The Lady And The Wolf

Last of the figures I painted up before the painting challenge began is this two figure piece that Cath bought from Spirit Games about fifteen years ago! I had started it about a year ago and it became lost at the back of the table. I would look at it occasionally but never picked it up. With the challenge about to start I did not want to get into anything too big so this and a few other bits that were part done got a go and finally got finished.

I went for a very plain look, the idea is the women lives in a very rural location, think Dancers with Wolves vibe. I wanted her to also be quite old so went with lots of grey in her hair. It's also nice to get a female figure that keeps the boobs under cover, quite a rarity I am afraid.

It's not easy to see from the pics but the wolf pelt is actually somewhat different in colour to the live wolf's. It was not an over long paint which just makes the time it took for me to get round to it even worse.

So I can finally give the figure to Cath, no plans for this so it's just for fun really. 

Winners Announcement

Thanks again to all who entered the giveaway and congrats to the winners. So who won what? I am glad you asked

The two boxes of Tufts go to Michael Awdry, can you go on the Tajima1 website and pick the boxes you want and send me an email with the codes and I will get them ordered for you.

The two Leven Miniatures 30 tree packages go to Thomas Nissvik and Adam Carriere, please email me via the contact details on the top left of the blog with your address and I will get them on the way.

The two The Manors, go to Lee Hadley and again that lucky man Adam Carriere, if you wish to pick a different Manor than the latest that's fine, just take a look and let me know which you want.

Service back to normal I guess.

Italian and British Cavalry Baccus 6mm

I continue to flesh out my Italian Napoleonic's and also add to my sons slowly growing British Peninsular collection.

Not the best shots as the weathers not allowed any outdoors shooting when I have been home. Tow regiments of Heavy Dragoons in Bicorn. As other recent finishes I have added the dice cells.

These are really nice sculpts with plenty of detail. I think they are as good as the new French cavalry figures. Baccus are for the most part my go to for 6mm the mix of detail and functionality is hard to beat.

The Italian Guard Dragoons actually could pass for standard French Dragoons at a push, I have plenty so that is not that likely. 

These are old Baccus French figures so the horses are a little on the small size. When the new ranges came out I still had (have) a fairly large number of the old castings so I decided I would paint them up as some of the allied nations that dressed in the French pattern. 

I actually have one more guard cavalry regiment to paint up for the 1812 Russia campaign but I can do that with some other cavalry at a later date. At the moment I am working on the guard infantry to go along with these.

Last few days till Giveaway closes

Just a quick post to remind everyone that I will be doing the draws for my Giveaway in just a few days. Go here if you want in.

Pre-Challenge Painting - The Cleric

I also did this quick paint before the challenge started, this is the second character for my wife in the family D&D sessions. As it's number two I did not go to town on him and as such it's a bit basic but will serve.

I think the figures from Reaper, this ones a metal figure and rather is a bit on the heavy side. You can't see the high and low shades on the white very well as the camera did not pick the detail up. It's quite subtle anyway as I don't like the in your face style of shading on white.

I like the shoulder armour, it's a couple of faces so I used brass and then washed in ink to bring the details out a bit.

Lots of detail on the back and I have to say that I really like the adventurers that come with backpacks or other bits and bobs, makes them look more realistic. The crossbow comes as a seporate piece to be glued in place, made life a bit easier.

Snow Day = Games Day

Yes we had snow, not enough to stop us doing anything though the kids spent most of the morning out playing in what we had. First snow of the winter you see. We had already planned on playing a few games if time allowed and it seemed the perfect plan for the afternoon.

First game up was Fast Flowing Forest Fellows. I picked this up for £4.99 from The Works when they first started to stock the odd Euro Game. It's a great game to introduce players to Euro's, especially if kids are involved. It's an easy game to learn with very simple rule mechanics but it's a bit shallow regarding long term play. Don't get me wrong it's both fun and it's not all luck based, it's just that it is limited to what you as the player can do regarding your moves with just two pieces to move (4 player option). This means you will enjoy a few games but despite the many board connotations you will reach for other games after a few games in a short period. 

It's been well over a year since we last played so all of us were happy to play (the kids have been wanting to play for awhile now). As such we had fun, lots of stuffing each other and forcing other players back down long currents. Cath actually won it handily as she managed to get the one log rider off the first board and safely over the finish line. Once that was done the other rider sped down the board for an easy win. One game was enough but I can see it being played again next games session.

