March Update! (aka: "The Ides of March" or somewhat thereof...)

Greetings dear reader;

Egads this thing (blog-wise), is becoming almost "regular"!

What's up with that?

It's odd how suddenly this thing seemed to kick up on it's own.

Okay, so I've recently returned from approximately 2 1/2 months of travelling hell for work. One week I am in Indiana, the next week Ohio, with Corporate calling me wanting me to be in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the following week, and then the next week off to California, and then back to Indiana, with plans for 2 weeks in Kenosha and a week following in Ohio....

Yeah...things like that.

So this weekend I decided to use it to get my "Painting Mojo" back up and going. 

Saturday wasn't so well. I spent a portion of time, cleaning up the hobby/work table. Sometimes the "project" is cleaning up your area, so you can keep working on projects. With Mini gamers that is often the sad truth. We collect things...little pieces of plastic, cardboard, odd shaped containers. 

What one person sees as a "round, plastic, cover cap to a spray can", we, on the other hand, see it as as a "Operational Radar Dome for a secret base build deep into a mountainside...."

Yeah...our minds work that way.

So Saturday was that day when everything took twice as long, and wasn't as productive. A 10 minute painting job took 30-40 minutes. I just couldn't get into it, and I left the table feeling frustrated.

And I have a lot of figures in my "to paint queue"....

(My painting queue is set up in stages, this is the stage of "ready to go to the painting table next. If you look closely you can see a wide variety of figures including one old Grenadier(!) vampire, as well as Rafm, Ral-Partha, Pulp Figures, Blue Moon, Old Glory, Foundry, Tri-Tac, Westwind, and some others...I think I have some Bolt Action, ShadowForge, and others around also...)

So I did what any other good gaming person, did...I fumed....

And planned.

On Sunday morning I got up bright and early , and came in with a fresh mind and a fresh start....

It also helped to have my wonderful wife (Gawd bless her!), bring me breakfast at the work table....

I have an amazing wife...ya know that?

(Eggs, bacon, toast and jam, and fresh coffee too!!!!  A great way to start a day of working on figures!)....

As a result I was able to crank out....a lot....

One of my projects was to finish a mass set of graves I had gotten in the mail from my buddy Michael Mitchell of Hawgleg. So I had primed them the day before and base coated them, and today was painting the tombstones, weathering, and flocking and sealing. 

So I got 18 of them done...the full set...

Some of them I made with a dirt/rocky covering for desert/southwest style graves, while others were given a more grassy tone, and found of them I put flowers, weeds on, to make them "remembered", or "grown over and forgotten"...

("Yeps....it's a grave situation I have here....)

Below are some close-ups of the flowery graves...showing the different tufts, etc. These are some of the pieces I've been working with that I got from Little Wars last year.

 

But there's more that I did than just making graves....

While bouncing between "Irish Pub Radio", and Radio Riel "Dieselpunk", I sat down and cranked out these four in relatively quick fashion.

I call them "The North-Side Ladies Tea and Crumpets, Poetry, Sewing, Temperance, Suffrage, Occult Research, Croquet, and Murder Society"....

(The Ladies Society....always on the edge of adventure....one way or another...)

As I have finished up one project and yet see more 28's coming my way (Besides my paint queue, I made a rather large order to Bob Murch for Pulp Figures),  I started thinking about something that has been laid wayside for approximately a year now...and that would be my beloved 15mm figures.
It's been a while since I've given them some love....

So looking in the drawer, I pulled out some "Soon to be painted" vehicles for The Fandango Republic, (Bongolesia's neighbor to the South) for some future border skirmishes....

(Some potential future firepower from Bongolesia's neighbor to the South).....

Hopefully I will be getting more done here in the next couple of weeks, as I finished painting up some figures and play-test my Chili Verde game...

More to come....

Thanks for reading...

Los Federales!!!!

Good morning dear reader!
Holy cow, update #4 for this month, (what's wrong with me???)....

Before I decided to do my last minute work packing and get going on my first of two back to back work trips, I decided to get some better WIP shots of my Mexican Federales.
I am especially proud of these guys.
They still need their flocking, and sealing but other than a few touch ups also, they are pretty much good to go!
One of the things that I have a love/hate relationship with when it comes to photographing minis is that you can paint it "perfectly"...Take a photo, (a good photo). and the first time you see it, your eye is immediately drawn to "that one spot" on the figure that somehow, someway, missed being painted and is still bare metal, or primer...grrr...
So the camera can show you what you missed. In this case, I am going to also have to do a wash on the bandoleers, to help them stand out from just being a "khaki strip"...

And now presenting to you, The Mexican Federales; "La Compania De Los Chihuahua Feroces"; ie: "The Company Of The Fierce Chihuahuas".... 

(Federales Mexicanos El Capitan Maximilian Empanada, (the hearthrob of senoritas everywhere), stands ready to do what needs to be done for "Meh-hee-co", (and perhaps put a few extra pesos in his pocket along the way).....)

