From KillianF: Medieval Medley plus many extras (185 points)

Good day all,

Between a return to work and a minor illness over the last few weeks I've found it hard to keep up. I have however managed to finish the following:

3 weeks' work

Medievals (Medbury Miniatures)

5 mounted hobilars

2 mounted knights

2 dismounted men at arms

2 archers

I 3d printed the blue and yellow shield on the left, which resulted in a straight layer line 3/4 of the way up. This actually assisted in dividing the shield for painting!

Excellent faces as always from Mr Medbury

The colour scheme is deliberately anarchic, but I tried to pull all the shields into something similar. I will add some heraldry at a later date, and refine the mounted knights a bit more. These guys will see duty mainly in SAGA as Scottish or French, and also Midgard.

Napoleonics

5 Austrian Uhlans

On a whim I decided to smash out some of my 28mm Austrian Napoleonics. The cavalry are my favourite branch of this army, and Uhlans are my favourite cavalry type. Interesting uniforms, interesting history.

So here's 5 Uhlans of the 1st Regiment. 

 

Fellow on the right is missing a plume. Worse things happen in battle.

They are 3d prints by Piano Wargames. Before I print more I'm going to digitally remove the lance and leave a hole for brass wire: the resin lance bend at very slight temperature increases, and hot water straightening only lasts 24 hours or so. I went with a few varieties of horse colouration, my favourite being the piebald on the left. Overall an interesting painting experience: these are my first Napoleonics complete, so figuring out how to achieve each colour was a bit different to my normal, more freestyle, approach.

Afterlife (Anvil Industry)

4 Unity Council Special Operatives & Gabriella Aguilar

I've always had a soft spot for Anvil Industry's Afterlife range, and they've spent the last four years or so updating them as part of their digital range. These guys are essentially stealth suited deniable operatives, up to all sorts of dirty trick.

They were painted by priming black and then drybrushing a couple of layers of grey up to a very light coat of near white. They then received an all-over wash of Payne's Grey ink (possibly my single favourite colour) mixed with AK Interactive matte varnish (as seems to be tradition with all the Anvil Industry models I paint....). The lenses and weapon sights were then painted with titanium white, given a very small black wash at the edges, and finally Tamiya Clear Yellow was applied over the top. Like my zone raiders, it's not very tactical. However it does give them some colour, and ties them into the scheme I've used for the rest of my Unity Council faction, who all likewise have yellow visors.

I painted Gabriella with a deliberately darker skin tone. A paler skin tone would have increased contrast, but I've just painted several dozen models with white skin and I wanted some variety. The base is Vallejo Cavalry Brown, highlighted by mixing the brown with Vallejo Beige-Red and then Titanium Buff. 

Epic Armageddon 

6 Steel Legion Chimera IFVs

I smashed out these for my small Steel Legion army. These are 3d prints available online for free (Mk Hand Industry). For absolutely no good reason I magnetised the turrets. Epic is, in my opinion, the correct scale for Warhammer 40k: it actually gives a sense of scale. I tried to add a camo pattern by spraying tan over the brown basecoat through medical gauze. It didn't quite work as planned unfortunately, probably because the spray cans are too high pressured. Still, the tan colour works, so I'm rolling with it. They will get based at some point, to match the Steel Legion infantry currently being painted.

Spaceships

And lastly, I painted two space ships. 

 

They are more 3d prints, from a designer called Grand Fleet Admiral, that have been hanging around on my desk for about 2 years. These will likely see use in the second edition of A Billion Suns. The schemes have been kept simple, so they were pretty quick to paint. My airbrush is out of commission at the moment, so I used a dry brush followed by white ink to paint the engines. Quite a nice and simple project to clear some models off the desk. I have no idea what the claim points wise. Probably 2 points a piece?

Points

7x 28mm Medieval Cavalry: 70

4x 28mm Medieval Infantry: 20

5x 28mm Austrian Napolenic Cavalry: 50

5x 28mm Afterlife Infantry: 25

6x 6mm (technically 8mm) vehicles: 12

2x small scale spaceships: 4

Total: 181

Squirrel points: +3

Squirrel Total: 10

(Zona Scavengers, 10mm Black Orcs, 10mm Skeletons, 28mm Goths, 28mm Elves, Dwarves and Orcs, 28mm medievals, 28mm Austrian Napoleonics, 28mm Afterlife)

Thanks for reading!

Killian 

From DaveD . Hey Killian , you are early today ! Good job . It was good to catch you on the chat this week . This is a great mix of things .I am always a fan of any lancers , te colours on Austrian ones are cool. Definitely worth replacing the lances with a metal version . think the space ships are my personal favourite . 185 it is with a little spaceship bonus.

