Quod Manica

Hind Commander: Predator UAVs

2012-01-29T22:27:00.000+01:00

Well, just two UAVs...

I love how quickly these 1/600 models paint up :)

Hind Commander: USMC Trucks

2012-01-28T21:26:00.000+01:00

Nice change of pace from my 20mm Taliban are these 1/600 (3mm) USMC Trucks, which I painted for Hind Commander. Hind Commander is a relatively new game in which both players control a force of helicopters, assisted by ground forces. A couple of weeks ago I purchased the rulebook and two starter armies (USMC & Ultramodern Russians) along with it. Thus far, I have not yet played the game, but as soon as both armies are painted, I'm going to get a few games in.

I just finished the first 5 trucks: USMC Light Tactical Vehicles (or somesuch)

And to show you just how small 3mm is:

Cheerio
Jan

Moving right along!

2012-01-18T20:45:00.000+01:00

4 more vehicles finished, all weathering will be done when I have finished painting all the vehicles for my project :)

Back to the painting desk!

Off to a good start :)

2012-01-15T16:16:00.005+01:00

After a short hiatus I'm back working on my Afghanistan project. Deadline for now is March. In the meantime I have finished two Civvie Trucks, with several Toyota Hiluxes following shortly.

The items in the back are loose and can be removed to allow up to two models to take their place.

Earlier this week I ordered a small Afghan village worth of compounds at GameCraft Miniatures, so once they arrive I can start working on more terrain as well.

As an aside, I got my special hat for this game as well: a traditional Afghan Pakol hat :)

Also, and this comes in pretty handy with my New Year's Resolution, I finished a prepainted, snap-together Revell model of Darth Vader's TIE Fighter :)

I got it as a present for my birthday from a friend if mine.

Now, time to update my NY Resolution list and paint lots more so that I can go wild at Salute in April.

Cheerio
Jan

New Year’s Resolution

2011-12-13T10:00:00.000+01:00

December is traditionally the month to look back and reminisce about all the things you’ve done the past year. Well, so did I and I found that I bought loads of miniatures that still have to see the inside of an undercoat spray can! No surprises there, but I found myself planning several future projects, which included buying several hundreds of new miniatures. As if I need more unpainted lead!

So, I came up with my New Year’s Resolution to try to dent the Lead Mountain.

If I want to buy new miniatures, be they infantry, cavalry or vehicles, I'll have to paint that number of models twice first.

For example, if I wanted to buy a unit of 5 infantry models, I'll have to finish (Jasephase #19 for the insiders) 10 infantry models first.

For ease of reference I made the following Conversion Table:

Painted	Unpainted
2 infantry models	1 infantry model
2 cavalry models	1 cavalry model or 2 infantry models
2 vehicles	1 vehicle or 3 cavalry models or 6 infantry models

Hopefully, if I have the discipline to stick to this scheme I'll be painting more than I'll be buying, which is a good thing (or so I'm told :) ).

Anyone else with any New Year's resolutions or are you more like Calvin?

Cheers
Jan

Revealed: i Condottieri

2011-12-11T17:50:00.000+01:00

And this is what's in the packages:

A little box with...

5 new Italian Renaissance Condottieri (mercenary captains) by Elhiem.

Leonardo il Furbo

Ronaldo il Sinistro

Giovanni il Severo

Luca il Gigante

Antonio il Feroce

These models are the start of an entire range of late 15th, early 16th century Italian Renaissance figs. I have commissioned Matt of Elhiem to sculpt them for me and are available from his website. The first pack, these 5 mercenary captains, are based on my four gaming pals and myself, so that we can command our mercenary forces in person.

The models are 20mm in size, so here's a comparison pic of Leonardo as pictured above, next to an actual size version:

I have started another blog, aptly named i Condottieri, for all new pictures and things regarding this range, which will be updated when the occasion arises. However, since Matt is usually very busy with his own ranges, updates will be slow.

Cheers
Jan

Teaser...

2011-12-10T22:39:00.003+01:00

4 neat little packages...

Tomorrow, after my monthly gaming day, I will reveal what's inside...

The Marines ride in!

2011-11-25T06:54:00.000+01:00

Finally got the kits to build the Humvees for the Marines. Will be building them in a production line this weekend!

SuperCobras will be done at a later date.

20mm Afghanistan - a project I might actually finish!

2011-11-17T20:39:00.000+01:00

For a rather big game in January I need loads of modern 20mm Afghanistan models, so far I have completed quite a bit, but I still have plenty to do!

