Orctober challenge, episode 4: knights and fanatics

 Good evening everyone!

Time is running, it's been several days since my last post, and I only have 13 days left before the deadline. But I have several figures to show this time, and some good news regarding the figures to come.

Let's begin with the first element of knights (2 elements are required for my army list):

These figures come from Miniart set #72007 French mounted knights. Historically speaking, they represent french knights from the second half of the 15th century, which was a period of war against Burgundy. They are earlier warriors than the 16th Swiss and Landsknechts, but they're still ok together in a fantasy army.

In my Empire army, they stand for noble landowners, not military orders - the next element should represent these particular knights.

I also finished to paint my Fanatics element, a real (small) motley crew:

The first fanatic on the left has already been displayed in episode 2. The three others are minis by Strelets , Zvezda and Redbox.

I've also begun to convert and paint some figures as Fire wizards. After priming and face painting (first layer with base color), they look like that:

It's the first time I try to represent fire with metal armature and cotton. Hmm, not very convinced with the flames made by the wizard on the right - I'll see after painting if I need to do it again.

Will you guess where these two wizards come from ?

So, the work progress is now this:

Troop type	Number of elements	figs per element	Number of figures	painted figures
General (Knight)	1	2	2	0
Wizard	1	1	1	0
Knights	2	3	6	3
Halberdiers	2	4	8	8
Longswords	2	4	8	8
Arquebusiers	2	4	8	1
Fanatics	1	4	4	4
Bombard	1	4	4	4
Total	12		41	28

7 elements (out of 12) are ready.

The next step will be to paint the Arquebusiers. The 3 missing Talabecland arquebusiers have their basic colors and washes, I just need to add lightenings. The color scheme for the mercenaries has been chosen, and the test shot figure also has basic colors and washes done.

After that, I will paint the second knights element, then the two wizards.

And at last, I will have to paint the general element, including a knight on horse as general, a foot aide-de-camp or engineer, and a standard bearer.

See you for the next episode of the Orctober challenge :)

Orctober challenge, episode 3: artillery

 Good evening! 

The Orctober challenge is still running, and my Empire army is receiving a new unit today: a cannon and its crew.

The crew is painted in keeping with the Talabecland color scheme, red and yellow. I chose to paint the trousers black, to recall that, in the Old World of Warhammer, the gunners often come from the city of Nuln where black is the main uniform color. Moreover, it's rather convenient when you fight with firearms.

All figures and cannon come from Redbox set #72064 Landsknechts artillery

So the work progress today is as follows:

Troop type	Number of elements	figs per element	Number of figures	painted figures
General (Knight)	1	2	2	0
Wizard	1	1	1	0
Knights	2	3	6	2
Halberdiers	2	4	8	8
Longswords	2	4	8	8
Arquebusiers	2	4	8	1
Fanatics	1	4	4	1
Bombard	1	4	4	4
Total	12		41	24

What's next ?

I need one more rider to finish the first element of knights. I've begun to paint the horse... and lost the knight himself, can't find him on my workbench ! I suspect the cat, of course... and the Orcs, who probably try to sabotage my work and prevent me from fulfilling my challenge !!

I still haven't found the figure of the general, but I have a couple of ideas to paint Fire wizards.

So, see you for the next episode :)

Orctober challenge, episode 2: more Halberdiers

 Good evening everyone. Last week, I had much less time to paint than expected, but I could paint my second element of Halberdiers (see previous post for more explanations).

Here you are:

This guys are on the front line of the battle: the poses are rather dynamic, as you would expect. The figures all come from Redbox set #72059 Lansdknechts (Halberdiers). Flash and mold lines had to be removed before priming - I spent almost as much time to prepare the figures as to paint them.

You can see on the following picture the two Halberdiers elements.

Now that the second regular unit is done (the first one was the Longswords unit), I've begun to gather figures to represent fanatics, the equivalent of Warhammer flagellants.

Regarding the color scheme, this is my thinking:

- Fanatics are irregular, they must not be uniformed

- they are a mix of monks and exalted people, mainly peasants, so their clothes are rather dull and dirty

- to fit with the rest of the army, it would be nice to paint some accessories with the red and yellow of the army color scheme

As usual, I thought it interesting to mix figures from various sets. The first is a monk, with a red hood marked with the symbol of one of his gods. His robe has white flames on its edges. Will you guess the set in which I found him ? The answer in the next post :)

I've also begun to paint the knights, 2 of them are ready, but no pictures this time.

