Overdue update again!

Dang...it's the third week of October and I am waaaay far behind.
Okay no pics yet. I will be working on them this week. As the Armor is finished, and I have to touch up the ZSU23-4 and a T-55 because the f***ing Armory's Sealer left a nice residue on them...grrr...

But I am working on USMC MARPAT again, and I am hoping that this time..THIS TIME, I am successful...

Of Gencon, unemployment, and needing to paint...

August is pretty much done, and with it, goes the summer...
Gencon came and went, and the lady and I spent a day at the con just in the dealer room.
While there I cleaned up on Starship Trooper stuff, and bought some more figs, including some Pulp Figs of Bob Murchs' from RLBPS, (and sometimes dealing with Bob reminds me of the thing called "customer service").
Other than that I haven't really done that much.
I've re-read "Achtung Schweinhund!" (again), and looked over the new WI mags...
And now that my job is played out, I think I will have much MUCH more time to paint and build...
*sigh*
And pics to come...

Hard Armor and Low Rent Housing...

(Aka, what's on my worktable this week...)

Well I've gotten photos of some of my recent projects and thought I would share them with you.

This week I am working on exclusively armor. A nice order to Scale Creep, brought me 6 T-55's, 3 T-62's, 1 ZSU-23-4 and a ZSU-57-2.

This is the last of the major "Hard Armor" purchases for Bongolesia.

The T-55's and ZSU-57-2 are allocated to form the new tank units of the NDF, while the T-62's and the ZSU-23-4 are allocated to the Presidential Guard, and the Shilka pulls double duty as tactical ADA around Sudekia in the event of an airstrike AND is used as a possible riot deterrent / crowd control device

I'm going to admit that I have a love/hate affair with QRF minis. The love part is that they make some great stuff that no one else does and it closes the gap of stuff that is needed for modern 15mm gaming; but the bad part is that oftentimes you get a mini that is very flash heavy, and has a little bag of "fiddly bits", that you are not sure where they go, and because QRF doesn't include instructions or diagrams to show you where they go.

This was the problem with the ZSU 23-4. I finally figured it out with some illustrations, but it's a common gripe that I hear.

On the worktable, 6 T-55's and 3 t-62's...A ZSUs 23-4 and 57-2. Primed and ready for assembly and painting...To be done this week....(fingers crossed)....

A close up of the T-62's and the Shilka...The T-62's are a nice kit. Less flash than the T-55 and just seem to be of a higher quality casting. Perhaps the T-55 molds are wearing out some? A thought for an email to QRF this evening....

Meanwhile not all vehicle work is military or has a big gun and goes BOOM!.

I took one of the 69 Cent tanker trucks that I got a year ago, and took off the fuel tank. Putting a flat bed on it, I'm going to make it a heavy cargo truck...will it carry goods, troops, weapons, or black market items?...Stay tuned to find out...

Here's a comparision shot of the modified truck. Dremel made this soooooooooo much easier...

The flatbed awaiting further work...

For 69 cents you CAN'T go wrong with these little sweeties...

Even Bongolesias need housing and unfortunately some of them DON'T qualify for what is termed "public housing" there in Bongolesia, so the really poor and down on their lucks, create small shanty towns or "Slummie-villes" to live in. I've already got a few of these done, (and featured on the Bongolesia blog), but here are some more in "rough fashion...

As the week wears on, I'll post pics and reports of them as they get finished, painted, and weathered to look like the rest of the slummies that I have...Just remember...In these places, the ten second rule DOES NOT APPLY...ewwww....

A side shot of slum shanty project #2

Front and side shots of slummy shanty #1. One can almost hear the constant buzzing of the numerous fat flies as they swarm around you in the sultry, sweaty, sticky, heat...

Stay tuned for further updates!

Redoing the game room...

Well this weekend was stormy, and I had to put mini painting on hold to do something that I had put off for a while...clean the gaming/work room.
I hadn't made efficient use of the space in that room, and now it was coming back to haunt me.
So with a recent 20 buck purchase of a 5 shelf bookshelf, and having recently acquired another dresser and 2 nightstands, I decided that "now was the time".
A little sweat and some reorganization later and voila, the "new and improved, Murphy Game Room."
Martha Stewart would be proud...


Looking in from the door, you can see the painting and work table, (Clean at that!!!),



2 dressers with plenty (I hope), of storage space. dresser #1 on the left is for holding building supplies, resins, etc., while dresser #2 is basically the home base for all unpainted figures, (and yes there are A LOT of them!)...



Another shot of dresser # 2 and the parts storage bins and painting table...


Drawer #1 of Dresser 2, Ogrethulu, Peter Pig, Bolt Action, Pulp Figures, Gear Krieg and more...


Drawer #2; Peter Pig, Battle Honors, QRF, and loose figs...


Drawer #3; More loose figs, (mostly 15mm)...


Drawer 4; More loose figs, (mostly 25-28mm)...

WHEW! That's A LOT of lead!!!
Here's a shot of the room from the dresser corner...

