Pondering pending projects - a priority problem

See, it's like this...

...and then I need to tidy this. Again.

No matter how hard I try and produce a list of things to do at the start of the year, it doesn't take me (any more than I suspect it does anyone else) long to get an attack of the 'oooh, shiny' and add things to it. Not helped by not always knowing at the start of the year what the theme might be for upcoming WAB tourneys etc.

So. With that in mind, how'm I doing?

From the list of things to paint:

• lots of 15mm WW2 US, German and British (in that order)
• lots of 18mm Napoleonics
• lots of terrain!
• A longboat

Hrn. Ok. So.

• Lots of US infantry done, lots of Shermans waiting on a can of US Olive Drab. Lots of Germans bought, so I'll probably make a start on those soon.
• 18mm Napoleonics... *whistles*. Be right back to you on that.
• Terrain. Well, I made two more woods last week, and Tim is really honestly going to get me the hardboard I asked for Real Soon Now.... I also have the bits for some 15mm bocage.
• The longboat is waiting on a piece for the masthead, which I'm going to knock up in work's new 3D printer :D

On top of that:

• Built an entire Parthian army for the WAB GT. This will also double as Palmyran for Rushden's Axes 2013 tournament, though I may add some Middle Imperial Roman allies - I've already picked up a very nice figure for Queen Zenobia.
• Added to my Christian Spanish/Norman/Crusades army for WABGT 2013 (and also possibly at least one other event this year). I have half a box of Conquest Norman foot to paint to add to that, as it's somewhat infantry-light for the Crusades, and I would like to add a box of the lovely Fireforge Templars. Also Foundry's current eBay sale is tempting me greatly to add some more foot, both spearmen and archers.
• Painted a bunch of Judges for the club campaign
• I need another section of Germans to play Chain of Command. (Sorry, Op: Squad. It's not you, it's ... actually, it's you :D)
• I need to make some time to go through everything I have, fix broken spears etc, clean up bases, figure out better storage (our butcher just delivered me a huge pile of stout cardboard boxes that are roughly 10" x 18" by 2" deep....)

Still...

...I won't be bored. I want to try and get into a regular habit of painting, even if it's only an hour a day while James is doing his homework. I can manage it for blogging, so...

Army Painter - Fireforge Mounted Sergeants

So as my last entry for Curt's contest on Tuesday, I thought I'd see just how good a job i could do going all out on the Army Painter way. You may have already seen this on Curt's blog - if not, enjoy!

Takeways from this:

• the fact that AP now do paints that are 100% matches for their sprays makes the 'spray on the sprue' trick a major win
• being able to use two different shades of ink (rather than dip) made this look much better
• I still can't paint for toffee, but Army Painter lets me bluff well :D

4:30pm: start assembling the horses from a box of Fireforge mounted Sergeants (I already used three as command in my El Cid army, so there were 9 left)
5.05pm: Horse done. Blutak to painting stick, spray undercoat in AP Matt Black, leave to dry.
5.10pm: assemble first four riders
5.30 pm: pause to consider cloaks, realise I've put the heads on too soon. Swear, remove heads before glue sets. Stop assembling riders. Remove rest of bits of riders *except* cloaks from sprue. Spray cloaks AP Dragon Red *on the sprue*.
5.40 pm: Dad's Taxi Service to take son to tennis
6.10 pm: return from dropping James at tennis, assemble rest of riders sans heads
6.30 pm: blutac to painting stick, spray undercoat AP Daemonic Yellow - two coats about 2 mins apart.
6.40 pm: find spare kite shields without arms from left over Conquest Games Normans, satisfy myself I have nine between these and the non-heater shields in the Fireforge box. Spray backs AP Leather Brown, leave to dry while finding wife's pin box, spray fronts of shield AP Daemonic Yellow, again on the sprue.
6.50 pm: Paint shield designs with AP Dragon Red
7.05 pm: try sticking pins in heads. Discover they won't go in. Heat pin on gas ring, NOW they do. Arrange line of heads on pins on painting stick. Feel like a very angry Sheriff of Nottingham making an example of some miscreants. Wish I'd photographed it.
7.15 pm: Discover I'm out of AP Plate Mail spray. Swear. Spray heads with AP Human Flesh instead (and the can ONLY just lasts).
7.20 pm: brief moment of panic as I can't find glasses to drive to fetch James. Find them upstairs by dressmaking box. Pass wife (on way back from work) on garden path on way out to be Dad's Taxi again, whistle innocently (what me? steal pins?)
7.50pm: Return with son. Greet wife properly. Hide evidence. Supper.
8.20pm: Start painting horses. Three black, four bays of various shades (mixes of AP Oak Brown and GW Dark Flesh), one chestnut (GW Dark Flesh/AP Monster Brown mix, Vallejo Khaki mane and tail), one grey (AP Ash Grey using an AP stippling brush). A couple get white markings with AP Matt White and a touch of Vallejo Khaki on white-socked hooves)
8.50 pm: Start on horse blankets (AP Dragon Red, saddles/tack (Vallejo Red Leather - I pick this because I *never* use it as a horse colour, so my tack always stands out).
9.10 pm: brief pause to say goodnight to son.
9.30 pm: finish horse tack. Glue riders in saddles, start painting mail, axe head, swords, spearpoints on riders, mail coifs/helmets (AP Plate Mail). Re-glue the riders that don't stick first time.
9:55pm: start on spear hafts, axe handle, standard (Vallejo US Field Drab)
10.15pm: Start assembling cloaks/heads/shields. Retouch cloaks where needed with AP Dragon Red
10.30pm: Start basing: Tamiya Desert Sand textured paint and straight into a tub of Javis Desert Sand mix, knock excess off on sides of tub.
10.45pm: realise I forgot to do stirrup leathers and sword scabbards: Out with the Vallejo Red Leather again, being careful how I handle the bases!
10.55pm: Deep breath. Ink washes. AP Strong Tone first, on the mail, claks, standards and shields (just to back off the brightness of the yellow a bit). Then AP Soft Tone on the yellow surcoat.
11.15pm: mix 50/50 AP Matt White/AP Barbarian Flesh, try and retouch highlights on faces a bit.
11:20pm: AP Dark Tone ink wash on horses (except for the grey which gets AP Strong Tone.
11:27pm: poke head outside back door, realise it's close to zero outside. Decide varnishing is probably a bad idea :D
11:30pm: photograph, upload, start typing ... :D

