Imaginations - West African Battalion HO

Just trying out a colour scheme for my West African battalion intended as allies of the Thurn -Taxis forces in their  Tripolitanian campaign against North African pirates.

I also have a battalion in blue and buff but I'm not so keen on them.  I'll post  the finished pics up when  they're based

Arab armies of the Napoleonic period

Hi,
Just wanted to post up a book I bought by Mark Bevis. I'm  getting started on 20mm Ottomans  and bought this to help me flesh out the forces appropriately.  I'm just astounded at how many varieties of troops I can use, including the figures from  Revell's Muslim warriors and  Airfix's bedouin from the Lawrence set. I suspect i can squeeze in plenty  from the various colonial sets too.
An excellent reference if your thinking of doing Napoleon in Egypt or just  interested in the  wars happening in the region. i picked up my copy from Ebay for £20. I highly recommend it!

A few 6mm Napoleonics Russo -Turkish - Balkans 1812

A couple of draft shots of some 6mm Nappies,  Irregular I think. They were originally French but with a green coat  I couldn't tell the difference! I hoping to  refight some of the battle from the Balkans once my General de Brigade (no. 4) scenario book arrives. I don't play GdB but the scenarios are supposed to be generic so I can adapt them to Naps Battles  or my own Grasp rules.  Damn, that reminds me! I was seduced  by the Amazon credit card which offered me £10 off if I completed the application! I haven't had a credit card in eight years  or so. I hope I'm a little more disciplined than I was in my previous incarnation otherwise I will shortly be drowning in a sea of lead and rules!

Thinking of purchases for the future -  a  tripod mount for my camera would be useful if I'm going to get  some better pics.

These are my first batch of Russian infantry. No particular regiments at the moment -  experimenting with  the close and looser order looks to see which I prefer. I'm tempted to try the close formations but without the long flock - looks a bit scruffy.

Sorry for the blutrry shot - I('ll update this asap. At the front - Ottoman fellahin taken from Irregular's renaissance range. Below, a base of Janissaries with a couple of Nizam Jedid, not sure if they would have  brigaded together ( can  I used Brigade as a verb?) but I'll find out when my book arrives :)

Thanks for dropping by.

A few more 28mm commissions RPG - fantasy D & D

 Flitting like a mad thing  from project to project  at the moment -
on my desk are 2mm Turks VSF, 15mm scale giant bio-Mech, 28mm fantasy, 25mm Napolionics, 20mm Napoleonics and 1/1200 ships. For some reason I seem to be running out of bases, brushes and paints all at the same time!

Oh! and I set up a figure painting service  -  the website is https://minipaint.co.uk

Any thoughts as to how I could improve the site or service much appreciated.

Anyhow, here are my latest efforts -  6 D & D characters for my good friend ( and most generous patron!).

 

 

Irregular miniatures spaceship haul - old citadel and QT starships

Thought Id upload some pics of a recent haul from Irregular Miniatures. Looks like they were  getting rid of the space ship display board. These look around squadron scale(?) about 1/3000. They seem to fit in well with the other stuff I have from Brigade and Kallistra.

The grey ships - top left -  are Kallistra ship that I posted earlier in their original owner's colours. They are now nicely undercoated and ready to join the  painting queue.

also, for those old enough to remember the 80's, I have this collection of old QT  and Citadel  ships.

2mm Turkish VSF 1877 - Irregular miniatures

A very satisfying and equally rare experience  for me is  to finish something! so here are my first 2mm units for my Turkish VSF  1877 army. So far, this completes the Nizam (regular) and Redif (reserve) battalions for one brigade. There are Chasseurs and Commanders to come. Further brigades will  be artillery and cavalry, with a second infantry brigade. I bought these from Irregular miniatures and I love them to bits - easy and quick to paint and beginning to look like real units!

Hexon 2 terrain custom rivers

Having ordered a load of hexon terrain from  kallistra , I decided to try and make some river tiles.
I checked my local diy store and found some expanded polystyrene underlay which was half as thick as the depth of a hexon tile.

and this is how they turned out after a dozen tries to find the right colour and tonnes of scenic water and future  floor polish...

2 mm  troops for scale

Loft relics - revisited - Heller CR 714 , BO105 , Pitts Special

Another trio of forgotten models, due for some care and attention.

Heller's CR714  has been fading slowly for the last 12 years , sitting in a loft window. Without the bright marking to distract , it's quite obvious how awful the hairy stick paint job is. My first use of life Color paints, I really should have used the airbrush. So  a replacement CR714 is around a tenner :(
My how things have changed. I'll have to repaint this as I can't justify the expense otherwise! Let's hope I've got some spare decals in the stash, or it'll be more cash.

I think this is the Italeri Bo105 done in an Israeli scheme. I took out the door windows as per my references. This is really another for the wargames pile.

