28mm Gaul Archers

These are twelve Gaul 'Tribal Archers' figures from Warlord Games SPQR range of figures. They're resin figures. I tend to be a 'lead snob' but so far I've been quite happy with all of the SPQR range of resin figures. These are no exception. I've painted these up to be my 'levy archers' for my Carthaginian army for Saga Age of Hannibal. Once I get my wargaming room finished and my laser back on-line I'll cut up some bases for them. The basing will be 1" circular bases made from 3mm arctic birch plywood per my usual for Saga infantry figures.

Twelve figures added to the 2021 painting totals. Until I get my laser back on-line I'm counting figures as they are finished in ready-to-base condition. This is not my usual, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

28mm 'Romanized' Samnites

Ten Old Glory 28mm Samnites. These will be artillery train guard 'soldier' stands in Hannibal At the Gates. Each stand will be five figure groups as shown. I've equipped these with Roman scutum shields and more uniform tunics while retaining their traditional Samnite helmets. 

I experimented with contrast paints on the tunics with results I'm not thrilled with. The helmet feathers are also contrast paints and I'm thrilled with how they look. The rest of the work on the figures used traditional techniques.  Ten figures, to start the year's painting progress off. Next up on the painting table are eight more Samnites. These next ones will be Samnite 'colorful legion' warriors to be used as mercenaries in Saga Age of Hannibal games.

One note: I'm still working on my new studio space, so my laser cutter/engraver is currently out of service, so basing many of the figures I've painted this year will be a big project for later this year.

28mm Baleric Slingers for Saga Age of Hannibal

Another unit of mercenaries for Saga Age of Hannibal. These are eight Baleric slingers. They're from Warlord Games Hail Cesar line. I tried experimenting with mixing the brighter colored GW contrast paints with some of the light browns to make some of the colors more muted to represent ancient plant-based dyes. I think they came out well. 

I still need to base them but I'm under four hours for the eight figures, and I'm happy with how they came out. Eight more figures added to my annual painting totals.

28mm Ligurians for Saga Age of Hannibal

These are eight Old Glory Ligurians. I still have to base them up, but the painting is complete. Shield transfers are LBMS. 

I've painted these up as mercenaries for Saga age of Hannibal. I'm not entirely sure which army I'm going to paint up, so I decided to start with some decent mercenary units instead of picking core troops to work on.

Eight figures for the 2020 painting totals.

Next up on the painting table, some more Saga Age of Hannibal mercenaries: Baleric Slingers.

28mm WWII Finnish Infantry

 These are twelve 28mm WWII Finnish infantry that I recently completed painting and are ready to base up. They are a mix of Artisan and Warlord figures. The SMG-armed figures are Artisan while the others are Warlord figures. I painted these in two two-hour streams on my Twitch.tv channel. Total time four hours, or 20 minutes per figure. 

These figures will be used for both Continuation War and Lapland war using Iron Cross, Chain of Command or Bolt Action rules. I'm still unpacking from moving this summer, so my laser engraver is still out of commission. As soon as it's back on-line I'll be cutting up bases for everything that I've been painting recently and I'll have a giant basing party for all of these recent projects.

Next up on the painting table will be some Lugurian ancient infantry for Saga "Age of Hannibal"

28mm Macedonian Companion Cavalry

Apologies for the lack of posts lately. I've been laid up with a bad back. Things seem to have calmed down enough for me to get back to the painting table this week. Here are twelve 28mm Macedonian Companion Cavalry that will become a division of four stands of cavalry for Hannibal at the Gates. 

The figures are from Aventine Miniatures and I'm very happy with the sculpts. I've used some GW Contrast paints on the tunics and helmet decorations as well as extensively on the horses. The rest of the work is traditional paints, washes and glazes. 

Twelve riders and twelve horses that I'll count as 24 figures in my annual figure totals.  Next up on the painting table a rare divergence from historicals to paint up some Fallout Wasteland Warfare miniatures.....just for fun.

28mm Macedonian Generals

The past few of my Twitch.tv streams I have been working on these 28mm Macedonian general figures. They're from the Warlord Games SPQR range and are the Macedonian Heroes pack.

