Challenge Day 71 - Nautical Theme

Yes, the nautical bonus theme round has been published and what a cracking set of entries have been submitted. You can view them here (linkity-link). Don't forget to vote for your favourites!

My entry is also (the first part of?) my revenge on Ray. Here's a taster pic:

...and this is the linky-link.


I haven't started on nay Aztecs today. That's because I was too busy sticking these figures onto bases and assembling the walkers.

Once the glue had dried, I then added some basing gunk (a 50:50 mix of fine pumice gel and large grain gel).

Tomorrow night I'll be priming them and hopefully making a start on some Aztecs.

Challenge Day 70 - A Saturday Update

I haven't posted since Wednesday because there was nothing I could show you. The Rebs were too near to being finished and I hadn't started work on anything else. On Thursday I drybrushed the bases and added static grass. On Friday night I added flags, took photos and sent in the submission. Curt posted them this evening and you can see the post here. Here's a taster pic:

Today I got some shinies in the post - some posable metal skeletons from Ebob Miniatures:

This afternoon and evening I spent painting up my entry for the Nautical bonus theme round. It's also (part of) my revenge for this disgraceful entry from Ray in the last bonus round. Curt should be posting them sometime late tomorrow, so keep an eye out for it.

Tomorrow I'll be getting some more figures ready for painting and might make a start on some more Aztecs. During the week I'll finish those off and might start work on my entry for the final bonus theme round - it may or may not be the second part of my revenge!

Challenge Day 67 - All Your Bases Are Belong to Rebs

Well, this is how I left the 6mm Reb cavalry, Zouaves and commanders last night:

Yes - I did manage to get them glued onto their bases. That made for a quick start to work this evening, and I got the basing gunk added in a 90 minutes or so session. Here's a pic of them taken a few minutes ago:

The gunk is now drying and that will take at least overnight. Tomorrow night I'll be able to drybrush the bases and maybe add static grass and some tufts/clumps to the commanders' bases.

Yep, just a short update tonight.

Challenge Day 66 - Reb Dismounted Cavalry Finished

Well, that was unexpected. I had insomnia last night, so decided to drop a couple of things I was going to do (mostly shopping). Instead, after a few chores, I hit up the last of my 6mm Rebs - the dismounted cavalry.

I don't know exactly how it happened, but I've actually finished them. I was expecting to finish them tomorrow, so this puts me a bit ahead of the game.

Tonight I'll be popping them off the painting sticks and cutting the cavalry and skirmisher strips into individual pieces. Then I'll be sorting them for basing, and maybe gluing them onto bases if I have time.

Tomorrow night I'll be doing a mass session of adding the basing gunk.

Challenge Day 65 - Reb Zouaves WIP

I say WIP, but they are actually almost finished. Just hands, face touch-ups and possibly some red trim on the jackets to do before varnishing. I should get them done tonight.

Tomorrow I'll be making a start on the dismounted cavalry. I don't expect to finish them tomorrow, but they should be so close that I can finish them early enough on Wednesday evening to be able to stick everything onto bases.

Challenge Day 64 - The Mounted Rebs Are WIPed

Yoiks! We're into the last 4 weeks of the Challenge now. I'd better pull my finger out and get plenty of painting done.

Luckily I've had a good day for painting and managed to finish the Reb cavalry and commanders today. Apart from a coat of varnish (which I'll do tonight before bed), basing and adding flags to the standard bearers in the command groups.

I've decided to finish off the rest of my 6mm Rebs this week - two bases of Zouaves and another two of dismounted cavalry. They will be relatively quick paints so I should be able to finish them in good time to base them along with the cavalry and commanders. What will help is the fact that I have the next two days off work.

Assuming I get those finished early in the week, I think I'll hit up the last seven Aztecs. And then there's the drunken pirate to paint up for the Nautical bonus theme round.

Challenge Day 63 - Still WIPing Those Mounted Rebs

Slow progress again today. I went out shopping for a few hours this morning; bought a couple of books and a bottle of airbrush cleaner (I'm running a bit low). Picked up the new issue of Wargames Illustrated - if you buy it, you might notice a certain blogger's name in one of the articles and one of their pics. Who can that be? Well,...

