Seasons Greetings

Just a quick note to wish all a Merry Christmas!

A couple of pics from the Foundry range to show how the season can effect us all:

The Queue Buster

Stand and Deliver

All the best to you all

Cheers

We're back

Without tempting fate, the 5th Phalanx is now nearly complete. The re-painting of the bloomed matt varnish has been completed and in the main is a fairly good match to the original paint job. The figures have been hand varnished and at about 2 minutes a figure this will probably be the way forward from now on. Just can't face having to repaint another stand in the future.

Not sure if the remaining phalanx will be finished this year, hopefully, but with Christmas just 3 days away time is limited. The easier option would be to complete the 2 started units of skirmishers - 1 with javelins and the other with slings. Who can tell, how it will all work out.

Anyway enough rambling and here are a few pics of the 5th phalanx as the glue for basing them dries.

A little glimpse of what 2011 hopefully will be offering:

But more of that later.

Cheers for now.

ECW First Picture

Just a quick update on the ECW Late Royalist Infantry bases:

Hopefully more to follow shortly with pikes attached to the second base - if they ever turn up.

Also a few pics of some 20mm German Armour for Disposable Heroes that have been hiding out in the workroom for the last few months.

Cheers for now.

Loose ends

Well today has been a bit of this and a bit of that, but things have been done and few loose ends tied up.

The casualty markers from early in the summer have finally been flocked and varnished - by hand - along with a few more disordered markers.

Some more work has been done on the third base of the Late Royalist Army for Impetus Baroque, which means the infantry are all but complete, just needing the odd pike here and there. This however depends entirely on the Royal Mail ever delivering something of worth again; as still waiting on the wire for their pikes to arrive.

And last, but not least, the 5th Phalanx of Spartans has been dusted and the tunics and linen armour repainted where necessary. Hopefully be able to finish this base of as soon as possible and start painting the army in ernest again over the next few months. The planned finished date of the Monday before Christmas is long gone but at least the hoodoo over the varnishing mishap is gone.

Will get some pictures posted over the next few days.

Cheers for now

Starting from scratch

Well, where to begin. Still no further progress on the Spartans although the figures have been dusted this afternoon, which gives you an idea  of little work has been going on. The desk in general is a tip and after a short tidying session is now a reasonable working environment - this always helps to motivate.

Avoiding the Spartans, some work has been done on the 15mm ECW figures, so there are now nearly two bases of 15mm Royalists completed for Basic Impetus Baroque. Given the amount of time spent on washing and highlighting figures from another collection they look good on the base. The massed 15mm figures really do give a good visual effect on a 60 x 120mm base, giving a good sense of the formation of the period. Looking forward to trying this period out in the future.

Looking at the Spartans, there is little or no chance of completing this army this year, although another base should be possible.

Time now to brave the elements and walk the dog in the snow and frost.

Cheers for now

Another day down...

No progress to update on any of the projects that are currently ongoing. Infact there has been very little activity here at all, so much so that the painting desk will a require a good dusting before any work can start.

The re-reading of the Elric saga has been entertaining and might led to the purchase of a few character figures as below:

The miniatures from Hasslefree Figures do have a certain Melnibonean appeal, but may be just to heavy set but it is hard to tell without seeing the figures in the flesh. If the figures do appear on the door step as if by magic then it will really be a single figure project as entertaining as a Melnibonean army for Impetus Fantasy would be.

Hopefully the motivation and time to paint will return this week. Strange how one mishap with some varnish can really put your enthuisiam for a project down.

Cheers 

A blast from the past

Its strange how the mind works. Whilst search through a journal database the name Achilleos popped up in an article that was completely irrelevant. The name however sparked off a series of memories that led to the following:

• A web search for the Chris Achilleos web site
• A trip up the loft to dug out the old Michael Moorcock Elric books
• And ultimately this post

The image below is a favourite, depicting the fall of a decadent empire and the primary character of the above books; Elric. In many ways characters like Elric brought about this blog, as the progression from roleplaying to wargaming would never have happened without the initial impetus of reading Moorcock's fantasy works. The scale of the background in this picture has always impressed, as does the detail in the work as well.

Achilleos' work doesn't carry the same energy as Michael Whelan's cover images from the Elric books, his style being more refined. Both images however do capture Elric in two totally different ways.

The Spartans are progressing slowly, too slowly to be honest but my time is limited at present for painting. Hopefully the re-paint on the 5th phalanx will be complete shortly and when it is some pics to follow.

Thats all for now.