Swiss Pikemen; Next Up; Salute 2013

Curt has posted the Swiss nutters, I mean pikemen on his blog today - a whopping 512 points have leapfrogged me into 4th place on the table, 37 points ahead of Fran. I suspect that he'll be submitting some another big entry before the end of the Challenge so I'll almost certainly drop to 5th place, but could still be knocked off that spot by Ian (quite easily) or by Ray or John if they submit big entries.

Next Up

With just over 3 days left on the Challenge, I've made a start today on another batch of Swiss. Not more pikemen thank goodness - 24 handgunners and 24 crossbowmen. So far I've done the following:

Yellow Ochre undercoat on clothing that will be in cantonal colours

Black undercoat on metalwork (armour, gun barrels, crossbows)

Oily Steel dry-brush on metalwork

Mix of browns on the leather jacks of 6 figures

Flesh

I should get the wood of the gun barrels and crossbows done this evening and things are looking good for me being able to finish them tomorrow.

That will give me another 96 points, leaving me just shy of 2000 points overall. I wish I had a little more time so I could get a few more done and make that mark, but such is life.

Salute 2013

My ticket arrived in the post yesterday. I've already marked up the floor plan with the games and traders I particularly want to visit. Having learnt my lesson after last year, my plan is to do my photo tour of all the games first, then do the shopping. Well, there's one possible exception to that - Gripping Beast will be releasing their unarmoured dark ages warriors at Salute and I imagine they'll be selling like hot cakes so I will pop their first before touring the games.

I haven't written a shopping list yet, but there are a few things that are buzzing in my brain to buy.

I imagine that after the success of last year's meet-up of bloggers that there will be a repeat this year.

Painting Swiss Pikemen Day 12

Today I have:

dry-brushed the gunk on the rank 4 bases
sprayed ranks 3 and 4 with matt varnish
tufted, gravelled and flocked the rank 3 and 4 bases
taken a lot of photos of the whole bleedin' lot; resized them (and cropped a couple) then selected a number of them to send to Curt
written a blurb to accompany the pics
sent the selected pics and the blurb to Curt


When I decided to start these 3 weeks ago I thought I'd be pushing things to get them finished before the end of the Challenge. Well here I am having finished them and I still have 4 days left to get something else painted and sent off to Curt. The problem is that all I've got that's ready to paint are some more bloody Swiss! Can I face doing some more of them?

Painting Swiss Pikemen Day 11

Left = rank 4 based (gunk drying);
Right =  rank 3 based and gunk dry-brushed

I'm so close to completing these now that it's making me itch. I finished painting the 4th rank last night and gave them their Klear/ink coat. This evening I have done the basing - the gunk will get dry-brushed tomorrow morning if I get up early or in the evening if I don't. Actually, I could even take them to work with me and do the dry-brushing at lunchtime.

That just leaves me with the following steps for the 3rd and 4th rank figures:
spray with matt varnish
add tufts, gravel and flock
take pics of the whole lot and send them to Curt!

IanW, JohnM and Ray have leapfrogged me into 5th, 6th and 7th places on the table in the last couple of days dropping me to 8th. However, this entry of 256 15mm pikemen will get me 512 points and would shoot me into 4th place ahead of fran - unless he submits some more stuff in the next couple of days.

With 5 days left in the Challenge I could still manage to get something else entered. I guess I could do the handgunners and/or crossbowmen (there are 24 of each) in that time.

One Year Ago

Thanks Phil B for yet another meme!

So, the basic idea is that you look back through your blog to a year ago and link to the post(s) nearest to that date.

Well, I took a look yesterday and there was a post on the correct day. However, as it was a "part 1" I have waited until today so that both parts can be linked to.

On Tuesday 13 March 2012 I posted "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash - Part 1"

On Thursday 15 March 2012 I posted twice:

"Quick Update" (a pretty short and boring post)

"Rum, Sodomy and the Lash - Part 2"


Looking back to my blog around that time has made me realise a couple of things and start to feel guilty about them. Around that time I was doing my "Equine Development Facility" project to get all the horses done for my Sarmatian army. Sixty of those horses are still sitting in a drawer on my painting table, painted but riderless - I really ought to get those riders prepped, primed and painted.

I was also just starting to paint my Chumbondas. Those were the last sci-fi figures I painted (not counting the NAC as futuristic British colonial forces I did a while back as test figures). I really must get some of my sci-fi forces done this year.

Painting Swiss Pikemen Day 9

Progress has slowed on painting the last batch of pikemen. I'm not sure if it is down to the drop in temperature (I really wish the weather would make it's bleedin' mind up - one day it's hot and sunny, the next we find the arctic has decided to visit), end of project blues, feeling generally tired, picked up a bug or a combination of these.

Anyway, I'm almost finished with painting them now.Here's the current status:

Ranks 1 & 2 - completely finished (Yay! Halfway there!)

Rank 3 - based and basing gunk dry-brushed. Waiting for a slightly warmer day to spray with matt varnish, then I can gravel, tuft and flock them. (Yay! Nearly three-quarters of the way there!)

Rank 4 - just the belts, scabbards, metalwork and touch-ups to do, then it's Klear/ink and basing time.

I'll definitely have got them to Klear/ink stage tomorrow evening and might even have based them.


What's Next?

To be honest, I think this will be my last entry for the Challenge. I need a break from the Swiss and that is all that I currently have primed and ready to go, apart from Donogh's prize figures - I might make a start on those.

Painting Swiss Pikemen Day 7

I haven't got quite as much done as I'd wanted today.

Rank 2 - sprayed with matt varnish; gravelled, tufted and flocked

Rank 3 - removed from painting sticks ready for basing

Rank 4 - canton colours painted

Here's a pic of things as they are right now:

Rank 4 in the foreground, back left are the rank 3 figures and what's that on the back right? That looks like a big pike block....

And a sneak peak of the pikemen I've finished so far:

Feeling scared yet?

Well, it's back to work tomorrow, so I'll only have the evenings for painting etc. I've got a bit more time this evening, but I haven't decided what to do yet - I might base up the rank 3 figures or I might do some more work on rank 4. I'll see what I feel like doing after having a bath.

Painting Swiss Pikemen Day 6; Challenge Entry #13

Swiss Pikemen  

Rank 1 - sprayed with matt varnish; gravelled, tufted and flocked.
Phew! That's a quarter of them finished!

Rank 2 - have now been based. Should get matt spray, gravel, tufts and flock tomorrow.

Rank 3 - painting finished; received Klear/ink coat. Should get based tomorrow.

Rank 4 - will start painting these tomorrow* and might manage to get them to the Klear/ink stage, but probably not.

These are coming along even quicker than I'd expected.


* The next step is to do the canton colours which would take me past midnight. Instead I'm going to settle down to watch "Foyle's War" and read the last ever issue of Battlegames as a stand-alone magazine.


Challenge Entry #13: Swiss Artillery

My 13th entry for the Challenge was 4 bases of Swiss artillery. The figures, guns and "bits" are all 15mm from Donnington.

I knocked these out last weekend while I was waiting for the gesso to cure on the pikemen. I'll only be able to use 2 bases at a time when playing FoG as that's all the army list permits. However, having 4 bases done means that I can "mix and match" when I do so.

OK, here are the pics:

These netted me 48 points, which helped to turn up the pressure on Ray.