Bye bye Santa

I hope Santa was a generous type to you this year and either your armies, gaming accoutrement or library swelled with a new addition. I would like to say my armies swelled but that wouldn't be quite correct, my pile of shame grew ...... yes the lead mountain is a bit higher than before Xmas! The new laptop was a welcome addition, ta Santa.

Well the fat gent in the red coat has packed up the left over goodies and with the assistance of a brace of helpers is heading back to the North Pole. It's a tough job but Santa is the man for it

The "pile of shame" is something that I will endeavour to rectify over the coming year and much'd planning will need to be employed, particularly with the shortfall in output for the year 2012. I'm not for one minute suggesting the pile will reduce in size, that is unimaginable, replacements will be found only too quickly but I would like to think that a swelling of my armies will be on the cards, or in the tealeaves at the very least. I have until new years eve to construct/develop a plan of attack, hmm..... should I work alphabetically or use chaos theory to formulate my list?

First off I must make an attempt to clear the decks of last years commitments, commissions and love jobs, and get my eyes checked out particularly with this damn diabetes stuff. I think I'm probably due a new pair of glasses or at least I think I am as the old'uns don't seem to be making life as easy as they once were, I could almost swear Santa's helpers were hot chicks with rosy cheeks!

One of the jobs that annoyed me the most last year was a trio of mounted Russian Nap generals (love job) that were not that well cast, they had cracks and little fissures in the riders and this did not make for a pleasant painting experience. Pete, the owner, said "not to worry about them how they come would be fine", but they got the better of me and are residing in the naughty corner it's time to pull them out and get cracking (no pun) on them again.

Remember to click the pic for bigness

I have "roughed in" a pair of the horses and have drilled a hole in each to pin the rider to the horse, I wont do much more to the horses until the rider is fitted as I'm sure to lose a bit of paint in the process of fitting the rider. The pin is what I rely on to glue the rider to the horse as I usually need to pack under the rider with green stuff to hide the gaps apparent from ill fitting saddlery etc.

 

Two of das Generals after priming and a bit of a wash to the face, the lower model is pretty good unfortunately the other is a bit of a dud and should have gone back into the melting pot, cant remember what t'other one is like.......

Not very pretty is it? Scar tissue....

The full base coat hides much of the nastiness but it will become apparent again when it comes time to high light and shade the coat.

That mold line isn't much fun

Plenty of little cracks on the other side of the coat too......

Started to highlight the back of the coat around the shoulders, I think I will finish the nasty figure first and try not to be too critical, the owner is happy how it comes so I shouldn't worry so much either. I can then get on with the other two and pretend the nasty one never happened.

russian green is Reaper Master Series "Peacock Green"

Tis The Season

It certainly is the season, jolly on the other hand is a state of mind on which I cannot for the life of me get a firm handle on, be that as it may there are certain benefits for punters at this time of the year.

Electronic gamers are well aware that all the new release of console and PC games have hit the shelves and those war gamers that like to indulge in a bit of Assassins Creed or Halo amongst others will be well pleased. If you prefer strategy games like Civilization or Total War on the other hand your sure to find, with the new Johnie's on the block needing shelf space, they are inching towards the bargain bin, indeed I picked up the Total War Rome, Napoleon and Empire games for a tenner a piece and each with the DLC content.  I would have stayed in the shop longer to search for the other titles but electronic games shops are a bit like those fantasy war game chain shops or snorkeling or the green room, at some point you have to surface for air. Of course these TW games are getting a bit old in the tooth you might think, my reply is simple "only if you have owned them since they came out" I'm sure to derive as much fun out of them now as you all did 2, 3 or 4 years ago! Anyway a damn good substitute when everyone is too full of pud to push the leaden chaps around.

What has got my little feet tapping however is the little bonuses that some of the more insidiously evil purveyors of metal men have been offering, free postage is one close to my heart and Fife and Drum Miniatures and Ebor Miniatures have both received orders taking advantage. Foundry who weren't going to have a Xmas sale have come to the office party with their bonus pack offer, buy 16 and get another 6 for free, as long as they are all from the same line. That actually makes Foundry figures a respectable price, once again an order was placed, although with some small difficulty (more on this anon), and I imagine that there will be more than a few new armies in the planning. All in all with these impulse purchases my stockings will be well bulging by Christmas Eve and it wont be my cod piece putting all the pressure on the gusset.

And lastly if your a film buff you know to stay away from the cinema, Hollywood's outpouring of seasonal dross is about to overfloweth and the foyer of the Palais is no place for a film-ophile to be. So stay at home marvel at the big pile of shiny, turn on the computer or xbox and change the course of history for an hour or two, vive le revolution "Take that Welly ol'boy, no Iron Duke this day".

Maybe Jolly is like happy but without a cause?

Xmas/New Years clean out and changes

The year is fast approaching it's climax, Chrissy and New Years eve and once again I'm on the refurb trail, no there isn't any deep personal reflections simply blog thunkings.

The change to the dynamic view while pleasing to me with it's clean lines has caused readers some difficulties, particularly those with older machines and slower connections, this was made very apparent just recently and has shifted the scales back in favour of the standard view. Of course the difficulty of locating blog lists, follow buttons etc and all that jazz has also made life more difficult than it has a right to be. Ultimately the view I choose shouldn't be for me but for the visitors, let's face it I don't visit and read the posts, I've already read them......... and a load of tripe they are too!

