International Brigade Group 2 (SCW)

Adding a few more units to my long delayed Spanish Civil War project of 1936-39. This is some more International National Brigade reinforcements.

Painting the international Brigade is great fun as basically anything goes because they were issued with truly an eclectic assortment of equipment from all different nationalities some of which they brought with themselves from their respective countries or were issued by the Republican government. However, in spite of their militia look they were generally very highly motivated and some of the best troops the Republicans put into the field.

As a painter they are great as you can just go through all the different khakis and browns to your hearts content and not really be wrong! I pretty much had a field day with Vallejo paints mixing up combo's and trying things out. Ahh the freedom to do as you please.:-) Hopefully folks will like them as much as I had fun experimenting with the colors. The figures themselves are of course from Empress in 28mm scale.

I have plans to do more and almost have enough for Operation Squad which is my starting point gaming wise before building it up from bigger games like Bolt Action or Chain of Command. I haven't decided what Nationalists I'll do for the opposition, but I am leaning towards Carlists at the moment.

Thanks for viewing!
Miniature Company- Empress Miniatures

Regiments Permskiy and Rostovskiy (SYW Russians)

In my cabinet I have one lonely regiment of Russians for my long stalled Seven Years project and decided they needed some desperate reinforcements and so decided to paint up a couple regiments to  bolster their ranks in the form of  Permskiy(White/Green flag) and Rostovskiy(White/Yellow flag).

Some highlights are the Permskiy Regiment took part in the invasion of east Prussia and the battles of Paltzig and Kunersdorf and Rostovskiy also joined in the invasion of east Prussia(twice) and fought in the battles of Gross-Jägersdorf, Zorndorf , Paltzig and Kunersdorf as well.

The regiments are uniformed in the standard Russian colors of green coat, red waistcoat,pants, cuffs and turnbacks . They typically wore black gaiters, but I prefer the white parade gaiter.

The figures themselves are from Front Rank and while perhaps a bit dated compared to say Foundry are still quite nice figures and paint up well enough. I'm hoping Front Rank will revisit  their AWI and SYW ranges and give them an update similar to what they did with their Napoleonic range with their superb new reinforcements additions. The flags are from the fantastic GMB designs.These guys took longer then I thought as I rather foolishly figured I only needed a week or so to finish them because of the uniformity......yeah right........they took darn near 3 weeks!! Forgot about all the little details SYW figures entail to include a ton of buttons, straps and flaps etc. Now I understand why my SYW project got stalled in the first place! I will of course return to the SYW , but I do need to take a break again from the period just hopefully not as long as the last one.

It will take some time before I have fully completed armies to play the SYW period properly, but fortunately I also enjoy "imaginations" gaming which will allow these figures to see some wargaming until then.

Thanks for viewing!:-)
Miniture Company-Front Rank

Union Marching (15mm)

Catching up on posting some of my 15mm ACW revamp project as I have a backlog of it. I finished these last year, but didn't get around to posting it yet. Plenty more of this in the future as I would like to see my 15mm ACW collection grow as I have quite a few battles I would like to fight. 

Figures are once again Old Glory15's and the lovely flags are GMB designs. I expect these guys to see plenty of action with FoB2 and RF&F. I might even try them with Longstreet and see how that goes.

Thanks for viewing!
Miniature Company- Old Glory 15's

More Almoravid Berbers

With the addition of these combined spear and bow Berber units I now have enough units to field a Basic Impetus Almoravid army which is quite nice! However, I  plan to grow the army further as my opposing Spanish Christian army is already quite large and the Almoravids will need to grow to match them which will of course open up even more gaming possibilities.  As we all know armies are never really finished are they.

These Berbers were painted using the same earthy palate as the rest of the army with some green to tie them altogether. The shields and banner were hand painted to keep the look I wanted. The figures themselves are a mix of Artizan and Gripping Beast with done with AP and added highlights.

I have more Almoravids on the way, but I think some horse and musket might creep in between first, but I'm not sure yet.

The friendly side challenge(Bavarian Challenge)between myself and Nick in the Analogue Hobbies Challenge is going at a pretty good pace with both of us always remaining within striking distance of each other so I'm pretty curious to see who will come out on top. Anyhow I'm pretty pleased with the pace I've managed to maintain regardless of the outcome as my cabinet keeps getting fuller which feels great.:-)

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

Almoravid Light Cavalry

Continuing on with my 28mm Almoravid Impetus army with some light cavalry additions. They consist of two Berber units with javelins and one unit of Guzz with composite bows. Normally my Almoravids are a mix of manufactures, but these units are all Artizan which imho are some of the best in terms of Moor figures around.

I stayed with the low key earthy theme colours with just a bit of green as with the rest of the army. The shields are hand painted as I wanted to keep a certain look as with previous units I've done.

More Almoravids on the way next week hopefully if things stay on course and maybe something else if I can manage.

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

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!:-)