Picasa Before & After

A couple weeks ago I inquired about how to improve my photography through my camera settings. I've since discovered that the image modification software is maybe more important.

This photo here I would have simply had to throw out. Even if cropped the lighting would be un-fixable on my earlier editing tools - it's just too yellow. Many other pics published in this very blog suffer from the problems I've been having with what I thought was mostly my camera.

But here it is with a lightning fast edit on Google's free software Picasa. Much better and after 30 minutes of photographing these guys in various formations and getting similar results to the first image, I was able to salvage the whole session with even better results than this one.

I guess my point is, if you have a decent camera and can take a steady unblurred picture you should be able to improve it dramatically with a good photo editor. Picasa is absolutely free and has more options than many of the tools I had been using over the last few years.

Questions, comments and followers are welcome!

25mm Foundry Moscow Militia Part 2

I've been talking about making an 1812 Russian retreat skirmish game forever and have been collecting bits and pieces for it for a long time. This is the first completed part with a much bigger part coming once the glue dries ...

I'll have a few proper 10 man units of Opelchenie in there but these are the extras I used to try out some ideas. 

To explain why these five aren't in the regular Russian army I gave them all gray or white hair to indicate they were too old to serve any longer.

One of the harder parts to execute effectively was the snow. I wanted a slushy muddy road and it took a fair amount of trial and error to get it satisfactory. I believe I'll have a tutorial on it later, stay tuned!

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

25mm West Wind Sleepy Hollow Militia Part 2 Final

I prime and seal in batches of 12-14 at a time and three of these were a hold over from last time. I'm done with Colonial Horror but I wanted to get this last few in for completions sake. That's 38 figs in total. The next set will be West Winds Ichabod and Companions and the Town Elders.

I like the way these came out; they aren't particularly coherent as a unit but that's militia for ya. 

And here's the entire contents of the pack available through Old Glory at http://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/proddetail.asp?prod=GHH-03

If anybody has advice on how to improve the photography specifically please let me know. I do use the macro function and I do mess with the white balance yet my pics don't come out anywhere near satisfactorily for me.

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

15mm Essex Colonial: Sudan British

These were painted easily over fifteen years ago but were on irregular uneven wooden bases. I rebased them to match the Mahdists I finished a couple weeks ago on steel 1/2" x 1/2" bases. The face/skin on the mounted officer was finished so I did the uniform and horse just yesterday to complete the unit.

This is the sole British unit I have for the Sudan period. These were to augment another players collection at game time.  I'll do Zulu War stuff before I do more with this period.

 

Nothing particular exciting about these.

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

25mm West Wind Sleepy Hollow Militia Part 1

I envision these leading the Old Glory Minute Men units in the Colonial Horror thing I'm working on. I ran out of room to seal them all but here's the first half:

I've officially retired this way of doing flesh. It went like this (all GW paints): Dwarf Flesh, Flesh Ink, Dwarf Flesh again leaving the ink in the crevasses, Mix in Elf Flesh to Dwarf for highlights then Elf Flesh on it's own for final highlights. It looks too splotchy where the ink showed through so I'm now doing: Vallejo Marron Tan as the base, Dwarf Flesh to highlight, Elf Flesh for final highlights - a typical three layer build but then a final glaze of GW Ogryn Wash to harmonize it all together. I added a black wash for 5 o'clock shadow at the end here to mixed effect.

I really like these tufts. These particular ones are from Army Painter that I bought on a test basis. Pass. Buy more.

Part 2 coming up shortly - Questions, comments and followers are welcome!

25mm Old Glory Minute Men Part 3

These are the last of these for awhile. Three units of 10 plus the eight West Wind Sleepy Hollow Militia gives me a playable force of just under forty figs. There's 30 more from Old Glory to do, then the Blue Moon Sleepy Hollow stuff and finally the West Wind set with Ichabod and his aides. I have just to decide what exactly they are opposing. But I've lost interest in all this and am putting it aside til the Autumn.

Black and tan is the theme for this batch. Again I deliberately made the colors darker than I would have if they were to fight the Brits.

