Miniature Friday: Mechs!

It’s been over a month since my last Miniature Friday, and that one just showed off some of the bare metal I had bought at Historicon. Well, it’s back to painting this week, and showing off some of those Historicon purchases with paint.

Here we have a couple of mechs and a couple of heavy tank escorts. Normally, I talk about how much I enjoyed painting a figure, but in this case, I can’t. It’s not because there is anything wrong with the miniatures. I actually think they are all top notch. Instead, the problem is with me as a painter.

Although I’ve been painting miniatures for about twenty-five years, the vast majority of that painting has been of living creatures. As I once again discovered, painting something to look like real flesh or cloth is very different to painting something so that it is looks like it is painted. Do you follow?

Whereas something like a cloak has lots of subtle colour variation because of its numerous folds, big flat expanses of metal do not. I know there are lots of tricks and techniques for painting machines of war, but  I don’t really know most of them. Sure, I can do a bit of shading in the cracks and dry brushing, and I’m learning how to use metallic paint to (ironically) show edges where the paint has rubbed off, but my expertise when it comes to painting these machines is much less than when painting creatures, and that is frustrating.

All of that said, I’m not unhappy with the results that I have achieved on these figures. They are bright and colourful. While this doesn’t really make much sense on a battlefield, I think it is necessary to make these figures an enjoyable spectacle. I even managed to get a couple of BattleTech House Davion decals on them (decals being another technique in which I have little skill).

So I didn’t enjoy the process, but I like the results. Now, I just need to see if I can’t convince myself to paint a few more so that I can actually play a game.

For those interested, the larger mech is a Reaper Cav figure. The smaller mech and the two tanks are from Iron Wind Metals.

The Death Train

Political cartoons used to be a lot edgier...

Great-Grandad and John Dillinger’s Cuff Links

L-R: Col. Dave Dodenhoff, Col. Melvin Purvis, Lt. Col. James D. McCullough, and Maj. Plat Wimbaly

Recently, my aunt sent me a copy of a photograph of my great-grandfather, James McCullough. The photo was taken in Oran, Algeria, when Jim was serving as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the US Army Supply Corp.

Jim is the second from the right. The smaller man, on his right (second from the left) is Col. Melvin Purvis. Jim and Melvin had been friends since long before the war, when they both had attended Law School at the University of South Carolina (hence the newspaper in the photo).

After Law School, Melvin Purvis joined the FBI and was eventually placed in charge of the Chicago branch, at a time when Chicago seemed overrun with gangsters. It was Purvis who led the manhunts that eventually killed Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, and John Dillinger.

According to a note attached to the back of the original photograph, Melvin Purvis game Jim the cuff-links that John Dillinger was wearing on the night he was gunned down. 

The King of Rome

Last week, I was listening to a folk show on BBC Radio 2, when they played The King of Rome by Dave Sudbury. The presenter called it ‘a near perfect folk song’. Well, I’ve got to agree.

Apparently the song has achieved some fame from being covered by other artists, most notably June Tabor. I’ve listed to a few of them, but none seem to have quite the depth of emotion of Dave Sudbury’s original. It appears the only way to get this original version is to ordered it directly from Dave Sudbury himself. You can order it here. I have.

Hobbled

Throughout the softball season, I had problems with my feet. They would be fine during the game, but afterwards would get stiff and painful. This usually happened when I woke up the next morning, would last for an hour or two, and then go away. In truth, I thought it was just part of being a bit older and bit out of shape.

Well, after my last softball game of the season, the same thing happened, but the pain did not go away. Instead, I spent the next month and a half, limping around. Eventually, I went to the doctor. After a quick examination, including some painful poking, he announced with confidence that I had Plantar Pasciitis.

This not-uncommon injury is caused by a collection of small tears in the plantar facia, the ligament-like collection of tissue that runs along the bottom of the foot. It is most common amongst athletes (or softball wannabes) and people with flat feet (which I have). If I was a professional athlete, the doctors would likely give me a cortisone injection; however, as this is painful and the results are uncertain, it is rarely given for every day suffers. Instead, there is little I can do except rest it, do some stretching exercises, and try to deal with the pain.

The good news is that I’m unlikely to damage my foot any further as long as I don’t sprint much, although I must be careful if walking long distances not to hurt other parts of my body by overcompensating. The bad news is that the injury can take up to a year to heal. Ironically, this means I should be just about ready to go by next softball season.

Thankfully, the injury doesn’t bother me cycling, so I can still get my exercise and get to work. 

Miniature Friday – Historicon Special

As was my plan, I opened up my Historicon buying with a bit of Battletech. I don’t actually play the game at the moment, and may never use those rules, but I have been thinking about playing some 6mm science-fiction with big stompy robots for awhile. Since this is one of the few miniature wargaming genres that is much more popular in the USA than the UK, Historicon is a perfect chance to pick up some stuff.

Now, my one problem with Battletech is that the aesthetic of a lot of their mechs just doesn’t appeal to me. There are a few I like and might pick up, but many of their giant robots look gangly to me. So, I started off my Mech forces by picking up a couple of Mechs from the Reaper Cav series.

Next, I got a little pack of decals of the sword and sun symbol of House Davion, one of the major empires in the Battletech universe. I just think they have one of the coolest emblems. In the past, I haven’t had a lot of luck with decals, but I’m looking forward to giving them another shot.

Finally, I picked up a trio of used Battletech novels. These are not high literature, but if you want to read books about big robots shooting each other up, then your options are limited. They were cheap enough that I don’t mind pitching them if they aren’t any good, but I know that I’m much more likely to get my mechs painted if I’m reading related books at the same time.

Well, that was Thursday. Successfully reserved, I thought, only buying two actual miniatures. If I can keep my miniature acquisitions down to that level, I should be fine.

Dalek's Invade Heathrow!

I am now safely ensconced in my hotel room in Fredericksburg, Maryland, ready for the first day of Historicon tomorrow. It's about eight o'clock local time, but my body thinks it is one in the morning, so forgive me if my grammar isn't spot on.

I got up at 5 AM in order to catch a bus, then another bus, to Heathrow. Then just a jaunty little eight hour flight over the ocean, followed by an hour and a half car ride, and I had arrived.

Actually, for all that it was long and included lots of steps, it was mostly painless, just a bit dull. One of the few highlights of the the day was seeing the actual model for the Dalek Supreme, used in the new Doctor Who series, in Heathrow. I'm not exactly sure why it was there, but it was pretty cool. I was quite impressed by the craftsmanship. I fear my only picture taking device is my Ipod, which isn't the greatest. Still, it's better than nothing.