Tim had given me six metal Lord of the Rings ranger figures and wanted them done up as an elite unit. I decided to do them in uniform colors -- rather than individual, like the others. These guys also have chainmail underneath their tunic and cloak, so will definitely stand out more on the tabletop. There is a noticeable difference painting metal figures, compared to plastic. Unfortunately, they still have those stupid "slotta" bases! My friend Zeke says there is a level of Hell reserved for the inventor of those things. Although that might be overstating how I feel about them a bit, I truly do hate those things. I have to find a way to glue them down on a larger piece of cardstock or something. It is just too much of a pain in the butt to hold onto them by these cheap plastic bases.
So, what's up next? Well, I haven't decided if I'm going to forge on ahead and finish Tim's project with the 7 figures that are left, or whether I'll substitute in a batch of my own stuff. If there is one thing that I'm inspired to paint right now it is 15mm Fantasy. However, I'm not sure if I want to wade right in on my "Old Forest" army, with its Splintered Light Satyrs and Fauns. At Origins, I bought a bunch of Splintered Light's squirrel warriors. So, maybe I'll sneak them to the front of the line. I recently cataloged my unpainted figures -- writing down everything I have on a steno pad. Strangely, of all the things I looked through, I feel inpsired to paint my 15mm Orcs. I already have a painted Orc army, though (using 15mm Ral Partha), so it's not like I need to paint them. Who knows...?
Other than the final black wash, I am finished with the second batch of Tim's Lord of the Rings rangers. I should have pictures of them posted up here within a couple days. This completes the "rank and file" portion of this army. Next up is a batch of 6 elite (metal miniatures, as opposed to plastic!) rangers and 2 standard bearers. After that, the final batch will be the General of the force, along with a wizard, Radagast the Brown, and three war bears. In between those batches, I will likely work on more commissioned camps and strongholds.
In the next camp batch will be John Adkins' High Elf HOTT stronghold. Also, I plan on doing John Loy's two Field of Glory Ancients baggage areas. These are substantially larger than a DBA camp (two to three times bigger), so I warned John that the price will likely be a bit more than the normal $40 I'm charging for camps or strongholds. One will be for his Pictish army, and another for his Russ. While I was out running today, I came up with ideas for each, which I will probably bounce off John in the next day or so -- once I figure out if they are practical! I tend to go a bit crazy, sometimes, and always have to lay out the materials that will be necessary beforehand, to make sure I'm not locking myself into building the Great Wall of China or anything!
I continue to crank out the commissioned Strongholds and DBA camps. I just finished a batch of five on Sunday. Here are some pics and a brief explanation of each.
This is probably my favorite of the batch. It was commissioned by John Adkins for his daughter's Redwall HOTT army. I had never read the Redwall novels, but doing some wikipedia research showed it is basically a medieval world populated by anthropoid animals -- humanoid mice, squirrels, badgers, etc. The Redwall in title is an Abbey, which John pointed out has reddish stones, hence the name. So, I decided to do a section of curving tower/curtain wall using more of the Hirst Arts blocks that I had leftover from the Pictish broch project. First, I cut out a rectangle of blueboard and reinforced its bottom with styrene. I epoxied the sections of wall directly to the blueboard, then carved the blueboard out to follow the line of the wall. That way, the styrene is the ground level, and there is a curving section of earth supporting the wall. One the inside portion, I drove three thick craft sticks into the blueboard as wooden support pillars. I epoxied a halfmoon shaped sheet of styrene to the top of the pillars, then laid out a row of mini dowels on top of the styrene to cover it up and make it look like a wooden platform. I left a cutout for the ladder, which I had leftover from a bag of odds and ends. The flagpole is driven into the blueboard as well, and then supported again at the platform level. The flag I made in photoshop using Redwall images I found online. The two defenders are from Splintered Light Miniatures excellent line. I absolutely love how the squirrel swordsman painted up, and have included a close up of him in all his tartan glory. I think the reddish color of the rocks came out well, too. I base coated them black, then "wet brushed" (heavy drybrush, essentially) a barn red, terra cotta and finally a light khaki over it. Altogether, I think it is a sharp looking stronghold, and I hope John and his daughter are pleased with it.
Another commission for John Adkins is this Early Imperial Roman fortification section. I have to confess that I used a commercially bought ditch and rampart for this. I did add in the wooden platform that the figures are standing on. These are two Corvus Belli figures from my yet-to-be-painted Early Imperial Roman army. The officer, who is inspecting the watch, is particularly nice, I think. The hooded cloak for the legionary guard is particularly appropriate for sentry duty, I felt. He has set his shield down against the wall, while patrolling, which the officer looks like he is purposely ignoring. This is a simple, yet effective looking camp. I thought about putting "lillies" or stakes in the ditch in front of the turf wall, but since this is meant to be a marching camp -- not a semi-permanent one -- I thought that wouldn't be accurate.
Camps for nomadic armies seem to be popular commissions, as I did one in the previous batch, as well. This one is for Dan Joyce's Kushan army. The core of it is a two wheeled wagon being drawn by a pair of horses. A nomad is on foot in front of the wagon, leading his horse. The horse is giving him a bit of trouble, though, having spotted some tasty looking fodder, and is tugging away. Several sheep follow the rough track alongside the wagon, marching along docilely like...well, sheep! I used a tan colored earth to represent the less than fertile regions of the Kushans, with patches of scrub brush and rocks predominating. I gave the nomad on foot some brighter, patterned clothes to go along with what I'd found out while researching the Kushans. Overall, I think the camp gives a good feeling for movement and bustle in a nomadic army's march.
Loyal customer Jeff Chattin wanted two "generic" DBA camps like he'd seen John Lawitzke make. John runs most of the DBA events in the Michigan area, and always hauls around lots of loaner armies and camps. He sent a photo of his camps, and Jeff picked out the two he liked. The one below has a vaguely medieval tent, but could honestly be for just about any era. Two ditch diggers (camp latrines? Fortification lines?) are pausing in their work to talk to one of the camp followers of the female persuasion. The one leaning on his pick axe looks particularly interested in what she has....to say, that is! I used a foamcore atop styrene base so that I could dig out the ditch the two were supposed to be working upon. The tent is a resin one from George Nafziger. I had to do a figure conversion on the guy with the pick axe. He actually carries nothing in his hands, but it was a simply matter to slip the pickaxe under his hands and build the ground level up to it so that it stayed in place.
