28mm Terrain

I recently painted some terrain for my Doctor Who project.  As it is my first full 28mm project, I will need a lot of terrain.  This post covers the first of several batches of resin terrain I have underway.

This first batch consists of assorted crates & boxes from Ainsty (http://www.ainsty-castings.co.uk/).  I ordered a variey of items from them in July and received them quickly.  Their resin pieces had little or no mold release agent on them, so I just gave them a quick rinse in warm soapy water.  I then spray painted them with Krylon black fusion primer.  After letting them dry overnight, I gave them a quick coat of acrylic black paint to cover any missed spots.

Before going any farther, I want to note that the method I used on these crates was borrowed from my friend Mike Demana (http://home.earthlink.net/~mikedemanagames/index.html).  For a detailed explanation of how he paints wooden objects, read the July 27, 2011 entry in his Projects section. 

After the black I used a series of drybrushes.  First Vallejo Medium Camo Brown, then Howard Hues Colonial Khaki, then a light Ral Partha/Iron Wind Grey.  I did 2 coats of the Vallejo brown because it is a thinner paint than the HH brown Mike uses and 1 coat didn't cover well enough for my liking.  I then gave them a liberal coat of black wash (actually satin finish with some black paint mixed in).  After a few days to dry, I sprayed them with Krylon matte finish.

The first picture is 2 large & 3 medium crates.

These 5 crates are smaller, and 3 of them have separate lids with guns inside.  I painted the packing material grey, then off-white.  I really like these and may use them as objectives.

Here is a picture from above so you can see the contents.

I am really pleased with how this first batch turned out.  I have several buildings and a police van from Ainsty and a bunch of resin scenery from Acheson Creations that I plan on painting over the next month.  Now that the South Carolina weather has cooled off a bit, I can spray outside again.  I have some completed figures for my Doctor Who project that I will be taking pictures of soon.

Until then, thanks for looking!

Jason

Back in Action

After a long hiatus this blog is active again.  My painting this summer has alternated between bursts of activity and weeks where nothing gets done.  Vacations, work, kids, all have absorbed my time.  What I have painted has piled up waiting to be varnished for 2 reasons:  with little free time, I want to paint, not spend time sealing; and the summer heat and humidity in South Carolina prevent me from using any sprays outside.

I did spend Saturday night clearing up most of the varnish backlog.  Now I can get the figures based and clear some room from my workspace.

On the left are figures for my Medieval Ireland project: Scots pikemen, various Irish and English billmen.  The middle is an army of Hobbits (Splintered Light figures) for HOTT.  The right has 2 units (6 figures each) of commanded shot, one with yellow coats and one with blue, for my English Civil War Royalists.  The 28mm figures in the front are for my Doctor Who project (l-r): a Sea Devil, 2 versions of the Master, the 3rd Doctor, 3 scientists and a Silurian lurking behind them.  there are a couple dozen more Sea Devils in the storage tray underneath the sheet of styrene.

I have some armies lined up to take pictures of, so expect more posts soon.  My painting plans for the near future include the last few foot figures for my Medieval Ireland project (already underway) and a bunch of terrain I bought this summer from Ainsty.

Thanks for looking!
Jason

Ancient Spanish

This post covers my 15mm Ancient Spanish army (List II/39a/b/c 240-20BC in DBA).  I painted it in several tranches over a number of years.  The first 4 stands of scutarii were painted as part of a triple-size (aka Big Battle) DBA Later Carthaginian army in the early 2000s.  Then in Summer 2008 or early 2009, I started painting 24 more scutarii.  My idea was to add the Spanish to my Punic Wars collection, consisting of the already mentioned Carthaginians, a triple-size Gallic army, and a Polybian Roman army http://mirosgames.blogspot.com/2009/07/polybian-romans.html

and to be able to field 2 of the 3 Spanish sublists at once to use as allies of Carthage and/or Rome.  I painted most of the base colors, lost interest in the project, and stored them in a box.  Fast forward to Christmas 2010.  Over the break I decided to try and complete some unfinished projects, starting with the Spanish.  I quickly completed the scutarii, and then moved on to 6 stands of caetrati and 4 stands of cavalry.  The last figures were completed on January 17, 2011 and they were based and flocked over the last week.  The caetrati and cavalry are all Essex figures.  The scutarii are a mix of Essex, Freikorps, Corvus Belli and Chariot.  The original 4 stands of scutarii have been pulled off of their old bases and mixed in with the newer figures.  I have some Baelaric slingers as well, but they will appear in a future post covering my Carthaginian army.