Sadly, this Pitts (painted by hand during a guard duty in 1991) is showing its age. Time to sand back and completely re-finish - I'll need to source a new scheme and decal set.

Just ordered the AZ model Pitts S2A with Toyota and Microlease decals  - That'll give me a spare set of decals for this one. Buying a replacement Rothmans was just too expensive!

Rescuing some old models from the loft - Harrier, bobcat, Mig 1 270

In the middle of a massive tidy up I found some old models languishing and thought I'd get them cleaned up and restored.
First the old Airfix GR3, brush painted and on its way to joining the wargames fleet.

Second , the Pavla Bobcat

This will get some touch ups and returned to display.

Third, the CMK MiG I-270, needs a tail stand and a base -  return to display.

Fourth and last for now, the Broplan Zlin 142. This had a really dificult canopy fit and I've  entertaine the thought of junking it -  but not before I've built the Hobby Boss replacement.

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Kallistra Space dreadnought 3000 ships

Its been a while since Ive made any real progress on my own projects.  Although Ive been recollecting 15mm sci fi for a couple of years,  it was at the last Warfare show that I picked up a couple of 1/3000 scale space fleets from the Kallistra stand. I think I paid less £15  per fleet and that was for  eight ships and metal stands , which I thought was a very reasonable price.  I picked up the Quellaris fleet and the Altaran fleet and got a free set of the  rules thrown in! Thank you :)

So, having  not painted any tiny spaceship since the mid -eighties ( I have half a dozen spaceships bought from Esdevium games whilst I was still at school) I took a fairly conservative approach to painting this new batch.

Behold! The fleet of  the Quellarians!

As you can see, I didn't stop with painting a few ships... oh no..
Some months before , without knowing why, I bought a pack of various sized polystyrene balls from a craft retailer. Once I'd purchased my ships I then realised what the balls were for ! Planets! Set to with the poly cement to make an asteroid or two, followed by a lovely  6 x 4 ft  space matt from A & B games across the road and I'm all set for interstellar chaos.

Shortly, thereafter, followed the Altaran fleet. who will save us from the Altaran onslaught? Aaaaaah!

A couple of hotwheels 'Star wars'  and  some plastic fighters and bases from E4M I think, plus another session making 22 planets of various sizes and colours ( thanks to my  daughter for the nail varnish for the  swirly enamelling ) and I am ready to rock and roll. Mission accomplished :)

Sci fi troops in cold weather gear. 15mm GZG?

I found an odd tray with these little fellas in it.Some how they never made it to the sacrificial altar in the loft where a million little  beings await the lead god's pleasure. In their off-white parkas, I thought they would make good arctic fighters  or but without skis or pack I thought a cold weather idea would suit better. Also I have no polar / ice world terrain so I didn't want to have these with winter bases.

I tried adding a little Woodlands Scenics snow to the bases in patches with the idea of showing melting frost, but it didn't work. They just look shite. I imagined how the area just around the tufts of grass would be clear of frost but I wasn't up to the job.  Next time I will  use plaster, leaving little circles clear  and pop in the tufts after it's dried. I had used this material before on a diorama showing a  vehicle on a road with melting snow, and that that worked a treat. But not this time. Maybe next time.

Grass tuft frenzy, Das anuses and chaos warriors

Had a little experiment with some DAS and a collection of grass tufts to make some shell craters. As you can see the results are a  bit primitive and although I checked out some shell craters on google, these look more like anuses!  They curled a little as they dried, so I might try forming them onto  mdf round bases in the future. I could also add some muddy water in the centres. I'll try to remember for next time.

I tried out some larger tufts on my Naps Bats bases as being 20mm figures on 25mm bases there is a lot of spare room. I picked up a few different manufacturers' tufts, and whilst I liked the sheets that had various sizes and shapes  all together, in terms of actually using them, they're pretty much all the same. at least now my Bavarian and Prussian reservists have something to cower behind.

These are my latest ( originally  I wrote 'lastest' - I hope that's  not phrophetic!) chaos troops, liberally festooned with grass. Not only does it hide  litttle errors with the ground-work but it's also quicker than glueing static grass everywhere. I've added the chaos warriors here to the DBA -  Hott link  on the right.

Ciao.

Fahnentrager, 9th Prussian Infanterie Regt. (Reserve) 1813

A great boon  for me  of being on a forum is the occasional impetus that arises from  various group builds and duels. I was  a littler foolhardy to launch during a busy time into another duel on Bennos Figure Forum. As is usual for me  everything was completed last minute and I really enjoyed taking a loose approach to painting.

Now I'm looking forward to  doing some better photos, getting some backdrops painted and  painting another  box or two to join this fellow. 

Thanks for stopping by :)