The final camp is another one that Jeff wanted "copied" from John Lawizke. John's had two tents behind the row of stakes, but I thought I would change it up by substituting a campfire with tree trunk rings around it for one of the tents. I added a blanket inside the tent, too. I made this one step more generic by using a strip of magnetic material for the base between the tent and campfire. So, any steel or magnetically based 40mmx20mm stand can be placed on top and it will stick relatively well.
Next up is another batch of 25mm plastic rangers for Tim's Lord of the
Rings project. I've got them primed on my desktop, but am not sure if I'll
get the first colors on them tonight or not. These paint up fairly fast,
though. So, I fully expect to be buzzing along on them shortly...
Finally! Here are the pics of the 54mm and 25mm figures I painted up and mounted as trophies for the DBA Tournaments to be held at Origins. I swung by the trophy shop today and picked up the plates, which I was having engaved. These Barker Marker trophies are practical and cool-looking mementos for winning a tournament, I feel. I've never been much of a plaque guy, so something you can actually use seems much better to me.
This is
my favorite of the Ranger figs, so far...The next commission army that I am working on is for Tim Donovan's Lord of the Rings project. The figures are 28mm plastic, which I haven't really done a lot of work with. They are hard plastic, rather than the soft 1/72 scale plastic that has been around forever and that you still see people here and there using. Ostensibly, hard plastic doesn't have the same "flake off" problem that soft plastic does. However, from what I've seen, detail can be often a tad muddy -- as opposed to metal.
My first batch were 9 cloaked archers. I think the figures he's using for this Ranger kingdom I'm painting up for him are actually Faramir's Rangers from the movie. Most have "Ninja-style" face masks, and are heavily swathed in tunics and cloaks. There is not an excessive amount of detail to paint up, despite each guy wearing pants, tunic, leather jacket and cloak. So, they went fairly quickly, I felt. Tim had a particular paint scheme in mind, and I'm going to let him give me feedback on my interpretation of it before I do the next batch.
In the meantime, I'm prepping another batch of five DBA camps or HOTT strongholds that I'm doing on commission, as well. I plan to alternate a batch of Tim's figs, a batch of camps, and so on. Tim's project will definitely go much faster than Joe's double size Carthaginian DBA army, my previous project. Once I get another batch of rangers done for him, I may slip in some of my own figs to paint. We'll see...
I've added pics, but placed them in the entry below, next to the description of each camp. Once again, I am very pleased with how these camp/stronghold commissions turned out. I have a number of other commissions lined up, but if anyone reading this is interested in havng me make one for them, e-mail me at: mikedemana@earthlink.net. The going rate is $40, more if it is something fairly elaborate. As an example of what is elaborate and what isn't, all five of these pictured below are "normal" ones.
I've begun work on the next commission army I am doing: 28mm Lord of the Rings rangers from one of the "splinter" kingdoms of Arnor, for my friend Tim Donovan. He's working on a project that will feature kingdoms of Middle Earth in the second, pre-"War of the Ring" age. The first batch of 9 plastic archers are on my desk with the first color painted on them. Once again, Tim has a particular color scheme in mind. It sounds like it should turn out pretty cool, so I am curious to see what they look like in the end. It definitely is a change, though, painting hard plastic figures -- as opposed to metal ones. The detail is more subtle and certainly not as raised as you'd find on either the Old Glory or Gripping Beast Dark Age figures I'm used to doing.
In the meantime, be sure to check out the photos I've posted below!
I'd forgotten how much fun building DBA camps or HOTT strongholds could be. My first five commissions are just about complete. I just finished putting the Liquitex modeling paste on their bases a short time ago. Tomorrow, I will flock them, and after a couple coats of clearcoat and white glue and water on the flock, they'll be ready. Of course, most of them I won't be delivering to their owners for more than a month.
The first I began work on was a stronghold for Jeff Chattin's HOTT Dwarven army that he purchased off of me in the Fanaticus silent auction. It turned out really cool. It is a bronze doorway on a steep hillside, framed by impressive, arched stonework, with steps leading downhill. A dwarf guards stands in the archway, ready to challenge the dwarven merchant who has just climbed the steps, leading his pack donkey. This is one of those that turned out so well that I wished I'd made two -- one to keep for myself!
My next favorite is a camp for Nick Gillispie's Teutonic Knight army. At one end of the 40mmx80mm base is a resin tombstone, emblazoned with the cross of the knightly order. In front of it, a fresh grave stands empty, with earth heaped up on the sides and a shovel thrust into the ground. Two priests in the order's robes are by the graveside, one praying on his knees, the other standing, reading the service from a book. At the other end of the base, a two wheeled handcart is ladened with the body of a Teutonic Knight, killed in battle (I used a casualty figure). A man at arms and knight stand ready to lift him off and carry him to the grave. Like the Dwarf stronghold, I wished I'd made one of these for me, too!
Another camp for Nick is for his Mongol army. I had an extra Baueda yurt that I bought several years ago and never got around to using. So, I figured the best thing to do is to convert it into liquid cash by making it part of his camp. The scrollwork border I did on the yurt is quite possibly one of the most simple but elegant border designs I've done on a model. I basically experimented and came up with this technique, with a healthy dose of serendipity. I will use it again. The centerpiece of the camp is not the yurt, though, but the progression of three captives. A footman has forced a female captive to kneel before a Mongol lord, who sits atop a rearing horse. The other two downcast captives shuffle along disconsolately.
The final two camps are "generic Medieval" ones, as requested. One is for Nick, and the other is for Jenny. At the center of each of these are mounted commanders in caparisoned horses, accompanied by a foot standard bearer. Another man at arms stands outside a colorful tent. Various other details distinguish these two similar camps from one another: A camp follower woman watches a cookfire, a wheelbarrow sits heaped with apples, and a curious goat looks on.
