Saturday, 24 July 2010

More Auxilia...

While I'm putting the finishing touches to my second cohort of British Auxiliaries (photo in 3-4 days), here's a shot of the next unit.  I prepped these around 2 years ago and they have been waiting on the sidelines.  I really should be painting pikes but  instead I intend to speed-paint these... possibly next week.

Monday, 12 July 2010

Phalanx Done(ish)

Here's the refurbed/extended phalanx I've been working on recently, finally complete(ish).  I say complete(ish) because I've decided that it ideally needs another 32 figures to bring it to 128, which is a much more Macedonian number, but they will have to wait a while for reinforcements as I'm working on another phalanx, now.


On the battlefield they will doubtless be formed up 4 deep, but 8 looks great. 


The rear view (above) shows that only the front 3-4 ranks have linen armour. 


All but one of the minis are Foundry (there's a solitary Bronze Goat in there somewhere).

Unusually for me, I did paint most of the figures in this unit, except for the first 2 dozen that were beautifully painted by Andy Bryant, whose style I have tried to imitate.  The last 30 minis were painted using the fast method I described in a recent post, using sprays and dips as much as possible.

Thursday, 1 July 2010

Pimp my Phalanx

Here's a quick update (clickable) photo of my first phalanx, which is now around 80% complete.  Newly painted minis are joining the 50-odd minis I already had painted; there's a lot of rebasing going on, too.   You can see a lot of shields part-painted at the front, and the final 24 part-painted minis at the rear.  I hope to have the unit finished by the end of next week.

Sunday, 27 June 2010

Experimental Phalangites

Whilst I'm painting what seems like an endless number of phalangites for my first Macedonian phalanx (33 from scratch, and retouching 11 others), I thought I'd also paint a few test figures for later units.

The first mini on the left is a Crusader phalangite, with a Polemarch shield.  This was an annoying mini to prep (I hate the tiny sharp bits of metal that you often find on Crusader minis, left over from vents), and I find it a little dumpy, with rather fat legs.  Details like fingers and toes are less well defined than on Foundry minis.  I think I'll paint all my Foundry's first...

The middle figure is an Aventine elephant crewman, with a Foundry shield.  I love the helmet on this figure and want to fit some into a mixed unit along with some Foundrys and Polemarchs.  I presume Aventine will sculpt some, later, with greaves (which one obviously doesn't need in a howdah!).  I did this one in expensive purple clothing and a silver shield, as an Agyraspid.  It looks OK, but I think it would look better still with iron or silvered armour to go with the silver shield, and perhaps paler clothing colours.

Figure on the right is a Foundry peltast who has been consripted into the rear ranks of the phalanx.

Wednesday, 23 June 2010

Painting a Phalanx in 21 Easy, Easy Stages


I'm using the below method to paint pikemen in groups of 12 or 16 for my big pike project.  Although there are a lot of steps, each one is pretty quick and I can finish a batch in around a week.  I've tried to rationalise the process and include lots of shortcuts such as Army Painter and the use of spray primers and varnishes.

Stages in the Mass Phalangite Paintjob
1. Spray prime minis brown (I’m using Montana Gold “Palish Brown”)
2. Paint linothorax and sword hilt white
3. Block in tunic and plumes in various colours; highlight
4. Paint coloured trims on some linothorax
5. Block in flesh tone, then highlight
6. Paint leather straps brown, and retouch brown around tops of boots, base and back of shield
7. Highlight leather straps
8. Paint hair black or brown, highlight
9. Paint helmet cheek guards black
10. Drybrush base in earth brown.
11. Apply army painter “soft tone” dip (except over shields)
12. 1 coat gloss spray varnish
13. 1 coat matt spray varnish
14. Paint shield facing, helmet, greaves, cheekguards Vallejo brass
15. Highlight with brass mixed with a hint of silver
16. Apply army painter “strong tone” to shield and helmet
17. Spray paint pikes “Desert Yellow”
18. 1 coat gloss spray varnish on pikes
19. 1 coat matt spray varnish on pikes
20. Paint pike heads black, then dark silver and highlight.
21. Attach pike; retouch

The sample figures at the top are at different stages; the first is at stage 3, the second is at stage 16 (I just need to paint the cheekguards on his helmet).  The third is finished, except that I need to matt varnish him as I skipped the spray matt stage.  Bronze-faced shields are the easiest thing in the world to paint!

Monday, 21 June 2010

Evil Empire targets Muswell Militia

So I'm on my way to work this morning, and next to the bus stop, perhaps 100 yards form my front door (and right next to the "Maid of Muswell", our local waterhole), a Games Workshop has sprung up overnight!  I can only assume this is a targeted attempt to plunder Muswell Militia's wargames budget.  ;-)

More seriously, I don't buy much GW stuff these days aside from the odd pot of paint, but I welcome their arrival, nonetheless.  It is an interesting place to put a wargames shop; not much passing trade, but there are thousands of well-heeled teenagers around here.  Possibly a shrewd marketing strategy... time will tell.

Sunday, 20 June 2010

Pikes, Pikes, Pikes

My main theme for this year is going to be pikemen.

Here's the painting tray.  I'm actually painting 2 different phalanx simultaneously, each of which will eventually be 99 minis strong.  Each finished phalanx will be 24 figures wide and 4 deep, with most figures based in 8's, and a 3 figure command stand.  During games, I'll subdivide them into units of 32 or 48 depending on which rules I am using.

The first phalanx is a refurb of my Macedonian phalanx, from which I'm removing the dust clouds prior to more or less doubling it in size.  Some of these are at the bottom right, with newly primed reinforcements top left, and some recently finished troops bottom left.  I've developed a relatively speedy way of painting pikemen, making extensive use of spray paints, spray varnishes and dips, that should enable me to finish at least a dozen minis a week.  I'll write this up later on.  This unit will be the first to be finished, hopefully in around 4 weeks time. 

The second is an entirely new Egyptian successor phalanx.   Some of these are top right, almost finished (sans pike), and I already have 14 completely  finished and stored away.  This unit will mix Foundry and Polemarch minis, and have longer 100mm pikes; should look great!