Picture update for 2012.

At last, the promised pictures of the last miniatures I painted in 2012.
First, some Thracians. These were primed over a year ago, and are now finaly part of a still growing unit of Thracian javelin-armed warriors. They are from the excellent Foundry World of the Greeks range.

There were also a few Thracian skirmishers with bows painted. (Crusader Miniatures)

After these came a Successor general from 1st Corps. The sword was broken off, so I drilled a tiny hole in both sides and fixed it with a tiny iron rod and some superglue.

Last but not least is a large (36 figs) unit of Napoleonic Dutch Jaegers. They are from the unsurpassable Perry range. Really wonderful gems of miniatures!

Detail of the command:

I'm still busy painting my first Saga warband. At first I only bought 4 points, but now have some extra miniatures to make it a 6 points warband.Pictures promised when I get them ready for battle!

A belated review of my 2012.

January is already over halfway and I still have to let you know what I've done in november and december!
So, belated, here it is.

First of, I did some wargaming, really!
We played a few ancient games using the excellent Clas of Empires rules. We used to play a lot of Warhammer Ancient Battles 1.0, but when 2.0 came around, we simply gave up. Armati (mostly intro scale) came next, a game we liked and played a lot. We will play this again in the future.
And now we have Clash of Empires. This looks a lot like WAB, but without the super characters. A general is just that, and not a superhero/killermachine.
If you would like to know more about COE,
check out http://www.greatescapegames.co.uk/clash-of-empires

I also played a few games of the popular Saga, though I don't own the rules.
You only need a handfull of figures to play, but it is a fun skirmish game. I wouldn't call it a real historical wargame, It's more a game with model soldiers than a wargame.

On to painting. After Crisis '12, I had a real surge to get some miniatures painted before the end of 2012.
I painted all the miniatures that were already primed. Some were lying in the drawere since, well lets say a very long time.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a problem with uploading pictures from my pc for the moment. So no pictures yet.
I hope to upload the pictures soon.

I also painted my first miniatures for 2013. Byzantines from Crusader Mins for a Saga warband. The warband is not finished yet, but I hope they will be in the near future.
I also painted two yurts from the fantastic Grand Manner range of scenery models. Not cheap, but probably the best you can get!
See for yourself: http://www.grandmanner.co.uk/home/Home.html
The yurts are great models for anyone having steppe nomads from Scythians over Huns to Mongols.

That's it for now.
Thanks for reading, and please comment if you like it, or not.

Fresh troops!

Photo update of my blog, for those interested.
I have not painted much at all this year. And since the year is almost over, I post now what I have.

First a 48 fig unit of Seleucid/Successor phalanx. All Foundry figs. They are from a lot I bought very cheap second hand. These were actually painted some months ago. I really should update my blog more often...

Next is my first unit of Macedonian Companions. A 12 fig unit, also Foundry and bought together with the phalanx figures at an equally low price. I added a musician (small conversion) and, the horror, a standard bearer!
He will come in handy for early successor companions. The design on the standard is made of the inner part of a LBM shield transfer.

The last figure painted is the big man himself: Alexander the Great.

I bought this miniature a few years ago from Newline Miniatures, but they sold this line seveeral years ago. It is now owned by SHQ, I believe.

I hope you like the newly painted miniatures, and will try to update on a more regular base.

Oh, did I mentioned that I made a trip through Greece last summer? Most part crossing the Peloponnesos. It was a great vacation, but two weeks is far to short to visit all that I wanted. Maybe more on this next time.

Tomorrow I'm going to a wargamers feast: Crisis at Antwerp, probably the largest wargame show in European mainland. And it is only 25kms away from my doorstep. Lucky me I guess!

A few left over figures for sale, mostly Foundry.

Is it actualy that long ago that I updated my blog? Wow!

Anyway, as my Macedonian/Hellenistic armies are now almost ready, I would like to sell the unwanted leftover figures. All are unpainted.

LOT 1
-11 Macedonian/Successor phalanx, code WG 143 (Pike up) These are with cast-on shields.
-6 Macedonian/Successor Royal Guard, code WG144 (pike up) Also with cast-on shields.
-6 hypaspists attacking, probably code WG 09. Unfortunately, I can not find the shields, but if you like replacements, I have some Crusader hoplite shields, which are almost similar.
-3 different foot command figures. Two Foundry and one Crusader or A&A (I'm not shure which one).
I would like to have €25.00 or £21.00 plus postage. Take note, I live in Belgium.

