That Was The Year That Was (or how I achieved two-thirds of my target...)

So here we are once more... I only set myself one target for 2014 and that was an ambitious one - paint 1000 miniatures. Unfortunately I didn't come close, but 665 is an increase on last year's 509 and much better than previous years. Here are some of the highlights...

A somewhat eclectic mix - perhaps I should be more focused in 2015?

The Blue and The Grey (and The Butternut)

Not a lot of hobby action today, but I have managed to basecoat the Perry Union infantry regiments with a coat of Army Painter Ultramarine Blue.

This does look too light at the moment, but it will darken down with the application of some Dark Tone dip. The painting guide on the Army Painter website shows an acceptable end result using both.

I have now also sorted out the Confederate regiments, mixing up the basecoated grey and brown figures and blu-tacking them to their bases. The idea now is to work on them one regiment at a time (as you can see five command figures are missing and the gaps will be filled by metal figures).

Again I will be dipping them and the picture from the guide on the Army Painter website looks good enough for me.

Anal Attentiveness Disease Strikes!

I had promised myself that the ACW project was going to be a simple, out the box, generic project. No attempt to model the forces on specific campaigns or battles, just a bog standard blue Union army against a bog standard grey/butternut Confederate one. So reading the excellent WI ACW Digital Guide Vol 3 (which contains a number of excellent articles on what the troops actually wore), I spent most of last night fretting that a goodly number of my Union troops were wearing the uncommon (by mid-war) shell jacket.

So, with 40 out of the 96 my Union army wearing the "uncommon" shell jacket, Anal Attentiveness Disease struck and I dug out the Green Stuff converting them all into wearing the popular sack coat. This might not have been the most necessary thing to do on 28mm high toy soldiers who normally will be viewed from three feet above, but I knew it would bug me once the miniatures were painted and it only took just under an hour. Yes, I am happy now.

Let It Spray!

Well the god of small children, furry animals and dopey wargamers smiled favourably on me today when the expedition to Lead Mountain led not only to the discovery of the missing ACW miniatures, but also a box of 40mm square bases I'd bought for them!

Recovering Mr Bickley's rules I sat down to work out what I had and what (if anything) I needed to get to "complete" my two armies (I use the term "complete" loosely, as we all know there is no such thing but it can convince less diligent SWMBO's on odd occasions).

Infantry wise I need to pick up a couple of packets of metal command from Perry's to give me eight infantry regiments (four for each army) comprising of six bases each (24 figures). With the addition of some more command bases, I could field more regiments, albeit understrength ones of three to five bases, something to think about for the future.

I also have a box of Zouaves which, with the addition of a spare Union officer and a converted drummer using a spare drum from the original infantry, will give me one six base regiment and one five base regiment. At  the moment I am unsure whether these will both be Union or one for each army.

Artillery is straight forward with each army having a three gun battery for starters, however cavalry is going to require the purchase of quite a few blisters to utilise them properly. I have two regiments of 12 mounted figures but need to get some dismounted figures and some horse holders.

Finally I need to pick up a General for each brigade level army.

As you can see I braved the winter weather (North American readers can laugh here!) and sprayed up the Confederate infantry. This project is going to utilise the same dip techniques applied to the Prussian Scrunts so hopefully won't take too long.

Some of My Miniatures Are Missing...

I started today in a fit of gaming enthusiasm, even SWMBO asked whether I was going to do some painting today (and no, I checked, she did not mean the kitchen!). The Scrunt dipping exercise has encouraged me to get one with something I've wanted to do for ages - the American Civil War!

So I downloaded two volumes of ACW articles from WI Digital to go with the one they gave away in the run up to Xmas, dug out Mr Bickley's rules, cleared the dining table and sat down with the boxes of Perry infantry and cavalry I stuck together a couple of years ago. The plan was to sort out what I had into regiments and possibly glue together the box of Zouaves and new artillery. I even had a pile of 40mm square bases ready to go.

Unfortunately the infantry and cavalry boxes, whilst rattling in the appropriate fashion, only contained the spare bits left over from the grand gluing session a couple of years ago. Where the miniatures are hiding I'm not quite sure and a major expedition to Lead Mountain was called for.

Unfortunately my enthusiasm waned at this point so I sat down and read the Marvel Year By Year Chronicle I received for Xmas and then downloaded the expansion set form the Wars and Battles Normandy campaign (from indifferent opening scenarios, this has become a great game) and spent the afternoon pretending to be Patton.

I'm going to watch Monument Men tonight and resume the search for the missing Americans tomorrow...

What Santa Brought...

Well I was obviously on Santa's nice list this year, as he brought me a nice selection of alcoholic presents (!) and a few hobby related bits...

These included a timely present in the form of William Trotter's The Winter War book, timely as Gav from Baker Company emailed on Christmas Eve to say my Kickstarter would be cast over the holiday period and shipped in January.

WIth the plan to go and see the final Hobbit movie next week, Santa brought the extended edition of The Desolation of Smaug, so we'll be watching the first two over the weekend before going to the cinema.

Finally I received a couple of boxes of Perry Miniatures ACW artillery, which will allow me to crack on with my long planned ACW project early next year.

Hopefully, your haul was equally as good!

Merry Christmas!

Hoping you weren't on Father Christmas naughty list and and that he brought you lots of exciting new wargaming toys and not too many socks! Remember don't eat too many mince pies!

The miniature is Father Grotmass from Midlam Miniatures, great fun to paint!

Painting Target: 665/1000

Prussian Scrunt Kaiser

The last of the Olley's Armies Scrunts for the time being, rounding off with the Kaiser.

Beautifully sculpted, I am not sure I like my Dwarves without beards, even if it does make him look like Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm. Fortunately I have a second Kaiser miniature which I may add a Green Stuff beard to for a more traditional looking leader....

Painting Target: 664/1000

Prussian Scrunts VI

Continuing with the Scrunts, I managed to finish the command group this lunchtime. I say finish, I haven't decided on a flag design yet, but aside from that my Imperial troops now have an officer, trumpeter and standard bearer to lead them into battle against the rebels...

Painting Target: 663/1000

Prussian Scrunts V

A couple more of the Scrunts, this time an infantryman with stick grenade and a sniper...

Painting Target: 660/1000

Prussian Scrunts IV

Continuing with the Olley's Armies Prussian Scrunt Kickstarter figures, I finished a couple more figures, a Scrunts with messenger pigeon and a unique "green" that KS pledgers received if they pledged over a certain amount.

A few more Scrunts pretty much finished and are now just awaiting basing, so expect some more in the next few days.

Painting Target: 658/1000