Dry Dock paining - some completed ships

Lutzow

Lutzow

Started painting ships for Naval Thunder. These are the 1/3000 ships I found for a $1.00 each at Miniature Market.

This is harder than I thought.

And I will paint my destroyers from here on out with a grey paint and a couple touch ups like black on the stacks and perhaps some dry-brushing. I painted the HMS South Hampton and Arethusa. Yeah, this is not pretty. But I want to keep them the way they are to hopefully see how I improve.

The South Hampton I could find only had two stacks and I couldn't find anything about retrofits. Mine has 3 stacks - maybe I can say it's extra fast! Just kidding purists!

The Graf Spee and Lutzow however, were fun to paint.

And yes, I've reached new levels of Nerdaton with my attempt at painting a swastika flag on the bow of the Lutzow. Yes, using a filament off an old toothbrush. Better luck next time.

Graf Spee

It's fascinating the paint schemes they used on ships in WWII. Some of them are quite effective making the ship look different than it  is. You can imagine at sea and dusk that it would be hard to get a good spot while targeting.

I've been thinking of basing and was going to get some Litko But I'm really trying to not spend money. I'm either going to try cutting some plexiglass I have (though I hear it's challenging) or perhaps using a heavy letraset. Like a heavy cardstock. With the latter I'm concerned for warping.

On another note: tried playing Basic Impetus again with the paper representing Samurai and Korea. And not so much interest this time. Impetus is a good set. I like the rules. Nice and easy to get, like Naval Thunder. However, I just wasn't interested in finishing out my test. And, when I was looking over the rules to clarify a few things, I found myself forcing the issue. It's my hobby and have other things I would like to try. I'll put thoughts of this era aside for awhile. When I get around to reading the books I bought for the era my interest may be rekindled.

On yet another note: watched the original True Grit and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I'm leaning toward the new one as my favorite. I was impressed with the 1969 iteration though.

Here are a few of the sites I'm using as guidelines for painting and books for inspiration:
http://www.bismarck-class.dk/index.html
http://steelnavy.com/gallery_cruisers.htm
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/index1.html
http://uboat.net/index.html 
 

From Amazon

From Amazon

From Amazon

You Guessed It, From Amazon

And My Favorite, From Amazon

Blitzkrieg Commander II Video Overview

I created this quick video overview of Blitzkrieg Commander II for those looking at getting this ruleset.

It jumps around a bit, but I hope it conveys a general feel of the game and the way the rules are presented. Really I wanted it to be as though someone were in the store flipping through the book deciding if they wanted to buy it or not. However, I didn't want to to stay on the pages too long to break any copyright for Peter Andrew Jones. (I hope he approves of this message.)

Dry dock and volcanos

This isn't much of a video, but here's a couple minutes of me showing the ships I have before and after primer.

I dry brushed quickly a black and a grey. The black looks better. I need to find some color plates/photos to see what I should e doing for paint.

These are the World War II 1/3000 British, German, and Italian ships I bought for a dollar each to play Naval Thunder.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75RqZBkGAkY&feature=youtube_gdata_player

In addition, I made this plaster volcano w my son for his 3rd grades project .

Gordon and Hague ACW Miniatures Arrive

The troop shipment arrived today from Gordon and Hague. So far I've only opened the Union troops.

Approx $69 worth of Union Troops

I'm happy with my purchase. So far, I've only discovered two figures separated from the stands during shipping. I'm curious about the ACW flag sheet for $3.50, meaning the value of it. I'll wait til I attempt to raise them to make final judgement.

I can see adding a couple touches of drybrush, flocking, and magnets to the bottom.

This is a great chance to get into a new period while still keeping time freed up to paint my main focus, WWII.

I will buy more and look forward to the Gordon and Hague future releases. 

See the first and less good youtube video here: http://youtu.be/sKp6JF8wdBE

See the second, somewhat better video here: http://youtu.be/bIPIZFsUYUQ

And here is the Picasa album: https://picasaweb.google.com/itineranthobbyist/GordonAndHagueACWMiniatures?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Fire destroys Woodland Scenics

This is bad news for the owners and small community most of all. Bummer for the hobby world, I've known about this company years before my modelling days. I hope they're able to rebuild.

Woodland Scenics Fire

Great use of lights and minis

I was just checking out the blogs of those who've recently started following me and I saw these great pics at "Captain Richard's Miniature Civil War" - very cool stuff - completely used without permission - though I will go ask him now.
Go check out his site.

Hobby Game area nearly complete

I say, "nearly", because is the work ever done? I'm pretty happy with the design of the space. With the help of some other gamers who posted their pics, my mom (who's pretty good at this kind of thing), my wife and her lighting design eye, and Stephi at The Container Store, I have an organized space that is now more inspiring. With the neatness comes more creativity.

Before

After

The table on the left is 4' 1" tall and about 2'x4'. This height is right where my elbows come to rest when I'm standing and put my hands in front of me. This table will be used to story minis while in progress and in between steps. It could also double as a small game table. I play 6mm, so it's huge. Now that I think of it, this may be a good table to recreate some ASLSK boards on.?


There is, of course, the painting table. The wire grid is from The Container Store. AW (Awesome Wife) helped with the lighting, suggesting I put the strip under the shelf. As well, she suggested the use of the fixture we used over the gaming table. These are actually very expensive flourescent strips that she's been given in the past as samples - yea!

Then, there is also the game table, under the new added, fixture. The lighting will be better for gaming and photos.

While this is primarily a storage room in our basement, I would gladly have a friend over to play in there. If I want to have more over, I'll have to move out to the main room.

There are a few more things I would like to do with the room. Eventually, I would like to move away from the cardboard boxes - discarded ones I mean, and move to the plastic. However, this is one of those things that can wait and budgeted over time. Good bday/xmas/sale purchases. Also, more wire grid and shelves for that.

I just remembered, I would like to have a place to hold books open for refernce,
something to hold the iphone for charging and listening,
glass holders
sides on the tall table so minis don't fall off and die/and I could put some cool scenery in there
a way to store large pieces of terrain
come to some sore of gamer piece on how to store my armies

Like I said, "nearly".

 More exciting photos here on the Picasa web album.

Even more exciting photo tour on YouTube.

PS I used my new iPhone4S to take the photos and video - another yeah!