Painting Up A Storm

 Despite my lack of posting I have been cranking out a substantial amount of figures. While I enjoy painting for the most part, basing has always been a choke point. I just don't enjoy doing it, as much as I like the finished product.  So I had been putting it off, quite frankly, till I was running out of room to keep the painted minis. I have several flat sheets of wood maybe 9x11 or so that I lay them on once the painting is finished. I had filled those up, plus a number of mdf building packages I have drafted into emergency use. Something had to give, so it was my procrastination. If I can keep things going on the basing, I should have some regular posts going for some time.

So, lets get started for this posts offerings. First out the gate we have some Shield Maidens and Villagers from Bad Squiddo Games

Picture at the top is two versions of Aethelflaed Lady of Mercia, second pic are some older shield maidens that are no longer available, third pic are the shieldmaiden fanatics, and the last two are the armed villagers. Really nice figs overall, I need to pick up some shooters and the berserkers as well.

Here are a few more Dark Age figs 

The top pic are Shamen from Footsore Miniatures They are really cool, I loved painting these. The spearmen, I think, are all old Gripping Beast. I bough them second hand and they are a mix of shields and stuff. 

Next up are some SYW Saxons infantry

All these figures are Old Glory 15's most flags are from Maverick Models the flags in the fifth pic are from Vaubanner I love the Vaubanner flags, but, I have to give the edge to Maverick. Reason being, I can buy exactly the flags I need instead of full sheets, and the quality is as good as anyone out there.

Of course you need cavalry. Again the figures are Old Glory 15s and all cavalry flags are Maverick Models.  That pretty much wraps up my Saxon army. I may need a couple officer stands but it's complete other then that.

The last project is one I am really enjoying. It is the War of Spanish Succession using the old Editions Brokaw range. I really dig the figures and they are very easy to paint up. The only downside I have had, is gathering enough figures for the complete project. I am using the Age of Eagles variant Age of Honour, so it is a brigade level game, making the figure count a bit smaller. I does still lead to having to add in an odd figure here and there none the less.

First up my Danish contingent.

And the Bavarians

Flags are almost all Maverick Models except the Bavarian infantry, which are from the Dayton painting Consortium. Well, that is all for this time. I will see you all again soon.

Heading Into Fall

 We are well into fall and it has been a few weeks since my last post. I have been as busy painting as I have been all year. Haven't gotten back to gaming, but, I plan to once I get back from visiting my family in a couple weeks. This time we have the continuation of a couple projects and the start of a new one. 

The first project on tap is the Mexican American War

There are some US line infantry, US Artillery Infantry, and some regular artillery. The infantry is all Old Glory 15s, with flags from TVAG The artillerists are Minifig with either Musket Miniatures or Old Glory 15s guns.

Most of what I did this time around were Mexicans, finishing all the rest of the regular infantry units except the Zappadores, they will be next time around.

Mexican Light Infantry

Mexican Fijo Battalion

Mexican Light Infantry

Mexican Light Infantry

San Patricio Battalion

Mexican Line Infantry

Grenadiers of the Supreme Power

Mexican 4th Light Infantry

Most of these guys are Old Glory 15s, except the Grenadiers, Musket Miniatures, and the San Patricio, manufacturer unknown. I wasn't too concerned what I used for them. They fought as artillery at Buena Vista, then fought as infantry at Churubusco, where they were captured, tried as deserters by the Americans, and executed. Once again, flags are all from the TVAG collection.

Next are some more Zanla types for Bush Wars

These guys are pretty easy to paint, its just a matter of how much I want to do civilian cloths and how colorful they should be. They are all Liberation Miniatures, available from RH Models

The next project is a new one that I just started, but, its genesis is probably around 25 years ago. When I first got into miniatures in my mid 20s, there were few ways for people to learn about the hobby and what was available out there. So, The Courier became my main source of information, with MW and WI added in as secondary sources. One advertisement in the Courier really caught my attention. It was for the Editions Brokaw line of WSS figures. I have to say I knew almost nothing about the WSS, other than what I had read about Blenheim in Charles Grants book The Wargame. But for some reason these really got my attention. This period was not one of interest for the group I was in at the time so no action was taken by me. Fast forward about 15 years, or more, and I saw someone selling a huge lot of Editions Brokaw WSS figures. Of course I jumped at the chance and ended up with a good deal of figures. Fast forward a few more years and I had decided on the Age of Honour rules, so I knew then what I needed to run the battles I wanted to play. I found I was really short of French, but a plea on TMP connected me to someone selling a pile of French figures. So, I finally got going on these guys in August.

I was really excited to get going on these after waiting so many years. I do need to go back  and trim down my flag staffs, I always seem to make them too long, as opposed to the oft too short flagstaffs that are cast on. What's a guy to do.

These next guys came with the last group of French I bought. I was looking at them for the longest time knowing they did not match the EB figs but not really knowing what they were. However I did an image search for EB figs and there they were. But, what were they?

Well, they ended up being Peter Laing 15mm. I did not know they even existed. They are not EB but I went ahead and painted them because I probably won't be able to find anymore EB, and I really think I am a bit short on my French. If not I'm sure they will still see some action. They don't have quite the heft of EB but they fit well none the less. Finding uniform info was a bit difficult but there are some decent online resources. Baccus has some WSS painting guides that are free PDFs, and the Project SYW group has started a Project WSS site. The info on the French, which all these units are, is a bit sketchy still but is still worth a look. Flags on most of these (all the cav, most of the foot) are from Maverick Models I have a couple things to note about Maverick. First you can buy flags individually rather than sheets, ending up like I usually do with a bunch of excess flags. It was nice to be able to get only what I wanted. He will size them to meet your needs. He actually emailed me, noting that I was a new customer, making sure that the flags, as ordered would be the right size. Good customer service, and a quick ship, following the usual 2 week delivery time I have been experiencing from the UK.

That's all I have for this round, it was quite a bit. Next time will be 20mm WW2 Belgians, more 20mm Bush Wars, 15mm ECW and some 28mm Dark Ages.

Take care of yourself, and keep gaming!