Wednesday Workbench 29 April

As you can see, I have started work on the horses for the mounted figures for my Wars of the Roses army. The first eighteen horses (the ones without armour) are the first batch. They're almost done - once they are, I'll be starting on the armoured horses; there are eighteen of those as well.

When all the horses are finished, it will be time to work on the riders.

Finished: 28mm WotR Spearmen

I was half-expecting not to have these finished today, but they are. These three bases would replace the three Northern Border/Militia billmen from my last post.

There's a full post over on the Quarantine Challenge blog.

Tomorrow will see me start work on the cavalry elements - horses first, then the riders.

Finished: 28mm WotR Billmen

And the third set of figures for my Wars of the Roses army are finished. They got posted on the Quarantine Challenge blog yesterday.

Retinue Billmen:

Northern Border/Militia Billmen:

I've almost finished the next set of figures, just matte varnishing and basing to do. Hopefully all that will be done by tomorrow.

I've Been Podcasting...

I suppose it is possible that some of you may have noticed that I have recently joined the crew on the Madaxeman podcast. For those of you who weren't aware, you now know!

At the moment it is being produced weekly; recorded on Monday evening and released into the world on Thursday or Friday.

So, if you fancy listening to five guys and one gal talking about wargaming, with added silliness and a weekly quiz, then this could be the podcast for you. I've included the link to the latest episode below, where we discuss what we've been painting, what we would (and might) have bought at Salute and what are plans are for the coming week.

Wednesday Workbench 22 April

Another Wednesday, another workbench post. I've finished painting all the billmen and have started the basing of them. If all goes well, I should have the basing finished tomorrow, but I suspect it will more likely be Friday morning.

I've got the next set of figures out ready for painting - eighteen spearmen. I might make a small start on them tonight. I'll be painting them during the long gaps in the basing process for the billmen. If things go to plan, they should be completed (including basing) on Sunday.

Finished: 28mm WotR Longbowmen

The longbowmen are finished and have just been posted on the Quarantine Painting Challenge blog.


Retinue Longbowmen:

Northern Border/Militia Longbowmen:

Tomorrow I'll be starting work on the billmen - there are only 48 of hem to paint.

Wednesday Workbench 15 April

First of all, some of you will have noticed that I have switched the blog to requiring moderation for all comments. I did this because I had been heavily targeted by comment spammers. They seem to have stopped for now, but that could be because it is almost a week since my last post - I'll see if they suddenly become active again with this post being published.

Since last Thursday I have carried on with the WotR project and finished painting all the longbowmen yesterday. I varnished them this morning and this afternoon have started the basing:

In case you are wondering what the brown gunk is, it is this:

Yes, brown acrylic frame sealant from Poundland. I simply spread a dollop out on the top of the base to about 1.5-2mm depth and press the figures down into it, then use a crappy brush to smooth out the acrylic around the figure bases.

Tomorrow I'll be adding sand to the bases, then on Friday I'll do the flocking. That's not bad going - 72 x 28mm figures in just over a week.

Finished: 28mm WotR Knights & Men at Arms

I finally got round to flocking the bases, but decided not to add tufts to them at this point (I might do so later).

I've done a full post on the "Analogue Hobbies Quarantine Challenge" blog, but here are some teaser pics:

Royal Bodyguard Knights:

Men At Arms:

Foot Knights:

I've also finished painting (and varnishing - I decided to do that today rather than waiting until the other 48 are painted) the first 24 longbowmen:

I'll wait until the others are painted and then base them all in one go.

Wednesday Workbench 08 April

Well, that's quite a lot of figures currently on the workbench. The men at arms have all been based now, with just flocking and tufting left to do:

While various stages of the basing were curing or drying, I painted up these twelve figures:

I can't for the life of me work out what unit types these were meant to be for, so they might get popped to one side until I figure out where to use them (I suspect they may have been intended to be added to bases of billmen, archers or spearmen), once they are varnished.

Yesterday I started on the longbowmen, with the first 24 figures now almost finished:

The eagle-eyed among you may be wondering why one of them has a green blob on his helmet. Yes, well, indeed. Accidents do happen, dontchaknow?

When I have finished painting these chaps, I have another 48 archers to paint. 24 seems to be a reasonable batch size for them, so that will be two more batches. I can then varnish all the archers (and those twelve odd figures) and get them based up before moving onto the next set of figures, either the billmen or the spearmen.

Paint Table Saturday 04 April

A you can see, the bulk lot of WotR men at arms I was painting are just about done - all that's left to do is the varnishing and basing. After taking these photos I went back to the original two batches and brightened up their metal a bit so that they would match the later batches a bit better.

Tomorrow morning I will be varnishing them, then in the afternoon I will begin the basing process. I'll probably be able to finish them on Monday.