Pumpkinheads

Occasionally, I paint figures for EMP games. My local wargames shop is Wargames Emporium, and EMP is their foray into producing figures and rule systems. Some of their figures are very strange, some oddly interesting. 

The latest is a group of Pumpkinheads. Who or what these are, I'm not sure, but they clearly belong in the realm of B movie horror films. Essentially, they're scarecrows with pumpkins for heads, most suited for Hallowe'en games. 

They'll be sold in sets of four: four with axes, four with pitchforks and four without weapons. Here's the latter four, the only ones I've finished:

Chillcon 2018

I enjoy wargames shows, both small and large. My local show, Triples, was one of the greatest highlights of my year - from its early days in the Victoria Hotel, through a small excursion to Cutler's Hall, then its heyday in the Octagon at Sheffield University and finally its dying days at the English Institute of Sport. All had something to offer, though all had their drawbacks, too.

The death of that show in 2016 saddened me greatly, as well as removing my best annual opportunity to buy new figures (and to clear some of the old at the Bring and Buy). So I had great hopes for Chillcon, a new Sheffield show first run last May (2017) with its second show this year last weekend. To be honest, I was disappointed last year, probably because I was measuring it against Triples, hoping, I suppose, for a continuation of the tradition under a different name and, not surprisingly, Chillcon is a different beast entirely.

It's smaller, for a start. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, especially as it can promote a more intimate and friendly environment which this year seemed to be the case. Being relatively small also means that most people can get round all of it in a couple of hours, rather than being overwhelmed by it, and it probably also means that every trader gets a decent look in. I thought the atmosphere this year was great - lots seemed to be going on, and everyone was enjoying it. Whilst there weren't many of the "big" traders there, and almost no manufacturers of historical figures, there was still plenty to look at. 

As I'm essentially a historical gamer, and mainly into 28mm mass battles, a show which has little historical, with a focus on fantasy and sci-fi skirmish doesn't offer me too much. I can see the attractions, of course, and it's less than ten years since I was heavily into Warhammer and Warmaster (still one of my favourite games, though I've not played for quite a while). But what I really enjoy at shows are the vast display battles put on by clubs which no individual is likely to be able to manage for themselves. Triples was great for this. These days, however, the closest to historical games at shows seems to be WW2, usually Bolt Action of Flames of War, both of which owe their gaming heritage more to Games Workshop systems than to historical simulation.

Don't get me wrong - I do enjoy such games. And if they get people playing, and introduce new people to the hobby, then they're undoubtedly a good thing, and should be promoted. Moreover, if a wargames show is there to promote the hobby, and give newcomers a flavour of what it can be, to have fun, and realise that the emphasis is on gaming, not dry as dust history or morbid fascination with death and destruction, it must surely be a good thing. Arguably, an emphasis on fantasy whether set in a mythic world or an imagined future, is probably better psychologically than any dwelling upon the horrors of real warfare, for the core of wargaming is story-telling, and if the stories become too realistic, most people would (rightly, I guess) shy away. Wargaming is an escape from the horrors of the real world, not a celebration of the worst people can do to each other.

So I think Chillcon is a successful venture. Certainly an enjoyable one. Its organisation could perhaps be improved - for example, using the phrase 'Bring and Buy' to mean 'Tabletop Sale' is certainly confusing, especially when the messages that come out about it are ambiguous - some punters arrived at the show with things to sell at a traditional B&B event, only to find they were supposed to pre-book a table to sell things themselves. And the fact that there's a sporadically updated website whilst most of the up to date info goes on the Facebook page, and they say different things, doesn't help. As always with such things, one person should be responsible for overseeing all communications to ensure that the message that goes out is a coherent and consistent one. 

