Much Progress

Well, hard to believe, but much progress was made over the weekend. The lovely birde of the lead addict was very kind and understanding(so far) of the time the Lead addict whittled away for his Nappies this weekend. Thank you dearest. Hear is the run down:

Thursday Night - completed Command Stand for British Line Unit. 2nd Unit complete at 6 stands.

Friday night-completed 2 additional stands (of 4 ea.) of 95th Rifles. Bringing the 95th to 6 stands.3rd Unit complete at 6 stands.

Sat-Sun - started on additional stands for 2 Light Units and 3 Line units. Need 10 extra stands. 9 stands of figs primered and on sticks. As of Sunday night all additional figs are painted except facings and collars. Missing 1 stand (4 figs) of Lights.

Sun - Finished facings and collars on 43rd Light Inf. - 4th Unit complete.

I need about an hour to finish and mount the remaining figs. I will then be 1 stand short of having (8) British 6-stand units completed for my British Pennisular Army. I have 4 more after that. 1 Guards Unit(Coldstream probably), 2 Highlander Units(Watch and Gordon, maybe), and 1 Line Unit. The British Infantry will be done once they are complete. I assume End of May or June, depending on how much time I can devote to them and not house projects.

So after I finish the facungs on the current figs, my current collection will look like this:   

So much progress indeed!

I continue to be stoked for this so I will plow on. The next batch after the Infantry is done is some Cav Units. I have a Late and Early Lt. Dragoon, an Hussar Unit (with their rediculous tall fur caps), and another Heavy Dragoon Unit that could easily bcome a Guard Unit. I also have another 3 Cannon, High Command, and any misc. commanders I want to do. If I stay on it, I could have a British Penninsular Army complete by the end of the summer.That's crazy to me.

What's after them, well the Portuguese sit in a large pile. And since they were critical to the eforts in the Pennisula, I have to do them. But they will wait, casue I already have a bunch of great looking Spanish from Front Rank, on paint sticks and primed. They will get the business this fall. and then maybe the Portugese in the winter if I am not too burned out.

At some point, of course, you know I have to paint this mountain of French.

I snapped some picks over the weekend. I'll get them uploaded tomorrow.

And BTW, I fully disclosed a bout of strong Nappy Fever coming on. It's in full swing, but I do want to keep picking away at 6mm terrain, and maybe knock out some 15mm Dungeon explorers as well.

Thanks for stopping by.



Napoleonic Update 2-27-12

I like doing these quick updates. Helps me focus on the moment.

So at the moment. Some progress.
 

1 unit of British Light Infantry done.

Six Stand Unit completed

Closeup of the Command

My style is pretty impressionistic when I am unit painting. I tend to make some folds where there aren't any at times as well. Looks good on the tabletop.

I am well into the next unit. I have canteens, facings, and finishing the command.

 

Next Unit. I like Marching pose. It really exposes the British uifrorm.



I am getting the knack of the British Uniform again. And the painting of the second unit went really quick. The pose helped too, and I have a bunch more in the march pose, whew. Its been pretty fun. If I could do 2 units a month, that would be awesome. If I can finsih the current unit before thursday, I would have gotten the february count done(even though I didn't get started until the end of the month). and I can move on to March.

After the current unit, I will be adding 2 stands to my Rifles to bring them up to 6, and 2 stands to each of my undersized units. Goal for March = get all the undersized units up to size. Tat would be a total of 12 stands, the equivelant of 2 units. At the end of March, that would mean I have 8 complete units, 6 Cannon, and 1 Cv Completed. Afetr that it would be 2 Cav units for April, and Highlanders for May.

 





Pip Pip!!!

GW Just released this big beauty for their Grey Knights 40k army:

so how many rivets do you need to add to make this a totally Victorian Sci Fi walker? Not many. I am totally ordering this and pressing it into service with my brits. Add a couple of my steam tanks, some highlanders and some jump troopers, and man what a force.

Beware Prof Nightshade.

Step by Step - 28mm - Painting the Brits

Well I thought I would try a new feature on the blog. Step by Step. Its a step by step photolog of the stages I go through on painting a unit or building a terrain piece.

Since I'm starting on the Nappies again, I'll start there.

28mm British Napoleonics

I base all my figs on paint stirring sticks from Home Depot and Walmart. Free and plentiful. I run a bead of Tacky Glue down the middle and glue them on. Blue tac never really holds enough for me. I spray paint them flat black with cheap 99 cent paint from Dollar General and Walmart. Covers great, rarley clouds or gets grainy. Dries quick.

