Painting Swiss Pikemen Day 5

My Swiss artillery went up on Curt's blog last night - here's the link. I'll post pics here tomorrow.


Swiss Pikemen

Rank 1 - based and basing gunk dry-brushed. Weather was crap, so I didn't get round to spraying them with matt varnish today. Hopefully I'll get that done tomorrow, then I can add some gravel, tufts and flock to them.

Rank 2 - I'll be doing the basing on these tomorrow.

Rank 3 -

Not much painting left to do on these:
hair on the 9 figures where it is visible
boots
"ground" on figure bases
belts and scabbards
touch up armour
sword hilts and pike tips
Klear/ink

They should be finished tomorrow, based on Sunday, matt-sprayed and flocked etc on Monday.

Rank 4 - I might be able to make a start on these tomorrow, but Sunday looks more likely. I'm back at work next week, which only leaves me the evenings to do painting so I expect that they'll be finished on Wednesday or Thursday.

That will actually leave me 5 clear days before the Challenge ends to paint up something else. That might be enough time to do the 40 Swiss handgunners and crossbowmen that I've got primed and ready to go.

Painting Swiss Pikemen Day 4; Past Projects Re-Activated

And the second rank are finished! Well, the painting is - I'll be giving them their Klear/ink coat shortly. I would have finished them earlier and started on the next batch, but I had to break my leave to sit as a panel member on a grievance at work. Oh well, such is the life of a union rep.

So, here's a pic before they get all glossy:

I was going to do the basing for the first two ranks together, but have concluded that it would be a nightmare for em to try to base up 128 figures in one go. Instead I'll base up the front rank this evening, then do the second rank tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'll crack on with the third rank figures. Assuming I don't get any more interruptions to my leave, I should manage to get them all the way to the Klear/ink stage leaving me to do the rear rank over the weekend.


Past Projects Re-Activated

Some of you may recall that last year I was contemplating getting myself a Koryo Korean army, but didn't take it forward. Well, with my Sarmatians/Alans, 30YW, Swiss and Saga stuff you can't really blame me for putting this idea on the back burner. However....

"And it came to pass that the theme periods for the FoG:AM team competition at Campaign 2013 were announced.

"Lo, it came to pass that one of those periods was to be the Mongol Conquest of China.

"And the FoG:AM players at Central London did wail and gnash over who should be in which team and they did wail and gnash more over who in those teams should take which theme period."


Yup, I'm going to be doing a Koryo Korean army up for Campaign 2013. Which is in May. Oooooo-Kaaaayyy.

I ordered the figures this morning from Old Glory 15s. I've just got to hope that they get shipped quickly. And that they don't get held up for too long by Customs and Royal Mail.

With any luck they will arrive before the end of the month and I can crack on immediately with painting them. The army I'll be taking will consist of about 80 cavalry and 100 infantry plus commanders but I've ordered more foot than that to give me options for later on.

I guess it's just as well I've been doing these Swiss pikemen en masse as it has given me the practice I'll need to paint up an army in time for Campaign!

75k!; Painting Swiss Pikemen Day 3

Well, this li'l ole blog o' mine has just passed 75,000 hits. I'm flabbergasted that so many people have liked it enough to reach that milestone. i wonder how long it will take to reach 100k page views?


Swiss Pikemen 

I got a fair bit done yesterday despite heading into town for a few hours. I decided that it would be easier on me to break the mob up into smaller batches now that the initial bulk-painting steps were done. The logical split was by rank, so that's what I did.

Starting with the front rank, I got most of the way towards finishing them by the time I put the brushes down last night. They only needed a couple of hours this afternoon to complete the painting. I'll be giving them a Klear/ink coat later on.

I've made a good start on the second rank figures, with cantonal colours done on all 64 figures. I might even be able to finish painting them tonight.

Once these two ranks are both finished, I'll get them based. After that it is on to the rear two ranks. At this rate, I will definitely have them finished before the Challenge ends.

Painting Swiss Pikemen Day 1

Well, I've had a pretty productive day all told.

Swiss Artillery

I was going to wait until this morning to do the basing, but an episode of Hornblower came on the TV, so I did the basing while watching that. This morning I dry-brushed the gunk, sprayed them with matt varnish then did the tufting and flocking. Curt has been sent the photos, so they should be up on his blog soon. That should wind up Ray a bit! *evil grin*


Swiss Pikemen

Pics of current state:

Today I have managed to do the following:

Yellow Ochre base coat on clothing that will be in cantonal colours (I do this as it provides a great base for the white, yellow and red)
Black base coat on armour and helmets
Dry-brushed armour and helmets with Oily Steel
Gambesons on 32 figures painted with either Iraqi Sand, Tan Yellow or Tan Earth


The next job, which I will do tonight, is to paint the pike shafts. I'll be using a mix of 4 colours for these - Cork Brown, Light Brown, Burnt Umber and Mahogany Brown.

