Picture time!
We had another painting challenge for the month and I cranked through some more bits and pieces that have been sitting on the desk. Some minis even got a final coat of paint and basing after 30 years!
Here's part of the finished items for the month (missing are the 30+ UFOs painted and magnets on, and some planes). The gaming table is currently cluttered with my reorganization of storage containers, so this was an open and flat space available. By the way, the blue box is a photo album "container" that Michael's sells. They are about 3" tall and 15x15 inches, and they usually go on sale for a couple of dollars each. They don't have interior dividers but if your minis don't travel far they work out pretty well, and they stack.
In the pic are (top left and clockwise): 4 1/300 mi-24a's, some extra 1/1200 zeros (3 others are on a base ready for a game along with a Betty), 1/300 resin church, a bunch of 1/2400 ships, and the black-metallic thing is my observation chamber/death ray housing for the secret base. It was part of the 1/32 plastic toy soldier space set.
Now some close ups. These are the mi-24s. I have magnets on the bottom so these stands are temporary, some CorSec Engineering ones are coming that are my usual game stands (powerful magnets and multiple base sizes). The rotors were cut from a thick plastic tray we had at work for printer toner. They were in a bundle of 20 and were getting tossed, so home they came. It was thick enough to use the circle cutter on since the center point didn't drift like it does with thing plastic The tail rotor was punched out. The windows look a bit "modelly" but they look like windows and that's what I need. The red stars on the side are from I-94 and the numbers (green for these, on the tail boom) came from MSD, they have a good selection of plane decals.
In the background is the resin church I've had stashed, originally bought from ODGW when they discontinued their resin terrain line. I picked up a damaged and undamaged version of it and some other buildings. The front right has a GHQ 1/2400 Tarantul and on the left is a 1/2400 Juliet. I picked those up in Norfolk, VA back in '89 while visiting a friend stationed there; I was at MCAS New River. Harpoon was the game they were intended for but as many owners of Harpoon can attest to, it's not always easy to find opponents for a quick game. So they sat and sat. I based them in the same manner as the 1/2400 WWII ships we use for Naval Thunder, 1cm wider and 1cm longer than the mini. The labels were printed on some label sheets and affixed to plastic strip. I think this will be their final paint job.
Some more 1/2400 ships, this time French WWII destroyers.
The last update is that I received my Bones III kickstarter order from Reaper! I got the core set along with some bigger pieces (giants, giant maw, nyarlathotep, stonehenge type shrine). A lot of minis that were definitely a bargain. A lot of RPG types were in the set but I can use those for warband games like Frostrgrave, Blood Eagle, etc. I have a nice Lizardman group and of course the giants will be seeing combat against vikings. It's a lot of minis so I don't think I'll get into another Bones until or unless I make some serious headway on these.
Upcoming:
I hope to start up another painting challenge to keep churning out the pieces. There are 6 1/600 freighters in progress now and I'm toying with the idea of picking up some photo-etch for the next batch of 1/600 boats. They could add some nice detail to the models but they could also be an exercise in frustration. There are only a handful of aftermarket sets for 1/600 and it will be good practice before I start up on 1/700 ships.