I should have these camps ready to photograph by Sunday, at the latest, I would guess. In the meantime, I'm waiting on the plaques for the Barker Marker trophies before I photograph them. So, look for a big photo update soon...!
The four 54mm figures and the three 25mm figures for the Barker Marker trophies are done. I still have to paint the base and go to the trophy shop and get the plates made for them. But the hard part is complete. I always am full of amazement when I look at the job of a well sculpted 54mm fig that has been painted reasonably well. It really is something that could be displayed on an end table or bookshelf. That said, these are probably the last 54mm figs I'll do for the trophies. The 25mm ones look good enough, and probably fit the overall proportion of the base better. More importantly, though, they are much, much cheaper. With school, I can't afford to be paying $10 a pop for a trophy -- not counting the base and plaque (plus time painting). I can get 25mm figs much, much cheaper (or simplyl mine my own unpainted 25mm supply).
I'll post pics once I get the plaques on them and they're all set. Should be another week or so for that, I imagine.
In the meantime, I've decided to go back into the business of taking camp commissions. What prompted me was the 15mm HOTT Dwarf army I sold on Fanaticus. Fellow Great Lakes member Jeff Chattin bought it, and then inquired about a stronghold. I brainstormed some ideas and presented them to him. He picked one, then mentioned he needed some DBA camps done, too. This got me to thinking about why I started doing camps as commissions and items to sell at conventions in the first place. For one, the materials and time to income ratio is probably more favorable for me on camps. It took a long, long time to paint Joe's Carthaginians. And I think I'll be able to generate more revenue to save up for next year when I won't have much coming in with camps than figures. Not that I'll give up taking miniatures on commission. It's just that Jeff's inquiry prompted me to consider, then decide, to reopen my Camp business.
So, I sent out a few notices to Jeff and some of my past customers to see if they'd be interested. Their response was to send lists -- not one or two, but lists of 4 or 5 that they would like done! So, dbacamps (my ebay name) has been reborn!!! I have Jeff's Dwarven stronghold and four other camps started. I've also brainstormed ideas and drawn pictures for several more. The miniatures needed for the camps are primed and sitting on my desk ready to paint today. Beginning on Tuesday evening and through Wednesday afternoon, I probably spent close to 6 hours on camps and stuff (in addition to finishing up the trophies).
If you're interested in me doing a vignette camp for your DBA army or a stronghold for your HOTT one, send me an e-mail at mikedemana@earthlink.net. My general going rate is going to be $40 -- more if really elaborate, less if simpler. Check out here if you want to see some of my past work (ignore the old prices, though, if I mention them...!).
I put the final coat of wash on the last batch of 16 figures for Joe Merz's double size plus Carthaginian army. It has definitely been a big project -- the largest commission I've done so far. I know Joe grumbled once or twice about how he felt he was paying my tuition with his Carthaginians, but I'm hoping he felt he received good value for his money. I know that I have enjoyed painting the 15mm Corvus Belli figures that made up the army, though I am happy to be done with guys in Greek-style, linen armor! Without a doubt, those are some of the more painstaking figures to paint. And the fact that virtually every figure required a shield glued on, and many needed weapons attached, too, made it that much more of a chore. I will think long and hard before I purchase a Corvus Belli army for myself -- that's for sure!
So, I celebrated finishing the Carthaginians by diving right in to the next batch of stuff: Barker Marker trophies for the Origins DBA tournaments. I decided to provide trophies for all 7 tournies this year, even though I am actually running only one of them. I had four of the Alpha Miniatures 54mm figures left over that I bought at Drums 2008, along with a 25mm Mounted Roman General painted up long ago. I searched through my 25mm figures and picked out two more to give me the seven figures I need to put atop the trophies. I use a Litko thick wooden 40mmx40mm base, atop which I put a wooden cube bought at Hobby Lobby. The painted figure goes atop the cube. I get metal plaques engraved to affix to the front of the cube for each tournament from the local trophy store, and all in all, they turn out pretty sharp.
I know I have been a slacker, not posting photos of Joe's Carthaginians (like I did for other projects). Considering I was several batches into the project before I got my digital camera back from Canon, I decided to forego them entirely. I definitely will post photos of the trophies when they're done. After I finish these, I should have more of Tim Donovan's 25mm figures in hand to paint up. I am pretty sure he's changed his mind on what he wants me to do, switching from a Lord of the Rings project to a Dark Age Britain one. Considering that's what I've been doing for myself, that shouldn't be any problem at all! I look forward to it. Tim always buys top notch stuff...!
Here are my pics of the latest batch of 25mm Gripping Beast Britons. I've decided that I really like Gripping Beast's stuff -- probably better than Old Glory. Old Glory's price is generally better, but it was hard to find any fault with these figs as I was painting them up. The weapons glued into the hands easily, the shields were relatively simple to affix to their arms (or back, in the case of the horn blower), and there wasn't too much flash to be cleaned away.
I painted these guys in lighter colors -- grays, tans, and gray-greens or gray-blues. I gave a Celtic pattern to the cloaks of some of the figures, as this was a time period when Celtic heritage crept back into and combined with the Britons' Roman veneer. The Roman influence shows up in the decorated borders at the hems and cuffs, with which I indulged in brighter more bold colors than in the tunics. Rome's legacy also shows up in some of the shield patterns -- especially the Chi-Ro Christian symbolism.
I particularly like the fierce warrior expressions on the faces of many of the Gripping Beast sculpts. When you do a good job on the eyes, they often have a glare about them as if they're trying to stare down the enemy shield wall. I think my favorite of this batch is the guy with the steel helmet. The leather vest armor, cloak tied over one shoulder, and gold-trimmed helmet with drooping moustache projecting from it, all combine to make for a striking pose. The color scheme, in greens and tans with an early Christian cross on the shield came out well, too.
The next batch of Dark Age stuff I do will be the archers for the Briton contingent. It should go quickly as I'll likely do only about five of them. That will make the Briton contingent total up about 21 figures -- enough for two 300-point warbands. That's another thing I like about the Song of Blades and Heroes rules -- since each player usually controls about 10 figures or less, it doesn't take long to paint a new faction or kingdom.
