Colours

Went to Colours in Newbury today. It's one of my favourite shows at it doesn't take very long to get there (I can do door to door in under an hour), you can drive and park easily and it is quite spacious (compared with Warfare at Reading which I loathe) . I only have to be inside these shows for 5 minutes and I run into Dave, from Guildford. It's amazing. happens every time. Mike was there too on his Black Hat stand. I always feel guilty as I never buy anything from him but that is because his 15mm Napoleon in Egypt range, whilst exquisite, are just too small for me. My mother came along (for some reason she likes the show too) and had a good look at the Front Rank 40mm AWI figures. She thought this was an eminently sensible size for wargames figures and couldn't understand why anyone would want to paint anything smaller. I am coming around to this view myself!

I did quite well on my shopping list:

More Wargames Illustrated binders-I've got 15 years worth bound up now, some Wargames Soldiers and Strategy backnumbers and this month's Miniature Wargames, which is getting harder and harder to find in the shops.

I got some more Perry Beja on camels and a few more spearmen in ambush for my sneaky Beja unit. I bought some more British Sudan infantry (running at trail) for my Royal Marines light Infantry. I also bought a pack of Indian Service Dress infantry just as I am getting sick of grey uniforms.

I spent a fair amount at the Musketeer Miniatures stand getting a nice Early German banner sheet from LBM for my Arthurian period Saxons. Bought a couple more packs of Duguth for my first unit. I haven't finished any more figures again this week but I have nearly completed my first five Duguth so will have them up on my Dark Ages blog next weekend. I bought the General and the standard bearer for the Saxons but he is a lot bigger than the rank and file. I know that Games Workshp do this but it annoys me. I know that you can argue that your leader would be a bigger tougher man ect. but.. He is nice though, so I may get him based quite soon. I also got some LBM transfers for the Saxon bucklers but they really aren't worth the effort. I bought plain ones and they take so much longer to put on and tidy up it's quicker just to paint them I think.

My impulse buy of the day, egged on by my son, was a Chieftan Miniatures Panzer III. Haven't done much World War 2 (only one figure in 28mm) but quite tempted by North Africa as that was where my father served in the War. It is certainly a solid lump (or several lumps) of metal.

I nearly always buy figures with the intention, however remote, of building some form of wargames army or unit with them. But I found myself buying some Musketeer Great North War Swedes and Russians purely to paint. I don't know why I just like the look of them. I am going to Stockholm this week so may go into the Army Museum as they have some uniforms, apparently.

My other, just for painting, purchase was a pack of the Perry charging Cuirassiers. They are one piece castings and are utterly gorgeous. For me, Cuirassiers are the ultimate Napoleonic troop type; forget Imperial Guard Grenadiers or hussars. They were, of course, the first figures I ever painted (the Airfix set) and I also had a painted Starlux 54mm model of a Cuirassier which my father bought me in Paris when I was a little boy. My son still has it on his shelf, I am happy to say.

So, although it has been another week with no finished figures at least the end is in sight for the first Saxons and I am making good progress on another five Spartans (having watched 300 for the first time this week).

Another zero figure week

I've been in Mexico City all week so haven't finished any new figures..again. Did get a bit done on the Musketeer Early Saxons which are very nice to paint. I will try to get some LBM shield (or rather buckler!) transfers at Colours next Sunday.

Painted Figures for August

A very disappointing month with only 12 figures painted. They did include finishing my Naval Brigade unit and the Gatling Gun which were pretty fiddly, I suppose. Too much sailing on holiday ate into the time I thought I was going to have and trips to Canada and Poland at the end of the month didn't help either. Also the light is now starting to fade in the evenings so I can really only paint at the weekend and that has been busy too with a trip to the Cowes Powerboat Festival with my little boy over the Bank Holiday weekend.

So the total was:

8 Sudan Royal Navy sailors
1 Gatling Gun
3 Beja on camels

..for a rather sad total of 12 figures. The yearly total is now 203 in 35 weeks or 5.8 figures per week. So I am now 7 figures down on my target for the year.

This month I have to go to Mexico City, Stockholm, Los Angeles and possibly Dubai so it is not looking too hopeful. At least I have about 15 figures well on the way.

Much better figures at the Cowes Powerboat Festival at least!

On the work bench..

Well, I am not doing so well at holding my concentration on one or two periods as I was earlier. The work bench still contains some Beja and my next unit of British, the King's Royal Rifle Corp, for the Sudan. But I still have some Azande waiting to be undercoated, some Belgian Force Publique troops and some Darkest Africa characters. There are also the Artizan Pulp figures and I have just started some Musketeer Miniatures Early Saxons. I really mustn't add any more!

I am not getting much painted as I was in Canada last week and have to fly to Poland on Thursday. Next week I am in Mexico, then Abu Dhabi, Sweden and the US so the September total is going to be as poor as August! I'm not getting much time at the weekends either as I am travelling back and forth to Cowes for various boating activities.

Oddly, when I do have time to paint I am not that enthusiatic and I think the main reason is the loss of good light as the days get shorter. I did a little bit on the KRRC tonight but spent more time fiddling with my Sudan Blog. I put a counter on it about a week ago and it's already had 200 hits!

Figure Storage

Someone on The Miniatures Page was asking how people store their figures, as they need a system that looks attractive as well as being practical.

Most people at Guildford use A4 Box Files. Recently John Lewis, the department store, have been selling these rather nice storage units. You can buy special white box files to slide in and out but, of course, any box file will do. They also have a little holder where you can put a label, which is very useful. The tall units hold 18 box files and the small ones 9.

Wash up, Doc?

I base most of my figures on 20mm square artists mounting card. The only exceptions are figures which are for rules which do not require ranked up formal units and for these I have used 20mm M10 washers. The M10 refers to the size of the hole in the centre.


I had used up my stock of the ones I had (left) and when I went to get some more from the DIY shops I found that they had trimmed the external diameter (centre). This was annoying as the new washers were noticeably smaller than the old ones. I have been searching for over a year to find the old size with no luck. For my new Artizan Pulp figures I had taken to prizing washers off some unpainted Future Wars figures I had not got around to.

Fortunately, in Cowes they have an old fashioned ironmonger called Hursts and I managed to get a couple of hundred of of the right external diameter washers and, even better, they are M8s so the internal diameter is smaller. This is much better for those figures which have very small bases like John Hanning Speke, here.


In the past I would have had to cut a piece of card to bridge the gap making the figure taller than it should be.

So hooray for Hursts! I am going back to Cowes next weekend for the Powerboat Grand Prix so might pick up some more.

It's very sad when the highlight of a sailing holiday is buying washers..!

Home from the sea..

..or, at least, Cowes Week, plus some other bits of racing on various boats.

I took my usual number of figures to paint but there just didn't seem to be the time this year. Only did about 10 in three weeks! I'm off to Canada tomorrow so it looks like August is not going to be too brilliant. All the figures I did were for the Sudan so I will put them on my Sudan Blog (see link on the right) soon.