After one more week, the work progress is measured as follows:

Troop type	Number of elements	fig per element	Number of figures	painted figures
General (Knight)	1	2	2	0
Wizard	1	1	1	0
Knights	2	3	6	2
Halberdiers	2	4	8	8
Longswords	2	4	8	8
Arquebusiers	2	4	8	1
Fanatics	1	4	4	1
Bombard	1	4	4	0
Total	12		41	20

 Ok, 20 figures out of 41, not too bad. The bombard already has its basic colors and washes. Most foot soldier are primed (as well as the knights) and have the flesh painted.

The general figure is not yet chosen. Horse or foot ? If on foot, I will have to paint another knight carrying the army standard. 

The wizard figure is not chosen either. At first, I wanted to reuse the wizard I've already painted (see here), but I would be cool if I could paint another one. A fire wizard would be great, and I think I will have to do a conversion.

That's all for today, see you soon for the next episode of the Orctober challenge :)

Orctober challenge: painting a 1/72 Empire army in one month (almost)

Hi, dear fellow readers. 

Yesterday I was reading some posts at Benno's (I haven't been there much during the past few weeks) when some new topics by Wiking and Paul recalled me that it was already Orctober! Some well organized painters were displaying their new orc troops - a lot of mounted warriors this year. And I had nothing new to show, after a real effort last year, but I wanted to do something for this year's challenge, and I proposed to paint an army of opponents for the green horde.

So this year, I will try to paint an Empire army, in reference to the human Empire in the Old World of Warhammer.

Even if there are no manufacturers producing fantasy Empire figures, it is very easy to find relevant figures in the historical ranges, because the obvious inspiration for the Warhammer Empire is the 16th century central Europe. Two manufacturers have produced figures that perfectly represent Renaissance armies: Dark Dream Studio and Redbox. I will mainly use Landsknechts and Swiss soldiers to represent my army.

 

How many figures ? 

If you regularly visit these pages, you know that I am a painter of the slow sort, so painting an complete army in one month is a real challenge. That's why:

1. it won't be very large: a list according to the HOTT spirit (i.e. 12 elements) should we reachable

2. I will cheat, because, some of the figures needed are already painted

This is the army list I will try to complete:

Troop type	Number of elements	fig per element	Number of figures
General (Knight)	1	2	2
Wizard	1	1	1
Knights	2	3	6
Halberdiers	2	4	8
Longswords	2	4	8
Arquebusiers	2	4	8
Fanatics	1	4	4
Bombard	1	4	4
Total	12		41

Which color scheme ?

I chose to paint a Talabecland army, which means that I will use a Red / Yellow color scheme. I don't want my figs to be too uniformed, so there will be some differences between the units, and also between the soldiers of the same unit.

Some figures to display ?

Yes indeed, since I am cheating, some minis are already painted :) The first of them are the Longswords - most of them were painted in 2017. Let's have a look:

The figures above come from Redbox set #72057 Landsknechts (Sword/Arquebus). Only 3 poses fight with a longsword, but with variations in the paint and a hat from Dark Dream Studio, they are different enough.

The next figures come from Dark Dream Studio set #72002 Landsknechts. The poses are much more dynamic than the previous ones, and the details of the sculpting is excellent

When put together, the difference between the two manufacturers are not too important, and you get a colorful and varied unit.

I've painted nine longswords and I only needed eight => two elements completed.

The Halberdiers come next. The first element has been painted this month, so I came closer to speed painting in this case :)

They are a mix of Landsknechts (set #72059) and Swiss (set #72062) Halberdiers. Remember that I only want to represent a fantasy army! The next element is on the workbench, the first two men on the left should be ready tonight.

There is one more figure to show, an Arquebusier. I've painted only one so far as a test for the color scheme, as I use to proceed. He's a bit darker than the previous ones because of his black shirt and socks - he's prepared to get dirty because of the gunpowder.

So, I have 13 figures painted, out of 41, not too bad. But I have to paint horses, and a bombard, hum, I should not lose time.

Hope you like them, or maybe fear them if you are enthusiastic about Orcs :-D

Pentagon, Robin Mask and Chainman

Another batch of Kinkeshi figures. I really appreciate the variety - nothing to do with regimental painting :). From left to right: Chainman, Robin Mask and Pentagon.

Pentagon (Kinkeshi No.25, M.U.S.C.L.E. No.67)

His name comes from the fact that he has a pentagram painted on his face. He's got bird wings and a completely white body - which makes a very interesting challenge for painters.
Once again, this figure is not an original Kinkeshi, but a plastic copy from the Cosmix range.
Maybe I could use him as an angel in a 1/72 Fantasy Empire army.

