A Dead Game System

I'm not going to "name and shame" here although I feel it's a shame that the game was pretty much DOA when it was released.

Some history.

The game was developed by a miniatures company to go with models they were producing. This was not their first foray into that world and the games used very similar rule systems. But they were a miniatures company, not a game company. They said this explicitly.

The games had life while someone was willing to work on them and then stagnated when those people left. So people would get their hopes up only to be slowly disappointed as the interest waned. This happened many times.

The skirmish game rules are still out there and the models are available under different names. The line that was tied to the game has been retired but the models are still in production as general usage. If that makes any sense.

For the other game they sold the IP for the setting and the minis themselves to another company. Personally I think that company got a raw deal because of the history of the game itself but I wasn't the one buying it. I believe they get some of the proceeds from the miniature sales since it's their name on the bases but don't quote me on that.

The game didn't have a following at the time. The metal minis were necessarily expensive since they were heavy. Not many stores stocked them or the rulebook either. So most people didn't even know the game existed.

After the rights were purchased the miniature companies put together a Kickstarter campaign to start getting the models from metal to injection molded plastic. The miniature company had already done a couple of those and it made sense for the two companies to do this first one together. But ...

The miniatures company wanted the best sellers to go into production first. That makes sense from their perspective. If they sold well in metal they'd sell REALLY WELL in plastic. And there's another much more popular game that would benefit from cheap plastic robot minis. Those are the models they chose.

The game company had to deal with selling their new rulebook as part of this campaign. Here's where things continued to fall apart.

The popular minis were spread across the game factions. That made it a scattershot approach to starting the game.

The rulebook was an add-on purchase and not part of the campaign pledge. That confused a lot of people and caused some ill will later on.

Here's the thing that gave me the idea that the company that owns the game didn't know what they were doing. They didn't make any rules or force building information on the campaign. Halfway through they make a quick start document available but there was still no guidance on how many of what minis to buy. None. Ever. Even after the campaign was over and the pledge manager was open they gave no help for people who wanted to play the game.

That's when I realized the game was dead before it started. The right company could have jump started it back to life and gotten a following, much like other tabletop miniature games. This was not a company to do that. The game - miniatures and/or rulebook - aren't in the game stores I've visited. Everything seems to be online purchase only.

The game company has had at least two more Kickstarter campaigns since the first one and they were faction focused. I think each one had mostly two factions with a smattering of other minis. So it was what should have been done from the start. The game website has quick start rules and a force builder so you can figure out what to buy. Everything they should have done from the beginning is now available.

But they missed their window. I personally don't like the owner of the company. He's not the type of person I'd put into social situations to sell a game. He knows the rules but he doesn't have the personality to bring in people and get them excited. He's kind of a jerk. His booth tends to be set up with models and him sulking at the little counter or showing a very small demo for someone. With the transition of the game rules to him he lost the miniature company support to help out at conventions. It shows.

What brought this to mind was me going through my minis from the first and second campaigns. This is more of a chore than it sounds since the minis sent as rewards are multi part in little plastic bags with no identification as to what minis they are. Sorting them out is a challenge of trying to match bits to the pictures of the assembled minis online and going from there.

I found I have way, way, way too many minis from the first campaign. I overspent like crazy and have more faction minis than I will ever field. I'm sending a bunch of those off to be broken up into mercenary forces that someone else is going to paint for me in exchange for things I've 3D printed. They're going to make the forces, now that I think about it. I'm just sending a box full of minis and letting them figure it out. I checked - that's acceptable.

I don't know that I'll ever get to play this game. I honestly don't know. It would depend on me meeting people who would be willing to play and I don't see that happening in the near future. People here are very much 40k and some other games that small groups play. Bringing in a completely new game is difficult to impossible. Without being able to buy stuff in stores it lessens the desire to play. Sure they can order it like they do so many other things but that's an extra step for a niche game.

I know it sounds funny to be talking about a dead game and then talk about working with the minis. I'm not getting rid of any of them since I seem to collect armies. I also know there's no market for these if I did want to get rid of them. The new ones are cheap enough that trying to sell them wouldn't be worth the effort. They'll go into foam storage and the book will go on the shelf.

Both to gather dust, as it were.

Insult to Injury

I'm not going to name the company here.  It wouldn't do any good.  But here's my tale.

I was accumulating a 15mm army as a gift.  A large army.  As such it's generally not something you can do at one time.

By the time it was about 2/3 complete there was no longer a reason to have it, since I wasn't going to be giving it as a gift.  I won't get into that either.

The company says I need receipts to return them.  Um, who keeps receipts for extended purchases?  A pack here and a pack there add up over time but I can't see who would keep all the receipts.

