Time for another painting blog - and only a few short weeks since the last one!

For GameBlast25 I needed a WWII era train set - preferably a military one. Originally I was looking to buy something that I could just use without any prep but that didn't work and now, I was getting close to the date of the event!

Instead I quickly looked for alternatives and settled on getting something from Sarissa-Precision.
They sell a WWII train bundle  which was exactly what I was looking for. I also bought some additional track, foolishly thinking I might need some extra but the bundle comes with plenty of track - easily enough to hold the entire train.

The train comes a flat packed kit of card and MDF (I think?) that required a lot of assembly and some painting.
To be honest it was a bit more of a crafting project than I was hoping for - particularly with the deadline looming.

This was the first time I was doing something like this and I was on a deadline too! I found that the carriages were pretty tricky to create and I made quite a few mistakes, especially early on.

The kits are fairly elaborate and even come with features such as spinning wheels when constructed correctly. However, since I was painting so fast I found once I'd painted the wheels, they got stuck.

​Lacking the time to do a proper camo paint job, I ended up spraying them army green and finishing with a military shader all from Army Painter. There was a bit of a cleaning up afterwards.

I'm not sure how I feel about the results, I definitely could have done better - there's lots of gaps and mismatched edges, don't look too closely at the photos!
On the other hand, the flaws give it them a sort of lived-in, battered quality.
I think it looks passable and they're there to be played with, not looked at.

Sarissa also do a European style train bundle and since I can be a glutton for punishment, I may pick that up when I'm more 'cash-rich' and see if I can do a better job with a bit more experience, time and patience.

Time for another painting blog and only 2 weeks after the last one!

All of these figures were painted for GameBlast25 which I ran back in February

​These figures below are all ones I have painted before but I needed duplicates.
Short Round and the pilot figure are from Pulp Figures while Tintin and the Continental Op are sleuths from Copplestone Castings gangster range. 

The elf on the left is a plastic figure and comes from WizKids Pathfinder Deep Cuts range and obviously from a D&D styled figure, she was used to represent Tauriel from The Hobbit movies as she was the best matching figure I have.

On the right is a recognisable, excellent Sallah figure from the pulp range at Crooked-Dice and is part of the Stalwart Sidekicks blister pack. 

Three time travellers, also from Crooked-Dice.
More excellent figures from Crooked-dice. I was worried they might not like right but they look recognisably like what they're meant to look like.

All the following figures are from the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang range at Artizan Designs.
They all have a 60's flavour and were used for the part of GameBlast25 adventure that took place in 1969.
They are very well sculpted and were enjoyable to paint, with enough detail to keep them interesting but not so much to become overly fiddly.
They are also just generic enough to be usable in a 70's game.

That's 2 dozen WWII era Soviet soldiers from Artizan Design done and varnished.

​There are 4 left to do, but I've run out of bases and won't be ordering any more until in  the new year.

I'm also more or less done ​with painting pulp figures until at least next Spring, since there's no longer any urgent need to complete them.

Well today I threw a mini in the bin, actually I threw it against the painting shed door first (And it left a dent!).

It was a WWII German motorcycle rider from Foundry and I just could not get the stinking handlebars to stick to the bike.

I'd managed to do it with the first 2, but the 3 was too much.

This is only the 3rd time I've ever given up on a mini ever. :(

That's right, 2 painting blogs... in a month.

Today I just varnished 15 German soldiers that I've been painting throughout January. Now ready for The Indiana Jones Charity Globe Trot.

All of the above figures come from Artizan Designs' Germans in Greatcoats or German Infantry ranges.
​
Strictly speaking I doubt any of these are very 'early war' German, but the soldiers in greatcoats are fairly generic so can be used easily throughout the WWII years.

Yes I know it's now 2020.
And yes, it's taken nearly a year to prepare to write the next post for this blog.

But I have been doing some painting during all this time... honest...
So I'm going to try post photos I took of the miniatures I painted from February to December!

These figures were photographed on the 13th November 2019.
These are the first of the 'pulp' figures for my GameBlast20 game - The Indiana Jones Charity Globe Trot.

These are Thuggee cultists from Pulp Figures. Again they're for The Indiana Jones Charity Globe Trot.

I've painted some of them in the yellow and white scheme I saw on the Pulp Figures website. The others are painted in red and black as seen in 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'.

The mine carts and track all come from Ainsty Castings.

8 of the mine carts were painted for GameBlast19 (Which was before the end of February 2019.), they've only just been varnished.
The track has all been painted and varnished recently.

There you have it. That's all the photo's I have.
I've painted more than (I must have!?!) this over 2019, it's just there's no photos of them, honest... You'll have to take my word for it!

Hopefully, the blog will see some use over 2020.