Perry AWI/18th C. Horse Drawn Carts

Painted up these carts today. Ordered them a few weeks ago, intending to use them in my Bushy Run scenario. However, after I ordered them I read that the British left the carts at a station prior to the attack, and only used packhorses due to the difficult terrain. Note to self, always research beyond Wiki. 

Anyway, I can use them for Napoleonic stuff too - Peninsular, especially. I am going to use the drivers for the Bushy Run game, though.

Nice figures as expected from the Perrys.

Looking forward to hosting the Bushy Run game using One Hour Skirmish Wargames next weekend. Until then, wishing you all the best.

SNLF vs. Kor (aka Ropen) of Papua New Guinea

”...it was the Japs [Japanese military] on the island who were attacked by the kor (ropen). They [Japanese soldiers] apparently shot several wounding them then followed them to caves and blew [blew up] the entrances. They called ships fire on the hills and pounded them for several hours.” - recounted by a resident of the Manus Island area of Papua New Guinea.

"Recover Able Seaman Mifune's body - he has a lot of rice balls in his pack!"

"Aim for the head! Toyota!"

"Duck! I mean Pterosaur!"

"I'm thinking Yakitori for dinner, guys!"

The pterosaurs are from an internet source called The Big Zoo Store. They're flexible rubber and were shaped in different positions using heat from a candle. They were painted a light brown color which are described by eye-witnesses. Sewing pins and needles are used to secure them to their metal washer bases.

The kor, or ropen, looking for light snacks.

Empire Demigryph Knights of the Emerald Order

Here is a unit of Demigryph Knights.

Demigryphs are Monstrous Cavalry and have the Armour Piercing special rule. The knights are armed with halberds - a free exchange for lances.

These Inner Circle Knights belong to the Emerald Order - fluff to follow.

The bases are quite large for the models - width-wise, so I plan to add some Orc bits underneath them as casualties.

I'm relieved to have finished these as I had barely averted a minor disaster when applying the Minwax stain. The stain started dissolving the Gold Leaf and I managed to minimize the spread of the gold. I should've known that would happen - especially when using thinner with the stain. I ended up going back over with Gold Leaf after the stain was dry. Note to self: only use acrylics with the stain. Next up is a Steam Tank which will be the last unit for 2,000 point army.

Karl Franz on Deathclaw

Here's the Emperor Karl Franz on his loyal griffon, Deathclaw -

The Emperor is wielding the legendary war hammer Ghal Maraz = any hits auto wound with no armor saves!

In the version below, the rider becomes an Empire General armed with a Runefang forged by Alaric the Mad - again all hits auto wound with no armor save!

The red and white shield on the crest declare the general from Talabheim.

The next two images show a two-headed griffon with a wizards crest on the chest plate.

Here are the interchangeable parts for the model. Magnets have been put to good use. The wizard and general with lance still need to be painted. I actually still need to paint the wizards/acolytes for the War Altar and Hurricanum/Luminark too.

Warlord's Maximus and War Dog

Finally finished this set; I had to take a bit of a break as I had a minor medical procedure (let's just say it's part of an exam for those of us 50 & over), as well as still nursing a pretty bad toothache. Anyway, the horse is really nicely posed and sculpted. The rider, Maximus Overdrivus, isn't bad, but seems to be lacking some details. The facial features and the armor embossing are hard to make out. To be fair, very little of the face and armor embossing are exposed in the first place. The head and helmet do seem a bit undersized though; maybe that's the look the sculptor wanted - to exaggerate the the body size and sword. The dog is very nicely detailed, but I think the pose with the legs all drawn in doesn't look as dignified as it could've been otherwise.

