Hundred Years War: French (18)

Here is the result of 36 Knights in 14 days!

Following on from the last blog post, when the first twelve Agincourt men at arms were completed I set to it this week and completed the remainder of the box.

The Perry Miniatures Agincourt Foot Knights are a delight to assemble and paint - apart from that one pole-arm on the English Knights sprue that snaps in half two times out of three.

My usual method of base-coat, wash and two or three highlights does come out rather well on these.

The recipe for the blackened armour is a base-coat of 50:50 Black and Gunmetal Grey, washed with AP Strong Tone and then the base-coat is re-applied then a couple of glazed highlights of the same with more Silver added to each layer.

The figures are individually mounted on Renedra 20mm rounds and then the movement trays/sabots are a custom order from Warbases, six cut-outs in a 80mm x 60mm tray.

This weekend I started on some command figures for the game and am already well progressed with the English command set so should all be ready for the game at Danecon in a couple of weeks

As usual, shots of the individuals:

Hundred Years War: French (17)

Danecon is approaching soon and I'm putting on a Hundred Years War game and reckon that I really should add a few more Men at Arms to the collection, so a quick order into Noble Knight Games and last Saturday I picked up another box of Perry Miniatures Agincourt Foot Knights.

I sat out on the deck in the sun and got them assembled then applied some Vallejo pumice gel to the bases and gave a coat of acrylic grey primer.

These figures really are lovely to paint and as usual I do mine in small batches of four figures so you'll see a common palette across the collection, but as the figures in the units units get mixed up during games the units become more random, which is the look I am aiming for. 

Of the 36 models these are the first twelve painted and based, but the rest of the figures all are painted to some degree, ranging from, 'just need the bases finishing' right through to only got the armour blocked in so another blog post cannot be too far away.

My game at Danecon is not until 26th July so plenty of time to complete the other two units and I may even try to get some more English Longbow done too.

The only issue I have at the moment is storage, all my Really Useful Boxes are full and I don't have space in my current setup to store any more, may be time to rethink the storage space. 

 Here are some close-ups of the individuals. I've tried to make them quite generic and usable as either English or French so left off the Orles, Cross of St. Denis, Cross of St. George etc. although a few of them definitely have a Scottish look to them, maybe a need to sort out a Battle of Verneuil game in the future.

Tumbling Dice Napoleonic Naval (2)

Taking a break from the WWII stuff I completed a couple more 3rd Rates for the English fleet.

The one on the left is a 64-gun and the one on the right a 74-gun, both from the Tumbling Dice range.

After cleaning up the parts I stick bowsprit on and the molded base onto a 60mm x 20mm MDF and texture with acrylic gel, nothing else is stuck at this point. The whole is sprayed with with white primer.

The deck is painted with Deck Tan and the hull and masts with Gold Brown. The sails are painted Pale Sand and some spars in Gold Brown, others in Black. The strakes are painted in Black and if I am doing Nelson Checker then the gunports are also painted black. 

The whole lot is then stuck together with superglue and coated with AP Strong Tone. Once dried I go over the sails again with Pale Sand then Ivory and re-do the Gold Brown.

The rigging is added with bristles cut from a nylon brush and then any tidying up needed is done and the ensigns painted.

The base is Prussian Blue highlighted up and then everything is sealed with a coat of Testors Dull-cote.

There are a couple more French 3rd rates on deck at the moment, but they do seems to have been pushed to the back of the queue as I prepare for Danecon.

WWII French Partizans

While the bug for painting WWII has me I finished off a trio of WWII French Resistance fighters for chum Tony. Not sure of the provenance of the figures but they were nice sculpts to paint.

WWII Soviets reboot (4)

Another batch of Soviets for the collection, this time seven infantry from the old Bolt Action Miniatures range.

A motley crew kitted out in Telogreika for campaigning in the cold weather.

Although nice sculpts they are nowhere near as nice and easy to paint as the Artizan Miniatures ones that I have been doing lately but they do the job and I can now field over three platoons for our Chain of Command and I Ain't Been Shot Mum games.

