Brown brown everywhere ner any a drop to drink.

Apologies for the lack of posts, silly things like 'work' and 'socialising' are getting in the way of important things like Shed Time. Nonetheless, I sneaked a few hours the weekend before last, and painted some things brown.

First on the agenda were the bowmen, who now sport basecoats of skin and leather (scorched brown, a colour which goes under most things it seems...) All of them are going to be white, but I might try to get variations of skin tone, and not use the same browns on all of them.

Still not sure about the trousers. They don't really have any raised bits for highlights. 

Another non-update

Just a quick non-post today: I'm off visiting family this weekend and have no time for frivolities like painting toy soldiers.

Here's something interesting that my non-British followers may not be able to watch because it's on IPlayer:

Auntie in the Castle

My Lovely Horse

Sorry for a second equine-themed title, but I love Father Ted too much. Good morning's shed time this week, and I can provide the first completed Man-At-Arms.

Basing to follow when I can do a batch.

My Little Pony

 Finally found time to slink off to the Mighty Shed this morning, and started on New Stuff, first of which is the Black-skinned marauders. The massive bulging muscles of the models are perfect for highlighting, as are the expressive faces. I'm not sure if I can pull off the gradual shades of dark brown perfectly, but there are lots of marauders for test pieces at least. 

First layer of paint on the black-skinned marauders

C'est ne pas une update

I was going to paint the ponies today, but some friends came round and we played D'n'D instead.

Here's a mate's blog with baking and crafty things:

http://crumpetcorner.wordpress.com/

We Wuz Robbed.

Sorry for the spoiler-laden title, but I'm very bitter about the paddling I received at the weekend. Credit to JoeySpike for playing intelligently and using resources effectively

The home side, looking so dashing in their period strip.

Uruks sir, thousands of 'em!

A few months ago I had game with Joey Spike, my LoTR-fan chum who's visiting at the weekend, and there were pics, so I thought I'd give my lovely fans a look. 

The forces of Good pause for the pre-battle cup of tea.

Battle reports and rumours of battle reports

Today's title comes from the outing my Chaps and Chapettes are getting at the weekend with a Lord of the Rings strategy battle game loving pal of mine. I shall post the edited highlights with totally unbiased commentary tomorrow, or Friday, or whenever.

Artsy shot showing nice side skirts and that awful box.

Hooray for the 12th Century

Mini update following mini session. I've almost finished the Chieftain, minus the side skirts, and added more paint in various places. I do like those tanks, they're so delightfully curvy and sloped armoured and notoriously mechanically unreliable. Made in Britain!!!!

The Chieftain would be a lovely tank if it didn't have that awful box sticking out of the side of the turret,

(Dawning of) A New Era

New lot of knights all made from lead alloy; only plastic alternatives from Fireforge Games are a bit too big in the flappy cloaks department; have decided to change my era of interest to the Normans and those pretty Conquest Games plastic knights.

Crusader minis knights review: Humans in armour are good, but horses far too spindly and undernourished.

Rex Thorum Sum

The title of today's post is the approximate translation of "I am the king of the divan" into latin.

Men at arms are progressing: I was sceptical about the metal paints at first,
 but they look alright now they've dried.

In which the gloves come off

Finally covered all the lead minis with enough paint that I consider them safe to handle. A Grate boon to society. Now I just need to ask the council about what to do with the lead alloy swarf, Started painting the axe-carriers, the swathes of maile (how the hell do you spell that?) are a drybrush heaven.

Quite proud of Gambeson Dude, but Chainmail Charlies aren't as maile-y as I'd like.

Let's do the time warp again

I realise that I haven't posted any pics of my progress with my two airfix models, so here are some close-to-completion shots for your viewing pleasure (not pleasure, suffering).

Top view with light coming from the wrong direction. New heads seem to be sticking on the Men-at-arms.

"No safe threshold has been discovered"

Today's title comes from the wikipedia article on lead poisoning. Yay! It makes me glad all the sawing is over on my first attempts at a head swap, and that three out of eight Men-At-Arms have been sprayed black. Progress continues on the Bowmen.

Bowmen with shoes & trousers. My new paint set doesn't have a colour analogous to GW scorched brown :-(

 Behold the Mighty Shed in all its' wooden glory. ON Saturday morning I had a vacant  few hours and got down to the vital business of assembling an army that looks vaguely 12th/13th century.

So! I bought some 28mm lead-based men-at-arms from the internet, dragged them into the Mighty Shed and attempted to glue the shields on. Alas! the protrusions from the model's fists onto which the shields are intended to fit proved too large.

A thoughtful sip of my trusty mug of tea, and I thought "I'm going to have to file these down, right after the superglue's dried." Yes dear browser, I put glue on all four before attempting to stick one on.

So, Still wishing to salvage something from the evening, I turned to the Chieftain tank and Japanese WWII aircraft carrier that have been darkening my drawers since Grendel was in short trousers. This (perhaps because I was able to manhandle them without fear of going the way of the Roman Empire) was more fruitful. I now have 6 suspension bits stuck to the sides of a tank (on axle is broken already...) and only the flight deck remains on the carrier. I hope to post pics including the Mighty Shed tomorrow, so you know what I'm blithering about.