28mm North Star - Silver Bayonet - from the 1st French Unit

 These are my possible entries for North Star's Army Painter: John Blanche Series - Painting Contest. One can only use paints from the two sets in that series. Priming and basing allow for some other colors. 

There are two categories - the first is in a Grimdark style. These are based on historical uniforms so not sure they should be there despite sticking to the rules. The other category is for a non-Grimdark style, bright, cheery colors. I'm not sure which ones I'm going to submit to what category yet.

The rules also stipulated that the models must be from North Star so I got that much right. I actually bought two sets of the First French Unit. One explicitly for the Silver Bayonet (round bases.) These models below, however, are for the 1812 campaign and will be integrated into those models. The other four models I threw in with my Peninsula forces, a thing I've painted very little of. 

Which of these should I submit?

A

 

B

C

D

Then these are just for angles:

The Officer

Veteran Hunter

Heavy Cavalryman

The Grenadier

Here's the wet pallet for this project. the red/orange in the lower right hand corner were for a different project but the top row and left side are all John Blanche. I'm a stingy painter and generally try and milk out every last drop. YouTube painters always mix up a huge batch for ONE miniature. Uh Uh. Not my style.

Here are some of the paint recipes I used: 

• Skin: Ruddy Terra, I mixed in Ivory White to get to the highlights
• Coats, Curaissier tunic: The Darkness - mixed in Ivory white to get the highlights, followed by the wash, Grimdark Shadow.  
• Metal - I was limited to Emperor Gold for gold and Heavy Metal for silver. To lighten the gold, I added in the Heavy Metal. To lighten the Heavy Metal I tried putting in Ivory white to poor effect. After the contest - I'll do the highlights properly with a bright silver.
• Wood on firearms: Banshee Brown, Ruddy Terra
• Reds: Fiery Vermilion over Blanched Berry. I added in Moonbeam Yellow to the Vermilion for the final highlight
• Black (boots, hats): They were primed black but I highlighted that with Ironclad Gray. The bicornes got a coat of Grimdark Shadow at the end. 
• White: Ivory White followed by thinned Grimdark Shadow then I went back and highlighted the edges and tops with Ivory White. 

On to more Napoleonic civilians and camp followers! As always, thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858

28mm Battle Honours 3D - Napoleonic French Vivandiers

These are of course the most realistic miniatures out there, sculpted with microscopic, precision detail, and full, anatomically realistic proportions. This makes them very different than hand sculpted wargames figure - you know, the vast majority of things we've spent our lifetimes collecting and painting. I'm not sure what to make of all this as, even though I ordered 28mm, their proportions make them seem like slender teen girls next to the monstrosities from Perry, Old Glory, Victrix, and all the rest that we've always accepted and embraced. They are different enough, that I don't think I can use them with the other models I have for the period. Stuck in their own universe they are perfect, but they look like children next to the others.

I also found them difficult to paint. I confess I did try a white undercoat, thinking they would take some speed paint easily, but once again I failed to do that well at all and ended up layering over it all again anyway. The print lines were apparent but paint did cover them up mostly. The eyes, the lacing, the buttons, the ribbons, cups, everything is so tiny and yet perfectly sized to match that I really struggled with the fine details. They were simply too fine for my capabilities. 

I futzed around with them and used some washes on the lace again over the parts I wasn't crazy about. One broke off at the ankles and removing them from the supports was kind of a challenge. I didn't notice many of the burs I left behind. It could very well be that I didn't adopt to this as readily as I should have but, eh, I don't see me investing more in this than I already have. Your mileage may vary. They do look fine when painted up, no doubt, but I think one would have to approach them differently than one does with status quo models.

I will do some side by sides in not too long, but I want to get these off the table to make room for other things.

I also bought a lot of the Spanish Guerrillas too which will come at a later date and I will stick to black primer for BH3D models in the future. 

As always, thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858

 

28mm Antediluvian Miniatures - Papa Diabulus

 What a terrific miniature! It was very fiddly attaching his right hand which I had to pin in the end, but still he is monstrous villain for any number of games. If I had a complaint, is that he should be even bigger than he is. 

 

Compared to this Victrix Grenadier, he seems like a shriveled old man.

This is against North Star Frostgrave Wizard - still a little small

Here he's up against an Austrian Damphir form the Silver Bayonet range also from North Star.

I s'pose his strengths are in the arcane and not in melee so maybe he's fine.

At least check out Antediluvian Miniatures here - they have a ton of cool minis.

As always, thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858

 

28mm Bad Squiddo Games - Farrah: Arcane Witch

 

A quick one from Bad Squiddo Games, whose miniatures are all available through Badger Games in the U.S.

It's implied by her Bad Squiddo description that she's supposed to be a goody, but her levitating posture suggested something more darker to me. She also has Farrah Fawcett's classic 70's era hair-do. I couldn't help but to corrupt the thing and make her something closer to a Bizarro version of her. She could also be a haunt or spirit-being too I reckon.

I probably undercut the levitating effect with all my basing, but still, I'm happy with it all.

Bad Squiddo makes a lot of interesting Fantasy miniatures -many of which are suitable for Medieval stuff too. Litte pricey as an import but lots to admire and like. They make a lot of metal scenic pieces, too, chests, boxes, animals, (I have a set of great pigs) and all sorts of miscellany. Worth checking out!

