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Kebab on the Hoof

Tonight I was a bit pooped, as I didn’t sleep too well last night, but nevertheless I decided to paint something simple, so I made a start on the Ancient Greeks and did the goat herds…

Two down, thirty to go!

The slinger is evidently there to drive off the wolves. So as you know I said I wasn’t getting anything more till I made an inroad on what I already had, as I technically made an inroad on the Greeks then I bought myself some transfers for the shields. My original plan was to paint everything by hand, but as I want them done fast I thought better of it… unfortunately when I was purchasing the shield designs my hand must have slipped and I inadvertently purchased some pipe players and a cart pulled by onagers to go with the force.

I picked up the helmet half a dozen times this evening, but put it back each time. I really couldn’t be bothered to get the foam clay out and set to work on the gaps. I have noticed a few YouTubers using Scroll Saws to cut the foam. So as I have an rather old one in my shed then I thought I might give it a go and see what happens.

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How Much???

So I have a Rav4 to pull the trailer and caravan, it’s brakes were sounding a bit rubbish side, so I duly put it into the garage… evidently I need all four sorting along with two handbrake cables… so I asked him how much it would cost… he said ‘it will come in under the grand…not much under’. Well as they need doing, they need doing, but Needless to say next time I will be pricing up before hand. We only put it there as it was under warranty, but as we expected brakes aren’t included.

So baked beans for tea for the next month! Anyway to cheat myself up I decided I wanted to paint something fast… so this is what I decided upon!

These are my Z range Greeks from Museum Miniatures… the lone cavalryman was a z range sample… don’t quite get that, but never mind. He is a Heavy cavalryman and the others are lights. I also have a baggage train and the ubiquitous goats too.

I will get them sprayed tomorrow and start on the painting on Wednesday. I also decided to do something different on the helmet as the cheek pieces didn’t exactly work… so this is my cardboard mock up….

I might need to fiddle around with the ear area, but the problem is that you cannot really see your own ears… I will requisition a child tomorrow to assist me.

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Protective Circle…Final Warrior

I got the final warrior built this evening so that is all four done, apart from their muskets which I am leaving off to allow me to ain’t the miniatures easier. I certainly had a Eureka moment this evening whilst working on this one. Evidently if you leave the arms off then you can get all the fiddly bits glued on a lot easier!

I really do like this set, and am pleased with how they have gone together. I still reckon they are going to be a right sod to paint, especially all the beadwork on pretty much everything!

After taking the photo I noticed at least a couple of mould lines that I had missed. Once the glue has totally set then I will get them scraped off. I will try and get these onto a wire tomorrow and then sprayed at the weekend.

A slightly different view of the same four

I am a bit worried that the right arm of the back warrior is in the wrong place and might cause his musket to get in the way of the seated miniature. Only time will tell.

Hopefully I will feel like painting something tomorrow. I also thought I might dust off the old 3D printers and give them a bit of a run.

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Protective Circle, Part II

Tonight I was knackered so decided to just build another model, but ended up doing almost two.

These were not as straight forward as the first one as they have to sort of go together so thankfully I was using plastic cement which did give me a bit of movement until it went off fully.

The biggest problem I had was with the nearest model, the arm looked a bit weird no matter how I positioned it. The other annoyance was the hands on both of these are separate. Somehow I managed not to lose any of the small bits…

The nearest one still has his loincloth to add as well as his medicine pouch, powder horn, knife and war club.

I am actually looking forward to doing these, not sure why as I reckon they are going to be a sod to paint properly 🥴

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Protective Circle…Making a Start

Well tonight I blasted a bit of paint on the Knight and then lost motivation, so instead of messing about with colours on the frocks of the two female characters I went for a build option instead.

So the first of my four figures is pretty much built. I have the musket to add but will paint it separately.

