Minor Madness - or a goal, maybe (Painting challenge- day 50 update pg 3)

[mikedemana]

Great progress! You are cranking things out - that's great.   

Mike Demana

[Burgundavia]

This is a staggering number of figures painted. Kudos

[Sunjester]

This is really impressive!

[LordBrentlake]

Great progress. Knowing too well how challenging such commitments can be to fulfill, I salute you.

[FifteensAway]

Day 40 is tomorrow and I am working diligently on getting those French battalions done but unsure if I will make it or not but I have a minor dilemma - today, tomorrow, and the next I will be at a convention for part of each day and I did 'reserve' ten days as part of 100 + 10 for such matters so I may not report until Monday as 'day 40' rather than tomorrow.  Is that 'cheating' or just common sense?

And, who knows, I have time today and some tomorrow, I still might get them done before sundown tomorrow.  And I do have things done, a bunch of Old West scatter terrain and some buildings painted, some others modified to match better so there will be something to report no matter what.  And I spent a couple of hours yesterday assembling a score or more of 3D printed Old West buildings - with only one minor gaffe discovered so far, a building's roof a tad bit off straight but maybe not too noticeable.

Now, time to get cracking with the time I do have today!

[LordBrentlake]

Knowing what has had negative consequences for me in the past, I’d say take advantage of the built-in contingency in your original idea. Enjoy the convention and avoid any nagging guilty thoughts. Come back refreshed, quite possibly inspired, and attack your goal again with renewed commitment.

You’re doing very well so far; a meaningful break should do no harm.

[FifteensAway]

While this is the 'actual' day 40, I am going to count 'painting' day 40 as Tuesday next though I could push it to Wednesday but that is 'a day too far' for me so Tuesday it shall be.  I shall use 3 of my reserve days.  But to have something to show, here are individual shots of the green coated Loyalists, sun kept ducking in and out of a tree causing the varied colorations:



King's Royal Regiment of New York



Butler's Rangers



Queen's Loyal Rangers



King's Loyal Americans



The howitzer - I need to go back and paint the mouth of the barrel black.



Fraser



Kospoth

And a few buildings for an Old West game:



A small train station, two tone painting very common here in the west.  Building I'm pretty sure is from Stone Mountain



The water tank to be trackside - note the column in the center for filling the tank.  This is a modified piece from Blue Moon Manufacturing - I changed out the oversize water spout for an HO scale spout, the original spout was used for the central column.  This and all the troughs below with water still had the gloss coat drying - reapplied after the matte spray sealing.



And to power the water up into the tower, a windmill - an HO model from Woodland Scenics found at an estate sale.



A couple of outhouses from Peter Pig, one open door - with some corn husks for 'necessary' functions, and a closed door.



A covered well also from Peter Pig.



Those buildings in view not shown above were already painted but with disparate roofs, I repainted all the roofs and modified most of the buildings to some degree to get them all to blend in together better and look more like a dusty western town.  While I enjoyed his work, I am not a fan of the Gary Chalk technicolor western towns that seem popular with some. 



A dozen tables - to be used for various periods but the game being built will involve 'interupting' a big after the round up picnic.



Water troughs and hitch rails.



Some stone water troughs.



And a sign - which still needs it's lettering.

The basing of much of above still to be done, obviously.

So, three significant buildings, three minor structures, and another 31 pieces of scatter terrain - plus finished the ten French guns for the AWI.  Progress but, again, final count will be on Tuesday because of the convention.  Yesterday was a Riel rebellion game using MWWBK and I got the role of Wolsley and one of my subordinates - at the last second - killed Riel to give us a victory, spared him a hanging.  Today is a Sand Pebbles game.  Off to get ready now.

[AKULA]

Admirable productivity 

[mikedemana]

Love that you're getting terrain done, too -- not just armies and such. Great stuff!!

Mike Demana

[FifteensAway]

10:25 PM Thursday Tuesday my time so I'm 'under the wire'.

And quite pleased that I got done what I did since it was problematic I'd make it yesterday morning but through some sit-downedness I made it.

Last 10 days: 163 figures painted (5 battalions at 18 each + 1 dead each), 2 generals (mounted, horse, attendant, dead each) and 10 gun crews (1 gun, 4 crew, 1 dead each) - all French for AWI.  That is figures counting the guns as figures, the metal.  Also, as mentioned above, painted three structures, three small structures (outhouses, etc.), thirty-one pieces of scatter terrain, and repainted roofs and modified sidings on 11 more buildings.  I'd call that a successful ten days.

