Sunday, 6 October 2013

Thank you - we are almost there



My thanks to all of you who responded to my last post. I believe I have now managed to sort all the confusion out and contacted you all.

I have now updated the painting log and posted it to this blog so each of you can check on the current status of the painting. If your name is not on the list please accept my apologies and send me an email so I can sort it out.

As you can see we are in need of 5 units still to be allocated, these are all small 6 figure units of Indians, so please if you can step forward and help please volunteer as we cant do this without the help and generosity from the wider community.

I have been asked several times about basing of figures and other matters, so I will clarify those points now so you have a reference.

1. Please mount the figures on some card or similar material for painting. I will be basing all the figures once they are returned. This is to maintain the unit cohesion and to give a consistent finish.

2. Please ensure your figures are at least given 1 coat of varnish before posting back, so they survive the post!

3. The deadline for all figures to be returned is no later than 7th Feb 2014 please, to give me time to base them all up.

Once again Thank you for volunteering, and good luck. I am here for help should any of you need references for painting etc.

Regards
Loki




Thursday, 3 October 2013

Due to Loki's Ineptitude or just confusion and mayhem HELP NEEDED

Hello everyone Loki here, I have to put my hands up and admit something has gone very wrong in the Great Hall either by my own hand or those naughty pixies have broken into the office and ransacked the paperwork.

I have all the first phase Charity lead and have sat down today to sort out the painters and then I realised I had a problem, I knew of 9 volunteers and could only find contact details for 7 of them.

If you have not been contacted then please either message me through Google plus +Andrew Saunders or use the email address to the right, please let me know what you would like to paint the list for available units can be found HERE those marked with a ? mean that I dont have contact details.

As you can see we need a few more volunteers and regardless of your skill level we really would like you to get involved.

Thanks
Andrew ( Loki )

Monday, 30 September 2013

The Bloggers for Charity Auction Begins!

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, in a few short hours the world famous Bloggers for Charity Auction will begin. The rules are as follows:
    •  The auction will begin at 00:01 BST on Tuesday 1 October 2013 and end at 23:59 on Thursday 10 October 2013.
     
    • To qualify for participation in the auction, bidders must:
     a) be a member/follower of Bloggers for Charity.
     b) prove that they have promoted/publicised both Bloggers for Charity and the auction itself. They must include the relevant URL in their bid email for verification.
     
    • This will be a closed bidding process. Members of Bloggers for Charity may bid as often as they wish, but they will be bidding blind: no bids will be published. 
     
    • The email address to which bids must be sent is d135254l@gmail.com and marked  BfC Auction in the subject box. 

    • The highest bid at the end of the auction will be the winner and the funds can be transferred directly to Bloggers for Charity. The figures will not be dispatched until the transfer has taken place.

    There are SIX figures included in the auction lot and will all be sold as a group. They are Foundry explorer types from the Darkest Africa range, but can obviously be used with variety of rule sets from 'Bog aTen' to the new 'In Her Majesty's Name'. They are illustrated below in the popular slightly out of focus technique which has taken years to perfect:



































                                                                        Good luck!

                                                                        Friday, 27 September 2013

                                                                        Painters on your Marks, Get set !!

                                                                        Calling all our volunteer painters, I will be collecting most of the lead for painting on Saturday at NOT DERBY from Andrew at AW Miniatures. I shall be contacting you by email on Monday or Tuesday to obtain postal addresses and check that you are still happy to undertake the painting of a unit etc..
                                                                        Regards Loki

                                                                        Sunday, 22 September 2013

                                                                        An opportunity to spend money!

                                                                        Hi, Gary Amos here.

                                                                        The Bloggers for Charity scheme is pretty much unique and is bound to benefit (hopefully) many people. However, I think it needs more members and, of course, more money in the old oak chest. Blunt? Yeah, I know, but I've got broad shoulders and skin like a rhino.

                                                                        So, in an attempt to achieve both obvious goals, I've obtained permission from the Presidium to organise a small auction of painted figures as a test to see if it will raise more money than simply putting the figures on eBay and donating the proceeds to the blog. So why go to all this messing? Well, being a realist, I'm aware that it may not raise as much cash as an eBay auction, but it should raise awareness of Bloggers for Charity and gain more members/followers if only because they realise that the only way to get their hands on otherwise inaccessible figures without having to compete against the world is to support the blog. How? Read on.

