El Cid Impetus style!

I spent the whole past week and a half or so converting my WAB El Cid Christian Mercenary army to Impetus (very happy with the new look) my game of choice for Dark Age/Medieval wargaming. Also I can use this arrangement for Hail Caesar another game that has captured my attention and can count these as standard base size for that system which is convenient. The impression I'm trying to give is one of the army riding across an open Savannah which I think Impetus basing helps to convey and that I hopefully succeeded in doing.

A quick re-cap behind the army concept. It 's a Christian Mercenary army with a heavy Moorish influence that finds itself employed by Muslim Taifa Kings ,but more often then not in the employ of the Christian kingdom of Aragon between the years 1090(King Pedro) and 1135(Alfonso I) covering both El Cid's period and the early Reconquista under Alfonso I "The battler".

The army so far gives me a hefty 300pts in cavalry which is substantial in 28mm. but not unusual for Christian Spanish armies of the period. With that in mind I figure that's plenty cavalry for now and I should probably add some foot slogging support. I think about 100pts or so of heavy infantry, formed missile support and some skirmishers are in order to give me a solid base for my army.

As far the pics go no scenic colour background on this one, but I'll have some at later date. One thing that has ticked me off is the new photo bucket which IMHO is not at all as good as the old one and getting a decent picture is much harder to do then before. Also, if you make any size corrections it sets it all the way back to the start! As it stands my own computer is just as good or better then photo bucket which wasn't the case at all before. Please photo bucket go back to the previous set up!!!! Currently I pretty much do all the photo work on my own computer and use photo bucket merely to distribute pictures.

My foreseeable future looks to be Samurai, ACW, Spanish Reconquista dominating with some AWI and SCW here and there. 
Thanks for viewing!:-)
Miniature Company- Artizan, Perry, Crusader, Conquest miniatures

 

Samurai charging again,but now with scenary

Working on lighting and background and thought I'd show it using the Samurai from my previous post. Photography is always the area I'm most unsure of myself. What looks better a white background or scenery background? White background helps show detail, but scenery shows more colour.
Do you think I should in the future:

1. Keep the white background.

2. Go with scenery backgrounds.

3. Mix it up with both white and scenery backgrounds.

Thanks for viewing and your help.:-)

Samurai Charging with Katanas

Next base for my Shimazu Impetus army is Samurai charging with katanas. I painted my Samurai in strong individual colours which is in contrast to my Ashigaru's more neutral uniformed look in order to distinguish them as the true elites of my army. However, I still wanted them to look like they belong to the same army and so the shimazu mon(heraldry) remained on the sashimono's(back banners) and Nobori(large Banner) and also in the same colour which I hope succeeds in tying them together.

I won't beat around the bush and will simply say these guys were flat out the hardest miniatures I've ever painted and made the Ashigaru seem like a walk in the park. That said, I'm pleased with the results and feel the time spent was really worth it. Now that I know what is required of me in terms of time needed to complete Samurai bases I really need to pick up the pace when painting Ashigaru bases to make sure I meet my goal for 300pts by September which is roughly 11 bases plus a camp.
Thanks for viewing!:-)
Miniature Company-Perry Miniatures

Ashigaru Arquebusier

It's been a bit since my last post, but there were reasons starting with I was in the states on vacation for a couple weeks visiting relatives plus the amount of work to paint this unit was more then I expected and lastly I have the man flu and the world is coming down around my ears!!(moan,sniffle)

So now that I'm done with my lame excuses I'll talk a bit a bout the unit. It's my first unit for my Shimazu Clan 28mm Impetus Samurai army. I knew they were going to be hard to paint, but not as hard as they turned out to be. They are Perry figures and hands down the most difficult figures I've attempted to date and these are just the Ashigaru and not the Samurai who are ever harder which has me concerned. Mainly because the Perry's added so much fine detail it's hard to paint and highlight(darn near snapped a brush in frustration). That said, I won't give up because for years I've wanted a Samurai army and in the end I think I'll be very happy I persevered.

When starting I soon realized I had to first study how all the armour was put together before even trying to paint it as you will make mistakes if you start assuming things(like I did) making you start over(like I did 3x!). I decided for a brown armour for my Ashigaru for reasons like-

-Shogun-Loved the movie and Toranaga's Samurai were brown which I liked.
-Earthy colours- I really enjoy earthy tones so I thought since I'll be painting Ashigaru more then Samurai  I should use colours I really enjoy the most.
-I wanted something different then Red and Black which are the most used colours
-Really like the Samurai and Ashigaru in brown armour by Angus McBride

I wanted a nice contrasting colour to the brown, but again opted out on the more common black,white,red and instead went with a light blue which works out very well for me.
Overall I'm reasonably happy with the results, however I do need to add some improvements that I didn't really see when I was painting that have come to light when I viewed the pictures.