I was willing to pay the 20% restocking fee even though I tend to disagree with restocking fees when I know they just put them back in the bins.  It was worth it to me to get back the 80% of the cost I would recover.

I received an insulting reply insinuating that I may not be the rightful owner of the minis, that without receipts they can't prove that I deserve a refund, and that I should try eBay.

I did reply with affront but I think I'll be out the shipping cost and end up with a box full of minis I never wanted to see again much less go through all the headache of trying to sell online.  I'll be lucky if they don't try to charge me return shipping.

I won't be buying from them again.  Ever.  Their customer service has shown me that they don't really care about the customers that aren't known, repeat customers.  This is appalling.

If I were vindictive I would make this far more public and be a lot harsher.  Since I don't plan on patronizing them again I would be burning a bridge I never planned to cross again.  But I know it's useless since their loyal customers won't change and there's no benefit in making a public fuss.  Well, any more of a public fuss than this.

15mm Ready to Rebase

I made ~ahem~ a few mistakes when I started basing my 15mm for Lasalle.  The first mistake was basing for Lasalle.  I'm going to be basing for Napoleon's Battles - a classic set of rules with basing that will work with most other rule sets.  The second mistake was not sealing the wooden bases before gluing on the minis.  With wood glue.  These were the causes for the problems that made rebasing a necessity.

I live in a semi-arid climate.  I'm still not used to this on many levels.  Because the bases weren't sealed they absorbed a lot of the water from the glue causing some interesting but unwanted effects with the flock.  I ended up with a stripe all around the edge with no flock.  The other problem was the the whole reason for doing a glue base on top of the main base is so that if the base gets dropped there's a good chance the entire set of minis will pop off with the glue and cause less damage.  This does not work when the wood glue adheres wonderfully to the base.

Removing them was a chore, to say the least.  These are AB minis and have tiny little ankles.  One of the ones waiting to be based is already broken off at the ankles and will be reattached soon enough.  I'm quite proud to say that I removed all 64 minis without breaking any or breaking off the bayonets.  There's some bent bayonets but I won't straighten them out until they're on their final base.



Yes it looks like the terrible aftermath of a battle and in some ways that's what it was.  The pile of wooden pieces to the right are what's left of the original bases.  I couldn't soak them well enough to pry them off the bases without the real potential for damage so I started breaking and peeling the bases from the bottom to pull the support away from them.  I did soak them a few times and the glue did soften up the in the process.  I will give lots of good press for Litko plywood bases.  They didn't want to be destroyed and it took some effort to do so.  I also couldn't use the attached figures as a grip so it was an interesting project for the evening.

I need to get a can of black spray paint to seal the new wooden bases and hope to do that today.  I think I've got enough finished minis for at least 30 infantry bases.  I also need to pick up some storage for them.  Since I need containers that are around 2 inches tall it will be easy enough - that's a standard depth on a lot of them.  I can pick them up in stages since I'm going to get larger containers for these.  I also need to make movement trays and that will help keep them from sliding around in the containers.

As you can tell I'm getting ready to start painting these again.  The goal is to get all the infantry done before changing over to another project.  Mixing it up keeps things interesting.

A brief update

I've got almost all the navy Dystopian Wars ships painted.  I'm waiting on a replacement part for the carrier and in the meantime I've failed my roll against temptation for painting the airships that I have.  It's not many and the sky fortress seems to have some good tactical value against Russians.  The gaming group has a lot of Russian fleets.  I'll be posting pictures in batches in the near future.

This is the current state of my table.  I finally found the missing dungeon crawl minis that my friend Michelle is going to be painting for me.  We've done a barter and this means there's a chance that they'll get painted.  I'm only sending her the nasties and not even all of those.  Barter does have its limits.  We haven't done the final negotiations.  I didn't post a picture of the ones that are ready to be painted.

On a final note I'm getting the Hirst Arts kits to make the old WizWar boards.  I bought the wizard minis and I'm looking forward to doing a straightforward build again.  The painting seems to be tedious but I'm thinking it will be a good chance to try my airbrush.  There's also some fun accessories to make.

A quick status shows that I still have 6 1/2 armies to paint (the CoA one I've been painting counts as 1/2 done to me), the dungeon crawl and now WizWar.  Yeah.  Plenty to keep me busy.

Quick updates, no pictures

Sorry - no pictures right now.  Nothing really picture-worthy at this point.

I did base up some of the 15mm so they would be safe and take up less room.  Unfortunately the basing glue and flock shrank oddly so now I have to figure out how to fix it.  I'm still trying to figure that out since I'll need to make sure the rest of the army matches.  And there's no way to remove the minis from the base and start over.

I have over 100 minis prepped for my revised dungeon crawl but none of them are painted.  I canceled my games and my classes for the convention over Labor Day.  With everything going on there was no way for me to be ready enough to give value to the people who signed up.  So I'll bow out this time and try to get things going for the convention in February.

