Finally finished a second PLA fireteam

Well, it's taken me long enough, but I've managed to finish the four modern minis I started painting at the beginning of the month. 

Now that they're done I don't have much to say about them, other than that I'm slightly annoyed i didn't build up the bases a bit more. 

With these done I think I'm one model away from finally trying out Force on Force. Not quite sure what happens if I turn out not to like it...

Anyway, Zomtober starts up again soon, and once again I'm joining in, so watch this space for updates on that!

Baby steps...

As the title may have revealed, I haven't done a huge amount recently - some international travel for work (oooh, get me), my daughter's birthday, and other real life nonsense kept me away from the paintbrushes, and even the superglue, for about a week. I've managed to move my Chinese PLA fireteam just two steps along the painting process, and that's not very interesting so I haven't even got a picture of it.

However! I've had a few models sitting in my paint station part done for a while, and in bits and pieces I've managed to get one of these finished. So, without further fanfare, here is... a second officer for my Bolt Action partisans!

I think this model looks a little bit like Stalin.

I decided that this guy, with his spectacular facial hair and middle age spread, should be a veteran of the Great War that couldn't stand idly by when the Germans turned up for another go. 

Once again, I show my ability to light two
almost identical photos completely differently

For that reason I gave him an approximation of a French WW1 uniform - red trousers and a blue greatcoat. He's only armed with a pistol, so I think I might end up using him as an inexperienced 2nd lieutenant - just enough support to maybe keep a unit in the fight, but hardly any points.

Right then, back to the moderns...

A little bit of progress...

This is a quick update as I'm heading to Amsterdam for work tomorrow so I'm unlikely to post anything else this weekend.

I'm still working on my second Chinese PLA (since I was asked the other day, that's People's Liberation Army) fireteam.

Getting there, slowly...

I figured out that there are 14 stages to these:

1. Cleaning up and sticking to bases
2. Undercoat
3. Basecoat in light blue/grey
4. Camo pattern in green
5. Dark flesh tone
6. Medium flesh tone
7. Light flesh tone
8. Camo pattern in green/brown
9. Build up the base with sand (I'm aiming for tarmac bases)
10. Paint the base, boots and gun black
11. Camo pattern and highlights on base, boots and gun in dark grey
12. Final highlights on gun in light grey
13. Ink wash
14. Light drybrush on camo to make it slightly faded.

I've just done step 8 with these, so they're just over half done, although most of the later stages are quite quick. It's the camo that takes the time, so with only one stage of that left (and it's the smallest bits of pattern) these should be fairly quick from here. I hope.

Time will tell, but I'd love to get these and another fireteam done this month - might be a stretch...

The Challenge - Some Planning

They say that if you want to hear God laugh, you should tell Him your plans.

Fortunately, I've checked my followers list and the almighty isn't amongst them, so I've decided that it's safe to lay out my plans for the Challenge without too much risk of chuckling deities.

Since I have six months, you'd think I would have time to get through quite a lot, but I've seen how quickly I paint, so I'm not going to get suckered in and suggest I'm going to get loads done. 

I'm going to try to focus on some of the projects that have sat around and either barely been started or never got out of the blocks at all, so my plan at this stage is:

September: Get through enough of my modern PLA to finally try out Force on Force. I've had the book since January but have yet to do anything with it.

These are basically done. I just have to add every colour after the first.

October: Zomtober! I painted a respectable horde of zombies last year, so this year I'm going to focus on the survivors I think. Figuring out some way to play a game with them at last would be nice.

November: Napvember! I did this last year and got a dozen napoleonics done. If I can repeat that success this year, I should be able to finally play some napoleonic skirmish games (noticing any kind of theme)?

January, February, March: Not sure yet! I'll either carry on with whichever of the projects above I was enjoying the most, or go for something completely new (riot police? Modern US Army? The Hobbit?), or, you know, something else. I don't want to have things too planned out because I'll be honestly surprised if I stick to the plan for the first three months.

I think I'll also throw in a few wildcards here and there, either to finish something off that I've already started or just for a change.

So there you go. It's a pretty rough outline, and I can only hear the faintest of omnipotent giggles, so I think I might be able to get at least to November before it all goes wrong...

Spotter Spotted!

This is a quick update about a quick bit of painting! As part of the Challenge, I'm planning to clear some of the half-painted bits and pieces off my desk. These are normally things that I started painting and then lost interest in (because something else was shinier), and sometimes it can be a struggle to get back to them.

The first of these is a partisan spotter for my Bolt Action force.

They're over there!

This chap will be useful as a sniper's mate in the first instance, and could also pull duty as a spotter for a mortar or something if I ever find myself with one.

No, wait, I mean over there!

So there you go! A short post, as promised, but it's all progress. Stay tuned for more of this, but be aware there's no chance that I'll keep this posting rate up...

The Challenge Begins with some 6mm ACW!

The 6 Month Mountain Reduction and Painting Challenge (hereinafter, "the Challenge", for the sake of avoiding carpal tunnel syndrome) is now underway!

Part of the Challenge is to put up at least one blog post per week. 

This clashes with my normal way of posting on the blog recently – where I generally mean to post things, but keep hanging on, thinking that eventually I’ll have something completely finished and that’ll be the ideal time to get out the DSLR and post some nice pictures.

This leads, inevitably, to a dearth of posts around these parts for the last few months.

So, while the challenge is running, I’m going to try something different – a quick post once a week to show whatever I’ve been working on, whether it’s finished or not. Hopefully there will be finished things to write about more often than not.

So then, here’s the first post – and also my first stab at painting 6mm models – an ACW Union brigade for Black Powder.

These are still missing flags, unfortunately – I’ve found some, but I’m having trouble getting them to print in such a way as to still be recognisable at 6mm scale. Once I’ve figured that out, these can be finished off.

I've left quite a lot of space in front of the ranked up regiments, thinking that the empty ground will be an ideal place for casualty markers and the like. Of course, then I've filled that space with loads of foliage, proving that I don't always pay attention to what I'm doing.

So that's your lot for this time! Look out for something else in about a week!