Winding Down A Productive Year

 Well, it has been several weeks since I posted last. Things have been hectic. Work has been blowing up, plenty of construction going on in the Kansas City area and we are going to be really busy in the field next year. The end of this year has been crazy for me. Being the only trim estimator in KC, well technically the only estimator, but, our team in St Louis picks up the framing and siding we do. Regardless it has been a busy end of the year, yet I have had plenty of time to paint. 

I continued my 1815 project with some Prussian Landwehr. 

These are all 15mm from the Alternative Armies Brickdust range. I painted these as the Westphalians. Most likely they had no flags, but Fighting 15s makes some nice ones to use for the Landwehr. That way they don't look so naked. I had decided to use this line for my 15mm projects in Spain and for the 100 days. They are the old TTG line. I am really enjoying painting them and I am looking forward to the time I can get them on the board. I just got my Black Friday order in from AA that is the balance of the stuff I need to complete the Prussian first and second corps. I have them based for Napoleon's Battles.

Next up are a collection of samurai.

The top two pics are Uesugi Kenshin from the AW Miniatures Kickstarter. I had gotten him, Oda Nobunaga (from my last post), and a seated Takeda Shingen. Takeda hasn't popped up in the queue as yet, but that is ok, as I need a break from samurai for a bit.

The next three pics are all Footsore's Warring Clans range. I think I received these figures as promotional addons, the single figure coming with the Test of Honour 2nd edition bundle. Somehow I ended up with two of the one pose, no problem they are nice figures, just gave them different outfits. I just got my copy of Sengoku for Test of Honour in the mail today, along with the Seven Ronin pack. You can look forward to seeing them on the blog next year some time.

The last 4 pics are all Old Glory 28mm samurai, ashigaru, and monks. It's funny, I always seem to get intimidated painting samurai, until I get into them. Then I just cruise through and enjoy the ride. I should have some nice samurai armies once I get them all done.

Next up are some El Cid period Andalusians.

I had bought these second hand some time ago. I don't recall what company they were and I have not been able to find the poses anywhere. I thought maybe Gripping Beast. They were fun to paint. Having bought them second hand they were missing spears and shields. I ordered the  Andalusian shields from Artizan Designs through Northstar of course, and I had the Northstar spears on hand, so I got them all kitted out. I am pretty close to getting this project done. I need to paint up my Spanish knights, and the Berber Black Guard, and purchase some missle troops.

One project I have been consistently working on has been my 1940 project. I have a ton of Dutch and Wehrmacht so I had decided to start on some SS. I have been using a lot of FAA Miniatures for this project, as well as SHQ, EWM and a few others. I had purchased the Liebstandarte figures from FAA for this project because they have them listed as 1940-43. After looking at them I noticed they mostly have smocks. Now it is my understanding the the SS units in 1940 were probably in the regular uniform, sans smocks. So, I was a bit disappointed at first. But then I did a bit of research, and found that it was possible that they could have had smocks in the Plane Tree design whether they actually did or not. I do enjoy painting the German camo for the most part (exception is splittermuster) so I tackled them with great relish giving them the Spring Plane Tree design.

These guys were really fun to paint, and I am looking forward to the next batch coming up soon. I was also delighted that FAA was casting this winter so I got an order in at the last minute to finish the SS and also do a couple Belgian platoons.

 In keeping with the 1940 theme I also got more Dutch completed.

Again, the Dutch are all SHQ. Which BTW are really nice, crisp figures. 

The last entries for our post today are a couple of dwarfs. I got these guys in a modelbox For those of you that may not know, Modelbox is a monthly subscription service. You get a box of miniature hobby stuff, figures, paints accessories, bases and what not. It is themed, and does include an exclusive miniature each time. If you are curious, there are a couple guys that do unboxing videos each month on youtube so check it out and see if it is of interest to you. I really enjoyed them, I did discontinue, not because of the quality, but because I was accumulating too much stuff out of my gaming interests, as well as too much paint. I decided I needed to focus my purchases on finishing my existing projects. 

This first guy is Baggronor the Mighty from Titan Wargames He was a resin figure and pretty fun to paint. Not really anything I will be using in my gaming (that I know of anyway), but, a fun figure to paint none the less.

