sunnuntai 4. tammikuuta 2015
Painting Challenge entry 4: Barbarossa era Panzerschützen
Another entry that took it's sweet time to get finished. Forming the bulk of my Barbarossa German force for Flames of War is the Panzerschützen Company command and 2 platoons all rolling forward in their 251/C's. There's actually a few extra minis in the form of one halftrack and a sidecar motorcycle, but I had them all ready to paint and some extras never hurt. This entry saw me about half-way through my project in both points and miniatures. One pioneer platoon and some guns left before I'm done. At least until I get the smart idea that I need to expand the list to include armor etc.
The infantry figures were a real pain to put together and paint as these are by far the worst Battlefront minis I have ever seen. Horrible amounts of flash, nonexistent details and facial features that mostly look like they've been sculpted with an axe. To top it off the equipment is a bit wonky. Not a single one is wearing the characterful Y-strap webbing and some have weird straps going everywhere. Of course you could just wear the belt of the webbing, but in nearly every single photo you see the soldiers wearing the Y-harness as well so I proceeded by painting them on and shaving some of the weirdest straps off.
The halftracks from Plastic Soldier Company on the other hand are a pleasure to put together as everything fits very well and there's little clean up required. The only issue in them are some stupidly placed ejector locations which leave their telltale marks on the front fenders for example. And the detail on the crew is maybe a bit on the light side to my liking. Proportions are more on the realistic side, which does mean that faces etc. tend to be a bit flat as nothing is over emphasized like with most 15mm manufacturers. It's a matter of taste really, but I do prefer the more "chunky" ones with clear features even if it's not so realistic.
Next up I need some change from the dull grey in all it's wonderful shades. I've been gluing together a box of Victrix Middle Guard for my Waterloo project so I might give that one a go. Or maybe it's time to give the second Infinity batch another chance again. It remains to be seen!
torstai 1. tammikuuta 2015
Year 2014 in numbers
The year has changed and with it comes the inevitable New Year resolutions and reviews of the previous year.
Last year was quite productive painting wise at least the first part of the year before the dreaded "real" life started to get in the way too much. Some projects were finished and many more were started. The amount of gaming has also increased quite a lot with more emphasis on Flames of War and Bolt Action bringing in frequent games, while the previous year I had mainly just focused on Napoleonics.
Something new for 2014 was also my first visit to an wargaming show outside of Finland. Crisis definately didn't disappoint with all the wonderful display games going on and all the vendors packed in the halls. Antwerpen was also a wonderful city and the sunny weather provided a nice change to the dreadful Finnish late autumn weather.
The grand totals in 2014 were 294 28mm figures, 285 15mm figures and 384 6mm figures painted. A lot can be told from the fact that over 75 percent of these were painted in the first 6 months of the year. A new job with quite a bit of travel and also increased gaming took quite a toll on my painting time. Also the hunting season in Autumn has a bad habit of taking away all my free weekends that could otherwise be used painting.
I was quite busy with blogging too managing to pump out 97 posts last year. I originally started the blog to just chronicle my hobby endeavors to myself, but now it really has become quite an integral part of the hobby and a lot of motivation can be gathered from all the nice comments from followers! So thank you for all the support you've given!
Last year I also managed to finish off some projects, which is normally quite unheard of me. My Red Devils force for Bolt Action could more or less be considered finished as there's plenty enough for most games. I still have a single blister tucked away somewhere that took over 6 months to arrive from England so that might still get painted as well. Another more or less finished project is my 101st Airborne Flames of War army. I have enough to vary my lists enough, but as with all hobby projects there's always room to expand :)
2014 also saw me get into a new scale with the 6mm ACW units. The original campaign dried up at the club, but now with the release of Longstreet we've been getting in a few games using those rules. I did paint up everything that comes in the Baccus6mm starter army, but got carried away at Crisis and bought an infantry booster pack to double the amount of infantry I have.
I had been planning to buy fewer minis than I painted, but I failed miserably. I especially blame Victrix! Those summer deals destroy your numbers easily as 60 figure boxes come far too cheap. It will remain to be seen how 2015 ends up, but at least I have pretty much all the minis I need for my running projects, so in theory there is no need to buy anything new...