USMC

Special Forces

Afghan Civilians

Catachan Jungle Fighters

2011-04-25T14:12:00.000+02:00

For a small sideproject I'm doing with a friend I needed an IG unit. Since Catachans are one of my favourites I built the following unit. We will be using the Necromunda rules, so instead of lasguns, they are armed with autoguns.

The entire unit

Command (1 Leader + 2 Gangers)

5 Grunts (5 more Gangers

Ogryn (Heavy)

Scrap Soldier

2011-03-03T21:56:00.002+01:00

One of my colleagues at work has her last day tomorrow before she starts another job. Since she is very creative we all had to make something as well. I made this little soldier out of bits and pieces I found lying around on my workplace.

Unpainted, which shows all the separate pieces

Painted and Varnished in simple colours

I had a lot of fun making it and might actually make more of them to be used as proper chess pieces. Well, maybe one day I will :P

Long live IKEA!!!

2011-02-04T22:28:00.001+01:00

My Hobby corner in our living room used to look like this:

But, understandably, this stretched my girlfriend's tolerance of my hobby to (and beyond) its limits, so we went to IKEA here in Amersfoort and now it looks like this:

I actually have more room than I used to and it looks much better as well.

Me is happy!!!

Capture the Flag Teams done!

2011-01-29T22:22:00.004+01:00

4 teams speedpainted (took me about 30 minutes per team) for a Capture the Flag team I'll be playing with my mates next weekend. Although definitely not my best quality, this is the first time ever that I finished a project in time...brings a tear to my eye :)

Miniatures from the Ultramodern range by The Assault Group.

Adobe building

2011-01-02T17:46:00.000+01:00

WorldWorks II

2010-11-25T20:10:00.000+01:00

Yay! The foamcore has arrived! I spent the last 30 minutes printing and gluing the templates to the foamcore board. Next I will cut them all out and glue the printed tiles on and presto, the base of my dungeon is finished.

Also, I cut out all the prints I showed earlier and I even built some walls:

However, I found out that the small folds on top of each wall (which are used as ledges on top of which you can place more tiles to build up you dungeon vertically) didn't glue as well. For all my gluework I use Pritt Permanent, such as these:

As they allow me to apply a very thin layer of glue. Usually this is good enough to stick two halves together, but apparently it isn't strong enough for those ledges. Instead I use two-sided sticky tape, which works like a charm.

Right, I'm off building mah dungeon!

Cheers
Jase

WorldWorks I

2010-11-20T20:47:00.000+01:00

A few days ago I bought this:

to make this:

Which will be a Dwarven Dungeon within a week. I purchased some files by WorldWorks to make a Dwarven dungeon for Dungeon Crawls (by far my most favourite fantasy game). At the moment I'm happily cutting and gluing away, so most of the walls will be done this weekend (I'll show pics tomorrow evening). As for the floor tiles, they will have to wait until next weekend, as my foamcore will not be here until Thursday.

I cannot reveal the eventual layout yet, as the dungeon is intended for a game with friends and I need the element of surprise :)

Cheers
Jase

PS For all of you that are not convinced paper terrain can look good, I was of that mind also. However, having seen them (the Worldworks files) in the flesh at Crisis a couple of weeks ago, I'm a great fan. Currently I'm thinking of getting the Modern sets as well as that would make a great layout for my SWAT.

FoW Sherman Platoon

2010-09-05T22:33:00.000+02:00

As promised here are some more tin soldiers (well, resin and plastic, but who cares). My Sherman platoon of 5 Shermans. I will only use 3 of them in my 600 points list, but since they come in packs of five I finished them all in one go.

Unfortunately, the light has washed out the shading on the tanks, so in real life they look even more gritty. Decals will be added once I have varnished them (I probably varnish my entire 600 points army in one go).

Cheers
Jase

PS Two posts in one day! It doesn't get any weirder than this...

Now for something completely different...

2010-09-05T09:43:00.000+02:00

No tin soldiers in this post, but an altogether different hobby. Yesterday, my parents celebrated the 30th anniversary of their marriage and they took us out to make our own stained glass panel. As this was a surprise I didn't know until the very last what we were going to do.

Anyway, after a day's hard work we finished our panels as you can see below:

The one on the left was made by me and the one on the right was made by my girlfriend. I never knew doing this was so much fun! I really can't use another hobby right now, but this is something I really like to pick up in the future again.

Right, next time I will have tin soldiers for you again :)

Cheers
Jase

Laziest post ... ever :)

2010-08-20T20:35:00.000+02:00

About a month ago some friends and I went to Ypres. My mate Andy's got the report (in two parts) on his blog:

Part I

Part II

Thanks Andy ;)

Armored Rifle Company Command finished!

