First 300 Rebs, Napoleonic ships and some Macedonians!

Some shots here taken yesterday of the first batch of painted  Epic Rebs for Chris. Hopefully you can see that I Have tried to vary the look between the brown/grey and the slightly more uniform grey with pale blue cuff patches, three of the former and two of the latter. They have had two coats of matt varnish. As Chris will be basing them to his own spec and adding flags I can call them finished. I will keep them in their units of 6 strips painted when packing. So that's 5 down with 39 more to go plus artillery! This commission will proceed at an agreed 5 regiments - 30 strips - per month, cheers Chris.

Next up and ready prepped for starting this morning are two 20mm WSS regiments for Tony, they look like Giants after the Epics! 

I have also been tinkering away on the Napoleonic ships in the evenings with the first two built and painted, .6mm holes drilled out for the rigging. In future I'll drill the models before painting but no damage was done in the process. Next step is to add the main standing rigging before adding the etched brass shrouds/ratlines and then the remaining rigging as described in the Rod Langton guide. Both ships are 'At Quarters' so no ships boats on deck - they would have been towed behind in action - the sail sets are 'Easy Sail' with Courses (lower sails) furled which was done in order to reduce risk of catching fire when in action. Just need to track down the recommended threads now and my wife is on the lookout for me. The resin sea bases will be improved once the ships are rigged with additional highlights etc.

Tiny holes 3 each side for passing the thread though for rigging.

I have also been enjoying myself painting a few Macedonians towards a DBA army. Lovely old Essex Miniatures, crisp castings. The bulk of the army will be Phalangites, 6 bases of 4 figures with pikes and shields should look quite impressive. Just a nice background project and I'll be ordering the opposing Persians this week. Going to keep the basing lighter than my usual style which should help to set off the colourful troops.

And finally, talk about it's a dogs life! Poppy certainly knows how to make herself comfortable.