WW2 panel fence (Nick)

Progress! ...after yesterday's rather dismal summary of the last 12 months, here is my first finish of 2024 - a (resin) wooden fence section from Warlord Games.

There are in fact eight of these sections altogether as I bought 2 packs of 4, however with the lack of finishes since March last year and no results of the big end of year push I wanted to show something for my efforts.

Painting was a fairly simple drybrushing affair over black prime with an old Citadel Foundation Paint: Charadon Granite, followed by Vallejo Game Colour: Beasty Brown, Miniature Paints: Earth Brown, and finally Army Painter: Skeleton Bone.
The base was then drybrushed two shades of craft shop grey before following up with my usual earth recipe.

I have also managed these sci-fi scatter terrain pieces, but won't class them as finished just yet as I want to base them with the other 6 I have to paint (mainly to protect the resin from damage) - so still not heaps of progress, but a little every day to start the new year:

Warlords of Erehwon - Troll (Nick)

Another change of tack from me, all part of the joys of 'paint on brush' every day - this time a fantasy troll from Macrocosm and pure coincidence that it follows on immediately after Carl's Blood Bowl troll!
This chap was part of a bargain bag job lot I picked up at the last Salute to take place almost 2 years ago now, before the COVID pandemic intervened.

Mainly Citadel Contrast Paints again, with additional acrylics and inks for the details... in fact the skin colour is just Gryph-Charger Grey over white primer so quite quick overall which isn't a bad thing when I've another fourteen of them to do!

Originally heading for a goblin warband full of gribblies in Warlords of Erehwon from Warlord Games that I helped to playtest with the author Rick Priestly, but could easily see service in SAGA: Age of Magic from Studio Tomahawk, Dragon Rampant (a fantasy version of Lion Rampant) by Osprey Publishing, maybe even some large battle games like Oathmark, again by Osprey Publishing or Kings of War by Mantic Games.

Chosen Men - 95th Rifleman (Nick)

Finally my first British rifleman of the the infamous 95th Rifles, as featured in the Sharpe novels and TV series as well as the cover of the Chosen Men rules by Osprey Publishing - figure is again from Warlord Games, a metal sample this time from the 95th Rifles - Chosen Men box set.

Unlike the bright colours of the previous redcoat, I chose to paint over a black primer this time as nearly everything is black or black/green (at the time of starting some time ago I also wanted a more traditional style of painting as I was struggling to get satisfactory results using the Contrast paints).

In the end it is a brighter green than is 'realistic' but very dark green just looks black at a distance on the tabletop and I really wanted to be able to distinguish those green jackets - the same would apply to the dark blue of any French Voltigeurs (much like the WFR light infantry officer I painted last year)

Hopefully now I've got the first test figures done for both light infantry and rifles it should be much quicker painting the rest of each unit ready for some small games of either Chosen Men or Sharp Practice - possibly even the forthcoming Shakos and Bayonets supplement for Muskets & Tomahawks by Studio Tomahawk.

Chosen Men - British Light Infantryman (Nick)

Not the 95th rifles suggested last time, but a light infantryman of the 45th Nottinghamshire Regiment of Foot instead and my first ever British Redcoat - figure is Warlord Games plastic British Line Infantry with alternative metal head.

Mostly painted with Citadel Contrast paints over white, with additional highlights in normal acrylics - starting with the white details in Apothecary White (later highlighted/tidied up with Vallejo 'Off White'), then carefully pre-colour/flood the scarlet jacket areas with Blood Angels Red, shade the creases with Flesh Tearers Red and highlight with Green Stuff World 'Ember Orange' - other colours following a similar pattern as appropriate.

The separate backpack and attached equipment was started from a black primer as that seemed more sensible given the final colours, but would probably work just as well in the same technique as the main figure over white.

I'm not sure if the Flank Company/Light Infantry shako is strictly correct but the alternative metal heads mean I can use a handful of mixed sprues I picked up over the years, some with covered Belgic shakos for Waterloo/100 Days campaign, some with Stovepipe shakos for the Peninsula campaign and even some with stiffened caps for Hanoverian regiments.

The covered Belgic shakos I do have will be used later for some Line Infantry and should make them really easy to distinguish from one another on the table top.

