Ghoul Friends for Dungeon Saga

I started painting through the monsters of Dungeon Saga about a year or so ago but got distracted. I now have cleaned up and ready to paint all the ghoul figures and will do them in batches of two matching figures.

Typical of this set the detail is a bit soft but not too bad. Given they are just for this game I did not want to spend too long on them. After all they tend not to stick around on the table for too long before they get killed and removed. That said I did not want them to look sloppy either. The flesh had a basic flesh coating and then highlighted to add a pale tone then washed in Nulin Oil. I also washed them in skin tone ink going over heavily where damage showed to look that bit more gruesome. 

Two others are fairly basic but the last four will be a bit more tricky. Then it's two ghost types and then onto the larger models that are MUCH bigger. In the background is the next group. A point of Saga bowmen levy so plenty to get stuck into.

Prussian SYW Artillery Old Glory

I add to my Prussian 15mm SYW army with these Old Glory guns that are supplied by Timecast and not the Blue Moon which are supplied by er Old Glory. Whilst I am not really up against it for artillery with my current infantry levels I do have enough figures for another division.

 Lee and myself show number of figures on a base to determine what type of gun is being used. Battalion guns have just two figures so as you can see here two of these are battalion guns. This will give me more flexibility with the current force I already have in play.

One gun has three crew showing it as a standard gun whilst four would depict a medium gun. As you would expect from Old Glory the castings are high on detail but do need a reasonable clean up. Not too bad with small numbers but the idea of cleaning up a few battalions is a bit off putting. Maybe that's why the infantry are still waiting.

I've not had a game against Lee in a few years and despite painting up a reasonable force of French for Joseph we have not got a game in in ages either. His force is coming along and will be the next up for painting in the SYW as I still have three battalions of infantry already prepped and ready to go.

The three figure gun in fact is a Howitzer though I don't think Black Powder makes different use of them it's more to have something a little different on the table.

I am getting through a reasonable amount of painting now I am getting back into the swing. Some of the things in the queue though are a bit more time consuming but I also have a number of quick paints to allow something to be coming off the desk every few days or so.

Cowboys - First in a Long Time

I think I got these guys with others from Dave D so many years ago. I still have a few foundry mounted and dismounted ones to do yet. Possibly get these done further through the lockdown.

I went for neutral colours for the most part. These will just be add in's to any of the sides that I have painted up but the one in pink is more of a general type whilst the other seems to me to be more lawman.

These were a nice quick paint, I had been suffering a bad headache and at such times I can't read and don't tend to watch TV anyway so painting is one of the few activities that does not seem to aggravate it, as long as I stick to the larger scales.

Three Baccus British Heavy Cavalry Regiments

I managed to paint these three in a day and base them the following day. Seem to have some of my old speed back. These are for my son's Peninsular army. Whilst they were there they actually did not really get involved in much fighting and when they did it was hard for them to actually get anyone to stand against them as the French cavalry by this point were in a poor state through lack of suitable remounts etc.

Front left we have 1st Life Guards and alongside the 3rd Dragoon Guards and at the back Royal Horse Guards, or The Blues as they were known.

Typical set up, nine figures in a unperfect line to suggest the start of a charge. 60x30mm bases with the sand and masonry paint mix dry brushed to give more colours and static grass and tufts applied. I really spoil that boy ;-)

Rear views, I really like Baccus as you can paint or ignore detail dependent on your style and it does not take that much effort to put together a fairly reasonable looking unit.

I still have plenty of figures left of Joseph's to add to his force. More infantry, light dragoons but need to get some horse artillery at some point.

These were prepped for the Analogue Painting Challenge I dropped out of not last year but the previous one so were well over due. I have manged to prep a bunch so I may have a reasonable run and quite a mix of projects.

Baccus French Napoleonic Infantry

It's been quite awhile since I last painted any French infantry so it was nice to sit down and do them. I thought I had quite a few standard battalions left to do but turned out I only had four left to do so added the last two in bicorn as well.

I bought one small blister pack of French Bicorn when Baccus released the new codes. One battalion was painted up straight away and I did a second one as Paris Guard in red uniform. These will most likely be the last bicorn wearing French infantry I will do as my army is all shako wearing.

I painted up three of the battalions as line as you can never have enough. Lee also has a large number but if we ever get round to doing one of the bigger battles battalion for battalion I am confident we will still need to paint up a bunch more.

The other battalion of course is light infantry, I don't even know how many of each I own anymore, never mind the cavalry so I will have to get them all out and have a count up.

