Back to the Brushes 418

The desk needed a good clean so over the last few days been spending a bit of time tidying up a few odds and ends.

Currently, there is a mix of Essex and Museum Miniatures Arabs and Crusaders in the center, flanked by a skeleton standard bearer on left and Thracian skirmishers to the right. Support to the rear from Thracian cavalry and Bundeswehr Gepards. 

Plenty of variety to keep things fresh. 

Cheers for now.

Back to the Brushes 413

Some changing faces in the form of werewolves from different manufacturers. Plastics from Warlord Atlantic's, metals from Old Glory and 3D prints from Highlander Miniatures. Can you spot which is which?

No, well above is a Warlord Atlantic werewolf and below front centre and below front right are both from Old Glory.

The unpainted miniature is the first of three digitally printed figures from Highlander Miniatures. 

Finding that being involved in two different projects whilst challenging is helping to keep the black dog away. Ironic really, given the colour scheme for these pups.

Cheers for now.

Back to the Brushes 411

The last week has been busy with other things so as a result hobby time has lapsed as has blogging. So, it's time to get things back on track with some work in progress pics. 

With a first game of Kings of War beckoning thought it only right to spend some time on a character for the army. 

The necromancer was started a while back however, the skeletons rising from the earth are recent additions repurposed from damaged 3D prints. On the subject of 3D prints, here's the start of a few regiments of armoured zombies from Highlander Miniatures. 

It's not all the forces of darkness and death as there has been some progress on the M109 and M113 for the Bundeswehr forces for Team Yankee. Also in the foreground, there are two small objective markers for 15mm gaming in general. 

More to follow shortly as have some time set aside to bash on with these projects and others. 

Cheers for now. 

Back to the Brushes 404

Fresh start for 2026. 

That is the base coat of Vallejo Reflective Green down on this zug of Leopard 1s for Team Yankee

This is the start of a Bundeswehr force for Cold War games around either the Team Yankee or Centag rule systems. 

The rumble in the background shows the bits and pieces of two catapults for the Undead in Kings of War. So far, there has been more swearing than flying on these as there were no assemble instructions provided with these digital prints. 

Cheers for now.

Back to the Brushes 403

Shambling hordes of undeath coming this way across the dark nights of winter cold 

Rebasing from 25mm hex bases to 25mm rounds to enable more generic use in skirmish gaming and easier sabot basing as shown. 

The sabot tray from Warbases is sized for a Kings of War Horde and holds 17 figures. 

Hoping to find time in between the festive period to finish the sabot and individual bases off. 

Cheers for now

Fantasy Hero 24

Painted a few years back but only just getting round to posting now.

A retro figure from Citadel Miniatures circa 1984 and one of the first additions to a then small collection of figures for roleplaying games.

As there are a lot of Undead on the painting table, might dig a few more old bones out to see the light of day and a new coat of paint. 

Cheers for now

Back to the Brushes 401

Been playing with colour the other night, going back to mixing some tones from the base colour and layering from there. 

The base colour is from Vallejo Games colours Scurvy Green and the subsequent tones are mixed from this blended with Army Painter Skeleton Bone. 

It was refreshing to do this and rewarding to have that control and feel of the colours building up. Still to go back for a final highlight or two on the edges and a few other places, then several coats of Matt varnish to knock the sheen off, which is coming from the base colour.

A couple of casualty markers for the Undead hordes in Kings of War. These have been built from a triple 10mm dice cell, a 60 x 20mm base and some spare parts from the skeleton warriors sprues. The MDF parts are all from Warbases.

Cheers for now.

Back to the Brushes 400

Over the last few weeks have been working on a few different projects. To say that there has been little progress would be an understatement, so, a little change of direction was called for. 

There is a steady stream of chat at work relating to Kings of War and the original plan was to paint Dwarves for this however, the figures that are available are mostly retro Citadel figures from a time when character figures made up the range. These are your friend if you're trying to create a new army for a new game. 

Enter the skeletons...

A stalled project that will enable a quick turn around on several based units; skeleton warriors and archers. Some are already finished, some have been partial painted a couple of years back and some are in the process of being painted now. The figures are from the Oathmark range.

