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.

28mm Late-War British Weapons Teams (2)

Here are my first completed figures of 2020. Sixteen figures making up a Vickers HMG .50-cal gun, two 2" light mortars and four two-man Bren gun teams.

This is a true mixed bag of manufacturers. The Vickers MG is from Warlord Games,  the 2" mortars are from Crusader Miniatures, and the Bren gun teams are from West Wind miniatures. It's fantastic how well all three of these figure lines work together. Additionally I've had equally good luck matching up Artisan 28mm WWI British into this mix of manufacturers.

These were a straight forward paint up done on my Twitch stream over two full and two partial sessions. In addition to my normal block paint and wash, I added some flesh highlights and some highlighting on the gunmetal parts of the Bren teams. I wanted to 'pump up' the quality, but not so much that these figures would look out of place with the rest of my previously painted British WWII figures.

Subject matter on my painting table right now is all over the map as I try to work up a portfolio of painted figures on my Instagram page to show people what things I like to paint. Next up on the painting table are some Roman principes and velites.