Legion of Ever Present Glory, part 21

Finally, the process for this legion draws to a finale!  Here is the archer element:

This pic is after sprinkling sand and talus over the base, and a mix of earth and green flock has been, quite literally, dumped over the base.  After it has been allowed to dry, a day or more, this is the result:

Not too green, which is good.  It looks like I missed a spot or two, but I will add a few pieces of coarse flock to help hide them.



And now, the final product:

A few small chunks of coarse flock finished the element.  Next time, I will watch the talus placement a bit more closely, as several pieces seem to have landed on edge, which looks a bit odd.  


And now, for a group pic of my small but growing Tsolyáni army:

Very blue (my lovely wife has taken to calling them the blueberry squad!), but that is typical of Tsolyáni armies I believe.  The next elements will be a little different, as the reptilian Shén have black scales along with their blue armor.


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Legion of Ever Present Glory, part 20

And, I'm back on-line...  I was able to get some stuff done during the unscheduled but necessary downtime and the other things that are happening in this household - a little bit more work on the archers for the First Legion of Ever Present Glory:

In this pic, the finished archers are settling into their element basing, with the rear rank already glued down, and front rank waiting.  I have marked the approximate locations of the front rank onto the base, as I will add some filler to the base before gluing them down.

Here, the base has been covered in a thin coating of the paste in the background (found in the bargain bin at the local art store some time ago).

And a coat of paint.  Next step will be to add sand, rocks, and flock to finish the element.


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Legion of Ever Present Glory, part 19

Slow progress, but progress:

A bit blurry, this pic shows the archer cohort for my First Legion of Ever Present Glory troops.  I was able to touch up the last details this morning, and after it dries for a day or two the figures will get a coat of matte varnish, then basing!  I am not too happy with the skin tones on these, but it is OK this time.

Next up for the Thámerü scenario, I might bring out the first unit from my Legion of Sérqu troops, or maybe I will pick up where I left off with the first set of the ladies from The Aridáni Legion of Lady Mríssa...


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End of June Table

Finally cleared up the hobby table a bit, and immediately put more stuff on it!  As the pic shows:

Old and new projects there, with the Huaxtecs dominating, and those archers from the First Legion of Ever Present Glory, resplendent in blue, are on the left.  Along with those troops is the return of some Boschenberg musketeers from my Monster Blood Tattoo project and, making a table appearance after a very long absence, are some Reptus warriors.

The Huaxtecs have a fairly good coating of paint for their skin (close-ups at a later point).  Some will get tattoos, and their clothing and weapons need to be finished.  Then, there is the matter of their shields...

The Ever Present Glory archers are getting close to being finished also, with just some detail work and skin shading left to do.

The Boschenberg musketeers just need detailing also.  I am wondering if I should consolidate the posts from my usual Monster Blood Tattoo blog (link here) to this blog.

The Reptus miniatures are for an old fantasy skirmish project, and they will need to be stripped and restarted anew.  I have orcs, humans, and Reptus, while my lovely wife has elves, and I am slowly getting around to doing some actual work on them.  I feel a little more confident about my usually poor painting technique and I am willing to give it another go.  Of course another driving factor is the hobby budget, which is getting tight once again and new purchases are being directed into just one or maybe two projects.


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Legion of Ever Present Glory, part 18 (and Mríssa too!)

A small measure of progress on the painting table today:

In this not-so-great pic, the archer cohort of my First Legion of Ever Present Glory troops has been visited by the paint-laden brush!  The armor is mostly done, now the bows, quivers, tunics, and other small details need to be finished.

Also in the pic above is the command cohort of my Arídani Legion of Lady Mríssa troops.  Nothing has been done to them for a long time, other than the first dabbings of flesh-colored paint on the first miniature.  I think that these miniatures are going to be among the hardest to paint for my Tsolyáni force, as the details are small and delicate and it will take some careful painting.  I am wondering if I should just paint over the slender chains fastening their skirts with flesh, then go back over the chains with a dark wash and a metallic drybrush.  It might make the process some what faster.


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Legion of Ever Present Glory, part 17

The slightly cooler temps of late have seen me return to the painting table, if briefly:

These are the archers from the First Legion of Ever Present Glory.  After a base coat of Ceramcoat Ocean Reef Blue, they received a heavy wash of dilute Ceramcoat Phthalo Blue, then the flesh parts were picked out with Reaper Master Series Tanned Flesh.  They are looking a bit messy at the moment, but slowly they will look better as I pick out the details.


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Legion of Ever Present Glory, part 16

This is the next element of my Tsolyáni army:

Archers of the First Legion of Ever Present Glory 

These miniatures are only primed.  The lighter pair have been primed with Vallejo Grey Surface Primer.  After using the product on a few miniatures, I am not very happy with the results, as the finish seems to be very 'slippery' and does not take paint well.  It would not surprise me if I am doing it wrong, but there you go.