Kings of War offers a basing option that is similar to Impetus in that the figures are multi based to suit. The basic infantry base is a troop sized at 100 x 40mm and this is doubled for a regiment.

In the immortal words of Blue Peter, here's one I made earlier from the previously painted figures. Base from Warbases and there are also movement trays to fit as well. 

More on these shortly. 

Cheers for now.

Back to the Brushes 399

It's February already; how the ... did that happen! 

A couple of updates on two different things passing across the painting table just now.

Rebased 15mm Alternative Armies Undead for use in Hordes of Things. These are now all on 40mm fronted bases and will be textured, dry brushed and finished - again - shortly.

Above are a couple of very different looking Dwarves. On the left a nod to Conan the Barbarian; a beardless dwarf in a loin cloth.  The other dwarf has a much more Gothic look with armour more suited for the 15th century. 

More to follow shortly. 

Fantasy Hero 23

A few retro skeletons recently completed for the AHPC XII 

Think that the figures are from Marauder and Citadel. The shields came from a bitz trader on ebay and are of the more recent plastic style than the original hole in the middle style. 

These will join a few others painted in previous AHPC's for use in Songs of Blades and Heroes or similar skirmish games. 

Hope that you found this interesting. 

Cheers for now

Fantasy Hero 22

Recently shown in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XII, these Undead archers from Oathmark ate far from heroes.

Raised from the grave by fell necromancy to fight again against the living.

The figures are from the Oathmark range and build and paint very well. The rules suggest a 25mm square base however, this just didn't suit my own personal taste.

 In game terms its aesthetics only as it's easy to convert over to 20mm square very quickly. The bases did need a little trim around the edges to fit though!

 There will be some more finished and work in progress pics over the next few days. 

Stay safe 

Fantasy Hero 21

Part of the first entry to this years AHPC XII were some retro skeletons from Citadel and possibly Marauder - armoured axe armed skeleton second from the right.

The intention with these was to capture the detailing on the skeleton with as little work as possible. So, out with the rattlecan of Skeleton Bone from Army painter, contrast paint Skeleton Horde and Vallejo Ivory with a dry brush. 

Spray, touch up with the same colour then wash with contrast paint. Finally dry brush with mixes of Skeleton Bone and Ivory. Quick, easy and effective. 

There are another two from this grouping to be completed and then on to the next period for a while. Not going to get stuck in a rut this time by painting too many different things at once - just two or three 😀

 

Cheers for now

Back to the Brushes 334

Just a few of the reasons why this is the first post for 2022

Oathmark Skeleton Archers

15mm Sargonid Assyrians

6mm Normans

15mm Confederates

15mm Arabs and Moors

28mm Skeletons

15mm Crusaders

15mm Hoplites

Time to pick a period and complete a unit or two. 

Stay safe and cheers for now

Back to the Brushes 333

The AHPC XII is now in full swing and the entries are being posted by various challengers. Have started a few threads for this now. The pic below shows the variety in periods that are being worked on just now. 

Clockwise from the top left corner:

• Carthaginians in 28mm for SAGA
• Crusaders in 15mm for ADLG
• Hoplites in 15mm for DBA
• Sargonid Assyrians in 15mm for DBA
• Figures started before the AHPC began earlier this week
• Skeletons in 28mm for Fantasy skirmish
• Early Imperial Romans in 15mm for ADLG
• Fallschirmjager in 28mm for Chain of Command

A lot of there to keep the painting mojo going and some are parts of previously started projects whilst others are starting afresh for this challenge. 

More detail to follow shortly. 

Stay safe and cheers for now

 

Back to the Brushes 332

Will be starting another 30 Day Painting Challenge this evening although there will be a slight difference in this months Challenge: 

The difference being that the AHPC XII starts on the 21st December and from then on it's only miniatures that are prepped only - none already started. 

Prepping has been started and to be honest there is always enough on the sidelines to be starting with. First up will be some 15mm and 28mm being

• Sargonid Assyrians for DBA
• Carthaginians for SAGA
• Wood Elf Regiment of Renown for Oathmark
• Skeleton Warriors for Oathmark
• With various units to follow that will continue on with started projects from the last couple of years. 

