Halloween - Bring out your ... lead?

Well, slightly overdue, but here is yet another update of me painting!
The title of this blogpost is obviously linked to the well known movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I must soon see that one again on DVD.

As it is that time of the year, why not have a bit of a scary subject? Somewere, deep beneath the dreaded Lead Mountain, I knew I still had some very old skeleton miniatures. I'm trying to kickstart my painting habit again, and simple, quick to paint miniatures are the best way to get going. To me anyway. So here are some +40 years old skeletons from Minifigs' Valley of the Four Winds range.

I had to put the foot skeletons on higher bases, as they are "true" 25mm figures. By doing this, I could put them next to the few skeletons I had painted some years ago.

Everyone knows that undead don't rize out of the earth by themselves, so I needed some kind of magic-user too. Yet another old model was used for this. This time form Minifigs Aureola Rococco range, which is also nearly 40 years old! His guardian on horseback is, I think an old Citadel Chaos warrior. I dod not have the apropriate horse, but had a spare late medieval Essex horse. Fits nicely methinks!

The skeletons raising from the earth are form Warmonger / Wargames Foundry.
That's my undead troops, ready for a small skirmish. One Page Rules skirmish will be tested later today with some of my friends. See you soon!

PS The plastic Napoleonic French are on the hold for now. I have some problems with my printer, and can't print the flags for now. Pictures will follow as soon as they are ready.

The Warrior Princess (and more).

It's been a while, I have been busy with other things. Real life interevened as they say.

There has been some painting at least. For those who are awaiting more Napoleonics, you just have to wait a bit longer, almost there...

To begin with, here is the Warrior Princess, age 7.

Cute, isn't she? This figure was part of a larger lot that I bought many moons ago from a website which also had a very active forum, FUUK. They held an annual sculpting competition, and the best figures got actually produced and were up for sale. This figure was part of one of those competitions. I should have the other figures somewere hidden...

And then there is this very famous but also slightly confused wizard.

It is not always easy to be the best at your core business.

Certainly when things happen that you don't expect, or are not meant to happen. Like dead people rising from the grave! Rusty and oxydated weapons and all!

There is only one thing more terifying, and that is a Witch-King!

About to die!!!

Just don't tell him, he doesn't know it. Yet.

That's it for now. Fantasy figures made by FUUK (?), Citadel (pre-slotta era wizard), Wargames Foundry (Greek skeletons) and again Citadel/GW (Death of the With-King vignette).

Next time probably Napoleonics.

Probably.

Greek mythology.

If you like ancient Greek history, like me, you might also like Greek mythology. You know, Jason and the Argonauts, the siege and fall of Troy (Homeros version), and more.
I used Greek mythology as theme for my first warband for Dragon Rampant, the newest rulesset by Dan Mersey (published by Osprey).
I have yet to play my first game, but you need a painted warband for that! So here are pictures of my Centaurs.
Light spearmen or javeliners:

The heavies, armoured and dangerous:

And maybe the even more dangerous female archers:

Add a few heroes / leaders and the warband is ready for battle!

All of the above are from Wargames Foundry's Greek mythology range.
I have to add that 6 of the above miniatures were painted some time ago, and even had a few pictures of them in my blog. To mu own surprise almost two year ago.

While on the theme of Greek mythology, I also build and painted up a unit of Amazones.

These are plastics from Wargames Factory. While fairly easy to paint, they were a bit of a pain to put together, some realy fiddly parts to put on the correct place. of the models. I have parts for 36 more of them (I bought two boxes of these), but I'm not shure when that will happen...

Next up is something I have ment to do since january, so about time I started on them!
I will call it "the Nassau Project", and consists of painting the 3 battalions of the 2nd Nassau-Usingen Regiment. Each 36 figures strong, plus a casualty per battalion. And Prince Bernard of Saxe-Weimar and staff.

Work has just started on the flank companies, as you can see on the last picture.
Now try and keep FOCUS!

The general.

As told before, for some unknown reason I could not add more pictures to the former blog message. So here is the general, promised last time.

