Overhauling the paint cart (part 1)

First of all, sorry for the lack of posts. It is not like I have been idle.

A couple of weeks this summer were spend rebasing my trees and working on my forrest multibases. And there is also a fair amount of minis I painted for Marvel Crisis Protocol.

So why are there no new articles? Well I was having a good flow and did not take photos before our holidays last month. And right now I cannot take any to accompany an article.

The central heating in the house needed replacement and my hobby room serves as storage for everything in the cellar that had to be moved out of the way while the old one was removed (including cutting apart the oil tank) and the boiler room replastered in places and painted. Good news is things should be moving out of my hobby room later this week, but right now I cannot get near anything to take some photos.

So here is something small that I can show you pictures of. Almost ten years ago I build my own paint cart. Over the years it has performed a stalwart service as intended. The years are beginning to show with a few scratches and drops of paint here and there, as well as a general discolouration. These things will be addressed next spring when I will sand it off and give it a new coat of varnish (or paint it). The more urgent problem has become space though. Back then, there was so much empty space for paints, I could hardly believe I would ever run out. But this year it happened. I guess all the different periods combined with my addiction to have all required shades without having to mix them, led to me buying way too many paints over the years. Well not too many per se… just too many for the cart. 😚 All drawers were filled to the brim and in some cases I even had to put paints onto the dividers a to had them in their appropriate drawers. So a solution needed to be found.

For a short while I thought about building a new cart and repurposing this one. But I never really liked the idea to build something new, when the old was completely useable. And in the general wood shortage this summer I had problems finding boards of oak in my desired size. (Before someone asks… the markets in the United States and China paid above premium prices for timber last winter, so suppliers sold their raw timber there which led to high demand here in Gemany a couple of months later.)

As you can see in the picture above the biggest problem in the drawers are actually the dividers, which take up a substantial amount of space. All in all they only allowed for five rows of eleven paint pots in total per drawer and even in those rows space was not used effectively.

The solution that came to my minds was replacing the wood strips I used as deviders with laser cut MDF. I contacted Warbases (one of my two favourite manufacturers for laser cut MDF) and gave them my specifications for some custom work. I picked them up in person during our holidays in Scotland and fitted them after our return. The results were perfect and they fit into the drawers like a hand into the glove.

As a result each drawer now fits seven rows of ten paint pots (or twelve of the new acrylic washes and filters by Ammo by Mig). In other words each drawer can now hold (at least) fifteen more pots and I have extra space for another 90 pots in the cart. Just to bring the idea home. The picture above is the same drawer with the same mount of paint pots (plus one extra pot) and one can see how much space there is left. Let’s see how long this lasts! 😉

 

A happy new year

A year ago today I saw this picture (although it said 2020).

Back thenI thought it was pretty funny. Little did we know that some of these might not be that easy for some of us.

In this sense I hope that along you and your families made it through 2020 safe and sound. Wishing you all a good and healthy 2021! Take good care of yourselves!

 

Dear Facebook followers….

… I know there are some readers out there following this blog via Facebook by linking to my personal account (which is more or less my hobby account anyway). As some of you may have noticed, Facebook has recently had some problem due to the way they (ab)used their users data.

As a result of this many sites, like this blog, will no longer be allowed to share to personal accounts as of next wednesday. But they will be allowed to share to pages on Facebook, which is more or less a company or club version of a personal account.

As a result, I have created a page for our club on Facebook which can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/DHCWargamesClub/

So if yo would like to keep following this blog via Facebook, I would kindly ask you to go there and like the page.

I think this might also have a positive side effect. I have always tended to post just finished work here, to kind of keep this blog neat. Now I am contemplating using the Facebook page to add some work in progress pictures from time to time, or maybe some photos from games when I know I will not have the time to write a proper report anyway. So maybe this can also enhance the experience for some of you.

(Just to underline this… if you are following this blog via Facebook, this will probably be your final warning, as this should be the final post shared on my personal account!)

 

Getting started again

Well, one need not be a rocket scientist to see that this blog had ceased to be active in any way ages ago. Well what can I say the new job kept me extremely busy. I have worked longer hours in the past, but for some reason I could no longer find as much time, or even motivation, to spend as much time on my hobbies as I would have liked. And what little time I found… Well I rather spend that painting or playing than blogging. Some time last year I even asked myself, if I should even keep up blogging.

