Warsaw Pact redux

Good news Milord! It's time to celebrate! We should have a costume party. Oh I love the dresses, the laughter, and the ladies... And what are those strange noisy machines?

Good news indeed. A couple of days ago, I won an auction on Ebay. I received it today and tadaa! No need for me to paint a Warsaw Pact army for Cold War Commander. I made a calculation, and there should be around 5,000 points there, with T-55, T-72, some BMP and BTR, some infantry and a HIND, yes, I'm happy. Ok, it's not a first class paintjob, but it'll do. The helicopters' blades were damged, but they're now fixed, and I also have a few spare tanks to use as scenics/objectives markers. Will the Red tide engulf Europe?

J'ai de quoi etre content en effet, car il y a peu j'ai remporte une enchere sur ebay, comprenant de quoi faire 5000 points de troupes du pacte de Varsovie. C'est pas beau la vie? Pas besoin de les peindre, et j'ai du choix, parmi les T-55 et T-72, quelques BMP et BTR, et surtout un HIND. Yes, j'adore cet helico. A cote de ca, quelques vehicules qui me serviront de marqueurs d'objectifs.

A Thirty Years War Paintlog#3

Ermm... Sorry sir, but I don't really see what you're painting...

Of course Georges. It's the bloody first layer. And for your information, it's a sock.

Good and productive night: I managed to paint all the base colours. I should start then with some washes and the first highlights.

Bonne soiree bien productive. J'ai pu terminer de passer toutes les bases. Je devrais donc rapidement passer aux lavis et eclaircissements.

A Thirty Years War Paintlog#2

I feel so happy for them. At least they'll have nice little hats and nice little pants. They might even be clean...

Not so much to show today, sadly, simply because yesterday I was at the club, playing a game of Blitzkireg Commander. Yes you'll have a batrep, be nice. So, in the meantime, I layered parts of the base colours: Calthan Brown, Khemri Brown and Tallarn Flesh. Yes I like GW Foundation paints, and F**** for their change in names.

Pas grand progres a vous montrer aujourd'hui, simplement parce qu'hier j'etais au club pour une partie de Blitzkrieg Commander. Vous aurez un CR si vous etes gentils. DOnc, je n'ai fait simplement qu passer quelques couleurs de base, et pis c'est tout.

Another celebration and a give away

And then Squirry the Squirrel went Ni, Ni, Ni and they went home for tea...

Now, how much for a good hard... Party!

 Thanks to Alex Mayer (blog?), I now have reached the 100 followers milestone, a couple of days after Tamsin, but not that fast. Congratulations and celebrations are in order I suppose. But, to thank you all, I 'll keep to the newly established tradition of a prize draw. 

The first give away will be Anthony Beevor's Stalingrad:

And the second one will also be from AB, Berlin:

Both are excellent books, very well written. So, if you're interested, just say it in the comments. I'll leave this draw pending for one week, until April, 5th. Good luck everyone.

Merci a Alex Meyer qui m'a permis d'atteindre les 100 fideles lecteurs. Merci a vous tous. Et pour feter cela, je cede a la tradition nouvellement etablie de la loterie. En effet, je mets en jeu ces deux livres d'Anthony Beevor. Si vous etes interesses, dites le dans en commentaire, et le 5 avril, je ferai un tirage au sort. Il y aura donc deux gagnants qui recevront leur livre gratuitement. Bonne chance a tous.

Pikey Pikey, a Thirty Years War Paintlog#1

This is a clever idea, my dear. Beware your foot doesn't fall off.

Just because I couldn't resist them, while watching my lead hill, I've started my French Thirty Years War army. There, I said it. I'll have to paint quite a lot of troups so I've decided to base them all first, and then we'll see what happens. The minis are from Old Glory, and the overall look is okay. They're quite tall, and you have to drill the hands, for you can't beat their price. I bought them from the USA with an equivalent of 20% less than Essex, postage included. They were delivered one week after the order.

Bon, j'ai fini par craquer, et j'ai commence mon armee francaise guerre de Trente Ans. Comme j'ai pas mal de troupes a peindre, je vais me la jouer industriel, et j'ai tout socle d'abord, on verra bien apres. Les figs sont des Old Glory, et le rapport qualite/prix est absolument imbattable. Je vais vous tenir au courant de la suite de la peinture. Tata.

