2018 Retrospective- The ongoing war against the lead mountain

As ever I like to start the year with a review of what I got posted last year and make a personal judgement if the war against the lead (and plastic) mountain is being won or if I've suffered another setback.

2018 has been a productive year on the existing 28mm American Civil War and 6mm War of the Spanish Succession projects both having many more troops painted and added to the collection. The former were really spurred on by visits to the Gettysburg and Bull Run battlefields in July. These battlefield visits also inspired me on quite a lot of terrain building for fences, fields, etc. based upon areas of the battlefields.

A small impact was made on the El Cid collection with four Jinetes I had base coated for a long time finally getting highlighted and based. Likewise an order with Brigade Games saw another 15 Poilu added to the WWI French - although 9 unpainted ones  from the order of the 24 have been added to the lead mountain!

The first new project kicked off in 2018 was a foray into the world of Maximillian 1934 which saw some of my existing Jalopies being painted plus a few new ones added, there are a couple of crewmen outstanding in the painting pile, but pretty much a lead mountain neutral event.

Agincourt Day, 25th October saw a big reduction in the plastic mountain with me finally getting on with the Hundred Years War project. Within a month I had painted 72 English long-bowmen and men at arms that had languished in the pile of shame for the past couple of years and the project continues apace with an order for mounted men-at arms from the UK and more infantry as Christmas presents that I am taking a short break from painting to write this post.

December saw me signing up to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge and it has been a great inspiration to crack on painting some stuff, including many of those individual characters that you pick up. December also saw quite a few figures painted under the 'gift of paint' that helps me get more stuff done.

So, for 2018 I got the following painted for myself:

• In 28mm 
• 90 Perry Miniatures Confederate infantry. 
• 44 Perry Miniatures Union infantry. 
• 6 Perry Miniatures Confederate artillerists. 
• 1 Perry Miniatures 10lb Parrot. 
• 12 Perry Miniatures Union artillerists. 
• 3 Perry Miniatures 3" Rifles. 
• 12 Perry Miniatures Confederate artillerists. 
• 3 Perry Miniatures 12lb Napoleon. 
• Perry Miniatures Howitzer. 
• 10 Perry Miniatures Confederate horse. 
• 8 Perry Miniatures Union horse. 
• 3 Perry Miniatures Union generals. 
• 3 Perry Miniatures Confederate generals. 
• 5 Brigade Games Old West Characters. 
• 4 Gripping Beast Andalusian Jinetes.
• 1 Wargames Foundry Union Zouave. 
• 15 Brigade Games Poilu 
• 1 Partizan WWI Pilot 
• 1 Warbases Badger. 
• 2 1st Corps speedsters 
• 1 Eureka Miniatures Tribekka 
• 1 Eureka Miniatures Roadster 
• 1 Eureka Miniatures Flyer 
• 1 Eureka Miniatures Motorcycle 
• Warbases turnip cart. 
• Warbases water cart. 
• 2 Warbases draft horses. 
• 9 Warbases chickens. 
• 1 Warbases donkey. 
• Warbases chicken coop. 
• Warbases privy. 
• 72 Perry Miniatures 100YW English foot 
• 12 Perry Miniatures 100YW French cavalry 
• 4 Warbases geese 
• Warbases ammunition cart 
• Warbases peasants cart 
• Partizan Dulce est decorum... 
• Partizan Mary Seacole 
• Crisis Medieval Princess 
• 3 Warbases pheasants
• In 6mm 
• 18 English horse. 
• 36 French horse. 
• 18 French dragoons. 
• 18 French dismounted dragoons. 
• 18 Scottish dragoons. 
• 18 Scottish dismounted dragoons. 
• 96 Dutch foot. 
• 72 French foot. 
• 144 Bavarian foot. 
• 2 French guns 
• 8 pioneers. 
• 21 casualties. 
• 18 sheep.

Rather a good effort, with 249 foot and 40 mounted painted - both improvements on last years totals - along with  7 guns, 5 cars, 1 motorcycle, 4 carts, 4 draft horses, 9 chickens, 1 donkey, 1 badger, 4 geese, 3 pheasants, 1 privy and a 1 chicken coop.

Not as much 6mm painted as last year though; 90 mounted, 382 foot, 2 guns, 18 sheep, 15 horses

The terrain collection gained quite a bit, mainly fields and fences for our ACW games.

However in the other column the following was added to the lead (and plastic mountain): 260 foot, 15 mounted, 3 cars, 1 motorcycle, 6 cannon Plus, my very generous family and friends who added:
 80 foot, 6 mounted, 1 limber, 6 horses, 5 riders, 1 badger, 4 geese, 3 pheasants, 3 carts.

So, technically going backwards again.

I did a few figures for other people this year, with:

• 10 WWII airborne/special forces/resistance fighters for Tony 
• 5 ACW gunners for Drew 
• 5 ACW gunners for Seth 
• Austrian 3-pdr and 4 crew for Bruce 
• 3 Battletech Mechs for Drew

As ever, I must work harder on that lead pile!

I wish all my readers a very prosperous 2019 and a productive time on their own lead mountains!

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....