Hobby Update August 2025

 Yet another month has passed. This one seemed a bit slower than the others which was ok because it has seemed as though the year was just flying by.  I imagine things will speed back up soon enough. Well, let's take a look at what went on this last month.

Books

I only finished one book this last month But, it was a really good read.

I had bought this some time ago because the subject intrigued me. I was not disappointed. Excellent book on the Spanish Blue Division and their operations, as well as all the political maneuverings going on between Germany and Spain. I have always remembered  a political cartoon I saw as a teen when Franco died. It was him joining a card game with Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin. Kind of odd in retrospect. I think the subject is way more nuanced than that. But I guess it was the times. I did start some great books and look forward to sharing those when I am done. 

Purchases

I did manage to keep things to a minimum this month. Early in the month I placed an order with Warlord games to pick up some stuff they had on clearance, mostly to fill in my Alpini, and I also picked up the Heroes of Camelot set. I am wanting to do the Arthurian period with Midgard, and they were discounted, so, why not. I also got in a batch of tents for my Pavia game from Noble Knight, as well as about 12' of printed streams for the same. I found a few deals on eBay, like 15 10mm European buildings from Musket Miniatures  which will be great for my 1859-1870 games. I got a good price on a pack of Slaughterloo Elves, and the 1866 rules. I probably won't ever play those  rules but they are valuable for the other things in the book. Organizations, scenarios, etc.

Gaming

Wasn't any gaming this month, Had a tone of other things to concentrate on unfortunately. And with the countdown now for TaKtiCon in November, I'm not too sure how much I'll get in before then. But we shall see how it goes. If you are interested in TaKtiCon the link is here November 7-9 in Kansas City. 

Much of my time has been spent trying to figure out rules so I can get things sorted out, and storage. I have a decent amount of storage but I am running out of space. I started weeding through rules and figuring out what I am going to actually use so I can get rid of some, and get miniatures done for them. That has opened up some space, and I am trying to get my minis organized better. I had a great plan to use RUB 9L boxes with 3 Sally 4th trays.. Unfortunately, when put into practice, I found that the flags were too tall for the 35mm high boxes. back to square one, ruining my plans for this weekend as well.

My next big project, I think I will start in the next two weeks, is lighting down in the hobby room. I had bought some LED can lights last year. Just need to get them in.

Painting

I have known for some time that my painting time was going to take a hit, and that finally happened this month. I am able to get plenty of painting time regardless. I did manage to finish up 175 figures/terrain pieces, which was pretty good, and likely the new norm for awhile. Here are ones I got based and flocked this month. There is usually a month lag between what I paint, and basing, so, this is stuff from July.

I had a free German Grenadier sprue from way back, and my reading (see above) inspired me to build them out as Spanish. I had these 6 I put together, and I have another box and a half waiting for assembly. Warlord makes the decals for the Espana patch which I used on these. I have to say, I don't know who uses all those other tiny patches, but that is way beyond my talents.

Got some old Clan War stuff done as well. Not entirely sure what I am going to do with these, but, they are fun to paint.

Some Warlord Games Alpini weapons teams and support groups

Some Waffen SS weapons teams

A few ACW figs. I was looking at doing New Market and decided I needed  more cav dismounts for both sides, and when I did the figures for VMI, I had to buy a specialty command pack from Stone Mountain. That gave me 2 sets of command for VMI, US Sharpshooters, and Bucktails. I incorporated the 2 sets of VMI command into the Corp of Cadets, the sharpshooters were split, one going as sharpshooters for an already painted unit with no command, and the other as a generic Union command with the long coats. That left the Bucktails, so, I placed an order for some Bucktail figs and made 2 units out of them. Flags are all from Maverick Models.

I had painted these Persians some time ago, but, I was just putting off finishing the shields with LBMS transfers. Not a big fan of how they turned out, but they are slung on the backs so not as visible anyway. Figures are Xyston.

I bought these cool little buildings  second hand so I don't know where they are from. They are 10mm and super easy to build. The timbers and doors are  finished, so you assemble the base house, paint it white, then glue on the timbers and doors, the roof is precut cardstock so you glue that on and you are done. Pretty sweet.

