Merry Christmas from me and my little family (Kim, Emma and Nikki) and I wish you the best of luck in 2016. (If you would happen to have some spare, send me some?)
I'm aiming to get 1 or 2 reviews up during the holiday season, but I'm sticking to 30 minute PC intervals atm to help me rest enough. Current prognosis is another 2-3 weeks of physical pain and limited mobility. Mental health they can't tell me, but I've been quite mad for years, thank you ;)
This weekend I'm trying 2 things. Less painkillers and speedpainting/weathering an item I received fridayevening by mail. In between family life and visiting friends so time is short.
My Old Crow order arrived yesterday. But....you would not buy any more stuff? Well, I haven't....much. But not this order. I made a inquiry for items suitable for 20mm Sci-Fi back in July 2nd 2015, and then.....silence.
Lots and lots of silence.
Then October 13th a general Old Crow email arrives, aimed at (what I assume) was everyone who emailed him for the last 6 months or so, with apolagies and a offer for free postage. I got a reply on my more expanded request on the 15th of October and I made my order on the 21st using Crisis funds, with a confirmation and final quote on the 22nd. I was then told that his current workload it would take him about 2 weeks to get everything cast and ready to ship out.
But alas, it would take a bit more time then that, but on the 25th I got a reply that everything was ready to ship, I made my payment, and waited. But not for long :) Yesterday on the 2nd the small box arrived. I ha to wait till tonight to open it, so just made a group pic and did a head count. Uh oh, something doesn't add up.....
First, the overall shot:
Brilliant as always, with all that resin there is only 1 bubble on the underside of a base. So, that's like perfect :) The metal parts have some minor mouldlines but nothing that can't be fixed, the only problem I see is that 2 from the 3 twin gun miniturrets have 1 of their barrels miscast (only half ot it cast). I can snip em and drill in a new bit of brass rod no problem though. They are very delicate and that might even be smarter, brass rod is much more durable.
Anyway, I'm missing stuff.
My order:
25mm Fixed Turret Base; 4 Pounds x2 = 8 Pounds Check, ok
25mm Point Defence Turret; 4 Pounds x2 = 8 Pounds Check, ok
25mm Support Turret; 4,50 each x2 9 Pounds Check, ok
25mm Gun Barrels (30mm) pack of 6; 2,50 Pounds - I can't find any other then the 4 that go with the Support turrets? These are the ones I need for my tank conversion
15mm White metal laser turret on the Outrider and Glaive, I'd like 3 please. Price? Just the laser one was good enough, but I like the missile variant too, excellent.
6mm Small Double Barrel Gun Turret (10mm) pack of 6; 2 pounds Check, but there are only 3 and 2 have 1 of the guns miscast, around half length is missing?
And there is a small bag with 6 triple barrel mini turrets?
Ugh.
I see no real problems though. Jez is a stand up guy (if a very busy one) and people make mistakes, so I have emailed him and let him now what is the issue. The 25mm gun barrels are not even the biggest problem as I could use the ones from the Support Turret to get a head start on the tank conversion as I don't think I'll start any of the turret systems anytime soon.
But still, I'm having terrible luck with orders and trades lately. The LE pre order starter model from the Antares game that was a gift from Portugal? Lost in the mail. The 2 Cars cars I overpaid for? Way damaged. The bottle of paint I managed to lose in an hour time? Ugh.
Anyway, I'll update this post as soon as Jez gets back to me.
Edit: Jez got back to me lastnight. Barrels will be sorted asap, miniturrets were his last remaining stock so he sent all, miscasts and everything, plus the 3 gun turrets as replacements for the incomplete 2 barrel ones. Grand service I say.
Added the 4th bike, even if it has no wheels, it will make great filler. Speaking of which, I added and opened 3 of the 4 filler caps just for fun. I think the bikes could use some more work, I'm just not quite sure what. As soon as my head is a bit clearer (change in medication, taking them in the evening cause I was getting drowsy after taking them in the morning....driving and work not a good combo make....but now I'm bobbing my head like crazy.....<yawn>) I'll give them a rethink. Maybe some GS work.
Also in the mail today, I picked up a set of 2nd hand Dora DVD's for the girls, and as the seller had some cars from Cars I picked up 2 of those as well. Auction stated zgan (as good as new) and she asked 7,50 a piece for them but in the pics I could see some chipping so I talked it down to 5 euro a car. Shipped, loose, in a huge box (so more chipping) and when I got them out, 3 of the 4 axles are bent and the bottom of the car is toutching the floor. Also way more damage then was first apparent. If I had bought these for the girls I would have been really pissed, now I'm just slightly miffed cause I overpaid, 2,50 would have been enough for the condition they are in. Great for Fallout.
Anyway:
I like em. When based, they will fit in better. Just wondering how to get rid of the eyes....anyone have any ideas?
Finally, just finished matte varnishing the space junk. I can see I missed a few spots but I will let this lot dry and redo those parts tomorrow evening so I can finish them off on thursday and be done with it. And then on with the next lot, either the bikes or more Frostgrave scenery.
Speaking of which, I bought a really big scenic item you will love. But more of that in the future.
Finally, fridayevening! Miserable week at work, I'm happy it's weekend, and some new stuff arrived just in time, jay.
First up, a collection of Playmobil rocks
Seller took over a week to reply and baffled me by asking half the amount I was willing to pay for it, and even included free shipping. But when they arrived I noticed half of them won't stay upright on their own so they will need bases and some filler, so I put these in the to do pile. Still happy with them though.