The other four have been primed with Liquitex Neutral Grey Gesso.  I have used black gesso on other miniatures in the past, but I have not tried it on my Tsolyáni troops as I am hoping that the lighter primer will help with making the colors of the Tékumel troops that much brighter in turn.  The grey gesso, though, seems to have a shiny finish, and it will be interesting to see how paint goes on to it.

I might just go to using black gesso as a primer for everything, depending on how my Aztecs look...


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Legion of Ever Present Glory, part 15

It has been a long time; here is a finished result:

Three elements of finished troops!  That is not quite right... For the time being, these three elements will represent three cohorts, three separate units, of Tsolyáni heavy infantry, as my table space is limited.  In the future, I hope to have more room for a larger table, and then these three will be equal to one unit in a game.


Any way, these three are done.  More views:

And, a couple of pics on the future playing surface:

I am not sure why, but the color of the felt is grey in pics.  It definitely is not grey in person, but more of a light tan.  The felt and the base edges are much closer in color than it appears above.  The bases might have come out with a little too much green flock on them, and the mix might change for the following elements.


This marks a turning point in this project.  For so long, I was not certain of the basing scheme, but I have settled on one I like (those are 60mm squares), and everything will be based around that idea.  Also, these were the easy ones.  The only work for these elements involved re-basing painted miniatures.  The rest of the troops are not finished, and progress is going to slow down.  More miniatures are waiting for completion:  three more elements of Ever Present Glory troops - archers; three elements from the Legion of Sérqu - more heavy troops; and three elements of Ahoggyá.

Then, of course, I will need some opposing forces...


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Legion of Ever Present Glory, part 14

Another week, another pic of my poor, abused Tékumel miniatures, specifically the First Legion of Ever Present Glory:

I painted the base, and after letting that dry coated the back half with Liquitex Matte Medium, then quickly dumped an assortment of flocking materials on the wet medium.  I am a bit concerned about the interior spaces of the base, where the brush found it difficult to reach.  I hope that I have not, once again, painted myself into a corner with these miniatures and my basing scheme.  The fluid but reasonably slow drying Matte Medium should do the trick, though, as compared to PVA or a similar glue.

This first base of troops will sit under the dusting of flock for a while, then we will see if it worked...


Meanwhile, another pic of a slightly different part of the desk:

More miniatures, waiting their turn!


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Legion of Ever Present Glory, part 13

Another poorly lit pic:

Work continues on the rebasing of this fine legion.  On the left, the base has been replastered, and it will receive a new coat of paint shortly, then a new bit of flock for decoration.  On the right is the start of the command stand for the legion.  I have tried to save as much of the original groundwork with the command stand, but now I am not sure that was a good idea.  I will make it work, one way or another!

Also, one can see the difference in the shield trim.  I forgot to repaint the shield on the right-hand base before gluing it down.  Quite a difference.


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Legion of Ever Present Glory, part 12

Just a brief update with a pic of some of my long-suffering miniatures representing the First Legion of Ever Present Glory:

That is the first element of them with their new shield trim.  The element is not done yet, as I still need to finish off the base.

Also shown in the pic:  some of my Sérudla, waiting their turn under the brush; a couple of priests and a Hlutrgú that just need their bases decorated; and some Ebor WSS troops...


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Basing, and a small conundrum

Slowly marching on here, and some pics to prove it:

Here you see one of the bases I will be using for the mass-battle portion of my Tékumel stuff.  On the right is a 60mm square of 3mm thick plywood, from Litko.  On the left is a piece of magnet, also from Litko.  The magnet is self-adhesive - one peels off the wrap from the magnet and it sticks to the bottom of the base.

And, the first test subjects (apologies for the quick and poorly-lit pics!):

Ah, my long-suffering First Legion of Ever Present Glory troops!  I popped them off their washers in order to glue them to the 60mm square.

The first rank of troops, glued down to the base.  With the front rank being ones with leveled spears, I took some care to get this rank far enough back on the base so that the leveled spears will be mostly on the base, mostly...

And this is as far as I got today.  Two issues popped up at the same time as I looked at this.  One, the miniatures are going to be tightly packed onto these bases - a good thing in my opinion but there is a catch:  it would be difficult to terrain the base if I glued all of them onto the base at the same time.  So, I will need to start the groundwork and then glue down the front rank, then finish off the base.

Second is a quirk that has lingered in the back of my mind for a while now, and it is the shields.  I do not remember where I saw the paint scheme - maybe the official Eureka painted miniatures or another pic on the 'Net, but I painted the trim on the shields red.  Now, in the 'canon' army guide to the Tsolyánu forces, it clearly states that the shield trim should be black!  Now, my rivet-counting and bricole-gathering days are pretty much over, but I think that the black trim might be better looking, and I am going to go with it.  It will not take too long to re-paint each unit as it comes up for rebasing.


