Kali Cult leader; backdrop experiment goes wrong; for sale

Phew, is been a busy week, mostly poking about/sorting/assembling my Salute purchases. I've also just about finished off a second batch of Ansar for the a Sudan project, I'll post up pics once the varnish is dry, probably in a day or two.

In the meantime, another lady (yeah, another), this one came in a Mutineer miniatures pack, a range the Gharak and I ransacked for some future Pulp adventuring in India. I was after the other chap from the pack and  didn't have a good use for her, but thought she would match well with Gharak's Kali Cult, see here and here. As it was his birthday last week, I painted her up to match the ones I painted before for him. Unfortunately, her sword broke fairly early in the process and was too thin to pin. So she is wielding the broken blade of somethingorother for now!



I've also experimented making a backdrop to be used for games. In a model railway shop in York, I got a pack of gaugemaster backdrops, containing three 3'x1' areas of sky. That's a whole lotta sky! I planned to stick them onto mountboard which could be propped up behind the gaming board. For the first attempt, I ambitiously tried the 'portable option' - three panels of mount board which fold down to half the size, driven by the fact I couldn't find 3' length of mount board in my local area, A1 is a few inches too short. After much cursing and sticking, this was the result (with unpainted 28mm miniatures for scale):



Experiment a bit of a failure! The folds from the three panels show up really badly, particularly on the left side. Luckily I've two more pieces to make use of, next time I think I'll give up trying to be so damn clever and just stick them on one panel!

Final, I've decided it is high time for a bit of a clear out, I've posted some bits on LAF but will eBay them if they don't go there. napoleonic bits and Infinity, if anyone is interested.

More on eBay

A few more failed projects on eBay:

For sale

Also submitted another little entry to Curt. And with that, I'm off for a short holiday, take care bloggers!

Bemoaning a lack of hobby time

The week has flown by. Real life in the way. Late home from work. Jobs to do about the house. Visiting family. I'm not sure which is to blame for my lack of productivity this week, perhaps a combination of them all. As as result, barely has a brush come across metal this week. We're approaching the halfway point of the challenge and I'm not quite at the hoped-for 250 mark.

Looking at my diary, I've got another hectic week this week, then just the weekend before flying off for a short break in Morocco, then a dash up to visit my brother and newborn niece. So I probably won't have much more finished before the end of February.

I did manage to snatch a couple of hours to paint today, finishing off a batch of Redcoats that have cluttered my hobby area since the summer. They won't score for the Challenge but it is nice to finally get them done.

On a more positive note, my last round of eBay auctions raised nearly £50, close to the as new value, so I've a good excuse for some hobby purchases again. And I've more earmarked to sell when I get chance to list them.

Anyway, in the meantime here is the last entry to the Challenge, which feels like it was an age ago. Baboons and a French Mademoiselle, this was a curious combination!

Winter clearout

It's long overdue. Time for me to clear out some hobby space. My hobby storage area is littered with the remains of failed projects. Not surprising, for a gaming magpie like myself.

To make a start, I've listed some 20mm scale WWII British tommies on eBay. Sadly, 20mm ended up being one scale too many for me. I found it an unsatisfying middle ground between the pleasure of painting 28mm and a scale where massed battles are doable with limited space and time.

If anyone is interested (Ray? Angry?), you can find them here:
For sale

Of course, any monies raised will be ploughed back into the hobby, I'm eyeing up some spiffing 28mm vietnam which are 'coming soon' from eBob.
Must...resist...new...period..