[READY] From PeterD Sino-Japanese War and Skulls 24 Points

A few more ships for my ongoing Sino-Japanese war project.  No long history rants this week, as these mostly repeats as I finish off the two starter packs that I got from Tumbling Dice.  The smaller vessels were packaged in twos and in a few cases threes, so I did one of each pack to start with.  Now I am coming back to pick off the second and third models.

First up four Chinese ships - the cruisers Jingyuen, Jiyuan, and Yangwei, plus the torpedo gunboat Kwangyi.  These are all sisters of ships in my last week's posts, so there's not much to add.  Torpedo gunboats (TGBs) were built by most navies in the early 1890s to counter the emerging menace of enemy torpedo boats.  Basically they were a top down approach, small cruisers armed with guns and torpedoes.  They proved too slow to catch a torpedo boat so navies developed the torpedo boat destroyer, soon shortened to destroyer, built as larger torpedo boats and with enough speed to do the job.

Next some Japanese ships, the ironclad Kongo (sister of the Hiei) and the gunboats Yamato (no not that one), Atago and Chokai again sisters of ships posted last week.   Note that I've tried to vary the rigs or flag position of sister ships to provide visual differences.  In the Chokai's case, lost or banjaxed masts meant that she hers were repurposed to other ships and she got wire masts instead.  Also a torpedo boat flotilla to run away from the Chinese TGBs. 

And finally two merchantmen.  The Kowshing was a British flagged vessel sunk in the Battle of Pungdo, initiated by the Japanese before the formal declaration of war (sense a pattern?).   The Cassius (having been born on the Ides of March,  am partial to Big Julie themed names) was repurposed from the second ship in the pack of Guangia class corvettes.   Info on the ships of the Guandong fleet is sparse, but the Guangjia appears to not have had any sister ships.  However, her generally lines were similar to older merchants of the age.

Finally because Barks asked, here's some photos from a recent Skull Tour put on by a colleague's Bio class at our University.

These are various cats.  The big one is a lion with a bullet hole in the forehead.  There wasn't much difference between the bobcat and house cat skulls.

Moose, top and bottom

Beavers.  As any Canadian 5 year old will tell you, those teeth never stop growing and they need to keep chewing wood.

Grizzly, Black and Polar bears.  Note the responsible emphasis on safe boning.

Various weasels and the like (not the ones holding public office).

Back to the ships, there's a total of 12 hulls in 1/2400 scale for a total of 24 points.   

I'm going claim two squirrels points here.  I have completed 13 Chinese hulls (9 posted last week and 4 this week) for 26 points.  I have also completed 16 Japanese hulls (10 last week and 6 this week for 32 points).

My squirrel total now stands at 6:

• Badass Female Pulp Heroines
• Badass Female Nordic Resistance Fighters
• US Navy 1898 (including transports)
• European Intervention squadrons 1898
• Japanese navy 1894-5
• Chinese navy 1894-5

From MartinC The Waikiki Sharks (85pts)

This could be the last bloodbowl team I paint for a while. I've said before one of the great joys of bloodbowl is the none standard teams. The lizardman team is one of the best teams with a big guy, lots of blockers and stunty linemen and throwers. So obviously my team is sharks not lizardmen. 

I present the Waikiki Sharks

The big guy, with his kills on his shoulder

Very much a life guard vibe

The blockers

Very much a mafioso on holiday vibe

The lizardmen have chameleon skins as throwers. So my team, obviously has starfish

The stunting, kids on the beach 

Love the at play poses

Finally a cheerleader 

The whole team. Could be my favourite team

Scores on the doors

17x28mm sharks =85 points

My god Martin, there is no end to the weirdness is there?  But what wonderful wacky weirdness there is.  I love the Hoff from Baywatch vibe on the big guy and his kill tattoos.  The beach going middle rankers are wonderful too.  Can the Pickleball paddle be used as a weapon?  Any team with Starfish gets my backing.

JOHNB: tuesday terrors: IRREGULAR VIKINGS in 40mm (25 points)

Squirreless again! The Vikings failed the test..... First though you get a sample of Irregular Miniatures 1848 Range! of course repurposed from their other ranges! Enjoy Danes, Romanians, Tuscans, Modenanians and Parmese oh, and a cafe selling wargame figures......

In March Ian Kay who runs Irregular Miniatures will be retiring and his business will cease production. As someone has said he cast a million figures in 45 years and they travelled to wargamers all over the globe.

