Joseph Bugman

I actually finished a couple of figures recently (bases and everything). They were fun to paint, but took far too long (not because of a lack of painting time, more because I spent too much time on details that will never be seen).

The two figures were the Joseph Bugman figures that were/are only available from Bugman's Bar at Games Workshop's HQ in Nottingham. I bought the figures when I visited Warhammer World a couple of years ago, but only got around to painting them recently.

The Bugman standing over the spilled pint comes with a choice of stool or axe, and I opted for the axe - much more Dwarfy.

The figures themselves are nice enough, although some of the casting leaves a lot to be desired - there are a couple of places where detail just disappears. Given that I was trying to paint "properly", this proved frustrating on more than one occasion!

I made a floor base for the Bugman standing on the barrels. This was just some textured plasticard that I cut with my compass cutters (I didn't manage to get the whole way through the card, but got enough that I could get the circle out and clean it up). I happily superglued the barrels to the card, without bothering to check how much contact they had with each other. On checking later, it wasn't a lot, so the model won't be leaving the display cabinet. The base and barrels were then attached to a Voodooworx pedestal.

Not sure where the hair across his face came from. Unfortunately I didn't notice it until I was checking the pictures, several hours after I had put away all the photography gear.

The other figure came with a base, so I just glued it directly to the pedestal.

In addition to the two new figures, I have a couple of other Bugman models, painted a long time ago (but in this galaxy).

The first is from one of the later Bugman's Rangers sets (possibly generation two), with his banner pole removed, as it looked silly.

and the one, of course, from the original Bugman's Rangers set.

I'm fairly sure I have Bugman's cart somewhere, still unpainted (I certainly have the horse). I'll need to have a rummage at some point, as it would be nice to round out the group.

Dad's Army 1

I'm just about finished the figures I'm working on (pictures soon - I've still got the bases to do), but have already started preparing the next group.

This will be a group of Foundry WW2 Home Guard figures, specifically the British Home Guard Heroes (excluding the bloke with the pistol) who just happen to resemble the main characters in Dad's Army. I also have the British Characters set for the rest of the main players, but I'm painting them separately.

The plan is to create a diorama of them in the town hall, with various groups chatting to each other, as shown below. The actual placement will likely change, as it in fact did between taking the following two photographs.

and from above

Figure Preparation

The figures took quite a lot of cleaning as there were some bad miscasts and mold slippage to repair. This was rather irritating, as Foundry are normally better than this. There were also some very badly placed mold lines, including one right through the left eye and cheek of the not-Pike figure.

Most annoyingly, however, were the rifles, which were just really, really bad. They were the wrong shape and had very little detail on them - some bits just half-heartedly etched in. I decided to replace the rifles of not-Jones and not-Fraser (especially as there was a blob of metal at the top of his rifle that messed the whole thing up). Not-Wilson's rifle wasn't quite so bad, and would have been more difficult to replace, so I left it.

I had a look around and decided that the Warlord Games 28mm British Infantry would be my best bet for spares (the figures exist, although I can't find them on their web site), so I picked up a set at Carronade.

After I got them home I had a look at the box-art and decided that they didn't look that great, and the guns looked really thin and rubbish. I decided to stick with the original ones on the figures and consigned the 28mm plastics to the loft.

Later on, however, when I finished cleaning the Dads Army figures, I changed my mind again and decided that the rifles were too poor to use, so I might as well see what the Warlord figures looked like. Upon opening the box (having retrieved it from the loft) I was extremely happy to find that the models inside were excellent - it was just some incredibly bad box-art that they'd used. There are a number of weapon sprues, each containing: rifles (including ones with bayonets and a sniper scope), Bren guns, Sten guns, Tommy guns, pistols, a PIAT and a 2" mortar. Not only that, there are extra heads in the box and the heads are separate from the helmets, so can be used for anything. Given the facial expressions and range of ages depicted, there's a lot of potential for conversions. The rest of the parts are up to the same high standard, and it actually made me want to do 28mm WW2, just to paint these guys. It's not something I'll have any time to do in the near future, but I highly recommend these figures - just ignore the box art.

So, having found excellent rifles, I cut the junk ones away from not-Jones and not-Fraser and replaced them. A quick bit of ProCreate to repair the slings and everything was as good as new.

As the figures will all be standing on a wooden floor (representing the church hall), I removed their bases, filed down and drilled their feet and mounted them on corks for painting.

As the figures kept on falling over, the only other thing I did was to attach the corks to 50mm diameter plasticard for stability.

Next steps

I will start the flesh this week, and I'll try and post regular updates, although, to be honest, there's not much involved in WW2 British uniforms, so I'm hoping they don't take too long.

