Finishing up Before the Challenge pt.1

As the start to the Analogue Hobbies painting challenge approaches, I join many of my fellow challengers in clearing half-finished projects off the hobby desk. So a motley collection of minis to update you with. Like this 50mm mortar team to support my Requetes:

Empress miniatures as usual, and one has a head swap for a jaunty red beret. 

One of the great things about the SCW is the fine collection of flags on offer. I felt my Carabineros should declare their allegiance, another head swap for the full effect:

The flag is from the excellent and very reasonably priced Flags of War range of flag sheets. I rather dislike flagging, hence why I've recently used Flag Dude's pre-assembled offerings. I completely naffed up the first attempt at this one, ruining my preferred Republican. And I even made a couple of errors  on this second attempt, but managed to recover it. (Damn flag is upside down, will fix it in due course - thanks for pointing out).

And I found a half-finished Sudan casualty marker in the painting box, so finished tidying him up:

Im looking forward to the challenge start next week, but will ideally find a bit more time, and drive if I'm to put in a good showing in my three (!) side-challenges. Best of luck to my 85 fellow challengers!

May Painting Progress

Happy Sunday everybody. It's been a while since I posted but I'm happy to report further progress on the Sudan project. It'll be very tight to get everything done, but I'm comfortable I can put a game without everything: some bits are just icing (or even the cherry on top). 

First up, a bunch more Sudanese Bazingers. This is the Perry command pack. Painted as before - two different colours on the robes, and a fairly motley collection of other equipment. 

Here they are with the rest painted during AHPC V. A bit command-heavy, but a decent sized unit for me. 

I've also done up some casualty/shock markers, using the ubiquitous dice frames. I wanted to do more but have run out of frames, so need a restock. I've a couple of Britsh ones on the paint table now. 

Two are actually converted as the Perry's Sudan range only has Beja tribesman casualties, simple head swaps to replace the distinctive Beja hairdo. You may see that the ones falling in action at the back also have some bullet impacts on the base to add to the dramatic effect - using Curt's simple but effective method.

That's most of the minis I want to get done, but I'm well behind on the terrain. Happily it's a bank holiday weekend here, an opportunity to make some progress, starting with smashing up some rather large bits of cork bark that I picked up. For those of you wondering about the SCW project that I had been making decent progress on, that's still on ice. I've a small batch mostly finished that I may well wrap up if the fancy takes me, but the bulk of it is on hold until next month. 

More Commanders for the Sudan

With the focus on the SCW platoon, it had slipped my mind that I'd offered to put on a game at a Operation Market Larden 3 at Wyvern in early June. Not only that, but I've the esteemed Mr Roundwood playing  one of my sessions. A panicked list of what I should get done in the six or so weeks before that set me off: it was time to get cracking.

I started with a couple of 'nice to haves': two more Commanders or 'Big Men' in Sharp Practice terminology. The first being a mounted Egyptian officer.



Fairly standard stuff and a quick paint, I gave him a darker blue uniform that my officers in units. When I get around to him, the Egyptian C-in-C will wear black.

I'm also a bit light on Mahdist emirs, so fished out another from the lead pile. This was probably one of the original packs that I bought a few years ago, no idea why he hadn't then painted yet. 

Not much to say: he's in a colourful patched jibbeh that's sculpted on the Perry emirs.

Next to paint are some more Bazingers, then I've quite a bit of terrain for the rest of May. I would have liked to finish the highlander unit, but I just can't see me having the time.

After the creeping worry hit, I also got started on the necessary cards and Blinds for Sharp Practice. Using an excellent free texture from borealnz on Flickr (thanks for the tip, Mr Roundwood!) and some era-specific images, voila:





They'll be printed and laminated. I've finished the generic cards, it's pretty quick once you have a template made up. Next up is to make the cards for each Big Man.
​

Salute: Bravo...

...Mr Perry and Mr Perry. Their new plastic set(s) announced at Salute were:



Colonial British infantry - yay!