But before I made up my mind, I decided that I should first try to re-arrange my private time management. At last years German SAGA Grand Melee I talked to Andy Lyon about box many armies he and his wife had for SAGA. I was surprised by the numbers. He told me that he tried to paint a SAGA point worth of minis per week. For those of you not playing SAGA, that is between four and twelve men, either mounted or on foot. He also said that some weeks he did fine (usually either Hearthguards or Warriors in foot), others not so much (usually mounted Warriors or Levies). But on average it worked out for him.

So last winter I decided to adapt his system for my own use. My target would be either eight minis (either men or horses or a mix), a piece of terrain of substantial size like a building or a vehicle. In spring I also decided to take part in a motivational painting challenge run by a store where I play from time to time. For said challenge you have to paint a mini every two weeks, that may at most be primed at the beginning of said two week period. I usuall manage to achieve my own goal and as a result surpass the one for the challenge. But the combination of the two has kept me both motivated and focused. As a result I have managed to make better use of my hobby time, get more done and even have more time for the rest of my non-work life.

Now at ths point I have decided that I should have the time to blog and to revive this blog. But be warned… right now it will most likely be about as many pictures as before, but less text. I feel this might be necessary to keep it up. So the last thing to decide was if I should try to make a cut and start where I am now or try to recap on what yo did the last about two years. I decided to recap and as a result had to do a couple of photo sessions in recent weeks. So over the next two weeks or so I will try to post on a virtually daily basis to catch up. So expect a barrage of posts over the coming weeks. Please stay tuned! …

 

On the use of primers

The idea for this post actually came to me as an accident while airbrushing some MDF terrain (which will go online in the near future).

Something one reads a lot  from newcomers to the hobby is why to use primers and which colour to use.

The former question usually is simple to answer. The primer improves the adhesion of the paint to the model.

But which colour to use?

Well there are lots of colors these days. They come in virtually all colours. Usually these are the base colours of (historic and fictional) uniforms or vehicles. Their use is obvious… prime your model in this colour and you can skip the basic colour of the uniform or vehicles. So let us ignore all these new colours and concentrate on the classics… black and white (which also includes off-white / light grey).

Well for some the choice between the two depends on their style of painting. Some like to paint using a technique that is called “black-lining”. Essentially this technique means that each colour and / or piece of equipment is edged in black to improve the contrast between the elements of a model. Many people who paint this way love black primer. This way they just need to block in the colors and leave the edges alone. That way they do not need to paint the edges in black.

I personally do not like that painting technique and if you are the same (or prefer to paint those black lines by hand none the less) you will be free to choose. In my opinion your choice will be dictated by the colour your finished minis will have. A light coloured primer will lead to the colours that are applied on top to be more vibrant and bright. A dark primer will lead to the colours being more subdued and sinister. All in all I prefer my minis to look vibrant. Therefore I prime 90% of my minis in (off-)white. With some colours like yellow this is virtually essential to make sure they do not look dirty. In other cases it just makes the colours pop and look alive, even if they themselves are dark.

Prussian Landwehr casualties (front)

Prussian Landwehr casualties (back)

Black primer is something I only use for minis that will be predominantly black (or very dark blue or brown all over) anyway or those minis that I want to look sinister (minis where even the bright colours are meant to look bleak). In the first case it simply safes one a lot of work, in the second case, it makes the brain perceive the colours differently.

2te Preussische Leibhusaren

But does it really make such a difference? Is it just imagination?

Well the other day I was airbrushing some MDF terrain. amongst the pieces were two (actually more, but these were the ones I photographed) that will represent wood when done. Both had been primed*. One I had primed in off-white, since it will be part of buildings that are meant to re-present light coloured plaster. The other was primed black, since it will be part of a Bailey Bridge. (I do not want to paint the underside of the planks and neither do I want a light colour reflecting off the surface of my river. Out of pure laziness I primed both top and bottom the same.) I did spray two light coats of Vallejos Model Air “Burnt Umber” over them. Two light coats, since I wanted a shaded finish, that would make it easier to make it look like wood later on. Burnt Umber is a very dark brown, almost like chocolate with a high cocoa percentage. So what did they both look like?

Comparison between (off-)white and black primers

As you see, two light coats over the off-white primer gave me a result, that is slightly lighter than the brown itself. Two similar coats over the black gave me a result, where you will hardly notice the brown, if at all.

By the way, this also shows how one can use these primers to ones advantage while painting. If you have a paint with a low opacity, you can use a number of coats to change your colours and create shading on your minis. If you apply a number of coats over a dark colour your colour will become lighter with every coat (more so the lighter or brighter your colour). If you apply your colour over a light colour, it will become darker with ever coat.

