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

Thursday, 13 May 2010

Perdiccas' Purple Phalanx

Here's another eBay purchase; perhaps a less wise one than yesterday's auxilia.  Each phalangite is clad in a magnificent purple linothorax, and someone has written "Perdiccas" underneath each element.  They are only an average paintjob but look good en-masse.

The reason that my joy is not entirely unconfined, is that I hadn't realised form the ebay photo that the bronze on them is not my usual brass shade, but instead a much redder (and wronger) Dwarf Bronze that is going to look very odd indeed next to my other minis.  I might try a brass drybrush over the top.  Anyhow, plan is to paint 8 more minis to match, replace the guardsman with the hoplon in the front row with a 9th phalangite, and see if I can't get them looking half decent.  I think I'm going to need a lot of pikemen, this year...

Saturday, 8 May 2010

Dipping my toe...

These chaps are some Foundry/Companion/GB ancient Spanish Caetrati (small shield-bearing infantry) that I've blocked in, and hope to find time to dip later today.  If it works, they will have been a pretty quick job by my standards.  The Foundry Spanish are very nice, I wish there was a compete range of them.  I like them rather more than their Crusader/A&A equivalents.

Monday, 3 May 2010

Busman's Holiday


So after the better part of a year spent painting Romans and their foes, when I get a break I choose to paint some... more Romans.

This unit is going to be built around 2 dozen Foundry Auxilia minis I bought painted on Ebay.  The basing wasn't up to much (and to be honest the shield images look rather legionary to me) but by painting half a dozen more minis, and rebasing, I can make a large unit that should look pretty good.  I still have far too few Auxiliaries relative to my EIR legionaries.

I have at least half a dozen other units of Romans, Macedonians and Spanish that are in similar part-painted shape to this one, and I want to finish some of them off before I launch into another grandiose Zama-like project.

Friday, 26 February 2010

On the Painting Table

In the brief intervials between slapping gunk on boards, I've been trying to base some of the last units I'm contributing  to the game.  Below are some Spanish cavalry painted by Nick Speller, that need matt varnishing and basing.

 

And below here are some Foundry Thessalians painted by myself and Andy Bryant, that I'm in the process of converting to shielded Hellenistic cavalry.   They will stand in, on the day, as Carthaginian heavies.

 

Saturday, 20 February 2010

Bletchley Battle Day; 8 weeks today...

 
It's not less than 8 weeks to the SOA Zama Battle Day at Bletchley, and I've decided that I now don't have time to start any fresh miniatures, so the above casualties minis will be my last, which is a pity as I'd like to have a lot more.  I still need to finish and base 100 or so minis that Greg and Nick Speller* have painted, and make the boards.  

*Nick has painted the Spanish and Scipio at the top of the frame; I've mounted them on temporary bases whilst I varnish them.  The final 2 dead nellies are on the right.

Friday, 22 January 2010

Bruttians on bases

Here's a progress shot on the Bruttians, that Greg Privat painted and I've detailed.  The observant will notice that only half are here; the remaining 24 are awaiting the Aventine and Crusader reinforcements that will turn them into two units.


They now have shields added, but still need some matt varnishing and of course base texturing.  I've taken some images from Bruttian coinage (the lionhead and pegasi), other images are generic LBMS and VVV Greek  and Roman transfers.  After chatting with Allen I decided to give the unit  a mix of Scuta and Aspis shields, and relatively short spears.  The pic is clickable...

Wednesday, 20 January 2010

Bruttian progress...

I've been working on the big batch of 48 minis Greg sent me.  They now all have spears.  I've highlighted the feathers, skin and bronze armour.  I invented a new technique last night; to get shadows above the eyes,and under the rim of the helmets.  I used a wash of black ink in Klear, and then suspended all the miniatures upside down, under a magnetic sheet, as it dried.  My family looked at me as if I was mad!  (am I mad?) 



I've worked out that I need another 16 or so to finish what is turning into 3 units.  I may shortly be sending another begging email to Greg...   All these Southern Italians would fit in well with doing a Pyrrhic army, later in the year.




