I am a happy man: a new Winner! 100k, skirmisher, gift.... You name it

First of all, I wanted to thank you all, because a few days ago, I discovered I had reached the 100k hits milestone. Whepee! I think my crazy week had something to do with it, so I won't make another giveaway so soon, especially when you have other ones going on: Mike at Trouble at T'Mill, and James from Exiles Wargames. 


Tout d'abord, je voulais vous remercier, car j'ai franchi la barre des 100k hits il y a quelques jours. Cela fait vraiment plaisir. Je ne ferai pas dans l'immediat de nouveaux cadeaux car la blogosphere est deja bien chargee. En parlant de cadeau, les Gripping Beasts n'ont pas ete reclamees, donc elles ont ete accordees au second sur la liste...

At the same time, the painted Gripping beast bowmen were not claimed, so, I pass them onto the second one in the draw.

Congratulations to Panzerkaput! You've won the bowmen. Contact me at
sebastien(dot)gimeno(at)gmail(dotdot)com


Now, yesterday evening, I went to the club because Tamsin was hosting a game of X-Wing. I liked it. It's fun, quite fast, and I also managed to play with the Millenium Falcon. Dear me, it's huge. I also gave her her prize and received mine too. My Spartans... I can't say "shiny" because theyre' plastics, but... Shinyyyyyyyy

Enfin, hier, j'ai pu aller au club profiter un peu de mon temps libre, j'ai pu jouer a X-Wing. C'est un jeu plaisant, rapide et j'ai pu jouer avec le Faucon pilote par Chewbacca rhhhhhhh. Tamsin organisant les parties, j'ai pu lui donner son cadeau et j'ai recu le mien. Ben franchement, je sena que je vais m'amuser. Et si vous continuez a lire ce billet, vous remarquerez que j'ai egalement peint une autre fig Foundry ;)

And finally, I also managed to paint during my day-off another skirmisher, from Foundry:

Getting the hand of it, one more 28mm Foundry skirmisher

I learned a few hours ago that there is a gas leak in our building. So National grid has shut everything off, meaninf we don't have any heating, hot water nor cooking fire... Hopefully it will be resolved fast.

This is the second minis from a batch of four. I intend to paint a few skirmishers first, before starting the heavies. So far, I enjoy it, but I must remember to finish my Spartacus army first, or... Anyway. For this second mini, I wanted to add something extra. And if you look closely, you'll see that the slinger has shaved for a few days ;)

Bon, je vais etre un chouia grincheux, mais il va falloir etre philosophe. J'ai appris qu'il y avait une fuite de gaz dans notre immeuble, et par consequent tout a ete coupe: chauffage, eau chaude et meme les plaques de cuisson au gaz. Bref, plus de cuisine, ni de douche chaude. Esperons que cela sera repare rapidement.

En attendant, voici la deuxieme fig de mon groupe de 4 tirailleurs Foundry. J'essaie toujours de m'ameliorer, et cette fois, j'ai tente un truc: la barbe de trois jours. Qu'en pensez-vous?

A trek into the 28mm wonderland

Hi everyone.

As you know, I'm tempted to paint 28mm stuff. So, as I've been weak, I've bought many Foundry figures on ebay, and I'm now spainting them, just for fun and to improve my painting. I have to say I'm quite pleased of the result. The minis is not based yet, because I need another one to complete my skirmisher unit.

Et voila, je plonge lentement mais surement dans le monde du 28mm. J'ai achete pas mal de Foundry sur Ebay, et pour me faire la main, je commence a peindre, avec tout d'abord un tirailleur.

I've also decided to support an initiative from different bloggers: they intent to raise money for charities, including one about men cancer. I've asked to paint some minis, and have been accepted. So I should paint a few minis for Muskets and Tomahawks. Stay tuned.

Oh, and I'm still waiting for Wargames, miniatures and terrain news to contact me! I want to send him the painted Gripping Beasts. Otherwise, the lot will go to someone else!

J'ai egalement decide de soutenir une initiative de bloggers: ils desirent recolter de l'argent pour des charites, notamment pour la lutte contre le cancer chez les hommes. Je me suis propose pour peindre des figs, et j'ai ete accepte. Je devrai peindre quelques figs pour leur projet Mousquets et Tomahawks.

