Results for August

Right then! End of August, let's see where we got.

First off, the target was the baggage train, which was finished and showcased in the last post.

Then, I did the extra models I listed in order to fill the remaining gaps on infantry bases (this ended up being 4 hastati, 4 principes and 5 triarii)

Then, as an added bonus, 8 musicians! I already had 8 of these painted up to use as disorder markers for Impetus. With the extra 8 done I now have 16, which allows most of my army to get disordered. Sadly, this is all too likely.

Next month's target is going to have to be small as I'm going to have very little time for painting. So, I'm going for 7 SWAT officers, 5 criminals, and a couple of pieces of furniture. All of this is for Flashbang, the close quarter battle game I've been writing. More on that soon!

Yippee-ky-yay, muddyfunsters!

After last night's "I dunno, should be able to do this but there's not much time left" post, I'm a bit smug today.

Thanks to the motivational powers of John McClane, I've got my goal for August done!

"If I can illuminate this entire ventilation shaft with just a cigarette lighter, you can get your models painted!" 

Alright, that's a bit cryptic. Basically, Die Hard came on TV after I posted last night. Mrs Matt went to bed, so I watched the whole thing in the spare room while painting, and got the baggage train all but finished - I just had to wait for some glue to dry from adding sand to the base.

The baggage train awaiting foliage

I made time this evening to finish it off. The base was painted up and drybrushed, and I varnished the whole thing. You might be able to tell in the photo above that the varnish left some white bits. I haven't had this happen before but I've seen it affect other people's models, and it's a pain. Supposedly it comes from water in the air when spraying the varnish (I knew it looked like rain out but I wanted to get it done!) and you can counter it by spraying again. I didn't want to risk that though, so I touched up the discoloured areas - fortunately there weren't many - and added the foliage. 

The final effect is quite nice if I do say so myself (and I do)!

The slave girls of a merchant, along with other wares, are offered at the roadside as the army advances

Flanked by his lictors, a senator pontificates. The officer's helmet covers his face, so we can't see how bored he is...

Some baggage has been unloaded here already, as more arrives on the cart

The precious supplies, including the legate's personal money chest, are carried on a cart guarded by the veteran triarii

The finished scene from above....

... and my original design from the start of the month.

I would also have a photo here of the command marker that I've finally finished off, but the blogspot photo uploader keeps crashing and I don't care that much.

What do I do for the rest of the month then? Well, I don't expect to have a lot of free time, but I do have the following to do to "finish off" this army:

4 principes

4 hastati

4 triarii

That might be a bit ambitious, but I'll see what I can manage in August...

Time moves on...

... and we're now two thirds of the way through August. Fortunately, I think I'm more than two thirds of the way through my objective of completing the Baggage Train.

At the moment I've got most of the models onto the base, and most of the base is itself modelled up and painted. I still need to finish off the contents of the cart, and probably add some ink to the oxen. I also need to paint the mounted officer (I'm doing him in the same colours as the rest of the army, so it's going to be a bit ambiguous what his status is - prisoner? Advisor? General? This is exactly as planned since I want it to "make sense" whoever I play against).

I have decided to increase my own workload slightly and include the drover model, which I trimmed a little to make him seem less "medieval". It just seemed wrong to have the cart moving along without anyone steering it. I'll hide him alongside one of the oxen so I don't think he'll draw the eye much.


So, my workload, with just over a week left (although not much free time unfortunately!) is:

Finish the contents of the cart
Ink the oxen
Paint the drover
Finish the mounted officer
Stick on the drover, officer, and two remaining lictors
Model up and paint the rest of the base
Varnish everything
Add foliage

Shouldn't be too hard provided I can find time to work on it, and leads nicely to a game I have scheduled with these guys on the 1st of September...

Well, since everyone else is...

Seeing as Kieron and Rich have been talking about the rules they're writing, I'll add something about mine.

So... I'm writing some rules called Flashbang. This started out as an idea to be able to do small-scale SWAT team actions, but now I suspect I'll end up with all sorts of variants. Topically, I've bought some rioters and riot police (I actually bought these a while ago, but only started putting them together on Saturday, shortly before the London riots started. Spooky, eh?), so I'm going to try to work out some rules for those too, but that's probably a different game altogether.

Anyway, Flashbang. I've tried to come up with a way to handle SWAT and suspects surprising each other while the players can still see everything. I played a test game with Kieron last week which has led to me seeing some areas that need change... and there's another test game scheduled for the weekend, so hopefully I can make some more progress with it.

And, just to keep me busy, I'm also running an RPG campaign at the moment which I've set in modern day Sheffield and have to write before each session... 

That enough excuses for my slow painting yet?

More baggage train progress

Well, another week has gone by since I posted last, and I've made some progress so I'd better keep you fine people appraised of developments....

I've got the first few models onto the base and modelled the base around them, and then stuck on some more models that aren't finished yet.

Starting to come together...

Having done the base under the cart, I've stuck it to the base. I've also done the oxen apart from ink, so I've stuck them in place and put the yoke onto them.

As you can see from the photos the yoke isn't painted yet - I didn't want to do it until it was stuck on since I know I'd just rub the paint off as I stuck it in place.

I've modelled the base underneath the cart, so I've stuck the cart on to finish painting it.

The slave girls and the camel were done, and I don't need to put anything else on that area of the base so I've modelled and painted it up.

The slave girls and camel are done, so I've modelled the base around them.

You can also just see the corner of the command marker I made last month - I've just finished off the base for that but brilliantly haven't taken a proper photo of it so, you know, just imagine it.

Baggage Train Progress

This is just a quick post to give an update on how I'm doing with this month's goal, the baggage train.

I'm actually doing better than I expected - I have most of the models on foot painted now:

From left to right: the senator, 2 slave girls, and 3 lictors

The only foot model unpainted is the drover, and I'm still undecided about using him.

These will be added to the base individually and then the ground around them filled in, once I've done the models already on the base. Speaking of which, I've added some putty to the base, leaving space for the other models to go on, and started painting the models already glued there:

It's not easy deciding what colour to paint a camel

I think I've decided against sticking the mounted Greek on before he's painted.

So this leaves me with the following to do:

1 ) Finish off the camel and the baggage on the base
2 ) Put the foot models onto the base
3 ) Model the base around each of the foot models
4 ) Paint the cart and oxen
5 ) Put the cart and oxen on the base
6 ) Paint and stick on the drover if I use him
7 ) Model the base around the cart
8 ) Paint the base
9 ) Stick on foliage etc.
10) Varnish

Shouldn't be too hard, surely?