Paint Table Saturday #30 - Sherburne's Additional Continental Regiment Completed

After a rather productive session on the brushes I have managed to complete the first 16 continentals using the Fife and Drum miniatures.

I decided to keep these on skirmish bases, the fact that I can place them on sabot trays if I want to use them for Black Powder or other systems means I can use get better use out of them.

Having completed this unit I have noticed that the figures are not an easy paint for my normal style of work they are very slender however I am happy with the final result and the unit as a whole.

Warbases Wednesday #13 - The Hay Cart build and paint

This week I continue with another of the previously featured carts. It is the turn of the Hay cart to receive the attention of my brushes ready for a new place on display at the show stand.

I will begin with the build its not a complicated affair although you do need to work on the underside first to get it right.

 This is the base kit nicely flat packed on a wooden sprue.

 Remove all the sections marked in Red to begin

 Invert the nice etched base and place the wheel axle roughly centre for now.

 Then using a few drops of PVA adhesive on the chassis and rails fix one side then the other taking care to locate the slots with the slots and the lugs in the inner holes.

Once this is done it really is very simple to complete two outer rails either side glued with a slight pitch then two connecting rails at the front long one at the top short one at the bottom. Finally add the wheels and jobs a good'un as they say.

So now it comes to the painting and as can be seen in the above image they often had colour applied to them and after some google searching I found out they come in a multitude of sizes and shapes.

I choose to do this one in red it seemed a very popular colour when I was looking at images, I have done the main bed of the cart in a plain weathered wood effect, remember this is in the days before modern stains and preservatives so wood naturally greys with age.

This is a nice kit for £3.50 and would have a variety of uses as a scenic item for the table top in many different periods.

I have the attention span of Zero! Here's " Blackbeard "

Yes it had to happen I got distracted again part way through the AWI project and have drifted onto another figure completely. This is an all too frequent affliction my eye gets taken by something shiny and I am off on a bloody tangent again.

This time it is all my own doing you see I had been really good while at Triples and had not purchased a thing, I made a promise at the start of the year and have done well to hold out this long in reality. That was all to change at Triples after a conversation with Andy and John of Ainsty castings. You see they have a product that I have craved for sometime, but being a bit sensible I have not splashed the large sum of cash needed to purchase it, not that I need permission you understand its just a very big item and fairly expensive and I have never quite had enough spare change in my wallet at anyone time. However my wife was with Diane at the event and they went off to have a look at what I had been offered. Sunday morning I got a nod in the right direction before setting off to work for the day so I did a deal (more after the weekend on this).

However you see this meant I had to now spend some money, not a lot and I knew exactly what I wanted. Having spent a fair bit of time on the Dixon's web site during some Facebook discussions with Dave for his gangsters he pointed out the range of Pirates. Everyone knows I have a weakness when it comes to pirates and they seem to thrive on pointing me in the direction of nice ones to paint up. So off trotted I to the stand to see Trevor and blow me he had not got any at all, however he offered to fetch me one on the Sunday as he was travelling back home Saturday night, so I collected Blackbeard on Sunday excellent customer service is what I call that. Combined with the fact he is a wonderful sculpt and has been looking down at my workbench this last 8 days and my resistance broke.

He came down from the awaiting attention shelf straight onto the paint table Monday afternoon.

I have not based him as yet and will have to wait to do that as I need to see what comes at the weekend before I decided exactly how to base the figure, so for now though Captain Edward Teach is completed

Edward Teach (also Edward Thatch, c.1680—22 November 1718), better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of the American colonies. Although little is known about his early life, he was probably born in Bristol, England. He may have been a sailor on privateer ships during Queen Anne's War before settling on the Bahamian island of New Providence, a base for Captain Benjamin Hornigold, whose crew Teach joined sometime around 1716. Hornigold placed him in command of a sloop he had captured, and the two engaged in numerous acts of piracy. Their numbers were boosted by the addition to their fleet of two more ships, one of which was commanded by Stede Bonnet, but toward the end of 1717 Hornigold retired from piracy, taking two vessels with him.

Teach captured a French merchant vessel, renamed her Queen Anne's Revenge, and equipped her with 40 guns. He became a renowned pirate, his cognomen derived from his thick black beard and fearsome appearance; he was reported to have tied lit fuses under his hat to frighten his enemies. He formed an alliance of pirates and blockaded the port of Charleston, South Carolina. After successfully ransoming its inhabitants, he ran Queen Anne's Revenge aground on a sandbar near Beaufort, North Carolina. He parted company with Bonnet, settling in Bath Town, where he accepted a royal pardon. But he was soon back at sea and attracted the attention of Alexander Spotswood, the Governor of Virginia. Spotswood arranged for a party of soldiers and sailors to try to capture the pirate, which they did on 22 November 1718. During a ferocious battle, Teach and several of his crew were killed by a small force of sailors led by Lieutenant Robert Maynard.

Weekly round up 25/05/14 (part2) - "Time to Swim Wiv' Da Fish" - 28mm Dixon Gangsters

Back to my usual routine then !! Over this last week I have been busy working on a recent commission by fellow blogger +DAVE DOCHERTY  of  "One man and his Brushes". To paint miniatures for one of his many side projects as his new promotion means he has less time at the brushes to complete everything he wants.