I eked out of Alan that there will be two separates boxes covering the conflicts as above. No ETA, these will either be before or after the HYW French infantry, whichever is finished first.

More photos of some great games when I'm less ruined from a very, very long day.

Highlanders for the Sudan: The Black Watch

The first five of my Black Watch for the Sudan are finished. 

The Black Watch or a Royal Highlanders were among the first regiments to land at Suakin, deploying from Egypt in early 1884 and fought at the second battle of El Teb, as well as Tamai in 1884 and as part of the River column the following year, the less well-known part of the Khartoum relief expedition.  Their strength at El Teb was 750, more than twice the size of the KRRC. 

My Sudan collection has what I'm calling a 'Heirarchy of Pose'c  The quality (usually British, but not 

always, for instance the XIth Sudanese) troops are in firing line, where's the poor troops are marching. When I decided to get some highlanders for the British forces, I was originally going to do the Gordons or even the Camerons, the latter I could do in red jackets for the 1885 battle of Ginnis - the last time a British regiment wore red in combat. At the last moment, I changed my mind: while the Black Watch are a bit of a cliche'd favourite, but I just couldn't resist the dynamic charging poses over the firing line of the Gordon/Cameron sculpts:


Image from the Perry website

Still, I can look forward to doing the Camerons later! Yay, more tartan (a more interesting tartan, at least).

It isn't event the first time I painted the Black Watch: here they are through the ages: 28mm Victrix Napoleonic painted a few years ago and 28m Perry Sudan. 

The tartan method is broadly the same but I made some refinements for the latest version - I think it works better and is more subtle, I toned down the green and didn't bother with the horizontal black lines through the colours - a devil to get neat considering the angles you're working at and they further complicate an eye strain-worthy pattern.

I wonder what the Mahdists thought when they saw loons dressed like this charging at them? 

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge V: March

First up for February was my entry fee or 'Curtgeld'. I pondered awhile potential antiheroes to send Curt for this year's challenge. I was initially tempted by Dirty Harry and few others from Kev White's excellent Hasslefree range, but nothing quite appealed. Those of you who followed last year's challenge will know that Curt and I share a love of Steven Erikson and Ian Esslemont's Malazan Books of the Fallen (MBotF), and epic series of fantasy books. Might these offer inspiration for suitable Curtgeld?

The MBoTF have an extensive list of Dramatis Personae, with many more antiheroes than true heroes. After lengthy consideration and searching for suitable models, I settled just a couple of weeks ago on Ben Adaephon Delat, better known as 'Quick Ben'.

When we first encounter him, Quick is a Squad Mage in the 9th squad of the infamous Bridgeburners, the grognards of Empress Laseen's Malazan Empire. Squad mages are petty magic users rather than the powerful members of the High Mage cadre, being capable of mere illusions and deceptions to aid their squad mates. Hailing from the Seven Cities continent, he is described as dark skinned, tall and lean. Erikson doesn't go in for much more description of characters than that, so I had some flexibility in choosing a suitable miniature!

Except Quick Ben isn't all that he seems, which becomes clear as the series progresses. He seems to know the most about what's going on, vanishes off on unspecified errands, turning up again at all critical junctures, usually with a solution to some problem or other and vague hints of what the heck is going on. It transpires that he was previously a High Priest of Rashan, or Darkness, before burning his vestments and adopting the warren of Meneas or Shadow as the source of his power. But that's just the start of it - there are plenty more reveals as the story progresses when Quick is concerned.

So why an Antihero? Well, the Bridgeburners are pretty heroic, particularly the noble but naive Ganoes Paran and the roundly respected Whiskeyjack. But there's a darker side to both Adaephon Ben Delat and Kalam Mekhar, the bearlike ex-Claw assassin and Quick's closest partner. To avoid spoilers I'll just reference the events of the pursuit across Raraku, the Holy Desert, and Quick's support for Kalam's mission regarding the Empress in Deadhouse Gates (my favourite of the series, by quite some way).

