Just Add Milliput....... Renedra Mud Hut

Hi,

Just a quickie to say that I last week I finished the Renedra Adobe Mud Hut plastic kit. Overall I was quote impressed by the kit although it did need some filling as you can see in the pics below. Next I plan on buying one or possibly two kits and doing some conversion work (one I have recovered my razor saw's from the Garage of Doom and /or moved house!).

Pics up of the painted article just as soon as the varnish has dried!

For now here's the kit bases and filled!

Bye for now

Not my Painting But Too Lovely Not To See!!

Colonel Mike Snook, author of some very fine Military History books posted on his Blog that he would be happy for the painted images of his beautifully sculpted Iron Duke Miniatures, Indian Mutiny range sold by Empress Miniatures to be ripped and placed into cyberspace.

The range is so wonderfully researched by Mike and finely sculpted by Paul Hicks that it would be very rude of me not to include some images from his website- note that i have not had a hand in painting these lovely mini's.

New Wargames Standard, So Far, Not So Good!

Hi,

In one of my previous posts I outlined my ideas about painting up the beautifully sculpted and designed Iron Duke mini's to a wargames standard. Well, I decided to go one better and try a new style of painting, one that would be more suitable for 15mm painting than that of 28mm but it has the advantage that the mini's stand out more on the wargames table as they are usually viewed from arms length at least. So, how is this achievable?

Quite simple really, when painting 15mm mini's it is important to have bigger jumps in the highlighting process. Larger steps between hues. It makes the 15mm mini's look right if you're with me? Well, I've got to admit that, even though these figures are in the early stages of painting I'm quite disappointed in the overall look of the mini's ie that the stages are more staggered than they would normally be. I'll have to see if this improves later as more detail; I certainly hope that it does!! The other draw back to painting in this style is that it hasn't really saved me that much time as I'm not used to painting 28's in this manner so it's been a learning process. Personally, I think that I could be a lot more free with the brush and not worry too much about where a particular brushstroke lands. I know that this sounds counter intuitive but it's something that great emphasis is put on in Art Schools (unless you're the graphics type, which I'm not).

OK, time to bare all, let me know what you think?

I should add that this is not how I  normally paint and will not be how I paint my other projects nor indeed anyone else's mini's!!

Bye for now.

A Painting Mutiny! A Dilemma!

Hi,

I'm now in possession of all of the Iron Duke Indian Mutiny Miniatures (sold by Empress Miniatures) and I find myself in a bit of a dilemma. I want to get them painted and on the table top as soon as possible and as I've been carefully and methodically painting up my Sudan and NWF collections it leaves me with little time to paint anything else for myself.

Here are just a few of the miniatures in question:

I was thinking of going for a Wargames Standard on the Indian Mutiny troops in order to get them done as I already have well over 100 mini's to paint and with more releases just around the corner I'm going to be hard pressed to find the time to paint them.

The question on my min is really, do I 'Speed Paint' them (ie Wargames Standard) or do I go for my normal method of painting up the mini's and give them the paint job they deserve? I once painted up a 2500 point Justinian Byzantine WAB army in three weeks so I know I'm capable of painting quite quickly.

I was wondering what you guys and gals thought? Do I go for it or not? I'd love to hear what you all think so please drop me a line or leave a comment :>)

Here's a pic of some examples of what I can do when speed painting:

Bye for now.

The Great Wargaming Survey 2015

If you haven't filled this in already then it might be an idea to do so as the results will no doubt influence what's available in the wargames press etc.

I filled it in as soon as I noticed it on TMP.

Gotta be done.... took me all of five minutes:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PNT2PCG

Bye for now.

My God! Maiwand- 66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot

This pics below will be me entry into the painting comp. For those that aren't familiar with the events of the Battle of Maiwand during the Second Afghan War, the 66th Regiment of Foot were routed and many died defending the colours. Although, it has to be said, the events that took place during the route are not crystal clear.

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed putting all this together and as mentioned earlier, it is not a diorama per say, but a mix of a terrain piece and the start of my collection for the Second Afghan War.

I feel it necessary to point out my mistake in that it was only the officers in the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot that wore blue puttees and the rank and file wore khaki. Many thanks to Mad Guru of Maiwand Day Blog fame for pointing this out to me and acting as a fantastic source of inspiration which is very much an ongoing process for me. Needless to say, I will paint up the unit of the 66th in khaki puttees and this unit will be consigned to that of another! :>) I owe the soldiers that fought on both sides the right to be represented in the correct uniforms that at least.

I hope that you enjoy the photo's; there are pics of the individual soldiers of the 66th Berkshire's too!

66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot

Individual Shots of the Mini's:

Hope that you enjoyed the pics- it was a real pleasure to paint them up.

Bye for now.