Once again I couldn't wait for the Minwax stain to dry overnight on the horse. I used a hair dryer to speed up the time and sprayed with Testors Dullcote. As you might be able to tell, the horse still has a sheen to it; maybe the stain underneath is reacting to the spray coat. It won't really matter much on the gaming table though. Speaking of which, tomorrow is another day of WAB gaming. I could take the EIR army too - now that the general is finished. One more thing, I see that Blogger recently started using a comment verification code that is hard to make out - so if it gets to be pain to leave comments, I understand. Best, Dean

Warlord Vivandiere & Donkey Painted

Okay, so this was a nice interlude before painting up another battalion of infantry. It is a very nice set; both the vivandiere figure and the donkey are cleanly sculpted and details are easily made out. I highly recommend this set to anyone interested in livening up a Napoleonic battlefield.

I have no idea what the veggies are supposed to be, but I kept thinking broccoli and celery.

Here they are next to a Perry figure for comparison.

I'm hoping the Old Glory British Light Infantry I picked up off a fellow TMPer arrive this week. I'm also waiting on a box of the newly released Perry British Hussars. Once they are both painted, another Black Powder game will soon follow.

Aventine Successor War Elephants - Completed

Here are some test shots of the two completed Aventine Successor war elephants. It's kind of overcast today, but I used the filter on the camera to let in more light. I might take some more photos if the clouds go away.

As you can tell, it's a tight fit in the 3-man tower. Also, I had to ensure the firing bowman's bow was inside of the tower - don't think you could fire the bow while it is outside (the string would get caught). Anyway, they're good to go. Now I can concentrate on reading up on Roman Seas for a playtest this Thursday.

Some more shots using slightly better lighting - the sun came out a bit.

Aventine Seleucid Elephant Project - Completed

Okay, again - less the crew. And it needs to be mounted on its base - which is what I'll do after posting this.

The purple barding matches the shield - an LBMS transfer, of course. However, it still looks a bit empty - being so large.  I'm not adding anything now though - not with a paintbrush anyway.

The guy in the trunk looks pretty good too; I was debating to use this optional piece or the plain one.

Here's a picture of the previously completed elephant with "Silver Shields" attached to the tower. I was waiting to flock the base after the armored one was done - so they had the same treatment.

How to Make Aventine Elephants Stick to Bases

Here's the elephant and tower; still need to do up the crew, but that will be another day. Here's what it looks likes with the tower off.

You'll note the little "lift-kits" under the elephant's feet; this is a tip I picked up from Jeff Jonas' excellent site - Ancient Battles. The lifters will assist when flocking the bases, as well as providing a more secure contact with the base. As Jeff recommended, I used fast-setting epoxy for these - as the model is quite heavy and wouldn't want it breaking off the base.

Here's another shot with the tower mounted. He (or she?) will be mounted on a Litko base - leftover from a Chariot Wars army. I'll probably start on the other Aventine elephant (a fully-armored one) next; before completing the crew - want to keep the momentum going.

Aventine Elie Project +1

Experimented with several colors to dry-brush the elephant's skin.  Vallejo Saddle Brown mixed with a little Vallejo German Grey was used as a base coat over the black primer undercoat. The colors were chosen because that's basically the base tone I wanted, and  they were the colors I already have. The photo below shows this base coat.

Although I'm no expert on elephants (amongst a host of other things I'm not), there are enough images available on the internet that make Indian elephants appear less "gray" than their African cousins. In fact, the ones I've seen in the past seem to vary in tone from pinkish-white to a dark brownish-gray. I believe this has a lot to do with the mood they're in too - if you know what I mean. Here are several images of Indian elephants that I found on a quick internet search.

Anyway, the next coat was a mixture of Vallejo German Grey and Ceramcoat Mudstone - again because I hoped this would be the color I wanted and also what I have on-hand.

A "final" coat of all three previously used colors - dunno why, but thought it might blend the colors better. I'll see how it looks after the rest of the model is painted - maybe it'll need highlights or tone downs here and there, if needed.

The technique to paint elephants, basically only dry-brushing, is very simple; However, to get the correct coloring is hard. I'm still not fully-satisfied with the coloring, but as already mentioned, I'll hold off until the rest of the model is painted.