Robin Mask (a) (Kinkeshi No.5, M.U.S.C.L.E. No.46)

This is the first incarnation of Robin Mask, with a silver metal armor. The color scheme will change with the next incarnations.
He should wear a spiked helmet, but this Cosmix copy is of poor quality.

Chainman (Kinkeshi No.81)

This figure is really funny. Remember that Kinkeshi figure are meant to represent wrestlers ? This one is a disentanglement puzzle, also known as Mindpuzzleman. In the manga, he has a fight against another toy wrestler called Cubeman who beats him immediately - by solving the puzzle.
This is an original Kinkeshi figure (and it wasn't part of the M.U.S.C.L.E. range). I painted it as any other plastic figure: white primer, then acrylic paints, except for the gold which is my only enamel paint.

That's all for today. Hope you still like them, though they're not 1/72 :)

Asuraman, Jesse Maybia and the Ninja

I keep on painting Kinkeshi figures, that's rather funny and recreative. I've taken pictures with my smartphone, so I apologize in advance for the quality. Let's have a look.

On the left, the first figure I've painted a few days ago, Sishkeba Boo. You will notice that his skin is shiny, more than the others - I suppose I didn't mix my paints well enough - it was the first use after a break of several months. Another element is that I didn't prime this mini - maybe it had an impact on the result, too.

Now let's have a look at the new ones. The first mini on display is Asuraman (Kinkeshi No.82, M.U.S.C.L.E. No. 70). In the manga, this character is a prince from the Demon world. His name comes from the buddhist and hinduist mythology in which the Asuras are described as demigods with three heads and four or six arms.

Those who are familiar with Kinkeshi figures will find that this figure is not an original Kinkeshi, but a copy - there's no mark at the back of the figure. Indeed, this figure comes from the Cosmix range, that copied some of the Kinkeshi range. Moreover, it is plastic and not rubber.

Nevertheless, the figure is interesting and I am quite happy with the result. Ashuraman will make a perfect god in my (future) ancient Indian army! You can see below Ashuraman together with 1/72 Ancient Indians by Hät - Oh my God, unpainted figures on this blog ! :-)

Next mini, and far less impressive, is Jesse Maybia (Kinkeshi No.32, M.U.S.C.L.E. No.10). Jesse is a human wrestler from Hawaii. He looks like a lifeguard, probably because of his swinsuit, though swimming with a metal helmet and golden shoes must not be that easy. Once again ,this guy is a Cosmix, and not a real Kinkeshi.

Last of the three, a figure representing a Ninja - The Ninja (b) in the Kinnikuman range (Kinkeshi No.184, M.U.S.C.L.E. No. 96). Again, a Cosmix figure.

Kinkeshi Figures

Hello everyone! It's been a while since last post, and this one will be very far from my usual painting subjects - read it as a holiday post :)

Have you ever heard of Kinkeshi Figures ? Or maybe M.U.S.C.L.E. Figures in the US ?

"Kinkeshi" stands for Kinnikuman Keshigomu, which means Kinnikuman Erasers. This range of collectable toys are erasers, which looks popular in Japan. The Keshi figures usually represent Manga or Anime characters. Here, Kinnikuman is the hero of a manga series written by Yoshinori Nakai and Takashi Shimada, originally published between 1979 and 1987. An anime was also created for the Japanese TV.

Kinnikuman is a wrestler, so the figures range (473 figures) represent wrestlers from the manga and anime.

A subset of this range has been distributed in North America under the name of M.U.S.C.L.E., which means Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere. As far as I know, the only figures available in Europe were plastic copies sold as COSMIX in France, and Exogini in Italy.

Here you are my first painted Kinnikuman figure:

This character's name is Shishkeba Boo, a member of the Barbeque clan on planet Kinniku  - don't ask, I don't know anything on the subject, I never read the manga, nor saw the anime. And I'm absolutely not interested in wrestling either.

Below, you can see several unpainted figures from the Kinkeshi range.

Yes, some of the characters look very strange, and rather funny - the main reason why I wanted to paint them.

The other reason is that I've recently discovered this blog: Mike's Painted Miniatures

The painting of the figures is really amazing. Since they are manga or anime characters, the style may be different from the usual way for historical figures, and I wanted to try.

So that's it. I intend to paint a few more figures these days, but I keep on painting 1/72 plastic figures too :)

If you want to know more about Kinnikuman, a lot of information (and sometimes color schemes) can be found here: Kinnikuman Fandom