Paint Table Saturday#82

After the excitement of posting my progress with the 'tea time Crimean War miniatures' earlier in the week, today marks the return to the more prosaic work in progress of 'Paint Table Saturday'.  Those eagled eyed visitors amongst you will also have noticed that '28mm Victorian Warfare' now has its own Paint Table badge not, I hasten to add, as a bid to claim ownership of the event,* but purely as an aesthetic consideration given that this seems to make up the bulk of my posts at the moment.

*Link to the rest of the 'Paint Table Saturday' community can be found at the foot of the page.

So a good week, hobby wise has seen me finally pluck up the courage to tackle the Penguin crew that have been sitting on the table for far too long.  If truth be told, I have been somewhat apprehensive about starting these hugely characterful sculpts, worried that I might not do them the justice that they deserve, but by starting with the bases I soon started to relax and have some fun with them.

Bases complete** it was on to the faces and straight away the character was born!  Feeling buoyed with confidence, I thought I would tackle the thugs' camouflage trousers but wanted them to look more like the DPM pattern that the British Army used to wear; I have no idea why, it just had to be so!  

**I'm thinking about adding some snow at the end.

Just in case anyone is interested the following palette of Vallejo Model Colour was used for the trousers:

1. Base coat with Basalt Grey 

2. Large sections, running horizontally added with Sky Grey

3. Smaller patches applied, overlapping where possible, with Silver Grey

4. Final thin and irregular lines added with Black

Hopefully I'll get some time to push them on a little this morning, but I know there is a list of 'end of holiday' chores awaiting my attention!  Don't forget to visits the rest of the 'Paint Table Saturday' community here.

Tea time in the Crimea

As we are currently enjoying a half term break, I thought I would indulge myself and post some finished work for a change and so for your delectation, I present theses additions to my Crimean War collection.  Now every now and then I come across a miniature and think I just have to have one of those.  This has often resulted in some truly spectacularly ill-advised purchases, that now languish somewhere in the lead pile, I ask you who buys roller skate wearing waitresses wielding baseball bats?  Well that would be me!

These however, stood a fair to middling chance of not only getting painted but also of actually being of some use.  The tea time collection of miniatures by 'North Star Military Figures' is such a wonderful idea, demonstrating a company that is so confident about its position in the market place that it has persuaded the companies under its banner to contribute with individually commissioned miniatures enjoying a cup a tea - how charmingly English!  The first up, 'Tommy Atkins', painted as a member of the 19th Regiment of Foot, the Green Howards; his ruddy complexion betraying the fact that he has sought solace and bravery in the shape of a bottle and not a tea leaf.*

*Pun most definitely intended, as I'm fairly sure that he has requisitioned his bottle from the Offices' Mess!

This is one of two contributions to the tea time collection from 'Great War Miniatures'; eluding to the infamous story of the short-tempered Lord Cardigan,** who, on seeing Captain Reynolds and not Captain Nolan as the 1968 film would have us believe, place a bottle of Moselle wine directly on the table, flew into such a rage as to have Captain Reynolds placed under military arrest!  

**James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan.

The second of 'Great War Miniatures' contributions comes in the shape of this Guards’ officer, painted here as a Grenadier.  I am afraid that I stole the idea of the cannonball landing as his feet directly from the 'Northstar' site, but it really was too good an idea not to do so.   Finally then a Russian General that arrived in the post from that splendid chap, Stefan A.K.A. Monty of 'Monty's Caravan' fame.  Stefan is a hugely generous person who thought that I might enjoy painting this up and indeed I certainly did! 

I believe this is part of the Russian High Command pack from 'Foundry Miniatures', but I am ashamed to say that my knowledge of Russian Generals is a little patchy at best, but my superficial research unearthed some reference material and a name in, Dmitri Jerofejewitsch Graf von der Osten-Sacken, which seemed to fit the bill nicely.  My thanks to Stefan and I hope you approve of my humble efforts at bringing him to life?

Finally, just because I can, enjoy the fictional retelling of the 'Black Bottle' incident from Tony Richardson's much maligned 1968 film, 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' starring Trevor Howard as the overbearing Lord Cardigan.

"You are drinking beer, sir, porter beer!"

