Leven Miniatures Soon to be Released Middle East/Egyptian Range

I was give eighteen buildings by Mike to paint at Joy of Six and have recently finally finished them all. As per usual they were good castings to work on and as they are all the same finish batch painted them for a quicker result.

Given the number of buildings I will just do group images in this post and save the individual shots for later.All will work with the current ranges though these are more ancient than the original range/

This collection tends to be a little more complex than the original range with less square buildings. The range includes temples but also more left field items such as a boat yard and even a potters workshop.

You can check out Levens facebook page here for any updates and whilst they are not yet on the site you can contact Mike for ordering information.

Not many suppliers of wargames buildings start a range with such depth, eighteen buildings as an add on for a range is something to shout about and I can't praise Mike enough for such commitment to his projects.

Many of the buildings have courtyards with tiled floors. I did think about painting some of these with lots of colour but decided that would detract from the look Mike was after.

I will certainly be buying some of these buildings for my 6mm Ancient project to mix in with the other buildings I already have. I just need to get a few of the buildings I picked up for me at Joy of Six painted before I do, otherwise I will feel the pangs of guilt. Or not......

Been a Long Time...........

This is either a Led Zep post or at least something Lead related. Well a little bit of lead and a whole lot more resin.

I actually finished painting these buildings weeks ago and had done most of the work on the tiles that they are based on. Then I kind of forgot about it for a week or two. All three buildings are from the Leven Miniatures medieval range. 

I wanted to paint up a larger farm tile that could be used for my ECW army with a view of using it for Napoleonic's without it being too much of a stretch. The farm I had in mind would have a hedge and water filled trench, nothing as grand as a moat but something that would make crossing the hedge somewhat of a problem.

The building in the foreground is MED16 Medieval Town House £2.60 here it represents the original farmhouse that has now been reduced to use by the farmhands whilst the country gentleman farmer now resides in MED12 Medieval Manor House at £3.00. 

The last building on the tile is MED15 Small Medieval Cottage £2.60 but works so very well as a storehouse. I have followed my usual basing system adding some of the Baccus figures from a mix of civilian sets. Can you spot the rather excellent Perfect 6 scenic items? I have added a mix of creates, barrels and sacks to the base to give the look of a working farm. The health & safety boys and girls won't be happy I can tell you.

I added a couple of bunches of rushes to the water to make it a bit more interesting. The water itself is layers of PVA and Army Painter intermixed with brushing's of paint to try and give the appearance of depth. Not a bad result but I am sure it would have come off better with the use of water products,

A better view of some of the Perfect Six scatter terrain. A horse is tethered near the hedge helping itself to a free meal!

The lady of the house stands at the front door looking for a man to boss around, one guy is trying to make himself invisible behind his mattock, I don't care for his chances.

Meanwhile slightly hidden is a poor fellow loading the wagon before gathering the horses ready to head off to the market. If he gets a move on he may get away before the first soldiers descend on the farm.

In all three cases I have painted the buildings at least once, indeed all three examples are on Mikes website. The original MED15 Small Medieval Cottage was done with wooden tiles whilst on my version I have used slate, both styles work well giving it a different look each time.

The hedge is simply Olive Green Bushes from Woodland Scenics glued in place with good old PVA. I am currently well on my way to painting up a whole new range for Leven and hope to have them finished if not blogged by the weekend.

Leven Farm Tile - The Buildings

Oh it's been a long time since I last painted any buildings but I have been working on this project in the background for some time. As many will know I do like to produce building groups on tiles with farms being quite popular. 

So no surprises then that these three buildings will be made into a 17th Century farm which will be used for our ECW games but also for the Napoleonic games. The buildings are from the excellent and ever growing ranges of Leven Miniatures these all from the Medieval range and quite suitable for later periods.

This one will be on a tile 240x120mm and is based on an idea I have had running through the old noggin for a few months now. I hope to get it finished in the next week or maybe two depending on the amount of hobby time I can allow myself.

