More wolf skins!

I painted the rest of the wolf skins last night whilst watching the second part of Silent Witness and the first two episodes Secret Diary of a Call Girl on my laptop (yes it really did take me that long). I think they look pretty good and I can't wait to get them finished and out of the way so I can go back to line infantry. I have a unit of wolf-skinned skirmishers yet to paint in a box at home which were meant to be in the 'starting line-up' of my army but a fear of the wolf skin put me off! Now I'm much more confident, I should be able to finish them pretty quickly and have a unit that looks great on the battlefield! It was inspired by this unit that Secundus created over at Iron Mitten. Those figures are from Renegade.

This is what I'm working on today. The three figures to the left make up the General's command stand - not sure what he's called yet though. I had a crisis of confidence over the naming of my characters last night so that's all changed! I wont post anymore photos of these guys until they're varnished and based so they really make an impact on the blog. Next along are the two leaders of my other two legionary units. And then the next two figures are the 4th figure that make up the front line of each Legionary cohort (4x4). I'm painting these are a test figure for the unit, shields and all. The un-armoured unit will have a mixture of coloured tunics and patterned shields to make them look much more like a hastily raised unit.

Hope you enjoy! I'm trying to get as much done on these today as possible but an afternoon in the pub watching the Arsenal game may stop my ambitions in their tracks.

First attempt at wolf skin

I've always been too scared to paint wolf skins so my units have always been incomplete but not anymore! I've plucked up the courage to finally try one out for real! I decided to slightly differ from real life and just go for the black undercoat and light grey dry-brushing all over but I think it looks pretty good. I'm sure once the rest of the colours have been blocked in then it'll look fine (it's a bit dark at the minute!)

I thought it'd be better to dry-brush the skin first rather than paint the rest of the miniature so as to save having to go over each colour all over again. I'll just have to be really careful not to overlap onto the skin anywhere!

I might add some much lighter highlights on the edges of the fur later on and i'll paint the visible underside of the skin a sort of tan leather.

Comments and suggestions welcome!

My painting area

In response to several posts across the blogging world I've decided to post up a picture of my painting area at University. When I'm at home, I tend to paint whereever I find space. I usually end up on the dining room table making family members eat their tea amidst the legions of Rome and some paint.

This is where I paint at University. My paints are usually all over the table with notes scrawled on bits of paper, detailing the paints I need and what order I will paint them onto the miniatures. I got the lamp, laptop stand and keyboard for Christmas to help with my painting. The lamp will help me paint during the long, dark winter's nights. The stand helps keep my laptop out of the way and allows me to have reference pictures up on the screen at the same time as painting. I can also hide the keyboard away underneath the laptop to keep the space clear. The three figures waiting on the table will form the command stand of the army once painted and based. I'm currently painting all the command figures first, then moving onto the monotony of the line troops!

This pic shows my Foundry and Vallejo paints (I have some more of these in the drawer but don't use them so often), brushes, tin of Army Painter, water pot and penknife I use for removing flashing and opening the tin lid! - all stored in some of the packaging sent with Foundry figures.

I hope this provides an interesting insight into my painting area. With my laptop infront of me, I can also watch DVDs, iPlayer and all sorts to keep me entertained. I've tried to hide my hobby from my flatmates but there's no getting away from it now and they think it's kind of cool anyway!

Progress Report (4)

I've been working on another unit of 12 foot - this time Spanish Scutari, making the most of the light we had up North today. The shot above shows a photo of the first 6. They have been dipped AND matte varnished (my first unit to receive the complete treatment) and they look great. The varnish makes them look almost cartoon-like but they look a lot better now than they did before.

This is a close-up of one of the figures after the varnish had been applied. Not shiny at all!

I had originally intended these Spanish troops to form part of the auxiliary section of my core 1000pt Roman army but I changed my mind, opting instead for some raw recruits. These Spanish troops (available from 1st Corps) offer great flexibility and could be used with most armies across the Mediterranean as an infantry option. I had intended to base them individually using GW style bases but have instead decided to base them on 60mm square bases - 6 to a base.

Today's attempt (left) with an earlier attempt at basing (right).

I also had another go at basing, this time with much greater success! The stones on today's attempt look almost real. This is only my second attempt at 'dry-brushing' and I think it went quite well. I wrote a post about my first attempt with you can read here.

All photos are clickable. Feel free to leave thoughts and suggestions.

Progress Report (3)

I thought I'd give you a little look at the army in its entirety. The units represent 998 points in WAB terms and as you will see, only one unit is nearing completion! Each photo is clickable and annotated underneath. Comments and feedback welcome!

This is the unit led by the Tribune Gaius Sempronius. The legionaries are finished but just need their bases sorting out and their wolf skin-clad standard and musician painting. The figure on the left of the front row gives an example of what a completed miniature would look like (not all will have tufts on their bases).