Above I've made a small start on painting 2 of the dead nellies.  To the left is a closeup of a couple of the Aventines Greg kindly painted for me; they are looking very nice!  They are destined for a command stand.

Friday, 15 January 2010

Brute Squad

In parallel with yesterday's Dead Nellies, I'm making a start on the 48 Bruttians Gloarmy Greg painted for me before Xmas.  You may recall from earlier posts, that these southern Italians form part of the Carthaginian 3rd line at Zama.



Greg has done a fine job with these.  They just need the odd highlight, spears, shields, varnishing and basing.  I've pre-painted the spears and shields so I reckon they represent around 2-3 weeks work.

The minis are a mixture of Crusader Oscans and Aventine Etruscans.  The Aventines are somewhat larger, but I think they'll work together.

Sunday, 13 December 2009

When the levy breaks...

... Hannibal will need to throw in the Veterans!



These are the last 48 of the Carthaginian second line for Zama; levy citizen spearmen.  Essentially speedbumps to slow down the Roman army; we are going to make each unit fight as Auxilia, but with 2 hits instead of the more usual 4.    Gloarmy Greg painted these for me (merci!!) but most were smashed up in the post, hence the detatched shields, spears and general chipping.  :-(  On the plus side, they are recovering very nicely in the BigRedBat equivalent of Toy Hospital, and I hope to have them ready by Xmas.  So far, I've refixed all the spears, cleaned the old glue off the shield backs and started on restoring the paintwork.

The other 144 levy figures are finished (48 similar minis, 96 Thureophoroi standing in as levy). 

Friday, 30 October 2009

Numidian Horse III


I thought people might be interested to read how I paint horses.

Essentially, I paint them with acrylics as described in the previous post, then lighly varnish them to protect the paint.  Over the varnish I paint a mixture of oil paints (brown and Paynes's grey) and Linseed oil.  I then selectively rub this off with the little foam sqaures that come as packing with miniatures; I have plenty of them!  This is similar to the method described in the Foundry Painting and Modelling Guide, except I do more painting of detail up front, and use acrylics rather than enamels.

The oil paint settles into the lower areas of the horses.  It takes a week or so for the linseed to evaporate.



When thoroughly dry, I'll return to the horses to add white socks, on some, and paint in the metal bits.

The observant will note that quite a few of my Numidian horses have bridles; this is because I have rather more riders than horses, and had to steal a bunch of Native American horses.  Bridles and feathers aside, they look great!

Above are the riders, primed red.  The figures are a mix of Foundry, Crusader, A&A, Gripping Beast, a Renegade mahout and a couple of Foundry Greeks.  It is safe to say that I am scraping the bottom of the barrel of suitable miniatures in my lead pile.  The pins on which they are currently impaled, will eventually be cut done to 2mm length, and located in the holes on the backs of the horses; the shields will be added at the very end.

Monday, 26 October 2009

Numidian Horse II


A quick in-progress shot of these, after the 3rd painting session, blocking in the colours. 

I'm trying a different technique on these, compared to my last batch.  This time I want the horses' legs to be almost black, so I've painted them a mix of black and tan.  Once I have painted the horses eyes in (a dark brown), and retouched the bay colour, I'm going to hit these with an oil paint/linseed wash...

Thursday, 1 October 2009

New Numidians


Here are the first units of Numidians for the Zama project.  Of the first 50 shown here, 30 are finished and 20 need snagging and basing.  Roughly 40 of the 50 were painted by Greg (Merci beaucoup!) but I did highlighting, retouching and the basing.




I'm really pleased with them!  There are still the better part of 150 foot remaining to retouch and base though.   Fortunately Greg's hard work means that they roll of the production line pretty rapidly!

I've completed my Dissertation, and hope to be able to get back to paitning and posting daily, now.

Sunday, 20 September 2009

Just a few Numidians..


These are the majority of the Numidian and Carthaginian levies  I am painting for Zama.

Greg has very kindly painted 160 (!) minis (the ones on the tray), but unfortunately they took a bit of a pasting in the post and will need a little tender working care to get them into the field.  I retouched a dozen last night, though, and I think it'll be relatively quick; hopefully I should be able to finish about a dozen a night.  As well as these, I have 28 more unpainted infantry and 24 mostly unpainted cavalry.  Plenty to do...

