Challenge Day 5 - A Minor Disaster

The Challenge is only on Day 5 and already we have had a lot of entries. Some Challengers have submitted several entries. I'm hoping that they've forgotten that it is a 15-week marathon and not a sprint, so will run out of steam very soon, allowing me to catch up.

I had a minor disaster this evening with the hussars - the ink washes to give definition have managed to make the white look mucky, the yellow to take on a mucky orange tinge and the faces to look very sunburnt/tanned. I'm going to have to go back over these areas with white/yellow/flesh before varnishing them now.

I've also made some progress on the cuirassiers, dragoons and horse grenadiers. Last night I did the flesh (faces only - these guys are all wearing gloves!). This evening I've done breaches, waistcoats and jackets. I'm dreading doing the red piping on the jackets of the cuirassiers - I might have to use an ultrafine tip pen for that job.

I've taken tomorrow off work, so should be able to make significant progress on all of these cavalry.

Challenge Day 4

I've very nearly finished painting the hussars - just the metalwork to do, then a light shading wash to help define some of the details. Oh, and I need to go back to the officers and change the fur trim to grey and lacing to gold. I should get that done tonight. Tomorrow I'll varnish them (brush-on as it's too cold to spray) then on Wednesday I'll start basing them.

For those of you who haven't worked out which regiments these are, they are the Zeltiy and Slobodskiy hussars.

Last night I also did a little bit of work on the cuirassiers, dragoons and horse grenadiers (yes, I've decided to do one regiment of each). Just a small start though - the saddle cloths, holster covers and blanket/cape rolls. I might do the flesh tonight before going to bed.

Once I've varnished the hussars tomorrow, I'll switch to the cuirassiers. They should be fairly quick. If all goes well, I should have finished all the cavalry by the end of this weekend, putting me very slightly ahead of schedule.

Challenge Day 3

You will be glad to hear that I managed not to be overcome by all of yesterday's shininess and did manage to get some painting done. Quite a bit in fact.

All the horses bar two had their points painted. The two that didn't were a dark grey which got dappled and a light grey which was lightened further to become a white. They then all got an ink shading wash. Once that was dry, I did the white markings on faces and legs.

At this point I broke slightly from the plan and rather than doing all the horse tack before splitting out into smaller groups, I did the split at this point. Here's a quick pic of the cuirassiers and dragoons/horse grenadiers* at this stage:

Having done the split, I started work on the hussars. I only managed a little bit of work on them last night, just an undercoat for items which will be white (Sky Grey) or yellow (Yellow Ochre).

Those of you who know the Russian army of the era can probably guess which two hussar regiments these will be.

I will crack on with these today and see how far I get with them. If there's a fair wind behind me, I might even manage to finish painting them, which will just leave varnishing and basing to do over the next few evenings.

* I still haven't decided whether to paint these as dragoons, horse grenadiers or do one of each.

More Merchant Ships And Some Shinies

I actually finished painting these merchant ships a few days ago, but have only just got round to doing the photos of them. I'll blame last minute preparations for the Challenge for not doing them sooner.

Princess Class Passenger Starliner

Errmm, yes. The right hand thruster is a bit skewed

Olympus Class Short Haul Passenger Transport

Starchaser Class Longhaul Freighter

Merino Class Livestock Transporter

On it's way to planet Clintus IV Major, carrying a cargo of camels...

Shinies!

On my way back from the shops, I went to the local Royal Mail sorting office to pick up 2 parcels which they'd left a card yesterday saying they'd tried to deliver. I knew they would be my GZG order. When I got home, there was a padded envelope from Timecast - the Old Glory 15s Korenas that had been on back order.

Koreans:

1 pack each of Ming light cavalry and Levy archers.

GZG:

Lots of lovely shiny goodness in bags (plus a discount voucher for the New Year and a Salute flyer)

The freebie bag contents - a Fort Grange class Q-Ship Tender for the NAC; an Aleksandr Tortsev class Orbital Assault Transport (LSO) for the ESU; an Ariadni class Q-Ship Tender for the FSE; a pack of NSL troopers with anti-armour weapons; and a pack of NSL power armour troopers.

15mm NSL - a bunch of riflemen, SAWs and support weapons; a pack of power armour troopers with support weapons and a couple of sprues of spare arms for the PA troops (I'd managed to lose one arm when prepping a bunch the other week and Mr Tuffley kindly agreed to send me a sprue).

Now, I had worked out the TOE for my NSL, but now I've got the extra freebie packs I'll have to revise it. Not that that's a problem of course.

Light and Heavy Carriers for FSE, ESU and NAC.

Some more civvy ships in the top row - a Pinder class tanker; a Stobart class Can-Hauler; and a Crenshaw class Penal Colony Transport.

In the bottom row are some extra ESU ships - a pair of Ural class destroyers; a Nanjing class escort carrier; and a pair of Kunlun class heavy destroyers.


My word, what a lot of shiny goodness to receive on one day!

I suppose that I'd better crack on with the Russian cavalry now before the shininess overcomes me.

In The Beginning There Was...

...a table full of primed figures waiting to be painted.

As many of you will have realised, this year's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge kicked off this morning at 6am UK time. Sadly for me, I had to go to work today, so missed out on the first 12 hours or so of painting time.

