The Blog of Michael T. Murphy and his lifelong obsession with "little army men" and their imaginary glory, miniature wargaming, and other things...

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

End of December and end of year (almost) update....

Well dear readers, it is almost the end of December and with it the year 2015 goes out of the window and 2016 comes staggering in bleary eyed and smelling of cheap rotgut gin, (or something like that).
I'm hoping to make my 2015 "Year in Review" post here real soon.
And happily enough I was actually able to break my post records for 2008, and 2011-2014....
I promise that I will do more posts next year...I really will try, including some game reports and more scales and scenery and terrain.

But that is for next year, and for today it's "What I got for Christmas"....

My wonderful wife (Gawd bless her!), was able to make a good purchase in cahoots with Bob Murch at Pulp Figures again and in doing so, I got a nice box of lead....

Here's what I got...

From PULP FIGURES, courtesy of Mr. Bob Murch.....


(PWM31: Arrogant Gestapo: Yeah right, like there's any other kind of Gestapo...)


(PWM5: Cultists: The Fill-out crew for "The Evil Jade Cult....)


(PWM6: Evil Cult Leader and staff....Every baddie needs assistants....)




(PGJ1: Agents of Justice: Agents ready to dispense Justice....hence...Agents of Justice...or something like that....Masks to hide their identity and .45's to dispense....Justice...)


(PGJ2- Masked Avengers:  Avengers with masks....and ready to avenge those that cannot avenge themselves...)


(PHP-15- The Istanbul Constabulary, complete with Hookah, they are ready to enforce the law (or their version of it), in Istanbul, (not Constantinople now)....)


And so that was it for the Pulp Figs purchase.....
Then I got noticed of my Reaper presents!!!!
WOO-HOO! My wife rocks!!!!

Oddly enough, most of these figures seem to follow a peculiar and particular pattern....


 




 

 



I'll admit that I do enjoy the Reaper figures. They give me the same type of joy that the old RP figs did back in the 90's...and now that Ironwind Metals is redoing them that joy can then return.  

And then in the box, I noticed this....

 

I didn't remember ordering paint....
So I checked the invoice and there at the bottom in the fine print was what it was....




Cool! So I was randomly selected!!!!!
I'm a WINNER!!!!

And then finally....FINALLY, I got this from my wonderful wife...


FFG's Fury of Dracula 3rd Edition Boardgame.....and now I smell an adventure coming up.....

Needless to say I did a pretty good score in the gaming stuff and am happy.
But now I have lost count of my 28mm inventory, and well...I'll have to start all over again......
Next year....


Sunday, December 6, 2015

December Update....


Apologies for the two month delay folks. Time just got away from me with work, and real life, and a plumbing issue, medical issues, and yet more work, etc....

My painting has slowed down tremendously. TBH, my wife and I got some nasty hanging on sickness viral cold type thingy that took each of us about four odd weeks to get over and through. Only thing we wanted to do was just simply lay around, veg. out, and sleep. There was no real energy for painting figures or terrain etc.

However that did not keep me from buying.

During some of my recent forays into my areas, I have picked up some more packs.
The first set is from that funky, odd, store near Milwaukee that I have nicknamed "The Tombs".  I plan on hitting it again real soon....
The packs I got were the following:

(Town Elders....for when I need people running through the night down foggy cobblestone streets screaming for their lives, while others are trying to make decisions that may buy them one...more...night...)


(And of course....we will ALWAYS need...."Victims"...never enough...."victims"....)


(An OLD pack of RAFM "Fantasy Vampires"...in this case a pack of "Manipulators".  One of them is beginning to suffer from the discoloration that is the very early stages of lead rot....)

( A Reaper Chronoscope Figure...."There's no place like home...")


("And your little dog too!)....

And yes, they did have flying monkeys, but I decided against those, simply because they looked "Too mechanical".....

And then last week I made some purchases of Reapers "Bones"; Three packs to be precise.

1: A pack of Vermin Scorpions
2: A pack of Mummies
3: A kindly old grandmother....with a broom....










Out of these three packs, I do believe that it is The Granny figure that I I think is the most dangerous of them all....

So I am going to be on vacation from the 19-27th of December. I am hoping that sometime during that time I will be able to get some painting done.
Here's hoping.....



Sunday, September 27, 2015

The 13th Precinct....

I recently painted up a large team of Police from the wonderful line of Bob Murch's Pulp Figures. From the "Gangland Justice" sets. I still need to get the Support Weapons package but for right now I am happy with my current team.
Perhaps the biggest issue I had was the color I wanted. Either the uniforms came out too light blue or were too dark blue (almost black).
I finally went with Vallejo Cobalt/Intense blue and the Reaper Navy Blue as a deep base.
Badges are brass and black is Gloss Black by Apple Barrel.
I'm keeping the bases gray to resemble dirty concrete, and to give it a stark, harsher appearance...

And now I present to you; The 13th Precinct....
*insert late 1930's- 1940's police/gumshoe theme music*

"Working on the streets of the city, the boys from The 13th Precinct do their best to keep the streets safe for all the good citizens and keep the bad guys down.
Keen eyes will note that ALL of the foot officers of the 13th are "Irish". The precinct is primarily Irish (except for Roz), and they are effective on the street despite the "Paddy/Mick" stereotyping. There is a rumor though that is currently going around that 1-2 of them (at least) may be on the take (or involved in other things); however there is currently no evidence to support this rumor for now...."