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My approach to Tékumel big battles, part 1

As part of my Tékumel gaming, I would really like to do some large battles; i.e. where the are units of soldiers on the tabletop not just individuals.  Now, I should have thought about it more before, as the round bases that I favor for my troops look great for skirmishes, but do have problems when trying to combine them for the units that I envision.  Here is an example:

In my mind, this would be a single cohort of the First Legion of Ever Present Glory.  They are sitting on a piece of magnetic sheet material that was a freebie with a phone book (remember those?).  It is 3 inches square.  A cohort should be the smallest unit in the big battles that I would like to play out.  The problem here is that I would like to have the cohort's base match up with the bases of the individual minis, which would mean building up the top of the base to help conceal the round bases.  The only item that would really be an issue would be making nice round holes in the cohort base for the individuals.


Here is another view:

Three cohorts in these pics.  One of the issues with the somewhat large size of the cohort bases is my desire to protect the lowered spears of the front rank.


At the most radical, I could try to make two different sets of minis - one on round bases for skirmishes and another set permanently affixed to cohort bases.  The lowered spearmen would be good for skirmish battles, but I dread the thought of not being able to utilize all of my minis for whatever battle I choose.


I guess I will need to sit down and try to make a cohort base for the individuals.  If it is easy and practical then I will be quite satisfied.




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Legion of Ever Present Glory, part 11

Just a brief bit of frustration to share this time:


The bows on Eureka's Ever Present Glory miniatures are a little bit fragile, as shown on the archer on the right. That is not the first bow I have broken in this group, but usually I catch the fracture before the bow comes off completely and fix it with super-glue. This one will need to be pinned for a more permanent fix...


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Legion of Ever Present Glory, part 10

The inexorable push of progress (i.e. slow) on the First Legion of Ever Present Glory continues... 4 more minis completed:


A poor, poor pic - my apologies. These bring up the total of completed minis to 16 - 14 more to go, then on to Sérqu! Here is the WIP pile:


Still a lot of detail yet, although the 3 spears on the left are reasonably close to completion.


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Legion of Ever Present Glory, part 9

The first set of my Ever Present Glory troops are finally completed!!

With spears level



With spears raised



Command group



The business end



Oblique

Feels pretty good to get these done, especially since I purchased these minis just over three years ago. I'm not completely happy with the bases, but I think that they will look just fine on the table. Now, another 18 more to go, then I can start on Legion of Sérqu...


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Legion of Ever Present Glory, part 8

Just a brief update:


Slowly the First Legion takes form. I have started work on some archers, and the last of the spear-armed troops are nearing completion. I have decided not to convert the rest of the spearmen into swordsmen, with the exception of the one figure in the back row on the right.

Now this force just needs a priest or three and it will be all set.


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Legion of Ever Present Glory, part 7

Another brief update...


I have started to modify some of my Ever Present Glory troopers from carrying spears to swords. If I was a little more forward thinking this step would have been done long ago, as it is a bit more work to take apart a mini after you have already assembled it and started the painting!

I have removed his sword from the left side of his armor and removed the spear. (The remains of the spear have been safety tucked into my bits box for future use!) The right hand needed to be drilled out a second time as a chunk of the spear stayed in the hand - one of the perils of using plastic rod for the spears. I also feel fortunate that I was able to remove the sword in one piece as the metal used by Eureka is flexible and could have broken.

As the pommel will not fit through the hole drilled into the hand, I have cut the hilt of the sword into two pieces, to be glued into place later today.



All told, I have 24 Ever Present Glory troops, not including command types. 11 of these are being converted to sword-swingers...


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Legion of Ever Present Glory, part 6

This project has been sitting on the back burner for some time now, but definitely not forgotten:


You might notice that I have changed the basing from 7/8" round to 1" square. I have done this for a few reasons - the square basing fits in better with the square bases of my Warlord minis for skirmishing, and they will rank up much easier for mass battles (which I still want to do).

Here is another pic, with the command group added:


The first dozen or so of these minis are almost ready, they just need their bases finished and a clear-coat or three. But, of course, I am in the horns of a dilemma. The decision of what terrain style - temperate or arid - is going to decide what opponents I will procure for my Tsolyanu forces. I could go with a more arid climate, and use the excellent figures for the Yan Kor from Eureka, as seen here. I could use a temperate style, and then proxy some Mu'ugalavya minis while hoping and praying that The Tekumel Project will get to the Red Hats in the near future. Or, I could just pick something and not worry about Tekumeli 'canon' in regards to the terrain that these empires would fight over.


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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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