And the winners are….

Time to roll some dice and see who won in The Miniatures Man 50K Giveaway. 

As this blog reached 100 followers, actually 110, a total of five winners get a price of their choice.

Winners:

1 – Karitas – The Gretchin Pack

2 – Anibal Invictus- The WWII Pack

3 – One a day tech – The Chainmail Monster Pack

4 – Brownk29 – The Rackham Wolven Pack

5 – Sean – You can choose between The 40K Deff Kopta Pack and The Chainmail Heroes Pack.

Congratulations!

Contact me within a week, at miniaturesman(at)gmail.com with name and adress, and I’ll send you your price.

28mm Western Outlaws from Black Scorpion

Five Outlaws from the Black Scorpion’s Tombstone range. Resin figures, around 32mm scale.

I bought the rule-set Dead Man’s Hand from Great Escape Games the other day, and it looks as if we will soon have enough figures for a shoot-out. I’m really looking forward to trying the rules out.

I also looked at the movie Open Range yesterday, to get in the mood. Good film, excellent shoot-out.

Paints used: (Vallejo unless noted)

Trousers – 964 Field Blue, washed with Citadel Azurmen Blue and drybrushed with Citadel Ice Blue and very lightly with 820 Off White.

The rest of the figure was painted with the colours mentioned below, and then washed with Army Painter Strong Tone wash.

Skin – 955 Flat Flesh, washed and layered with 955.

Lower Lips – Citadel Dwarf Flesh

Moustache and hair – Coat d’arms 235 Horse Tone Brown

Hats – 975 Beige Brown

Bands – 984 Flat Brown or 940 Saddle Brown

Coats – 976 Buff, washed and a layer of 976.

Shirts – 821 German Camo Beige, 879 Green Brown, 886 Green Grey or 870 Medium Sea Grey

Boots and belts – P3 Bootstrap Leather

Masks and sack – Coat d’arms 240 Unbleached Wool

Scarf – Citadel Scab Red

Guns – 865 Oily Steel washed with P3 Armor Wash

Gun-stocks – 984 Flat Brown and 981 Orange brown as graining (first time I tried this, and it worked reasonably well. I have to get more practice to get it to look right)

Don’t forget The Miniatures Man 50K Giveaway ending tomorrow! 

French trucks and a van from Frontline

Working hard on removing the WWII-vehicle plastics/tin/resin mountain. I have around 20 British vehicles built and waiting for paints to arrive, and while waiting I assembled some Frontline 20mm resin vehicles, two civilian ones - C3 Lorry With Canvas Tilt and C4 Delivery Van – and two Polish (and they were recommended as French when I bought them a couple of years ago) – P10 Polski Fiat 508 Light Pick-Up Truck.

I need French trucks for future CoC or IABSM scenarios, so French they are…

The trucks and pick-ups were painted with Vallejo 975 Military Green and dry brushed with Vallejo 978 Dark Yellow. Tyres black. Decals from Aleran Miniatures France -40 series, French Transport.

They got a very light dusting of MIG PO39 Industrial City Dirt pigments.

The van was painted Citadel Foundation Necron Abyss and dry brushed with Vallejo 965 Prussian Blue. The signs are some posters I found on the web, and printed on a colour printer. It’s a liquor, of course…

Don’t forget The Miniatures Man 50K Giveaway! We have reached more than 100 followers, so the stretch-goal is unlocked.

Welcome

- One A Day Tech with a brand new tech-blog with the same name.

- DeanM with WAB Corner on historical wargaming.

- Karitas with Excommunicate Traitoris – a wargaming and modelling blog. Lots of 40K and fantastic painting. Well worth a visit.

- Will Mays with Will’s Ramblings about miniature wargaming and photography. A very nice site.

- Lord Siwok with blog Brains and Guts! -you guessed it – zombies!

If any of you do have blogs I’ve missed, then put a link in the comments below and I’ll link to them.

28mm Dwarf Fighter from Otherworld

This is DAD1 Male Dwarf Fighter from Otherworld.

Paints used (Vallejo unless noted)

Metal – Gun Metal with P3 Armor Wash

Backpack – P3 Bootstrap Leather

Pouch – 874 Tan Earth

Belt – 940 Saddle Brown

Wood – 843 Cork Brown

Beard – Coat d’arms 235 Horse Tone Brown

Handles – 876 Brown Sand

Everything except metal got a wash of Citadel Devlan Mud.

Not one of my best…

He’s a bit small, compared to some of my other dwarves.

Don’t forget The Miniatures Man 50K Giveaway! We have reached more than 100 followers, so the stretch-goal is unlocked.