Wednesday saw me with rather more than expected when I woke up about 1.30am having forgot my night time meds (despite my reminder alarm!) not able to stay in bed and too late to take them I set too at 2am and painted till Cath got up at 7. The result was three 26 figure Persian Levy units painted and just needing basing plus some work on the buildings above. Good job I have Wednesdays off work and I even had time to do other hobby stuff but by 10.30pm I was more than ready to call it a day. 

Building of the Quarter - Baccus Star Fort

Yes it REALLY has been that long! I always dip out a bit during the Analogue Painting Challenge but I had done precious few prior to the challenge ion the last couple of months. By the end of March I am hoping to get back to a building or two a week. I still have a box half full of building so I am in no danger of running out.

Today I have thrown together another four buildings ready for a game tomorrow (if we get time) not actually painted them yet though.

I did paint this up though, it would still be waiting for the first lick of paint if not for the Defensive Terrain bonus round. Baccus way back used to supply resin terrain, before they even supplied figures. The rights and moulds for all their buildings have been sold on but the owner has never actually put them back in manufacture making this a rather special and hard to get piece.

Matt gave me this set about a year ago, he does not like the height of the parapet as the bases are of similar height and it spoils the illusion for him. I just wanted it from the moment I looked at it! Some great detail such as the gateways (two supplied).

The set comes with 6 battlements, 6 wall sections, 6 crenelations (?) and one breached wall and battlement allowing us to have storming scenarios.

It was a joy to work on, lots of drybrushing and picking out the odd stone slab to add a bit more interest. Time wise it took about four or five sessions so well worth the effort.

This will mostly get used in Napoleonic games as I don't own any 18C figures and do not see me going down that route. Of course that will only be the case until Lee or Matt somehow convinces me I really do have to get something because xyz.

The last picture is mostly for the none 6mm gamers to give an idea of scale, it fits into two A4 boxes. I just used a few of my Leven Iberian buildings to fill the middle up a little. 

Building of the Week - Leven Manor House

I painted up the display version for Leven ages ago and immediately ordered one for my own collection but alas took forever to get round to painting it. No matter I really enjoyed painting this model even though it was a real quick paint. Unfortunately at the moment the building is not available as it was rather tricky to cast from the original mould so will be re-released once a fresh mould has been made.

It's easy to see why I like it so much as it's got loads of character, it's just a pity that the light is too poor to take shots of it outside.

I really like all the different angles that the roof and garrets give it, I know I will be able to fit this in with various Napoleonic battlefields. Not so much for our ECW ones but possibly for other periods we have yet to get into.

The building for all it's shapes is still a fairly blockish building but that adds to it's charm and actually acts as a nice foil to the other manor house that Leven released about a year ago.

I popped the house on a temporary base to show it with a unit of Infantry to give an idea of scale, works rather well for me. I don't intend to base the building at the moment but may do later if inspiration or need occurs.

Building of the Week, Another Leven Farm Tile

I'm not sure how many of these I have done now but I have quite a few and all are different. This one is no exception as two of the three buildings are firsts for me.

I was hoping for better weather so I could take the pics outside but poor light and on off rain meant that was never going to be a good idea so inside shots only I am afraid. I tried something a bit different for me and added a second stone colour to the buildings. Whilst I was doing it I really was not too sure and expected a repaint but once finished I was rather happy with the result.

The tile comprises of FAR15 Stone Farmhouse £2.50, FAR20a Farm Outbuilding £2.00 and FAR20d Farm Outbuilding (pigsty) £1.50 and bits from ACC02 Dry Stone Wall set £3.00 all of course from Leven Miniatures. 

It really belongs in a European setting and a little later than my planned use of it but with the added bits I think it can pass for a Napoleonic tile if you push it a bit.

I added a Baccus tumbril to the yard to add a little interest but also some of the Perfect Six Scenic range of scenic items. In this case one of the larger barrels from the set and a couple of the newer releases in a couple of sack clusters.

