Thursday, 6 December 2012

Mugs o'War

When painting, I like to drink my coffee (and tea) from a number of wargame-related mugs, and it occurs to me that other gamers might do this, too.  Here are mine!


Above is the "old faithful" of my mugs, which I stumbled across around 2004, whilst painting my 28mm Pictish army.  I think it came from the Museum of Scotland, via a charity shop.  I love the design, and its rugged construction has, I estimate, survived more than 3,000 washes...


Above is the 2005 Salute mug, from the George and Dragon year.  I've always loved this one, but the lettering is fading toward invisibility, after perhaps 2,500 washes.

Fianlly, below is the 2011 Salute mug.  I've always found this one a bit ugly, and the lettering is fading badly, after only a year and a half.  However, it is a whopping great mug and perfect for a bucket of afternoon tea!


So these are my mugs o'war.  If you have any similar drinking vessels, please feel free to post a link in the comments!

Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Masses more Machimoi


220 more Polemarch Egyptian phalangites arrived today, from Gripping Beast.  I now have just about enough minis for my Phalanx (528); but can I get them painted in time (even with assistance)?  Where's me brush?

Sunday, 2 December 2012

Raphia Phalanx begins...

A week since my last post; life has been interfering with art, again.  Just so that you don't think that I've gone away and left you, below are a couple of quick WIP shot of my next big project.


Above, 30 Foundry Egyptian-style phalangites, started in 2010 and finished, belatedly, this week.  Below 24 Polemarch Egyptian Machimoi, painted last week.  Both clickable.


My plan is to mix the Foundry and Polemarchs together, and paint an awful lot more to match, in order to re-fight of Raphia with mate Craig at Partizan in June.  More anon!

Sunday, 25 November 2012

Please don't try this at home


This afternoon there was a brief break in the rain, so I decided to prep some miniatures.  After washing to de-grease, I popped them in the oven to quickly dry them so I could prime; I think I may have left them in there just a few minutes too long!  :-)

Luckily the other 2 dozen survived, it could have been far, far worse. 

Wednesday, 21 November 2012

Hoplites

I’ve finished basing the hoplites in my recent post, and rebased my existing Foundry “Athenian” hoplites onto larger bases, so that most are now in 8’s.  I boosted the total numbers by repainting my old Lunar Blue Dragoons (the minis with the tall crests), and mixing them in; they scrubbed up OK.  Economical, neh?  Upgraded the tuftage, too, to my 2013 standard.  'Ave a click.


I took the opportunity to very roughly split out the later hoplites with helms with separate cheeek flaps and Pilos, from those with the earlier Corinthian and Chalcidian helmets, and put them on separate bases.  The above unit has mostly earlier, and the below mostly later helmets, although purists will quail...  Later, I’ll build distinct units with corresponding shield designs, which became simpler and more abstract over time.


In a few weeks I plan to paint up 8 more Spartans.  That’ll give me 5 units of 36 hoplites, and two of 24, which will have to do for the time being, because I urgently need to start painting minis with rather longer pointy sticks.

Tuesday, 20 November 2012

Jenga Phalanx



These are a continuation of a very old project, which is to build a Ptolemaic phalanx on a grand scale, for use in a grand re-fight of Raphia at Partizan in early June next year.

The plan is to combine these beautifully sculpted Polemarch Machimoi (Egyptian Phalangites) from Gripping Beast, with their Foundry equivalents.  I absolutely love the tall crested helmets, which I assume are based on the Sidon stelae.

When I started this project (over 2 years ago!), I made the mistake of using an Army Painter primer.  This provided a convenient base colour, but created a surface textured like fine grain sandpaper, which wasn’t at all good to paint over, and which put me off the project after I’d only managed to complete 30 miniatures (one shown in the link, at centre).  This time, I’m stripping the remaining primed miniatures and using my trusty can of Halford’s white.  The Jenga blocks are mounts for ease of painting.

I need an awful lot more of these miniatures to build a phalanx of the large size I covet.  If you happen to have a bag of these Polemarch phalangites, or the similar Foundry miniatures in the link, that you always meant to paint but never quite got around to, please drop me a line.  I’d be delighted to swap for them, or buy them off you!  

Friday, 16 November 2012

Hoplites

Just so you don't think I've gone off and left you, a quick and somewhat blurry WIP shot of the 32 Foundry hoplites I've just finished (pre-varnish and basing).


I hope to get to grips with them, tonight...  because other projects beckon, of which more, anon.