Sunday, 7 February 2021

Galmoy's Regiment Completed

 

As part of the ongoing work to get the Irish Brigade done I mangaed to finish the Galmoy Regiment back in January. 

Quick overview: The Irish Brigade I am working on is five regiments strong and represents the Brigade in French service during the War of Spanish Succession. Each regiement is 21 strong and they are based for a game system called "Beneath the Lilly Banners." The main difference is the trapazoid shaped base for the command element.

Heres some completed photos of Galmoy's regiment:

 



Like the rest of the regiment it's in red uniforms. However, these have blue facings and yellow lace along with gold buttons to mark them out from the other units, which have green, yellow or white. 

The figures for the whole Brigade are all from the excellent Ebor Miniatures range. This is the second brigade of Ebor minis I have done (I painted some Bavarians for the same client last year) and I do like the figures. I will try and do a review of them one day.

The flags, I think, are stunning. I always get asked about them but sadly they are just provided to me for fitting by the client - I don't know where he gets them from other than to say they are custom made for him. 

Just two more regiments to go which I am hoping to get done in February so stay tuned for an update.
 

Saturday, 6 February 2021

Hastati Completed

 

I've unintentionlly fallen behind somewhat with my blog posts - I had intended to post more often in January, but was so busy painting and doing overtime I didn't get chance.  So a lot of the posts over the next few weeks will actually be from my January output.

Way back in 2019 I decided that I would get into Warmaster Ancients, and went for 15mm. I chose the War and Empre range from Forged in Battle and ordered the republican army start set, as my friend ordered the Carthagians. We had big plans (as always) but they fell by the way side. 

Fast forward to January and I've finally painted nealy all of them. The most recent is a unit of Hastati (I hope I spelt that right!).

During the Republican period, there were three types of legionnaires. At the rear were the veterans, the Triariri. In front of them were the more experienced soldiers, the Principes and at the very front (excluding the skirkmishers) were the Hastati. These were the new boys. 

Here is my unit of those young bucks:


These were painted in the old base coat, wash, highlight method. I have gone to the trouble of adding shield transfers from Little Big Man Studios. Fiddly to do in this scale, but I think they finish the unit off. 

The unit itself is 24 strong, and mounted on 40mm by 40mm bases. Whilst based for warmaster, they could easily do double duty for Hail Caeser. 

I now have just one unit of the starter army box set, the cavalry, to do. They are not too far down the queue. Currently, this is the state of the army:



It's turning into a tidy little force and consists of two units of Velites (the skirmishers) a unit each of the three types of legionnaires and a general. I would need to roughly double the size of the army for a reasonable game of Warmaster, so that will have to be the plan. 

The next stage is to find some opponents for them. Warmaster allows armies from different time periods to face off, so I just need to find another amy to collect.

Saturday, 16 January 2021

Completed Regiments

 

 

Time for an update on my progress so far. 


January has been a prodcutive month with two regiments completed for the War of Spanish Succession. 

First off we have a battalion of Scottish Troops in Dutch Service. A little change of pace as these are all in grenadier uniform:

 


 

These are all figures from Front Rank. Really nice to paint, the detail is lovely and chunky and they have some animated poses. My favourite is the guy getting shot. I really like the bright colour scheme. Just waiting for the banners to arrive now. 

Next up is a regiment of Irish Brigade that fought for the French:


This time they are Ebor Miniatures figures. A little slimmer than the Front rank stuff, but still really nice. This battalion is based a little differently asthey are for the rule set (Beneath the Lilly Banners). 


So that is 45 minis so far this year. The only down side is these are both commissions so onothing of my own yet for 2021. However, it also ticks off two boxes on the hobby bingo - the 10+ unit and the 2+ unit for a total of 20 points.


Wednesday, 30 December 2020

2020 Round Up

 

I am afraid this will be a post with no pictures, but I thought a round up of what I managed to paint this year might be interesting. 

 

In January, when the world was a very different place, I set myself a target of 350 minis painted, and 1500 points scored on the analogue painting challenge points system for the whole year. 

 

Here is how I did:

 

January:

A good month. 108 Napoleonic French were finished. The vast majority of work on those happened in 2019, but because they were finsihed (Painted, based, flags added etc) in 2020, they count towards this year. I also finished a single Swedish infantry man from the great Northern war this month. 

Monthly Total: 109, Running Total: 109


February

A much slower month this time. First off the block were 10 spider riders for my goblin army and 2 German Spotters for my Bot Action force. I also added three mounted French colonels to the earlier three regiments to finish off that commission.

Monthly Total: 15, Running Total: 124

 

March

Some more commision work arrived this month - 84 Bavarians for the War of Spanish Succession. March saw the first 27 of these done. Alongside those, I knocked out 6 Black Orcs and 4 Napoleonic French. 

Monthly Total: 37, Running Total: 161

 

April

A fairly solid month, another 15 Bavarians done. We saw the first appearace of different scales, three 20mm Poish tanks, 15 15mm Romans, 2 Spear Chukkas and crew (8 minis in total) and 2 cadians done. 

Monthly Total: 43, Running Total:204

 

May

The remaining Bavarians were all completed (42 minis), and another 4 Napoleonic French. 

Monthly Total: 46, Running Total: 260

 

June

A month when it was all about my own stuff - a full unif of 24 15mm Romans, 2 VIkings and a German Puma armoued car - that had been half done for around 5 years so it was good to get it finally finished. 

