Proof of Life

Well, long time no update. Here are some words...

I could go on to write a load of excuses about who, when, where and why but needless to say I have rather enjoyed my summer:

I've been Drunk (lots!). Eaten in the region of 1 whole fully grown pig at BBQs through the summer (and put on the weight to show for it!).

I've spent a week parachuting (never again, the worst 4 seconds of my life waiting for the 'chute to open!), been rock climbing for a week and spent more than a few weeks Kayaking and Canoeing in the Mediterranean.

I've shaved my legs and started road cycling, much to the disgust of my inner MTBer.
I've grown a moustache in aid of Movember (pics will follow!).

Couple all this "fun" with real work and I've had little time for my hobby.

So where am I going with my wee corner of interbewz land now? Well, here goes:

1. Flames of war is back on the horizon (it helps it's cool enough to paint/model/for my super glue to set in a reasonable time now). I have starter building a desert Kiwi recon force, loads of wee tankettes (and a platoon of stuarts too). With Christmas I should be in a position to motivate my son to build and paint up the "Open Fire" starter set, it's his pressie but if he doesn't want it I know of a good home for it.
2. As my interest in 40K had died faster than a suicide bomber I can haz a new hobby direction: 28mm Bolt Action miniatures. On the cards are Waffen SS (as if there aren't enough floating about), Bog standard Brits and Heer, and in the new year I should be the proud owner of Mother Russia's finest: The Red Tide!

So in closing for today, frequent service will resume, and hopefully on more than a 3 times a year basis...

...time will tell. Now, I'm off to stick together a Hetzer, Schwimmwagon and some SS tank hunters.

Nites peeps.

Bored to death, painting small things

So my mighty task of basing 105 teams went well enough. All teams are undercoated and I managed to push through the boredom factor and put down the basic paint scheme for the Soviet and all German teams to date. I stopped short of painting my US Para's bases because I needed a break.

Step forward Soviet Spetsnaz:

Ford GPA jeeps. The jeep to the front of the picture received a wash of Games Workshop (GW) Thraka Green and the two rear jeeps were washed with GW Devlan Mud (or Devlan Miracle wash)

Engineer Sapper trucks. Again truck on the left is Devlan Miracle and on the right Thraka Green on the right. Not happy with the windows, but will revisit them in time...

Nice details from Battlefront in the truckbed

My Spetsnaz teams, I tried to replicate the amoeba camo but my scheme is a little dark for this to come out that well. I stopped at just the command team for now. Still, one afternoons painting and I've completed a lot!

All together. These pics make all the hours of work worthwhile

And what I have to work through next...

So my aim for this next week is to work through one Engineer Sapper company plus the battalion command, oh and make a dent in some SS Grenadiers. As a treat for painting these I'll then probably work on either halftracks or my Tiger tanks.

Until next time.

Killing off the humdrum jobs

We all suffer from mojo killing tasks in our eternal quest to build/paint/game with miniature figurines, I am usually guilty of putting off what can be done today and rarely getting round to it tomorrow.

Until today.

Having cleaned, sorted and assembled all of my remaining FOW teams for my various projects I decided to apply filler to all the bases is one fell swoop yesterday evening. That's 54 US Para teams, 13 assorted German teams and no less than 38 Soviet teams for a grand total of 105 tiny little bases.

Madness.

I started off with a fresh tub of readymixed filler, 1kg in size. At the end of the evening I'd used 1/3 of the tub and watched about 2 and 1/2 films. Here are the results:

Soviets. Lots of little soviets

A bucket of US Paras

Left to Right on my workdesk: Spetsnaz, assorted Fallschirmjäger and 2 SS Platoons (plus their HQ!)

Whilst watching filler dry I undercoated the last of my vehicles, ready for a paint session this weekend (well the Soviet stuff anyhow!)

Obviously the teams now need their base edges finally cleaned up, sand added and then undercoated. With my new found mojo I aim to have all my FOW minis undercoated and ready for paint by this Friday evening.

Now where did I put my other can of black spray paint...

So welcome to my War on Two Fronts Blog. My intentions here are to document my painting, modelling and gaming of 15mm WW2 miniatures and terrain for the Flames of War games system by Battlefront Miniatures.

At present I log my on going project over on Ammobunker.org. Though inspispiration by MODEL DADS and having had my arm mildly twisted by my nemisis and evil genuis Maelstrom of The Rising Sun Blog has meant I've branched out to publish my own blog here.

You will find my ongoing paint brush war against Late War German Fallschirmjäger rifle company, a Late War US Para Rifle company, Late War Soviet Engineer Sapper Battalion and finally a Late War SS Panzer company (Totenkopf). Lots of late war here.

What is a Blog without pictures though? A small selection of my painted offerings, and of some stuff on the workbench:

Fallschirmjäger Pioneers (left) and HMG platoon (Right)

Fallschirmjäger PAK40 Anti-tank platoon

Everyone loves tanks!

WIP Soviet Sappers (there just isn't enough teams to paint here!)

The start of the SS Totenkopf project, plenty of WIP to be getting on with!

Well lots to be getting on with, painting and modelling will be sporadic at best, the plan is to get a couple of 600pt lists painted up for when my terrain arrives next month. Then throw some dice at all the wee men!

Until next time.