I hope you're sitting down, because I've painted something.

I threw some paint at the Bloodcoat Officers.  And I suppose that as this represents progress, I ought to share.  However, there are somethings that I'm not overly enamored with, so here we go;

These guys look fine for TT.  Viewed from 4' away, they blend in nicely with the rest of the army - job done, we it were.  Now the fellow in the Scion overcoat is General Horpan ('Danny Bloodcoat' to his men).  Mostly happy, but there's bits where my  paint discipline has failed and the result is messy and untidy.  Especially in close up photos - possibly more so than IRL.

The effect on the vox-op's armour I am happy with, a tick that success.

Nelson X's sash is a bit meh, having spread to his shirt in two places.  And the colour changes on his big brown boots are a little too subtle.

The blue of his hatband is all over the cap's peak, there is blue from the targetter on the shroud, brass from his leg armour on his trousers and grey from his trousers on his leg armour.  And the grey is all over the base, whereas it should be black - this is on all of them.

There's detail on Tacticae Napoleon's cuffs that's not been picked out (probably because I couldn't see it when I was actually doing the painting) but at least his hair and face came out better than Nelson X's.

Over all, as these guys will spend most of their lives in an army case and I'm not out to win prizes, these are OK for the time being.  They are now packed away for the winter anyways.  Hopefully, by the time spring comes 'round again, I'll a) remember what the improvements are and b) be bothered to do them.

Another couple of painted figures (same woes though) in a couple of days.

Mr. Pie Ramblings: "I hear they sung..."

Mr. Pie Ramblings: "I hear they sung...": I recently responded to a Facebook thing about “'five albums that made me what I am”. Obviously, it was hard to narrow it down to j...



OK, now you need to know that 'Mr Pie' here is a friend of some 40 years; one of the four Apoc Generals, no less.  Someone asked him a question about "Five Albums That Made Me What I Am".  Most of the time our discussions about music centre around his penchant for "industrial grind" the type of thing Abnett refers to as 'Pound'.



Anyway, I was thinking about music that means something to be and it occurred to me that lots of music does affect me, emotionally (which is the point of music, n'est pas ?), but it almost either has a very strong context of its own in the first place or has a strong context for me, personally.

An obvious example is the last post.  I've been one of the quarter guard, arms reversed, around Dunstable war memorial on Remembrance Day.  As a youngster I did it in scout uniform, freezing my young arse off, often in the pissing rain, but I got it, even at eleven years old.  Being there 'for real' was more about getting the unfamiliar rifle drill right.  Now I don't do that anymore, it's more about a personal act of remembrance for me.  So, yeah, the last post is piece of music that can stop me from doing something.

But that came to mind after this;

I wanted to mention as well the closing theme to Dads Army.  It was a superb comedy, but it did always have an edge to it.  That edge was the Warmington on Sea Platoon of the Home Guard conducting something in between a bayonet charge and a more tactical 'advance to contact'.  If you watch it without the sound it might strike you as another bit of farce, in the vein of the episode.

But with the attendant sound track, what you have is a last ditch defence of a beloved homeland, England's Volkstrum.  A bunch of retirement age soldiers, most of whom had already served their time in the trenches thirty years before, once again taking up arms.  We see them advancing through a bombardment (albeit simulated) and the camera fades to the sound of the air raid siren - an eerie and penetrating noise my parents grew up with.  And of course the sequence ends without us really knowing if it was an exercise - of course it was !  Wasn't it ? - surely the whole point of the home guard was that these men were, once again, in most cases, putting themselves in harms way (to use a modern phrase).

Anyway, the closing credits of Dads Army, strange though it may seem, is another piece of music that resonates with me.

There are other non-military pieces that also  touch something here, (the theme to game of thrones is exciting) but I thought someone out there might find this vaguely interesting.

Social whirl

I've just been for a nice cup of tea with The Responsible One at a chain coffee emporium between Marylebone and Baker Street.

We had a nice chat (he's quite good at it) for about an hour on house prices, job security and the concentric rings of cost of houses, which is centered on W1 somewhere.

And amongst the other things that cropped up on the periphery, kickstarters, sources of mid-eighties citadel metals, 40K LARP (no, really, I've seen the picts.  But Aberdeen ? Really ?!?!).  And of course struggling through one's plastic crack mountain.

Anyway, the point of this post is that it is a marker, an aide memoire for me; I have some Chimera parts to locate somewhere in the garage.  I will let you all know when I find them and hopefully at some point in the grim darkness of the far future, The Responsible One will show us their eventual employment.

And here's a not - tank.  'cause tanks are festive.  Well, in winter 'flage at least.

More soon(ish).

Tabletop Fix: Gamecraft Miniatures - 28mm Blackhawk Down "Target...

Tabletop Fix: Gamecraft Miniatures - 28mm Blackhawk Down "Target...: Gamecraft Miniatures released the Blackhawk Down "Target Building" in 28mm scale: Link:  Gamecraft Miniatures



Yes way.  At last !



Now then, how can I persuade Mrs Z to buy this for Christmas ?

Deeper into the bitzbox

 Cadian with Scion hellgun.

He will possibly end up in 902 Div HQ somewhere - Gen Cdt Wellbahn could possibly do with a bodyguard.

Now, I know these are Preatorians (Vicky Lamb heads and legs - stunningly good service [again]), but saw Col Winterbourne do some and thought that they were so kool that I wanted some too.

I have no idea what I'm going to do with them, but they are just such fun to look at.

Munching through the bitz box

Bodyguards for Danny Bloodcoat.  Pig Iron heads, scion bits and Urban Mammoth torsos.

Same again but optimised for close combat.  This time with Heresy Miniatures 'skull mask' heads.

Another three specialists - two with Cadian sniper arms and cloaks and one with a bolt pistol & power fist.

That's more or less it for scion bits, now, just a couple to show you next post.

I'm still here !

Just been a bit distracted.

Here's Dubrovnik from the Napoleonic fort on the hill overlooking it.  Well worth a visit, but try not to be there when the cruise ships put in for the day, as the city gets extra over swamped with tourists.