AHPC7 - Challenge Day 16

The Nubians have all been popped off the painting sticks and glued onto bases. I'm going to add the sand tomorrow night as sorting the figures out and gluing them down took longer than I'd expected.

Anyway, some piccies of them on the bases:

Baggage element

Light foot and command stands

Medium foot javelinmen and "Fanatic Warriors"

Archers

I've also prepared the static grass mixes for making tufts. I'll be doing those tomorrow, before adding sand and grit to the bases.

If I have time tomorrow I'll also return to the grav vehicles to get them done before the weekend.

AHPC7 - Challenge Day 15

After suffering a very cold day in the office (the heating had shut down a few days ago and they hadn't restored it), when I got home to my nice warm flat my body decided to take advantage and I zonked out for a couple of hours, which meant a later than planned start to this evening's painting. However, I did manage to get the last 48 Nubians finished (helped by having done the first three steps last night).

Piccies of tonight's painting:

And that's everything painted now, so a pic of them all before I pop them off the sticks and glue them onto their bases:

Tomorrow will see them stuck onto bases and - hopefully - having the sand/grit added. I'll also be making the static grass mixes for making tufts to stick on the bases.

AHPC7 - Challenge Day 14

Today has been truly productive on the painting front. I did make a small start on the first batch of archers last night, just painting the kilts. But that did enable me to make a quick start this morning. And girl, oh girl, did I get a whole lot done.

I finished that big batch of 48 archers just after lunchtime:

So, after a break for lunch and to browse the interwebs, I started on the next batch of 36 archers. And finished them about 8pm:

Everything painted so far today:

Just leaving this lot to do:

I'll get the first couple of steps done on these tonight, to give me a head-start tomorrow evening. If all goes to plan, I should have all the painting done for this army by the time I go to bed. That will let me get them glued onto bases on Wednesday and maybe add sand/grit mix. They should be all done by the weekend, leaving plenty of time for me to finish off the grav vehicles for the "armour" bonus theme round.

AHPC7 - Challenge Day 13 & Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone - wishing you a safe, successful and enjoyable 2017!

Today marks the 5th birthday of this blog. I will be doing a prize draw to celebrate at some point to mark the blogiversary and passing through the 750k hits mark, but I'm holding off until a third milestone is reached - 1000 posts. Don't worry, it should come around fairly quickly if I'm posting daily.



After posting last night, I cracked on and finished the batch of Nubians that I was working on:

26 clubmen

These chaps will form the bulk of the "elite fanatic warriors" for the army, with a few chaps from the next batch and some command figures.

Today has been very productive and I've motored through the third batch and finished them a short while ago:

46 spearmen/javelinmen

Some of these will go to the "elite fanatic warriors", the rest will be either LMI or LI javelinmen.

Here's a pic of everything that's been painted so far:

And one of everything that's left to paint:

92 down, 132 to go...

This lot will be the next batch to be painted:

48 bowmen

I'll be making a start on them later tonight.


In the meantime, I've almost finished prepping the Sea Peoples figures - just 36 left to do, which I hope to get done this evening while watching TV.


Once again, Happy New Year folks!!

AHPC7 - Challenge Day 12

Despite being out until early afternoon today, I have made excellent progress on the Nubians. I've finished painting the command figures and made a good start on the next batch of figures:

With a bit of luck, I should be able to finish the second batch and also take the third batch (which is slightly larger) through to completion tomorrow, leaving just the three batches of bowmen and the slaves to do. I think I'll be able to get at least two batches of bowmen finished on Monday.

Sadly, I'm back at work on Tuesday which only leaves evenings free for painting. I should be able to manage the rest by Wednesday, then it's onto basing and flocking [reminder to self - need to make up the static grass mix]. And then I can finish up the grav vehicles before moving onto the next batch of figures - maybe something big for the "East" bonus theme round?

AHPC7 - Challenge Day 11

I've had quite a busy and productive day working on the Nubians. This morning I painted the hair colours:

Most got a basecoat of 1:1 Dark Greyblue/Black, but a few got Red Leather or Ochre Brown to represent warriors who'd rubbed clay into their hair. It looks a bit bright in the pics above, but the wash would dull that down.

Then applied the wash - I went with a 3:1 mix of Black and Burnt Umber. Those two steps took me the best part of 3 hours, but there were 224 figures to do.

With those two steps out of the way, it was time to split them into smaller groups for painting, mostly by figure pose or type:

Command and slaves; some archers

The rest of the archers

Melee troops

I decided to make a start on the command figures and have managed to get a decent way through them - they should be finished tomorrow:

AHPC7 - Challenge Day 10

I've actually been back home since Tuesday, but didn't have anything to post until today. Since last Friday, I have been busy prepping the figures that arrived just in time for Christmas and I'm almost done with them now - just 72 left to finish off and wash.

Today I actually did some painting. The grav tanks and APCs got touched up, then given two coats of Klear to protect the camo before the rest of the painting and to make washes flow better into the recesses. I also primed the Nubians that I prepped over the break.

So, here's what's on the table right now:

Yup, I've decided it's time to do the Nubians - that should be a tidy little points bomb. Before making a start on them, I decided to do a little test on the slave figures for the baggage camp as the first step will be washes to darken the flesh:

Vallejo Burnt Umber; no wash; Vallejo Black

Vallejo Burnt Umber/Black (1:1); my brown wash; my brown/black washes (3:1)

The best results overall seem to be from the Vallejo Black and my brown/black washes, with the mix of Vallejo Burnt Umber and Black not far behind. I think I'll stick with the Vallejo Black wash for simplicity's sake. The plan is to base coat the hair and then do the washes tomorrow morning then play it by ear for the rest of the painting.