Showing posts with label basing figures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label basing figures. Show all posts

19 Apr 2020

Legio Heroica Javelinmen

Lockdown painting has been a bit all over the shop recently, with complete armies getting finished in all sorts of scales as well as some odds and sods being tidied up.

The focus has been 25mm and 10mm, with a bit of 6mm as well however I have still been sneaking in the odd pack of 15mm Ancients into the queue - including these Legio Heroica Arab Javelinmen (packs MUS19 and MUS37) that I picked up at the mini bring and buy at the Avignon ADLG event before Christmas.


They are lovely little figures, true 15mm like all of the Legio Heroica stuff and nicely animated as well.

I painted this lot with mostly Contrast paints and inks, to try and give them a slightly washed out look whilst keeping them colourful, as some of my Arabs are a bit, well, desert-ey in their colour schemes


They also came with separate shields and metal, pointed mini spears - unusual these days for 15mm. The shields are mostly flat-backed so I used a 2-part epoxy glue to stick them firmly on.


For the javelins I had a bit of a go at something I've seen online, giving them some texture by adding bands of brown, with a wider band of dark brown with a narrower band of lighter brown inside them - a bit "bamboo-ey" and slightly more interesting than just a plain brown spear. 


If you look closely you'll see some bubbling of the matt varnish that I brushed on - I was in too much of a hurry to get these finished to wait and spray them with the next large batch of figures and dissapointingly the varnish hasn't calmed down after I applied it.


At tabletop distances this is pretty much impossible to see, but I guess that's the beauty - and downside - of these sorts of extreme close-up macro photos!


The banded spears are more visible in this shot.


They'll be playing as Javelinmen (hence 5 to a base, which I use to differentiate them from Swordsmen and Spearmen) in ADLG once we are all allowed out to play again!

(As of the 22nd April it sounds like Legio Heroica will be on a bit of a hiatus, partly due to lockdown and partly due to a pre-scheduled medical procedure - he'll be back once lockdown ends.)

1 Apr 2020

15mm Forged in Battle Scythians

Madaxeman Podcast-participant Dave Saunders has been chewing through a Forged in Battle Scythian kickstarter army in the last week or so of being furloughed, and has kindly shared some pictures of his work with the podcast WhatsApp group

In the interests of putting as much eye candy out there as possible to inspire you whilst we are all locked in our houses I've taken the liberty of sharing them here as well.












These guys also now appear in the Skythian folder as some of the 3,600 photos now in the 15mm Ancients Figure Gallery 

26 Mar 2020

Museum Hoplites Part II

The hoplites are now ready for battle! 

Yes, with a smidge more painting and a decision on basing driven largely by the UK government's decision to close all DIY shops and impose a total lockdown on all non-essential travel (thus denying me the opportunity to buy some wood filler) the Museum Z-crew are now ready to take the table. 

Or, more likely, they are now ready to stay in a drawer until playing soldiers again is no longer something that would contribute in any way to the potential collapse of the NHS. 


The figures - and especially their shields - as pretty big, probably at the 16-17mm end of the scale without quite reaching "giant Xyston ranges" levels. That allows a 40x30 base to be pretty well filled with 7 figures (4+3), so I eked out 5 bases-worth from 4 packs, adding in this ex-Warmodelling brand mounted officer picked up at the PAW show in January to one of the bases to represent a unit with an embedded general.


With sand and woodstain basing and a bit of static grass they are now basing-compatible with my Biblical armies, which gives them a handful of opportunities in some of the more obscure later ADLG lists to appear alongside Egyptians and (occasionally) Asssyrian-style chariots.


There is a mix of armoured, linen cuirass, skirt and nude figures, but I just mixed them all up together for variety.


This view more clearly shows the different armour (or not!) styles


The transfers are great, but still do leave a big lip around the edge of the shield which for some of the designs (with detail right up to the edge of the transfer) is rather tricky to blend in with matching paint out to the shield rim. 

The base on the right shows this - the guy at the front ended up with a contrasting shield rim, whereas the guy behind I just about managed to blend in the rim with a similar red to the transfer itself.