But these are niggles. It's great to have a Sheffield show still. It's great that it's a lively and fun event. I wish there was more of the traditional wargame in it, and I wish it was larger, but as it is, it seems to me a very worthwhile activity. I understand the organisers are running a new show in Derby, too, which is more good news, as the show which was originally held in the centre of Derby has now turned into an awkward event miles from Derby (in fact, miles from anywhere) and too far away for me to get to. I expect the Derby Chillcon will be similar to the Sheffield one - but I look forward to it, and will probably have more to say about it when more is known. 

Maybe I'll be posting more often now

I set up this blog to log my progress in the Eighth Analogue Painting Challenge. This was my first time taking part, though I've watched from the sidelines in the past.

In the event, I spent so much energy on the Challenge itself, I didn't find any time for this blog. So it's just as well I have no readers! But, now the Challenge is over, I may feel there's a gap in my life, so I think I'll try to use this as a substitute, and post irregular images of my wargaming work, as it occurs. 

I finished second in the Challenge, which was amazing, given that I only intended to provide a small regular stimulus to my work. I was really bitten by the bug - both the desire to move projects on (I painted at least four times as much as in the same period last year) and, once I began to move up the table, my competitive desire to get to the top. I didn't make that, not even temporarily, mainly because there's one brilliant painter taking part - well, actually, there are lots of them, but there's one in particular, Kent, who not only consistently delivers some of the best painting you'll see on a wargames table, but also does it with apparent ease. Units of Napoleonic French (that's "Napoleonic" and "French"!!) appeared just about every week. Large units, too. I did a couple, but neither was close to his standard.

In fact, I found that to keep producing, regularly and consistently, I had to drop my painting standards somewhat. This suits me, really, as I think I spend too much time per figure, with relatively little value as a result - a few beautiful pieces, perhaps, but most of them end up in run-of-the-mill contexts. So it was a useful exercise in "can I deliver passable figures I'd want to play with, in a minimal timescale?" The answer is: more or less. I developed a couple of techniques that gave satisfactory results, such as using only two shades rather than three, or settling for washes without highlights on darker materials, and limiting the colour schemes in many cases.

The return to 15mm also helped with this. I bought part of a very large 15mm collection in January, following the death of someone who must have been a very keen 15mm gamer. I was excessively pleased with this - in fact, I've still not got over the delight of doing so. I've absolutely no complaint about it, despite the imperfections which every collection has. These actually give it character, even charm, and speak of a particular gamer with particular preoccupations, rather than some "manufactured" game. But it does mean that there are oddities.

For example, there's a massive amount of 15mm Austrian Napoleonics, unpainted, which I'll never paint up - probably more than 1000 pieces. On the other hand, there's a box of Revolutionary French (presumably intended to fight the Austrians) which fit squarely with my idea of gaming the French in Egypt, from the first landing to their exit. I've already a decent collection of the Perry figs in 28mm, but these are in the Kleber clobber. So I can fight the early months in 15mm and the later in 28mm. 

Similarly, the bulk of my purchase was painted SYW figs. I'm overjoyed with this. But the problem is that it's a rather one-sided collection. Lots of British, but no French. An excellent Prussian collection, but the Austrians have almost no cavalry. I'm assuming that there was more to this collection, but that it's gone elsewhere. 

So that's created a "fill the gaps" agenda - basically, to "complete" the Austrian army, and to develop a French one, almost from scratch. I know very little about the French in the SYW, so this is quite an exciting idea. And the Analogue challenge gave me to incentive to paint such a thing, so I've gone from a few token figures to an army of 5 guns, 150 infantry and around 90 cavalry. Moreover, I want to go on till it's a size close to the Brits (around 500 figures). Here's a sample:

You can see that this is not the highest quality painting, but it's not too bad. I'm aiming to keep the style reasonably close to that of the figures already painted, which is relatively simple, but also quite detailed in places. Essentially this gives me leeway to keep it simple where I want to, but indulge some of the finer detail when that suits me.

At the same time, my project for the year was supposed to be ECW. I was given two of the Warlord Battalia boxes, and I also bought a few more ECW figures in Wargames Emporium's sale. Nearly all the infantry, and something like 64 cavalry are now complete, thanks to the Challange, and I was moved to buy some Perry Scots, too.