I am quite pleased with the result, the extra bits really break up the yard area and with the latest releases from Perfect Six I could have added a farmer, his dog and even a horse awaiting the tack to be brought out to be harnessed to the cart. Expect to see a few carts in the future with sacks or stacks of boxes in them. Now please kindly remember to shut that gate.

Building of the Week Leven Miniatures Grain Store

The last of the buildings for our Ancients project that I have in hand is Leven Miniatures MID12 Grain Store retailing at £3.00 though I choose a far less mundane use for this building. Instead it will represent the Government or Religious centre of the region. Having looked at a lot of mostly Persian buildings from a mix of ancient to early gunpowder periods I decided to try and be brave and go bold with the colour. This will after all set it apart from the rest of the buildings.

It's not actually quite as dark as it looks in the photo's with the dark sand colour actually more of a golden yellow. It's by far the bigger of the buildings I have bought from Leven's Middle East range which I am really pleased about.

It's also hard to see the two domes on the rear section of the building on the picture above but it's good to show some of the detail on the inner sections of the building.

I will need to buy a few more buildings to flesh out the settlement and also allow this building to be left out of games where we just need a village rather than an area of greater importance.

Like the other buildings in the range that I have painted this one has a nice texture that shows through the paint and adds to the look of the finished model.

So considering all the buildings of this range I have painted I have to say I have been very pleased with the quality and results. I wanted to keep up with the quick paints to go along with the rest of the project and indeed it has delivered on this.

Having watched a game of Commands & Colors Ancients at Kev's last week I can see us using some of the mechanics from that game used when we finally get to play a game. I have continued to build my forces up and will be looking at the Persians as a second army to start whilst Lee builds his Romans up. I doubt very much we will be ready for a game this year but I expect to get a few games sometime in 2016. That is of course if we don't just get sucked into lots of Napoleonic games.

Building of the Week Leven Middle East Range

Following on from last weeks Building of the Week I again present a couple more buildings from this range. On the left is MID02 Desert Dwelling selling at £2.50 and to the right MID05 Large 2 Storey Dwelling selling again at £2.50

 Given the fairly straightforward design of these buildings it can be a little difficult to make them interesting but Mike has worked into them small details such as the patches of render missing with brickwork showing through on MID02.

The roofs are also textured allowing the painter to dry brush or ink detail in place. This time I went with the ink but when I get some more I will dry brush to see the results. I wanted these to paint up quickly to fit in with the whole concept of the project but again with a limited amount of time spent on them they still come looking good. Mike did not leave off with just render patches but the walls all have texture that you can't pick out with the camera so well but stand out on the table.

I went with Vallejo Black Grey for the windows with no lighter grey highlight as they would not have any glass in them so wanted a fuller darkness without going jet black. On the right hand building you can see some of that texture I was talking about above.

These buildings would work for a number of periods and I can see them on WWII and Modern tables. The range is large enough that you can get a good sized town without to many repeats. I would guess that this is the largest range of Middle East buildings on the market right now.

So Leven have provided me with a couple of rather nice buildings that will make up part of my small town when called for in our Ancient games. Now all we need to do is work out if we will be using Hail Caesar or another rule set. It's possible we will use some form of Commands & Colors Ancients as Lee has now bought these. What ever we use we may be some time off from being ready as Lee's Romans are a little cavalry light. He has four Legion bases and seven Auxiliary infantry. He has more unbased units but that's his lot at the moment. I on the other hand have six heavy foot, five companion cavalry a couple of horse archer units, four heavy balister and plenty of light infantry. At the moment I rather fancy my odds.

Building of the Week - Mud Brick Huts

I have again started to paint up some of the backlog of buildings I have on hand and this week I started painting up the buildings that will be used in our 6mm Ancients games.  Leven have a range of fifteen models for their Middle East range, this being the first code MID01 and you get four buildings as shown below.

At first viewing before you start work on them they really look like rounded squares with almost no detail at all. However it's really only after you add the undercoat that you start to realise there is more to these models. Indeed it was with the ink wash followed by the drybrush that I actually really saw the actual level of detail and it's hard not to be impressed.