Then last week I got these finished up. I am doing my SAGA Age of Chivalry stuff rather generic so I can use stuff for more than one army. As I said above, I am running out of space.

Well that is pretty much it this time. I always start looking back and see that I did more than I was thinking I had. That was the case again. Well I will see you all next month!

End of Year Roundup

 The end of 2020 has come and gone and I am just as behind as I have been. I had planned on getting this posted a three weeks ago, but, I was really more interested in painting. In fact I have been on a tear of sorts. I closed out the year strong and have painted roughly 260 figures since the start of the year. Anyway, we will take a look back at the ones I completed in December.

First up are some Fireforge Byzantine spearmen.

These are multi-part plastic figures and they are very easy to assemble, not a whole lot to them really. Shield designs are all waterslide decals from Battle Flag, specifically made for Fireforge shields. They are a perfect fit. The instructions say that you can cut them a bit larger because the decal material is thin and will conform easily to wrap around the rim. I did not find that to be the case on the first batch. So the red ones were cut close to the edge of the image. They are such a good fit there is really no need to cut them larger. On the blue ones I ended up trimming the excess with a sharp knife. One thing to note, the shield bosses will need to be cut off and sanded down. I did try to microsol a shield over the boss but it was pulling the image apart too much. I still have a bit to learn about working with plastics as far as cleanup and what to leave off till after painting (shields). The square bases come with the figures. 

Next up is the culmination of my 15mm ACW Project. These first guys are just some odds and ends I had, a mix of Essex and Old Glory. The marching guys that are Battle Honors.

Union Troops from Battle Honors

Essex and Old Glory

Confederates from Battle Honors

I am glad to wrap up this project that I started some 32 years ago. I think I easily have enough stuff to do any ACW battle (both sides) with Fire & Fury Brigade. I'll be looking forward to getting these guys back on the convention circuit as soon as that ramps up again.

I have mentioned in a couple blog posts that I have been doing some repaints for this project as well. Here are the ones I did in December.

They are a mix of everything under the sun. Minifig, Stone Mountain, Old Glory, and a few others I don't recognize. The flags were all printed from Warflag since I did not want to buy a set just to get a few flags. I had bought these figures painted after seeing a few pics, and after getting them I decided I wasn't happy with the painting so I soaked them off their bases and went to work on them. I mostly copied the original color scheme just used the colors that were close that I had on hand. They turned out ok given the circumstances They will be good filler for the masses of Confederates.

I also got in a few samurai

These are all Old Glory 28mm. Just a mix of random stuff. The sashimono transfers are from Battle Flag. It is the Uesugi Ryu. They look too small on the sheet but are a great fit on the figures.

The last painting entry for this post is the Washington Baltimore Regiment for the Mexican American War

They are Old Glory 15's. They have a nice range of figures and you will see much more coming up in my next post, since that is mostly what I have been painting.

I am a little behind in this next part (well not if I figure it being Chinese New Year), but, I am going to review my goals for last year and set some new ones for 2021. So lets first take a look at the best laid plans.....

Finish the game room - the biggest parts will be the table (mostly deciding on size and the construction), and adding can lights, the lighting is atrocious.

Base/Rebase 6mm Napoleonics. I have piles of painted/unbased as well as based stuff that I want to base for Grand Armee.

Finish my SYW project - Need to do some French heavy horse, Saxons, and the Brits/Allies

Finish my 28mm WW2 Chinese and Japanese.

Continue my WSS project.

Continue my Mexican American War project.

Assemble 28mm Feudal Japanese Buildings

Assemble Chinese buildings. 

Ok well that was pretty much an epic fail as far as these goals go. The first three got nowhere, four is mostly done, 5 never got going, six was a success, 7 and 8 went nowhere as well.

