Figure Comparisons

 The two guys in berets are GW Canadians with defiance games arms and legs.  Those bases are the defiance ones as well.  Very impressed with the defiance models.  The wargames factory greatcoat troopers were one thing; these are a country mile ahead.  The realistic arms look a bit odd on the Cadian torso; only careful positioning allows a good fit, otherwise the bulk of the Cadian body armour forces the arm out at an odd angle.  One these guys (Minders for future penal squads) the gap is hidden under pultrons from the new Chimera kit.  I only bought one box, but will almost certainly find some excuse to buy more.  The Krieg guy with the tank commander's legs is supposed to be a dismounted tankie, he will be standing around with the command group eventually. He looks a little strange unpainted but I'm confident that he will blend in when he's painted.

 Gors in space.  Began with the Gor body and just Catachchahchahcnen arms; the Gor body is too barrel chested for a great fit so the subsequent ones are sawn off at the waist with Chechen torsos as well as arms.  I hope you can see that they are physically huge by comparison with the more normal humans.  Good foundation for a kill team, I thought. 

These are Warlord Games British Commandos.  They are armed with a mixture of Victoria Lamb and FW weapons.  The heads are Westwind Saxons (with and without hoods, natch).  GS-ing the cloaks will be a challenge.  These figures are more slight than even FW ones, but easily fit in, either as peasants or hivers with their low protein diets. 

Burning a hole in my pocket

So, I was on the internet and got a bit carried away.  I bought things from (in this order) Victoria Lamb, Max Mini, Defiance Games and Copplestone Castings.  All within the space of two days.


The rest of post (now edited to reflect reality) was a rant about how people from Austrailia and America could get me stuff quicker than someone in Europe.  (incidently, Mark Copplestone must have been waiting at the end of my road with the stuff he already knew I was going to order, it was that quick).

But it turns out I hadn't got all the way to end of the checkout procedure.  Ho hum.

(Obviously the picture illustrates financial imprudence, rather than any political allegiance)

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 ?