eBay painting

A little while ago I thought I would take a leaf out of a friends book and buy some ready painted units off eBay. I bought two units, one of horse and an infantry regiment. I did this to fill the ranks of an army I was building.

The horse unit had obviously been painted with care and was part of someone’s collection. The infantry one had obviously not, it had been quickly painted for sale on eBay. The photos were mid shots, so no real detail could be seen. The real give away was ‘do you want to buy another’ that came up when I was trying to take another look at them. Oh no I thought that’s not a good sign.

Quite respectable cavalry unit, 

A bit of a slap dash paint job and what I would call a basic wargames standard with the paint daubed on . Buying the lead horsemen was better because the figures themselves are worth something, however, these plastic guys have been put together quickly without much thought. So as it stands you have to put up with someone’s choice of posing as well as their rushed paint work.

The red hats are a very odd choice and shows little to no research was do before setting up this little venture.

Also brass hilted swords show there was no research.

I had gone down this route thinking it might save me some time, but in fairness I couldn’t field these as they are. So I’m going to tweak them and bring them up to fighting standard. In a good way it’s forced me to paint up a couple of new units I wouldn’t have… so that’s a plus.

 Also, metal figures are always a good buy for the right price. It might have been the paint that allowed me to get them for as cheap as I did who knows. Luckily they came off there bases easily and I’ve tweaked half of them already.

I think if you want good quality painted figures you have to pay a lot of money. There are lots of professional painters selling on eBay but they are not cheap, so a nice looking unit will set you back £80 plus. I paid £35 for my infantry unit which I thought was good, however I’ll have to repaint it to a better standard. It may have saved me a bit of time painting the tunic and hoses but not a lot.

I think going forward I will stick to unpainted models where I can paint from scratch as I haven’t really got the kind of cash for beautiful finished units ready to game with.

It was an experiment but one I’ve learned from. Don’t pay extra for someone’s quick painting, put the money into a new box of figures where you will get more for your buck.

 

Flock Box Day!

I broke out the Flock box today to finish up some overdue projects. Once out I had a guilt pang and dug out some more units I had skipped earlier in the year. Flock boxing is a pain and does take a lot of cleaning up afterwards, but there’s no doubt the bases do look a lot better for it.

These barricades got a touch of flock and they really came to life.

I went back and dug out these Sharpshooters for the flock treatment, if everyone should have an overgrown base it’s these guys.

Camouflage circa 1863.

Yesterday I gave these barricades a good spray of Windsor and Newton matt varnish. It took all the shine off from the Contrast paints and left a very realistic finish.

The men of Lake Town got a touch of the F box too and although I was flagging at that point, they really do look better for it. I think the rule is… if your going to do a speedy paint job, make sure the flesh and the base look good. 

 

Marlowe to Maidenhythe review

Having spent the best part of ten years off and on collecting ECW troops, I’m always on the look out for new sources of inspiration. Well this time I came up trumps. Although I haven’t made the jump into ‘ To the strongest’ I have followed its success with glee. Simon Miller and I became friends over ten years ago after he commented on my Romans on this Blog. I even got to go around his house where he showed me a very new game system featuring playing cards. Well, since then the game has been launched and gone from strength to strength. For King and Parliament is the ECW version of the rules and this campaign pack is designed with those rules in mind. I have my own simple ECW rules in mind for gaming this era but the versatility of this pack is what caught my attention. It clearly says at the beginning that these scenarios and campaign can be played with any rule sets. This is really handy and will help me in designing my own scenarios and stories based around my local area.

I love the names of these militia units, very tongue in cheek. The book is spiral bound and is designed for war gamers use with each page being laid out to be photographed for player briefing. 

It follows the story of two former friends who are divided by the sword and must now lead armies against each other for the King and Parliament.There are a number of battles that grow in size throughout the campaign, this is very useful as it allows players to start gaming with small forces first, giving them time to collect and paint units as they’re needed.

I loved this idea and the units provided matched my own ideas of units. Pike heavy regiments for the Royalists and many more that I hadn’t thought of, that would be fun to collect. Whole brigades of militia and mobs, I had planned to create one unit but an army of such troops would be great. It would also help me scratch my Sedgemoor itch, where bodies of men armed with farming tools up against trained soldiers appeals to me.

 This is my biggest take away from the book though, a list of the forces you will need for the campaign. I was really pleased to see that there are regiments of all pike, this is something I have been planning for my own Royalist forces. In fact, these lists act as a great help when planning your armies and give you a good indicator on the ratio of certain units to have in the different armies.

 A Scots army is also included for variety and fun as well as the militia force of course. The two actually end up going up against each other which would be very entertaining I imagine, although I wouldn’t fancy being in a militia regiment when they do. Whether you play To the strongest or not, I think this scenario pack is worth getting just for the unit information alone, the rest is just a massive bonus. 

I’ve just finished reading through the story and the campaign battles and I found it hard to put down. I don’t really write reviews as it probably shows, but if you are into the ECW you won’t go far wrong with this scenario pack.

God save the King!

Saturday Paint Club

I’ve just spent the last couple of hours having a sneaky paint session on these beauties. I found them on eBay while searching through stuff for the English Civil War. 

The three pieces are resin and cost about £12. It’s not until they arrived that I realised they are good to use with basically every era l game, even the fantasy side of things.

The set is made by Debris of War, see details in picture at end of post.

It was another chance to use the Contrast paints after giving them a couple of layers of dry brushing. I mainly used the Wyldwood for the dark oak barrels, but mixed in other colours to give slight variations of hue, so the barrels didn’t all look the same.

Just finished they provide cover for some quick thinking Union infantry.

Here you can see the before and after on some of the barrels. The metal hoops were painted with the Black Templar colour, very quick to do, as the dry brushing had supplied all the shading.

Some tell tell stripes on the sacks say to me that this set may have been intended for Anglo-Zulu battles. 

What I was looking for was a simple barricade that could be put across a street of an ECW village and these barrels and boxes fitted what I imaged. I might add a few tree trucks when I come to flock the base. They also make for a great powder store for an army and could be used as an objective marker too. Those poor Royalists can not afford to lose any powder that much is certain.

The men of Lake Town use what they have at hand to make a barricade against the approaching Warg riders.

A Roundhead patrols the powder store with his wheel lock pistol, no match locks here!

Esgaroth braces for the on coming storm.

There’s a very bad smell of fish around here!

I really should of washed them in warm soapy water first but I was too keen to get painting. The pieces were sprayed black and then dry brushed with a light brown. Contrast paints did the heavy lifting after that.

Fresh out of the cardboard box and straight onto the painting table. I love these little projects that just take a few hours and involve a big brush for speed.