Hope this gives some of you some insight.

 

 

[* It is always advisable to prime MDF before pairing it. MDF is essentially sawdust pressed into shape with glue. As such it will always “suck up” lots of paint in its natural state. Priming them means that a) they suck up your cheap primer instead of your expensive paints and b) you need less coats making your work faster and easier.]

 

Happy New Year and 2014 in Review

So, I guess everyone is in 2015 by now. In this sense, I hope all of you made the change to the New Year in stride. But most of all, I wish all of you and the people you love a healthy and prosperous 2015.

As has now become a custom for me… here is my look back at the last year. Every year WordPress.com creates a little report about the statistics of this blog itself. For those of you interested click here to see the complete report.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 95,000 times in 2014. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 4 days for that many people to see it.

The good thing about those numbers is that they are back up to 2012 levels, now that I had more time to concentrate on my hobbies again. So close actually, that there were only 98 more views in 2014 than in 2012!

But again, most amazing for me was you, the readers. Over the past few years I have accumulated a strong Napoleonic follower base. Since most of my painting this year concentrated on my Warzone minis, I am sure there were some times when there was hardly anything interesting. So I am really happy, that you all kept the faith. At the same time, I am really happy for the constant rise of new followers and your participation in the blog.

And I really want to say thank you for all your comments on the blog (both positive and critical)… those really, really mean a lot to me, so please keep it up!

But now on to the numbers, that WordPress cannot know. All in all I painted / build:

• 267 Miniatures (down 88 from 2013)
• 51 Vehicles and guns (up 47 from 2013)
• 8 Buildings and a large bridge (up 5 from 2013)
• About 5 meters of roads and 2 of hedges (nothing to compare it to)

That is still almost one item per day. The slight drop does not bother me too much, given that the number of vehicles (which take a lot more time) rose quite substantially.

And just like previous years, I would like to share some of my favourites with you once more:

 

British PIAT team [BA]

95th Rifles (front view)

Prussian Landwehr casualties (front)

Universal Carrier

British 6pdr. [WG]
“Those skirts are not going to help you here!”

Shermans lined up in bocage field

Napoleonic French crossing the large bridge

Corner ruin 2 (inside)

Mishima Meka Suit “Cherry-blossom”

Hedges

British Infantry group shot

Duchy of Warsaw 3rd Line Infantry, 1st Battalion

Grizzly

SS forward observers

Bauhaus close combat Vulkan suit

Bauhaus group shot

Trencher Imperial Banner

Valpurgius

Guardiani Oblati

Panzerwerfer battery firing

Venusian Marschall

Stuart Honey troop (front)

Golden Lions (2nd squad)

Michel Ney and ADCs

Looking back, what were my goals for last year?

• Painting my WWII Brits… done that… there are only a few odds and ends to do as well as the Churchills, Cromwells and Funnies, but I never planned to get those done in 2014 so I am fine with that!
• Painting at least two complete factions for Warzone… Painted one and some odds and ends for the others. Not perfect, but OK.
• Paint at least another army for SAGA (either Normans or Saxons)… completely failed that.
• Get those pesky Tau for Warhammer out of the painting queue… completely failed that. And I doubt I will even try in the future and rather sell them off.
• Paint some Napoleonics (preferably Russians)… While it ended up being more Frenchmen, Brits and some Poles… yeah done that.
• Terrain… Did some, but not as much as I wanted. But a lot has been prepared, so that should make things easier this year.

So what are the plans for this year:

• Painting some early war World War II (Poles, Germans, maybe some Russians, too)
• Painting at least two complete factions for Warzone (and keeping Bauhaus up to date)
• Painting some late war World War II Germans
• Paint some Napoleonics
• Terrain

Lets see how it goes this time!

But I want to leave you with a few game shots from last year:

French Artillery firing at the Prussian lines

Opposing lines crash

The plains of Russia

JS-2 in the fields

Panzergrenadiere debussing

Panther lying in ambush

US Infantry in the open pinned by mortar fire

Venusian Ranger deployment zone

PaK 40

Brotherhood forces emerging from the forrest

Praetorian Stalkers attacking the Vorreiter

Crisis 2014 – A bridge too far for this Sherman

Crisis 2014 – Panzer in defensive positions

Etoiles Mortants attacking Necromutants

 

Birthday / Milestone giveaway

So it is time for another giveaway on this blog.

