Sunday, March 29, 2020

What did you do during the 1st virus, grandpa?

Just a quick update on a few of the projects I am currently working on. I've got a few actually, which is rare for me. I typically only have one thing going at a time; I complete it, and then I move on to the next one. It's actually quite frustrating sometimes as I will get bored with what I am working on but can't move on until I finish. The perils of OCD, I guess.

Anyway, having said that, I am trying to maintain a 'side project' while I work away on my primary one. I recently made a trade for 56 of the old LotR Riders of Rohan from 1976; the same line of figures we collected as kids. I only had 6 and wanted more, especially since I have many more orcs and Uruk Hai. It's hard to do a re-fight of the battle of the Pelennor Fields with only 6 Rohirrim! They were painted way back when by another 16 year old (at the time) whom I made the trade with. I have been reconstituting them between my painting of my U.S Airborne force. He apologized for the paint job but I told him no worries, I was just slapping paint on dudes myself, way back then, too.

Speaking of...


Here's a squad with 1st Lt. and medic. I 'ordered' 30 of the figs overall, of which 12 others are painted. Nine to go.

I am not sure who the maker of these figs are. In a shady deal several months ago, a guy from TMP contacted me and let me know he could get certain figures for me at $1 each. Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink. I have bought a few hundred figures from him since! Haha, I've no idea what the deal is and don't care. I tell him what I want, Paypal him the money, and metal figs show up at my door a few days later. It works for me.

Oh yeah, he also can't count! (Do the math above.) I always get more than I pay for. From as little as one figure too many to as much as doubling my order; I never get the correct amount. The first few times, I offered to pay him for them, or in the case of sending me 24 figs instead of 12, offered to return the extra, but he always says it's no problem. Who knows.


Front and back of the same figure. I always get a few duplicates but that's to be expected. And once they are mixed in with others, you never notice.


Here's some of the Rohirrim as I received them in the trade. (BTW, I sent him a bunch of micro-armor in exchange. We were both very happy; I think. He kept some for himself which I think is great! There is nothing like those first figs you ever got!)  In gamer terms, at least most of these are painted and use-able if you really wanted to play, but this was not how I was going to leave them: I wanted them to match my own figs that I reconstituted several years ago.


Here they are after a quick touch up, and I really mean quick. Some paint and some Army Painter washes and viola, looking like new once again. I am doing them in groups of 5. I have 15 done and 41 to go, usually while waiting for my Airborne washes to dry.


As with our own figs from that era, I always try to leave something on the model as an homage to the original paint job. In the case of these guys, it is their shields. I didn't touch any of them.


I'm really kind of sad that I can't take the entire line of these figs I own with me when I die. I don't play with them often enough; I need to change that.

So, after I complete the Airborne I am going to try something different and try to paint two units at once. I have lots of stuff primed and sitting on the shelf looking at me with pleading eyes, just begging to be painted. They include (about a dozen each) Late Roman Infantry, 8 cataphracted cavalry, British F&I War Grenadiers *and* 18 F&I War Highlanders (yay, I get to paint plaid!), F&I War French Line infantry, Anglo-Saxon sword and shield men, Viking two handed axe men, some native Americans and a few WW2 odds and ends, including a Soviet 50mm mortar team, a 'redeploying' Airborne MMG team and one lonely German officer who I stepped on and broke his head. I finally got around to re-gluing it and priming him.

That should get me through this virus and the next two or three that come down the pike.



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