As the deadline for shipping the Epic ACW commission fast approaches the next three weeks will be totally dedicated to finishing off the last of the infantry units - final 10 regiments of 60 figures - plus the 21 artillery pieces and crews which sounds a lot but is perfectly manageable! Client Chris in NZ will base and flag everything so packing will be much easier as it's mostly the flat strips. I think the final count is close to 2800 figures and will be used in a huge refight of Gettysburg in late August. I believe I'm right in saying that this number represents only around the figures that will be involved in the battle.
Meantime I have been bashing out more Napoleonics for Tony in Portugal, this batch being mostly British Allies, another 6 cavalry regiments, 5 Brunswick infantry battalions and 2 Nassau battalions. Tony decided to go with using the Epic French for all these guys, not perfect but given the scale and sheer number of figures that will be involved on the Waterloo refight in November. they look OK. I had to build up the plumes from green stuff for the Leib battalion and the Black Hussars, fiddly but they look fairly convincing I think. Worth noting that where the strips have been snapped in half I repair all the slightly damaged arms with a tiny sausage of green stuff before painting. Two regiments of Dutch Belgian heavy cavalry (from French Carabiniers) will complete the batch by the weekend before I move onto the ACW's.
In my limited spare time I continue to enjoy bashing out the 3mm's and as you can see from the new header image I have expanded the Greek Hoplites up to 12 elements. I will be tackling the Macedonian Phalanx next and am looking at replacing the too short pikes with longer ones! Parthians are also on the list for a future army.
.JPG){kind=small}
You must be seeing Epic in your sleep🙂 fantastic job, these are going to be amazing games, hopefully getting good blog / vlog coverage.
ReplyDeleteHi Norm, yes both will be huge games featuring thousands of figures on big tables! The Waterloo table is 15' x 5' and gradually filling up with figures. The game has been postponed until November to allow for the additional required units to be painted. I'm back to French end of next month. Once the ACW's are finished I have the first Pike and Shot commission to follow which will make a nice change.
DeleteMost impressive, are you going to use bristles for the Macedonian pike, they will be more resilient, and flexible, than wire?
ReplyDeleteHi Rob and thanks. I'm looking at best method to replace the pikes. Because the strips are cast 'side on' facing forward for the Macedonians it's relatively simple to snip and file leaving a tiny ledge to insert a bristle. I tried cut down dressmakers pins which are perfect - if dangerous - but a bugger to get to set with superglue so I think bristles will work better. Going to be a lot of work but should look impressive when done, 4 deep Phalanx on 15mm x 40mm bases!
DeleteBristles from a big (decorating) paintbrush will probably work best as you need some fairly thin ones. Also why restrict yourself to 4-deep? In 3mm you could always set an array of pikes (bristles / pins) really close together into some Milliput or similar and just have outer ranks / files of figures to give that wood-cut look i.e, something like a 'dead' hair brush (like the Naseby battle print).
DeleteThanks again Rob for the suggestions. You share my vision for this! Playing around yesterday I can get 4 deep on the 15mm bases - 12 figure frontage - but given DBA allows a +1 for supporting pikes I could go 3 bases deep or 12 figures for that real Phalanx look :) Pikes - the cast on are roughly 12mm which may actually be about correct for the Sarissa possibly? I'll paint a test base to see how things look.
DeleteYou really are a busy bee, Lee. 🐝🐝
ReplyDeleteOf course, now you’ve finished converting & painting the Epic Nap French to represent British allies that almost certainly means dedicated figures will be realeased in the near future. 😉
Cheers,
Geoff
I hope not Geoff :) I have seem some 3D Brunswick chaps that look a great fit for the Epic strips, I guess that is the future of the hobby?
DeleteCheers,
Lee.
More splendid painting glad to see your still hard at it!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
No sooner had I ordered some 6mm Dark Ages Rus from Irregular Miniatures (lovely spearmen castings TBH) than I find out Baccus is releasing a Rus range. Oh well… 😉
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Geoff
What, you going BIG Style Geoff! :)
Delete