Wappinshaw 2011

Hot on the heels of Carronade a few weeks ago was Wappinshaw - the Glasgow wargames show - which my brother-in-law and I attended yesterday.

I missed last year's show due to them moving the date to one I couldn't make, but this year they moved it again - to one I could make :-) It was in a new venue - the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, which is a lot more upmarket than previous years (its previous location was in an old church hall, which was very badly lit and difficult to get to)

It's always been the smallest of the three central Scotland shows, and this year was no different. While Carronade and Claymore occupy multiple halls with dozens of traders, Wappinshaw fits neatly into one small room, with fewer than twenty traders.

Previous years have seen us complete the show in under an hour, with very little bought. This year was still under an hour, but we did manage to buy a few things.

Figures

I picked up the Pig Iron Wardroids and upgrade pack, which will fit in nicely with their Heavy Infantry figures. These Science Fiction troops are part of a more "hard science fiction" setting than the space fantasy of W40k (that's not to say that I'm going to exclude Tau, Eldar or any other figures that I like, just that the background I'll be gaming in will be a lot less Gothic - and no Space Orks!)

The only other figure I bought was an Evil Cherub. There were three, and depending on how this one goes, I might try to pick up the other two. I'm thinking of using them as some sort of evil onlookers for my Demon games. I can't remember the manufacturer, but it was UK based, not the Malifaux cherub (be careful if you Google for "Evil cherubs", as one of the sites that matched gave a bunch of malware warnings)

Games Workshop had a presence, with a selection of their new Finecast figures. It's the first time I've handled one of the figures, and it seems okay - slightly heavier than plastic, but still very light. Given some of the horror stories I've read about the quality of some of the casts, I'm leaving it for a couple of months before I buy anything. I did ask them about what happened to the metal figures, but other than saying they were all returned to HQ, they didn't seem to know.

Vehicles

At Carrondade last year I nearly bought a couple of SF transport vehicles from Solway Crafts. They were pre-painted, but the one with the colour scheme I liked had decals I didn't, and vice-versa.

I've thought about them a couple of times in the intervening year and when I saw one this time, I snapped it up. Sadly, it was the only one they had left. When I got home and had a closer look at the vehicle, it turned out that it was a repainted Matchbox BattleKings K-111 Missile Launcher. Full of hope that I'd be able to get a couple of them cheaply from Amazon, I did a quick search. The only one I could find - and not on Amazon - was £65. Needless to say, I'll be sticking to the single vehicle (likely to become a transport vehicle for the Pig Iron figures).

Paints

Adding yet again to my Vallejo collection (not sure why I don't just give in and buy the complete set), I picked up 70864 Oily Steel and Metal Red Gold, an Alcohol Based Paint. I didn't even know Vallejo did non-acrylics, so I'll need to give it a test, after checking if I have the correct thinners to clean the brush after using it.

The only other paint related item I bought was a second Citadel brush pot. When using a wet palette, I use an old brush loaded with water to mix and refresh colours and I find the pot really handy for holding it. The new one will be kept for use with metallic paints.

Scenery

I picked up a pre-painted "Alter(sic) of Evil" from Pegasus Hobbies, a company I'd never heard of before the show. The scenery seems well made, and will fit in with the rest of my Demon scenery without any problems. Technically it's 25mm, but I reckon it could be made to work at other scales without too much trouble.

I've been considering recently how to base my Dwarf Phalanx. Given that I painted it over twenty years ago, it would be nice to get it based sometime before I retire. With that thought in mind I bought some bases from Warbases. They're just samples at the moment, but I did a quick test when I got home, and it's looking promising. This could be the year :-)

Display Games

I actually had a look at the display games this time, although no pictures, sorry. They were all of a very high standard and there was quite a variety of subjects covered, including: a Spaceship game (using Firestorm Armada models, I think), a Viking raid, a Fantasy game and a SpaceHulk game with custom scenery - complete with flashing lights in the bulkheads. For such a small venue, there were a lot of games.

Final thoughts

We were there for just under an hour, but it was a productive hour. In previous years, it was much more difficult to find anything worth buying, but there was quite a decent choice this year. One thing I liked is that each stand had something different; I've found at some of the bigger shows, with more traders, that a lot of the stands have exactly the same miniatures, which gets a bit boring.

The lighting was better, but there was still one corner that was bathed in dull yellow light. Inevitably, it contained the stand with the paints, so trying to see what colour you were buying was pretty much impossible.

The venue is definitely better - more spacious and easier to get to. There's a cafeteria in the concert hall, although the selection of food was restricted to some cakes, and the cold drinks were extortionate.

Hopefully Wappinshaw can settle in this venue and build on its success next year, as it would be great to have three really good shows to attend each year.