Planning and scheming

I hate to admit it, but I spend more time thinking about minis than painting them. I always have some new project in the front of my brain and I never seem to get much progress on the projects on the painting desk. And, right now I have several items on the future to-do list:

1. Romans v. Celts - I should be doing much more on this than I have recently - as always I'm a bit distracted. Feawin and I have discussed this somewhat; she does not want to use plastic minis which leaves Warlord Games and Wargames Factory out. As this project is more about battles in England I would like to use Romans in lorica segmentata. Foundry is out due to pricing (although I do vaguely remember having a few Wargames Foundry Romans stashed somewhere!); I don't remember if Old Glory has Romans in segmentata (i.e. Early Imperial Romans). OG's Celts are not bad and a few are already represented in the handful of bowmen on the desk. Gripping Beast and Crusader might be the next logical choices.

2. The latest distraction - Napoleonics. That one word can conjure up a lot of gaming passion in some. Napoleonics has been a bit of a side show for me. I have played several Napoleonic games in the past - Napoleon's Battles, Shako, Piquet - and have even painted a few. My first non-naval, non-micro scale historical unit was a 6-stand 15mm Ottoman Janissary brigade mounted for Napoleon's Battles. But, lately, I have fallen for all of the new 28mm Napoleonic minis that are being produced. And, true to form, I am actually looking at something different than Peninsular battles or 1815 - the great campaign against the Austrians in 1809 or the Revolutionary battles in Italy 1796-1800 would be more to my liking. This would be in the skirmish scale, with maybe Sharp Practice or Song of Drums and Shakos as the rules. More thought is necessary for this one...


In another seemingly minor note - if you go back to my Piles of Minis post, you will see a number of minis primed black. I normally prime my minis in white or light grey. Being somewhat lazy, I do not want to strip and re-prime all of those minis, so the painting desk will see more experimentation than usual in the near future. Who knows, it could revolutionize my painting methods!


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Legion of Ever Present Glory, part 5

So, so close to being finished !


Here is the command group for my first group from the First Legion of Ever Present Glory troops for the Tsolyanu. The pic is a bit blurry - I forgot to hit the macro button prior to launch. I have finished the bases in a more temperate fashion, as I am trying to co-ordinate all of the skirmish-based minis into a single scheme. I might add a bit of coarse flock from Woodland Scenics - maybe not.



All twelve of the troops arrayed. I believe that the trim on the shields is the wrong color - should be black I think. They still look OK in my opinion; not enough red to make them into Mu'ugalavyani. Now I just need to paint a few dozen more, especially the bow-armed troops!

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Moving slowly, but progress

Small and infrequent they are, yet some paint is being applied to minis -- sorry but no pics yet --

The first small set of Legion of Ever Present Glory troops for the Tsolyanu are almost done. I completed the bases earlier in the week; they only need a clearcoat (which will be yet another story as I am definitely not using the wonderfully toxic Dullcoat anymore...).

The unit of Empire Outriders is getting a dab or two of paint also. I am about to start Step 2 of the horse painting experiment - the block colors are done (with the exception of the saddle) and now a wash of ink will be applied over the entire creature. Scared? Yes I am.

As the prospect of having completed minis is getting closer, I have been thinking more about terrain. I have a few plans and some materials gathered, so soon I will attempt to make... something.



There is yet another MMORPG that is absorbing my time and attention. It is a new game from NCsoft called Aion and it is quite simply beautiful. The graphics, from characters to terrain, are stunning even with our outdated graphic cards. I will try to post some screenshots - I have a large collection since I have been using them to get ideas for mini terrain projects.


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Piles of minis, sorted...

I went through and made a list of all of those minis that were arranged on my painting table recently, and here is a boring list of numbers:

ORCS - 33 Lots of hand-to-hand types, a complete lack of missile troops and spellcasters

HUMANS - 45 Lots of crossbows, very few melee and casting types

MONSTERS - 13 Much room for improvement, but the ettin is finally going to be used!

REPTUS - 19 A fair mix of melee, 3 bows, 1 caster

ELVES - 27 My wife's personal army, very well equipped with plenty of longbows!

DWARVES - 2 A totally unacceptable number, there needs to be many more!


There are others, but the above is the main list. The orcs need some archers, the humans need melee troops that match the crossbow troops, and the dwarves are shamefully few. All of the races have almost no cavalry troops.

Looks like some shopping is in order, and then they need to be painted...


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Ship mini painting, part 1

Been awhile, hasn't it? I am making some slow progress with the minis:


Here is a pic of the WTJ minis, with masts of brass rod added and a coat of primer(Reaper Master Series Brush-On Primer). I have glued them to a nail for easier handling.

I am also experimenting with paint choices:


1. Reaper Master Series Pure White
2. 1 part Pure White + 1 part Reaper Master Series Misty Grey
3. Misty Grey
4. 1 part Misty Grey + 1 part Reaper Master Series Cloudy Grey
5. Cloudy Grey
6. 1 part Cloudy Grey + 1 part Reaper Master Series Stormy Grey
7. Stormy Grey
8. Delta Ceramcoat Charcoal Grey
9. Delta Ceramcoat Black

To my eye, #3 will be a good choice for German hulls (except DD's), with #2 as the color for the upperworks. #4 will be the overall color for the Russians (except DD's). I still need to decide on a deck color, however.

#5 could be the color for the Russian DD's, with #6 for the Germans. I might use #7 as the color for the decks of all the DD's.