 First step is to paint the flesh. I paint all flesh first. I paint in the english 2 or 3 color layer system, and I paint the the items deepest on the fig first then work up. so details end up being last. I use almost exclusively Vallejo paints, and GW, Vallejo and P3 washes. I paint the flesh a base medium tone. I then wash liberally with Vallejo Flesh Wash (used to be GW flesh but its discontinued).

I then paint the initial layer over the flesh of the same base color as an initial highlight. It evens the wash and I can quit here if I want to on large arnies. I then base paint the pants. 2 layers. Medium and light grey. Leave the black as the third shadow color. Finish pants, base -paint the red jackets with deep red - Vallejo Hull Red. Best red I have found for a base color.

 Blow up. - No eyes painted yet, no highlights on flesh. Pants done, base color for coats.

 Now the Jackets are higlihgted.

 Close Up. As I have painted a bunch of Red Coats, its always striking how little red actually get painted. With the proliferation of belts and straps and packs and lace, theres's really only the shoulders and the sleeves.

 Close up of the command group. that's all for this unit so far. More as I progress. (Hopefully tonight)

Here's a closeup of a painted unit. (Not the one above.)

Final details include the addition of a flag, plus painting and flocking the base.

I usually paint about 6 units at a time when painting like this. Its easy to get into a groove and before you know it, you've got 6 units done. I'm currently doing 2 units. Then I will finish the other 4 I started then the Hussar unit. More pics as I progress.

British Nappies - What is done?

I took some pics of what I had done for 28mm Bits. They are not based yet, but I like to do them all at the same. So I will base when I'm done with Phase II.

Here they are:

 6 infantry units. 3 Line, 2 light, 1 Rifle

 Close up - Line in back, Light and Rifle up front

 Close up - Lights in front, Line in back

 Close Up - Lights in front, Line in back

 Corp Commander

Heavy Dragoons in front, Rifles in front

 Hvy Dragoons

Close Up - Hvy Dragoon Command 

 Horse Artillery

 Royal Foot Artillery

 Division Commanders

 Close Up - Division Commanders

Close Up - Division Commanders

Next, I'm gonna show you the staged progress on my new infantry.

And the long slide down that slippery slippery slope starts....

Napoleonics, Nappies, call it what you will, men dressed in suits, lace, boots, and tall hats, shooting slow moving big balls of hot lead at each other across an idylic valley in europe. Im in! And by in I mean ALL IN!

Its as addictive as anything I know. And at times, I avoid it like the plague. It can be an all consuming force as a wargammer. And I was stricken by it 15 years ago. Thanks Al. I have:

6mm French - I bought these from Bacchus so I could model, in full ground scale, a French Infantry Battalion 1:1. And why not add enough cav for 1:1 regiments of cav.

15mm Everybody - My entry in to the whole mess. I now have full 15mm Armies, based for Age of Eagle/Napoleon's Battlles, for all major countries involved in the conflict. I don't have all of the Confederation or small Allies, but I can do almost any battle I want. French, British, Russian, Prussian, Austrian, Spanish.

28mm British, French, Spanish - And the current obsession, Penninsula, 28mm Foundry, mounted on rectangular bases, 4 figs. Phase I of the Brits are done, Working on Phase II now.

And so it starts. I know that if I start it ususally means at least a month or two working on them. I started on them this weekend. 2 units of Infantry, 1 British Guard Unit, 1 British Light Infantry. I have 4 more Line units ready to go, a unit of Hussars, and a couple of command.

As I read through the rules for Commnads and Colors: Napoleonics, I will be filling in painted units to match the units in the rules.

 

Napoleonics Update

I am working on a nice sized Pennisular British Army in 28mm. We play Age of Eagles, and a simpler, house rules version of Fire and Fury.

So far 6 infantry units done, 3 arty units ready to paint, and a unit of dragoons and command are first phase.

Second phase is 4 more infantry units, 2 units of highlanders, an Hussar unit, and a Lt dragoon unit, 3 horse arty units.

Third Phase is some Allies - the Spanish, and maybe a Portugese unit or two.

Pics to come. Some of the best units I have painted. Painted all 96 figs at one time. Its a real march, but to have 6 units completed at the end was really worth it. I will do all uniformed armies like this from now on.

French are after the Spanish.

this is one of those lifetime sets of Armies, mostly because of how slow I paint, but it will be worth it.