New figure total on day 40 (discounting the 3 days for the convention) is now: 587!
[3 +3 + 31 + 11 = 48 non-figures painted as well]
Figure average is now at 14.675 per day not counting the other stuff.  A respectable showing.  So far.  60 days to go.

Tomorrow I clean up the painting table and then full focus on the Old West items to get ready for that game.

[LordBrentlake]

You’re on a magnificent roll. Keep it up; you can definitely hit your goal.

[FifteensAway]

Here is a photo of most of the French - hadn't finished the gun crews when I took photo in the afternoon, guns are there, though:



And the distraction of the convention, only played in two games - tried a third but the rules were Command and Colors and I just couldn't get along with them, not like a miniatures game at all and felt like no player control in the game, just a board game and a card game combined but with miniatures.  Nicely presented 6 mm table but no photo, just not my thing.



Friday was a Riel Rebellion game, only got the one photo.  Our objective on the British side was the church in the distance and that is Riel standing next to it. My RCMP cavalry got beat up heading in and then charged by three Metis and wiped out to a man!   On the winning side.  Men Who Would Be Kings rules.



Saturday was a Sand Pebbles game.  I had the unit on starboard topside.  We Americans lost as a result of a couple of melees that went very bad for us, TSATF rules.



Game Master's t-shirt for the day - loved it.



The fateful denouement.  My two compatriots both got involved in melees at the boom and got severely beat up which ended up with us losing the day.  The Sword and the Flame rules.

Sunday was the CandC game.  Not a wasted day, however.  Bought a couple of structures at the 'bring and buy', or swap meet as we call it, to convert to a boma for my east Africa setup.

Next distraction from challenge will be a holiday - not so much the day as the wife's holiday village and other seasonal decor goes up, lots of work that.  But a couple weeks clear first - I hope!

Edit: got a photo of the artillery crew and dead while drying from flat sealer, a bit stormy later so got it done before the weather gets here:

[FifteensAway]

HALF WAY!

Day 50 is today and I am pleased to report I painted 121 figures plus 32 bits of scatter terrain over the last 10 days.  Actually, I finished painting figures and scatter terrain on Wednesday and have been working on texturing bases and taking a bit of a break from wielding the paint brush on figures.  Back at it tomorrow.  Game tonight but not with these figures.

587 previously, add the new 121 and we arrive at 708 figures!  Wow.  Sure, I hoped, but no way did I expect to reach such a number so soon.  And with 48 previous scatter bits plus the new 32 arriving at a nice round 80.  Don't count scatter in the figure count because, overall, a lot faster and easier to paint; but certainly add to the atmosphere of the table.

Breakdown on the 121:
36 men plus 6 dead, 24 women plus 4 dead - 70
10 wagons/coaches, etc. with 22 horses to pull them and 18 riders and passengers (4 hard to see but there and painted inside the stagecoach) plus one dead for the stagecoach - 51
70 + 51 = 121

Breakdown on the scatter terrain:
9 box piles, 3 open top barrels - two with lids (don't know source, from estate sale), 2 sack stacks, 6 wheelbarrows, 4 wood piles, and 8 'road apples' more colloquially known as horse shit (actually the poop were meant to be little fire pits but I have plenty of those and, in an inspired moment, I saw the 'opportunity' - and took it, with a half dozen more to be painted later as cow poop).

And a few photos as evidence:



Group shot of all the wagons



The stage coach



A couple of buckboards



A group shot of the civilians - not in the wagons.  Men to the front, women at the back - and really wish I could find suitable female casualty figures!



The scatter terrain with the road apples lower left.



All of the previously shown scatter terrain now have textured bases.



As do the buildings/structures and additional Old West dedicated scatter.

I guess you can say these are the first three 'tranches' with further to come, more wagons, more civilians, more buildings - four if you count the scatter terrain with more to come (not necessarily Old West, though).

If anyone wants closer photos of anything, I have a bunch more I can load but just posting these for now. 

Yeah, I am glad of a bit of a break from the painting.  And, yes, looking forward to getting more done - like getting the AWI French bases textured.

Not seen previously here and not painted recently (earlier this year) but just added texturing to the bases, some barrels and sacks from Battle Valor Games - got shorted on one of the sack bits but I can live with it:

[LordBrentlake]

You’ve clearly got quite an efficient system working there. Even so, it’s your dedication to getting that system to operate for this length of time that impresses me most. I do wish you every good fortune in achieving your goal.