The plan is to work towards Marston Moor (at least, a version of it), but also to include enough Scots to separate out as a Covenanter army, and to paint as decent number of Redcoats, so a version of the New Model Army can be extracted from the collection, too. Obviously, creaming off units like this means that the remainder might be a slightly odd rump, but my thinking is, as always, to aim for as many possibilities as feasible from a relatively limited collection. So far, so good. Here's a few of these:

First figure done

So I've uploaded my first figure to the Analogue Painting Challenge. That's five points of the intended 500. At this rate, I'll only take 900 days (the challenge ends March 20th).

I've actually quite a few figures on the stocks, and hope to make another submission before Tuesday (Tuesday is posting day) - there's 12 Spanish quite close to completion, and I'm quite pleased with them, though they're not a patch on what I used to be able to do, unfortunately. They should be followed by 6 cricketers for Walmington/Sealion, anf then maybe a handful of ECW figures, if I can organise them.

I've realised, too, that because terrain counts for points, this might be a nudge to finish some pieces, too, probably with Walmington or ECW in mind. At the very least, I've a ruined barn undercoated. And there's also the mealie bags for Rorke's Drift,

The submission was  Durnford for the Zulu Wars. I was pleased with the initial painting, which was quite subtle, but then I ruined it in varnishing, had to take remedial action, and the result is a bit muddy, and less "historical" than I wanted. It'll do, though, so Burt Lancaster will be able to join Michael Caine and Stanley Baker under the shadow of Isandlwana *I can never remember where the 'L' goes in that name).

Only four days to go...

To my birthday...
To the start of the Analogue Painting Challenge...

I'm not sure I'm on top of all the rules and conventions for this, but I shall make a valiant effort to do what is expected of me. Have been homing in on possible figures to give the 500 points. Current choices are:

Burgundian cavalry	6
French HYW crossbows	2
Zulus	24
ECW cav	14
Portuguese Naps	12
Barbarians	6
Brits in Egypt	12
Ramshackle barn	1
French cav in Egypt	6
Sailors hauling gun	5

That's a total of 585 points and would give me something in 7 different projects, plus one building.

Probably it'll change right up to the 20th, especially as some figures should arrive for me on the day itself.

Here's some I prepared earlier:

A new beginning

I've not blogged as a wargamer for several years. So much so, that when I returned to my old blogs, I couldn't access them! So I've decided on a brand new blog, to document my first forays in the Analogue Painting Challenge: thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.co.uk This year it starts, coincidentally, on my birthday (20th Dec) and finishes March 20th, 2018.

I've set a low target, 500 points. I'm hoping to get well over this, but don't want to tempt fate, as there may well be other calls on my time over the same period and I'm very fickle in my painting habits, so may well decide to finish some of the figs I've currently left part painted (so aren't eligible for the Challenge). But I've been trying to decide which 500 points to focus on. As always, I've about five times this number of figures I'm keen to work on, and an even bigger number of possible figs that I'd really like to have finished one day.

So I'll post a summary of what I'm intending a bit closer to the date. Best candidates at the moment. all 28mm, are:

• ECW, a project I'm just starting,
• French in Egypt, an exotic project with lots of figures still in the pipeline, mainly for the Brits,
• Spanish Napoleonic - the Perrys have just begun their range for this theatre, and I know I'll be getting some for Christmas (plan here is for a not-very-historical-but-quite-varied army)
• Boers and Brits for the Cape Frontier Wars - I've a decent Xhosa army, but not much in the way of opponents

There are, of course, many more projects in various stages of completion: a big Waterloo project (my favourite arena, which I keep returning to); Agincourt - I love the flags; a Sealion/Walmington skirmish; zulus, pirates, Crusades, Frostgrave, Lord of the Rings. And that's not the end of the list.