A trio of Rifles

As I mentioned earlier I have been painting up another few German infantry figures from Artizan Designs. Going with the Oak leaf camo pattern for the tops, two are the autumn patterns and ones the spring/summer (green). More to paint up over the weekend. I'm quite liking how these are turning out, and they make a nice change, I am particularly pleased with the way the rifles turned up. 

Horseless riders

I painted these four cavalry figures from Musketeer Miniatures a couple of weeks ago, having had them in the lead pile for a year or so (I think). The figures are part of their great indian mutiny range, I cannot say I know anything really about the indian mutiny as its not a period I have previously researched.

However I thought these figures would make great cavalry for VBCW, or at least they would do had I remembered to order the horses when I ordered the riders, doh!

Still I quite like how they turned out, having opted for some tartan trews, I need to paint the feet but will do that if or when I get horses for them. I've painted up another three jerry rifles in the meantime and will post some pics of these tonight or tomorrow.

Jerry (not springer)

Just finished painting another Artizan figure, this one is from their late war range. I have had a go at painting him in oakleaf camo pattern, which I think turned out okay. I was inspired by the amazing painting of stonecoldlead and used his great tutorial for the pattern. I have another 9 german infantry figures to paint all using a similar pattern style, although I will probably use some greens to add variety to the patterns.

Helga

Managed to spend an enjoyable afternoon painting up this figure (another great sculpt from Artizan Designs). I wanted to go for a very light grey top on this lady, with red hair (which isn't something I have painted before). I am pretty chuffed with the results, especially the chestnut/red hair. Again the only thing I used inks for on this model was the metal of the gun and as a base shade for the skin.

A bit of an oddity

I've been really busy with work lately, but today managed to get some painting done. I bought this figure and some others from one of my favourite manufacturers, Artizan Designs. The figure is there not oddball from Kellys Heroes model. I've wanted to pick this figure up for a while as Kelly's heroes is one of my favourite films.

I tried to paint him up to match what the character wears in the film and am pretty pleased with the results. I also took the opportunity to change my painting style/technique. I usually use dark ink washes to add shadows to modesl. This time I have only used ink wash on the metallics and on the base of the skin. The rest of the shadowing is as a result of layering.

I like the results, I have a squad of Jerry's to paint and some others from the thrilling tales range.

Never again

I've been working on some more Napoleonic British for the last week or so. These 7 figures were nearly the death of me. I have no idea how you napoleonicly inclined gamers can paint so many of these fiddly figures. I like how these turned out but I don't see me doing any more any time soon.

I've also ordered some more figures from Artizan Designs my favourite miniature supplier.

I'm waiting to hear at the moment whether I will be able to trundle down to Partizan in May. I didn't think I could afford to go this year what with my wife being unable to work. However it turns out that as I care for my wife I can apply for a small carers grant to take a mini-break. Finally a chance to get back the small fortune I pay in tax!

If I get the modest grant (amounting to a couple of hundred quid) I should be able to go down to Partizan this year, and have a good weekend break. Which should be nice and relaxing.

A Napoleonic

I've never really been one for Napoleonic figures, mainly because you seem to have to use shed loads of them in even a modest game. However I have tried numerous times to collect the period as I like the figures. I painted up this victrix figure this evening and I did enjoy myself. I'm not sure if I will paint up more but I'd like to think I will.

Hazard Suit

I painted up five of these figures (without helmets) the other day in standard green NBC suits, and I have another five to do with helmets in the standard green. However I had two extra figures (I only make squads up to 10, unless a game system specifically specifies otherwise) so I decided to experiment colour wise.

I thought I would paint this one up as a yellowish bio hazard suit, perhaps he's a private security contractor at a facility somewhere or cleaning up an outbreak of something nasty for "the corporation". Anyway it was nice to paint one of these lovely figures in a different colour and I'm reasonable pleased with the results. I'm in two minds as to whether I like my shading on this one.

In other news, off and on for years I've fiddled and fuddled about writing a book or something vaguely entertaining (to me at the very least). Thus far I've written, re-written and edited the first 20,000 words of my book only to decide this evening I don't like the prose and too much of it is in first person and should have been written in third person.

The delete key will therefore be used judiciously and I'm pretty much starting again, oh well every things a learning exercise I guess.

18 Pdr (finally)

Some may remember I painted up my renegade miniatures 18 pdr cannon crew a couple of weeks back, and couldn't find anything knocking around to base the gun on. Well after digging through the cupboards last night I found a freebie music CD which I didn't want (dolly parton if anyone is interested) meaning I could base up the gun.

I decided I was just going to base the gun and crew as one, my thinking being that a gun crew is unlikely to be much use if it takes a couple of casualties anyway so why worry about not being able to remove the figures.

I added a couple of small things, the range stick, rock and wooden chocks behind the gun wheels. As well as the little pile of sandbags which I think came from a 1.35 model kit. I really like the final result and how the base turned out.

In other news my dad was on the Scottish news following the snow fall in our village, much to the families amusement. Apparently he was out walking the dogs this morning and the news crew were looking for people to say something about the weather, which he dutifully did.