(Federales Sergente Arturo Fuente, is the "Professional NCO" of the unit; Leading his men by example, experience, and his proficiency in finding tamales wherever they may be....)

(Federales Corporal Jose Cuervo, keeping the commands with the bugle..)

(Private S. Gonzales rushes to the sound of action, or the scent of  good tamales. While he is usually a dependable soldier, he does have a bad habit of getting caught up in the excitement and has been known to start jumping up and down and screaming gibberish.)

(Private S.P. Rodriguez moves at his usual speed of "slow"...)

(Private Juan Valdez is the best shot in the unit, and he also makes the best coffee....)

(The Federales occupy a building....if you can call it that...)

When I come back I am going to crop the last photo, and in good old photoshop, I am going to try a sepia tone and give it that "old look"...

Hope you enjoyed.
Next up....The Banditos!!!!

Third week of February and a third post!!!!

Hello once again and oddly enough, yet another "soonish post". This shall be the last one for a week or so I am afraid as work has me on back to back travel trips...

Nonetheless I did get a good amount of painting done today. 

In fact with a good method I pretty much finished El Capitan Maximillan Empanada and his group of Mexican Federales, (10 in all), plus I got the initial base coats on the five Banditos, and am working on 8 more.

So when I get this batch done, that will be 23 more marked off.....

*whew*

And I am pressed for time as work keeps cutting into my life, and my painting/gaming time.

Here's a pic of how they look right now....

I'll get some better pics of them when they are done. I just have to do the rifle bore holes, and shade/wash the golpes on the bugler and then add the groundwork, and seal and I will be done....

More to come when I get back.....including my adventure of getting new packs of Pulp Figures (and adding to my lead mountain).....

A brief pause from "Real Life"....

Greetings to everyone on a cold, wintry, February night...

Well I made it through my week trip to California. With that behind me, I now, (NOW), have a trip next week to Wisconsin, and then week after that for a 1-2 sojourn to Columbus, Ohio. Then I will be done for a while I hope.

And I can get back to painting fully.

But there IS news on the home front!

First off: LITTLE WARS!

My Event was accepted and listed in the PEL. 

Sat, 5:00pm-9:00pm Event ID E113: The Lost Treasure of Chili Verde Two-fisted, heart-stopping, Pulp Action Adventure!!! In the 1500's, the lesser known Spanish explorer "Conquistador Leo", discovered a great Aztec treasure, which he then promptly stole, and then hid; drawing a map, (which was then torn into several pieces), to its secret location. He then lost the pieces of the map, and almost immediately forgot where the treasure was hidden; (right before suffering a brutal, hideous, death at the hands of The Aztecs). Now, centuries later, the map pieces have finally come together as various factions try to claim The Lost Treasure of Chili Verde for themselves! Take control of one of the groups competing to recover the priceless lost treasure. Danger! Romance! Sultry Women and Men with Guns all abound in this heart racing, Pulp Action Adventure!!! Hosted by Michael Murphy; 28mm Rugged Adventures / Astounding Tales (TBD); 6 players. 

To say that I am "excited" is an understatement. I haven't run a convention game in a few years, and am nervous but looking forward to it.

Second off: HOBBY LOBBY HAD A SALE!!!!

So this past weekend, while recovering from travelling, my wonderful wife, (Gawd bless her!), convinced me to do some shopping with her, and we made our usual stop at Hobby Lobby and they were having a sale!!!!

So I picked up some of the Testors EFX stains. 5.99 - 6.99 bottles of paint for less than 1.30 per bottle! Let's see how it works.

And then my wife, knowing how much I needed some different color inks for stains and washes, decided to get me this....

Which is EXACTLY what I was looking for, but never seemed to remember to actually look for when I was needing to be looking for it....

While I was away, she also put in a second "item shelf" which now holds all my brushes, etc...Keeping my desk, "less clutter free"...

And this is what it looks like right now...

This in turn allowed me to do a little bit of base coating on my Mexican Federales...

The Mexican Federales under El Capitan Maximillian Empanda...Keeping law and order (as much as they can), in old Mexico...aka (The Big Enchilada)....

And a little bit of work on one of the buildings that I primed back in 2009.
Not much has been completed, but it's still a start and I am happy with it.
I look forward to being back in about two weeks and going from there.

I'll have more coming soon!!!!

Thanks for looking!

And February seems to be doing the same thing.....

A quick update folks..
Things have gotten nuts with real life.
I have to go to California for a week, and then come back and bounce between my three different work sites in three different states for the rest of the month, so once again "Real Life is eating up my gaming time, (and my painting time)....
On a bright side, it will give me a chance to hit "The Soldiery" once again when I am in Columbus, and maybe get some of that old time, old school, 1980-1990ish lead, (at 2015 prices), but overall my painting is going to be even more restricted.

That being said though..I did manage to get some work done yesterday.

As you know (or may not know), I have been working on my Pulp game for Aprils Little Wars convention.
"The Lost Treasure of Chili Verde" is a six player free for all where teams hunt down the clues for a missing Aztec treasure.

