Intermission Nexus: 2016

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

It's All Greek To Me!

Hi All,

This is another one of my semi-annual blog posts. I had been working on different eras of troops for a while and now decided to finish some of the Greeks which had been sitting un-based for quite awhile. The unfinished figures were sitting there leering at me to finish them, and eventually I caved into their demands.

I have primed another swath of both Persians and Greeks, which means in the future I'll have to finish more of the Persians to give the Greeks something to fight against. The decals were printed on a photo printer on the water transfer decal paper. It did cause the ink to deteriorate, even after the sealer layer was applied. The battle damage on the shields was applied with a metal file, this is another reason I like plastic figures. But I got to where I liked the worn look on the decals, especially on some of the Spartans. They still need a layer of dull coat, but I thought that they were "finished enough" to be photographed.

I tried getting some photos of my civil war figures, but decided to wait on photos until they are based and blackwashed, as the photos came out looking too flat for them. But so far I have painted up about seven regiments of figures for the south. I have 1 regiment of the Louisiana Tigers done, the striped pants were difficult to do but very rewarding in the end.

The Spaaaaartans!!!

More Greeks

The First Persian Unit.

Mostly what I do is paint, although occasionally I do get in a game on the tabletop. Shocking, I know. Here are some photos from a recent Check Your Six! game that I played with my gaming group. The Japanese camouflage on the Sally's were fun to paint. In this particular encounter, the bombers are trying to inflict as many hits as possible on the airfield, while the American P-40's are trying to defend it and shoot down as many of the bombers as possible. The US planes are my dad's work, while the Japanese planes are mine. We've divided the forces up, so he is painting mainly the Allies, while I paint the Axis.

Until next time!

Enjoy!

Kevin

Monday, August 1, 2016

Miniature Monday's: Into The Grey!

Hi All,

Another issue of Miniature Monday is coming your way!

I might be bouncing around between lots of different eras in the near future. This is due to my Confederate troops arriving for the ACW. They are 18mm Blue Moon castings. This is also my first time going smaller than 28mm for figures. I also want to start painting more Persians, as right now my nearly finished Greeks outnumber the finished Persians. Although a number of Persians have been assembled and attached to bases, just awaiting paint. It will soon be time to tip the scales more in the Persians favor. This will push the Saxon figures further back into probably next year sometime. Unless I burn out and want to paint something different.

I think I've realized that I really do enjoy the painting process more than actually getting games in with the miniatures. Because I find it is easier to find time in the evenings and weekends in which to prep and paint miniatures, but it is harder to get my gaming friends to agree on a time and place to actually set up a game. Although I feel that this is a commonality amongst miniature gamers.

Here are some photos of the American Civil War figures which are prepped, mounted to craft sticks, and primed. Now all that is left is to paint them and base them. The frightening thing is that it is just a portion of the entire force, I've not begun prep on any of the artillery, artillerists, cavalry, or commanders yet. And there is still more infantry to base. I think it's around 800 figures for the Gettysburg force, and in total I think it's over 1,000 castings.

Enjoy!

Kevin Meeks

Monday, July 18, 2016

Another post after a long time.

Greetings Hoplites,

I haven't posted much in the past two months, although I have been busy painting things now that work has slowed down some. I'll have to update the blog with some progress on my Greeks, currently I feel as if I'm burning out on painting the Samurai. Although I have sufficient to get to the table to play a game now, outside of calvary, as I've been painting the "less complex" figures and putting off painting the cavalry units as they are like two figures in one.

On a different note, the lead mountain has grown. I'll be expanding my miniatures hobby into the American Civil War, courtesy of the Blue Moon Miniatures. Both my father and I have an interest in the "Across A Deadly Field" rules. He the North, and me the South. So we've begun reading the rules and have ordered the lead. I'll be working on painting the South when they arrive. I'd better get my drawl ready!

For my ancients, a lot of the Greek Hoplites are assembled, just awaiting basing and paint. Although they've been that way for about half a year now. The same with the Persian infantry, only have about six Persians painted, and will need to get better pictures of them. I'll do a Persian update when I have a bit more of them done. I do know that I'll need more Persian cavalry down the road (Perhaps Warlord games will re-offer the calvary, as they don't seem to be available in their store anymore.) I still have to assemble the Greek Light Troops from the Numidian boxes. As well as get started on my Saxon force. I'm not sure what rules I'll use them with, I more just wanted to have some Viking-like Saxons in my collection. The Greeks at the moment I want to use with the Hail Caesar! rules, and I'm unsure about what rules to use for the Vikings at the moment.

Have a good battle!
Kevin

Greeks Awaiting Shield Decals

Greeks Awaiting Paint Detail

These are Spaaaaaartans!

Not quite 300 yet ... 294 more to go!

Decided to have some fun with one shield ...

Future Project

Will become Greek Light Troops

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Samurai Status Currently

Hi everyone!
This post is to inform where I am currently at in the samurai progress. I didn't have too much progress earlier in the year because I was finishing my masters at DeVry. Although now that that is complete I am enjoying getting time to work on painting some more miniatures. I look forward to getting more painting done over this Memorial Day break.

If I field the units in 4-figure infantry units and 2-figure cavalry units. Then these are the strengths of the forces currently.

Takeda Force (78 figures finished)
5 Samurai units (20 figures)
8 Calvary units (16 figures)
5 Ashigaru units (20 figures)
5.5 Archer units (22 figures)

Tokugawa/ Oda Force (88 figures finished)
5.5 Samurai units (22 figures)
8 Calvary units (16 figures)
5 Ashigaru units (20 figures)
7.5 Archer units (30 figures)

This is at least enough to start testing some different rules out with the figures. The figures are all based individually on metal bases of 1''x1'' for infantry and 1''x2'' for calvary. Then when I form up a unit, I'll cut magnetic vinyl to make the bases act as a whole unit. This will give the flexibility to use the figures for skirmish games such as Ronin, without having to have two separate armies. It was nice to see that Warlord Games will be releasing the Wargames Factory Samurai under the Pike & Shotte line of figures. At least if I need to flesh out the armies more, I can still do so.

And now for pictures (the whole reason you are here reading this post), I finally own a macro lens and look forward to using it the next time my gaming buddies set up a game, these are tests to see how the lens works on small objects such as miniatures. It is safe to say that I like the results I get from the lens. I can't wait to see the sea of banners on the gaming table, once I get all the figures finished. The back banners were one the main draw to this era for me. Eventually, I'll have to do some tests to figure out what I can realistically field on whatever size table I wind up using for the battle of Mikatagahara. Although my next step will probably be to push some of the units around on an empty table to learn the ruleset before attempting this undertaking.