Monthly Total: 27, Running Total: 287

 

July

Anohter month of mixed scales. 24 Front Rank Dutch Troops were done on commission, along with 12 Roman Velites and 24 union ACW infantry in 10mm (another new project!)

Monthly Total: 60, Running Total: 347

 

August and September

The usual summer lull was made worse by a mojo slump - I think it was post lock down fatigue and having had the kids around since March the desire to paint just got up and left. 

 

October

A very steady month, I only managed 16 union infantry in 10mm. But the mojo was creeping back.

Monthly Total: 16, Running Total: 363

 

November

Over 200 minis landed on my desk for variois commissions this month, and I did make good progress on them. But none were completed so the only models done were a German Pak 40 and crew (4 minis), a Napleoic french cannon and crew (4 mins) and 6 Napoleonic French infantry.

Monthly Total: 14, Running Total: 377

 

December

A strong month to round the year off - 1 15mm Roman infantry man and a singel mounted commander were completed and based together for a command stand. Another 24 union infantry in 10mm and 21 Irish Brigade troops were all done/ 

Monthly Total: 47, Running Total: 424

 

 So 424 minis and about 1735 points under the Analogue system. Easily my best ever year. Even if you strip out the commission work, I added quite a lot of stuff to my own collections and I find the commision work pushes me out of my comfort zone and gets me to the desk. Had I not had the big mojo lull, when I didn't do my own stuff or take any work on, I think I could have smashe 500 minis. 

 

I'm looking at a good start to 2021 as I have a lot of minis half done and another 80 or so pimed and ready - I want to get off to a flyer if possible. 

 

Finally, my targets for next year:

Painted minis - 600, any scale

Analogue points - 2000.

 

I shall try to get monthly updates up - hopefully with pictures! 

 

 

Saturday, 26 December 2020

Bingo!!

 

As you have no doubt noticed, my last attempt to get the blog up and running failed miserably! 

However, one my friends contacted me the other week, saying he was starting hobby bingo for 2021. I was curious and gave it a look. Here is what it is:



Now, at first I looked at it and though while it was interesting, I initially dismissed any idea of doing it as not possible, as it's clearly tailored towards GW stuff, very little of which I paint these days. However, the more I looked at it, the more I thought I would give it a go. Even with historical stuff, doing units, hero's, vehicles and scenery won't be a major issue. The big struggles I see ahead will be Behemoths/Lord of war and kitbashed models. 

I shall try to get around the behemoths with some big stuff in my orc and goblin army and the kitbash stuff I shall worry about later down the line. 

All this will start in January and I will try and keep a monthly log of how I am going. I think this is a three way competition with my main rival being the Sachiel Returns blog!

In the mean time, Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year!

Sunday, 12 April 2020

Blast from the Past



One of this years main projects has been sorting stuff out in the pile of shame. A lot of stuff has been sold on as I have been honest with myself about what I would actually get around to.

The main pile of stuff that has been cleared out has been my 40k stuff. As a former GW boy I had a lot but I have fallen out of love with the game itself despite several attempts on my behalf to reboot myself in the game. As a result over the last year or so I have purged most of my 40k.

Which leads me to this short post. The other day I was clearing the last few things out when I found these two at the bottom of a box:



My old paint scheme was fairly basic and these were already pretty much done. I almost put them on ebay but figured I may as well finish them off since it wouldn't take long. Here is the final result:




I stuck to the basic scheme and the simple basing that 2007 me used to use so they fit with the rest of the army.

This now means I have no unpainted 40k in my collection anymore. Actually, I think I have a half finished ork vehicle somwhere that I really must get done.

Progress wise the desk is awash with Bavarians from the War of Spanish Succession, some 15mm Republican Romans and a couple of Orc and Goblin Spear Chukka's. There all coming along at a fair pace so hopefully there should be some more posts this month. Fingers crossed!

Friday, 3 April 2020

Necromancy



It's been a while!

Nearly 2 and a half years as it turns out. Why, in these turbulent times am I revisiting my blog? To be honest, I am really not qute sure as to why, but I have decided make an attempt at blogging my hobby progress once again.

And what has the last two years of hobby bought me? Quite a lot as it happens. I have a hobby room set up and this year is seeing the final push to get it all finalised. I hope to complete it soon. However, it has been sufficiently equipped for me to be quite productive.

I have been painting a lot of stuff for myself and also taking on some commission work. New project wise, I started a Warhammer Fantasy Orc and Goblin army last year and there is a 15mm Roman Army in the works. I am also experimenting with other smaller scales and games.

For now, here are some pictures of stuff I have completed recently.

I recently completed three Perry Miniatures battalions of French Line Infantry for a client. Considering the amount of white in these, I was really pleased in how they turned out. The order also included three mounted colonels:




The same client has commission four War of Spanish Succession Battalions in 28mm. Here is the first all done and based, the rest are coming along nicely.








Finely, at the recent Hammerhead show I picked up three 7TP tanks in 20mm for my Polish. These are from Early War Miniatures and I painted them up straight away. With a 37mm gun they should give the Germans pause for thought.



And finally, a unit of 10 Spider Riders for my Orcs and Goblins. 




What's coming up? Well, there are more Bavarians, some geenskins and some 15mm Romans - and that's just the start. I am aiming for a ratio of one mini a day sp stay tuned.