You can see the painting and accessory table, along with the closet full of "stuff"; boxes of terrain, ERTL cowtowns, etc...

My "wall o' stuff" including a certificate from the International Society of Vampires, an RPGA membership certificate, pictures of Adam West and Linda Blair, and a copy of Fiddlers Green...

Yes, Adam West as The Caped Crusader, keeping order to the room, and giving it just that bit of "class" that it needs...(or not)...

And once again, my picture of Linda Blair, who looks at us with those eyes and whispers to us seductively that "Historical Miniature Wargamers REALLY turn her on..."

*sigh*

Yeah, right...

My gaming shelves, with rules, boxes of troops, and other stuff on it. If you look at the top you can see the mostly finished Sovie...errr..Russian Cargo Ship, "The Rattlehead", and the Golden Eagle of the Bongolesian Arch of Victory peeking out...

Rules and books...Foundry was having a sale and I scored...Old copies of MWAN, Little Wars by Wells, Rule books, notebooks, and various assorted stuff, (including Ospreys, etc...)...

And last but not least...What's MY game room without this...????

Yes, the National Flag of Bongolesia hangs majestically on the wall of the room, waiting once again to go up the pole and fly in the breeze!

Well, hope you enjoyed the tour. Hopefully tomorrow, (or next week), I'll get some more painting done...

Comments are appreciated...

Hostages, Scale Creep, (and another trip)...

Welcome back dear reader with another exciting update!
(More or less)...

First things first...
ALL Praise to Scale Creep Miniatures for getting me my recent QRF shipment.
QRF was about a month behind in getting it to them, but I was able to get what I needed.
The NDF for Bongolesia currently has ALL the hard armor they will ever need...
Along with a section of tanks for The Presidential Guard.
Thanks to Scale Creep once again...
Now...
Recently I was able to get figs painted and what I wanted and needed were people in a crisis in Africa, (who isn't on that continent?)...Anyway, I decided to finish painting up the last of my Rebel Minis Hostages, along with some more BARF troopers and a couple of stands of LOA: "The Lions of Allah"..the latest group to bust onto the scene...
The Rebel Minis Hostages in size are about 15mm, if you compare them to Peter Pigs figs. They do look a little taller. In fact the zombie figs look to be about 18 and possible 20mm...
But they are clean figs with no flash, and very easy to paint.
Here they are...

( Hmmm...three hostages waiting on word of their release...or....)

(The set of hostages; there are three poses in all. Wait...Is that a shallow grave next to the kneeling female? Oh dear...)
(Three "businessmen" hostages close up. Notice the guy in the back with the toupee. OBVIOUSLY he's a CIA agent, or a used car salesman...)

Along with the hostages, here are some recently painted PP figs...BARF Militia troops...

(Is that a SMILEY face I see???)
(Some call them "Liberators", "Freedom Fighters", and "Revolutionaries"; while others call them "Thugs", "Bandits", and "Terrorists"...we simply call them "BARF"...)
(LOA: The Lions of Allah, Assault Troops...also calling themselves "Martyrs")


(LOA RPG Team...)

( A standard scene of hostages and keepers in front of vandalized B'wonah propaganda)...

I'm going to be reviewing the Rebel Minis Hostages figures in a soon to be posted update here on the forum...Stay tuned for it.

And now...

Indiana has a lot of things to see and do, and this weekend, the lady and I wandered down to Corydon.

Corydon, Indiana has two distinctions in State and US national history.

It was the first capitol of the state, and it's one of the ONLY TWO recognized Civil War Battles that took place on "Northern Soil"...

Corydon was the site where Gen. John Hunt Morgan in July of 1863 routed the home guard on his ride through the north. Not a big fight like Gettysburg, but a fight nonetheless, and we wandered down there the weekend that they had the reenactment.

(The Corydon State Courtbouse Capitol Building which was threatened to be burned by Morgan if the folks didn't "pay up" and the marker on the square...)

The Reenactment (as far as reenactments go), was a small affair that desperately needs help, and I think I am going to work to help push it to make it grow. The organizers are totally out of their league on running this.

And it has promise.

In the town is the Corydon Battle Park, which is actually on the site of the battle, which really is little more than a small park. I've seen some backyards that were bigger...but it's there, and it's part of our history and heritage...

(The Lady at the 6 lb gun at the Corydon Battle Park...)

After Corydon, we wandered down to Mauckport and it was going there that we saw graffitti that made me scream "STOP!"...and a photo I had taken of it and me...heheh...
See if anyone gets the reference...

(Quite appropriate, don't you think???)

And thus ended our little journey for the weekend...
Next weekend...A review of Rebel Minis Hostage figures and priming up the Presidential Guard!!!

Haunted Tavern, (a diversion from toy soldiers)...

On this bright sunny wonderful Indiana weekend, the lady and I decided that it was too nice a weekend to spend "all of the time", cooped up in the house, painting on troops and scenery, and besides my mind needed a break, from trying to cope with USMC MARPAT...

