Wednesday 24 February 2016

Work in Progress

Introduction

I have completed almost no models over the last 2 weeks or so.  This is in part to my son asking if he can use my workbench pretty much every evening during that period and partly because I've started a large number of fresh builds.  Hopefully these will all bear fruit in a month or so; I'm becoming buried under part-finished figures yet again!

By the way, I'm absolutely delighted that one of my children is enthusiastic about what I do in my spare time.  I just wish we had enough space for him to have a desk of his own!

Work in Progress

In no particular order, here are some of the new models that I've started in the last few weeks.  I'm not going to say a whole lot about any of them, since I might do that in any future, more detailed articles.  Still, a brief description of each picture will be included.



These are horses from Wargames Factory.  They're made for their ancient Persian cavalry, but can (could?) also be obtained as separate sprues.  Importantly, for my purposes, they don't have any harness or saddles on them; I plan to paint this lot up as loose animals for my Old West setting.  They could be milling about in a corral or they might be used as a herd of wild mustangs.

I've had these sprues for some time and I wasn't in any hurry to build & finish them.  However, during the recent school half-term holiday my daughter came up to me one day and said "I'm bored!".  I replied "Would you like to help me build some ponies?" and she was thrilled by the idea.  She clipped all the parts out; I finished them off and glued them together.  However, my thoughts of further daddy/daughter time were dashed when I asked if she'd like to help paint them on another night.  "No, you do it" was her response.  So now I have a dozen horses cluttering up my table, in addition to everything else...




6 statues are required for one of the scenarios in the Frostgrave rule book.  I'd been planning to make some for a while, but was always held back by the lack of pillars that I liked (more specifically, by the lack of materials from which to make such pillars).  However, I recently found just the right type on eBay, so here we are...



Obviously, these are step pyramids, in various stages of construction.  I had originally intended to make 4, but I ran out of blue polystyrene sheet.  I can't quite decide whether to finish them all for Frostgrave (snowy ruins) or for Tarzan (jungle ruins), or a mixture of both.  Either way, they'll be awkward to store; they're much larger than I had anticipated!




These strange creatures are part of the Rock Top Gang; a bunch of ferocious Chibi tortoises (!) for the Super Dungeon Explore game.  The rest of the gang are in various other stages of painting from completely finished to raw undercoat.  And then there are all the other miniatures from the game; they'll need to be painted too...



Some official Frostgrave miniatures.  I decided that I wanted a more homogeneous bunch of followers for Mysterio, my Soothsayer.  They all have some blue (his colour) in their clothing, but the rest of their outfits will be a mixture of wools, leathers and other materials.



Finally, the above is a box of undercoated Jungle Cannibals.  I'm expecting that most of these will be very simple to paint as they don't have a whole lot of clothing or equipment, though some of them have ritual masks or more significant headdresses.  We'll see.


So, tell me straight: am I overdoing it?

22 comments:

  1. Some cracking WIPs on display there Hugh. Personally I love seeing these sort of postings as its comforting to know fellow bloggers go through the same spurts as I do; not actually finishing anything but putting a lot of things together. Its very comforting and encouraging.

    As for overdoing it? Not at all in my books. plenty of variety is important to keep the painting mojo going, and you've a lovely selection of genres ticking over :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, I'm glad I'm not alone in this type of madness.

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. Yes, but now I need to finish them all and I'm feeling overwhelmed!

      Delete
  3. Know how you feel! Despite my own lack of progress and posts recently I've very nearly completed my Celt fortified village - just need to finish some flocking. Pictures soon! Really like the Frostgrave statues, what were the plinths you selected?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Looking forward to seeing your village :-) .

      The plinths are cut-down cake pillars, so no real surprises there. However, it took me quite a while to find some cheap, plastic ones of a design that I liked (no use getting porcelain or glass ones and plaster probably wouldn't do for this purpose either).

      Delete
  4. That's a very interesting bunch of projects you're working on. For me, the best of the lot has to be the Rock Top Gang. I love these figures and I'm delighted to say mine are all painted, although I have yet to review them on my blog. I didn't realise you collected Chibi figures!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Bryan. Er, *I* didn't realise that I collected SDE Chibi figures until about a month ago :-) .

      Delete
  5. Smashing projects on the go there. Model on and finish them. I look forward to some batreps with the temples and statues.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, it sounds so simple, doesn't it? "Just finish them" :-) . Oh, well - I'll try...

      Delete
  6. My goodness you really do have a lot going on! Looking forward to seeing these come to fruition.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ...and this isn't all that I'm working on, either. Like you, I'm looking forwards to finishing at least some of these :-) .

      Delete
  7. Lots and lots going on. And I know the feeling about being buried by unfinished figure.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, this isn't half of it, even! Buried, buried, buried...

      Delete
  8. I like the look of the Frostgrave figures, full of character. Having a dominant team colour will help tabletop identification. It reminds me of the use of liveries in the late Medieval period.

    I wonder whether there are any more shooty goblin types on the workbench. One lives in hope.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's very much my intention to have a team colour for my Frostgrave models, but without it being a uniform in any modern sense.

      No, I'm not planning any more goblin archers :-) !

      Delete
  9. That's a big pile of WIP C6! Should keep you busy and out of trouble. Looking forward to seeing them progress to completion.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's a big pile indeed, Bob. A great, big, daunting pile...

      Delete
  10. Once you undercoat they don't count as part of the lead pile! Look forward to seeing these take shape. Are those statues normal figures mounted on pillars?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting notion, though I'm not entirely convinced that's how it works :-) .

      Yes, the figures on top of the pillars are regular 28mm "spare" models.

      Delete
  11. That's a lot to work on there!

    I bought those horses too and pretty much had the same idea of using them "eventually". Gave some away, "working" on two - turning them into centaurs and the rest are waiting for better times.

    I'll politely hope you will happen to post a painting guide for them in future ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is indeed a lot of work pending, Mathyoo!

      I suppose that I could do a painting guide for horses, though there are others already available on the internet. Still, my method is very simple...

      Delete