Prussian Seven Years War Test Figure

I bet I am not on my own in not painting anything post challenge, well that is until today. However I have spent a fair bit of time cleaning up figures for the new project, that being the Seven Tears War. I have four infantry battalions and one Hussar all awaiting paint and so thought it might be a good idea to paint up one figure before launching into 18 figure battalions.

These are Old Glory 15mm as supplied by Timecast rather than the Blue Moon supplied by the UK Old Glory. Confused? then your not on your own LOL. The infantry are really nice and mostly clean castings requiring less prep than some. The cavalry though have very nice riders but the mounts of both the Hussars and the generals are less than impressive. So much so I will probably shop around for better models for my cavalry.

The first regiment will be Regiment Number 1 Winterfeldt that had two battalions, both of which have been started with the base uniform colour.

Overall I am pleased with the result whilst Cath thinks it's a bit dark. So what do you think? Should I add another brighter highlight after inking or stick with just the touch up of Prussian Blue I have added post inking here?

Russian Snipers by Black Tree Design

Back to trying to catch up with the painting done during the Challenge. Towards the end I was finding less and less time to both paint and post hence the ten day gap between posts. Given I was on holiday last week and found I had even less time kind of is ironic.

Black Tree produce some really nice figures with most of their WWII living up to this reputation. I have painted these figures up before so knew what I would be getting. They tend to be fairly good regards flash and clean up with mould lines easy to remove. 

The snow smocks being white need more attention than you might think. I did a base spray of white but then used ivory, off white and normal white to shade them and give them some depth of colour. The flesh and equipment just received the one colour before adding a wash to all none white parts.

The last four are a big contrast to the previous eight with the snow really making them stand out. I use Scenic Snow by Deluxe Materials and have tried a slightly different approach this time and like the finish better. Showing more of the ground work kind of improves the overall look for me.

Black Tree tend to add a lot of detail to their figures than some other companies leave off. It does add to the time to paint but the end result is far more satisfying and looks the part.

I have about twenty more figures left to paint for my Sniper Reminders and once these are done probably won't do any more.

I have changed the tufts to a winter look as well after Curt's recommendations from last year and he is 100% right these do look better.

So the Challenge is at a close and I finished 31st after spending quite a bit of time in the lower twenties. Slightly disappointing as I thought I had a chance of finishing in the top 25% but given that I finished of 1019 points and doubled my original goal I am overall very happy.

Indeed I enjoyed this years challenge more than any of the previous challengers, possibly as I was not sticking to any one theme over much but the addition of a Minion to run each days submissions was a great idea and saved Curt's sanity. It meant that each day a fresh adjudicator would jump in after a seven day rest and each of the five brought a great deal of humour and style to their days entries. I had Peter who really got into the swing with his intro's, so a big thanks to Peter and would love to be teamed up again next year.

Triples - Please Stick a Fork in it!

I have a policy of NOT writing bad reviews, or at least not going out of my way to be negative. Many a time I have chosen not to write on a subject that I have negative views on. If my writing would possibly help protect readers from wasting money or time etc. then it's considered but when it's just not my cup of tea then it's best to keep quiet and move along.

So to lead with a title such as this shows just how much I think this event has lost it's way. Actually that's crap, no event loses it's way. Those that run it do. I understand the need to change venue from the University, I also understand the difficulty in finding a new venue that meets the needs but I also recognise when nothing is being done to correct failings.

First up I personally have no issue with the venue myself. It works for me, however IF the reason Triples is failing is the venue due to either price or location then it's an issue. Triples it seems charges the most for a trade stand outside Salute. It still claims to be the biggest Northern Show, York seems to have moved south I guess. When a Sheffield based trader makes a loss at a show in Sheffield something must be wrong. Hell they go to Antwerp and make a profit so what's the deal.

Not once but numerous times I over heard traders complaining they are set to make a loss this year. It was said they were down 17 regular traders on last year. They replaced some with new traders but not all, this would not have been so bad if the punter numbers had been up the traders who were there would have benefited. The sad fact is that today witnessed Sunday attendance, a bad Sunday at that.

Display and participation games were also down, indeed it was so bad that the halls seemed hollow making the lower visitor numbers seem even worse. The bring and buy of course continues to get worse as they continue to allow the organiser to use it as a flee market and I can't remember when I last saw much worth buying on it. 

