Easing back in

Really hectic last couple of weeks with travelling and an unbelievably stressful work week this week (had to put some 12 hour days as well) have taken a big bite out of any scheduled time I had to get cracking hobby wise, although I still found the odd hour to get a few bits done....in between I managed to paint up a couple of GZG Cyclops Heavy Battlesuits, went for a slightly different colour scheme with these and played with some lighter yellows/browns, yellows being a colour I have shied away from due to the paints i've used being very watery but I used a foundation paint with looked pretty good. Looking at the pics blown up though I really need to water down some of the paints as it's looking a little heavy handed.

I popped into the range to pick up some household bits last weekend and was surprised to Foam Core boards for sale! I've been checking on their website but never found it. Picked up 5 A3 boards for £7.99 and just went for it, no major scale measurements just went for roughly 2.80 cm per floor and went a building. I made up three north African/Tunisian esque builds that I figured could be used in a host of scenarios/eras, I managed to pollyfilla the cracks today and should sand them down and texture spray them tomorrow:

While I was travelling I took the gruntz sheets with me and started sketching out the stats for the mini's in my collection, i've started making the profile cards up and putting the jpegs on the Gruntz forum here, the pdf I was creating were really crisp but they are coming in around 8megs so i'll have to see if I can make them smaller.

Elsewhere I got lost in flights of fantasy, I have been meaning to playtest the Fubar Mech rules once a few mini's were painted and to even get a few games of Fubar in but time has not been on my side, perhaps next week....also while I was away I took my notebook and outlines for a new ruleset/background I wanted to work on having had a large number of ideas sketched out I want to get some structure in place but again once back in my room I just needed to crash. :( I will get my ass in gear and get this ALL done next week! (note to self).

Having bought a pile of miniatures back before last December the idea was to get them all painted before buying any more and I cannot stress how hard this has been! There is SO much quality being released in 15mm at the moment and so fast it's hard to keep up, so I am going to have to focus and expand on what I already have. Looking at the Cultists I was trying to find an APC/Tank that would really suit the theme and came across these fench WW1 tanks from Blue Moon via old glory in the uk:

I think with a little conversion work these would make some great Cultist Steampunk APC/Tanks. To lead them it has to be Comrade Vortan from Kremlin miniatures with some armoured support via the Cyberian Death commandos, but they also need some kind of big hitters i.e a mega construction of the disciples....mm I do have a few dollars in paypal for my first Khurasan order. :)

There's also been this scratch I have been wanting to itch for a while, I having a passing interest in the ACW and have been recently reading/learning the history so want to explore the wargaming side, only it's a little awkward. I don't feel I know the history enough to do full scale or even the painting schemes justice but I want to get stuck in and since no one has published "Wargaming: for people who don't know much about history but like the cool uniforms and the loud guns." I thought I would start on the small skirmish level. The 15mm.co.uk potomac mini's caught my eye a while back (a nice paint job goes a long way) so might be a good start, rule wise I have been edging towards getting Too Fat Lardies Terrible Sharp Sword along with the original sharp Practice rules. Seems a bit of a pain in the ass having to buy both to get the full rules but hey. I was looking at Fire and Fury Regimental, but with the International postage/import tax/UK postage handling charge etc it's a bit too much to ask just to tip my toe in.

Coming up I am tempted to visit my FIRST wargames show! Exeter Legionary show 2012 is on May 5th (I think, they've neglected to put the date on the actual show site...) and there are a few interesting traders going, be good to see Angel Barracks and the 6mm mini's in person. It's a long shot i'll be able to make it but you never know :)

Anyway, feel like i'm just brain dumping now so best to sign off. Probably best to try and update a more regularly that one big weaving conversation, :/ Cya's.