I am Hopeless

By that I mean I'm hopeless at being a consistent blogger. However, since I had reason to look at my blog again I thought it would be a good time to do an update.

So, over the past couple of months I've been doing some painting. Nothing difficult but something I've wanted to do for a while now.

"What is it?" I hear you ask. Well, I've been doing some medieval German stuff very loosely based on the Hansaetic League (the Hemmingsaetic League). Really it's just a bunch of Germanic looking units based around a core of Teutonic Knights based generically for use with Hail Caesar. I also want to use the Teutons for SAGA Crescent and Cross.

Here is what I've done so far:

I also did some Athenian Hoplites that I ended up selling as I found it easier to do a big bunch of them in 15mm (should I post them on this blog or would that be a sacrilege against my 28mm blog theme?) They turned up wonderfully but they took a long time to paint. Anyway, here they are:

It All Sounds Greek to Me

Well, I haven't sculpt anything for the past couple of weeks as I wanted to get a bit of painting done. So here are a couple of pics of some stuff:

First up is a pic of my Earth Born men for my Jason & The Argonauts game for later in the year. They are from Eureka and they are a bugger to put together. But having said that I do like the result. this isn't the best photo but I did their equipment in a dark bronze with a liberal coating of verdigris medium and they look pretty nice in the flesh.

And here is a pic of my first ever Athenian Hoplite Phalanx (I decided to get into ancient wargaming this year). The pic doesn't do them justice as they are super colourful.

Hawkmoon ~ New sculpt

Well folks, Christmas was busy and I managed to sculpt a whole bunch of Runestaff figures. Unfortunately the breakdown of my pc and the loss of photoshop means that I didn't manage to get any pics of them. I made an Order of the Wolf foot knight, Baron Kalan - Master of Time, the final Vulture Legion troops and modified the Vulture cavalry (they now have wings like the medieval Polish Hussars).

However, today I finished Dorian Hawkmoon, Duke of Koln and got a couple of decent pics (using a different editing program). I think Hawkmoon is going to be a controversial figure as most folks are going to have a very specific idea of how he should look. Keep in mind that this is Hawkmoon arrayed for battle.

I tend to think of Hawkmoon as a pretty tough customer. Unlike many of Moorcock's heroes, for the most part he only has his wits, fortitude and his combat skills as a to rely on. It's not until later that he weilds the Sword of the Dawn. With this in mind I made him look like he was ready for a fight.

I decided to make his armour very different to anyone else in order to make him stand out & his helmet makes him appear quite tall (but he's still smaller than my thumb). He has a mix of armour from a pseudo 2-piece sculpted torso (ancient) to chainmail and bronze scalemail. The helmet is more reminiscent of the Renaissance (or maybe a Napoleonic dragoon). On the other hand his shield is more like that of an ancient Greek hoplite.

A strange mix, certainly. But he is a fantasy character and should look like one.

He is a two part sculpt: Body and shield arm.

(there is a blob of blutac holding his shield arm in place)

The Argo ~ Finished

So I managed to finish my version of The Argo on Christmas day.
I'm pretty happy with the results although I found painting freehand straight lines on an unusually shaped curved surface to be quite difficult. So the lines are a bit dubious in some places.

It's for a display/participation game so it's very colourful and can fit about a dozen 28mm figures on 25mm bases. However, I wouldn't expect that many figures to be on deck at any one time (it's assumed most crew members will be rowing or minding the ship while the "real heroes" are doing all the hard stuff).

The way 7TV works is that you have a small core of Stars and Co-Stars and all the rest are Extras. So in this game the Stars will be brightly painted in full armour ~ Jason, Medea, Orpheus, Atalanta, Polyphemus, Zetes (because he's got wings!). I'm not sure if I'll include Heracles at this stage. Medea and Orpheus are there as spell casters.

All the rest of the Argonauts will be represented by the unarmoured figures seen below. They are in their "Sailing the Ship" garb and a handful will act as Red-Shirts for accompanying the rest of the Away Team. The only one to be named will be Typhus ~ the navigator.

Anyway, here's the photos:

The reason I added a base is to keep the ship stable when moving figures around

as it isn't waterline and otherwise has to rest on the small sanded line of the keel.

Something New for 2015

Well it's been a very long while since I added anything to my blog. The reasons being illness in the family. However, things being resolved I'm back to modeling and sculpting and a new project for 2015 (even though it's still 2014 and I've already started).

The new project is a dramatic Jason & the Argonauts game for the new year which will be displayed at several Melbourne events throughout the year - Little Wars melbourne, Nunawading Wargames Accociation's (NWA) Open Day and for the month long Pirates in September again at NWA.

This is going to be a big game using the 7th Voyage rules by Crooked Dice and will involve a bunch of Greek Heroes, a couple of Olympians, Harpies, Skeletons, a bloke names Talos and the Argo.

And speaking of the Argo, I've already started making it. I saw another blog where a guy used a plastic kit of a viking longship as the basis to make the boat and I thought I'd copy his idea. I used the 1/72 scale Viking Longship model by Revel.

And here's what I've done:

The first thing I did was put the hull together and sand off the keel. I thin cut up the prow and the stern:

I then added some pieces of plasticard, balsa and modelling putty to make the chassis for the prow. I also made some plasticard decking and glued it in place.

More plasticard - this time held in place with rubber bands to get the curve required.

Then I did the same for the stern (you'll also note that I fixed some card above the bit where the oars stick out.

And here's what it looks like:

But that's not where I stopped...

I built up the walls on the prow, added a load of Miliput and sanded the crap out of it until I got thoroughly sick of Milipt powder all over the place.

And I added the decking:

And did the same to the stern...

Then I sanded more Miliput for what seemed an eternity and once again created snowdrifts of Miliput powder (you can see it all over the cutting board. 

Then I forgot to take photos for a while and ended up with this:

I was planning to add a fan/fin thingy on the stern but decided (after the last pic) to just sand it to a taper (just when I thought I had seen the last of powdered Miliput).

But that's not where I'm at... I started painting and will post more photo's soon.

More Regiments

I've been taking things slowly and painting a few more Napoleonic regiments.

I'm unsure what rules to use but at this stage General d'Brigade is looking like the most likely contender. I'm also unsure what army I'm making! I've traditionally played French and Prussian so I started on French and Wurttembergers. I then thought: "Why not try British?"

So I got some British and painted up a regiment. I started these with the thought of making up a Peninsular division but I've recently been thinking that I might convert them for use in the Anglo-US War of 1812. I mean, what could be better that Napoleonic Wargaming that also has the potential to include Native American warbands?

 I also finished the second battalion of the 1st Wurttemberg regiment and I also ordered another three battalions of them from Front Rank so I should get on to them.

All in all, what have I achieved?
Not a lot. But I have painted up a bunch of non-related battalions, some French Dragoons and no guns and I'm still wondering what to do.

Here are some photo's:

The Nap Sabbatical Continues

Once again I've been a bad blogger. And it's not that I haven't been doing anything it's just that I've been forgetting to put up any new stuff.

Anyway, I've been painting for the past month and here are the fruits of my labours:
The pics below are the both battalions of the 1st Wurttemberg Regiment (Prinz Paul) in their 1810-1812 uniform.

I ordered some flags (from whom I won't say) which took over a month to get to me and when they did finally arrive I wasn't very happy with the product. So I took some time and, armed with my trusty Photoshop CS5, I made some of my own within an hour or so.

So here they are: