HMGS-South Presents HURRICON 2013

September 26^th. to 29^th.
Join HMGS-South at the International Palms Resort and Convention Center Orlando. 


My understanding from friends is that Pete Panzeri is the current convention director and Bill Moreno is the guest of honor. These two guys know how to run conventions and games. Both are long time veterans of Historicon, Fall In, Cold Wars, etc. Gaming in the Deep South can only be better for their efforts.

Orlando is easy to get to from anywhere inside or outside of Florida and generally, not in the path of most stray hurricanes. Back in the old days when Chuck Kennedy and/or I ran our share of the Hurricon events in Tampa, it seemed like a fair bet we would get either a Tropical Storm, a Hurricane, or a near miss to liven the weekend. Oddly, since HMGS-South moved away from the Tampa venue, I don't think we have had a storm in the Hurricon timeframe since...knock on wood.

OH MY GOD!!!!! I hate things that get in the way. Life gets in the way.  Hmmm, I don't really hate life...I sort of need it.

Okay then, OH MY GOD!!!!! Things that get in the way are irritating. Better. So Very little progress on the forlorn 36 man French battalion. Faces are still plodding along.  Testing the various colors I have culled out on my table. Trying at the same time to regain lost muscle memory. The eyes are all done...so hard to keep them from looking pop-eyed...how did I do it before? I am progressively getting the white slashes smaller and closer set the noses of the figures. Trying to keep the pupils small and biased toward the top of the slash. Also trying to be aware of placement...if one pupil ends up in the wrong spot, I am trying to get the other pupil in the corresponding wrong spot as to give the figure a glancing look.

Since I don't want to just keep photographing faces forever, I have decided to load some really helpful video links that I use on various projects...errrr, when I actually see a project through to completion, that is.

Today's links will all be Flames of War links, but are fairly ubiquitous as techniques go. One note, on the Techniques from Combat Painter, I use and prefer the Golden's Coarse Pumice technique for Flames of War basing and other 15mm basing projects.  On 25/28mm projects, while the Golden's Coarse Pumice technique will work just as well, I personally prefer to use the old white glue and basing sand routine.  Lastly, The Painting Clinic has a superb Flames of War basing video which I will post here as well. I use a combination of the Combat Painter and the Painting Clinic techniques for my own bases. I use the pumice gel, then use the Vallejo color triad from the Painting Clinic. Word of caution...ALL of these guys use a minimal amount of flock, tufts, crumbles of coarse flock and small rocks...there is a reason...too much of anything is bad...very bad; and once the too much flock or static grass is down, it is there to stay, so all the rest of the character and definition of the base you worked so hard on goes away...DOHHH!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFVebYoC34g  Combat Painter's Basing Flames of War

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF-kcBS5c8Q  Modeldad's How to make spent HMG rounds for your Flames of War bases

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5zq8W1bLEg  The Painting Clinic's How to Paint 15mm US Airborne for FLames of War

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A92P048H2EM  Flames of War Open Fire! US Parachute Rifleman Painting Guide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LRlHszEqzE  Flames of War Open Fire! Grenadier Painting Guide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nsn--kKbjk  arbaal817 Red Devils Special

Vallejo Triad suggestions

This chart of a few Vallejo triads is extremely useful for those of you who are sort of "paint by numbers" types. I found this at http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=16173.0  I also noticed above this chart a listing for the same triads in the Vallejo names for the colors. I have reorganized the original list from the Lead Adventure post to put the triads in order from dark to light, the way you would apply them.