You get a set of four for £2.50 and they really are a quick paint. This suits the whole projects ethos of simpler paint job whilst still looking good. I have added a unit of Companions to the second picture for a size comparison. They are quite small which looks correct to me. I have three more buildings from the range and may buy a few more if it looks like we will need more, not really sure how prominent towns and villages were in ancient battles.

Building of the Week - Total Battle Miniatures

Total Battle Miniatures made a rather big splash when they released their 6mm Small Footprint range for the Waterloo Campaign, a nice smaller scale set of buildings that would suit those downsizing the battle to a smaller table or those wanting to scale down the buildings similar to the way we scale down unit sizes. However that's not the subject of today's post :-)

I bought these buildings a few years ago now in a sale with a bunch of others but never quite got round to painting the last three. These are the Villa with Arched Veranda (6SPBB08U) and costs £3 each.

Many houses in Spain during the Napoleonic Wars would have been just rendered and not painted white as we tend to see them today. Indeed if it was painted white it was seen as a well off occupant. I have to admit most of my buildings do have the white exterior though I do have a reasonable amount that are plain.

Trying to even up the numbers is another plain rendered offering, in this case Villa with Yard (6SPBB07U) also £3.00 each.  If you go back a few years you will see that I was quite a fan of these buildings, time has not really changed this view and as a range it's fairly wide has some excellent tile sets (I painted and posted about the Hill Town Set).

Given the general lack of detail in this type of building TBM's have managed to squeeze a fair amount out of these buildings and the rest of the range. Their other ranges tend to have a fair bit more detail as there is more to go at. 

I am not really a fan of the added vegetation though I think it's better done than the Timecast ones (I still prefer the Timecast buildings overall). I would normally cover it with clump foliage or other scenic's and may yet go back to that. 

Back when I first started painting TBM buildings I thought the texture was really good, not just this range but all the buildings I have painted of theirs. However whilst I still like it it feels a bit clumsy compared with the likes of Leven. I am very much aware that this is not really the case so much as style and I still enjoyed working on these buildings I kind of feel they are more in my past than future. That's not to say I would not buy more TBM buildings as they do produce some good buildings, they are somewhat bigger than the Leven models and like Timecast not the best fit when mixed together within the same cluster of buildings but separated over the table still work well together. Lee has also bought and painted some of these Spanish buildings and I have to say has done a better job than me. 

In summery the range has eleven buildings and three tile sets for your Iberian pursuits. Prices range from £3 for a 30x30mm footprint building to £35 for the Hill Town Set. The buildings are well designed and feel right for the period and with the buildings you get with the two farm tiles can make up a varied looking town. For me the range comes first for variety but last for desirability when compared with Timecast and Leven. From the point of personal numbers I have more TBM Iberian buildings than either Timecast or Leven and have almost all the buildings from all three suppliers.

Building of the Week - Leven Monastery

With all the talk (and an actual game) involving the Peninsular I have been motivated to paint a few more buildings for this area. This week I present CHU10 Mediterranean Monastery costing £4.50 One of the larger buildings that Leven produce.

 I went with a fairly basic finish using off white to cut back on the possible glare. This building comes with standard tiles rather than the terracotta style most of the other Iberian buildings come with. Having looked at a fair few images for inspiration I am glad to say this is not unusual with these buildings.

There is not a wealth of detail that you tend to get with Leven though it does have a few interesting features such as the fascia in the top image and this domed section near the base of the tower.

The tower is supposed to be mostly open which is hard to carry off with so much area that you can really only paint out black. On the table when in the background it does blend in batter than when it's the focal point of the picture.

The tower comes as a loose section that you fix on, this allows you to shorten the tower by a level or even replace with a scratch built tower if your skills stretch to that.

Scale wise it looks a little small to me, I have used a Leven three story house as a reference point. To do it real justice it would need to be quite a bit larger so I can see why Mike is happy to keep it scaled down a little, at least this way it does not take over the table when you game with it. Lee and myself have a number of scenarios we will be able to get use out of it so keep an eye out for it.