Crisis 2016 - Maud of Flanders, wife of William the Conqueror

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is a great excuse to crack on with all those oddments of figures that you really should be painting. This week has seen the Partizan Figures for Mary Seacole and the Dulce et decorum... painted and at the same time I painted this lovely figure that chum James sent me that he picked up at the Crisis show. 

I think it was the show figure, but am happy to be corrected.

NOTE: It was the Crisis 2016 show figure and is Maud of Flanders, wife of William the Conqueror

A very nice sculpt that cleaned up very easily and took only a short while to paint. I tried to restrict the pallet so the light blue base for the embroidered gown is the same light blue as the veil covering her hair.

She shall no doubt see service in our upcoming Hundred Years War games - once I have enough French painted to field a force.

She can be found on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge here

Warbases Pheasants

Victoria gifted me a pack of Pheasants from Warbases  for Christmas and I got some paint on them this week. A simple paint job and I think they came out well and shall make a great addition to our games with many uses across the periods we play.

They shall also count towards my points tally on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge and can be found here 

Partizan - Mary Seacole, Crimean War Nurse

Another figure sculpted by Martin Baker, This time its Mary Seacole, Crimean War Nurse from 'The Other Partizan MMXVI'.

Lee is emigrating to Australia this month and found this while he was clearing out ready for the move and sent it over to me, very kind of him.

Like all of the Partizan figures it's a great sculpt with bags of character and was a really easy paint job to execute. The main colours being Flat Green and Royal Blue. After blocking in the base-coats it was washed with Army Painter Strong Tone then the colours re-applied and highlighted then finished off with a brown-lining with Windsor & Newton Peat Brown.

I kept the base rather simple.

I don't have any Crimean War collection so Mary shall likely find use in our American Civil War Sharp Practice games as a Minor Character.

Again, this is contributing to my Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge quota and the entry can be found here

Partizan - Dulce et decorum est...

Earlier this year chum Martin sent me the show figure from 'The Other Partizan MMXVIII' titled Dulce et decorum est... The Great War 1914-1918

It's a beautiful figure sculpted by Martin Baker.

I based it on a 40mm Renedra round and then added some planking made from balsa wood to simulate the floor of a dug-out. The covered bucket is from a Great Escape Games 'fist full of baggage pack' Likely a temporary latrine, but probably not best to think about that!

The paint job was rather simple, mainly English Uniform, Khaki and Reflective Green. All washed then highlighted and then brown-lined with Windsor & Newton Peat Brown ink.

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has given me a lot of impetus to finish off figures like this.

You can see this entry on there here.

Lance of Battletech Mechs

Chum Drew gave me some Mechs to paint last year and they have languished in the lead mountain for about 12 months. Today that all changed and they are now complete.

The two on the right were also painted under the auspices of the Analogue Hobbies painting challenge so shall also contribute to my painting total there!

No idea what kind of Mech they are but they are nice models to paint and don't take a lot of effort to do.

You can check out the post regarding the two on the right on the Painting Challenge blog here

The gift of Gunners!

Christmas is a time for giving and this year I am giving Seth and Bruce the gift of Artillery!

Seth is building up a force of Confederates for Sharp Practice and I've assembled a couple of batteries from the Perry Miniatures American Civil War Artillery set this leaves a whole load of gunners left over so I assembled and painted up a gun crew for Seth, although the guy leaning on the wheel while the other pulls the lanyard is likely not drill-book ;)

Bruce is building up a Seven Years War collection so while at Historicon I picked up a Crusader Miniatures Austrian 3-pdr cannon and crew to paint up for him. A lovely model and really easy to paint.

There usually some interest in colours for Austrian guns, I used a base-coat of Vallejo Gold Brown highlighted up with Pale Sand.

Finally, completed on Saturday and entry for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, five more gunners, this time for the Union for Drew.

These chaps are models re-aiming the gun, so one chap uses the trail spike while two more push the wheels. Two more crew members prepare to ram home the next round.

