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.

More Painted Minis!

I'm on a roll with blog posts this week. Not that I have any extra time. Fortunately I am able to work from home in the same capacity I do in my little office, so there isn't any extra time to paint/hobby in that regard. Though there is certainly more time to paint/hobby due to the fact we can't go do anything else. Most of this was painted January/February, and based/flocked a couple weeks ago. I was a bit delayed in posting because I could not get them clear coated due to the high humidity the last couple of weeks. Better safe than sorry when it comes to that.

First up are some Gripping Beast Dark Age Archers. I am not sure if they sell them as a particular nationality, but, they are generic enough to use with most Dark Age armies. I had bought them second hand and discovered that a few were missing bows. Thankfully Gripping Beast sells weapons separately so I was able to finish them up like they should be.

Next up are some Old Glory 28mm Mounted Samurai. I really like these figures. They can be a little rough around the edges but they paint up nicely. The two guys with spears were broken standard bearers but with the help of a pin vise they were given spears instead.

This next group is again from Dark Age Europe. I think they are Gripping Beast  Mounted Vikings.They are sufficiently generic to use for most armies of the era. I feel an explanation is in order here. Usually when starting out a new project, I had in the past taken a shotgun approach to collecting. I would buy a bunch of stuff, preferably in a large lot, then pick through and keep what I wanted. They didn't necessarily come in the original packs, etc. So sometimes I have some difficulty labeling them. That and it seems as though Gripping Beast has dropped some of their older metal figures. These guys were in pretty good shape, but some others I just painted had some serious molding issues.

This next group from the same era, is a more Norman/Saxon bunch. Again I am pretty sure they are Gripping Beast. They are foot spearmen. The shields are from Little Big Men Studios I absolutely love their stuff, and it is so easy to use too.

This next group are Vikings from Wargames Foundry I have always thought the price point a bit too high, but man, they are really nice figures. Well sculpted, clean casts, I guess I have been missing out!

These next two guys are Dark Age as well. They are a couple of character figures from Black Tree Design. I have to say they make some great figures with pretty clean casting. And at a very affordable price point. That sounds great you may exclaim! Unfortunately, many people have had excessive issues with order fulfillment. If you want to read stories about it there are plenty on The Miniatures Page or the Lead Adventure Forum . My personal experience has been quite good. Always shipped promptly, and the one time I had a back order it was at my home within a couple weeks. So buy at your own risk I guess.

Well that is enough of the Dark Ages for now, on to World War Two! This batch are Warlord Games multipart plastic Japanese from the Special Naval Landing Force Box. They seem pretty generic to me. I had decided a while ago that I would split my Japanese into two different schemes. The plastics would be in the green uniform, and my metals would all be in the yellowish uniform. So these guys are all painted in the green uniform. I decided after this group that the WW2 plastics were just not for me. While it is cool that you can customize them, they are just too time consuming and tough on my old eyes. So I sold off all my other box sets and have replaced some with metal. Looks like I forgot to paint a few base edges. I'll have to get to that.

This next guy, I got in a lot of miniatures I had bought to resell. Alas, no one wanted him, so I decided to take a crack at him. He looks to be from Games Workshop, and I am assuming he is a Dwarf artillery crewman, based upon the cannon sponge he is carrying. He was fun to paint, and a welcome diversion from my usual fare.

These last ones are a potion of my 20mm early war Germans I have completed. Quite frankly they pretty much look the same, so I decided on a sample of poses to post this time. These guys are from Early War Miniatures . I have to say that I was not particularly happy with these castings. The sculpting or molding was just not very good. They paint up decent, but they leave much to be desired. Here we have a machine gun team and mortar crew, as well as some infantry types. Since the uniforms are more or less the same these guys will serve double duty as Wehrmacht and SS.

Well that's it this time. I am feverishly painting away, so in the next few weeks I should have some SHQ early war Dutch, some Skull and Crown Miniatures Triumph of Death stuff, and who knows what else, to show you folks. Take care of yourselves and stay healthy!