And to have at least some miniatures in this post I present some of my personal favorite projects of the year :)
Last year was quite productive painting wise at least the first part of the year before the dreaded "real" life started to get in the way too much. Some projects were finished and many more were started. The amount of gaming has also increased quite a lot with more emphasis on Flames of War and Bolt Action bringing in frequent games, while the previous year I had mainly just focused on Napoleonics.
Something new for 2014 was also my first visit to an wargaming show outside of Finland. Crisis definately didn't disappoint with all the wonderful display games going on and all the vendors packed in the halls. Antwerpen was also a wonderful city and the sunny weather provided a nice change to the dreadful Finnish late autumn weather.
The grand totals in 2014 were 294 28mm figures, 285 15mm figures and 384 6mm figures painted. A lot can be told from the fact that over 75 percent of these were painted in the first 6 months of the year. A new job with quite a bit of travel and also increased gaming took quite a toll on my painting time. Also the hunting season in Autumn has a bad habit of taking away all my free weekends that could otherwise be used painting.
I was quite busy with blogging too managing to pump out 97 posts last year. I originally started the blog to just chronicle my hobby endeavors to myself, but now it really has become quite an integral part of the hobby and a lot of motivation can be gathered from all the nice comments from followers! So thank you for all the support you've given!
Last year I also managed to finish off some projects, which is normally quite unheard of me. My Red Devils force for Bolt Action could more or less be considered finished as there's plenty enough for most games. I still have a single blister tucked away somewhere that took over 6 months to arrive from England so that might still get painted as well. Another more or less finished project is my 101st Airborne Flames of War army. I have enough to vary my lists enough, but as with all hobby projects there's always room to expand :)
2014 also saw me get into a new scale with the 6mm ACW units. The original campaign dried up at the club, but now with the release of Longstreet we've been getting in a few games using those rules. I did paint up everything that comes in the Baccus6mm starter army, but got carried away at Crisis and bought an infantry booster pack to double the amount of infantry I have.
I had been planning to buy fewer minis than I painted, but I failed miserably. I especially blame Victrix! Those summer deals destroy your numbers easily as 60 figure boxes come far too cheap. It will remain to be seen how 2015 ends up, but at least I have pretty much all the minis I need for my running projects, so in theory there is no need to buy anything new...
And to have at least some miniatures in this post I present some of my personal favorite projects of the year :)
maanantai 29. joulukuuta 2014
Painting Challenge entry 3: 15mm Airpower
Some action on the challenge front again with a small entry of 2 15mm airplanes for the fortnight challenge. An Early War Stuka to support my Barbarossa Wehrmacht troops and a Flying Bathtub to support my Paras in their Late War efforts.
Originally I had planned to paint up a 1/72 scale airplane to use in WW2 skirmish with my Red Devils, but alas the cheap plastic kit proved to be my undoing. I struggled to find a kit of the Typhoon and when I finally found one at a store I went for it even though the unknown brand and 8 euro price tag should have made it obvious that the quality was going to be far below average. After about 3 hours of work I just gave up as nothing fit together and a lot of the parts were warped. But at least I learned that I'll never buy anything from Brengun again. Should have stayed to the brands that I know and that have proven to be of good quality :)
I nearly gave up on the fortnight challenge, but then remembered that I had these two little kits stashed up in my cabinet. The Stuka is a Zvezda kit that is extremely simple and is a bit lacking in detail, but on the other hand it's very robust and only took me a couple of minutes to put together. The P-47 is from Revell's Microair range and is far from simple and fast. Considering that these are marketed as perfect first kits etc. it was horrible to put together with a lot of flash and cleaning up left to do. Certainly not a good thing for your first kit. Still it wasn't as bad as the Brengun kit so I soldiered on and got it set up. A bit flimsy for gaming so we'll have to see how it holds up. There were some good news though as the decals with the Revell kit were excellent. Too bad they never sell any of them separate.