I feel bad about canceling my painting classes because the only other person teaching a number of classes also had to bow out for work.  There's a slim chance he can make it but he's not counting on it.  A few people have offered to pick up his classes.  The coordinator is thinking of not having any painting classes this year because of the two of us canceling.

Why did I back out of everything? Honestly, no time or inclination to prep.  I did build the additional wall sections for the dungeon but haven't painted them.  I prepped almost all the minis I could (missing bits and pieces for 8 of them) and they're ready to be painted.  I just have zero motivation to sit down and paint them.

I haven't worked up the new rules, the new tables, the new treasures or anything else for the dungeon crawl.  I certainly haven't play tested it.

I'm pushing the reason off on work since that really is taking up more of my time but I think there's more to it than that.  I don't plan on going to the con at all, honestly.  I have no reason to go.  When the only thing I do is run games and teach classes then go home it's hard to look forward to it.

Otherwise not too much happening in the hobby world for me. Our local game store was seized by the state for back taxes so we have no home.  A group of people is trying to get the capital and business plan together to open a new store with a new name in the same location.  But that's not certain and there's no dates.  What little interaction I had with the game club is going to be much more difficult as they move around the game stores for different days.

My gaming group hasn't met since April.  I don't miss it all that much. I didn't get the time to try and fit it plus this was a group that has been playing together for about a decade.  Very difficult to mesh.  That and trying to get used to how the GM runs his game made things hard for me to relax and enjoy.

The 40K hasn't interested me at all.  I think the pressure of wanting to get the dungeon crawl minis done killed a lot of motivation to paint at all.  They're off to the side so I don't need to see them.  Except for the ones still in the process of being assembled or waiting for parts.  I cleaned off the paint table pretty well.  That started when my friend came over to paint one evening and I needed to make room.  Then as part of a "tidy up" mood I worked on cleaning off more and generally cleaning up the hobby area.  It's pretty bare now.

I still have 15mm to paint but the problem with basing the ones I did have painted has discouraged me.  I know I'll figure out how to make it better but expecting 6 nicely finished stands of minis and getting what I got didn't help the entire situation.

So yes. Things are going on but there's not a lot of progress to show.  Maybe I'll post some pics when I have something to show.

Stupid weather...

I've been saying that for about a week now.  Rainy season, it seems.  That means spraying isn't possible.

The weather finally cooperated this morning and I got all my painted 15mm varnished.  I'm going to let them set up until tomorrow and then I can actually put them on bases!  My very first ones.  That will make room on the paint table for the next set but also brings up the question of army storage.

Also, I got most of the dungeon crawl minis cleaned, based and primed.  I still have to finish the ones that require assembly and in the hectic world that is Reaper boneyard shopping not everything was correct.  So I'll be sending an email to them so I can get the last ones ready.

I have a lot of painting to do and the dungeon crawl takes priority over the 15mm.  Sadly.  But it has to be done.  Luckily they just need to be tabletop quality and it looks like I'm going to have more free evenings than I had planned for.

Finally I bought a plastic storage container/shelves that should hold all my paint and a fair amount of my commonly used basing supplies.  Since my paints don't need to be portable any more I wanted to take them out of the plastic shoe boxes and put them into something more suitable for my paint area.  And it turns out they will still be portable since this particular item has separate plastic bins instead of drawers.  Of course the space where I want to put it is about 1/2 inch too short so I need to move the storage units out just a little bit.  Go figure.

15mm Napoleonics - Continued

Now that I'm more involved with painting these things and how they're based (Thanks John!) I'm sorting out the sticks so that I know just what I have to do.

The regiments have 4 stands each:

1. 4 grenadiers and 4 fusiliers with green poms


2. 4 fusiliers with blue poms and 4 fusiliers with orange poms


3. Command stand  - 1 mounted commander (2 spaces), standard bearer, drummer, 4 fusiliers with red poms


4. 4 voltiguers and 4 fusiliers with purple poms

Turns out the way I have them set up to be painted will work for painting parts of regiments at a time.  I'm a big fan of painting the same kind of minis in batches.  The only difference in the fusiliers is the color of the pom so I can paint 32 at a time (8 regiments of 4) at a time and then paint the poms to make a base.

I was going back and forth about mixing up the marching poses on the stands and decided on keeping the same pose per regiment.  With one exception - advancing fusiliers.

I have enough advancing fusiliers to make up 2 regiments with them in the front of the line.  That makes the configuration slightly different but not much.  Again, pom color makes the difference.

So here's the sticks of fusiliers.  This is 5 regiments of fusiliers, as listed above.



