Improving my painting

Regular readers will know that I get other people to paint my armies.  My painting is not so bad that I cannot bear to look at things, but it just insn't as good as I would like.  Obviously this is due to a lack of practice, rather than a lack of talent (thank you for agreeing).  So with this in mind, I bought one of those phenominally expensive trays - if I used one of the exisiting TV Dinner lap trays I would have to clear everything off it an put it away every time I stopped painting, which sort of defeats the point.

So now I have one.  And as you can see I can use it.  But as in a lot areas, good intentions are soon scuppered by real life.  Incidents by contractors have meant loooong hours at work the last two weeks and so my good habit of finding time to paint more often has already been broken. 

To tell the truth, whilst improving my painting skills would be nice, I don't really have the time; by which I mean that I have more meaningful and arguably important things to do with the time it would take (excersise, time with family and friends, maybe actually playing a game or switching the xbox on, ploughing through my reading list and working to actually pay for it all) to actually improve.

Moreover, if I am serious about one day stopping adding to my insane collection, then it will all be painted and I'll not have invested all that time in a skill I won't actually need any more.

Of course, all this is just cover for the real reason; I don't enjoy painting little men.  I realise that this is because my skill level doesn't produce a result I'm happy with, but quite frankly, I don't need to spend time doing this.  Anyone want a painting tray ?

Legs. And alternatives to Cadians

For a long time, the lack of legs has hindered Vraks renegade armies everywhere. Either there weren't the legs for the renegades or there were scores of cadian torsos and heads languishing in boxes for want of some form of parambulatory aparatus. No longer. Pig Iron have finally answered the call with something more than suitable, something which cries out for another platoon or two of renegades.

http://www.pig-iron-productions.com/ 

My poor old bloodcoats have not seen enough love recently. Thrown together and haphazardly painted, they were always 'the opposition' for my beloved Iggies to defeat. And incase your havn't seen them yet, check these babies out:

 http://defiancegames.com/index.php/shop#ecwid:category=1831024&mode=category&offset=0&sort=normal

Much better than the Wargames Factory's Greatcoat Stormtroopers. I can already feel my credit card heating up.

The Doctor will see you now

An unexpected by product of this hobby (all the more unexpected for having cropped up twice), is the provision of secondary care for injured playmobile people. This poor pirate was trodden on by Steve (dad). I suspect the grevious nature of the injury has been hidden from Alex (4 years and counting). Anyway, after my sojourn in Kent, I imparted my wisdom; that broken playmobile limbs would break again if merely glued and that they need pinning. So I got the job; the bit of paperclip you can see to the left has since become the pirate's new leg bone. Now all I have to do is get him back to his ship....

Mouse Attack !

This is another not IT related rant. Most of my IG live in a "Figures in Comfort" case in the garage. I was speaking with Karitas earlier in the week and this prompted me to look in on some of the little men this afternoon.



So, I put my hand under the lid and felt damp. Odd, as the garage is dry, n'cest pas? Also there was a small amount of random material in there, tiny bits of windblown matter and other less identifable stuff. I know the smell of rodent urine and was immediately sure that Charlie (Charlotte) Mouse was using my army case as a toilet.



Removing the dirty foam sheet revealed the top of a quite obvious (and cosy looking) nest.



As I dug deeper, however, it became obvious that the toliet was next to the door, as it may be in your house, gentle reader. The picture above shows where the figure foam has been chewed up and a nest made using paper from somewhere (army lists ?) and fluff from the tumble drier. That round object is a mouse nest and does indeed have space inside for a mouse family. Fortunately for me there were no tiny pink naked bodies in there.



A shot down one side. Quite clearly there is an upside down guardsman whose foam has been chewed up, the rear end of the perpetrator (to the right of the photo) and a sizable handfull of fuselli (the English name for that shape of pasta). Charlie and her industrious family have imported the fuselli from somewhere else, I don't normally keep pasta in my army case.



Some of those rendered homeless by the mice; in this case the arbities riot squad. Neither they nor the might of the Imperial Guard could defend against Charlie and her offspring. Kizzie, who is 50% English Springer Spaniel, was disinterested as well; not the useful 50%, then...

Just as I did this, I turned back to see Charlie Mouse, bold as brass, on the lid of the open case. She didn't stop, just ran off, well within 2m of the mighty hunting dog. Who just sat there, looking at her tennis ball.



Of course, like any modern des res, Charlie's is a multi floor apartment. The Iggies who lived here will be homeless for a few weeks (it'll give time for the smell of mouse pee to disipate).

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This was her mezzanine floor. As regulars will appreciate, her ability to describe a circle is much better than mine.



This tray has the bottom of the spherical nest in it, which you can just descern.



And here are the culprit's kids. I have left the case open on the garage floor in the hope that Charlie Mouse will come back for her kids and then they will all bugger off overnight and I'll be able to assess the full extent of the damage tomorrow.

Setting the right note

In this case, in colour. Looking forward to getting these back. Makes me want to break the Edlar out again...

Plannin'

A selection of half finished stuff.

I've not got enough half finished projects kicking around. So I shall go here http://www.victorialamb.com/store.html to get a few bits. A box of Catchananans will get penal troopers torso(s) and the las gun arms (penal troops being undeserving of enourmous should guards).

A box of Gors will get Catachan torso(s) and arms. This will mean hacksawing the Gor bodies to get the legs, but will give a convincing squad of beastmen.

A box of Cadians will be put togeather with kilts and Tam'o'shanter heads. The spare legs will get FW Vraks bodies and arms.

Four quite different and characterful squads from a bit of cuttin' and shuttin'.

What would improve my hobby expereince.

A picture of a wedding - a lot of people's expereice of commitment.

I was pondering my dodgy feelings of ambivalence and general 'meh' towards 40k and gaming in general the other day. I came to the conclusion that what was lacking was commitment. On my part.

If I put more in, I'll get more out. Simples, as the merekats would cheerily chirp. I'm sure that Jervis has delivered many a homily whoes subject, direct or alegorical, has been commitment. Quite a few people in the blogosphere have made commitments in the form of lists of things to build/paint this year. Which is kool.

But looking at things which require my commitment this year (the girl in the white dress, my job, the dogs, my own looming health crisises and the general decripid state of some of my nearest and dearest) there's only a limited amount of stuff I can realistically manage.

So this year I will play three games.

That's the same as this year. Doesn't seem unreasonable. Any finished wee men or vehicles (ie finished by me) will be a bonus.