These are the two command stands but only one will be used for this Vexillation (1000pt army). They need individually mounting, ready for painting.

This is my second cohort, led by Centurion Spurius Maximus and that pile in front of them are their shields.

This is the third cohort which represents a newly raised, un-armoured unit led by ex-gladiator trainer Lucius Murena (he's a bit of a brute).

This is my unit of horse led by L. Aemilius Paullus. They aren't glued to the horses yet and will only be properly mounted once both horse and rider are painted (I've found a fellow blogger who has kindly offered to paint the horses for me! Hurrah!)

The army looks quite impressive in my not-so-impressive display cabinet (i'll post a picture of it in another post) and I'm looking forward to seeing it complete and on the table although I have another distraction to fight!

In December's issue of Wargames Illustrated I read an article on the American War of Independence and my Dad and myself decided to buy some Perry Continental infantry and militia as a start with a view to building both a British and an American army. This will be a slowly progressing, long-term project which will only be added to once current figures are painted! Below are some progress shots. Please note, they are only WIPs and I tend to just hastily block in the colour, not worrying about overlap of colours as I go back later and ensure perfect colour joins before using the AP. I will be trying a new technique following Saxon Dog's blog which is where you highlight you miniature AFTER applying the AP which is supposed to make them look even better, especially is the miniature has lots of whites.

One of Perry Miniature's Militia command packs.

Still plenty to do on this one!

Painting Celts with Army Painter (Guide)

As I'm sure you're aware, I use the Army Painter dipping method to paint all of my troops. I've had a go at painting a Celt using this method to see how it fairs on a mostly flesh figure. The following is a methodological sequence from start to finish showing each stage in clickable picture form.

First, I sprayed the miniature with a white primer available from Warlord Games. Once dry, I blocked in the flesh colour.

After that, I blocked in the gold (bronze) on the shield and the sword handle.

I then used a colour from my WWII collection (German Camo Beige) to paint his trousers.

I then painted his hair and shoes. Note: not taking care on the hair! But I would go back later and touch up the flesh.

I then painted in the shield colours.

This photo shows a comparison of the miniature before he was painted with the dip and afterwards. As you can see, it's superbly shaded the areas you would want it to. The photo on the right was taken immediately after he was painted with dip and as a result, looks 'wet'.

This picture is a comparison before and after, this time showing the rear of the miniature. As you can see, it's done a great job!

I stand by Army Painter or the 'dip' method as a great way of getting better looking miniatures without having to be as good a painter (which I am not). If AP wasn't invented, I probably would have just left the figure how it is in the left of the comparison shots. I actually think the AP can make figures look more realistic than using the traditional shading method. Please note that this miniature still needs to be matte varnished to remove the shine.

It must have taken me about 20 minutes to paint this miniature (very brief drying time included in that!) and I could easily paint a warband within an evening or two using the method!

Painting Table

This is how my desk/painting area is looking at the minute (it used to have a computer on it!)

As you can see, i've found a use for an Ikea pencil! It's currently supporting Governor Barbula's bum whilst he dries out a little (it rains a lot in the frontier provinces you know). Beside him are two Foundry figures which i'm painting as part of my Macedonian Army which you can see by clicking here.

As you can see from the photo, I have my pot of sky blue paint out. I'm desperate to use it somewhere! Hopefully when it comes to my Phalanx and Hypaspists I can use plenty of the stuff!

On the painting table

With my first Roman Cohort nearing completion, I thought i'd make a start on a couple of my command figures. The photo above (clickable) is of the tough old war dog General Quintus Pompeius Falco (centre) flanked by his Tribune and the Legion's standard. These figures will be mounted on a 50mm round base as a command stand. All figures are from Foundry's Caesarian range.

The figure above, I received in amongst some figures I bought off of eBay. I believe he is supposed to be the "Emperor Vespasian" from Foundry's Imperial Roman range but he will, for me, be representing the Governor Lucius Aemilius Barbula, a character you will hear a lot more about in the coming months.

NOTE: Someone has asked me how I come up with the names and history for the characters I've created for my army/campaign. Well, I spent a long time playing Europa Universalis: Rome last year on my computer and in truth, a lot of the names I use are the names of my best generals or other characters of interest from the game. For instance, General Flaccus (yet to make an appearance on the blog in figure form) virtually annexed all of Greece and conquered much of Gaul in the game for me so I decided to let him command my Romans on the tabletop. I have a list of names that I wrote down from the game with some of the things they did (great victory, rebelled, etc) which i'll try to incorporate into the characters. When I write the history I let my imagination run free but it's always interesting to find out what the real character from history did and try and incorporate some of that into the text. I hope that helps!