New Google Isn't working so who knows if anything new beyond a title!!!???

The Triple Nickel of Africa

Just posted some photos in the Steeplechase page about what I'm going to call The Triple Nickel of Africa but it is no kind of coin.  To catch up, click on the button and then scroll down the page.  Eventually I need to reverse the sequence of this page so the newer posts are at the top.  Eventually.

Enjoy.

QRF German East Africa British first view

No, they don't seem to be available yet.  But this is evidence that the figures are on their way - need to be finalized, mastered, molded, and cast from the looks of the photo.  Looks like six poses which I suspect may mean six different packs, one for each pose - not sure about leaders but I expect when (if?) they arrive there will be two or three poses in that pack.  The image comes from the fine folk at QRF Miniatures.  While I don't need a lot of British for my German East Africa collection, I expect I will buy more than I truly need for some 'what if?' scenarios and, frankly, to support a range I have long lobbied for.  I suspect by the time the Germans are released I may have all of the British painted - if all those other miniatures distractions I have don't get in the way!  Nice to see progress.

More progress

The Town Marshal is waiting for glue to dry to get primed.  Same for the first dozen (of 40) stands of Hunkpapa Sioux (using a Little Bighorn list, still need to sort out how many stands of foot to each 'circle', 132 stands of Sioux and Cheyenne mounted, only 96 on foot - I think, some changes have been going on).

Got all the sheep, goats, and pigs ready to paint after adding the recent additions and converting a half dozen each of pigs and sheep to 'dead'.  And not to forget the 5 stands of Peter Pig's chickens are now primed and ready for paint!

Also prepared all the bases needed for the Outlaws group (including being labelled), both of the civilian wagon trains, and all four of my stagecoaches (thinking about adding a fifth for the broken down, attacked by Indians, dead folk inside version).  Also prepped all the stands for the first 3 groups of Sioux on foot and 3 groups of Apache on foot and one of the native villages on foot.

Still looking for my missing oxen yokes. 😫

One day enough of these figures will be painted to have a game.  One day.

Update

Forgot to mention yesterday that I also painted the 6 oxen for my Bluemoon Conestoga wagon and started on the driver and his woman (she is not part of the set!) who were already primed for FIW.  I need to find two of the three ox yokes - hope I didn't lose them but with one I can at least re-manufacture two more!

I need to pull out a set of the native villagers for my Pony West to prep along with what I posted about yesterday.  That way, once prepped and primed, I will have a little bit of all the elements I am building for this ridiculously massive collection of figures.  Already have an entire cavalry regiment with its wagon train and native scouts plus gatling guns ready.  Have the first portion of the civilians for Anachronism.  Already have painted a buffalo herd along with a pronghorn antelope herd.  Also primed is a large longhorn herd and the cowboys and the chuck wagons.  By adding the White and Black Hats and the indigenous mounted and foot warriors plus villagers, that represents most of what will be in the collection - though greatly expanded when all is prepped.  Heck, I even have one of the special characters primed for painting.  Maybe next up will be one of the civilian wagon trains including the associated civilians.

Progress Minor

So, I actually put some paint that wasn't primer on figures last night!  I applied the first coat of skin paint to my French and Indian War native villagers expansion, 59 sculpts for 63 figures (four babes in their cradle boards on mommy's back).  Small as it was, it felt good.

I also recently prepped the first 48 mounted warriors for my Pony West setup, same with the first of the White Hats (mounted, foot, dead) being the Town Marshall.  Last night I pulled the first 36 foot warriors and need to pull out a leader group and a Black Hats (mounted, foot, dead) for the Outlaws.  What was pulled out last night needs to be filed and scraped to be ready to wash.  Then the whole lot - what was recently prepped and the stuff from last night - can be washed and then mounted for painting and primed.

Minor forward progress but it matters.

Unified Field Theory Update - again

Back on April 20 of 2018 I posted how I had made significant progress on my 'flavor' pieces of terrain - which is now at 120 pieces - the 30 blanks still to add flavor too, 22 pieces that were done at the time, and 68 pieces that gained progress this past weekend.  All of the 68 got the darkest brown coat and the next lighter 'dancing daub' brown coat.  Progress stopped there courtesy of a severely twisted ankle but the next six layers of paint should go on rather quickly.  That will be a great addition to my terrain collection.  Then all I need to do is move forward with the 30 blank pieces.  At least I have in the meantime expanded my options for what goes on those blanks.  I will probably do one set of 12 and three sets of 6 to maximize diversity - though some might be a bit similar.  Photos when enough are finished to justify it.  Oh, and I have started adding figures for German East Africa!

ACW update

First ACW update in a very long time and, in a way, the first real ACW update - and with some photos, too.  Just click the appropriate tab up above.

AWI progresses

Haven't been posting much lately but have been moving forward with miniatures.  Making some progress on a number of ACW units - essentially working to 'complete' the partially painted units after my grand reorganization and rebasing that got started last year.  41 units got rebased last year and there were another 24 that needed a few to 10 figures painted to match to meet the new standard 25 foot and 1 mounted figure for infantry.

Even greater progress with the AWI.  Recently primed 15 of 30 German infantry regiments, have ready 12 guns with their crews ready to prime, and primed all 18 of my German "Generals" which is one mounted man and one foot figure.  Now just to clean and prep the 15 foot units and the Germans will be ready for paint.  Then comes the 13 militia units which, when added to the Germans and the French and Spanish will get me to 60 primed infantry battalions.  Next up will be the 20 Loyalist units to be followed by the 8 Additional Continentals, 4 Extra Continentals, 2 Legionary Corps, and 6 light infantry battalions (or other way around) which get me to 100 primed and ready for paint foot units - plus whatever artillery and command figures I prep as part of the process.  That will only leave 45 British battalions and the Continentals proper, another 55 units to get to 200 total.  Oh, and then there is the British pioneer unit and the Continental Corps of Invalids.  Cavalry already primed with 4 units partially painted.

And I've started - at long last - building my German East Africa figures, last period I have any intention of adding to my collections.  So far, knock on wood, 2020 is being a decent year for productivity.  Plus I am committed to run an ACW game at a convention in March.

Terrain making activity

I have three dozen of these balls - appears to be string wrapped around a styrofoam ball - will use to make some sort of tree most likely.

 A view into a little Aladdin's cave, the tub is large and packed full.  This is just a view of one layer, there are more than double the number of visible plastic containers with various items.

 These trees are the real reason for this post  Note the items hanging down, easiest to see on the leftmost tree.  These are foundations for jungle trees.

 And to give a sense of size, I've placed an Indian Mutiny elephant in the view from a top down perspective.  For 15 mm, these will be very large trees which means they will help achieve my goal of a triple canopy forest and jungle.

 More trees for the jungle building project.

 This is a craft store bird house that will become my own Taj-mah-small.  Same elephant.

A closer view of the elephant with his mahout and rider - while I'm using for Indian Mutiny, I think it comes from a Mughal range of figures.

Nothing earth shattering, just spent an hour or so trying to consolidate my 'verdure-in-training' supplies for when I start working on rainforest and jungle.