White Paint Pens - part two

I tried the paint pens this week.  They are not the perfect solution but they are neater than my freehand, more consistent and a lot faster.  They do need a good shaking before each use otherwise the paint and medium separate.  I was hoping for a perfect 0.7mm or 0.5mm line and that isn't what I got.  In both cases the line is thicker as the paint spreads.  In fact the 0.7mm nib gives a narrower line than the 0.5mm as it has a tapered nib while the smaller nib is more like that on a fine liner pen.  I'd say the 0.5mm gives a line closer to 2mm while the 0.7 is around 1mm. As a result both need a bit of touching up after the paint dries but not a huge amount.  The paint goes on smoothly and dries quickly and most importantly is a good solid white even over a dark base coat like Dark Prussian Blue. 

Part painted and pre touch up on the cross belt, but you can see the coverage is good

With a paint brush I can get a better result than  the above about 25% of the time.  The problem is the other 75% of attempts!  I tend to be a bit messy with the initial coats anyway and tidy up any over painting at the end so touching up cross belts is no biggie.

After a tidy up

I shall persevere with the pens as I think that with more practice I could probably get a more consistent and thinner line. The main point is that overall I'm no worse with the pen than I am with the brush and it is a lot faster in use.  The time on touch ups is still less than the faffing about trying to get a brushed line right.  So for me pens are useful, if you are younger than me and have good eyesight and coordination the paintbrush may still be the best solution.

White paint pens

One of the trickier aspects of painting the MDF figures which have been occupying my time recently are the cross belts.  I'm over 70 now and the eyes are not as good as they were, so painting very thin white lines becomes a hit and miss task at best.  So I decided to try one of the newer technologies available paint pens for this.  After a bit of research (Ok two minutes reading Amazon reviews) I took the plunge and bought a pack of four from Pinturale Arts.  These are two each of 0.7mm and 0.5mm tipped pens which I hoped would create the fine lines I need for cross belts and the edging to horse blankets.  I have used permanent ink pens for a number of years but find that they are not always as light fast as claimed so I was not entirely convinced that these would do what they said on the tin.

These are they (or them?).

The pens them selves are quite slim so probably don't hold much paint but at under £10 for four that is less of a worry than with the more expensive makes.

Sorry about the image quality but, you know, a pen is a pen

To use them simply shake for 30 seconds and pump the nib a few times to prime it and off you go.  I tried out the 0.7mm nib and as expected the line was wider than 0.7mm but not by too much and once some of the ink had flowed it became a little more precise.  Coverage was good and it is easy to get a line unlike my attempts with a size 00 brush!  The label showing the nib size was hard to see so I took the precaution of writing on the barrels with a Sharpie so I can see what's what easily.  Once I have some more infantry ready to paint I will try the smaller nib on cross belts and report back.

Painting is back to normal

For the last few weeks painting has been a chore, not because I lost my painting mojo but because the heat made the paint go off far to quickly.  I still managed to get things done but only by dint of avoiding trying to work at the hottest part of the day.  It was the same problem with glues for basing  blink and it had gone off!  But as of this last few days we have had some very welcome rain and temperatures are actually below the seasonal average so painting is back on.

However, to paint I need good tools and I'm reluctantly coming to accept that my favourite paint brushes are coming to the end of their useful lifespan.  I can't complain they have served me well for over a decade, but their ability to hold a point has gone.  These were my first Kolinski sable brushes and to be honest they were inexpensive, given their quality, at under £5.00 a brush.  I bought some brushes from Rosemary and Co a few months back and those are very nice but I bought too many size 1 and not enough zero's or smaller.  I have to say though that I am impressed with them so far, as the points hold well even after a lot of use, and they clean fairly easily.

In respect of my painting output I have had a lot of MDF come across the painting table in the shape of the Commission Figurines Napoleonic stuff I bought at Joy of Six.  I have painted all of the British Foot I bought there, most of the French and I'm now working on some of the French mounted Dragoons.  Finding uniform details, especially for mounted types, has been a steep learning curve for someone like me with only a passing interest in the period prior to starting this project.  I used to have a hardback Osprey compilation on French Napoleonic Cavalry a few years ago but foolishly, I got rid of it as Napoleonic's were not my thing ....Doh!  Note to self never throw away reference material.

"Hang on Travellers"

 A line from the great science fiction TV series Firefly.  It's often taken as a clue that Josh Whedon the creator of the series had based the show on the SF RPG Traveller, although he has never directly confirmed this.  A quick dig around on the internet came up with this link Is Joss Whedon's Firefly based on the Traveller RPG he played? - Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange .  The comments strongly suggest it was.  Certainly the mix of weapons and technologies in the show mirrors that available in the game and the stories are the sort of thing that came up in games I played.  Even down to the prior military careers of some of the crew.  You see, in Traveller you rolled up a character who had already had a career, and gained useful skills, before becoming a freelancer, and sometimes they died during character creation,  yes Traveller had some interesting quirks folks (for a given value of interesting).  

I still have my original box set of rules on the shelf behind me as I sit typing this post but haven't played in years as I don't have a group of locals who are interested.  More to the point though for this post are the figures I still have.  These are mostly early Citadel from a range which was, I think, called Spacefarers with a couple of Minifigs and a Ral Partha casting added for variety.  The Citadel sculpts are true 25mm and for their age simply stunning castings, from the talented Perry twins.  The range was launched in 1979 and a full listing appeared in a catalogue in 1980 (it's amazing how erudite you can appear with the help of Google search)!

