Hobby Update June 2025

Wow! Half this year has gone by already. Seems like it just started. Its been a busy one on all fronts, probably why it seems to have moved along so quickly.  Also, preparations for TaKtiCon have really started in earnest. TaKtiCon is a local con here in KC Nov 7-9 this year, take a look here .

Books

Finished a couple this month. First off

Not what I thought it was when I bought it, but an interesting book of Viking tales none the less. This translation was difficult to read. Hopefully there is a better one out there.

I also finished this

I have to say, this was a vast improvement over the first book. Though, in retrospect, I think he really needed to set the scene, so to speak, in the first one. The second was excellent, and I was looking forward to the third.

Purchases

June was not a big month for purchases. I picked up a few figures though. First up were some ACW Bucktails in 15mm. When I had gotten the command pack for the VMI cadets it was a mixed pack with 2 sets of Bucktail command as well. So I decided to order some bucktails . I got enough for a couple regts.

I also picked up another sprue of Perry men at arms for my SAGA French. I felt that the 4 figure hearthguard units were just too brittle  so ill bump them up to 6. They should hang around better that way.

Lastly I bought a pack of Victrix early Saxons. I blame Midgard and the Warlord Chronicles for this purchase. Though I had been toying with the idea of an early Saxon SAGA army as well.

Games

Unlike most months I have been able to get some gaming going in June. The first weekend was a Bolt Action Demo game put on by Underfire Bolt Action club down in Peculiar MO. I had been waiting for them to run demos again after a long run of tournaments. Had a good time and learned a lot about game play. I also got in two games of SAGA with my French. Which is always fun. Unfortunately our SAGA Ironman for the 29th fell through, but we still did our league games anyway. All in all, a decent month of gaming.

Painting

This was a decent month overall. I did stay on the plus side v purchases, July won't be as kind.  I managed to get 180 figures done as opposed to 112 purchased. Among those painted were some 28mm Alpini, 28mm Spanish for the WW2 Blue Division, a Few Waffen SS supports, some French knights in 28mm, and a bunch of 15mm Mexican American War stuff, odds and end mostly as I come to a conclusion to the project most likely this week. Here are some pic of some finished products!

Perry French Knights for Saga

More Perry Knights as a Warlord

Perry English bowmen 

A mix of Warlord and Black Tree Roman Command

Pt 1 of Warlords Chobei's Renegades

Pt 2 Chobei and the rest of the renegades

Zenit Miniature samurai

More Zenit bowmen this time

These are Zenit, I think they were stretch goals for the Kickstarter

More Italian Wars

An Italian pike block from Alternative Armies

And that's about it for June See you all next month!

Hobby Update April 2025

 A third of the way through the year already! Wow! Time is certainly flying by. Last month was a pretty good month overall, and a good lead in to the nice weather months. So, lets see what I did this month.

Books

Actually finished a couple this month surprisingly enough after the three I finished last month. I usually have a gap but I was close to finishing one and the other was a shorty.

First up was this one

After watching American Primeval I wanted to learn more about what was touched upon regarding the Mormons and what was going on at that time. Wow, a lot! This is a well written and engaging book about the "conflict" between the Mormons and the US government, well, and anybody wanting to get to California. Eye opening, there should have been quite a few people dangling from a noose, but, there wasn't. Highly recommended.

Then there was this one.

Every once in a while, Instagram will lead me somewhere I did not know I wanted to go. That was the case here. There was a suggested post from a person talking about their struggle in getting their Korean citizenship back. She looked Korean, so I started digging to find out what the deal was, and found she had written a graphic novel about her experience as a Korean child adopted outside Korea, Sweden to be precise. It is an interesting and heart rendering story to be sure.  The ending was not particularly surprising but it was bittersweet none the less. The book really makes you think twice about what's really going on in these adoption centers. 

Purchases

Purchases this month were an eclectic bunch. First off I picked up the starter set for 02 Hundred Hours. I have to say that reading the book about the Bielski's motivated me to do some partisan actions. I thought that would be an interesting game to do that with, and it seems as though it is easily solo-able. 

Wargames Atlantic really has a nice selection of digital prints and I came across one of Basil II The Bulgar Slayer. I have been needing a theme for my Byzantines, and I finally found one. He came in this month from Strange Plastic WA's third party printer. I keep wanting to get a printer but I have held myself back. Not sure how much longer I can do that.

I had purchased some German Grenadiers that were supposed to be out of the box but a complete box, from Noble Knight Games off eBay. When I got them they were 2 sprues short. I contacted them and they handled it right away, sending me a complete unopened box of the same. Now I have plenty of troops to build my Spanish Blue Division.

I also picked up 12 of the new Wargames Atlantic Peasants to build some Ribauds/Brigans for SAGA Age of Chivalry. I like to have some options.

Some additional Bolt Action Items were the Armies of Germany book from eBay (many hobby stores have an eBay store as well), and a mix of British Airborne figures, dice, and pin markers from Goodwill. 

Then lastly I picked up the Warlord Chronicles set of books. I don't know much about Arthur, so I figured Mr. Cornwell's books were as good a start as any. I'm About halfway through The Winter King already!

Gaming

I did manage to get in a game last month! our SAGA league started so there should be a game every couple weeks. In addition I am planning on getting together with the MESBG group in a couple weeks. Things should be looking up in this area.

Painting

This was a very good month for painting despite being sick three weeks ago. You know, I've noticed, at least for me, its not that I get any sicker now that I'm older, but, it takes a good week to recover back to normal afterwards. Anyway, back to painting. Here is what I got done.

222 15mm Italian Wars figures

23 28mm Samurai

3 28mm Romans

The Italian Wars figures complete that project for now. I have what I need for Pavia, and most of what I will need for the rest of the scenarios. I will need to add some Italian foot but those can come later.

The samurai are just figures from my prodigious collection of unpainted samurai, and the Romans were to complete a couple command stands.

Here are some pics of the stuff I finished off with basing and flocking this month.

Silver Bayonet British

Silver Bayonet British

Silver Bayonet British

Silvar Bayonet British

Clan War Crab

Clan War Crab

Clan War

Clan War

Warlord Games mounted Samurai Box from Test of Honour

Same as above

The Silver Bayonet French

The Silver Bayonet French

The Silver Bayonet French

The Silver Bayonet French, the one on the right just screamed Haitian/voodoo to me.

Zenit Ashigaru

Warlord Games onna-bugeisha

Then my favorites, The Seven Samurai from Grey for Now Games

Kyuzo and Heihachi

Gorobei and Katsushiro

Kamari and Shichiroji

and, of course Kikuchiyo

Have no clue what this is, but, it was fun to paint

More Silver Bayonet British

Well, that is it for this month. It was quite productive and fun. I'll see you all next month!

Happy Hobbying!

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.