Next up was Rummikub, we have played it once before with the kids with a not too bad a game though it's a bit of a stretch for The Boy being only nine. It's 8-adult but that's a smart 8 year old in my mind. He did struggle at the start and as such became a bit detached making it harder for him to get it but towards the end he started to enjoy it. The Girl ended up winning the one round we played with Cath coming a close second. We decided not to go any more rounds so as not to frustrate The Boy further. Funny as he has a good grasp of The Bean Game.

We do like to introduce a new game when we can and the kids really wanted to have a crack at Ticket To Ride so we gave it a go. Typical Alan Moon game, low on rules high on options making for a game the kids could get. I thought the sticking point would be the destination tickets, especially the option to pick up extra ones as the game ran on. It ended up being the most fun of the three games and both kids were asking to play again but it was time for tea. It's going to probably be one of the first games we play next time and is sure to remain a favourite for some time.

Our game was fairly close with the kids dropping off at the end but finishing a credible points score. I through away the win by picking as my last action destination cards and having to keep one failed route for minus six points. Cath's longest route +10 points nipping in front of me. 

We have been playing the Bean Game a lot recently after a lay off and I lost a game of Commands & Colors to The Boy last Wednesday so it's a bit of a games hub at the moment.

1,000th Post Must Mean a Giveaway

Way back on 8th September 2011 I started this blog to chart my return to painting after about a twenty year break. I never expected it to reach the point where I could write a post regarding hitting 1000 posts, never mind that I would have done so in such a short period of time.

Looking back I have certainly painted up a fair few figures during the last six years, indeed I have painted more in this period than all the time I was painting the first time around. Learning so many new techniques and being a more mature painter has meant I have made a steady improvement in my skills and style. 

A big change has been my flirtation with 6mm in the early 90's becoming my main scale to paint. Not that the other scales miss out but due to Project Waterloo and now the Ancients bug I have been bashing out 6mm like my life depends on it.

I have always thought blogging as more a selfish act that a sharing one. We do it as much for the response from followers as the chance to share our work. I am lucky my wife takes an active interest in what I paint but for the main part one battalion of French line infantry looks more or less the same as the 50+ I have already showed her. So it's to you dear reader that I have to thank for making comments and keeping my ego topped up and desiring more, more I say MORE :-)

So what better way to thank the poor sods who follow this blog than do a giveaway? It's about time as it's been a long time since the last one, now what can we go with?

Two boxes of Tajima1 grass tufts of your choice from the grass tufts range (up to £6 per box)

Thirty mixed height trees from Leven Miniatures wire tree range for 6mm gaming as pictured above.

2x Copy of the Latest The Manor roleplaying zine packed with interesting bits and pieces.

So that's four prizes, feel free to throw your name in the hat for any or all the listed prizes, I will be closing the giveaway on the 26th and announcing the prizes on the 27th. 

No extra goes for blogging about it or adding links back here but it would be great if you do as it gets a wider audience, good luck to all.

Companion Cavalry Baccus 6mm

Keeping with the 6mm Ancients theme I give you two units of Baccus Companion Cavalry. Each unit has 18 mounted figures and one casualty figure.

This gives me a total of seven units of cavalry for my Macedonian army, certainly enough for now but I will by another pack or two when I expand the army beyond what I now have.

Keeping with the two colour schemes I have used so far means I can tell which units belong to which formations. Future units may get a third colour, depends on exactly where we go with it.

On the cavalry I can put the die cell at the rear of the unit so it's less in your face than the phalanx units. I also like that using the 40x60 bases allows for a bit of play on figure placement.

Baccus do a casualty pack which allows me to have a bit of fun with the basing, how could I resist. 

The second unit is for the blue division, these are light blue, I have used different shades of blue and red so that whilst they can be used within the same formation they do not all look the same.

I still have other lighter cavalry to paint up for these so you will see some more ancient horse before I run out but not a lot more.

Indeed I have only a few more units left before my stock of ancient figures run out in 6mm. The only question is do I get more before or at Triples?

A Baccus 6mm Phalanx or Three

Strictly speaking it's eight if you include the ones I had already painted. I am now caught at the point where I need to either buy more and continue to grow the army or move onto the Persian opposition. At this point I am leaning towards the Persians to add another gaming option.

So another three blocks of Baccus pikes have been painted up. I got these done in a little under a weeks painting so they were quite a quick paint by my standards. Base coated in black with a dry brush of white for the leather armour to pick out the detail then on with painting them for real.

It's the first time I have painted three units of 96 figures at the same time but it was not as boring as I suspected and I will probably do the same again when I get more pike in stock. I pulled out one of my previous blocks so I could cut the pikes to the right length first time.

