A nice little batch of 34 figures painted this last week for Tony. Blue appears a bit lighter here than in the flesh due to my choice of 'blue' LCD's I think. They have all just had a thin coat of Vallejo Satin varnish (still drying) to protect them when packed but Tony does intend to give them further coats of his varnish as they will be based individually. Figures are 20mm but not sure of maker?
Thank you Tony, enjoyed painting these.
Now it's back to more WoR for Noel this week.
It's been an odd period for me recently, I seem to have spent a lot of time thinking about Life in general, looking back and trying to look ahead. When one reaches the grand old age of 68 it's hard not to spend time reflecting and certainly with regards to this hobby of ours I have been doing a lot of that! Over half a Century since I painted my first Airfix soldier I'm still doing it although I no longer have aspirations to large wargame tables and big battles, in truth I have done all of that many times over, enjoyed it very much but it's done now for me. That said I'm still interested in small scale games such as many I see in the 2mm Facebook Group where there is great creativity which I enjoy following.
All of the above said I am still able to enjoy bringing metal or plastic soldiers to Life with my modest painting skills and grateful that I am able to top up my Pension a little each month in this way. I remain grateful to those few friends and customers who still enjoy what I do, so thank you.
So what's in the pipeline? Having just finished the recent batch for Old John including these nice 20mm castings from Art Minaturen in Germany (below) I'm about to embark on 24 Napoleonic Spanish Artillery figures plus 10 siege Engineers for Tony (Foy), again 20mm. Following these I have more Epic regiments for 1745 Culloden for Marcus and then back to more WoR for Noel. I am indeed turning away commission requests, two in the past month, because I have to feel comfortable with my work load and my schedule.
Anyway, onwards my friends and keep those brushes moving!
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| For Old John. |
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| For Tony - ready to start work on. |
As you may be aware I have been doing a lot of digging into my family ancestry recently and my Cousin sent me this fascinating little document which he found among his late Fathers papers who had been a signalman during WW2.
Ready to inspire his troops in battle is this wonderful 20mm scale figure. My wife said I'm not allowed to paint any more naked women as it over stimulates me :) There is also a Maid to go with her. Thanks John!
Marcus has sent me more photos of his recent 'Black Powder' Jacobite practice game for Culloden. I'm pleased to be able to contribute in some small way to his project, Marcus is an excellent painter himself as you can see here. The flags will be a nice finishing touch. I have more Govt. units heading my way next week to paint for the game.
Thank you Marcus.
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| I love this shot (Marcus' work). |
The two regiments of Foot featured previously made their way safely to Scotland to take part in the game of Black Powder thanks to Royal Mail Special Delivery! The photo below shows them on the table alongside those already painted by Marcus, and I think they match very well, (mine to the right and Marcus' to the left ).
So I'm now back to WoR for Noel, starting Faction #4 with the men of the Household, lots of armour both mail and plate and a good smattering of Red/Yellow livery. 15mm Peter Pig Miniatures.
The men of Barrells and Pulteneys Regiments of Foot start the long march from Kent up to Forfar today to be ready for battle tomorrow afternoon! They will join the 5 Government units already painted by Marcus to face off against hordes of hairy Scots in a practice game of Black Powder Wednesday afternoon. We are going with Royal Mail Special Delivery because it guarantees next day delivery unlike the usual Tracked 24 service which does not! I'll ask Marcus for some photos and if OK post them here next post.
Thanks again to Old John for his help with flags, Marcus has now ordered from the two links below.
http://maverick-models.com/JAC%20FLAGS/JAC%20Scottish.html
https://www.wargamesdesigns.com/flags.html
Right then lads, off you go.....
Given the scale (Warlord Epic 13.5mm) I don't think they look bad and Marcus is happy with them, they along with Pulteneys Regt will be making the long march North on Tuesday (via RM Special Delivery, guaranteed next day!) in time to join the rehearsal battle (Falkirk) on Wednesday Afternoon. More will follow later. For the upcoming Culloden game the rules will be Black Powder with every unit represented on the table.
We are still searching for flags! Old John has been very helpful and supplied lots of links that I'm working through - print or buy but has to be 15mm scale.
Barrells 1745 (from Warlord Epic AWI).
These are the first 2 bases of Barrells Regiment (4th Foot) for a Battle of Culloden display game to be held at Montrose in Scotland in (I think) July. Commission work of course for Marcus. I'm finding the new visor is really helping me now I am used to the hand/eye co ordination. The uniforms are not perfect for the earlier period but work OK in these small 13.5mm 60 figure units I think. I have 3 such units to paint with more to follow.
Flags - can anyone assist me with suitable flags please? We are trying to find 15mm scale flags for this period to either print or purchase.
The old YouTube channel now has 1080 subscribers with several of the older videos achieving over 8000 views over time. It just encourages me to keep updating now and then and this latest video discusses the new headset visor, a new commission painting Epic AWI's as Government Troops for a Culloden display game, more Wars of The Roses and those pesky gliders again, all ready to be packed up to return to Noel finally. It's a bit of fun, just my gruff old voice speaking into my old IPhone which has just been upgraded to a superior later version with excellent camera for future videos.
