From NoelW: Another Mixed Bag

This week I thought I wouldn’t get much painting done as I’ve spent most of my time rebasing a Union army. When my wife and I were courting (that’s right, in the nineteenth century) one of the things we did together was wargame. Although our armies had quite a few imaginative flourishes, they were essentially Airfix Union and Confederate. In our current lockdown state, we were reminded of this and she has suggested a revival game, though our armies are no longer Airfix. Mainly Wargames Foundry, in fact.

As they’ve not been out of the box for a dozen years, they needed reorganising so we can use Black Powder. Hers first. So I’ve been sitting out in the sunlight, prising figures from various old cardboard stands and creating units of 6 bases on 50mm square mdf.

I’ve been standardising on 50mm for several reasons. I’ve been using it for cavalry for some time, with 40mm for infantry. So three cavalry bases are almost the same length as four infantry: 150mm to 160mm. Using two ranks of foot to a base gives me normal foot units of 16 figs or 6 cavalry in one rank. That’s been my basic approach for some years. However, in the last three years, I’ve been building most new armies as individual figures on single bases, to make their use for skirmish games, sieges and rough terrain easier. In mass battles I put them in sabots, generally four figures per sabot. These sabots have to be 50mm square. 

As I rather like lots of variety in my forces, I’ve some armies built of units of 12 individual figures in those sabots, so still the 150mm frontage. Small units are not everyone’s cup of tea, but they’re (obviously) quicker to paint, meaning more scope for variety in the army as a whole, and they can be brigaded together into “brigades” of 24 figs, if I want that. My wife’s Union army is basically units of 24 fig foot and 12 figure cavalry, now on 50mm bases to fit that general pattern.

So here’s the rebasing for this week, about two thirds of her army. The sharp-eyed amongst you will see that the rearmost unit and general are Confederate. I sneaked those in! 

No points for the rebasing, of course, but I’m going to count them off against my British Intervention Force target, as these forces will form the opponents for the BIF who're on the way to support my Confederates.

But I also have managed to find time to finish some of the painting I began the four weeks ago. Two armies: the Zulu War, which is a current particular fascination, and Afghans which, though strictly for the North West Frontier, I’m including as irregulars in my Sikh Wars project.

For the Zulu Wars, I’ve four infantry that I found skulking in the back of a drawer, a mix of manufacturers:

three mounted Frontier Light Horse

and six dismounted

And five Natal Carbineers scouting the plains of Zululand:

These are all Perry figures.

The Afghans are also designed by the Perrys, some from their current range, some from their Wargames Foundry Afghan and Sikh sculpts. Firstly, 8 irregular infantry:

And finally a command stand, which I’m particularly pleased with:

For the imaginary scoreboard, that’s 9 cavalry and 19 foot, so 185 points, all of which, Stuart, will add to our little Bolt Action side challenge, to give me a current total of 275 points. I'm closing in on you!

However, I’m slipping behind my overall plan, having filled only 13 of the 16 slots I should’ve completed by now.

Project	New Task	‘Points’	Old Task	‘Points’
Agincourt
AWI	Farmstead	3
Black Seas (1/700th)
British in Egypt: 1801			Generals de Rolls’ regiment	30 60
Cape Wars	12 infantry	60
Carthaginians
Crusades	Command group	20
ECW
French in Egypt: 1801
Frostgrave/fantasy	3 Treemen	24	Frankie	5
Italian Wars
Lord of the Rings
Minden (15mm)
Ottoman
Peninsular War			12 Spanish	60
Republican Romans
Sikh/Afghan Wars	Command stand 8 Irregulars	15 40
1860s British IF/ACW			Union rebasing	0
1880s, the Sudan	Buildings	15
Walmington/Sealion			3 Civvies 6 zombies Bandstand	15 30 2
Waterloo
WW2 Desert
Zulu War	NNI Frontier Horse Natal Carbineers	30 60 50	Pearson & Chelmsford 4 foot	25 20
TOTAL		317		247

From PeteF: Mixed Bag of Elves for SAGA, Old School Figures and Lizards Rebased (50 points)

Photography Helper

This week's hobbying involved a bit of rebasing and finishing one more unit for SAGA Age of Magic.

The rebased 25mm Napoleonics are Foremost casts that my Dad painted back in the day. There were just enough for three bases which will do for a small french battalion for the Quatres Bras project. So here is the 3rd Battalion of the 108th ligne. The Foremost poses are really nice - I think they were taken over by Hinchcliffe and that you can still get them from Hinds Figures.

The next bit of rebasing was these eight lizards that I used to test out contrast paints and a Kings of War colour scheme last year. In the end I went with firey red, orange and yellow lizards - with not stripes of spots - rejecting the greens and blues. They'll do OK as one point of warriors for SAGA Age of Magic.