The "white" shields are a bit easier, and I went with a simple bronze rim for most of them anyway


As well as packs of mixed poses, there are separate packs of just the standing guys - my view is that you probably need a number of these standing pose packs to make up the bulk of the rear ranks in your army or units, otherwise if you just go fo rmixed packs you could end up with a few too many kneeling and, erm, lurching men in the front rank


I kept the crests all black - there's probably more than enough colour in the shields and their rims already and I didn't fancy drifting itno rainbow territory onn the crests too


Ta-dah! 

3 Feb 2020

A handful of 10mm French Old Guard

I've dropped a few photos of these chaps on Twitter already, but realised that they hadn't yet appeared here as well.

These are Pendraken French in Greatcoats & Bearskins, with only flock and flags to add to finish them off.

The bases are 40mm x 20mm




Here are some earlier WiP shots as well



4 Dec 2019

More tiny tanks...

With too many photos to post in one go, here are the rest of the 1/300th scale moderns - none of which still thankfully smell of Dettol either!

This lot is mostly Arab armies - a mix of T72, T64 and T55s 


The tanks are mostly on 40x20 bases, with other AFVs on 30x20 and 20x20 for the small ones 


I'm not sure if this Desert MERDC scheme was actually used, but it does look cool! 


I seem to have a full set of M60s, AAV7's, M1's, Bradleys and other toys - probably far too many to actually use in CWC!


The M60's have had the most work done in terms of removing the old paint and metal rot



There were also some random French and other vehicles, apparently from a French Recce force that there is no real list for in CWC at the moment as it may be a bit too modern,




The T55's are I think rather ropey Skytrex models. For all of the tanks they are Army Painter desert sand spray, with Army Painter diluted soft tone wash on the upper surfaces and Dark Tone on the wheels and tracks.  


My attempts to paint the tracks themselves are a partial; success (aka a bit rubbish) but at tabletop distances they are OK (honestly...)


I suspect everyone in the world owns 30+ of these H&R models...


T64 eport version - again I think Skytrex


A full collection of AFVs, as well as PT76's round out the collection



1 Dec 2019

Refurbished 1/300th scale tanks

A couple of months ago I was gifted a huge collection of 1/300th scale tanks by brother, most of which I'd actually painted and some of which I'd owned way back when we were both still at school.

Other than the sheer amazement as to just how dammned many of the blighters there actually were (and being mind-boggled that we managed to even play a single turn either of the old WRG modern rules, or the even more complex and marker-tastic Battlegroup moderns with quite so many AFVs on table..), it was also a challenge to see how easily it would be to upgrade some of them to a full set of CWC Middle Eastern forces.

None of them were based, and more concerningly a significant proportion of them were suffering from some sort of evil metal rot/fungal plague as well.  The internet provided some help, and I ended up buying a large amount of Dettol to act as a paint stripper - and smelling out the house in the process with a rather different, more medicinal small than I usually do (with paint...)!

The end result is four full A4 trays worth of based 1/300th AFVs, and at least as much again that will go for sale to clubmates or on eBay in the new year.

Here are pictures of the Israelis, and also some of the Brits as well:


Israelis and some extras for other forces in the storage tray. This is an A4 plastic paper storage box from Paperchase lined with steel paper for the magnabased AFVs top stick to. 

A layer of bubble wrap will sit on top of them and hold them all in place when the lid is shut, allowing them to be stored upright alongside the rules in a bookcase. 

British command stand


Israeli command stands


British Challenger AFV's, command and Warrior IFV's. 

The basing is magnabased card, with sand glued onto it, stained with Rustins woodstain and then drybrished in pale grey and the old standard of Bleached Bone 


The metal rot!  I guess I could have just left them as-is and used them for FWC ...


Dettol, an old toothbrish head, and a bad smell ... 


M60's post-soaking
 

British recce units


Skytrex (I think) Centurions



Set of three Israeli tanks

The Russian-supplied kit, and a USMC desert-MERDC battlegroup will be posted soon..




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