980 Black Green
922 US Uniform Green
952 Lemon Yellow

980 Black Green
975 Military Green
850 Vallejo Olive

975 Military Green
850 Vallejo Olive
915 Deep Yellow

981 Orange Brown
915 Deep Yellow
951 White

940 Saddle Brown
981 Orange Brown
915 Deep Yellow

985 Hull Red
940 Saddle Brown
981 Orange Brown

984 Brown
875 Beige Brown
917 Beige

822 Black Brown
984 Brown
875 Beige Brown

926 Red
908 Carmine Red
956 Light Orange

908 Carmine Red
909 Vermillion Red
851 Deep Orange

909 Vermillion Red
851 Deep Orange
911 Light Orange

851 Deep Orange
911 Light Orange
915 Deep Yellow

965 Prussian Blue
844 Deep Sky Blue
951 White

898 Dark Sea Blue
965 Prussian Blue
901 Pastel Blue

899 Dark Prussian Blue
901 pastel Blue
951 White

872 Chocolate Brown
846 Mahogany Brown
929 Light Brown

822 Black Brown
872 Chocolate Brown
875 Beige Brown

826 Medium brown
843 Cork Brown
847 Dark Sand

983 Earth
856 Ochre Brown
948 Golden Yellow

862 Black Grey
992 Neutral Gray
951 White

979 Dark Green
830 Field Gray
886 Green Gray

830 Field Gray
886 Green Gray
971 Green Gray

822 Black Brown
871 Leather Brown
977 Desert Yellow

871 Chocolate Brown
921 English Uniform
917 Beige

941 Burnt Umber 
988 Khaki
976 Buff

Also have a look at Artmaster Studios, Toby posted these two useful lists based on his experience. http://artmastertoby.blogspot.com/2010/02/vallejo-triads.html the first link is a batch of general triads and this second link is for Toby's suggestions on Horse triads using Vallejo. http://artmastertoby.blogspot.com/2011/03/horse-triads.html

I hope this is of use to some of you. I know I am always on the prowl for useful Vallejo Triad suggestions.

Catching up and trying new things

So last night was a complete write off. Unbeknownst to me, the objective for the evening was not actually painting faces on greatcoated plastic Perrys; instead the true objective was to purchase not one, but two because it was a better deal, LG VS930 phones.  So far, I can't tell the difference other than all of my ringtones are gone and my mail isn't loading or deleting properly, etc. At any rate, not a drop of paint his the pallet last night.  I was very cranky at work today as a result...I suspect there was much rejoicing when I left for the day. 

Someone asked me when I was talking about the new blog experiment, what was the lead mountain. I explained the wargamers fear, legend, or whatever it is, then I decided I should maybe take a photo or tow as a photo explanation of why I chose to call my blog "Climbing the Lead Mountain". As you can see below are part of the several shelf units in my secret lair (the garage's third stall, previously referenced). Mind you these labeled bins are only a portion of the dragon horde there. What's that you ask? Why no silly, they are not painted. Almost none of it is painted. In the other shot, my former painting desk with halogen lamps. It is cluttered and still in use for Flames of War painting, but instead of clearing out the FOW stuff, I decided to use my long gaming table with two other lamps an create a second painting station. The second table is the location of all of the previous 28mm WIP photos.

So back to the work at hand, and often interrupted this pas week.  As I have tried to say in almost every post, I am not the best or fastest painter, but I have fun and I try. I also explained last time that I was trying to find a better solution to my previous plan on faces. Well, there is some progress to report. I tried two different options tonight. First a simple three steps using the existing base of the dark fleshtone, then dwarf flesh highlighted with basic flesh, all from Vallejo. This set of colors was much closer in tone than the previous and yellowish elf fleshtone as the final highlight.

The second option was to use the existing basecoat. I like that tone as a base, by the way. then I highlighted up with all three of the Foundry Flesh triad A, B and C...so actually four layers of color on faces and hands. Well I am no Toby from Artmaster, but I was at least not really disgusted by the results other than the slow pace of work.  It also dawned on me that I had not done the eyes first...very sad revelation. So I went back and worked on several sets of eyes as well as faces.  One of the things I am still having great difficulty with is the thickness of my paint and the fast pace of drying in the hot garage.  I will keep playing with it, but if any of you have suggestions, I would love to hear them. Okay, so  to close out tonight, in the pics below, the first photo shows two perry plastics both with the four layer job using the Vallejo basecoat and the Foundry Flesh triad. Each of the bottom two photos has a Perry plastic fig with fours steps and a Perry or Foundry metal fig (also by the Perrys I think) with the three step Vallejo process. Enjoy. I think tomorrow is finish faces day and start layering trousers and greatcoats day if I can manage it.

Faces Primed

Okay, apologies to John right off the bat. Faces are gonna have to wait for a day of two. Got through the sample fig to the last highlight...barf! The Elf Skintone is too light and yellowish, so that one will be replaced and I have reprimed that whole face...more to follow.  In the meantime, I finished the other 18 faces and hands after dinner with my wife again. Kids are both away, so we decided to go on strike for cooking at home this week...unfortunately, that also eats into about half of my planned painting time and I am anything but fast when it comes to laying down colors. and for what it's worth, as nice as the Perry plastics are, I can really tell the difference and much prefer the pewter castings.