Not the fanciest army, but I am glad that they are finally done!

Click on the pictures for close-ups.

The first group of 6 scutarii:

The second group of 6 scutarii:

Six stands of caetrati skirmishers:

Two stands of light cavalry:

 The figure in the front right has one of my favorite shields.

Two generals:

The entire army assembled (22 elements):

Thanks for looking!
Jason

Doctor Who Project - UNIT

This post covers my UNIT force for Doctor Who games.  UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce) is a multinational force whose purpose is to investigate extraterrestial/paranormal threats to Earth.  UNIT's heyday was during the period of the 3rd Doctor and early 4th Doctor in the 1970s.  They have made sporadic appearances since then, including in the new series.  I use the Doctor Who Miniatures Game (DWMG) rules, available for free on the internet at http://www.drwhominiatures.co.uk/ and with an active Yahoo group.

My UNIT troops are painted in a mid-1970s uniform, though I have no qualms over using them in any scenario calling for UNIT, no matter the date.  It is no coincidence that is the time when I first started watching Doctor Who as a young boy on WOSU, the local PBS television station in Columbus, Ohio, USA where I grew up.  It is often said among fans that your favorite Doctor is always the first one you saw.  In my case that was Tom Baker, the 4th Doctor.  When I was in elementary through high school, WOSU showed Doctor Who on a regular basis, originally with one 25-minute episode each weeknight and a whole story on Sunday mornings.  I have fond memories of watching while my mom cooked dinner and of getting up early on Sundays to watch.  In later years, 1-2 stories were broadcast in their entirety on Saturday nights.

My UNIT force consists of 42 figures; most are from the Doctor Who range manufactured by Black Tree Design.  They were painted in batches from 2007-10.  I only bought six of the regular soldiers directly from BTD, which came in the Invasion Earth box set; the officer figures also came direct from BTD, while the rest were purchased over a long period of time off of Ebay.  There are a few figures from other manufacturers that I will note in the individual photos.  Several manufacturers offer Falklands-era British that can be used as UNIT troops.  For the purposes of this post, I have divided them into four squads, plus heavy weapons support and officers.  They are on slottabases with metal washers underneath to provide balance and for use in my magnetic storage system.

You can click on the photos for close-ups.

The 1st squad of seven:

The 2nd squad of six:

The 3rd squad of seven:

The 4th squad of seven:

Support sections (l-r): a 2-man bazooka team (BTD), a 2-man machine-gun team (BTD) and a 3-man mortar team (The Assault Group, purchased from Scale Creep at Cold Wars 2009).

Officers (l-r): Sergeant Benton, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart , and Captain Yates

This is actually one of the 4th Doctor's companions, Harry Sullivan, who appeared on the show during seasons 12 and 13 in the mid-1970s.  He was a Royal Navy surgeon attached to UNIT.  I found this figure in the UNIT box although he should be stored elsewhere, so I decided to take a picture anyway.  Consider this a preview of the Doctors & Companions post!

The last squad consists of 5 SAS soldiers.  I purchased them from Rebel Minis at the Cold Wars convention in the 2006-8 time period.  They were painted in 2010.

Finally, here is a group shot of all 42 UNIT soldiers, plus the Harry Sullivan figure.  This is the largest of my Doctor Who forces, which is just well.  They need numbers, as the UNIT troops are normally outclassed in the DWMG rules by the various alien opponents.  Although the DWMG does not have a point system, on the Yahoo group there are references to each alien being worth 'x' UNIT soldiers in order to balance scenarios!

I hope you have enjoyed this series of posts on my long-running project which is finally coming to fruition.  Future posts will feature various Doctors and their Companions, civilians, the Sea Devils and everyone's favorite villains, the Daleks.

Jason

Pirates!

