Last I heard from Warlord Games was that my order was processing still. I’m a little surprised, actually, since my copy of Black Powder seemed to arrive quite quickly after it was released. I know that I’m ordering from the UK and I am in Canada, so hoping it would have arrived by now is a little optimistic. Still, I would have liked to receive a shipping notification at the very least. Oh well, it will give me time to paint the last two test miniatures for my Wargames Factory review. I’m also going to continue using the miniatures to test different techniques, like washing which I rarely use.

To me washing seems pointless. I would wash because I want to quickly shade a miniature, but first I need to basecoat, then wash, then re-apply the basecoat to get rid of the blotchyness that washing creates, then highlight. That’s an extra step over what I already do. Still, I will give it a change, maybe once I have a workable technique I will change my mind.

I noticed the other day that I am not the best customer the industry can have. My preference to buy only as many miniatures as I can paint in a reasonable time frame works for me, but if everyone were like me, wouldn’t that kill sales?

A friend is getting into Flames of War and I was helping him. It’s his first foray into the hobby so he needed brushes, paints, tools, etc. At the hobby store he picked up the starter set with five tanks, some scenarios for those tanks and the main rules in mini-rulebook form. I also had him pick up the Quartermaster’s Paint Set instead of one of the smaller set. Partly because they didn’t have the German Armour set, and also because the Quartermaster’s set has the right mix of paints that he’ll be able to make any shade he needs. He also wanted to pick up a blister of infantry, as that’s the next progression suggested in the starter set. I had him hold off. In my opinion, a miniature you can’t start painting is a waste. Also, since he’s just getting in there’s a chance he may painting disagreeable. Finally, we have hour lunches and work five minutes from the hobby store, so he can always get the infantry whenever he needs it.

I know I’m starting him down the right path, but I can’t help thinking that all those people blowing big wads of cash on massive bulk purchases that end up abandoned in their closet as they drop another wack of dough on the latest and greatest are paying for the selection I enjoy. If everyone were like me manufacturers could probably only afford a single pose, and to only offer the most popular units.

Tyler

With only 14 miniatures to be painted before the completion of my 28mm WWII Canadian project I thought it’d be a good time to take a group shot. I’ve been showing all these work in progress images, but no finished images. I’m not ready to create the gallery page just yet. In fact, I just had an idea for making the gallery work better for pages with lots of pictures which may take some work to implement. It feels good to be so near the end without having veered off into side projects. When I am finished I will have decided to play a new game and painted a workable force for it within six months. I’ll be proud when I am done, and I’ll have to bug Tod at the OMG to setup a game.

The whole group so far. Click for full size.

One of the problems with photographing large groups of miniatures is trying to get all the miniatures in one picture without ending up with a giant image. I like to keep my images to 600px wide to fit on the screen.

A closer look at the left side of the group.

Here’s a closer look. The fellow in the foreground is from the last batch completed. I noticed I haven’t touched-up the base edge after removing him from the painting stand. You can see that this is a rough wargame paint-job. I’ve knocked back some of the highlights–something I want to fix in my next batch–and left some details unpainted, such as the buttons. My understanding is that the Canadians never switched to a Battledress with exposed buttons. This is the trade-off between getting a force finished and on the table and never getting anything finished at all.

Still, I’d like to improve how I do the webbing, find some way to make it more interesting. I know that having more contrast between the shade and mid-tone, and less between the highlight and mid will look better. This is something that will come as I paint more. One thing that’s different between this project and all the ones that came before is that I’m refining a technique instead of trying something different each time.

A little free, unsolicited advice: As a wargame painter the best way to improve while still enjoying the hobby is to improve the next batch, not the current batch. If you are in the middle of painting a batch try not to judge your technique. You’re too deep in to change it without a lot of extra work. Instead, look critically at the batch you just finished before starting the new one and find things to improve. The exception is, sometimes when I’ve mixed a new colour and can tell it’s bad as soon as I apply it to the model I’ll tweak it and repaint the same area. However, once I’m more than 5-6 brush-strokes in I’m committed. You’ve heard me complain about my green being wrong, but once I’d started I finished the batch and tried a different shade on the next. In this way I’ve painted 26 miniatures.

Tyler

Hmmm, here we are almost through Month Five of my WWII Canadians project. It’s been a while since I’ve thought about my progress in relation to my deadline. I have the rest of this month, and then February to paint 14 figures. I’m so close to finishing the current batch of six it doesn’t bear counting them. At my painting speed from the first months the situation could be considered dire. However by focusing on painting over other recreation I’ve increased my speed significantly. So much so that my only concern is ordering the last batch soon enough that I can start it in February.

