Showing posts with label Painting table. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Painting table. Show all posts

Friday, 10 May 2019

On my basing trays!



Mea culpa- it's been almost 4 weeks since my last post. Since Salute I have been painting and basing various things- mostly late medievals- that have been stuck in queus behind my Celts. It's great not to be working to a punishing deadline! Above are some Bande Nere de Giovanni pike, Perry plastics mostly painted by Shaun McTague and Richard Hampson Smith. I discovered today that my chosen yellow-ochre and black colour scheme is a little too... yellow. So I will mix in some more black-garbed minis. Behind them you may be able to make out some Florentine swordsmen. 

Below are a pair of command stands for Florence and the Bande Nere, respectively. They need to be flocked, of course. I've used lovely flags from Pete's flags on eBay, which are essential purchases for the Italian Wars.




Here are some arquebusiers- again, Shaun's going to paint some more in black, and I'll remove around half of the above from the bases and replace. The bases are shallower Batbases from a new set I've had made. Below are four Florentine mounted crossbows, I'll need to get some more done because I want to be able to deploy them in big units of 12. If one is painting plastics, there's no excuse for stinting on the unit sizes!



Finally for the Medieval period, we have above 24 Burgundians painted by French chum Lionel. I've added a highlight to the flesh and will give them a very gentle wash- I don't need to do much because they are superb paint jobs- there will be better pictures when they are based.

One reason I'm furiously basing late Medievals is that I'm hoping to get a couple of spare armies ready for the To the Strongest! "Knight Fever" tournament at the London GT in September. If you've not yet entered this, please give it some thought- it'll be a great day at what I suspect must be the world's largest wargaming tournament. The details of the tournament can be found here- it's in Edmonton and the To the Strongest! tournament is a one-day event on Sunday 15th September- so you have more than enough time to get an army in the field! 

All you need is 130 points of Medieval figures- perhaps as few as 70-80 miniatures- which you could get from perhaps 5 boxes of Perry (or Fireforge) plastics costing less than £100 at a show. I will likely play my Italian Condottieri again- they have proved to be tough opponents in the last two tournaments- although I am very tempted by the pretty Burgundians...


Above and below are some minis that I'm basing for chum Howard Litton- mostly Aventines. Their Volscians, above, are a stunning range that are all too rarely seen on the gaming table. Below are some Aventine Polybian command and Warlord artillery beautifully painted by Shaun Watson.

 

Finally, here are some Victrix Garde painted by chum Lionel in Paris, detailed and highlighted by David Imrie in Scotland and based by me in London. Once I've flocked them, they'll be heading back to Fife again and David can show photos of the finished units. We need to do six more of these units for the big game in June...

That's all for now! It's just struck me that perhaps 90% of the minis on this post are plastic- that's pretty much a first for me!

Friday, 6 July 2018

On the painting trays....


Shaun McTague dropped off a bunch of pike men this week. These are very nice Foundry models with pikes angled forward, and he's done a fine job. They will form the front ranks of a somewhat exceptional phalanx I'm preparing for t'other Partizan. We are going to fight Magnesia 190 BCE - if you'd like to play play please drop me a line and I'll book you in!

Below are three splendid Aventine elephants, also painted by Shaun, that will also shortly be joining my armies. Elephants figure considerably in my plans for 2019; of which more, anon... and one can't have too many elephants.

Monday, 27 November 2017

All basing and no posting...

...makes Simon a dull lad.


I am very much up against it, as I need to finish basing seven foot regiments, four regiments of horse and five command stands by 13th December. Some terrain would be nice, too...

Friday, 9 June 2017

Normans

I'm going to try to get back to two or three posts a week. Here are some Normans that Shaun McTague painted and which I've detailed. I plan to produce a good-sized Norman army and a Byzantine army to fight it- probably next year, though, as the ECW will take priority. Most of the minis are Crusader, with some from the newer Foundry range and a few GB veterans at the back.


Tuesday, 24 January 2017

Eastern horsemen


With the bulk of the new Numidians on bases, I'm now turning to the East. Above are four units of Parthians, three of Persians, two Tarentines and a couple  of units of Spanish. Most of the minis were painted by Shaun McTague except for the Spanish who are from Nick Speller.


The Parthians (above and below, with Persians on the right in each photo) are a mix of Aventines and A&A. A lot are mounted on spare Riders of Rohan horses that I had lying around. The Aventines are really splendid and I will need a whole lot more of them in due course.



Above are the Spanish and some Carthaginians for the Metaurus game and some Tarentines for Ipsus. Very useful troops for the Successor Wars, Tarentines, Below are Medes (Casting Room miniatutres from Foundry) and more Aventine Tarentines.


These 120-odd cavalry are the bulk of the remaining basing for the big games at the end of March and I'm very happy indeed to see them on MDF! All the bases are my 19cm BatBases- if you look carefully you can see where the magnets are glued in. Now, where's me grout?

