Fred's 2016 Painting Diary

[fred.]

Mainly Rennaisance. Some ELM codes for Irish & Scots. Mainly ECW and 30YW. These are to make European Companies for Irregular Wars, hence a right mix of stuff including a bunch of half packs (thanks Leon!). 

[Leon]

(thanks Leon!). 

No worries!   

[andys]

I know I didn't think I'd ordered that much. I think it's the bases adding a lot of volume!!

They all say that 

[fred.]

On Friday night played a couple of games of Irregular Wars - the games are nice and quick (about 90mins) so easily able to get two in on one night. Played Imperialists against Poles. My Imperialists won both games - the first one convincingly, the second was very close, with many casualties on both sides, and both Leaders being killed in the same combat in the last turn. The combination of Pike blocks and lots of infantry shooting make the Imperial army very tough. Really enjoying these rules - which is good as that pile of lead pictured above is for them!

Managed to get a little painting and some basing done - the WWI infantry and tank for the painting comp. Fortunately I've got a morning off this week, so hopefully will be able to catch up with painting comp stuff, so I can get it photographed next weekend - making the most of the closing date being on a Monday.

[fred.]

The first game

The Poles led by their Peasant Hordes move forward to the Imperial line. On the right the Polish Dragoons have moved forward quickly and engaged in a fire fight


On the right my badly deployed Cuirassiers flounder in the rocky ground - but eventually they would prove decisive  - catching a unit in the flank, destroying them, which caused loses of other units through the sight of friends routing, then managing to repeat their success with their follow-up charge.

The middle of the second battle - on strangely similar terrain

The sneaky Poles had just played a chance card, causing all my units to be out of command - for most not too much happened, but two units of shot blundered forwards to be pounced on my Polish cavalry - hence the tangled mess of cavalry in the middle, and my less than perfect battle line. But the Poles couldn't further capitalise on this success, and things swung back my way.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Looks like a heck of a pair of games!

[Techno]

And great fun, too !
Cheers - Phil

[fred.]

We are finding Irregular Wars much fun! It is a very chaotic set of rules, but this seems to represent the period in question. The battles are tactically interesting, but not so big they take forever to play. Well worth a £12 investment - and Pendraken has lots of figures for the era too.

[fred.]

Had a bonus morning to myself, so was able to make very good progress with stuff for the painting comp.

I think I'm about there with the individual entries - and can review my army entry over the next couple of evenings.

Here is a distant shot, so that Phil doesn't feel embarrassed about commenting on stuff that might be competition entries or not...

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice work Forbes! 

(Gotta love the zoom on an iPad)

[Techno]

Here is a distant shot, so that Phil doesn't feel embarrassed about commenting on stuff that might be competition entries or not...

Now, that's what I call really thoughtful, Forbes. 
You've still got more room on your cutting mat than I have, at the moment.

Cheers - Phil

[fred.]

(Gotta love the zoom on an iPad)

Very CSI!!

You've still got more room on your cutting mat than I have, at the moment.

I had a bit of a tidy up to make space for the painting comp stuff - so all the epic bits, and other stuff was carefully put away in boxes. Considering how small all the figures are they don't half take up a lot of space once you put them in boxes to organise them nicely.

[fred.]

I enjoyed painting the WWI British infantry for the painting comp, so I've been painting some more!

I don't know how long ago I sprayed these 9 sticks worth of figures - but a fair while ago.


Got the back 3 sticks painted last night, made some progress on the front 3 sticks, spending a bit of time trying to find out the colours of the flying pig mortars but with no great success. It seems the toffee apple bombs were yellowish with a red stripe.

[Womble67]

Very nice indeed

Take care

Andy

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice one Forbes

[paulr]

From memory a yellow shell means it is HE and the red band indicates it has been filled

[fred.]

Thanks chaps.

From memory a yellow shell means it is HE and the red band indicates it has been filled

From my reading I'm pretty sure that yellow is HE

[fred.]

Bit more work on the WWI British



these guys are getting close to being done. This should give me a Brigade in GWSH terms - with a few divisional heavy mortars

Also cleaned up some 30YW cavalry to hope to spray in the next day or two.

But mainly spent the evening on the phone to my Dad trying to resolve some computer issue where he had changed the date incorrectly on several thousand photos. Thank goodness for remote access and time machine backup - finally got it sorted after about 90mins. 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Yowch!

[fred.]

Haven't had much time to paint over the weekend - but managed to get some time last night and tonight, to move forward these WWI British.



The photo is a bit dark - and the figures are shiny as they have had a coat of magic wash, they will get some matt varnish tomorrow.

This is another 6 painting sticks cleared - they had been sitting on the sticks so long the double-sided tape was starting to loose its stickiness on some figures!

I've gone for a slightly rag-tag look with different helmet colours, to represent both the green and brown paint, and the different covers. Also I have used a few shades for uniforms and webbing - to try to represent the length of service and multitude of suppliers.

These chaps along with the 6 stands from the other week give me a Brigade for GWSH, along with a few divisional level extras; cavalry, heavy mortars.