Back to the Brushes 388

A few more stands from Minifigs Ancient Greek and Macedonian ranges.

The front stand are for use as Hypaspists and the rear stand will be Argyraspides and the first of five pike blocks.

Will be adding to these in the near future. 

Cheers for now

Dance of Bronze 27

They say that at a beginning is a delicate time, and as this was my first post for AHPC XIII it was indeed that. 

The pictures below are of 6mm Greek Bolt Throwers from Baccus Miniatures and are not the 15mm EIR Legionnaires originally planned for this post.

It always amazes me how much detail that 6mm figure producers can show in their product and these are no exception. The actual bolt throwers are two part kits easily assembled and I even managed not to glue myself to them - it's happened before on bigger kits to be fair. 

On the tabletop these may seen as hard hitters however in terms of points for the challenge they are the first step of many. What is important is that they are that first step allowing more to follow. 

Based on 40mm squares for DBA and ADLG these will be a part of the ongoing Macedonian and Punic Wars project that has been bubbling under for several years now. 

As my first entry these 6mm warmachines and crew will net 8 points (1.6% of my challenge total). 

Looking forward to picking up some pace now on the painting front and working on both those pesky EIR Legions and some 28mm Wars of the Roses Men at Arms for future entries. 

Cheers for now, Ross

Dance of Bronze 26

Finished these off last night as aware that the month is rapidly moving towards the last third and there is nothing as yet completed. 

The figures are from Xyston's range of Greeks and will be used in, well, you guessed it, Greek armies for DBA and ADLG.

Xyston's figures are not to everyone's taste however, I really like them and find the sculpts suit my style of painting for 15mm. 

Back to the Crusaders this evening to progress another combined stand of spear and crossbows for ADLG. 

This takes this month's total to: 

8 x 15mm infantry.

Cheers for now

 

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. 

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. 

Dance of Bronze 24

Here are the Prodromoi or those that run before the army painted during AHPC XI. The figures are from A & A Miniatures and are armed as sarrisophoroi. The sculpts don't give the option to arm with javelin and they are for use with a Macedonian army. 

A colourful unit with perhaps the original "Nike" top on even if it is made of different layers of material. 

Incidentally, have another 4 or 5 figures that will be surplus to requirements if anyone is interested. 

What now? Thessalian, Companions or Hypaspists - they are all part painted just need to find the motivation to dust them off and continue to the finish with them.

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

 

Back to the Brushes 301

This month has flown in and work has taken its toil on hobby time. However, the paint still flows and projects are moving forward however slowly that may be. 

Below is the footprint of an Alexandrian Macedonian army in DBA/ADLG for 28mm figures. The bases are double depth for DBA and over the coming weeks some of these will turn into finished stands of figures. The bases are all from Warbases. 

This idea has been acquired from the talented Yarkshire Gamer Blog whose work in this year's AHPC XI has been inspirational. Permission was asked and approved to use this idea here and all credit for it goes to Ken for the idea. 

A similar picture for 15mm Spartans in DBA will also be here soon and this time it will be much closer to the finish line. 

Work in progress pictures to follow along with the start of this year's Challenge entries as the countdown begins to March 21 and Challenge's End. 

Stay safe

Cheers for now

Back to the Brushes 300

With the Prodromoi cavalry units now waiting on basing it's time to move on to the main cavalry unit of the army; the Companions. 

The elite cavalry arm of the Macedonian army under Alexander the Great, the Companions were the hammer to the phalanx's anvil. Have a look at brief overview of the Companions and other cavalry units 

The above figure is the test figure for this unit and the grey for the tunic isn't the best. The cuirass which is hard to see here is a bronze muscled cuirass to waist with pteruges.  

The flesh tone needs a bit of tidying up and reworking to soften the contrast between highlight and shade tones so its more like that of the skirmishers below. These will be used for the Agrianrian skirmishers and have been opted for to avoid looking similar to peltasts. 

A similar test figure for the Thessalian cavalry is also on the go at present.

Stay safe and interested

Cheers for now 

 

Back to the Brushes 299

In the need to get some points on the board for the AHPC XI, sometime is needing to be spent on this ramshackle collection of partially painted miniatures. 

With Spartans from Xyston, Macedonians from Foundry, Caesarian Romans from Warlord and Crusaders from Gripping Beast there is a good range of choices of things to be getting on with. 

Hoping to finish working on a fair number of these this week. 

Stay safe and keep painting

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.

Hobby Plans 2021

With the passing of 2020 hopefully soon to be forgotten by all its time to look ahead to 2021. 

A year of endless possibilities, change and new challenges? Probably all and many other things.