Command figures - line commanders, drummers and fusiliers.  The standard bearers are carefully tucked away so they can get converted to holding their standards.

3 regiments of fusiliers are also on this flat.



Finally the skirmishers, grenadiers and voltigeurs.



I have stands left over from my original counts and prepping.  But I think that had a lot to do with me not completely understanding the way the game works.

You can see that some of these actually have paint on them.  The way I'm working I should have 6 of stand 1 (see above) ready to be based in the somewhat near future.  The other 2 need the advancing fusiliers that haven't been painted.

Regardless with some work I can actually have MINIS ON BASES.  Yes, that's an accomplishment.

My friend Brian gave me some great hints on how to do the basing but I need to get some flock first.  I do plan on getting the flock in the next day or five but I also have to finish painting the minis (damn straps) and then varnish them before basing.  So I have time.

I'll post Brian's basing method on the main website once I figure it out and get pictures of all the steps of the process.

Unicorn!

He's actually part of my elf army. If he's not immediately killed he's got some cool special abilities. When I play, he tends to get immediately killed.

Reaper 14457 - Silvermaine

He's been converted by the sculptor to be anatomically correct and there's a whole story to go with that.







The colors match my army colors and even though it's difficult to see his eyes are painted in gem fashion to match the coordinating color I used for the entire army. His horn is highlighted the same way. Kind of a nice change from the white/grey typically seen on unicorn minis I think.

Some DungeonBash in process shots

I don't *need* this until the convention in February so I'm finally being kind of responsible and not rushing at the end.  I planned it using Sketchup and need to tweak the 'official' pieces to match adding in wall segments.  That's easy.  A few sections need to be enlarged a bit to accommodate the walls and corners.  It won't matter in game play so I'm not worried.  That and that DungeonBash seems to be a dead game since the publisher isn't available any more.  Sad.  I would have liked to have shown him the game board.

Yep.  I use my off-brand Legos from when I was a kid as building frames.  Still playing with toys.  There's a couple of gothic arena pieces tucked in this construction set.

Here's a nice stack of wall and corner sections.  There's also a stack of wall bases on top.  I need to use my True Sander to smooth the bottom edge of the walls and then I'll epoxy them in place.  One thing I've learned is that I can use wood glue on almost all of the construction but when attaching walls to floors for pieces that will be handled I have to use epoxy or they snap off.  Easier to just attach them correctly in the first place.

I prepped these tonight and will GENTLY reposition them tomorrow before priming so they're a little more dynamic.  Reposing skellies is tricky since they can break easily.  I can probably pin the arms back on if needed but would prefer not to do so.  Heck, if they seem weak I'll probably put in a small pin just to make them more durable.  Looks like the bases on this set will be sand painted similar colors to the dungeon itself.  It's a cheat but if you're not cheating, you're not painting.

By the way - I need two sets of every encounter since there's a chance that if there's two random encounters going the second one can be the same as the one that's in progress.  That's the luck of the dice.  So not only do I have to paint twice the number of minis I want to distinguish them so each encounter is visibly different.  In the case of the skellies I'll do different color glowing eyes and different colors on the shields and weapons.  And I'll be numbering the back of the bases to make record keeping easier.

Progress, some repainting, more paints and bases

Wow.  That's some subject.  Let me break it down.

I apologize in advance for no pictures.  I can't get them from the camera to the computer right now.

I have 4 sticks of fusiliers in good progress.  1 stick = 8 minis.  The coats are painted as are the cuffs and collars.  I just put the coat of linen white over the rest of the uniform.  I was told the poms were all red so I painted all those at the same time since I had red on the palette.  I can move forward without the new paints since the Reaper Master Series will work for the accessories.

I had to paint over the poms.because it turns out they're not all red. They're divided into companies - purple, orange, blue and green (I think - my notes are in the car).  So I painted over all the red poms with the linen white so the colors would show up correctly.  Not a lot of work, just one more thing.  I had the time to spare.  And I think I'll hit the rest of the poms with linen white as well to make a nice base for the other colors.

I ordered the black and white versions of the paints I've been using.  I want the coverage.  Those should be in by the end of the week.  I have line commanders I should be able to start painting while I wait.  I can also work on rifles and a few other things while waiting on the paint.  I knew I should have ordered them from the beginning.

My complete set of bases for my entire army has arrived.  I had some of the infantry/cavalry bases already but now I have everything I need for my army.  This is important because I can mark the bases and play with stands even if they don't have their minis yet.  This lets me play and learn the rules much better.  I took the time to put the steel on the bases so I can put them on sheet magnet in the carry case and they won't move around.  That extra little bit of height is nice too.  I only did the limber bases since there were 10 of them and I'm tired.

