Getting there
I actually took time off today from working on my latest paper to do a bit of painting on my Neanderthals (mainly because the Old Bat was out for the day!). I think it's about two months since I did any painting (also Neanderthals) but I did a bit more on the second batch today. Even though they are taking longer to paint than the Sistine Chapel they are actually not far off now and I may do a bit more tomorrow. This will complete the seven Lucid Eye Neanderthals and although I said last time that it looked like news of the promised Savage Core rules had gone a bit quiet this is not the case. At Salute I picked up the Atlanteans and the last of the Amazons but next will be the Jaguar tribe, I think. I have been worried about picking up a paintbrush as I didn't want to see how bad my eyesight had got but the recent laser surgery I had does seem to have helped. It's not what it was a year or so ago but I can definitely paint again, even if not to my previous standard. This is quite exciting and has had me thinking about what to do next.
What I should really be working on is Argonauts, for a possible Shed Wars campaign later this year so I am going to dig some figures out for that. I have just found some Foundry Harpies and will base these tomorrow. I will paint them like the ones in the Harryhausen Jason and the Argonauts I think. The Foundry figures come in two types, ones with bird like legs and ones with human legs but I don't think I am going to worry about this. One of them has a bush that would put a seventies Penthouse Pet to shame!
I've been selling some plastic figures I am never going to paint on eBay, such as Gripping Beast's stumpy gnome Vikings and Victrix's hideously complex British Napoleonic infantry. A lot of metals will follow when I can sort them out. So I shouldn't be looking at any more but a number of things have (inevitably) caught my eye. First up, because I have already ordered two packs, are Perry Miniatures Afghans. These will probably be smaller than the Artizan ones I painted but hopefully not too much smaller because variety is certainly needed for these. I also have four Studio Miniatures figures somewhere as well, so I will do a comparison picture when they arrive. The imminent arrival of The Men Who Would be Kings is driving this, of course.
Not on sale yet but very interesting to me are the forthcoming Victrix Early Imperial Romans. The Warlord ones are uselessly small and I have got rid of all mine but these will work with my Foundry Germans and Renegade (and others) Ancient Britons. Although it appears they will all be in Lorica Segmentata (ruling out the invasion of Britain, annoyingly) I will be able to use them for Boudica's rebellion. Very excited by these. The good news is that they will have pila and sword options (I always have my Romans with pila rather than waving swords about). They look a bit too 'active' for me but we shall see.
A range I have managed to resist (so far) is Firelock Games lovely new pirates. Seeking $15,000 on Kickstarter they raised $200,000 more than that! I am happy to wait for when they are on sale, though as I'm not short of pirates to paint. The real attraction for me is that they are 17th century figures with musketeers equipped with a collar of bandoliers; just right for Henry Morgan's time. Nearly all the other pirate ranges are for the early eighteenth century. Now my Panama project can proceed and I can recreate this Angus McBride picture. The range will include ships and rules, called Blood and Plunder, too. Excellent.
I haven't thought much about the Lord of the Rings for some years, given the disappointing support from Games Workshop for The Hobbit. Now, however, they have formed a special Middle Earth division (well four people) within Forge World and are promising to reintroduce out of production figures, source books and scenery. Even better, they have some new figures underway, including these wonderful Iron Hills dwarves (below). These and other things like a plastic Lake-town House kit demonstrate that, contrary to rumours last year, Games Workshop have renewed their licence from New Line.
I recently watched a really annoying YouTube video by someone (I won't give his name) who attended the recent GW event at which all these things were revealed. I can't find a link to it now but this fellow blathered on for nearly an hour to impart five minutes worth of information. Seeing people talk to camera on YouTube videos just demonstrates why TV presenters earn big money. Everyone thinks they can do it and almost no-one can. This chap spoke much to fast, slurped coffee throughout his piece (you can tell he isn't civilised enough to drink tea) and even broke off to look at his mobile phone when it pinged. A shame, because the information was quite interesting. In fact he was nearly as bad as biodynamic twiglets Hemsley + Hemsley (I am glad their woeful on screen performance has received bad reviews), an advert for whose spiraliser now keeps popping up on my screen! One thing Mr Annoying YouTube said was that the pack of 12 Iron Hills Dwarves would be a very reasonable £40. Sorry, matey, that isn't a reasonable price to me! I'll still get them though. What Games Workshop don't seem to be able to work out is that I will only buy one box at £40 but if they were £20 I would but three or four. They will be resin not plastic though.
Another good episode of Rick Stein's Long Weekends last night with him visiting Bologna. He cooked far too much fish again (Bologna is not really a fishy city) but there was lots of pasta and Parmigiano to compensate, although how he found people who cooked ragu Bolognese with tuna I don't know. .It's almost worthy of Hemsley + Hemsley. Indeed a good helping or three of pasta (the sausage ragu recipe looked well worth trying) would not only be good for the twiglet sisters but also for the podium girls at the Giro d'Italia, which is taking place at present. Here they are crossing the finishing line and looking forward to a nice bowl of lettuce. During Milan Fashion Week some years ago I was invited to the birthday party of a Brazilian model at a trendy Milanese restaurant (Savini, I think). There were lots of other models there and they were literally eating plates of lettuce. Tragic.