From KillianF: Fantasy Elf Heavy Infantry (40 points)

 Good day all,

Thank you for the nice comments on the Orcs & Dwarves previously. I am following them up with 8 Elf  warriors. These are for the most part from the Oathmark Elf Heavy Infantry, which is one of my favourite renditions of elves in plastic. The bodies are dynamic, the armour interesting, and there are far more posing options than the other Oathmark Elf kits. Additionally, I have used arms from the Wargames Atlantic Armoured Late Romans, which are a slightly different style of mail, to create even more poses. I also gave one of the greatsword bearers a crest from the old Warhammer High Elf Archers kit. These old High Elf kits provide a fantastic range of gubbins and decorations to create some really ornate panoplys. Here's the group: 

 

 

This then inspired the leader in his massive dragon helm. 

I made the dragon itself by carving one of the High Elf Spearmen banner pole toppers, with the wings coming from another piece, some sort of winged gem. Judicious filing and application of miliput hopefully has hidden the gaps sufficiently. The arm was made by chopping some various bits and pieces to straighten it, and then more miliput to fill the gap in the armpit. I used a small amount of terracotta putty for the initial fill, and then after a day some black miliput on top. I then carved a cocktail stick to the desired size and sculpted the mail. I essentially poked holes in the black until the orange showed through. Miliput is not the best for such fine detail (I'd rather green stuff), but it's what I had on hand. Overall I'm quite happy with him.

The painting is pretty simple, given the quantity of armour they wear. The cloth was either blue or turquoise, and the leather was either red, turquoise or brown. I always try to give my elves a green tinge to the skintone. I much prefer it when elves are characterised as somewhat alien, so I try to avoid painting them as just "humans, but better". These guys were based with a skintone mixed with yellow ochre (a fantastic colour), washed brown-green, and then highlighted up with Titanium Buff. I have yet to decide how I'm going to do the shields, so for now they're remaining plain blue.

My Elf army will have one unit of greatswords and one unit of axemen. These may or may not have similar stylings to Warhammer High Elf White Lions and Swordmasters. Sometimes in life you just want to recreate the army you badly painted at the age of 12. I have 2 additional fantasy elf armies to paint yet. One day when they are complete I will be able to field a massive host with several different types. But for now, I've got to finish off these Oathmark ones......

Points:

8x 28mm: 40 points

Squirrel: 1 point 

Squirrel tally: 7

Zona Scavengers, 10mm Black Orcs, 10mm Skeletons, 28mm Goths, 28mm Elves, Dwarves and Orcs 

From DaveD . That a fine addition for this Sunday Killian.good work on the kit bash elements here . 40 it is 

 

From KillianF - War in the Mountains (53 pts )

 Good day all,

Finally finished a variety of fantasy figures. These Orcs and Dwarfs are Medbury Miniatures(again, STLs 3d printed by myself. I would be remiss not to mention they can be bought in metal from Mr Medbury himself).

 

Firstly, four Orc archers. These guys were painted to be grungy and dirty, with lots of brown and desaturated colour. Indeed, after a zenithal prime of dark grey-grey-tan-white, they got a watered down umber ink wash to shade the entire model. Basecoats were then applied, leaving the brown in the recesses to make them dirty. Quite a few more brown washes followed.

 

The last orc is a banner bearer. The model is essentially a Roman legionary style orc, hence the wolf pelt, single greave and manica on the right arm.

The banner is tomato puree foil, covered with PVA soaked tissue to provide texture and an easily paintable surface. I freehanded another banner, because I like painting evil eyes in bright red on a backdrop of Payne's Grey. I added the traingle border on a whim, which was ultimately a silly idea. Painting that many tiny triangles is a recipe for insanity. However, it's an orc banner so I did not worry myself with making it neat.

Next are five dwarf rangers, also from Medbury. I enjoyed adding colour and texture to their clothing: I wanted them to look fitted out for running around a cold mountain. I really like Medbury Dwarfs, they're very serious, with clear (but not overwhelming) historical influences. I've got another 15 or so rangers, and a lot more heavily armoured dwarfs. I may dip into a few more before the challenge is over.

I've just noticed a few bits of kit I forgot to paint

Points:

5x 28mm Orcs: 25

5x 28mm Dwarfs: 25

Total: 50 points

2 Squirrels (5 total) 

From DaveD . Still the great work continues from you . The camera never lies does it ! Great work on the Tomato Purée foil banner . It’s a perfect media for it So it’s 53 points from me 

From KillianF: 28mm medieval horse and cart (20 points)

 Hello all,

As is becoming slightly standard practice, I have not completed exactly what I set out to for this week. A handful of fantasy miniatures are tantalisingly close to finishing, but I will have to save them for next week's post.

