Korean Crossbowmen Finished

In a spurt of activity, aided by using brush-on matt varnish instead of spray, I was actually able to get the Korean crossbowmen finished this evening. And here are the pics:

Admittedly, they're not my best work but they won't be in the front rank so will only be seen by me.

These will probably be my last painted figures until the Challenge starts. Between now and then I intend to work on terrain bits, just to get it out of the way and keep myself busy.

WIP - Korean Crossbowmen Day 1

Despite a painful right shoulder (slept in an awkward position!) I got in a decent afternoon of painting on the Korean crossbowmen. 

I've just got the white, metals and touch-ups to do before they get a coat of Klear/ink, leaving just the bases to stain and dry-brush, spray matt varnish and flocking. I'll be able to get all but the last two steps done tomorrow evening and will take them to work on Tuesday to do the spray varnish. Unless I decide to use brush-on varnish instead (or run it through my airbrush). Hmmm, now there's a thought...

Maybe I'll manage to finish them tomorrow night?

Saturday Workbench

I had a fairly busy afternoon today. As I'd managed to finish prepping all the Nubians (apart from the two packs of archers I'm still waiting for) I decided to glue them onto painting sticks. As my plan is to prime them with two different browns as a base, I divided all the figure poses into two lots before gluing onto sticks. I also managed to get them primed - half with German Red Brown, half with Leather Brown. When I go to paint them, I'll probably pre-highlight from a high angle using a pale brown before airbrushing on a thin coat of camo black brown.

Anyway, here are some pics:

German Dark Red primer

Leather Brown primer

I also primed the Mongol reinforcements:

Medium cavalry and baggage camp bits

Heavy impact cavalry and foot

I just need to give the metal areas a black basecoat, then they can be put away until the Challenge.


I also basecoated the bases for the Nubians, just to fill in time between bouts of priming.


Tomorrow, once my chores and a bit of shopping are done, I'll make a start on the Korean crossbowmen.

Mongols Ready For Priming

Yup, that's right - all the reinforcements for my Mongols have been prepped and stuck onto sticks ready for priming. I'll do that tomorrow night.

This evening I've prepped the four packs of Sea Peoples that I've received so far; they're in a tub of soapy water right now. I won't be putting them onto painting sticks until the rest of the packs have arrived and been prepped.

I'm also working on prepping the Nubians during my lunch breaks. Once they've been prepped and washed, I'll stick all but the bowmen onto sticks for painting; the bowmen will get done when the other two packs arrive and have been prepped.


Looking ahead a short way into the future, it seems that my blog will be hitting three milestones around the New Year - 1000 posts, 750k page views and it's 5th Blogiversary. I guess I'd better come up with something to celebrate all three together.

Workbench Update

So, the Challenge is imminent and I'm cracking on with prep. As such, I haven't had anything to show until today.

This evening I got the airbrush out and did a bunch of priming. I was actually quite surprised as I managed to get the rest of my Seven years War Russians done - 11 cuirassiers, 18 horse grenadiers, 36 hussars, 39 cossacks, 6 generals, 2 wagons (plus 8 horses) and 2 artillery pieces.

Wagons, horse grenadiers, cuirassiers

Cossacks and artillery pieces

Hussars and generals

I've been gradually working through prepping the rest of the figures I need to get ready for the Challenge. The Korean irregular troops got glued onto bases this evening:

These will take my Righteous Army and levy/conscript troops to the 40-bases (each) maximum for FoG, with enough command bases to field them as either four 10s or five 8s. Plus another two generals.

There's really not much else that I can add to my Korean army now. Maybe some more "military school light horse", some peasant mob and perhaps some heavier artillery. But they will have to wait.

On the prep front, I've done the initial prep (clipping and filing the bases flat) on the Mongols, Nubians and Sea Peoples. I'm now in the process of cleaning up mould-line flash on all the figures. I'm about halfway through the Mongols and will be carrying on with this for the next few days, sticking them onto painting sticks after washing them.

I've also base-coated two batches of bases for the 6mm ACW and the Seven Years War troops. I'll be doing the same for the Nubians and Sea Peoples at some point.

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge VII Announced

Yes, the announcement has been made by Curt. There will indeed be another AHPC this winter (or summer for those unfortunates on the wrong side of the equator).

If you fancy taking part, hop on over to the announcement post (click here or on the pic above), read through the rules, post a comment and send Curt an email. Then check your lead mountain, check your paint stocks, make sure your brushes are ready to paint, make your plans and get cracking with the prep.