Welcome

- Tsold2100

- Paul of the Mancave with blogs Yours in a white Wine Sauce (Victorian SF), The Man Cave (Blood Bowl, Dark Ages, Weird WW2, pulp etc), Ogre Recognition Manual 2^nd Edition (About the game Ogre) and Merry Mayhem News (Bloodbowl)

- Rodger with Rebel Barracks (different periods, different scales, very nice), and Harper’s Weekly (ACW)

- Simon Quinton with Brummie’s Wargaming Blog (miniatures, pulp, fantasy, lots of stuff. Interesting)

- Dannoc with Dannoc’s wargaming blog (WWII, pulp, and more goodies)

- Styx with Dice of Legends (historical games)

If any of you do have blogs I’ve missed, then put a link in the comments below and I’ll link to them.

Winter buildings in 20mm

Yesterday Daniel, Laffe and I met for a day of winter warfare, or rather preparing for one of Daniels huge games, scheduled of April or so. Somewhere in the borderlands between Germany and France, US vs German troops.

What is needed is a lot of houses and a railway, and snow.

We are well supplied with ordinary houses, but needed some winter-ish.

Daniel had bought a lot of H0 building on e-bay. We set up a workshop in my basement and started repainting and weathering the houses. We used drybrushing, washes and pigments to remove the plastic feeling.

Production in full swing

What was originally a building under construction was demolished to get a newly bombed house

Daniel mixed a secret snow-receipt (plaster, at least two different snow-effect powders, white paint and wood-glue – we essentially used what we had and mixed it. We will never be able to reproduce this…)

Sloshed it on roofs and ground.

The result of a days’ not very hard work: 15 buildings ready for war. (actually, two of them need some weathering as we didn’t have time for them. That will be done by me tomorrow.

Don’t forget the Miniatures Man 50K give-away if you haven’t joined already! We are now up to 97 followers. Three to go for the 100-followers stretch goal.

Welcome

- Koen De Smedt, gaming pal, and with a somewhat infrequent blog named Ramblings of an insane mind…. that should be him, all right J

- Wargame News and Terrain, a blog I’m already following. Nice.

- russ g, I haven’t found out if you have blogs or not.

- Dartfrog with the blog Darfrog’s adventures in 6mm and such

- Sonsoftaurus, with Sons of Taurus

- Samuli Salovaara with the blog Engineered Gaming. He’s got the first box of Winter War stuff, I’m envious…he’s even had time to paint a batch – nice!

- Donogh with blogs Revelation Heights, Giyhonan Chronicles and Land War in Asia - nice.

- Sofie Vanderersmissen with Sofie’s Paint Blog and Dark Sofie’s World

- David Bromley – with (I think) Darth Brom’s Mini Minions.

- Dave Docherty with Blog-Con, A Town Named Serenity about Old West and where I’m already a follower and One Man and His Brushes.

- Mario Morrhaye with Making Miniatures with Mario.

Also welcome to Chema Sanchez, as you have no profile shots your pics disappear to the back-end of the follower queue, and I might have missed you earlier. Haven’t found any blog of yours.

If any of you do have blogs I’ve missed, then put a link in the comments below and I’ll link to them.

The Miniatures Man 50K Giveaway

So, this blog has passed 50 000 hits surprisingly enough. I guess it is time for a give-away.

I’ve been down in the mines under the tin- and plastics-mountain and excavated some stuff that could possibly be of interest.

So, what gives?

Four winners will receive a pack from below. All miniatures come as you see them, probably not in their original packaging and probably not with bases attached.

1. The 40K Gretchin Pack

Seven Gretchin from Games Workshop and their 40K range. Mechanics and ammo-bearers. Long since out of print. One with a broken foot.

2. 40K Deff Kopta Pack

One old School Deff Kopta, the Orky attack helicopter.

3. The Rackham Wolfen Pack

Wolfen with Crossbow, Wolfen Hunter and Onyx the Prowler

4. The Chainmail Monster Pack

Four figures from WotC:s 28mm fantasy Chainmail game - a gnoll fighter, orc skeleton, goblin crossbowman and troglodyte zombie + a Reaper Lupine Rager as a bonus.

5. The Chainmail Heroes Pack

A female paladin, a wizard, a gnome infiltrator and a marine.

6. The WWII Pack

A box of Caesars lovely Panzer Grenadiers in camo smocks.

Finally, the rules:

1. You must be a public follower of this blog, old or new. Gives you one chance in the draw.

2. You must comment below so I know you’re interested. List what you’re interested in or get a random pick if you’re one of the winners.

3. Write a line or two about this giveaway on your own blog, with a link to this post, for an extra chance to win.

4. If you’ve linked from your blog, then tell me (and the world) so, and give us a link to that post in your comment.

5. You have until Sunday January 26, noon GMT, to apply. Then I will randomly (using dice of course!) select the winners and post about them on my blog within a day or two.