You would think I might want to take a break after complaining about their difficulty, but actually I'm already looking forward to the next base with the only thing being do I add another Ashigaru  or attempt a Samurai base. I'm also doing a couple SCW figures, but they won't take to long and ACW.....

As always thank you very much for taking time out time see what I'm doing as I really appreciate it!
Miniature Company-Perry Miniatures

300 followers and thank you!

I couldn't resist using this film image for the header as many of us cannot.:-) I'm very grateful for those who have given their time to follow what I do in this wonderful hobby we call wargaming! Hitting the 300 mark is a very special event for me that has been a goal of mine for quite some time that frankly I wasn't sure I would reach as the new followers hit the molasses at 270 or so. Once again thank you all very, very much and I do read every single comment you write!
The blog will be quite over the next few weeks as I'll be very busy with "real" life, but I promise the postings will pick up again towards the end of May to my normal levels. Upcoming things will be my Samurai(priority#1), ACW revamp and some SCW. Stay tuned!!

Victorian Adventuress

I entered this Victorian Adventuress in Curt's painting challenge and haven't got around to posting it until now. I really did enjoy painting this as I like working in earth tones and neutral colours quite a bit. As a matter of fact I'll probably due a few more.

A friend of mine is running some Zulu stuff and at first I was going to do some Natal contingents and I still might, but I think I'll do some Boars (as in Dutch natives) first as I really like their look.

When I do the Boars I can't really say as my schedule is pretty full for the summer which leads me into my next topic. I have some painting projects that really do need to get done and so I won't be able to follow blogs as closely as I usually do, but I will do my best for sure. For example I spend about 70% of my free time on blogs and forums and 30% at the painting table which doesn't help productivity very much. I need to at least change that to about 60% to 70% at the painting table and the rest on blogs and forums. So please understand if I miss a post or two I'm not ignoring you and will get back to you as soon as I reasonably can. By this I mean I'll read as often as I can, but commenting might prove difficult. I figure after September things will loosen up for me where I can go to about 50/50. Thanks for following my blog and understanding my situation and I'll do my best to support yours within my time allowance!

Complete Analogue Hobbies challenge results

I mentioned last year joining in a winter painting competition hosted by Curt at  http://analogue-hobbies.blogspot.de/ where points were awarded for each painted miniature that ran from December 20th 2011 to March 20th 2012. Whoever amassed the most points would be declared the winner and receive the grand prize with 2nd and 3rd also getting a prize.

The final results for the points challenge were:

RayR: 4940 link

KentG: 4724 link

TimB: 3385 link

FranL: 2152link

SteveM: 2044Link?

ChrisP: 2029 link

DaveD: 1975link

MilesR: 1061link

GregB: 1019 link

JohnM: 1000link

IanW: 900 link

MikeW: 867link

Curt: 791 link

Scott: 695 link

PhilH: 519 link

JuanM: 446 link

ChristopherS: 442 Myself!

DallasE: 420 link

Michael: 315link

JohnB: 310Link?

RossM: 269link

TimmyD: 138link

Sylvain: 90link

PaulP: 34link

As you can see the top dogs scored some truly staggering point totals that left me bugged eyed in amazement!! I wonder if they are not really half machines then real human beings! The sprint to the finish between Ray and Kent was nail biting and dramatic with each slipping in final posts at the last minute with Ray just edging out Kent at the very last moment. Another highlight had to be the rivalry between Fran and Ray heckling each other throughout the competition, however it was all in good fun as in actuality they are very good friends.
Outstanding results to the top dogs and I wish to congratulate all of them on an awesome performance!

Unsurprisingly and therefore needless to say I was nowhere near the top as I paint rather slowly with what can best be described as a less then stellar point total, but thankfully Curt in his wisdom realized all men are not created equal in their ability to both paint a figure quickly and efficiently and so gave us more mortal underdogs other goals to achieve.

People's Choice Award- This is given to viewers of the competition and is open to anyone to vote. I was both honoured, humbled and of course delighted to be declared winner of this category with my 15mm Ayyubid Mamluks! They can be viewed in my side bar under 15mm Crusades if you wish.

Challengers choice- This is by the participants in the challenge for their favourite entry which was won by Dave's excellent Baverian Chevaulegers "Konig"link.

Sarah's choice- This innovative idea is given by Curts wife for a female themed historical figure which was won by Phil's Femme Fatale from the Societe Archeolgique and 1930s Gun Molllink.

Judges Choice- This is given by Curt for his personal favourite entry. Rather then just one entry Curt decided to award Juan the prize for his very nice complete body of worklink.

It was great fun and I enjoyed being part of something if not unique then at least not often done where you group a bunch of painters from all over the world and bring them together to compete in a friendly format. No question I'm really looking forward to the next one to see if I can improve on my total and once again enjoy watching what everyone does. Oh and of course watch Fran and Ray's verbal boxing match!

Well done to everyone who stepped up and competed regardless of your points and most of all a superb job to Curt for making it all possible!!