Frodo's Quest: Black Rider

Some days ago, I finished painting up this mounted Nazgûl, and I used it as my second entry for the Modern Fantasy Painting Party at LAF.

After finishing the base, I realized that I can relatively easy bevel the edges of the upper layer (MDF pill-shaped base from Sarissa Precision) for a less obtrusive base edge, and I shall be doing that from now on (this was my first attempt at this kind of base, And as usual, I learn on the go).

Next up for Frodo's Quest are som members of the Silent Watch, and then I shall have to finish painting some 3D-printed Smials.

Frodo's Quest: Frodo Baggins

Yesterday, I finished painting Frodo, and I used him as my first entry for the Modern Fantasy Painting Party at the LAF.

I am already painting my next entry, and as this particular Painting Club runs for 200 entries, I think I should be able to get another couple of minis done before it closes.

He is part of my 'Contrast Paints Trial', and only the skin and metal (and base) were painted using traditional paints.

I now just have to finish one Black Rider, and paint some 3D-printed Smials, and I shall be ready to test run my planned first scenario of Frodo's Quest (I kinda forgot what rules I was going to use, but I remember the general outlines and shall cook something up).

OSFPP: Johann the Boatman

Yesterday, I finished this old 'Shadows Over Bögenhafen' mini for the running Old School Fantasy Painting Party at the Lead Adventure Forum.

I have had it since the late 80's so I am pretty happy that it finally got painted.

For now, I am going to use him as the leader of some 'Mountain Brigands' in Sellswords & Spellslingers (until I have a fiercer model for that), and later he will probably become a character for the same game.

Today, I got a fiber tear/pulled muscle in my back thigh (went to badminton with Lea for the first time), so I shall probably have plenty of time for painting the next couple of minis while I recuperate...

LAF Old School Fantasy Painting Party: Female Wizard/Sage

The second mini I painted for the OSFPP was this ancient Citadel piece of lead.

It goes by the designation

C02 (87-19)
Jenny Spaewife

and I painted it to use as the Healer in one of the Basic Sellswords & Spellslingers scenarios.

Next up will be some old lead to use as Mountain Brigands (at least, until I can paint up some plastic Frostgrave Soldiers for that purpose).

I really enjoy these Painting Clubs, and how they motivate me to get some stuff painted that has been sitting untouched in the Lead Alps for far too long!

LAF Old School Fantasy Painting Party: Female Ranger

Another Painting Club is running at the Lead Adventure Forum at the moment, the theme is fantasy metal minis from the last millennium, and as I had to get some minis painted for Lea's Sellswords & Spellslingers party, as well as some objective characters and opponents for one of the scenarios, the theme is right up my alley!

I started by finishing the female Ranger Elfham, an old Metal Magic mini I have had for ages.

I struggled with motivation for this mini, and the Painting Club was just what I needed to get her done!

The last member of Lea's party is Tinre, a scantily clad Barbarian Warrior, incarnated by Mark Copplestone's Barbarian Queen, which is from 2007 or so, and thus has to wait until the current Painting Club is finished - as far as I understand, another Painting Club focusing on minis from 2000 and up is planned for when the OSFPP is completed, so I shall have plenty opportunity to get her done rather soonish.

For now, I focus on painting old minis usable for Sellswords & Spellslingers-and then we shall see about the rest...

Napoleonics: French 1er Hussards Trooper

I painted this for the Alliance of the Big Battalions Artistry on LAF (posted it earlier today), and I speeded up the process on this single mini to get it done for the Painting Club, so the rest of the unit will follow later (right now I have to get Lea's SS&SS party on tracks).

The basing is an experiment; I glue two 20mm washers under the integral base to add weight, and possibly use magnetic storage, like for my 28mm stuff.

I do not shade and highlight when painting 1:72 minis, as I only play massed battles in this scale, and it is all about recognizable units, and not individual warriors.

Sharpe's Rifles WIP - Ready for a Lick of Paint!

In between writing an AAR for my first game of Sellswords & Spellslingers, I have been fiddling about with, among others, Sharpe and his Chosen Men of the 95th.

Today I got them primed, and glued to cork handles, so they are now ready for my brushes!

