Davy Jones

 My pirate crew has a leader, at last! Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you the fierce captain of the well known ghost ship, the Flying Dutchman: Davy Jones himself!

This figure comes from one of the two 1/72 sets made by Mars to represent the characters of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie series, and it is one of the best sculpted ones, in my opinion.

Regarding the painting, two things are worth mentioning:

- the weathering of the clothes must give the idea that the pirate spends most of his time under water, hence I had to paint some small shells and and some dark green to represent seaweed

- the tentacles covering the face of Davy Jones are pale yellow (almost ivory) with some traces of blue and purple to add some contrast

Among the crew, the figure of Davy Jones catches the eye, as expected of an unchallenged captain.

Hope you're frightened :D

Goblin War Chariot: The Solution

 Dear fellow readers, 

you will all remember that, in the last post, I asked you to find the origin of the pieces I used to convert the Goblin War Chariot. Many of you have recognized the venerable Ancient Britons chariot by Airfix, but what about the other parts ?

Here you are, at last, the answer!

 

A bit of zoom to see better. First, as written above, the Briton chariot.

I wished to replace the wheels with larger ones, but my range of chariot is rather poor, so I chose the wheels from the Atlantic Egyptian cart (a recast by Nexus, my Atlantic originals are still complete :)).

It proved a wrong choice in the end, because these wheels are not that taller, and the original ones are more "Goblinish".

The horses were replaced by Wargs (by Dark Alliance), as everybody found out.

I wanted something like scythes on the sides of the chariot, and a spear on front. I first tried to build some, but the result was absolutely ridiculous... Where to find large blades in 20mm ? Easy, have a look at 25mm (or more) spare bits. Then I chose those spears from the skeleton box by GW (7th edition).

The last part to find was the skeleton used as a banner. You may say that I cheated, because I used a resin 1/72 set by Nikolai.

And here you are! Maybe some of you will find this explanation interesting. Let me know if you have any question.

See you!

My contribution to Orctober 2021: Goblin Chieftain on War Chariot

Hi gents! My project for Orctober 2021 took me much more time than expected, but it is complete at last.

Everything is in the title:

This year, my Orc army received some reinforcements from a Goblin clan whose leader goes to war on a chariot pulled by two Wargs (yes, it seems that they can run side by side without fighting each other), and especially equipped with blades: one at the front, and two on each side of the axle. They're designed for hunting - Troll hunting, I mean.

The driver has to be harsh with his Wargs, hence the whip, while the chieftain looks fierce with his clubs.

The frequent visitors of this humble blog will have notice that this chariot is only the second one that I've assembled so far, after the Celtic one on the previous post. This one is a bit more customized, will you guess where all parts come from ?

 

If I find time before the end of the month, I will try to add a few more Goblins, but not for sure - we'll see.

See you, and happy Orctober :-)

Gallic Warrior Queen on her War Chariot

Good evening everyone!

In the comments related to the previous post, Norman Dean (whose excellent blog is to discover here - look at his incredible DBA armies!) asked: 'How many fellows are living in that hut, anyway?' and I answered with a list of figures waiting to be painted on my desk - a huge Celtic family :D  

Among them was mentioned a war chariot and a warrior queen, and it sounded like a new and difficult challenge. Difficult for me, I mean, because:

- I never finished any war chariot (though several have traces of paint)

- I don't like to paint horses

- I feel compelled to add some reins to the models - every serious modeller at Benno's does it

And it was challenging indeed, I had to stick the reins at least three times !!! I know I'm not good at modelling, but I try :)

No more words, let's have a look at the result:

This small kit comes from Hät set #8140 Gallic Chariot with Warrior Queen.

I chose to paint the horses as dappled grey - not that easy, I would appreciate some advice, horses are definitely not my cup of tea. The warrior woman and her driver wear elaborate tartan patterns on their clothes. So far, so good... the reins (small pieces of kitchen twine) revealed difficult to stick. 

Ok, I complain, but in the end, I am rather happy with the result :)

After the battle, the warrior queen is bringing a new head back to her oppidum...

... the druid of the tribe seems happy with this present !

The Carnyx player blows to show his enthusiasm - music, maestro!

