Painting British 2nd Afghan War

 I wasn't really looking out for yet another era to paint, but then I stumbled across these amazing looking figures on the Artizan web site. I fell in love and decided I had to paint a few. I have long been a fan of the Victorian era and grew up watching Zulu and Zulu dawn, so these pith helmets really appealed to me.

 I was a little disappointed when I first received the models, they were covered in flash and had lots of vents on them. Some of the mold lines cut down the faces which was bad, but with a trusty knife and file all was soon how It should be.

 Lots of vents.This is a new range from Artizan and I thought maybe there might be a huge demand for them at the moment and they were being churned out quickly...who knows. Still lovely figures though so don't be put off by a little filing. I plan to play a small skirmish game with them and so prefer metal figures over plastic, more expensive but feel better in the hand.

 I then based the figures on 25mm round bases for the skirmish game 'Men who would be kings'. This game only needs around 36 figures a side (regulars that is) and so perfect for a small force. I added small stones from the garden. Pea gravel is great for this and I had gathered a bag of them from my travels.

 I bought a few spray cans a couple of years ago and managed to find one that suited my khaki needs perfectly. It matched the Foundry paint 'Drab B' colour and proved to be a god send and saved a lot of time.
 If you are painting Khaki Drill colour I recommend this can!

Men sprayed and ready for the next step. I am proud to add a new label to my army lists...North west Frontier.

Battle mat

 I am now the proud owner of a battle mat, I've wanted one for ages and have finally put my hand in my pocket and gone for it. One day I plan to have a small selection to cover most arenas, but for now, a European field should just about cover it all.

 This one is from the BigRedBat shop and was very reasonably priced I thought, it's also large enough to cover my down stairs table which I was hoping for. It will certainly make games a lot more accessible.

 Fresh out of the package, It needs a slight iron to get the folds out but on the whole I'm pleased, loads of little details I had to keep checking to see If they were printed or something under the mat. A nice over all colour scheme as well and a feature that could be used as a dirt road. yep great.

I also have my eye on a forested road map from Cigar Box, but that will have to wait a month or too until I save up.

ECW Command bases WIP

 My ever evolving ECW regiments took a another turn on their development yesterday after I visited Simon Miller's new ECW blog ' For King and parliament'.

 I had created my three bases with battle hardened men with minimal officers, this did leave me with a pile of unused, angry brass.

After seeing what Simon had planned for his regiments I noticed he had a smaller command base, one that could be put in front or behind the battle line. Well, I thought that tidies up all of my problems in one. My unused officers and drummers get a home, the figure count goes up...which I like. The standards can be moved to the middle block and the sleeves of shotte can be just that and look better for it. I also get to use up a load of HOTT bases (60mm x 40mm) I bought years ago and have never used.

 I had to paint up a few extra musketeers but that was no problem as I already had some on the boil for the next Regiment.

 I think It looks better than how I had It before and It doesn't effect the frontage of the unit, something I am very pleased about. Having a limited playing area, I want to be able to have more than a few units on a side.

Receiving cavalry can look a little more authentic as well with an extra base.

Basing Gundabad

 The orcs of Gundabad finally get there tufts and flock after sitting for a while on the shelf.  These were really fun to do, partly because a lot of them were created from plastic kits, with most of them being conversions.

 I have a lot more of these orcs made up and look forward to swelling the Gundabad horde, they are addictive to make and paint.

The large rocks are painted using Foundry's Granite tri-colour range. I gave them a brown wash around where they met the ground, then gave them a green wash in 'splodges' all over. The green helps gives them a kind of 'fantasy' look I think.

The Eagles too got their finishing touches and can finally fly back to the highest shelves.

Basing the Wolves and Wargs

 Last night as the moon rose high in the sky, howls of delight were heard coming from the mountains. The long awaited night of basing had come again after seven years of waiting. This is the hallowed night were flock and tufts are added to the dry brushed sand and stones.

 I do like to sprinkle a few mixed herds on the bases to act as bracken or leaf matter.Also a few twigs from the garden were added for fallen trees, very useful on troll bases.

 The wolves of the mountains are mostly grey with a few variants on this theme, however, the Wargs I had made very dark If not black in contrast.

Three large Wargs equal five lesser wolves. In Dragon Rampant six of these will be classed as a unit of Greater War beast.

Beorn the Great Black Bear

 I gave his black fur a blue grey dry brush to give it a sheen. I was tempted to paint him brown, even Peter Jackson could not resist that temptation, but Beorn was a great black bear. So, to make the figure a little more interesting I gave him a brown muzzle and ears.

 I turned 46 last week and man I couldn't see a thing when I was trying to paint this beast. Quite depressing when you realize your sight is failing. Even with my classes I struggled in the table light.

 Last night I went on eBay and odered a £80 day light  lamp that should blast those shadows away and ordered some stronger glasses off Amazon. Lets just hope it helps, at least my hand isn't shaky yet, always a bonus.

RRROOOAAARRRRRR!

Orc with Axe

After having some success with Perry miniatures arms and weapons and Warlord Orcs torsos, I thought I would try some different plastic ranges for conversion. This nasty looking ocry axe comes from Northstar/Osprey Frost Grave plastic soldier set.
 It's very addictive creating new figures with different poses and equipment, endless possibilities. Much fun.

The eagles are Coming...Slowly but Surely.

 A old Gandalf figure from Citadel next to an eagle toy from Plastoy. I bought this guy off Amazon and was really happy at the size. Larger than the Schleich models but not by too much, just enough. I think he has a good scale to the 28mm figures too.

 My crowded painting table comes under aerial attack. I have a couple more of the 'wings up' Schleich model but I doubt I'll ever have room to field them, these guys are going to come in as expensive when It comes to points.

I have based the colouring on a Golden Eagle, to lesson the points values, I'm going to make two of them juveniles ( with the white feathers) and they will be less skilled and less expensive.

At the moment I have two hours a week to paint what with work and family commitments, these eagles are great and quick to paint with lots of wet and dry brushing going on, that said, my two hours are up for this week. Next week I hope to get a little bit closer to finishing them.

North star/Osprey goblins out of the dark at last.

Here is the first look at North Star's and osprey's new plastic Goblin range. I think they look quite old school which is nice to see and with quite a nod to Tolkien.
 These are 3-ups and it looks like the arms have been stuck on with blue tac. The bases too will not be so thick in the final products. I like them and think they will do well. Looking forward to the Elves now after seeing the Dwarves and Goblins. The release date for these sets is still in the air but is mentioned as being later this year.

It will be interesting to see how they fit in with the Warlord games plastic orcs scale wise. Hopefully they will mix well but you know what orcs are like, always kicking off and scrapping at the slightest thing.

Gwaihir, Wind lord.

Sorry I couldn't help myself...

Gwaihir Found, Alive and Well.

Whilst trawling amazon I came across this eagle model from a company called Plastoy. I had already collected several eagles from Schleich which were perfect for 28mm gaming, but I was wanting something a little special for the Wind lord himself.
 There was no scale on the photo on the site so I had to take a chance and ordered one, to my delight it turned out to be slightly larger than the Schleich models and with a better wing silhouette. Perfect for a leader of the Great eagles.

I have keep an eye open for years for good eagles of this scale, Schleich have just up dated their model (the one with the wings tucked in), the other one now is off the shelves. Still this gives me a little bit of variety in the units. I did try to bend the wings of the first one in warm water but they didn't set and just sprung back over time. So having these new versions is a very welcome thing.

 So, if you are looking for a cheaper option on giant, orc killing, wind soaring, troll scaring eagle, Amazon is a very good place to start your quest.