I used the same palette as the previous batches and it's here for those looking for inspiration for their own Soviets that may want to check it out.

There are another seven on the paint table at the moment and then I appear to be out of Soviets, although I always seem to find a few more of anything whenever I look in the lead pile. I'm running out of space to store these so will have to pick up another Really Useful Box to extend the collection .

WWII Soviets reboot (3)

A punishing work schedule including a week long business trip to Frankfurt and a another week long business trip in the US has left very little time for painting these past three weeks, but I did make an effort between the trips and was able to finish off another 22 WWII Soviet infantry this week.

Like the previous batch these are all Artizan Designs picked up from Northstar.

The first pair of figures are from the Command pack, and although a little smaller than the standard infantry are really good characterful sculpts that mix well with the troops.

Two more sections of SWWB08 - Soviet Army Squad II were also completed so I now have a complete 'winterised' platoon in fur hats and padded jackets.

Continuing to use my standard WWII Soviet palette, most of the uniform colours in this batch were 'Russian Uniform' and 'Khaki' with rather less 'US Field Drab'

I'm rather happy with the effect of having the mix of uniform colours.

This time I did not mount all the LMG teams as prone pairs, instead using some kneeling figures on the bases so that I have some variety, the 'spare' prone figures shall be mixed in with gun crews.

I now have enough Soviets painted for three platoons plus a bucket load of supports, I have some more of the old Bolt Action Miniatures Soviets on the painting table at the moment, but once those are complete I had better get cracking with some more Germans.

I've no business trips scheduled now for the foreseeable future so the painting should be able to continue apace, at least until my trip to the UK in August.

WWII Soviets reboot (2)

Last July Northstar had one of their sales and I snagged a few bargains including another load of Artizan Designs WWII Soviet infantry.

I managed to pick up four packs of SWWB08 - Soviet Army Squad II and a blister of now discontinued characters.

I've been trying to restrict the purchases of new figures lately and instead concentrate on painting the figures in the 'pile of shame', and as these were fairly near the top of said pile they were an easy pick.

The weather was rather lovely at the weekend so I sat out on the patio and got these figures cleaned up, stuck to bases and the pumice gel applied to them and on Sunday evening they got a coat of Rustoleum Khaki ready for starting painting on Monday when the weather turned much wetter.

I painted these in two distinct batches of 11 figures using my previously documented palette the first batch used Russian Uniform as the primary colour with some clothing etc. done in Field Drab while the second batch used Field Drab as the primary colour and Khaki as the secondary colour, as I paint more I'll continue this cycle.

My original method had changed slightly, I no longer use VMC Sepia wash instead now using AP Strong tone and have added another layer to the flesh tones, including a stage where they get a coat of AP Flesh Tone.

1st section

This is the first section of ten men from the squad box, I like to have some 'pairs' based up, both for the LMG teams and to use as patrol markers in our Chain of Command games.

1st section

2nd section

The second section is very similar, but in this case the 'pair' uses a couple of advancing figures rather than the kneeling ones in the first section.

2nd section

2nd section

I also painted up two of the character figures from the command pack, the first is a great sniper model in a cloak with a sniper rifle, the second figure is an officer in great-coat and helmet with a pistol and to be honest is a bit of a spud, he's very slight, I don't think a mannequin was used, the facial detail is poor and the hand holding the pistol lacks the usual detail we expect from Artizan, maybe he is the reason this pack was discontinued.

Sniper and Officer

Sniper and officer

I took the opportunity to take some individual close ups of some of the figures.

Infantrymen Statnik and Ponikarov

Infantrymen Loskutnikov and Vikhrov

Infantrymen Loskutnikov and Vikhrov

Infantryman Lomovtsev (front)

Infantryman Lomovtsev (rear)

Infantryman Babatyev (front)

Infantryman Babatyev (rear)

Junior Sergeant Kocheryozhkin (front) 

Junior Sergeant Kocheryozhkin (rear) 

This lot is half the Soviets bought in the sale, I'm working away on business for the next couple of weeks, but hope to crack on with the other half when I get back.