The Big Stocktake

Crikey, it’s been a long time since I updated this project, sorry about that.

Having just recently decided that we need to get a bigger house, I have been packing things away.  One of the first things to pack was one of the games rooms where I had been building my entry for Terrainfest2024

It’s surprising how much stuff I had managed to cram into one room, and it was a bit of an eye-opener as to how much I really have accumulated over the years.

This is just magnified by the fact that we have two game rooms in our house, one for Wargames and one for Boardgames.

Anyway, while clearing away my Victorian City layout I decided to catalogue the Neoprene mats that I have sitting on my games table.

I know they are probably not the most exciting of things to catalogue, but by taking photographs of them I can then make individual labels for the carry bags for them.

A selection of desert-styled mats.  I am not sure why I have 3 different ones.  I guess at the time it seemed like a good idea.   In reality, it would make more sense to have just one style and make all my desert terrain fit in with that one mat type.

Three water mats.   Two are smaller 3′ x 4′ mats with more tropical-looking waters which I got for Blood and Plunder.   They can be placed next to each other to create a nice 6′ x 4′ layout.

The other is a much darker blue which I am not massively keen on but is good for showing a completely different type of ocean.

A selection of urban mats.   I really like the city streets one which is in 6 parts.   Great for games of The Walking Dead and Fallout.   These mats get quite a bit of use.

The others have not seen so much use if I’m honest.

Some generic grass, dirty ground style mats and a couple of Carribean beach mats for Blood and Plunder.  One is a 4′ x 3′ with a small amount of the shoreline.  The other is 4′ x 4′ and has more grassland.

It’s always a good idea to have at least one generic-looking mat with grass, mud etc on it.

Then there is a selection of smaller mats including a moon surface, a small 2′ x 2′ urban mat, a 3′ x 3′ mat from Gangs of Rome, a 4′ x 3′ Grassland mats that I use for games of Congo or Darkest Africa and then of course the obligatory Space mat.

Whilst cracking on with another project I haven’t forgotten that this is all about either.  It’s all well and good for me printing models and building terrain but I cannot lose sight of the fact that I am also at the same time trying to catalogue, complete and thin down my massive collection.

With that in mind, I set to the task of selling off my painted metal Battletech figures, of which I think I have so far sold about a quarter, and also painting up the newer plastic Battletech figures.

I have now completed all the Inner Sphere models that I currently have, although a small number of reinforcements are on their way as I type.

So, another 86 painted mechs to add to the 12 urban mechs already done for a total of 98 Mechs.  Bases will be done when I do the terrain, as will gun Barrels.

Whilst looking for something completely unrelated I stumbled upon another batch of Metal Battletech figures I had forgotten about.

20 Clan Mechs.

With the new plastic figures, I think I will stick to one colour scheme for the Inner Sphere and one colour scheme for the Clan.  That way I can mix and match Lance/Star composition without the figures looking like a complete mixture.

I going to aim for this as my chosen scheme for the Inner Sphere units.  A rather generic desert camouflage with grey accents.

290 Mechs and Vehicles Painted so far.  All metals.

My apologies for the massive time elapsed between updates on the project,

We went on a massive tour around Europe taking in England, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Czech Republic and France.  All I can say about it was that it was absolutely awesome and after a 7-week holiday, it’s been really hard getting back into things.

We’ve been back a while now and I have been staring at these Walking Dead figures trying my best to will them to paint themselves.  At the moment I am just not feeling the love for them so need to put them aside and crack on with something else.  Once I get my Walking Dead mojo back, I will return to these.  I promise.

So, pushing forward.

I went in quite big on both the Battletech Clan invasion and Blood and Plunder Raise the Black campaigns.  Both have been sitting patiently waiting for their time to shine.  Shamefully the Battletech one has been sitting there for quite some time.

I first got into Battletech way back when I was at school, which is a long time ago.  It was a pretty new game at the time with little cardboard standees.  We played it all the time.  Over the years I have run several successful Tournaments, taken part in several tournaments and both run and taken part in long campaigns.  Then with the closure of my local club, it all stopped.  That was probably 10 years ago now and for some reason life got busy.

Anyway, it’s a game system that I love, but more than that I love the lore of it.  The stories and background.  The intrigue and politics.

So, it looks like I will make a start on these new plastic miniatures.

Sorry for the massive delay in updating this project.  It’s been a really slow slog getting these Walking Dead models done.

For some reason, these have had some absolutely horrendous mould lines.  I am not sure if have just been unlucky or if because these were a final run before the game was discontinued the quality control on them was not as high a standard as the earlier figures I got.   Whatever the cause, I struggled to get motivated to get these 16 done.

I still have more from the Walking Dead range to do, but these have really drained my motivation for them, so I may have to return to them later.  I don’t really want to, but I know that if I don’t move on and find something to reinvigorate me this project could face stalling, and I don’t want that.

Anyway, getting 16 done is better than nothing, and puts me 16 models closer to being 100% painted.

The decals arrived so it meant I could put this little collection to bed and tick it off as done.