At least all the prep and planning I've been doing aren't in vain. Not that they would have been anyway - I'd still be painting them all, but maybe it would take me longer.

Hey, Hey, We're The Mongols!

And they're done! Even if I did have to open the window in my painting room to hit them with matt varnish spray (it has been piddling down all day here). So, time for the pics:

The whole batch:

The heavy cavalry:

The generals:

One of the command bases is 40x40, the other two are 40x30 to represent generals included in fighting units (an option available in ADLG).

When I got back from my dad's 80th (a quiet affair - me, him, my sister and her hubby; fish & chips and wine) there was a package waiting for me - the extra Mongols I'd ordered from Donnington. So, pics of shinies:

Heavy cavalry

Medium cavalry and command

Camels and some wire spears/lances/pikes

Mongols on foot

The heavy cavalry are different to the ones I've got already - they have lances. In ALDG you have an option to upgrade the heavy cavalry to have Impact. The medium cavalry are to provide me with the extra five bases I need and the command figures so that I can do a third "proper" command base and another "included-general" base. The foot troops are to give me some flexibility; there are also some non-fighting figures to go with the camels (Clint will be happy to see those!) on the baggage camp.

One of the bonuses of expanding my Mongol force to this size is that I can also use them with my Koreans for FoG/FoGR either as nomad mercenaries in the main list or as an allied contingent. Or even as a small army in their own right (500-600 points if I take them all as superior/elite). Hmmm, it looks as though I'd only need a few more to get them up to a decent sized army...


After finishing off the Mongols this morning, I broke out the new airbrush to do some priming. I actually got quite a bit done, as these pics show:

Everything I primed

Reb cavalry, generals and artillery

Union cavalry, command and artillery

Horses, horseholders, limbers, casualties, gabions and piles of cannon shot

Korean crossbowmen

So, that's all of my 6mm ACW primed and ready for the Challenge, as well as the Korean crossbowmen which I plan to paint up this week. Looking at the pumice gel on the Koreans bases, I don't like the look compared to how I normally do them (medium grey ballast superglued on) so I won't be using it for the rest of the Koreans I've got to paint up. Still, it was worth trying as an experiment. I'm not going to try removing it - those bases will just have to look a little different.

Oh, and my new airbrush (actually the same model as the one I knackered a few weeks back) works like a treat, so I'm pleased.

Mongols Almost Finished

I forgot to mention in my last post that I was taking Friday off work. Mind you, it only gave me a touch more time for painting than I'd normally have as I needed to do some shopping in the morning and then head down to my dad's mid-afternoon. It was his 80th birthday you see...

Anyway, I managed to finish painting the Mongols, give them a coat of Klear/ink, pop them off the painting sticks, sort them into groups for basing, glue them onto their bases and add the basing texture - medium grey ballast sprinkled onto a thick layer of liquid superglue.

Today I'll be knocking off the bits of ballast overhanging the edges of the bases, sealing the ballast with thin PVA and once that has dried painting the bases. Unless the PVA takes an age to dry, in which case I'll be doing the painting and flocking tomorrow. And then giving them a spray with matt varnish. I'll take some nice pics of them once that's all done.

While various stages are drying, I'll be priming the Korean crossbowmen, which will be my next painting job.

Mongols, Koreans and Scatter Terrain

This week hasn't been brilliant so far for getting things done. On Monday evening I had a pain in my upper right arm so couldn't do any painting. On Tuesday it was a leaving do for a work colleague so I didn't get home until 11.30pm. Last night I was suffering the after effects of Tuesday evening...

I did get a bit done on Sunday evening after posting, and a little bit done today.

Scatter Terrain

I gave the pieces a dark brown basecoat on Sunday, then this evening I drybrushed them. That just leaves painting the various bits of scrap metal and maybe a few spots of colour to represent garbage poking through the earth.

Mongols

On Sunday evening I painted the bows and also did a Sky Grey undercoat for the plumes and the horse-hair standards. Just the metals, taches and plumes to do now. I should get them finished over the weekend.

Koreans

During the week I've been prepping some of the Koreans that were delivered last week. All the regulars are prepped and washed, so this evening I sorted them out for basing and glued them onto bases. I actually had enough to do eight front ranks and two general bases.

Once I've seen how the pumice on the bases of the crossbowmen looks, I'll decide whether to do the same for these or to use my original method with medium ballast.



50x25mm Bases

You may recall that I was trying to work out what I'd ordered the 50x25mm bases for. I worked it out - I'd clicked the wrong button on the webstore! What I'd really wanted was another pack of 40x40 bases. Oh well, guess I'll have to place another order for the right ones.