I was trying to think of a nation to do him as, my first thought was Iroquois but I am not sure now. Most pictures I have seen all of them have ear ornamentation. These guys don’t seem to have so new thinks are required. The box doesn’t help as it simply calls them Indian wars kit number 1… perhaps I am overthinking this!

To be honest I am glad I like this one as, err I just bought another couple of sets, more First Nations and then a female post apocalyptic survivor with a crossbow… it’s not as if I haven’t got three thousand plus bits of lead and plastic to paint already… hey ho…looks like I never ever learn!

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Japanese Villagers

I managed to get these a bit further forward this evening…

They are nearly there, the ninja still need work, and then I can start on the rest of them including 10 Oni hounds, six ashigaru and six samurai, not to forget the skeletons, witches and some giant spiders with human heads!

Now while I was moving things around I found a problem with my seven samurai… can you spot it?

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Paintbrush in Hand

Zoiks, this evening I actually managed to get something painted, well read that more as slapped some paint on things.

I also slapped some paint on the 15mm Japanese Villagers…

Still a long wY to go on these, up they are definitely getting there.

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A Parcel and a Break in the Weather

Thankfully the couple of days of solid rain seem to have eased and I managed to get out and get things sprayed…

Now interestingly enough, when I bought the spay wheel (aka cake spinner) it was very smooth… so in a fit of curiosity I wondered how thick the layer was. It was evidently thick enough to support itself when held…

Considering this is spray paint, then it must have had a fair few layers down on it. It was actually quite satisfying scraping it off with my knife as it lifted in sheets.

Anyway enough whittering on about my paint fetish…

I have new toys!!!

So I got this very nice parcel from Museum Miniatures this morning and, shock horror, I didn’t actually open it until this evening… how about that for self control!

I have got quite a lot to paint… first up the hoplites…

Spartans are without the crest, I have twice this amount, interspersed amongst the troops are some of the officers.

Next up the skirmishers…

I have some light/medium cavalry (and a free Companion cavalryman)

And finally a pile of stuff I really didn’t need, but looked cool 🙄

And finally, this made me chortle…

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6mm Samurai Houses, Printers and ships

Tonight I decided to finish the samurai village houses, by finish I mean do the wood work, still a whole lot of things to do on them but at least it is something.

I still have the tiled roof ones to do (woodwork there too) but I will try and get them going tomorrow.

On the printer front the old resin one seems to be working again. I reformatted a completely different card and tried a new sliced file on it and away it went. So here is hoping that by tomorrow morning then I will have something on the build plate. The one thing I have noticed recently is a flexible build plate being advertised for resin printers. This would be an absolute godsend as I am sick of having to use a Stanley knife blade to get things off. The FDM has been working on more hex tiles too…

And finally Boats…or rather ancient ships. If you remember yesterday I had spent ages looking for a box of cardboard ships. Evidently I have dumped the ones I had made and put the unmade sheets into an envelope… I found them today purely by chance…

You can see from the above how munch bigger things are going to need to be to make them 1/300 scale. At least I now have a measurement to play with, and we all know that I am going to print at least one to try it out🥴… prepare for the swearing 😂.

Evidently the Northern Lights have been spotted tonight. Unfortunately the bit that fastens the camera to the tripod has disappeared. My Daughter loaned me a short stubby tripod, but it meant I needed to sit it on top of things… the highlight of the evening was me swearing as to why with a 30 second exposure with a high speed ISO I wasn’t getting anything… I tried and tried and tried again then realised that I had left the lens cap on!

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Baccus with the Samurai Again

So tonight I had a mooch in the 6mm box from Baccus and decided to try some base sizes for the command set.

I have two options…

The small one looks pretty naff and overcrowded where the larger one looks more open, but a bit narrow… these really are the only sizes of MDF bases that I have available. I think I am going to have to print something to make things fit.

I will have a look to see if I can find something nocking about, but I am not holding my breath.

Now I suppose that I could miss out the honjin screens, but that really isn’t very Japanese if I do.