Kim sent me out to get a gift for her nephew, something I needed to pick up at the local Action (a chain of discount stores, they sell Matt Black spraypaint for 2 or 3 euro a can, great for scenery). 15 minutes later, no toy (sold out) but did pick up this set for 80 cents.
One half will be for my future 20mm mosque, the other 1 and a half bit will be come planets for space games. I might even pick up some more, these are less then half price what the hobby store asks for them.
Picked up these 2 from a seller at the LAF, really nice bits for my Inquisimunda box. When I chucked them in I spotted another cherub with book, oops!
I was waiting for these. A new varnish to try out, a new bottle of Pale Sand that I use for drybrushing my dirt bases as the old one was really spent, a red primer to try out, and plenty of Ammo stuff. I'll be using the green slimes on rocks, buildings and the fountains, looking forward to that. I will play a bit with the rusts too.
Other then work on the sci-fi junk I only based up 6 rats that I got off some Skaven sprues I got for free a while back. Sure, they are not giant rats, but good enough for me, and free.
Mouldine cleaning, sand on the base and a quick paintjob. Can't remember ever painting rats though, will have to look into that.
Slow progress on the Inca temple base, filled in the holes (needs a bit os fine sanding) and covered the hole with a plate so I can use still water effects to create a shallow pond (well, I'll paint it pretty dark, so maybe not that shallow).
Also made a few printouts of a Fallout 3 building that I want to copy for my foamboard try outs soon. I noticed a similarity between the Terrain Tutors foam building build tutorial here >
And this building:
...so I will use that as a reference to copy it as my first building for TNT.
I'll be darting between 28mm Sci-fi and 28mm Fantasy for a bit now. Get more games in. 20mm can come later, no worries.
Now, to score some more Space Marine bikes for scenery conversions and rust painting skill enhancement. Already traded some wolves for 2, and I just got offered 6 more so out come the bits boxes or in this case the promise of a scratch built building or 2 for free! (and thats enough, thank you, these will be for scatter scenery.)
Not something you are used of me, but next to wargaming I take great interest in our Dutch army (and our King...yes, I'm a Royalist), in particular the unit stationed at the Army base Oirschot, only a few miles from here. After years of neglect we are now in the position we can no longer train regularly with live ammunition due to costs after excessive cutbacks (like selling off ALL of our tanks....) <sigh> (Oddly enough I have 3 favorite units, 1 each from each of the branches of the armed forces. Navy - Anything named De Ruyter, Air Force - 322 Polly Grey Squadron and Army - 13th Light Brigade)
I modelled my 20mm Cold War army after a lot of pics taken there back then, and when there is a open Army day, once every 4 years I think it is, I make sure to visit (or do a wargames demo when I can). The 13th is currently transitioning from a Mechanised unit to a Motorised unit, and his Majesty came to inspect the troops and check up on the progress.
Now, while he is wearing a uniform he's no longer a soldier. He served, but after a 2013 change in our consitution members of the government cannot serve in our military at the same time, and he's head of the government. He has no rank, but a special Royal badge denoting his status. It's him on the right btw.
The Brigade "new style" falls in between the 11th Airmobile Brigade and the 43rd Mechanised Brigade, and being wheeled is faster and better able to respond in built up areas and over large distances. (and cheaper to run!) The CV90's will be replaced by Bushmasters, Mercedes Benz 280 CDI and a range of Boxers. They already have the Fennek and the Fuchs.
It will be interesting to see how these new changes will work out.
Currently, 1 half cupboard (40cm) is completely filled with paint and paint parafanalia, plus 1 shelf of a 80cm cupboard is filled with old GW paints dating back to pre 2000 ones.. Since I will be losing 2 cabinets worth of space when I move I had a small brainwave today while checking a server rack at work. Why not build paint racks in the same way?
Here's why. I paint by the numbers.
No, not like that :)
I've got a small book in which I note down my paint formulas for things that I have painted, so I can just grab the right numbers and repeat what I did the last time. Or one year ago. I hardly ever paint by grabbing paint from the shelf cause the colour looks right. Even when I had them all in front of me, I just don't work that way.
So, server rack? Well, a server rack crams all of the neccesities in the smallest, conveniest (well, mostly) amount of space times as many as need to fit in the widt of the thing. My current paintrack is one from Germany and holds 100 bottles of Vallejo in roughy a 27 deep, 36 wide and 33 tall space (all in cm's). If I put that on my table I lose almost half my table depth. So I put them in the half cabinet. So, how can I manage to halve the needed space and still have the paints (and future paints) that I need? Well, by doing it this way.
1 standard rack, custom made to fit my cabinet, will hold 30 pots of Vallejo. Each level has 11 cm's worth of space so I can get the pots out easily, 3 levels per rack, enough width for 10 pots of paint and a 2cm bar in front of the pots for labelling and holding them in place. I can fit in 11 racks with space left over because the door has a hinge portruding on the inside (Billy cabinet, Ikea). In total that would be 330 pots of paint. I've asked a few friends, who have acces to lasercutters, to draw me up one plus to give me an idea for the costs per rack for 8 normal ones and 2 wider ones to hold my weathering powders and filters (seeing I bought another 7 bottles the other night). If you are still clueless how this will look, think of it as a encycopledia of several books, each book being a rack with paint.
I've discussed this with Kim, explained her why I want this, that I will have the idea examined first, that I will sell off the paints I no longer need as well as the current paint racks to fund this, and that I have my budget fixed at 50 euros. And she agreed. :)
Now, back to painting.
Edit: Not half bad this. But I thinkl I can do better.
