Back to the Brushes 402

Turning the other cheek, with these Spartans from Foundry. 

After a long lull in painting Ancient Greeks and some inspiration from Saxon Dog Wargame Projects on Facebook starting to expand on the existing Spartans and their rebasing back in April 2019. 

Going for more variety in the skin tones for the newer figures, however planing on keeping the same shield imagery for each mora of Spartans.

There are a few gaps in the existing bases so will be painting a few additional figures to complete the bases off. 

The thoughts are to double the number of units to give 16 bases at 60 x 40mm. This will allow a reasonable number of Spartiates for a full DBA army and then moving towards Hail Caesar and ADLG. Depending on how the painting goes may add in a new mora as well. 

Cheers for now.

Fury of the North 28

It has been a while since I've painted Vikings in any numbers and since rebasing those that have already been painted on to 40mm squares for Hail Caesar there will be a good few coming this way soon. 

First up are the three on the left of the conga starting with the bare chested axeman.

The other figures are all repurposed from a SAGA warband that wasn't getting any use, so rather than paint more figures yet more rebasing happened. The bases are from Warbases, my friendly local gaming store. 

The berserker winding himself up by baring his chest is from Shieldwall Figures available through Gripping Beast. The overly hairy bare chested warrior is from Wargames Foundry with the rest of the motley crue hailing from Gripping Beast. 

Painting figures for the Dark Ages allows a lot of freedom with colour,  poses and general outlook of the figures. Something that you find less of in later periods and some earlier periods as well. This allows more creativity with the painting and posing of finished figures for the final bases. 

There are a dozen or more Vikings on the painting table at present along with a few other projects that are far more regimented so it will be good to break the monotony of production painting in these guys. 

Cheers for now. 

Back to the Brushes 367

Is there ever a good time to revisit a past project; perhaps in the last four weeks of the AHPC XIII isn't the best time or maybe it is. 

Over the last few weeks have had a hankering to return to the Dark Ages, to an age of raiders, ravagers and raven standards, an age of Vikings! 

This has been promoted by the arrival of Hail Caesar 2nd Edition and a brief conversation with a gaming friend; the Dark Ages are calling. 

A quick survey of the painted Vikings not currently based for any specific rules worked out at nine fully painted bases of Hirdmen and three of Bondi; a bit of painting time required to make this a viable gaming force however, it is a good start. 

The picture above shows the start of some frothing loons for the bondi troops and a few more Hirdmen to full out the ranks. 

As none of these have been started before the 21st December 2022, any completed will count towards the tally of the AHPC. A tally, that is far lower than it should be this far in. 

Anyways, enough rambling for now. 

Cheers!

Back to the Brushes 341

Rebasing is the bane of many a wargamer and it's no different here which is why these have sat in their storage box over the last 2 years waiting to be textured, flocked and tufted. 

The above Late Roman Equites Primo Sagittarii where originally painted and based back in 2013 for Impetus. They have now been joined by another unit below and both are now based on 60mm fronts for use in ADLG and anything else that suits. 

All the riders are from Gripping Beast as are the unarmoured horses. The armoured horses are from Footsore although they were originally purchased from their predecessors Musketeer Miniatures. 

The colour scheme was developed from the images on the Notitia Dignatitum shown below. in the second row, second from the left:

Used the red as a spot colour to allow it to draw the eye in rather than fill the figure with large areas of red; plenty of other figures to do that on. 

Will post some pics of the finished bases when ready and now looking at stand or two as the army lists allow it and the figures are already primed. 

Hope that this was of interest.

Cheers for now. 

Back to the Brushes 340

Bilbo said "Don't adventures ever end?" The same is true of some armies and the Late Romans are one of those here as there is always another unit needing painted.

This time it's a stand of light infantry archers that will be used in Later Roman, Patrician Roman, Romano Brits and possibly Arthurian Briton armies for ALDG in 28mm. Along with a few command figures to complete a general's base for ADLG.

The archers are from Gripping Beast and have these new fangled separate hand thingees whilst the command figures are from Foundry, the smaller sculpts of the two groups. 

Looking to make some quick progress on these chaps and integrate the command figures into an existing stand whilst the archers join the ranks of Light Infantry and support figures for DBA and ADLG. 

Hope that this was of interest to you?

Cheers for now

Back to the Brushes 329

Prepped a few figures this evening as my eyes were tired. It's always good to have prepped figures sitting just before the Analogue Painting Hobbies Challenge XII starts next month.