Finally, some more painted minis: armed and dangerous slaves

It has been indeed a while since the last time I showed some painted minis. I'm particularly tired and I don't really feel comfortable painting during the evening. I rather prefer reading... You know what I mean.

Cela fait un bout de temps que je n'avais pas montre de figs peintes... Je suis creve en ce moment, et je prefere de loin, le soir, me poser avec un bouquin.

Before showing you the new stuff, remember Tamsin is giving away some wonderful stuff! So go there and enter. And Daddy needs some 28mm ;)

Continuing my Spartacus army, I've painted  two bases of trained slaves. They look difinitely less Hollywoody than the others, but I need to distinguish them easily. Therefore, I've chosen a lot of mail- armoured figures, from Xyston and Corvus Belli, to create a nice mixed appearence: Legionaries, Soldurii, Nobles, Carthaginian veterans, Principes... I also gave them Roman shields or Scuta. I think they look okay.

J'ai toutefois repris la peinture de mon armee Spartacus, avec, cette fois-ci, deux socles d'esclaves entraines. Je voulais creer un effet moins hollywoodien, avec des troupes equipees a la romaine. Pour cela, j'ai pioche chez Xyston et Corvus Belli, et j'ai donne a tout le monde des boucliers romains ou des Scuta. J'ai de plus change ma technique de peinture pour le bronze: bronze de chez Vallejo, puis or, brossage leger d'argent, et enfin lavis sepia. Qu'en pensez-vous?

I've also changed my techniques of painting bronze: Vallejo Bronze, then gold, then silver light drybrush, and finally a sepia wash. What do you think?

And the last winner is....

Ladies and gentlemen, today is the last draw. First of all, thanks everyone for your participation. I really hope you enjoyed it, especially those of you who won something ;) 11 winners, that's something, I guess. Anyway. I was offering my talents as a painter, and at first I had been a bit disappointed. Few people had chosen to enter the draw. But in the end, I had 46 entries, so not that bad.

Is it the right brush to paint eyes?

(Sorry Tamsin and Anne, I had to do it ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok. Now, according to my long time friend Random, who will be my last winner...

Wohoo! Another French pal, Feodalfig. No, it's not the French connection. Just sheer randomness. Mr Random cannot be bribed. 

Now, the blog can resume it's usual activity. I have some stuff almost ready to show you.

Well done mate. Bravo a toi.

Envoie -moi un mel a 

sebastien(dot)gimeno(at)gmail(dotdot)com

Je te donnerai mon adresse.

Not one, but three today!

Dear me. Your lucky week is about to end. Fortunately, afterwards you can enjoy Tamsin's, who's offering nice stuff for her second day.

Anyway. Today you have the chance to win some shiny stuff from three different lots. My friend Mister Random was kind enough to provide me with three different winners:

 

Erm. Right. So, who has won the Old Glory Thirty Years War lot:

Congratulations to my French blogging pal, El Frances! 

Now, for the Venexia Italian Wars lot:

Dear me. it can't be. Not him! Nooooooooo! Fran I'm sorry, but it seems that Ray won something after all.

And finally, who has won the painted minis from Gripping Beast, I wonder....

Well, it's Wargames, News and terrain. Sorry I don't have your name, so I only put your link there ;)

Congratulations to the three of you.

Simply contact me at :

sebastien(dot)gimeno(at)gmail(dotdotdot)com to give me your adress.

REMINDER: only one more day to win the last prize!

How to brighten your day.

Okay everyone. Before today's draw result, two annoucements.

First, Scotty, you haven't contacted me yet to give me your adress so I can post your prize.

Second, my club mate Tamsin has reached the 100k hits mark, and so has started a 5 days giveway to celebrate. Go see her blog it's worth it. Ok, you already know that, but it's just a way for me to get extra chances.

Third. I know many of you noticed a glitch in my blog yesterday, seeing, amongst other things, a nice redhead girl. Well, it's simple, I had guessed that Tamsin would have reached the mark and therefore started a giveaway. So I had prepared something, before deleting it. That's why it happened. Sorry for the disturbance.