So what are we celebrating? Well, a number things actually. For one this blog turned three in April. “Uh… what… April, you say! Why only now?” Because I wanted to wait for a number of other things to happen. One is that this blog reached 125 followers (actually this figure was actually breached in April, too). Some may remember, that we were higher already, but this is before I severed the connection via Facebook, which contained a number of people, who are not interested in Wargaming and therefore just muddied things up. So being back to that level was a huge milestone for me! Third we breached 250.000 hits, Oddly enough, it seems that Fran aka. the Angry Lurker was the visitor that pushed us over a milestone once more (this has happened twice in the past). Fourth, we breached 2000 comments earlier this month. Fifth… this is actually the 250th post! Oh and we have our first follower via Twitter… Fran again ;-)! All in all I feel this warrants another giveaway!

So what is up for grabs?

Well last year, I gave away some books on historical topics. I was thinking about doing the same once more, but honestly, all books went overseas last year and the shipping on them nearly killed me! Given my financial situation I decided  to go back to basics this year and offer you some painted miniatures and these are (in order of them being drawn):

1. Lord Uxbridge from Perry Miniatures
2. Edward I, King of England from eBob Miniatures
3. Napoleon (on foot) by Perry Miniatures

Giveaway miniatures

All of these come from my own stocks and were not donated. The minis will be painted over the next few weeks, but it might take until after the draw that they are actually finished. Depending on request I will either change the basing on these minis or send them un-based. To give you and idea of what the finial minis will look like… here is a photo of the Uxbridge mini I painted for myself two years ago:

Lord Uxbridge and ADC´s

Should you feel that you are not interested in any of these minis… well you can always have something else painted by me. Essentially send me a substitute (one 28mm mini or four 20mm or six 15mm minis or even a single 20mm or 15mm vehicle are fine, but talk to me… depending on the topic this can be expanded), tell me how you would like it painted and it will be done!

Now what do you have to do to get into the draw?

1. Comment on this post and if you prefer one of the above miniatures, mention it. If it is still available at the time your name gets drawn, it is yours.
2. Be a subscriber to this blog. There are essentially four ways to do this. (i) If you have a WordPress account you can follow this blogs, via WordPress. (ii) You can subscribe via eMail (third option from the top on the right). (iii) Or you can follow via Twitter (second option from the top on the right). (iv) The fourth option is to have this blog on your blogroll on your own blog (I know there are people who follow blogs that way). While you can follow this blog via RSS feed, there is unfortunately no way for me to know, so that is excluded. You need to be a subscriber at the time of the draw obviously, but I would be happy if you remained one after it, too!
3. You do not need to post about this give-away on your blog. But if you do with a link back to this post, you get a second ticket in the draw (please mention it in the comments here, as that makes it easier to check).

And this is it. The draw will be held on the 13th of this July 0800h CET, so make sure you toss your hat in the ring by that time! Good luck!

 

Tweetings from the future and camera news

So first things first. As you may or may not know, there are currently two ways to follow this blog. If you are a WordPress user, you can just follow via WordPress. If not, there currently is only the option to follow via eMail or RSS (or some outside program). I decided to give you another option. If you have a Twitter account you can now also follow this blog on Twitter at: @DHCWargamesBlog . Hope this proves a nice option for some of you!

In other news. Some of you will have heads me complaining about the picture quality lately. For some time now I have been using a Canon Eos 40D to take photos. On the first day of our recent holiday to the UK it suddenly started acting up. I got an error message, that the contacts between the lens and camera were dirty and had to be cleaned up. Cleaning did not help, which was quite annoying, since the camera refused to take a photo. A quick search on the internet showed, that this could either be a damaged shutter in the lens or a ghost in the machine in the camera (believe it or not, this can happen with the 40D after a number of years). Since it only happened with the wide angle lens and not the tele, we put it down to a problem with the lens. Since the lens would still work unless at maximum wide angle, we chose to just sit it out. Until the range where it worked got ever smaller and it eventually stopped working completely.
My parents were kind enough to send us an older lens to Scotland via courier. To this day, I can still not believe the driver actually found us there! (Imagine a village 1 1/2 hours from the next supermarket, add a 20 minute drive via a single track road and at the end of said road a five minute walk through woods to an unmarked blockhouse.) So for roughly a week we had a working lens again. Until the photos started to become unfocused or over- and underexposed. Which all indicated that it was not the lens, but the camera after all. After all… How big are the chances for two lenses breaking at about the same time? At this time, I would have loved to shoot the whole bleeping camera!