The personalities include Alexander himself on his horse with the leopard skin horse blanket he's always pictured with. This was my first attempt at leopard skin. I like the effect, but future attempts will include more spots.  I'm counting these as six figures in my painting totals due to the horses (as I usually do for cavalry)

I also worked on a test piece for what will eventually be six 'ruined cottage' terrain pieces. These are some very old, manufacturer unknown resin pieces I bought most likely about 20 years ago. They'll be useful for Saga as 'ruins' or any period medieval to WWII as ruined buildings. I will be finishing the other 5 pieces of the set on a future stream.

28mm Macedonian Thureophoroi Ready to Base

I have been slowly working back into 'the groove' painting. I've also re-engated with my Twitch.tv stream painting on my old schedule of Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Sundays late morning to early afternoon. I'm still without a full studio and my laser cutter/engraver is still offline awaiting proper infrastructure in the form of power and exhaust system.  My preferred method is to complete a unit, base it then photograph it for this blog. For the near future, that process will be not adhered to. Completed figures are going to pile up for a bit until I can set up my full studio. 

These figures will eventually make up four units of Macedonian Thureophoroi for Hannibal at the Gates. They will be used along side my previously finished Thorakatai, based similarly in a HATG soldier wing. The photo above in the box probably gives the best color representation. Below are some additional photos. In addition to my basing materials being hidden away among various moving boxes, so is my photography set up.

I've also made some additional progress on repairing and touching up over 130 Macedonian pike that I purchased from Ebay. I still have to put decals on the silver shield figures, then they'll be ready to re-base.

28mm Finnish Ski Patrol

These are the Finnish ski patrol scouts from the Warlord Games Finnish infantry boxed set. I've chosen to mount them on 25mm wide oval bases to protect the skis. After mounting them up the bases looked too white so the viewer that requested these on my Twitch.tv stream suggested edging the bases in grey and adding some non-white components. I added my pre-made rocks and some bushes and foliage clumps. All three were topped with fake snow made from PVA glue and micro-balloons. After drying the micro-balloon and PVA mixture was dry-brushed white.

I am particularly happy with the shading of the white jumpsuits on these figures. They were base-coated including all shading with my airbrush. Painting the remaining details with a brush was a relatively quick job. I'm looking forward to increasing my skill with the airbrush in hopes of finding more shortcuts like this in the future.

28mm Macedonian Hypaspists

These are three stands of Macedonian Hypaspists. The figures are mostly Crusader Miniatures figures, with a smattering of others thrown in to flesh out the units. At least one of the officers is from Old Glory.

Games Workshop's contrast paints have been all the rage for a few months. Originally I dismissed them as not appropriate for historical miniatures. When I started the Macedonians, with their blues, pinks and purples, I took a second look at them. This is my first unit painted with them and there is definitely a learning curve that needs working through. I am however, finding them quite fun to use. These figures were painted completely in about 40 minutes per figure, and that time includes three hours making the custom homemade shield transfers and applying them to the domed shields.

As far as a full review of GW's Contrast paints, I'm not quite ready to do that yet. I will say that there is a definite difference color-to-color in the range. Some are quite good and at least one that I tried is totally unusable.  More on this once I have more experience with the paint range.

These stands will make up the infantry portion of my Macedonian army's guard division, which is a required element for my friend Bob's ancients campaign. Unfortunately the campaign is on COVID pause, but we're hopeful to resume games soon after the quarantine is lifted. Until then I continue to play catch-up painting units for my army. This command adds fifteen more figures to my annual painting totals.

Start of the Finnish - Lahti Anti-Tank Rifle Teams

I have a feature on my stream, where after watching for a certain amount of time, viewers can request that I paint a particular project from a list I provide as my next stream project. My Finnish friend, Ugli81 is one of my most active and longest viewers. He recently requested that I paint my Finnish Lahti anti-tank rifle teams. To be honest, I was THRILLED he chose these models for me to paint. The Lahti is my favorite man-packed weapon of WWII.

My 28mm Finnish force will be used for the Continuation War and the Lapland War. Possibly later on I may also work my way backwards to the Winter War. Although I've based these in spring terrain, I'm possibly going to add some additional 'melting snow' effects once I find appropriate basing materials to do so. These figures are the first in my Finnish skirmish army for Iron Cross or Bolt Action. There are many more to come....some sooner than later, but that's a topic for a future blog update.