February/March Painting Pledge Update

Starting last month, Chicago Skirmish Wargames started a monthly painting pledge. Participating members provided a photo and description of models that they planned to build and paint during February.

Here are the results, and the follow-up pledges for March.

Karl’s Pledge 
Karl’s pledge for February was to complete the three mecha models below, built and based for our 28mm scale Mech Attack game coming up at Adepticon.

• 1/72 Dougram "Ironfoot" aka Battletech Thunderbolt 
• 1/100 Macross "Tactical Pod Glaug" aka Battletech Maurader 
• 1/200 Macross "Destroid Monster" 

Karl didn't finish painting on theses, however he did manage to crank out an enviable amount of model progress for the month. His output included the following:

• Assemble three Kryomek Strider mechs
• Build 11 sci-fi shipping containers 
• Kitbash a truck to carry the containers 
• Basecoat everything

He plans to complete these models in time for Adepticon on March 20. The photo below represents his completed February work, and serves as his pledge for March

Tim’s Pledge 

Tim’s February pledge was as follows:

• 15 Ronin from Rezolution
• 13 Delaque from Necromunda 
• 8 fusiliers from Confrontation with conversion work 

He made good progress on the February models. The Confrontation models were pulled from the list as the amount of conversion required and difference in stature meant they did not pair well with the Necromunda and Rezolution figures. The photo below represents both Tim’s painting progress and his March pledge (note the addition of the Reaper Bones figure):

Mattias’ Pledge 
Mattias wins the fabled, elusive (and mysterious) invisible CSW gold medallion for the February pledge by completing absolutely everything on his list (much of it figures for other club members!).

• Josh's pirate islands 
• Karl's giant 
• Tim's 5 ogres 
• A small medley of fantasy figures that have been undercoated for nigh on a year 
• Four statues made from old busted high elves 

Moving into March, he plans to paint the models pictured below. The front five are the actual pledge, a mixed group of fantasy missile troups. The back five, a mutant sci-fi warband, are "stretch goals.

Mike’s Pledge 
Mike did not have a chance to post photos of his initial pledge, but he completed a mountain of work during February as demonstrated in the photos below. It will be interesting to see the volume he completes for March!

Jon’s Pledge
I pledged to complete the following:

• 10 Sedition wars troops 
• 1 Fusco Construction Yards (FCY) Dervish Mech 
• 1 Antenociti's Workshop hover tank 
• Finish details on a customized chariot with riders converted from a Chronopia Sons of Kronos Chariot and a Malifaux "Izamu" model for bronze/clay statue samurai army 

I made limited progress, and only finished the bronze chariot/Izamu model (basing outstanding) for my bronze\clay statue army.

I also completed assembly on a five-man squad of custom-converted DUST Axis troops (rebasing on 25mm bases, and using Dreamforge bits for conversions to give the models a slightly more sci-fi look). No photos of these guys yet! Here's the chariot.

For March, my time will be limited for gaming and modelling. I plan to complete the following:

• Test model with paint scheme for chaos dwarf army troops
• Test model with paint scheme for sci-fi Axis army troops 
• Complete 3D printer kit build 
• “Stretch goal” if time permits -- additional cavalry and cannon models for the Bronze Statue army 

Final results of actual progress will be posted at the beginning of April!

--Jon, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

February 2015 Painting Pledge

Starting this month, Chicago Skirmish Wargames is bringing back the "Monthly Painting Pledge,"  which we've tried a couple of times in the past.

To participate, any CSW member who has the time and interest provides a photo and brief description of models that he plans complete within the corresponding month. At the end of the month photos are taken and posted of completed models.

For some this provides an extra incentive to set aside some hobby time to meet this deadline. It also provides a great marker for painting progress throughout the year. So without further ado:

Karl's pledge - 3 mecha models
All three are going to be built and based on CDs as additional mechs for our 28mm scale Mech Attack game at Adepticon. If these get built fast, he has some other mech models and toys that he may tackle as well.

• 1/72 Dougram "Ironfoot" aka Battletech Thunderbolt 
• 1/100 Macross "Tactical Pod Glaug" aka Battletech Maurader 
• 1/200 Macross "Destroid Monster" (going to need some conversion) 

Tim's pledge - Panther Moderns
Specifically, his intention is to complete at least half of these this month.