6. You will have to come back to me in a reasonable time to be eligible; if not then someone else will get the stuff.

7. Stretch goal! If I reach 100 followers before this ends, I will unlock another winner, so a total of five packs will be sent to some lucky winners.

8. If your prize is lost or damaged in the mail, then it’s a shame. Better luck next time.

This is what some of the figures can look like when assembled and painted:

Goblin crossbow man, gnoll fighter and orc skeleton from the Chainmail Monster Pack

Female paladin, gnome infiltrator and human marine from the Chainmail Heroes Pack

Welcome new follower Baconfat with Baconfat Log blog – piles of lead, cyanoacrylate and toxic paint. Lots of interesting wargames going on there.

Exit 2013 and plans for 2014

2013 has ended and a new year begun.

What happened and what’s in store for the New Year?

Blog

Hits: nearly 55 000 total

Posts: total 263, 89 during 2013

Followers: 85

I’ll have a give-away soon, celebrating 50K hits and some. I’ve found some stuff that should be of interest.

My goal for 2013 was to have at least 50 new posts – success! My goal for 2014 is about the same.

Crowd funding

2013 was the year of Kickstarters for me.

I received the first half of the Otherworld Indiegogo stuff during the autumn, and hope to see the rest soon. Lovely fantasy figures, but very late delivery.

I backed several Kickstarters during the year; Reaper Bones II (28mm fantasy), Winter War (28mm WWII), Shadows of Brimstone (28mm Horror Wild West), Battle Systems (28mm cardboard SF-terrain) and Call of Catthulhu (rules). 2014 will hopefully see a lot of boxes arriving, and the tin- and plastics mountain will grow enormously...

I will go very easy on Kickstarters this year. It’s not as if I really need more stuff... but Baker Company (of Winter War) will Kickstart their 28mm Balkans WWII-figures this spring. I might be sucked into that, if the Winter War figures turn out to be great.

20mm WWII - LRDG

My LRDG-goal of painting a bomber, two LRDG-vehicles, Italian vehicles and some terrain was a success, as I did a bit more than that. I also wanted to see a game played at a convention, and we did that too.

This year will see maybe a stray plane and vehicle bought for the game (the Italian Sahariana jeep is tempting), and I hope to do some more LRDG-games on conventions and at home.

20mm WWII – France 1940

My goal was to paint British vehicles, guns and soldiers, and I painted a grand total of five soldiers... That was a failure. I did build and paint some German and French vehicles though, so the year turned out to be OK but not great.

I have collected a nice reference library on WWII Britain and France, and that will come in handy during this year.

The painting table is full of British armour waiting for proper paints

The goal for 2014 is to paint all the British vehicles and guns, and a lot of them stand ready. I’m just waiting for delivery of some paints.

I also intend to build and paint the few plastic models of French and German AFVs I still got.

I got a delivery of some British and French armour that should come soon, but other than that I won’t buy anything before all armour is build and painted.

28mm WWII

Winter War figures, guns and vehicles from Baker Company will arrive during spring, and I will share the loot from the Winter War Kickstarter with Laffe and Thomas.

My goal for 2014 is to paint at least some of that.

28mm Wild West

This was the project that came out of the blue and hit me square on. It just happened, OK? I bought some figures and some terrain, and it’s growing.

My goal for 2014 is to get myself a decent set of skirmish rules and build and paint enough so that I can get at least one game in.

I will probably buy more houses from 4Ground, but with all the figures from Shadows of Brimstone that are bound to show up this summer/autumn, I won’t buy more than a stray figure or two.

28mm Fantasy and SF

My goal was to paint some fantasy figures and also some Infinity. Did do fantasy, but not a single Infinity figure.

Will paint more figures this year, but won’t buy more than maybe a stray figure or two.

Terrain

I did paint the Otherworld terrain pieces that I did get, and also some assorted desert terrain-pieces.

Nothing of the WWG paper terrain was built, though, and none of the buildings I had lying about.

All in all, a fail.

2014 will see me painting more 28mm SF/fantasy scenery elements and also some terrain-pieces for France 1940. 28mm terrain for the Winter War is a new unknown, we’ll see what happens there.

Trips

2013 was a good year, with the trip to Normandy. Fantastic! Gave me a taste for battle-field trips. I will probably not do another this year, but I will try to do a couple of interesting local museums.

The tin- and plastics mountain

It has actually shrunk during 2013! I got half of the Otherworld figures and also some purchases during 2013, but I have given away some WWII models I knew I wasn’t going to build. Also, one of my kids cousins plays 40K orks and he got most of my unbuilt boyz, ‘ard boys and storm boyz for a birthday present. Great to see all those figures come to use and be played with.

Good seeing the mountain shrink, as I certainly won’t see that during this year...

All in all, a rather decent year miniatures wise. 2014 will hopefully be as good or better.