Merry Christmas... and other injuries!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you've had a good Christmas weekend and you've enjoyed good food and plenty to drink as I have!

As you will have noticed, I am not that productive lately. This is not so much due to the fact that I am not at home for a while, as I have taken my painting tools with me... More hindering has been an injury of my middle finger of my left hand... my painting hand, sadly. The cut was quite severe, going all the way to the bone, but I have been assured by doctors that the tendons seem to be intact, although the finger is still swollen after three weeks and I cannot bend it that much. Obviously all the soft tissue is still swollen and prevents much movement. Still, things are getting better. I can use that hand to write now, which is an improvement, so I am hoping to be able to paint soon.

My dear girlfriend has been most kind to me though by gifting me with the new Dallimore book and some Saxons by GB and Musketeer, after she saw me admire the Arthurian miniatures by Lt. Hazel! Best... girlfriend... ever!

Other than that, I am finding my new surroundings in Nottingham very interesting. I might not be painting, but I am playing a lot of Day of Defeat with interesting adversaries and companions like the Perry brothers, the Warlord team and Alessio Cavatore, who enjoys running around with the entrenching tool! :) Everyone has been so kind to me here! Such an interesting time at the Mecca of Wargames, even if only till February!

That's it for me for now... See you soon with some painted miniatures... I hope!

WWII British Airborne by LawOfTheGun

I do apologise for the lack of update from my side, but I am trying to get used to my new, temporary painting space. Till then, here's some amazing eye-candy for you! This miniature was painted by LawOfTheGun, a member on the Sweetwater forum, and it was his contribution to the miniature painting swap. Not only that... he is aaaall mine! :) Yup, this beauty is going to be receiving a place of honour on my miniature vitrine. :) The painting is so amazing. I simply love the expressive face and character LotG has given this fella. He seems tough as nails, determined and laid back with a "seen that, done that" kind of attitude.

Go check the rest of the results here!

Black Legion Landsknecht

This is my contribution to the Sweetwater Forum Miniature Swap organised by Lt. Hazel. It was a joy to participate and the results are really cool, so check them out here.

Regulator of Sweetwater and the Steve Dean Forum sent me this miniature and I have to say that it was a joy to paint. Not the easiest of tasks though and I have to send my respect to all Landsknecht players and painters. You suffer every day and you have my sympathies. :D

I decided to depict a plundering mercenary of the Black Legion. I was told since that the Black Legion is rather problematic historically but I find it fits the bill. I can see a bunch of these fellas telling Maximilian to get lost. And then they grab a pig and a sausage each.

Long live the revolutionary red fleet!

Well, there we go. My goal achieved in about a month. I managed to paint 10 sailors and a 3 man Maxim team and I am really proud of these. Here are the latest additions: A flag bearer and riflemen.

The flag is made out of some metal foil tomato purée tube. :) I received very valuable tips about how to make this from Plynkes on the LAF and I'd like to thank him once more for the help.

Well, let's get a group shot together then, before I start trying out painting methods on my Bolshevik infantry. Speed is my goal again but I'm afraid I won't be able to use the washes. I still have some sailors left (1 commander, 3 riflemen and the Naval Command by Brigade games), but I need a bit of a change for a while. For our campaign we need command groups consisting out of 3 to 4 miniatures, so I might make my overall command group for my army a naval one. We'll see. Here are the riflemen:

and here everyone together... Smile!

They were already tested on the battlefield last Friday suffering 5 loses but dishing out an impressive 18! Needless to say that the Bolsheviks won the fight that day.

Commander and Guards

I managed to finish another three sailors for my (Bolshevik?) force. This time it's one of their commanders and two sailors painted up as Guards (thanks to the tips of Cuprum at the LAF). These three should have been done on Monday last week but sadly a black Vallejo bottle exploded on them and myself when the nozzle got blocked and I pressed a bit too hard. Sadly the faces were already done at that point. Still, the new faces are just as good.

The guy in the stripped shirt was a pain to paint and looking at him now, I could have done this or the other a bit better, but I guess I am quite pleased with his shirt and him as he is.