As nefarious a bunch as any role player could wish for

From left to right Marvin the Paranoid Android manufacturer unknown although as of a couple of years ago the range was still available on line, then two Minifigs followed by seven of the Citadel offerings and finally a lone Ral Partha figure.

I should perhaps have called this post "In the lead pile no one can hear you scream!" as I also found these un and part painted castings lurking in it's depths.

These guys would like the chance to be nefarious if only someone would paint them

A quick trawl through ebay shows prices ranging from £10 or more for an individual figure to £7 for a full set.  I suppose I should at least prime the unpainted chaps to prevent any risk of lead rot, although they have survived in an old OXO cubes presentation tin for 35 years or more so they may be safe.

Distracted....moi!

Of course I haven't been distracted.   Well not much anyway, in fact I'm confident that I can claim it isn't a case of me getting distracted but instead I'm just clearing some unpainted lead from the pile of shame.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!  The distraction, oh yes , that.  It's the part painted World War Two stuff.  Well it's low hanging fruit isn't it.  Get it cleared and it is a good start to the years targets isn't it?  A platoon of Fallschirmjager some armour and support vehicles has now crossed the painting table, been based and is ready to go.

About a decade ago I read an entertaining book by a chap called Andy Johnson called 'Seelowe Nord' covering a what if version of Operation Sealion, itself very much a what if scenario of course, in which the landings happen on the Yorkshire coast between Scarborough and Filey.  I lived in East Yorkshire at the time and the places being described were all very local to me so of course it triggered a bout of the old "ohhh shiney complex".  The idea of armoured combat over my local geography was too good to pass up and off went an order to Heroics and Ros with follow up fill ins from GHQ Micro Armor and Irregular Miniatures  I got a fair amount painted before other things distracted me and so the balance has languished in a box for a decade or so.  In a fit of sudden enthusiasm (see not distracted at all really, enthusiasm that's the ticket) I sorted through the stuff and got down to finishing off some vehicles and figures.

The might of the Wehrmacht!  Well perhaps not.

The British stuff has already been posted so I haven't pictured that again.  This batch are the Nasty Nazis.  Fallschirmjager with blue labels consisting of three rifle sections each of an LMG base and two rifle bases, plus platoon HQ and some support weapons attached from company level.  Two bases of 50mm mortars for the Panzer Grenadier platoon and a platoon of mighty Panzer IIs.  Recon provided by the four Armoured Cars.  The rest are part of the train for the SIG33 and StugIII batteries I already had.

I came up for air yesterday and realised that I have now completed 34 infantry figures, 22 assorted vehicles and eight assorted other bits, and it's only half past January.  Next stop East Yorkshire.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2026

 So it's 2026 and we are off to the races already.  But most importantly I hope everyone who reads this has a happy, healthy and prosperous 2026.  If you are not reading this, well.......

Now to business I have completed some of the part painted GHQ armour today and the 2026 lead pile spreadsheet is updated for the first time.  Note to self perhaps I should get out more.

Looking ahead I have the main part of the next two 17th Century posts completed. I just need to add some numerical stuff and list the sources I used.  These will cover German and Holy Roman Empire forces in the Thirty Years War.  After that I'm not sure what the themes for the year will be.  Hopefully more games so more game reports.  I still have a lot of stuff to paint and base and a few things to catalogue, these are Wild West and Sci-Fi figures mainly.  So you can expect some mind numbingly boring posts of the "wot I done lately" theme.

I will be trying to get these completed this month (the two left most rows are already done)

Interestingly (or perhaps not) the half tracks (M3s I think) in the photo are the oldest castings I own (of any genre or scale) as they must have been bought back in the mid 1970's.  Trust me it shows in the sculpting and casting quality.  I suspect they are early H&R or possibly Skytrex.  They seem huge against the H&R German Kfz70 trucks so I checked the dimensions via Wikipedia.  The M3/M5/M9 half tracks were bigger than the Kfz70 by around four feet in length.  However the casting is over scale by about 10 - 12% length wise although, oddly,  the width isn't far off being correct.  I'm not sure if I should keep them as museum pieces or bin them.  I'll have a go at tarting them up and see where to go from there.

The ten I have completed are early war British Cruiser tanks A9 and A10.

British Cruiser tanks 1930's designs which soldiered on until 1941-2

The A9 and A10 pictured above were very similar.  The A9 having the two MG turrets over the driver's position while the A10 did away with those as they were found to be shot traps.

This image popped up on Face Book as 12 years ago!  The original H&R order

You might recognise some of the vehicles in the above photo as being in the earlier part painted shot!  Worse than that some are still bare metal in the lead pile.  Yes dear reader, I really am that lackadaisical about painting projects.  Lets see how many I can clear in 2026 eh?  No taking bets at the back there.  Alright put down for a fiver on not all of them!

That was 2025, that was

Another year is rapidly coming to an end and joining rather more of them than I care to think about in the rear view mirror of life.  It's been a mixed year with health problems  both for myself and the esteemed Mrs E.  Mine seem to have been dealt with fairly successfully but Mrs E has appointments, potions and lotions to be attended, consumed and applied. Hopefully in that order as I'm unsure how to attend a potion!  Wargaming and modelling life has continued in the usual fashion and as usual I have reviewed the year to keep me motivated.  The key points (and I know you are gagging to know this stuff) are as follow.

