More Analogue Hobbies Painting Fun

I've been pleased to be part of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge this year. It's driven me to do a few things I wouldn't otherwise tackle. 

And so far this year, painting has exceeded purchases! Some old stuff... 

 

 

And some new stuff.. the Austrian Hussars I purchased this month. There's 14 in a box, but Sharp Practice uses groups of 8, so that plus an officer seemed enough. I suppose another box would give me 3 groups of 8 plus officer and musician... but three groups is excessive for a Sharp Practice force. 

Loads of fun; or at least - I'm happy with how they turned out, but wow, that was a lot of paint work...  next up hmmmm, maybe some 'Indian War of Independence' (the conflict formerly known as the Indian Mutiny)? I slapped some Contrast Paint on a sample figure... how hard could it be?

No Resolve

Somewhat late, I have been giving some thought to Resolutions, you know, the get fitter, lose weight, become a successful entrepreneur, cure cancer, or least believably of all, stop buying figures. It was always fun to compare resolutions with Thomo, but sadly, he is no longer with us, and his visits for Christmas/New Year are forever a thing of the past.

Still, there are some things I will do this year. Firstly, keep track of my hobby spending. I had a pretty good painting year last year, finishing up several Chain of Command platoons, getting a good way into my 1745 project, and so on. but although I painted something like 400+ 28mm figures, 40+ vehicles and around 100 Cold War 15mm, the reality is that my purchases greatly exceeded that number. I do try and keep track of it on this blog, but cold hard currency numbers might actually give me more perspective.

So far that's been £22 on figures, a pack of Perry plastic Napoleonic Austrian Hussars from my Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS), happy to pay extra to keep a local shop in business. But another 11.50 for lichen and spray primer.  

28mm Austrian Hussars - assembled

The other thing to happen is that my shed has to have a few more things completed before it becomes a viable gaming space. Hook up the electricity (hopefully this week) - get the heating installed, sort out a condensation issue and organise the content to let me dispose of the rolling shelves and free up space. As part of this I will also do an audit of what I actually have. 

Finally, dump the stuff I will never use - primarily the 20mm WW2 and modern kits. I don't seem to be able to give this stuff away. I am also seriously considering dumping the 15mm WW2 stuff as well, and printing up some 10/12mm stuff for 'O' Group.

So that's the resolutions taken care of..  paint more, buy less, get the shed sorted, dump the excess... anodyne stuff really. In terms of projects for the year. In no particular order:

• 1745...  I must, must finish this I'm already well advanced, it would be crazy not to just push on with the rest.
• Indian Mutiny (Or First War of Independence) - I took advantage of the AW Miniatures 30% off sale and got a real bargain late last year. I think I am going to wait until Army Painter release their equivalent to contrast paints, as I suspect speed painting two shades of flesh, white and red will speed this project up considerably. 
• Chain of Command WW2 - I have any number of platoons awaiting paint. There's no real urgency to any of them although if the promised Market Garden supplement from TFL ever arrives this will provide additional impetus. Late War British (Empress), Winter US troops (Artizan) and the Winter Germans look likely to be first cabs off the rank, but I could be tempted by Italians for Sicily, French Foreign Legion, or any of the Airborne forces I have (US, British and German). 
• Napoleonic Austrian & Italians - classic confrontation, Italian Legere versus Grenzer and Riflemen - very colourful, but again, I think speed painter whites would move this along nicely.
• Cold War in 15mm - I have Danes finished, British purchased/printed and the Soviets well advanced. It might be a quick and easy palate cleanser in between the masses of 28mm. 
• Infamy, Infamy - after a burst of enthusiasm, very much stalled. I think it might be kickstarted if I tackled an 'Asterixian' Early Imperial Roman and a Gallic force. 
• Vikings in 15mm - another one where decent progress as made, then stopped dead. Originally this was to be an army for Warfare, but Covid put paid to that. It's silly to have them 60% done.
• 7YW Austrians and Prussians? - maybe, outside chance of it moving...  

Flights of Fancy? 

