Santa's little helpers...

During the last weeks Ian and Chris took enrolments for the annual Christmas campaigns "Santa" and "Secret Santa". During the last years Ian and his wife managed both of them but because of the growing number of participants and to avoid confusion Ian gave the Santa Clause campaign into Chris's trustworthy hands.

Anyway I nearly missed their roll calls but luckily got tickets for both campaigns at the last minute. And here's what it's all about (for the few who don't know...):

"Santa Clause"

Rule number 1:
To enter you need to either have a blog or be a regular follower of this blog (or Ian's) already. This is to give confidence to all involved that everyone will follow through to the end. If you have a blog and don't follow this one it's OK to join in.

Rule number 2:
The idea is that each person involved buys a figure or figures to the value of less than £5 and paints them up to fit in with what the target blogger wargames or collects. Best would be some kind of command for the bigger scales but maybe a unit or two of such as 6mm or a building or... you get the idea.

Rule number 3:
Please try to send out your items so that they will arrive by December 20th in plenty of time for the big day. I will send out who you have on September 16th.

Rule number 4:
Please post on your blog about your participation. The more we can get on board, the more fun for all of us.

Rule number 5:
This is not intended to be a cheap alternative to Ian's Secret Santa^TM. Instead it is a great opportunity to send and receive something that will be special BECAUSE it's a one off from a fellow blogger. Not that you have to limit yourself to something useful, feel free to paint up something that will just sit aside the painting desk or study etc and just give pleasure. 

So after all I got my target a few days ago and it's locked. The person I have the pleasure to paint some figures for is a fellow wargamer who is following my blog for some time as I do with his blogs. Actually I would love to give more hints about this noble fellow but I should keep my mouth shut to avoid ruining the surprise. Anyway the parcel will have to take a long journey so no time to waste !

"Secret Santa"

Actually the same rules apply as above but this campaign is not about a painted miniature of any kind but of a present (of course hobby related...) for about £15. Each participant will send one as well as receive another.

Ian is still taking contenders for this project. So if you want to join the bunch then hurry up and sign in!

However I'm really excited of being a part of both prjects. I love the idea of digging into one's hobby and find an item he hopefully is in need of. And as for "Santa Clause" I like the idea to give someone time, effort and hopefully pleasure as a present much more than the little amount of necessary money...

Many, many thanks to Chris and Ian for running those ventures. And to all participants, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do !

Painting Table Weekend - Basing redcoats

This week I started to prepare some things for a Napoleonic game we'll have in a fortnight. On the one hand I prepared some figures for a command base representing Major-General Denis Pack and one of his ADCs.

On the other hand I started the basing of a unit of British Redcoats which shall respresent the Royal Scots at Waterloo.

The figures are from Victrix plastic range and I built them last year. This time I didn't paint them myself but sent them together witch a lot of a friend of mine who had them painted by a professional painting service in overseas. Firstly I wasn't satisfied at all but after I started basing them it seems that I might come to peace with them at last. Nevertheless there are several things that flaws that spoil me this painting service but I'll write more on that later when I present the completed unit.

But at least I presume it'll be a proper unit for the wargaming table. No great piece of art but as powerful as any other redcoats I presume. And thirt-party painted figures save me time for more interesting project like command bases, artillery limbers and the like.

Enjoy the remaining sunday and have a good start into the new week !

The hurly-burly's done...

Luckily the weather forecast kept its promise and the weekend was pleasant. So I was able to hold two long airbrushing sessions.

The first one on friday with a lot of stuff to prime. After about one and a half hours of constant spraying 43 horses, six riders and 33 foot soldiers had a nice even coat of black primer. As usual I used my favourit: Vallejo Surface Primer Black. It works perfectly with my 0.5mm nozzle and there's no need to thin it down. On the other hand the nozzle is large enough to prime the models without wasting too much paint.

At least if you already have some airbrush equipment I think priming this way is even the cheapest way to get the models prepared. For all the stuff above I needed about 30ml of paint. Applied with a brush I would have used much more (thicker layers of paint...) and with spray cans? I'm not sure but at least half a can if not more.

Since the friendly weather continued on sunday I arranged the equipment for another session then.This time most of the stuff I primed two days earlier had to get some coulour. On that account I thinned down some Vallejo Model Colors which is always a bit tricky. Based on earlier experience between 2:1 and 1:1 (colour : thinner) works best depending on the colour and of course the nozzle of the airbrush gun. As usual I achieved rather different results but altogether I'm rather satisfied:

For the horses on the right which belong to a Saga warband of steppe warriors I chose different shades of brown to have a mixed and disordered look for the wilde horde. And by the way they'll work as guinea pigs for some new colour ideas I had...

For the lancers' / hussars' horses in the middle I chose a much more average coluor. Flat Brown for all of them. Although I thought of dappling some other shades of brown into the formation I didn't dare to disturb the disciplined look of British cavalry. By the way trumpeters in the 1880s didn't still use greys, did they?

The Normans / Crusaders and their horses were an easy choice as well. Different brown horses and a coat of dark metal on the chainmail of the knights.

For the infantry I used Khaki Grey which shall serve as base colour for the British Sudan / NWF uniforms for the 2nd Anglo-Afghan War. On the picture they look slightly more greenish than personally.

Last but not least two terrain pieces or at least some parts of them. In the foreground a part of the roof of another Dark Ages building by Stronghold, namely the Pit House I've been working on for some weeks. In the background the major part of Sarissa's awesome Pegasus Bridge. I'm not sure when I'll have that finished finally. I took several months until now and it'll take several more months. Above all I have no idea how to store or showcase the finished piece but I think it was too much work to store it disassembled in a box somewhere...

The stage is set

Yesterday evening I spent two hours with glueing figures onto bases. Actually preparations for my aribrushing plans for this weekend.

Here are all the results together:

In total these are 43 horses, six riders and 35 foot soldiers which I want to prime this afternoon. I have no idea how long this will take or whether I have enough primer left but anyway I'll give it a try.

Second step will be the base colours:

- different shades of brown and grey for the horses

- metal for the knights

- brownish for the British

If I don't manage to finish that today then maybe I'll get another time slot on sunday when Mrs Monty and the girls are out for a children's birthday party...

Heavy-duty miniature cleaning - Brutal final for (maybe) the last arbrushing session...

For the remainder of the week we have a really good weater forecast and so I hope to have the chance to hold another airbrushing session on the balcony. Maybe the last one before autumn which means maybe the last one this year.

Therefore I spent part of the weekend as well as the last evenings with deflashing and cleaning miniatures. The result is a bowl with about 50 horses and more than 30 foot soldiers. The plan is to prime them on Saturday and hopefully apply the base colour as well.

Additionally I prepared a miniature for a conversion. More precisely a staff officer from Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar's staff shall become Major Edmund L'Estrange who was Sir Dennis Pack's ADC during the battle of Waterloo. He and the general himself will represent the command of my incarnation of the British 9th brigade of the prementioned battle. 

Anyway preparation in this case means a lot of milling. As soon as I added some green stuff I'll present my humble work.