The cover art for Deadhouse Gates

This miniature, 'Karick-Dar, Apprentice' is from Australia-based Guild of Harmony miniatures. I'm not stoked by how he came out, it just didn't quite come together how I imagined. No fault of the mini, I just didn't quite nail the colour scheme and can't quite decide how I went wrong. I wanted to use a lot of grey, but in hindsight perhaps i should have bitten the bullet and done him in full greyscale in Curt's style. I also failed to find a suitable mini for Kalam Mekhar to pair him up with. Still, I hope Curt likes him 

Continuing the theme of single minis, next up was one where it did just 'fall together'. Tradition dictates that each Challenge, I make an offering at the Altar of Sarah, by finding a suitable female miniature to compete for the 'Sarah's Choice' award. Happily, Pulp adventuring has provided a rich seam to mine and I've done quite well in this little niche. This year I had this quite exquisite miniature from Hasslefree, "Madge".

With the months of the challenge nearly gone, the time came to promote her to the top of the painting queue. I was actually away in Wales at the time, but took a little hobby box along. The weather was pretty wet, which meant plenty of painting time, though the table I set up at was a little dingy in the evenings. She came together just how I'd imagined, you'll note I even brought out the tartan and flowery-headscarf-effect paints. Phew!

This Kev White sculpt is just so excellent. The tartan worked nicely (more tartan coming in my next post too - I'm on a roll!) and flowery headscarf pretty well too, though a bit more 'cheery tulips' than 'Cath Kidston'. I gave her a moorland base using some lavender flowers, which I really like but hadn't found a project to use on. She'll join the tack of misc Pulpy miniatures. 

Oh dear, two miniatures in a month's worth of challenge? Not great. For the final straight, I was working on what came to be a real bugbear - highlanders for the Sudan. I bought them ages ago and have had the prepped for a year, so the challenge offered an opportunity to have a crack at them. Unfortunately, it was a little too much to ask in the time I had. Still - they were nearly done - just three colours to go as of submission and coming together nicely. 

A fortnight later and they're finished up and will be posted up in all their angry-charging-Scots-in-tartan glory in the next few days. Oh, then I'll get on with the second half of the unit!

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge V - December

Over a month into this year's Fifth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge and there have been such treats on offer - the bumper crop of participants with around 250 entries so far.

I did n't manage to make a strong start - busyness at work hit the preparations (some of which I'm still working on), then Christmas sapped time away from the painting table. So I'm floundering in both side challenges with Curt and Juan.

My entries for December also firmly sat in my comfort zone - predominantly tidying up loose ends of the long-running Sudan project. But it'll be all change for January...

To get me out of the block on the first weekend, a small unit of skirmishing Sudanese Bazingers.

Bazingers were African irregulars, either mercenaries or slave-soldiers. They could be found in government service or the private employ of Arab slavers and merchants. They formed part of the garrison at Khartoum and Suakin and fought in Egyptian service at El Teb. They can also serve as the troops of local Shaykhs and warlords loyal (or not so loyal...) to the Egyptian government, provided with standard-issue Remingtons. 

The colours are fairly uniform but the poses and motley equipment suggests they are irregulars, I think they'll sit well alongside my Egyptian regular troops. I wish I'd bought more and will likely add another pack and command. As always, they are Perry Miniatures. 

Next up, the second theme round: 'Mounts and Riders'. Nothing too imaginative , I already had the last three Baggara cavalry prepped up, so painted them to match my existing ones.

The glad is courtesy of Flag Dude (and is damned fragile - I've already broken it once!

Here's the Mahdist cavalry wing - I should paint more camels to match it these fearsome horse!

