Genghis Con XXXIII Painting Conference and Competition - What the heck is it?

As some of you know or have figured out I organize (and crack the whip) the Painting Conference and Competition at two conventions; Genghis Con and Tacticon. Genghis Con is next week. We will be running 30 painting classes running the gamut of basic to advanced painting, composition, color theory, basing and even army painting. My slaves...er instructors deserve a huge thank you for the time and effort they put in. This year the following folks will be spilling forth everything they know about painting: Bob Crum (Rookie!), Jen Kaufman (who also picks up the pieces after me, and is the power behind the throne), Derek Matthews (returning for a 2nd appearance), Colin Monnes, Michael Proctor (getting better and better every time I see his work), Torin Reed, Andy Still, Lili Troy (two time slayer sword winner), Kirk Troy and Bianca Weeda. And a special thanks to my guest of honor Marike Reimer (first winner of the Crystal Brush competition).

And of course there are the folks providing product for the painting classes and for prizes:
Reaper Miniatures http://www.reapermini.com/ (Paints and Minis! What more can you ask for!)
JMD Miniatures: http://www.jmd-miniatures.com/ (Providing support all the way from France. Jean-Marie does awesome work and provides excellent service, definitely take a look at his work)
Iron Wind Metals: http://ironwindmetals.com/d/ (Providing a ton of miniatures for prizes and gift certificates, not only do they produce new miniatures but they own and produce most of the old Ral Partha miniatures)
Total Escape Games http://www.totalescapegames.com/ (One of our local FLGSs that is really coming through when I needed it, supporting the new Silver Star Competition for 15mm WWII miniatures)
Secret Weapon Miniatures http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com/ (Providing washes, pigments, scenery kits, resin bases, really coming through with prizes and sending Grab Bags too!)
Forged in Battle http://www.forgedinbattle.com/ (Another company stepping up to provide support for the Silver Star competition, beautiful 15mm vehicles and miniatures)
Dick Blick http://www.dickblick.com/stores/ (My favorite source for brushes, and that's what they are sending, a ton of brushes. Without this tool, well we couldn't paint!)
Scibor's Monstrous Miniatures http://sciborminiatures.com/ (Another overseas company coming through with prize support. Their first time supporting the convention so definitely check out their fabulous line of resin miniatures)
DGS Games http://www.dgsgames.com/ (What can I say, I asked and Mike delivered, really sweet line of fantasy miniatures and expanding! They will be running games at the convention showing off their miniatures and their rules)

I really could not put on this show without my instructors and the support of manufacturers like these. Please check out their links and if you like what you see definitely pick something up from these companies, they all produce high quality miniatures from 15mm to 54mm and larger, in metal and in resin. I guarantee that you will see something you can't live without (come on you can't participate in this hobby without paint brushes!).

New Toys! 6x6 Rapid Assault Vehicle by Secret Weapon Miniatures

I'm not really going to review this kit right now. I just wanted to gloat that I got not one but two of these puppies delivered by USPS just yesterday. I have some pictures here but if you really want to see what you can do with this baby then check out the blog for dwartist at: http://dwartist.blogspot.com/2012/02/6x6-travesty-i-know.html . Its his fault that I have these right now, right before the convention, right when I'm working on competition pieces. Hence why these beauty's are still in the bags. If you just can't wait to buy them then go direct to Secret Weapon Miniatures at: http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com/ and Justin can hook you up. Although to be fair, Secret Weapon does encourage you to buy from your FLGS first, so check there and then order from Justin.

Review - Trench; A History of Trench Warfare on the Western Front by Stephen Bull

I’m not really sure what I was expecting with this book, but it came through in flying colors. A well detailed look at life in the trenches during WWI. It covers the men, the trenches, the weapons and the machines that were part of the “empty battlefield” of WWI. Definitely not a dry read, it is well written and brings to you a good overall sense of what was going on during the trench warfare period. How new weapons and tactics were developed to break the static warfare from 1915 – 1917 and interspersed with actual accounts of men that were. It is filled with pictures and diagrams and an excellent bibliography that will help you really dig deep into the subject if you so desire. It even covers how the trenches were constructed and how they developed and evolved over this period. How they were used and in the end how the war moved from the trenches and back to the mobile battlefield. You can see the early stages of tactics used in WWII being developed in the trenches of WWI. A great book, a must have for the library.

