With the sudden release of several new “Battletech” miniature box sets by “Catalyst Game Labs” I thought it would prudent to dedicate the majority of this month's hobby time to painting the quite sizeable backlog of 1:285 scale plastic models I already own from the range. This should not only mean that my hobby table is significantly clearer (at least temporarily), but would also mean that the vast majority of the mechanical figures would be eligible for both the Twelfth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (AHPC) and Dave Stone’s Paint What You’ve Got Challenge too.
In addition, I already own enough finished models to finally start gaming my Weird War Two campaign, so hope to include a handful of Battle Reports covering the initial Invasion of Poland in 1939, featuring a combined British-French force of war walkers taking on the Germans and Russians. Such battles may well encourage me to pigment the odd Polish giant vehicle or two, as well as finally start working on some the jet-packed infantry figures which “Catalyst Game Labs” also produce…
Ideally, alongside these monstrous mechanical mechs, I would also be beavering away at some of the Epic 15mm Napoleonic British Infantry miniatures I recently received by “Warlord Games”. However, I’m still currently experimenting away on some plastic American Civil War strips I own, which came free with Issue 393 of the magazine "Wargames Illustrated".
Long-time followers (sufferers) of my hobby postings will know that I am not a particular fan of putting a brush-tip to the range’s ranked ten-man stands, as I am not a fan of batch-painting and resultantly don’t feel I’ve actually accomplished much until the entire base of twenty models is finally finished – something which actually took me almost an entire year to achieve in 2021. This time though, I’ve been pottering on my remaining ACW sprues to identify any ‘quick wins’ I can achieve with various painting techniques, and hope to then use this experience to ‘motor on’ through my Napoleonic soldiers in a month or two’s time.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, considering I am once again waist-deep in the AHPC, the past month saw me almost double my output in comparison to this time last year. Disappointingly though, I still didn’t paint anywhere near as many models as I probably should have done, and much of this is probably down to me spreading my hobby time somewhat thinly across several scales/projects rather than just focusing upon one or two – albeit I did complete a “Games Workshop” Dwarf Blood Bowl Sevens side, and add some additional infantry teams to my ever-increasing “Flames Of War” German Beach Defence company.
Over the next few weeks I’m actually hoping to continue building up my 15mm World War Two force by “Battlefront Miniatures” by completing even more Panzergrenadier Infantry bases, as well as a sMG34 Machine-Gun Platoon. I’m also hoping to get at least one more Blood Bowl Sevens team completed, using long Out Of Production (OOP) second/third edition 28mm metal figures…
That's a great group shot of the mechs, they look really good marching in to battle! I'm looking forward to reading your battle reports when you start playing.
The traitorous losers... er, I mean Confederates, really look like a pain to paint being so close together. Your feelings on batch painting are much the same as mine, which is why painting an actual army hasn't appealed to me since I took up the hobby again in 2018.
Those mechs look great en-mass like that, looking forward to some battle reports with them!
Have you thought of just blocking in the basic colours on the 13mm ACW then slapping quickshade over the lot and seeing what you get? I know that's how you are supposed to use it, though I've always highlighted stuff first, might be worth a try, would certainly speed up the process.
Cheers Roger. (Oh and I thought Dave's challenge ran from December to the end of Jan, so we were both wrong 😉)
Cheers Roger.
Well you are going to be busy!
I am interested to see your new Battletech mechs as there have been some varied, and often quite whacky, designs in your past posts. You seem to be making much better progress on your epic ACW, so something just be going right, even if the main driver is your enthusiasm for the epic Napoleonic!
You must be well on your way to a decent sized FoW force? What points level are you at now?
Look forward to seeing all the Mechs your working on Simon, before seeing what new ones you get. Your ACW stand is progressing quicker than the last one did.
The challenge closed on the 31 of January, so any bits you finished before then will be included, just let me know in the post that it was done for the challenge, I won't be posting the roundup for a couple of weeks to allow people time to get their posts up.