But rest assured, it is deeply appreciated by me, the rest of the Ronin and the rest of our hobby blogosphere who could watch the fun unfold. Curt, I salute you as the jolly nice chap that you are. Hopefully, 50-odd colourful (and greyscale) Samurai will be reward enough, in the end.

On my performance, I managed a miserable 365 points, well below my 500 last year and 550 target. I just ran out of steam in the end and was too distracted by othre commitments. But I'm pleased with what I did finish. My focus was on Pulp and WWII, with a smattering of other genres . My entries over the past month are below. First up, a second batch of Artizan Greatcoated Germans. While they need a little grubbying up, I'm pleased with how they came out, a few lessons learned from the first batch.



Just the one camo smock in an autumnal scheme

The whole bunch together

Next, a few French Foreign Legion in khaki, to make an appearance in a North African Pulp games. Artizan Designs once again, I think these were a 'useful somday' bargain bin or eBay find.

A pair of ladies, one Pulp adventurer from Hasslefree and one armed Victorian lady from Mutineer. I actually had three ladies on my final entry, The third was the one I was most pleased with, but painting her went right to the wire so I will add a couple of finishing touches before posting her up here.

So now the dust has settled, there is voting and prizegiving to be done. One prize is awarded for the 'People's Choice', so do head on over to Analogue Hobbies to vote on your favourite entry.

Finally, a quick shout out for another Easter giveaway at Sippin' on Paint Water - head over there if you want a chance at some mysterious goodies!

I haven't been to SELWG

Unlike what seems like every other gaming blogger in the UK, I couldn't make it to SELWG this year. Which sucks a bit, I would have liked to have poked about at a decent games show. It sounds like everyone had a ball of a time and picked up lots of goodies. 

I did get a trip to Greenwich on a lovely crisp autumnal day, taking a river boat rather than the tube for a change. Once there, I visited the recently re-opened Cutty Sark. While it was the Missus' treat, I did get to squeeze a bit of history in at least! Today I get the Eurostar to Bruges for a relaxing few days break. Bruges doesn't seem to be a hotbed of gaming, but ive brought the bumper WI issue 300 to keep me entertained and of course there is certainly plenty of history in the area to absorb. 

Approaching Greenwich

View from the deck

The hull of the now-raised Cutty Sark

I did hope to have some finished models to share, shock horror I have been painting Napoleonics once again. After 9 months off them, I could just about face more red and white. They just need finishing touches and basing, so I'll post them next week. 

I may get some more blogging time over the next few days, so I may be able to  post a few other bits that I had planned but haven't got around to writing. 

Still around, some aimless progress

You may have noticed a dearth of posts here. This is mostly because I've been pretty busy with real life for the past 6 weeks or so I've not really put a paintbrush to miniature. At least I feels that way, for some reason I've just not been feeling it recently. 

I exaggerate slightly, I have done a few bits in a vaguely aimless way. When I'm daunted or disinterested by bigger projects, I fall back on the old faithful: Pulp. the project of endless possibilities, of great figures for no particular reason. 

First up is a new NPC: 'Mustafa'. An Arab trader with goods for sale at the right price - some haggling required! Perhaps he also trades information, rumours and gossip. But will he help or hinder our heroes?

The miniature is from Black Cat. I don't think his tunic came out too well but as a minor character he'll do. 

Next up, the party leader for an antagonistic adventuring association: 'Monsieur Leclerc' of the Societe Archaeologique. 

I'm really pleased with the paint job on him. I started looking up French Foreign Legion uniforms, realised they seemed pretty varied in the early 20th century so went with a nonspecific military uniform. He was a pleasure to paint too, as always with Artizan Designs 'Thrilling Tales' range. The only thing I'm not sure about is his glasses lenses - what do you think?

Mustafa tempts Leclerc with an offer of information

Both of these still need varnishing, after much browsing of forums I settled on a new regime using brush-on Windsor and Newton matt varnish then Testors Dullcote. Despite the 'matt' being more satin, meaning it sometimes needing two coats of Dullcote, I was sick of touching up chipped minis. I may even go back and varnish/dullcote some older minis for the extra protection. 

I also finished these:

Yup, that's two bases, which one day will have Harpies on for Aegeus. The harpies themselves are half assembled. As I say, I've been a bit aimless!

I'm Back!

So, I vanished for a few weeks. Sorry about that, completely unintended, just some frantic hobby time and a bit of real life got in the way of blogging. 

So, what have I been up to? Well, finishing off the secret project, as my brother visited at the end of August. I got almost everything done, probably the first time ever. The miniatures turned out great, as did the terrain that I got finished. we got two games in over the long weekend, between sightseeing, babysitting my niece and some board games. Both games went well considering to hadn't play tested them, but I will make some minor tweaks the the scenarios. We should be able to finish the campaign in another session. I'm also less convinced Brink of Battle rules are well suited to the era. They did the job, but weren't quite right - perhaps too many miniatures on the table. 

I did take pics, but won't post them yet - Samulus will also get a play through (of the whole campaign i hope!) and I don't want to spoil the narrative.  

Anyway, after that weekend I took a self-imposed week off the hobby. Nice to take some time out, I got to spend some time on the Playstation - a chance to finally rattle through Skyrim. 

So I sat down last night looking for a little something to ease me back in. I had some 15mm SciFi prepped but languishing for a few months. A few hours work and hey presto (with fluff): 

++++++++++ INCOMING TRANSMISSION ++++++++++++

                  ++++++++ DECODING ++++++++

Arbiter Assessment Report (AAR)

---------------

---------------

Sighted: Kravaak system, 2516

Race: Presumed Human

Affiliation: Unknown

Weapon systems: Unknown

Armour: Advanced Therm-Optic Camouflage (ATOC) suits of unknown origin

Assessment: Further intelligence is required for a full threat assessment. All sightings should be reported to the Confederated Systems Arbitration Authority (CSAA) Intelligence Directorate. 

---------------

These are actually Khurasan miniatures modern US Special Forces, but they are so modern I thought they looked quite SciFi. Made sense to me anyway. These are the most elite of  New Vedith's military forces, utilising Advanced Therm-Optic Camouflage suits. of course, New Vedith doesn't officially acknowledge the existence of and Special Forces Units. 

I basically painted them the same as I'd done the bases, almost a shame to dry brush such finely detailed miniatures. But I think the effect works, with the weapons and helmets in a lighter shade to define the miniatures.