Camouflage is an art

-Aha! Herr Sebastosfig, ve meet again. You are klearly a master of tisguize, but you can't beat me, I Prince Ludwig the Indestreuktible. Do you remember the game against Tamsin, the one you were klearly vinning?

-Don't tell me you were...?

-Yes! I was the die you were kissing languorously!

-But didn't we...

-"six"

                                                                     -Oh my god...

 There, I just couldn't resist the pun. I finished four more AMX10P, and they're now roaming across the country. And if you don't believe me, I took a picture with the nine of them. In Cold War Commander, they each represent 60 points. So I've now done 540 points, out of 5000 to get a really good game.

Hop. Pour ceux qui connaissent et apprecient Blackadder, vous devriez saisir le sel de mon introduction. J'adore cet episode. Bref, revenons a nos moutons Lord Melchett, et voici donc la totalite de mon unite d'AMX 10P. Cela represente 540 points a Cold War Commander, et il en faut environ 5000 pour avoir une belle partie. Allez, au boulot.

Of Rest and Romans

You've had three looonnnggg days to rest, and you've received reinforcements. Now Kill! Kill! Kill! And may you drink wine in their skulls tonight! Oh, and don't forget the rumpy bumpy afterwards.

Okayyyy. Sorry not to have you kept updated on my slow progress this week-end, but as you might suspect, I enjoyed the sun with the mini-miss. I still managed to finish the legionaries, though I think I rushed them a bit. Needless to say I really want to finish this army to paint my French.

Avec tout ce beau temps, il est evident que la peinture n'avancait pas reellement. La petite reclamant tout le temps d'etre dehors, les pinceaux se reposaient. Bref, j'ai quand meme termine ces Romains, meme si je sens que je les ai un poil rates. Faut dire que j'aimerais vraiment en finir avec cette armee pour vraiment faire mes projets.

In the FOG- a spectator view about FOG napoleonic

You know Baldrick, as a great philosopher said, Gordon to be more precise, there must be some great rules hidden beneath this... Baldrick, stop chasing that rat, I'm not that hungry!

Ok, instead of painting, I went to the club, partly to chat and drink, yes, my pub night is on Thursday, not Friday, sorry people, and also partly to watch a game of the newly published Osprey rules system: FOG Napoleonic. Erm, what can I say... I've been extremey impressed... by the... Erm... Ok, to be honest, and I'll quote Gordon again, "these rules have set a new standard for badly written rules" Enough said I suppose. It might be good, but honestly, I was there for about 2h30 and all they achieved was three turns, including one assault. Yes, I'm impressed. Yes, they were discovering the rules, but they had already read them and have some previous FOG experience, so they should have been in a rather known gaming area, shouldn't they?  From the little I could see, it seems to be "PIP-based but we're not saying it is PIP based", and the tests seem to be easier to pass. Cavalry go around squares and arty can evade. That's all I could remember...

Ottomans Vs Prussians...

white squares= command points

apparently, things went wrong for the Ottomans  
apparemment, tout ne s'est pas bien passe pour les Ottomans

Au lieu de peindre, hier soir, je suis passe au club, a la fois pour discuter et boire un verre, car pour moi les soirees pub ont lieu le jeudi et non le vendredi, et egalement pour voir une partie test de FOG- Napo, qui vient tout juste de sortir. Alors, certes les joueurs venaient de recevoir la regle, mais ils ont eu le temps de la lire, et ont une certaine experience a FOG. Donc a priori, ca devrait tourner... Pour etre honnete, au bout de 2h30, ils avaient joue a peu pres 2-3 tours, et fait une phase d'assaut... Gordon considere que la regle vient d'etablir le nouveau standard en matiere de mauvaise redaction, c'est dire... De ce que j'ai pu en voir, il y a un faux aspect points de commandement, les tests semblent plus faciles a realiser, et la cavalerie va ignorer et tourner autour des carres d'infanterie. A part ca...

Drinks on me!

Hurray! Long live King... Who is he? A teacher? Erm Hurray!, anyway... Bloody annoying

There. I had an interview this morning, well not really an interview, more something like "this is how we work. Do you want to give lessons? Erm, yes? Ok, sign here" So, I now have a job, but I'll be payed only if there children who need me... Come on little fellas, come to teacher Seb. Still, better than nothing, I'll earn a bit of cash, and i can still prouve I'm working, in case I want to apply to another job.

