15 years painting figures for 'Old John'.

 I was reminded whilst replying to a recent comment by James that I have been painting figures for 'OLd John' Cunningham for a solid 15 years in which time I have painted thousands of 20mm 1/72nd figures for him. The video below from my channel show just the tip of the iceberg of John's vast collection and a few shots of the man himself at his large permanent wargame table. I continue to paint on a monthly basis for him and should get to the 3D prints next week. 

As I have wound things down somewhat recently I'm only painting for John and Noel which keeps me happy and I am about to embark on a large WotR 15mm commission for Noel as I finish up his two year Black Powder and Fire & Fury ACW projects this month. 

 

Remembrance Sunday.

 Sharing this old post again in memory of my Grandfather Alfred Charles Gramson, 3rd Foot 'The Buffs'.

My Grandfather.

Some 3D printed figures for Old John!

 Recently I have been painting more 'Streltsy' (Wiki Link )   units for Old John, I believe we are up to around 25 now, each comprising 24 to 30 figures! I really enjoy painting these units as John allows me pretty much free rein with regards to colours, each unit wearing a uniform coat edged with fur trim. These are of course 20mm/ 1/72nd from a variety of plastic manufacturers. Recently John has also been looking into 3D Printed figures to add to his collection and this week some lovely Cossacks, Streltsi and Polish Winged Hussars arrived for me to paint. I never fail to be amazed at the quality of 3D printed soldiers which has come on leaps and bounds in recent years. It will be a little while before I get on to them but in the meantime I thought you might like to have a look at them, I think they will paint up a treat.

Apologies for the poor quality photos.

Another two plastic units in progress by Strelets.

Couple of bits of resin to trim away, the chunky bases come separately for attaching to horses.

Keeping busy - ACW wagons.

 Not my favourite time of year, that's for sure, nights drawing in, grey skies etc but I'm keeping busy painting and modelling. 

I'm gradually finishing off the Epic ACW project for Noel, wagons, dismounted cavalry and skirmisher bases. I'm told we are going onto a large Wars of the Roses commission next using Peter Pig figures 15mm. To this end I have been watching/ listening to lots of related videos on YouTube learning as much as I can about the arms and armour of the period as well as general history. I'm looking forward to it.

The 8  wagons below are by Kallistra a good scale match for Warlord Epics. Fixing the wheels to the axles was a bit of a pain requiring lots of drilling out to get a fit, they kept falling off! Job done though and I'm pleased how they turned out. This week I have 9 bases of dismounted cavalry to paint, also Kallistra.

Hannibal's Barca Army Epic box set completed!

The final batch is painted - 28 bases of assorted skirmishers and two command packs - and that completes this commission. Must say that I have enjoyed this one. Just need to get everything packed up thats left here over the weekend for shipping off to Arizona via FedEx International priority collection service which is about 5 working days, door to door. As always return shipping is included in my prices as standard. Now it's back to Old John and Noel for the next few weeks, I also have the sample Jacobite clansmen to do this week, they are metal Epic strips and very nice castings.

Incoming - some Scottish Fellows!

 A quick general update on what's on the painting desk. I'M finishing off the the remainder of the Hannibal Barca Box set for Leo, the 28 skirmisher bases (each of 5 individual figures) and the command packs left to go this week then a final shipment to Arizona via FedEx. Door to door in 5 working days is a remarkable service and the big advantage of the Epics is that they pretty robust little things with very little weight (plastic bases etc). I do wrap each base in bubble wrap and pack in cat food pouch boxes within a shoe box outer carton for protection.

Once shipped I'll paint a couple more 20mm Strelsi units for Old John before returning to Epic ACW's for Noel as I'd like to get his ACW's completed by start of December. 

Meantime I have another Warlord Epic commission incoming, something interesting, Jacobite infantry for the '45 Rebellion. I offered to do a couple of sample strips first to see what can be done as I have not painted these before but the order is for 32 strips, 16 bases, 4 bases per 80 figure unit. The Clansmen utilise the figures from the previous Pike & Shotte release of Montrose's Highlanders (see Warlord Games image below) and the British Foot will utilise the new Revolution infantry sets, a very clever idea I think.

And of course, just to get me in the mood for the period I had to re watch the classic 1964 docu-drama in glorious black and white!

One Hour Skirmish (WW2) on the cheap (part1).

Right then, having painted some figures in 15mm (too small) and 28mm (too big) with the intention of putting together a small One Hour Skirmish Wargame set up I have settled on good old 20mm scale by way of a compromise! The plan here is simple, to put this project together on the cheap using as much scratch built terrain etc as possible  and utilising some of the skills I have learned from building 'Yaldbury' and indeed the wide range of 00 scale scenic accessories on the market to 'dress up' the battlefields which will use my trusty 2'6" x 2'6" folding card table which is covered in a suitable Geek Villain fleece mat.

We begin with some rather nice (and cheap) 3D printed buildings purchased on EBay for the grand sum of £4 each. I bought six of them to begin with and have so far painted the first three. They are nice and light weight being hollow and take the paint well and I added a touch of 'ivy' growing up the walls here and there. I might print a few small period posters. They are sold as 15mm  but work just as well with 20mm.

Figures: I must have looked at every 20mm range out there before settling on good old Irregular Miniatures - at least to begin with, At just 66p per figure they are the cheapest on the market and as I'm just looking to start with two squads of a dozen figures they are perfect for this project. German and US of course to begin with. The German squad is about done, NCO, MG42 (LMG) team, riflemen and a couple of assault rifles is enough for now. 

Trees: I like model trees, I won't lie, and for this I required some chunky models to suit the scale. Nice trees can be expensive of course so I decided to kind of make my own. A bag of Chinese 60mm trees wsa purchased via EBay for just £12.00 including postage, 50 of the things. I then grabbed a handful of plastic pipettes ( a few pence each) and cut them into two basic ' trunks'. Three of the Chinese trees were then bunched together and pushed into the the tube with a few drops of super glue. Once dry a couple more trees were cut down and added to build the height and again glued in. From the bag of 50 I managed to get 9 nice large bushy models in all. The plastic sleeves were then glued to 25mm MDF bases and covered generously in Vallejo texture before painting a suitable grey/brown. I have to say I'm rather pleased with the results. You could of course airbrush the foliage if you wish but I don't have one so these will do nicely.

Roads and rivers will be made using my Magnetic Printer paper method ( see video link below). I'm looking at making some hedge sections next, I purchased a bag of horsehair but the stuff is horrible, I don't like touching it even, so now looking at alternative foliage, possibly Woodland Scenics which cost a bit more but is very realistic.

That's it for now, I enjoy making stuff so this is a good fun little project for me.