Sort of a mission statement or timeline thing...

One thing to start.Nothing here is written in stone, more of a case of 'well, this is what I'm thinking now'. Could also be the first? time (not sure) I'll have done 3 posts in a day - it's more thinking out loud.

New setup should be mostly operational by the second week in January. However, getting moulds organised/stored reasonably may take longer. Regarding casting queries, obviously not going to go back into full production or anything but should soon be able to cast limited numbers of some ranges if asked for! Won't be commercial production though - when I do, please don't advertise the fact that I am producing! One thing I can't cope with any more is 2-3 days a week casting 6 hours a day!

The table - well, just under 12x4. To start I'll probably go in for some Reviews like:

 Only with a 12x4 rather than 6x4 and I've painted a few more figures since... plus lighting is better anyway...

After that, considering 'splitting' the table in two, setting up Newhaven as a semi-permanent thing and the other half for general wargames.

Lots of options which is nice -

Shed update

Shelving all in place and starting to sort moulds and figures. I don't have space for everything so at the moment the only moulds are the ones I've had made myself - mainly because they cover the 20mm Ancients ranges I use the most!

Overview of shelving - probably about 20% of my total number of moulds plus a start on figure storage

 

Lots more figures to go

Work bench complete with spincaster, bench vice and a cardboard box for spraying stuff in!

And even got round to casting a few figures! Electricity not in yet so still having to run a cable down.

A Garrison upgrade...

For years Garrison has been based in an old tin shed. Electricity was provided by running a cable from the house. My 6x4 wargames table also served as my casting table so I could either set up figures or cast... not both. Plus I closed everything down from December to March.

Now.

Still not finished - electricity coming in January, still working on insulating the place, etc, but...

Bare bones

Carpet down, putting in insulation - now about half done. There is a reason for the multi-coloured carpet tiles. KnewThe Range sold carpet tiles as I'd used them for my previous table. So went there, got green ones for the table, but they were low on stock for the floor. So I finished up with a few colours on the grounds that they were mostly covered up anyway!

Table in place. Bottom shelf is for casting, etc.

Table is a bit under 12' long and 4' wide. Plenty of storage underneath.

Far side of the shed gives space for some of the shelving from the old shed.

What I did over Christmas.

For the first Christmas in years there was only my wife and myself around at Christmas. Cut a long story short, we decided to spend a few days away.

So, a 3 night stay at Titchwell Manor.

Good food cooked my someone other than me -  I mean, what could go wrong?

The answer being nothing - enjoyed every minute.

OK, could talk about long walks watching seals, egrets, geese, dead Chinese water deer, etc. However, most people reading this would be more interested in these:

Not sure what they are - very little left of two tracked vehicles. From the size of the remains, that 'spring'? on the suspension area and the history of Titchwell beach - WW2 training area - I  would guess at Universal Carriers but not totally convinced. Still, an interesting find.

Merry Xmas everyone

Prezzies opened, Bucks Fizz drunk, all's well with (my) world.

Tree's up

New tree this Christmas - old one didn't have a good year.

Painting area looks better now than it has since, well, last Christmas. If I remember correctly that desk was originally a 13th birthday present. It's seen a lot of kits built and figures painted over the years.

Persian Hordes

Back in June, 2017, I painted up a unit of 'rabble' for my Persian armies. As the last unit to be painted in 2018 (Christmas tree will be blocking my painting desk) I've painted up another unit of this figure to act as a few Hordes elements.

This lot are dressed as the dullest of the dull colour-wise. As such, they will be just as much at home in a Sassanid army as in the Achaemenids. Well, apart from the standard bearer.

Very plain outfits and very quickly painted - which shows.

Not based or varnished yet, still not sure when I'll be doing any more basing. New Year?

A Sparabara levy unit

I'm not going to get round to basing figures for a while so this lot is being posted unbased.

It's a unit of I-know-everyone-else-calls-them-Medes-but-I-list them-as-Persians type. Basically, 'cos this hat style was originally listed in wargames circles as the Persian style rather than Mede.

Again, calling them Sparabara is also technically wrong as they're carrying violin shaped shields rather than Spara.

Apart from all that...

Slight issue with them - I accidentally touched the figures paint up with the wrong shade of grey. Never mind, I'll try not to worry about it.

This unit is designed to be a plain local-defence levy outfit rather than one of the fancier types.

Some Roman archers

Spending too long painting Chinese toys and 6mm buildings... needed to get back to my roots for a while...

Transport and rockets

Can't stop messing with things, so it's natural for me to take things apart and see what I can do with them. So those rocket trucks... take off the rocket and it makes a decent ground mounted AT weapon... which leaves a truck...

Put a canopy on the back of the truck and you've got a use transport vehicle for troops or - well, whatever.

Simple comparison between the missile carry and lorry. Rather than this simple folded paper canopy I'll probably do a 'square' canopy; also probably paint it Earth or something instead of leaving it grey.

You can get more 'accurate' lorries, but put them next to the tanks and it looks silly. Mind you, put the figures next to the tank and it looks silly.

Grey's Armoured Division

Finally finished all the stripey tanks and missile trucks of the vaguely Communist/Grey Armoured Division. Not convinced the paper red stars on the missile trucks will stay, but if they fall off not that bothered!

The thing that always amazes me is the cost of these things. They work out at between 50p and £1 each including postage! Which means I'm buying more than I should of course.

TMP and Copyright

Firstly, I have no objections to people using photos from my blog (although would appreciate a credit or link).

A current picture from my blog appears on TMP:  http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=493650 I have no objections to this but:

TMP claims copyright for all content on their site:


Copyright Notice The Miniatures Page,
comprising all web pages at theminiaturespage.com,
©1994-2018 Bill Armintrout

The TMP version is that TMP owns all copyright - in fact, re things posted by someone on TMP  'If it's your own post you want to copy, ask and we'll automatically give you permission to do so.' - which is one reason why (when I was with TMP) I always posted anything I wanted to use on my site first.

So...

If anyone wants to post anything from here, I'm generally quite happy with that, but would appreciate a credit or link. This does not confer ANY further permissions, so if you post anything of mine on TMP - don't ask Bill for permission, ask me.

For interest, the post it was taken from is:

https://easterngarrison.blogspot.com/2015/08/hms-gannet-chatham-dockyard.html

 

25mm Napoleonic British

At the moment I'm getting bogged down painting-wise with the 'quick Chinese soldiers'! This can only be described as ridiculous, stupid or both...

Anyway, back to the old days and Garrison catalogues.

Garrison produced about 5 variations of Napoleonic figures - which also comes across as ridiculous. However, these are photos from quite a while ago of various later issue British figures, including some of the Garrison painted figures that came with the company....

I did think about adding IDs for these but decided that it was making my brain hurt...