Long Two Months, Lots Getting Done!

 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 . 

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 Brigade Games WW2 line. I really like the figures. They are nice and sturdy. Good animation, and really easy to paint. The best part is that they require little cleanup.

The Next group are some 28mm Chinese from the Warlord Era.

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.

Odin The All Father

Saxon Shaman

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

Copplestone Castings Back of Beyond Germans Looks like they would be good advisors to the Chinese or something like that.

28mm Soviet anti-tank riflemen. Not sure of the manufacturer.

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!

Working From Home = More Time Painting

Working from home the last 6 weeks has certainly had its advantages. Breaks and lunch can be spent painting, and since no driving is involved I can work a little later, or have more free time once work is done. This has, of course, led to more minis getting done. Hurrah! So, thus follows the latest off the painting table.

First up are the marvelous figures from the latest Skull & Crown Miniatures Kickstarter Triumph of Death II - Apocalypse. I was in love with these when I first saw the KS and I was not disappointed when they arrived .Beautifully sculpted and cast. I loved every minute of working on these. Plans are a sort of undead Pike and Shotte skirmish type game. We will see how that develops. I have some halberdiers, crossbowmen, and pikemen to paint yet.

Part of one of the command sets

Part of the command set above

The three photos above are a variety of arquebusiers from the KS

These six figures were all stretch goals, the Bishop looking one was a favorite of mine.

Even dead Landsknechts need someone to keep them in line

These two pic are another command set. I really liked this set.

And of course the reason I bought into the KS to start with, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I was quite happy with the color I achieved on the pale horse for Death. 

If you like these minis you can find them at the Skull and Crown Webstore They are also starting the Killer Rabbits II KS soon so if you are into anthropomorphic animals that might be of interest. Not sure when that is coming, it said soon.

Next up is a group from the Stoessi's Heroes range. I picked up a few for commanders and the like. A couple I just liked them and wanted to paint them. They have a pretty cool range of figures depicting notable individuals from WW2. If interested you can find them in their webstore

Lt Spears, and Lt Compton from Easy Company

Fallschirmjager Lt Erich Lekpowski and Oberstleutnant Walter Koch

Marine Cpl Tony Stein and Japanese 2LT Hiroo Onoda

Devils Brigade Canadian Sgt Tommy Prince

I had a good time painting these they are well sculpted and cast very nicely. Definitely worth getting. Now the caveat, if you are picky about size you will need to be careful. The Fallschirmjager and the Japanese LT are, IMO, pretty comparable to Warlord, Brigade Games, etc. The BoB guys and Stein are a little bigger, the BoB guys being heftier rather than taller, Stein being a bit taller but not so much he would not fit in. Tommy Prince however, is tall. I don't know if dude was super tall in real life or not, but this figure is really too tall to fit in properly with 28s.

Next is a selection of 20mm Dutch for my Early War project. Mostly a sampling I did paint more than these. Figures are from SHQ. Outside of Minairons, these are the nicest 20mm figures I have worked on. I'll definitely go this route with the Belgians and other troops I still need.  It looks like the range has been sold and moved to a new website as of last week. You can find the new website here. 

A machine gun and an anti-tank rifle

Section of mortars

A selection of poses, regular infantry

This next group are some Kuni Witchhunters from the old AEG Clan Wars range. These are from the Crab Clan. I don't play Clan Wars, though I think I have enough stuff to play it. These will go well in other skirmish games as well as Frostgrave I would think.

I got rid of the square bases they come with, for some more aesthetically pleasing round ones I got off ebay. For some reason I just like round ones better.

Next up are some Footsore Goths

Footsore has a pretty awesome range of metal figures. Lots of detail, well sculpted and cast. I love them. I do need to get more Goths to finish off my army though, probably this summer.. Check them out here 

I was somewhat hesitant to post this next guy even though he is really cool. You see I missed cleaning up some of the mold line and its glaringly obvious in the pics. I'll have to go back and fix that section.  One thing about washes, they really show stuff like that.

