Black lava texture gel for bases

I saw this tip a little while ago while watching Robin Fitton on his 'grunts' you tube channel.

 Robin was using the gel to base up his 15mm sci-fi figures. I will see how I get on with it, so far so good. These large 80mmx60mm bases have a lot of wide open flat space to fill and this gel could be the ticket.

I will use the gel as the first layer to add some contours to the base. Next up will be a little sand and then flock...you know the drill.

More parliament horse

 More Iron sides finished to create a complete regiment of horse. As with the regiment of Foote, I have added a couple of extra figs to bulk out the unit. Four bases with 3/4 figures on for VWQ or pikeman's Lament.

 Feels great to actually finish a unit of horse with a standard etc. I have a couple of Royalist units that will soon get the same treatment, they have sat unfinished for about four years. I will (If I can) equip all my regiments with unknown standards so I can create names and characters for them. The standard above was chosen because it belonged to an unknown reg.

"Stay your hand Mr Pigotte, I know this man!"

ECW Regiment WIP

 Well after loads of thought I finally rebased my ECW regiment to a new formation. I had based them for skirmish play before, but I like the idea of a regiment fighting as a whole and not seperate companies. That said, the bases are large enough to be counted as companies in their own right in games like 'pike man's Lament'.

Below is reference that got me thinking about the whole thing in the first place. I fell in love with the look of these units on the  Warfare miniatures web site. The League of Augsburg stuff is very inspiring, worth a look just for the eye candy.

By changing around the two flank companies the standards can be either grouped in the centre or spaced out with each company. I included the extra standards partly because i had bought them but also because it does a more flavour to the period with lots of fluttering standards everywhere.

 Three companies for Pike man's Lament, a few figs short on numbers but enough for a reduced figure base. There are nine musketeers to a base and eleven pike man to the center base.

 I love making dioramas and It was this fact that really helped me decide about rebasing this unit. Casualties are a must for a struggling unit under fire.

 I was also inspired by ref for the Civil war and my own re-enacting, units fought in blocks that were as deep as they were long, with this in mind I added a third rank to the bases. I had to increase the size of the 60mmx60mm to 80mm deep and 60mm wide. I wanted more figures in the regiment but didn't want the unit to be too long, a complaint often said about the Pike and Shotte rules.

I am very taken with Victory without Quarter but I struggled with their base sizes. I originally wanted to but my bases length ways (80mm), but this would eat into the playing area of the gameboard. Multiple units on the board could lead to maneuver problems.So in the end I stuck to VWQ basing frontages but increased the depth. I am pleased about this as It was playing on my mind way too much and I had already based my Cavalry to the VWQ standards, so now all my units are still using the games recommended sizes. Little things please little minds and all that.

Gundabad Marches on the mountain.

 Gundabad standard, the three peaked mountain of terror.

 A Gundabad black uruk, this guy will be a leader for a company.

ECW news...iron sides on the work bench.

They don't like it up'em.

Black Orc Down

Some daylight shots of the Black Uruks...unlike other Orcs, these guys don't shun the yellow face in the sky.

 What is it with Elves and arrows? Lets hope they have plenty of them because these guys are coming in fast. Best not shoot anymore It will just make it worse.

Finished Enamel and Oil Horse

So here is the officer for my parliamentarian cavalry regiment. I think the Dun coloured horse came out okay and certainly has some subtle tones to it that would have been difficult by layering. First one down and another five to go.


Figure from Essex Miniatures.

Orc Standards have dropped

 Here are two standards that I have knocked up for my Gundabad legions. Whilst sorting through a box of Romans i found some large vexilliums I think from Essex miniatures. They could make nice orc banners I thought to myself and so made up a plastic orc to carry it. I'm looking forward to painting this guy up and he will go with my centurion looking Orc captain, I think they were made for each other.

This guy is another hybrid between Perry Miniatures and Warlord Games's plastics. It's great to get some actual banners with the eye of Sauron on for the Mordor armies, It really helps with the look of the army, all my other standards are totems or skulls on sticks so these banners make a nice change.

Enamel and Oil paint Horses

Here is the first and not really the best example of my horse 'Oil' batches. Still a nice effect though and the skin tones are very subtle which is perfect for horse flesh.

The best thing about painting horses like this I have found is that you clear all of your horse backlog in one fun filled go. I must have around thirty horses ready to go now. I found it really enjoyable painting them in this way, I have around five that didn't work for various reasons but these will be repainted using the fail safe browns.

The Chestnuts are probably my favourite so far as they are the most effective and realistic in colour. I will post more on this later.

WIP Black Uruk beserkers

 Finally got these Black uruks on to a base last night...It's taken long enough!

 In Dragon rampant they will be classed as Bellicose foot with venomous trait to give them two hits for every D6 rolled in combat. This is to hint at their strength and frenzy in battle. Lets hope they chew up the Dwarven shield wall and make way for the rest of the dark horde to pour through the gaps.

Enamels and Oil Horse figure painting.

 A second night of messing around with enamels and oil paint and things are starting to take shape. Yesterday I bought a tube of black oil paint and this worked really well on the dark browns (Bays). I was amazed to see that the dark bay colour matched exactly the colour I had painstakingly mixed and painted with foundry paints. I had painted all my horses dark brown as it was a very easy colour to do, now I will have more options with the full spectrum of horse coats. One of the nice things about the Oil results is that they have a warmth to them as If the animal is alive.

 Horse reference

Time for some Chestnut horses with MATT 100. This warm colour should give a nice glow when uncovered from the dark burnt Umber oil paint. I have a range of Oil paints but they are all dark Umbers and a black.

painting Horses with Oil Paints

  Well for many years I have thought about doing this, it's kind of like the next level up on the  painting horses scale, so I was keen to give it a go. At the moment I'm just jumping straight in and experimenting with colours and drying times etc. I read a little on line to give me some pointers but the best thing to do is get stuck in and get your hands messy.

The smell of the enamel took me straight back to painting D&D figures when I was 15, great stuff.

 Out of all the colours I tried I think the chestnut Bay worked out the best. I'm off to buy some black Oil paint now and so will try that on the dark Bay colour to see what it will look like.Once I have worked out what works and what doesn't I will do a follow up post with some tips.

 Not so keen on the Dun coloured horses but they still work, I think I will try some more browns and even a white or cream colour next. So far quite happy with the results and It gets a lot of horses painted quickly.