More from the painting desk this week!

I'm keeping busy on the commission painting front and having finished off the last of Old John's most recent box I'm straight into painting more infantry for Tony. I mentioned two battalions I think recently but there were actually three battalions in the box, I had not spotted the bottom layer! These are all 18 figure battalions each with a mounted officer as usual and all French War of The Spanish Succession of course and lovely crisp Les Higgins (PMD) figures. Alongside I continue to add more Epic bases, most recently British Light Dragoons and French Chasseur a Cheval. Today I am excitedly waiting for the postman to bring me the Epic British and French Generals packs, each containing five personality figures made in the warlord resin, the facial detail of these figures is superb. 

As always Old John's figures are 20mm metal and plastic and you see below:

• 6 metal Danish Cuirassiers
• 4 French Dragoons (Strelets) 
• 4 Catalonian Grenadiers (Minairon)
• 4 Catalonian 'Mountain Men' (Minairon)
• 4 assorted metal characters.          

While John always sends me printed reference material - that have built up into quite a library over the years! - he does sometimes ask me to 'surprise him' by selecting a unit of choice. In this case I got to choose the Grenadier unit to match previously painted units so went with Barcelona as you just can't beat that combination of red coats with yellow facings and breeches. I also selected the French Dragoons. The four characters were 'paint as you like' so I had some fun with them.

Latest couple of Epic bases. 

And the first of three battalions for Tony, currently underway. I really like the way the  underside of the bases are etched with makers details with great pride. 

Cigar box DBA armies and Epic DBN!

Now I begin to see what all the fuss is about!

I completed the 2mm scale DBA armies this week for Geoff and must say I'm rather pleased with the results. As much as I wanted to remove the bases from the cards for group photos I decided best to leave them as was.  Two 13 base DBA armies that fit into a cigar box and the idea is that they can be used to play on a 1foot square terrain board as the bases are half sized! Must be the ultimate Portable Wargame? I really like the concept of a game that you can take away with you on a weekend break etc. As usual these tiny figures look much better in the flesh than I can capture with my IPhone camera but you get the idea. 

Epic DBN. Made another of my quick videos describing my DBN Epics set up! Something of a contradiction in terms but the figures are perfect for the rules and I had my first little battle this morning that ended with a victory for the French. I was a bit rusty with the rules but I'm sure I will quickly pick them up again after a couple more goes. I think in future I'll just use the 5 x 3 dining table to give a bit of extra width as I'm just not keen on square battlefields but apart from that I'm happy so far. Need a few more of Steve Clays 10mm buildings as they work well for the scale to my eyes.

Video link and a few pics below.

The Buffs 'missed' Waterloo!

I was determined to include the 3rd Regiment of Foot 'The Buffs' among my growing Epic collection because as some here might recall it was the Regiment in which my Grandfather Alfred Charles Gramson (link) served on the Western Front during WW1 and I  have a digital copy of his Attestation papers from 1914 witnessed by my Great Grandfather. Without further ado (and clearly not sufficient research) I painted the base you see below, the natural leather straps and buff facings making a nice change from all the white. It was only last night that I realised that the Regiment was not actually present on the field of Waterloo, or as stated in the regimental history they 'missed' Waterloo which made it sound as if they had taken a wrong turning along the way and ended up elsewhere! Blast it, but there we go, they will still be joining the ranks of my Epics and I'm sure they will fight as well as they did in France.

I'm just starting to add the Warlord supplied flags to the bases now, first couple this morning. Bit tricky like this so in future I will do them before basing the command strip. Turned out OK though, paper is a little thick to bend and shape but nicely printed. 

Latest additions are also more British Light Infantry, actually a stab at the 71st Highland Light Infantry (formed) and a base of 95th Rifles skirmishing. The mounted officers denote that they are Light Infantry and both have had head swaps. Well past the 400 painted figure mark now so going well and great fun to paint in the strips.

Thought it was a bit quiet, should have turned left a few miles back!

Commission work -  few shots of the completed 10mm Fantasy figures painted for Simon, bases textured and a few more highlights here and there to the Lizards for a bit more 'pop'. Simon has some 28mm's lined up for next batch, Robert The Bruce and Clansmen so better brush up on my Tartan.

Tomorrow I plan to tackle the 2mm DBA armies for Geoff and then I have more 20mm figures for John to finish off before painting two more 20mm WSS infantry battalions for Tony. 

Lizards, Goblins and cigar box ancient armies!

I'm so glad to see the back of the high temperatures, Monday and Tuesday were just insane down here in Kent, the paint was drying in the bristles almost as soon as it touched them! Warm water and soap combined with the trusty wet palette did at least allow me to still get a bit of painting done with no harm done to my precious brushes.

This week I have been working on 4 units each of three bases of Fantasy figures for Simon, this time it's the nasties which makes a nice change. We have a unit of close order Lizards, two units of loose order lizards and a unit of Goblins riding huge boars! I was unsure as to how best to approach these until my Son in Law sent me a photo of his pet Water Dragon by way of inspiration. Today I'll be painting the last 24 of them and then get started on the basing this afternoon.

Excuse me, what's all this about Lizards then?

Cigar box armies in 2mm scale. 

I finally found time to open up Geoff's little cigar box package today and what a delight it is. We had discussed the project in some detail and Geoff made a point of  carefully labelling every base type as you can see which really helps me to understand exactly what is what. The presentation is perfect for me to base coat and paint on the cards as they stand as I find when painting detail in 2mm scale I prefer to have the strips on a flat surface so that I can use both hands, one to hold the brush (of course!) and the other as a kind of 'rest' to steady and guide if that makes sense. It's very much the same technique I have always used on 6mm or smaller scales for  fine detail work. I'm excited to see just what I can do with these and it may open up a new line of commission work, who knows? photos of the painted armies should appear in the next update.

 Epic progress.

I continue to add bases to the Epics and I plan to have a run through of DBN at the weekend with them. I'm now padding out the infantry with further bases and have added a Dutch base using French line infantry strips to differentiate them from my Belgians. There are lots of very clever conversions going on at the Epic FB Group that I intend to try as things progress. I want to keep with the warlord figures as much as possible although I am planning some Peter Pig head swaps for some conversions. The one thing I do want is a base of skirmishing 95th rifles so I have the choice of buying a Highlander sprue where they include 8 Rifles or consider resin printed rifles via Etsy. Recently announced are the lovely mounted Personality sets which look great and the French Guard cavalry set so there is much to look forward to. 

I was listening to an Epic related Vlog a couple of days back where Stuart (Miniature Realms) stated that the production and tooling costs of the plastic sprues came in around £20,000 per sprue, a figure I found quite staggering, (and I actually rewound to ensure I had heard it correctly!), and given the number of releases so far obviously represents a very serious investment on the part of Warlord. I don't generally keep my ear to the ground on these things but would love to know if this figure can be substantiated? Good on Warlord I say because I love these figures.