Spring is finally here, the temperatures are slowly rising.  The pool is open and the water is a balmy 64 degrees.  The grass seems to need to be mowed every 4 days, and there’s a long list of honey-do’s.  

But, I’ve still managed to get in a little painting.  

I’ve also been puttering around with some more terrain pieces.  Photos to follow if I ever finish them.  I don’t know if it’s a just a local thing but balsa wood seems to have become unobtainable.  

 

First up, the last of the reinforcements for the next round of foolishness in the Outlandishan Chronicles. Spoiler alert, the next battle will be a strictly infantry affair, if the clever plan of the Earl’s Mercenary Commander Bigus Dickus is successful in drawing away the Count’s cavalry.  Only the dice know…

These are Old Glory figures, Hungarian Spearmen if I recall correctly.  The paint job is just a “meh”.  I wasn’t really into it when I was working these guys, but from a gaming distance they’ll look ok.

 

Now I just need to clean all the junk off the gaming table so I can set up the next battle in the Outlandishian Chronicles.

 

And lastly, I found this in the lead pile.  The figure is from Ground Zero Games, Full Thrust line.  It’s a UNSC Battle Dreadnaught that I ordered something like 11 years ago?  I have at least one more of these I’ll get around to eventually when I start to focus on Project Z.

 

 

I hope everyone is enjoying the warmer weather.

 

So much lead, so little time.

Things that go Boom

 As I was digging around the bottom of the lead pile looking for the last two figures I needed for the Spearman unit I plan to start soon I stumbled upon these.  I think I bought them to be fortress guns, but they could work just as well as Naval guns, in my opinion.  Figures are Old Glory.  

I painted them up based on how I recall the guns being on the USS Constitution the last time I was there, way back in December of 2019  before the world went to $#it.

These look like 24 pounders when I compare them to the Old Glory 12 pounders.

8 guns, that's 4 batteries in my standard organization

These look like 32 pounders to me.

4 guns, or 2 batteries

And here's the whole lot.

Maybe it's time to build a fortress, or Port defenses?

I'm supposed to be working on a unit of Renaissance troops, and since I found these in the pile, I painted these up.

A commander with his loyal retainer.  To bad the retainer has an arrow in his thigh.  I bet that hurt.

A slightly better view of the arrow.

But wait, there's more!

Not sure what I'll do with these, but I liked the figures so I had to paint them.  They seem more appropriate for a vignette not necessarily a command stand.  They aren't based yet, but here they are.

Looks like someone's about to have a little heart ache

And a slightly different view.  I really like this casting.

And if you thought the arrow in the thigh looked painful, how about this poor chap?

Sorry about the unpainted dirt (joint compound) around his base.

I promise I'll get back to work on the Renaissance figures for Outlandishian Chronicles  soon.  But after having cranked out over 350 vehicles and 450+ (really tiny) infantry figures for the Eurica Campaign, I need to paint some 'fun' stuff.

Take care and stay safe.

So much lead, so little time.

More Painting

 After painting all of those tiny vehicles and even tinier infantry for the Eurica campaign, it felt good to go back to painting proper historical figures in the one true scale. Or at least the one scale I can see well enough to paint some minor details on.

 

Following the latest thrashing of the Earl in the Outlandishian Chronicles the Earl was in desperate need of some additional infantry.  This is the First Pike Block I’ve painted.  They should see some action soon in the service of Earl, hopefully without all of that pesky Cavalry the Count has put to fairly good use of late.  I think I may need to paint a few more infantry unit before the next battle can occur.

 

Figures are Old Glory, Pike in Back and Breast.

 

View from a low flying Vulture sizing up his next meal.  They will be in the employ of the Earl for their first outing on the table, their odds aren't good.

 

And I also found these classics laying at the edge of the lead pile, almost like they were fighting to be seen.  Figures are Evil Empire (Games Workshop) Battle Fleet Gothic.  Three Firestorms Frigates and one Dauntless Light Cruiser.  I’m not sure when I bought them, but they’re old enough to be all lead, no plastic.  These may get some use in Project Z, if I ever move along with that effort now that Project X is 75% done.

 

 

So much lead, so little time

Proper Painting Part 2

 Greetings.  It’s been a while.  Just another quick post to prove I’m still alive and kicking and slapping pigment on lead.  For this installment a few more command figures and things that go ‘boom’ in the night.