Well it seems this can actually happen (the two lenses breaking, not the shooting that is!). My better half has had her eye on a Canon Eos 70D for a long time and when one of the German department stores had a great online offer earlier this month she ordered one. Last week it finally arrived in store and she picked it up. We put the first lens on the camera, only to find that it gave the same error. At this point I wanted to try out the second lens and when I removed it from the 40D a plastic ring dropped before my feet. This usually prevents light from going places in the lens where it should not. So essentially both lenses seem to be broken after all.

Either way, I now have access to a working camera (two actually) again and pictures should be much better again in the future! Actually the photos and video of the two Meka suits earlier this week were taken with the 70D already and I hope the difference shows!

 

2013 in review

Since it has now become a custom for me…  here is my look back at the last year. Lets start with the official part and see what WordPress.com was kind enough to create: Click here to see the complete report.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 85,000 times in 2013. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 4 days for that many people to see it.

Those numbers are a bits of a mixed bag here. In total this meant a fall of about 11K visitors in 2013 compared to 2012. Which was no big surprise actually. I posted less than I did the year before, which I think is quiet natural when you spend between 50 and 60 hours a week at work plus at least 10 hours commuting. But the numbers also had a positive note. The most visits on a single day was November 3rd and that virtually annihilated the previous best (4th of July 2012). Plus November narrowly missed being the best month for this blog.

Again the most important thing for me was thou the readers! The number of followers saw a constant rise once again and for me this is a sign, that some of you find something interesting in my ramblings. Same goes for the constant rise in comments. It always amazes me, how many take an interest (especially since I have had times when I did not have the time to browse other blogs and comment so much). Thank you all a lot for this… you can not imagine how much this means to me!!!

But there are also some numbers that WordPress cannot know about, that I would like to share with you and that is what I did this past year. In total I build 10 river boards (yet unpublished on this blog), 4 buildings, painted 4 guns and 355 minis. All in 25/28mm. So on average I painted a little less than one mini a day and only 22 less than 2012. Given how much time I did spend at work and on the roads, how I concentrated on Sami from November on and that a lot of these were Napoleonic minis (real time drains), I was quiet surprised it ended up this way.

And just like last year, I would like to share some of my favourites with you once more:

Seven point Byzantine SAGA Warband

Westpreussisches Grenadierbattalion (top view)

French Colonel (Victrix)

Östereichische Jäger

Tau Firewarrior Shas’ui (Sergeants)

Prussian mounted infantry officer

Brandenburg Infanterie Regiment (Command base)

Tau Stealth Suit Team

Leibgrenadierbattalion (top view)

Generic French regiment
[three battalion shot]

Oberst Katzeler

SS Eichenlaub (front)

5th Hussars officers

Major von Hiller

What else did 2013 bring? Well as the kind reader of this blog will know. Sami joined our lives in October. And although he has given me some headaches (like the day he decided to swallow a mini) he has on aggregate been a huge enrichment to our lives.

In other news, I have also been made redundant at the end of the year. I have not found anything new yet. I realize, that in my field (I work as a corporate counsel… I guess now the number of followers will go down ;-)) I will never do with short working hours, but right now I am looking for something closer to home to face less of a commute. The other option we are looking into is a complete change of scenery. So I am also contemplating a move to the UK. So if any of you know a company which is looking for someone who can speak German and English, has a degree in German law and experience in international law… let me know!

So back to brighter topics… what is planned for the rest of 2014? Well I am planning to finish some projects this year. For one I want to paint my WWII Brits, do at least two complete factions for Warzone, paint at least another army for SAGA (either Normans or Saxons), get those pesky Tau for Warhammer out of the painting queue, plus paint some Napoleonics (preferably Russians). But the most important thing will be terrain. I feel that over the past three years, I have done far too little terrain and I want to catch up there. So a lot of time this year and especially during the summer, will be dedicated to terrain building. Now that I see it written out… that will be one nut to crack! Lets see how I will do! I hope you will all follow the progress!

 

Happy New Year

Well just one week on from Christmas and the time has come to say goodbye to 2013. After a two year hiatus we finally managed to get ourselves to London again to enjoy some proper fireworks. So while we are sitting on Westminster Bridge, watching the colours change on the London Eye, the time has come to wish you a Happy New Year 2014 (and I know some of you already are in 2014). May it be a healthy, prosperous and happy one for you all!!!

Looking forward to many shared experiences with you all!