In terms of hobby plans for this year here is a brief outline:

• Successfully complete the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XI
• Finish painting the following:

• 18mm Bavarians for the Seven Years War
• 28mm Prussian Landwehr
• 28mm Hoplites
• 28mm Caesarian Romans
• 28mm Phalangites
• 20mm D.A.K.
• 15mm DBA matched pair for the 2nd Punic War

• Try to game as often as possible virtually or once the vaccines are in place safely in person
• Develop painting skills further and possibly look into a basic airbrush set

That should keep things busy for the year without adding in any new shiney that might catch a magpie's eye. 

Stay safe and thanks for visiting

Cheers for now

Back to the Brushes 295

 A few things on the go at the moment for AHPC XI.

Starting at the bottom left there are two C09 Dark Elf Sorceresses from back in the early days of painting miniatures. 

Next is a Norman Crossbowman to complete a srand of crossbowmen for use in ADLG

Then from Footsore Miniatures a Healer for the Spartan Lochas in Mortal Gods. 

On the top row is the start of the riders for two stands of Prodromoi. Looking for a different look to the flesh on these figures than on some other Greeks and Spartans. The base colour here is Vallejo Heavy Flesh; from here not yet sure how to go, most likely washed with Army Painter flesh wash and then layered with either Foundry or Vallejo flesh tones. 

Thanks for looking. 

Cheers for now

Back to the Brushes 293

And so it begins again: Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XI. This my tenth year in the AHPC and hoping to more this year than previous years. Pictured below are a selection of the figures ready for painting over the next three months. 

These include in no relation at all to the pictures order:

• 15mm Spartans from Xyston - grey undercoat top pic
• 28mm Fallschirmjager from Warlord Games - bone undercoat - windowsill
• 18mm Seven Year War Austrians painted as Bavarians from Eureka - white undercoat windowsill
• 28mm Caesarian Romans from Foundry - grey undercoat windowsill
• 28mm Norman crossbowman from Gripping Beast - 1 figure top pic
• 28mm Macedonian phalangites from Foundry - on cutting mat
• 15mm EIR skirmishers from Forged in Battle - windowsill pic
• 28mm Germanic Tribes from Footsore and Gripping Beast - last on right on windowsill
• 28mm Prodromoi from A & & Miniatures - painted horses in top pic

Not shown in the pics but ready to be painted depending on how things progress are 28mm pirates, Prussians, ECW, Gondorians and Iberians, 15mm Wars of the Roses, Arabs, Mongols and ACW. More than enough to keep busy with for the rest of the year and beyond. 

Below are the first figures from Wee Eck and the Macs DBA - Prodromoi from A & A Miniatures. Whilst there are 12 figures for this troop type in the cabinets of shame only 4 will be required for ADGL; the others will be up for sale in the near future.

The horses have partially painted for a good few years now. No so much, the riders, however, that's about to change. 

Dotted here and there are suitable figures for the Bonus themes as well. Mostly retro figures being dusted off for the digital age. 

Cheers to those in the AHPC and hope that this has been on interest to you

Stay safe
 

Dance of Bronze 20

Recently completed and based these Greek slingers are from Foundry's original range of Ancient Greeks. 

As a result they are slightly shorter and thinner build than the World of the Greeks range however this does not stop them being used in the same armies. 

As these were the last two left to paint there was no option to vary the poses on this stand; it was advancing with sling as shown or nothing.  

As they are broadly generic figures they can be used for most armies in this period so will likely be a part of the Spartans and future Caesarian and Carthaginian armies for DBA and ADLG

Hope that you found this interesting. 

Stay safe and cheers for now.

Dance of Bronze 19

Recently completed and shown in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge X here are three Wargames Foundry World of Greek skirmishers.

The Skirmishers will be used in Mortal Gods to support their Hoplite brothers on the flanks and rough ground. They will also provide limited ranged attacks on opposing hoplites as well.

The muted and earthy tones used will be an interesting juxtaposition to the red of the Spartan Hoplites that will make up the main part of this force at present. 

With skirmish games scatter terrain is a key element of the table top, in my opinion that is; so here is the first of about a dozen individual resin pieces.

From Grand Manner this table and pots/urns collection was also a part of this year's AHPC X. The resin piece has been glued to the circular base from Warbases and textured to suit. Not really sure how it will effect the game other than to set the scene.

More finished items to follow from this year's Challenge in the next week or so.

In these changing and trying days take care of you and yours.

Cheers for now.

Back to the Brushes 257

Plodding on through February, colouring in as it passes. 

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge X is over half way there and here its lagging about 4 weeks behind that. Some progress on the DAK with the support weapons now started. 

The first batch of Late Roman archers are nearing the finish line.

Last for this evening is a mixture of things including 6mm Macedonian Companions, 15mm Spartans and War of the Roses cavalry.

More to follow and there will be completed pieces soon.

Cheers for now

Back to the Brushes 239

Another update from this months 30 Days 30 Miniatures painting challenge.

This time the completed figure is a Wargames Foundry World of Greeks skirmisher. This figure will be used along side Spartans, Greeks and Macedonians, a great versatile figure.

Day 4 - 5 figures completed.

Cheers for now.