My Germanic warband is growing - faster, but not that fast

I'm proud of myself today. For the first time in my life, I have been able to paint 8 figures at the same time, and they were painted in two days - I even painted another one, but I keep it for the next post :)

All right, all right, I can hear most of you, army painters, laughing... and you're right to do so :D but the above is true, since I usually paint one or two guys simultaneously. So yes, I am a very slow painter, but I try to improve.

Enough with myself, what do we get this time ? Well, as most of you guys, I love to see big painted armies on the battlefield, and I realized that I already had a few Germanic warriors (maybe you remember my Germanic Hornblower, or more likely this berseker - even if I suspect that guy is probably not accurate), so I decided to paint some more, 8 guys, so that I can have 2 more DBA Wb elements, and take pictures.

I really tried to paint faster than usual, but I realized that I couldn't: the same skill, and the same result, more or less. So how could I paint more minis than usual, where was the difference ? I simply used the same color palette on several minis, so I spent less time looking for a color scheme, even I still want every figure to be unique. This time, I mainly used red, green, 3 different browns, flesh, metal and gold, off-white, sand... I think the result is in my tabletop standard, but the method is efficient.

What do you think of them ?

Oh, and one last thing: I cheated a little for the pictures, because the last ranks are filled with minis that we can consider as proxies: Picts, Franks, Saxons... I deliberately mix figures from as many sets and manufacturers as possible, so that I get a motley warband. I will conclude this post (and week) with this little game: can you find the number of manufacturers involved in this scene ?

Thanks for reading, have a good sunday evening :)

Galadhrim

A few months ago, I had the chance to get some Fantasy minis by Caesar, a reference rarely seen on the web and apparently only sold by the manufacturer himself. These minis looked very promising, as they represented elvish and human warriors inspired by the Lord of the Ring trilogy. They were Elves and men from Gondor in the second Age, and Galadhrim from the third age. These Galadhrim composed the troops sent by Galadriel to help the men of Rohan during the siege of Helm's Deep - please note that they only appear in the movie but not in Tolkien's book.

I was very excited at the idea of painting one of the archers, since their battledress is rather impressive - and the version made by Games Workshop used an interesting color scheme.

This is what I could achieve - I just finished him half an hour ago :)

This mini perfectly fits its opponents - in this case, Uruk-Hai by Dark Alliance. The Galadhrim is defending the garden of Lothlorien against the orcs of the White Hand.

Tell me if you find this color scheme convincing - I have a few others to paint !

Gaelic mercenaries in medieval Ireland

Last year, I wrote a post about galloglass and kerns, the gaelic warriors of medieval Ireland. This post contained pictures of one warrior of each sort.

Today, my warband has grown a little. Here they are:

This warband is led by a chieftain, even a lord, considering the quality of his armour.

His retinue is composed of galloglass, Scots from the Highlands and the Isles, at first, but also local Irishmen, whose main weapon is the double handed axe.

These fierce mercenaries are seconded by kerns, light native infantrymen, whose main weapons are javelins and knives, and sometimes bows.

They are ready for raiding!

8th Neapolitan Line Infantry Regiment - complete

With the addition of the last musician of the month, I can show you a complete Napoleonic infantry battalion, belonging to the 8th Neapolitan Line, white uniforms with pink garment (as original as a Berg Cavalry regiment).

Here you are:

Each company is represented by a set of three figures, so that we have a complete battalion with 18 figures: 4 fusiliers companies, 1 voltigeurs company and 1 grenadiers company.

Voltigeurs

1st company, with officer, drummer an standard bearer

2nd company

3rd company

4th company

Grenadiers company

 The organization of that unit is the same as in the French line infantry. A few more pictures:

The minis are a mix of several manufacturers: mainly 1812 French Hät (Line and Light, Officer from the Young Guard set), Accurate and Newline Design.

The Grenadiers are conversions, using Hät and Accurate bodies, with Esci grenadiers hats and backpacks.

Hope you like them ! 

Musician of the month: drummer of the 8th Neapolitan Line

Hi everyone!

I hope you haven't forgotten this blog :) I know it is a very long time since my last post, but there are several reasons:
1. Summer: I prefer to live outside than to look at a screen
2. Summer: I prefer to travel than to paint in the cellar
3. Socializing: I prefer to talk to people than to my plastic figures
4. Garden: I had a few things to do in the garden (and it's not over...)
5. In spite of the summer and the holidays (in southern Italy, see here - in french, sorry), I also had a lot of work

So after a long break, I come back to this blog with some newly painted figures, but there is only one on display today: the musician of the month!

Our musician is a drummer in the 8th Neapolitan line infantry regiment during the Napoleonic era, and I must admit that he was a real pain to paint. Documentation first: not so easy to find, I used several out-of-date sources, hoping to be accurate - once again, your wise comments are welcome, dear scholar readers.
Then the painting itself: it is difficult to paint after a 5 months break, and the uniform of this drummer is complicated: white with pink garments, and red and white chequered motif everywhere! I had to throw my brush away after that.

Well, this is the drummer:

 You will notice that this is not a plastic figure, but a converted Newline Design Nassau drummer.

Next week (yes, I promise, the pictures are already taken), I will show you the regiment to which this little guy belongs.

As usual, hope you like him :)

Musician of the month: Skeleton Horn Blower

What is fun with fantasy ? There is no limit, and you can create impossible things. This month's musician is not that original, since skeletons (including horn blowers) are classical figures today, thanks to the major manufacturers of Fantasy figures. Hard to believe that dead things can walk,  even slowly, or fight, or do anything but lie... but in Fantasy, everything's explained thanks to Magic, and especially dark Magic.

... So, a dark sorcerer came with forbidden spells, a gifted necromancer, and he began to raise the dead, lots of them... So many of them that they began difficult to control. He was compelled to use a general to rule them all, and he called a mighty vampire, but the skeletons were indisciplined, they didn't follow the orders, as if they were deaf to any signal... wait, of course they're deaf! The necromancer's spells couldn't make skeletons hear the orders, but there was one spell, a very ancient one, that allowed him to create Black music, the dreadful sound of an ancient horn blown by invisible lungs, yes! So he gave that horn to one of his most disciplined skeletons, and ordered him to blow again and again, and, because of this horrible dead sound, every skeleton began to walk West against the human kingdoms...

"Why West ? What if the humans settled in the South ?"
"Then, my apprentice, you will have to learn another spell, because this is the way of Black Magic. Go back to your books and don't ask foolish questions again!"

This month's musician is our skeleton hornblower. His horn is a very old instrument that remained in an ancient tomb for hundreds of years, so it is made of oxidized metal - green oxidation for brass, or verdigris. That's what I tried to represent on this mini, together with rust on the iron parts.

A few pictures:

The fierce skeleton proved good enough to be enrolled by the Vampire general, to summon the skeleton army to go West! Er... to go to the right, as we can see in the following pictures:

 

"Eh, come back, all of you! West is on the other side !!! Who gave me an army of unlateralized skeletons !!!"

Mousquetaire du Roy

Just a test shot today, my first attempt at painting a French King's musketeer in Louis XIII's service.
You can see him standing in front of an inn, with a bottle of wine in his hand, ready to fight nevertheless.

Some closer pictures:

This guy comes from Ultima Ratio set UR011 Musketeers of the King of France. He proved very interesting to paint, and I tried to represent the different materials as well as possible: leather, metal,  feather, glass bottle...
I will try to paint his friends and opponents in the next days.

Hope you like him :)