An "Irishserb's Miniatures" for sale update

Some of you know that I sometimes offer 15mm (and a few other) miniatures for sale,  and for several months now, that I have not been selling due to time limitations and a chemical change in the mold material that I used for many years. 

Irishserb's Minaitures is very much a side thing impinged upon by a day job, and the chemical change in the mold material that resulted in a tremendously shorter mold life.  Particularly over the last three years, my time investment in producing miniatures has resulted in the near abandonment of my hobby.  I've even considered whether it is worth while to continue as a participant in the hobby at times.  I do love the hobby, and for me, it is an outlet for stress that keeps the world (or at least me) a little bit safer and healthier.

About six months ago, I decided to dedicate a certain amount of free time to participating in the hobby first, and then putting time into Irishserb's Miniatures.  This has resulted in me sort of rediscovering the hobby, feeling better about life, and still given me time to experiment with possible replacement for mold materials.

Thus far, the search has been futile with candidate materials yielding some new issue that either requires disproportionate time or cost to overcome.  I will continue to search for a new material, but in the mean time, am going to start making new production molds with the "new and improved version of the old material.  This will yield short production runs, with significantly more time and cost invested in mold making, and resulting in less inventory for the investment. 

The current plan is to spend a month or so producing molds and inventory, then opening shop and filling orders until the inventory is gone.  And then repeating the cycle as needed.  I will update my site and post a notice here, when I open shop again.  I expect that will happen in early February.

And the news that nobody wants to hear.  I will have some sort of price increase, which I haven't done since 2009.  I'm not sure how it will manifest, but will offset some portion of my increased material cost.  The form of the increase will be decided base on cost analysis of miniature production over the next month.  Don't panic, as a gamer I like cheap miniatures.  I expect others to do the same, and will keep the increase as low as possible.

Lastly, I discovered that I have missed answering a bunch of miniatures related (and other) e-mails over the last four or so months.  I managed to not check my spam filter for about that long, and make the discovery this past week.  I am working to catch up on those, and am sorry for poor performance.

That is the latest news for now.  Hope everybody had a great Christmas, and has a great holiday season. 

Last Visit to the Blockhouse

Though it has taken a month, I've made a lot of progress on my 28mm post-apoc blockhouse. I've finished several pieces of the clutter that sits around it.  There are some other items not pictured yet, but I will share those, when the accompanying encampment is done.  Here are some pics of what I've got:

An early shot of the outhouse under construction.

 

The outdoor shower  before painting.

 

 

 

This view shows the shower, fire pit, outhouse, and vent.

 

 

A close-up of the main entrance.

 

 

 

 

The recycling outdoor shower.

 

The outhouse.

The blockhouse is an outpost for the most technologically advance and resource rich faction in my post-apoc world.  Despite this, the resources at the blockhouse are limited, so the troops stationed there make the most of what they can get their hands on. 

During the rare rains, water is collected for the shower.  This allows the troops to get showers more than once every two weeks, without wasting the facility's water ration.  Likewise, the outhouse further reduces the demands on the blockhouse. 

I'll share photos of more of these types of items, when I get the encampment done.  But that is a little later on. 

The ork trucks are next...

28mm Ork Truck Photos

I've been working on my post-apocalypse world off and on this year, and part of this has involved re-purposing old figures and whatnot for use in my PA world.  One of those re-purposed groups of figures are the mix of my daughter's and my old space orks.  In my PA world, they will manifest as a mutated form of a pre-event genetically engineered weapon (more on that in about a month or so). 

Anyway, I dug out the ork trucks that I was working on, when my daughter lost interest in gaming, and just started working on them again.  I haven't done much on them beyond cleaning them off, and trying to match up some of the bits with the right trucks, and sorting out what out the bits that have gone missing.

Two of them were in the background of a photo in my last post about the blockhouse, and several people have asked me about them, so here are some pix that I dug up from seven years ago.

 

 

Construction is all styrene sheet, strips, and bits except for the wheels, which came from a couple old kits, though I can't remember what.  I'll have more pix in the near future.

More WIP Pix of my 28mm Post-Apoc Blockhouse

Got more work done on the doo-dads attached to my post-apoc blockhouse.  Most of the high-tech hardware is built, though I still need to make the doors and hatches. Here are some pix:

The blockhouse measures about 7.5 inches to the roof,

and almost 18 inches to the top of the antenna mast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The next step will be to make the amenities outside.  I want to add an outhouse, a shower, fire pit, maybe a doghouse, a makeshift shelter and some other odds and ends.  Hoping to get that stuff built this weekend, and maybe some paint on it too.