• 15 Ronin from Rezolution (some will just require touching up the previous owner's very nice paint jobs and basing the models) 
• 13 Delaque from Necromunda (because at some unspecified date, we will get in a future game of Necromunda) 
• 8 Fusiliers from Confrontation which need some conversion work 

Mattias's pledge

• Josh's pirate islands
• Karl's giant
• Tim's five ogres 
• A small medley of fantasy figures that have been undercoated for nigh on a year 
• 4 statues made from old busted high elves 

Jon's pledge
Three vehicles slated to be part of a Steiner force for use in a 28mm scale game of Mech Attach or Alpha Strike. Completing the mech and tank are contingent on picking up some suitable basecoat paint, otherwise additional Sedition Wars and Bronze\clay statue Samurai army models will follow instead.

• 10 Sedition wars troops 
• Fusco Construction Yards (FCY) Dervish Mech 
• Antenociti's Workshop hover tank 
• Finishing details on a customized chariot with riders converted from a Chronopia Sons of Kronos Chariot and a Malifaux "Izamu" model 

Final results of actual progress will be posted at the end of the month. Cheers!

-- Jon, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Painting: Mantic Skeletons and Grenadier Ratscum

A couple weeks back the club organized a painting mini-marathon. Inspired by blog accounts of gamers clustering together in game rooms (for mutual support and inspiration) and churning through their collective backlogs over the course of many dedicated hours of painting, we tried to do the same thing.

Five guys showed up, armed with miniatures, paints, lamps and other supplies. We set up a bunch of folding tables in my basement, ordered some pizza and got to work. I think we went at it for about 4 solid hours.

Sadly, my own output wasn't particularly voluminous, but I wanted to share a few photos with you. The first one up top shows four Ratscum warriors from Grenadier Miniatures. I picked them up -- still in blister packs -- at GenCon 2010 and just now got around to painting them up.

They're lovely little miniatures, and I was pleased to see that most of the sculpts are still in production from Mirliton. They're basically Skaven, but they have a little more personality in my opinion. Unless you have some to trade me for cheap, I may be placing an order with Mirliton sometime this year.

The second pic shows 9 skeletons from Mantic Games. These are plastic multi-pose figures, and I was fairly pleased with how they turned out. They had a little bit too much clothing and armor covering their bones, though, and I particularly didn't like the helmeted heads that completely enclosed the skull (back row). In my mind, the ideal skeleton always has his face exposed. What's the point of painting skeletons if you're not going to have fun with the Bleached Bone?

Both the Ratscum and the skeletons were finished using Minwax Polyshades Tudor as a brush-on dip and sealer.

I'm sure my fellow club members will share pics of their marathon minis soon. Until then!

-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Fully painted: Pledge photos from November

After a long November spent painting (and procrastinating), the club has prepared photos of our painting pledge. To recap, a few of us assembled a pile of unpainted figures last month and pledged to work on them through November, with the goal of completing the figures by Nov. 30.

Here's a blog post from last month showing our mountains of unpainted lead and plastic.

How did we do? You be the judge. Here are the finished products.

Jon's pledge - a squad of Japanese sci-fi warriors. 4 were completed in November.



Karl's pledge - a squad of Void Junkers, some assorted fantasy miniatures and a 28mm mech pilot. The Junkers and fantasy elves were completed in November.



Pat's pledge - a handful of small terrain pieces, plus 2 mounted warriors and 2 fantasy monsters. Everything was completed in November.




Tim's Pledge - a collection of fun monsters, dragons and beasties

November painting pledge: The club goes to work

Some of us at Chicago Skirmish Wargames decided to take a painting pledge this month to bolster our creative initiative. As part of that effort, we each took photos of our respective heaps of unpainted lead and then pledged to finish painting the lots in November.

The photos speak for themselves! We'll post shots of the finished products at month's end.

Tim's Pledge - a collection of fun monsters, dragons and beasties (or as he put it, "This is what I'm working on.")




Jon's Pledge - a Japanese-themed sci-fi warband.




Pat's Pledge - a handful of small terrain pieces, plus 2 mounted warriors and 2 fantasy monsters.




Karl's Pledge - a squad of Void Junkers, some assorted fantasy miniatures and a 28mm mech pilot.