Painting Ronin New Years Eve

Well we are about to see the back of 2012, hope it was good for you. For me it was a year of ups and downs, I got to give my dad his retirement gift after planning it for three years. I painted a lot more in 2012 that any year before. I started a team sport again after several years of doing nothing, this helped  me lose 1 1/2 stone. But on the flip side I had to go through two redundancy selections at work and things look like being grim next year too. My family has had a few health issues to deal with in 2012 and some will continue into 2013.
But as this is a hobby blog I will stick to that and give a few pointers of what you will see in 2013.
1: More blog posts, not the every day that I am doing for the challenge period but much more than previous years
2: An end to the FIW figures (for now)
3: Plenty of French SYW most will be done by the end of the challenge
4: 28mm Afghan and British forces.
5: Bolt action forces German already got will look at either Brit or US
6: Several 28mm buildings
7: Look into forces to play LRDP and Africa corp

I think that will be enough with hopefully a few commissions. So what have I been doing today, I have been working on all the FIW stuff enjoying the two canoes. For a little bit of a change I have started on a SWAT unit that I picked up last January.

I have photographed the latest output and will be sending them off to Curt soon.

Peace James

Have a great New year see you all in 2013

 

Painting Ronin Day11

So one of the best things about being on holiday is that I do not need to choose between painting and catching up on my TV, I can do both. One of the things I am enjoying catching up on episodes of the Big Bang Theory.

Anyone how has not seen this must give it a go, it has got me thinking though am I a geek?. I decided I needed to answer this so looked up geek:
""The word geek is a slang term for odd or non-mainstream people, with different connotations ranging from "a computer expert or enthusiast" to "a person heavily interested in a hobby", with a general pejorative meaning of "a peculiar or otherwise dis likable person, esp[ecially] one who is perceived to be overly intellectual". ^""
So I guess their is no getting away from it that I am a huge geek, because I am very heavily interested in the hobby of wargames, I think if you are reading my blog, you too are a geek. And I thought that playing all that sport at School would have made me a jock :).
So what have I been doing on my painting table today?. I finished all the figures that were on my desk from yesterday and pulled over a load of new ones to start on, I have 2 cannues on the go with 12 Minutemen and 6 more Indians (bow armed) and last but not least 12 more Hussar, these I plan to paint as the DeathsHead Hussars. I have always wanted to paint this unit even though painting black uniformed troops on black horses is not the easiest thing to make look good. Below is the image of this unit I am working off.

As you can see they do have a bit of colour in the belt and straps. Anyway I did not hang around with my skirmish Afghan idea, I went online last night and found some great value Afghan warriors with one pack of 30 combat troops and 30 with jezails or muskets from Old Glory UK . Enough waffle from me but below are the WIP pictures from what is on the painting table tonight.

Painting Ronin Day 10

Been a super productive day, I finished the Highlanders and based them. I finished the Hussars and will base tomorrow and finished the civies and based them. I have taken a picture of how the days painting table finished but not got too close so as to not spoil the surprise when they show on Curts blog.

While I was doing a little research on the Indian chiefs I got a present surprise, in my uniform book for AWI the figure is almost identical to the sculpt. I guess its no surprise as the sculptors have to get their info from somewhere and they will have the same ref books as us wargame's painter. I finished all 3 chiefs and will base them up tomorrow.

I have been thinking about the games I played this week with my Dad and I can see that it would not take very much work to convert the Musket & Tomahawk rules to fit another period. My second favorite period when I was younger after the SYW was the Afghan wars (colonial era), I have been looking longingly at various figures for years but did not want to invest in big armies. I think I will now look at getting a selection of models for both sides so I can play a Skirmish game. I have some money from Santa so I might just be investing in this era soon.
Anyway I am hoping for a just as productive day tomorrow so for now I will chill out and catch up on a bit of TV.
Peace James

Painting Ronin Day 9

Well I am back home and have pushed on with the Highlanders, I only have the lace left then base's and dip. I did get up early this morning and had a run through of the Black Powder SYW rules with my Dad. I enjoyed my three days of wargames.
Below are a few pictures of the SYW game with my Dads retirement armies.

And finally when I returned from Dad's I brought home all spare figures Dad had that still needed painting. Below you can see yet more FIW Indians and last picture is the current state of the Highlanders and the main focus of this picture is the two figures I think are the best the Officer and the Sgt.