So I was able to buy some figs...(sigh, yes I added to my little lead mountain), and started doing some painting....

These are the figures that I ordered from Brigade Games:
First off, the Banditos "Los Vaqueros Quesos" under the command of that infamous and fearsome Bandito Leader, "El Burrito Grande"....

(Banditos! : from L to R: Paco, Pablo, Pedro, Pepe....and Karl....)

And then there are the Mexican Federales!!!!

(The Mexican Federales:  "La compañía de los chihuahuas feroces" ie: "The Company of The Fierce Chihuahuas". From L to R: El Capitan Maximillian Empanada, Corporal Jose Cuervo, Sergiente Arturo Fuente, and Privates S. Gonzales and S.P. Rodriguez. Not pictures is Private Juan Valdez, who is on coffee bean duty....

I have them currently based and primed with the base coats on the Federales. Here is hoping I can get them finished next weekend when I get back home.

More to come when I get back....

Well.....there goes January......

Greetings and happy 2015 yet again!

So the idea for 2015 is to try to 

A: Paint more.

B: Build more.

C: Blog more.

Which then leads to "D: Game more".....

So A+B+C=D.....

However it seems that "Real life", has decided to kick in. 

I am checking out of the month of January as it seems the last 2-3 weeks, (yes weeks), I will be working at different site locations. Now that means that in what little spare time I might have, I will try to get to some game stores or pick up some goodies but for all practical workbench purposes, January is a write off.....

Sigh....

This leads us to February....

And we shall see what fickle Mistress Fate has in store for me....

See ya' next month....

And until then,.......

Goodbye 2014.....A year in review....

Well folks...here it is...12.31.2014....
And the end of another year of this blog.
I started this blog in August of 2008, and really didn't go as far or as much with it, as I wanted to. It hit pretty decent marks until 2011, and then 2012 really sucked, and 2013 it started picking up again.
And now here it is 2014 slipping away into history and 2015 coming in....
This blog currently has 27 followers and 23, 800+ page views. I need to add more and get more content in, so I can increase my subscribers.
But enough about that.

2014 was a pretty decent year for me and my wife (Gawd bless her!).....
Gaming wise, it was more of a year of painting, building, and prepping than actual playing.

The highlights in gaming this year was my Call of Cthulhu game and our attendance of Little Wars in which I got to play in Uncle Dukes Alamo game only to end up leaving due to a cheating opponent. But it was a good convention and convinced me to prep a 28mm Pulp Game for it next year.

The Call of Cthulhu game was a good hit, and I enjoyed it tremendously. I need to start looking at trying to get a good gaming group together, and make this at least a semi regular occurrence.

On the whole though most of my gaming stuff was "acquiring" and painting....

And then I realized during the year I have painted approx. 177 28mm figs, and oddly enough, my 15mm stuff all took a back-burner for the year.
I have to change this and do a little of each, as I am now starting to make a dent in the 28mm pile, (under 850 figures), and there's so much more Bongolesia and stuff I need to do....

Next year I am hoping I can get some real work done on getting my "man cave" going. Perhaps look at a building loan for a 3 car garage but turn it into a hobby/gaming room. Then I can have all my toys in one area...help dejunk the garage....and get all of this "stuff" out of boxes, (some of it has been in there for almost 20 years)....sigh....I miss all of my gaming stuff...

And then with display cases, and shelves full...and a shelf for my picklehaub, and bust of Mussolini, we can game....

"We can game if we want to.
We can leave your friends behind....
Cuz your friends won't game, and if they don't game, well,
They're no friends of mine..."

But tonight, I decided to chuck out a few more paint jobs....and all in all for December 2014, I got 17 figures painted.

   

Any resemblance to a Disney Character is entirely coincidental....*whistles innocently*.....

  

Graves and Gunmen.....kind of a fit don't you think???...

"Putting on the Ritz...."
(Admit it now...you have that song going through your head now...)

        

Toadies, Pretty Dames on Desert Islands and Exploring Fellows and Ne'er do wells...all in the final stages of being done...

Some of the projects to finish tomorrow...(ie: "Next year"...)

(As well as these....)

But perhaps the best part of it all was one of my Christmas presents.....

YES!!!! More figures for the lead mountain!
Oh wait...I mean....NO!...errr.....wait...I mean....yes....errrr.....I mean.....

Toss in another 100 bucks and I will have ALL the packs that I need from Pulp Figures...(for now)....

That will be changing soon though....

And so on this evening, I place a picture of my current "Miniature Alter Ego", (Colonel Horatio Hieronymus Mustard, (Sandhurst, Class of 1880)....Who was the winner of the 2006 "Big Game Hunt" in Las Vegas, Nevada, with the scoring of TWO Lions....(courtesy of the Imperial Russian Hunting Party...heh heh heh...)

"Harrumph...harrumph...Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and a good future to be had for all, and God bless us....everyone!"

Thanks to everyone that has followed this blog and commented on it for this year. Please let me know what you would like to see more of in 2015 and I shall do my best to accommodate you.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!