The sculpts vary wildly in style but they look ok en masse,

I have this weird leaf litter that looks more like orange and tan construction paper than leaves. Less is more I've learned and I want just enough to tie them into a Autumnal themed table.

I botched the front shot but here's the back; you're not missing much and I rushed the black leaving it less dynamic than I was hoping.

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

15mm Essex Colonial: Dervish Rebasing Project TSATF

      I was introduced to Sudan gaming many years ago through dear friend Stuart McDonald (d.1998). The interest was strengthened through TSATF games that he ran but at the time, there wasn't available to me a Zulu or a March or Die movie to give it that inspirational oomph. Since he had most of what we needed to play I never felt compelled to mirror his output in any way. Nonetheless I was asked to provide more Dervish to help provide bulk to fight his British. My responsibility was simply to add reinforcements while he maintained the buildings, terrain, artillery, cavalry and all that. I bought a couple units of British anyway as counterpoint but it was the Dervish we needed more urgently.
  
     I painted (even eyes for crissakes!) and based them up individually in the traditional Sword and the Flame manner. But moving this many figures around is a pain and I have not found a way to make movement trays look esthetically appealing. I recently re-based Arabs for my fully fledged FFL games here and really liked the results and found that basing Native infantry in this manner doesn't affect the game appreciably at all. It was inevitable I'd cast an eye on these Dervish and redo them as well. Another benefit, to re-base them on steel washers, is that they will be better secured in my magnet lined trays rather than ranked up in an old nuts & bolts organizer drawer. So there is a preservation angle to all this too. Anyway, here's the results:

L to R, 1 leader, 2x4 men, 2x3 men, 2x2 men and an individual spearman to make change = 20 figs.

These are the most arid looking bases I've ever done but they came out really well; the recipe is a perfect harmonious triad -all from FolkArt: 1. Mushroom, 2. Country Twill (heavy dry brush) 3. Final dry brush highlight: Linen. I went back and edged the sides with Mushroom to finish. Tufts are Highland Tufts from Army Painter.

The Ansar unit organization didn't shake out so neatly and the astute observer will see there's only 18 men in each of the three units at rear. There's million ways to explain that on the tabletop of course. All rifles were based 2 per stand with a single for change. This was done in the odd event I needed Dervish rifles on walls or on buildings in a defensive role.

For the Fuzzys I had enough to make a dedicated Rifle Unit. They were based: 1 leader, 2 individual rifleman to make change and 10x2 men =23.

As for the British, I only have one and a half units painted up. They are still on wooden bases and the steel base replacements are on order. Stay tuned, but don't hold your breath.

Thanks for looking. Questions? Comments? Feel free to post and/or Follow ...!

25mm Old Glory Minute Men Part 2

In the short term, these are the second of three. The first was in blue & brown, these in brown & tan and the third in black & tan (almost done). There'll be three more such units at a later date in green, red and gray with 60 men in total.

I, for reasons I won't get into right here, can only prime and seal in batches of 14 so the West Wind Sleepy Hollow Milita man who accompanies this unit got left off due to space. Bumped by goblins, he's painted identically and will turn up later.

Citadel painters will recognize a classic Scorched to Beasty Brown build on the coats. I really like that combination and it looked better than I had hoped.

Here's a couple of the weirder sculpts in the pack though I like the guy on the right. Being Minute Men, they don't look quite right and that's deliberate. I used darker pallets to disguise the fact that they are not the participants at Lexington/Concord. All the undershirts, for one, are a dark gray instead of the expected white linen.

Straightening out the rifle on the guy at left was a challenge as, out of the bag, it was wrapped around his waist and connected. Not just a bendy job. And I forgot to use Ogryn Flesh Wash on the skin and used either the Sepia or the Devlan Mud - can't remember now; its still serviceable but not as good.

The face on this guy came out interestingly though I ruined a lovely blue cap with a ink wash. It was a risk and it failed and I'll be more careful with it in the future. I can't be bothered to fix it.                                    Halfway through I found I could still paint eyes if i took OFF my glasses and let my near sightedness work. A couple here below didn't make it in time.

