WiP Packed Away

 Just for once it seems a quick job, turned out to be just that - a quick job.

The small batch of 13 painted Uruk Hai that I bought of eBay (see previous post) to quickly retouch to boost Saruman's forces is complete.

After the drubbings Saruman received in the last couple of games he needs something like this to put some fear into eth hearts of men.

 And if this isn't enough, I've also finished touching up the batch of painted figures from Fernando Enterprises that arrived while I was working on these.  They will provide an even bigger uplift to the Army of Orthanc but that will have await another post.

A Quick(?) WiP

With the 20mm Naps finally complete, and a batch of painted figures awaited from Fernando Enterpises, I was looking for something quick.  Then I saw this lot on eBay (photos from eBay listing).

They were reasonably priced, very painted much like my existing units of Uruk Hai, and just enough for one more Dragon Rampant unit to round off Saruman's army.  The paint jobs, shown more clearly below, looked like they would need minimal retouching to blend in.

When they arrived, I realised it might take a bit more work, as the hair was dry-bushed metal like the armour.  Nonetheless, I got stuck in and shortened those, ridiculous in my eyes, can-openers on sticks, and stripped the flock off the bases.  And this is as far as I've got so far.

To be honest the textured bases were nicely done but would not blend in with all my other units so I will give then my standard plain sand textured basing.

As I was writing this post the Fernando figures arrived, a good 24 hours before they were expected at the earliest - I haven't unpacked them all yet.  Hopefully this won't stop me completing these Uruks fairly soon ... I hope.

All Coated Up and Ready to Go

The mojo seems to have returned with the good weather, as I have finally finished off the latest, long drawn out, WiP batch, the 121ème régiment d'infanterie with a supporting unit of voltigeur skirmishers, and all overseen by Général de Division Jean-Marie-Pierre-François Lepaige Dorsenne.

So, after going through their paces in the field, a quick trip to the local photographic studio was called for.

Where's the Mojo Gone?

When I started this batch, I thought it would be a quick job as the greatcoats would be so easy to paint.  

But what it's shown me is that the bit that I find both tedious and time-consuming, is not the uniforms, but the backpacks and all their straps.  

I really thought these figures would be complete by now; it's been nearly a month since this post (Link).  OTOH, taking this photo the other day, seems to have stirred me into action and they are now making much better progress.  They're still going to take a bit of time to get completed but I do feel I'm getting there now.

Meanwhile back in the cabin, a.k.a. HizHut, the table has been left untouched since the 'Blitz on Villeroux' Chain of Command game ...

... as I have no games planned until the refight of this game next week.

May the Mojo be with you. 

Great-coated WiP

The latest batch on the work / painting table is a unit's worth of 20mm Hinton Hunt (HH, but most are probably copies) Napoleonic French infantry in greatcoats, all recently emerged from the bleach bath to remove their old paint jobs.

There's enough here for a 24-man unit (battalion) and a 6-figure skirmish unit, and rising above it all (on a cocktail stick up his fundament) is an HH personality figure of Dorsenne.

There's a fair bit of figure bashing happening.  The advancing figures used for the battalion (FN12) are all grenadiers.  This means all the figures in the fusilier companies need their epaulettes, sabre-briquets, and the shoulder-belt it is suspended from, removed.  All the figures are also getting their shakos changed to covered shakos courtesy of some thick coats of white paint.

The biggest job was to create an officer standard bearer from a firing figure, the arms requiring a lot of repositioning.  There's still more work to do on these can be seen below, but this is a WiP.

The rear view shows the backpack's removal (officers wouldn't carry one) and the extension of the sabre briquet into a sword.

This figure still needs the shoulder belt for the 'holster' for the flag pole, an eagle for the standard (to be taken from another figure) and a head swap for one more appropriate for an officer.

The head from eagle bearer will used to replace that on the Newline Design drummer I'm going to use for this unit; this will make him blend in better with the HH figures around him.

The drummer's greatcoat will also get more folds sculpted into it to look more like the HH figures in the rest of the unit.

Then it will be on to painting them, I want to paint the skirmish unit to look like this, for me iconic, illustration ...

... from this book.

For the larger unit (battalion) I shall base them on this illustration except with a grey shako cover to tie them in with the skirmish unit.

You don't get me, I'm part of the Union

With a hell of a shout, it's "Out, brothers, out!" And the rise of the factories [Parliament's] fall.  

To be honest I think ECW clubmen could be found on both sides, and neither.  But these, the latest completed items from my current WiP batch are destined to support the King in four days' time at the Battle of Whalley, 21st April 1643.  

The figures are all Minifigs, with the outer two bases being completed yesterday to bulk out my single clubmen base (the one with the banner), albeit I replaced the leader figure wearing a lobster pot helmet, with a dashing redhead carrying his hat.  I've added some figures with firearms to form rudimentary 'wings' of shot.  I couldn't resist adding a blunderbuss to the mix, and this figure is a Royalist cavalryman cut off at the waist and added to the legs of a clubman.

 

The mêlée weaponry is all scratch built from my bits box as the figures now come with very thin and dainty weaponry that will bend if you so much as look at it.  And, I wanted them to match with the weapons carried by the existing figures.  And here the temptation was to include one carrying a scythe ...