Now, I also would like to hear your opinion on something... Since I might be done with the sailors in a couple of weeks (all my mates are absolutely stunned by the speed *lol*) I wanted to start a second unit that would also be "speedpainted" in a similar way: The faces done in a good quality and the uniforms using mainly the washes. Now, I am swaying between the Copplestone partisans and some proper Bolsheviks.

-With the partisans I might be able to create a force that is flexible in it's interpretation. They could be Reds or Whites or even Anarchists. All I would need, would be enough standard bearers and maybe different commanders to create the needed impression.  An added bonus is the amount of beards in the partisans that would make the painting of a faces a lot easier. Yet, can the partisans be a force to be reckoned with?

-With the Bolshevik soldiers I would have a consistent uniformed type of troops that might paint a bit quicker... although I doubt that, especially if I keep the partisans in Browns, Blacks and Khakis. And I would be able to buy the Siberian Rifles which have the most shooting poses. Furthermore it would mean less fuss, since I would have one side to work for and that is it.

So, what do you think?

Even more Sailors?

Surely not! What is happening to my personal best of one miniature a month? :D As you can see I painted another three of these fellas. Sadly not as many as I wanted them to be, but last week was a killer at work. So I kept myself busy with some barrels (some you can see on the top picture) from the magical hands of Elladan, a pile of wood from a shop called Rustyrail (http://www.rustyrail.com/  Beautiful stuff for a good price. The car wrecks are quite a good fit... Maybe a bit on the large side, but still very good) and some wicker fences from Daemonscape on Ebay. And then on Sunday I started these three. The blue is still a bit shiny, but I think it also has to do with the nature of the dark colours on a flat surface. The blockhouse is a Pegasus Izba by the way.

And here is a group shot. As you can see I've added the ship's name on the cap. Lt. Hazel just pushed the right buttons and I tried it (he just told me to do it, basically. :D )

Well, it seems I'll have my troop ready relatively fast (by my standards).

Thanks for reading!

Songwriting

I want to write a song... It should be to the tune of "Hungry Eyes" (Hey, don't blame me... my girlfriend loves Dirty Dancing) and go something along the lines of:

...sailor eyes
How do I hate you you tiny, beady
sailor eyes...

That's all I got...

Seriously, why are Copplestone eyes just a ball of pewter? What a pain to paint!

Back to work! ;)

The riddle of the varnish solved!

I found out why I have been unhappy with how my matt varnish turned out lately. Some time ago I bought Humbrol Gloss Coat in a bottle. I thought it was the same as the No 35 gloss enamel paint just in a bottle and larger quantity. It seems that is not the case. The bottle seems to hold a simple varnish, while No 35 is an enamel paint (as the Humbrol web page states). I painted a test surface yesterday and varnished it using No 35 for one half of the surface and Gloss Coat for the other half. Today I brushed on my Soluble Matt Varnish by Daler Rowney and the result is revealing. The No 35 side is perfectly matt... the Gloss Coat side still has a sheen to it. There you have it... Back to No 35.

Russian Sailors Maxim

I have been poorly most of the week and therefore I tried to paint a bit while I felt like it. This is the result. Again... not my best work. The faces feel rushed and the sheen on the blue shirts is annoying. I don't know what it is, but I am suspecting my new Humbrol Gloss Cote. I didn't buy the usual Nr 35 in a tin pot, but rather the 28ml bottle. I think they are supposed to be the same product, but strangely only the miniatures gloss coated from the bottle seem to have a problem with my matte varnish. Maybe 6 hours of drying time for the gloss cote is not enough even if the bottle says so. Anyway... I'll give it today to dry some more and will give the shirts another coat at night.

By the way... This is my first historic heavy weapon. :)

Here it is:

Some more commandos

Last week I finished three more commandos. One of them is carrying a flamer. I am not that pleased with these three... Especially the flame-thrower carrier's five o'clock shadow seems silly. Yet, I felt unable to correct the faces. They'll have to do for now and I'll have to practice more about how to do the five o'clock shadow. :(

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Mark Copplestone!