Sharpe's Rifles WIP - Working on the Bases

Got my almost empty, partly dried, filler out and put some on the bases of this group. Only three more rounds of work to do before I can prime them: Fill the holes in the washers, remove excess filler, and final filler build-up of the base tops.

I think I shall have to get some more black primer tomorrow, my last can is nearly empty, and it would nag me to have to prime them over more than one day.

Sharpe's Rifles WIP - All Cleaned Up!

After a couple of weeks with FAR too many real life complications and chores, today I was able to sit down and finish cleaning Sharpe and his Chosen Men.

Later today I may start working on the bases, but I am not sure if that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I still hope to be able to paint at least one of these up for the Big Battalions painting club at the LAF, which seem to have ground to a standstill at the moment, but we shall see...

Sharpe's Rifles Revisited

Another post about this starting with 'Finally'...

Finally, I started prepping my Sharpe and companions minis from Brigade Games:

Kevin, my hitherto newest gaming buddy has expressed interest in playing some Napoleonic skirmish (he even purchased the Black Powder Waterloo Starter Box from Warlord Games, so I assume he is meaning business).

I have also talked to my oldest friend and gaming buddy Michael (with whom I have spent endless hours gaming 1/72 Naps) about it, and he seems interested, too.

We are going to start out with only a handful minis each, playing Song of Drums and Shakos from Ganesha Games, then probably add the odd couple of reinforcements then and again, until our patrols grow too big for SDS and we have to move on to some other rules, like, for instance, Sharp Practice.

The reason I have only gotten three of the minis cleaned and glued onto washes is that I am working on another project parallel to this (talk about going from complete hiatus to overdrive...), and I shall post about it a bit later this evening.

Sharpe's Rifles

Finally, a post about gaming stuff!

I recently purchased two sets of metal minis depicting Sharpe and his chosen men of the 95th from Brigade Games. I plan to get at least one of them painted for the Alliance of the Big Battalions Painting Club at the Lead Adventure Forum (if I can find the time for it, that is...)

Unfortunately, these sculpts are quite tiny, and I wonder how they will scale up against other contemporary 28 mm napoleonics (I fear they may be closer to 25 mm). As I intend to use them for skirmish games, it may not be that big a an issue, but it is a shame if they stick out too much against other minis.

Mummy Rebased.

I put this grumpy old fella on a shiny new base, and finished 'desert-painting' the base this morning, before my appointment with my GP.

As it turned out, my GP found that I am NOT ready to go back to work, yet, and that I have to remain on sick leave for at least another four weeks...

Well. at least the holidays will pass in relative calm, then...

This mummy was the very last model usable for The Secrets of the Hidden Temple I had not yet rebased, so from now on I can start painting this or that model for bringing the factions up to full Pulp Alley league strength.

Needless to say, most of such single painted minis wil also be recruited for my Christmas Wars project - but that is a completely other ballgame, as they say...

Hampton Rebased

Another Chaos in Cairo mini painted a long time ago has now gotten a shiny new base.

He is not currently starring in other projects than The Secrets of the Hidden Temple (he met an untimely demise as part of my Strange Aeons Treshold team), but I shall soon find other purposes for him.

It just struck me that I can easily shoehorn some of my Pulp minis into Congo, which means that I am already on the path to having a White Man's Expedition, as well as I have started on my Jungle Tribes, for which I intend to use most of the Zulu warriors I paint for In Her Majesty's Name.

As I have mentioned on (undoubtedly uncountable) earlier occations multi-purposing is the Code I work by in this hobby, and now I begin to feel the effect of de facto working on several projects in one go!

Prtofessor Perrywinkle Rebased

I decided to re-base the last minis I originally painted for The Secrets of the Hidden Temple.

Back in 2014/15 I did not intend to rebase slotta minis onto washers, but I have since been swayed completely by the much better looks of minis on washer bases, and, well, consistency is also a big thing for me.

I give you this old Chaos in Cairo mini, which I named Professor Perrywinkle for my Strange Aeons Treshold team (I have forgotten his original, French name).

He is, of course, also going to appear in my Christmas Wars project - and I think I need to get some evil character models ready for that purpose, as I seem to have an overweight of good people reporting for duty, as it stands right now.