2010-08-16T20:08:00.000+02:00

Done! Although they still need to be varnished (too wet atm to do that) so that I can add decals, flock and foliage.

I'm still in doubt whether to add another highlight to the vehicles. On the one hand I rather like their dark look, but the colours might be a bit too flat.

Projects, Sir. Fahsends of 'em

2010-08-15T16:38:00.000+02:00

Now that my Armored Rifle HQ is nearing completion (a few highlights here and there) I'm looking for a new project to finish. Considering that I have a notorious short attention span (ask my friends), I'm rather pleased that I was able to finish these models in a reasonable time.

So, what to do next? I got tons of unfinished projects, but I narrowed them down to 5, which you can find to the right, cast your vote and I'll have another project to finish.

Cheers
Jase

FoW US Armored Rifle Company HQ - I

2010-08-11T19:41:00.002+02:00

It's been a while, but I actually managed to paint something! W00t!

Here you can see the HQ Section for my Flames of War US Armored Company Command. Currently, I'm painting the Jeep and Halftrack that go with them. Grass and foliage will added to the bases once I have varnished them:

All together now...

Commander

2nd in Command

Bazooka Team

In the end I used quite a lot of different paints for these models. Below you'll find the list (more for my own reference than anything else, because I always lose my notes... :S)

- Khemri Brown (GW)
- Dheneb Stone (GW)
- Burnt Umber (Vallejo)
- English Uniform Brown (Vallejo)
- Beige Brown (Vallejo)
- US Dark Green (Vallejo)
- Saddle Brown (Vallejo)
- Tallarn Flesh (GW)
- Flat Flesh (Vallejo)
- Green Grey (Vallejo)
- Beige (Vallejo)
- Khaki (Vallejo)
- White Grey (Vallejo)
- Carmine Red (Vallejo)
- Intense Blue (Vallejo)
- Dark Grey (Vallejo)
- Black Grey (Vallejo)
- Cavalry Brown (Vallejo)
- Devlan Mud Wash (GW)
- Badab Black Wash (GW)
- Ogryn Flesh Wash (GW)

A cookie for the one who can tell which colour I have used for which parts ;)

New Kit on the Blog

2010-07-16T13:37:00.001+02:00

Last Wednesday Andy dropped by to give me my new kit, Jo from Burst Angel. I started prepping her yesterday and I was surprised by the quality cast from e2046. Although the resin used for the kit is slightly softer than that used by Hobbyfan, there are hardly any mouldlines. All it needs is a little bit of sanding and filling up the gaps where the parts are joined.

Painting her will be slightly difficult, because she has her arms crossed in front of her body. Unfortunately I cannot paint those parts separately, because of the gaps between her arms and the rest of her body.

I'll post some WIP pictures this weekend, because I hope to have finished prepping her by Sunday, so that I can start painting next week.

Workbench 10-07-2010

2010-07-10T20:38:00.000+02:00

Current status of my workbench (the picture is clickable, but of bad quality due to lighting issues):

I intend to post this kind of pictures regularly, so that you can see what I'm working on at the moment.

Also, for those interested, when I paint a model I always Blu-Tak it to the lid of a fruit drink, so that I don't have to touch the model I'm painting. It also has the added bonus that I often drink healthy stuff :) On the left an empty lid and on the right one with a model attached to it. Again, the quality of the pictures sucks due to lighting issues.

Cheers

Jase

Resin and more...resin!

2010-07-07T19:05:00.000+02:00

Ages ago, or more precisely last January, I got a Garage Kit from my friends at Ronfest. Having never ever seen or heard of a Garage Kit before I had no clue what to do with the naked lady in resin I got in my hands.

Anyway, Andy (who has a blog of his own here) has sent me some links to Garage Kit websites and now I'm hooked. I ordered two more (Jo and Motoko). Especially Motoko is really cool, because I have a huge poster of her in that exact same pose. So, while waiting for the other two kits to arrive I started cleaning my first kit (Mizuki), which will look like this when I have finished her:

So, that's one resin thing I'm doing at the moment, but there is more...

Last Sunday I went to Belgium with some friends to visit the battlefields of Ypres. At the end of the day we visited a shop that sold all kinds of hobby-related stuff. I bought a bust of a Sikh Cavalry Officer that I wanted to have for quite some time. I've already prepped him and started painting him today.

FYI, it's this guy:

Cheers
Jase