Hobby Update February 2025

 I had set a goal for myself to post at least a monthly update, yeah, well, I was sick the end of January, then busy catching up from that. This time I am a bit slow but sort of timely anyway. So lets get started!

Books

I usually have several books going at once, typically 4, but currently 5. I did finish a couple good ones last month. First was Kearney's March by Winston Groom. A well written popular history of the period 1846-47. Lots going on with the beginning of westward expansion, and the Mexican War. If you are looking for some lighter reading on the period I'd recommend it. 

The other book was Schindler's List. I never like to get my history from movies, so after watching the movie again in January I picked this up off eBay. While the movie does follow a lot of details from the book, there is a ton more in the book to explore. Particularly several characters in the movie, and who they were composites of. Quite a good read for those with interest in The Holocaust.

Purchases

I kept these to a minimum in February. Mostly supplies. I have been trying to add a few bottles of speed paint because I am really enjoying painting with them, particularly my 15s. I did pick up the Bolt Action v3 rule book, I plan on getting into that sometime this year.  Another purchase was this 3D printed Italian villa.

At this point everything is loose so I'll end up using one of the buildings, sans porch, for the Mirabello in my Pavia game later this year.

I also picked up some Alpini Wepons teams for Bolt Action the Haleth and Hama box set for MESBG off an eBay retailer

I also found some Bolton Flayed Men on Goodwill

I'm not 100% sure what I am doing with all the GOT stuff I've picked up over the last couple years. I may try out the game, I may even do them for Midgard. We will see what happens. The figures are really cool though, and should be really fun to paint.

Gaming

This will be short, none. I have been kinda busy, and the last three weekends have been taken up with basing. Mostly what you will see next.

Painting

Painting in February went really well. About what I can expect from here till retirement anyway. I managed to get 196 figures painted. A bunch of odds and ends really. Had to take a break from my Pavia figs because I ran out of primed figures. I was able to prime again last week and got a couple boxes primed so I'll have more to paint for that project in the upcoming weeks. I did run out of primer so that's on this months shopping list.

It sometimes takes me a month or two to get basing done on figures that I have painted so this part will always be behind in that respect. First up, some Numenorians for MESBG

Isildur, Elendil, and a King of Men

A Last Alliance Army would not be complete without some Elves

Elrond

More Elrond

Gil Galad from Davale

Elven Guard by Davale

Of course there are more of the plastic Elves and Men, they just all look the same. The Davale stuff I got off Etsy 3D printed. I could not pay the prices for that horrid GW Gil Galad, not to mention the fact most of the spears break at the hands. This seemed like a better and more dynamic option. I am thinking my next ME army will need to be Mordor.

Next is the Spanish Unit for Silver Bayonet

I really enjoyed painting these. Mostly used something resembling the slap chop method. They are a mix of speed paint and acrylics. Then I also have a Ranger for Rangers of Shadow Deep.

He is a nice figure, that came with the last book they put out. It'll probably be awhile before I play either of these since I have no monsters. Had a good time painting them none the less.

I also did a few of the metal Alpini from Warlord Games.

These dudes are so easy to paint. It helps that the main webbing is the same color as the uniform. 

Last are some tanks for the Spanish Civil War

Minairons vehicles

Resin Panzer 1s

A Metal Pz 1. This sucker is hefty.

T-26s this one is captured and reused by the Nationalists

These were fun to paint, once I got things right. You see, the Pz 1s were all painted panzer grey. That is, till I saw a post in a SCW FB group showing them in a three color camo. After a little research I found that yes, they did use camo during that period. They turned out ok in the end. Just needed a little extra work.

Well that's all I have for this month. see you all next time!

Latest From The Workbench

 Well it has been a couple months since I posted any painted stuff. I have had these guys done for a few weeks but just hadn't got to taking any pictures . In fact, I am getting ready to start basing a huge Sea Peoples army and some other 20mm WW2.  Anyway lets get on to what's done now.

First up some Myceneans!

All these guys are from the old Bull Dancer range. They are 25mm rather than the popular 28mm, but, they are really nice sculpts. I have the ones shown here, and about 10 others I had painted previously. My yearly pleas for more have mostly fallen on deaf ears, that is until this year. My plea on TMP was responded to by the original owner. He said the masters were in the hands of Ral Partha Legacy. Contacting them, I found out that they are in fact working on new molds and some fixes to some of the masters. So there is some hope that I can get my hands on more of these guys fairly soon.

These two guys are from Footsore Miniatures. The one on the left is a promachos, and a lochagos on the right for the Mortal Gods range and they are cast in resin. Now I'm not too sure how big a fan of resin that I am, but these were really nice detailed figures and they have some sturdiness to them.

Next up some mounted Dead of Dunharrow.

This just about completes my Army of the Dead, just need to get ahold of a banner bearer. I have plenty of warriors, the king, and the three hunters so I can almost call this one done.

