Russian Command

 

Finally finished painting something.  These are 3d printed 54mm Russian Command figures to complete some units.

Pleased with how well they have come out as slightly rough (I've improved my printer settings for the second lot of figures I printed).

More TYW

 

First already painted unit converted to the new basing  - two units of the Blue Brigade.

I had to paint two extra strips of Musketeers and an extra Pike strip.

The skirmishers out front are Peter Pig ECW figures.  The first Peter Pig I have ever bought and painted.  They are slightly crude (the Epic figures are much easier to paint) but match okay in size.  I have painted another 8 which will go at the front of two strips of Musketeers to make a commanded shot unit.

Two more units (Yellow Brigade and a grey unit) to also convert and then I'll paint some Imperials to see what Tercios will look like.

I also have 3 more sprues of almost complete Swedes (Black, Red and Green) which will give me 13 infantry units for the Swedes when they are complete (and I have painted extra pikemen, etc).

Painting...

 

Finally got back to some painting.

Added an extra rank to my test TYW Scots which I think looks better.

Then finally finished off some Bones fantasy figures for Frostgrave which have been almost complete for a while - just need to finish the basing.  There are a couple more to finish as well.

Painting Update

 Two very different sets finished this week:

 

 First attempt at French vehicles and some french camouflage .  The two trucks are Frontline Wargaming Resin, the Laffley 20 and the bus are 3d prints.

There is a lot more to follow this with a whole bunch of french tanks and more transport.

I also finished 10 flying Kraag Warriors for Space 1889 for a friend's collection.  They are painted to his spec (so gloss) and awaiting their final bases so I can finish them completely.

Next up I need to finish some Marlburians and then maybe some more TYW Epic and even some 20mm Sudan seem to be beckoning...

Reorganising the Workbench

I have been struggling for a while with switching between projects for painting and basing and finding everything to do with the modelling side of the hobby.  Stuff is stored in various different places and I often find myself searching several drawers and boxes for certain tools or paints, etc.

My painting desk has been a bureau that I inherited from my parents which I first adopted when my painting area was in my games room and I wanted to be able to close it up and ignore customers orders when I wasn't working.

It worked well, but it has a very small work area and thus for basing I was using other tables and also couldn't store all the tools, glues, etc in one place.

I finally decided to bite the bullet and do something about this.  I have had my eye on the Hobbyzone modular workbench sets for a while and decided to take the plunge and order some to see how well they worked and what size drawers would be useful.

They have a wide range of paint racks, drawer sets, sprue holders, etc available. I don't need paint racks as my paints are already in racks which were on top of the bureau.  Now the painting area is in the hobby room rather than the games room I have been able to place them on the windowsill.

I ordered 3 different drawer sets (2,3,and 6 drawers), the sprue holder, the paper towel holder and the tool and brush holder.

They are produced using a CNC machine rather than laser cut and are built from 6mm MDF with holes for magnets which hold them securely to each other.  They are thinner 2mm mdf drawer fronts and backs, etc.

The instructions are pretty good and I watched a couple of videos first before tackling the modules.

You need to remove the CNC tabs that hold the pieces togetehr first but then it is simply a case of assembling the pieces in the suggested order using wood glue.  I used Gorilla woodglue which dries in about 30 mins and taped everything together with masking tape while it dried.

I enjoyed putting these modules together and found them quite satisfying to assemble.

The end result:

As you can see, the painting desk is now larger (5' x 2') and well organised with stuff within easy reach which I hope will remove some of the frustrations I had been feeling.

I am looking at adding 2 corner units with 2 open shelved paint racks on them to hold the glue, varnishes, etc.

More Painting...

 

Been away for a few days but have had time to finish off most of the WW2 troops

2x 25pdrs, 4 Vickers and 4 Boyes Rifle teams.   I still have 2 x quads to finish off.

Also managed to paint a Battlemasters tower for a friend.

After the 2 quads I am probably onto some 25mm Minifigs French Marlburians next.

Putting away unfinished things...

 

I decided this weekend that  I needed to be more disciplined in my approach to painting, so I have spent some time tidying out the Bureau I use for painting and painting projects.

I have filed away anything I won't get to this year or that has stalled and cleared the bureau surface off all paints and detritus.