Friday, 10 June 2016

Chitin dryin' in the sun

Here's another WIP shot of some of the fantasy minis I've been working on this week, with their matt varnish currently drying in the sun. The Scorpionmen are the first Gloranthan minis I've painted in a decade.


There's still a deal of flocking to do. For the scorpionmen, I am conflicted about base colours- I wanted to base them in a desert environment, but then the bases won't match Ian's Praxian minis, or indeed any of my other minis.  Ho hum. The werewolves will have their own portable Birnam Wood; they will be able to fight in the shade.

This week I've been working on the draft of V2 of the ancient rules which I'll use as the basis of the fantasy rules I will be writing. I've been giving some thought to magic systems and expect to have a very rough version ready for the game on Sunday at Broadside.

Tuesday, 24 November 2015

Pikes, pikes, pikes.

At the Wargames Holiday Centre I was running four games at the same time and briefly ran out of both pikemen and Hellenistic cavalry. I've therefore decided to invest in some more miniatures, below are some Foundry pikemen that I've bought from chum Craig Davey. 


I've removed the previous shields and am going to give them some snazzy new shields that I've bought from Mike at Relik. These have a Medusa head and are perfect for Ptolemaic shields, being identical to the ones in Soldat Lagide. I need to paint twice as many again.


Below are 48 odd pikes; I need to do twice as many again.


Finally I've based up a wedge of companions painted by Nick Speller (left below) and rebased my Thessalians into rhomboid (centre below). These still need to be flocked. I am in the process of recruiting several new regiments to join them; I hope to end up with 8 or 9, enough for 2 cavalry wings each for two large armies.


I shall need them all; I plan to run Raphia again in the spring at the Wargames Holiday centre over the weekend 22nd to 24th April.

Saturday, 26 September 2015

Another alarming development...

I couldn't resist buying these superbly painted minis off of chum David Imrie; they turn out to be late c. 17th French and Huguenots in Williamite service. The flags are stunning, and I love the grey uniforms. Now this is a period until last week that I have never remotely considered gaming; I shall finish off the two (or three) units and see how I feel about getting enough more painted to play a game. I have been messing around with horse and musket rules, after all...


Below is the current state of my painting tray; Celts for Dug in the foreground, some lovely Middle Imperials, again from David Imrie in the centre and war elephants for a game at SELWG behind. Lots and lots to do and not a lot of time before SELWG!


In other news... I've imported a load more of the excellent cloth battle mats from Deep-Cut studios in Lithuania, both gridded (10cm, 15cm and 20cm) and ungridded, including the new wasteland mat shown below. These are a great product; I'll be using them for most of my games. They can be found in the BigRedBatShop.


Monday, 10 August 2015

I've not given up painting, honest...

...I've been working on too many things simultaneously to actually complete any of them. Here are the painting trays, which are packed with beautiful minis painted by Redzed that I've been basing. Five units nearly finished.


There is a regiment of Republican Roman cavalry, two of Late Romans and two of Goths or Vandals. I have some more minis painted by Saxon Dog that I am going to base as a third regiment. One day I'd like to play Adrianople. Proper photos to follow in due course.

In other news, I've been chatting with Bill at Footsore Miniatures. When his US website is up he'll be selling my rules over the other side of the pond. He has started a lovely Irish army for To the Strongest! for a Clontarf battle he is planning, have a look here!  

Tuesday, 12 May 2015

Crimson and Bronze III


Here are another 30 Spartans, 18 painted by me and 12 by Nick Speller (thanks Nick!). Some complete my fifth Spartan phalanx and others will man Sparta's improvised defences. Now I need to base them in time for the weekend!



Wednesday, 6 May 2015

Crimson and bronze II


I seem to have painted/repainted an entire unit of 27 Spartans in six nights, which is about as fast as I have ever manages. It was a lot of fun and so I've decided to paint enough to round out one more unit, and some lights. Curiously not one but both of the part-painted units I purchased on eBay had the Spartan lambdas painted upside down!  :-)

In other news I've bought a small Aventine Oscan army on eBay that I intend to round out later this year into a good-sized force. I've arranged to buy another mate's collection of Athenians, so I should be able to open up some new wargaming fronts in the autumn.

Sunday, 3 May 2015

Crimson and bronze


I've been working hard on an extra Spartan phalanx for my trip to the Wargames Holiday Centre on May 15th through 17th. I am planning two games involving Spartans; one with the Spartans meeting Antipater in the field for the famous "Battle of Mice" and the other Pyrrhus' siege of Sparta. The other three games will involve various flavours of Romans and their enemies. No previous knowledge of the "to the Strongest!" rules is required. If you fancy coming up for a day or the whole weekend, please drop me a line and I'll put you in touch  with Mark.

Tuesday, 28 April 2015

Getting back on the bike.

