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

Tuesday, 29 May 2012

Gallic Auxiliary Reinforcements


My least satisfactory Auxiliary Cohort is the II Gallorum (above, front left).  These were an eBay purchase and fall a little short of the quality of my other units, so they are getting a refurb which involves partial rebasing, some detailing, and a lick of overpainting on the shields.  At the same time I am painting a second cohort from scratch.  All the minis are from Black Tree Designs; not brilliant but quite serviceable.

When they are finished the two cohorts and their associated cavalry contingents will constitute the Gallic wing of my auxiliary project.

Wednesday, 16 May 2012

Mob-handed WIP

I've just arranged all 47 minis on their bases, and thought I'd snatch a quick photo.  26 were painted by Figgybloggy Greg, and most of the rest and the market by me


There are going to be 4 units; the two in the front will be relatively dense mobs, with some vigiles mixed in, and the two at the rear dispersed skirmishers armed with bricks and javelins.  The next stage will be to disguise the mini's bases with cobbles, then I need to add a little more base dressing and take some proper snaps.

Sunday, 13 May 2012

Cobblers

Or more accurately, cobbles.  I've decided to base my rioters on cobbled streets, as per the test element below.


The core of the bases are 60mm square galvanized steel sheet which I bought them off Renaissance Ink some years ago.  I've cut and fixed the ubiquitous Magnetic sheet on the back, and primed the top with Halford's Grey to disguise the shine on the edges (see below, I've turned one over to show the rear, you can see the shiny steel).  I joined a couple of the bases together to take the cart, which was too big for a single base.


The Roman cobbles (below) are actually from Antenocitii and are printed into a soft-ish styrofoam, and supplied pre-painted; a great product.  This is what I'm going to use for my Roman streets, so the rioters should blend right in. Below are the 11 bases I'll need for the units.


As per the test piece at the top, I will need to cut a hole in the foam for each mini's base, and stick them to the metal, then lay cobbles around the feet to disguise the base.  This worked more or less OK with the test base in the top figure, not as hard as one might think, albeit fiddly; but with 46 minis plus furniture, I clearly have a few days basing duties ahead of me!

Wednesday, 9 May 2012

Street-fighting man

These are some market stalls as base dressing for the Roman  rioter stands I'm currently modelling.


The plan is that the fighting has spilled into a market area.  The table and most of the foodstuffs are from the Gripping Beast "Trade and Tribute" set.  The javelin-man is a Gorgon psiloi.


This is a wine merchant's stall.  The excellent pottery is from Baeuda, and is really very nicely executed, on a scratch-built stall.  The  merchant's cart (below) is from Irregular, a very handy and very cheap piece.



Above are some more Baeuda pots on another scratch-built table.  Finally, below, is a broken table with some Roman bread I've knocked up.


The miniatures are now all painted, and most of the rest of the material is prepared... I'm now just awaiting an order from Antenociti with a few final bits I need before I can start basing up.  As you can see, I'm very much enjoying playing with my Romans again!

Monday, 7 May 2012

Aventine Roman Rioters

I've added some Aventine miniatures to my slowly massing crowd, which is now up to 46 miniatures.


I'm pleased with how they have come out, although I've not cracked the Devlan Mud quite yet (tunics are OK; eyes, not so much).  The half-bricks work nicely...

Thursday, 3 May 2012

Pwodigy II; I predict a riot!

This is a second WIP shot of my Roman rioters.  I've added another 20 miniatures, some of whom are shown at the front, partially blocked in (a mixture of Aventine, a senator from Foundry and Steve Saleh's Caesar).  You might be able to make out some furniture at the back- I now have some promising ideas for base dressing.


I'm now planning to build 3 (or just possibly 4) units with a total of around 48 minis.  I'm trying to copy the style that Greg used (a big brush, and lots of Devlan Mud), this is proving very much quicker than my usual way of working.  And I now appreciate that ancients are a helluvalot quicker to paint than Naps!

Thursday, 26 April 2012

A Pwodigy!

A very rough WIP shot of the first ancients minis that have actually made it onto the painting tray in 6 months!


I'm planning to depict a crowd of lightly armed civilians with a few vigiles and urbana mixed in, either as rioters or perhaps the Vitellian defenders of Rome in 67AD.  Strictly street fighters.  I'm currently thinking about how to base them, if anyone has any ideas for base dressing etc., please bung them my way!

28 of these were painted very nicely by mon ami Greg who very kindly gave them to me at Salute.  The ugly woman front right and a few other dodgy minis are spares from the painting box, anything good is from Greg.  Some of the minis are Foundry, others Aventine, some god knows!  I'm doing just a little highlighting and detailing, maybe some tunic stripes and suchforth.

Saturday, 10 December 2011

Adiutrix WIP

Last night I fixed shields to minis, and this morning I made up a new batch of bases and glued the minis to them.


I've made the bases slighty deeper than usual (25mm as opposed to 20mm), because I know that BTD minis, once they have shields attached, have a fairly large footprint.  The deeper bases also enable me to adopt a slightly irregular basing style, as my concept is that this legion has been recently raised, and is less well drilled than others. 


In this shot from the rear, I'm  pleased with the effect created by the variety of the tunic colours. 

Tonight I'll apply my BigRedBatGunk to the bases, and hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to start painting them; must be 3 or 4 nights of basing work ahead.  It'll all be over by Xmas.

Thursday, 8 December 2011

Boss Eyed


If these look a little blurred to you, they do to me too; I've just finished my 5th long evening in a row on this lot of 86 shields.  Session 4 painted the shield bosses, and session 5 the brass rims.  I must reluctantly admit they still need at least one, and possibly two more sessions, before I can call them finished.  

