Cracking on!

Playing catch up a bit this last week thanks to another heavy cold which is now gradually leaving me so it's all been about Epic ACW's. Had a varnish session yesterday and cleared the decks of my painting desk as I like to do for the start of another weeks painting. The unbased strips are for the planned big Gettysburg game in New Zealand in July being staged by Chris who will be basing these himself and adding flags. The commission is for 44 x 60 figure infantry regiments using additional metal Warlord command strips plus associated artillery etc. The ready based guys are for Noel and they will be heading off this week. Noel has also requested additional command bases so that he can vary the size of the units. That's Brigade box number 3 so far plus the command with more to follow.

 

Quick review before boxing up!

As I had to get these all out for packing up ready for posting tomorrow I thought a quick video review was in order. All Epic Waterloo for Tony2 and just the first batch! Must say I'm very pleased with them myself and I think it illustrates the mass effect of the Warlord Epics very well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wu-nioou3w

A very generous gift!

I tend to post quite regularly in the FB 2mm wargaming group which is extremely active and well supported. When I mentioned that I was a couple of packs of Osmy Odzial 3mm Celtic Warriors due to the UK supplier Magister Militum being out of stock a fellow member David Blair offered to send me a couple along with a few examples of scale roundhouses which I had been looking at in order to make the DBA camp. What arrived a couple of days later completely blew me away, hundreds of very well painted 3mm's late Romans and Carthaginians, Celts etc along with 10 packs of unopened figures, Spanish infantry and cavalry for the Carthaginians, Hoplites and command packs, cavalry packs etc. Now given that these MM 3mm packs sell for £12.00 each this is an extremely generous late Birthday present (as David put it!). Basically I have two complete DBA armies plus lots more. Plan is to start with late Carthaginians by adding a pack of elephants, rebasing to match my current 3mm bases. In addition to the figures there was a second layer of resin DBA camp bases and lots of little roundhouses. I'm over the moon at such generosity.

These are all from Magister Militums own 3mm range, not the Polish designed Osmy range. Both are extremely good, the MM's being slightly chunkier possibly. The detail is amazing, you can clearly see horns on the side of some helmets for example.

So I wasted no time finishing off my 3mm Ancient British DBA army as you can see below, I just need to work on the Roman marching fort camp and both armies will be completely finished.

Today I will be sticking the hill fort to a thin plastic base of irregular shape, built up to disguise the thick edge and give a more hill section like appearance. I'm a very happy man!

Warlord ACW Epic Brigade box sets promotion!

Getting some great feedback on these over on the FB Epic ACW group page so sharing them here as a bit of a promotion! I love the Epic ACW's, they have so much forward motion in the poses and the shoulder to shoulder strips are just about perfect for the period. I'm able to paint these strips at speed so my commission prices are pretty competitive!

Warlord Games Confederate Brigade box, 300 infantry, 3 guns and crews and 3 mtd commanders. Fully painted for £285.00 (£9.00 per strip of 10 infantry, £15.oo for battery of guns and FREE mounted commanders). Fully textured basing as above is £25.00 extra.

Warlord Games Union Brigade box, 300 infantry, 3 guns and crews and 3 mtd commanders. Fully painted for £255.00 (£8.00 per strip of 10 infantry, £15.00 for battery of guns and FREE mounted commanders). Fully textured basing as above is £25.00 extra.

Rebs cost £1.00 extra per strip to reflect the different shades of uniform. For close up shots please see my commission painting page, scroll down for ACW's!  Contact me:  lgramson@yahoo.com

More 3mm Ancients!

 I'm having a lot of fun with this little project, 3mm Romans x Britons for DBA. Need 4 more bases of Warbands to finish it off and then a couple of camps for which there is lots of potential to get creative, I'm thinking a Roman marching camp and an Iceni village with round houses etc.

Added an additional chariot base with just 4 models to represent the command base, Queen Boudica is in the lead chariot with white horses and you does have flame red hair but you will probably have to take my word for that! Very pleased with the skirmisher bases as I needed them to be distinctive.

Figures are by Osmy Odzial of Poland, sold in the UK by Magister Militum.

I finally got round to replacing the shield designs on the 15mm Hoplite Mercenaries, difficult job as the Essex Miniatures shields are very dished which makes placing them on a fiddly job. I'm still not happy but they will have to do for now, they certainly add a splash of colour and both armies make a very pleasing sight. I can call them done for now at least.

 

Commission work update and plans!

As we settle into the new year I find myself only a week away from my 65th birthday. it's certainly got me feeling a bit nostalgic, wondering where all the years have gone, but it has also focused my mind on the year ahead and the possibility of maybe trying another project alongside the commission work which is clearly going to keep me busy. I am increasingly drawn to the smaller scales and the potential of 2/3mm gaming especially. My 3mm Early Roman is about finished, just doing the last 2 elements of Auxilia but couldn't help painting the first Ancient British chariot element! There will be 4 of these one being the 'Generals' base so 24 tiny chariots in all as cold not squeeze more than 6 on a base!

Meantime I have finished the two 15mm DBA armies that were really more of a painting challenge but will be a nice stand alone small space wargame. As both armies were by Essex Miniatures I decided to stick with them for the additional (optional) Hoplite mercenaries for the Achaemenid Persians. I used waterslide transfers for the shields that are a mess, but they will be replaced by lovely full colour designs by LittleBigMen studios when they arrive as they are of superior quality and easier to apply accurately.

Above, shield transfers are a mess so will be removed and replaced once the new 'stick on' designs arrive which are also printed in full colour.

Commission work.

I'm at pretty much full capacity now but managing to keep roughly on schedule despite a week lost over the festive break with flu! Another batch of Peter Pig ECW Covenanters has been done for Graham and the January batch of Epic Napoleonic Prussians finished for Tony2 comprising 3 cavalry regiments of 20 figures, a battery of guns and 4 jager skirmishing bases. This week I'm working through another Epic ACW Brigade box for Noel to be followed by some 20mm WSS for Tony1(!) and then the January batch of Epic ACW's for Chris in NZ which will finish off the month nicely. I'll start February with more 20mm's for Old John. 

Some very small Romans!

 Happy New Year to you all. 

This a quick photo update to show my latest crazy idea/project! I stumbled across these fine 3mm (yes 3mm, not 6mm or 2mm) castings and immediately had visions of what could be done with them. The challenge was more than I could resist and so I'm now painting my way through two armies, Early Imperial Romans v Britons on 15mm scale DBA bases. It was immediately apparent that 2mm thick MDF bases were not going to work for me so I went with thin plastic that should sit better in the terrain. What I have in mind here is a truly portable game with a 2 x 2 board that folds in half and armies and terrain that all sit in neat little boxes. Who knows where the madness will end?

Romans so far, army will be (DBA) 5x Blades inc.1 General, 4x Auxilia, 1x Artillery, 1x cav and 1x light horse.

The figures are sold by Magister Militum (UK) and are amazingly detailed for such tiny sculpts.