 

It won’t be much longer until the snow starts to fly, and then the foolishness of the Outlandishian Chronicles will start back up.  Will Count William finally be able to finish off the Earl?  Will the Earl D’Greer be able to survive and maybe eek out a victory?  Will any of the other neighboring realms get involved?  Only the dice know.

 

On to the Photos.  

 

First up a rather dour looking Russian Commander.  The figure is from Front Rank.

 

 

Second up, a much more dashing Russian Commander.  The figure is from Front Rank, I think it’s the Czar Alexander figure, but I’m not sure.  I plan on using him for a dashing Cavalry commander.  Pay no attention to the mud splashed up on the horse’s hind leg.  

 

Speaking of Front Rank I just read where Gripping Beast has/is acquiring Front Rank.

And now the things that go boom…

 

This organ gun battery is from Old Glory and will see action in the Outlandishian battle, just not sure which side it will be on.

 

And the siege train, appropriate for multiple eras.  These are Old Glory figures as well.  I’m not sure how I ended up with two packs of them, but 4 batteries of mortars should put the fear of indirect fire into any defender.

 

That’s it for now.  I hope everyone in the U.S. has a happy Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks.

 

So much lead, so little time.

FINALLY….

 I finished painting something!  

Now that these are finally done, we can move on with the Second Battle of Bridgeton.  The table has been set up, less this motely collection of Knights since the end of June  Wow, I didn’t realize it had been that long.  It didn’t help that September kicked my ass on so many levels, I can’t even begin to list them all.

 

But, enough whining,  On with the photos.

 

After the last battle I realized that I needed more command figures.  In digging through the proverbial lead pile I uncovered this fellow.  He’ll come in handy in the ensuing battle.  I’m pretty sure he’s from Old Glory, but I don’t recall the range – probably the Eastern Renaissance range.

 

 

Next we have the long awaited unit of Barded Knights.  These are from Crusader USA and were acquired piecemeal over many years at various conventions, with the last pack just acquired for next to nothing at Cold Wars this year.  They are from the War of Roses range.  They were fun to paint, although the horses legs are a little ‘flimsy’ and  trying to cram 3 of them onto a 60mm frontage is problematic, at best.  My main gripe is that the hands, as cast, are completely incompatible with the lances.  I was able to pry most of the hand open a little more to at least give me some surface to try to glue the lances to – and I only snapped the fingers off one of the figures in the process.

 

Not some of better work, and I just realized I forgot to paint any socks on the horses.  Grrrr.

The next battle has been mostly fought out at this point, post to follow.  Needless to say the carefully crafted plan of each commander went out the window on around the 3^rd initiative roll. And the curse of 'new' units and their performance in their first table top appearance seems to still be in effect.   I really do believe that the card mechanism of the Piquet family of rules is perfect for solo play.

View from the attacker side.  

Stay safe in this crazy world.

So much lead, so little time.

Slow Going

Greetings, I hope everyone is staying safe and sane in these whacky times.

With the onset of Summer and all that entails, painting progress has been slowed considerably.  I have managed to free up a little painting time.  I almost have enough new units painted for the next installment in the Cheese Saga.  I've also had to do some substitution to the forces the Earl will field in the next battle as at the moment I'm trying to do this using only figures already in the lead pile.  Once this Cheesy tale is resolved, will see who the next rulers are to get involved.

Below are the rather limited results for almost a months worth of effort.

First up in your basic unit of Spearmen.  The original concept had the Earl's forces consisting primarily of Spearmen, a few Swordsmen, and bow armed missile troops.  Unfortunately the lead pile didn't completely cooperate with the plan.

Figures are Old Glory

Would it really be that difficult to sculpt the figure with a hand that makes it easy to glue on a spear?

The next two units of Sword and Bucker will fight on the Earl's side in the next battle, but their long term home is in the forces of Lord Calvin of Hobbs, or Great King Calvin of Hos Hobbs as his adorning subjects often call him.  They are painted in the colors of that kingdom.  Figures are Old Glory

I think I prefer the green clothing and plan on using that when I get around to the Pike Units.

As of now the only unit left is an Extra Heavy Knight unit for the Earl, and then it's time for another battle.

So much lead, so little time.

Call out the Garrison

Following the battle in the last post, the Earl is busy organizing his troops for the campaign to retake Bridgeton.  Which means, time for me to paint up a bunch more troops.  Note to self, if you ever try to do something like this again, make sure you paint a LOT of units up first.

