Updates coming, I promise!

    Ok, the blog has been idle for a lot of 2020 but I'm working on changing that.  General funkiness has just sapped any drive to do much, although I did force myself to pick up a brush and get cracking.  By mid 2020 I had gotten a desire to finish some stuff laying around so buildings were made and some model builds for friends have been completed.  As contrition for 2020 I present the list of completed stuff through 12/31/20 for gaming.  Pics will come later, just getting the numbers out there (everything is 28mm size unless noted).  Most of it needs a pic to really explain it, especially the "blobs" and those will be coming in dribs and drabs.

99 pieces of scatter terrain

12 goods/objectives

37 copplestone pygmies

11 GW minis for my friend Duane

21 Russian Civil War copplestone

5 paper SE asia buildings on bases

14 6mm bocage pieces

24 vikings

14 frostgrave cultists

2 stugIIIB

32 generic civies,50s USA

21 middle eastern civies

5 10mm CAV

20 copplestone Darkest Africa tribesmen

1 witchfinder

1 apeman

41 modern Somali

4 rock monsters

4 men-in-black

 2 rock blob terrain pieces

2 large step hills

4 bush blob terrain pieces

5 Murch pulp USMC

3 wraiths

9 orcs

1 zombie

1 ogre

1 devil

1 dino

5 medieval casualties

10 medieval troops

ISIS lady

Spy lady

2 gargoyles

1 SAS modern

1 Western mini

12 RPG fantasy minis

1 US 'Nam

9 strips of trees

2 sandbag pieces

6 paper fence gates

16 strips of paper fences, based

21 clumps of trees based

70 trees based, painted, foliaged

Some pics to satisfy the curious.

Hind-A for scale.  6mm Paper Terrain buildings

AH-64 also checking out a 6mm ville.

6mm ville based and flocked, note ruin on right.

Some finished Paper Terrain Russian villages

A GW dwarf WIP.

One of the many yetis roaming the north.

Boxes!  A major reorg took place here.

Hobby chaos!

Close up of warehouse.

The 3 warehouse pieces.

6mm Soviets in progress

My other habit, fountain pens!

Both the Pacific and Europe are represented.

Painting during the virus months

Another month of painting . . .

     Another month of pseudo-quarantine has gone by and my interest shifted to terrain as the weather warms.  It's easier to spray paint terrain and now that Wisconsin is out of the thaw I can spray without the wet and cold weather influences.  So after a month of painting for another group challenge I've completed a decent amount of items.

Terrain:

    I'm working on an imagination Africa project and this will encompass Vietnam gaming as well so I need to have jungle and vegetation to break up LOS and allow things to hide.  In 2019 I had ordered a bunch of palm trees from China via ebay and the bug hit me to start getting these painted and based.  Most of the basing is done using 1/4" x 2" fender washers for single, double, and some triple trees, but I also had some "strips" of mdf about 1.5" by 4", 6", and 12" in size from a failed wall project.  These strips are designed to be boundaries between properties, create trails by acting as borders, and be just general jungle pieces not on perfectly round bases. 

Models are next!

Taking a count

     We're in week 2 maybe of the covid-19 death plague so I'm turning lemons into less lemons by entering all my kits into scalemates.  For those who don't know, scalemates is an online cataloging site for modelers to keep track of their kits, extras, books, and paints.  You can bring up all the aftermarket parts for a certain kit and make sure you aren't buying something you have hidden away.  It's paperwork at the beginning but once the data is there it's easier to see ways to use it.  So after going through 4 totes and the storage shelves I come up with a grand total of 367 "kits"!  There is some wiggle room since conversion parts and diorama items are sometimes classified as kits, so it's not 367 actual "build the model in the box" kits, but it's still a lot.  What to do?  Here's a snippet of the books I have on hand for modelling and gaming reference.  Most of my "regular read" books are upstairs and not pictured. 

Reference books, part 1

Reference books, part 2

     While work continues on my models I also have been chugging through the lead pile, and I'm getting within sight of finishing off my pygmies and modern Somalis from Brittania (there are still more modern Africans to paint).  My method of basing when I get enough to make the change in table set up worth it is the way to go for me.  I can paint without clearing the bench and breaking out all the terrain glues and material; I can set a day aside for that once I get enough.  Well, I had enough done and my cookie tray was filled so here's what is done, done (all 28mm):
Friend Duane's minis - 2
Vietnam - 1
Copplestone Russian Civil War (RCW) Whites - 6
Foundry pygmies - 23
Brittania Somalis - 15
RPG minis - 12
Scatter terrain - 18
decorative items for the table - 12.

Pygmie force

Somalis, almost done!

Acheson walls

Old glory Africans and TAG Vietnam

The start of my RCW forces and some goods from Mantic

RPG minis including a rock monster and 2 devils for Dracula's America

The quarantine continues....