I did not worry about getting the length just right on all the pikes as I give them a trip once all are in place, I keep a bag of bristles I bought at the same time as the figures, I have far more than I need for the 20 blocks (I think) so should be fine as long as I don't loose them. I cut the pikes in batches splitting up the various stages of finishing making it a little less boring.

I continue to paint up my pikes with blue or red tunics but sooner or later I will have to select a third colour and probably a fourth to help show which division they belong to.

The blocks are eight figures deep with the front two with pikes slanted forwards. By putting on a 60x60 base and glueing the rear most figures on the back edge the pikes don't hang over the edge of the forward edge of the base. 

Each block costs £6.60 for the figures alone so it's not the cheapest option for a 6mm army but the result makes it worthwhile to me. Of course all the other units need a lot less figures so the overall outlay remains a lot less than other scales for comparable units.

All eight blocks together, the look I wanted to achieve is starting to come off. Obviously once on a proper table with other units they will really start looking the part. 

Bonus Round Greeks

I don't plan to go in for more than a couple of the themed bonus rounds but I did enter the first one as I had the perfect idea.

The second army I painted up was my Persian one and some of the first figures were Chariot Miniatures Hoplites so it seemed the perfect choice. Having bought a bunch of Persian cavalry and Greek hoplites mid last year second hand meant I hand the figures just waiting to be worked on.

I really had enough hoplites but having more means I have yet more options and I can always use them in other earlier period armies if we end up adding to the armies we have.

I was not really 100% switched on to painting the shields and the angle of the spear added to the problem so they are not the best I have done but they will be OK for what I need.

So a relatively quick paint that took me back a few decades. Not that it was that long since I painted up a unit of hoplites but it's the first Chariot ones in years! I still have enough figures for another three or four units, however they may or may not get painted in the challenge. 

As for the Persian cavalry, well two units are on the table with some paint on them so they will be hopefully finished for next weeks submission.

The Boy gets Rifle Power

I am using this years Painting Challenge to jump start my sons British Peninsular Napoleonic army. He chose the rifles as the next thing for me to paint and these were the second entry into the Challenge.

These are Baccus figures with a nice level of detail, it was a bit of a do I don't I regards the basing as they really need to be on a 60x60 but I also wanted them to feature as skirmishes as well. In the end I did two slightly different versions.

First up the 60th Rifles, originally raised in America they were to find their way into the Peninsular war. These have the distinctive red facings which fortunately do show up, helped in part by me painting them yellow before the red so as to pop the red a little.

The 60th were treated like line battalions with the main body to the rear of the stand and just four skirmishes out forward.

The 95th, famous from the Sharpe novels have far more troops out front and as such the main body is rather diminished.

The black facings do not stand out as much as the red of the 60th which is OK. I am not sure how many times The Boy will get to use both rifle battalions but he has them ready. His next troops will be two regiments of Dragoons and then it will be on to the Redcoats. Hopefully we will be able to get a few games in a month or two.

A Slow Year Painting

It's no secret that since starting the new job in March my painting time and production have gone down the toilet. It's not been helped by the fact that my main projects game also was reached meaning no targets need to be reached.

However I have a few other projects that whilst not on a time limit are getting more attention than others. Of course the next three months will be all about the Analogue Painting Challenge. I have a few plans to get myself an extra hour a day IF I can get it past the boss and capable to keep it going.

Projects that will feature heavy in 2016 will obviously include my 6mm Ancients, I am coming to the end of the Macedonian army for the time being so a switch to the Persians is on the horizon, possibly as late as March.

Keeping with 6mm I hope to get on with my Italian's for my Napoleonic's and get the Poles started as well.

15mm Should see my Ancients topped up and the Persians finished. I also hope to add to the Macedonian cavalry. It's possible but unlikely I will get more ECW, mostly cavalry, that fully depends on if I actually use my 15mm ECW I have.

Beyond that it's just painting what I already have when the whim takes me. I have well over 5,000 figures in hand spanning loads of periods and scales so I have plenty to keep me motivated. So I guess it's time to see what I have painted over the past twelve months.

6mm Infantry Battalions 109! yes one hundred and nine battalions, that's over 3,000 figures and that's a slack year lol.

6mm Cavalry 37 regiments, quite a few more than I would have thought.

15mm Infantry 238, mostly painted in last years challenge.

15mm Cavalry just 78 mostly in the challenge

28mm Infantry 65, not a great year but not bad

28mm Cavalry not a single figure.

So not a terrible year at all but lower than any year since I came back to the hobby. I think this trend will probably continue and my painting will drop a little more. However if a project comes along that would all change.

2016 will be the year of variance as I tackle many a different project, so it may well be a lot more interesting for the follower as well as for me.