I don't even know if the 45th were issued with Belgic shakos at all, as they were returned to barracks in 1814 and were not present for the 100 Days campaign/Waterloo - so a bit of artistic license anyway.

Despite these shortcomings or maybe oversights from a historical point of view, I chose the 45th Nottinghamshire Regiment for the same reasons as some of my previous projects to inject some local flavour - this seems to be the most local regiment during the Napoleonic conflict and later joined with the 95th Derbyshire Regiment of Foot to become the infamous Sherwood Foresters, so the most 'Derby' link I could find... the fact that their colours are also green means they tie in again with my favoured green/yellow (orange) theme that seems to be running through these projects too.

Hopefully he passes muster and I can knock up a few more to complete my first unit for Chosen Men and possibly Sharp Practice too.

Chosen Men - Objective Marker (Nick)

Firstly welcome back to Carl, it's been a while!

...and for me at long last I have my first finished piece of 2021, a lot later than anticipated, and certainly not what I expected to be up first!

However, I have managed to keep up the 'paint on brush' for 84 days straight now which must be an all time record for me, so there are quite a few things that are very nearly completed.

This is an objective marker I have been wanting to make for ages since I first picked up a spare French finial, and I'm sure it's nothing to do with watching Sharpe's Eagle & Sharpe's Regiment again recently on DVD?

Quite a simple piece, it is just a French Napoleonic 'Eagle' from Warlord Games attached to a suitable brass wire flagpole, which is then inserted into an mdf base and given some extra stability by adding a small pile of rocks.  The remnants of the Tricolor are made from ordinary printer paper wrapped around the pole, secured and hardened with thinned PVA and then cut into a ragged edge with plastic cutters - the metal ribbons of the finial were then made to look battle worn too with various tools.

Although intended as an objective marker for the Chosen Men rules from the 'blue cover' Osprey Wargames series, it could easily see use in Sharpe Practice or any other 28mm Napoleonic games - this should give Carl's 'Frenchies' something worth fighting for, I just need to get cracking on some of my 95th Rifles to contest it!

Warlord Games 28mm Western Imperial Roman Auxiliary Archers (Carl)

Crikey! Where does the time go?

2020 was a very strange year hobby-wise for me. But rather than try to remember it lets start anew!

My first finished models of 2021 are these 8 Imperial Roman Western Archers from Warlord Games.

They'd been languishing in the WiP state for ages with just the first coat of metallics on the chainmail and gold bits. But with adopting the 'paint on brush' approach (just putting paint on a brush everyday - even if it doesn't go on a model) I managed to restart the habit of doing a bit a day.

My current camera phone isn't really up to  the task of taking photos of minis but this will have to do.

Bolt Action - Fallschirmjäger (Nick)

I only finished the first of my Aussies just the other week, but with the 75th D-Day Anniversary fast approaching surprise, surprise yet another change of tack from me and one of those other projects that I mentioned was calling to me at the end of my last post!

Once again another miniature that has been waiting over two years to see completion, however on this occasion not even so much as primer had been applied just cleaned up and stuck on a base along with some buddies ready for the painting to start.

This is a project I started to join in with a Bolt Action campaign when a last minute Axis place became available, and I specifically needed something suitable for Normandy which I didn't have.
As time was of the essence and generally preferring metal miniatures when practical I plumped for the original Fallschirmjäger range from Warlord Games, wonderfully evocative sculpts as ever from the talented Paul Hicks.

The campaign (which never really got going) would have required my core troops to be regular rather than veteran Fallschirmjäger, however a quick chat with my good friend, and font of WW2 knowledge, Andy Singleton followed by some Googling and I would be portraying the Fallschirmjäger 3rd Division, in particular the newly formed 9th Regiment.

I struggled for quite some time deciding how best to paint this one (probably the main reason I stalled so long), in particular the Splittermuster B (splinter pattern) camo and the colours to use for this and all the equipment.

In the end I used a culmination of information found in articles by the afore mentioned Mr Singleton (link) (link) of Volley Fire Painting Services, Stuart McCorquodale (link) of Great Escape Games and the go-to Mick Farnworth (link) and his Artizan Designs painting guides.
I also found this excellent blog as my final inspiration to get started (using the same minis too), as well as the colours suggested in the relevant Vallejo paint collection from Warlord Games - always a good reference.

Many of the Vallejo colours I ended up using were in fact Model Air equivalents of Model Colour paints I didn't have, but applied with a brush.  However this isn't much of a problem as they work really well especially on small, intricate areas like the camo scheme where having the paint slightly thinned is an advantage anyway.
Basing was deliberately finished to match the 101st Airborne I completed in January.

Hopefully I can follow this up quickly with the other FJ's that are primed and ready to go, so that Carl and I can get some games in based around Hill 192 and St Lô in the historically authentic June and July period - then Operation Cobra maybe!

Bolt Action - Austalian Jungle Division (Nick)

Well it's been a while but finally the second actual miniature of the year is finished, with several stalled attempts/projects in the meantime - and while it may look like I'm still doing better than Carl he just hasn't managed to blog his progress yet and is actually miles ahead of me!

This time the first of my Australian Jungle Division for Papua New Guinea from Warlord Games and the chance to try a few new ideas.

This is another one that has been part painted for over 18 months, being just base coated with ultra quick pva/brown ballast basing for a new release display/demo at The Other Partizan back in August 2017 - thankfully the rather poor lighting in the darkest depths of the hall saved many blushes on the day!

The good news this time is that a load of his buddies are also in the same part painted state, so I could in theory have 500pts up and running in no time.

 

I followed what are commonly suggested colours for the uniform, especially the recommendations from Bryan Cook in the FREE Australian Bolt Action pdf (with him being a bit of a guru for all things Australian and WW2 related,  and an Antipodean himself) which is also at the core of the even more excellent Campaign: New Guinea supplement for which this range of figures was released.
Although I did substitute Vallejo Game Colour 64 Yellow Olive for the uniform as I didn't have any Model Colour 888 Olive Grey to hand at the time and they are near identical, and for some reason that escapes me the helmet started as Brown Violet rather than Russian Uniform but it 'all came good in the wash' as they say and we all know campaign uniforms aren't an exact science anyway.

This particular mini has been a bit of a personal battle for me as for some reason it just wouldn't go right, a mix of old and new techniques and impatience to get it finished being the culprits I think - in the end I had to keep walking away and coming back for another go until it took me a week of 20mins here and there to get a result I was happy with.

One of the biggest issues seems to be the areas of exposed skin, I think maybe the detail is a lot softer than the previous US Airborne figure and I had to do more work with the brush in this instance rather than the sculpt doing the work for me.

The basing was a chance to try out the Fine Base Render from Warlord Games/War World Scenics as it was something I obtained at a similar time as the figures were released and wanted a chance to compare against my usual Basetex from Colour Party - at the time I was also trying to keep everything Warlord for the demo force.

It worked pretty much as expected although seemed grittier and less compliant than my usual, however this could be down to storage and is easily overcome with a small amount of water.

Another product I've been waiting to try is Puddles by AK Interactive (which I picked up from the excellent PK-Pro at Tactica Hamburg, a superb show in Germany which I was fortunate to visit 2 years ago) and the often 'very' wet conditions of the New Guinea Jungle floor seemed an ideal opportunity although I didn't want to go too mad.
Before I dived in and applied it to my finished model I checked out a few clips on YouTube, especially the one from AK themselves: link definitely something I would recommend especially as it showed that although pre-coloured the finish is essentially clear unless you add extra colourisation of your own.

So all in all progress this year is somewhat pedestrian for me (nothing new there), and the bad news is that the last 2-3 weeks have seen me changing project more than half a dozen times before anything stuck just long enough to see its way onto and off the painting table as finished - even now with the next of these Aussies in progress other things are calling to me!
It seems I'm doomed to a life as the worst of hobby butterflies, there is no hope anymore... we'll just have to wait and see if any more beautiful butterflies emerge from this extended period of gestation and cogitation, but don't hold your breath.

Pin Markers (Nick)

Do these count as completed miniatures? ...I don't know to be honest, but I'm going to count them anyway just don't tell Carl shhhh!

I first made these as bespoke Pin Markers while playtesting Rick Priestley's 'Warlords of Erehwon' fantasy rules, released just a few weeks ago by Warlord Games!
Originally developed under a different working title, these are an adaptation of the 'Beyond the Gates of Antares' sci-fi rules and affectionately referred to as 'Fantares' during the early stages.

Pin markers are a way of showing a unit's level of attrition and combat efficiency during the game and was first introduced by Warlord in their best selling Bolt Action WWII game.  Whilst very appropriate in the games where firepower and artillery bombardment are prominent and often represented with small explosion tokens like the red plastic ones Warlord Games sell it didn't sit quite right with me.  I wanted something that seemed more in keeping with the fantasy/medieval setting we were gaming, and they could easily be used as more traditional wound markers or even a turn counter.

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These are the first two prototypes I designed from scratch in Tinkercad as files for 3D printing on my Wanhao i3 plus filament printer, and thought it was about time I painted them up ready for battle.  There have been several changes in design to tweak certain elements as well as trying both PET-G and PLA filaments, however they all functional for my own games until I settle on the final design which I may put into production.

The first design spins on two 3mm neodymium magnets to show numbers from 1-10...

...whereas the other has a 3mm peg as part of the design instead:

Not sure which ideas will win out, but I may just paint them all up as easy wins and tabletop eye candy... oh and I might just have to paint some more minis too!

Bolt Action - US Airborne (Nick)

So just 6 days into the New Year and I'm one down already, and while that's not a miniature-a-day it is two months sooner than I was able to show anything in 2018 so definitely a step in the right direction!

This is another one of those minis that's been 95% finished for over 2 years - just waiting for insignia, matt varnish and basing in this instance ...this one's been 'screaming' at me for ages, so really glad to finally see him complete :)

This is a test piece for my US Airborne force in Normandy, especially St. Mere Eglise and Carentan as a project some time in the future so is wearing the m1942 uniform and is one of the excellent metal range from Warlord Games - these are fantastic sculpts and the detail almost paints itself.

The base uniform colour is often the subject of much conjecture, probably not helped by the quality of the material and abusive battlefield conditions it was subjected to.  For my own taste, based on the information I could find I knew I wanted a green tinted, sandy colour and finding a base colour I was happy with proved elusive until I found the Russian Uniform spray from Plastic Soldier Company which proved just the ticket.

One of the reasons this particular miniature has been on hold for so long is my indecision between 101st 'Screaming Eagles' or 82nd 'All American' divisions and therefore the shoulder patch I would apply (I was also planning the Stars and Stripes patch for the right shoulder but recently discovered this almost certainly wasn't worn by the 101st in Normandy).

Both have their merits with the 82nd badges being more colourful against the green/grey and 'All American', but as I really wanted to use the characterful 'Mohawk' pathfinder models associated with the 101st and also have models for Dick Winters and Lt. Spiers not to mention the aforementioned battles of St. Mere Eglise and Carentan it really did sway the eventual choice of 101st Screaming Eagles even though the 82nd featured heavily at St. Mere Eglise (maybe I'll add some units of those too when it comes to recreating that particular battle?).

Overall I'm really happy with the result and can't wait for a chance to paint up some more... maybe for Warlord's own D-day 75th Anniversary campaign day in June?  Although I do have to question my own sanity for adding shading to the Screaming Eagle decal before sealing with matt varnish, but it just popped too much against the drab uniform and just didn't look part of it... much happier with it now, and maybe just a 'little' OCD?

Now onto the next minis to grab my attention... need to keep the momentum going, but also not loose sight of the new project I started putting together in November with the intention of gaming and expanding it throughout 2019.

Beyond the Gates of Antares - NuHu (Nick)

Another small update from me, this time back to Antares again and a NuHu leader and her Nano drone for my C3 Concord army as seen previously.

Seeing as these have been 80% finished for over 2 years now, I though it was about time I filled in the details and finished them off!

Quite a simple scheme to match my C3 'Tango Division', but with a little more attention as befits her status without going too mad.

The Nuhu herself, directing proceedings:

    

...and her attendant Nano drone:

                                    

Also on the bench is my C3M4 Combat drone for the Concord, yet another model that has been 'nearly finished for over 2 years... hopefully that will be along soon, but in the meantime this brings the year's tally crawling up to 49 minis complete and off the 'lead mountain' even though only 15 of them are mine to keep!