Even the tournament side of it was almost empty, the reason they claim it needs to be a two day show is dead on it's feet. As I said, stick a fork in it if your not going to fix it.

On a brighter note I did go with plenty of spending planned, fortunately I had organised some up front purchases as follows.

I met up with my main supplier to collect enough figures for another four phalanx which will give me 14 blocks when all are painted up, watch this space.

Warbases like Baccus was not trading at the show so I had to pick up the bases for my new project from a third party and I replaced a couple of paints that are low, can't risk running out.

Magister fortunately where at the show and this saw me pick up the four figures I need to make up yet another Persian cavalry unit and I doubled my original plan of a Macedonian cavalry unit. I now need to get the two painted up before the next show they attend so I can buy more.

So sticking with 15mm I present my next new project. Seven Years War. The Boy was given free choice on what to do next in 15mm. I went through a bunch of websites showing him images of different periods. He narrowed it down to SYW, ECW, TYW and something Medieval. He finally choose SYW as he thought the mix of different troop types the most interesting. This pleased Lee no end as he really wanted to do this period for a long time. I was less up for it wanting the medieval choice. Lee grabbed Russian and then Austrian after The Boy choose French and I fell in with Prussian as they are the obvious choice, Oh good Prussian Blue, I have some of that LOL.

So Timecast got my pennies, Lancashire Games got The Boys and nearly every provider has a bunch of Lee's. If Lee dies of lead poisoning I will not at all be surprised.

The Boy is not all that well at the moment, struggling with a nasty cold and with the lack of suitable things to do was getting down so it was a great relief when we found a demo of this game to play. Indeed it was the highlight of the show so I parted with a bit more birthday money and we now have a new game to play and a few more miniatures to paint up. Lee already owns this and all the extra's from the Kickstarter so I knew some things about it. First game Sunday night so lets see what Cath and The Girl think of it.

More Baccus Light Cavalry

Keeping with the Persians for a bit longer I also painted up a couple of units of javelin armed light cavalry. These would usually be pitted against other light cavalry such as the bow armed ones from Monday. They can also keep moving forward peppering the enemy and then retreating out of harms way whilst the two armies come to grips.

I am assuming Lee won't have much in the way of cavalry in his Roman army so I expect these and the Saka to be a bit of a pain if I use them with my Macedonian based army.

With only a few figures a base, the basing takes on an even more important role. Here the mostly sparse style I am using really stands out. Much more than on the figure laden phalanx blocks.

Again Baccus have provided wonderful looking figures that needed little clean up work. Just twelve figures to the two units, this will be it for them for the time being. I will probably need more once I start to fill out the army but that will be some time yet, still plenty to go at from the army pack I bought a few weeks back.

Time Goes By and Baccus Horse Archers

It's been over a week without a post, anyone would think I had ran off somewhere. But it's just been one of those weeks of not getting round to it. Fortunately I have been painting so not all is lost. It's also almost the end of the Analogue Painting Challenge, by this point a lot of us are starting to feel the burn and looking forward to getting to the finish line and a rest from painting. Me, that's not the case, I have not painted as much in some previous challengers but a higher percentage of my free time has been committed to this year. I will slow down a little, just to allow other pleasures to be had but over all it will be more a change of focus including the new project that will start just after the challenge. The Ancients project will continue to be one of the main areas of painting and I am really looking forward to getting more buildings painted, both Leven and more western buildings that are built but have no paint on them.

So lets get back to the figures. Here are another five units of horse archers, all are Baccus Saka galloping pose. Three different figure poses in a pack so you get a nice mix. I have mounted these on 60x60 bases (same size as the pike) with about seven figures to a base.

The great thing about 6mm you can really make an imprecision and a sense of mass with the basing. Here is the exact opposite, just a few figures but the space they take up gives themselves a presence all of their own. No one looking at the bases will doubt these are but pin pricks but will all the same sense the swirling troops with arrows flying towards their enemy.

This will give me a total of seven units, more than I will need so a couple will find their way to Lee who can also use them with some of his armies.

Talking of Lee, he has finally caught the bug with his 6mm Ancients and has started to do more work on his Roman army. Not only basing the figures he had already bought but also painting up a few more. It may be quite soon that we will get a game in using these figures. Good job too as he seems to have booked an Ancients game for the next Joy of Six.