Monday, January 4, 2016

Almoravid Black Guard


My enthusiasm for adding more to my Impetus Almoravid army continues into the new year. I decided having a Black Guard unit in my Almoravid army was a must as they are both elite and look quite intimidating and if you have seen El Cid they give the quintessential Almoravid look.

I decided to equip the whole regiment with Hippo shields which is made from hippopotamus hides which looks either dark brownish or greyish depending on how it is cured. I prefer the brown and went with that. I feel the darker shields combined with the black clothes gives the unit an even more sinister and intimidating look. In addition to the black clothes the uniformed shields will further help differentiate them from the wooden ones carried by the rest of the Almoravids and mark them out as an elite unit within the army.

The figures themselves are a mix of Artizan and Gripping beast. I made a few modifications by adding veils to some of the figures that didn't have them to keep uniformity. One would think all black would paint up fast, but actually it didn't as I had to use several layers of grey adding gradually to get the effect I wanted thus taking longer then anticipated. The banners were downloaded then hand painted by myself.

Thanks for viewing!:-)
Miniature Company- Artizan, Gripping Beast


Friday, January 1, 2016

Happy New Year! Looking back and forwards

A long standing El Cid themed project I hope to advance in the coming year.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays and looking forward to the coming year. Well 2015 has been a tough year in terms of the hobby where I was hit with probably the hardest loss of painting mojo I've ever had plus bad back issues put me in a funk for a good 6 months starting in January until roughly July where the mojo started to slowly pick up again. By December my Mojo  really came back strong and if it wasn't for my back still giving my problems I'd be painting hours everyday, but in spite of my back I'm still managing to clock in some good painting sessions so things are looking good for the coming year.

Games for 2016

-Basic Impetus- A real big reason I got my mojo back is because of BI. The rules are very elegant, easy to play and building armies for it is achievable in 28mm.  Currently our group is having heaps of fun with the rules. I hope to play a lot more of this in coming year!

-Other rules likely to see more action-Black Powder AWI Rebellion, Piquet Field of Battle, Bolt Action, Force on Force, Maurice

-Possibilities- Battlegroup, To the Strongest, Chain of Command, new Black Powder ACW,  Aurelian, Sword and Spear, FOW,

Painting plans for 2016- As always I'm never sure what I will paint next until I start, but I do have some plans I hope to see come along.

-Likely-
Almorvids 28mm- Really would like to see this through so my El Cid army has something to fight.
ACW 28mm/15mm- Because I always end up painting something in this period.
Germanics/Late Romans/Arthurian 28mm - Plenty still to do on both.
AWI 28mm- Quite a bit I want to do here.
Pyrrhic/ Successor 28mm- Really want to add to this.

-Possibilities-
Ancient Germans15mm
Crusades Muslims and Christians 15mm
French Naps 15mm
Sassanids 28mm
Samurai 28mm
Prussian/Russians SYW 28mm
Republican Romans 28mm
Swiss 15mm
WWII Japanese 28mm
F&IW 28mm
Vikings 28mm

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else produces in blogland!:-)