As always, thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858

Scenic Bric-a-Brac

 Some quick odds and ends ...

These are from the Citadel Walls set - nice little bit of extras

I think these were from the Dollar Tree? I can't be certain anymore.

In any event, they make good spell effects, or just haunted trees. Not sure I'm crazy about the Fluorescent color in the eyes. I may go back and stain them red instead?
 

A Silver Bayonet Austrian Greandier for scale, though they could be used in straight fantasy, my Sleepy Hollow Game or any horror themed adventure really.

As always, thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858

Cold Wars 2025 - Saturday's Table of Interest

 First, all the bad things you've read or seen about Cold Wars are probably true. And of course, what was good about it is also likely true. The real measure is: compared to what? Compared to nothing, it was the best convention of the season. What all HMGS conventions have in common though is fun games, seeing old friends, some spectacles and some bargain shopping opportunities. They never fail to create a place where folks can congregate and participate in an amazing hobby involving historical miniatures. That much was achieved and  I saw nothing buy happy gamers everywhere I looked.

I should add that Gettysburg is about an hour closer to my Virginia home than Lancaster, so it was an easy decision to attend and see what was up. Going through my records, I see that I haven't been to a Cold Wars since 2012! Definitely time to return. In the early aughts, I recall driving to a Gettysburg based Cold Wars from NYC only to find I had gotten the date wrong and I was a week early! Tons to do in the area so it wasn't a waste. Further my car broke down on the way out, taking all my vendor hall money and more. In any event, I went in last week without a strong emotional connection to this event. I have high expectations for Historicon (though last year, for the first time, those expectations scraped by), and I expect less at Fall In, but that one has consistently been way better than I am prepared for.  

My expectations, to be clear, were set long ago by the standards set by Historicon's glory years (we should discuss when that was actually), where I was amazed by the large showpiece games, blown away by the brilliant new games, and could find more stuff in the vendor hall that I wanted but couldn't possibly afford. I want to be inspired; I want novelty and variety. For Wally's and vendor hall, I want stuff I need and can use. That's basically my standard. I'm a day tripper, a voyeur and a shopper. I know a few people, most of them vendors, but rarely have time for a game. A short, concentrated event is simply more intense and more affordable: my preference.

So, the world, the economics of the hobby, and even I have changed a lot in the last few decades, Much of what I've ever needed I now have. Much of what I want is from Europe or the UK. I still have an appetite for seeing games - as indicated by the content of this blog, but rarely see them as tastes have diverged from mine or is it that my tastes have diverged from the masses? That is not to say there are not flashes of inspiration, but they are increasingly fewer in number.

I'm still going to cons, but I get less and less enjoyment from them. There is life in the Warhammer/Fantasy/SciFi worlds (where all the kids are), but we've regrettably moved away from a robust historical hobby. Yes, the irrecoverable graying of the hobby canard has been heralded since the 70s but each year it seems to be more and more true. 

But it's not dead yet, and everyone should appreciate what it takes to organize and run a convention game. It's an amazing achievement to get all this stuff out to entertain perfect strangers over he course of a weekend. The guys who do it are the real heroes. I know it is hard and stressful but part of my gripe is with those that can, who don't, not those that do. 

On Saturday, we arrived soon after it opened, hit the main hall first (quite by accident), then made our way over to the "everything else" which happened to fit in one large room with even more room to spare. Then we trekked back to the main hall where the car was parked. We had seen basically everything by noon and the pictures are basically in the order I took them. 

I'll start by going out of order and post what was my favorite game which was this LRDG assault on a kraut airfield in WW2. This was in the space adjacent to Wally's.

Now the rest in no particular order:

These Crescent Root Studios buildings will always get a shout out from me - there are just none better.

Cool dice box! Are these piles, extra canopies or is it just another woods?

I like these one piece farms - from Hovels I'm told. They'd make a killing here.

Just maneuver around their flank - a full frontal would be ridiculous!

I'm a sucker for graveyards and cemeteries.

From Mark's Game Room

This one had award winning terrain - well deserved - perhaps my second favorite of the show!

An HMGS staple

Oooh shiny! I do love these markers - smart.

Ah! 15mm Zulu game! When was the last time you saw one of these?

There was an Iow Jima game though maybe it was in this one off room at a later time?

 

There is a lot to be said for a bespoke teddy bear mat. Gorgeous!

Back to Mark's Game Room's beautiful Napoleonic game

This was another highlight of the day! Original and inventive!

How long until one of those steel spikes pierces my flesh? I hope this table had liability insurance.

A Gettysburg game in Gettysburg!

Sometimes it's easy to skip over painted units in the dealer hall - after all I paint the myself. you have to provide your own pikes for these militia - just like they did! Beautifully painted!

I do have need for painting references for early colonial Indians.

I love this set - I'm sure I have it somewhere around here too.

Having time on our hands we drove up to nearby Little Round top and a freezing wind repelled us from the site then wandered around Gettysburg itself stopping at the toy soldier shop. I saw a tour on YouTube from a couple years back and knew what to expect. They have a big table with a rotating theme that was excellent so I'll include those shots here: 

I thought at a glance that this was based on Major Foster from March or Die. But it wasn't. RIP Mr. Hackman,

That's the lot! As always, thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858