The 12lb Napoleon is from my collection and just included for the purpose of the photo.

These are also on the Painting Challenge blog here....

American Civil War: Confederates (17)

I've been wanting to add a three-gun battery to the American Civil War Confederate collection so that I can field a starting force for Longstreet.  I had completed a Union battery last month and bought another Perry American Civil War Artillery from Arcane Scenery set in preparation.

As I had signed up to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, this was definitely on the list of things to get done, you're not allowed to paint before the 21st December but you can assemble and prime, so this has been ready to start on for a couple of weeks now.

Starting at 0500 on Friday, I used my standard base-coat, wash, highlights method and the bases were completed on Saturday evening ready for dull-coat and photographs on Sunday morning. The majority of the Confederate uniform being Vallejo Basalt Grey, the gun carriages are off a basecoat of Beige Brown.

The battery comprises two 12lb Napoleon cannon and a Howitzer and shall be joining my ever-growing ACW collection. 

This gets me out of the starting blocks for the challenge.

You can find the Painting Challenge post here.

Peasant Cart

My lovely wife has continued to surprise me with the gift of mdf over the festive period, this week a 'Peasant Cart 1' from Warbases.

Fortunately I already had a draft horse in the bits box, I added a load of logs made from 1/4" dowel secured in place with rope fashioned from bakers twine stiffened with PVA glue. The whole thing was primed with grey car primer then painted and based over the weekend ready to be entered into the Painting challenge.

I've amassed quite a baggage train over the past year!

The entry on the Painting Challenge is here.

Ammunition wagon

Victoria ordered me some treats from Warbases and today I finished off the Ammunition cart that she gave me last week.

A great little MDF kit that shall no doubt see some use in our Sharp Practice games over the coming months. The draft horse is also from Warbases.

The cart is a base-coat of Vallejo Bassalt Grey highlighted up with Light Grey and the horse is mainly Vallejo Saddle Brown highlighted up with a bit of Iraqi Sand.

The mane, tail, blaze etc. are Iraqi Sand highlighted up with Ivory.

I intentionally left off any crew so that they can be used across different eras.

Only took a few minutes to get painted. I've got quite the baggage train on the go now!

9th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge

A new departure for me, I've signed up for Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge now in its 9th year.

I'm not allowed to splash any paint on my entries before the 21st December, but you can assemble, clean up and prime. So, assembled and primed already I have a battery of Perry Miniatures ACW artillery ready to be painted for my Confederates plus a Confederate limber and team, again from the Perry's. A box of un-assembled Zouaves completes the ACW task list.

I also plan to crack on some more with the Hundred Years War project and I plan to clear the deck before the 21st by completing another six French mounted Men at Arms, and cleaning up then priming the Perry French mounted command at Agincourt set that I have.

That's the short term goals sorted, I plan to pick up some more Agincourt infantry over the next week or so and there is kilos of stuff in the 'pile of shame' that I could crack on with too.

On the first day of Christmas....

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me,

Four geese a hissing.

It does not really scan, does it. But yesterday Victoria gave me a pack of geese from Warbases, and very much appreciated they are.

Lovely castings and just a few minutes to clean them up and prime them and about another half hour to get them painted up as Canada Geese defending their patch.

Hundred Years War: French(1)

This week sees the first of the French Hundred Years War contingent completed with two bases of mounted Men at Arms from the Perry Miniatures range.

 I used a mix of mounted Men- at-arms with and without the 'white armour'.

I can see already some 'bendy lance,' especially on the blue and white one, and I think that this is going to be exacerbated over time by them not fitting in a 4ltr Really-Useful box.

There are another half-dozen of these on the paint table at the moment and I also have the French mounted command at Agincourt ready to be cleaned up.

This is the first use of the cavalry custom bases that I ordered from Warbases and I rather like the effect.

I'm working away in Buffalo, N.Y. next week so shall be kept away from brushes and paints, so likely no updates for a bit.

Some close-ups of the individual Men at Arms.