Category: Figures

Battalion Gun for the Militia

Happy New Year to all – I hope 2017 is good to you!

I’ll aim to do a 2017 plan soon, but in the meantime here’s a quick post on my latest bit of painting..

With this battalion gun my c18th Militia brigade is now complete. However I’ve realised I’ll have to re-paint the bases of the infantry, as they were based by someone else (very nicely) and I’m just not going to be able to match the recent additions to them. So, the full parade will have to wait.

In the meantime, here is the finished battalion gun. I matched the uniforms to one of the battalions, which were AWI originally, but are now generic militia for my imagi-nations armies.

Perry crew, RSM gun:

 

 

Ice Demons – Cos ‘Tis the Season

I’ve had these Demonworld figures for a few years, having bought them on ebay when the range was out of production. Although I prep’d and based them at the time, I’ve only just now painted them. They didn’t take very long, so as always it’s a mystery why I kept putting them off!

I decided that they’d look best in icy colours, and I’ve dry-brushed the bases with white over the top of my usual green/brown.

They’ll be used in my 15mm Dungeon game as big demons, and potentially in 25/28mm Frostgrave as man-sized demons.

 

A Few More Fantasy Additions

A few 15mm fantasy figures received some paint recently. These will see action in my Dungeon Game, as well as for Dragon Rampant and bigger fantasy battle games.

Below, Reaper Bones beast hound, Demonword beholder and demon wizard.

The other 4 figures are conversions I did a few years ago (about 50 more to paint, including mounted versions). They’re Museum Miniatures medievals to which I’ve added greenstuff cloaks with fur mantles, some weapon upgrades, and of course horns on their helms. They are inspired by GW’s take on Chaos Warriors/Knights and I wanted some for my 15mm Chaos/evil army. Now I’ve settled on a simple paint scheme, I’ll hopefully be able to get the rest done at some point.

Chaos on Chaos action:

Satanic beasty Sorceror. He’s going to get a partial re-paint as his skin looks like he’s some sort of water-based guy, and it’s a bit of a clash with the lava!

Lots more to do, but I’m enjoying picking away at them slowly.

Warbases MDF Gun

Since painting the Warbases engineer cart I thought I’d move on to the the artillery piece kit next. The carriage is all MDF and the gun is metal. It represents a French piece of the Gribeauval system. I’m not expert on artillery models, but it does the job just fine for me. I’ve already painted the limber that comes with this kit, and overall I think it’s excellent value for an outlay of a few quid (£4.50).

I’ll use it as a generic piece for either side in my imagi-nations games, most likely in a colonial setting. If I need any more, I’ll be back to Warbases for sure.

 

A Militia Brigadier

I’m slowly working through some minor bits for my 18th century armies, the most recent being the brigadier for my militia brigade. The figures in the brigade’s 2 battalions are Perry AWI, as is their commander.

I painted him in slightly more muted colours than I normally would for a general, to fit better with his troops. The militia can take the field for either side (Medetia or Fleurie) as required, and I think this figure looks the part – a bit of an amateur trying to puzzle out his orders..

 

Next will be a battalion gun and crew, which will complete the small brigade. I’ll get them on parade for a pic or two when they’re finished.

Bear Clan!

A couple of months ago I painted some 15mm fantasy figures for use with Dragon Rampant and my dungeon adventure game. Before I went back to the 6mm SYW project I did paint a force of Bear Clan/Cultists but have taken forever to get the bases done.

Now they’re finally finished, here are some pics:

 

Leader, champions and shamen:

Shapeshifters (Copplestone):

Crazy bear:

The men are mostly Splintered Light, with a few Copplestone and a Demonworld leader. The bears are from a variety of companies too, in small, medium and bloomin’ big sizes. I’ve kept to a very simple pallet and, with most figures having some bearskin on them, that’s provided the overriding look.