Another one of my reasons for revisiting this model is that I am planning to play some Solo Strange Aeons games, as soon as I have made a 2x3' mat out of painter felt (I saw and played on one used for Congo at Horisont VIII), as I think I need some easily transportable playing surfaces (chipboards with saand are fine for playing games at your home, not so much for bringing to other locations). The Professor is the Character/Leader of my Treshold team, which I have just been re-working to fit with the 2nd Ed. rules, so it is now quite ready for some more blood-curdling action in the Mythos universe.

LAF BoB Painting Club: The Dragon Lady

I almost forgot to post this. I finally finished it over six or seven 10-15 minutes sessions yesterday and today (I started her more than a month ago, but she was paused because of my Horisont Blood Eagle project, and I did not get back to her properly, first because of a bit of painting fatigue, and then because of the trouble at work).

She is done now, though, and I can turn my attention elsewhere.

Madame Sung, proprietor of a fine ladies' establishment, and rumoured to have close ties to the Jade Dragon Tong.

I probably need to either build or buy some building complex to house her business...

BoB Painting Club: Private Gideon Jones

I have been strugling with this little bugger since I returned from vacation; I wanted him to match the 'command section' I painted years ago for 'The Secrets of the Hidden Temple', and, of course, I had absolutely only the roughest idea about what colours/paints I used back then.

I also have no idea of the exact compositions of the colours I used on Jones, as I had to mix and match on the fly (using the approach of trial and error), which is not very effective, as the exact shade cannot be discerned before the paint has dried properly, so a highlight that looks right when painted on, actually may be too bright/chalky when dry.

Well - no colour breakdown this time, and I shall definitely NOT use this approach on any further minis from this series!

My First Painted Pirate!

I missed the latest Painting Club at the LAF - the Weird War version - as I lost every trace of inspiration after base-coating a mini.

This time though, I got a mini in as #64 in The Pikes, Muskets, and Flouncy Shirts Painting Club

My entry is this Artizan Designs buccaneer miniature, which, in this incarnation, I have named Benn Etton.



I started painting Tuesday, and only finished him this morning - he actually has a lot of details that need attention.

I am OK pleased with the outcome, and thrilled to be getting back into the habit of painting.

I shall be spending some hobby-time on dressing some of the Uruk-Hai and Rohan/Saxon bases, but in between I shall start painting the next Viking for my 'purist' Blood Eagle warband.

Primer: Black

Hat:

• I think it is C Graveyard Earth mixed with successively more C Bleached Bone, but the pots are from before I started logging my own mixes.

Hat Band, Coat Lining and Facings. Garters:

1. V Black Red + Black
2. C Khorne Red + V Black Red
3. C Mephiston Red

Neck Cloth:

1. Light grey
2. Very light grey
3. White

Skin:

• The darker end of my usual recipe, starting with a mix of C Dwarf Flesh and C Bestial Brown

Hair:

1. C Graveyard Earth +++Black
2. C Graveyard Earth ++Black
3. C Graveyard Earth +Black

Coat:

1. C Orkhide Shade + Black
2. C Orkhide Shade
3. C Orkhide Shade + C Knarloc Green
4. C Knarloc Green

Flouncy Shirt:

1. V Khaki Brown
2. C Ushabti Bone
3. C Ushabti Bone + White
4. C Ushabti Bone ++ White

Baldric:

1. V Beasty Brown
2. C Vermin Brown
3. C Vermin Brown + C Vomit Brown
4. C Vomit Brown

Sword Sheath:

1. C Scorched Brown
2. C Scorched Brown + V Beasty Brown
3. V Beasty Brown

White Metal:

1. C Boltgun Metal
2. C Chainmail
3. C Mithril Silver

Yellow Metal:

1. V Polished Gold+ Black
2. V Polished Gold
3. V Polished Gold + C Mithril Silver

Trousers:

1. C Scorched Brown
2. C Scorched Brown + C Codex Grey
3. C Scorched Brown ++ C Codex Grey

Boots and Pistol Handle:

• F Musket Stock Brown Triad (actually Quartet, as I have mixed a pot of some medium and light tone)