Paint Table Saturday#81

Still here, just about, but very little to show this week.  Having battled, stoically and with very little sympathy, through a bout of 'manflu', we have reached another Bank Holiday here in Blighty and so looking forward to pushing on with these rather lovely Crimean War Miniatures one of which, the Russian General, was a gift from that splendid chap Stefan, A.K.A. Monty of 'Monty's Caravan' fame.

Still no sign of the Penguin, but I feel that he has waited far too long in the wings* and so I hope to use the half term break to see if we can't push him along a bit.  I'm starting to find a little more time at the weekends to catch up with many of the splendid weblogs that I enjoy following, but I'm all to aware that I continue to miss much of what is going on, but rest assured we'll be back to full steam before too long.

*no pun intended as Oswald Cobblepot Esq. is somewhat touchy on the subject of wings!

Paint Table Saturday#80

Back to the 'Warlord Games' Clubmen after the welcomed distraction that was the Rastafarian survivor from 'East Street Games' new Bullet & Brains range - now available to order!

Having already prepared these, I shall refrain from banging on again about the quality of the casting, but look to the positives, particularly the wonderfully characterful sculpts. I also need to add at this point that I have been hugely influenced by the tremendous work of 'Stone Cold Lead' in fact much of the colour palate is lifted directly from his versions, they really are sublime.

What I hadn't realised when assembling the team was just how many follicly challenged men were in the club! For the life of me, I can't remember if the pack came with alternative headwear or if you had to buy these as an optional extra from 'Warlord Games'* but given that I sport a similar hairstyle, I have a certain sympathy for these chaps!

*I suspect the latter!

No Zombie, No Cry!

A slight break from the recent form of showing works in progress languishing on the paint table, I thought I would actually share a completed miniature - shock, horror!  Sadly this is not a welcome return to more regular blogging habits, the trials and tribulations of real life still plague the day job, but I wanted to take this opportunity to help promote, 'East Street Games' and their new venture.

This ‘Survivor’ was passed to me at 'Salute 2015' by Clint of 'Anything but a One!' fame; he had recently showcased a couple of games of 'Bullets and Brains' on his blog, when the creators and designers came down to visit his club.  When Clint duly repaid the courtesy and dropped by to say hello at their stand at Salute he was handed a starter set of survivors from their new range of miniatures - generous indeed!

Clint was planning to pass them on to Bloggers and Gamers that have a predilection for all things undead and very kindly passed one to me when we first met up.*

*I have to confess that at the time I was more interested in the fudge he had in his bag at the time!  

Once safely home, I had a closer look at my swag and initially felt a little underwhelmed and even wondered what scale he actually was; the pose has our survivor leaning into an attack and so appears shorter than he is.  That said the casting is good and clean and required very little work to prepare for painting.**

**Something that came a blessed relief after my recent hassle with the 'Warlord Games Clubmen' that I had been working on.

It is funny how, with familiarity of subject, one's opinions change and as I started to work on this little chap, I became more and more enamoured by him as previously unnoticed detail started to emerge and an idea started to form in my tired and addled brain.  Something about the sculpting of his headgear reminded me of a Rastafarian bonnet and suddenly a character was created!  Now complete, I’m rather taken with it and look forward to one day reuniting him with his zombie alter-ego when Clint and I next meet up.

So here's to the generosity of Clint and 'East Street Games', best of luck with the new venture chaps!

Paint Table Saturday#78

A slightly belated edition this week having popped into work yesterday, but back to the brushes after the exciting distraction that was 'Salute 2015' and I'm happy to report that some progress has been made on a couple of the 'Warlord Games' Clubmen.  I've made mention in the past at just how frustrating I find this company as the miniatures themselves are horrible to prepare.  So much flash and so many mould lines, especially in what is a  relatively new line of models.  Still, a saving grace is the character that they manage to squeeze into them and when painted they do really look rather good. 

Perhaps not unsurprisingly given my inability to focus on one thing for any length of time, I am sorely tempted to crack open some of my new purchases in the shape of some industrial buildings from 'Sarissa Precision'…

or perhaps start this rather interesting looking chap from 'East Street Games' new range  and rules, Bullets & Brains that Clint very kindly passed to me last weekend - decisions, decisions!