Whilst I am now out of standard French infantry from Baccus I still have a fair few battalions in greatcoats and Grenadiers both with and without greatcoats. I also have extra skirmisher figures that will be added to smaller bases for games where skirmishers had a bigger role than we allow in our rules.

On top of the Baccus I still have most of a Adler army pack I bought via Dave D all those years ago. Still my unpainted figure count still is over 3,000 though breaching this number is within site. This of course does not include the figures Joseph has that I have yet to paint for him as well. I am purposely not adding them up!!

Talking of "The Boy" we have managed three games of Command & Colors Napoleonic during the lockdown and will be getting another one in soon. This will be the last one from the base module so looking forward to playing more from the other add on's.

15mm Companion Cavalry For Sale

Another two units finished but this time in 15mm. These are from Magister Militum from the Chariot Miniatures range. Chariot have been my favourite Ancient figures from when I first got into Ancients in my late teens. Though in those days I was building my Persian army using the WRG rules. That was a tough gig.

I plan to sell these for £30 a unit post paid in the UK or £55 for the pair post paid. Outside the UK I would charge any postage at cost over £5.00 They were for my army but I don't really need them and to be honest it will help with the shortfall of my wage which actually is more like 50% not the 80% talked about due to commission etc that I would also have earnt.

I really love the realistic pike like lances that these guys are equipped with. They do rather get in the way when painting but it's worth it.

I have done my usual basing of sand and masonry paint drybrushed and then flocked and added three different coloured tufts.

The guys on the right are actually Prodromoi but these I have based up as standard cavalry. I do have a unit of these as light cavalry but they don't do well in Hail Caesar and to be fair they don't stick out much.

Good job the lances straighten without the paint popping off, these I did not notice until looking at the photo's.

So in HC and Field of Glory this would be a unit whilst DBA and DBM your looking at four!!

Not the bright yellow you see on a lot of cloaks of companions. Personally I am a bit sceptic of those. Typical of a basic paint job it's ink over a flat colour but looks alright.

The second unit's a bit more punchy in colour but not smack you in the face bright. I actually prefer these to the first unit.

Three of these have silver helmets to break them up a little. The first unit has two silver helmets. Looking at images on the nett I saw a fair few with mixed colours.

All these boys have leopard skins for saddle cloths, they were fun to paint lol. I still have a few units worth of other Greek cavalry (and others) and three or four units worth of hoplites so I may well be visiting 15mm Ancients again in the coming weeks.

Isolation Painting Challenge Gets Me To Finish

A great idea (not mine) was to form a Facebook group for painting whilst in isolation and I decided to join as it looks like my place of work will be closed down for a few months (or more). This I hoped would spur me on to get more painting done but in fact I seem to be riding a reasonable bubble of enthusiasm so double score.

However whilst I was still feeling the wish to finish off part painted projects Matt P was good enough to get me to pull out three phalanx's that needed just one little job doing.....

Yes, sticking little sticks in far smaller hands! It takes about 30-45 minutes to do 96 figures worth, that being one block. These are of course Baccus 6mm boys and are meant for a game Lee and myself were going to run at Joy of Six a couple of years ago but things got in the way and we could not finalise the game and the project ran out of steam. I plan to attempt to finish this off whilst I am off work along with plenty of other projects.

So This brings the total to 25 blocks, that's 2400 figures and that's a lot of bristles! I hope to get round to showing off the whole army as it stands as it should look quite impressive. The general perception is that 6mm works out costing less than other scales but this little lot at todays prices comes in at £180 for castings. That said I would not be so mad as to paint up that amount of units in 15mm!! This project is all about creating a mass effect so I really look forward to being able to pit this mass against Lee's thin Roman line.

Plinths Oh Plinths

I received these plinths a few days back from Model Display Products which are for the WWII Busts I have on hand (and a couple of spares). As always service was fast and price is very reasonable. The small ones are for the FeR mini busts that I will be starting sometime in the near future. Before that I still have the British Commando to finish.

I have also been working on regular models and have some 6mm phalanx's to post and am at the final stages of two units of 15mm Companion cavalry that should be finished in the next two days. 

After that is six battalions of French Napoleonic infantry that will be up for sale when finished as will the Companions. Not sure what I will be doing after that, possibly 28mm Vikings or Cowboys. It could be anything, I am actually enjoying painting as much as I ever did and at least this way I still have plenty of family time. 

Talking of which I played another Command & Colors game with Joseph. The photo's came out too poor to post, just as well as he thrashed me 2-6 banners LOL