Review - 1-48 Combat Buildings - Baueda Wargames

I recently became intrigue by the 1-48 Combat game and elected to pick up the Russian and German Starter kits, a couple of extra miniatures and the new 1/48th scale module buildings. At the time the buildings are what really interested me. Like many projects these received that first glance of very cool, and then set aside. This morning I pulled them out to take a good hard look at them.

First off overall these are great looking buildings. The resin holds detail great and there are very few imperfections in the castings. There are pictures of all the castings in the 1-48 Gallery (look for the tab at the top of the page).

First up is the Ruined Factory Office Block Module 1. This is a great little building. The castings are nice and crisp although there is a pretty big chunk of "sprue" to removed at the bottom of each piece. It comes with three walls and a floor piece. The mold line runs along the edges and is obvious enough that it will have to be removed.The walls really line up with the floor piece very well and will definitely add to the sturdiness of the building when its assembled. The windows are wide open on this casting and there are openings for doors but there are no doors provided. The website says that a doors and windows pack will be coming in the future but I'll go ahead and scratchbuild my own for now. This is a terrific little building but I would have like to have had four walls to work with. 

Next is the Ruined Factory Office Block Module 2. This is the physically most impressive of the two buildings. Again the castings were great, although there is going to be a considerable amount of work to removed the "sprues", these run the full length of the bottom of piece and it will take a razor saw to remove them. Not a big deal with you are looking at the size of the castings but its going to require some attention to make sure you are not removing the bottom part of the building as you cut through it. Definitely cast in a two piece mold with the mold line running around the outside edges of the wall. Easily cleaned up but it does cross through a lot of brick detail so will require a little care to remove. Its a significant mold line so it will have to be removed. The two story side section on the buildings left was slightly warped. I'm not sure how to approach this yet. Pressing fitting it together showed that I could exert enough pressure to get it to straighten out. I may take a hair dryer and heat it up and see if I can remove the warp that way or pin it and use epoxy and clamps to get it into place. This was the only piece that was warped. The building details don't quite match up at the corners, a little irritating for me as I intend to use it for a diorama so its going to take some extra work. All the ground floor windows and doors are closed. Opening them up is going to take some serious effort because of the thickness of the resin. If you are using it for a gaming terrain piece its just fine the way it is. The building fits together well and its definitely sturdy. I am a bit confused that you can create a room that you have no access to if you glue the back wall into place and use the full width of the floor piece for the second floor. It also would have been nice if they building came with a floor like the first module did. Still I like this piece and it has definite conversion possibilities. Major surgery isn't going to be easy with the thickness of the resin for this one so plan ahead and make your cuts count.

Baueda calls these modules, and you can certainly get several of each and put them next to each other and they will look like they should be next to each other or part of the same building. It would be nice if the door and window set had been released with these buildings. They are the first 1/48th scale buildings I have purchased and I won't hesitate to purchase a few more of these modules in the future. I'm also looking forward to future releases in the series.

Review - Primer - Vallejo Grey

For years my favorite primer was the old Floquil Grey spray. I have probably been using it since the early 80's. Its pretty hard for me to find now and I'm fairly certain that the formula has been changed a bit since they were purchased by Testors. I was in one of my FLGSs and they actually had the Vallejo Spray Primers. I grabbed my favorite (grey, yes I'm a grey primer cultist). And I just had my first chance to use it this morning. About all I can say is WOW. The stuff was really expensive but it laid down such a nice thin, smooth coat that I think it was worth every penny. Yes, I know lots of you use cheap primers, automotive primers whatever gets you the most bang for the buck. Those are all fine choices if you are just painting gaming miniatures, I use those for gaming miniatures but when you are painting a competition piece then primer does make a difference. A good basecoat of primer really goes a long way in laying down those smooth coats of paint that you need when working on a competition piece. So looks like the Vallejo Grey is a winner in my book.

Odd pictures today. The vertical bars you are seeing is from having CFLs to close but I was having a hard time with light this morning so this is what I ended up with.