Probably my last posting for 2014.

I'm still trying to paint as much as possible before the year is gone. But I am a bit struggling with it for some time now. My discipline is waining, I guess. Am I getting into a painting block? I hope not! Still so much to do.

But I did manage to paint a few figures since last time!
They are all for my ancient Greek armies, on which I started working a long tiem ago, well before I started this blog. I think it is about time these armies are ready. (If wargame armies are ever ready). I now have over 500 (closer to 600) ancient Greeks painted and ready for battle. That is far more then planned when I started painting them.
First are the last of my psiloi, more then I will ever need (I think).

The models are Steve Saleh sculpts, from his own Lucid Eye Miniatures. Which apearantly does not exist enymore. Which is a pitty I think. Most of my Greek miniatures are sculpted by Steve, for Wargames Foundry, but these are probably his best until now. I heard rumours he is now working for Warlord Games. We'll see what that brings.

A unit of Greek peltasts. Yes, more Lucid Eye miniatures from Steve! In fact, I bought them together with the psiloi in a unit box. There is one model, not sculpted by Steve, and that is the musician. He is from a pack of musicians I once bought from Vendel Miniatures. Which is already many years out of business.

And yet more of Steve Saleh's sculpts! This time Foundry Spartan hoplites. I still had one blister to paint, so I did. I now have 3 units of 36 Spartan hoplites, and that must be enough. If you consider how may points these fellows cost in most game systems. I also have a spare command base, so can form 4 units of 24 if I wish.

I'm still trying to have a few more finished before the turning of the year, but I don't think I will make it. So those will probably be the first for 2015. And the last of the ancient Greeks.

I will make some pictures of the whole Greek army as soon as they are ready.

Untill the, I wish you all Happy New Year! (Christmas is gone already...)

See you next year!

Freshly painted Celtic cavalry and more.

it has been a while since the last update. I've been busy with lots of things. Traveling is one of them. The Misses and me went on a citytrip to London for a few days, but more of that later, in another message.
And then there was Crisis in Antwerp several weeks ago already. As usual, I bought way too many new toys... But more of that later, in another message.
Even before Crisis, there was also a WW1 memorial weekend in Antwerp. I have made several pictures of the event. But, yes, more of that later.

I want to show some pictures of my latest painting efforts now, all for my (currently) small Celtic horde.
I started painting about a year ago on them, and now think I can call them a little army.
The fresh troops are a 12 fig unit of cavalry.

They come from the Gauls range of Wargames Foundry. They are a bit in the "huge hands & big heads" side of anatomy, but once painted they look great. Probably more to come.

Next is a king or general, being carried around on a shield.

This nice model is from that same Gauls range from WF.

The last figure is a necessary: a Druid.
And a blood thirsty one it is!

That's it for now.
Teh army now stands for 120 infantry in 4 units, 12 cavalry, 3 chariots, a druid and a king/general.

I'm currently on course to break my personal record in miniatures painting this year. If I can keep up to this speed, it must be possible!

Selling some old Collector stuff.

As some of my friends know, I've been a wargamer for well over 30 years. And as most wargamers, I have collected a huge pile of wargaming stuff. While checking what I have lying around for years, I bumped into a hidden treasure.
Two boxes of 15mm Citadel Traveller miniatures. Each contains 20 figures, extremely well sculpted for the age they have! Being early 80's something, and being boxed for the most time of their life, the poor boys.
As I never play SF games anymore, they have to go.

As you can see, unpainted, except for a little bit of colour on 4 figs in the Military box.

But wait, the real treasure is another boxed set.
I unearthed a box with a Ral Partha Elf Chariot (code 02-020) sculpted by the very talented Mr Tom Meier. It is a so called real 25mm, being early 80's. I've checked ebay and found one sold last august for £59.90. And it was damaged!
As you can see below, mine is in perfect and unpainted condition.

As I will never get it painted, it also has to go.
All will be sold at Crisis in Antwerp next weekend, or someone should contact me before next friday, wanting to buy it from me.

I also have a large box full of left-overs from different units and armies, who were lying around in several different boxes. It is over 2 kg of lead...

It is also a method of lowering the Lead Mountain (capitals...), and generate cash for ...more lead!
Am I a wargamer or what!

Let the beast go!

I have neglected my blog for some time, but hey, I'm back now! I promised a fantasy update, so here it is. Pictures of my latest painted miniatures. 

As you can see, I painted a big rhino, crewed with some barbarians. It is a great model, originaly sculpted by the highly talented Mr Copplestone. Or at least I think he did. I bought this beauty from Mirliton, in Italy, but I believe it was first sold under Grenadier, probably late 80's or early 90's. It is probably the largest model I have ever painted, and most certainly the heaviest. It weights just under 1 kilo!

Here are more pictures. All pictures are clickable, for bigger size.

Except the big beastie, I also have aquired a small but nice unit of barbarians on foot. As it is fantasy, the weapons are extremely big. As they should be!
Also sculpts from Mr. Copplestone.

Especialy the giant has lots of details. I don't think the picture does justice to him.

On top of that, I also painted the last plastic Gallic warriors I had. Only twelve of them, but now I can turn the 36 men unit into two 24 men units.
Most of them are Wargames Factory, with a few Warlord models. I didn't had enough heads for the Warlords, but had lots of spares from WF. They did not fit properly, so I filed off the neck joints, and now it is hard to see what I've done.

I now have 120 Gallic foot warriors and 3 chariots. Time for some cavalry maybe?

