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

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Update!: Of figures and paint, and things of this hobby....

June is upon us already and moving into the second week!
Egads!

Okay dear readers this post is a little long and pic heavy, so you might want to get yourself a drink and relax before going on.

OF WORK and FIGURES.... (Part 1)

So there I was...
In the last two weeks, I have been doing quick dash about roundabout trips to my other two sites to coordinate shipping out some equipment and making things happen.
This has given me a chance to do some brainstorming while driving, and while up at each site, to hit a  local game store and see what it is that they have on their shelves.
And that usually means making purchases.
The first one was "The Soldiery" up in Columbus.
I'll admit it right here and now, I really, really, want to like this store, as it has so much of that "80's game store feel to it; (all the way down to the Index Card taped to the counter where it states in BIG, BOLD, BLACK LETTERS: "Do NOT lean on the glass, it will break."
Obviously someone has done this while trying to impress whatever counter-chickie that was there at the time with tales about their "40th Level Character" and probably trying to sneak a look down her low cut shirt at the time.), but in reality, I don't think I can. Trying to get to the minis is hard. It's up a set of awkward stairs on a rickety balcony-style second level, and my knees just don't seem to like those stairs. 
And well, in true typical fashion, the service almost always hovers between "Sucks" and "Non-existant".  I walk in, counter monkey suddenly darts off to ""Arrange old Magic Cards". I'm looking for something, (obvious that I am searching), and counter monkey heads off to the little back room behind the counter where they can still see the shop but be out of visible range to actually make contact and assist the customer.
Plus there is the usual fanboy contingent that just is "there", as it is their "hangout". I'll get more into this in another post as I am starting to derail onto this subject.
*ahem*
So I swallowed my pride and checked it out. While there I picked up an AD&D 5th Edition Adventure book, and an accessory.
(I'll get more into the AD&D 5th Edition Book later on but needless to say, I posted a review of the first 30 pages on a Facebook site and I stirred up "The Wrath of The Fanboys").
While there I also picked up two Reaper BONES figures:

A female pirate?...Arrrr.....


And a Water Weird...
I have a few of the translucent BONES figures in my possession right  now, and have been reading on how to "light them up" using LEDs, and this one might be my first attempt as it already has a nice hollow base in which an LED can be inserted. This is a project though "For the future".

Oh and while there, I maintained the tradition and bought a set of Chessex Dice for my wonderful wife:

I'll admit...these are nice and her collection is coming along very well....

Coming home later that week, I did some painting and some sealing and actually accomplished a lot of smaller things that had been waiting for a while to be finished up. At long last I was actually "FINISHING THINGS", and clearing out my "Completed" queue and making space on my work area where the finished projects set.

The weekend was absolutely beautiful with good temps, a nice, steady, easy breeze, and made everything just right for sealing.

So I did...

But first....breakfast!
Served to me by my wonderful wife (Gawd bless her!), Melodie Murphy.

Yum...

And after some watermelon....



It was off to the table....

SEALING and "Git 'Er Done!"....

So I wandered into the work area, and got a nice idea of what needed to be done.
So for sealing I took a hodge-podge of stuff just needing to be done and sealed.



Sealing results for this batch:

15MM:

2 M48 Tanks
3 M41 Tanks
1 M42 "Duster" AA Vehicle
1 M577 Command Vehicle

28MM:

1 Stack of Barrels
2 Candelabras
1 Stack of Gold Bars
3 Wooden Coffins (courtesy of Knuckleduster)
6 Giant Rats
2 Coca Cola Machines 

Hey..even 28mm figures can get hot and thirsty after a hard day of gaming!

I was pleased with the result...

And with this, all of the hard armor assets from Bongolesia's "Mysterious Neighbor To The South; The Fandango Republic"; is done.





Yeps, they are ready for action, and I sense some "border dispute issues" coming up real soon...

OF WORK and FIGURES (Part 2)...

So the next week saw me off to another site for a few days, and while it was kind of a frustrating week, I was able to do some purchases, (in fact waaaaay too many I do believe, but let's just consider it an "insurance policy against dying" for now), of stuff.

While the majority were Reaper BONES figures, I also got a Chronoscope Figure as well as some of the older Reaper "Dark Heaven" figures and one of the "Legendary Encounters" figures.

So here is what I picked up during Week #2:

Thou cannot ever have enough witches for ye olde Witchhunters to pursue...


A Geisha..I am actually looking forward to the challenge of painting this figure. I can see all sorts of uses for her in games.


And Mouselings!  (Don't ask...)
Oddly enough, no slave girls, dancers, wenches, or "damsels in distress"...
How odd...
And then some more....

A future project I shall do for my wonderful wife (Gawd bless her!) since she loves Buckbeak from The Harry Potter movies...


A nice healthy piece of cannon fodder right here. Just a generic dungeon crawling goober that is trying to kill monsters, get treasure, and go up in levels.....I sense a violent, horrible, bloody death in this ones future....


One of the rarer Reaper P-65 minis. A fighter and his wolf companion. Yes I will need to fix the bent sword but I liked this pack and it needed an owner since it had been sitting on the shops racks since 2003....  .

But no slave girls, dancers, wenches, or "damsels in distress"...
How odd.
And yet, I DID get females...

Female Elf fighter type. Maybe she is out to try to assist the male fighter posted previously....or perhaps trying to save his bacon...


A female vampire... Perhaps she is dealing with the male fighter, (that shouldn't be too hard for her really...)


And a female assassin...



And another female fighter...(Are we noticing a pattern here?)



And a female bard, who will play some nice lovely tunes to help drown out the hideous screaming of characters being torn asunder by evil creatures...



And a female dwarf fighter, (with no beard)...



And a female paladin. To be honest, I like this figure and may get another one to make it into a worn graveyard statue...

But no slave girls, dancers, wenches, or "damsels in distress"...
How odd.
But I DID get this fellow: 

He actually looks pretty good for a pre-paint. I'll probably touch him up some, maybe put a sparkly gem in his staff, base and flock, and seal and be done with it.

So I didn't get any slave girls, dancers, hookers, wenches, or "Damsels in Distress" this time, but with the last picture right above, I think that putting him on the table with change that situation reeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaallll  easily...

Oh and I also go some paints and a copy of a recent WI, (but that is coming up in another post as this on has gotten way too long), for reading and discussion.

So that is part of what came home with me. More to come!

Thanks for reading!