WIP: Andy's Painting Prize ECW Dragoons #3

Almost there with these - just the Klear/ink coat and matt spray varnish to do (Andy will be basing them himself). I won't be able to do the Klear/ink for a little while as I've only just done the metals and they'll need a bit of time to cure.

So, before they get all glossy, I've taken a couple of pics.

While I'm waiting for the metals to cure, I'm going to do some figure prep - the cuirassiers for Andy, Dux's paras and "Helga".

WIP: Andy's Painting Prize ECW Dragoons #2

Sorry for not posting yesterday. I had one of my occasional neuromuscular attacks which meant I couldn't do much with my right arm. All's well now though.

I've managed to get a bit more done on the dragoons this evening:
Horses - manes, tails, muzzles, cannons stained black; brown ink wash all over; face and leg markings done; tack and holsters painted
Troopers - belts etc painted; apostles dry-brushed; collars and painted; sashes painted on the mounted figures that have them.

This only leaves a couple of steps left to do tomorrow, then I'll do his cuirassiers.

Here's a pic:

WIP: Andy's Painting Prize ECW Dragoons #1

What a fun night at the club that was and incredibly busy to boot. There were seven 2-player games going on  (2 of Epic: Armageddon; 5 of Fog:AM/FoG:R), an 8 player game of King of the Battlefield and the 8-player game of ironclads I was taking part in. At a push we might have been able to squeeze another table in, but only by blocking to doors to the beer garden/smoking area. Plus we had a couple of people not actually playing anything.

One of the games of FoG:AM was quite crucial as it was the last match in my group from the Medievals tourney. If Simon's Seljuks had managed to rout Elliot's Medieval French whilst sustaining very limited losses, there was the possibility that he could have leapfrogged from 3rd place into 2nd or even 1st. However, he only scored a 11-9 win so Clive and I were safe.

Ironclads was fun - Italians vs French recreating an Italian Navy staff exercise from the 1880s set between Corsica and Sardinia. The Italians (my side!) scored a narrow victory - 1275 to 1210. I have taken pics and will post them tomorrow.

WIP: Andy's ECW Dragoons

You may recall that Andy won the "painted by Tamsin" prize in my blog's half-birthday draw back in July. My "commission" is to paint up 5 cuirassiers, 5 mounted dragoons and 10 dragoons on foot. Andy needs the dragoons first, so onto the table they go.

Well, no progress today, but a lot of progress yesterday. I should be on course to finish them in time to give them to Andy on Thursday.

Here are a couple of pics for you:

My Other Prize Draw Painting

The figures I'll be painting for Dux (his prize from my 250 followers draw) arrived in the post this morning - ten 28mm WW2 British Paras from Warlord Games. I'll take some pics tomorrow once I've cleaned up the flash etc (and there is quite a lot of it on the figures, mostly vent/sprue remains).  The pack contained 5 figures with Lee Enfield rifles, 4 with Sten SMGs and 1 with a Bren LMG. Half are in berets, half with helmets and where the pose is similar there are differences in placement of pouches etc.

The sculpts themselves look very nice with lots of crisp detail. My only complaint is the flash between the body and arms on the LMG and SMG figures which is pretty thick on 3 of them. I'll need to use a pin-vice/drill-bit combo to make the initial breakthrough on those.

Also in the package was this little beauty which the Dux added in as a thank you to me. I must admit I'm really looking forward to painting her up and he's right - she'll make a fine avatar for me to use on this blog. Cheers Dux!

WIP: 30YW Musket Regiments #4

And they are finally finished. The basing gunk was dry-brushed this morning then the figures were sprayed with matt varnish. Once that had dried I added tufts, then left the glue to set while I headed out for a bit to do my laundry and grab a fry-up at the cafe. I ended up taking slightly longer than expected as when I returned from the cafe to take my washing out of the machine I discovered that I'd forgotten to start the run (note to Fran - any more comments about Alzheimers will not be appreciated!). Whoops! Luckily my coins were still in the slot.

When I eventually got back from the launderette I flocked the bases. And here are the finished articles:

If you're all well behaved (I'm looking at you Fran and Ray), you might get a second post today of my initial progress on Andy's ECW dragoons.

WIP: 30YW Musket Regiments #3

And they are finished. Well, they're painted, Klear-coated and based - just need to let the gunk dry, dry-brush it, spray with matt varnish then tuft and flock the bases.

And some close ups of the command bases. I was worried that they'd look very cramped, but they seem to be OK.

I'll finish these off tomorrow, then make a start on Andy's ECW dragoons. I might do my own dragoons at the same time.

WIP: 30YW Musket Regiments #2

Having spent yesterday recovering from Congress, I managed to get a fair bit of painting done today:

Hats (including dry-brush)
Belts etc
Touch up breeches and boots/shoes
Ground colour on bases
Dry-brush apostles
Ivory wash on matchcord
Touch up jackets (well, more of a complete repaint of jackets as it happens)
Touch up musket stocks
Collars and other trim

There's now very little to do on the troopers - collars, hat feathers, stocking ribbons, metalwork then the Klear/ink coat and they're ready for basing.

Basing will have to wait until I've finished the officers. I need to do some touch-ups then do the trim and metalwork.

I should be able to get them all finished as far as the Klear/ink coat tomorrow. Once they are done, I'll be making a start on Andy's ECW dragoons as the first part of his painting prize.

Speaking of painting prizes, I now know what I'll be painting for the Dux - a squad of 28mm WWII British Paras. He's ordered them to come direct to me, along with a single mini for me as thanks - apparently when painted up he thinks it will make a good avatar for me. Intriguing, not to mention very generous :-)

Ahhh, I know what you're thinking - "where are the pics? We want pics!"

Well, here you go:

Back from Brighton

....absolutely knackered. But I thought I'd share some pics with you:

The view from my hotel room on Sunday morning - lovely sunshine, hardly any wind

Leaning out a little to see out to my left

Such a shame the weather didn't stay like that. By Sunday afternoon the wind had picked up and the weather kept switching between sunshine and piddling down.

I did get a bit more painting done - the jackets (Dark Prussian Blue for one regiment, Hull Red for the other). Although the lighting in the hall would have been OK for painting, the space was rather cramped, so painting during conference sessions turned out not to be an option. I did the jackets on the Monday and Tuesday mornings between breakfast and heading out to the conference - luckily the Hilton Metropole is practically next door to the conference centre, so I could leave at 9.20am and easily be in my seat in time for the 9.30 start.

So, a quick WIP pic so you can see their current state:

While I was doing the jackets I did spot a few patches on the breeches which I'd missed. I'll have to pick those up when I do the hats.