My sailors are here! Ordered a short week ago... Mark Copplestone delivered. I got a ten man sailor team now, my command and a lovely Maxim. Didn't have a lot of time today, but I started cleaning and assembling the Maxim in the last hour of my day. Sadly I will be too busy this week to paint, but I can at least work a bit on cleaning the miniatures from the occasional flash before going to bed. :)

Btw... I just had a look at the Tugboat by HLBS (http://www.hlbs.co.uk/product.php?id=758)... I am wondering,whether or not it would be crazy and completely unhistorical to get one for my sailors. I'll need to see if I can find some sources on that. Should you know... shoot.

See you soon...

Russian sailor... in need of vodka!

Ever since the last Tactica and because of the wonderful RCW table by Lt.Hazel and his friends (There would be the LAFers Poliorketes, Aeneas and Professor Witchenheimer... a gathering of considerable forces as you can imagine! You haven't seen it yet? Go and check it out... NOW! The Tactica website awaits.), my mates are RCW crazy. Usually I am fielding my WWI/Balkan Wars Greeks, when we play RCW and no one minds. Last Friday though we set up a beautiful table with about 80 RCW/BOB relevant miniatures and I finally felt jealous. :) Therefore I decided to paint up a ten man team of Russian sailors, their Maxim and the command (Copplestone order pending :D ). One of my mates even gave me one of his sailors, so I can try the painting scheme. The great Lead Adventure forum helped with that quite a bit and so did the painted miniatures by Steve Dean. Needless to say... I had a blast. I painted this guy relatively quickly and he was done in an evening. The black was speed-painted with the help of the GW ink and the white with the help of Austrian White by Foundry. The only thing I paid attention to a bit more was the face. I reckon that a small force of these will look quite nice on a table. Click on the picture to have a better view.

Excuse the photograph. Natural light wasn't helping and neither is the white pair of trousers.

Warm up exercises with commandos.

Started painting again and in order to warm up my eyes and brush hand and also to finally move on with my projects, I painted some Commandos. My Commandos have been up till now and will continue to be dipped. Yet, with the wonderful technique presented by SaxonDog (if you don't know his blog, look on the right hand side of mine and find the link! It's a must-visit!), one may have the best of both worlds. So, these were painted with their base coats, the Army Painter dip was applied like a glaze with the brush and then, a day later, highlights were applied. I wanted to have finished some more of these guys, but my new job is draining my will to live and paint. ;)

With this technique, each figure take me about 1,5-2 hours in total... I am a slow painter anyway, so that is perfect for me.

Where the hell have I been?

Just in case anyone has been wondering about the lack of forum presence or painted miniatures: I was on holiday! :) My folks in Greece, German relatives and I visited the Peloponnese for a while lying in the sun and relaxing. Shortly after (3 days after returning to Germany) I flew to the region of Campania with my girlfriend. Long holidays is what you can allow yourself when you are working as a freelancer. :)

Now I am back, but it's too damn hot to do any painting. Heatwaves in Germany... Go figure!

Anyway, while I wasn't painting, I was here...

Greece: (Aren't the buildings just screaming to be built in 28mm size?)

EDIT:
By the way... The place in the Peloponnese is called Stoupa and it is the true location of Kazantzakis' lignite company. There he met and employed a certain fellow by the name of Alexis Zorbas! Yes, he really existed, but he didn't work in a mine in Crete.

And Italy:

2nd RCW Church Trooper

Some weeks ago I saw the new troops painted by Lt. Hazel (here) for his fictional 2nd RCW. It didn't take me long to be intrigued by the concept and the small size of the forces required (I am slooooow, you know) to order some Assault Troops at Copplestone Castings. These guys are going to become my Neo-Tsarist/ Russian Orthodox/ Byzantine Empire Reestablishers. After a few tries, I decided to paint them in an Urban Camo pattern. That also took a few tries till I was satisfied. I am still pondering markings for these fellas. A friend suggested painting an Orthodox cross on the back of the helmet of the officer, in similar manner to the markings of WWII US helmets. I actually quite like the idea. The mech that fill follow these troops around will definitely carry more markings and maybe some slogans creating a bit more of a context.