The objectives I set myself were

• Complete the following DBA armies and ideally extend them to ADLG size: 
• Early Byzantine Army (its about half way there), 
• Goths (Ostro and Visi),  
• Hunnic 
• Other Germanic types (Franks, early Saxons, Lombards etc).
• Early Moors
• Finish the year with less unpainted stuff than I started with
• Rebase my 6mm British Civil war troops
• Build a couple of 2mm armies for Strength and Honour
• Play some ADLG
• Play some Strength and Honour
• Put together some sort of AI system for use in solo games

So how did I do?

The Goths, other German types and Huns can now field a m9inimum of the full 12 element DBA armies.  The other Germans achieved this by means of proxying Goths and Anglo Saxons though.  The Moors are still short of the basic DBA twelve elements but the missing figures are in the paint queue.  The Early Byzantines stalled mainly as I couldn't decide if I should buy the new Baccus figures to replace my proxy figures.  Lets call that a 3.5 from 5 score.

I finished the year with a smaller lead pile than I started it with, even with the additional figure purchases taken into account.  I started with 1,123 6mm figures and vehicles unpainted and ended with 1,080.  But during the year I had added 640 figures so the total output for the year was 683 6mm figures and vehicles.  I even reduced the world war two 6mm lead pile by a mighty eight castings!  The 25mm plus pile of shame hasn't moved although some work occurred but without anything being actually finished.  But again it is a win.

All my British Civil War figures were rebased and some unpainted ones painted and based for the first time.  I even extended the army by moving into the Thirty Year's War with new figures.  So that is a definite win.

I also created a small Russo-Japanese War naval fleet which was not on my radar for 2025, but, you know how it is, enthusiasms come (and go).

Now we come to the outright fails.  I sort of lost interest in building 2mm Strength and Honour armies partly because I saw some of Mark Backhouse's 6mm work and thought that it would be much easier to use my existing 6mm ancients for the game system.  I abandoned the solo AI system as I found a couple of existing systems that seem to have solved the issues I was getting bogged down in, not that I have bought anything as yet.

As for playing some games of Strength and Honour or ADLG.  Well what can I say I have had a very poor year for actually getting games on the table so It should come as no surprise to find I failed these objectives.  Must do better as my primary school teacher used to say.

Overall I'm happy with what I managed in 2025, I'm not getting any younger and sooner or later will have to accept that I should dial back on my hobby ambitions, but this is not that day!  So on to new objectives for 2026.

These are:

• Finish 2026 with a smaller lead pile
• Complete the following DBA armies:
• Early Byzantine
• Hunnic
• Early Moors
• Add more TYW units
• Play more games
• Add 6mm WW2 to database
• Add 6mm WW1 to the database
• Add 20mm and larger scale stuff to the database
• Add buildings, camps and other terrain to the data base

In general I want all my collection catalogued, you know just in case some has to dispose of it without my help.  I will probably not add any further DBA 6mm armies other than those listed, although I may extend some of those I already have beyond the basic DBA lists.  It seems a updated version of DBA is on the horizon and also I'm intrigued by the concepts within the new fantasy version DBF, especially the points system so I might get side tracked there.  Come on now, you know me of old, the one constant is I can never stick to a plan!

POST SCRIPT

I managed a full recount of unpainted 6mm on hand on New Year's Eve and it was slightly higher than expected at 1,143!  But the actual movement between castings added and castings completed and based still reflects a net reduction of 43 castings.  So still a win even with an extra 63 castings on hand.

These Matilda's don't waltz

For the last few years a motley bunch of early World War Two vehicles have been lurking in the deepest dankest depths of the lead pile.  Some were almost complete with others rather less so.  In a fit of unexpected enthusiasm and looking for a break from hordes of Goths I dragged some of them kicking and screaming into the light of the painting queue the other day.  I found three packs of GHQ British armour and some Heroics & Ros Germans part painted and decided that some British Matilda IIs would be a decent place to start.  They had been undercoated (probably a decade ago if I'm honest) and had had the green and black camouflage applied but nothing else.  So off to finishing school they went.

The detail on these little GHQ castings is insane

The GHQ castings are things of beauty and deserve a far better job of painting than I can muster, but as there is only me here to do the job I set to work.  Gun metal for the tracks and a light dry brush of pale sand to pick out details and suggest a layer of summer dust coupled with a thinned wash of Agrax Earthshade later and it was on to mounting them onto some bases.  These are probably only a temporary measure as they really deserve something more robust than a card rectangle but for now I'm calling these done as I'm not going to worry about adding any 6mm transfers to them.  To be honest I don't think they look to bad for a quick paint job.

Something Panzer's don't want to meet at a billabong

I have some Cruiser Mk I A9 and Cruiser Mk II A10 in the pile also from GHQ so will probably finish those off next.

Trying to hit a moving target

This is not a post about the odds of hitting something with a projectile weapon, but a reflection on the wargaming  targets I set myself for this year.  You see they moved, I wasn't looking and suddenly my priorities changed.  Or possibly I became side tracked.  I don't have a laser focussed, hard edged focus on my targets so it was bound to happen.  This year my interest in creating 2mm armies for Strength and Honour was replaced by an interest in completing my 6mm pike and shot army.  If I do anything with those rules I will actually go with my existing 6mm armies.  My focus on DBA armies which are contemporary with my Late Imperial Romans has remained and my wish to build up some Goths and other assorted migration period Germanic types has also survived.  