I've been selling some plastic figures I am never going to paint on eBay, such as Gripping Beast's stumpy gnome Vikings and Victrix's hideously complex British Napoleonic infantry. A lot of metals will follow when I can sort them out. So I shouldn't be looking at any more but a number of things have (inevitably) caught my eye. First up, because I have already ordered two packs, are Perry Miniatures Afghans. These will probably be smaller than the Artizan ones I painted but hopefully not too much smaller because variety is certainly needed for these. I also have four Studio Miniatures figures somewhere as well, so I will do a comparison picture when they arrive. The imminent arrival of The Men Who Would be Kings is driving this, of course.
Not on sale yet but very interesting to me are the forthcoming Victrix Early Imperial Romans. The Warlord ones are uselessly small and I have got rid of all mine but these will work with my Foundry Germans and Renegade (and others) Ancient Britons. Although it appears they will all be in Lorica Segmentata (ruling out the invasion of Britain, annoyingly) I will be able to use them for Boudica's rebellion. Very excited by these. The good news is that they will have pila and sword options (I always have my Romans with pila rather than waving swords about). They look a bit too 'active' for me but we shall see.
A range I have managed to resist (so far) is Firelock Games lovely new pirates. Seeking $15,000 on Kickstarter they raised $200,000 more than that! I am happy to wait for when they are on sale, though as I'm not short of pirates to paint. The real attraction for me is that they are 17th century figures with musketeers equipped with a collar of bandoliers; just right for Henry Morgan's time. Nearly all the other pirate ranges are for the early eighteenth century. Now my Panama project can proceed and I can recreate this Angus McBride picture. The range will include ships and rules, called Blood and Plunder, too. Excellent.
This, I want!
I haven't thought much about the Lord of the Rings for some years, given the disappointing support from Games Workshop for The Hobbit. Now, however, they have formed a special Middle Earth division (well four people) within Forge World and are promising to reintroduce out of production figures, source books and scenery. Even better, they have some new figures underway, including these wonderful Iron Hills dwarves (below). These and other things like a plastic Lake-town House kit demonstrate that, contrary to rumours last year, Games Workshop have renewed their licence from New Line.
I recently watched a really annoying YouTube video by someone (I won't give his name) who attended the recent GW event at which all these things were revealed. I can't find a link to it now but this fellow blathered on for nearly an hour to impart five minutes worth of information. Seeing people talk to camera on YouTube videos just demonstrates why TV presenters earn big money. Everyone thinks they can do it and almost no-one can. This chap spoke much to fast, slurped coffee throughout his piece (you can tell he isn't civilised enough to drink tea) and even broke off to look at his mobile phone when it pinged. A shame, because the information was quite interesting. In fact he was nearly as bad as biodynamic twiglets Hemsley + Hemsley (I am glad their woeful on screen performance has received bad reviews), an advert for whose spiraliser now keeps popping up on my screen! One thing Mr Annoying YouTube said was that the pack of 12 Iron Hills Dwarves would be a very reasonable £40. Sorry, matey, that isn't a reasonable price to me! I'll still get them though. What Games Workshop don't seem to be able to work out is that I will only buy one box at £40 but if they were £20 I would but three or four. They will be resin not plastic though.
Photo finish
Another good episode of Rick Stein's Long Weekends last night with him visiting Bologna. He cooked far too much fish again (Bologna is not really a fishy city) but there was lots of pasta and Parmigiano to compensate, although how he found people who cooked ragu Bolognese with tuna I don't know. .It's almost worthy of Hemsley + Hemsley. Indeed a good helping or three of pasta (the sausage ragu recipe looked well worth trying) would not only be good for the twiglet sisters but also for the podium girls at the Giro d'Italia, which is taking place at present. Here they are crossing the finishing line and looking forward to a nice bowl of lettuce. During Milan Fashion Week some years ago I was invited to the birthday party of a Brazilian model at a trendy Milanese restaurant (Savini, I think). There were lots of other models there and they were literally eating plates of lettuce. Tragic.
I do like those Neanderthals of yours, so much so that I picked up a their leader just to have a closer look and will subsequently now be buying more! Very excited about The Men Who Would be Kings and hope that this will be the impetus that I need to get back to the Victorian era.
ReplyDeleteThe Neanderthals are looking good! I recently picked up some of the Cro-Magnons...they will shortly be on their way to Matt Slade for painting...the Neanderthals are next on the list!
ReplyDeleteThose sure are some skinny girlies! You'd snap 'em!
ReplyDelete