Anyway... here he is:

After all the valuable criticism on LAF, the Sdean Forum and Sweetwater Forum, I worked a bit on the gentleman and am much happier with him now...
Things that were worked on.
1.Gaiters are now Chaki... Next one will get the Foundry Triad I've mentioned.
2. Gun was painted black, given a strong grey highlight and then washed with black to tone down.
3. Face was given another highlight. I am still missing the depth a bit, as I probably washed over the darkest, base colour the first time around, when I was trying to bled the layers together. Still, it looks better than before.
4. Denison buttons were toned down.
5. Base was given a darker edge. I think it works better now.
6. Bushes were drybrushed with a variety of colours to make the base more interesting.

Now, I know where I am going with the next miniatures. :)

PS: I was told that the knitted cuffs should be darker, but I wouldn't dare change them. This one will remain like that, but I am sure that no one will notice. :)

UK Airborne tryout

Return of the Greek...

Painted a miniature this weekend... Things are starting to move ahead. I am slowly crawling forward. :) Decided to try out my  colour palette for my WWII British Paras. This is based mainly on the Artizan Painting Guides, which are very very helpful.
Somehow I am pleased with this fella, but something doesn't feel right. I think it might be the face. I am missing strong contours, I think, that would give him a bit more life. This is mostly due to painting inactivity, I reckon.
The trousers are also a bit funny. I highlighted English Uniform with Desert Yellow and I am uncertain of the results. Next time, I'll use something else.
Any ideas for improving the painting scheme both aesthetically as well as historically? I am all ears. I am also looking for a better painting solution for the metal of the weapons...

Before the weekend I also painted the little Baueda Pillbox. The MG-42 is from Bolt Action.

Just for the record... Here are some dipped paras. I think I will go for the conventional method.

1:48 New Ray Spitfire

This week and next week work was and will be hell on earth. That is why I only had a little time for painting and miniatures. Around monday I decided to point my attention to a prepainted 1:48 Spitfire by a company (unknown to me till about two weeks ago) called NewRay. A buddy bought it for me at his local toy shop and it only cost 5 €. It needs only little assembly and everything is screwed into place. Now the detail is not that perfect, but the cost is unbeatable, so that you could even build mission markers in the form of downed planes and what not. And even in this state...it's not that bad really.The wheels are retractable, which means you could use it as a flying or as a parked plane.

I decided to paint up the pilot as he was only plastic grey...  It was nice to paint something at all this weekend and it gave me time to try out a new recipe for the English uniform brown and go from cars to humans.

New Ray has other planes on its catalogue as well, but I am not sure which ones. One thing I do know though is that their biplanes are 1:35, so be careful there.

That's it for this week.

Daimler 1911 from matchbox

Well, here it is. Two days late, but never mind.

This is a 1911 Daimler by matchbox. It was missing the spare wheel and one of its headlights. To round the picture off the windscreen frame was broken and the grill was missing. I decided to paint this as some kind of adventurer car for our African campaign and hide the damage. The rolls and bag are from Company B and Tamiya. The leather covering is scratch built (obviously) and I was really happy to get it into that state it is now. It conveys leather quite nicely I think. The grill was hidden by a - slightly to large - coil of rope. Then again... an adventurer always needs rope.

This is the first proper vehicle I've ever painted. A lot of new fields for me there, but I like the end result. Now I only have to convince myself to paint a tank and be more bold with weathering. :)

Back from miniature-less limbo

After a disturbing time for work and health, I've finally managed to shake myself back to some kind of miniature related activity. In fact, I've realised that I need the zen-like nature of painting a miniature to feel better. For that I was planing to paint some WWI British in tropical dress by Copplestone miniatures. Yet, I got my hand on an old matchbox 1911 Daimler and started working on that instead. Last night the matte varnish was applied and I am quite pleased with the results. I haven't taken any pictures yet, but I still decided to write this post to get me back into the mood for this blog and to let anyone who cares know that I am alive and kicking. :)

I am planing to rectify the absence of pictures tomorrow...

Now, as mentioned, I was planing to start a 10 man group of Copplestone British, only to feel this massive urge to take on my Artizan and BAM British WWII airborne. The Copplestone fellas would be quite important for a small Africa Pulp campaign we are planing... I guess it will be interesting to see if duty will triumph over desire. :) Who knows... I might even enjoy painting the grey-backs (it's grey-backs, right? Or was it blue-backs?).

And there you go... A new post, a new hope. :P