Stop laughing at the back there! - my wife was in stiches last night when I first tried them on - but I had been looking into (pun intended) investing in an Optivisor headset when I saw these fairly cheap (£25.00) magnifiers on Amazon so thought I would try a pair first and to be fair they work really well. They come with a selection of clip in magnifications and LED lights which are adjustable to different settings. I am experimenting today with the x3 glass fitted which certainly brings out all the detail of straps and faces etc. I want to see how the hand/brush/eye co ordination works for me and I will report back in due course.
Among the latest batch of painting for Old John are these three lovely 20mm conversions representing Ski Troops. I just had to share them here as they are so unusual!
Described by John as 'Les Higgins/Airfix conversions'.
OK, so not really fatal more a bit annoying but why spoil a good title? Lets talk about magnets and steel washers. I made the decision to base all of my individual figures for Commands & Colors Napoleonics on steel washers with the plan to magnetise the storage boxes as I had done previously with my 3mm Ancient armies thinking the washers would sit securely in the tray inserts that I had made from 5mm foamboard, however I'm afraid that I need to admit that I'm a bit of an idiot because I now understand that not all grades of stainless steel will in fact work with the magnetised paper liner I use due to the tiny surface area.
At this stage all of the figures were sitting loose in the trays, neatly lined up and awaiting the magnetic lining sheet, so far so good. Last week as I was picking up my rather neat wooden storage box it slipped from my grasp and tilted over resulting in my having to sort through the pile of jumbled figures and sort them back into the various types again which took me a good half an hour to do, time I thought to get the boxes lined so all will be safely magnetised should this happen again. The Magnetic Paper duly arrived via eBay, I placed a few figures on and BLAST (or words to that affect), the washers just slipped off. I now have a dilemma on my hands, either I superglue tiny 4mm rare earth magnets into every base (the washers have a convenient 4mm hole), now almost 200 figures OR I just leave them as they are and abandon the idea entirely, after all the figures are very heavily gloss varnished for protection against constant handling. Still, I do like the washer bases for the individually mounted figures, we live and learn. Despite the setback I think that I will probably add the magnets gradually over the next couple of months, they are inexpensive, but it's a fiddly job that requires patience.
I have ordered a few more bags of figures from Essex to expand up to the Waterloo scenario, Dutch Belgians, Brunswick, Young Guard, Nassau etc (the game scenario utilises Portuguese blocks to represent Allied troops but we really can't have that can we?). All good fun.
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| Made to measure! |
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| These magnets are TINY and very powerful! |
I'm at that stage again when I begin to think about what I want to do next on the hobby front. The C&C Napoleonic 'one figure per block' project is almost completed, at least to the stage where I can play a good sized game and a scenario or two. My plan here is to paint enough figures to be to play the Waterloo scenario in June, hopefully against an actual opponent rather than solo. I just need to add some Dutch/Belgian troops and a few more cavalry. This really suits me and I'm enjoying putting this little project together.
But what next?
So, I have thought about painting a Russian army as I do have the Russian expansion set or even maybe doing the same concept for C&C Ancients which I feel would work well with individual Essex figures. I'm also considering a second N Gauge Micro layout, this time a later Diesel based depot project. I fancy a challenge for the Spring /Summer. and this could be it! I'm really keen to work on improved wiring as inspired by the little video below and to sharpen up my soldering skills. The video features the actual layout that I'm thinking of replicating as I have the track plan for it.
Meantime I'm still painting for Old John, Noel and Tim, more than enough between them to keep me ticking over nicely. Photos show most recent bits for Old John which include parts for an ACW camp scene in 1/72nd scale of course.
Oh, and those pesky 3D Printed German Gliders are now finally assembled, primed and painted, just awaiting delivery of decals via eBay. It was quite a job getting those long wings to stick together as the kits are resin and painted without any assembly 'plugs' just thin flat surfaces. A lot of patience and a good quality two part epoxy did the job after a couple of superglue attempts. These are of course for Noel.
Finally for those so inclined a great little video on the wiring required for the Cobra Railhead layout that I'm seriously thinking of building, certainly looks an interesting challenge!
Good progress on the second WoR faction for Noel, Blue and Yellow themed time. Great mix of figure codes from Peter Pig makes for lively looking bases. I just have 4 bases of bowmen to complete the Levy troops and this one is done. Faction #3 is my desk drawer ready to start at beginning of April. For the rest of March I have some more 1/72nd scale plastics for Old John, 4 x 15mm scale German Gliders for Noel (have made the kits and primed the models ready) and 2 x 80 figure Epic French Napoleonic infantry battalions for Tim, a comfortable workload for me now that I have cut back on my painting time somewhat.
I have also switched from the Army Painter brushes that I have been using for years to Vallejo Pro-modeler range, very reasonably priced and so far so good, they hold the point very well and have a good feel in the hand. I had come to the conclusion that Army Painter brushes were just not of the quality they once where so looked to make the change.
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| Massed Levy Billmen. |
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| The Household troops and command base. |
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| The Retinue. |
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| Just 4 more bases of bowmen to complete this faction. |
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| Vallejo 00 Pro Modeler - very good so far! |
