More Hanibal's Veterans

 It seems to have been forever and a day since I started these figures! It's not that they've proved especially complicated to paint, nor that they are merely more of the same after two previous units of Veteran Infantry, but rather that I seem to have lost my painting mojo. I guess it's just another aspect of the Pandemic Fatigue that I alluded to in my last post. Anyway, here they are, finished at last ~

The figures are from Aventine Miniatures, their Imitation Legionaries with suitably Carthaginian seperate heads. The Unit Pack deal comprises 4 Command figures and 12 Imitation Legionaries, so I added a pack of 4 Imitation Legionaries in Linothorax for variety in bringing the unit up to 20 figures. The device on their banner is simply a cut down LBM Carthaginian shield transfer ~

I'm not a fan of multipart figures as you'll know, mainly because hand and eye issues seem to combine to compound my 10 thumbs syndrome and leave little globs and strands of glue where they show. But, hey-ho, I've made the best job I could and they will have to do!

Next up will be two bases made up from Crusader Miniatures Celtiberians and Celts. Each will feature 12 figures arranged on a 100x80mm base to represent two warbands in games. With those completed the Carthaginian army will be finished for now at least. I'll add some Spanish cavalry I hope at some point but until then it'll be back to the Republican Romans in the shape of Allied Italian cavalry first, hopefully followed by an Allied Legion using Aventine Miniatures' Etruscans. But, as for plans; well, we know what happens to them?

More Coronavirus malarky!

 So 'Ronald MacDonald Johnson' and his partners in incompetent government have once again put the boot into my hobby. I can't have friends to game face-to-face in GHQ, nor can I now go over to Phil's or Jon's for a game! I am truly Billy No Mates again for at least a month! 

So, as these new restrictions don't kick in until tomorrow, I decided to go over to Spirit Games in Burton-on-Trent today and take advantage of the closing down sale. Yes, sadly another bricks and mortar hobby store will close down on 21 November reverting to a Mail Order only business. I've had many a happy trip out there over the years as Phil actually stocked Dixon ACW figure range. Granted it was sometimes a bit sparse, but I usually managed to get what I wanted. Today proved no different, in that I got the figures I'd hoped to get to supplement the large box Matt had sent me last week. I now have six 20 figure infantry units in the Lead Pimple for next year along with some Artillery Command bases I've wanted to make up for a while now. 

I've been active on the internet purchase front too: I managed to source a copy of Neil Thomas's Ancient and Medieval Wargames as the earlier order disappeared somewhere, or perhaps never existed - only Abe Books know the truth there. The book arrived safely yesterday, so that saga comes to a happy end. I also took the decision to add the 14th Brooklyn to my Union army in their distinctive Chasseur uniforms. Sadly Dixon have no really suitable figures so I took the plunge and ordered some Sash and Sabre figures from Old Glory UK. Hopefully they will be with me this week, Royal Mail permitting of course!

On the painting front I'm more than half way through my third 20 figure unit of Hanibal's Veterans, using Aventine Miniatures Imitation Legionaries in mail and linothorax. I've also got a few Eureka Miniatures figures underway for one of my ACW terrain projects. I hope I will have finished at least one of these this month to share with you. I'm also in the early stages of preparing two articles for Wargames Illustrated for their May edition, number 400. I'm looking forward to working on both of these, though the deadline is tight for me at the end of December, mainly because I'm trying to also complete my Punic Wars project by the year's end. Well, better get back to it then!

Take Care and Keep Safe all of you!

Cretan archers

 Either side of my Cornish holiday, in late September and early October, I've been working on a unit of Cretan archers for the Republican Romans. The unit(s) comprises four bases of three archers each in a mix of firing and loading poses. They are from Aventine Miniatures with the bases from Warbases, as ever.

It seems to take me ages to get all the base colours on the figures, painting them three at a time, but no time at all to do the highlights. I'm sure that's a subjective viewpoint myself, but it's how it seems to me. 

The bases are textured using a mixture of Woodlands Scenics Buff Ballast. It's in three grades: Coarse, Medium and Fine in a mix of about 1:1:2 or 3. I coat the MDF bases with Hobbycraft School grade PVA and then put the base in the mix and rock the box back and forth until the base is buried. I wait a few seconds and then take the base out, turn it upside down to remove the loose texture and out it aside to dry, usually overnight. For these bases first I've added a few random larger rocks in groups or singly to create more interest.