This second character is a dwarf again (hence the theme of that box). This time he is from Atlantis Miniatures This guy is really animated. Again he was resin but his arms were separate so there is some room for variation without chopping him up. Though, if you like to customize your figs you could certainly do that as well.

He was a really cool figure, very animated and some interesting equipment attached to him.

I did make some serious headway on my 15mm Confederate  repaints and I also rebased my Classical Indian army for Impetus. I didn't take any pics because the ACW stuff I am just painting over the existing, and the Indians I painted probably 20+ years ago. So nothing too exciting to see there. I already have a boatload of figures ready to base, and I anticipate doing them over one of the two holiday weekends. I will most likely post them along with a year end roundup in a few weeks.

I'm Still At It!

 Well that was a quick couple months since my last post. Time is certainly flying by. I am getting much painted but the lead mountain seems to be the same. I thought I would share my progress over the last couple months.

First off we will be heading to the Empire of Japan. Here are a few of the 20mm Japanese I did for my Island War project. 

This is a sample of the 60+ I have finished. I'll just need to add some support weapons and vehicles. The last picture are Frontier but the others I could not figure out. Looked at EWM and FAA but they did not match. I was fortunate enough to find some 1/72 scale tanks on ebay. They are from China, and they have to be assembled, but, they are already done in a camouflage scheme. I bought a couple that I need to get together. I'll definitely share them when I do.

Next up are some figures from the samurai period. Up first is Oda Nobunaga and a palanquin set from AW Miniatures They make a nice range of 28mm Samurai, as well as some other periods.

Oda came with a banner bearer as well. I have to figure out a banner for him so he is not pictured. I left the palanquin doors open just because there is a figure in there. I mean whats the point if you can't see it, right?

Next are some figures from the old Clan War range done by AEG

I had a lot of fun painting the Oni and the ogre. I was torn a bit on the ogre's skin tone, but settled on this scheme this time. I have some others buried somewhere so I may change it up a bit on those. From top to bottom is the Oni No Akuma, Lion Clan Elite Spearmen, Ogre, some misc. stuff, and some Crab Clan Samurai. These guys will get used in either a Lion Rampant type game or the variant for Test of Honour for the Clan War stuff.

The final entry for Japan this time is the geisha from Warlord Games. While I don't think she is available individually, I think she is in one of the Erehwon sets.

I was a bit disappointed on how the decal turned out. But, I will just pait over it and use it as a template. I did enjoy doing a bit of research on geisha and the difference in the makeup between them and the maiko.

Next we head to 1930s Spain for the Spanish Civil War.

These guys are all from the old HPC range that is currently not in production. They are, however,  available from RH Models as the Bandera range. I did confirm with them a couple weeks ago. Top to bottom we have Nationalist Infantry in Spanish Helmet, Assault Guard machine gunners, and some Andalusian Lewis Gunners in the sun hat. I really like these figures and the variety in the range. They are substantially bigger than the Minairons range unfortunately. That will not stop me from using Minairons vehicles though.

Next up is more of my Mexican American War Project

This is kind of a hodge podge group in that, I was finishing up some units that for some reason I had only partially completed. Now I am "caught up" I can paint complete units. As is customary for me now, I do both side of a conflict. 

Now for something a bit more modern.

Rhodesians! Selous Scouts to be exact. There are from the Liberation Miniatures range, which coincidentally, is sold by RH Models I had picked these up second hand along with some ZANLA/ZIPRA types I have yet to paint. They are 20mm and were super easy to paint. I was at first intimidated by the camo scheme but once I got a system down it worked pretty well.

The last entry for this post is some scatter terrain.

I wish I could remember the manufacturer of these. I had bought them from Bad Squiddo in the Bargain Bin so I can't look back to see. And the packaging has long been tossed. Anyway, a few columns and such for dark age skirmishes. 

I was also, able to get my Feudal French army rebased for Impetus, and I painted a hand full of figs to fill out 2-3 units. I will most likely be posting sooner than two months from now. I have a ton of stuff painted and awaiting basing. Probably paint for another week or two then get it all based. I hope you all are in good health and staying busy despite everything that has been going on.