Hoffman the new Arcanist

Malifaux M3E has shuffled some of the Masters around, and the Arcanists now gain Hoffman and his menagerie of mechanical monsters.

That resulted in an eBay purchase of a based and black-undercoated Hoffman crew which I hastily drybrushed and fininshed off to add a master to the roster to replace the now-retired Ramos and his spiders.

Here they are:

I'm particularly pleased how an ink-wash has created a leathery look to the mechanical Watcher's wings in this shot

I also had a bash at the "light spillage" effect on this Mechanical Attendant by extending the dayglor green to around the 'eye' - it's a bit messy but is starting to get there ...

Hoffman is a metal M1E version figure that I picked up when I was first dabbling in Malifaux as a solo figure, expecting him to be an Arcanist (with all the mechanical stuff on his back). 

Turns out I was right in the end !

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

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..

Newline 28mm Assyrians - the test batch

Lacking a 28mm Biblical army, I've been dithering about picking up an Assyrian army for some time now, on the basis that it is a decent list which I've used in 15mm with some degree of success, and more importantly that it's small, so hopefully not too expensive.

With multiple hoverings over the Foundry website failing to convince me I wanted the army enough to spend Foundry prices (£22 for a chariot! Ouch!), whilst browsing the traders at at the recent Attack! show in Devizes I stumbled across Newline Designs, who I'd mostly associated with 20mm ranges in the past but who also have a substantial range of 25/8mm figures as well.

They had a great value Assyrian Army pack (2 chariots, 9 Cavalry, 80-odd foot for about £75 from memory), with a special show offer of 20% off as well on the pack and any extras.. so a sub-£100 Assyrian Army was immediately bought!

So far I've only painted up a few figures just to see how they come out (the whole army will be a more production-line project), and I've also taken the "same army, different scales" principle to it's logical extreme by painting them up exactly the same as my 15mm Assyrians !

And here they are, next to the Museum 15mm Assyrians, and also some Foundry Commanders that I use in my 15mm army.

They are still a WiP project - I've not even done a full MF base of 6 infantry

The Newline figures come with figure-metal spears which I plan to replace with wire ones - like this guy. The sword is also from the bits box - all the Newline guys come with spears.

Here they are with the Museum 15mm figures

Same shield patterns - not too difficult to be honest...

The Armoured Slingers are over-supplied for ADLG armies in the Newline army pack, but the handful of spares will fill in as back rank figures in bigger units of Line Infantry

A generous three poses of bowmen - here's two of them.

This is the Newline chaps next to some Foundry Officers - a great match on size and body mass as well. The Newline guys look a bit shorter here, but their bases are lacking in magnabase so they are a little shorter due to that reason, not figure height.

Here are the Newline slingers and some more Foundry officers with equal height basing. A near perfect match - apart from on price!

Once the spears arrive I'll get cracking on the Assyrian production line - even these 28mm Chariots will end up with scaled-up versions of the same "wallpaper" I used on the earlier, smaller 15mm versions.

The Fire Golem!

A bit of variety now, with one of Malifaux's biggest models, The Fire Golem.

This one is from the M2e Backdraft box set, which means I'm short of a couple of apparently so-so extra minions but I do instead have Saboteurs and Fitzsimmons as well (which are all in the painting queue as we speak).

He wasn't the easiest model to paint as the flames go in all directions, meaning there isn't a clear orientation to allow you to start with pale white-ish flames and then shade it through to red and even sooty black

As a result I wasn't really happy with him until I did several more layers and more drybrush-style highlights than I might normally do on a flaming model.

The basic technique was to start with a series of very pale and thin yellow washes using watered down paint, and then start adding highlights in progressively darker oranges and even reds until I was happy with the overall look.

Managing to pick out all of the bits of brazier holding him together was also not the easiest as the metalwork does rather blend into the mass of flames in a way which makes black-edging it tricky.

In the end I ended up with a bit of drybrushing of gunmetal and pale grey onto the brazier elements, and then blacklining them where I could to finish it off. Here is the guy with Kaeris' totem the Eternal Flame.

This is from a dayglow orange Kaeris box that I won in a draw at a competition a couple of years ago. I had a metal Kaeris and so hadn't painted this guy as I wasn't really sure how he would work in M2e - but he's more useful (and free!) now so time to get him done.

All of the orange bits are the original plastic left unpainted

The rest is gunmetal and Peat Brown ink over a black undercoat, apart from the gears on his leg joints which were a pale sandy colour which I know responds really well to Peat Brown ink

I did also pin him underneath as I really wasn't convinced that glueing his very small feet to the base would be secure enough to hold him in gameplay.

The Golem is HUGE - he he is next to fellow firestarter Bansuva.

28mm Landsnechts & Swiss - in GW Contrast Paints!

You know those painting projects that seem never to die? They just drag on and on, staring at you and each time you start trying to move them along the sheer quantity of painting ends up crushing your will to continue?

Well, for me that was a big winged-Keil of Landsnechts in 28mm, bought for FoGR in a series of bring and buy used-figure bags - and then supplemented by a pack of Old Glory arquebusiers.

I had even made a couple of half-hearted attempts to sell them as a part-painted project - but then suddenly realised that they were the perfect project to try the new GW contrast paints (as even a so-so painted unit is better than a unit that never gets painted or put on table, right?

See the full effect in this photo-article..