The painting area will now only have one unit on it and the paints required to paint that unit.  I hope that helps me focus on finishing things a bit more...  I have tended to jump from one project to the next without always finishing stuff off or seeing things through to completion.

I have finished 12 x 25mm Minifigs Colonials today that I am painting for a friend - so it might be working.

Next up on the painting table is 20mm Early War British Boyes ATs, HMGs and 2 x 25pdr guns...

Marlburian French

 Finally got back to painting some figures and finished off a 25mm Minifigs battalion of French Marlburians for the Dendermonde project.

 

 

Another TYW Unit

 Managed to finish up the painting and basing for the Grey Regiment.  Still needs varnishing and flags adding...

More Epic Pike and Shotte 30YW

 I have spent some time today painting another frame of Epic figures and thought I'd show them on the frame.

They are nearly done - need to tidy up the separate figures (which I find harder to paint) and then they can be removed, edges repainted and then based up.

These are a Swedish Grey regiment.

Same technique as before. These took about 3.5 hours to paint on and off during the afternoon.  I am actually enjoying painting these.  There is something pleasing about impressionist painting and getting figures finished quickly.

I have now bought the Push of Pike starter set as it was heavily reduced on Amazon (with free postage) so there will be lots more of these, after some French Marlburians are finished off.

Painting Epic Pike and Shotte

 I have been asked by a few people to explain the steps I used to paint the Epic Pike and Shotte figures quite quickly.

Basically the process is:

Leave everything on the frame and undercoat it grey (both sides!) then heavily dry brush white  brushing downwards.

I have some sample Army Painter Speed paints I bought to try (out of professional curiosity) so I used a mix of those, ink washes and normal Coat D'arms paints.

1) Paint the main coat colour with a wash (I used Army painter Magic Blue for the first unit) - just splash it on and cover everything.  If the unit wasn't fully uniform in colour I would miss out a few figures here and paint their jackets or trousers when I painted the hats.

2) Paint the hats in various different shades of Brown, gray and black using washes again. 

I also painted all the shoes with either black or brown at this point, and I used two of the browns to paint the bags which are on some of the backs.

I used one of the browns to paint the bandoliers on the musketeers.

I also used the black to paint the sword hilts.

I also used one of the sandy browns to paint the gloves on the officers and pikemen

3) Paint the Muskets and pikes wood colour

4) Paint the musket rests a dark brown chestnut and paint any hair on the back of the figures.

5) Paint the straps buff

6) Paint the barrel of the muskets, plus swords, top of musket rests and pike points Chainmail silver

7) Paint the armour and helmets (I used army painter Broadsword silver which is fairly dark  -your could paint them chainmail first and then wash them).

8) paint the stockings, drum bits, collars and feathers white - could do hat bands but I didn't bother. I dabbed in the stockings at the front as you can't easily reach all of them.

9) Paint the flesh on faces and hands (I didn't bother painting beards).

10) Paint sashes Red

11) Paint gold on drum rim and anything on the officer that seems it needs it.

11) Touch up anything that really stands out - like white in the wrong place.

12) Remove from the sprue - touch up sides of arms where they were attached with coat colour. Glue on bases, varnish and when dry add flock to base and glue on flags.

DONE

The secret to speed is not worrying if everything is completely neat, as you are just aiming at the look of a whole unit viewed on the tabletop and also using a colour in more than one place -so muskets and pikes the same brown and using the same washes for some hats, bandoliers, bags, etc I did wonder if the figures would benefit from a thin black wash to separate the colours more but decided it wasn't worth that extra step and it would dull down the colours.

Hope that helps a bit.

I reserve the right to change my mind!

 

I have been mulling over the Thirty Years War project I would like to do. I had tried painting a free sprue of Epic Pike and Shotte but didn't really get on with them.  I also bought a test box of the 28mm Pike and Shotte plastic figures.

On Monday I tried assembling the 28mm plastics and got so frustrated with them (I really don't get on with multi-part 28mm) that I threw them in the bin in disgust!

Then I had a look at metals and realised it was going to be far too expensive for the size of games I wanted (circa £40 a unit).