Et hop. Voila, mon entretien s'est bien passe et j'ai donc enfin du boulot, enfin... quand des parents d'eleves estimeront qu'ils ont besoin de moi. Allez, allez les petits, faites confiance au prof! Ca me fera youjours un peu de sous en attendnat de trouver un autre boulot.

A quickie, before being empaled

Where are my troups you little turd! Hurry up or I'll teach you how to fly with an armour!

Erm... Errr. I guess I'll have to find a way to soften the landing, I guess. Indeed no finished unit today, sorry, but the legionaries are now on their bases and sanded. It shouldn't be long now. And on the other hand, I've prepped and based some French tanks. Oh, and I've got, finally, an interview for a job tomorrow morning. It's nothing major, mind you, but enough to get some extra cash and add another line in my CV... Ok, where did I put the Band-Aid...

Comme vous l'auerz constate, je commence a m'angliciser a fond... En fait, j'ai toujours ete fan de Blackadder, on ne se refait pas. Bref, tout ca pour ca me direz-vous, car je n'ai pas de photos d'unites a vous montrer. Helas, il me manque 2-3 choses encore a faire sur les Romains. J'ai toutefois pepare et base des chars francais. Et puis, j'ai une interview pour un boulot demain matin. Bon, trois fois rien, juste pour donner des cours, mais ca fait mieux que rien sur mon CV, et ca rapporte un peu de sous.

off with me head?

Oh look, shiny metal toys! They look so pretty. I want more! Now!And Finish them! Tchop tchop!



Well, apart from looking for jobs, I'm still painting, and yes my daughter feels better, already... But for how long. So the Romans are nearing completion: they're now waiting for their decals, the varnishing and the final touch-ups. And then, onto a new French unit.



Bon, ma fille va mieux, et je suis a fond dans ma recherche de boulot. Mais je continue toujours a peindre, et les legionnaires sont pratiquement termines. il ne reste plus que les decals, le vernis et les finitions, et hop, je me retourne vers mes Francais.

Itsie teeny weenie updatie

Right. It's been a couple of days without any updates on the blog. Well, it wasn't my fault, for two reasons: First I've been busy sending CV and applications forms, and second, my daughter is sick.. again, though it doesn't seem to be alarming... So, as you can understand, I couldn't really paint and reduce my lead hill. But I really hope to get things going again asap. But, because a post without a pic is not really a post, here is what I could manage on the legionaries: the base colours for the tunics, wood, skin and metal, plus a wash.

Sick eh? It reminds me one day when I woke up early at noon, I wasn't feeling very well. I had to much to drink, I suppose, it couldn't have been the sausages, no, not the sausages... Hmm, so you're daughter must be naughty... Saucy!

Salut a tous. desole pour ce petit manque de mise a jour, mais a cela deux raisons: tout d'abord j'ai passe pas mal de temps a faire des CV et les envoyer, puis ma fille est a nouveau malade... Rien de grave, juste ennuyeux. Du coup je n'ai pas vraiment peint, mais comme pour moi un post sans image n'est pas un vrai post, voila ce que j'ai pu faire sur les legionnaires. C'est peu je le reconnais, mais ca devrait avancer rapidement.

Happy 20,000

I just wanted to thank you all for this: When I looked at my stats this morning, I saw I just reached the 20,000 hits milestone. I' m impressed, that was fater than I expected. So thank you again, your visits keep me motivated, especially because I'm still desperately trying to find a job...

Merci a vous tous de passer aussi regulierement sur mon blog. 20000 pages vues depuis sa creation, ca peut paraitre peu, mais la frequentation a augmente de maniere tres significative. Merci encore, car ca me permet de rester motive, dans ces temps de disette car je suis toujours en recherche de boulot, helas personne ne semble vouloir de moi, pas meme les agences de cours a domicile, c'est dire.

Somewhere near Tubingen...

Were you a hitchhiker in the forest, you could have heard some heavy noise... growing louder and nearer... Good lord, you're right in the middle of an exercice from the French army! Their vehicles have just received their NATO camo pattern and now try to know if it's effective... Hmm, maybe there are some French grunts somewhere...

So, I've finished my first 6mm toys, and I must say, painting tanks at this scale is damned easy and fast. I enjoyed it immensely. Those are AMX10P infantry fighting vehicles. The first of them were deployed in 1973, and are still in use today, though they should be replaced in a few years. They can carry 8 men, and provide some support with their 20mm gun and 7.62mm co-ax machine gun. 