Making Headway

     So I'm into week 2 of the "safer at home" quarantine and I'm actually getting a lot done.  Who would have guessed that "hobby time" is really similar to "safer at home"?  I've primed up a lot of darkest africa minis and I challenged myself to finish something substantial so I am pushing to finish the last of my Brittania 28mm Somalis I purchased years ago and have poked at for a while.  I'm down to my last 5!  Next challenge after that is done will be the rest of my modern africa forces, mostly irregulars.  Now for the stuff I've finished!  More buildings were completed which not only clears room in my model room but also starts to bring down my mdf pile. 

Charlie Foxtrot Russian house

The Wild Geese set's airport terminal

Another piece of Mantic's Mars Attacks ruins.

A couple of Mantic wells from their terrain crate.

That's it for completed things.  I only count minis once they are based and put in a box, that means 50 guys are going to be showing up on here along with some more scatter.
     Seeing people post FB pics of games got me moving to clear of the RPG gear, since we aren't meeting face-face, and start putzing around with my rules.  I read a lot of rules but don't play them so they don't get a test drive normally, but that's changing!  I set up a small African village that will be my test bed for modern rules, starting with Skirmish Sangin.  This will be a solo game focusing more on mechanics and process than scenario balance.  It also gave me a push to pull out my modern Africa figures and see what I really have, and what I can finish to finally put a cap on one period's forces.

Overall view of the table

My africans! Nam SF on upper portion.

I'm going to use my 'Nam SF minis as the attacker and I'll pull out enough irregulars to make it interesting.  In the second pic on the lower-right are my Brittania Somalis, going clockwise are Eureka ZANLA, hostage minis in the field, some somalis I got off TMP  (tan round bases) and in the center by the tree are my TAG African forces.  Way on the left by are some more Brittania Somalis, civilians this time.  The huts and foliage were made by me with the exception of a couple of trees.  The cars are diecasts from Menards.  The market stalls are Mantic and the well is an Acheson piece.  The pig sty is from Things From the Basement's Russian village set.

Quarantine time is hobby time.

Stuck in the house, oh my!

      Well it's day one of "safer-at-home" (cute phrase) here in Wisconsin so that means, not much changes.  Now I can enjoy guilt free hobby time since we aren't supposed to go anywhere and I work from home, another bonus.  I've taken advantage of this time to start looking at my miniatures situation and making some decisions.  One of these is that I have some things that I'll probably never use and they should start to slowly make their way out of the house.  My plan is to have a box where I can put stuff I "probably" want to get rid of and if in a year or so that box is still around I get rid of it.  Unfortunately that doesn't take a lot out of my lead pile.
     When it comes to the lead pile I think I've found my answer for speed but acceptable paint jobs.  It came from Dr Faust, and it's a style I've seen but never tried.  Basically it's a shadow to start and then layer up highlights from there; I used to paint the middle and then shade and highlight.  I'm getting a reasonable speed but the figures look good enough for me.  It also isn't too far removed from advance techniques that I want to use on model figures.
      Now for the good stuff, what have I finished!  In keeping with my previous post I'm putting up at least pics of what I'm finishing with the goal that in 2021 I'll see a lot of progress.  So here it is!
   After about a year of sitting in my room I finally completed 11 French destroyers in 1/2400. 

Escorts forming.

Hull numbers even!

Scatter terrain, you can never have enough!!!!  These are a mix of Crooked Dice, Mantic, reaper, Scotia, Things from the Basement, and some others.

Vendor stalls for the villagers

Goodies for the underground lab of evil!

Is it wrong to have pews near a gallows?

A Eureka boat I had sitting around.

I did complete a lot of vehicles including a truck & trailer from Puppet's War, a Bolt Action KV1, more gaslands cars and a repainted GZG 25mm vehicle.

A really nice model with good crisp detail.

Probably my last KV since I now have 2.

Figures and figures by the dozen.  I don't remember the final tally but it was a good amount.

Foundry and Old Glory African Natives

Old Glory porters

More GW minis for my buddy Duane.

RPG minis, some pretty old school.

More SpecOps from The Assault Group

Foundry minis for Darkest Africa

I can't leave out buildings, that's my thing!  I completed a Charlie Foxtrot Russian farm and an Acheson dark age house.

CF models go together very nicely.

Each floor and roof removable.

Nice resin piece for my vikings.

     The total that I completed is:
7 Dark Africa/Pulp
7 Dark Africa casualties
44 Dark Africa tribesmen
14 Dark Africa porters
10 GW oldhammer minis for my bud Duane.
3 Vietnam minis
14 miscellaneous RPG minis
4 market stalls from Mantic
31 pieces of sci-fi scatter terrain
1 tractor and trailer for sci-fi
1 sci fi apc
1 kv1
2 houses
4 gaslands cars
11 pieces of medieval/modern scatter.