Fred's 2014 Painting Diary

[fred.]

Took advantage of the good weather today, to make a really big hill from a big chunk of polystyrene.

Did the cutting directly over the wheely bin, then painted it (with the help of my eldest daughter) on the 'bistro table'. Said bistro table had been carefully covered with a big painting cloth to avoid any accidents.



and as it might appear in the next game

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

If you ever feel the need to make another...

Excellent Fred! 

[Techno]

That is terrific, Fred !
Cheers - Phil

[fred.]

Glad you like it chaps - I feel it is a case of quantity have a quality of its own, as it is a bit rough and ready up close, but presents enough mass to work well. I like these projects that come from nothing to completion in an afternoon.

If you ever feel the need to make another...

Well, that was from the smallest chunk of polystyrene sheet in the shed! We got rid of a small sofa bed last year (ish!) and when I pulled it apart to take to the tip, I discovered it was largely made of polystyrene sheet. So I still have the two arms, which I am thinking of making into an even larger hill.

[fred.]

Continuing the terrain theme - I decided to finish off the last half of my Roman fort. I got this last Christmas, and quite quickly painted half the pieces, then the rest have been rather languishing. Don't know why, as it only took about an hour to finish the painting off last night, and a bit of flock today. Some photos with the painted 5% of my late Roman army.

[Techno]

Does that look like the business, or what ?
Great stuff Fred !
Cheers - Phil

[fred.]

Ta.

It does look good - mainly down to the quality of the model - which paints up so quickly and easily. Why it has taken me so long to get round to finishing it, is a good question, and one I will be side-stepping.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Very cool Fred! 

[petercooman]

Looks great!

[fred.]

Continuing my butterfly attention span - I have painted some Mongols today.

Rather crappy phone picture - and basing only really started. Also need to give them all a wash, and probably some highlights.



There is a lot of detail on these figures, they take quite a bit of painting. I sprayed these in a couple of shades of brown, and 1 lot in black. As I thought this would help with the horses, but I ended up changing the colour of most of the horses, so I think next batch will all get black under coat, as it helps more with the defining some of the edges better on the riders.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice start Fred!

[FierceKitty]

Late comment, but that's a super camp. evge!, as we Romans say.

[Ric]

Hi Fred, can I ask what size bases you are using for your kings of war figures? I'm thinking about using 60x30 for troops, 40x40 for monsters/war machines and 25x25 for individuals. I agree that the warmaster basing is a little small for kow!

[fred.]

Hi Ric, welcome, and a nice blog.

For KoW we were starting with WM based figures, so made some decisions based on how they would fit together. We decided to stick with movement and ranges as written.
We went with infantry regiment with 80x60mm area. Cavalry with 100x80mm. War Engines at 40x40mm, and individuals at 25mm round.

For more recent stuff stuff as the centaurs I have done unit basing, and like the look the extra space gives.

Your 60x30mm size for a troop would work well - I don't think that the frontage is critical in KoW. It is probably important to keep cavalry on bigger bases than infantry to make them a bit less manoverable.  What distances were you thinking of going with.

[fred.]

Late comment, but that's a super camp. evge!, as we Romans say.

Ta FK.

I am working on a broken down wall section to show battle damage. Mainly blue foam, but I going to attempt some press moulding to get the wall textures (the white painted bits)

I've also remembered that I was going to make some gates.

[Ric]

Thanks for the nice welcome Fred!

I think we are definitely going to go with 60x30 for troops, so 60x60 for regiments and 120x60 for hordes,  for cavalry I was going to use the same 60x30 base for a troop (5 cavalry), but now I'm not sure..cavalry bases for a 28mm kow figure is 20x50 right? So maybe a 60x60 would be better for cavalry troops?

[fred.]

Glad to have you aboard.

If you go with 60mm frontage for infantry, then strictly a troop would be 24mm deep, and a regt 50mm deep
And cavalry would be 75mm wide and 30mm deep for a troop. 60mm deep for a regt.

I suspect the extra 1.5cm frontage is irrelevant in practice, so going with 60x30 as a standard will work for KoW and will work for lots of other rules too.

[fred.]

More Mongols



Got a bit more done on the basing - but realised that I need to order some more tufts to finish them off, so these will get parked for a bit. I do like the open order style of these bases, though need to work a bit more on getting the figure bases blended in.

Sorted through the rest of the figures, into 16s for making 4 bases at a time (and being not too many to paint at one go), only 8 more groups of light cav, and 4 of heavies. Plus foot bow and civilians. I also seem to have loads of foot command!! Sprayed the next batch black.

Slapped a layer of brown on the WWI British - much quicker when the whole figure is basically the same colour!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Those are superb! 

[Matt J]

really nice Fred.

I notice you are mixing the models on the bases - heavies and lights. I was going to keep mine separate - lights in skirmish order, medium and heavies in closer order, but not sure now