Now obviously I want to showcase these to the masses as Dave is rather pleased with them and I have really enjoyed this project. Brigantes Studio does not have as wide an audience yet due to its recent entry into the blogging world, so I am giving you a small preview of the work many more pictures will be posted to the Brigantes Blog HERE and of course if you want to find out the identities of the Five then you will need to visit there and all will be revealed.

Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker

Street Gang with Hand guns

Gangsters with various weapons

The Five

Yeah well no gangster game would be right without some Fuzz

Now alongside this I managed to also knock out the Warbases Handcarts in midweek as part of my regular feature posts. Very little else got completed until this weekend due to a large number of hours spent on the phone getting the car sorted. I have to say the insurance company have been excellent and everything was going well until the car went into the garage resulting in me making several calls to find out what is going on as I am without vehicle. I am still fecking clueless in that area and its a Bank holiday so wont know for a couple of days so have pre booked the Stepdaughters car for two days so I can get to the game Thursday night and of course Partizan next Sunday.

In closing I wish to welcome aboard some new members of the Longship Crew:  Jgelder1, V Barrett, The Lead Dragon, Lee Brady, Stg3g, and Gariolanus I hope you enjoy the life at sea row hard and raid harder.

Loki

Weekly round up 25/05/2014 (part 1) - Something special this way comes!

This week I am going to start by throwing a curve ball into the weekly round up as last weekend while I was at Triples I had the opportunity to meet David and Jayne who run the new miniature company Northumbrian Tin Soldier. So this post is going to be entirely dedicated to that. With a seperate edition for my week tomorrow.

This company came onto my radar after +DAVE DOCHERTY  used one of the paint products they stock, the scale 75 range and I went to investigate the flesh pack upon his recommendation. I was quickly distracted when I went to the web shop though by a range of miniatures that really did catch my eye and my imagination.

Many of you know I like many things Viking / Scandinavian and the folklore and tales are no exception so imagine my surprise when I was presented with this image.

I was drawn in like the proverbial moth to a flame and was soon presented with all manner of figures to feed an over active mind. I decided that I would wait until Triples and go pay them a visit and I was even more impressed with what I saw and after a chat to David and Jayne I discovered that a lot more figures are on the way. This is going to cost me a fortune as I know I am going to have to collect these for the sheer joy of painting!

I will let David tell you about the company and its aims:
"A little bit about us ....where to start ? We are a new start-up miniature company (March 2014) and supply our very own range of 'Nightfolk' white metal Dark Fantasy Miniatures !

Wonderfully sculpted by Martin Buck, our growing range of miniatures consists of goblins, faeries, imps, gnomes and other assorted creatures ,oddities and grotesques.

The 'Nightfolk' are inspired by the tales and traditions of faerie and folklore, they have a fairy tale feel but with a slightly darker and more mischievous character.
Our online shop also stocks a comprehensive range of hobby paints scenic accessories and white metal figures, from manufacturers such as Scale75,Andrea, Vallejo, Perry, Otherworld, North Star etc."
I am very privileged to be given the rights to publish these images and present the first twelve figures in the range Sculpted By Martin Buck, Painting by Kevin Dallimore:

Yes I am hooked I enjoy painting Fantasy figures as one off's and these are a unique range. David has given me a bit more information about the future plans for the company as well so I will let him explain:

"The first wave of 'Nightfolk' characters consist of 12 miniatures and are available from our webstore now. The second wave of miniatures will be launched on our webstore this weekend (see below) and will be available from our stand at Partisan next weekend - we are now offering multi packs and full range deals on the miniatures.
Our plan is to have a rolling programme of releases with approximately 4 new figures a month for the foreseeable future (we have another 12 greens ready to be cast now!)
We plan to expand the range with various larger creatures and different factions of 'Folk' as the year progresses - there will also be a 'Nightfolk' skirmish printed rule set available later this year.
Thanks for this Andrew it is much appreciated !

Kind regards
David and Jayne"

From left to right: Sir Venerable, Sir Hal 'The Bird Knight', Sir Bucket the Boor, Squire Knapsack, yes these are the latest releases and they have just the right amount of Pythonesque character to become a set of my very own Knights of Ni!!

So that is me going to have plenty to keep the creative side alive in the coming months. I know these will appeal to some of you in the blogosphere so please take 5 minutes to visit the site (click the banner at the top of the post) and see the new ranges.

Thats me signing out for the day have a good one!

Paint Table Saturday #29 - Taking sometime to work on my Analogue Hobbies Winter Challenge Prize

Blimey is it no 29 already I have missed a fair few of these of late due to other commitments. In fact had the car not been in for repairs and the wife banned me from going away this weekend I would have been travelling to Posties for a game that Ray kindly invited me too. So with some free time on my hands whats a man to do!

Well I decided to give myself a little time doing some of my own figures over the next few weekends, between the shows and other commitments. To that end I have began the task of making some units from my Analogue Hobbies Winter Challenge 1st prize. I choose the $100.00 of Fife and Drum Miniatures with the intention of making a sizeable Muskets and Tomahawks American War of Independence force though I may change plans and organise them for Black powder or British Grenadier which ever way I choose the unit sizes are largely the same.

