Monday 30 December 2013

Sheriff Fatman started out as a granny farmer........

This season the fatman has been very generous, and the tally is as follows
3 bags of 18mm Blue Moon Confederates to add to the brigade thats nearing completion.
2 bags of 48 Spencer smiths plastics ( so I now know who else in my town I was bidding against!)
The dagger and talon supplement for tomorrows war - now I can use my 40k figures for a game that makes sense
The Zulu war supplement for black powder  - hopefully this will inspire me to finish the impi in plastic thats waiting....

Although it's not the new year till the day after tomorrow we're going to be busy with friends visiting so here are my resolutions for the next year:

1) Finish painting the Spencer Smiths and get the boys to enjoy the delights of old school gaming.
2) Finish at least a brigade for either side in the ACW and game with them at least once.
3) Paint all the stuff I've Kickstarted (28mm russo-finish war, 15mm ancients and Wild West Exodus)
4) Be lead neutral this year.

There are other thoughts I'm having. There are several ears (crimean, crusades, celts and romans and vikings) that I have the start of armies in 28mm but will need to expand considerably to get playable armies. If i continue to get on with 15/18mm painting then I might send them the way of the Napoleonics etc. I am worried that I might get tempted back to that era when the 15mm Plastic Soldier company figures come out (I'm guessing at Salute) but have consoled myself that if they have the same number of figures as their WW2 sets I can base them singularly and then have enough for Sharp Practice, or multibase them and have a few regiments for black powder. I know that Will is a someone who will do all you need for a range once he starts so I'm not worried on that score, more concerned with my megalomania.

Sunday 22 December 2013

Painting Stats

Last post probably this year so time for the stats (not that anyone cares):

Painted 1400 28mm, 50 stands of 15mm, and 400 Spencer Smith plastics.

For the second year in a row this is more than I'd bought until the Plastic Spencer Smiths (1000 of these bought this year), so I'm calling it a even year. I've off loaded several eras so it might be interesting to see which have survived:

28mm Romans and Celts
28mm Anglo-danish
28mm Crusades
40K
Fantasy
19th Century 28mm (Crimean, Six weeks war and Franco-Prussian)
28mm WW1
28mm WW2
28mm Moderns

15mm WW2
15mm ACW

and I've just pledged to the West wind 15mm ancients.

I hope the fat man brings you all that you deserve, and will hopefully be back in the New Year more frequently than this.

Saturday 21 December 2013

pre-Xmas update

The Spencer Smith armies are growing. I've added some more marching figures and artillery, again form the very nice man in North London. Each has been well packed and posted very promptly. He trades under the name phor2273, so keep a look out on eBay if you like these figures. I shouldn't be giving this stuff out as now you'll be bidding against me!

I also had delivery this week of my Wild West Exodus pledge rewards. I was a little sad to see how small the box was, as I had ordered one of the battlefoam cases to put the figures in. I hope this is coming separately but have emailed them just in case. The figures come bagged individually which is good as some of the bits have come off the sprues in transit. The figures look very well detailed at first glance but I haven't looked to closely yet. I'll let you know how they paint up in due course.

I have added some Character figures to my WW2 armies, with Lord Lovet and his piper now leading the commandos; and Johnny Frost for the Paras.

I'm very impressed with the 15/18mm CSA figures from Blue Moon, and am really excited by how they look based up. As I'll probably be using them for pick-up games of Black Powder, I've based them 8 figures to a 60x30mm base, just because I had them from a failed Polemos project and they look "right" in this configuration.

I'm hoping the fat man will leave some goodies as I have reduced the lead mountain so that counts as being good doesn't it?

Tuesday 10 December 2013

move along, nothing to see here....

As the end of the year beckons I've just had a quick look at my painting log. Despite neglecting the blog, claiming I've had no time, somehow I've managed to paint over 1200 28mm or 30mm figures as well as 30 stands of 15mm WW2. This is impressive I feel, even more so as it's more than I bought; or was until I went to London to relieve a nice man of nearly 1000 Spencer Smiths. However, coupled with the fact that I've sold some stuff it means that the lead/plastic mountain is shrinking (slooowly) and by the time the building work is done to complete the man-cave (shed) it may be down to something I may possibly manage in my lifetime!

Mind you it's only a month to Crusade.........