I did however finish a medieval cart from Medbury Miniatures. This is again an STL printed by me. It's a really good kit that gives loads of options for baggage. I went with relatively nodescript options, several bundles of hay, a barrel and a large bundle covered in cloth. I can then argue that anything could be under it.

The backdrop is by Jon Hodgson, downloaded from his Patreon and displayed on a standard computer monitor. Works well enough to create a scene.

I had to pull up a load of tufts as I initially placed some tall ones in the middle of the base. These got repositioned to the edge to create the impression of a verge either side of a cart track.

I painted the driver slightly brighter than I first intended. He adds colour right in the centre and prevents it from looking entirely brown.

The cart itself was sprayed Halfords Camo Brown, then drybrushed with some different brown shades up to a bone white, and then washed with AK Matte Varnish and Vallejo Game Colour Sepia and Smoky Inks.

 

 This guy will see use in Five Leagues from the Borderlands and likely any number of medieval skirmish games that require a cart to escort, destroy or loot. It could also work as a background piece in larger battle games like Midgard. Mainly though, it's a cool model I wanted to paint for a bit of variation.

 

Points:

1x 28mm vehicle: 20

 

Total: 20 points 

Thanks,

Killian 

From DaveD. That’s a fine piece . Interesting to know it’s a 3d piece .the tufts at the  side have given the effect you wanted nicely . 
 

From KillianF - 10mm Skeletons (35 points)

Good day all, 

I managed to power through and finish three bases of the Wargames Atlantic Boneblades from their "Classic Fantasy Battle" range. I picked these guys up after signing up to the challenge, for the aforementioned reason that I reckoned they could look pretty good with some simple wash and drybrushing. Although this took me slightly longer than planned, I have finished a third of the box.

As per my previous post, having worked on these I think I prefer 3d printed 10mm. The necessities of injection moulding create some rather flat dimensions in plastic. However, for an entry point these are excellent, and provide significant value. There are some individual models along with 2, 3 and 5 skeleton strips, which mean they can be individually based and used for micro-scale skirmishing if desired. And at the end of the day, skeletons are skeletons.

 

 

Side shot really highlights the lack of depth.

 

I tried to give the impression on the shields of a variety of original colours having faded. The weapons got a brown and then orange wash to similarly age them.

 

I handpainted the banner again. I went back and forth as to what skeletons actually would have on a banner. 

The classic skull didn't really appeal to me, and I couldn't get my head around doing a bronze age-esque rune or similar. I eventually alighted on an hourglass, following the imagery associated with death often found in medieval European art. The execution unfortunately went more in the direction of MS Clip Art: in my defence it is a tiny canvas. I'm not going to mess with it now, as from 2-3 feet away it is serviceable.

Points claim:

33x 10mm Infantry: 33 points

Squirrel points: 1 (4 total)

Thanks for reading!

And special thanks to Dave for dealing with my last minute shenanigans.

Killian 

From DaveD . No worries , these are worth waiting for .They are impressive en masse , I look forward to seeing the rest of the box completed . Hand painting the banner is still cool and worthy of recognition. Let’s make that 35 points for you .

Not a bad showing Sunday crew ! 

From KillianF - 10mm Warmaster Black Orcs (42 points)

Good day all,

Firstly thank you for the kind comments on my first post. It's provided more than a wee bit of motivation for the next few batches.

Instead of the long-promised Goths, I procrastipainted 4 bases of Forest Dragon 3d Printed Black Orcs. I also nearly finished 3 bases of Wargames Atlantic plastic Boneblade Skeletons, but they require a little more work to be complete. Painting both however allowed me to compare 3d printed and plastic models. The ability of 3d printing to capture detail and, critically, depth at 10mm far eclipses plastic in my opinion. As fun as the Boneblades are, I have a large backlog of 3d printed Forest Dragon that I think will bump up the queue.

 

Off to do sum krumpin'

If you've got the sneaking suspicion I just picked models I could get away with a quick drybrush-wash-highlight, well done, you're quite right. That was precisely what I did. Paint smart, not hard.

Although the banner was handpainted. Why paint smart when you can paint painstakingly in minuscule detail that no-one will notice?

Black Orc Banner

Points:

40x 10mm Infantry (Orcs): 40

Total points claimed: 40

Claims

1x Squirrel Point (again please check)

Thanks again, and see you all soon.

KF 

From DaveD. Who doesn't like to a rampaging bunch of Orcs.  These look just the part . lots of aggression and I do like the massed ranks look. That's always to bonus of 10mm . That's also fine colourful banner they acquired as well. Let’s call that 42 for the total look .

Hey and Congratulations to you and your wife on your first born !