This is without doubt a period I like to paint figures for and in particular I enjoy the earlier period of this conflict and the wide choice of uniforms that one can paint. My first unit will be Sherburne's Additional Continentals circa 1776 - 1779

This command was one of the sixteen additional regiments authorised by Congress, December 27, 1776. These sixteen regiments were known by their colonels' names only, and had no number assigned to them, though they were in the regular Continental Line.

In 1779, the regimental dress of Sherburne's regiment consisted of black felt hats bound or laced with white wool braid as in the English Army, white buff leather cross-belts worn over a brown coat faced with yellow, dark green waistcoats and breeches, white wool stockings, and black half gaiters or spatterdashes of painted canvas. Their knapsacks and haversacks were of canvas also. The regiment was recruited at large, but was composed mostly of men from Connecticut.

The following painting guide is as much about me remembering the colours I will be using as this project is going to be spread over several weeks, but will serve to assist anyone who wants to replicate what I have done here.

Waistcoat and Breeches - Foundry forest Green Triad

Jacket - Foundry Bay Brown mid tone, Rich Butternut shade then Rich Butternut mid

Facings - Coat D'Arms (dark sand) followed by Foundry Lemon shade and highlight
Turnbacks - Coat D'Arms Pale sand then Vallejo Dead White
Straps and bag - Coat D'arms Bone then Vallejo off white
Stockings - Coat D'Arms Horse tone Grey then Coat D'Arms Elven grey
Tricorn & Cartridge box - Black then Vallejo German Grey
Gaiters & shoes - Vallejo German Grey  then Vallejo Grey green

The Fife and Drum miniatures are very nice indeed though will take some skill to get right are they are much more slender than many figures. They are perfectly proportioned and very realistic. I can see more cash being parted in the future on this range and if you have not seen the ranges I would suggest a visit to the blog HERE that is run by Der Alte Fritz you wont be disappointed!

I have made a fair start on these and have much of the main uniform blocked and first highlighted the green is completed and so far I am happy with how they are turning out.

As closer view to give you a look at the figures proportions.

Right I have another couple of hours to play before family life takes precedence so I am going back to the brushes for another round ! Hope you are all having a good weekend and hard at your brushes!

An Award, A friendly reminder and thoughts about this blog !

Let me begin with the award, Brendon "The Kiwi" nominated me for this round of the current Liebster awards and I am grateful to have received this once again. However I am going to break with tradition at this point and state that if you scroll to the bottom of my blog there are over 600 blogs in my feeds that I read with regularity and all of them are worth a visit. I follow that many blogs that to narrow it down to 11 blogs is an impossible task.

I also feel that anyone who reads my blog with regularity has enough information to deduce that I have answered any number of questions relating to my hobby/ work time that I would simply be repeating myself and boring you all to death.

Far better that I give you all a gentle reminder for anyone who wants to take part in my Birthday Blog Prize Draw featured in THIS post, time is fast running out with only 10 days left to enter and only a handful of entries have been received so you stand a very good chance of winning if you send an entry in.

Now as you all know my health took a turn for the worst last year. Things have become stable since I started following the wife's and doctors orders and in truth I am grateful my stubbornness and resistance was broken down. My mental state will be a much longer battle, one I may never beat fully but am getting better at controlling it. As a result I have had to make many changes and these have proved to be very successful for me, always a bonus when something goes right!

The biggest Impact has been on this blog. Partly due to the new business and the blog for Brigantes Studio, as the finished miniatures are put on display there, except the regular features for Warbases which will always be presented here. I have a big workload at present of which I am grateful and happy to have, so this is impacting a touch on personal projects and gaming. I hope to have a plan in place soon and resume my regular routine with the blog going forwards.

Warbases Wednesday #12 - 28mm Hand powered items

This weeks post is a small one as I have had a rather busy weekend working on the stand at Triples in Sheffield. It was nice to see many familiar faces and some new ones.

Among the many items that are available are a couple of really nice spare change priced items to enhance the look of the gaming table.

First up is the Hand Cart:

I have painted this one up to represent a traders hand cart from the Victorian / Edwardian period but the design of this type of cart goes back way into history and can be used from medieval times right up to the end of the 1940's in reality. The cost of this is only £1.50 and takes 10 minutes to construct at the most.

This is also easily adapted a couple of cut down matches can be added all round to make the rails at the front and rear higher, or a deft slice with a sharp scalpel the side rails can be removed for a smaller hand cart used by many street traders.

Next is a real staple and is the Wheeled Barrow, again a design that is simple and useful for a whole range of periods and different jobs.

Another simple to build and paint piece of equipment and at only £1.00 will not break the bank at all.

Over the next few weeks I will be going through more of these ranges in more detail as I assemble and paint most of the Carts and Wagons for a new display. I also have some new miniatures that have been sent away to have a production mould made at the moment so I will be painting the master models for more additions to the displays.

That is all for this weeks edition thank you for stopping by.