So I let the dogs out for their last pee and realised that one again we have hit midnight with a light Sky!
Time for bed methinks!
Midnight in the Simmer Dim
Broken Arrow
This is the Vietnam War iteration of the term as opposed to the lost Nuclear Weapon version.
Now, in case you don’t know, Broken Arrow was a code phrase that meant that meant a unit or position was about to be overrun. When this was heard all aircraft in that area of operations would be scrambled to assist.
So if you remember I showed some Vietnam War engineers and sappers that I printed off… I printed off some more this week. The new ones were missed from the original set.
I started looking at them and an idea formed as I looked at them. How about using them in a diorama. I have a 60mm mortar so my idea is for a VC/NVA force to be overrunning an American position.
This will comprise the mortar pit and crew with a life and death struggle between the combatants.
I have also bought a new set of sandbags and another mortar as the new one has some mortar rounds both in a box and as individuals.
Now right now, I am quite keen to get this started. I am worried that if I don’t get started it will be like the battle of the five armies diorama… yeah that one that never got started, never mind finished.
15mm Japan (and some China)
This evening I glued some more bits and pieces together. The ruined farm house is for my mate. The other stuff is my own shrine.
I have added signs from one of the market stalls to the box shrine and taken the original front to make a gateway. I just wanted it different from my mates version.
My mate Wiggy has said he will return to role playing after his stroke so long as I run Qin. Time to start reading…
A Mobile Shrine
So my mate took his birthday present home with him in the car so I reckon we can class it as a mobile Shrine.
So instead of a pristine shrine, I wanted to go for one that is more run down, hence the faded colours on the building. I also got to work with my home made tufts…
All in all I am quite pleased with how this came out. Next stage trying to repeat it in a scale suitable for 6mm, as well as 15mm too. One day I may even do it in 28mm!
A Small Shrine
It was my mates birthday a couple of weeks ago and as I am seeing him tomorrow I thought I had better getbmy finger out and make him something,
I made him a small Japanese shrine for his 15mm Sengoku Monster Hunter games.
Basically he can put in either the ancient tree trunk or the building. I will add some tufts etc tomorrow.
These pieces come from the newish shrine set.
Back with the Nam
So, I haven’t been posting much lately. This is in part due to laziness and part due to playing too much Ark Survival Evolved.
I did get this lot photographed this evening… the boat crew were printed about 3 weeks ago and the engineers and sappers about two. The latter were taken off the supports this evening and then left in the sun to cure.
This evening I also shrank down and printed some Samurai stuff from 3D Alien print. hopefully you will see a painted example tomorrow.
Gunship
So I did a bit of work on the Hog this evening. I think the windows sort of work. At least you can tell what they are meant to be.
I got the door gunner with some paint on too.
I have reprinted the two I did on the FDM, this time on the resin machine.
Do I Need to Improve?
Be warned, this is probably going to be a rambling, stream of consciousness post. Plus I started writing it a couple of weeks ago now and have edited loads. Hopefully it still makes sense.
So, as you probably know, I print and paint as well as paint purchased miniatures and terrain. As part of this I watch many, many YouTube channels. Quite a lot of them tell me to do x or y to improve my painting. Some go as far as to tell me to try something new.
The question I want to ask is ‘why’?
Now before I start, this is a personal question and I am not telling anyone what to do/not do.
I have been painting miniatures for about 35 years. Over time have I improved… yes of course I have. Over those years have I tried new things, again yes.
I am now in a happy little groove, some may see it as a rut. I love my Contrast paints and pretty much use them all the time. So much so I have ordered a set of the Vallejo xpress range. So in reality I am trying something new 😉
Now what about this question. I recently watched Dave on MS Paints asking a question about why miniatures look terrible..
He made an interesting observation, if your miniature does not look like how you envisaged it from either the box art or your favourite YouTube influencer then you have a 180 degree shift in feeling from good… to crap in a heartbeat. I actually watched a video that auto loaded the other day it was a guy painting yellow and as we all know, yellow is a sod of a colour to paint. Anyway he did a close up and there was paint (shall we say) where it shouldn’t have been and it actually made me happy. It was almost like … Yey someone like me. I didn’t read the comments as I was actually worried the keyboard warriors would be in pointing it out.
I am of the opinion that good enough is good enough for what I want. If I entered competitions then I may feel different. I am an amateur, my painting style is that of an amateur and I will probably happily carry on in this vein until I find a different way to do things.
Just to show that I have made improvements over time, both of these were painted quickly for a game.
I suppose what I am trying to say is that to my knowledge I am not deliberately going out of my way to improve. It is happening in a more organic way. Funnily enough I have almost stopped watching painting videos on YouTube.
I am actually in awe of the skill of some people. They take the same amount of time to paint an arm as I take to paint a squad (or possibly an army). The final miniature is exquisite whereas mine are definitely at the other end of the scale… I go for the one metre rule… or maybe ten metres with 28mm.
So if you have got to the end of this, you deserve a medal.
Painting Windows
I actually got my butt into gear this evening and got some paint onto the Hog. To be honest there are so many things wrong with this miniature that it is going to become a test miniature… well unless I suddenly like it:)
I will carry on with this over the next while and see how it goes.
I am going to try and get hold of some decals to help with numbers etc.
What’s in the Box
If you remember I said that GW had sent us their Alliance box for the Geek Club.
This came with a pile of miniatures, a set of paints and probably the worst brushes I have ever seen. The ones from Wish were as good or even better. It was me using one of the brushes and not the kids.
The other thing it came with was a little booklet on what else they can get. So me being me showed them how much things cost… they know how much the resin miniatures cost so there were lots of ‘Woah’, ‘Ehhh’ and ‘HOW Much!!!’
They do want to have a go with the stuff after they have finished their current miniatures.
They also got a little piece of plasticised card that acts as a mixing palette. There were a couple of cardboard gaming boards and dice with rules to play the games. Their little booklet had some colour in pages to help decide on what colours to use.
So what do I think of the box… if I wanted to buy what was in there it would cost me loads of cash. There is a lot of plastic in there. Problem is if I wanted to play an actual game then then the kids would have to sell hundreds more.
While I realise the box is designed to get younger kids into the very expensive GW world, they were the only ones to actually respond and to offer something.
I really doubt any of them are going to be galloping off to the local toy shop, but at the end of the day if they decide to then I will support them in whatever way I can.
Bogenwald 