All Romans in 25/28mm with EIR from Imago Militium - now out of production and Caesarian Romans from Foundry. 

Will add a few more to these before undercoating along with some 15mm Roman Cataphracts from War and Empire.

Cheers for now and stay safe. 

 

 

Back to the Brushes 320

First figure for September's 30 Days 30 Miniatures Painting Challenge is the lead Thessalian cavalry man below. These are a part of an ongoing project for a Macedonian DBA army in 28mm.

The rider's thrusting spear is still to be added however, it's best to let one glued piece set before gluing another piece to the same piece. 

Next in this project will be the Companions with wee Eck himself. These have already been started with the horses about finished and the flesh tones on the riders. More of these and other updates throughout the month. 

So this takes the running total this month to

1 x 28mm cavalry man

A few more to go however, will get there this month and a few extra as well. 

Stay safe and cheers for now. 

Dance of Bronze 25

As the Thessalian cavalry stand nears completion just taking this opportunity to show a stand of Greek or Paeonian Light Cavalry. 

The figures are from Wargames Foundry and are great characterful sculpts with good detail and posing. Unlike the Prodromoi shown last month the tunics are more mundane for these figures as befits the more general nature of this light cavalry stand.

Strangely, with the horses on these and the Prodromoi the painting was less of a chore than some other horses that have been painted in the past. Could be the sculpts, although looking at the horse below in the foreground it is most likely the trappings being more defined on the horse. 

Horse trappings have been a bugbear of mine for a while and for no other reason than they are there annoy me. It's not that they are hard to paint, just time consuming and often cause a bit of reworking. So how to tackle this in the future? Keep dropping by and there will be a post on how the pain has been reduced. 

Hope you found this interesting. 

Stay safe and cheers for now. 

30 Days 30 Miniatures Painting Challenge - August 2021 Round up

Round up for August's 30 Days 30 Miniatures Painting Challenge below. Quite simply ran out of steam on the third rider for the Thessalians 

In the above picture there are the following:

2 x 28mm cavalry riders only - Thessalians from Foundry

2 x 28mm infantry  - Normans from Foundry

2 x 28mm infantry - British and Fallschrimjager from Warlord Games

4 x 15mm cavalry - Bedouin from Museum Miniatures

Above there are:

12 x 15mm infantry - Early Imperial Romans from PSC

6 x 15mm cavalry - Ghulams from Minifigs (?)

1 x 20mm scenery piece

12 x 15mm infantry - Minifigs (?)

This gives a total of 41, not 39 as shown in the pics, tsk, tsk. 

Got a bit of basing to do in the coming weeks!

Stay safe and cheers for now

Back to the Brushes 317

Started working on the Macedonians again last night. Rather than select one group of troops over another opted to continue with both the

Thessalian Cavalry

And the Hypaspists

As there eight Hypaspists to paint its looking more likely that the cavalry will be ready first.

The tunic started as Foundry Wine Stain A, a mix of the shade and mid tone were used for the layer and then the  midtone only was used for the highlight. The armour was base coated with Vallejo Old Gold, washed with AP  strong tone and will be highlighted with base coat and silver mix to suit. 

The pteryges were painted with the Foundry Canvas triad to almost white.

Hope this was of interest.

Stay safe and cheers for now. 

Back to the Brushes 315

Starting this month's challenge with these dismounted Milites from Wargames Foundry. 

Whilst newer sculpts for Normans do exist these are still some of the best on the market and are a pleasure to paint. 

Once the shields have been touched up a little - due to slightly broken lines on the strips - these will join others from this range as Norman mercenaries in SAGA, WAB and general Dark Age skirmish games. 

This takes the tally this month to:

2 x 28mm Infantry 

Still a good few to do.

Stay safe and cheers for now

Dance of Bronze 23

Like all things, starting small is apart of the natural progression of the world. These skirmishers are a part of that, the seed if you will, that a fuller army will grow from across the coming months. 

These figures have not been selected randomly, as they depict Agrianians from the armies of Phillip II and Alexander III of Macedon. The later is better known by many as Alexander the Great - who coincidentally was born on the 20th/21st July 356BCE

The figures are from Wargames Foundry's the World of Greeks range and are a personal favourite for this period. 

When painting these the choice of colours was to enhance the figures visually on the table by using the brighter blue to signify a more prominent unit of skirmishers instead of beiges and buffs.

