Gentlemen, take your baggage....

In possibly one of the least inspiring posts on this site in quite some time, I have photographed some newly rebased Ancients baggage elements which have been re-done to better suit the L'Art de la Guerre rules.

Click and be both amazed and enthralled in equal measure ...

Malifaux - the final Arcanist Crew, Colette and the Showgirls!

The 7th, and final, Arcanist crew has been released in plastic, and I've now painted it up. This involved a bit of innovative basing (for me), some cute use of mini magnets and a lot of flesh coloured paint as Colette and the Showgirls take to the stage for the first time!  

See how they were painted, assembled and based in this painting walkthrough 

Breaking the to-do list with 28mm TYW Gunnes

Remember that post from a few weeks ago with my gaming "to do" list on it?

Of course, I managed to prioritize something that wasn't on the list, wasn't necessary and didn't add any new models to my collection of usable figures - a rebasing project for my 28mm TYW Regimental gunnes onto 50mm round bases.

Ta-dah!

A few more Malifaux proxies...

If you're going to be a Wild West Exorcist, why stop at just a crossbow... He also has a little of the Billy Bob Thornton character from Fargo about him. Which is probably not a good thing if you are about to be exorcised... 

Joss is only available in a box set where I already have the other figures... so here's a £2 proxy 

Home made mechanical toolbox from two 15mm/6mm drones

Brass Arachnid - another model only available in a box set I own already, scratchbuilt instead from drones.

An edited and cleaned up shot of the Exorcist

In my version of the fluff, Johan is actually a wise old union official... and may even be Kang's father... 

Blokes in hats with guns. 

There are plenty of them out there... Guild Guard anyone..? 

I also now have auction listings for Malifaux figures, scraped off of eBay. Have a look here

Perry Miniatures Arab Cavalry for Saga Cross & Crescent

With the Cross & Crescent book now out (and looking lovely) I've picked up some Perry Miniatures Arab cavalry from Dave Thomas at Britcon, intending to use them to bolster out the Gripping Beast (plastic) infantry who've been seen here before. The basing is also like the post that appeared here before too.

Usual painting style, this time with a white undercoat and a final coat of Army Painter Strong (ie the mid) tone. The photos are larger than this - you can click them to see a bigger version.

Here they are, based up but not yet inked/Army painter'ed

Unusually I elected to hand-paint the shields here.

I mixed up the horses and riders a little, so they don't quite map onto the photos on the Perry site

 They are a mix of Syrian / Seljuk / Turkish types, although some look to be a bit more Turkoman

The guy on the left is actually a Conquest Games Norman knight, with a spare head from the Gripping Beast infantry. The Conquest Games Normans seem to fit very well alongside these Perry troops - the horses are a little chubbier, but they are still decent.

Geometric and floral patterns on the rather simple shield designs.

I did some of the turbans in stripes, which I have seen as an Omani thing in today's Arab world - it looks more interesting than a plan turban thingy so worth a try every now and then.

They will get an outing soon along with the accompanying infantry from Gripping Beast. There are probably some of the Gripping Beast Arab infantry on eBay UK if you click that link too..

Mei Feng's Rail Crew bring a train load of Malifaux to Madaxeman.com

Based in an alternate Earth, Malifaux is a skirmish game with bits of Gothic, Steampunk, Victorian Horror and - of course - the Wild West. It features a magical lawless world rife with monsters, necropunks, man-machine hybrids, gunslingers, and powerhungry politicos.

What's not to like?

I'm in the process of giving this a try, and so of course the first step is to buy far too many figures and spend ages painting them up.

 And, so, for your delight and horror, here are the results:

Basing Saga Arabs for Cross & Crescent

I've posted a video showing how I used wood stain and builders sand to create a pretty decent looking basing system for my Saga figures - its online now and can be seen on Youtube or also on the blogger part of my site.

The video also has some photos of the new Saga Gripping Beast plastic Arabs, along with some North Star Berbers mixed in, which you can see here too.

Donnington Louis XIV Infantry

Today, for your delight and delectation, we present a series of photos of a Louis XIV era infantry unit using Donnington figures, in the final stages of being painted and based:

This is the unit just block-painted. I've not really got a particular army to use them in as I have a very full Essex Miniatures Louis XIV army, but I just liked these figures. Potentially they might be some sort of Jacobite unit in an otherwise Scottish/Irish army?

This is after adding the coat of Army Painter Strong Tone (the middle one in the range)

The figures are from Donnington's WEC ranges, sold as singles.

I tend to paint a base coat of a patch of dark brown underneath the apostles, and then almost drybrush them on in a linen colour. With the Army Painter as well they can really "pop" out quite nicely.

That rogue 28mm priest keeps sneaking into the shot on the far right, doesn't he..?

This appears to be after they have been matt varnished, this  time with a brushed-on Testors Dullcote. With just one unit on the production line, spraying is a bit of a waste so the brushed-on Testors is a better option

Now with the base colour painted in. I am half-tempted to put an ink wash over the rather bland bases, however this would mean reverse engineering an awful lot of figures so perhaps not... Anyway, they are now starting to look almost finished.

And this is with static grass added

A nice colourful unit, with a reasonable variety of figures and poses.

And a final close up of the shooters.

Basing Figures - The Movie

I've created a short YouTube movie on how I base my figures - its available by clicking this link. I will dig out some more links to basing guides and add them to this page soon - if you know any such sites please email me with their url's.