Artizan Spartans - WIP +1

Minwax stain over basic block painting. Left the linothorax plain white and allowed the stain to seep into the details. After drying and spraying with matte, I'll touch up the armor with white to make the areas stand out better. Otherwise, very basic painting with a little variation of color to the horse hair crests.

These will sit around until the VVV lambda shield decals arrive. I'll likely make more movement trays once my order for more plasticard arrives from Litko.

Prior to the stain

On another note, my wife and I got our first round of vaccinations today at Fort Lewis. They opened it up to 40 and over folks - active duty, retired and civilian workers. Follow up booster shot next month - after that I may be joining some of the local crew who've been gaming in small numbers. Until next time, wishing you all the very best.

Artizan Spartans - WIP and Musings (Long Winded)

Started on Artizan Spartans which I picked up last fall from the Panzer Depot - which sadly had to close up shop. Block painted the flesh, beard/hair, tunics (all dark red), spear shafts and scabbards so far. Need to paint the helmets, horse hair crests and spear tips/butt spikes. They size pretty closely with the Victrix Hoplites, but Artizan figures are mostly in slightly crouching poses so have a different look and probably wouldn't work well in the same unit. Quite a few wear the older Illyrian style helmet with tall crest - which again would look out of place with later style helmets which most of the Victrix guys are wearing. Ordered some lambda decals from VVV - so these guys will be Spartans in their own units anyway.

These didn't come with spears so I ended up making some out of plastic broom bristles - which are quite durable and easy to make.

I also made up some movement trays with plasticard and sprue trees from all of the Renedra bases that come with Perry plastic sets.

I initially wanted to make some for my phalanx units, but figured they could be used for Napoleonics as well (Attack Column would work nicely), at least in the initial movement phases.

To sum up, I started these projects to kill time while awaiting my Warlord Games AWI order. However, I finally got an email reply from Max at Warlord Games this morning as to why my order which was placed on 11 March, was still showing as "Unfulfilled". I found out that my PayPal payment made via Reach (which Max said they use) had been cancelled by Reach. I went ahead and cancelled the order with Max's help, and no funds were transferred. I'm wondering if it had something to do with when I placed my order. I might've mentioned this in an earlier post, but I placed my order on 11 March when the website offered free shipping for orders $80 USD or over. Mine was about $90, so the checkout showed free shipping. The very next day I got an email (sent to all subscribers) from Warlord Games announcing an increase to $150 USD for free shipping. Max over at Warlord Games said he wasn't sure why my order hadn't been processed, but was going to check with their IT folks. In any case, I don't mind cancelling the order as I can revisit AWI again later on. Probably order direct from Perry and add some metals. Anyway, quite a rambling post, but just wanted to post an update here. Thanks again for visiting and wishing you all the best.

Warlord Games Celtic Chariots

These are the three I picked up last Fall when one of our local gaming stores was, unfortunately, having a closeout sale. As I'm still awaiting my AWI order from Warlord Games, I figured I'd go through the few odds and ends of stuff I have to keep me busy.

These are really nice figures with a lot of animated poses. The crew on the left in the picture above are cast together as one piece - the upper body of the warrior glues on at the waist. The center chariot sports a Boudica figure - now I have two along with the Victrix one.

The chariots themselves are easy to put together - only the main body, wheels, side rails and pole. The fitting of the parts is excellent.

I used parts of a Warlord Games decal for the shield as the size of the shield didn't match the decals themselves.

There are now a total of 8 Celtic chariots which can be used as Britons against EIR or as Gallic invaders against Greeks or Macedonians.

Speaking of my Warlord Games AWI order, I still see it as "unfulfilled" so went ahead and sent them an email just to see when it was expected to be sent out - haven't received a response yet. Otherwise, wishing you all the best in health and hobby pursuits!

Just A Few Perry Plastic French Grenadiers and Voltigeurs

While awaiting the Warlord Games AWI order (still shows "unfulfilled"), figured I'd paint up a few spare Napoleonic French foot.

Only the 2 Line Grenadiers and 6 of the marching Guard Voltigeurs were just painted; the Voltigeur drummer and guy next to him at port arms were already painted - and are Victrix figures. I needed the additional 6 Voltigeurs to up their battalion to 24 figures. I also wanted uncovered shakos for the Grenadiers, so swapped out their heads with some from the Perry Chasseur a Cheval set.

Hope to add a few more Grenadiers in skirmish poses - plan to use them to storm the fleches in the Borodino game.

The Perry and Victrix figures match up nicely and work well in the same unit - and even on the same stands. They also work well with Warlord Games plastics - in fact, I used a Warlord Games backpack w/saber/bayonet scabbard and ammo pouch on one of the Voltigeurs.

These are the figures with a Minwax stain over block painting. After spraying them with matte, I only highlighted the Grenadiers.