                                                                        • The auction will begin at 00:01 BST on Tuesday 1 October (2013) and end at 23:59 BST on Thursday 10 October (2013).
                                                                        • In order to qualify for participation in the auction, bidders must :
                                                                                 a) be a member/follower of Bloggers for Charity
                                                                                  b) prove that they have promoted/publicised Bloggers for Charity and the auction itself.
                                                                        • I will advise the email address to which bids must be submitted when the auction opens.
                                                                        • This will be a closed bidding process. Members of Bloggers for Charity may make as many bids as they wish, but they will be bidding blind. No bids will be published (but it won't take a genius to work out how much the figures were sold for).
                                                                        • The highest bid at the end of the auction period will be the winner and the funds can be transferred directly to Bloggers for Charity.
                                                                        • Relax, I will pay postage.

                                                                        I'll repost this information and more when the auction opens, but now, what about the figures? Well, those of you who always skip to the end of the crime thriller will have noticed a photo:


                                                                        and those of you who know about such things or have a decent imagination (which lets me out) will realise that it's a useful (Foundry) adventure type for Back of Beyond, Darkest Africa or even adaptations of Necromunda There are five explorer figures in total.

                                                                        O.K., reality check. If you're a bit of a chisler you'll realise instantly that you'll be competing against a pretty small group and that only some of these will bid so you might be able to get the figures for less than you might on an open auction. Fair enough, but just remember it's for a good cause and not just a raid on a charity shop. If it turns out not to be viable then it was worth trying, but that's all folks. However, if it turns out to be a success (measured in membership numbers as well as income) then I've got other stuff going spare and it's a knocking bet that others will have too - and it doesn't matter where the figures etc, are located. by the way, I'm always open to suggestions for improvements and better ideas so don't be shy.  


                                                                        So, as Patrick Moore might have said, watch this space.

                                                                        Saturday, 21 September 2013

                                                                        BfC 2015

                                                                        So after the last post we had a great response, I am happy to say that I have been in contact with a great Blogger who has agreed to act as the 2015 Planning Team Leader. I felt it was better this way so the plan can be driven by one person with help from Andy and myself, in his team will be many of you bloggers who want to help but are maybe time poor or feel you lacked the know how to plan an event like this. Andy and I want as many of you as possible to feel involved, I understand that for many the painting is going to be your input but others may not want to offer their painting skills but have other aspects they can help with.
                                                                        Some may think we are getting ahead of ourselves as the 2014 figures have not even been sent out but, that should give you an indication of how much planning, testing and communications have to go on before these events can get off the ground. 2014 will always be our first BfC but I firmly believe this will only get bigger and better each successive year.
                                                                        As this is becoming a permanent fixture on our little area of the blogosphere and the wargames world I was wondering if we had any graphic artist out there who would be willing to look at graphics for BfC we already have our 2014 logo created by Andy but would love to see what you guys could come up with.

                                                                        Monday, 16 September 2013

                                                                        The Future for Blogger For Charity

                                                                        While I understand you painting volunteers are still awaiting figures and effectively feel BfC is not even started. For us organizers it has been a bit like the swimming swan, calm above water while under we have been peddling furiously.... But it has been a real treat for all involved and for myself and Loki it has become a real passion.

                                                                        The reaction we have been getting from the wargames industry has got the two of us thinking, why does it only have to be for one year. Loki and I have been chatting and we wanted to share a few ideas and see what you lot think.

                                                                        First off I would like to say that Andy (Loki) has agreed to become the BfC Hon. Chairman and I will take the role of Treasurer/Secretary we want to see that BfC is a continuing success. The next part is where we would love some feedback.

                                                                        The BfC plan will be to put on a demo game at two shows in a year (start and end) the components of the games will be painted and built by the Wargames Blogger community. A quick aside we do not expect you all to paint every year but hope you would be happy to help every now and then. After the last event each year the game components will be sold/auctioned off and the proceeds given to that years chosen charities.

                                                                        So we are well on the way to 2014's game but would love to hear ideas for a 2015 game.
                                                                        The planning of these games is a busy thing and as you will be aware we have been busy planning next years game this year. 2015 would need planning throughout 2014 even Andy and I think this is too much so we have come up with another proposal the BfC will need two planning teams who leap frog each other. Again we do not need a long term commitment but you may feel you would love a go at doing the BfC for one year.

                                                                        We would hope that we have read the reaction of the wider community correctly and that this BfC will be well supported, Andy and I are happy to support and help any planning teams (even non Europe based, plenty of bloggers in USA or NZ, AUS)
                                                                        So in summary.

                                                                        Would you Support BfC ongoing?
                                                                        Do you accept Andy and I as the committee?
                                                                        Any Ideas for 2015?
                                                                        Do you want to be part of the 2015 planning Team? (feel free to contact Andy or I privately through G+)

                                                                        Thank you for your time
                                                                        James and Andy