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!:-)

The Sixth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge begins!

It's that time of year again folks for what's become a tradition in the wargaming bloging world that being Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge here. I've been involved since season 2 which is when Curt officially opened it up for everyone to join in, because the first one was pretty much between him and some friends. I've consistently under performed in terms of points on all the other challenges as I paint slow and often get distracted with last year being the worst ever as I was unfortunately hit with a serious loss of mojo. This time I'm determined to reach my point goals and exceed them.....  actually my mojo is running particularly high so I hope to achieve the opposite of last year and put in a showing that I can hold my head up with. 

I've taken up two side duals which are little personal challenges to other participants in the challenge. The first one is with my friend Nick from Moiterei's bunte Welt here (lovely painting) to see who can acquire the most straight points(bonus round points don't count) at the end of the challenge. The second challenge is "The Bronze to Steel Challenge" with IanW here, JonathanO ?, MarkH here, MartinC here, SebG here to see who can get the most points painting Ancients/Medieval. I figure I have a fighting chance against Nick and best of all the winner of that has to paint a figure of the winners choosing(me):-). However in the ancients/medieval challenge I suspect I probably bit off more then I can chew, but I'm determined to put in a good performance and take a few down with me!>:-)


So what are my plans you may ask? Well of course some ancients and medieval will probably feature large on my painting table likely my Almoravids and maybe some Sassanids as well. I could even add some Late Romans/Germanics and Pyrric to the pile as well. I also suspect some black powder era things may creep their way in like ACW/SYW/AWI. You see I quit long ago trying to list exactly what I will do as I quite simply put the "B" in butterfly habits! This means I paint by mood and not by schedule so I never know exactly what I will do next as my mood changes faster then the weather in April! In my defence I rarely wholly quit projects and eventually get back to them even if it takes a few years until I do.

I don't have any plans to enter in the bonus rounds as I like to focus on army building rather then diorama's, but if a few of the rounds works with one of the projects I'm doing I may join in, but like I said army building is priority no. 1 with me. That said, I'll enjoy watching what everyone enters in the bonus rounds even if I'm not in.

It's going to be a tough climb, but I'm looking forward to the summit.:-)

So I'm off to my painting table!  Good luck to everyone who entered the challenge and Merry Christmas everyone!:-)

Almoravid Berbers

I've finally got around to starting my Impetus Almoravid army to of course provide opposition for my  El Cid army.  My Caballeros were tired of sitting around a table throwing dice waiting for somebody to fight.

This was my test regiment consisting of Berber spear supported by archers. The figures are a mix of Gripping Beast, Artizan and Musketeer(Footsore) miniatures. I wanted my Almoravids to have a fairly strong contrast to my slightly colourful Spanish so I went for a very sombre low key look to reflect the dour and strict mindset of the Almoravids. I did this by choosing very earthy natural colours of  creams with shades of brown and then adding some black and white in the mix. Lastly I choose a dark green as a both an army unifier and a contrasting colour that wasn't too strong. The shields I also kept very minimalistic in keeping with my theme. Like my El Cid army I used ap with highlights added. All shields and the banner were painted by myself.

So far things are going to plan which has motivated me to moving more units on to the painting table and getting prepared for painting later this month. I'm happy I finally started the project as it's been too long!

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