More from this period in the remaining months of 2021. 

Stay safe and cheers for now

 

Imperium Sine Fine 28

 These two stands have been finished for some time now with just the basing to do. Well now that's done too. 

The figures are all from Foundry's Caesarian Romans except for the horn blower on the right unit; an old Gripping Beast figure from a range that sadly is currently out of production. The other half of this army are all from the Gripping Beast range. 

The shield transfers are from Little Big Men, although there is a fair amount of over painting on these as well. 

Painted using the block, wash and high light method that has been used to for this army and allies and mercenaries from this period. The end result is both rewarding and achievable making this army a realistic target for completion this year. 

Hope that you found this interesting and stay safe. 

Cheers for now 

Back to the Brushes 304

Sometimes when you think that you are doing well and that your painting is improving you see another painter's work and think...

Steve Dean's work

why bother finishing these...

as they don't look like those above them. Still a few session on these Foundry hoplites to go before the finishing line and a lot of other things still to paint for this year's AHPC. 

With 11 days to go not sure the painting style is going to reach the heady heights of Dean or Dallimore however its the best you've got to give that matters. 

Hope that you found this interesting and stay safe. 

Cheers for now. 

Back to the Brushes 298

It's a slow start for the Macedonian DBA army in 28mm with these skirmishers taking far too long to get done. 

Next time they are posted - hopefully later this week they'll be finished along with a few other units to support them. 

Great figures from Foundry and over the years there have been a few painted for different uses. There are also a few more still to do to finish them off. 

Hope that you found this interesting and stay safe. 

Cheers for now. 

Back to the Brushes 296

As we move into the end of the third week of the AHPC XI it's time to start getting stuff finished and ready to be photographed. 

Below are some more work in progress pics somethings are on the starting lines. The finished bits will be shown later due to the rules of the AHPC. 

Both sets of figures are from Foundry with the top being Greek hoplites and below being Macedonian Hypaspists for the Macedonian DBA army in 28mm. 

Not shown here, however the Prodromoi are nearing completion alongside some Agrianes skirmishers.

At this point in the Challenge most items that are currently on the painting table are from Ancient Greece and Macedonia. Some interests will never fade and here is one of the reasons why as a boy this interest was generated on Saturday afternoons watching matinees:

Hope that you found this interesting and stay safe. 

Cheers for now.

Back to the Brushes 292

Spent a bit of time last night working prepping figures for the upcoming Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XI before moving on to some a little less taxing; Normans.

The swordsmen are from Wargames Foundry and the crossbowman is from Gripping Beast. Both manufacturers make great but very different styles of figures, some of which work together others that just don't. 

Sorry again for the poor quality image - just can't seem to get anything well lit at present. 

Will finish these off shortly and then on to the next two stands of Xyston Spartans. 

Hope that you found this interesting. 

Cheers for now

 

30 Days 30 Miniatures November 2020

In the end it turned out to be a very productive 30 Days Challenge as shown below

 Complete in this challenge included the following

• 13 x 18mm SYW Infantry - Eureka Miniatures
• 16 x 15mm Spartan Infantry - Xyston
• 11 x 15mm Early Imperial Roman Infantry - Plastic Soldier Company
• 8 x 28mm Caesarian Romans Infantry - Wargames Foundry

The total for the 30 Days is 48 figures

This month's challenge will be announced tomorrow and will be a little different. 

Hope that you found this interesting

Cheers for now

Imperium Sine Fine 24

This command stand was completed over the last couple of months and now finally flocked and photographed to show. 

These Perry sculpts are always a joy to paint and the Legate was previously painted for the original incarnation of this army: 1,500 points in WAB. Seldom paint in eyes now, too damned fiddly for little return.

The figures will now - COVID-19 pandemic - permitting be used in ADLG, DBA and Hail Caesar at some point in the future. 

Hope that you found this interesting and there will be another command stand of Romans shortly. 

Cheers for now. 

Fury of the North 25

These maybe venerable sculpts from Foundry's range of Normans however, they are still great figures that have lasted the tests of time. 

Amongst some of the first historical miniatures bought circa 1996 as the move from purely fantasy figures started to gain momentum

These have been waiting to be finished over the the last year and will be joining others from this range for general use in Dark Ages skirmishing games and as mercenaries in WAB. When these games will be who can say. 

There are currently another four figures from this range on the painting table that will be finished across the remainder of November. 

 Hope that you found this interesting. 

Cheers for now.