"Let's go for a ride!" is our standard cry.

Our "rides" are nothing more than meandering wanderings across the highways, roads, routes, etc, of Indiana, (and occassionally Kentucky, Tennessee, Illionois and Ohio). Nine times out of ten we have no "real destination" other than "That way." Sometimes we make it back home in the evening, while other times we just decide to find a hotel room and relax for the evening and to prepare for another day of adventure.

Today though we decided to have a destination.

A little over 90 miles from Indianapolis is the small town of Laurel, Indiana. Laurel was very busy in it's heydey of the late 1830's to early 1860's when the White River Canal was active upon the White River and the Ohio.

Upon the streets of Laurel was the White Hall Tavern.

(The White Hall Tavern. The nearest corner in the picture was the boatside where the canal boats would tie up.)

It was a large building which housed a tavern and an inn for weary travellers on the canal boats. It was actually built around 1838. The Canal boats would tie up at the lower level, (the nearest corenr in the picture), and the weary travellers would take the stone steps up to the tavern for food, drink, or a room for the evening.

And it is here that the legend begins...

The tale goes that on one of these boats was a passenger - a lady pregnant with child. She was on her way to meet her husband. She was given a room for the night, and the boat went on the next day without her. It was in the early morning hours that she went into labor. The innkeepers wife, (Mrs. Clements), assisted in the delivery of the baby. Both mother and infant were very, very weak.

While the innkeepers wife was helping in delivery, her husband, (Mr. Clements), has sent a message to boat captain that he was to find the wifes husband at their destination and inform him of his wifes condition and that they were too weak to travel on.

Over the course of the next few days, the baby seemed to cry constantly, and the mother tried her best to soothe the poor infant. At night the innkeeper and his wife could hear the poor baby crying and the mother doing her best to try to calm her child.

One night they listened to the sad sounds, and over the course of the evening, the cries of the child and the soothing words of the woman grew fainter and weaker, and then went silent all together. Believing them to have both fallen asleep, Mrs. Clements was shocked the next morning to discover mother and child both dead, the infant gently cradled in her arms.

Mr. Clements saw to it that both mother and child were buried. (Perhaps in the Laurel Cemetery), and the mothers name was on her stone. Since she had insisted on waiting until her husband came to her, she had never named the child, and thus the name "Baby" was on the stone of the child.

As the years passed, and the canal was overtaken by the railroad, and people came and went to the White Hall Tavern, people would tell of hearing a baby crying from the upstairs rooms at night, and hearing the words of a lady trying to soothe it.

Urban legend or not? It sounded like an interesting idea to check out.

So off we went...

We took US Highway 40 (the old national road), down to the junction of HWY 3 and turned right. We stopped for lunch at Rushville and the lady hit a couple of antique shops.

Then it was back on the road...52 took us to the 121 turnoff and to Laurel.

The very first time we went through the town, we missed it completely. Turning around we came back and found the street and at the end of two lonely blocks was the White Hall Tavern...or what remained of it.

It seems that a fire had SEVERLY damaged the upper (haunted) section of the building, in 2006 and someone was either in the very very slow process of rebuilding, or salvaging the building.

We pulled off to take a look and explored.

The front of the tavern, (the damage is evident on the second floor, and there is a half -hearted attempt to fence off the entrance, I merely went around the side of it)...

The lady on the steps, enjoying the shade...

( A close up of some of the 2006 fire damage)...

(Myself at the top of the passenger steps...)

(Up these stairs the passengers would go, to the tavern for a meal, or drink, or a room for the night...)

We stayed for a bit, but found no ghosts, no crying infants, nobody even around to talk to about the local legends...The only inhabitant I saw was the back end of a fat grey cat crawling into a hole opening into the basement of the building...Ah well...

And so we left, marking one local Indiana Ghost Lore Legend off in our little travel book of things to see and do and driving back home to rest and tomorrow to begin anew on painting little toy soldiers!!!!

~finis...

More figs painted.

Finally have gotten in the mood to sit down and paint figs this week, and so far have finished approx 30 15mm figs, including hostages, a mortar and crew, RPG Teams, and small arms infantry.It's good to finally see the number of unpainted figs on my painting table be fewer and fewer.I'm going to try to run a 2 hour session each night to get some done. Here's hoping I'll have a 100 figs done by this weekend and some scenics, and I can update my blog with photos…
It's good to be painting again!

I've started working on the first dedicated stands of "LOA" -("The Lions of Allah"), my militant islamic faction for AK47. They really don't look half bad, and judging by what's been built and painted, they seem to REEEEEAAAAALLY like RPG's...

So that's the game plan this week. 2 hours per night painting figs and hoping to make a decent sized dent in my 15mm lead pile.
I want to be able to clear out what I have on the table in terms of BARF, NDF, LOA, UN, Civvies, etc...and then be able to dedicate myself to the freaking MARPAT and my USMC troops!

Onward I paint....