So lets set some attainable goals for 2021

1. Continue my Mexican American War Project
2. Continue my Early WW2 Project
3. Continue my ECW project, maybe complete it
4. Start my WSS project
5. Continue my 100 days project
6. Start doing my 15mm ancient armies

Yeah I know, I have not done too well the last two years when I have set goals, but this year will be different. I have already this year made serious inroads on the MAW project, completing 8 units, and I'll have several more done by summer. I have two ancient armies in the queue already, the ECW stuff was rebased for Baroque last year, and I got a spreadsheet together showing what I needed to complete for Marston Moor (mostly Scots). I have a huge bin of primed 28mm which I'll fit in to break up all the uniforms. And who knows, I may get to some terrain. I do have several home improvement tasks for the spring and summer so we will have to see how that impacts things in the long run. That is all for this round. I hope you all have a safe a prosperous year, and lets hope we can all get back together again doing this thing we love.

More From The Painting Table

It has been some time since I posted last. I have not gamed and in fact my painting has suffered as well. Its been a busy summer and we are preparing for our trip to China. Speaking of China I have painted some Chinese. First up are some heavy weapons for my Bolt Action/ Chain of Command Warlord Chinese.

These guys are all Copplestone Castings, from the Back of Beyond range. I really like the figures. Clean sculpting and kind of chunky. The mortar crew is my favorite. I love the guy sitting in the back eating. The machine gun goes together weird, but, I managed to make it look good. And, if one has a Warlord army you mush have a Warlord!

This guy is Copplestone as well. I really enjoyed painting him. While we are on the subject of Chinese, here are some Chinese undead/zombies!

These were really fun to paint. Took me some time to figure out what I wanted to do with them. Once I did they were a joy to paint. These are the old Black Hat range now sold by Scotia Grendel. They are part of the Tales of the Dragon Kings line. I had picked these up some time ago when Bad Squiddo was clearing them out.

Speaking of Bad Squiddo, here are some of the Onna Bugeisha in their range.

These are the original line not the last Kickstarter. I always have trouble with samurai to start. I don't want to do units, because they did not do that ( yes there are some rare exceptions). So I have to sit and stare at them for a while, as well as digging through books and internet images till my mind is stoked. Then off I go. These are nicely detailed and crisply cast. They are definitely fun to paint. Bad Squiddo makes a nice line of " Believable" female figures in a variety of periods. You should check them out. I do have the Kickstarter Onna Bugeisha in the painting queue somewhere (its rather long) so you can look forward to seeing them sometime.

 This next guy is from the Test of Honour Warring Clans range. He is Honda Yoshihito. 

I think I got him free as a promotion from Footsore Miniatures. If you are not familiar with Footsore Miniatures, they have a great Dark Age range. I have posted some Goths before. They also have the wonderful Warring Clans range for Japan, Gangs of Rome, Test of Honour, and the New Mortal Gods range and rules for hoplite warfare. Great stuff all around. I have Gangs of Rome, as well as Test of Honour, I just need to get around to playing them both. Definitely some good stuff there and well worth checking out.

Heading back to WW2 I have some 20mm US Paratroopers from FAA Miniatures. Here we have some weapon teams.

I am really liking 20mm for WW2 skirmish. I think the ground scale looks more realistic and the size means I can get a whole army in one box. FAA has some nice clean figures for the period and I like them a lot. Hopefully they stay around long enough to get more. The figures do match up well with Early War Miniatures and Dixon so fillers are not a problem.

Next up is my Lufwaffe Field Division squad. Typical Warlord Games fare. These I received in a Model Box last year. I enjoyed painting the camo. Once you figure out the method it goes pretty smooth.

I did them in the splittermuster style camo since they are Luftwaffe troops. I had to improvise on the machine gunner. The bipod was missing from the box and the MG barrel was breaking just past the magazines. So i stuck a rock under the weak spot and added extra super glue to keep it all in place.

Last but not least are some 15mm ACW repaints. I am repainting them because the painted minis I bought were not up to my standards upon getting them. ACW confederates are pretty simple so I just decided to redo them.

These are a mix of several manufacturers, Old Glory, Stone Mountain, and Minifig for the majority. I think they all mix well together, particularly since people are a variety of heights and widths. These guys are close enough in size to fit rather nicely together. They are based for Fire & Fury. I use the deeper bases allowed for in the original rule book. Since I have both sides it's no problem matching them up with the Union troops. I keep the flocking simple on these guys. That way it matches the bases I did some 30 years ago.

Well that is all for now. I'll be on vacation soon so the next post will probably cover that trip featuring the sights of Beijing and Manchuria.