Thinking on productivity

Inspired, after a fashion, by Tim at Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog and his Warhammer Underworlds stocktake, I started reflecting on the relatively unproductive last few months of hobby time. I've noticed that I've struggled with the weekly pace of getting something finished on the weeks between club days and that's compounded by some really good games recently that I haven't taken any pics of and don't remember well enough to blog properly. 

So I've been staring at the mess that is my workbench and at the associated miscellany of stuff that's sitting here waiting to be done and I've decided I should catalogue it and get focussed on getting some of it done before 2022. So what's left on the list of things I'd *like* to make progress on before I go back to work after the New Year? 

• Finish up painting and basing my Byzantines
• Paint Hummels
• Paint the 25 various 28mm models (some DnD, 40K, Necromunda and miscellaneous steampunk) 
• Finish building my OP Leman Russ for 40K

In a lot of these cases, I'd be happy to bring them up past just being primed. That'd be a good start and then finding the mood to finish them off would be good. 

But I did do a thing!!

Jagdpanzer IV/70s

In the interests of finishing things that are almost done, I decided to have a crack at the dotting for the ambush camo. 

Here's a WIP when I hadn't done the dots on the Middlestone layer:

I really, genuinely almost stopped here. I kind of like how this looks. But I figured it would be right to press on with it and the finished platoon looks like this:

The toothpick method for dotting was pretty solid and aside from having to do a couple of very careful touchups with the brush where I really goofed, it wasn't too bad. Am I super happy with the result, no. Is it not bad for the first time I've ever done it and would I consider painting an entire army of Hetzers like this? Yes.

Next Time

It's gotta be something off that list right? I should really finish my Normans for my Byzantine army as they're mostly just waiting for highlights. So lets say I'll do that.  

Working on my Byzantines

 Having rebased the generals last week, it's finally time to push on with the rest of the Byzantines. 

I've started the hard part now - trying to paint the last models to match the style of my original army. I've started with the two bases of Normans from the list as they're a little less complex and with less like the rest of the army.

 

I've still got a shield to add to one of the knights and some socks and things to add to the horses but I wanted to get them this far partly for this blog and partly to remember how much of a challenge of LBM transfers are. But man the finish is worth it. And the rimmed Norman shields do a nice job helping size them.

I've also done the horses for my light horse (because I hate painting 28mm horses but I can remember how I did them originally) and mounted up the archers to start painting them. While I do those, I'll do the Menavlatoi as they're in the same sort of uniform. 

 

I've also remounted some spare javelinmen into an MI base as well as I had four LI bases and the list only allows two, so an MI base didn't seem like it would hurt. Getting their javelins reattached made quite a mess of the paintwork although this problem isn't unique in this army at the mo.

Next Time

I'm hoping to get up to my friendly LGS some time before Christmas to acquire supplies for the break which will let me do the rest of the basing. In the meantime, I've got some Hummels to do, so they'll probably get started alongside the last of the Byzantines. 

Noodling along

 I played most of a game of Victory at Sea yesterday with Blogger Tank, when the Regia Marina and the Kriegsmarine had some wargames in what looks very much like the Pacific... 

Moments before the Vittorio Veneto launched a full broadside into the Admiral Scheer

This time I got to land both MAS and MS boats (oh my!) and launch a lot of destroyer-based torpedoes. I also got U-boated (is that a verb?) and that went less well. The Tirpitz is a beast of a ship and I shot a lot of torpedos into her and really struggled to get past the torpedo belt.

I also got my Jagdpanzer IV/70s out against Blogger Pel's Desert Rats. He's working hard to make them work in LW and I reckon he's cracked it. We played Scouts Out, a mission that neither of us has played and looked, on the face of it like it would be over super quick.

Jagdpanzer IV/70s in ambush

I expose not just the Jagdpanzer CO's flank but also it's rear armour!!

Totally wrong about that - we ran the game through to 7 turns in the end and had Pel not taken an opportunistic shot on the flank of my CO Jagdpanzer by moving his two PIAT-armed carriers away from the objective and that allowed my 250 OP and most of a platoon of Panzergrenadiers to give his Para platoon what for and win the game. Had he not, he would have taken the other flank with his Stuarts who were definitely giving me hell, having taken out my Wespe battery and the two SdKfz 7/2s left holding the objective weren't going to hold it! 