I've also been rebasing some of my 15mm Dwarves for sale on Fanaticus. After the success of the 15mm Elves that I sold (a 24 AP army for more than $150), my excess dwarves are next. I should have them up and on sale by Monday evening, at the latest. The next thing to cross my painting desk will be the last batch of Joe Merz's 15mm Carthaginian army. I should have a chance to glue and prime those in the next day or so...
So, I finished the 16 Carthaginian spearmen I'd been working on. Funny thing, when I first started on them, I was NOT happy with how they were turning out. They have the linen, "Greek style" armor, and that is always a pain to paint, in my opinion. However, once I got a little further along on them, they started to look much better. And when I painted the shield patterns -- each element of four to have its own unit pattern -- they really took off. I think Joe should be happy with this army -- I definitely feel I've done much more than a "basic" job on this commission. One more batch, though, and the army's done! Woo-hoo!!! I'll be glad to paint something besides 15mm Corvus Belli, that's for sure!
After finishing those spearmen, I prepared a batch of unarmored 25mm Britons for Dark Age skirmish. I don't really mind the separate weapons and shields in this scale. I just think it's too fiddly in 15's. Anyway, I'm more than halfway done with these guys, I think. I was able to come home from work and put in a good several hours work on them tonight. I was really looking forward to painting today, as I've been busy putting together the latest issue of The Herald, and doing school stuff, that I hadn't really had time to work on them. Tomorrow is my first of two days off, and I imagine I should finish these by the weekend easily -- if not sooner.
Pics to follow when they're done!
Wow! That's what I said when I finished this building. Not only is it very large, but it turned out great, I thought. It is the last of the St. Paul Irregulars' buildings that I bought last year at Drums Along the Maumee. I've been very happy with these buildings and would likely buy more. If you look closely, you can see where the structure separates in four levels. I intend to use this for my Modern Africa games, when we do city fights. They are listed as good for 15mm-20mm figs. You can see some of my 20mm Liberation Miniatures African militia alongside, for scale. I finally tracked down who sold them to me. They are carried by Dean Rapp of Battlefield Accessories. If anyone's interested in picking some up, he said he'd be at Drums Along the Maumee in Toledo, May 15-16.
I've decided to create a page on this site showcasing the various buildings and terrain I've done for my scattered periods of wargaming. Check out the Buildings & Terrain page!
Painting resin DOES chew up your brushes more quickly. I had to replace my large drybrush midway through working on this batch. Hopefully, the nylon brush I bought as a replacement holds up to the wear and tear better...
I've been doing so much work on resin buildings that I needed to go out and buy a new "drybrush." The sharper resin edges seem to tear bristles up fairly quickly. I bought a nylon one this time, rather than animal hair. We'll see how much longer that lasts.
Anyway, the castle (more like a milecastle from Hadrian's Wall than a full sized medieval one) turned out great. It was easy to do -- just time consuming. I spray primed it black, then followed that up with a black acrylic undercoat put on with a brush. After it dried overnight, I drybrushed dark gray, then light gray, then khaki highlights. The exposed brick sections were done in a red brown drybrush with khaki highlights. I'll use this for the occasional Dark Age skirmish. If I remember right, I won this a couple years back at the auction at Drums Along the Maumee. It was batched together with something I wanted, so was kind of a bonus! As it is won, I'm not sure who makes this terrain piece. Of course, it joins my Pictish broch in being over sized and hard to store!
I also finished this Acheson Creations temple. After I'd started it, I went online to their website and found out it is actually supposed to be an Aztec farmhouse! Since I don't plan on doing 25mm Aztecs anytime soon, I painted it up as a generic middle eastern building. The roof actually lifts off, so I used some more "earth magnets" and steel bases to clamp it on. It holds great -- I can even pick the building up by its detachable roof and it stays all together. Similar to the castle, I primed this with spray primer first, then brushed on a black undercoat. I drybrushed it dark gray, light gray, then khaki. The large stones around the door frame and windows, along with the circle design on the roof, were drybrushed a "Wedgewood Blue." Not sure when or how I'll use this building, but I had it, so I painted it!
Building-wise, I have a four storey (I thought it was three storey until I started painting it) modern/WW II one that is at least halfway done on the desk. The upper three storeys are done, and all I have left is the very intricate bottom floor (it includes a staircase and arched courtyard). It should look really cool once it's finished. There is also a 20mm sandbagged storage position with oil drums and crates sitting on my desk. I'll probably get to that after I finish this large building.
Next up, will be the penultimate batch for Joe Merz's double size Carthaginian army. Penultimate means next to last, for those who want to add it to their "Word A Day" calendar! Anyway, I cleaned and de-flashed 24 Citizen/Libyan spearmen. I epoxied on the shields for all 24, and the spears for the 8 that required it. I really, really don't like detached weapons and shields in 15mm! Remind me of that when I oggle any Corvus Belli armies in the future! I'll probably paint 16 of them in this batch, and save the last 8 to go with the 8 Spanish auxilia, which will be the final batch in the army. There's a good chance I'll get some work in on them at our semi-monthly painting party at Steve's house -- so I'd better prime them up this evening!
I finished off 12 Corvus Belli 15mm Carthaginian cavalry that are part of Joe Merz's double size plus Carthaginian army that I'm painting. I love the poses -- six different ones! However, that slows down the painting process quite a bit. Plus, the "Greek style" armor is time consuming, too. They came out looking really nice, though. I hope Joe is pleased.
I've also decided that it is time to "winnow the herd" in terms of excess figures. I rebased some of the 15mm Wood Elves that I had painted for Chipco Fantasy Rules! long ago, and have pieced together a 24 AP HOTT army out of it. I'm going to sell it -- I just hadn't decided whether to take it to a flea market or go online. I'm thinking that if Chris Brantley of Fanaticus doesn't have any objections, I'll try a "silent auction" type sale on his website. If I do, I'll advertise it on Fanaticus, HOTT list, DBA list, etc.