This post covers my 15mm Pirate army.  These figures have traveled a long and arduous path to being completed.  The vast majority of figures are from Peter Pig, with a scattering of Museum Miniatures.  I purchased the PP figures at Brookhurst Hobbies in Los Angeles while visiting my brother for Christmas in either 1997 or 1998.  At that time, my gaming group was into 'Fantasy Rules 2', and I intended to build an army for that system.  I painted around 25% of them in the early 2000s, then set them aside.  Meanwhile, FR2 lost its allure and my group switched to the 'Hordes of the Things' rules.  I have never been a big fan of HOTT for various reasons; it just isn't quite what I want out of a fantasy game. 

So the Pirates sat in my closet until 2009, when I pulled them out of storage and decided to finish them.  The last figures were completed in November 2009 and I built the stronghold in December 2010.  I do still have a plastic ship model to use as a HOTT Airboat that I've assembled and put a basecoat on, though I still need to finish painting the details and build a stand for it.  The ship may show up in a future post.  The army is based for HOTT, although I rarely play.  Perhaps they will see action at the HOTT tournament at Siege of Augusta in January 2010?

Click on the pictures for close-ups.

First is the entire Pirate horde.  The entire force consists of 3xHeroes, 2xArtillery, 2xLurkers, 5xShooters, 1xBlades and 9xWarband for a total of 50+AP in HOTT.

Here are the 5 stands of musket-armed pirates (Shooters).  The front center stand could serve as a General if necessary.

Two stands of ship's cannon (Artillery):

 Blackbeard, accompanied by a female pirate, serves as a Hero General.  Blackbeard is taller than all of the other PP figures which makes him suitably imposing:

Another Hero stand.  These are both Museum Miniatures.

 The left-hand stand is another Hero; the right-hand one is a Blade and could serve as the General if so desired.

I photographed the nine stands of common pirates (Warbands) in groups of three.  Here is the first group:

The second group of three:

And the last group of three:

Two stands of shipwrecked pirates with sharks circling (Lurkers):

Last is the Stronghold.  Long John Silver has retrieved the buried treasure and dealt harshly with his untrustworthy shipmates.  The parrot on his shoulder is a nice touch.

 Thanks for Looking!

Jason

Scots Isles & Highlands

This post covers my 15mm Scots Isles & Highlands army,  1050-1493 AD (III/77  in DBA).  It was painted over the summer/fall of 2010.  All of the figures are from Feudal Castings, now sold by QRF.  They have an excellent range of figures for dark age/medieval Scotland and Ireland.  A few of the figures are from other FC ranges such as Vikings.  I purchased some of these figures from Rudy Nelson at Time Portal Hobbies and the rest directly from QRF.  Although almost all of the figures are armed with an axe, there are a lot of variations among the figures and they have a lot of character.  Of the 48 heavy foot, there are 2 poses with 6 or 7 figures and the rest of the poses have 1-4 figures each.  That made them a lot more fun to paint.

The Scots Isles & Highlands army covers the medieval Gaelic areas of Scotland.  For a great historical article on the army, see: http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/armies/III77.html

The DBA army list consists primarily or entirely of blades and is: 1x4Bd (Gen), 8x4Bd, 3x4Bd or 2x3Bw and 1x 3/5Wb.  These figures will also serve as galloglaich for a project I have wanted to do for a long time, the invasion of Ireland by Edward Bruce in 1315.  I have been working on a scenario for 4 DBA armies a side, and the number of galloglaich I will need is 12, exactly the number in this army.

Click on the pictures for close-ups.

First up is the general's stand (1x4Bd).  Although this is a foot stand, I used a mounted figure for the general.  This is the first time I have done this in a DBA army; I got the idea from a Visigoth army I have that was made by my good friend Mike Demana (see his web page at: http://home.earthlink.net/~mikedemanagames/index.html).  I think it looks good and helps the general's element to stand out from the mass of similar-looking elements.  As a fan of Celtic music I couldn't resist putting a bagpiper on the stand!

Here is the first group of 4 highland warriors (4x4Bd):

The second group of warriors (4x4Bd):

And the last group of warriors (3x4Bd):

Here are the clansmen (1x5Wb on the left, 1x3Wb on the right).  The base on the right is borrowed from my Pre-Feudal Scots army.

Next are the 2 stands of highland archers (2x3Bw).  The base on the right is borrowed from my Pre-Feudal Scots army.

Last but not least is a picture of the entire army assembled.

Thanks for looking!  I'll be adding more posts over the holidays: 15mm Pirates and 28mm UNIT for my Doctor Who project.