It was great meeting so many friends at Salute, and I'll post about that tomorrow, when I have more time. Today, however, I am getting the copies of To the Strongest! ready for posting tomorrow and also prepping some Spartans for one of the games I'll be running at the Wargames Holiday Centre on the weekend 15th - 17th May

Painting permitting, I plan to make one of the four or five games I'll run Pyrrhus' siege of Sparta.  Some of these fine chaps will form an additional phalanx and others will man Sparta's improvised wooden wall of wagons. The minis at the top are being repainted from various eBay purchases; mate Nick is painting some more for me. Happily Spartans are easy to paint!

Friday, 30 January 2015

Back to basing

I'm hurrying to finish a new Roman army for the first To the Strongest! Tournament on Saturday week.  I'm using the repaint eBay minis technique that I described in Wargames Soldiers Strategy.   The knack is to get the minis from 3 or 4 different painters to match- retouching, ink washes and muddying up the shields does a good job of this.


I need to finish a cohort of legionaries, one of auxiliaries, some slingers, two command stands and a hero (the auxiliary cavalryman, who I've given a lozenge-shaped base so that he's not confused with a command stand).  The other units in the army can be seen here; it is composed of the smaller Perry minis, with a few Warlord and First Corp for variety.  The bases are Impetus-stylee.


As you can see I'm quite far advanced with the process; basing tonight!

Monday, 8 December 2014

Gratianenses WIP


I'm a little up against it, but had time to grab a couple of WIPs shot of my new Auxilia Palatina unit, which was mostly painted by Shaun Watson. I really like the animated poses of these Black Tree minis. Proper photos in a few days time.  Below, the bases are grouted ready for painting.


Regarding To the Strongest!, I am currently working on Alexander and the Successors, and have a couple of new lists available for free download from the BigRedBatShop (Rise of Macedon, Alexandrian Imperial).  

You might also like to look at one of the things that has been slowing me down, recently!

Saturday, 29 November 2014

You wait years for one Leones Iuniores to come along, and then two arrive at once!

Whilst I was finishing the rules, my very own Spanish ulcer started playing up very badly, and I've not painted any ancients for a month.

Now, however, I'm slowly recovering and am going to base some lovely figures I bought off Shaun Watson earlier this year.  First, though, I want to repaint most of the helmets in steel, and weather the shields, so I have mounted them on temporary bases to facilitate this.


Shaun's unit are the Leones Iuniores.  But, I hear you say, surely BigRedBat already owns a unit of Leones Iuniores? (below)


Shaun's are so much better painted than the above unit that I painted myself, however, I just couldn't resist them.  I'll have two, and probably sell mine later on.  Or just maybe, there is another unit with a similar shield in the Notitia... I do recall some similar shield designs.  I shall have to take a look at Luke Ueda Sarson's excellent Notitia resource.

To celebrate their unpacking I have loaded a free, illustrated Late Roman Army List for my To the Strongest! rules into my shop.  It can be downloaded from here.  

Saturday, 18 October 2014

Laager III


This is a continuation of my wagon laager project.  The bases are now painted and the base coats are on the wagons. These are coming on fast, now, and I hope to finish them in around a week, after which I'll have to look at basing the crew.

I'm planning to have the crews removable, so that the wagons can be used with different armies.

Some farm animals seem to have jumped the painting queue!

Friday, 3 October 2014

Still not feeling it for the Celts...


WIP shot of my celtic fanatics, now almost ready for base gunking.

Who will be first to spot the elf?

Monday, 29 September 2014

Did I mention that I hate painting Celts?


I find myself back at the brush, painting some more Celts for a demo game at SELWG on Sunday week.  To minimise painting the detested plaid, I decided to paint a unit of nekkid fanatics and fustian-robed druids.  These, however, have turned out to be quite as annoying as their plaid-clad comrades to paint, as they all wear fiddly bangles and chains, and because most of them will need tattoos.  Plus skin takes a lot of care to get right.  And then there's the shields!  So much for my shortcut.

I've been posting rather less frequently, of late, because I've been spending a lot of time getting my "To the Strongest!" rules into a publishable state.  With the assistance of a few very helpful chaps who have been spotting errors and inconsistencies, this is going rather well, and today I've been churning out diagrams.  Hopefully I'll be able to pick up the modelling and blogging rate in October.

The game at SELWG will follow on from the Caesar's "C-Day" landing at Salute, as the Romans push inland.  If anyone coming to SELWG would like to play (for around two hours) then please drop me a line via comments.  I've run the scenario before; its a blast!

Wednesday, 23 July 2014

Roman Consular Army WIP

A very bad photo of some lovely figures...


These are Principes and Triarii figures originally painted by Saxon Dog and Redzed, that I'm currently basing for the Aventine Roman legion for our Pydna game at Partizan.  Better photos to follow in a day or so.