Paint Desk Saturday

A motley bunch in progress.  I want to finish the odds and ends off before I tackle the next whole unit.

Front left, GW LOTR Orc drummer (Minas Death Metal Battaltion), and on the right, a RAFM adventurer who will probably be recruited into my Weird War project

Centre, a lovely a dangerous Wargames Foundry elf from their defunct Realms of Faerie range, who I am painting as a supplication to spring.

Back row, first of the Bob Murch Yukon adventurers for my Rockies Ablaze project.

Blessings to your brushes!

Paint Table Saturday

Two resin 6mm buildings by Timecast, suitable for anywhere in Northern Europe.  They will be grouped together on this base to signify a small town.   I suspect that at some point they will be requisitioned for billets by La Grande Armee.

 

Blessings to your brushes!

 

MP+

Paint Table Saturday

Little guys tonight after the 28mm ACW figures of last week.These are 6mm Baccus French chasseurs au coeval.  .

 

Not that it’s all that clear from the scale, but they are intended to be the 1st Regiment CC (green coats with red collars and cuffs).

 

It’s been a while since I painted in this scale.   Quite a difference in painting techniques than the last batch.  

Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Paint Table Saturday

This weekend I’m trying to get the rest of my 28mm Union Iron Brigade figures from Forgotten and Glorious done.   About half way there.   These fellows will be mustered in as the 24th Michigan.

Terrific figures to paint, I’m a fan of F&G.

Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Paint Table Saturday

On the painting desk today - a six figure 28mm ACW command group from French minis maker Forgotten and Glorious, from their Iron Brigade line.  In the back are some Weird War figures ready to go to the basing shop - more on them anon.

 These fellows will lead the 24th Michigan, the third regiment for my Iron Brigade project.  They are lovely sculpts, very well researched.  The quality of the gear and the accoutrements are first rate.

Blessings to your paint brushes!

MP+

Paint Table Saturday: Nasty Nazis

The nasty orcses featured here recently have tromped off the painting table en route to the basing station.   I hope they don’t squabble and kill each other on the way.   

In their place, the nasty theme continues as I turn to Nazis for my Weird War Two pulp project.  

We have some grim madchens from the SS Werewulfentruppen (Bob Mulch Pulp Figures), a couple of sinister officers (Westwind, I think) and a trio of hapless Wehrmacht sentries to give S Commando some practice in hand to hand combat.

Blessings to your brushes and whatever you’re painting.  Go Blue Jays!

MP+

 

Paint Table Saturday

On the painting desk this Saturday is another sprue of GW LOTR figures, in this case same nasty orcses to give those brand new Men of Gondor some chopping practice.  After just finishing a dozen Perry Bros federal ACW infantry (currently in the basing shop), these fellows are a little more challenging, in that I’m searching for the right mix of drag, scungy fabrics that one would expect an Orc QM sergeant to issue.  I was able to get the last lot of LOTR figs off the sprue after painting with some minimal touchup required, so I’m experimenting with the on the sprue technique again with these fellows.  Also experimenting with some rust effects on the chain mail - I figure the QM would issue stuff belonging to at least several deceased owners. 

 

Well, that’s that and a happy Saturday to you.  I’m off to a local gaming event in nearby Cambridge (Ontario, not the nice one - nearby in Ontario is Paris, Stratford, and London - not to be confused with the nice ones as well).  Hope to see some chums and see if there’s any more LOTR stuff at the Bring and Buy, because it’s getting hard to find now.  Not that there aren’t attractive substitutes to be had - more on that anon.

Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Paint Table Saturday

On the painting desk this Saturday are some Perry Brothers plastic ACW infantry, getting painted up as generic Union troops from the armies of the west, in plain black slouch hats.  I think I heard Col. Von Daniken in the mess saying he needed more boys since the damned rebs were so well fixed for artillery.  Mixed in is the remaining Perry artillerist fro missed from the last sprue I did of that lot.  Hopefully they’ll be done by this time next week.  There may be a warg rider running around in the background.

We move outside to see the other paint table in operation today.   Via the Too Fat Lardies yahoo list, I came across this tutorial by US gamer Mark Luther on how he sets up his amazing 6mm tables.   Mark’s games always make me think a flight to Atlanta might be worth the chance to get in on one.   I wanted to do something similar for my 6mm Napoleonics figures.  Borrowing slightly from Mark’s SOP, I took an old Queen sized bed sheet that we were discarding during our move.  Using painter’s tape to mark off the fields and some craft store acrylic paint, I tried to create a bunch of colours that would suggest an agricultural region.  My inspiration was seeing fields in southern Germany during a train trip this summer.