There have already been two entries, possibly more by the time you read this. Curt kicked proceedings off with his anti-hero - Boromir from Lord of the Rings. This was followed quickly by Miles with three mobile artillery pieces for "All Quiet on the Martian Front". How they managed to get these painted, based and photographed so quickly is beyond me. Great work by both of them.

As for my campaign, once I'd had a cup of tea and some hot buttered crumpets on getting home from work, I cracked on with work on my first batch of figures. I'm kicking off with my Seven Years War Russian cavalry.

As you can see, I've done the base colour on the horses so far. Tomorrow I'll do the shading and markings on the horses and hopefully the tack and saddle cloths. Once that is done, I'll switch to working on 2 regiments at a time (probably hussars, then horse grenadiers, then cuirassiers).

I've just placed an order with Donnington for the handful of Mongols I need. While I was doing that, I thought that I might as well order some more 30 Years War figures, so I will have enough coming in for my seventh 9-base later tercio. These will be a "Yellow" regiment. The Mongols might get painted during the Challenge; the 30YW boys will have to wait until after it has finished.

And So It Begins (Tomorrow)

Yes, this is the final day before the Vth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge begins. Brush-off is at 6am tomorrow for those of us in the UK. Sadly, I will miss out on the first 12 hours or so, but plan to hit the brushes as soon as I got home in the evening. Well, maybe after having a cup of tea.

I thought that my post this evening would be a good opportunity to do a round-up of what I plan to paint over the next 15 weeks.

Things Which Will Definitely Be Painted

These figures/models are all prepped and primed, apart from the anti-hero entry fee figure

15mm Seven Years War Russians

3 generals
2 field artillery pieces plus 6 crew
a pair of 2-horse limbers
2 regiments of hussars
2 regiments of dragoons/horse grenadiers
2 regiments of cuirassiers
2 regiments of grenadiers
6 regiments of musketeers

6mm ACW

Union/Confederate - 27 artillery pieces plus plus 128 crew - probably done as 15 Union/12 Confederate or 17/10

Union:
18 command figures
22 infantry regiments
2 Zouave regiments
7 mounted and 2 dismounted cavalry regiments

Confederate:
18 command figures
20 infantry regiments plus skirmishers
2 Zouave regiments plus skirmishers
7 mounted and 2 dismounted cavalry regiments

I've got a bunch more figures (generals, some more artillery, wagons, limbers, dismounted cavalry, casualties, tents, camp bits) in the wings that still need to be prepped and primed. I'll do these if I have time. Actually, I'll prep and prime the casualties this weekend as I'll want them for adding to bases.

Eurasian Solar Union (ESU) Space Fleet

20 ships - 3 scouts, 3 corvettes, 2 frigates, 2 destroyers, 2 light cruisers, 2 escort cruisers, 2 heavy cruisers, 1 battle cruiser, 1 battleship, 1 battle dreadnought, 1 super dreadnought


28mm Anti-Hero Figure

You'll have to wait and see as I still haven't bought the figure for this.



Things I Hope To Paint

or at least make a good start on.

28mm Wars of The Roses

I've got 12 cavalry and nearly 200 infantry to prep, assemble, prime and paint for this army. If I can even get just a couple of units painted before the end of the Challenge, that will be a good start

15mm SciFi

If I can work out how I'm going to base them, I'll have about a company's worth of NSL troops to paint up. And maybe some vehicles if I get around to ordering them.


Things That Might Get Painted

15mm Koreans

I've got some more figures to add to my Korean army. I might just paint up a unit of Warrior Monks during the Challenge.

15mm Pirates

I never did finish painting my pirate army. If I have time, I'll paint up the artillery.

15mm Mongols

If I remember to order the extra figures, I should have three units of heavy cavalry to paint up. And another command stand.

More Spaceships

I've got some more spaceships due to arrive in the next few days to add to the rather large pile I already have waiting to be painted. The chances are that I won't paint any extras unless Clint finds himself buying more.


Phew! That's quite a list now I can sit back and look at it. It's just as well I'm not easily intimidated!

ESU Fleet Assembled

After much sticking together of fingers and swearing, my ESU fleet and Crusties fleet are assembled. As I'm not planning to paint the Crusties for a while, they've gone back into their little box.

However, as the ESU fleet will be painted up during the Challenge (I hope!), I've stuck them onto long pegs for painting. Tomorrow I'll be priming them. Given that it is very cold at the moment and my boiler is still being temperamental, I'll be using brush-on primer

I've also finished painting and varnished the four remaining civilian ships this evening. Once the varnish is dry, I'll glue on some flight peg toppers and take proper pics.

Some of you will be aware that GZG are currently running their pre-Christmas deal at the moment. This is pretty good - you get a bag of freebies (selected by Mr Tuffley based on what he thinks you might like, normally roughly 10-15% of your order value) and if your order is more than £30 before VAT and shipping you also get a discount voucher to use in January/February.

So, you guessed it, an order has been placed for some more 15mm NSL as well as some more spaceships. I've ordered a couple more civilian ships, light and heavy carriers for 3 fleets (NAC, FSE and ESU) and some extra ESU ships.

I'm getting shinies!!!