BTW this is my 100th blog post- thanks very much to my readers!

Wednesday, 9 September 2009

Hasty Hastati 6 - Mostly there!

These chaps are getting seriously close to completion!  I'm 11 sessions in and 3 more should finish them, including basing.  This is rather faster than the Triarii and should enable me to finish one legion by Salute.

In other news... Greg has kindly offered to paint some more miniatures, Hannibal's Bruttian veterans from Southern Italy.  These are going to be a mix of Aventine and Crusader miniatures.  Also, I've identified the materials for the base boards and will get on with them once I've finished my dissertation.

Friday, 4 September 2009

Hasty Hastati 4

Here are the rapid Romans after 3 more painting sessions (bringing the total to 6). I think they are going to be quicker to complete than I'd anticipated- 4 more sessions should finish them, and with 2 for basing, that puts them around 2 weeks a unit.

This is just as well, because 160 beautifully painted minis thunked onto my doorstep this morning from Greg; vive la France! This means I now have rather more than 200 minis that I need to base for Zama; at least 3-4 weeks work. Gulp.

In other news, I've been fretting about how I'm going to (cheaply) make an 18' long table. I was planning to re-use Greg's excellent Dwarf Mine boards; but I have, instead, decided to make a new terrain that I might be able to adapt for future C&CA games. My latest idea is to go for a very thin (10mm) foam layer stuck to 9mm MDF boards. But MDF Comes in Imperial sizes, and foam in metric; I'll probably need to get the MDF cut specially. All needs careful thought...

Monday, 31 August 2009

Hasty Hastati 3

Here are the Aventine hastati after the second painting session:-

And here they are again after the third (retouched reds around pectorals (thanks Keith!), painted iron and started flesh):-

They are coming on very nicely, and happily rather quickly!

Saturday, 29 August 2009

Hasty Hastati 2

I've decided I'm going to tackle this unit with a different technique, partially using washes; more like Greg's method. In a long session 1 last night, I blocked in the red tunics, the black primer for the chain, the pectorals, pila shafts and some of the straps.

Wednesday, 26 August 2009

Hasty Hastati

I'm about to start my second unit of Aventines, this time Hastati. I spent far too long on the previous Triarii at 3 weeks, and have decided that I need to get this lot finished in around 2 weeks. To this end I'm going with a red primer, as I used with the Galatians back in the Spring- I'm hoping this will save me a few days! Also the figures are much less complex to paint than the Triarii.

The Aventine figures again prepped very quickly, having very little flash. I'm not a great fan of attached spears, but the hands are open and do provide a firm cup into which to glue them into (unlike some Gripping Beast figures, for example).

I'm finishing basing the Tegeans (from July) tonight; Hastati painting starts tomorrow...

Thursday, 6 August 2009

...for a ha'porth of tar

They say "Do not spoil the SHIP for a ha'porth of tar."

I'm off on hols at dawn, and was desperately hoping to be able to finish the unit of Aventine Etruscans before I left. Unfortunately, I ran out of Testor's Dullcoat around 4 weeks ago and haven't been able to source more from my supplier, so I've not been able to varnish them (which I always do before basing as it is far easier). So I'll base them in late August.

Here are their shields, which are finished. I've decided to go with a horse motif for the entire legion, and am using some of the excellent LBMS transfers designed to accompany the range; they have a battle damaged look, which I'm quite taken with.

I'll be away for a couple of weeks; happy gaming!

ps Just a second after I posted this, I got an electronic despatch note from my supplier for the Dullcoat!

Saturday, 1 August 2009

Aventines Day 14

Just as one unit approaches completion...

Another 5 arrive!

Life just works like that, sometimes.

I'm really delighted with the new Aventine minis Keith has sent (the principes and equites for my Italian legion, and a bunch of Volscian hillmen), which are of the same high quality (nary a hint of flash) as the last bunch, and even as neatly packed as I've ever seen! He even chucked in the newest Volscian command pack, which looks brilliant. The Volcians have a real sense of movement that one rarely sees in a 28mm mini and I'm itching to paint them; dare I squeeze a unit into my schedule?