When the texture is dried hard I wash it with a diluted coat of Crafter's Acrylic Country Maple, about 50:50 paint to water. When this is thoroughly dry, and it may take a while, I apply the static grass to a pattern of PVA, rather like aircraft camouflage. I add clumps of larger grasses to taste, usually in three or four shades of green. For these bases I've added a larger clump here or there and a small clump of more obvious weeds. Overall I find the effect pleasing as well as having the added bonus of distracting the eye from my painting efforts!

Loot, and other holiday stuff.

It's just so nice to get away from home for a change of scene and air! Though it proved a different holiday experience in small ways it was mostly really enjoyable, as you can see ~

I might not have bought any painting with me for our Cornish break, but you can't keep an old Wargamer down! In Liskeard on Monday dodging the unforecast showers - the Met Office is rubbish! - I bought these two Blandfords, both in excellent condition, for £10.00. 

Bearing in mind what dealers try to extort at wargames shows I was quite chuffed by this!

We made the most of the sunny Autumn days to get to the coast and walk on the beaches, but we did visit one castle, the circular castle of the Earls and Dukes of Cornwall at Restormel. Not a lot of military interest there, but a pleasant stop on the way back to base from Looe.

The weather was turning just as we left for base via the Duchy of Cornwall Garden Centre and Tea rooms - NO TABLES! As a die in the wool Republican I nearly went in the loos to scrawl Death to Kings on the walls! Still, coffee and cake was free at base camp Notter!

Intermission

 

There will be an Intermission of a few days duration now in GHQ as Sue and I are in Cornwall for a few days R&R. I’ve not bought any painting with me for once as a few days off are the order of the day for hand and eye - and the rest of me of course!

I hope to press on with my Punic Wars project in October and bring it to some kind of playable conclusion before the end of the year. In the meantime, all of you keep safe and well.

Spanish Scutari

 As a functioning 'Billy No Mates' thanks to all this coronavirus malarkey I've been plodding on with painting figures for my Punic Wars project as and when I've felt like it. My usual painting time is sometime between 7.00&9.00am, my hand and eye seem to be at their best then! Sometimes I may paint again during the evening, but not often. I target an average of two figures completed a day, but usually fall short by a few figures each month. At the very least it's something to aim for and helps me keep some focus if things are dragging out.

This approach might be tinged with a touch of OCD for some, but it's been really useful of late in keeping me going on these Crusader Miniatures Spanish Scutari. There's nothing wrong with the figures as such, they're just not very inspiring I've found. Even the shield transfers from LBM seem to be unusually drab! Partly it's my own fault as I changed the method for painting exposed arm and leg flesh tones, only to find highlighting the base colour a real chore! Still, they are done now!

Next in the queue are several Aventine Miniatures Cretan archers which I sincerely hope will be less of a chore! For my Carthaginian army that leaves two warbands of Crusader Miniatures Celtiberians and a third unit of Hanibal's Veterans using Aventine Miniatures' imitation Legionaries and we are done, at least for now! After these I've some Allied Italian cavalry and an Allied Legion, all using Aventine Miniatures figures. I'd hope to complete all of this before the year's end (DV).I hope I'm not tempting fate here, but it will be nice to see these in a game in GHQ, when such delights are back on the agenda of course, and to get back to my ACW and War of 1812 figures in the Lead Pimple! In the meantime, keep safe and well!

Carry on Covid!

 Staring Sid James as Boris 'BoJo' Johnson, Bernard Breslaw as Dominic Cummings, Charles Hawtry as Rishi Sunak, Hattie Jacques as Pritti Patel and so on... Well, at least judging from the outside the current bunch of clowns supposedly in charge might as well be replaced by a bunch of comedians!

Now Wolverhampton has joined much of the Midlands and the North in more restrictions on our freedoms. From Tuesday no mixing with other households in your home or garden! But, you can go to the pub with 100 or so strangers, shops stay open, as do schools, and you must go to work if you can! Frankly I don't think you could make this up if you tried!

Of course all this puts the mockers on gaming face to face again with Phil and Jon. My thoughts on solo games I've shared with you before, so that looks like it in GHQ for a while at least. Meanwhile I'll plod on as and when with painting figures for my Punic Wars project. At present I'm tackling 20 Spanish Scutari by Crusader Miniatures. Not the most inspiring sculpts I have to confess, though more interesting than the 24 Celtiberian figures looming in the painting queue.

For those interested in such things my Punic Wars project gets an airing in the new issue of Wargames Illustrated I believe in the 'What gamers are working on' style pieces started in the Bitesize editions during 'Lockdown Mk1'! If nothing else it may serve to show what even an average painter like my good self can aspire too given the right figures to suit your painting style and the lovely shield transfers from LBM.