Last ditch of 2014 painting part 2 -- A thrilling triple trio.

So, the last day of 2014, and the last chance to accomplish something. Some of these were finished some time ago but lacked basing, or just one splash of colour or... well, the days since Christmas I have really tried to finish as much stuff as possible. What I really wanted to do was to paint my Secret Santa panzer IV, or start building the Stompa I bought for the Christmas money I got from my mum.

Can't wait to build this bad boy for my orks. Question is... Zimmerit or no Zimmerit?

So today comes a mixed bag of stuff really. Pictures after the break as usual.

Last ditch of 2014 painting part 1 -- Deutsches Afrikakorps

So, these final trembling days of 2014 one should reminisce, spend some time with your loved ones and maybe think of the coming year. Not me. Now's the final chance to get some painting done to try and better the painting tally somewhat. More specifically I'm trying to finish all those nearly completed figures that been lying untouched for some time. It turned out to be a bigger task than I thought, but here's finally some german Africa Corps.

"Drive Tommy into the Nile! Schnell, schnell!"

More pictures after the break.

Thank you Santa!

Well, Christmas came and went and I opened my parcel from Secret Santa.

Weeee.... A tank!

A plastic Panzer IV from Warlord games... but there was something else in the box...

A dismounted panzer crew, nice.

THANK YOU SECRET SANTA!

Yule tidings

Merry Christmas my dear friends! Or God Jul, to my swedish-speaking compadres. Let's just say Happy Holidays.

Nah, just kidding. I like Christmas, I just don't like the religious connections.

...I like getting pressies though.

Ok, have I offended enough people now? So most people do end of the year summaries right now, but I won't do that just yet. That's because instead of cleaning the house for Christmas like SHMBO commands, I have been furiously painting stuff to be able to submit to the this years painting quota.

Like these late war germans from The Assault Group.

I have a bunch of stuff that is nearly finished and it seems daft to leave them like that until next year, especially as I know I will be diving into some new stuff that I have bought. A German late war platoon from the Assault Group for instance. I couldn't resist test painting three of them as you can see above. And let's not forget my secret santa present that I have no idea what it is. I think honour demands that I at least make a start on whatever it is.

A raid into my man cave reveals several forgotten treasures.

I was also drawn into a challenge between Mike Hobbs and my mate Thomas about painting up the old Battle of Five Armies game from Games Workshop. It contains a bucket load of 10mm fantasy figures inspired by the end battle from The Hobbit (the book - not the movie) and use a slightly updated version of the Warmaster rules that Rick Priestley wrote. It's been sitting in my stash for a long time now, I did paint some of the figures though so I have a small head start, I think.

So I have a bunch of stuff lined up for 2015. I did manage to finish a couple of Brimstone heroes and a bunch of Perry Africa Corps figures, but haven't had time to photograph them -- as I actually did some Christmas cleaning too. I will try to take pictures so they can count towards 2014's painting tally.

I'll end with a small video from Terry Gilliam. Merry Christmas!

Timeline Miniatures 28mm Normandy Farmhouse Ruin

In my last post I reviewed the Timeline Miniatures 28mm buildings. However, I didn't have time to build both houses. So without further ado, here's the building (pun intended) of Timeline Miniatures 28mm Normandy Farmhouse Ruin.

The Normandy Farmhouse ruin costs double the amount of the other ruin but contains many more parts.

Timeline Miniatures 28mm ruined buildings review

When I started gaming WW2 I naturally used my 1/72 or 1/76 scale figures on my Märklin model train layout. This was a very long time ago and I used my own homebrew rules that had grown out of simple play. I then discovered "proper" wargaming in the way of Warhammer and was instantly drawn in. Years later when I returned to WW2 gaming I naturally chose 20mm and 6mm as my preferred scale, but secretly I yearned for the magnificent Wargames Foundry figures (I even bought a few) but I realised that terrain would be a big problem, and by terrain I mean buildings.

Two ruins were my choice to test out the range, there are unbombed versions of the same buildings available.

Back then during the late 90's the only 28mm buildings available were the expensive Grand Manner models in resin easily setting you back 50-80 pounds for a house. Not so much now, with the advent of CAD engineering, 3D printing and computer programmed laser engraver and cutters everything is different. There has been a number of small (and large) companies providing laser cut MDF terrain springing up here and there the last couple of years. Timeline Miniatures appears to be the latest in a market that is not yet saturated.

The small ruin opened up. The loose pieces are the left over squares from the window and not used.

Dipping disasters! Secret Santa Surprises! Tentacle Terror!

So the end of the year is coming and I'm desperately trying to finish all those nearly-there figures. Last night I was putting the finishing touches to a bunch of Perry's Desert Rats that I started just befor summer but have been virtually untouched for six months.

As the previous Desert Rats had been painted using Army Painter Dip I decided to try dipping the Stranglers from Shadows of Brimstone too. When I opened the can I noticed that a thick crust had formed on the dip, apparently I had not closed the lid properly. Getting rid of the hardened layer I stirred the dip, noticing it had thickened quite a lot. Using an old wash brush I dabbed it onto the first Perry figure. It went on ok but a bit thick, and as it wasn't as runny as normal it didn't really flow into all the crevices. Using the brush I managed to smear it around so it looked ok.

I decided to try and dilute what was left of the dip and tried first Thinner, but it didn't mix properly. I then figured I could try Future Floor polish (that I have been using when making my own dip) and first it looked like it would work. I didn't dare try it on one of the beautiful Perry figures, instead I gunked it onto a Strangler.

The ugly, the ugly and the ugly.

As you can see from the pictures it didn't work as well. While the dip was a bit less thick, the paint itself glooped together inside the varnish/dip mixture and didn't flow at all. The middle figure in the picture above was the first try. Not perturbed by the horrific result I tried again, this time wiping most of the gunk away with a cloth moistened with thinner. Slightly better result on (on the right) except that the thinner took off the base coat as well in some places. I gave up and binned the can of Army Painter and mixed my own wash, which I used on the left strangler.

So what happened to the Perry figures?