Next, a little dalliance with single miniatures, first a particularly flamboyant a Egyptian officer. He's a fantastic sculpt from Gringos 40s Maximillian Adventure range. I'm really pleased with how his face came out

Last up, the Spanish Civil War onslaught begins. He was a freebie from Empress miniatures because my club put in a large joint order. In fact, the order was so big that eight of him were included! Happily, there is a 'priest' option in the Chain of Command SCW support lists, he can offer some religious zeal to my Requetes. 

An entirely new project offer the chance to use new methods, many picked up from this community. I'm reducing my use of washes as I think they slow my painting down quite a bit and often aren't necessary - AP strong tone has become a bit ubiquitous recently. So only one wash used on him, though he was a very simple paint job. I've also used a new colour for the highlights on the base: Vallejo 'Iraqi Sand' rather than 'Buff' and added more variation to the shade. I think it looks much better, but I'd be very interested what you all think as he project develops.  Unfortunately, it won't match my terrain, but that's already in a motley collection of colours as I've changed my bases a few times for different projects. I also used more definition to the face and a slightly different flesh recipe, though this one didn't quite come out right. Further improvements have been made though. 

That's it for December, I currently sit at 181 points, a good way to my 500 target but 50 behind Juan. Do check out the Challenge blog for everyone's excellent entries, if you don't already! 

The Last Mahdists

...for a while.

No, not new output, rather a belated post as I didn't get around to posting the miniatures I finished up for the gaming day at Wyvern. It was such a rush I just didn't get time to snap them before they were packed up with the rest of the troops. Well, a month later here they are, though I warn you that you've seen the likes of them all before. First up are more horsemen of the Baggara tribe, including a Sheikh to lead them. I replaced the Perry spears with wire ones - the Perry ones bend so much it drives me up the wall. These don't bend, but will ping off if you catch them at the right angle, whatever glue I use. Some to be packed carefully.



Next up a load more infantry. A few each of warriors and riflemen. This does make my force even more rifle-heavy, over 25%, which I should rectify at some point. But not for a while - other projects beckon!



The Anglo-Egyptian force also got a little love - just a handful of troops I have prepped to round three units up to an even number. Not an efficient way of doing things, but I didn't have time to finish more.



Thanks to all the kind words on my last post. I've not really pushed past the malaise yet, but have started to dabble a little more: finishing up odds and sods and digging the 15mm WWII back out to get sprayed up. Little steps but in a way it is nice to just meander.

Still Here: Bits and Bobs off the Painting Table

No, my absence isn't due to some wonderful, long holiday in the sun. Busyness, partly due to greater responsibility at work, has stymied my painting over the summer. 

I did finish this French Officer for the Great War Painting Club over on LAF. I like these impromptu collaborative painting challenges as they offer a chance for me to paint something random from the lead pile. 

The horizon bleu offered a challenge - I basically fudged it from VMC ultramarine, black and white. Hopefully it won't offend any Great War aficionados. 

For a suitably gritty appearance, I went with lots of my recently purchased Vallejo weathering powder, including mixing a paste for mud effects on his puttees and coat. 

This is absolutely not a new project for me, he was a free sample from Forgotten and Glorious. A really nice sculpt, quite tall all and chunky that means he painted up really well. Barely any cleanup required either. The original characterful Adrian helmeted head would be my only criticism. So I swapped it for something suitably Gallic from the plastic spares box: Victrix Napoleonic French, I believe. 

I did also finish off a few more Mahdists in time for the game at earlier in the  month. Just four as I thought that's how many I needed to fill the trays. But damnation, I was still two short - not sure how I miscounted really! Ah well, I can fix that easily enough. 

With such pitiful offerings, I've been indulging the hobby with the Wargamer's UXB. In my defence, I've decided to try not to just have one force for a project. So, with the 15mm Chain of Command flying through the painting table recently, I've rounded out that project by dropping an order in for opposing panzergrenadiers. Just a platoon at first, but before long I'd found a free shipping and 5% off code: as long as one makes the minimum spend! So I've a supported platoon equivalent to the paras making its way over, which should enable me to put on some games at Wyvern myself.