"The Station House Crew of The 13th...From L to R: Sgt O'Hara, Officer Rozinski ("Roz" for short), and New Officer O'Doyle..."


Sgt. O'Hara and his ever present and seemingly all knowing clipboard...


Officer Rosalyn Rozinski ("Roz" for short), handles the female prisoners and  other troublemakers at the station house. Despite her "hard appearance" she is an accomplished baker, and hopes that one day she will find "Mr. Right". Meanwhile she does her duty and is Sgt. O'Hara's right hand....


Officer O'Doyle is the newest member of the Precinct. Due to his lack of "Street Smarts" and still being a bit wet behind the ears, Sgt. O'Hara has him working the station house as he learns the ropes.


From L to R: Senior Officers Quinn and Sullivan lead the two teams that make up The 13th Precinct...

First Squad; From L to R: Officers Officers Kirkpatrick, O'Connell, and O'Reilly.  Senior Officer Quinn is in front.

Second Squad: From L to R: Officers McGuire (with rifle), O'Hoolihan (with pump shotgun), and O'Connor (with Tommy Gun). Senior Officer Sullivan is in front. 


A nice large pic of "The 13th Precinct Foot Officers.


Saturday, September 26, 2015

Update and new figs....

I've been horribly tardy and well, apathetic in updating this site with any quality lately, and for that dear read I do apologize.

Today is Saturday, 26th September and while it's a deliciously cloudy, slightly gray day that I absolutely love, and had the plans of attending a local ACW Event right up the road from me; that is until my truck decided that it was remarkably wanting of seeing it's friends at the Meineke Shop, and wanting new front brakes.
So that plan went away as my truck is currently sitting on the rack as I am here at home awaiting them to get me parts and pricing, (their internet is currently down).
This gives me time to do some updating.

As the Summer season is pretty much past history, and the wonderful cool days of Fall are here, I have been busy working on items. Figures being painted and bought, (as usual). I think I recently made a statement that "IF" yes the always magic "IF"; "If I were to be able to paint 30 figures a month, and NOT buy any more figures, it would take me over 3 1/2 YEARS to paint my 28's alone..."
We're not even going to venture into the realm of 15mm.
Let's not and say we did okay?

My foray into painting up pulp figures continues....

Recent Purchases!

They say that "Happiness is a well used paint pallet...."
On a recent jaunt over to my Ohio facility, I once again stopped over at "The Soldiery" in Columbus. This was my third trip there and believe it or not, it was the first time I had actually been greeted at the store. I guess all the fanboys were in school, and well...I pretty much had the store to myself, except for the counter lady. She was nice though, and I made some purchases.





I picked up two containers of Privateer P3 flesh paints. After reading a review of them, and how a fellow used them for some flesh tones for one of his figures, I am deciding to try them out myself.

And then I bought....

*Insert "70's Wocka-tocka guitar music here...*


"A snake demon...guaranteed to give anyone with a case of Ophidiophobia a sure run of the heebie-jeebies..."


"Miss Agatha Fox...not sure what is in store for her, but I see some 1960's style "mod" fashion coming up, including perhaps the infamous "White Go-Go Boots" of the time..."



"A fire elemental....ready to give folks a hot time....."


"A nice sarcophagus....a good resting place, complete with the standard "skullz"...."


"This is bad news for ANY adventuring party...."


"It wants your brains...."


"A Heroclix "Kingpin" figure, awaiting conversion..."

Somehow or another one of my other figures (Reaper: Gauntfield), escaped my picture taking, but I will get one of him soon enough.

And so, instead of making this post utterly long and intensive, I am going to break it up into numerous posts...

So enjoy for there is more to come!



Sunday, September 20, 2015

Working on some Knuckleduster Coffins.....

Just a quick piece dear reader, and more to come in the following weeks; As I'm out for business for the next few days....

Sat down today and decided to finally do some of the stuff I seem to be "collecting" from Mr. Forrest Harris at Knuckleduster.
I decided to start with something easy, they, I went with the "Coffins and Tombstones" kit.

Knuckleduster makes a fine selection of buildings and figures in 28mm (and other scales!), of The Old West/Early 20th Century America out of laser-cut wood.
The owner, and man behind the curtain is Mr. Forrest Harris, (who I am always pleased to see).

A look at the pack (front and back)....



Pretty simple right?

Okay so upon opening the pack, I find that there is enough stuff for three caskets and eight grave markers. The coffins are two pieces and the markers obviously one.
The picture below is in error as each coffin has three pieces. A bottom piece, (exactly like the top), a middle frame, and the top piece for a total of 17 pieces in the pack.


Hmmm...that's a lot of stuff for such a small pack.
Assembly of the coffins was very easy. White glue the frame to the bottom. Let it dry, attach the top with glue and paint. Or leave the coffin open.

As fot the grave markers, they allow you to be creative....

Below is essentially the finished product. I did two in a lighter shade of brown, and in one of them I painted the interior white to give the impression of a "De-Luxe" coffin, "guaranteed to allow your loved one to rest peacefully and decompose in the comfort and style befitting them...."




All in all...some very easy and quick pieces for those days when you don't have time to get big projects worked on, but want to accomplish something (and help get the "stuff" out of your closet/drawer/shelves and completed...).

More reviews to be coming....