Next up will be something for myself. I'm thinking that instead of diving into the next batch of 25mm Britons, I'll knock out the rest of the resin buildings I've had accumulating in my closet. One is a 3-storey modern/WW II building that I got at Drums last year, and the other is from Acheson Creations, a Middle Eastern/Biblical style stone one. I also have a small stone fort which looks like (and will be used as) a milecastle from Hadrian's Wall in Britain. When the wind dies down a little bit today, I plan on taking it outside and spray priming in black. The other two are already primed black.
Of course, I *do* have schoolwork I should be doing, instead. Today is a day off, though...and I have all evening to work on it -- right?
So, I finished off the two Acheson Creations Celtic buildings that I bought at Cold Wars. That must be a record for getting figures or terrain bought at a convention ready for the tabletop! Normally, I'm happy if I have something painted by the time that same convention rolls around the following year. The Celtic buildings will be useful for various Dark Age skirmish scenarios, as villages to raid or objectives to search, or simply as "eye candy" on the battlefield.
The first, which I call the Chieftain's hut, is stoutly built of logs. I spraypainted the entire piece black, painted over it again with black acrylic, then dry brushed on a wood brown. I left the black showing in the deep grains in the wood. I followed this with a khaki dry brush highlight, which did a good job bringing out the excellent detail on this resin casting. A final black wash finished off the wooden portions. The inside was drybrushed gray and khaki to give it a mud plaster look, while the floor was a tan color with Woodland Scenics turf for compacted earth. The stones on the entrance way were painted a light chocolate color, with a gray dry brush and dark wash to bring out the detail. I particularly like how Acheson cast a ring of upright logs around the circular building that the tall thatch roof appears to rest upon. The roof itself was also spray painted and brush painted black. This was followed up with a dun yellow dry brush, then a khaki dry brush to tone down, or "age" the thatch color. A final black wash gave it the appropriate weathered look.
The second hut appears to be a wattle and daub one, which was painted black, then dry brushed khaki, then gray. A final black wash filled in the detail on the surface. The inside was done similarly to the Chieftain's hut. The thing I like best about this model is the segmented thatch roof. It gives it quite a bit of character, and though I like the Chieftain's building better, I like this roof the more of the two. Both models were expoxied onto black styrene plastic, with Liquitex modeling paste building up the ground around the edges.
The modern terrain pieces were from Acheson's 50 cent "grab bin." I saw one of the round sandbagged pieces in the bin, and when I couldn't find another rooting through it, asked the owner if he had more. He dug through his stash and found one. These will make perfect checkpoints or strong points for our modern Africa games. I painted them black, then did the sandbags in an olive drab color, leaving black in the joins and creases. I dry brushed them light green, then did a black wash. The ground was done in a red brown with Woodland Scenics turf sprinkled on top. The barrel barricades are also painted black initially. I dry brushed them Howard Hues "Middle East Flesh" to give them the orangish-rusted color. A final khaki highlight picked out the highest details.
The barrels and sandbags are pictured with some of my 20mm Liberation Minatures figs, while the buildings are shown with some of my 25mm Old Glory Picts.
Okay, so it's been more than a month since I updated this page. Yes, I was very busy going overseas on another trip (Mali, this time. Check out: www.worldwidemike.com for the details). Yes, I had to catch up on schoolwork once I returned. And yes, I once again stupidly scheduled a trip when The Herald was due to come out. Nevertheless, if I've had time to paint now and then, I should have had time to update this page.
I painted 18 Gallic infantry for Joe Merz's double size Carthaginian army. They came out nicely, with some stripes, checks, fancy shield patterns and such. My goal is to have this army done for him in time to use at Origins for the Double Size DBA tournament on Thursday morning. Not that I'm sure Joe is even playing in that! I know he runs a lot of Flames of War, there. Nevertheless, if he wanted to play in it, I intend to have his army ready.
At Cold Wars this month, I kept my purchases somewhat under control. I bought a bunch of Splintered Light Miniatures Satyrs and Fauns for an "Army of the Olde Forest." I also picked up some animals from Iron Wind Metals, as usual, to supplement the figs. Otherwise, the only other major purchase was some resin scenery from Acheson Creations. I picked up two 25mm Celtic buildings to use for Pictish or Scots-Irish villages in my Dark Age skirmish games. I also grabbed four pieces for our modern Africa games out of their 50 cent bin -- two barrel barricades and two circles of sandbags to use as guard posts or check points. I decided to start on them immediately, and plopped them in the sink with some Palmolive lotion and warm water to scrub off the mold release. I found on the last batch of Acheson stuff I painted, that if you don't, you will have the paint "bead up" like rain drops on a freshly waxed car! After drying, I sprayed them with black primer, brushing over the spots I missed later with black acrylic paint.
All six pieces are just about done on my desktop. I should finish them off in the next few days, at the latest. The question after that is what to do next? Another batch of Joe's troops, or mix in some of mine? I think if I do some of my stuff it will be a batch of 25mm unarmored Britons for Dark Age skirmish. We'll see...
Well, not the digital camera, but rather a new camera. Canon decided they didn't have the parts to fix mine, so shipped me out a brand new one...er, actually two. The first one was terrible -- an immense step down from my model. I called and complained and they sent the correct model right away. Thus, the pictures that you see of Badgers!
In the time since my last update, I've completed the Badger Man army, or as I call it, The Feral Legion. It turned out great, and I got lots of compliments on it at Zeke's HOTT Wax Tournament last weekend. The goblin riders made convincing Badger Men when painted appropriately and mounted atop 25mm wolverines. And the mix of Iron Wind 25mm badgers and wolverines as Beast stands turned out great, as well.
The battle wagons were the big challenge, though. I had decided to squeeze them onto a 40mm square base, so that made me alter the design to fit them. I measured everything carefully, but then forgot to take into account the axle length when I assembled the wagons. Oops! They b-a-r-e-l-y fit on the base, with the wheels almost hanging over the edge. The prehistoric wolvernine, Keith says it's a megalictis or something like that, turned out great. Only their neck and heads protrude from the wagon's body (designed to shelter the beast of burden from enemy fire), so the time I spent doing the banded pattern on the back and tail is somewhat wasted. The wagon is made with mostly craft sticks for its wood frame. The solid wooden wheels are actually from a 15mm medieval artillery piece. In a moment of inspiration, I decided to affix a "rare earth" magnet to the top of the wagon frame. The fighting platform, which contains the crew of three and the artillery piece, would have a 1/2" square metal base on the bottom. That way, I can store the two sections separately and they actually fit in my figure boxes! It works like a charm, with the added benefit that it allows the fighting platform to swivel!!!
