Rebasing the French and Indian Wars

I bought these nicely painted figures early last year off eBay and have finally got around to basing them. Originally, like most FIW figures they were based on separate bases. Two pence coins to be precise. They were so heavy attached with glue and filler that I almost gave up the idea of getting them free. Luckily, I pushed on with the idea and with a pair of pliers the guys could run free again.

The figures are really quite nice, it's odd for me to buy painted figures as I'd rather save the money and paint them myself. These must have been at the right price as I ended up with them.

These will need some rocks placing on the bases.

I do plan to go over them when there glued and touch up some details, it would be rude not to. From what I can tell, they have been painted using GW's Contrast paints and maybe a strong tone wash afterwards.

Here are two Huron from my collection. At least now with their coun bases removed they are the same height as the others. I was thinking of just sticking the coins on the larger bases, until I reached for the pliers.

Rogers Rangers let fly some well aimed lead into the thick Canadian forest.

These are Galloping Major figures, my favourite of all miniatures. This is probably why I bought them in the first place. They will certainly help bolster the numbers.

 These are bases for Bonny Blue Flag rules and will fight in units of four bases, with an extra two man base to count as skirmishers. Rather than the four hundred man or so regiments of the civil war, I imagine these groups to be warbands and companies of men. Much smaller in man power but still using the same attrition rules in the game.

Update: Now the glue is dry it's time to stick on some sticks and stones.

This was fun and a bonus for the larger bases, making some tracks with milliput. These are easy to do with a simple sculpting tool. It all helps to set the scene and tell a story.

Garden twigs make great fallen trees.

The Rangers are not far behind and have followed a large group of warriors back to their settlement.

Toying around with the Clone Wars

"Hello there"

 A taste of things to come, with my little boy showing more of an interest in Wargames, I thought I would have a go at gaming the Clone wars.  

He has watched the Clone wars all of his life and now that the Lego side of things is dropping off, maybe some more detailed models are called for. 

I bought an AT-TE off eBay only to discover the cockpit was missing. Angry at myself for not checking the pictures well enough, I bought another. The first model could be painted up as a destroyed vehicle or I could converted it into a command vehicle.

This whole idea came when I spotted some 15mm printed Clone wars stuff on eBay. Although, I haven't received them yet so cannot comment on their quality. It's all in the air at the moment...

My little boy did show a lot of interest in the idea though so that's a good start.

It's time to clear a little space on the worktop and that's what these walkers do best!

Orcs!

Its taken me a few days after Christmas to find my painting mojo again...I've been chipping away at this group of orcs for a while and I'm finding them much more fun than painting uniforms. It's also very rewarding to get some paint on the greenstuff sculpting too.

This figure is one of the new Heavy Infantry orcs from the Oathmark range. I've added some shoulder cowls with armour etc.

A new helmet makes this old Grenadier figure unique.

One of the new Gremlin orcs gets some paint. I used some Contrast paint from GW to speed through these.

Another old Grenadier orc gets a furry cloak to keep him warm. I tried washing these figures with a weathering wash meant for tanks. European dust was washed over them to give them a dirty look.Its quite subtle but it does add a little something.

Gremlin Miniatures orc with bow.

The orc above is one I used as a test for the dust wash. I just kept adding more layers to see what the effect would look like.

Grey skin always looks good for bigger orcs. This is another plastic Oathmark Heavy Infantry orc.

A snazzy new greenstuff helmet on this old figure, This design would look good with my Fomorians too, being quite fish like.

A large crude helmet from Mordor helps to add variety to the horde.

The grubby orc from the front.

 For this cloak I tried out adding some armour to it like large rings and chainmail.