Oh, just noticed, you can sort of see the painted fig tacked to the bottom of my figure holding jig. I am using him as a guide while working on the batch

Oh, So That's How That Works!?!

Alright! No promises, but today a buddy of mine asked me if I would try to show some tight pics of the steps I am going through on the faces...John, I will attempt this skill defying feat for you. It also occured to me that if I can seem to accomplish John's request, it will act a somewhat of a photo tutorial...great, if it works, now I am doomed to doing everything step-wise in photos so people can see what might work...or, as is often the case in my painting, what NOT to try...EVER again.

I have spent some time trying to learn the gadgets or widgets or whatever they are called, in order to imprve the lateral utility of this site to as many gamers, painters, or what-have-you, as possible. So please not the growing list of stuff on the side.

I am trying to go through my favorites to beef up the links to my favorite gaming sites and blogs as well as my essential list of manufacturers. Right now, I will be throwing up Napoleonics and American Revolution (AWI) links. Later I will add others including Ancients, WW II, Pirates, Darkest Africa, etc.

Now, take a break. I am going to the lair to paint faces and take pictures per John's request.

Let the blog begin!

Well this should be interesting. In the category of new tricks...I will try "start a blog" for $500...
I have no idea how this will turn out, but I decided to go out into the vast abyss of the third stall in my garage and have a go at reducing the "lead mountain"...Yes, yes, I have heard the stories about what happens to a wargamer if he or she reduces their hoard of lead to nothing. One, I have no illusions that I could ever paint that many figures in what is likely to remain of this lifetime; and two, I am not afraid to cheat and buy more!!!

So two nights ago, 28 July, 2013, I broke out the Perry plastics and two bags of Perry and Foundry French in greatcoats and started segregating and trimming and gluing and next thing I knew, I had the beginnings of a 36 figure battalion for what will likely be a General de Brigade Army. Spent probably about two hours on that part of this task.

I then took the new batch of recruits outside to prime...at dusk...not a good idea. Apparently it was dark enough that I thought I was priming, but was in actuality, just priming the humid Florida evening...so, march into my magic kingdom (that third stall of the garage mentioned above), notice the problem and try again in the garage. I suppose the guys at Privateer Press will be elated to hear that I am spraying primer all over the yard and not on figures...after all, that means I need to order more cans...and I do love P3 Black Primer the best of all.

Well, the good news is, the figures are actually primed and ready to accept paint...now for many nights of uninterrupted work. Fat chance of that fantasy working out, but we shall see.

Ahhh, what is the plan you say? Well, my plan is to try to spend some amount of time as often as I can, painting, photographing progress and posting updates to this blog thingie. While I am at it, I hope to improve my painting skills and pass on what I learn and tell you all who or where I learned it from, and perhaps demonstrate to all the rest of you, just as average as me, gamers that all we have to do is march out to where our lead mountain is and begin to attack it and we can all have painted figs a-plenty with decent paint jobs and so on.

So, by the end of the evening on 28 July, 36 figures assembled, cleaned and primed...enough of a start.

No progress on the new project on 29 July.

Tonight, 30 July, 2013, dinner with wifey, ran into friends, chatted at the restaurant far too long...eating into the painting opportunity for a second night... darnit, this is working out about as I suspected so far. I managed to base the flesh on the back half of the mob. So, by my liberal arts count and with socks and shoes off...18 souls almost have faces and hands when I decided I should take a rest and start this blog adventure.

So far, this blog thing seems almost idiot proof...which is the most important thing if I am to become functional at maintaining this adventure. I also wanted to mention that my plan for the faces is to use what I have already in the garage...err, sophisticated gaming workshop. I happen to have the Vallejo Game Color flesh paints which are a wonderful basic tool for this project. As a result, the base coat is Game Color 44, Dark Fleshtone. The first highlight will be Game Color 41, Dwarf Skin, and the second highlight will be Game Color 4, Elf Skintone. I plan a fairly straightforward attack using these colors and armed with the knowledge I received from the Artmaster Studios video tutorials on You Tube...wonderful stuff!!!

Phew! I think this blog thing might take as much time as the actual painting!!!