Painting Ronin Day 8

Shock horror, a day with no painting. I did play another game with my Dad, we used larger forces this time and the game was great fun again. I have picked up even more lead/plastic to add to the reserves I have more FIW Indians and more ECW Cav plus a unit of highland Gents (ECW).
We head back home tomorrow afternoon so will be back on the painting table in the evening, I like most people in the world have eaten too much and look forward to getting back into my usual routine. I have added a few pictures from the last game.

Painting Ronin Boxing Day

Well I made it to "sunny" Morecambe, I did spend 30 mins on the brushes before setting off but as soon as I arrived Dad only had eyes for the newly painted FIW figures. After we had a spot of lunch Dad and I retired up to the wargames room for a short game of Muskets & Tomahawks.
I took the a french force of Regular troops and Indians we were tasked with guarding the local civilians. Below is my force:

And this is the field of battle 1/3 of my force was to be held in reserve, I selected the regulars to be held back leaving my 3 units of Indians and the civies to man the homestead. Two units occupied the two houses and the others took up positions around the yard.

I was opposed by evil British Light troops and Rangers, commanded by the Rvd P Brewerton.

I guess you could see it was going to be my day when my reserves appeared on the very first turn, they also got the first activation card so marched up the road towards the homestead.

The next activation was my Indians so I put them all into vidulance (over watch), this meant that when the British lights slunk out of the woods my Indians in the house opened fire, spilling first blood.

The Brits/Rangers got the next few activations so were able to take up position over looking the corn fields and at the back of the house. The rangers committed a vile act of shooting the poor civilians but failed to cause any injury.

On my next Indian activation I charged all units out of the houses and towards the enemy, one unit was able to get into hand to hand combat with the light Infantry killing another one.

That brought the first turn to an end, the second started with the indians charging back into the lights and killing one more this proved too much for the remaining troops who fled and hid in the corn fields. By now the rangers were closing in on the flanks and the ranger officer made a reckless charge into the nearest Indian unit throwing his tomahawk, he succeeded in killing one causing the rest to flee in fear.

My Regulars by now had formed a line and were threatening the rangers flank, causing them to pull back from the french and Indians pressing the position.

My luck was in today because a dice role at the end of turn two, meant the end of the game. My task had been to keep the civies alive which I did and Dads was to scout every area and retreat which he failed. Victory for the French
Victorious French General.

Painting Ronin Christmas Day

I hope you have all had a great day and the you got all you wanted from Santa. As you can see I did not give myself any time off the painting.

I did not complete anything today but pushed on well with the Hussars and Highlanders and the FIW civies are almost ready for a good dip.

I am getting lots of fun out of these highlanders these are by far the best figures I have painted from Redoubt Miniatures. Tomorrow I head of up to my Mum and Dads for a few days, it does mean a short break from the painting table. I will though be playing a few games with my Dad (gasp, I can see the headlines Brewerton actually plays wargames) what I plan to do is carry on with the diary with a few game reports and pictures of our wargames room.
Peace James

Painting Ronin Christmas Eve

Evening all,
                Hope your day has been quiet and that you have not had to brave any shops. I have had a productive day on the brushes. I finished the Cannon and the squad of Canadians plus the Indian Scout, all have been photographed and sent off to Curt so expect them after the holidays.
I still have a full table to keep me out of mischief.

I asked you last night to think about why you paint wargames figures. I know for some it is just so you can play wargames with painted figures, but for some of us this part of the hobby can be as much fun as the games. I love painting, I have not always painted for some periods my paints have been packed away while other hobbies got in the way but always they come back out. I think what keeps me coming back is that I am good. My belief is that every one has a skill they excel in for me it is painting little lead figures. A few years ago I thought my skills might lay in the top end display figures but I soon found I lacked the patience to spend hours and hours painting just one small part on one figure. I know why these guys only paint a dozen figures in a year, but for me I love painting units and armies. More than that I find the whole thing relaxing I sit at my desk with music playing and chill out. When I started out it was a CD on my Ghetto blaster (one of only two CD's I owned) now I have over 12 hours recorded on my smart phone, but either way it is my personal form of meditation.
 Anyway enough talk let me show you my current WIP, we have the Highlanders still, the SYW Hussars and a new group of FIW civies.

I have also sorted out the SBS of my painting of horses which you can see below the figure to look at is always the one on the left of the two.
 1. Dry brush whole figure with a dark brown.

2. Paint the lower leg in dark grey.

3. Dry brush the lower leg with light grey.

4. Paint the hoof light brown.

5.The hardest bit is now to paint the horse's muscle in a dark flesh, if I am painting leaders I tend to add a light colour to the flesh and highlight the flesh. But for rank and file this is enough.

Hope some of you find that helpful.

Peace James