Polemarch

Last night I took the night off work and commissions and painted this Wargames Foundry ancient Greek figure. I was happy this morning to see that it turned out ok as I downed a large bottle of Baileys at the same time.

He is the Polemarch who will lead the Greek mercenaries in my Alexander the Great collection, which I got for Christmas last year. Which means I have now painted three Thracian cavalry figures and a Greek, not much to show as I have had the lead four months.

Now back to commissions......

Happy birthday to me!!

Today I am officially a year older, although this brings many problems such as greying hair and sagging breasts. It also has the benefit that I get presents!! Last night I (well the mrs) put in an order with Aventine miniatures for a unit of their Tarentine cavalry and some late Etruscans. Aventine miniatures late Etruscans Triarii, picture from avantine miniatures website

Tarentine Cavalry, picture stolen from aventine miniatures website

I have not painted any Aventine minis before and look forward to seeing them up close, hopefully they will be as good as the pics suggest. If so then i will buy plenty more!

How disappointing.....

Teutonic knights Marshal that I painted a few years back for Gripping beast

I thought I would have another photo shoot this morning, a few shots of my huge Viking army just to remind me of the fact that I have got a miniature collection of my own whilst I finish off another commission.

So imagine my disappointment when I get them out of their huge storage box and realise I only have 37.....

After the initial shock I remember that I sold off a batch before Christmas. Painting figures for fun and for money is a double edged sword. Especially when you have the attention span of a knat. Because there is always another project you want to do and selling the project you have just finished is the easiest way to finance the next project.

Over the years I must of painted well over 25000 figures both 28s and15mm. looking through my current collection of painted figures is a sorry sight.

I have 37 Vikings, 2 Romano British, 10 French Napoleonics, 36 Nassau, 1 cowboy, 3 Thracians, 33 Samurai, about 50 various GW fantasy figs, 2 space marines. 6 chaos marines, 41 Fallschirmjager, a Jagdpanther and a Stuart.

So after over 25 years of industrious painting I don't have much to show for it in my collection.

To remedy this I have decided to list on my blog my current personal projects in the side bar, hopefully this will help me see where I am at and keep me on track. Last week I was having a bit of a shop around the net. I have always fancied doing Punic wars but rather than the main two protagonists I fancy either Spanish, Numidian, celts or one of the Italian states, these could then be used as allies or enemies for the big hitters. This army or armies is still in the thought stage, so whilst I am thinking about it I will crack on with my current projects which I will list in the side bar.

Okudaira Sadamasa the hero of Nagashino and his retinue

Hopefully this will help me stay on track and keep my collections, but as you know everything has a price.....

making the most of the sunshine

Amazingly the sun has been shining today in the grim north. So I have made the most of it by taking a few pics in the garden. Mainly of some Pueri I painted a while back but have not got around to photographing yet. These are from Grippingbeast and it is the first time I have painted their updated horses and I must say I was impressed by the sculpts. It must be the hardest thing for sculptors to produce and my hat is off to soapy who has done an excellent job with these. 12 Pueri armed with javelins

Hiberno Norse defend their territory from marauding Normans

More Hiberno Norse are called up from their village behind the giant leaves

The sun is about to go down as the Normans sally forth from their fort.

the set up.

As you can see the sun started to drop in my back garden and I had to put my table a little to close to the bush which kind of ruined the effect.

getting to have another good look at my Norman fort which was made by Paul Darnell of Touching History fame, has reminded me that I need to paint an army up to garrison it. Sadly these Pueri are not destined for my collection. Luckily it is my birthday in a couple of weeks, maybe i should treat myself?

You can see more of Pauls work on his new website Battles in miniature

Fallschirmjager platoon

Here are a few shots of my Fallschirmjager platoon I recently finished. I am intending to use these with the rules of engagement rules by great escape games.

Once I finished taking these shots I realised I had my camera on the wrong setting so the close ups arnt very sharp. I have a dozen more troops to paint up to give me more options, when these are finished I will take better shots and if I have time maybe write a tutorial on the colours I have used for the camo.

Title change

I have added a subtitle to the blog to open my mumblings and photos open to my other wargaming interests. I already have a blog that covers napoleonics, Samurai and adventures in the old west.
This one will mainly concern itself with the Dark ages as I have more Vikings, Normans, Saxons, Romano-British either on the desk or in the planning stage. But for the time being my interests have moved forward and backward a thousand years. With WW2 and the age of Alexander the Great burning holes in my wargaming purse.
So for those of you just interested in the Dark ages, dont worry I have not given up. For those with a more varied interest sit back and enjoy the next few months of pics.

What happened?

Sorry for lack of updates to all those following my blogs.

I have a few excuses the main one not having a PC for a few months whilst my laptop went off for repairs, but now is just spares....

So I have had to buy another new laptop and have advised the wife not to leave the new laptop open on the floor under a glass of water clinging precariously to the edge of the bedside cabinet.

Well atleast it makes a change from having a hot iron dropped on the one before or my little angel Isabella dropping it off her lap cracking the charge port.

Yes I/we get through our laptops.

COLD STEEL 2011

sadly I never made it, due to poorly little one my youngest Grace. Talking to Darren of GB it sounds like I missed a fun day.

I have painted enough Vikings finished for 1500 points but my Arthurian army has fallen behind.

In fact whilst I think about it, one of my little cherubs has been taken ill the last 3 times I have planned a wargaming adventure. I did manage to pop and play a WW2 games on a massive 30'x 10' table which was a fantastic sight.

Sadly once the rounds started flying I neglected to take any pictures of the action.

When I got back from the game I was enthused to paint myself another platoon, especially as the British infantry platoon I took with me was going to stay permantly down south.

So I started cracking on with my Fallschirmjagers. photos to follow soon.