First try with artificial water

 Hi everyone, let's go for something completely different, something I've never used before: artificial water.

First time here? If you have a look at the rest of the blog, you will soon realize that I don't base my figures very often. The reasons why were already explained in several posts in the past, you can read some here. But I must admit that a well based figure is much more interesting to watch, so I wanted to improve my rustic technique. I've been watching several tutorials on the subject these past days, and my eye was caught by the representation of swamps, particularly putrid swamps... a good place for zombies :)

So I bought a bottle of still water, mixed some with black and green washes, and poured the result on a painted base: grey rocks, dark brown sand, some dark green grass and a light green area for the water itself. The result is this (28mm Mantic figure):

 

Since it is a first try, I'm rather pleased with the result, but it's far from perfect. Several problems:

 - I didn't fill the gap between the figure's round small base and the square base itself, so it is still visible under the layer of artificial water

- I stuck some adhesive paper on the edge of the base to prevent the artificial water from running off, but the surface of the water twisted along the edges - I had to cut the excess when dry to have a flat result

- I didn't think of simulating the mud created by the zombie advancing in the water

I'm not sure to know how to remedy these problems, and even less sure if it is reasonable to base complete regiments this way... but it was real fun to do :D

Hope you like this small experiment, any advice is welcome :) 

Egyptian Mythology: of Gods and Beetles

 Hi everybody!

Sorry for the lack of update on this blog. Not a lack of mojo this time, it's just that sometimes, real life's stronger than hobby. I didn't paint a lot since last winter, though I have a few figures to show. After Nordic then Greek mythology, I wanted to extend my Ancient Egyptian army into a fantastic version. It's far from complete but I have enough figures for a decent post.

First, the family picture:

 If you've read this blog in the past, you might identify some mummies on the left of the picture. Let's have a closer look:

These figures come from a Dark Alliance set, ALL72045. The same manufacturer also produced some Anubites (named after god Anubis, a reference to the Mummy movie series, set ALL72053), and you can see them here:

I also wanted to represent some Egyptian Gods. Fortunately, Reaper Minis produced some in their plastic 28mm range, and I chose to paint Thoth, god of the Moon, wisdom, knowledge, writing, hieroglyphs, science, magic, art and judgment. He is often depicted with an ibis head an a human body.

A could also find a swarm of scarabs in the Reaper range - though big for 1/72, they do the job.

Of course you also need some human troops. Here they are so far, some archers:

Some heavy warriors, including a few Sherden elite.

And the usual light infantry. Nubian archers:

And Libyan warriors:

Still a lot of work to complete this arm. I need:

- a second scarab swarn figure

- more heavy warriors

- more Anubites (my favorite figures in this army)

- some giant scorpions (I found some in the Conan range by Monolith)

- a sphinx (Reaper)

- some Chariots (some are on my workbench for aeons...)

- and some generals, foot and chariot

Hope they are worth the wait :) 

EDIT: I also wanted to apologize for the lack of answer to your nice comments lately, but there's a security issue between Firefox and my Google account, so that I am now unable to write a comment on my own blog!!! Very sorry. I'm considering leaving Blogger if I don't find an answer to that problem.