Finished: 15mm Sea Peoples "Common Warriors"

Phew! They're done! I did manage to get all the basing done today (Friday - remember what I said in my workbench post yesterday?) and don't they look lovely.

The Blue Hats:

The Red Hats:

The Green Hats:

Tomorrow I'll be starting work on the "retinue warriors". That's going to be a slightly bigger project as I've got 60 warriors, 12 officers, 12 standard bearers and 12 musicians to paint. Which means I'll be breaking it down into three smaller batches for painting.

I did a couple of other bits today. The Mongols I ordered a few weeks ago arrived on Wednesday and I've been prepping them - I've still got a few more to go. When they're all prepped, I'll put them onto painting sticks and prime them.

I also primed one of the WW2 Aussies to use as a test figure for colour schemes:

I might try a zenithal highlight on him to see how well that works for me. If you're wondering about the colour I used to prime him, I figured that a red-brown would make a good base for the flesh tones and would also give some desaturation to the various green tones. We'll see how that works out.

I also painted up some MDF templates for King of the Battlefield:


I had spray primed them grey earlier in the week, but as I wanted to do them in certain colours, I needed to airbrush them white first.

Both sides are done, and the edges.

I don't think anybody at the club is going to walk away with mine by mistake!

Eventually I'll give them a good spray coat of gloss varnish and will then use a black oil wash to pick out the recessed details and finish with a spray coat of satin varnish. I'll need to wait until I've got some spray gloss varnish and for better weather though.

Thursday Workbench 29 March

Whilst it might be (all right, is) after midnight and so - technically - Friday 30 March, the fact of the matter is that I still count it as Thursday as I haven't gone to bed yet. Okay?

Progress has been a bit slow on the final batch of "common warriors" as I didn't get anything done the past two evenings due to being knackered after work. However, I've made up for it today and I've finished painting them:

I just need to give them a Klear/ink coat (which I'll be doing shortly after posting this) and varnish them which I'll do tomorrow. Then they can be combined with the other two batches for basing. Which I'll also do tomorrow.

The long weekend (I'm actually not back to work until next Thursday) should see me make a good start on the "retinue warriors". They will also be armoured (same figures as the batch above) so this has been a useful learning experience. One thing I've learnt is that the Flat Blue and Ultramarine are far too similar, so I'll probably replace the Flat Blue with Intense Blue. I'll also be dropping the Pastel Blue, but that's because I think it looks a bit wishy-washy.

Sunday Workbench 25 March - Sea Peoples

I didn't get quite as much done as I'd hoped yesterday, which meant that I had a fair bit of painting left to do today on the second batch of "common warriors". However, I did manage to get them finished. Here's a pic of them with the previously completely batch:

I have made a good start on the third batch of figures. These ones have tops and armour rather than being bare-chested. I think I'll do the kilts on these with slightly less complicated panel details. Here's a couple of pics of where I've got to with them:

I think I should be able to finish them before next weekend, which will allow me to make a start on the "retinue warriors". As that's the Easter weekend and I have a few extra days off work I should get a decent way through them.

Edit: I did a little bit more - the tunics:

Thursday Workbench 22 March

Since Sunday I've made a little bit of progress on the second batch of "common warriors" figures. Not as much as I might have liked, but they are close enough to being done that I should be able to finish them at some point on Saturday.

The next step will be to paint in the contrast panels on the kilts, then to go over the borders with white or contrast colours.

Sunday Workbench 18 March

I've had quite a productive weekend. I finished painting the first batch of "common warriors" then varnished them this morning. This afternoon I started on the second batch and have managed to get a decent way through painting them.

Things are looking good for finishing them before next weekend, leaving me clear to start on the third batch, which will be the first batch of armoured warriors. Unfortunately for me, they still have kilts! Once that batch is finished I'll be able to get the basing done.

Thursday Workbench 15 March

I have made a start on the first batch of figures for the "common warriors". I haven't got as far as I'd like as I've been feeling knackered on getting home from work the past few nights. Hopefully I'll be able to make up for that with some solid painting sessions this weekend and get them finished.

As you can see, I've gone with a variety of blue shades as the base for their kilts. These will be getting patterns added later on  some with just white borders to the panels, some with coloured panels.

It's going to be a couple of weeks until I have all 84 figures for this batch completed, so I'll be doing midweek "workbench" posts as well as the usual Sunday ones.

Finished: 15mm Sea Peoples Skirmishers

Well, that's the first batch of Sea Peoples done. I decided to start with the skirmish troops as they would have the simplest kilts and I wouldn't mind so much if I made mistakes while working out the best way to paint them. And mistakes were made and I've learnt what not to do on future batches. Like painting batches of 48 figures in one go...

For ADLG, you can take 6 bases of LI or LMI javelin-men (or a mix). LMI javelin-men are only really good for two things - holding rough terrain and dealing with elephants although you don't get any nellies in their historical match-ups.

Light Infantry:

Light Medium Infantry:

And here's the next batch. Or rather the next three batches:

These will be "common warriors" - MI swordsmen. You can have up to 16 bases of these, but I'm only going to do 12 bases.

Sunday Workbench 04 March

As another Sunday rolls around, so does another Sunday Workbench post. It also means you get to see which project I opted for:

Yes, I went for 6mm ACW...oh, no I didn't - I went with the Sea Peoples. After a bit of a hunt for the notes I'd made a long while ago about how many of which figures I needed for the different troop types I sorted out what would be needed for the first batch and then sorted out the paints I would be using. And then I made a start on the painting.

I got a good bit done yesterday - flesh base and wash, ivory base on the kilts, wooden bits and the coloured headdress reeds, Today I started out by painting the figure bases then took a few deep breaths and began work on the shield faces and kilt patterns. Which made me remember one of the reasons I'd kept putting off doing these. Still, once these are done, just another 180 plus the chariot crews to do (and their kilts could well be a bit more more complex).

There's not much left to be done on these - hair, bronze, flesh highlights, leather work (neck straps and some have sandals) and some touching up. the reed headdresses probably need a wash to bring out the details.

This batch of figures will be for 6 bases each of LI javelins and LMI javelinmen. the rest of the army will have 12 bases of MI common warriors, 6 bases of MI retinue warriors, 6 bases of HI retinue warriors, 4 light chariots, 3 commander chariots and an ox wagon for the camp element (although I have spotted that Essex sell a suitable ship and crew which would fit onto a camp base...).

Finished: 15mm Scythian Commander and Cataphracts

It took me a few evenings longer than I'd thought to finish these off, but they're done now. This unit of cataphracts and the command base (added to the light horse I painted a very long time ago) will allow me to field a small Scythian ally with my Sarmatians. And it's only taken me six years to get them done!

Cataphracts:

Commander:

I'm not sure if it really shows in the pics, but these chaps all have some fancy freehand patterning painted onto their sleeves, trousers and the saddlecloths.


I've placed an order for the additional figures that I need for the Mongols, but it will be a while before they are ready for me to start painting them. Which means I'll have to work on something else until then. the big questions is "Sea Peoples or 6mm ACW?". You'll just have to wait and see which I decide to go with.

Edit to add:

Oooh! This was my 1100th post!