Wrapping up 2018

2018 was a time of change and transition. I left my life long home in Southern California for the Kansas City area. This disrupted even more, an already disrupted hobby. It took several months for things to get sorted out. I am still sorting some things out, but, overall, my hobby space is set up and I am ready to blast into 2019 full bore. I found a group of people to game with, and there are several gaming conventions in the area each year. In addition there are a number of historical sites I have yet to visit and, all the other activities a large city has to offer. 

Painting 

I had previously posted  some things I had painted this year. Here I will add to it. First up are some Old Glory 25mm Japanese Monks. These guys are fairly simple, since they live an ascetic lifestyle their clothes are devoid of much decoration, though their outer smocks tend to be brightly colored.

I did have a good time painting them. I plan on using them for the Ronin/Diasho/TOH trio, as well as larger battles with a Lion Rampant variant. I also did some Ninjas of Iga for ToH.

 I liked painting these as well. I wasn't too sure on dry brushing the black but it turned out decent. The next group are for my 15mm Mexican American War project. Here I have the Mississippi Rifles militia unit for the Americans, the cuirassiers of the Mexican army, and some dismounts for the US Dragoons. The militia are Minifig, the cuirassier and the dragoons are Musket Miniatures.

Net up are some El Cid Spanish foot for Saga/Lion Rampant. When I bought these the person had them listed as Saxons. So when I had painted the first batch back in 2017 and posted them, someone pointed out that they were Crusader Miniatures Spanish. That was fine with me anyway because I had already started  collecting cavalry for that army.

Next up are some 20mm Fallschirmjager. They are FAA figures. Since they are all wearing "Bone Sacks" I painted them up for Crete. There are some later war armaments in there so those guys can't be in Crete, but, everyone else can.

I plan on using these guys for Bolt Action and Chain of Command. I like this scale rather than the 28mm, though I do have 28mm armies as well, it just gives a better look as far as ground scale goes. Next, are some 20mm SCW Carlist Requetes.

 I really like these figures. They are from the HPC line. Unfortunately they are really too big to mix well with the Minairons figures. Since I have a decent quantity of the HPC figures I plan on playing more Bolt Action/Chain of Command games with these, and using my Minairons stuff for Bayonet & Ideology. Hopefully the guy that has the HPC stuff gets that back into production before too long. Last, but not least, are a few French and Indian War Coureur de Bois.

These will see use in Musket & Tomahawk games, and who knows, maybe the new Osprey rules that are coming out soon.

Looking Ahead to 2019

There is lots to look forward to in 2019. We have a trip to northern China planned for the fall, The Nelson Atkins Art Museum in KC has an exhibition on Napoleon, plus some possible trips to Wilson's Creek and Pea Ridge. As far as my hobby, I definitely have plans and goals to set. First off I plan on doing the "Ultra Pledge" put forth by Mark Severin aka Extra Crispy. Said pledge consists of not purchasing any miniatures, or terrain in the coming year. You can buy basing materials and such but no actual minis or terrain features. While there are some things I would like to pick up, I need to do a reset on my hobby and get it to the point where things are not backed up for years. My painting will continue to be somewhat eclectic, at least for the first half of the year, as I clean up all my odds and ends stuff that was lying about. But, here are a few goals that I have ready to go and in the painting queue;

15mm ECW Rebasing for Baroque and finishing the rest of my figures

Finishing my 28mm WW2 Japanese project

Finishing my 28mm WW2 Warlord Chinese army

Rebasing my 15mm Feudal French and Classical Indians for Impetus

Put together my Gangs of Rome Starter kit.

Assemble and paint my 28mm Shogunate Japanese buildings

Play a game at least twice a month. (board or mini)

Finish basing my SYW project

Base/Rebase my 6mm Napoleonics for Grande Armee

Blog much more

Improve my writing, so it is more enjoyable for you lot to read.

In addition I should be able to at least start my 15mm WSS  project, continue the Mexican War project, and maybe delve into ToH as well. Looks like it will be a busy, but fun, year ahead. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope you found it interesting. I hope that you all have a wonderful and blessed New Year!

Newly Finished........

I have not posted in quite some time. I have not really had much gaming/painting time the last few months so some stuff has just been sitting. I thought I would post up some 28mm stuff I finished flocking. I really enjoy what can be done on the bases for these guys.  First up are some Warlord Winter Germans. I really liked the snow effect, especially where I did a tuft or two. Originally I was not going to white wash the helmets but gave in to reality. I am not a fan of the pristine white uniform. Having been an infantryman in Alaska yeah even though there is snow you still get dirty, especially over and extended period of time.

Next up are some Highlanders from the Muskets and Tomahawks range. They are really nice figures. They painted really easy with the exception of the tartan. Wow, that was an ordeal. I first attempted to follow the technique Christy Beall uses in her youtube video (her videos are pretty awesome), and I failed miserably. So I came up with something that saved me from repainting, and still gave a kinda tartan look.

Next up are some Saxons. Not sure of the manufacturer. They were supposed to be Foundry but I could not find the poses on their website, there are some Black Tree Design mixed in there for sure. Unfortunately, buying them second hand they did not have any weapons so I used spears for the most part.

Here is a small group of Wargames Factory plastic Saxons. I think the poses come out odd at times but they are otherwise ok. They are very easy to build. I highly recommend a brush on polystyrene cement such as the Plasticstruct Bondene. There were two more, but, when I took them out side to blow off the loose flock before dullcoating I blew too hard and two of them went flying. Upon meeting the concrete they both exploded..... lesson learned.

Last but not least is a small group of Samurai. These are from the Old Glory range. I did kind get bogged down on them a bit when painting, but once I got my head wrapped around them they went very well. Simple to pant and I like the way they turned out.

That is all for now. Thanks for taking a look at my efforts. I will probably be posting soon about the Miniwars convention that occurred here in Southern California last weekend in the next day or so.