Massive Edit: As you can no doubt plainly see there has been a re-shuffle of the deck chairs, so we should stay afloat for another hour or two at least, said the captain to the iceberg! Humans have come to the rescue and my problems are being sorted, they are so much more efficient than bots, said the actress to the hard drive. Dont ask about the mauve I haven't a clue myself, said the bishop to the jury.

Time for feet up and count the sleeps, said the paint pig

Is it a plus google

Google I mean. I noticed one of the Imagineers on the Odd Fellows forum and EvE group had taken the plunge and occasionally see the G+ link number increase on blog posts, so with cautious interest I decided to take a look see.

No doubt like me, if you have a google account of any type, you would have been subjected to the "+" campaign when it was launched, and you unlike me, may have some idea as to what it is all about. I shall be short and quite blunt in my description it is facebook for googlers, so at first glance not a good thing as far as I'm concerned, ye yes I have a facebook account, no I don't check it daily, weekly even and for people like me fb can be more of a chore than a .......errr networking godsend?

The new look

The first thing you notice with G+ is that your blog and email account persona is hijacked and you will become known by your G+ handle and visually identified by your G+ profile picture! This is something of a shock to the system the first time you go to leave a comment on some juicy blog article that has caught your attention. I was not impressed and opted out only to find that these changes are somewhat permanent, blimey what to do? So after some thought, forewarned and forearmed and resigning myself to certain changes.  I carefully crept back in armed with a more carefully crafted and pigpen friendly handle, why, well if you are known by your blogger handle your about to loose that identity if you choose your name or some other alias........

My new ring?

 So there you have it, or at least the short version of "it", I'm no longer Paint Pig I'se now Paintpig Dave.  It's still the same old snarly me so don't panic when you see the new handle and avatar or get strange email from G+ about certain "Odd Fellows Ring", it's just a plus thing!

Flags n Such

Well flags really and associated bannery type stuff. Having had a bit of a turn (which necessitated an ambulance) recently I have had to give painting a bit of a miss, my hands and eyes dont seem to work on the same plane, dimension what have you. A lot of reading, writing and general Tom Foolery on the computer has been keeping me active and sane, part of this computer Tom F has been to sit down and work out flaggery.  The great and mystical von Goutstricken has prompted my sudden enthusiasm with his Banner own work for an upcoming iNation campaign we have in the pipeline.

Most of the work has been done with gimp and the utilities paintbox.

I have had to reduce the image quality for posting (the files were big'uns) but you get the general idea.

Tried a couple of different styles with the lower one needing a photo of some wavy bed linen, the black sheets were definitely a non starter.

Brisbane Muster EYLAU Napoleonic fun in the snow

Not much time for commentary guys, I'll apologise upfront for that. This is the game we put on for the Brisbane Muster, a small local two day event, "The battle of Eylau" or Napolean mucking around in the snow participation game.

The Muster was a great weekend of gaming and considering the plethora of events on (NRL Final, AFL final, River Fire) was well attended.  There was plenty of interesting bring and buy goodies and trader items, yes my wallet got whacked, and the smell of unwashed anorak was nowhere to be found it was a very pleasant weekend. There was a good collection of games and the quality of the tables and figures was most impressive, more so as this wasn't really an established club affair!

We had plenty of visitors stop by our table prepared to learn a little about miniatures and gaming, and we were able to enroll a recruit or two willing to rewrite history.

On with the pictures.

The 1st Legere are not cannon proof

French casualties

No more commissions this year

Wow what a year to date, been plenty going on and it threatens to swamp me. As you have probably noticed I'm having trouble finding the time to devote to PaintPigs Blog or the FigvFig Blog for that matter. I'm afraid things are going to stay that way for a while I have been snowed under with home commitments, the new forum and what looks like a never ending list of painting commissions.

To that end I will not be accepting anymore commissions for the year 2012, sorry but that is the way it is, I have more than enough work on the books to see the year out so additional commissions would not be acted on until year 2013!

I will re asses the situation come January however I feel that new commission work will be restricted to Table Top display jobs, for those pieces you want to have stand out on the field of battle and in the cabinet. My hope is that by taking this new approach that I may be able to get some painting done for myself, I can seriously say that my own completed (based and all) figures for 2012 so far does not require me to remove my shoes to keep a count!

lace wars, imagi nations and old school

As I mentioned briefly in my last post I have been working on a content management system and forum for those interested in the lace wars, old school gaming, rules tinkering (new and old) and Imagi Nations. If you have an interest in war gaming or painting with figures from the era of Sun King Louis XIV to the American and French Revolutions read on.

 Latest dispatches from the interweb report a new gentleman's club for discussion by those Imagineers much attached to their Electors, Emperors and all manner of Imagined Upstarts. Generous spaces have been set aside for both the Old School and Classic gamer, Authors and Philosophers engaged in the further advancement of the Rules of War and uniform Outfitter's and Sutlers. Historical gamers who insist on lashing of lace on their figures are to be encouraged and very welcome indeed.

our eager staff are always ready to help

Only gentlemen of good standing, polite and courteous should apply, failing that cads and bounders of a polite and courteous disposition may also be permitted to enter providing they be honour bound to behave themselves to a code I and my staff apply strictly.

well dressed bounders may apply

To view and become a member of THE ODD FELLOWS WARGAMING LOUNGE simply click the underlined coloured text.

quartet of odd fellows discuss the latest rules while play testing continues at the table

Thank you for your time.