I found that one of my minis is actually 2 different kinds of soldier with just a couple of color differences.  I have enough to put them in the battalions.  Now it's just a matter of remember to paint them correctly.  I'll make a note of that.

I'm going to make a spirited attempt to paint a battalion of Hussar for the theme entry competition, mostly because it seems hardly anyone is entering and I'd like to see at least a few in there. I hate competing but this is for a good cause.  That's 12 horses and riders.

My friend Kris was nice enough to drill out the eagle bearers' hands so I could replace the noodle standards with something more solid.  The eagles at the ends were no problem.  He had a problem with the minis themselves and I'll be resculpting a few hands.  Nothing major.  This lets me make them removable as well so I can mix up the eagle bearers and standard bearers depending on my mood.

Finally I'm ordering the last of what I need to complete my army.  I needed 3 more battalions of Dragoons and some guns to complete the limbers.  Turns out they give you the limber but only the guns needed for the individual artillery units.  So to make a complete limber you either need to move the gun over (or move a stand behind) or buy more guns.  We're buying more guns.

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Paints are here, excuses are out the window

My paints for the uniforms are here so now I have no real excuse not to buckle down and get cranking on them.  I'm not even trying to make excuses.

In the meantime I've been working on the command horses even if I can't work on the command figures. I actually think they're done except for a bit of silver on the bridles if I want to get fancy.  I just finished the touchups tonight.

My friend is ever so kindly doing the work so I can replace the noodly eagle bearer standards with something more sturdy and even make them removable so I can use eagles, standards or both.  Depending on my mood.

No bases yet, which is annoying but not a problem.  I don't have anything ready to base yet and if I did I had some here already.

Sunday I start on uniforms so I should have some pictures of them at least partially painted to show progress.  I'm hoping that the painting goes relatively quickly.  Even the futzy stuff doesn't seem as difficult as in the beginning.  I've been asking the experienced painters for advice on that kind of thing.

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Infantry skin and hair done

I got the hair and skin painted on all of the infantry!  I decided to try for some variety in the ranks by using 3 different hair colors and 4 different skin colors.  It wasn't that much more work to do that since after a few sticks I had to refresh the paint anyway.

I used the new Reaper washes to, well, wash the skin and hair.  The flesh wash was too red and the brown wash was too cold.  But a 2:1 mix of flesh to brown seemed to work quite well on everything.  One of the painters thought the Reaper washes were too thin but they seemed to work very well for putting in the shadows without me having to go back and hit the highlights.  Which is great.

Infantry Samples 01

They're not the best pictures, as shown by the yellow tint, but they kind of show the colors.  After the wash all the skin tones seem to even out about the same as does the two shades of brown.  What I feel looks best is the brightest pink skin tone and the blond hair.  The wash tones them down to some nice colors.  I was worried that the blond wouldn't work well and now I find it's the one I like best.  Second would be the more red brown hair but the skin is all going to be that bright pink.  There just wasn't enough variety to justify working with more colors.

I won't bother to take pictures of the painted rank and file since they look just like the primed ones with brown blotches where the hair and skin are unless I take close up shots.

I'm waiting on the paints for the uniforms.  My local store can't get them from their distributor so I'll be ordering directly from Reaper so I can try to get them painted.  I'm going for the bright colors to really be seen on the table so that means a single layer of paint and no washes on 99% of the uniform.  That makes for much quicker painting.  And the conquest French uniforms are the same regardless of regiment so no worries about changing up colors.

Until those paints come in I'm going to work on the commanders' horses.  I have the paints for those.  These horses can be different colors unlike in the cavalry units where they tried for similar colors in the battalions.  I can experiment with how to paint them quickly and well.

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Prepping is done

Dedication is a wonderful thing.  A number of army painters will recommend against doing what I just did, because it can be discouraging to see the overwhelming number of minis to be painted.  I wanted to get all this out of the way.  I plan on painting them in batches and then being able to mix up my battalions because of that.

I know, I know.  At this scale the variety really isn't that visible.  But it is to me and that's all that matters.

Here's how it works.  I need 8 battalions.  Each stick holds 8 minis.  So I can paint each 8 the same except for the battalion designation.  Those will go one per mini per stick.  I can do the bulk of the army painting the regular style then just do the battalion designations across sticks.  Poms and plumes are quick paints.

On to pictures.

Infantry 04 - Prepped and Primed

This is the command figures and the skirmishers.  Total of 24 skirmishers, 8 eagle bearers, 8 drummers, and 3 sub-commanders.  I had to break up some of the organization to make it fit on the bookcase.

Infantry 05 - Prepped and Primed

More command figures.  6 mounted generals, 8 mounted commanders, 8 aides de camp (I think), and 64 grenadiers.

Infantry 06 - Prepped and Primed

Regular infantry. 104 advancing fusiliers.

