A Song of Frost & Gravy, Part The Second, or The Winter's Tale

Is it that time already...?

It's been over three months since my last blog post on the tail end of the Sixth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, and it seems that I've barely had time to scratch myself, let alone get anything hobby-related decently begun. Plus, this winter's head cold is a bloody pain in the proverbials, pardon my French.

Besides, the estimable Mr Mills has been left to do all the heavy lifting on C&G while I've been otherwise engaged, so I'd better put in some effort to try and hold up my end of the rope.

So I've decided to get back on the hobby horse and see if I can't get some momentum going. I'm resuming work on some more monsters for Frostgrave, since it's all very well to have a warband, but every scenario needs random encounters and adversaries.

First up is this little chap, a Reaper Bones Giant Spider. Cheap as chips, he'll be appearing in the well-loved role of the Ice Spider, the galloping predator of the ruins of Felstad.

He'll need a suitable base of course; he's not terribly imposing sitting there with all eight legs on the ground. So a chunk of pine bark, a few quartz chips, some white pumice paste on a 40mm Renedra round base, and a pin to secure Mr Spider to his perch, and voilà!

Painted to a suitable standard;

...and with the painted Ice Spider given a preliminary placement, it's not looking too bad given that I've not been within shouting distance of a paintbrush for longer than I care to remember!

He'll need the regulation snowdrifts as set dressing, but we'll get on to that soon enough - this is just a WIP post!

More later - stay tuned!

Ev

Next Major Project Push... Flames of War DAK Panzergrenadiers

Having successfully pushed a couple of major projects through to completion recently I've moved onto the next one that has been sitting idle for goodness knows how long - Desert Afrika Korps Panzergrenadiers (Tunisia) for Flames of War.

I need to finish the following to put this one to bed:

1 x HQ
2 x Combat Platoons
1 x HW Platoon
1 x 10.5cm Artillery Battery

This weekend I've made a solid start, completing all the crew for the 10.5cm battery.

I've also cleaned up, primed and started blocking in the HQ and HW platoon.

This is likely to take me 2-3 weeks to complete if not longer. Despite the fact they look quite monotonal there are in fact something like 12 colours plus ink to apply. My basing scheme is also quite complex and adds something like 30% extra time to each unit too.

I'll be pleased to have these out of the way. It will leave me with next to nothing left for Flames of War, a situation I've never been in, not even once, since I picked the game up about 6 months after version one was released. I might have to pinch myself when this one gets over the line!

Cheers,
Millsy

Heroic Fighters of the Known World

It seems the older I get the more interested I am in miniatures and games that I missed out on when they were first released. Take the wonderful Heroic Fighters of the Known World for example, eight finely crafted brave warriors sculpted by Jes Goodwin and released by Citadel Miniatures in 1986.

In 1986 I was way more interested in Susanna Hoffs than anything else. In fact it'd be fair to say I was interested in absolutely nothing BUT Susanna Hoffs for a good proportion of that year.

That hasn't changed, however these days I've at least found other interests to occupy some of my time. So today a package arrived on my doorstep containing (you can see where this is going)... more lead!

Hazy Shade of Pewter

The full set in absolutely great nick and ready to absorb my attention when it should be focused elsewhere (not unlike a certain female American vocalist). Whoever owned these prior to them arriving at Chez Millsy has clearly tried to replicate the original paint jobs on as they appeared on the reverse of the packaging, gorgeously painted by Colin Dixon.

For once I'm going to do exactly the same and paint my set as faithfully to the original box art as I possibly can. It'll be an interesting diversion and a wee bit of history too.

Now if you'll excuse me I have a an old VHS tape of Bangles clips to watch. Again. Go on, shoo! Susanna and I need some alone time...

Cheers,
Millsy

Two more major projects completed!

I'm a man possessed! Exactly what I'm possessed or and/or by is debatable, however the consequences are undeniable. Today I've completed another TWO major long term projects.

First up is my 8,000 point Epic 40K Squat army. These wee 6mm scale "space dwarfs" have been a labour or love (and not inconsiderable expense) and now they are DONE. Well, there's still a bit of basing to do but that's on hold until I can order a metric tonne of tufts. Here they are in all their red and white glory...

Secondly, with the completion of these three Space Marine Landspeeders I've also wrapped up another of my long running 40K projects...

All up this army tops out at something like 4,300 points using 5th edition (which we refuse to give up!). The purists will note that the weapon load-outs for the speeders are non-standard. That's simply because I had a missile launcher and a pair of autocannons leftover from my Catachan Sentinels and wasn't willing to shell out a lot of shekels for extra bits when these look the business anyway.

So, now I need to decide which of my major projects to clobber next. But first, a nap and the Sunday arvo pie/footy combo. Bliss!

Stay tuned...

Cheers,
Millsy

Epic Squat Progress...

What with 2016 being the Year of Getting Shit Done Projects Completed and all that I've turned my focus to my Epic 40K Squat project this week. A good few hours of squinting and I've managed to complete all the remaining vehicles on hand. Here's how they look prior to basing...

2 x Mole, 1 x Cyclops, 7 x Termites and 8 x Spartans

That leaves me with just two infantry formations to paint and base this week. Once done I'll have a cool 8,000 points of Squat red and white goodness. I'm still hunting for the ubiquitous Land Train and a Hellbore but these are just icing on the cake so to speak. Oh, an ONE single Gorgon model curse it!

More soon...

Cheers,
Millsy