So, that's nine figures to passable wargaming standard in 5 1/2 hours (ignoring two trips to the tennis club and a break for food). Setting aside the time for assembling (about 90 mins) that's four hours of painting, actually made easier by the fact they were plastic figures.

Works in Various Stages of Progress

First off, apologies for what, by my standards at present, is a long silence - the family took turns at a two day tummy bug this week, and I've just about got over my go at it. On the good side, I have got the workshop a BIT tidier than it was, and was disturbed to discover how many 4L Really Useful Boxes I seem to have filled up with figures since I last did a serious audit. And I have had a couple of days to Think. And Plan.

It, um, looks like I'm going to have to update the Figures page on here sometime soon, or actually get stuck in to Sekrit Project W again. Suffice it to say the painted pile's gone up by Early Saxon and Christian Spanish WAB armies, as well as my Imaginations army (which I need to dig out again!)...

The unpainted and project piles, and the plans, on the other hand... let's see. This is turning into a 2013 resolutions list!

Battle report(s) - 14 Oct 2012 - El Cid at Eye of the Storm

After a frantic couple of days painting and basing (note to self, I am never buying cheap PVA again!), Andy, Grahame, Carl and I piled into the Andy-mobile at 0-dark-15 on Sunday for a trip to the Eye of the Storm gaming centre in Mansfield, where Tom had arranged an El Cid WAB campaign day.

What can I say? I had a ball - my Christian Spanish army (replete with two units of very tough Caballeros Hidalgos) acquitted itself pretty well for a first go, barring a few bizarre dice rolls!

My knights commence their roll up
of the opposition flank.
The ASB (c'mon, he's the bloke
with the mahoosive cross on a stick)
 is a Fireforge mounted Sergeant.

After a duel to determine who was king (Grahame won for us) our first game was a doubles match - a pitched battle. We (the forces of Aragon) won quite handily, largely due to a spectacularly bad failed Feigned Flight roll from JamesM's light cavalry, which basically allowed my knights to roll up one flank.

So far so good.

My Caballeros threaten some
Andalusian crossbowmen.

Next up, I got to play Bob on a Raid scenario - this was Castile vs Aragon, and he had a very light infantry/shooting heavy army, of which I completely failed to grab any photos.

Spot the ASB again, as the Cabelleros
go haring across the rear of the
Andalusian forces.

As a tactic it was interesting - their low morale made for a lot of running away, and my hitting a formed unit with a bunch of knights didn't help that. Surprisingly, though, I actually lost the battle after winning a humongous four unit brawl - we were down to about two units each at the end!

How many Feigned Flight rolls
can those lads make before the
Cabelleros and their BIG
standard catch them?

The last fight was a Dawn Raid against Keith's tricksy Almoravids. It... should have gone a lot better than it eventually did. I got stuck in early, despite the random (fog of battle) deployment, and wound up chasing around the back of the opposition army with a bunch of Caballeros Hidalgos.

The Peones making faces from
the alleged safety of the hilltop.

That bit went well. In the end, it came down to my Peones on a hill, facing down two groups of infantry including the scary blokes in black robes. The Peones, quite understandably, lost the fight and ran off, so I decided to clear the hill by smacking a large group of Caballeros Hidalgos, including my King, into them.

Run away! Bravely run away!

First round was a loss to me by one (bad dice) - leadership roll made, no worries. Second round, I lost by one (the one for having lost momentum last time). No problem, King is LD 9. Dice... rolled a 10. Oh, that's all right, I can reroll for the big and highly visible army standard within 12". Rolled a 9. Ooops.

Knights and King flee. All units within 12" test for general fleeing. Armiger and other unit of heavy knights, LD 8.... roll a 9. Other unit of Caballeros? roll a 10. Mercenary archers need a 7. Roll, yes, you guessed it, an 8.

I had one turn to rally them. I managed to rally 2 out of four. And lost the ensuing victory points calculation by... four measly points!

Having said that? Huge thanks to Tom and Scrivs for organising it, Andy for driving, everyone else for taking part. I'll be back!

Conquest Games Normans

Just delivered to my desk by Krystoph at work - and there goes my free time between now and the end of September.

There's a bunch of Gripping Beast unarmoured archers[*] and another box of the Conquest knights and a dozen of their crossbowmen sitting at home: these are for my El Cid army for Tom/Scriv's day at Maelstrom in October.

The plan is (for the most part) Army Painter platemail spray (for the armoured figures), block out the non-armour bits, dip or ink wash, maybe brave a highlight in the original colour, and varnish.

[*] For those wondering why I bought the GB ones rather than the Conquest ones, they come in multiples of four, I need 8, and I was very tight on funds for August :D