A little Painting this Weekend

Had a very relaxed weekend for a change, and just kind of worked hit and miss on various figs on my painting table.  Got three of the figs done from Moonraker to round out the infantry for my old IG, Dawgies trops.  The will function as a territorial defense unit in my Post-Apoc world (more on that later).  Here are the finished dudes; a sniper, a medic, and a squad leader:

Also got three 15mm Centurions and a Saracen from QRF done.  The Centurions are Centurion IIIs with 20pdr, and the Saracen is one of the remolded castings.  Very clean and with modified wheels, making it easier to assemble.

 
 

 

Also got paint on a few other things that I'll probably finish later this week.  Going to do some work on the blockhouse tomorrow.  Feels good to finally get a few things off of the table.  It has been awhile.

A little Progress on my 28mm Post-Apoc Blockhouse

Though time has been scarce, I've been making little bits of progress on the blockhouse, whenever possible.  I managed to get the dirt berm added around the first level, got the basic paint on it, and started adding the "extras.

 

 

 

 

The goofy thing on top is part of a solar panel array.  There will be various bits of equipment on the roof of the first level, instruments and whatnot on the roof, and a collection of makeshift accommodations on the ground.  Most of the work will be from styrene.  More pix hopefully coming soon.

First Order from Moonraker Miniatures

I received my first order from Moonraker Miniatures a couple of days ago.  A mix of figs from their 28mm Spacelords and Future Skirmish lines.  After placing my order, I got a quick confirmation and the order was received in 8 working days.  The figs are all very cleanly cast with no flash, three came with slotted bases.

 

Most will be worked in with my old GW Imperial Guard troops, adding a sniper, a medic, and a couple command figs to the various HQ sections.  Most of the others will become vehicle crew (with a little conversion work), and one will be added to my post-apoc scavengers.

They scale pretty nicely with my old GW figs, and with the newer plastic Cadians.

So, a big thumbs up for Moonraker; great service, really cool figs, and a very reasonable price.

28mm Post-Apocalyptic Block House: A Work in Progress

One the factions of my post apocalyptic world is the a small, high-tech army that is trying to  re-acquire territory for the remnants of the old Federal government.  As the army expands its control over new territory, it builds outposts to mark its claim.  One of the common types of outpost is the Block House.

Today, I managed to complete most of the construction of the blockhouse.  The basic structure is made of extruded polystyrene insulation foam cut with a band-saw or hobby knife, glued with artist's acrylic matte medium, and based on .06" thick styrene sheet.  The foam pieces are held together with straight pins, until the matte medium is dry.  The following photos show the construction process:

The block house drawn onto the base, measuring approx. 13"x10".

Foam stock cut on the band-saw.  The pink, blue , and grey-green foam

 come from different manufacturers, but behaves the same for

construction purposes.

With a GW Cadian in the doorway for size reference.

I need to add a couple of foam walls to the interior of the first floor, pull the pins and then start to paint.

AAR18: Silence of the Priests

Well, I didn't get this up as "shortly" as I expected, when writing AAR 17, but here it is, finally.  This is what happened to the Priests supporting Uwandan forces south of objective B14.

View looking south of the M7 Priests supporting

Uwanda forces south of B14.

 

As the battle south of B14 started to heat up, the battery of M7 Priests supporting the Uwandan forces found a little heat of their own.  Shortly after firing its first volley, the battery was discovered by ULF fighters, who quickly moved into position to the rear and right of the Priests.

As soon as Wakili heard the sound of the cannons, he knew his luck had changed.  After a short advance through the trees, he saw his prize and barked at his troops "Abdi, take your men and attack from their right. Go! Go!...On my signal!"

ULF fighters advance north, to the rear of the Priests.

The battery, its supporting trucks and HQ were busy supporting the battle north of them, when machinegun fire and RPGs blew up a truck and two Priests.  Chaos ensued, and in the next minute, two more trucks and three more Priests were destroyed.  Crewmen futilely tried to return fire to their rear and right, but the damage was done.  Quickly, the ULF retreated back into the woods, and the surviving Priest and command track rushed forward to get away from the attack, leaving Uwandan forces at B14 without artillery support.

The battery destroyed.

It wasn't much of a battle, in less than two minutes the battery was converted from a death machine to a dead machine.  Loses were as follows:

Uwanda
5x M7 Priest
3x truck
26x crew

ULF
1x fighter

Edit:  Forgot to mention that I had to use a couple of Sherman hulls as M7s, as I was two models short.  Been a long time since I had to do that.  Also, ULF force consisted of 28 men.