As always for the 30 Days 30 Miniatures Painting Challenge there is no theme to this, just to paint and complete 30 miniatures regardless of their starting condition or size. 

The outline of the challenge is detailed below, however the main point being to have fun with your hobby.

• To paint 30 (As Many as You Can month) figures of all shapes and sizes in 30 days
• The figures can be partly painted at the start as the main point is to complete figures that have been forgotten
• Basing is not necessary to count as completed
• Any scale is good
• Too have fun
• The end date is set by your start date - 21st December will be the end date of this challenge
• To post updates as often as possible
• Lastly to show a roundup post with a group picture of everything.

The Round up post for November 2021 will follow tomorrow or the day after. 

Hope that you will find this interesting.

Cheers for now 

Back to the Brushes 328

A beginning is a very delicate time. Know then that it is the year 2021 and the known universe is ruled by...

Well, the strongest obviously and this is the start of an Undead warband for Oathmark, SAGA: Age of Magic and just general fantasy gaming.

Will be posting a few progressive shots of these showing the use of "contrast paints" once the figures are all painted. For this subject they are working really well. 

Will need a few round cornered bases for these and their collection of bony friends. Warbases will be just the ticket for these. 

Cheers for now and stay safe.

Fantasy Hero 20

The last of the Hordes of the Things 15mm Undead army are now finished. The figures are from Alternative Armies range of 15mm Fantasy and have been enjoyable to paint over the last couple of years. 

The mono pose with these figures does cause a little issue when basing as you need to consider both side of the base when positioning the figures or they won't line up correctly. 

It is not the end of the world just a slight pain when gaming with the figures; whenever that maybe will be decided by the powers that be.

There has been a slight issue with the numbering of the "Fantasy Hero" posts and as such this is out of sequence from the previous post in this series. Again, not the end of the world and will revert back to order in the next post. 

Hope that this has been of interest to you. 

Cheers for now

Fantasy Hero 21

Another small post with a few pieces that have been lingering around for too long. 

First up is an old figure from Citadel or Marauder Miniatures back in the day. Always liked this figure and painted this one too match some skeletons from a previous AHPC.

Next up are a two pieces of scatter terrain from Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings SBG. These have been painted with an arid climate in mind and as a result only one has some additional scenic material added. 

These will see a fair amount of use when gaming is able to start again in the future and will included games such as Mortal Gods and the Rampant series. 

Both of these started as a base colour of Dheneb Stone and have been washed with Army Painter strong tone and worked up to almost white in places.  

The will be some more versatile items to show shortly. 

Hope that you found this interesting

Cheers for now

Back to the Brushes 262

With a variety of different items on the painting table at present deciding which to post was an interesting choice. 

Both of the items below are parts of projects that have grown over the years. Firstly the undead cavalry from Alternative Armies are additional units for a Hordes of the Things army that was completed several years back. 

As HOTT offers flexibility on which units can be included in a 24 point army there have always been a few additional packs to paint and these were some of these. The riders have been primed and are waiting on base coats before the everything is washed in the one session. 

There is a difference in the base colour of the horse's chainmail as old faithfully metallic paint has finally passed on to the other side. The central horse of the second stand shows the new choice which is Foundry Chainmail A. This is brighter than the previous colour which could have been an old Citadel or Coats d'Arms paint however as there was no label on the pot who can tell. Whilst not a problem on these figures it is a bit brighter than preferred so will look at several other options in addition to this. 

The next figure will be used for a healer type in SAGA or the Rampant series of games. Not sure of the manufacturer of this one and apologies that the focal point is on the hands not the face; sloppy.

Hope you found this interesting

Stay safe and cheers for now. 

Back to the Brushes 245

Yesterday was the last day of the current 30 Days 30 Miniatures Painting Challenge; which earlier this week looked like it was not going to happen.

A last push at the finish line made the following possible:

First up are Confederates from Old Glory. These 15mm figures are animated and characterful; just what you need for charging the Union lines.

Next, an old mid nineties skeleton from Citadel or Marauder Miniatures. A great figure to paint, perfect for finishing off a painting challenge.

Completed this challenge:

Day 30 - 34 figures completed.

Cheers for now