Painting wise these were really quick jobs as I had less than two hours to finish them. Basecoats with an airbrush and quickly brushed any details as I didn't have time for masking etc. This was followed up by decals and a coat of varnish. They could do with a wash, but I just didn't have time for that. Should have started a tiny bit earlier I guess. From an arms length away they are OK, but these close ups are quite brutal. At least now I can quite safely say that my low point has been reached in the challenge quality wise so that's out of the way :)
Originally I had planned to paint up a 1/72 scale airplane to use in WW2 skirmish with my Red Devils, but alas the cheap plastic kit proved to be my undoing. I struggled to find a kit of the Typhoon and when I finally found one at a store I went for it even though the unknown brand and 8 euro price tag should have made it obvious that the quality was going to be far below average. After about 3 hours of work I just gave up as nothing fit together and a lot of the parts were warped. But at least I learned that I'll never buy anything from Brengun again. Should have stayed to the brands that I know and that have proven to be of good quality :)
I nearly gave up on the fortnight challenge, but then remembered that I had these two little kits stashed up in my cabinet. The Stuka is a Zvezda kit that is extremely simple and is a bit lacking in detail, but on the other hand it's very robust and only took me a couple of minutes to put together. The P-47 is from Revell's Microair range and is far from simple and fast. Considering that these are marketed as perfect first kits etc. it was horrible to put together with a lot of flash and cleaning up left to do. Certainly not a good thing for your first kit. Still it wasn't as bad as the Brengun kit so I soldiered on and got it set up. A bit flimsy for gaming so we'll have to see how it holds up. There were some good news though as the decals with the Revell kit were excellent. Too bad they never sell any of them separate.
sunnuntai 28. joulukuuta 2014
Thank you Santa!
Christmas is over as is the short painting break caused by travel. I didn't finish the Panzerschützen in time for friday as 10 halftracks was apparently too much for one day. They'll be up next week then. I did manage to paint up two 15mm planes for the fortnight challenge though so not completely silent on the Challenge front.
Luckily we finally got snow as it was first looking to be quite a dark Christmas. The weather has been quite nice with roughly 20cm of snow and temperatures staying low enough to keep it dry and soft. This year I was particularly lucky with the gifts as I have been extra nice. Then again buying gifts for myself helped boost the amounts quite a bit :)
Secret Santa was very generous and quite thoughtful too! Not keeping to just a box I received a Warlord Games Universal Carrier with extra bits and instructions to convert it to a captured version with a German PaK36 stuck on top. Should prove to be a fun project and will be seen later on in the challenge. Thank you to who ever it was that sent this nice package to me!
The lady of the house got me some wargames related reading in the form of a book called "Lion of the North" which details the reign of Gustav Adolphus from a Finnish point of view. Haven't gotten very far with it yet, but should prove an interesting read as it won the Finnish literature award for non-fiction books this year. Important character for both Sweden and Finland so I can't wait to get through this.
Seeing Caliver Books' list of new second-hand books in the beginning of Christmas got a bit out of hand. I had wanted some new Napoleonic reading so I decided to buy some. But with the postage rates being crazy I thought why not buy a few at the same time and here we are with 5 books to go through. Should keep me occupied for quite a while. The books include The Letters of Private Wheeler detailing the British campaigns in the Peninsula and beyond from a soldiers point of view. Then In the Peninsula with a French Hussar by Albert Jean Michel de Rocca detailing the same campaign from the point of a French hussar officer. And the third memoir is With Napoleon in Russia 1812, by Heinrich Vossler a Würtemberg cavalry officer. Finally I also bought David Johnson's Napoleon's Cavalry and it's Leaders and a Historex Masterclass book by Bill Ottinger called Napoleonic Plastic Figure Modelling.
Next up a frantic few days of painting to finish more miniatures for the challenge before the year ends.
Luckily we finally got snow as it was first looking to be quite a dark Christmas. The weather has been quite nice with roughly 20cm of snow and temperatures staying low enough to keep it dry and soft. This year I was particularly lucky with the gifts as I have been extra nice. Then again buying gifts for myself helped boost the amounts quite a bit :)
Secret Santa was very generous and quite thoughtful too! Not keeping to just a box I received a Warlord Games Universal Carrier with extra bits and instructions to convert it to a captured version with a German PaK36 stuck on top. Should prove to be a fun project and will be seen later on in the challenge. Thank you to who ever it was that sent this nice package to me!
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