As a result my painting time has been given over to painting Goth Warbands and 17th century Bavarian Cuirassiers of late.  I'm here to tell you that painting that blue and white checked Bavarian flag is damn tricky in 6mm too.  I'm reminded of the early versions of the FIFA football video game where the graphics were incapable of showing Blackburn Rover's blue and white halved shirts so they instead used an average tone of pale blue all over!  I tried I really did but I just can't get the lozenges the right shape, and that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  My Bavarians will have to live with some dodgy diagonal stripes on their flags.  Still progress has been made and so far this month I have finished two bases of ten Cuirassiers and three of 16 Goth foot warriors.

The Goths as they currently stand (or for the cavalry sit)

Adding those to earlier figures I painted earlier in the year gives me the army shown above.  These can be any flavour of Goth or even Vandals I suppose.  They can fight alongside a Hunnic force as allies and at a pinch stand in for Franks or early Saxons.

Hopefully this will be the Roman view of them, from behind as they retreat

This painting output has had the bonus effect of pushing me over my painting target for 2025, yes folks the lead pile is currently 30 figures smaller than it was on 1st  January.  I'm not 100% on target as I have slightly more foot figures than I started with but the amount of cavalry and miscellaneous stuff like artillery and dragoons I have completed has taken me over the total figure count target.  That includes adjusting for the number of figures bought during the year as well.

But what about the moving targets?  Well I have taken some items off the list and added a couple to it.  The plan to extend my DBA armies out to being basic ADLG army size is no longer a priority.  I doubt I will have time to finish my Hunnic or Moorish DBA forces either.  I do have all the figures for the Moors but would need to buy more Huns to get me over the line on that one.  So I have punted all those down the road for the moment.  I'm still torn over what do about the Early Byzantinian DBA army.  At the moment it is entirely made up of proxy figures, but I am very tempted to grab some of the new Baccus figures to replace the current infantry, who would then revert to their Sassanid allegiance.  I suppose I might just get the Moors over the line if I get some serious painting time in, but then again I might not as there are a lot of light cavalry to work through.

It's good to be flexible I suppose, and important to be realistic about what I can achieve over the next few weeks.  Watch this space, as they say, although it is unlikely I might just surprise all of us before 31 December comes around.

Painting Irregular Miniatures Covenantor shot

So far so good with regard to 2025 and painting, my mojo remains intact and shows no signs of wandering off on vacation again.  Painting Scottish Covenantors is fairly quick compared to the ancients I have been doing where there is a lack of uniformity.  Mostly its a case of give them a coat of Hodden Grey and pick out a few details and done.  The problem is I'm running out of Scot's infantry until Irregular reopen sales of 6mm figures or Ian Kay takes pity on me.  Still I have lots of other BCW 6mm to paint so all is well.

Hodden Grey...it's grey but what shade exactly?

So what shade of grey was Hodden Grey.  The answer is that isn't the right question!  Hodden Grey was a type of cloth rather than an exact shade.  It was made by mixing the wool of one dark fleece with wool from about a dozen white ones.  Now as white and dark cover a multitude of sins when it comes to sheep the resulting colour would vary from a neutral mid grey through to grey with a brown tinge!  which is nice when mixing paint shades as it is very forgiving.

For these I primed white and gave a thin wash of black ink to bring out the detail and a bit of pre-shading.  Bases got a coat of Vallejo Khaki as it is a good match for my basing sand and then it was time to slap on a coat (and britches) of grey.  This was literally a slap on job as at this stage accuracy doesn't really matter.  Dotting in the faces and hands and a dark brown for the muskets, a pale blue for the bonnets and a mix of red brown for hair and the job is almost done.  Last pick out some straps and scabbards in a light brown and a few lower legs in a contrasting colour to high light the hose (hoes?  long socks).  Once that's dry (a matter of a couple of minutes with acrylics) a coat of satin varnish for protection and a wash of Agrax Eathshade.  I leave them upside down on the painting sticks balanced between two paint pots to get the ink to pool where shadows would naturally be and then lastly a touch of silver where gun barrels can be seen and a bit of the light blue to ensure the bonnets 'pop'.  All done in under an hour if you ignore drying times.

The Irregular figures paint up well and have the advantage of being available in individual strips (or will be as and when they come back on the market).

These will be joining Crawford Lindsey's regiment

The castings have improved a lot over the years from the original dolly peg style figures and are not far behind Baccus now in terms of quality.  I emailed Ian Kay about filling the gaps in my project and he has said he hopes to be more organised in about a month's time and to ask again then, which sounds promising.  So for now it's on to some Scottish Lancers as the next units.

Giving ADLG a proper go

I only have the edition of ADLG prior to the current one and other than a couple of games against Paul Dawson I haven't really played many games with these, or the current version of the rules.  However, I got to thinking (dangerous as always) that building a couple or three 120pt armies from my existing troops wasn't too much of a stretch after building a standard DBA Army.  This is also known as rampant expansionism, mission creep or a simple 'ooh shiny complex'.  The only issue I can see is the almost automatic urge to just add a few more options to cover all the bases to build a standard 200pt ADLG army.  Before you know it I could be up to DBM/DBMM figure counts!

The difference between the figure counts is less pronounced with cavalry heavy armies as these use a single base in both ADLG and DBA.  Infantry heavy armies with two bases for heavy and medium infantry in ADLG are where things really show up.  Lets have a look at the difference using a Late Imperial Roman force as an example (because it is somewhere in the middle as a 'combined arms force).

