No Excuses!!

I'm painfully aware that I have failed to update this Blog fora couple of moths now. The ridiculous thing is that it is largely because I've been in a painting frenzy and had too many photos to add. for each of the last few months I've painted at least 150 28mm figures and over 100 15mm! There have been 3 main themes 28mm Indian Mutiny,  28mm Macedonian/Greek and 15mm New Kingdom Egyptians. I've also been finishing the odd 28mm WWII German Heer, Grenadier and Fallschirmjager.

Purchase wise the Mountain and Pile at the very least are no smaller but in all honesty continue to grow. Charlie Foxtrot keep producing buildings I can't resist, there was the odd box of Victrix 28mm Spartans that was too cheap to miss, some Perry Fallschirmjager that were too nice and 400+ Foundry Hittites, NKE and Sea Peoples just because they were cheap!!

I've been rethinking the purpose of this Blog and decided to redesign it slightly and instead of showing all my painting I'll only add bits I'm pleased with or that are different to my usual offerings. I also intend showing details of games I've played, shows I've attended and any competitions I take part in.

The idea is therefore is post when appropriate but on a more regular basis...........we shall see!!

May - A Busy Month

All in all May was a very successful month and I was more than happy with the number of figures, buildings and bits and pieces of terrain that I completed.


Buildings and Terrain

I finished 4 of Colin's excellent 28mm MDF WWII French buildings as well as 8 foot of his fencing:

La Boulangerie

Colin's Cafe De Normandie with a custom sign.

Cafe Theresa!!

La Brasserie

I can not take credit for the Martini advert as it was using a Charlie Foxtrot Stencil!!

L' Epicerie

I also finally painted a Sentry Box and Barrier that I'm fairly sure originated from Sarissa Precision.

Figures (and a bit of Terrain)

88mm . £5 on eBay bargain!!

I think it is probably manufactured by Black Tree Design.

Warlord 28mm Plastic PzIVH

Another bargain. £10 at Exeter Bring n Buy

12 x 28mm Indian Mutiny Cavalry from Mutineer Miniatures

30x28mm Thracians from Old Glory

Rear Rank of Phalanx

More Rear Rank

48x28mm - The complete Macedonian Phalanx

32x28mm Warlord Plastic Greek Hoplites

24x28mm Macedonian Hypaspists

So as you can see a very busy month and I even got a couple of games in.

All I need to do is not buy any more figures and continue to paint at this rate for the next ten years!!

Facebook - An Addicts Nightmare

Whilst I had a spare half hour I was browsing a few of the Facebook Groups I belong to and saw that a chap was selling a 28mm Burgundian Army for sale at a knock down price.

It worked out to be around half lead price and was painted! Seemed too good to be true but I gave it a go and within the week I was the proud owner of a Burgundian Army.

It needed touching up, rebasing and the cavalry were missing their lances but apart from that was in very good nick.

One week later the results are:

8x3 Essex 

Close up

8x2 Essex

Close up

8x2 Essex

Close up of Mounted Archers

8x3 Essex Crossbowmen

Close up

14x3 Essex Longbowmen

Closeup

10x2 Essex Handgunners

Close up

All in all a very nice Army based for FoG and ready to take to the table.

I still have 40 Mounted Knights that need a repaint and enough leftovers to make up the necessary Command Bases.

Well chuffed with a virtually 'instant' Army for under £180.

Legionary 2015 - Exeter

Saturday 2nd May was a very enjoyable day spent in the Matlock Centre, Exeter with Nick Turner helping with his 28mm extravaganza 'Trouble with the Borgias (Part 2)'. Nick fielded over 1000 beautifully painted figures and we spent a fun day fighting out a marvellous game using Warlords Pike and Shotte rules.

I'm afraid that I forgot my camera but I can assure you that the table was stunning.

There were about a dozen or so demo/participation games and best in show went to the Abbeywood Irregulars with their very impressive 28mm ACW game. There were two Bolt Action Games, two Wars of the Roses, a Napoleonic one using 15mm figures using  an adaptation of Muskets and Tomahawks, a Naval game and several others.

There was a good selection of Traders including Warlord, Colonel Bill and Charlie Foxtrot Models. The latter set me back a few quid as I walked away with another 4 28mm MDF.

The Bring & Buy appeared to be well supported and I managed to grab:

An unmade Warlord Plastic Pz IV Ausf F1/G/H for £10
A box of Warlord Polish vistula Legion for £10
A box of Warlord Celtic Warriors for £10
A box of Warlord Imperial Roman Praetorian Guard for £10
A box of Perry ACW Cavalry for £10

The latter will be the basis for my WWII Mounted Germans!!

Plus at a bargain price of £2 each I picked up the following books:
Dunkirk by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore
Citezen Soldiers by Stephen E Ambrose
SAS - Operation Bulbasket by Paul McCue
Eastern Inferno which is the jurnals of a Panzerjager on the Eastern Front.

All in all (and as I explained to 'She Who Must Be Obeyed) I saved a pretty penny!!

A cracking day at a nice show amongst like minded individuals and an couple of American tourists who had never heard of Wargaming but just happened to be passing!!

April Painting - It's (nearly) All Greek To Me!!

First my New Years Resolution well and truly bit the dust. Having been diverted by old  Macedonians and Indians I ended up buying 4 boxes of Warlord Plastic Greeks and 2 boxes of Victrix Plastic Greeks and just for good measure 6 boxes of Victrix Plastic Carthaginians plus 4 packs of Warlord metal Thureophoroi/Thorakitai!!!

Right then back to painting:

All in all a good month

8 Victrix Greek Slingers

8 Victrix Cretan Archers

24 Victrix Medium Peltasts

24 Victrix Light Peltasts

Close up of a couple of the light Peltasts

Last 12 of the Indian Archers

One of the two Warlord Panzerbuchre 41s manned by Fallschirmjager.

82 figures and 2 guns which isn't bad for a month but there were also another 40ish figures and a building nearly finished but carried over to May.

p.s I almost forgot to mention the 2 packs (60 figures) of Old Glory 28mm Thracians with heavy weapons that bought!!!

Better Late than Never!!!

A quick resume of my painting during March:

Buildings:

Firstly another of Colin Farrant's excellent 28mm MDF Normandy offerings.

Charlie Foxtrot Terrace with Front Garden

 A joy to put together and paint. The gardens in particular have some lovely laser etched details.

Again with Rear Garden

 This building was purchased via eBay from Timeline miniatures and it was incredibly cheap.

On first opening the package I was not very impressed as the MDF was quite thick and soft but once it was put together my opinion changed completely as it prooved to be a lovely building with just the right amount of detailing. Recommended!!

Vehicles and Foot Figures

250/1 fro Warlord Panzergrenadier boxed set

As above

234/2 Puma from Warlord

Fallschirmjager Kettengrads from Warlord

Mortar from Blacktree Designs

Fallschirmjager - BTD

Warlord Plastics

Tamiya Citroen Staff Car & MDF Celtic Cross!!

Macedonian Phalangites - 1st Corps

Indian Archers - 1st Corps

An outbreak of Macedonians and Selucids at SSWG prompted me to dig out some old macedonian and indian figures I picked up at a B& in Bristol about 6 years ago. They had been 'painted' using good old Humbrol which had obscured nearly all the detail. I had no idea how to get it off until someone suggested Dettol!! It stank the house out but actually worked.

The big downside to this was that I needed a few figures to complete the army. At this point things went rather wrong - 5 boxes of Warlord Plastic Hoplites, 2 boxes of Victrix Hoplites/ Peltasts and 5 boxes of Victrix Carthaginians later I remembered my New Years Resolution!!!