Back to the Brushes 65

Its time for Project S to be opened up so all can view its progress so far. Before showing some pictures of the stands that are being painted at present here are some reference pictures that should make it clear what is being worked on the moment.

The pictures have been taken from the following web site Radpour where there are some great recreations of the period that Project S comes from.

So after these pictures Project S is clearly Sassanids. At this stage late period Sassanids, but the nature of the figures will mean that this army will cover all periods of the Sassanids as well as some of their earlier incarnations.

For the record the figures are again from Gripping Beast with the odd few from Aventine. The next post will show the progress on two mounted units and one skirmish unit.

Lastly a warm welcome to:

• Grigork

Thanks for looking and cheers for now.

Odds and ends

For those of you who have not yet seen the display game of Heraclea put on at Partizan, then this link is well worth a visit. A truly impressive table with a similarly impressive amount of lead on it. The figures look the part and the overall aspect of the table is what many wargamers seek in larger games. Sadly, this hasn't been seen in the flesh as Partizan is a bit out of the way.

Displays like this have you looking at the lead mountain in a different way, and suddenly lists start appearing; as do visits to the likes of Aventine Miniatures, just too see what's what you know.

On the subject of out of the way, a missed opportunity occurred several weeks ago; when due to work the following Medieval Display was missed:

The display was held at Abbot House in Dunfermline and you can just see the Abbey at the top centre of the picture. Doubly annoying was the fact that this was only two minutes from work. There are more pictures available at the Abbot House's facebook page here. Still got a good reference picture for the future.

Off to do some painting, cheers for now.

Back to the Brushes 3

Apologies for the delay since the last post but things have been a little busy here over the last two weeks. The month started well and then rapidly ground to a halt due a variety of reasons including motivation, graduating, work and a few other pressing matters.

The Spartan Allies will require a brief dusting before work can continue and this will not happen until early in August. As will the Macedonian Cavalry that gather dust beside the Allied Phalanx. Oh, and a few packs of phalangites and an armoured Seleucid Elephant arrived the other day from Aventine. They do not disappoint and will fit in well with the existing figures from Gripping Beast and Foundry. Yet more plans within plans to follow.

That said over the last few days 2 platoons of 20mm Late War German Panzer Grenadiers have been finished as a the result of a conversation regarding Disposable Heroes at a recent club gathering. Painters and wargamers tend to be butterflies when it comes to interests and completing projects - well this one is at any rate. This will also allow the opportunity to try out the "Road to Hell" from D& P in the near future. More details and pictures to follow shortly.

Thanks for your patience.

Cheers for now

Comparatively speaking

many miniature manufacturers have different views on what is 28mm, as for that matter do many gamers. Older ranges tend to towards 25mm and some newer ranges are moving towards 32mm. We all have our preferred ranges and manufactures for a variety of reasons. The ranges below are all compatible in size at 28mm and come from several well known manufacturers.

From left to right you have here: Aventine; Gorgon Studios; Aventine; Foundry; Aventine; Foundry and Gripping Beast. 

The Aventine figures are some samples that Kevin from Aventine Miniatures sent through the other day. Great service from Aventine here, with the samples arriving next day and the response time to an emailed enquiry being rapid. That along with the quality of the figures adds to the overall perception that Aventine have their attention fixed on customer service. The comparison figures are from the lead mountain and are all sculpted by Steve Saleh.  The Aventine figures compare well against the other figures and fit in well in terms of size. That said they are excellent figures in their own right, being well sculpted with clear details and clean casts and a few of them will be joining the ranks of Late Macedonians and Successors very shortly as regular pikemen and mercenaries.

Aventine Miniatures are definitely worth taking a look at if you haven't already done so and to be fair that elephant on their front page is bloody marvellous to say the least.

Here are a few more comparison pictures between the ranges above:

Showing heights at 25mm to shoulders 28mm to eyes.

Top: Aventine Bottom: Foundry

From the left Aventine, Foundry, Aventine, Foundry, Aventine, Foundry

From the left Aventine, Gorgon Studios

Top: Aventine. Bottom: Gripping Beast

From the left Aventine, GB, Aventine, GB, Aventine, GB

Hopefully you have found these pictures of use and are better able to resist temptation than some others. Work on the Allied Phalanx progresses well - if slowly and there will be some work in progress pictures presently.

Cheers for now