Now, back to the draw. My friend Random will make someone else happy today. Let's see which one of you will get the prize:

Well, congratulations Fran! I think the random.org server heard your whining and answered your prayers ;) You've won the GZG vehicules and bits. Hurray!

Sorry Fran, couldn't resist ;)

Just contact me at 

sebastien(dot)gimeno(at)gmail(dotdotdot)com

And remember people, there are three prizes to win tomorrow!

And our educated winners are...

today the living-room, tomorrow the world, mwaaaaahaha

I was pleasantly surprised by the number of entries in both today's draws, respectively 43 and 33 entries. Not bad at all. Though, I only have a couple of people for my painting offer. Am I that bad? Anyway, without further ado, here are the winners.

For the Mithridates book:

Ian, from The blog with no name. Congratulations!

And for the War in Italy:

Scotty from Scotty's wargaming! well done lad.

If you could contact me at :

sebastien(dot)gimeno(at)gmail(dottydotdot)com

to give me your adress, that would be great. Cheers.

oh ohhhh oh oh oh ohhhhhhhhhh

Right, I know, very bad title. But if you sing it, you might find it... ridiculous. I know, I know.

Today is the draw for the NAC intro fleet. So a bit of Star Trek is in order, I suppose.

No, you can't enter the draw! Nooooo!

After I initialized the computerised randomned decisional algorithmn, the answer was obvious. With 9 entries and some help from Anne, the winner couldn't be anybody else but...

Tamsin! Well done girl. See you at the club to get your reward! Lucky you.

Another winner! Let's congratulate....

... Emmmm not now. The Foundry book proved to be quite popular, and I managed to write down 66 entries. Not bad at all. Of course, some of you appear more than once, but you really wanted this book, didn't you.

Right, the random.org list can now reveal the lucky winner:

Congratulations to... Dux Homunculorum. 

Simply contact me at

sebastien(dot)gimeno(at)gmail(dotty dot) com

Cheers,

And don't forget you have a bit of time left for the rest of the draws.

And the first winner is...

Ok people. The crazy week is now over. It's time to make someone happy.

 A week ago, I was offering 4 Blood Bowl miniatures. I got 71 entries (with many of you with more than one entry ;) I entered everyone on the randorm.org website to create a randomized list, and here is the result:

Congratulations to you, Styx! You've earned 4 free minis.

contact me at:

sebastien(dot)gimeno(at)gmail(dottydot)com

Cheers

And see you tomorrow for another lucky winner.

On the last day, I offer my body... Well, not quite

Today is the last day, sadly. I hope a lot of you will get what they want... But for now I've decided to offer something both simpler and more interesting. I offer to.... paint some of your minis, for an equivalent of 60 points, following the rules edicted by Curt.

I'm not a bad painter, but I'm more specialized in 10 and 15mm. But as you know, I've started painted 25-28mm figures too. So, if you have some unpainted lead, give it to me, and I'll paint it for you. Only condition: you'll have to supply the bases, and then I'll do the basing too. Neat, hey.

And today is also the last day to enter the first draw! 

On the Sixth day of the giveaway: Is it Christmas again?

First of all, thanks a lot for your participation. It's quite a big success. I know I could have published this post a bit sooner, but I was busy cleaning up after my daughter's third birthday dinner (erm, if you know what I mean). But today, I'll be a bit crazy. Yes you could say it's Christmas once again, because I offer you three prizes today!

Oh, I love presents

The first one is a nice present from Old Glory: 3 bags of goodies TYW/ECW related, including 20 foot figures (enough to create a unit of Pike and shotte, wire pikes included), 12 armoured horsemen and 12 Croats. They're 15mm.

Next, we go back in time, and end up in Italy, with a lot of 15mm from the now OOP Venexia range: 12 gendarmes, and 48 foot figures, including hallberdiers, command, some doppelsoldner and pikemen. The good thing about them is the pikes/hallberds are separate, so you can whatever you like in their hands.