I purchased a hex mat for air wargames - intending to use it for 1/300 'Bag the Hun' games, using the soft plastic planes from Plastic Soldier Company, and now I am also really tempted to try some 1/144 3d prints for a WW1 version.

Last Years Targets

And what did I say last year?

I found myself purchasing some second hand Gripping Beast Sub-Roman British, plus Early Saxons from Warlord Games, (the figures were formerly 'Saxon Miniatures'). I am hopeful I will get some games in with them in 2021, but a lot of painting yet to do to get there.

Yay - go me.. both forces painted.. and absolutely naff all gaming done..  ok, so is that 100% on the painting and 0% on the gaming (excluding Virtual Lard Days)?

Looking back at where we were at the start of 2020, I said:

"I do think I should be better at not getting distracted by support options, specifically armour, as I just enjoy building and painting them. Looking at the painting queue, there are currently 11 AFV awaiting paint."

Err.. ok, some of those 11 are still in the paint queue, and I've added a few more to the queue, but on the whole I have got through a fair bit of vehicle painting. 

Righty ho.. 40+ vehicles finished - somewhat snookered myself by getting a 3d printer and printing more though - but I am calling this one 80%

Next steps - finish the Malaya forces (Japanese, and Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders). Then kick off the terrain for this campaign. I think I have all the terrain components I need, they just need to be assembled".

Done and dusted! I even got to play a game with them..  100%

Then there's forces for the forthcoming 'Infamy, Infamy' from the Too Fat Lardies. 

Republican Romans done.. so maybe 25% on this one. 

There's Kickstarters on the way from War & Empire 15mm Dark Ages, 

As I said, 60% through the Vikings. 

Flags of War Hanoverian forces for the 1745."

I was making good progress on these, till the inner butterfly kicked in...maybe 60% done.

"And the various platoons for Chain of Command, Italians, US, Fallschirmjager, US Airborne, British Airborne etc.".To which can be added the Winter Germans and USMC platoons I purchased this year. 

The SS platoon finished, the Malaya stuff done, I've nearly finished the Winter Germans and the Volksturm. Solid if unspectacular progress somewhat marred by purchasing at least another 4 platoons. Am I making ground on the backlog? Well, sort of. 

New Projects in 2021

These are what distracted me, and prevented me from making much headway with other stuff.

New Platoons for Chain of Command - this was the killer, so much nice stuff available, sales and bargains. I added several new platoons, and I am not keeping the painting up to the purchasing pace. 

15mm Cold War - I already had Danes, so a single game of 7 Days to the River Rhine, got me back into it. 

28mm Napoleonic Austrians and Italians for Sharp Practice - not much action but they are lurking. 

28mm 7YW Austrians & Prussians.. what was I thinking?

 

12 SS Panzer (Hitler Jugend)

Martin and I have been playing the Chain of Command 'Pint-Sized Campaign' Operation Martlet. It pits a platoon from the British 49th Infantry Division against forces from the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitler Jugend. 

Up until now, I have been using my basic Mid-Late War Heer figures as substitutes, because of my discomfort about fielding SS troops. Realistically though, you can't really pretend they didn't exist, as they were a major part of the Axis forces in Normandy, at Arnhem and in the Ardennes. 

So late last year when Offensive Miniatures had their sale, I picked up enough of their figures to create a Late War SS platoon. I really like the Offensive Miniatures sculpts, they are on the small side, (think Perry rather than Warlord Games), and are well-proportioned. The best description I can give is that they are a little reminiscent of upscaled AB figures. Which in my view, is a compliment.

This year, I also joined the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, and I thought these guys would make a good first entry. So after hunting down painting guides online, discarding all the ones that seemed better suited to a single 90mm figure, "... now add the second highlight to each dot". In the end, I am quite happy with how they turned out. Of course not accurate, but good enough to fool the eye.

Gruppe 1 with MMG

Gruppe 2 with Pak40

Gruppe 3 with Infantry Gun

Leaders, Offensive on Right, BTD on left

Supports - Left Schreck team is Offensive, the rest are Warlord.

 So that's them then...  hopefully no more dots in my near future....