Infantry 07 - Prepped and Primed

More regular infantry.  96 fusiliers.

So that brings the minis so far to 329 and that's just the core infantry.  I think I've got too many of the fusiliers but I'd rather have too many than not enough.  The mounted generals were just because I had them, I was prepping and priming minis and they might be a fun break to paint.

My paints are on order yet.  I'm using Reaper Pro Paints for the bulk of these.  The paints are vinyl based so they cover very well in one coat.  Very important in painting this many minis.  And I'm planning on painting in what I call "cartoon style" so the colors are very vivid and stand out well on the table.  With so many of them bunched up together the subtle stuff gets lost.  One of the club guys has his painted that way and I really liked it.

While waiting for the uniform color paints I'm going to work on skin and hair this Saturday.  That is easy enough - base coat and wash.  I don't even know if I'm going to do the highlight since I'm going to try moving away from the dark brown wash to the lighter, more reddish flesh wash.  I'm also going to be just a little OCD and paint each stick with a different color of hair.  That also gets a simple wash.  I know it shouldn't show much from a distance but I'll know and when someone picks up a stand of minis it will look like I made a lot more effort than I did.

The next shots should show paint on the minis.  Primer is not a color!

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Prepping an army

Like I don't have enough armies.  Previously I showed some 15mm I was painting.  Now I've got most of the rest of the army and have been prepping like crazy while I've got some time and the need to do repetitive tasks.  I'm still waiting on the paints I want but I've got painting I can do until they come in.  French Conquest is pretty easy - red, white and blue.

Here's slightly less than half of my line infantry.

Infantry 03 - Prepped

Each stick holds 8 minis and there's 12 sticks.  It should have been 11 sticks but I had enough for one more and I would rather have too many prepped than not enough.  I still need to do at least 10 more sticks of regular infantry.  Yes, I need a total of 232 minis for my battalions.

Here's a combination of my Grendadiers (need more), drummers and eagle bearers.  The drummers and eagle bearers all belong to the command unit - there's enough of those.  Yes, I have 8 battalions to do.

Infantry 02 - Prepped

And finally the skirmishers (done) and the horses for the commanders and possibly sub-commanders.  I'm not sure if I'm using those horses or if I have other ones for the sub-commanders.  I need to dig through the unprepped stuff and see what's there.

Infantry 01 - Prepped

Hrm.  The last stick of skirmishers at the bottom didn't seem to be in the picture.

Let's total up.

• Line Infantry - 96
• Grenadiers - 24
• Drummers - 8
• Eagle bearers - 8
• Skirmishers - 32
• Commanders and Sub-Commanders (we'll count as half since the riders aren't attached) - 12

Grand total - 180 prepped minis.

Next up is the remaining line infantry.  So that's another 88 or 96 minis, depending on how many I prep.  Or maybe 80.  I'm hoping there's more Grenadiers in that set since I need another 40 to fill out the battalions.

For those who don't know the Lasalle rules a battalion consists of 4 stands, 8 minis each for 32 minis per battalion.  With one exception.  There's 3 stands of 8 infantry and 1 command stand of a mounted commander (counts as 2 minis), a drummer, an eagle bearer and 4 infantry.  Mixed in with the 28 infantry are 8 Grenadiers.

I need a total of 8 battalions since I'm playing French.  We get 2 additional battalions when we attack.  This is before the French turned into cheese eating surrender monkeys.  Along with a regimental battery (artillery - 3 cannons and 1 howitzer) that makes up my core force.  Of course the artillery needs to be modeled and painted as both limbered (hitched to horses) and unlimbered (unhitched and about to cause havoc) so essentially it needs to be painted twice.

Let's do more math for a total core division.

6 Veteran Infantry - 20 line infantry, 8 Grenadiers, 4 Skirmishers 1 drummer, 1 eagle bearer, 1 commander, 1 horse
1 Regimental Battery - 3 cannons, 1 howitzer (unlimbered with 12 crew); 3 cannons and 1 howitzer (limbered with 6 horses and 3 riders/drivers)
2 Veteran Infantry (attacking only) - 20 line infantry, 8 Grenadiers, 4 Skirmishers 1 drummer, 1 eagle bearer, 1 commander

Now this is where I start sobbing.

6 Veteran Infantry - 120 line infantry, 48 Grenadiers, 24 Skirmishers 6 drummers, 6 eagle bearers, 6 commanders, 6 horses
1 Regimental Battery - 6 cannons, 2 howitzers, 12 crew, 6 horses, 3 riders/drivers
2 Veteran Infantry - 40 line infantry, 16 Grenadiers, 8 Skirmishers 2 drummers, 2 eagle bearers, 2 commanders, 2 horses

Grand total of minis for the core division:

• Line infantry - 180
• Grenadiers - 64
• Skirmishers - 32
  
• Drummers - 8
• Eagle bearers - 8
• Commanders - 8 on horses
• Cannons - 6
• Howitzers - 2
• Artillery crew - 12
• Limbered horses - 6
• Limber drivers/riders - 3

Total of minis for the division.  I'm counting the commanders and horses as separate minis for painting purposes even though they create a single mini.