There isn't a great deal in the way of alternatives in the DBA army list for the Western Late Imperials.  Two legionary elements, three auxilia, two light cavalry and two cavalry (which include the general) are mandatory which covers 75% of the army!  The remaining three elements provide options as follow.  Firstly two of Auxilia Palatina or Velites (can be one of each), then lastly one from Clibanarii (3Kn), Catafractarii/Alans (4Kn), legionaries, bolt shooters, Lanciarii (3Bd) or warband .  So optional choices are limited.  For my last three elements I went with options of 1 x Auxilia Palatina, 1 x Velites and 1 x Catafracts (4Kn).  Oh and for what it's worth the Eastern Empires options are even less flexible!

Late Imperial Romans as a 12 Element DBA 3.0 army plus camp

One thing I have noted is that the Late Imperial Roman army list defines Clibanarii as 4Kn and Catafracts as 3Kn, I think this is the wrong way around as most lists show cataphracts as 4Kn which is why I changed them in the last paragraph! 

Late Imperial Romans as a 200pt ADLG force with two commands

Next lets look at the ADLG version, I excluded Foederati (Huns, Goths etc) to make the comparison closer, My selection still only has 12 units. However, it looks bigger as it has separate bases for it's two generals and of course the heavy and medium infantry are double based. What is less obvious is that this army has two commands so it's more like Big Battle DBA, it also has a fortified camp which prevents Light Cavalry raids on it. On top of which it has paid points for special capabilities for some units.

The Final selections were; First command   a brilliant general, 1 x Elite Heavy cavalry (Impact), 1 x Equites Sagittarii Light cavalry, 1 x Elite Cataphracts, 1 x Equites Heavy Cavalry (Impact)1 x Elite Legionaries (Impact, Armour, Missile Support), 1 x Elite Auxilia Palatina (Impact, Missile Support).  Second command, an ordinary general,  2 x Legionaries (Armour, Impact, Missile Support),  2 x Auxilia Palatina (Impact, Missile support), 2 x  Light Infantry Archers.  Plus a Fortified Camp.

 

A better view of the ADLG army

ADLG differs from DBA in that it has a points based army creation system so it has those interesting moments of self doubt about making choices, just like the old WRG ancients army list quandaries.   You know, the should I make those Hun horse archers elite or take a unit of light infantry archers instead kind of thing, rather than the straight 12 element choice of DBA.   It also has special capabilities (as shown above) in some lists.  So the Legionaries above can have armour, missile support and elite status as options. Me being, well, me I have gone for armour and missile support for the Legionaries, impact is mandatory  For the auxilia again missile support and mandatory impact.  The mounted command also took the elite option for it's the infantry reserve.

ADLG has other things going for it too that I like, light infantry and cavalry archers actually shoot at stuff, and units degrade rather than die in an all or nothing way.  Why I haven't used the rules more I really don't know, as I do really like 'chrome' within the rules of a game and the extra figures gives the whole army a better appearance.  

Any way as a result of all of this thinking my painting table is now packed again, after I did really well in November in clearing stuff down.  The western gunfight figures are on the back burner (or is that the left side burner as per the picture), as masses of Baccus 6mm horsemen take centre stage. These are mostly Late Roman/Early Byzantine horse archers and Hunnic heavy cavalry who will be proxying as Byzantine Boukellarioi.  It's a good thing I like painting horses.

I haven't imposed the mess which is my painting table on you for a while!

As you can probably tell I'm having a bit of an upsurge with my painting mojo after a fairly slow year.  I cleared 128 infantry and 30 cavalry figures from the lead pile in November and at this rate will be ahead by a couple of hundred figures compared to January 1st.  Retirement eh, what is it good for?  Well painting teeny tiny soldiers apparently!

British Civil War 6mm forces

These are my oldest 6mm figures and are all from Irregular Miniatures.  I bought most of them from the wargames shop that used to be near King's Cross station back in the late 1980's or early 1990's.  After the intervening 30 plus years they are a little battered and in need of some TLC and a rebase.  Some are still awaiting the touch of a paint brush and a first base!

So here they all are.  Zoom in too see the details

Most of them are the original Irregular Miniatures designs with musketeers that are cast standing feet together with musket at port across the chest and that made them fragile.  Unsurprisingly a number have snapped off, or are in danger of snapping off, at the ankles.  Some are the later design which are more robust and have more animation to them.  Those have alternating firing and loading figures on each strip which isn't how I want them.  I prefer a rank to be all firing, all loading or all standing waiting rather than a mixture.  Still a bit of careful work with side cutters will solve that.

Old style musketeers on show here.  Painted 30 years ago.

And here are the newer style figures painted much more recently.

I'm struggling to decide how to rebase these figures.  The pikemen are cast in close order, shoulder to shoulder with no way to split them down. so I am stuck with the casting's frontages of 20mm or multiples of that.  The shot are on 30mm frontages and cavalry on 25mm so unlike DBA or ADLG I can't use a standard base frontage.  I may have to go old school and count each strip as being 100 men and just live with the different frontages as showing different order, pike in close order and shot in order.  No matter what I decide to do, there will have to be an order heading off to Warbases in due course as nothing in my pile of DBA style bases will match.  Plus as you can see from the first image there is some painting to be done!  The other issue is that I will have to ask  Irregular if they can supply the figures needed to complete some units as they are not retailing their 6mm range at present.

