Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Blogging from Stay'Cation Land

3/4 of the way into my Stay'Cation 2016. Not doing a TON of painting as I have in the past but I'm still getting some stuff done.




Went to Leavenworth, WA last week to visit with some in-laws that own a pear orchard in Cashmir. They live in Mississippi but come to the orchard in Washington annually to check on things and, occasionally, we are invited up to hang out with them.



Ronny (Pops-in-Law) and I spent a few hours in the pear orchard post harvest this year. We picked peaches, nectarines, and some left-over pears not suitable for market. That one hour in the fields, 90 degrees in the sun, reiterated the respect I have for the immigrant fruit pickers. I was doing it for fun and it still kicked my ass.



My haul was 7-8 dozen peaches. I spent yesterday peeling and putting up in the freezer about 2/3rd of that. This morning, as I type this, I am baking a peach custard. Should be done in about 10 minutes. I wonder if it will be good or not, never made a peach custard before.

Using some of this free time to get caught up on metal documentaries on Net Flix and Amazon Prime.Nothing too special or outstanding except the doc about Randy Blythe of Lamb of God and his troubles with  the Czech court system after getting charged with manslaughter after an accident at a 2010 concert in Prague. No spoilers but it was a good film as it did not start out as a film about that, just a film about Lamb of God and then the court thing happened in the middle of it It ended up, to me, being another situation of metal music itself being put up on trial.



**checks custard in oven**
I know one thing, sure taking a lot longer than the recipe's suggested 20 minutes.

Also been organizing some of my comic books. Not a huge task as I don't have a huge collection - and I found a buyer of comics in the Bay Area and I have a few things they want. Not going to get rich but the extra $20 bills in my Pay Pal account help fund my miniature buying for now - like this nice little package from Perry I bought a few weeks ago:

6 more Covenanters Advancing


...and a box of Agincourt Foot Knights







Back to comics, my favorite read right now has to be Manifest Destiny. It's Lewis and Clark crossed with Dungeons and Dragons. Instead of bears and supply issues they deal with monsters... well... and some supply issues. Then there are my usuals - Kirkman's The Walking Dead and Invincible. One of my new titles I am interested in is Brian Wood's Brigg's Land. Only one issue in so far and it's an interesting tale.




As far as minis go, I am finishing up, yet another, unit of Covenanter Musketeers. THis seems to never end but a good English Civil War game needs to have blocks of infantry bristling with pikes, at least in my opinion. As soon as I get these done I have a choice of starting another Lancer squad or some more pikemen. I'll figure it out when I get there, no deadlines crushing my soul.



We'll get painted some day, I swear!

**checks custard**
Holy Smokes! I think the custard is done! Now, set it on the counter and let it cool.


Well, heading off to get some other stuff done, visiting some old friends in Vancouver and getting some shopping done later today. Y'all have a good one!





Thursday, August 4, 2016

Scale Comparison - Perry Covenanter and Old Glory Covenanter

I feel it's important to share information - I'm always searching the net for this kind of info before I buy.

Perry Miniatures Covenanter scale compared to Old Glory Lowland Musket scale:

Perry on the left - Old Glory on the right

The Perry figure is "leaning" over and stooped a bit. Old Glory figure is wearing a morion, standing up straighter. Also, the base is much thicker. 

A Perry figure stsanding up much straighter than the previous one. Even with the thinner base (Proxie Models) the eye-level of the figures are about the same.

Overall, the difference is so minute it will make little difference. The Old Glory sculpt is a bit deeper but, other than that, very minor difference.

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

On the Bench - August

I always have a few little projects going. Here are the current main ones"

Another squad of Covenanter Musketeers. Ten of them and an officer and drummer. Here's a pic of the musketeers I'm painting right now:



I'm using Renedra plastic 20mm bases. The figures are a combination of Old Glory Scottish Lowland Musketeers (ECW-41) and Scottish Lowland Command (ECW-50). Using poster tac I've mounted them on plastic soda bottle caps, my new favorite tool for such things.

and... that's about it. That's the only major project I have right now. Should be done by this weekend, I have a second squad of musketeers to do. I am 6 figures short of a 12 musketeer squad so I ordered a 6-pack from Perry miniatures. Shipping from England so I'm being patient. I hope to get these done before my 2 week vacation come last half of August. I hope to not have any painting lined up for that 2 weeks, the first week will be easy as I will be up in Levenworth, WA with family. The second week will be a staycation so we will see if I can stay away from the painting table.

**I typed this last night. This morning I got a message from one of the other firms in my work building in downtown Portland that a package was delivered to them accidentally, and it was from England. Went and got it and BAM - 6 Covenanter musketeers from Perry.

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Friday Night Game

Usual Friday night game with Spencer. This time we went to Guardian and played some Saga.

I had some new terrain pieces - a resin ship (Old Glory Viking Longship), some wattle fences (Renedra), and a resin well (locals Monday Knight Games) - that I wanted to show off. I also brought my Normans and Spencer played his Irish.

We played a scenario out of The Crescent and The Cross, we both feel those scenarios are much clearer and better playing than Saga Dark Age Scenarios. We had a good game and I got a few pictures. I was in the fifth round when Spencer rallied and, in the end, we had a draw.

I played William the Bastard who has some good abilities that boost archers. Also, with him, you get "warrior archers". An Irish weakness is lower armor when shot at. As is usual ranged combat is not that good in Saga, understandably so, but I was able to keep the Irish at bay and at range. Things folded when I lost 7 of my 8 crossbowmen. I sent in the knights who did not hit as hard as I had wanted and just could not score well enough for a "comfortable" lead. It ended up being a very tight game and Spencer's rally was rather spectacular.

Norman ship landing and needing some repairs. Patrols sent out and Irish were found!

Lone survivor crossbowman returns from the front line. "Get back on the ship!" orders William.

Spencer plans his rally, down by 5 points or so.

The beginnings of the rally, at the end of this there were much less Normans riding around on horses.