One of the fighting platforms is walled with
craft sticks, while the other uses a 1/72 soft plastic "camp scenes"
set for wooden bits. I think I like the way the organ gun and crew turned
out best -- especially the bucket affixed to the platform wall with the
"buckshot" ammunition. This was simply model railroad oranges
-- tiny balls of plastic or some other material -- epoxied into the bucket
and painted a steel color. Once fully assembled, the battle wagons are TALL!
They towered over most other figures at HOTT Wax (except for Ptom's mumakil
-- which my battle wagons got the last word against by destroying in melee!).
I'll have to assemble an army page for The Feral Legion soon, and post it up here. Next up, painting wise, is working on more of Joe Merz's double size plus Numidian army. I took the Gallic infantry over to Steve's for Paint Night yesterday, and did some good work on them there.
Two weeks without my digital camera...sigh. I have all these completed things and no camera to take pics of them!
For the Badger Men, I finished another batch of three Blades. I made their banners a tad bigger, as one of them is nominally the army's commander. Weird to think that I'm half finished (as far as stands go) with the army. However, easily more than half of the work lies ahead of me. The Artillery/Behemoths will be a lot of work. Each stand includes four crew and a cannon mounted atop a wagon pulled by a prehistoric beast. I'm not quite ready to tackle them, yet!
So, my next batch included two stands of Beasts and three stands of Riders. The Beasts each have one Iron Wind Metals wolverine and three badgers. These are technically 25mm scale, but their size fits well with the Splintered Light Badger Men. As a matter of fact, the Riders are actually mounted on more Iron Wind wolverines. David McBride, of Splintered Light, kindly sold me just the riders for six of their goblin wolf riders. These were the perfect size to plop down on the backs of the badgers. I'll likely paint the goblins up as Badger Men -- sometimes you can do wonders with the paint brush as a conversion tool!
I have also been working on Joe Merz's double size (all options) Carthaginian army. To inspire me with false promise of progess, I did all eight stands of psiloi first. These were a relative snap to paint up, though I made a few of the shields fancy. I followed these up with the four elephant stands. These were quite a bit of work. For some reason, Corvus Bellis does not cast the ears or head to the elephant's body, and you must glue them on. So, between the body parts, the three crewmen and the howdah, there's a lot of gluing involved in these four stands...and a lot of painting! They're finished, though, and frankly look fantastic. There are four shields, one on each side of the howdah, and I of course went crazy painting designs on them. What's more, there are two blankets on each elephant's back, and I gave them individual patterns, as well. The next batch of Joe's troops were the four stands of Numidian Light Cavalry. I took them over to Steve's for our first paint night in a long time, along with the Badger Men riders and beasts. The Riders are about one third of the way through, the Numidians are just about done, and the Beasts are finished.
We have another paint night coming up this Thursday. So, I hope to finish off both the Numidians and the Riders, at the very least. Hopefully, my digital camera will come back soon from the repair shop so I can take pics of all this progress!
Here they are, the advance guard of The Feral Legion! Badgers are fairly cool looking animals, and Splintered Light Miniatures always does a good job with their beastmen. So, I'm not surprised that I'm pleased with how they turned out. As you can probably tell, each stand is going to be a "unit" -- or cohort -- in the Legion. I'm planning on each having their own shield pattern and color scheme. The badger fur and markings themselves will probably be mostly the same. I think I'll drop the yellowish fur color and stick to a base coat of black, dark gray or light gray. These will be highlighted by drybrushing lighter shades of gray along with an occasional brown color. It may be hard to tell on these pics, but the black or white banding (narrow stripe-looking fur patterns) turned out best, I feel. So, future badger men will likely have banded fur.
As you can see, the straight pin banner works well in the shield hand. I use ink jet label paper for the banners as it holds up well, and isn't too flimsy. The only drawback is it is harder to put a "bend" in the banner like it is waving in the wind. Next up for The Feral Legion is another batch of nine foot (3 stands of "Blades" in Hordes of the Things terms). After they're done I'll go on to the mounted troops -- Badger Men mounted on Wolverines! The Wolverines are 25mm from Iron Wind Metals, and the riders are actually Splintered Light goblins meant to be riding wolves. I think I can modify them to look like badgers, though. I'm liking the look and composition of this army, and will likely pick up some more Badger Men from Splintered Light at Cold Wars this March...
At the same time, I'll be starting on my next commissioned project: Joe Merz's double size Corvus Belli Later Carthaginian army. This is a LOT of figs...so I may mix other things in and out while I'm working on this one...!
So, I finished off the second batch of Tim's Sci-Fi troopers for his Fallout project. I have to say that they do look really good, and I look forward to him putting on a game using these figs. They are uber-detailed and take a good bit of time. However, Tim is paying me a fair price, so it is worth it. The one thing I don't want to have to do, though, is glue these bad boys together! He showed me an unassembled box of them when I went over to pick up these figs and it gave me a headache just looking at them. Besides, as some of you may know, Me and Super-Glue just don't get along. The only things I can successfully glue together using super glue are my fingers!
I'm just about done with my first batch of nine Badger Men, too. I did a variety of fur colors to try to match the pictures I found searching on the internet. I think I found a couple combinations that are really striking. Of course, the face markings of badgers really make them distinctive, so I'm probably obsessing over detail folks won't notice. I came up with some simplistic, primitive shield designs, and decided to do each stand of three in its own unit shields, colors and standard. I'm postulating a well organized force of beast men, "The Feral Legion," and so uniforms are a must. Plus, Splintered Light doesn't make a lot of different poses of their Badger Men, and "regular" forces tend to look better when done in the same poses.
