adieu, 2021...

It's a gray, dreary December 31st here in Washington, D.C. Seems appropriate somehow for 2021 to end this way. Four years ago when I wrote the last 'year in review' post I was upbeat in restarting my gaming hobby. Well... let's just say it didn't go as planned! I may have played two games this year, though, I'm not certain it wasn't 2020 when I played them. The first was a remote game of Habet! Hoc Habet! and the second was a solo Palaeo Diet game to suss out the rules--which I like. Honestly though, remote gaming is not for me. With my diminished sight and hearing, remote games just become exercises in frustration! Solo gaming is OK but I must admit I don't much care for my opponent. He always interprets the rules in his favor!

bears with me a little longer...

Reaper Miniatures is not a company I've been familiar with. To be honest, I couldn't tell you how I ended up perusing their catalog of figures. Probably in my search for figures of generic 'critters' to be used in 'Palaeo Diet'. Sure enough, I found the aforementioned rats and pugs but also a terrific 'Dire Bear' and a Mammoth. I also purchased a cyclops to go with my Trojan War figures and a sphynx more in line with the Greek myth of Oedipus rather than the architectural Egyptian version. Those will get painted later. Meanwhile I didn't want the paleolithic figures to languish in the painting queue.

While painting the bear I realized... I have more big bears than I ever thought I'd need!

Interestingly enough, the two darker bears in the picture above are 54mm figures from the old Italeri gladiator set. The other three, while considerably larger, are ostensibly 28mm though they do depict ancient species.

And to give a better sense of scale... I think this poor guy is in for a spot of trouble! Oh, bother!

a little progress comes to the stone age...

Proof that I've been productive this week. These are plastic figures manufactured by Reaper. I thought they'd work well as 'critters' in Palaeo Diet, Eat or Be Eaten. A pack of angry pugs seems appropriate the spirit of the rules! (The Neanderthals are from Acheson Creations.)

a productive week in Troy...

The Iliad inspiration continues.... While I've had these figures for quite a few years I've never managed to complete more than four or five. So, I'm feeling pretty proud of myself for getting 32 figures across home plate in the past week! Most of these, I believe are Redoubt figures, though there may be a couple Black Tree Design figures in the mix, too. 

Only 111 foot figures and 2 chariots to go. Actually, this my be my 'project' for 2022.

Ares in the house of war...

My gouache experiment left me a bit flat and unmotivated. In addition, the 'main' project on the painting desk (32 plastic hoplites) doesn't provide much inspiration either. So, I needed to complete something to regain my painting momentum. 

I don't know where the inspiration came from but I dug out some 28mm Trojan War figures I've been hoarding away forever. The Iliad has been a long term plan for me including representing the various gods and goddesses with larger figures. In fact, the old Ral Partha Titan has always struck me as appropriate for Ares, the god of war. And, there he was, with an old paint job on an unfinished base. Inspiration hit!

A little shot of mojo goes a long way. Now I've got 20 partially finished Trojan war figures on the painting desk awaiting shields and basing. And... they inspire me!

Oh, gouache... that was pretty bad...

So... I think I've learned all I need to know about using gouache paints for figure painting. I don't think so! 

The first issue is the thickness of the paints.  I knew that with a paste-like consistency they'd have to be thinned to avoid an impasto effect and to achieve any sort of flow at all. Thinning with water led to the paint beading up on the surface--something I've seen occasionally with acrylics when using gesso as a primer. But it was much, much worse with the gouache. So, I tried thinning the gouache with acrylic floor wax. (Pledge is my favorite.) That certainly took care of the beading and greatly improved the flow. But it also diluted the pigment density. Now, the high pigment density of gouache is, to my mind, the only real advantage it may have over other water soluble paints. Having to apply multiple coats of thick paint to achieve opaque coverage just isn't something I'd look forward to. STRIKE ONE!

it all comes out in the wash... er, gouache...

 A number of years ago I fished two Lifeguard trumpeters out of a $.25 box at a toy soldier show (manufacturer unknown). I painted the first one with craft acrylics, much as I've been painting figures since the '70s. Ten years later, the second one is going to be an experiment. 

Since I've grown tired of the variable quality and selection of the locally available craft paints, I decided to branch out and try some new materials and techniques. What I discovered was that some of the most highly pigmented paints are gouache paints--densely pigmented water colors available in either cakes or tubes. But... being water color paints they are easily reanimated and reworked simply by getting them wet--not like working with acrylics at all! After a few tests on 28mm figures I can not claim success but I think by learning the right techniques, practicing and experimenting, gouache may prove to have some real advantages. Particularly for large scale figures that won't undergo a lot of handling.

Stay tuned!

bringing order to chaos...

I've always been a collector of books. About 10 years ago we were moving for my wife's job. Her employer was paying the cost of the move and, of course, insisted on insuring our possessions. So, I was given the odious task of determining the replacement value of my 1100+ books. I started with a spreadsheet but being a web application developer (at that time) meant that I couldn't leave it at that. Eventually, this project grew to be a data driven collection management system which I then tweaked in order to track my gaming stuff. I call the game collection system Muster while the book version (though essentially the same code) is called Cache.

a tour of my hobby space...

Since I'm on a blogging roll I figured I'd give a tour of my hobby space. These types of posts seem to be perennially popular. (That, and I just spent most of the day straightening up and I want to show it off!) 

I'm a lucky guy to have such a space. I can easily spend all day down here. The room is on the lower level of the townhouse so I have easy access to the garage and the back yard. The only downside is that the laundry room is right off this space so it can be a bit wearisome to listen to the washer and dryer running on weekends. First-World problems, eh?

so... picking up where I left off...

 Welcome Back!

 While this blog has been moribund, I have not. My gaming activities have increased substantially over the four years since posting here. Well, not gaming, per se, but collecting and painting figures and accumulating rules and terrain. I had taken steps to engage the local gamers but COVID put a stop to that. After playing and running a few remote games I decided the remote activities didn't give me the visual, auditory or social experience I wanted. So, for now, it's back to collecting and painting.

 Many of my activities are documented at the Wargames Website. However, there are two that I am particularly proud of and want to post here.

My Age of Sail Project

My Palaeo Diet: Eat or Be Eaten Project

That's all for now. I'll post some more 'catch up with Jeff' posts in the near future.