Next saturday is also Crisis weekend in Antwerp.
If you'v never heard if it, check http://www.tsoa.be/crisis_general.html
See you there?

Third unit of Celts finished.

Yes! My third warband of 36 miniatures is now ready for battle. These fellows were painted in august. But I had a traffic accident with my bicycle, and needed some time to recover. I'm still not 100% ok (was I ever???), but I feel a lot better already. 

Anyway, some pictures of the wild folks.

The miniatures are mostly Old Glory, except for the three command figures, who are Foundry. Old Glory sells miniatures in 30 figures bags, and I don't think I will ever need that much. So Foundry it is.

I now have 3 units of 36 and 3 chariots. I still need to paint some cavalry, more chariots and some skirmishers to make it a small army, but I think I'm over half way with this project.

Unfortunately, I just can't stick to one project, so next update will probably be fantasy.

If I don't change my mind...

A new wargamers blog magazine.

Everybody interested in wargaming should check out the following link.
http://goo.gl/kJLtNJ
It is a link to the first issue of a new FREE online magazine with excellent articles and pictures.
A wargamers delight...

Not a lot of painting done last two weeks.
But i did finish this lovely ancient Greek building from Grand Manner.
It was a test before I started work on more Grand Manner buildings. Two more to go. Oh yes, and a large wonderful Greek temple.
As allways, these houses have interior details with lift off roofs. So can be used for skirmish gaming also.

OK, back to painting Celtic warriors!

PS I did a game last night with one of the wargaming friends! We tried Basic Impetus, and like it a lot. A few more games, and who knows, start gaming Impetus, the full rules. And oh yes, I lost (but only marginaly).

Chariots!

I did some work on my Gallic/barbarian army. Three fast moving chariots. They are from Wargames Factory, made in hard plastic. They are a lot cheaper then, for example Warlord Games or Wargames Foundry. For their price, they are certainly good enough, especialy if you need many of them. They also paint up very quickly.

But do check for yourself.

There are some problems though. For example, the necks of the horses don't fit perfectly, which is visible if you know where to look. And I had to cut off one leg of the sitting driver and glue it back on in a different possition. It did not fit over the pole. Shields are decals from the WF foot unit box.

Well, on to the next unit, which will be more Gallic foot. Who knows, I might build a real army of them by the end of the year!

A really tiny unit.

After a short vacation, I'm back in the Country of Rain! Yes, it is raining a lot these days in Belgium. So what better to do than paint some figures?
To "get back into it", I painted a small unit that was already primed. Perry Miniatures of course.
In fact, tiny is a better word for it. Only six miniatures for the only tiny unit (in Black Powder terms) in my Allied 1815 army: the Nassau Jaëger volunteers. But it is the start of a much bigger brigade. Still 168 miniatures to paint, commander base not included...

The unit was only 177 men strong at the start of the Waterloo campaign, officers included. 

I took some pictures with flash and some without. The colors are brighter with flash, but maybe I should start to learn how to digitaly make my pictures better (brighter)? But where to find the time for it?

Anyway, I like how the green turned out, and think I will use the same method for the other Nassauers.

I'm slightly behind schedule, painting related, trying to paint at least 20 miniatures a month*. So off I go!

*To some, 20 miniatures a month is a rediculess aim, but if I succees to keep doing this, I will have broken my year record of 209 painted miniatures (done in the year 2005)

Mythology? Fantasy?

I finished one more small unit.
As I'm very much interested in Greek history, and at a lesser level in fantasy, here is something in between:
Centaurs!

These are from the recent (? one or two years old) range of Foundry. They paint up very quickly, even for me. And I am a slow painter. The decals I used are left overs from my Greek hoplites.

I think they look good, if I may say that from my own painting.

Next update of the blog will probably be mid july.

Some more "Barbarians".

Just a quick note, to let you all know I didn't forget updating my blog.
I simply did not have a lot of time to update, so here are a few pics of my latest painting.

A unit of 36 wild Celts/Gauls. As you can see, lots of bright colors. Have I overdone these?
Models are from the old Newline range, now SHQ I believe. They are not as dynamic as the plastic Celts I painted earlier this year, but I like them!

Another thing I would like to ask: Does anyone remember these?

I bumped into them when I was searching something completely different, at the bottom of a drawer. They were my first painting guides when I was painting my minifigs real 25mm British Napoleonic army. That over 35 years ago! Boy, Am I getting old...

First Napoleonic brigade, ready for action!

As you know by now, most of my armies are 28mm for the anient or medieval period. But I am also slowly building a Napoleonic allied army for 1815. 

I painted two units earlier this year, and now my first brigade is ready. 

The first unit is the 5th Dutch militia, a standard 24 fig unit. (our standard Black Powder unit)

 

The second is the famous Belgian 7th line regiment, a large 36 fig unit.

And some "wound counters", to keep track on the status of the units.

I now have enough painted miniatures to field the 1st brigade of the 2nd Dutch division as it looked at the start of Quatre-Bras. I only need to paint their commander, Van Bijlandt.

I then also need to paint the other brigade, to field the complete Division (another 174 miniatures), plus artillery. And then 2 cavalry regiments. I'm not there yet...

But here is how it looks now:

27th Jager regiment is deployed in skirmish formation.

One thing that is already clear to me is that we will need a huge table to play a good sized battle.

I'm currently working on one of my other armies (next to reading Bigredbat's rules - will need testing soon).

Pictures when I'm ready!

As addendum, I would like to put a link here to a nice overview of Salute 2014, made by the  Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE8kQ6AkPU4