Ian Kay represents that era of the metal miniature where sculptors often were manufacturers as well. I met Ian at wargame shows where his stand was an extension of his workshop - it was not flashy but a veritable mine for figures piled in recepticles with the ranges laid out on shelves above.

A far cry from todays pre packed and branded ranges on offer.

I have even met the man at his home when I collected some figures but wanted to do a size comparison check first. He said just pop in when I was passing. He was just so accommodating and I thank him for that and his service which I found to be excellent.

All the best Ian for your retirement.

For some people Irregular were or are marmite - the rugged nature not loved or the style unappreciated.

In years to come people will recognise that these figures were an artform in the same way that a printed digital STL file is an art form of sorts - at least if it gets painted!

The cast metal figurine is most definitely a piece of sculpture and the mere fact that flames, heat and sweat are involved means its a very human creation.

We should celebrate the metal casters even more so as their kind diminish. As it happens I bought these 40mm Vikings at a cafe in York - back in 2022!

It is a pity the sets came in threes...............

They have since sat in a corner but in pursuit of squirrels I suddenly thought - their different. Only after painting them did I consider the 25 point cut off. Its hilarious as this AHPC I have done quite a few items for squirrels without considering their below the points threshold. heyho.

Whats more I had a varnish disaster with these figures - a first for me.

I had decided to play around with some washes and super diluted some colours to create bland cloaks on two figures. Two days of drying before varnishing did not prevent the vallejo matt varnish reigniting the washes. However I stopped and actually decided I had just made them a bit more timeworn!

The paint jobs are a mixture of citadel and vallejo paints regular and contrast even the odd one dating back a decade or more and still in great condition. However I also used some windsor and newton sepia ink wash over the initial white primer which while excellent for shading may have contributed to my varnish issues.

TOTAL POINTS are 3 x 40mm vikings = 3 x 7 points = 21 points.

First of all thanks for taking me down the Irregular Miniatures memory lane John.  For me if I was looking for that niche figure, or one that could be morphed into a niche figure, Irregular was THE go to place.  Looters with torches, wagons, odd animals, medieval bombards - check, check and check!  Love these old school vikings and the old school paint job that suits them to a tee.  I'm round you up to 25 for the nostalgia.

From DallasE - Khorne Berzerkers! (55 points)

Well isn't this a surprise. A planned project is unceremoniously shouldered aside for an insane new project!

So it goes, as they say... I've had ten unpainted second-hand Khorne Berzerkers (the old style multi-part plastic models from 1999) in a Plano case for years (over 10?) and on a whim decided "wouldn't these be fun to paint?" and it was on...

Several eBay purchases later I've got a pile of unpainted metal old-school metal models (and more plastic Berzerkers) for the army, and these are the first painted Berzerkers.

Of course I had to do a bit of repair and conversion (I wanted each model to have a bolt pistol and either a chainsword or chain-axe) but I think they've turned out OK. The paint formula is as follows: basecoat Khorne Red, overbrush Mephiston Red, wash with Vallejo Red Wash, paint metal bits Leadbelcher, wash the whole model with Nuln Oil, paint the brass bits Brass Scorpion highlighted Retributor Gold, wash the brass bits with Agrax Earthshade, that's pretty much it.

Groundwork starts Dark Brown, then Steel Legion Drab, then Rakarth Flesh drybrush.

Of course Kharn sneaks in a photobomb... he doesn't count because someone else did the basic painting on him, I just touched him up and redid the groundwork.

There's more yet to come on this project of course... but for now it's eleven 28mm-ish models for 55 points.

Cheers,

Dallas
 

Finding old figures in the stash, scouring the web for more and putting planned projects aside.  Nope I've got no memory of doing that sort of thing at all!  Anyway I'm glad that you did go down that rabbit hole as these are fantastic.  Love the red, and looking forward to to more of these plus what you originally had planned!

Tuesday Open Mic Night February 24th

 

This week the Tuesday terror firing the following acts to the stage

• Dallas opens up with some thrash metal
• JohnB has some epic tales to regal.
• Martin plays Surf Guitar in a wacky key (bad dad joke warning)
• Sylvain drops some weird shrooms and brings out his inner goth
• MikeF has some musical advice to share.

Like Dallas, I was considering some fine music from a US band for today's pick.  However, hockey let down and a tantrum of tariffs left me wanting someone Canadian.  I've seen Sarah harmer live twice, both times outdoors.  The first at the dearly missed Regina Folk Festival, the second time at the Banff Centre of the Arts with the Rockies as backdrop.  This is normally the last song that she'll sing in her set.  I couldn't find a live version with both decent sound and steady camera hands so went with the official video.