Total - 337

Sound bad enough?  There's 2 different support divisions as well.  Cavalry and artillery.  Light cavalry is 32 mounted figures and artillery.  Dragoons are 32 mounted minis and artillery.

Oh yeah - I need a commander and 3 sub-commanders.  So that's another 5 mounted minis.

Grand total is around 445 miniatures and if I want to do casualty disruption markers I'll need 15 of those as well.  I can use dice for that but it's not nearly as cool.

This is why you don't count up the number of minis in a historical game.

On the plus side I've got them on the sticks so that I can paint up the 99% that's the same on every one.  The last 1% is the color of the pom/plume to designate the different battalions.  I plan on breaking an army painting rule and not do the same color pom/plume on each stick.  I'm hoping to do some variation in hair and skin color per stick so making each stick one of each battalion will spread those around.  I like a little variety on the battlefield.

Let's hope the weather holds and I can get these primed.  I'm going to prime white since so much of the uniform is white and I want the bright colors for the uniforms. That and my grey primer has been hijacked.

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I didn't forget my elves

Honestly, I didn't.  Once I finally got them here I carefully examined each one, put them in the "good" and "repair" piles and then went about fixing the paint on the ones that got abused.  I have all of the repairs done.  There weren't many - mostly a paint chip or where it rubbed on the foam.

I have to finish up the 3 that were painted onsite.  They were painted but need detail and cleanup work.  They're off to the side, watching me work on a small commission.

Yes, I said commission.  A friend needed some minis painted as part of his booth display at a large convention and asked me to do it.  How could I refuse?  Yes, I know.  Easily.  But that's what friends do.

After all that I hope for pictures this week.

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A couple of pictures of my elf army

I hope to have good detail shots in the near future but until then feast your eyes on the army on the table.

Elf Army 01

Elf Army 02

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Unprepared, as always

Somehow I forgot both the cable and the adapter card to take pictures from my camera to the computer.  I may have to prevail on a friend or two to move them from my camera to my thumb drive so I can post them in something resembling real time.

I've taken some pictures and hope to take more as the convention continues.  I've been lax the last couple of years but I have excuses, as some of you know.  If you don't know, then just consider me a slacker.

Events and commentary so far:

Wednesday afternoon - Rastl's Hot Tub Party was a great success.  More than double the number of attendees.  We had a good time and I think the guys' nads have once again returned from being drawn up into the warm safety of not being in cold water.  Outdoor pools are not heated in Texas and they're a bit of a shock after the hot tub.

A group run to the package store for booze.  Lobotomy Boch, Devil Dog and much Shiner made their way back to the hotel.  Preparation is key.  We love having a package store in the parking lot of the hotel.  Just makes things so much more convenient.

Wednesday evening - Reaper Meet and Greet.  A very informal way for Reaper to put on a spread of food and for folks to start the socializing.  Since July is Reaper's 18th birthday and none of us are around then they celebrated early with cakes.  I don't have pictures but I'll get some from other people.  Each cake had the logo from a different product line.  quite tasty.

Wednesday night - And so it begins.  ShinerCon (which doesn't really exist, is an urban legend, etc) was once again hosted in my room ~sigh~ but it was nice seeing everyone again and having some fun.  We even kept the noise down because there wasn't one complaint from the hotel or the other con folks staying on either side of us.

Thursday morning - Reaper decided to put on a pancake breakfast.  Freshly made pancakes, sausage, bacon and fruit.  It was wonderful.  I even paced myself and didn't eat too much.  Some rather blurry memories of talking to lots of people and finding out if my army survived being dropped from 4 feet right in front of me while being carried to the car back in CO and how it survived the trip.  A bit of wear but nothing broken.  Many people wanted to see it.

The tournament organizer has been trying to get awards for "best painted army" used in the tournaments because we put in a similar number of hours as the competition painters but just paint more of them.  I don't see that going anywhere this year but maybe next year.  Right now my personal goal is to get the last figures painted and the basing done.

I participated in a few dungeon crawls, 2 of them to make up enough players.  I'm trying new strategies in each game just to make things fun for me.  First it was a standard crawl of picking up loot.  Second was trying to get loot and get to the central room where the good loot was.  If you didn't get munched on by the dragon.  I was very, very lucky in that one and got the maximum value for treasure.  Then I got munched.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to see about taking on the other parties and stealing their loot.  I like trying new things.