I also purchased a new desk light for painting as my old one was starting to break apart. I ended up with a LED light, although I was a little bit uncertain whether it would be suitable for painting.


Fortunately it is pretty good for painting and hopefully will also be good for photography. The light intensity is controllable and you can also switch between daylight and warm (ie - yellow) light.

Back to the Reb cavalry and commanders though. I didn't start work on them until this evening, having decided that it was too late, and I wasn't in the mood, to try to paint a 28mm character figure to submit today.

I've done all the wood, basecoated the metal bits in black, done the belts and other leather accoutrements (either black or orange-brown) and added buff facings to all the officers, command groups and a few troopers. Dog, that was fiddly, especially the collars.

Tomorrow I'll be doing the metals, hands (and face touch-ups), horse markings and furniture and the guidons. Well, that's the plan at least.

Challenge Day 62 - WIPing the Reb Cavalry

OK, so I'm not going to be submitting the Reb cavalry and commanders this weekend. I've been feeling a bit run down the last couple of evenings and haven't made as much progress as I'd hoped for.

I've still got a lot of fiddly details to paint - leather, wood, facings, metals and hands. And the white markings and furniture on the horses. The guidons will make a pleasant, non-fiddly change.

I might take a brief break from them tomorrow to paint a single 28mm character figure, just to get a submission in this week.

As for what I'll paint up next week, I'll probably do the rest of the Rebs - the Zouaves and the dismounted cavalry. Those  should eb relatively quick and easy paints.

Challenge Day 60 - Reb Cavalry and Commanders WIP

Howdy folks!

I've been making slow but steady progress on the Reb cavalry and commanders. I've still got a lot of work to do though, so I suspect that these won't be finished in time to submit this weekend. Unless tomorrow night's session is very productive of course, but it would be cutting things very fine indeed.

Anyway, here are some pics of the current WIP state of them:

The only variable colour thing left to do on them is the hats (and generals' hair), so that will make things a lot easier. Once I've finished this post, I'll probably do the boots/shoes and maybe the flesh if there's time before I go to bed.

the one bit of detailing I'm not looking forward to is painting the facings and the officers' (possibly just the generals' and staff's) gold braid on the sleeves. I might separate those sticks out and finish them next week, leaving me free to focus on the cavalry.

Challenge Day 57 - Sunday Night Update

I did warn you I might do second post today!

I've made some decent progress on the 6mm Reb cavalry and commanders today, even with taking time out to watch YouTube vids.

The first stage with mounted figures is always to paint the horses. I've done the base colours; the points, manes and tails for the bays and a couple of the other horses; washed them and painted the strip bases.

I couldn't let Brendon be the only Challenger to paint a skewbald horse. If you look at the strip behind you'll spot that I've also put a piebald into the mix for added variety.

Tomorrow evening I'll be doing the white markings and painting the "furniture". If I have time, I'll then do a light grey basecoat over the riders, saddle cloths/blankets and blanket rolls.

Challenge Day 57 - Sunday Morning Update

It's actually just after noon, but what the heck.

You will be pleased to hear that I did manage to finish the Korean commanders in time for submission this week. That was despite deciding not to do any painting on Friday evening.

Curt has posted them, and you can find the entry here.

So, what's on the cards for this week? Well, I've got these chaps out on the table, ready to go:

Yup, the cavalry and commanders for my 6mm Rebs. Only 81 figures this time! I might do a post this evening to show how far I've got with them.

I may do some work on my drunken pirate for the Nautical bonus theme round as well this week.

I've also been prepping some 15mm SciFi - if I've got all my Rebs and Aztecs painted, and my Curtgeld done they might make an appearance near the end of the Challenge.

Challenge Day 53 - Korean Commanders Day 2

My powers of prediction were spot on - I wasn't in any state last night to even think about trying to paint details on the Korean commanders! I fully expect that I will be in a similar position tomorrow night...

