Reptus, part 1

While planning the next set of projects, I have worked a bit on some of the older figures in the hobby mountain, my Reptus force from Reaper.  I left off, some time ago, with this post of  some of the Reptus going for a swim in some Simple Green:

After a few months, and some rebasing, they look like this:

The 3 figures that were soaking have a patina on them that seems to come off with some effort from a knife or file.  I do not expect that it will have an effect on the primer coat, however.

I also took some time to alter one of the Reptus figures.  I did not realize that I had a duplicate of one fellow, so the unsoaked figure received a slight modification - I removed the armored tail and sword blade from one Reptus and put them on the duplicate.  Here are the parts (in a poor pic):

The top pic shows the miniatures before swapping parts, and the bottom pic shows the new figure ready for assembly.  I did not use the razor saw to trim the parts, just some nail clippers.  The parts were drilled out for a small length of brass wire, using the drill bit shown.  These bits are some of the last of my stash from my old printed-circuit manufacturing days, and I find them to be a useful tool for drilling pewter or plastic.  The shank is 1/8" and can be rotated without the use of a pin vise.


And, after re-assembly, a side-by-side comparison:

Not a big difference, and one that would have no effect on gaming, but it was nice to get back into the swing of things.


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New bases for the Reptus, and Winner!

It has been a slow week for my hobbies, but I did manage to grab these:

These are the new bases for my Reptus troops, after I had to cut up the bases from some of the miniatures prior to stripping the paint.  I prefer round bases for skirmish types personally, so losing the square bases used previously is just fine.

And the big news of the week:  Over at the Palouse Wargaming Journal, Jon celebrated the crossing of some important milestones for his blog with a magnificent giveaway, and I won a copy of a book that I have desired for a long time, Neil Thomas' Ancient & Medieval Wargaming!  Pics will be posted upon arrival of course...


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Paint strip, part 1

Getting my Reptus force into a decent paint job, as mentioned in my previous post, requires me to start over with a new coat of primer (black this time).  So, another round of paint stripping.  Previously, I have used Dettol as a paint stripper.  It does seem to work well, but it is uncommon to find in the US.  Following the advice from my friend Chirine (his blog is here), I am trying Simple Green this time.

Here is a pic of the first set of Reptus miniatures, ready for a bath.  I had to cut the bases off of some of them, as I could not work them off without some damage to the somewhat thin ankles and soft metal of those miniatures.  Part of the renewal process for these figures is rebasing, and I am going with round bases instead of the square ones that come with the Reaper Warlord miniature packs.

And the container with some of the solution poured in.  Yes, Simple Green is green!

Now, to make sure that I do not forget about them...


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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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Old projects, part 1

The process of sifting through boxes of old minis has brought quite a few old projects to the light of day, so I thought that a few pics to keep a record of them were in order:

Ottoman Turks...



15mm Battle Honours (?), based for Napoleon's Battles, paper flag by Gary Leitzell - my first and only ready-to-go Napoleonics unit. I finished this some 13 years ago during a brief run-up for a group project to put a large quantity of Turks on the table. The project failed right as I received my order of more Battle Honours, Essex, and Jacobite minis. The painting scheme is from The Courier magazine, issues #68 and #69.

These and their unpainted brethren are: Keepers (although they will be used for 18th century battles, hopefully, but not anytime soon)


Reptus:



28mm Reaper Warlord - Still like these minis very much, even though the weapon proportions are a tad off (that is one thick and dull sword!) I have many of these, and Feawin has many Reaper Elves. We will not be using the Reaper rules, however; the mostly likely set is Song of Blades & Heroes.

Reptus and their Elven opposition: Keepers



Gear Krieg:



15mm - another project that got a late start and missed the local area's attention span. I am still fascinated with these minis although they are not nearly finished, but I don't really know what their future is. I do not like the standard rules for them from Dream Pod 9, and my collection is unbalanced - 9 US walkers many not assembled, 2 British walkers still in their package, and that curious vehicle in the first pic - that is my attempt to make a 'Spinner', a German armored car with a unique suspension almost like wheeled spider legs. The mini is a very old (and very dusty!) Battlefront Sdkfz 222 with the fender wells trimmed off, waiting for a new suspension... someday maybe, someday...

Status: Undecided


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Some Warlord work

After that bit of hobby unpleasantness, I found some time for my Reptus minis. This is one of my most recent purchases:


That mini is 'Chai-Uut', Reptus captain. For the Warlord system, there are different ranks for your troops, from grunt to warlord. The different ranks are needed to command units, and commanders of differing stature are needed for the point level of the game.

This mini has a great amount of detail, as is typical of Reaper products. The armor and weapons have a lot of filigree work on them. The weapons on this mini are of the 'heroic' variety... i.e. way out of scale. The swords Chai-Uut wields are the thickness of a human's head, making them more akin to fancy clubs than bladed weapons.


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