I have another batch of about 20 to finish, which will allow me to field more options for a Dragon Rampant force. When I’m fed up with painting 6mm I’ll switch back to these and get the rest finished off.

Some Progress on the 6mm SYW Armies

I’ve been carrying on with painting the Prussians and Austrians for this project, and the forces are growing slowly but steadily.

I’m aiming to develop the armies in reasonable proportions so I can get some use out of them as they expand – in other words I’m not painting all the cavalry first, for example. The Austrians have received the most attention so far, partly because they were starting from scratch, and partly because a fair number of the Prussians need re-basing which isn’t a lot of fun!

For the Austrians I’m painting in batches comprising 5 infantry, 4 cavalry, 1 artillery battery and 1 Grenzer unit, plus commanders. I have about 7 or 8 of these batches to do to end up with the overall army I’m after. I’m currently painting the infantry that will complete batch 3.

Austrians so far:

 

 

For the Prussians the batches are a little smaller, due to the make-up of the army. They’re running a batch behind the Austrians – although there’ll be some quicker catching up once I’ve done a bunch of re-basing.

The Prussians so far:

 

 

 

I’ve found myself putting a bit more effort into the flags than I thought I would, no bad thing I guess. They’ll certainly do for me. I wasn’t going to do anything more for cavalry standards than just paint the base colour but I’ve done a bit more for the first Prussians and may now have to go back to do something on the Austrian ones too.

Lots more to do, but I’ll get there eventually!

SYW Progress

Recently I’ve been doing some prep on the next batches for my 6mm SYW project. I was spurred on to base up some more units when I realised I had nothing actually ready to paint!

So, the next batch consists of 5 more Austrian musketeer battalions, 2 dragoon units, a Grenzer unit and a couple of generals.

 

When I finish this lot I’ll have just over 30 Austrian units done, and will then focus on the Prussians until they’ve caught up. Fortunately, a fair few of the Prussians are already painted and just need re-basing, some touching up, and new flags.

While getting these prepared, I’ve also made a start on my central European buildings, which will be used for the villages of Saxony, Bohemia and Silesia in the SYW, and for other 6mm projects where I need some scenery like this. The bulk of the buildings will be generic single storey thatched houses with some timbering. I’m not going to overdo the timbering for the same reason I’m steering clear of tiled roofs – I can’t be bothered with all the extra work!

Here’s my first attempt. 30x20x20mm, made from card with a plaster/filler thatch. I know most thatched roofs are

Painted in fairly muted tones:

 

And here’s the rest in pre-fab kit form:

Yes, I appreciate that this pile will take a bit of assembling!

I’ll also be adding a few different structures, including some larger barns, and a couple of churches etc. There will also be paddock fences to flesh out the settlements a little. I want to be able to place several villages on the table when required, to reflect the types of battlefields that were fought over.

Hopefully working on these buildings will offer a nice break from painting the figures themselves, and I can progress with both aspects of the project in parallel.

I’m aiming for a game or two with this collection by the end of the ‘summer’. We’ll see…

Mustering A New Regiment

With the big game weekend at Ayton now looming (in a good way) at the end of the month, it’s time to return to my 28mm 18th century forces and get everything ready for this year’s adventure.

I am making some modest additions to my Medetian and Fleurian armies (which inexplicably put their centuries-old differences aside and unite to fight foreigners in Henry Hyde’s on-going campaign!)

The first of these is on the workbench at the moment – the Savoy Regiment of the Savoy/Piedmont army of the mid-18th century, which I am increasingly using as the inspiration for my Fleurian forces. These are figures from Crann Tara, with a couple of Minden battalion gunners waiting for their gun. They’ve been blessed by the talented brush of Dave Jarvis, who previously painted for me the La Marine regiment who are lined up behind them. When the flags arrive from Mark Allen, and I’ve added the gun and finished the basing, these units will combine to make a rather stunning brigade for action in Grenouisse at the end of April.

I’d better get cracking then!