A Jolly Boat

 
A couple of years ago I won one of the Challenge spot prizes, a voucher for Barrage Miniatures so put to it and bought myself three of their great boats. 

Last year I painted one of the boats, this year, it's another entry for the "Adventurers’ Landing" bonus round.

The crew are from the Brigade Games and I added the option for Oars & Oar Locks to save me the fuss of building my own.

The dunnage is a separate piece that can be stowed fore or aft and is made from a few spares from the bit's box, there is even a bin from a T-34 in there. I covered it in a piece of napkin soaked in PVA to represent some old sail-cloth.

As it's removeable I also have the option of adding a cannon or mortar to make it into a gun boat as part of some harbour defenses.

Like all the Brigade Games Napoleonics they are full of character and I really enjoyed painting them up. The starboard-aft fellow's bare arms are perfect for a fouled anchor tattoo.

The and Midshipman and Lieutenant are also from Brigade Games. 

I did think about doing "deck" bases for them, but in the end decided on my usual scatter as they are most likely going to be deployed on my standard terrain.

Landwehr Battalion Hildesheim

My second battalion of Hanaoverian Landwehr of the year is Landwehr Battalion Hildesheim, of the 5th Hanoverian Brigade of Picton's 5th Division at the Battle of Waterloo.

Like the previous unit, I made this unit up by mixing a box each of Warlord Games Waterloo British line and Late Hanoverian Infantry, I prefer the mix of shako and field cap. 

As usual, the standards are from GMB Designs. It looks like I need a little touch up on the trim of the regimental.

I tried a slightly new technique on these and did not actually paint the front of the coats red, instead painted the fronts black to make the white "pop" a bit more. It also cuts quite a bit of time from the painting process.

This now brings me up to four battalions of Hanoverian Landwehr and lets me field a good sized brigade.

I've bought some KGL Light Infantry on deck this week, makes a change from redcoats.

1st (Royal) Dragoons

These have been on a slow burner these past three weeks, but finally the 1st (Royal) Dragoons are ready for inspection. The figures are all rather lovely sculpts for Brigade Games done by Paul Hicks. My daughter Jasmin bought them for e for my birthday last month.

Here is a view that the British Generals and Infantry were more than used to in the period as they gallop off into the distance after their fox.

And there they go again in the other direction, they would be dangerous if they obeyed orders!

Some close-ups of a few of the bases.

The standard is from GMB Designs, a delivery from the UK arrived this week allowing me to complete the unit.

These have been a long time on the painting table, as one of life's natural infantrymen I find painting cavalry can be rather a chore and these seemed exceptionally so. 

It's not the horses that take the time, it's all the fuss that goes into the riders.

I have the rest of the Union Brigade "on deck", but will paint some infantry next as a palette cleanser.

Star Wars: Legion - 3D printed droids

Chum Drew has recently bought an Elegoo Mars and when we recently met up for a socially distanced walk he handed me a bag of droids he'd printed off for me to paint up and add to the Star Wars: Legion collection.

These are the first five, there are a similar amount in the backlog that will hopefully get done in a future post.

A C-3PO, I already have one of these from the Escape Pod set, so this one was done in silver. Unfortunately, when painting the base I managed to knock his left arm off that pinged into the distance and remains unfound.

Usually seen scuttling around star-ships and large facilities, this mouse droid is probably going to find the Batuu terrain of our battlefields a little hard on his tiny wheels.

A C1 Astromech (thanks Laffe)

I already have a R2-D2 from the "Escape  Pod" set so, this one was done in a predominantly beige and yellow scheme as a generic R2 unit.

There is something about the GNK "Gonk" power droids that I really like, with a Gonk, you'll never be without a charge for your communicator.

These probably are not the droids you were looking for.

Star Wars: Legion - AT-ST (by Mrs Scrivs)

 

A doting husband just know the perfect gifts for his wife, flowers, chocolates, Imperial war machines, all help you maintain that special place in their heart.

A couple of months ago I put a Star Wars: Legion AT-ST under the tree for her and this week Victoria finished her paint job on it.

As it is so huge, instead of painting it as a vehicle she took the approach of painting it instead as if she was doing a large terrain piece like the Droid Depot that she recently did.

From a basecoat of grey primer she worked up a battered, battle damaged and stained finish that I think came out excellently.

It really is imposing at about 8" tall and no doubt will cause great destruction amongst my rebels in our upcoming games. 

The kit comes with a couple of weapons options, so we left the mounts unglued, this shot is of the 88 Twin light blaster cannon. 

While this shot close ups the Mortar launcher and the DW-3 Concussion grenade launcher.

We have been playing 700 points lately, but with this addition we can take it to the next level and easily do about 900 points each. 

Druids doing unspeakable things to goats

 

The Age of Arthur collection has been much neglected these past few years, it was packed in boxes and bought with me to the US, but has lain un-played for these past five years with no new troops added to the forces.

Last year my LGS had a sale on and I picked up this Westwind Productions "Druids Making a Sacrifice with rock & goat" with a thought of adding it to the lead mountain in the eventuality that the Age of Arthur collection came back to the top of the painting list at some time.

One of the Chambers of Challenge for this years AHPC was:

Shrine: Dearly beloved Challengers, let us bow our heads, and create … a religious-themed entry in this chamber. A model which is worshipping, praying, genuflecting, preaching, pilgrimaging, scourging, crusading, venerating … or maybe just visiting parishioners for tea. Clerics welcome!

I thought this piece would be perfect.

I have realised that after painting and basing though that the druids are all facing inwards, so a lot of detail I added to them is not that visible.

I'm rather pleased how it all came out and it will make a nice bit of table decoration when I next get around to playing an Age of Arthur game.