From Lorenzo: 1848 Danish Artillery (Lates & Returns) + Marine Cyclops (Fantasy) + Matilda (Sarahs Library Cart) (94 points)

Well AHPC14 has brought out the erratic in me, gone are the plans to simply paint the Schlieswig Holstein armies piled high in my figure mountain. I got lost in the library.......

First up are some lates and returns and of course these are more Schlieswig Holstein Danish from 1848. A simple Artillery piece - yes I know they had machine guns but I have none ready. The base is using my standard method and I have added some photos of the stages as well as showing that for these 20mm chaps I base them on washers to get a height match with my 1/72 plastics. The figures are made and sold by Irregular Miniatures and from their Indian Mutiny Range - mid 19th century bell shakoes were the latest thing. These figures were lying with just red coats cast aside in the heap when AHPC14 rode into town.......

I reckon the 4 figures are worth 4x4 = 16 plus the artillery piece at 8 points plus the topic at 20 points gives me a total score of 44 points? Basing technique used is pendraken mdf 60x40, pva and bird grit (as per warhammer battles painting guide) then wet brush burnt sienna followed by dry brush ochre then highlight with a yellow white. I have found by trial and error the three colour shades that compliment each other. Then I grass the base - with my danish I tend to use gamers winter grasses as shown here.

Next up is a complete surprise. Between Xmas and New Year I went to Doncaster Racecourse and toured the Toy Show (80 odd traders). Its very planes, trains and automobiles but sometimes there is a bargain to be had. You have to be careful because the packaging often is more valuable than the kit so to speak. I bought some kits and told the guy I would be making them. A few punters nearby looked horrified :)

Anyway one trader had some lead in bags tucked by he's still making no effort to sell them. They looked liked fantasy figures. Needless to say they were old and grubby but at least bagged up. I liberated one figure that caught my eye. The base had FF14 on it and I had a sneaking suspicion they were citadel - early games workshop - a quick google showed they were actually 1980 Citadel fantasy catalogue figures and I had bought the Cyclops. A further search revealed on lost wikis that I had bought version 1 - that is the pre Michael Perry version. I made him my marine cyclops - just out the sea cave. I tried a new vallejo express contrast blue on him and was very disappointed with the contrast yet he actually came out ok colour wise so all's well that ends well. He had no weapon for the hand clearly intended to possess something. So I nicked a Perrys WOTR axe for him complete with gauntleted hand and added a touch of red to show the cyclops was in a hurry....... I reckon he meets the fantasy topic so that's 5 pts for a 28mm chap? plus 20 points for the topic? total score = 25pts Finally I have an entry for Sarahs cart which I might well need to use. I remembered I had some show figures buried in the mountain and decided I would have go at Empress Matilda. I took the colour scheme from a blog search for images. I tried some contrast paints from citadel which worked ok.

So I think that's 5 pts plus 20 points for the topic. total score = 25pts So the total should be 44+25+25 =94 if my math's is correct? 

Sylvain: A very interesting post. I like your shopping stories as well as your pictures showing how you work on your bases. Very informative. And your miniatures are fabulous as well. I am (not) sorry to hear that you were charmed by the chant of the bonus themes. It brought us some wonderfully painted miniatures. Where will you take us next week?