And finally.... 12 painted dark ages 25mm metal minis from Gripping Beast!All of them are bowmen, so could be useful in a lot of armies.

Now, what will I offer tomorrow...

On the fifth day, I give you, more Sci-Fi goodness

After the serious interlude yesterday, let's go back to what's really important, minis!

I love sci-fi robots!

And today's giveaway will send once again in the future, with some interseting stuff in 15mm, from GZG (again?). Well, yes, but this time, you should be able to play a lot more skirmishes with the shiny toys I offer:

Redevenons serieux, et reprenons le cours normal des choses, avec un retour aux figs. Aujourd'hui, si vous aimez les escarmouches dans le futur, vous avez la possibilite de bien vous amuser car je vous offre pas mal de choses de chez GZG (oui je sais, encore):

-2 Phalanxes heavy APC
-1 Cougar MBT
-2 tracked heavy support vehicules, easyly usable as heavy APCs

And because I'm so nice, I'll throw in some bits of extra stowage, and more bits to enhance your Sci-fi buildings:

Oh, and tomorrow should really be interesting. Stay tuned. Seb

On the Fourth Day of the Giveway, time for books

I've accustomed you to lots of shinyness ( does this word even exist?), and I've forgotten to apply my first principle as a teacher: it's now time to educate. Ok, lightly, but still...

He had to do it...

 Today's giveaway is about two books. The first one is a  great history book, written by Philip Matyszak, Mithridates the great, Rome's indomitable ennemy.

 Bon, apres tous ces jolis trucs bien appetissants, il etait necessaire de vous remettre sur le droit chemin. Aujourd'hui, culture, nom de diouss, avec d'abord ce super bouquin de Philip Matyszak. Alors oui, il est en Anglais, mais il est tres facile a suivre. Par comparaison, FOG a cote, c'est du Kant, c'est vous dire. Et en plus il est tres ympa et instructif, avec de bonnes idees de scenarios. Le second est de F.L. Taylor, à propos des guerres d'Italie. La encore, une lecture agréable et très instructive. Ils vous tentent? Vous savez ce que vous avez à faire.

First, here is the description:

"A military biography of Mithridates VI 'the Great' of Pontus, Rome's most persistent enemy. The Mithridiatic wars stretched over half a century and two continents, and have a fascinating cast of pirates, rebels, turncoats and poisoners (though an unfortunate lack of heroes with untarnished motives). There are pitched battles, epic sieges, double-crosses and world-class political conniving, assassinations and general treachery. Through it all, the story is built about the dominant character of Mithridates, connoisseur of poisons, arch-schemer and strategist; resilient in defeat, savage and vindictive in victory. Almost by definition, this book will break new ground, in that nothing has been written on Mithridates for the general public for almost half a century, though scholarly journals have been adding a steady trickle of new evidence, which is drawn upon here. Few enough leaders went to war with Rome and lived long to tell the tale, but in the first half of the first century BC, Mithridates did so three times. At the high point of his career his armies swept the Romans out of Asia Minor and Greece, reversing a century of Roman expansion in the region. Even once fortune had turned against him he would not submit. Upto the day he died, a fugitive drive to suicide by the treachery of his own son, he was still planning an overland invasion of Roman itself."

I really liked this book. It is well written, easy to follow, and full of adventure. Well at least for some parts, especially during Mithridates' youth and fall. It is also full of wargaming ideas, with good descriptions of the most important battles. So, to sum it up, it's really a good read.

Next book: the Art of war in Italy, by F.L. Taylor. It's a classic and a good reference book. I won't do a escription, I think it's pretty obvious. Once again, an easy read, with some good insights about tactics and logistics, and weapons too. Oh, and you have a good analysis of the battle of Ravenna. To sum it up, it's a very good intro to the period, but only on the warfare side.

 Just tell me the book (books) you want, and that's it. Cheers.

On the third day of the giveaway, we go into space, with a starter fleet!

Right.

Welcome aboard, Captain!