The elves are also for SAGA Age of Magic and I've based them on magnets so they can also be put on a metal tray for Kings of War - making a troop of elf palace guard. They got colour shift green armour and I had some fun trying out different Celitc-y designs on the cloaks. I'll field eight of these elves as a point of warriors or maybe 2 points of hearthguard, depending on which faction I choose for them. The factions in SAGA Age of Magic are generic fantasty types: Great Kingdoms, Lords of the Wild, Undead Legions, The Horde, The Otherworld and Masters of the Underneath. So you can play the same miniatures as a few different factions while you figure out which one you like best.

I'm definitely getting the urge to add more Minifigs to the Quatres Bras army (13 battalions, 3 1/2 batteries and a bunch of cavalry to go) - so I'll work on that in the coming weeks... although one of my wargaming friends is talking about Dracula's America and those figures look great.

Iain W 28mm Dux Bellorum again( 50 points)

Bit late in the week but here is the final unit of pagan English for my Dux Bellorum army.
These  are a mix of a final Black tree design that I found after I'd painted all the rest ,a couple of Ebay purchases and seven figures from the 1970s that were painted in enamels, Ral Partha and Asgard and were regularly used as characters and non player characters in D&D games.
I've given them a wash ,touched up the metal here and there and painted the flesh in my usual elf flesh which I have almost used up,bit worrying as I think GW stopped making it years ago and I haven't found a good substitute yet!

I've painted the shields to match the rest of the army.  They're not  terribly kosher as they're mostly Vikings or Varagnians but it uses up some figures that have spent 40 years sitting in various cardboard boxes in various lofts and finishes an army off!
They give me 50 points which added to my running total gives me 345 ,oh and I  know I'll have to finish the sabot bases off at some point!
All the best
Iain

From TomM: Elven Council Circle

Oh I love this model, produced by Dark Realms as part of their February Patreon releases.

Based on the council of Elrond from Lord of the Rings (heck, why do you think I backed that Patreon...) this makes a great display piece for the forces of Rivendell.

After spending about a week on and off printing the model, I sat down and gave it a paintjob to which I put in some more effort then usually for scenery, because it should look epic during Battle Company games.

The pillars where done by basecoating them with Vallejo Earth, then loosely applied Vallejo Heavy Ochre over it.  Consequent drybrushes of Vallejo Yellow Ochre and Iraqi sand brought it to the desired colour.

For the water, it was all Vallejo again, going from a base of Imperial Blue to drybrushes with Intense Blue, Magic Blue and finally Ice Blue, while the rocky edge was vallejo Dark Rubber drybrushed first with Cold Grey and then Sky Grey.

I really like how it turned out as a result, and check out the Patreon if you are into Middle-Earth, it is truly worth the 10USD a month.

From LeeH - Rorke's Drift in 6mm

I'm not really keeping up with this 'post something weekly' thing. I have been doing some painting, but I have been flitting from project to project a bit over the last few weeks. And like many people I have been trying to keep games and friendship groups going online, which all distract's from the paint table. I'm still working full time so my 'spare' time is as limited as ever. Weekends, of course, are being spent at home rather than heading out to Museums and Galleries, but being at home, coinciding with half-decent weather, means I can't get out of doing the garden. The excuse "I don't have time" rings a bit hollow in Lockdown Britain!!

Anyway, it was my Birthday last week and I treated myself to a present from Leven Miniatures. I love their 6mm buildings and this Rorke's Drift model was too good not to buy (and a snip at just £16). 

I'll post some more pictures on my blog tomorrow and, hopefully, I'll also post some video on my youtube channel at the same time. 

I'm currently working on some more Frostgrave figures but rather than show them off one at a time, I'll collect them all together and do a joint post when they are all finished. Nothing fancy, just some new figures to give me some options in my vain attempt to finally win a game against my daughter. 

From DrQ: Some Terrain and a Zombie Bunny

Taking pics last week I realized that I had no suitable modern or futuristic terrain to serve as a backdrop—everything I have is medieval fantasy or steampunk. This was clearly a problem if I want to play games in a contemporary setting, let alone the drimgark future. So, this week I did a little trash-bashing and pulled together these 8 4"x2"x2" container boxes.

The problem with large pieces like this is that you are never sure when to stop. I've painted four layers of weathering, tagged them with various styles of graffiti, and added various torn or whole posters. And yet, they still seem rather sparse when looked at from a distance like this. I could probably spend a few week adding various details, but I'm not going to sweat it at this point. They're here to block line of sight and be more thematic than a plain box or a pile of books, and they excel at that task.

Additionally, I painted up some barrels to sever as smaller scatter. 

Not much to say about these. They are part of Reaper's new Bones Black line. Supposedly they don't need to be primed. I have added a top coat of Mod Podge matte, like I do to all terrain; but we'll have to see if the lack of priming has an effect on their durability.

Finally, I did manage to finish one zombie this week:

Mr. Bitey here is from Super Dungeon Explore's Stilt Town Zombies warband box. While he looks like the stuff of nightmares, he's actually a pet that can help an allied hero. 

Stay safe everyone!