Well it has been a long two months since my last post. Not that I haven't been busy, there has actually been much going on. On May 29th my step daughter was able to finally immigrate from China. She had her interview and received her visa back in December, and we planned on her travelling after the Chinese New Year on February 27. Well, you can guess what happened next! We patiently waited after that for things to hopefully calm down, but they did not. The travel ban was still in effect and It looked as though things were not going to calm down before her visa expired in early June. In Early May, her mother inquired of the attorney that did her paperwork to see what could possibly be done. The chances if her getting a visa extension were probably slim. The attorney said that many of her clients were going to Cambodia for two weeks then coming to America (the key provision in the travel ban was leaving China for two weeks) So, a young woman who had never been out of China made the trip to Cambodia, then Korea, and then the US. She is now a permanent resident, and will start English classes in a couple weeks .
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| The two of us in China last year |
Now, I have been busy painting all this time as well. Painting a little too much it seems. I was out stripping my storage boxes. I literally had trays of stuff ready to go into boxes, and no boxes to put them in. So, it was time to get serious about storage. I had a plan, I just needed to start getting the stuff to implement it. That meant ordering more boxes, and the great inserts from Sally 4th. My storage box of choice is the Really Useful Box (RUB) and, Sally 4th makes a wonderful line of inserts for them specifically. Below is an example of the USA 9L box with one 50mm tray insert and 2 25mm trays.
I did start out lining the trays with the flexible steel sheets. I found that the magnets don't stick to them as well so I did some searching and found some cheap 8x12 sheets of sheet metal. I am much happier with those. This box is housing my 20mm Early WW2 stuff, yeah I'll need at least one more box. I went with a deeper tray on the bottom to house vehicles and such. The boxes do stack nicely in my storage space, and yes, I need more storage space.
As you may be able to see I already have two trays of stuff to be based and some Andalusian spearmen waiting on some shields. So, at this point you may be asking what have you been painting? Well, let us take a look. First up are some 28mm Japanese.
These guys are all from the great Copplestone Castings Back of Beyond Range. In general I really like these sculpts, they are very sturdy, and sculpted with an eye to make them east to paint as well. They are available through Northstar or Brigade Games. I had bought these second hand, and sadly many of the Big Sword Men had a nasty mold line through the face. I have pictured the ones that looked good but there are several others that were not as photogenic. I have experienced mold lines across the top of the flat caps, which are easy to deal with. But, these went across the face, so that was a bit disappointing. I still would not hesitate to buy more of these, The majority I have seen are really clean castings.
Next up, 20mm Marines
These guys are FAA. I really love the variety of sculpts in the range. Sadly the range appears to be in limbo. I tried accessing their site a couple days ago and while I could go to the homepage ok, the Japanese page resulted in an error. Hopefully they are back up soon.
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| Odin The All Father |
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| Saxon Shaman |
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| Rolf the Jolly |
These three are all from the wonderful Footsore ranges. They are really great sculpts and fun to paint. Rolf has been in a previous post, except I had lost that Rolf's hand and sword so I had crafted a new hand from a plastic ashigaru, and a wire spear for a weapon. This Rolf is how he is sold. You can get these guys directly from Footsore in the UK or Footsore North America. In either case you will get great service.
These guys are from the old AEG Clan War Line. First up is the Oni No Kamu, then the next four are from the Legendary Heroes of the Dragon Box This line had some really cool sculpts when you ventured away from the basic soldiery. Their character sculpts are really cool and a blast to pant. The last character is an Ise Zumi, they are known for their tattoos. I decided that I wanted to try waterslide decals for the tattoos. I like how it turned out. The only major issue I see is the restrictions due to the decals being made for fingernails. They don't really conform to the human figure well so it takes some planning. This figure has some very pronounced musculature, but, microsol and microset did their job and made it look like it was formed to him. I did end up breaking the decal under his arm, but the way the design is you can't tell.
Some years ago, I decided to trade in my 15mm Napoleonics for 6mm. Then after having done that, there has been much debate on my part where I was really going with my Napoleonics. At first I was going to use the 6's in a reduced scale version of Napoleon's Battles, but once started I realized the bases were just too small to deal with. I would really need sabots to move the units and so on. so they just sat around. Last year I finally figured out what I was going to do. I was going to keep my 6's for use with Grand Armee doing the huge battles, and I would do the Peninsula in 15mm with Napoleon's Battles. Well the Peninsula was superceded by the 100 days, as I am sure you can tell. These Prussians are from the old TTG line that is now available as the Brickdust line from Alternative Armies. Part of my idea in doing the periods I chose was that I wanted to use these figures. It is kind of a nostalgia thing for me, but I love the look of the guys, and they paint up quite well. These represent most of the regular Prussian Line and Reserve regiments in the First and Second Corps at Ligny. I was thinking when I started that they would be mostly blue coats but, to my surprise, I found that wasn't really the case one you goy past the actual line regiments. That has definitely made painting them more enjoyable, even though I am finding 15s to be a bit more difficult as I age.
Next up some odds and ends
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| Copplestone Castings Back of Beyond Germans Looks like they would be good advisors to the Chinese or something like that. |
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| 28mm Soviet anti-tank riflemen. Not sure of the manufacturer. |
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| Some FAA anti-tank guns and crews by FAA. I really dislike assembling the guns. |
Last, but not least are some Warlord Games Waffen SS in Spring Oakleaf
I find this camo pretty easy to do. I think maybe more green would be in order. I'm just not sure. I am happy with the way they turned out none the less. I used Christy Beall's method for painting it.
As you can see I have my hand in quite a lot. Though there is a method to my madness and it is, despite what it looks like, helping me to narrow down my holdings in some periods. Please feel free to comment. Until next time, stay safe!