The general is wearing most expensive clothing, so I used colours which were expensive to produce in those days: purple and yellow. Armour and helmet are covered in silver and gold.
The high officer, pointing to some interesting feat happening in the far distance, got his armour in brass to distinguish him from other foot troops.
The miniatures are from 1st Corps (general on horse) and Wargames Foundry (foot officer).

We played a game of Basic Impetus last friday, the first miniatures game since a long time. Early Seleucids (me) against Pyrrhus (Peter). As usual, I lost. After being on the win for the largest part of the battle. A few bad dice rolls, and it was all over. I still like the rules though, Iand would like to try the full Impetus rules somewere in the near future.

Well, my backlog is now completely posted on the blog. I'm currently working on some Greek mythology figures, and who knows what will follow next.
It might be more successors (I have a lot unpainted), more mythology or fantasy, or finaly painting those last three battalions for my Napoleonic army.

This time it is all about new units for my Hellenistic armies. The Thureophoroi were painted last year, while the pikemen and general got their paint this year.

Thureoporoi are named after the shield they use: thureos. Most of the times these shield were painted white. But don't confuse them with leukaspides, which translates to white shields and were heavy pikemen.
 It is a troop type which became very popular in the third Century BC till the fall of the Hellenistic empires.

I'm not 100% shure if they were uniformed, but there is some proof for it.
Anyway, I picked inspiration for this unit from the cover of a recent issue of Ancient Warfare. Which is an excellent magazine for any ancient wargamer by the way. More info here .

The second unit of thureophoroi got a slightly different uniform, but still kept the white thureos.

The uniforms of these are based on a picture in "The Seleucid army", written by Nick Secunda.

It is the image on the right.
The commander of this unit got a bit of a differnt uniform. I imagine one of his forefathers was a Greek hoplite in service of Alexander the Great. Who knows!

This book, originaly published by Montvert Publ. in 1994 is now much sought after. If you find one for a reasonable price, do buy it! (I bought my copy in 1994...)
ISBN 1-874101-02-7.

Then there are the 16 new rercuits for my Argyraspides (silver shields), an elite unit of heavy pikemen. I had a unit of 32 of them, but now expanded to 48.

The complete expanded unit.

My other 32 men units of pikemen will also be expanded to 48.
Miniatures of the thureophoroi are from Old Glory.
The pikemen are from the Foundry range World of the Greeks. Still a favorite of me.

For some reason, I cannot add more pictures here. So the new general will get his own update.

Probably my last posting for 2014.

I'm still trying to paint as much as possible before the year is gone. But I am a bit struggling with it for some time now. My discipline is waining, I guess. Am I getting into a painting block? I hope not! Still so much to do.

But I did manage to paint a few figures since last time!
They are all for my ancient Greek armies, on which I started working a long tiem ago, well before I started this blog. I think it is about time these armies are ready. (If wargame armies are ever ready). I now have over 500 (closer to 600) ancient Greeks painted and ready for battle. That is far more then planned when I started painting them.
First are the last of my psiloi, more then I will ever need (I think).

The models are Steve Saleh sculpts, from his own Lucid Eye Miniatures. Which apearantly does not exist enymore. Which is a pitty I think. Most of my Greek miniatures are sculpted by Steve, for Wargames Foundry, but these are probably his best until now. I heard rumours he is now working for Warlord Games. We'll see what that brings.

A unit of Greek peltasts. Yes, more Lucid Eye miniatures from Steve! In fact, I bought them together with the psiloi in a unit box. There is one model, not sculpted by Steve, and that is the musician. He is from a pack of musicians I once bought from Vendel Miniatures. Which is already many years out of business.

And yet more of Steve Saleh's sculpts! This time Foundry Spartan hoplites. I still had one blister to paint, so I did. I now have 3 units of 36 Spartan hoplites, and that must be enough. If you consider how may points these fellows cost in most game systems. I also have a spare command base, so can form 4 units of 24 if I wish.

I'm still trying to have a few more finished before the turning of the year, but I don't think I will make it. So those will probably be the first for 2015. And the last of the ancient Greeks.

I will make some pictures of the whole Greek army as soon as they are ready.

Untill the, I wish you all Happy New Year! (Christmas is gone already...)

See you next year!