28mm French Artillery for 1812 Retreat from Moscow Game

Finished sixteen artillerymen this week - the total of my French 1812 retreat crews. Two Perry crews "priming" and two from what was the "old" Westfalia Miniatures - now Black Hussar Miniatures from Berlin. (The guns are from Old Glory [painted some months ago], fences from 4Ground, and the buildings from Pegasus Hobbies.)

I'm really getting backed up on my painting table - and I have a hundred other cavalry and this and that primed on the prepping table that has no place to go, until I finish up some things in the painting side. Here's a shot of the paint station from just last week.

I painted these Perry's thinking they were from Wargames Foundry the entire time. Same sculptors of course ... First Perry Miniatures I've ever painted I think. Lovely models.

I also decided NOT to add any tufts to the artillerymen. It's on the guns so didn't want to over do it. I believe those are 8lbers. I did decline to get limbers for them, which I may rectify at a later date. I envision this as sort of a 1:1 man to figure ratio project so something to move the guns with would be a necessity. 

The howitzers. Um, even in overcoats, there's no "whipping out some French real quick." that thought occurred to me as I was highlighting the cork stoppers in their water gourds.

The Black Hussar "French Gun Crew in Winter Dress" #1 ...

... and crew #2 - these guys on the ends have some dodgy faces on them. I also was screwing around with my tried and true skin recipe and left a failed experiment in place for these guys. Still, they came out fine.

What every Russian wants to see: French backs.

So how do they compare side by side, Perry and Black Hussar? Pretty good with the latter being only slightly taller - perfectly within the range of human variability. Gear is comparable in size as well.

The non-regulation coats came out nicely on the middle pair. Fun to paint.

Why round bases for the Perrys and square for the Black Hussar? Partly they were bought and prepped separately and I forgot to check. Also the Perrys all fit neatly on a U.S. penny and the Black Hussar miniature (at right below) didn't so I, not paying close attention, went with what was going to work right in front of me. On the plus side, I can assign different moral classes or some other characteristic with ease now and have a visual distinction to help remember it.

The overhead shot ...

and the closing one.

Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged. More Napoleonic goodness on its way.

25mm RAFM Giant by Bob Ridolfi

I've written this elsewhere, but when people ask me how long it takes to paint a figure the answer I have to give is often complicated. Prep, priming, gluing and all that add many hours before any painting occurs. I spend several hours with each mini counting all the stages from unpacking to sealing. This one is an example of one that took over a decade. A word about my method: I like doing faces (skin also) and usually it's usually the first thing I paint on every mini. Then I'll do parts that catch my interest - often the largest piece of garment to just capture the direction of the figure. Sometimes I'll press on, other times I'll flit to something else, doing the same process with those.

Eventually, there are hundreds of figures on the table in various stages of completion. Having mostly dropper bottles, I paint with palettes with never leaves me the precise amount of paint - it's really quite wasteful. I'll paint what I intended to, then have extra color that needs to go somewhere. I have a mix of units as well as individual figures around so there's always a home for excess paint. But this means it's difficult for me to start just one figure and finish him.

The face/skin was done ages ago and I may have done the clothing at the same time. Honestly it's been so long. He's been packed up and moved with me many times. When I got round to him this time, everything was done except the leather bits. and the metals needing highlighting. Ultimately I'll have many things at this "home stretch" phase so it's fun to know that without too much effort I can actually finish something. I touched up the hair, clarified the wound over his eye - thinking he should have a blind stary eye though now - it's kinda bulgy and I messed around with a highlight on it which I'm kind of regretting.

This is a weird mini, and yeah, he's had some bad luck in combat. The worst of which was agreeing to that peg leg which is way too long. Were he to stand straight up on it, the natural leg would be a foot off the ground.

Thanks to Dan Hensel at Old School Minis for finding the make and maker of this one.

Thanks all for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

28mm Renedra Ruins

Here are all four of the Renedra Ruins sprues A-D - though shuffled up a bit. I was intending to do that lighter brown based stone so common in English castles but my foundation base coat of dark brown kind of messed that up. I probably should have started with dark gray and went up through the tans to off-white. Still, hard to be totally unsatisfied as these are quite nice and affordable pieces. A few layers of dry brushing and you're all set.

I subtly dry brushed green along the bottoms so they merged with the ground and grasses a bit more. Hard to tell in some of these.

Still lots of seams showing on various spots - I think I have it down now though and should probably do another set with the gray foundation.

The archway bit top can be dropped in as seen here ...

 ... or simply removed, seen here at right.

At Brigade's booth, where I purchased them,  they are sold alongside the Frostgrave stuff, but I didn't winterize them - suitable for so many different things, I kept them generic.

Probably should have included a figure for scale, but you'll see these again.

Lovely set - I'd like to get a couple more.

Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!