I have a game tomorrow morning and the rest of the afternoon to paint minis,  My friend Kris brought a lamp with him (thank you Kris!) and some grass tufts that will make finishing the bases sooooo much easier.    After my game is a lunch break then I think I'll sit in on Kris' army painting class.  I helped proof his class handouts and I'm very interested in what the class has to say.  I neglected to print out my own copy of the handout but will get one so I can take notes for making it better next year.  If he cares what I have to say.

I can't get the pictures off my camera just yet but will see if someone can move them to a thumb drive so I can put them online.  Nothing too interesting but let's see if we can change that tomorrow. :D

OK - off to bed for far too little sleep.  As I've said in the past, if we don't look like death on toast by Saturday morning we're not doing it right.

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More mini progress!

I keep getting distracted by phone calls so it takes me a little longer to get the minis done but I also get the fun of talking to my friends.  Go figure.  Of course I could use my Bluetooth earpiece and try to do both but I hate fixing the mistakes that happen when I attempt to multitask.

I've got Saturday to try to finish painting the last minis and paint the bases.  At least try to paint the bases.  I can always do the basing while I'm in Texas but it would be nice to actually have a mostly finished army for once.

I'm hoping time permits me to put up the light tent and take pictures of what's done.  Well, mostly done since the bases aren't painted.

Once again the newly finished stuff is in green.

Here's the total list of what's being done and what has been done:

Troop 1
Larnach the Grey
Lysette
Caerwynn
Royal Guardsman x 4
Death Seeker x 2
Vale Long Thorn x 2

Troop 2
Chiral, Centaur
Centaur Warrior x 3
Hunting Cat x 2
Faery x 2

Troop 3
Silvermaine, Unicorn

Troop 4
Mossbeard the Treeman

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6 more minis painted

No pictures - I hope to set up my light tent this weekend and get pictures of what's been done.  The bases aren't painted yet but I might take some time to do that since it's pretty relaxing end-of-the-night work.

Here's the total list of what's being done and what has been done:

Troop 1
Larnach the Grey
Lysette
Caerwynn
Royal Guardsman x 4
Death Seeker x 2
Vale Long Thorn x 2

Troop 2
Chiral, Centaur
Centaur Warrior x 3
Hunting Cat x 2
Faery x 2

Troop 3
Silvermaine, Unicorn

Troop 4
Mossbeard the Treeman

The ones crossed in green are the latest ones done.  The unicorn and the treeman have base coats on them so they're "in progress".  Next up are the centaurs since they're kind of grunts as well so they don't need as much attention.

Two of the centaurs have their torsos done and one has the horse body started.  I'm trying to get away from the 'brown with black socks' that seems to be a standard horse color.  Of course it takes longer to paint but looks SO cool.

If I push myself I should have 2 of the 3 centaur warriors done before Saturday and the third one started at least.  Saturday is the monthly paint day so I'll bring a solo figure (one of the ones from Troop 1) and see about getting that done during the paint day.  Maybe 2 of them since I might even finish the first one.  Gotta love army painting.

Oh, and for the record.  Spraying varnish on fairies feels like spraying them with bug spray.  Icky.

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Some work in progress shots

The colors are tinted yellow even after correction so they're not quite as vivid as in person.  The blue is really a nice blue-green that I love.  I'll have true color pictures when they're painted.

I'm making this army for the ReaperCon Warlord tournament.  I know, I know.  I've been painting dwarves like a fiend but didn't want to field them this year.  And then there's the troop of battle nuns.  But those are for later.  This year, elves take the field.

WIP Elf 01

WIP Elf 02

WIP Elf 03

Obviously the armor isn't nearly done yet.  The plan is to pick out some details with a thinned metallic blue and then wash all the silver with green liner.  That should get me the blue-green to match the dominant color in the minis. I'm a big fan of color washing my silvers.

I got myself all confused by trying to work blues and greens into the colors to go along with that blue-green I like so much.  For the record, it's the Ocean Triad by Reaper.  I love using it as a skin tone too.  But I digress.

A friend of mine helped me talk colors and that's why almost everything else is a neutral.  The leather is a red-brown but not heavily so.  Mr. Color Wheel says it's the compliment of my blue-green and I think it looks pretty darn good.

I did spend a good chunk of tonight fixing and cleaning up the work I did here with inadequate lighting.  My paint table lamps has been packed away, along with the chair I've used for over 20 years at my work tables.  Excavating in the small bedroom resolved both of those issues.  The lamps are yellow shifted but I don't use them for picking colors so it's all good.

I also got most of the rest of the army based and primed in the last couple of days.  The last pieces are on order so I'll be painting like a fiend for the next few weeks.  I need this to keep myself occupied.

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