Work In Progress.......July 2014

Following Junes painting success (Napoleonic big finish) July has been a quieter month.  Having flocked and improved my old Games Workshop hills to fit in with my battle mat table top I then spent a good two weeks doing absolutely nothing on the hobby front.  One week was taken up by preparation for a job interview – no job offer but I wasn’t too disappointed – while the rest was half tiredness, and half a lack of any enthusiasm towards any specific period/model/size etc.

Painting:

When I eventually picked up a paint brush it was to mess around with some Wars of the Roses (WOTR) bowmen, and to carry on filling out the unpainted corners of my Flames of War German collection.  The bowmen have been sitting, undercoated and based, for rather a long time following their purchase at Tripples two years ago, suffering from a combination of my fear of painting bright colours, and the “something else is shinier!” effect.  Having had a game of WOTR with Aidan recently using his rather nicely painted and impressive looking Yorkists and Lancastrians, I decided to trial a few ideas.  The platoon for my Germans that I have finally finished this month was the Flak36 88mm guns one, having only owned it for around 5 years.  The 2 guns and command team has been done for most of that, in fact I was rather pleased with the paint job on them, but the two big half tracked transports and the staff car have been 30% done for a while, and needed a finish.  I took the opportunity to spruce up the guns and command while I was at it; redoing the gun shield camouflage and filling in chips.

 I also trialled a new painting technique while painting a panzerschrek team, and an anti-tank rifle team.  The anti-tank rifle team nearly matches the 88’s transport options in the life-unpainted stakes, while the panzerschrek team needed rebasing after I put them on small bases rather than medium.  Juries out on the final result.

Gaming:

For gaming I managed a few battles against Aidan; he defeated my (or rather; his)Yorkists twice, then I lost at Warhammer, then I finished off by making -again mostly his - Napoleonic French look like mugs.  I’m getting my loosing face just right I reckon, a combination of disappointment, outrage, and comic pauses.  Before all that Dennis fell to my wrath at Flames of War, but gained his vengeance in Phil’s FOW Africa campaign, and finally I played a good few, very enjoyable, games of Carcassone against Will McNally.  Oh, and thanks to family commitments I missed Gauntlet.  9 months of thought and planning down the pan for me, luckily everyone else had fun.

Painting Totals:

Painting totals this month; 2 hills, 2 halftracks, 1 staff car and 2 German teams.  Not counting the 88’s touch-up job.  I also won a model of a Dreadball star player; a Judwan, for coming third and winning best painted team at the tournament!  A good result.

Purchased: 24

Painted: 126