 I am now almost 3/4 done and hope to be finished soon, if blessed with some more good fall weather.   Once it’s done, I intend to work on it with artist’s pastel crayons to give the fields a little more colour and texture.  I can either draw roads on it in pastel, or lay the roads out with play sand if I wish.  Hopefully it will provide a colourful backdrop for my Naps battles.  The paint has left it rather stiff and I need to find a way to soften it a bit so it lies flat on the table and can drape over styrofoam hills. Also, since it looks rather like the table mats made by Hotz and other companies, I suppose I could use it for WW1 dogfight games, should I ever feel the urge to buy some plains.  Or, I could use it as a quilt in the guest room.

So that’s it for this week.  Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Saturday Painting Table

Good evening gentlefolk.   I’ve had time for a little painting since we got back from Europe.    The ACW artillery in my last Saturday Painting Table post are done and will be featured shortly.  Today my GW Gondorian infantry are almost done and ready to come off the sprue.   Nothing terribly imaginative with these fellows, pretty much done as per the films.   They’re like ACW Union infantry, fairly easy to mass produce.  Orcs, however, are like Confederates - they need to be done in a motley of drab colours that tales time and imagination.

Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Paint Table Saturday

Hmmm, haven’t done the in a while.  So what’s on the paint table today?   Made a little more progress on these Perry Brothers American Civil War artillerists, guns and limbers.  I know certain parties didn’t like this last time I mentioned this project, but too bad.   There may be some Union artillerists in the next batch which will work, seeing as these are timeshare guns.

And just started these GW Gondorian soldiers, courtesy of the very kind Chris Stoesen.   Not terribly challenging, painting this lot.

Blessings to your paint brushes!

MP+

Saturday Painting Desk

This last week a smelly bunch of 28 Rebs have been camped on the painting desk.  They’re lucky to get 30 minutes attention a day, since it’s all thesis all the time until the end of February.  The four in a firing pose are Renegade, the first I’ve ever painted, and much fun.  The rest are from the eccentrically sculpted, very hit or miss Old Glory ACW range, not my favourite, even though they do grow on me after a while.  Lots more rebs to go after these ones.   Each figure gets a slightly different colour scheme, which means a fairly slow rate of progress, but I like the motley look that results.

Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Saturday Painting Desk

New up on the painting desk is a collection of Artizan figures for my Weird War Two project, and a stand of Yanks getting their banner fixed (a perennial problem).  The Russian Dragoons featured here last week are done, I’ll show them off tomorrow.  Off to game tonight, hurrah!

Blessings to your brushes! 

MP+

Saturday Painting Desk

28mm Front Rank Seven Years War Russian dragoons.  These chaps have been camped on the painting desk for a few weeks now.  Hoping to have them done by early next week.



Cheers and thanks for looking.
Blessings to your brushes,
MP

Saturday Workbench

There’s been a lot of posts about Diplomacy (the game) and other boardgames on here of late, to the neglect of toy soldiers, so here’s an attempt to remedy that by showing what I’m currently working on.

28mm Foundry Union artillery, almost done!  After this I have a box of Perry plastic ACW artillery to work up.

 

Tamiya 1/48 scale Citroen car for my Weird War Two project.   I decided to assemble the Luftwaffe types that came in the box, they may prove useful, even if they’re a little larger than 28mm figures.

 

 

Eowyn, Gamling and Theoden, metal sculpts from the GW’s Defenders of Rohan set.  I had given them a very rough paint job years back when I played LOTR a lot with my son and never finished them, so now it’s time.

 

 

28mm Foundry Russian Cuirassiers for my SYW collection.   They’ll need a flag, and six more troopers would be nice, but it’s a downpayment on a badly needed unit of heavy cavalry for the Tsar.

 

Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Saturday Paint Table

The American Civil War Union troops shown here last week are finished and based.   I’ll get to them in a later post.   Taking their place are these five minis.  The stout chap on the bottle top is a Bob Murch Pulp Figures mini, and the other four are GW Gondorians from their LOTR range that I’ve had for a long time:  2 copies of their Beregond figure and a Gondorian foot command pack.   The Bob Murch mini and one of the Beregonds are going out the door as prizes to a contest from back in April.   The Murch figure is going to Joakim Strom, aka the Miniatures Man, and one of the Beregonds goes to Baconfat.  I figured since I am painting Beregond, I might as well do a few more Gondorians while I’m at it.

 

Watch this space tomorrow for results from the Fall 1901 Diplomacy game running on this blog.   Very exciting!

Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Saturday Paint Table

 

This week saw a little more work done on the 28mm Redoubt ACW minis that will form my Irish Brigade regiment.  Second of the three flesh shades has been added, and now I’m working on the muskets and hair.  The sculptor gave these fellows big shaggy heads of hair and abundant mutton chop whiskers and beards, so I need to pay attention to that aspect.   In the background are the GMB flags that they will fly once finished.   I’m doing some testing on shading for the kersey blue trousers.   One fellow, third from left, has been giving a coat of Citadel Drakenshade dark blue wash on his pants, and I’ll then add a lighter shade of pale blue as highlights for the fold and creases in his pants.    Another test figure, once finished, will simply get a wash of Army Painter soft tone, without the Drakenshade wash, and I’ll see which one I like better.   I’m very hopeful I can get these fellow done and off those uncomfortable nails by this time next week.

At far left is the 4Ground Sentry box, which has been painted and based, just needs some flocking and touchups.

Tomorrow once I finish preaching (my priest is on holiday this weekend) and I get home, we’re having some friends over for margaritas, so I doubt I’ll be in any shape to paint tomorrow!  

Blessings to your brushes and a good semester to all who are going back to school in one capacity or another.

MP+

Saturday Painting Table

I spent most of last week away, but made a little more progress on the current project, a bunch of 28mm Redoubt ACW infantry in shell jackets that will become the 88th New York, the second regiment in my Irish Brigade project,   I’m not good at painting large batches of figures, so to take a break in between attacks of ADHD I started assembling and then painting a 28mm 4Ground WW2 sentry box to protect the lair of my Weird War baddies.   I like 4Ground stuff a lot, it’s fairly was to assemble and looks good when done.  

No fresh baked bread to show you but later today I’m doing a beer can chicken on the bbq with Melanzine Ripiene alla Pugliese (stuffed eggplant Puglia style, but it sounds better in Italian) so drop by if you’re hungry!  Blessings to your paint brushes!

MP

Saturday Painting Table

Not a lot of painting got done today, even though it was a good day to stay indoors - an unseasonably cold and wet day here in SW Ontario - felt more like October than August.    I spent more time in the kitchen than at the painting desk.  I like baking, and I’ve found a great recipe for Italian focaccia bread — this is focaccia genovese, with a mix of basil, rosemary, parsley, freshly grated parmagiano reggiano and olive oil sprinkled on it as soon as it comes out of the oven.  Yummy!'

 

There was a little work at the painting desk today.   These three 28mm Reaper figures (two werewolves and a lady vampire) are pretty much done and just need final basing - they’re for an off again, on again Weird War Two project I’m working on..  Behind them is the next job, a unit of 28mm Redoubt Union infantry that I started over a year ago and then lost interest.   I’m really trying to get all my old projects done before I start something new.

I’m off to Ottawa on a research trip so it will be sometime next week before I’m ready to show off these three baddies here.

Saturday Painting Table With Bonus Guest Appearance

Last night’s Saturday Painting Table was very exciting, as we had an Artist in Residence at the Mad Padre’s Painting Chapel.   Here is good friend, blogger, wargames entrepreneur and all-around spiffing chap, James Manto, who came over for an evening of burgers, beer, and swapping manly jests while painting.   He’s also looking happy because he unloaded some junk on me and took m\y hard-earned cash in return to finance his current samurai addiction.

Some of James’ samurai fellows being painted.  His finished work is quite impressive.

 

I spent the evening continuing with my insane Napoleonics basing project, as I try to get my recently acquired Austrian, French and Russian 6mm armies ready for the gaming table.   Here is a portion of the Austrian infantry and artillery, with a mixed bag of French and Austrian cavalry, in various stages of the basing process.  I have about forty stands finished, an at least three times that to go.  

I hope you are all having a pleasant weekend.  Blessings to your brushes and die rolls!   Michael

Paint Table Saturday

 

And with a few hours left in Saturday on my side of the Atlantic, hello!   I’ve been working on a few things since I got back from holidays, but here’s what’s been on the painting bench today.  This is a 20mm / 1/722nd scale plastic model kit from Italieri, their Country House kit.   A few bits of dry brushing and adding some decorative foliage, and I’ll call it done, except for basing.  The paint scheme is inspired by houses I saw in Tuscany last week, since the house has a southern European/Mediterranean feel to it.   Most of my 20mm WW2 collection is intended for NW Europe, so I’m not exactly sure what I’ll do with this kit, but I’m sure I’ll think of something.

 

Blessings to your paint brushes!  MP+