This evening I got some more done in the light cavalry and slingers and pretty much got them finished…

I also worked a bit more on the 6mm ruins, got some green mould lines on them and also worked out a bit of an idea re a base for them…

The above is some of the pieces, there will be a second smaller one too. Now to be honest, I am contemplating using some modelling compound to build things up a bit. Embed the ruins in rather than have them sitting in the top of a ‘billiard table’ base.

My musings today were around the 6mm Italian wars. Now if you remember I had a bit of s wobble about price versus Aesthetics a while ago… the one that sent me down the hunt for some rear rankers to reduce the cost… you can see my ramblings Here . So after much deliberating I came to this conclusion…

Irregular Miniatures in the front rank and shrunk and printed ones in the rear ranks.

So today, when we released the kittens I needed something to do whilst they were tearing around the lounge…

The kittens are in the crate in he background… as they were feral they were scared so we gave them time in safety to get more used tomus and the dog. I reckon if we just had the one in the foreground (Gizmo) then she would have been out a while ago, but Pixel, in the background was extremely nervy, so we gave them the time they needed.

So, for something to do I decided to tidy up my painting station and I came across some smaller bases and, as you do, I started fiddling…

It got me thinking, do I need to have the miniatures covering the whole base as in the case of the right hand unit, or could I go for something smaller to base them on. This reduces the ranks to three. Now the one thing I couldn’t find straight off were the irregular miniatures to try them on the front rank. I will have a ponder at this problem tomorrow with them in situ in the front.

Tonight was a bit of a non starter painting wise. I managed to throw some contrast paint on the ruins…

I then took them off the thing they are sitting on and took it into the kitchen and threw some Geek Gaming modelling compound onto it to make a start on my giant 2mm hill fort…

Hopefully this will dry quickly, so that I can get the Milliput onto it tomorrow evening. My idea for this one is something like Maiden Castle with multiple ditches and ramparts.

Tonight idid a bit more on the Hill Fort, Chief Vitalstatistix is pleased with the progress. I need to cure the resin on the other houses, a job for tomorrow night methinks.

As you can see frommthe above photo, I did a bit more work in my Romans. I pretty much got six ‘units’ of heavies and three Velites finished. I will work on the cavalry tomorrow.

I was originally going to be going to the wargames club tomorrow evening, but unfortunately the old new car failed it’s MOT.. the downside is that it decided to fail on something big like the rear drive shaft… the part alone is £1100… on the upside we bought it just under a year ago and it has two weeks still to go on its warranty. Phew! It is going to be a faff getting to the club, it is do-able but not sure it is worth the hassle.

So,in the end, I got nothing done today at all, apart from glueing the elephants to their painting sticks. I still have more sitting in the shed that need curing. I didmanage to photograph the Italian houses I started a while ago…

I will hopefully get something done tomorrow evening.

Today I sprayed the bases I did yesterday with watered down PVA and this evening got on with painting them. Three repainting later and I am still not happy with them…

The first colour was too dark,the second,mint green and we are now back to a different version of ‘too dark’. I will get them dry brushed tomorrow and see if that helps.

The brown base in the front is going to be a hill fort or something similar.

Now if you remember absolutely ages ago I printed some triremes etc… they don’t look to bad next to the 2mm stuff.

Today, was the day I tackled converting the old stable roof into a polycarbonate roof, to complete the conversion into a greenhouse. My estimate of a couple of hours was ay off. Seven hours later I got the thing finished. I had made sure that the original roof was not going to fly off in the gales, this meant it was an absolute swine to get off when I wanted it to do so. Anyway I did manage to get some bits and bobs done this evening too…

First off I got my next lot of 2mm sprayed…

A mix of Romans and cells, not to mention a 6mm wagon and 15mm Mahdist.

I also slapped some paint on this lot…

The bases in front are for the 2mm stuff. The malker Irregular ones for woods and the larger for a hill. I still had my bag of vivarium sand from when I had the lizard so I decided to give that a test run.

And finally after what seems like weeks (it probably is) I eventually got some basing material on the fanatics…

I am heading off into work tomorrow to meet my new teacher and get some stuff sorted it ready for next Wednesday.

So after various failures over the last couple of days I decided to try again doing some Romans. I did two on a 40×30 base and some in the standard format. I checked the bottoms to ensure that there was suitable support and set it away. Sadly they once again fell apart as I took the supports off. I might out one into Mesh Mixer tomorrow to see if I can see what is going on. You would think that a big block would work well, but sadly not, they dropped to bits, as did the velites.

The ones on the multi base seem to be holding together. To the right of them are the cavalry I added a .5mm base to each block and to the left the multi base cavalry (they aren’t finished yet). I have yet to try the flexible resin, but I don’t think that it will stop things falling apart. The other thing I will do as ask the designer what his settings are. I am probably just either over or under exposing them.

Anyway enough moaning about the Romans… Boudicca lives in 2mm in her war chariot….

So here we have eight chariots, singers back left and light cavalry back right. Hopefully these will come off their bases properly.

Tomorrow we are doing our 48 point Sudan game against Mr Babbage… in case you are wondering Mr B. Is the opponent in the solo play game of Men who would be Kings. Joe and I are going to join forces with 24 points each against a 48 point imaginary opponent…I only hope he doesn’t beat us

Today I got the 6mm terrain under coated white. I started on the Italian houses and windmills…

I also finished painting the zealots…

Two of them failed to be included in the photo. I will add some flock to the bases tomorrow and also do some form of writing on the book and pages.

And finally as I have absolutely no common sense or will power for that matter I thought I would try something a bit different… Project Wargaming don’t just do fabulous 6mm Samurai and Italian buildings. They also do printable 2mm ancient armies… so this happened….

I decided to get a couple of sets, Gallic infantry and some Republican Romans. I was pleasantly surprised in how well these printed as well as painted up. I blobbed some green and brown paint on a 30×40 base and I now have a base of Gauls.

The Romans have their three troop types. The heavies have either the pilum or the long spear (l just forgot the name)It also comes with Equites too.

Now one thing about this lot is that they don’t have the flex of the 6mm spears. I can evidently mix flexible resin with the ordinary stuff. I might just have to give it a go

Well today I printed a couple more buildings as well as some  more miniatures. I also decided to shrink the wagon and horses too, with absolutely no idea whether it would work or not… it did!

So we now have the defence tower and coaching Inn added as well as the super teeny tiny wagon. The biggest problem I had with it was glueing the wheels on. Because I could then I printed another one, just for the hell of it.

Joe came over again today and let’s say the old addage of Pride cometh before a fall certainly was true today. I was well and truly trounced. I will write it up tomorrow. Needless to say her Majesty Queen Victoria will not be impressed by the news from the Sudan.