What's on Mark's Workbench?

Updated today  a quick run down of what our very own Mark C. has on his workbench!

WW2 German Half Tracks

Various vehicles and infantry for a VBCW set-up

More WW2 stuff, incl German recovery tank and some softskins

Various Self Propelled guns

And a couple of Jagd Panther if I'm not mistaken

Marky Mark's Workbench!!

Our very own WW2 specialist shows he is not just a Home Guard fanatic but has wider interest in both historical and Sci-Fi gaming.

We'll let the phoyos do the talking....

Savage Orcs

After a bit of a break I've been able to complete a group of six Savage Orc Bosses, tese guys are part of the 3D printed Blood Bowl set that I was able to purchase some weeks back.

In the scheme of things these guys would be linemen in teh Blood Bowl game, but due to their size (they're big) I'll be using them as Bosses!

Six Savage Orc Linemen / Bosses

Each figure was painted in my usual way for Savage Orcs - which has progressed to be a cream undercoat, Skeleton Horde on the bone work and then Army Painter Orc Skin on the flesh areas. Leather is GW Snakebite Leather and various other colours as required to add detail.

All speen paints are then allowed to dry before building up highlights with drybrushing and / or the use of various lightened base coats.

I have found that I need to varnish the bone areas first and let dry before returning to varnish eth skin - to prevent seepage of ink colours to stain the bones green! Annoying when first encounterd but easy to fix.

Another view of the finished Savage Orcs

Close-up No.1 - this guy has bone armour and is using lizardmen hide as a loin cloth and knee pads.

Close-up No.2 - again thi sguy has a lot of bone armour as well as trophies and trinkets adorning his body.
The Toadstalls are from an old GW kit.

Close-up No.3 - far too many bone blades on his right hand glove and an enhanced set of teeth as well!

Close-up No.4 - this guy is the only model that betrays the original intent for these guys
- in a clasic Lineman pose but not out of context here!

Close-up No.5 - triceratops armour plus a lot of bone blades, what more can you want!

Finally, Close-up No.6 - Bull's head belt buckle and bone armour,
this guy is carrying a flaming torch, just because he can...

All the bases are on 40 x 40mm plastic bases, the regular 30 x 30mm bases just won't hold these big guys....

Last 28mm Landschneckts for now...

So I finished up my last batch of Landschneckts as advertised in my last posting - only difference being teh ,ake-up of the group was limited by the available arms and weapons left on the sprues. In this batch I had to go with 1 x Pikeman, 2 x Double handed swordsmen and 9 x handgunners.

The completed batch of 12 x Landschneckts

THe figures were again painted as previously described, the aim being to merge in to teh rest of my collectionand to build out a pike formation with supporting handgnners, crossbowmen and Double-handed swordsmen.

Close-up on four of the handgunners

In total there are 12 x pikemen, 11 x Double-handed swordsmen, 6 x Crossbowmen and 25 x handgunners.

The rear rank of handgunners brought to the front rank

This unit will be used in a number of battles tha I'm planning.

Another view of the Handgunners

Large view of the single Landschneckt Pikeman

The two Landschneckt Double-handed swordsmen

On a Landschneckt Roll! - Twelve more 28mm figures completed

Imagine my surprise! First I stayed focused enough to do more Landschneckts and second I found a 'missing' sprue of Doublehanded Swordsmen! Thus I am able to present twelve newly fnished German mercenaries - 6 x Crossbow, 3 x Doublehanded Swordsmen and 3 x Handgunners.

The new group of 12 completed Landschneckts

That leaves me with just twelve more of these Warlod Games guys to get done and these will likely be 9 x Handgunners plus 3 x Doublehanded swordsmen, if i can stay focused....

Close-up on three of the Crossbowmen, firing their weapons

And the other three Crossbowmen, all loading theor weapons

The painting techniques used for these guys was exaactly the same as previously described, so I will not repeat again here.

Close-up on three of the Doublehanded swordsmen

I'm just pleased to have got them finished...

And finally a close-up on the three handgunners in this batch

Huzzah! More 28mm Landschneckts - Finally!

After being distracted by hordes of Savage Orcs for the last few weeks I decided I needed to concentrate and continue getting through my backlog of Warlord Games Landschneckt Misslemen! To which end, I am pleased to present another twelve completed Handgunners

Completed batch of Handgunners

Remaining are 18 more figures, I plan to build six of these as Crossbow men with the other twelve to bolster the Handgunners. This gives me the ability to field a small crossbow unit but keep focus on the gunpower side of things - modern is best!

Once done I can then switch attention to the Wargames Atlantic Conquisterdors and build those figures ready to paint!

Close-up of three handgunners in a firing stance

Figures were undercoated in cream acrylic paint and then flesh, shirts and feathers painted white, before using GW Darkoath Flesh to - well colour in the flesh areas. Next, I used a range of GW contrast paints to paint in all the leatherwork, my image of these tough mercenary soldiers is that they'd likely use a lot of practical leather jerkins in the field to give durability but highlight these with their flamboyant cloth apparel in the form of hose, sleeves and hats etc.