Tomorrow I'll be doing the flesh and hair where it is visible. Once that is done, I'll make a start on doing the cantonal colours.

These are painting up amazingly quickly. I'm actually considering painting up some other small batches of figures to give myself a break from the pikemen (not to mention that they will help me maintain my lead over Ray!).

Sunday Update

This will be the last "Sunday Update" for a week or two. There's a good reason for that - I'll be posting progress updates every day or two on painting the Swiss pikemen. As that is the only work I'll be doing after tomorrow, there won't be any reason for me to do a "Sunday Update" until after they are completed.

So, on with the updates.

Swiss Pikemen

No progress as the gesso is still curing. I'll be starting work on these tomorrow. That's going to be a big, boring job - doing black undercoat on armour, yellow ochre undercoat on clothing, dry-brushing the armour with Oily Steel. Depending on how long that takes me, I might also get round to doing the pike shafts and flesh.

For the unarmoured pikemen, I'm thinking of doing a mix of how much clothing is in Canton colours - some will be tunics and leggings, some just tunics, some just leggings.


Swiss Artillery

I've finished painting these and will be doing the Klear/ink coat after posting. In the morning* (I've taken this week off work!) I'll do the basing on these before I begin work on the pikemen. I might even be able to get the matt varnish spray and flocking/tufting done to give me a break from doing undercoats on 256 pikemen!

* when on leave, my definition of morning is occasionally known to stretch to 2pm


Donogh's Prize Painting

The figures have been prepped, washed and stuck onto slotta bases for painting. I've also attached arms etc where the figure needed that doing. There was one figure where I had to go back and clean off the epoxy glue as it wasn't working for holding the separate hand onto the arm. This meant I had to do some pinning - a first for me.

This evening I primed them with white Vallejo urethane primer. When that was dry, I did some pre-shading with diluted inks. The detail on the sculpts is fantastic, but somewhat "soft" on some of them - I'll have to find some way to get definition where that is the case.

On The Workbench: Swiss Pikemen

So here they are, prepped and primed. The two boards at the back have the 256 pikemen; the front board has the figures for the command stands and some medieval civilians for a supply camp/diorama.

As the gesso needs at least 24 hours to cure, I won't be able to start painting the pikemen until Monday. I the meantime I've decided to do the following to keep me occupied:

1) Prep and prime the figures Donogh sent me for to paint up as his prize from my Blog birthday draw. These will be very different to what you are used to seeing me paint - a bunch of 10 modern/post-apocalypse figures including some darned meddling, pesky kids (and their dog). The sculpts look great and I think I'm going to have fun painting them once the 256 pikemen are done and dusted.

2) Paint up the Swiss artillery.

I've been ever so naughty....

Guilty Kitty looks guilty

....and bought X-Wing! After work I popped into Orcs Nest and purr-chased the following:

2 core sets; 1 each of the A-Wing, Y-Wing, TIE Advanced and TIE Interceptor expansion packs. Oh, and a YT-1300 expansion pack for good measure.

"A YT-1300? What on Earth is that?" I hear (some of) you say. It's actually a well known vessel in the Star Wars universe. One example is currently owned by a former officer of the Imperial Navy accompanied by the prisoner he rescued from execution (which rescue led to him being a former officer of the Imperial Navy). what? You still haven't got it? OK, another clue - a 10-century bird of prey. Got it now? Good.

Yes, I forked out £25 for the Millenium Falcon expansion pack.

Unfortunately they didn't have the X-Wing and basic TIE fighter expansion packs, so I'll need to pick one each of those up at some point. And maybe a Slave 1 expansion pack too, just to complete the set.

Once the Challenge is over, I will try to get a couple of games in at the club.


Swiss Pikemen Prep

I'm almost there on prepping the pikemen - just 30 more hands to drill. I should have all the prep done tomorrow evening and might have managed to prime them before I go to bed. Then it will be time to crack on with the painting. I must be crazy attempting this - painting 256 15mm pikemen in just under 20 days. Can it be done? Who knows? One thing I do know is that I'll be wanting to take a well-deserved break from painting after that!