... and a couple carrying clubs, as nod to their identity, this one's dressed like the town's preacher.

Meanwhile, the rest of the WiP batch, various ECW command figures show little progress from the last time they appeared in a post.

In the above, the shepherd shown complete in a previous post, has now acquired a dog (from Warbases) and both are ready for basing.  Also, in sight is the Minifigs lobster-potted figure that was removed from the existing clubmen base.  These won't be ready for the Battle of Whalley game, which will be the next post but hopefully not too long after that. 

Your Carriage Awaits

In the sidelines of the last two posts some of the currnet WiP batch have been completed.  These comprise the ECW Newcastle's coach command vignette, a retouching of Lord George Digby and a shepherd (his sheep are old figures).  

I am pleased with how the coach vignette turned out, with Newcastle alighting to speak to a Whitecoat officer while his servants take the horses away to care for them.  Clearly it's too late in the day to start a battle.

Pleased enough to do a quick light-box session.

The figures and horses are all Hinchliffe, and the Coach is by Minifigs - the paints are all Humbrol enamels.  

I have since ordered some luggage to place on the platform behind the passenger compartment but that can be easily painted and added later.

Sidetracked

Along with an interrupt for the CoC game described in the previous post, my work in progress (WiP) was put on hold while the wife went away to visit friends for a few days.  While that has its downside, it also frees up the kitchen.  As this gives me a 6'x3' table and 4'x6' peninsular it allows me to spread out far more than is possible on my cluttered 2'x2' painting table.

What this means is I can do some terrain work that won't fit on the painting table.  And in this case, it was painting my recent purchase of latex tracks and cobbled town streets with pavements from Early War Miniatures at Partizan.

First, the country tracks and junctions.

The EWM range doesn't include any junctions between 7cm-wide cobbled roads and the dirt tracks so I had to bodge these.  Down the lefthand side are the cobbled roads cut from road T-junctions.  Butted up against two of them are the tracks cut from track T-junctions.  In the middle of the second column is a section of cobbled road with two track sections cut from track T-junctions to make a 'road-track' crossroads.

Some of these featured in my previous, CoC AAR, post.  The posts are out of sequence as I need to do AARs immediately after the game before I forget what happened.

The town streets, including some damaged (bombed/bombarded) sections were simply a paint job.  

The paints used were all acrylics by Vallejo and/or Citadel.

WiP Crack Away!

Not quite the Deadwood Stage, but close enough?

It's actually a Minifigs 17th Century Coach that I'm using for a command vignette with some Hinchliffe figures for my ECW Armies - all modified to some extent.  This is inspired by vague recollections of pictures of Newcastle's coach at Marston Moor - I may be mistaken but the idea has taken such firm root in my mind I'm doing it anyway.

This and the other works in progress (WiP) had all been stalled by the thought of upcoming Jury Duty which had killed my painting mojo stone dead.  But it turned out I only spent a few days at the court before being released as I didn't get selected for a jury on any of the cases (they call up more jurors than needed as some are excused, some are challenged, and some are 'no shows').  All that sulking for nothing - I really need to stop stewing about stuff and just get on with my life.

Anyway, the other WiPs mentioned above include some more Hinchliffe mounted commander figures (one-piece castings) many with head-swaps and Byron with a pistol added in his hand.

The 'empty horses' in the above are for Thomas Fairfax ...

... and Arthur Haselrig - a head-swap and trying for a 'browned' armour look. 

In parallel with this lot, I'm also expanding my single base of clubmen into a three-base unit, all Minifigs.

Rather unlikely, but I couldn't resist fabricating a scythe for one of them.

 

4th Hussars WiP now Complete

While at times it seemed these guys were doomed to be a perpetual work in progress (WiP) they are finally finished.  So, here's a quick lightbox session to show how they turned out.

Not the flashiest of the French hussar units when their red pelisses are not in view, but from some angles they're pretty enough.

As always, the command group and elite company are the showiest (is that a word?): as can be seen from the front ...

... the right profile ...

... the rear view ...

... and the left profile.

The trumpeter is a conversion of an elite company hussar resting his carbine on his thigh.  The modifications included a head swap (from a Garrison French hussar) and a hand grasping a trumpet from Newline Designs trumpeter (I forget exactly what type of cavalry figure).

The officer figure was also made from same figure as the trumpeter but he kept his colpack, just having the carbine removed from his right hand which was raised as though giving an order.

In my first WiP post on these guys I said I was going to fix a trooper's broken sword.  In the end I decided I'd use a spare elite trooper and just do a head swap.  This showed that the elite figure is a better casting and not identical to the line figure.  The main difference is the carbine.  As can be seen in the photo below, the carbine is longer and better modelled and rests under his arm (he's the figure on the left of the photo. 

I am pleased with these but it will be a while before I paint more hussars, something a bit simpler being in preparation for my next unit.

The 4th Hussars will be reporting for duty in another post to follow.

======ADDENDUM======

I thought I should own up that the number '4' on the sabretaches is a home-made decal.  I had several attempts at painting it on and they were all rather disappointing.