Anne's Double Triple Secret Giveaway

Some exciting news from Anne over at O'Leary Miniatures Blog!

Anne's running a giveaway of all sorts of goodies over at her site, sponsored in part by author Patrick Hatt.

You can find Mr. Hatt's Amazon Writers Page at http://www.amazon.com/Pat-Hatt/e/B00AGFMYVC.

Something for everyone over at O'Leary Miniatures, but hurry, the giveaway closes soon... I certainly don't want to miss out!

Cheers,

Ev

Workbench update, housekeeping and for sale

Life has finally settled down quite a bit here at Chez Millsy. The bushfire that went past my back fence is well and truly out, my sinuses are working again (woot!!!) and my son is finally finished his night course so no more working all hours while waiting for him to finish. All that adds up to being less busy, tired and sick and that leads to more hobby time.

I've cleared the workbench and started on a couple of small projects - finishing a few odd space marines and making a start on Evan's command stands for our imagi-nations project. Horses are already done and staff figs are under way.

Cory popped over this arvo and we spent a pleasant few hours pulling stuff out of cupboards and working out what to keep and what to sell off. I've a fair bit of stuff going up on eBay in the next week or so as I look to raise a few dollars and more importantly make some room.

I'm also starting planning for the year's painting challenge over on Curt's blog, sorting out what I want to do and trying to find all the required models.

Two of our giveaway prizes have landed safely so that just leave's one outstanding. That should arrive any day I expect.

That's it for now apart from welcoming Kevin, paulalba2004, GranTurismo Driver, Pat G, Brian Botzan, Emilio and Sean, all who have joined since we last welcomed folks aboard.

Cheers,
Millsy

RIP Don Featherstone

This is the 200th post on our blog and it seems appropriate to dedicate such an auspicious event to a man who remains an absolute inspiration to me in my wargaming life - Donald F. Featherstone (Wikipedia link).

Don Featherstone doing what he did best - sharing his passion for the hobby

Sadly Don passed away yesterday at the age of 95. Don's passing was announced this morning on the Old School Wargaming Group on Yahoo! and is already making strong headway across the blogosphere. That so many people are commenting on his passing is a clear indication of his popularity and influence on our hobby. It isn't stretching the truth to describe Don as a father figure of the wargaming hobby, so significant is his impact in terms of published works, organisation and participation.

War Games, a Featherstone classic

I've been wargaming for over 30 years and my very first experiences are tied to borrowing Don's books from my local public library. I can't begin to describe how much I've taken from reading his books (over, and over and over!) Many of them I've eventually bought over time and added to my collection of classic wargaming books.

I wrote a post a while back about the value of Don's work and what it has meant to me. You might care to read it if you're interested. If I had to single out one theme that runs through all his books it is community - sharing our hobby, enjoying it with others and respecting their views. Sentiments as relevant today as they were a long, long time ago when Don first started out.

Sorry to see you finally failed the biggest saving throw of them all Don, you'll be sorely missed!

Cheers,
Millsy

SAGA warband progress

As previously mentioned by Ev, I have been painting up Viking and Strathclyde Welsh for my Saga warbands. Seriously a great game and one I can highly recommend, lots of fun, fast and the game boards are a unique system that really adds to the flavour of the period.

Unfortunately I have had to use my camera phone to take the photos, so the photo is not the best, nor is the lighting. Will try and rectify for the next set but I did promise Ev I'd post a photo tonight.

Always having had a great affection for Vikings (good old Yellow Beard) and being inspired by the recent History channel Vikings TV series which is brilliant, I chose to buy a box of Gripping Beast Plastic Viking warriors.

For a total cost of about $50 (AUD) not really thinking they would be that good a quality although I had read good reviews, however I was pleasantly surprised. The variation on poses and the detail in the plastic is of a high quality, nearly that of metal. Further the one box set made a leader, a banner man, a horn blower 2 x 4 Hirdmen and 4 x 8 Bondi. I didn't want to include any Thralls as I see these bad boys as hardened bunch of bastiches.

The shield is hand painted as I thought I'd try out hand painting various designs which I will show in future posts.

SAGA Scots Warlord Complete!

Truly, from little things, big things (or at least, more complicated little things) grow; this unassuming pile of pine bark chips and pebbles was to become the lofty crag from which my Scots Warlord surveys the field of battle.

I was looking to do something in the basing department which would allow my Warlord to stand out from the rest of the warband and convey something of the windswept terrain of the Highlands, so we're going with a rocky outcrop theme.

As you can see, this substructure is filled in with spackle (aka polyfilla, call it what you will), which is built up around where the figure will stand.

I drilled and pinned in the centre of the figure's 'footprint' for added security, and undercoated the assembly before texturing and drybrushing.

"A' yer base ur belong tae us!"

At this point, I think I was getting into the whole Highland landscaping thingy a little too much, since I went a little mad dotting the rocky outcrop with spots of lichen to give it that 'authentic' Caledonian touch.

I then glued the fig into place on the pinned footprint and filled the gaps around his cast base with green stuff. The putty was roughly sculpted to mimic the 'strata' of the pine bark, and left to cure.

Once the putty had cured, it was time to paint it to match the surrounding outcrop, dullcote the model, and voila!

After all the tartan of the warband, it was nice to muck about with bits of stuff and actually build something, even on this modest scale. I'm pretty pleased with the the result, and think it complements the figure quite nicely.

So what's next? My partner in crime and Blogmeister-General, the indefatigable Millsy, has 6 points of excellent Anglo-Danes with some Levy to provide shooty support, while our good mate Nugget has completed a Viking AND a Strathclyde Welsh warband, so I'm probably going to need some lads with bows to encourage these potential threats to keep their distance. Alas, a visit to the gaming shop today turned up no Scots levy, so I may have to resort to buying online.

Or... I do have a pack of eight psychos for hire, the Gall-Gaedhil, aka the Sons of Death; these guys aren't shooty, but they tend to charge in and keep the enemy occupied... That's two more points right there. Well, we'll see what inspiration hits when next I plonk myself down at the workbench.

Stay tuned!

Ev