Imaginons que vous etes un randonneur du cote de Tubingen. Vous vous trouvez en foret qund soudain vous entendez un bruit metallique qui se rapproche... Vous etes au beau milieu d'un exercice de l'armee francaise! Leurs vehicules viennent de recevoir leur camouflage OTAN et testent son efficacite... Ce sont des AMX10P, tout juste termines, et j'ai pris beaucoup de plaisir a les peindre. Le 6mm, ca va vite. Ces vehicules sont entres en service en 1973... Ils peuvent transporter 8 hommes et fournir un support avec leur canon de 20mm et leur mitrailleuse jumelee de 7.62mm.

On my workbench

Hmmm. I' m now facing two choices: Doing only Romans or beeing weak and paint my  newly arrived French... Well, for once I've been strong. I'll be painting one unit of Romans, and I'll start bits from the French, just to get the feeling, you know ;)

So, First, the Romans: only 4 bases of legionaries remain, so I'll do them. But When Ludo gave them to me, some had their shields already glued on, quite badly I should say, and I couldn't remove them. Darn1. Then, one of them had primed in black, and I don't prime my minis anymore. Darn2. and one of them had a broken pilum, so I drilled in the hand and put a bit of wire. Darn3. Oh, I forgot: they're from the same batch as the others, ie with lots of defaults from the moulds. Darn4...

the black guy already received a layer of chainmail

 

Then onto my French. I took a blister of AMX10P, the armoured infantry carrier, and based them. No need to clean, they were almost flash-free. Ahhh. at last some good news.

hey, where is the fifth one gone? "Chercher le pinard sergent".

Bon, pour eviter de sombrer dans la monotonie, j'ai decide de mener deux unites en parallele, a savoir les 16 legionnaires restants, meme si je vais avoir du boulot, car franchement, ils ne sont pas en bon etat ( sous couche de m***, desole Ludo, un pilum casse, et des boucliers colles parfois n'importe comment). Et de l'autre, j'ai pris et base un blister d'AMX10P. Et la c'est beau, pratiquement pas de nettoyage a faire. Affaires a suivre.

On my signal...

Unleash Hell...There. the six Roman scorpios are now done. I'm pretty happy with the final result, but I warn you, don't take those minis from Eureka:

- The scorpions are not that easy to glue

- most of the minis don't have kneecaps. Nope, their legs are sort of roundish

- some of the arms are stangely sculpted. with fingers going one way and ending another, very long wrists, almost as long as forearms...

Hmm, I seem to be rambling more and more about things. Am I becoming like Fran the Angry Lurker. F*** no, I'm not Irish :)

Voila, les six scorpions sont maintenant termines. L'aspect general est pas mal et j'en suis content, mais je deconseille vraiment Eureka pour ces references:

- les scorpions ne sont pas faciles a coller, ils tiennent pas...

- les figs n'ont pas de genoux, leurs jambes etant plutot rondes...

- clairement le sculpteur n'a pas ouvert de bouquin d'anatomie, car certaines mains sont etranges avec des doigts tres bizarres, et parfois des bras a trois articulations, ou des poignets treeeees longs... Bref, pas glop du tout, et ca merite d'etre signale.

 

Small is beautiful

Erm, no real painting done yesterday, so my Roman scorpions are not finished. They should be tomorrow, at least I think so. Meanwhile, I received my order for my Cold War French army project in 6mm: They're from GHQ, and I must say they're wonderful. I might even start painting some of them, just to get the feeling of thew scale:

Pas vraiment de peinture hier, donc les scorpions romains ne sont pas encore tout a fait termines. Ce sera surement fait demain. En attendant, je ne peux resister au plaisir de vous montrer ma commande GHQ pour mon projet armee francaise guerre froide. Elles sont magnifiques, et je crois que je vais vite succomber a la peinture pour savoir si j'arrive a peindre cette echelle.

Splitch, dab, splotch

I managed to get the artillery units almost done yesterday. All that's left is the skin highlight and basing. That should be done quite soon, I think.

Je vous l'avais bien dit. Cet ensemble de figs se peint tres vite, et il ne me reste plus qu'a faire l'eclaircissement de la chair et le soclage. Ce sera fait rapidement je pense.