More Moors

The Moors are coming along nicely.  As usual I'm starting by building a DBA3 army but will probably extend to a small L'Arte De La Guerre (ADLG) army later.  In part this is because DBA and ADLG have different ways of depicting the different parts of the army.  

With DBA there is a standard army of 12 elements which depicts the General, and his bodyguard, as one of those 12 elements and defines him as being a standard DBA troop type (with a bonus in combat).  ADLG on the other hand has generals either as a separate base that can be attached and unattached from any unit of the army or as an attached general permanently linked to a single unit (pretty much as in DBA).  On top of which many ADLG infantry units consist of the equivalent of two DBA elements.  That makes it easier (and cheaper) to start with the DBA version of an army, which is why I started where I have.  Come on you all knew I was a cheapskate!  ADLG also uses an army selection points system with standard games having a 200 point budget. There is a version closer to DBA army size using 100 or 120 points.  That said even at the lower point values an ADLG army is likely to have between 30 to 40% more bases than the DBA equivalent because of the infantry basing system.

Anyway back to the moors (cries of Cathy...Heathcliff in a strange North African tongue should now be ringing in your ears, No? OK maybe that's just me then?).  The General's element is now completed along with the additional infantry.  After some thinking and a query to the hive mind on TMP I decided to use Late Roman Heavy Cavalry castings to differentiate the General from his underlings...er... I mean brave fighting men.  I removed the Draco standard from the command figure group and replaced it with one based upon the Infantry standard.  Which may be wrong but at least it's a standard.

All the army to date, but...wait for it...there is moor to come

When it comes to painting horses I rather like liver chestnut and bay horses as the mainstay of my cavalry. To my eye nothing says 'horse' as much as the black tail and manes of a bay. I do throw in some pure brown, black and greys for variety and the very occasional pure chestnut and roan. I rarely do units in 6mm with all the horses in the same coat colours as these are troops on campaign not the parade ground. If you do spot a unit all of one colour watch out, it will be something or someone a bit special and probably has more oomph than other cavalry formations.

The general's element for DBA

As a final thought I realise that I should have created a Moorish army years ago, honestly the scope for puns is huge!  For a start they are almost all bare headed, not a cap to be seen, although I doubt many have been to Ilkley Moor.  I will leave you to work that one out. 😉

The More the Merrier

Or in this case 'The Moor the Merrier' or Mauri, it's the North West African chaps who are the focus of this post.  I was looking through my lead pile and realised that I had bought a couple or three packs of Moorish Infantry.  These were used for various Dark Age types like the Welsh Princedoms and Dal Radian Scots.  The castings are bare legged and only have a tunic so they can be pressed into service as any number of lower class skirmishing foot types in that period.  I have sufficient of those for the time being so I decided to use them as Mr Berry intended, well I had quite a lot of them more (or should that be moor) than enough to cover the DBA3 infantry requirements for a Later Moorish army.

With very little variation in clothing choices, which meant a restricted palette, painting looked like it was going to be easy.  White(ish) tunic,  some dyed cloaks dark skin tone and then just animal skin shields in a mid brown, hair in a dark colour and weapons.   Well at least it it looked easy!  Moors didn't have the really dark skins of Sub-Saharan Africans  so getting that shade right took a few goes and as for the white tunics....Arghh!  White is one of those colours which is difficult to shade (I really must try a contrast type white paint at some point) and it took me a few attempts before I came up with an system that I was happy with.

I started with a white undercoat courtesy of Halfords ever reliable rattle can automotive primer.  I pre-shading on that but didn't like the contrast it gave.  So I had a cup of tea and a bit of a think ( but didn't take off any handles or things what hold the candles*) and decided on a new approach.  I painted all the tunics in Vallejo Bone white which is more of a pale coffee brown and all the flesh in Vallejo German Camouflage Brown a darker mid brown with a hint of something else in the mix possibly blue.  Only then did I apply a thinned wash of GW Agrax Earth Shade.  After which I dry brushed the tunics in Vallejo Ivory and then picked out some high spots in Vallejo Pure White.  It sounds like a lot of work but it doesn't take as long as you might think.  Adding some variations between black and chocolate brown for hair and some pale brown for javelin shafts pretty much completed the main paining.  A coat of varnish and the final touch of silver for spear points and bronze to officers' helmets and that was job done.

A gratuitous close up so you can see the final effect on those pesky tunics

Basing is my usual block paving sand and fine flock patches.  I used less flock than normal as Moors live in the Semi-Arid lands of North West Africa.  I will have to order some Moorish cavalry next time I'm buying from Baccus, then the Moors can be off to the races (see what I did there?). I have completed 44 of the infantry to date and have a further 36 on the painting table nearing completion.

A few more Moors (sorry I couldn't resist it), there are more to come (sorry, not sorry) 

The Moors are an interesting army in DBA, a general who is either cavalry or light cavalry, five Light Cavalry and six javelin armed foot who can be a mix of  light infantry or fast auxilia. Not a lot of punch but a whole lot of nuisance value.

As an aside, and I may already have posted about this.  I read something on a blog a while ago which has been a game changer in terms of brush care.  The occasional use of alcohol based hand sanitiser gel to clean brushes!  The gel means it sticks to the brush and it removes acrylic paint a treat, being clear also means you can see what is being shifted too.  It doesn't seem to damage the glue holding the hair in place, although I take the precaution of washing them out in warm water with a drop of Mrs E's shampoo in it afterwards.  After a second rinse they get a bit of hair conditioner then a final rinse and dry.