And a back view to have a look at her green tartan.

Hope you like her, as fierce as she is !

PS: the oldest painters among you might recognize some Gallic foot soldiers that were painted as test shot figures for the Hät website ;-)

Another Gaesatae

 Hi! I'm painting slowly, but using a mobile phone as a camera encourages me to take pictures as soon as a new recruit is ready :)

So today, nothing very original compared to the previous posts, just a second Gaesatae:

This figure is also a small conversion: Caesar head and shield on a Italeri body. Once again, a weathered shield ans some tattoos.

And a group picture in order to compare both Gaesatae:

I would say that the tattoos on the left one are more convincing, what do you think ?

Germanic warrior, 1st century AD

 It seems that this website is dedidated to Ancients these days. After the Celtic Gaesatae, I've painted a Germanic warrior from the 1st century AD. And if we accept a slight distortion of space (northern Italy / Germany) and time (3rd BC/ 1st AD), you will discover this warrior face to face with previous post's Gaesatae in a panoramic view :)

Here you are:

Dramatic, isn't it ? The exact opposite of a plate by A. McBride from the Concord books showing a wild German attacking a Gaul chieftain, whose richer clothes showed that he was influenced, and probably softened, by his Mediterranean neighbours.

Let's focus on the Germanic warrior. No conversion this time: the figure comes from Linear-A set 10 Germanic Warriors Set 2 (Command).

I love the Ancients range by Linear, because they make a real effort to make original figures in new periods, or fill the ranks of existing armies with very welcome additions (Tarentine cavalrymen, for instance). This figure is no exception, because of his dynamic pose as a chieftain leading his warriors in the assault. But I must admit that I faced difficulties in removing flash and mold lines, so the result isn't as good as I wanted. 

To paint this figure, I was partly inspired by this picture found on the website of a German reenactment society, the Chasuari Group:

Their purpose is to reconstruct the daily life of the Germanic people in the 1st century AD, exactly what I was looking for.

Hope you find him accurate :)

See you soon.

Gaesatae

 Hi everybody!

A small update today, with a figure representing a Celtic Gaesatae, who were said to be mercenaries fighting naked.

This Celt is a conversion, will you guess which figures I used ? I wanted to represent blue warpaints or tattoos, and a weathered shield, hope you like the result.

And last, I've used my mobile phone for the pictures.

See you soon (I hope) !

A lonely Barbarian - and a new way to take pictures (for me)

 Good evening everyone.

After the Kinkeshi figures (a new batch has been painted, another post to come), back to 1/72! Today I took time to finish a mini that was on my workbench for years, a barbarian warrior by Dark Alliance. Don't know why it took so long to paint this mini, but now it's over.

Here you are:

Nothing particular, except that I've decided to increase the contrast, what do you think ?

What is new is that I was lazy with the picture. My usual camera (a reflex by Canon) was still in his bag, so I decided to try to take a picture with my phone despite the artificial light... and I'm pleasantly surprised with the result. So it should probably help me to write more posts because the photographic process is much easier.

Again, what do you think of it ? Is it already your common practice ? Any feedback welcome, as usual :)

More Kinkeshi figures: Black Shadow, Canadianman, Hammerhead and Treeman

Well well well... it's been a looong time, right ? More than 4 months without any activity on this blog, but a lot of visitors, more visitors (according to blogger) than when I write some new posts - is it a way to tell me that my blog is better without updates, dear fellow readers ? :-P

I kept on painting from time to time during this period, but not a lot, because I mainly focused on practicing the oud, and began to learn to use Blender, in order to create my own animation films. Well, I still need years of practice in both case, but I really enjoy it :)

And what about figures ? Hum, nothing to display in 1/72 (not yet), but I've painted a few more Muscleman / Kinkeshi figures - if you don't know this range if figures, I've explained everything in a previous post.

This time, we have:

Muscleman #49 / Kinkeshi #33 Black Shadow

Muscleman #51 / Kinkeshi #31 Canadianman

Muscleman #79 / Kinkeshi #89 Hammerhead

Muscleman #115 / Kinkeshi #94 Treeman (Moku-Mokujin in Japanese)

As you can see on the back of the figures, only the last two are Kinkeshi originals, the others are Cosmix plastic copies (easier to paint, I must say).