I went out and bought three new paint brushes, too, as several of mine were getting pretty marginal. It's a pleasure to use a nice, straight pointed brush again! I really needed the fine point brush for the facial colorings on the badgers. I should have pictures of them up soon, though my digital camera has been giving me problems. I called Canon and they want me to send it in -- it sounds like something they did a quasi-recall on awhile back. So, I may be without the ability to take pics of stuff for a couple weeks.
This semester break has been wonderful, getting back into the "painting groove." Earlier, I'd decided to take on projects from various friends to earn some extra money (as there is no overtime available at work). I've painted a HOTT army for Dave Welch, a squad of Sci-Fi troopers for Steve Sattler, and now I've just finished the first half of a futuristic platoon of infantry for Tim Donovan. His project is based on the world of the video game Fallout (which I know Zeke and Steve have played, but I haven't). I'm painting 14 heavily armed, power-armored infantry from the Brotherhood of Steel. Tim gave me the background on the military order, and I did some web searching for images and artwork depicting them.
Tim's color scheme that he wanted me to paint the figures was black and field gray. I was worried that this would make the finished jobs look very drab and unattractive. So, I brainstormed on how to add contrast and color here and there to make the figures "pop." I want folks to pick up figures I've painted -- especially ones they've paid for -- and go, "Wow, cool!" I think the figures are a success. They employ Tim's chosen color scheme and I feel they turned out really neat. One of the images I found on the internet showed a Brotherhood of Steel trooper with an olive drab powerpack on his back. Since field gray is already a grayish green, I thought this would make an effective accent (as well as being "historically accurate" for the Fallout world). And it did. The field gray armor, black cloth uniform, olive powerpack and dark steel weapons turned out nicely. I also employed a technique I used on Steve's space marines with glowing LEDs of green, yellow and red to give the armor and weapons that futuristic look.
I hope Tim likes them, because he says he has lots more business to send my way!
For my own painting, I finally began a project I've been wanting to work on for quite some time: My Badger Men Hordes of the Things army. I'm calling them The Feral Legion, and I intend to use them in Tom Graves' campaign he's starting up soon. They're modeled on an early imperial Roman legion, with swordsmen as the backbone of the force, but with mounted troops and artillery as support. I decided to base the Badger Men infantry three to a stand, and convert one of the three to a standard bearer. This was easier than I thought it would be, for the first batch of nine. A pin vise and straight pin fit perfectly in the shield hand. I've decided to paint up each infantry stand with a distinct unit color and shield/standard image.
I also did some internet searching for images of badgers, and their body fur seems to range in colors from light gray to yellowish to brown to black. Looking at the figures -- which are clothed in kind of sleeveless "Fred Flintstone" looking tunic -- there are really only the arms, legs and neck area exposed that I'll have to do the fur color. The head of the badgers is black and white with VERY distinctively markings, so should be relatively straight forward. Anyway, the first batch of nine Badger Men are on my painting desk, and as soon as I log off here, I'll prime them. Towering over them is the next batch of 7 of Tim's troopers, and it should be interesting going back and forth between the two sizes and styles...!
The first eight warriors of Strathclyde and post-Roman/Celtic Britain are finished. And wow, the Gripping Beast 28mm figs look every bit as fantastic painted up as I thought they would. The poses have great animation and variety. I think these are my favorite I've painted in this Dark Ages project, so far. They are from Gripping Beast's "Welsh and British Kingdoms" line -- not their Arthurian line. Despite the fact that some like to pin a historical Arthur to this time period, they are two separate lines. The Arthurian ones are more Roman looking, while these have more of a Dark Ages rather than Classical feel.
Well, enough accolades -- on to the photos!
These first four are probably my favorites from this batch. The one in red with the gold-chased armor will probably end up being the leader for this contingent. He has a gray wolfskin cloak tossed over his shoulders, which off-sets the blood red colors I used on his tunic. The spearman to his right, with the green cloak wrapped across his chest, is such a classic looking soldier. I especially like how his shield pattern, a Chi-Ro symbol associated with early Christianity, turned out. To the spearman's right, the mailed swordsman looks solid and formidable -- a rock to build your warband upon. His bright blue shield pattern is inspired by the late Roman shield designs in my copy of "Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome." In fact, most of the shield patterns in this first batch of Britons are inspired by historical late Roman ones. Since what little information we have on Strathclyde mentions white shields, I decided to make white the basic color for the shields of my British warriors. Finally, the warrior on the far right drawing his blade from its sheath has a great face, with a shank of his red-brown hair falling over his blue eyes. His cross inspired shield is another one of my favorites from this batch.
The next batch includes an axeman in scaled armor, two spearmen and a swordsman with a gilded breastplate. I echoed the gilded armor on the accents of the man's helmet, which turned out very nice looking, I thought. Next to him, the spearman with the red headband came out with a particularly fierce glare. His patterned cloak gives him a rustic appearance, like a country lord who's angry at being called away from his farm, and who appears ready to take it out on his lord's enemies! The final two, the axeman and the mailed spearmen turned out the most "ho-hum" of the batch. Where most display a lot of personality, and seem bursting with life, these are bit more static. They're still nice figures. It's just that Gripping Beast set the bar on this line so high it is hard for all miniatures in it to meet its standards.
Next up, is my newly-completed, second commission. These space marines from Ground Zero games are to be used in my friend Steve Sattler's Sci-Fi miniatures project he's working on. These are more "true scale" 25mm figures compared to the Gripping Beasts behemoths. I thought it was particularly interesting that the squad is co-ed, with the female soldiers being noticeably slimmer and feminine. Steve gave me free rein on the uniform colors, so I chose a deep blue for the space armor that I could drybrush with brighter highlights. For the clothing underneath, I chose a nice Khaki, because I knew it would take a dark wash very well and avoid the problems of drybrushing recessed portions of the miniature. Steve requested the face shields to be a silver colors, "like dirty glass." So, I base coated them steel, then lightly brushed a watered down bright silver over them. I also painted their weapons steel, and used bright reds, yellows and greens to represent glowing LEDs or power levels. I think they turned out fairly striking, and hope he's pleased with them.