* For the education of younger readers go look for Bernard Cribbins' song "Right Said Fred".  It's a tale of the trials and tribulations of two removal men.  As an aside we had a second hand upright piano when I was very young that had both handles and things what held candles!  Life eh?

Edited 24 November 2024 to remove some typos I spotted

The Painting Table - April 2023

Stand by for a shock, there is some space on the painting table! This is because s a few 28mm gunfight figures have been completed. I’m hoping that my grasshopper mind will not find a new project to fill it! In turn that means that the WW2 rebasing project will be on the back burner for a while, otherwise that space is definitely going to disappear.

As if by magic a space has appeared.  I'm betting it won't last!

Well this lot would quickly fill that space upstairs!

As well as those 28mm figures I also finished a couple more small buildings for De Lancy.  The town is starting to take shape now and so I have started to think about the town layout.

Three more border ruffians, two Dixon's and one possibly Minifigs

May is already looking like being a productive month.  I have bought a couple of metres of a mottled light brown felt fabric that will be a great start for use with De Lancy.  I think with some darker areas sponged on and the occasional grass green point it will make a nice arid high plain mat.  I’m also working on more buildings with the aim of being ready for a game late in the month.  I'm still running two work spaces as there is still a temporary building construction site downstairs on the kitchen table as De Lancy grows.  I'm holding off on major purchases of MDF building kits as our tow car recently bit the dust and we are saving to buy a replacement and as a result I don't feel I can drop a £50 or so for each of the Sarissa Precision kits I fancy. 

Basis for an arid terrain cloth.  The image appears darker than reality

 Other than that there isn't much to report.

The Painting table - March 2023

I took a bit of a break from painting and modelling during March, so the report is a bit sparse this month. As regular readers will already know I finished the 2mm ACW project early in the month and towards the end of March I took a paint brush to two of my Vapnartak western shootist purchases but didn't completely finish either one. I also took a look around the various unfinished projects that litter the hobby room and decided that I would have to rebase the 6mm 1940 stuff as part of bringing that project to a conclusion, although I'm not sure that planning counts for the purposes of this monthly update!

One thing I have rediscovered is that my 6mm painting technique really doesn't cut it for 28mm stuff.  I was never a great painter at that scale and my old technique based on Humbrol enamels as used on 25 mm Hinchcliffe ancients doesn't look right, so it was back to basics.  I'm not 100% happy with my results but I'm hoping that with practice that will improve.

I have found the Galloping Major style of sculpting slightly easier to paint than the Empress figures as the folds in the clothing are more pronounced which makes shading easier.  I will have figures from both ranges completed soon and you will be able to make your own minds up as to which you prefer.

Galloping Major's 'Soldiers Free' figure

The Painting Table - January 2023

Although two 2mm artillery batteries were completed this month (as I needed them for 1st Manassas) most of what I have completed was the terrain making for that battlefield.  I did complete two more 28mm Wild West buildings too, but mostly it was terrain.

My lead pile grew, or at least the 2mm part of it did thanks to David Blair's gift.  I haven't done a full count yet but there are at least 500 castings ranging from terrain to skirmish order infantry castings.  I sorted and put to one side those I will need to complete the 2mm ACW project and that will be the next thing I work upon.  I also need to give the painting station and office a really good tidying!  That could take some time and involve sorting through some boxes I probably haven't looked through since we moved in here five or six years ago!  If blog posts dry up you may need to send search parties as some of those boxes could hold portals to Narnia.

The painting table currently holds some 28mm Wild West figures in various stages of completion, some Brigade Models 3mm buildings and a variety of 6mm Baccus stuff.  That latter 6mm goodness includes some Pictish cavalry, some Sassanid infantry proxying as Byzantine scutarii and a selection of dark age command figures.  Lurking at the very back are a few Brigade Model 3mm buildings.  By my standards of late that is a fairly clear table.

I'm also stunned to find that I have already hit one of this year's targets, I played a face to face game of Altar of Freedom and I'm closing in on two more.  Those being the wild west town where I have five completed buildings and the minimum to hit target was six, and the 2mm ACW army.  All those figures and bases are prepped and ready for paint!  It's almost like I'm efficient...almost!

No picture of the table this month as TBH it's pretty boring.

The Painting Table -December 2022 and the 2022 Review.

I'm merging the December Painting table update and the annual review into a single post this month, so eyes down here we go!

HQ's and Generals for Altar of Freedom

The headline news is that the Huns have finally left the table.  Fully painted and based as of 27 December.  To quote the late great Douglas Adams "I love deadlines.  I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by!"  Although the deadline for getting the Huns off the table has passed so many times this year it no longer had the energy to go woosh.  I also got all of the 2mm castings I purchased in November done so I have finished the year without increasing the size of the lead pile, for I think, the third year in a row.  I even found time to finish a single 28mm figure as well.

15 completed cavalry brigades for AoF

It’s also time to take stock of 2022. No matter what else I remember about this year, first and foremost it will always be the year we lost George.  However, sad as that was there are other things to recall too so let’s look at some of them.  This was the year when we started to put Covid-19 behind us.  As a result Sealed Knot re-enactment returned to something like normal.  I made it to the August Bank Holiday event, although Mrs E arranged matters to prevent my taking the field.  She did this by the simple expedient of going off site in the car with all my kit inside!  Probably for the best as the display field was a very steep hill side.  I’m more hopeful of taking part in events in 2023.