As Tristan explained me in a comment on this blog, it seems impossible to have a mate result on a rubber figure (as original Kinkeshi are) if you use a spray paint as a primer, due to some chemical reaction between the spray and the rubber - that's why my last two figures are a bit shiny, though I added a layer of mate varnish on them.

The trick seems to prime the figure with a pencil and ordinary acrylic paint - not a spray. I will try as this method as soon as possible, thank you Tristan :)

 

For those who are waiting for 1/72 painted minis, let us say that I should try to paint more in september, because:

- the holidays and outdoor activities will be over

- Orctober is in October - I might consider painting green Orcs this year

- I have to prepare the 2021 Advent Calendar with all my friends at Benno's !

See you soon!

A Wraith King to summon them all

One post about historical figures, then one post in Fantasy. Ok, I know, I should be painting Winged Hussars, or Vikings, or even Sassanids, meaning I should finish what I have started first. But I've started so many different projects than any new figure can complete an existing army.

Today, after a Norsemen warband, I needed a bit of fantasy. I also needed to clear my desk, and decided to paint the biggest figure on it - a wraith ! A wraith king to command my undead army, and summon dozens of skeletons, zombies, and other horrible creatures - a good option to replace my old vampire general.

So, what does he look like ? A big, howling spectre.

This mini doesn't come from any 1/72 fantasy sets, but from a pack of Undead troops designed for Battlelore 2nd edition. There are several types of figures in this pack: skeletons, knights on big horses, spectres and a zombie dragon - you can expect to see more in the next months. 

The skeletons are larger than the Caesar ones - they seem to be 'real' 25mm figures. The spectre (or wraith) is a big figure, but I find his size ok compared to the horde of skeletons and zombies (Caesar and Dark Alliance) around him.

That's all for today - hope you find him frightening :D

Viking shieldwall

 I have been working on my Viking army these days, and painted enough warriors to assemble 8 Bd elements for DBA.

Here you are the result:

 

 You'll spot figures from several manufacturers: Strelets, Zvezda and Emhar.

 I still need 4 elements for a complete DBA army. But my first purpose is to gather a mythological army for HOTT, so the 4 last elements should be:

- 1 frost giant

- 1 giant Wolf (such as Fenrir)

- 1 element of Dwarves

- 1 element of mounted Valkyries

The first two elements are done already, and I'm working on the last two. See you next time to have a look at the whole army :)

Orc Mystic Warrior 1

 Hi! As the older readers of this blog already know, I sometimes paint Rackham figures (see here), that are much taller (32mm) than the usual 1/72 figures on display in these pages.

I left this range aside for years, but I started to paint some at the beginning of 2021, in order to finish at least what was already begun.

The following pictures depict an Orc from the Bran-O-Kor faction, that is Orcs that live in a hot, desertic area.

This guy is a mystic warrior, which is a sort of mage warrior. He's got blue tattoos on his arms to represent his magic powers, linked to the earth. A snake is coiled around his right arm.

His skin is of a lighter green than that of the other members of his tribe - a birthmark that indicates his predisposition for magic.

SInce I've already painted several other Rackham figures this year, you will probably see some more in the next weeks.

Hope you like him - even if he is not of the only true scale :)

Sassanid levy infantry

Hi everyone! Today's post is dedicated to my first unit of Sassanid infantry, the Sassanid levy infantry by Hät.

According to Roman authors such as Ammianus Marcellinus (an ancient historian from the 4th century BC), the majority of the Sassanid infantry was composed of Paygan, a conscript force recruited among the peasants of the Sassanian Empire. These mean were poorly equipped, and with a very low morale, thus not very effective against the Roman legionaries on the battlefield.

Hät released this set in 2013, a very long time after the first drawings became visible on their site (the cataphracts and the elephants are still awaited). The figures are nice and the number of poses large enough to build interesting units.

These figures don't look like peasant levies, in my opinion, because they are much too well armed - too many iron swords in particular. But they are nice enough, and rather easy to paint, so I am happy with the result.

What do you think of them ?