Painting Update - December 2023

 It has been a few months since I last posted a painting update. Believe me, I have been painting quite a bit. Basing has been the hold up. Lots going on over the last few months and getting things based has been an issue. But, here is a nice grouping of stuff.

First off we have some WAS/SYW figures

The top 5 pics are all Hanoverians, represents a good portion of what I need. I still need to get more but that will be later next year. Last pic is Brunswick, with some odds and ends Brits above them. This was pretty much the last of what I had on hand. I'll reevaluate the project and figure out what I need to finish in '24.

These next items I only weathered, I did not paint them.

I got these 1/72 scale tanks on eBay from a seller in Hong Kong. They are pre-painted, but require some limited assembly. A little weathering, and they are ready for action. I did scrounge up some 20mm Japanese tank crew for the SP Gun, again from eBay. They were mostly in poses you would see outside the vehicle but I made them work.

\Next up some ancient Greeks

Ok they are mostly Greeks. There was a handful of Roman Velites as well.  Those are Victrix, as are the peltasts. The cavalry are from Warlord games.  I really like painting the Victrix stuff. Their sculpting makes it easy to get a great result. The shields are all Little Big Men Studios. The only real downside to the plastic figs is cleaning up mold lines. The Warlord cavalry are pretty nice overall, easy to paint, etc. Only downer is the fragility of the pose with the horses front legs in the air. They are very fragile from side to side. Probably will need to do some sort of support soon. These guys have been getting some use in our local SAGA league. 

I was finally able to get to my Spanish Civil War project this fall as well.

Assault Guards

Moroccans

Moroccans

Guardia Civil

Guardia Civil

Nationalists

Nationalists

This is about half  to a third of what I have painted of these particular groups. Not sure how many pictures of the same pose are needed so I just did some samplings. These are all 20mm figures from HPC. I had been collecting everything I could get my hands on, and recently landed a nice group of painted ones, and then another larger group of painted figs. I need to sort through those and figure out what I am keeping. I do need Italians, and some Assault Guards so I can do the other uniform variants for them. I got so many, I ended up selling my Minairons figures and going just with these guys. I still have my Minairons vehicles though, and I'll probably pick up a few artillery pieces as well.

That is it for this time. I have sveral more planned posts so I am thinking I can keep up a bi-weekly rate of posting. Hope you all found this interesting!

Till next time.

Off the Workbench

 A couple months in to the year and I'm already off to a good start. Got 172 figures painted last month. I suspect this month will be better. I am currently in the midst of a 15mm Sea Peoples army for Impetus, having completed my Prussian 3rd Corps for the 100 days.  Reading, I finished my first book of the year

Overall not a bad read. You can read my short review here

In my painting I was forced to change my normal brushes, the Reaper black handle ones. I loved them and they are either way out of stock or getting rid of them. I absolutely detest synthetic brushes, they are literally the devil. so the hunt was on for new sable brushes. I finally settled on Da Vinci brushes from Dick Blick. I don't think they make them, just carry them. But, they are really nice brushes, keep a good point, and seem to be hardy. That was the one thing I loved about the Reaper ones, they took my abusive practices and still worked until they were practically hairless. One caveat, Reaper did have a bum brush from time to time, but the endurance of the good ones far outweighed that con. Anyway, it seems I have found a suitable replacement.

Well the time has come for the latest completed miniatures. So here they are! 

First up some Warlord Games Gauls

At times I think these are the gym Gauls, they are pretty cut. Maybe its that starvation diet they are on, I'm not sure. They are really easy to assemble and not too bad to paint. Shields are all Little Big Men Studios. The only real issue with the figs are mold lines, ugh, they are a pain.

Next up some cool skeletons from Skull & Crown I had misplaced these guys, and recently found them and got then straight to the front of the queue.

I don't really like the pavises, nothing wrong with them, and they came with the Kickstarter, but, I think in the future I am going to go with the coffin lids instead. I think they are more in keeping with the theme, and I don't have to come up with designs, I'm awful at that.

I finally finished my ECW project! I put this together to use with the Baroque rules, and based the armies on Marston Moor. Figuring that I would have more than enough units for pretty much any battle. Baroque loosely figures units at 1500 men per, I did mine at 750, I don't see any reason that would be problematic. This time around the majority are Scots.

That is pretty much the entire Scottish contingent at Marston Moor. I have another cavalry unit I missed getting a picture of plus there is an additional unit of foot in there I made up out of extras.

I also did a couple of Parliamentarian units.

And not to be outdone, a random Royalist cavalry unit made from excess cavalry and general figures.

The Scots flags are all from Wargames Designs they are really nice ones. As good as any others out there. The majority of the foot and cav are Essex miniatures, though there are some Minifig shot mixed in as well.

Finally I did generals. I'll caption the ones I remember.

LtoR Charles II, Aide, Charles I, Boye, Prince Rupert

Left base center Ralph Hopton

Right base center Earl of Leven

And there are of course a bunch of other guys like Essex, Manchester, Cromwell, Fairfax, Maurice Waller, etc. I used a mix of Old Glory 15s, and Blue Moon for the command stands. All the named personalities came from Old Glory 15s, and the others are mostly Blue Moon, including Boye. Yes, I bought a whole pack of figures for the dog. He is a must have IMO.

Well that is all this time around. I hope you enjoyed the post. I'll see you all next time.