I am very bored.  :-(

Tuesday, 6 December 2011

Scuta II


A quick update on the shields; all the blue edging is painted in, and I've washed the new paintwork with satin varnish wth a little blue ink mixed, to give it depth.  Unfortunately, the flash has taken out the detail in the photo; the shields are starting to look very good, in real life.  2-3 sessions more work is needed; bosses tomorrow, I hope.

In answer to today's questioners, I've been using my fingers to hold them, rather than sticking them to a base.  Whilst being painted, the curved shields rest neatly over my left index finger, which is now Porcelain Blue, and lightly varnished.

Sunday, 4 December 2011

Fabricae Scutaria


...a quick post to show progress on the shields for my ex-Marines.  I want to achieve an irregular look, and so I'm using a mix of 4 styles- oval BTD at top (as perhaps used on shipboard), BTD clipped scuta, a few round parma for the standard bearers and the bulk of the legion with rectangular A&A scuta (mix of round and square bosses).  All of the designs are LBMS.

First I sprayed the shield backs brick red, then the fronts white (with a quick coat of gloss varnish to help the transfers stick).  I then retouched the back of the shields with GW terracotta, anad cut out and applied the transfers.  The next stage will be to extend the blue to the edge of the shields, then paint the bosses, rims, ink, varnish and so forth.  Lots left to do, but good progress, this weekend, I reckon!

Friday, 2 December 2011

Sundry Ruperts and Tars



I've finished the last 18 fiigures for my Naval legion; the offices (or "Ruperts" in naval parlance) are above.  Models are a mix of Black Tree, Foundry, Crusader and Companion.  You might be able to make out an Aventine dolphin standard, kindly donated by Keith. Not my best photo... they look better in the "flesh".

I

The photo of my optios and the last few legionaries ("Tars") came out rather better (above, all Black Tree). The faces have bags of character.  Next I have to paint 80 shields...

Monday, 14 November 2011

The Final 18...


I'm battling my way towards the conclusion of my Marine legion, which was, perhaps, a project too far.  These are the final 18 of the 80 required minis.  Painting will be finished by the end of next week, and basing should take around a further week.

In other news, I'm taking a sabbatical from TMP which has been eating up too much of my time, and sometimes could get a bit acrimonious; so apologies if I don't respond to any of your posts on there.  If you have a blog about Ancients, I probably will be calling by, or you can drop me an email to keep in touch at the address on the front page, here.

Thursday, 10 November 2011

Navy Lark


21 more marines and a centurion for my naval legion; just 18 minis left to go, now!  And the shields, and basing, of course.   This time, I swapped a bunch of heads for the sake of variety.   The centurion was nicked from a previous project. 

Sunday, 6 November 2011

Hello Sailors

21 more ex-marines for Legio Adiutrix I; roughly blocked in.  I've picked a different shade of blue, and carried out a few head swaps, to bring in a little variety.


Painting an 80-man legion from scratch, is a fair old job. When this batch is finished, mid week, I'll have 61 minis ready, and will be slightly more than half way to final completion of the unit, when one factors in shields, basing and "snagging".  I really do like this BTD pose, rather nicely sculpted (by Woody now of GB, IIRC).

Wednesday, 26 October 2011

Middle Roman Syndrome


I mean, I just love this A&A range, but they take so long to paint!  Twice as long as an EIR.  It's the pteurges, and the edges around the armour.  Look good though... but will I ever complete an army of them?

A quick WIP shot of the A&A Middle Imperials that have been on my painting tray for around a month; ready to base.  I painted half, the rest (the better ones!) came from a lucky eBay purchase from the US.  Various command figures are coming on, in the background.  Watch this space...

Tuesday, 11 October 2011

Under the Brush...


These chaps will shortly become a cohort of Legio IV Scythica.  They will have the mail coifs, scale armour and the shield from Dura Europos, and will form the second unit in my nascent Middle Imperial army.  I don't intend this to be a huge army, but the minis are far too nice, not to have one. 

On a different note, I'm very much looking forward to the slightly earlier Marcommanic Wars range of Roman figures that Aventine are producing sculpted by Adam who also sculpted the A&A minis.  I will be starting a unit of them, just as soon as the officers and transfers are ready!  They represent a sort of "missing link" between my Trajanic Legionaries, and the A&A Middle Imperials. 

Tuesday, 13 September 2011

Work in Progress


I'm finishing off some Romans that Dr Simon's mate painted for me...


...and getting ready to paint the next lot of Romans.

This is pretty much standard in the BigRedBatCave.  Most days I'm busy finishing off someone else's Romans!  Even after these I must have 3 or 4 hundred to do.  Daunting...

Saturday, 7 May 2011

Young Lions

This is a clickable WIP shot of the Leones Iuniores, my latest Late Roman unit (Auxilia Palatina).  The painting is just about complete, although they still need assembling, varnishing and basing.  These have only taken six (albeit rather long) painting sessions; I only started painting them on Monday!  I must be getting faster!


After these, I hope to knock up a few quick supporting units based around some Black Tree figures I bought painted on eBay, a few years back...  and I'll need to pause to make up a big batch of bases, as I'm almost out. 

Monday, 2 May 2011

WIP Late Romans

I'm still finishing off old stuff, and here are 24 Romans from 4 different ebay purchases, that I'll work on this week, who will become another unit of Auxilia.  They are in a pretty shocking state... to be honest it would be better to strip them, and start from fresh, but I'm too lazy.