The other three firing figures, the guy in the middle is one of my favourites in the batch

Once the leatherwork was done it wasa a case of going through these little guys one by one adding random colours in the form of stripes, quarters of halved sleeves and hose. 

With the rear rank brought forwards

Once the base coats where completed I used a watered down Army Painter Dark Wash to add shade and definition to each figure - it also coveres a myriad of painting mistakes and helps tie all the figuires together!

And a close-up of four of the rear rank

Next step was to add highlights, to cloth and flesh, reapplying base colours in strategic places to make the colours pop! Also tidying up any omited areas etc before a good matt varnish.

THe last few Handgunners, supe rpleased with the two left hand figures

Figures are based in my usual manner with fine sand, electrostaic grass and brown household emulsion / PVA glue gloop.

Now to be clear I still have a whole bunch of Orcs on the go, question now is where will my focus go!

On the Workbench: 28mm Wild West and Warlord Epic Scots Pikemen

Well I haven't had much time for painting th elast few weeks so I thought I'd just give a quick update on what I have been dabbling at!

First off, four 28mm Wild West figures that have been kicking around the workbench for some years, I'll be handing these over to Mikey N. later today for his collection.

Left a lawman with pistol and rifle, right a member of the public armed with a shotgun

Left another towns person with a rifle and right a cattleman with a rifle.

Finally a block of Scots Covenanter Pikemen, in Warlord Games Epic scale.

I rather like these little guys, grey clad Covenantor Scots.

Hopefully some more updates in eth next couple weeks....

Off the Workbench: Even more MTBs, E-Boats and 28mm Marian Wars

Two new Marian Wars figures.

So I managed to focus long enough to get two new Marian Wars figures completed this week, I must do better! For these chaps I went back to regular paints and limited the use of 'speed. and 'contrast' paints to hair, shies and scabbards!

Both are from the Warlord Games ECW set, one an armoured pikeman that has had arm changes to give him a Sword & Buckler, as well as adding a steel helmet - all from the Wargames Atlantic Conquistador set.

Armoured Pikeman converted to be a Sword & Buckler man

The unarmoured pikemen is straight from the box, albeit that his pike has been shortened somewhat...

Unarmoured pikeman - pretty much straight out of the box.

Next up is some more Cruel Seas kit, namely two E-Boats (actually more precisely S-Boats) and four new Vosper MTBs.

The S-Boats are pretty long models, about 11cm, and are simple to construct and paint, just like their MTB counterparts. Again the sprues come with two S-Boat variants, the S-100 and the S-38

Bottom an S-100 vessel, top an S-38 vessel.

Painting these German vessels was very similar to the British MTBS, although I started with a base coat one shade lighter than the British vessels to help differentiate them even more.

Another view of the S-Boats

Only other real difference was the addition of wooden decking - buff paint with a light brown wash and seats towards the rear of each vessel, represented by a dark brown.

New MTBs

Finally we have the four MTBs, pretty much as per those shown last week. I think I have about four more vessels to paint and then a bunch of torpedo markers, maybe by next week!

And their other side!

Off the Workbench: Epic TYW Swedes & Vosper MTBs

So much for me saying that I was going to press on with more Marian Wars 28mm figures over the last week.

Swedish Yellow Regiment, in Epic Scale (approximates 15mm)

Swedish Blue Regiment, in Epic Scale (actually 13.5mm tall)

As it happens my head was turned by two separate Warlord Games items - Epic Thirty Years War Swedish Infantry and two Vosper MTBs from the front cover of July's Wargames Illustrated.

Two Painted Vosper MTBs, Mk I & Mk II

The TYW figures have been painted up as the Swedish Yellow Regiment. I undercoated these white and then used a bright yellow for uniforms, Oily Steel for armour, helmets and sundry other items and then added detail such as straps, sashes, musket stocks and pikes in suitable colours.

Another close-up of the Yellow Regiment, unit contains two wings of 20 musketeers
plus a pike block of 40 figures, including command

Another view, figures are designed to be viewed 'en masse' and give a fair representation of a pike & shot regiment in my opinion

And a close-up of the Musketeer block,
their paint job  doesn't look super great under close scrutiny

I opted to put the musketeers on 60x40mm bases and the pike block on a 60x60mm base. This allows a little extra space for terrain work and protects (hopefully) the plastic pikes.

Some may have seen the first regiment I panted a few weeks ago - but adding to the post for comparison purposes. These represent the Swedish Blue Regiment, these were undercoated in black and then pry brushed white to pull out highlights before painting.

These have turned out rather dark for my liking - so lesson learnt! Stick to a white undercoat at all times!

The Swedish Blue Regiment

Another view

The MTBs were fun projects to get done  simple to construct and easy to base coat in grey.

Vosper MTB Mk II, with dazzle camouflage

I gave each vessel a dry brush either light grey to pull out yhe highlights before adding in life preservers in red & white, blue glass and dingy and ropes in natural colours.

Mk I version, if I find suitable transfer sheets,
I'll add numbers to these boats in the future

Another view of the Mk II boat, note I have added some weathering effects on the hull

All was washed in a watered down dark tone to add detail. Thinking I'll go back and complete those other vessels that I have that are still one their sprues.

Hmm... More MTBs or press on with Marian Wars figures for next week, who knows!