Still Not Dead vs. Prussians

No, I did not have West Nile Virus. I was just a little under the weather. I mean, what else would you expect after walking through clouds of very large mosquitoes? I'm not dead. I am fine. My monitor is dying, however. That'll make it difficult to process my photos of recently finished minis. I've got three units lined up to be done this week. I wish I'd be able to get more done but there's a lot of stuff keeping me busy. This is a shame because I've got quite a few Prussian lined up for painting.

Did I happen to mention that I'm working on my VSF Prussian forces at the moment?

Yep, I've been slowly building up various units that I can use in the greatest variety of scenarios that I can. I want to use units that would be seen in a European theater and units for colonial conflicts. I also want to see how much I can overlap them to get the most bang for my buck. I'll be aiming to have them represent the German Empire in a science fictional war between the years 1890 and 1900. The infantry is grouped into units of ten. This number will work with the three games I'm thinking of using; Gaslight, Vor or Space 1889. Here's what I've got so far;

1 unit of dismounted female Hussars (almost done).
2 units of Prussian line infantry.
1 unit of Prussian Jaegers (almost done).
1 maxim gun manned by Jaegers
2 units of Bavarian line infantry.
1 unit of mixed dismounted cavalry (dragoons and hussars).
1 unit of German South West Africa infantry (to use either in Africa or say, Venus).
2 units of African Askaris (to be used either with German or British forces).
1 steam tank of medium size.
1 steam powered walker armed with maxim gun.
1 unit of Martian sepoys (to be shared with British forces depending on scenario).

Here's what I'm still planning to add;
2 units of Venusian Lizardman Schutztruppen (I need to assemble them still. It'll take a bit of work).
Maybe 1 or 2 more units of Prussian line infantry.
1 or 2 units of Seebatallion.
A couple artillery pieces.
At least one unit of cavalry.
1 flying machine of some sort. Probably a zeppelin.

That quite a bit there considering I still have British, Martian and French forces on the line too. Yikes.

Dear Internets

I tried to varnish some recently finished miniatures today. However, I could not get the child proof lid on the thinner to open. I ended up not varnishing those minis. I did affix some newly acquired minis to their bases and do some repair work on a German East Africa trooper's rifle. I also cooked some paella on the grill. I think I might have a case of West Nile Virus. Which is probably not good considering the only symptom I'm familiar with is death. A friend of mine had a horse that died from it.

More to come!

Thoughts on painting

Not too much to add here. Just a few random thoughts from recent experiences.

I've started to use Windex to thin my paints. This works surprisingly well. I use the clear, "natural", eco friendly kind. I'm not sure what the regular, blue kind would do the colors so I'm not even going to try and find out. Anyway, I find that it makes paints flow from the brush better than water. The paint literally goes where you want it to go. Nice. Only problem is that it appears as though the mixture encourages the paint to flow right up into the brush's fuller. Not so good. Gotta clean the brush extra regularly.

I finally managed to get my hands on a couple of the new GW washes. I'm liking them better than the old inks. Not as shiny and they flow better. They do seem to be a little too subtle on just one coat. It looks like washing will need to be done in layers.

I like the idea of painting outside. After being stuck inside all day at work, I really don't want to sit at the old workbench and paint while the remainder of day is busy being beautiful. There are a lot of problems with that though. I have to pack everything up for the expedition. I will forget something important. You would think the sun would be great for painting. No. It is either too bright or not bright enough, usually in turns. The combo of wind and sunlight also dries your paints crazy fast. Ah well, enjoy it anyway.