Looking forward the purchase of a box of Victrix British Napoleonics looms on the horizon like the welcome sight of land after a sea voyage. My plan is to paint the British 89th Regiment of Foot as it appears at Lundy’s Lane. My figure scale is 1:10, so this will be 43 figures plus command. This will be five bases of eight figures, one half-base of three figures, and various bases of officers, sergeants, colours and drummers. Two and a half of the bases will be useful for the 1812 Lasalle game in July. Afterwards I can start looking into starting a Flames of War army.

Tyler

People often forget that you are never stuck at your current skill level. When I was in school I found math hard, so I aovided it and never got any better. Now I realize that if I’d applied myself I would have improved through practice and had an easier time.

The same is true for painting. It’s easy to get discouraged because you aren’t able to paint very fast. I’ve just reached the end of the beginning of my plan to start painting more. There was a time long ago where I painted every day of the week, plus snuck a little time on the weekend. I was painting nearly 10 miniatures a week. A variety of circumstances changed that. I’ve gone over them in the past so I won’t repeat them all. It comes down to a very basic fact: I wasn’t painting.

When I started to seriously paint again I was discouraged that I wasn’t painting as fast as I had at the height of my previous painting regimen. Now I realize that this was simply because I was out of practice. I even think that I can eclipse my previous best because I plan to be more focused on painting than ever before.

The fifth batch.

The last day I was sick I spent a few hours painting and managed to finish the flesh, helmets and battledress. Tonight I just finished everything else except the unit insignia and final basing. Oh, and the soldier with the PIAT needs his helmet netting painted and I’d planned to add weathering and chips to the helmets, but forgot. Minor, minor things that I’ll do while I’m waiting for steps in the basing to dry.

I think that this batch will end up taking about five to six hours. This is the best speed I’d managed previously and I feel like I could go even faster. Considering that it’s still hockey season and I’m not counting basing, varnishing and clean-up if I could finish a batch of six a week I’d be very happy. That’d be a 32 musket 1812 battalion every month and a half. At that speed my 1812 project could be finished far sooner than I’d ever dreamed, as long as I keep this up.

That’s always been my problem, of course. Even when I was painting 10 figures a week I wasn’t painting every week and sometimes would go for months without painting. This was a result of spreading myself too thinly over too many interests and it is something I really hope to avoid. We’ll just have to see.

At least it means I can look at ordering my next batch of miniatures. Ahh, consumerism.

Tyler

I’ve spent a lot of time over the holidays sick, with the latest being a case of Bronchitis that took me out for four workdays, plus a weekend. To this end I haven’t been up for much of anything and very little has gotten done. Only on the last day did I get any painting done in the afternoon. Happily I was able to finish the flesh, helmet and battledress for six more WWII Canadians. I always feel like I’m on the home stretch after I finish the battledress, and even spent some time today working through the webbing. I have some pictures which I will share later.

My firm’s busy season is upon me and my hours will shift from 9-5 to 10-6. On the downside this takes me out of sync with my family. I’ll be arriving home just in time to wish my daughter a good night. On the upside it’ll give me an extra hour in the evening to get some painting, writing, blogging and reading done, all of which are part of my New Years resolutions.

All I have to do is train my daughter to wake up at 8am instead of 7am, otherwise I’m waking up at the exact same time and having an hour to kill in the morning. From my experience working evening shifts in previous jobs I don’t get much done in the hours before work. There’s something about that hard deadline—I have to stop whatever I’m doing by this time or be late for work—that makes it hard for me to get something started. A bedtime deadline is more forgiving and if I go a half-hour longer than intended I’m just losing a half-hour of sleep.

Which is to say, I expect to get more stuff up on the blog in the coming months. I’m not sure where I am in the schedule of my WWII project—probably late—but I feel I’m making good progress and nearing the end. Afterwards I finally get to buy the box of Victrix Peninsular British I’ve been looking forward to. When that’s done hopefully my friends will have bought some Flames of War so that I can too. And at some point I should probably build some terrain.

Tyler

As sick as I am clicking endlessly through post after post wishing me a happy new year, I am going to inflict one of my own on you. I use Google Reader’s Next Button. I click it and it opens the next unread RSS item. Generally this is wargaming and painting blogs, as well as The Miniatures Page’s and Tabletop Gaming News’ news feed. Over Christmas and New Years it was just page after page of X Company wishes you a Merry Christmas.