I managed some actual wargaming during the year too.  Both the solo games I blogged about and latterly some remote gaming via Zoom with Trebian’s Monday Night Gamers, you know the ones who meet on a Tuesday evening.  I also played my first games of ADLG version 4 following an invite to spend a day in York getting to know the rules from Paul Dawson.  By my count I managed one western shootout, four Tuesday night games (spread across history from Alexandrian by way of the Reconquista to Normandy in 1944 via the French Wars of Religion), and two games of ADLG.  I even won one of the ADLG games albeit with some substantial mentoring. 

In the autumn I began attending a modelling club, which had started recently, here in town.  It has an interesting mix of attendees ranging from GW Warhammer kit builders through diorama makers, model truck and train makers to me with my Wild West town builds.  Most of the Warhammer fans have never actually played a game and were unaware of historical wargaming as a hobby (The GW blinker effect as I have taken to calling it) they were stunned that you could by figures without needing a mortgage too.  My Wild West shootout stuff has created some interest in trying a game though and there is talk of them even playing  some actual Warhammer.

My painting has taken a bit of a backseat to modelling this year and I have made my first 1/56 scale scratch built buildings as well as my first MDF kit in that scale.  In fact the uncovering of the 28mm old west figures in my lead pile earlier in the year has triggered a return to skirmish gaming for the first time in nearly half a century!  The 2mm ACW project will be complete soon I only need the models for the outstanding artillery units to be done.  

I suppose I should look back on the objectives I set for the last year if no other reason than I don't actually recall what they were!  So I'm guessing I may not have done particularly well in meeting them.  (Brief intermission while Elenderil changes screens to check the 2022 spreadsheets).

BBC test card F - This takes me back

Intermission over we now return to our program.

My objectives for 2022 were adjusted mid year to remove the War of the roses DBA armies and the armies and enemies of EL Cid DBA armies.  What was left was this:

• Complete the 2mm ACW armies
• Create a base line Hunnic army
• Reduce the lead pile
• Recount all the figures |(for ego and insurance purposes)
• Play some actual wargames!

As mentioned above I haven't quite finished the 2mm ACW armies so that's a narrow miss.  Rolled over to 2023 ready for some games with real life opponents.

Base line Hunnic Army I'm calling done as I have sufficient light cavalry and need to add some heavy cavalry and subject allies.  New objective required for 2023 of complete the Hunnic Army.

I have played some actual games - so objective met there.

In terms of the lead pile I have 84 less 6mm castings than I started the year with.  So only the odd 1,200 6mm figures left to deal with!  2mm/3mm is down by 25 3mm vehicles although I have painted way more 2mm ACW than that but these were the November purchases so in strictness those 882 figures balance out (maybe I should count castings rather than the figures they represent in future?).  Lastly the 20mm plus lead pile is down by 7 foot figures.  So The lead pile has shrunk -objective met.

And I recounted the completed figures - another objective met.

All in all I did better than I thought, and as an aside creating and publishing objectives has actually kept me close to being on track over the year.

So without further ado here are some objectives for 2023:

• Finish the 2mm ACW armies
• Play some face to face games of Altar of Freedom using those armies
• Complete the DBA Hunnic Army (probably going for the army of Attila)
• Complete a DBA Gothic army
• Reduce the lead pile
• Attend some wargames shows (Vapnartak and one of the Newark shows?)
• Finish painting the 28mm Wild West figures
• Build at least a small main street for 28mm gunfights (lets call that a minimum of six buildings/corrals)
• Finish Painting the 6mm WW1 aeroplanes

That should keep me going for a while.  So that's 2022 all wrapped up onwards we go for another trip around the sun.

The Painting Table - June 2022

So what is the state of play this month?  Well there are still some 2mm ACW sat waiting for finishing touches, but not the same ones as last month.  Something like 60 bases of 2mm ACW stuff  has passed over the table in the last month.  In fact most of my out put has been 2mm ACW.  The number of 2mm buildings has also reduced significantly, although I did put some back into the lead pile as JBM had very kindly given me painted versions of the same buildings, so no point in duplicating until I need to.  

New to the table are the bulk of the generals I will need for Altar of Freedom (Those are the square bases) these just need the odd bit of work here and there to complete them so they will be gone by the end of the week.

The 6mm ancients are still sat there although a few additional licks of pain have been applied, so they are moving forwards now.  So all in all a productive month especially as I snuck in a long weekend away with Mrs E to see The Eagles at the BST Festival in Hyde Park and very good they were too.  Still a couple of days left in the month as well.

Still crowded but less than last month!

The painting table - May 2022

My painting table is unusually crowded at the moment.  Mainly this is due to the 2mm ACW production line.  On the table are bases that just need the bases a dry brushing in green so they will be out of the way PDQ.  Towards the top right are a couple of 2mm artillery bases but I can't rebase these until more MDF bases arrive in the relevant size

There are also some Brigade Models small scale scenery buildings from their Medieval and ACW ranges and some 6mm Hun Light cavalry, from both Irregular and Baccus. The later have been waiting on my attention for quite a while now!  There are also a few bits n bobs awaiting repurposing for my 6mm ancient armies and a small number of O8 3mm armoured vehicles for the 1980's cold war gone hot games.

The current state of play

I'm going to try to make inroads into these before I post a June painting table update, well it would be embarrassing to keep posting the same picture wouldn't it!  Lot's to do and so little time to do it so if I don't make progress feel free to nag at me!