Sorry not to have posted a tad sooner, but I was a bit busy, enjoying the sun and the warmth ;) I must say I never had so much attention since I started this giveaway week... Wonder why. Anyway. Today, on the third day of the giveaway, I offer you... an intro pack fleet from Ground Zero Games. Yup, that's right, a full intro NAC starter fleet. Here is hte description from the GZG website:

Desole de ne pas avoir poste plus tot, mais j'etais occupe a profiter du soleil et de la chaleur hier, donc la mise a jour est un poil tardive. En attendant, histoire d'entretenir l'attention sur mon blog (et ca marche), voici aujourd'hui, rien que pour vous, un starter intro de chez Ground Zero Games, avec de quoi commencer une flotte NAC.
 
"Each INTRO FLEET pack contains: 1 x BATTLECRUISER (BC), 1 x HEAVY CRUISER (CH), 2 x LIGHT CRUISERS (CL), 2 x DESTROYERS (DD) and 2 x FRIGATES (FF), plus all necessary stands - that's a total of 8 ships, worth over £23 at regular list prices!"

 Just as a reminder, the rules and first giveaway is here

And the second giveway is there



 

On the second day of the giveaway

Hi everyone.
Quite a success yesterday for the first prize. I was pleasantly surprised.

Salut à tous. La journée d'hier fut un beau succès, même si jus qu'à présent peu de Français ont participé. Pas grave, j'ai de quoi vous faire changer d'avis.

I used to look like that before the beard. Honest...

But it was only the first day. Today's prize should be pleasant too. It's an out of print modelling book, in very good condition (read once), about one of the most famous painter's techniques.... Yup, it's Kevin Dallimore's book, from Foundry publishing:

En ce deuxième jour de lots à gagner, voici un livre ô combien essentiel pour nous autres wargameurs. Il est introuvable neuf désormais, et franchement il vaut le détour. Et en plus, c'est cadeau. Voici donc le livre de Kevin Dallimore sur sa technique de peinture, en excellent état.

I know you want it!

Come on, lots of stuff to win! Oh, and Burkhard is also having a nice giveaway. Go and check it out.

Happy birthday! Let's start with a crazy week: day 1, Blood Bowl giveaway

Hi everyone.
Today is my birthday! Well, not quite, it's my blog 2nd birthday. And I have to tell you a lot of things happened. I made some friends, did a lot of projects, started lots of them, finished only a few (erm). But one major thing for me is the fact that my reader's profile has changed. Let me explain. Up unitl a couple of days ago, the most numerous readers were from France, as I could expect. But since the past week, the country contributing to the most important hit numbers is... the USA. And the gap is widening every day. Uk is third, still a couple thousands hits behind them.. So, thanks a lot everyone, it means a lot to me.

And to celebrate this, I intend to start a week of craziness, full of giveaways.

Salutations. C'est aujourd'hui mon anniv'. Bon  pas tout a fait, mais c'est plutot celui de mon blog. Voila deux que je suis sur blogspot, et franchement je ne le regrette pas. Certes il y a des bugs, mais j'ai pu connaitre un paquet de bloggers internationaux, j'ai demarre une tonne de porjets, pour en terminer une quantite infime (hum).
Par ailleurs, c'est une etape importante, car depuis quelques jours, le profil de mes lecteurs a change. En effet, jusqu'a il y a peu, mon plus grand nombre de lecteurs venait de France. Ce n'est desormais plus le cas, car environ 25% de mon lectorat est desormais americain. Le Royaume-Uni vient en troisieme position, a quelques milliers de hits derriere la France.

Pour celebrer ce double evenement, j'ai decide de faire une semaine de folie, avec des cadeaux a gagner toute la semaine:

The rules:
1/ You have to be a follower/ regular on my blog.
2/ Simply write a comment in the day's post to tell if you're interested (or not). Your comment will earn you a chance.
3/ For each comment per topic, you'll get another chance.
4/ If you promote my giveaway (I'm such a bitch, but I'm specialized in French kiss ;)), you'll earn five more chances per item.
5/ The results will be given one week after each giveaway.

Right, first giveaway:
4 * 28 miniatures, still in their blisters. The pics are from the manufacturer:

- 1 Benito, from Gaspez miniatures:

- 1 Ulfhedner, from ZN games:

-2 Ice troll from Impact miniatures