Happy New Year.

Ok, onto New Year’s resolutions; these will be primarily hobby related so I’ll be at least on topic. The first, and foremost, is to never disappear so long into the hobby that my wife and daughter forget what I look like. Everything else must accommodate me spending time with my wife and daughter. Everything else I want to do will take time and I will be careful to leave some time for family.

Second, I want to write more. I’d like to spend a little time before bed writing, whether it is the blog, my journal or even some fiction. I find it a nice way to unwind in the evening. I am a writer, I have been published, it is how I identify myself in my heart-of-hearts. However I haven’t written any fiction in too long. Time to change that.

Third, I want to concentrate on my own hobby projects. While I’m happy to be reviewing the Wargames Factory figures for the blog I’ve also found myself taking on an extra paint-job here and there and all of a sudden I haven’t touched my main project in weeks. Not only that, but two nights a week for WWIIOL and hockey every second day and suddenly I’m only painting a couple of evenings a week. I’m going to try to paint every evening during the week. This means listening to the game on the radio and cancelling my WWIIOL subscription after the next major update. This will also free up more time for items one and two.

So, that’s it. That’s what I have planned. I mentioned painting a 1:1 British Infantry Battalion for 1812 in 10mm before the end of the year and someone wanted to know if it was my New Years Resolution. It is not, I may sneak in a Company or two this year, but I want to keep on track with my WWII, 1812 and Flames of War projects. Oops, that’s a post for another time.

Tyler

Happy New Year. My new years resolution is to stop taking on quick little projects that I erroneously think won’t interfere with my current projects. I actually haven’t taken on that many, yet, but those I have took more time than I thought. These reviews for Wargames Factory have been more of a distraction than a real time waster. I didn’t spend a long time on assembly and painting. However every time I sat down to paint, or thought about painting it nagged at the back of my brain.

Thankfully the first miniature is assembled and painted. I can review it and put it aside for a while. Meanwhile I will assemble and paint the next two miniatures, Zulu Warrior and Ancient German at the same time. The real time suck was the Warlord Games Big Wullie. I was trying to get him finished in time for a forum painting competition. Unfortunately I’ve missed my deadline so the time spent was a waste. He’ll remain unfinished until I’m ready to return to him. In a way I’m relieved, I really want to get back to my WWII Canadians.

A painted example of Wargames Factory’s Vikings

So, on to the actual review. When I first received the box of review samples from Wargames Factory I was very impressed. When you put your money down and get a hefty block of plastic back in return it feels good. The packaging is an example of how product should be packaged. Each sprue is a standard size with integral pegs that allow the sprues to be stacked without damaging the miniatures. This is then wrapped in a tough, clear plastic. A cardboard insert provides the colour advertising shoppers will see on the shelf. It wraps around the block of sprue and gives the normal information one would expect. The end result is a colourful attractive package that doesn’t result in a lot of waste and allows you to see the contents easily.

The Vikings came on three sprue, one weapon sprue and two body sprues. The two body sprues are split between four armoured or unarmoured viking bodies. There are also two sets of six right and left arms, for a total of 12 pairs for four bodies.

The weapon sprue has eight shields, 12 heads, two pairs of watched arms in a double-handed-grip pose, two bows and quivers, three naked swords, four sheathed swords, a horn, four spears, one long spear, two small axes and two large axes. This is a good selection of weapons. I think only skirmish gamers with specific equipment needs would find fault with the selection. If you just need eight viking archers you will be somewhat dissapointed, although the full set of 24 will presumably have three weapons sprues.

There are a good selections of options and I had no trouble choosing bits when assembling a test figure. Painting was as usual, although in this case I experimented with a dip-like wash. Overall, the detail and anatomy was good, though the mail shirt was soft in detail and execution. The weapons are all to scale although potentially a little flimsy during use. The axe I chose looks like it may be a little thin for actual battle.

If I was looking to build an army of vikings I would look to Wargames Factory. Large units of these models would be affordable, but best of all show a variety and animation that only a well designed plastic set can offer. I cannot speak to accuracy, Viking Age isn’t my period, but the simple dress seems correct. Wargames Factory does include a horned helmet with the set as a nod to Hollywood’s version of vikings, but there are enough correct heads that someone looking for historical accuracy can not use it, or cut the horns off.

In case it isn’t clear, I was sent free samples of these miniatures by Wargames Factory for review purposes.

Next review will be Wargames Factory’s Zulu Warriors. I’m looking forward to putting one together.

Tyler