Hell's Bells - Return of the living dead.

 Again, it's way to long ago I placed something new on my blog. This year have not been an easy one. I 'm getting older, and work is not getting easier. On top of that, I still am doing my many hours of sportive activity, staying healthy or at least trying to. And when there is time left I paint some of the many miniatures from the hughe lead Mountain. 

In this first mail for the year (!), I present my Undead. I went through the Lead Mountain and painted all I had. Some are fairly recent plastics from Warlord Games. Others are metal from Wargames Foundry. And then there are the old scool Minifigs undead from Valley of the Winds and Aureola Rococo. For the younger readers here, some of those are among the first fantasy figures I ever owned. A few are more then 40 years old. While some are 'true' 25mm (VFW), others are 28mm. In the pictures they are all mixed up, and I don't think that is a problem. Make your own decision. 

As you see, it is not the largest army ever seen. The centre point is maybe something special: the Great Bell Tower from the Valley of the Four Winds range, Miniature Figurines (aka Minifigs). I don't think I've seen pictures of it somewhere else, but surely I cannot be the only one who ownes one of these? It is far from the easiest kit to build, being a multipart metal model from the mid seventies, and is quiet fragile. I'm not sure if I will ever use it in a game.

I also have a few undead 'freshly' rising from the grave. Most are from Wargames Foundry or their sister fantasy site Warmonger. But I also build two extra from some plastic left overs from a Warlord sprue.

Next, a few strange creatures from Minifigs. I don't know if they are from the Valley of the Four Winds range or Aureola Rococo. I've owned them like forever.

I wonder if these lovely looking fellas where an inspiration for early Chaos figures from Citadel? 

I think the next model is one of those early Citadel Chaos figures, but I don't think the horse was the original mount. It looks a bit late medieval. but hey, it doen't look bad.

That's it for now! Upcoming next are pictures of my expanding Macedonian / Hellenistic armies. It won't take another year for pictures of them. Promised!

Just a short notice and some pictures.

As the title says, some pictures below of what I've recently painted.
Two units of French infantry, 24 figs each.
They are Perry Mins plastics and the start of what should become a division for Quatre Bras. This could take a while though.

And what I think will be the last unit of Spartans. At least for now. I have three more of these units, for a total of 144 Spartan hoplites.
36 figs of mixed armour, from no armour to heavy bronze armour, Foundry Miniatures.

I'm currently working on a 15mm project, but It might take longer then I thought before this is ready.
More to come when I find the time, and have something to show!

The Warrior Princess (and more).

It's been a while, I have been busy with other things. Real life interevened as they say.

There has been some painting at least. For those who are awaiting more Napoleonics, you just have to wait a bit longer, almost there...

To begin with, here is the Warrior Princess, age 7.

Cute, isn't she? This figure was part of a larger lot that I bought many moons ago from a website which also had a very active forum, FUUK. They held an annual sculpting competition, and the best figures got actually produced and were up for sale. This figure was part of one of those competitions. I should have the other figures somewere hidden...

And then there is this very famous but also slightly confused wizard.

It is not always easy to be the best at your core business.

Certainly when things happen that you don't expect, or are not meant to happen. Like dead people rising from the grave! Rusty and oxydated weapons and all!

There is only one thing more terifying, and that is a Witch-King!

About to die!!!

Just don't tell him, he doesn't know it. Yet.

That's it for now. Fantasy figures made by FUUK (?), Citadel (pre-slotta era wizard), Wargames Foundry (Greek skeletons) and again Citadel/GW (Death of the With-King vignette).

Next time probably Napoleonics.

Probably.

Greek mythology.

If you like ancient Greek history, like me, you might also like Greek mythology. You know, Jason and the Argonauts, the siege and fall of Troy (Homeros version), and more.
I used Greek mythology as theme for my first warband for Dragon Rampant, the newest rulesset by Dan Mersey (published by Osprey).
I have yet to play my first game, but you need a painted warband for that! So here are pictures of my Centaurs.
Light spearmen or javeliners:

The heavies, armoured and dangerous:

And maybe the even more dangerous female archers:

Add a few heroes / leaders and the warband is ready for battle!

All of the above are from Wargames Foundry's Greek mythology range.
I have to add that 6 of the above miniatures were painted some time ago, and even had a few pictures of them in my blog. To mu own surprise almost two year ago.

While on the theme of Greek mythology, I also build and painted up a unit of Amazones.

These are plastics from Wargames Factory. While fairly easy to paint, they were a bit of a pain to put together, some realy fiddly parts to put on the correct place. of the models. I have parts for 36 more of them (I bought two boxes of these), but I'm not shure when that will happen...

Next up is something I have ment to do since january, so about time I started on them!
I will call it "the Nassau Project", and consists of painting the 3 battalions of the 2nd Nassau-Usingen Regiment. Each 36 figures strong, plus a casualty per battalion. And Prince Bernard of Saxe-Weimar and staff.

Work has just started on the flank companies, as you can see on the last picture.
Now try and keep FOCUS!

Barbarians! Celts! Gauls!

Here is the next part of my painting backlog. This time about the Celtic/Galatian/Barbarians.
not a lot of figures painted for these, only a few small skirmish units. But they are needed just as much as any other part of the army!

These braves are armed with slings. Miniatures are from a few manufacturers, I think Wargames Foundry (old Perry range) and the ex-Newline range (now SHQ).

The second unit is armed with javelins and have a small shield. Miniatures are a mix of Wargames Foundry and Old Glory. Some of them have there hair dyed with white chalk to scare the enemy.

They were a quick paint job, using washes to get some depth in the colours.

There is also a fantasy part in my barbarian army. So here is the heavy siege artillery!

I bought this model a very long time ago (10 years ago?) in a sale. I believe it is made by Scotia Grendel. The crew are plastic left-overs from Wargames Factory Gallic chariots.

Next time the blog will report on new recruits for my hellenistic armies. It might be better to work on one project at a time, but that is so difficult for me. I recently bought Dan Mersey's Dragon Rampant fantasy rulesset, and now I want to have at least one army (well, max 60 figs) painted as soon as possible. I have loads of suitable unpainted figures, and finaly I might even start working on my non-GW Lord of the Rings figures. But I also have Greek mythology figures, and the rules are also usable for this setting.
Some hard decisions to make. If I only had the time to paint (and game) them all...

Backlog, part I.

I'm really sorry it took so long to update my blog again. All kind of things happened, of which I'm not going to dwell upon here.

So, what did I do since that last short message, early january? Not a lot of gaming, there was always something which came in between. But I do got some miniatures painted. The goal is to paint at least as much miniatures as I did last year. And if possible do more!
Due to circumstances, I have some extra free time currently.
I'm unable to get into my gaming room, were I normaly take the pictures for my blog. The pictures are now taken on my painting table, and not in the best circumstances (light). But that will change again shortly. I hope.

Some pictures to show what I've got table-ready*:
Ancient Greek cavalry. I hardly had any of them, and added these.

I now have 20 mounted Greeks, which is still is a minimum I think, for the large number of hoplites I have. The ones I already had, have also been rebased, to fit in with the rest of my army. All are Wargames Foundry.

I've painted a fantasy / mythology miniature also. It is a Minotaur from Otherworld. This is an excellent miniature, and I wanted to make the best of it. So I repainted the skin color three times. II wasn't happy with the result the first two times...

As you can see, it is a rather large miniature. The peltast is from Lucid Eye.

That's it for now. More painted miniatures will follow soon.

*Not really, I still have to varnish all these miniatures.

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!