I was still feeling the effects a bit this evening, so haven't done quite as much as I'd have liked. I have got all the metals done. I'd forgotten what a PITA doing the studs/rivets on the brigandine coats is.

Anyhoos, here are a couple of pics of them:

Of course, this leaves me with more work to do on Friday night and Saturday to get them finished. I should still manage to finish them in time to submit this weekend though (unless I'm still feeling the effects of Thursday's team meal with our departing manager when I get home on Friday).

Challenge Day 51 - Korean Commanders Day 1

It turns out I'm only going to have three evenings for painting this week. Tomorrow night is my manager's official escape leaving do at work, then on Thursday our team will be going out for a meal with him.

With that in mind, I've cracked on this evening and made good inroads into painting the Korean commanders:

I'll do a little bit more on them before I go to bed - the boots on the escorts and the wooden spear and halberd shafts.

On Wednesday evening, I'll be doing the metals and as much of the detail work as time allows, with the aim of just having touch ups and Klear/ink coat to do on Friday (plus sticking them onto bases and adding ballast to the bases ready for finishing off on Saturday).

Challenge Day 50 - Sunday Update

You remember when I told you that I wasn't going to paint anything today? Well, that was my intention, but then I thought "Hmmm, those three Korean spearmen/standard bearers should be pretty quick to paint up - let's do them".

And I did, and they didn't take long. About an hour, even with all the going back to touch up the fiddly areas. I'll do the Klear/ink coat later on.

That leaves me free to concentrate on the commanders over the next few evenings.

Challenge Day 49 (Again!) - Green Stuff

Why again? Well, I accidentally put day 49 in yesterday's post title.

I ended up pulling a late-nighter yesterday to be able to finish the Koreans today.

Which I did, and the post has been published here. These took me over my original 1000 point target with 6 weeks left until the Challenge ends. As I want to take things a bit easier now, get some gaming in and have fun painting I've only increased my target to 1300 points.It might get raised to 1500 points later on.

Since finishing the cavalry, I've been playing with Green Stuff. For my "Mexicagrave" project, I will need wizards and my plan is to use Aztec priests and maybe captains in that role. To that end I deliberately didn't glue weapons into the hands of one of the priest figures and the Tzimitzli captain.

I have an idea for simulating balls of magic in their hands but haven't tried it to see if it will work. If it doesn't, I'll need something to put in their hands, so out came the Green Stuff.

I started by rolling some out into very thin lengths and twisting three strands together into staff shapes, then squidging the ends into heads and tails. I then worried about fragility, so I cut some staff-length bits of 0.5mm piano wire and wound thin lengths around those. I had some little blobs left over so I made some smaller shapes as well.

Staffs with wire; odd bits; staffs without wire.

I'm leaving these to dry and harden overnight. Any of the bits that I don't end up using could end up as treasure tokens.

Tomorrow I'll be taking a day off from painting to catch up with reading. During the week, I'll be paintign up the nine Korean command group figures. I realised that the groups were lacking one thing - some poor grunts to carry the flags, so I've just picked out three regular infantry figures with long spears and glued them onto a painting stick. I'll prime them tomorrow - painting those three should be pretty quick.

After that, I'll probably return to the 6mm Rebs - I've still got cavalry, Zouaves and commanders to paint

Challenge Day 49 - Almost There

The Korean "irregular cavalry" have taken a little bit longer than anticipated to finish. Mainly because some of the details are incredibly fiddly, with the inevitable requirement to go back and do touch-ups. I did those this evening, then painted the horses' eyes and gave the figures a coat of my Klear/ink mix.

Here's a pic of them having just done that final stage:

Here's a rear view pic of them taken last night:

Of course, this means that to be able to get them completed in time to submit tomorrow, I'm going to have to make a change to the way I do my basing. I'll need to quickly prime the edges of the MDF bases white to make them easier to paint the final colour onto - I'll do that after this post.

Once these are done, I'll take a mini-break to catch up on reading. Then it will be onto painting the Korean commanders. Or maybe some more Aztecs. Who knows?