Happy new year, and bluring the lines

First post of the year so can I wish all readers a happy new year may 2017 bring you plenty of hobby time. For me I plan to get back gaming in 2017 and push my painting skills. To which end I wanted to talk about how I see my hobby and the painting involved.
As I see it as a painting wargamer (e.g I paint more than game) Military Modelling and wargames are either end of the same hobby. For wargames you want plenty of well painted miniatures but these are to be viewed from arms length on a table top. But military modelling is all about making the figures look lifelike and the top painters in this field can make figures look alive. This is a very time heavy way of painting figures can take weeks to complete with the top painters spending hours on maybe a single blend. I have tried this style and find it very tough to be spending as long on one figure as I would spend painting a whole unit of even and army of wargames figures. Its not that I do not like to spend that amount of time, just that hobby time is finite and I still love to play wargames (or new era board games) and want/ need  to paint figures for them
check out the top models on Cool Mini or not for 2016
And a few of my own attempts at Military Modelling style painting

I am at heart a wargames painter I excel in this style of work I have a method of painting that while effective is quick enough that painting an army will not take me years. My style for wargames is a simple one best summed up as Face's and Base's. You put extra effort into painting the flesh this gives the figures a great focal point, the rest of the figure can be done is basic colour with minimal highlights you then put extra effort into making the base work as stunning as you can. For me this is the best pay off between getting the army onto the table top and making the figures look great the base is visible form all angles and gives a great first impression and when the figures are looking at closer the well painted flesh will draw the viewers eye and give a impression of higher detail than you have actually put on the model. Below are my latest figures for the Sudan wars which show my face's and base's style (these would be add to a Sabot for the full base effect)

But in the last few years (maybe decade) the biggest growth in wargames has been in skirmish games. games that may only involve a few figures or a squad on each side. For me this is a chance to blur the lines between the two end of my hobby, I still want figures to play with but if I only need to paint a dozen of more figure to get a playable force I can put a few more hours into each figure to make them a bit more of a display piece. To this end I have a few projects that I will be giving this extra level of detail to namely my 40mm Napoleonic figures to play Sharp Practise my newest era Modern Special forces playing the Spectre rules set and maybe some WW2 SAS below are the first figures form my 40mm Napoleonic and my Modern stuff.

Christmas Swag and 1st Entry to winter challenge

So here I am starting my third winter challenge, it seemed fitting that this forms my return to the hobby when it was into the first month of the forth challenge when I fell out of love with painting and gaming. I am already staggered with the output of (to me) new challengers and I look forward to getting to know the people behind this talent.

not changed much just the hair has slipped

 In the spirit of returning my first entry throws back to a young James who in 1989 was all about the GW and Warhammer, I had been one of the kids who watch the channel four NFL show so when GW released and game based on football but set in the Warhammer world I was sold. I played Blood bowl with a human team for a good year or two and if exams had not got in the way I would probably have been one of those who kept the game alive as a cult classic since. But while I did not play BB again I did keep the passion so after a commission opened my eyes to the vast collection of BB miniatures from other companies I started to collect them with a view to one day restarting. 

My Christmas Day haul

Giving yourself only 5 days to complete your Dad’s Christmas present with no plan B might seem mad to some but anyone who watched my output in my first Winter challenge will know I work best with tight a schedule.

I love the character in these figures the faces are the real star of the sculpts, the team consists of 2 throwers 2 blitzes 2 Black Orc Blockers and 8 linemen. All the numbers are free hand and the base has colour mark so indicate the position.

I continue to work on other figures ready for my second entry been working on some fantastic 40mm Rifles.

 

And so the time draws near.

No I am not talking about the time when the big fella come down your chimney with box's for you lead pile. I talk about the day when 100 hardy bloggers can finally put away the primer and glue and start slapping paint on those hard prepped figures. While I still had plenty of colonial figures still prepped from the forth painting challenge, as with any wargamer I can never resist new lead/plastic.

As I plan to use this challenge to get myself back up to speed with my painting have set myself a low 1000 point target and have two periods that will get my main attention. I have 40mm Perry miniatures Napoleonic figures that will be used to play skirmish level games using the Sharp Practise. I have a good starting level of figures but will need to add more as I go to get them up to the correct level for a big game.

The second period is Ancients and a new game system Kings Of War (KoW) historical while my Dad and I love to play some ancients we do not want to spend a lot of money so I suggested we scale down and play the game at 10mm so that is what I have two armies in 10mm from Pendraken miniatures I have British Celts and Romans.

So that is (was the plan) but.....

I want to finish the colonial period that I started back before I took my break so I have a dozen or so Afghan tribesmen and 12 mounted plus a great new Perry Miniatures mountain gun to finish all my Afghan stuff, this period is already getting some great gaming from my Dad with a adjusted set of Donnybrooke rules (Kilts up the Kyber)

I also have a few more to finish my Sudan period, while I have completed all the Highland Infantry I do have plenty of tribesmen both foot and mounted, I might also have bought myself a river boat....or two which will need building and painting and will give the games some real eye candy. I plan hope to play these as large skirmish game with another Donnybrooke adjustment.

But just next to the Sudan figures in my prep box is.... what is that, well it looks like a load of Zulu war British foot and Mounted, and if I have all these Brits I must have some Zulus around here somewhere.

I see Zulu's...

So I may have drifted away from my Two period painting challenge, but in for a penny in for a pound because I have asked Santa for the 2016 Blood Bowl game and had already stock piled several teams for playing, so these might have made it into the prep pile...

That's all....honest.....ok maybe you can see the ACW guys who will be played using Sharp Practise.

OK so I might have prepped a few Cars and bikes for Devils Run and some Fantasy figures ready to play KoW, namly my favourite race the dwarf's and some thing for my Dad in the Norsemen, and with Grand kids playing with my Dad nowadays we need a good fun army for them to use (because no one lays a finger on my Dwarf's) so we may have invested in a Goblin army.

I promise that's is all...wait..

Peace James