I have also been working on terrain 

I have been working on some of the 4Ground terrain I have bought in the past. These are part of the Japanese Gates and Fencing pack. super easy to assemble, and prepainted. I have to take a moment to talk about the basing material. I used the same material on these fences as I did on everything posted above it. It is the Mediterranean Soil mix from Lukes APS. This stuff looks great and has a great mix to it. I will certainly be using this stuff for my 28mm figs in the future.

Last up this time around is the Third Prussian Corp for the 100 Days campaign.

These guys are all the old TTG line now manufactured by Alternative Armies. I am doing this project and basing for Napoleons Battles. The two exceptions to the NB basing scheme are the artillery (I hate those skinny bases the guns hang off of), and the cavalry (Just cut them in half, so two bases equal one in NB). This is a nostalgia project more then anything that will morph into the Peninsula as well. Third Corp included the Russo-German legion troops. I did them in Russian uniforms, may or may not be accurate but it is a definite break from the boring Prussian uniforms. Flags for the line units are from fighting 15s, the Landwehr flags are all downloaded from Warflag.

Well that is all for this time. Hopefully I'll have another post soon.

Latest From the Workbench

 Wow! It's been three months since my last post. Not that I haven't been busy with the hobby and all. I have been quite busy, painting that is. I took a break from gaming after the Recruits convention to focus on some painting, and of course basing the massive pile of stuff I have done over the last several months, it was rather substantial as you will see today, and over the next few weeks. Basing is, and has been, a bugaboo for me. I love the end result, just dislike the journey. Thus, I had a massive amount of figures piling up as I procrastinated in my basing. Finally, having run out of space to store the as yet unbased figures, I got down to business.

First up is the awesome Freya figure from Bad Squiddo Games. Annie has a great range of shield maidens and some other misc figures for the period. I had gotten Freya long ago, and when thinking about what I was going to do with her, I wanted something to add to her base. She is a goddess after all. I decided on the cats, also from Bad Squiddo. In researching the cats, I discovered that there were these actual, enormous cats called Norwegian Forest Cats! Who'da thought they were real? One of the things I enjoy about this hobby, is discovering things that I had never heard of before. That was certainly one of them. Then I took a trip to Middle Earth!

The Army of the Dead, led by the King of the Dead. I never thought I would venture into any GW game, however, this one is rather stable, without incessant changes to the rules. I picked up the Pelennor Fields starter kit, and after a little research I decided to start my journey with these guys. After watching a couple tutorials on youtube I got them going, and had them done in no time at all. In case anyone is wondering, here is the method I ended up using.

White Primer

After that I picked out some colors on some of the figures such as steel, brass, and the red color on the king.

Heavy coat of contrast warp lightening

Light drybrush of white

Lightly watered down warp lightening

The lighter color guys were my first batch, and I wanted more of the darker green rather than a minty great so I did not thin the final wash as much. I was really happy with the outcome. I have added a few cavalry to the army but they have not been painted as yet. Need to do some seam filling before I can get those done.

What would the army of the dead be without the three hunters?

Gimli, Aragorn, and Legolas from the GW Three Hunters Pack. Sculpted to look like they did while chasing the Uruks across Rohan. They are plastic and require some assembly, which is pretty simple. They are very nice figures, and quite detailed. I'll be looking forward to getting all of these on the table in January. There is a very active MESBG group here in KC. 

Then I was on to 20mm WWII

A mix of Wehrmacht, Volksturm, late war panzer grenadiers, and tank crews. All the figures come from FAA. The late war PGs were of particular interest. All armed with the STGs, some with IR sights, some of the single shot flamethrowers, as well as the rocket launchers. Some pretty cool stuff really. Nothing really coherent here, just a bunch of packs I had picked up in a larger lot.

Then there were some Japanese and Marines to fill out the almost completed armies. The intention, is to use these with CoC. Again, all figures from FAA.

Last, but not least, my Italians. Setting these guys up for early WW2 Balkans, primarily. I can see them getting drafted for the eastern front as well. Once again, these are FAA miniatures. I really like their ranges. They are fairly well detailed and easy to paint without too much effort.

And now I'll wrap this post up with some ancients.

15mm Ptolemaics from Forged in Battles War & Empire line. These are really nice figures, and paint up rather well. To be quite honest, these had been painted for quite some time now, and I had put them off due to the shield transfers. I thought they would be a pain, and I was correct. I had for some reason, decided to base a rank first, then do the shields, base the front rank and repeat. I don't know what I was thinking, but, that was a horrible way of doing things. In hindsight, I should have done the transfers before basing, it would have been easier.  It still would have been a pain though. I bought the transfers from Little Big Men Studios.  I don't know how things are sized, but overall these shield designs were not good. The fit was bad, the shields are not sculpted well on the phalangites so the transfers would not lay down correctly, just a bad experience overall. Micro-Sol helped to get them to form to the shield better, but I wasn't too happy with them. The phalangites need to have hands drilled for the pike. These were the only figures in the army that needed that.  The army is based for Impetus.

That is all for this time. I'll probably have a short year end post up this weekend, we can then see if I met my goals for the year and see what the goals will be for the coming year.