I have been playing around with washes to paint some fantasy and boardgame figures so wondered if perhaps I could use that approach on smaller figures.  I bit the bullet and bought a box of Epic Pike and Shot Battalia for the 30YW on Amazon (£7 a unit - much better!) and they arrived Tuesday morning.

Got them undercoated and started painting on Tuesday - finished today.  I think thay look fine!  They are pretty quick to paint and, once you decide to treat a spue like one 28mm figure, you can gloss over the detail you aren't going to see anyway.

25mm WSS French

 

Test paint of one painting strip of Minifigs 25mm French Marlburians - trying to get a colour I like.  Happy with them so on to the other 19 in the unit..

More 40mm AWI

 

I have finally finished the last 2 units of 40mm AWI Americans (which double up to a 24 figure unit).

I now have enough figures painted for a small 24pt a side Rebels and Patriots game which I have booked for next Monday at the club.

40mm AWI Continentals

 

12 more AWI Continental infantry finished.  These have been sitting on the painting table nearly done since the start of the New YEar.

24 more to finish off in white facings which will hopefully get done soon.

Core Space Starter set Crews, etc

 

Finished off some Core Space starter set bits yesterday.

The Purge (alien robots) and the Purge reinforcements pack

 

The two starter set crews and 3 NPCs

 

All primed grey, heavily dry-brushed white and then mostly painted with washes.

Two more crews to paint next and then I'm ready for a 4 player game.

Distractions

 

Haven't managed much painting recently and also got distracted by fantasy figures for League of Dungeoneers which I have played a couple of times recently.

So, quickly painted up some Reaper Bones Skeletons and some Giant Rats.

I need to get back to the 40mm AWI and get thm finished and off the painting table.

Ogre Miniatures

 

Finally finished painting a complete Ogre Battlebox for a friend as a paid commission.

This lot took 13 hours to assemble and paint.

I'm pleased with how they came out - instructions were for Red/White for the "English" Ogres and Red,white and blue for the "French" Pan-European forces.

I still have most of a Battle Box to paint myself (I have painted the Ogres, and had already painted an Ogre Miniatures set 1 box) - but I might leave it a while after this lot!

Plans for 2024

 I have had the really bad cold/flu thing that is going round so haven't done much for the last two weeks but I finally had the energy today to tidy and sort out the Painting Bureau.

I've thrown away all the dried up paints, sorted out all the excess figures that don't need to be there, thrown away a few test figures I am never going to use.

 

 

Also sorted through all the flags, banners and decals and put them in the middle thin drawer so I can actually find them!

 

Sorted out the bottom cupboard which holds the part painted but not finished projects.

 

 

I  have a few plans for 2024:

1) Concentrate on the 18th century for painting.

So, finish the 36 40mm AWI continentals that are on the painting table and then I should be able to play  a game.  Aim at adding a 12 figure unit each month to build up the forces.

Paint a 24 figure 25mm Minifigs Marlburian unit each month - I have 2 french on painting sticks, 1 british and 1 austrian in stock.

Finish the design for the Ravelin that is nearly done, get it laser cut and built, then work on the walls and the bastions.

2) Finish the scenery for Frostgrave (it really just needs "snowing up" and finally get it on the table and play a game.

3) Put all other partial projects away for now so I don't get distracted (20mm Sudan, 54mm Punic Wars, etc).

4) Paint some of the hundreds of Reaper Bones figures in between historical units so I can play some dungeon exploring games.

That is pretty much it.  I have a bad tendency to butterfly and not actually finish anything so I am hoping that I can get Frostgrave AWI and the Marlburians on the table this year.

I also want to play some more 20mm ACW and get the 25mm FPW collection on the table more often.

I have a large collection of early war 20mm WW2 that I bought very cheaply that I need to sort out and keep what I need and sell the rest (noone needs a division of German paratroopers!)

Apart from Marlburians I can't see me buying much this year  - I am more likely to sell stuff off excess figures from the 54mm Napoleonics and 20mm WW2.

ACW Buildings

 

Managed to finally finish 5 Hovels 15mm ACW buildings for my 20mm ACW collection.

I prefer the smaller reduced footprint of going down a scale for buildings in mass battles.

They are based to fit in with my Hex terrain.