Anyway this is Sgt Rox from Model Box. Model box is a subscription service where you receive monthly a box of miniatures and other sundry items along the lines of a theme. This one was War 2.0, the last months was Barbaric. Anyway you usually get a few figures up to a half dozen, a couple of paints, and some other gaming items. As an example,  I've gotten rulers, dice, and paint brushes. In each box there is included an exclusive mini. Up through last year it was a version of Rox, the Model Box Fox, outfitted to match the theme. This year they have been doing an exclusive mini but not a Rox. Though I think this month the exclusive is a Rox. The exclusive minis have all been resin since this one. Sgt Rox was metal. If you want to check them out, just head over to their website and take a look. Regrettably I ended my subscription, but I was just ending up with too much stuff accumulating. I think the value is there, certainly better for those in Europe because of the postage, but, it was always fun opening it up to see what was in the box each month. They do allow you to skip a month here and there, or sign up for specific boxes if you prefer that.

The next grouping is all Vikings. This first pic is a group of Gripping Beast metal figures. They are ok, I am thinking the molds were getting old because the mold lines were pretty bad. These were the best of the group, Probably not a manufacturer I would buy from again. Too many other, better options.

The rest of the Vikings are ones I got in the Norse Model Box back in 2018, yeah I have a backlog. There were six figures in that box overall, somehow the Freya figure from Bad Squiddo got separated, so I'll show her at some later date, when I get her painted. First up is this bad boy from Lion Tower Miniatures

He is a large figure so he would be fitting as a god or hero in a fantasy setting. I really enjoyed working on him. He is resin, which is an awesome medium to work with, IMO. Next up is a mix of Footsore and Warlord Vikings

Left is Rolf the Jolly from Footsore, Right is a figure from the Warlord Games Viking Warlord pack.

These two are the rest of the Warlord Games Viking Warlord pack

Again, a really nice figure from Footsore, somehow I lost his weapon hand and weapon, he comes with a sword. So I cut off an ashigaru hand in my bits box and used a Gripping Beast spear. So he is a bit different than what you see on their website. The Warlord Games guys are their typical fare. I did really like the guy in the bearskin though.

I finished some additional troops for my Warlord Era Chinese army. These are Copplestone Castings. I really like the range. They are well sculpted, and easy to paint. This group had some pretty bad mold lines though. Probably worn molds.

I am really liking the field drab uniform with the sepia wash. It makes a really good combo. You can buy Copplestone figures from Northstar in the UK, or Brigade Games here in the US. Either way you won't be disappointed. Both outstanding dealers. I did up about 24 figures but I decided that since I had so much to post I would do smaller samples of the more repetitive groups.

Next up some 15mm Mexicans for the Mexican American War. 

These are Musket Miniatures. I really like the figures, but, as seems to be the case in this hobby, someone buys a line from the original owner and they vanish from the face of the earth. There is a website that purportedly works and takes orders, but, the owners can't seem to answer emails, so it will be a hard pass for me. Old Glory 15s are a close match so I'll finish up the project that direction. I think too often we give people running these small companies a pass by saying its a small operation, or its just a cottage industry. I say so what. It's a business. Either you want it to be successful, or you don't. If you are running it as a hobby, why bother. OK rant over, that's a pet peeve of mine.

Last, but not least is this grouping. I got all of these pieces in a large lot of gaming stuff I bought for my ebay store (well technically it wasn't a store back then). Since none of it sold for months on end I just decided to keep it and paint it up.

Not sure the make of the Dwarf, but he had no equipment so, I fitted him with a viking sword and shield. He is now set to explore dungeons, or whatever. I thought the middle two would make ok terrain or markers of some sort, and the dino I just said why not? 

Anyway That was quite a lot of stuff. The next painting post should be just as big. Though it looks like I'll be heading back to the office late this week or early next. Stay safe out there and make good use of your time! I will get part 4 of my China trip up today or tomorrow as well.