The first batch are of the standard space marine infantry, while the second one is a heavy weapons squad. The shoulder fired weapon turned out really cool, I thought. More science fiction figures are up for my next commission. Tim Donovan is also working on a squad level Sci-Fi game, recreating the world from the computer game Fall Out. These will be "Brotherhood of the Steel" infantry in much more somber tones than Steve's brightly-colored spacemen.
My first painting commission over Winter semester break is finished -- I completed the last of Dave's HOTT army on Sunday. I went a bit crazy on detail, probably, on the nine mounted figures. Individual shield patterns was probably more than Dave is expecting, but I was inspired, so I did them. The Riders/Knights turned out nicely, but it is the command stand which he intends to be able to use as various troop types, that steals the show. The Alternative Armies Elf King and daughters are truly impressive figures. My favorite is the princess riding side-saddle with long, flowing hair and a crown on her head. I can see definite uses for this figure by historical Ancients players, too. I'll have to research and see how big of a pack it comes in...
I did the math on the project, keeping track of my painting minutes and dividing it out over the course of the entire project and what I earned for it. I definitely think I should inch up my prices a tad, if I'm going to keep doing this while in school. As little as 50 cents more a figure could make a difference, I think. Next up are some 25mm figures, so we'll see how my pricing scheme goes for them.
As far as my own stuff, I completed the 8 armored Britons, and they are being flocked, now. Once I'm done doing that and dullcoating them, I'll post photos. I want to wait for the single-digit temperatures to rise a bit before I do anymore clear-coating...!
So, this past Thursday was a slim turnout for painting night at Steve's. I took my 25mm Britons to work on, and not surprisingly, did not get them finished. Most of the time I put in on them was devoted to their shields. The only sources I've found on historical shields carried by Strathclyde and other warriors of the British kingdoms mention "white shields." I could take the very easy way out and simply do them as blank, white shields. However, that would not be in a similar vein as to what I've done on the Picts and Vikings. so, shield designs it would be!
I decided to use two sources as inspiration. Since the Brits are the indirect descendents of Roman rule in Britain, I pulled out my copy of "Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome." I scanned through the line drawings in the book, which are adapted from the Notitia Dignitatum, which has been dated to 420 A.D., and contains a listing of units in the Roman army of the time and drawings of their shields. I sought out the less Roman looking ones, reasoning that the devices on them may prove a continuing inspiration to Dark Age designers and artists. Secondly, I used the Dover Publications book, "Celtic Art." Some of the spirals and patterns in there might be appropriate for warriors of distant Celtic ancestry.
The shields are turning out well, and I'm happy with most of them. I have perhaps another couple hours work on these 8 figures and the first contingent of Strathclyde will be finished.
In the meantime, I've been putting in steady work in the afternoons and evenings on Dave Welch's Elven HOTT army. I finished off the 16 archers Satuday, putting the wash on them today. Next up are the 9 mounted figures of the army. I've attached a pic or two of the Elven archers for you to check out.
So, I am on semester break from school until mid-January. My first thought was this would be a perfect time to work on various painting projects. But then the credit card bill came from my recent trips. I decided that I should use this opportunity to earn some extra cash. Unfortunately, there is no overtime available at work. So, I hit on the idea of spending a few evenings a week doing some commissioned painting work. I sent an e-mail to my gaming buddies to see if anybody was interested, and got several responses. The first to take me up on the offer was Dave Welch, who had a HOTT army of 15mm Alternative Armies elves that he knew wouldn't likely get around to painting soon.
I picked them up from him on my way home from work on Monday, and started work on the figures that evening. I decided to do them in three batches. The first batch would be 16 spearmen and 6 axemen, the second 16 archers, and the third the army's 9 mounted figures. The spear and axe men (er, elves) were relatively easy to do. They were dressed in ankle length chainmail, with long pikes or spears. Dave had said he would base them four to a stand, so I did each batch with a different "trim" color. These Alternative Armies figures are pretty cool. The pack contained equal numbers of figures with pikes levelled, stabbing overhand, pikes at 45 degree angles, and pikes upright. They'd make a really cool four-rank phalanx, if somebody used a game with a mass basing system.
Anyway, the figs were easy to paint, with a decent amount of detail, but not an overabundance to slow me down. I've included some pics of them so that Dave (and you) can watch their progress. I finished the spear and axe troops late yesterday, and have already made good progerss on the archers.
So, once again, I tried to get Earthlink to give me more MB storage space for this site. However, they have this limit of 10 MB per E-MAIL ADDRESS. Well, generously, they let you have up to 8 e-mail addresses with each account. Each address gets its own 10 MB of web space. But increase one of those you already have...? Nope, can't do it. So, I have to keep creating what I call "shadow sites" to expand onto. That is why, if you'll notice in the address bar, you may be bouncing between sites when you click on various links. I try to make it all as invisible as possible, but it could screw you up if you're linking anything to my site.
Anyway, I was out of space again, so I've set up a third e-mail address and website. I've decided to take this time to archive the current Projects and Game Nights pages, and start fresh. Also, I've moved the links to the archives to the main or Home page, rather than continually adding them to the top and bottom of the current page. I know...not a very exciting update. BUT! As of tomorrow at noon, I will be on semester break for about five weeks. So, I should be getting in more updates to this page, soon...!
I'm a bit behind in updating this page. Two weeks ago, we had another painting party at Steve's. In the days before it, I had prepped up a batch of 8 Gripping Beast 25mm Britons from their "Welsh and British Kingdoms" line. The figures are really amazing...lots of personality and variety in poses. I'm not particularly fond of separate weapons and separate shields, but am starting to develop better methods of bracing the figures and weapons while the epoxy dries. Me and superglue don't get along, so I stick with five minute epoxy.
Anyway, I'd had time to glue them together and prime them before I took them to Steve's that night. I ended up getting far more done than I expected. I did the base coat for the flesh, chainmail and tunics on all eight. I actually thought I'd only get the flesh and steel of the chainmail done. Of course, that was nearly two weeks ago, and I haven't had a chance to do the drybrushing of those base coats yet! Oh well...this semeseter is almost over, and I should have time to work on them after I finish my assignments.