LOT 2
A 10 fig unit (unpainted) of Companions, Alexander fig included.
These are from the now defunct Vendel range.
For these I would also like the have €25.00 or £21.00 plus postage.

It is also possible to hand the figures over at the Crisis wargames show in Antwerp (on 3 november), which saves you postage cost.

If you would like to buy anything of it, simply leave a message, or contact me at wDOTvdbergheATpandoraDOTbe. You know what I mean .

I will update my blog soon with some pictures of what I have painted since the last update (not that much).

We plan to play a 3000 points Clash of Empires battle next friday, so maybe a battle report may follow also. Maybe...


ALL SOLD NOW !!!

Odds & ends.

My wife thought it the right time to replace my old painting desk. It is over 10 years old, and she thinks it doen't look right anymore between our other furniture. There were quite a few half-painted miniatures there which have been drifting from left to right, and front to back, some even for years. So now the time was right to get them finaly finished.

Among them several of the famous Mithril miniatures http://www.mithril.ie/. this range of miniatures exists since somewere in the 1980's and is solely formed around JRR Tolkien's world of Middle-Earth. I collect them since 1996, but have yet to paint most of what I have (many hunderds!)
Here are the models I've recently painted: a mounted Nazgul and some Corsairs of Umbar.

 In between cardboard boxes, basing materials etc I also found things I didn't even know I still had them. All very usefull for skirmish games. It realy was time for a major clean-up!

A picture of my new, and large painting desk will follow soon.
After this, it will be back to unit-painting now. I plan to start on yet another 48 figs unit of pikemen, the last of the Wargames Foundry pikemen I have. I think...

This will probably be my last blog entry before the years end, so a merry Christmas and a wonderful 2012 to you all!

Stop the cavalry.

Just a quick message to show what I've painted last month.
A unit of Thessalian cavalry, Foundry made. I already had a few of them painted long ago, but the unit is now complete, and rebased.
I based a few of them on sinlge bases. You can see the benefit of this method of basing in the pics below: I can put them in wedge, in column or in line (or two lines).
I hope I painted them historical correct, more or less. It is not easy to find information on how these were dressed. And I didn't want them to look like Macedonian companions too much!
Let me know what you think of them.
All pics should be clickable to enlarge them.

Way too long ago!

First, I think I should apologies for not keeping my blog up to date. There aren't that many followers here, but that is probably because I don't update enough!

So, what happened since my last blog? Not that much, I'm afraid. I started this blog to encourage myself to paint more, and hopefully get some reaction from fellow wargamers.
I already painted more miniatures than I did last year, so there something possitive to tell! Not that it was that difficult, I only painted 93 28mm figs last year. My personal record is 209 28mm figs and 20 15mm figs in 2005. Counter now stands at 99, and I hope to add more before the end of the year.
We also played several games using the new and superb Clash of Empires rules. We (me and my gaming friends) like these rules a lot. No more super characters (as in WAB), it are the common (miniature) soldiers who have to do the work! I'm eagerly awaiting my copy of the first supplement, The rise and fall of Persia. Excactly the historical period of my main interest.

Some pictures of my latest painting:

These are the first two 1-battalion regiments of my Napoleonic Dutch-Belgian army. 24 figs a unit, and based for Black Powder. Perry Miniatares, naturaly! Plan is to paint a few units a year, and play the prelude to Waterloo, Quatre-Bras for its 200th anniversary (in 2015). Jeroen is busy painting the French. But we still have a lot to paint...
I also painted a Scipio model I got several years ago as a freebie, and recently found between my Macedonians.

Would you believe this is the first Roman model I painted?
For some reason I always liked Greeks, Macedonians or Persians more.

My latest are a few Greek skirmishers (Foundry) which have been kept in the drawer, because I didn't need them directly. I now have 40 of these, next to 24 archers and 12 slingers. Enough skirmishers for the moment I think.

Though we mostly play Clash of Empires now, I keep basing them as in DBx or Armati. You never know what it's good foor, and there are no problems for using them in CoE.

As a latest addition, I've been to Crisis '11 yesterday. Helping a bit with our club stand (HQ gams club). I've been visiting Crisis since it's first issue, I can't even remember how many years ago that was! But I still like this show. Less than half an hour riding from my home, spending the whole day there, not to mention my hard earned cash! I did not spend that much of money this year. Hardly any new lead, but the mountain at home is still huge!

Enough of this, and back to painting.