Comments....

For some reason blogger won't let me leave comments at the moment. So If I don't reply please don't think me rude. In particular those who left comments for my last post I'd like to say Thanks guys!

Phoenix rising

Well you might of noticed it has gone very quiet around here recently and in truth I've done very little on my hobby for some time. 2011 has seen the economic realities of the world bite home in our household. Threat of job loss, cutting of overtime and a whole host of household repair bills (motor bikes, car, tumble dryer, oven the list goes on). Has seen the family finances get rather ropey to say the least.

The wife and I decided we need to act clear our debts and sort out our finances. We re-negotiated better deals on our mortgage, fuel bills and insurances which saved quite a bit of money but to really benefit we needed to clear some debts to. In the end we decided to sell of some of the family silver which included ..............my wargames collection.

It wasn't an easy decision but it had to be done for the sake of the family so everything went to an ebay reseller for a price I was happy with. Well not quite everything I kept my painted AK-47 and Rapid fire Germans because I couldn't bare to part with them and a new unpainted Mantic elf army and 20mm US task force for rapid fire. I also kept all my reference and rules books, my paint and model supplies and a few board games. All my other miniatures and scenery went.

It was quite upsetting at first but now my wargames room is clean and tidy and I don't have unfinished projects staring at me from every corner it is also quite liberating. I now have a new 125 motorbike (the old one had cost me more in repair bills this year than it was worth) bought out of the money I got for my wargames stuff and the family budget is now in credit again each month. The result of this is I will now have a small hobby budget each month of about £25.00 (yay).

I've decided to re-evaluate my hobby too with a few rules that will hopefully allow me to make the most of my hobby budget and not leave with lots of half finished projects everywhere.

1) I need to drop down to smaller scale miniatures. It's time to admit I have neither the time nor the fiances to put together Wargames magazine style uber games in 28mm. It's what I've always aimed for and failed to do repeatedly.

2)I like painting 28s so will use them for skirmish games only (no more than two dozen miniatures aside say). For larger armies It's time to go to 20mm for ww2 and 15/12/10mm for other periods where I can get more for my money and paint up quicker.

3) I need to stick to a project and see it through to the end. No more jumping around to one shiny new thing after another.

4) I need to try stream line my scenery collection in to something that will cover as many period's and scales as possible.

5) I need to provide both sides to any conflict so don't have armies without opponents.

6) everything has to be kept cheap.

So like a phoenix rising from the flames my new wargames collection starts to day. I'm going down the wargames room latter today to look through my rule books and choose a new project which it quite exciting I have to say, the wargames world is my oyster (within budgetary constraints of course)

Cheers Jon

something else random - home made weapons pit

Another rather random result of a couple of spare hours in the wargames room. This one started with a rat that was terrorizing my compost bin. Said rat was duly poisoned, the poison came with several little plastic trays to hold the poison but I only used one. The others I kept because they looked useful.

A couple of weeks ago I turned one of the plastic trays into a weapons pit for use with my Valiant 1/72 Germans. Here's how

1) cut a whole in the tray with scissors to make an entrance

2) glue tray to a hardboard base with superglue

3) cover the outside of the tray with Das air drying putty, borrowed from my daughter's jewellery making set. Leave to dry over night

4) find out Das putty has cracked up during drying seal and fill the cracks with PVA glue and sand

5) add balsa wood to the inside of the tray and score with a sharp pencil to represent planks

6) add greenstuff sand bags

7) paint and flock

All in all a nice piece of scenery that cost not a lot.

Cheers Jon

Something random - sci-fi scout

Well the good news is I got loads of painting done this bank holiday weekend the bad news is it was the master bedroom and not my miniatures that got the paint applied.

However I did convert and paint this Old Crow Rebel light utility vehicle as a light scout vehicle. This model was part of an ebay lot from about a year ago that has just sat in my bits box. Totally on a whim the other night with a couple of spare hours (when I should have been painting Celts) I added a few bits from my bits box.

The gun was built from a GW guard auto-cannon with an Old Crow gatling barrel plus varous bits of plastic from my bits box. I also added some stowage from the bits box and some headlights from an old GW Rhino model.

I sprayed the model with green and brown humbrol sprays in a two tone scheme and then dry brushed them up with lighter green and brown. After that I just went mad on the wear and tear and weathering using washes and drybrushing. I then added some spare decals from old model kits and weathered them as well.

I think it came out pretty well I'm tempted to get a few infantry to with it now.

Cheers Jon

British Nobles

As I promised here are some pictures of the British nobles on foot that I finished at the weekend. Unlike most of my British army these guys are metal mostly from Foundry (an ebay bargain) with a couple of metal Warlord Games miniatures.

Most of the foundry miniatures were basically three poses so I did some head and weapon swaps with spares from my bits box. Shields are a mix of Foundry, Warlord and Wargames Factory shields. Some are hand painted some are transfers.

The next unit of British infantry is undercoated and ready to go on the workbench so hopefully they'll be finished this week.

Cheers Jon

More Britons

Managed to finish off the light cavalry for my expanding ancient British army on Friday. These guys are from Warlord games but like my infantry I've mixed in bits from Wargames Factory Celts to give some variety.

The Warlord games cavalry came with some war hounds so I've added them to this unit to bulk it out and get me 6 bases from nine cavalry models. These guys are mounted on rendera 50mm x50mm cavalry bases with the usual sand and flock finish.

I've also finished up a unit of British Noble warriors on foot but no photos. Next up is yet more British/Celt infantry. Then I need to go back and revisit my Romans who need some more legionnaires painted.

Cheers Jon

Hail Caesar!

Well I final got something painted this last bank holiday weekend after what seems like weeks of hobby inactivity (holiday,in-laws coming to stay,work,kids sports etc etc). It felt rather nice to be getting the old brushes out I must say.

Anyway as you can see I've painted some Britons (a mix of Warlord games and wargames factory plastics). I've been rather inspired by my holiday to Wales and the release of Warlords Hail Caesar Rules to try and get my Roman and ancient British armies finished after a long lay off.

I've got a copy of hail Caesar on pre-order with Amazon much cheaper than buying it elsewhere but sadly taking a lot longer to be delivered.

Working on some British Light cavalry now hopefully this will be the start of a more productive hobby as so far 2011 has been pretty poor.


Cheers Jon