Crazy variety of style and character - some look Malburian and others, like the officer in the top picture (front left), has what looks like a Confederate floppy hat head on - full beards? In town?

 Thanks all for looking and as always, questions, comments and followers are welcome!

25mm Goblin Factory: Goblin Armored Command

Two sets of command actually, the senior officer (far left) you've seen before ...

I wanted something mean for the banners but after doing the right one and feeling vaguely unsatisfied with it, I went online looking for inspiration and found the motif for the flag at left which I like a lot better. The banner itself is angled so it looks asymmetrical here but it is fine when examined directly. You'll get a better sense of it below:

These can be found at http://www.thegoblinfactory.com/home.htm  or maybe not?

Sometimes with Fantasy figures I just try out random stuff. I'm not super happy with the red on the cloaks but it'll do.  The scale armor on the flag bearer on the right looks almost like fur after the two washes I put over the metal. I wanted something rusty but not quite right ... 

Questions? Comments?

15mm Minifigs French Foreign Legion: Mule Company Pt. 2

Here's the mounted half of the Legion company from a few weeks ago ...

I didn't know it but apparently mules had the stamina and speed of camels but couldn't sprint. Mule mounted, the Legion could cover much more ground in chasing down Arab raiders than on foot.

There was an encounter where mounted Legionnaires tried to fight on muleback and were bettered quite handily by mounted Arabs. Subsequently they assigned two men to each mule to 1) remind them that they should dismount and fight as the infantry they are and 2) reduce the number of men required to hold the mules while the others fought. I gather that there was no appreciative loss in speed.

And here's both elements conjoined.

These are actually two units I guess though I'm short on command figures; I'm not satisfied with how I'll have to represent the full dismounted part when that occurs but that's a problem for another day. I'm done with Legion painting for awhile. These guys kinda burnt me out ...

Questions, comments are welcome!

15mm Stone Mountain French Foreign Legion: Cavalry

Nothing special here. These were sloppily painted a few years ago to match the older units in my Legion forces. I did however, update the bases to match all the Arabs I rebased.

25mm Old Glory Boxer Rebellion European Civilian Volunteers

None of these figs will see China but are instead an armed group for a Victorian London game I've been building for a few years.

I've revised the way I do skin and am thus a bit unhappy with these but they are still quite serviceable. This particular unit is in black which I hate doing because due to the subtlety of the highlights I never feel like I quite achieved the pop I'd see on more colorful miniatures.

Here the faulty skin technique is really apparent - especially the guy on the right - Stan Laurel?. Collectively these scored a 6 on CMON - fair enough, though I think the mediocre photography helped limit their appeal.

I really like these sculpts. There's definitely some "Hey Steve" figs in here but overall they look ok.

15mm Peter Pig Pirate Range: Civilians

   I'll try not to ever post WIP's unless I really need help with something, but I have it it my head not to base any of these until they are all done to insure uniformity within the range. 
   The solution of course is to just make a note of what I've done and apply it but I haven't quite decided how I want to base these ultimately. Sandy beach is the front runner.

Pack 13: Governor, Bodyguards and Priests

   These packs are just the civilian portion of a good sized collection of 15mm piratey stuff. It includes, to be featured later, pirates from Peter Pig, Minifigs, Eureka, Museum, Blue Moon, and others whose names I've forgotten. 

Matching uniforms? Sure, why not?

   As always, questions and comments are encouraged and followers are welcome.

Pack 29: Mob with Machetes

All of these but the six women at the bottom were painted about 10 years ago.

Half @$$ composition here but this is two packs of Pack 27: Armed Mob

Two sets here of Pack 19: Women

Part 2 of Pack 19: Women

I finished these six today as a break from 25mm for a little bit. I had done the skin years ago so it was just a question of choosing the dress colors.

Pastels are easily created by just adding white to whatever color you choose as a base. Left to right: VGC Turquoise, Armoury Gun Carriage Green, V Brown Ochre, VCG Terracotta, V Brown Rose, GW Vomit Brown

I have almost 200 pirates done in the same style that I will feature at a later date. Thanks for looking - there's much more to come!