Unfortunately the painting motivation is lacking, so after a month, there hasn't been much progress.  Below is what I've managed to do to date.

First up, to address my shortfall in command figures, a new commander takes the field in his freshly oiled armor.

Next up, some additional firepower.  The Earl prefers the tried and true approach instead of that new fangled and expensive gunpowder stuff.

Here we have the Red Cowled Crossbow men. Figures are Old Glory (I think)

And the Blue Cowled Crossbow men. Figures are Old Glory (I think)

And as the Earl prefers the good old fashioned bash them in the head and slit their throat approach to settling disagreements, a unit of Swordsmen.  Figures are Black Tree Design.

And here they all are.  Looks like I need to expand the background a bit before the next round of photos.

Now I just need to paint another unit of Spearmen or two and a sword and buckler unit, maybe a Levy unit with various melee weapons, and the extra heavy knight unit and I'll be ready for the next installment.

So much lead, so little time.

Is there no end to these Cossacks

Hello again.  I think I'm starting to suffer from painting burn out, or at least Cossack burnout.  Only one unit left on the painting table.  I keep glancing at the lead pile and thinking "Ohhh - shinny!  That would be a lot more fun to paint than the last Cossack unit".  So far, I manage to refocus myself by repeating the mantra in the voice of Red Leader of  "Stay on Target".

And, on with the Cossack show.  As with the others, these are Old Glory figures.

And here they are with natural lighting.

And I had just enough Transylvanian hand gunners left over for another skirmish unit.

These are Old Glory figures as well

In the last post I had commented about how the Revenge Miniature Bowmen seemed to be rather 'small'.  Below you can see them compared to the Old Glory Landsknecht arquebusiers. 

Who let the Hobbit's on the table?

The first skirmish in my parallel world campaign has taken place over the last week and a half, as time (and Czarina)  allowed, but more on that in a future post.  But below are two teasers.

View from the attacker artillery battery, with the cheese factory prominent on the hill top.

And the view from the defenders artillery battery.  Maybe we should have repaired the gun emplacement after the last battle?

Take care and stay safe.  

So much lead, so little time.

There Be Cossacks Here!

Greetings, I hope everyone is staying safe and making the best of your time under house arrest. 

I finally finished what I thought was my last unit of Cossacks.  As luck would have it while digging through the lead pile hoping I had 2 left over Hungarian Knights laying around I could use to make up a full unit, I stumbled across another pack of Cossacks with Bows and Lances.  Huzzah!!  So there should be one more Cossack post.  The only down side with these are the torso and legs are separate so you have to glue them together (I hate gluing figures together).  Once the recently discovered Cossacks are painted I should be good for the new campaign although I guess it is possible given my troop rosters I could still need more Cossacks than I have painted, but unlikely. (yes, I realize I just passed on a bit of intelligence to the other players).

This round of painting production is a little more eclectic; as I dug deeper into the lead pile, back to around the 2008 layer of lead I think.  It kind of makes you feel like an archeologist as you dig down deeper and deeper into the lead pile like going through the various layers of your purchasing history – mumbling to yourself ‘why the hell did I buy this crap’.

But enough with the words, on with the pictures – hopefully Blogger will actually show them.

  

After looking at the photos, I think I need another coat of matt varnish on these, as I recall when I did the magic wash I used straight Future Floor Wax instead of thinning it with water like I normally do.

First up, the brave warriors of the Czar.  These are Old Glory figures, and consist of left over odds and ends from other packs.

I still can't get Cossacks to stay focused for photos.  I'm sure it isn't anything to do with my photo skills - LOL

For the first little skirmish I have planned for my parallel world solo campaign I needed another unit of formed archers.  These are Revenge Miniatures figures.  It's the first time I've used any of these figures.  The sculpts seemed a little 'slight' in stature and had a very annoying amount of flash on them.  They did have a nice assortment of poses and painted up easily.

And now we unveil the 2008 layer of the lead pile.  FOW WWII American Engineer Platoon.  As I was painting these I couldn't believe that prior to 2009 all of my Napoleonic figures were 15mm.  Damn, 15mm is small.  Especially when you desperately need an eye exam and new glasses and you can't get them because everything is closed.  I also uncovered a couple of packs of the American Armored Recon Platoon.  

I couldn't get decent photos, at least not with my camera.

Combat Engineer Platoon consisting of 2 squads and Put HQ

3 Bazooka Teams

2 Heavy Machine Guns

That's it for now.  Stay safe.

So much lead, so little time.