The Jadgpanzer IV/70s aren't quite done yet, but they're coming along. Pel suggested using a cocktail stick or something similar to make the ambush camo dots and I rather like that idea so will be trying to knock them off this week. I was pretty happy to get all the basecoats and details on to get them to be table-ready! 

Workbenchy things

I've finished the last of the prep for the new Byzantines, epoxying in the last of the lances and spears that needed to be reattached or attached and getting them ready for primer so they'll be hitting the paint table soon. I'd really like to get the basing of the whole army done in one hit so that'll be a fun job coming up. I'm enjoying ADLG and it's nice level of complexity so I'm currently on the hunt for another army. In the meantime, I've rebased my generals: 

Crusaders

Finally done! :) 

 

Now I need a parts order from the UK to get here and I'll be able to finish up an OP Leman Russ I'm working on and should have a new and interesting small Guard army to try out. 

Next Time

I've got some 15mm Hummels on the workbench for my 15mm Flames of War Germans and the massive basing job on the Byzantines. Having played a game of Victory at Sea with Tank's sweet islands, that's got me encouraged to do mine, I just have to finish sanding down the some of the PLA and maybe find some filler primer. 

Doodads and new things!

 Late and not a lot going on. Necessary holidays are necessary, and for once I didn't have time to pre-publish something...

 New Toys

A parcel from Gripping Beast arrived with new toys for many of the nerds. I have started working on mine and doing the things that are slightly more interesting than the challenge of matching my existing light horse. 

First, some Menavlatoi to sit alongside my Skutatoi:

 I really like how these models look - the short, thick-hafted spears and the cool posing on the models will make for a neat additional HI, 2HW base.

Second, the base I'm most looking forward to doing, a Greek Fire Syphon:

 Is it good? Almost certainly not. Does it look cool? Oh yes. 

Progress

 The army has been polyfilla-ed ready for basing, but I probably won't do the basing until after I've painted the new things.

 

You'll see in this picture new doodads from genius Olivier at Battlekiwi. I asked him about making some and he pointed out that he already had one for 15mm scale that he could rescale for 28mm.

Very happy. Very. 

Next Time

I'll be rebasing my generals for ADLG with new bases from Battlekiwi as well and getting stuck into painting those. Oh, and finally finishing those Crusaders. He says. Again.

Pooch's October update

And with that, October is done too! 

I finished up a big painting commission this month, which burned me out a bit on things for myself. But that said, I still made a bunch of progress on things, most notably continuing to paint  a lot of Celts for my ADLG army! 

1. Finish a table of terrain

I have the pieces I need for this started. And have managed to fail miserably about doing anything at all about it. Maybe next month, or maybe December. I just need to do it.....

2. Play a game a month

But wait, there is more Victory at Sea! This time a Cruiser battle between the USN and the IJN. 

USN Cruisers, sailing around a South Pacific island

The first of many USN Cruisers to go down in flames.....

Cruisers vs Cruisers was interesting- the Japanese torpedoes were absolutely lethal, accounting for all of the USN ships sunk. The counter point was that the USN gunnery was far better- but that was really just down to my dice deciding to be incredibly reliable! 

I continue to really enjoy the game, and will likely end up playing more in November too!

3. Finish a 1,500 point 40k army

This month I finished up two vehicles for my Sisters army.

It wasn't intentional, but the posing is very horror movie-esque......

The first a Rhino....

I don't love painting white vehicles

Mostly happy with it however!

The second a Penitent Engine

Because heavy flamers and giant saw blades are necessary.

Next up.... more Sisters of some sort, I have some airbrushed and ready to go, and some I want to assemble and paint. So.... some of that I'm sure!

4. Finish armies that I have part started

My Afrika Corps army expanded from their initial Panzer IIIs, to now include Panzer IIs, and some 8-rad armoured cars! This means that I now have a legal list for Remember December, but I have far more tanks to work through.... not sure what will be next!

The airbrushing on these was a bit more annoying than on the Panzer IIIs, I think beginner's luck was at play when I did my first batch!

Two 8-rad armoured cars

Spot the replacement wheel....

Zvezda Panzer IIs looking cool

The whole army so far!

5. Buy, build and play a new game

More Celts painted, still more to go.... 

How many of them do you ask?

Many.

How many? 119 Infantry, 8 Cavalry so far!

Aiming to finish them all next month!

Two months to go.... better get cracking!