A pack of old Foundry AWI mounted commanders are next in the paint queue; but haven't started on them yet as I need to research their uniforms since this is a new period for me. Hopefully the Warlord Games order gets "fulfilled" soon. Until next time, best wishes to you all!

Perry Napoleonic Russian High Command

Here's the latest addition to the Napoleonic Russian army - the high-command set, including Marshal Kutusov.

I added some spare (leftover) plastic grenadiers to fill out the oval-shaped base.

The Perry site shows the marshal wearing a green cap, but a few paintings of the Battle of Borodino show his cap being white topped (and visor-less). I think the white contrasts nicely with the dark green and reds.

I used Micron pens (black, blue and green) for the maps - one on the drum and one held by a general to the marshal's left. I also scribbled something on the page held by the staff officer writing down something. The pens are about 10 years old, and the ink is still fresh - very impressive product.

The green coats are a bit darker than the previous ones I painted. This time I mixed Vallejo Deep Green with a little bit of Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue. I also added white to this mixture for the highlighting.

The red-coated figure is supposed to be General Sir Robert Thomas Wilson - a British observer/advisor; at least according to the Perry's website.

I think the grenadiers are appropriate here as one of the paintings of the Battle of Borodino shows a unit of grenadiers standing behind the high-command observing the battle. Here's the painting below. Although this painting shows red sashes, other references show blue for the Order of St. Andrew.

A comparison between the Perry Russian command and the old Foundry (Perry sculpts) Napoleon command set. The Foundry figures are slightly stockier than the current Perry's, but match up well enough. Both sets are based upon paintings of the Battle of Borodino. As you may notice, I painted eyes on the Foundry set - which was painted some years ago. I've since given up on this practice as it not only comes out badly, but also bad for my eyes as well. I can see that I've become a bit sloppier with my painting, and highlighting a bit more harshly as well. I've come to realize that on the gaming table, which these are intended for, a lot of the intricate details really can't be seen.

These figures complete my Russian Army for now. I hope to add some cavalry later - particularly the plastic Prussian/Russian Dragoon set the Perry's are supposed to release in a few months (I hope). In the meantime, I plan to start a smallish AWI project; first time delving into this period. More to follow. Thank you all for stopping by and checking out the blog. Wishing you all good health and happy hobby pursuits!

Victrix Mercenary Hoplites With Battle Flag Shield Decals

The decals arrived yesterday - only took about a week and a half to arrive to WA State (Westcoast USA) from the UK. As posted earlier, the figures themselves were already painted a few weeks ago.

I used about four or five left-over LBMS transfers, just for varieties-sake. The Battle Flag set comes with 50 decals of assorted designs; which is more than enough for the 48-figure  Victrix sets of Hoplites. Quite a good deal, and they are traditional water-slide decals, so very easy to apply. In fact, for round shields like these, I much prefer water-slide as you can move them around to center them. LBMS, nice as they are, can be a bit of a problem if they aren't centered correctly when first applied as they have an adhesive face and can't really be moved around once they're on.

In fact, I was very pleased with these decals from Battle Flag. They are very durable and can be moved around a lot without breakage. I did use a deal softener to seat them better, but again, no issues as they are quite tough.  I was a bit worried as the Roman shield decals I used from them before were kind of brittle and harder to apply. They seemed thinner than these Greek Hoplite ones.

I used a small dab of acrylic caulking to "glue" the shields onto the figures. This worked great, as they shields could be moved around a bit  before hardening. I then went over with some watered down brown to paint over any of the white caulking showing.

The one shield motif that I don't really care for is the somewhat cartoonish Medusa head that both Battle Flag and LBMS make; I think I only used one of them.

Next in the pain queue is the Perry Russian high command set. After those, I might try my hand a scratch-building some gun emplacements for the Russian guns. As far as the Russians themselves, I think I'll hold off on more foot figures and await the release of the Perrys' plastic Dragoon set. Well, so much for now. Hope you all had a good weekend and ready to take on the new week. Until next time, best wishes to you all!

Perry Napoleonic Russian Jaegers

These are metal figures, and likely the last Russian infantry I'll work on for awhile. I have the high command set to paint up too.

Although they likely still had white summer trousers at Borodino, I like them in their matching dark green pants with red stripes. Kinda the iconic look for Russian Jaegers, IMO.

I wonder if Warlord Games will ever add Jaegers to their line. Would be nice to mix them up with these.

I had some Foundry Russian Jaeger (Perry sculps) before and liked them a lot.

The ammo pouches are supposed to have the regimental numbers on them, but left them off as I didn't want to mess up the numbers and also didn't want to be specific with the unit.

Hopefully the Battle Flag hoplite shield decals will arrive soon so I can complete the Victrix guys. Until then, I'll start working on the Russian high command set.

Thanks as always for stopping by and checking out the blog. Best wishes and good health to all of you!