Tiger Miniatures Greek - Dipping/Highlight attempt

I've finished the first of the 10 Greeks I need to paint till Thursday in a week. The guy took a bit longer than intended, because I started painting his uniform in the wrong colour. It was way too light green so I repainted it after dipping and dipped it again. The highlights are not strong enough (and that photo is dark), I have added some extra highlights with a lighter mix after the first highlight, that you can barely see (You can see it a bit on the fold on his belly). Still, I am happy with this guy as a first product and I want to be quick with these, so I won't go crazy about it. The rest will have lighter highlights.

Please forgive the rather bad photos... somehow the miniature is too dark and I don't know how to deal with that yet.

I am posting a comparison photos of a Greek painted more than a year ago and dipped, but with the old Army Painter recipe.

As you can see, Tiger Miniatures have some... well... aesthetic issues. For one thing, the looks are not consistent. I like the right guy much much better than the left. Their biggest problems are their hands and neck areas tho, but still... they are the only WWI Greeks around and alone for that, Tiger Miniatures deserve a lot of praise.

Any criticism is more than welcome, so please criticise away!

My brain is also poorly...

because I forgot to post some markers I made for the Spartans. Inspiration was found in the pages of the Crusader rules Rulesbook. The left one has an actual shield glued on it. The others were made with Fimo.

All quiet on the doc front, part 2

Should you have ever followed the excellent blog by David Imrie (Saxon Dog), then you will have seen his amazing results with dipped miniatures. I thought, I'd give it a try as well, as I am always looking for ways to reduce my painting time, while keeping the quality to a nice level. Our dearest Saxon Dog has achieved exactly that... So, paints out, dip out and let's go.

A Musketeer Miniature from their Crusade line had to suffer. The colours I chose are an off white and red, because I am thinking of using this technique for some Napoleonic Highlanders. Therefore I had to experiment with the colours. I am quite pleased with the result... The white looks a bit weird, but all in all, a decent looking fella. Still a bit of work to be done before I can produce such results as Mr. Dog.

The colours for the base were an experiment for some Normans I wanted to paint. I like it... Now if only I could remember what I used... Pfff... I think a middle, chocolatey kinda brown from a German company called Schminke (Mittelbraun) and then highlights with Vallejo Medium Flesh, Desert Yellow and Ivory. Stones would be painted with Medium Flesh and the drybrushed with Ivory.

This dipping technique will now be applied to 10 Tiger Miniatures Greeks for a Back of Beyond Game in two weeks.

EDIT: Oh, I forgot to mention something about the painting time for this guy. 30 Minutes, if you don't take into account the time the Dip takes to dry. I was not very careful with the highlights, which might show a bit, but still... 30 minutes... Not bad.

All quiet on the doc front

Well, I've been a bit quiet lately, but my current lectureship is draining away my free time, while my health decided to give me a bit of a middle finger. Nothing serious, but this cold is one stubborn bugger. So, I've been a bit poorly. Not entirely idle tho...

I've produced some new Spartans for a start:

Only two for the time being, but I got some more in the work. They will have to wait though, as I have to paint some Tiger Miniatures Greeks first for a game in two weeks.

Maasai

Finally some Maasai. I painted these a year ago for our Darkest Africa games, but I lost interest in them very quickly. I actually wanted to paint some colonial British, but was somehow talked into the Maasai. They are quite fine, but they are not on my list at the moment. Maybe one day. The photo was taken today.

WWII British

Here are some of my WWII British. These miniatures are all dipped and painted in the colours suggested by the Artizan painting guides. Miniatures are by Artizan and Crusader. Both offer a great looking range and they match up well together. These photos are old, but I thought I'll include them here as well.

Here is a size comparison between the two.From left to right... Crusader-Artizan-Crusader.

Spartans! Attack!

When I first started to get interested in historic wargaming some 5 years ago, I decided to collect a Greek/Spartan army. I managed to paint some hoplites before I had to give everything up to write my dissertation. Now, a year after liberating myself from this work, I painted some more. Last week we decided to try FOG out and for that we needed 10 Hoplites for the one side. I had six ready and finished, so I more or less speed painted another 4. They took a long evening and were great fun to paint. I have to be careful so I don't lose interest in my Naps. Well, here is a photo of the entire Spartan family till now. My interest is definitely awake again, so I am sure it will grow.

Don't ask why one of the bases is a double one. I don't remember. I think I was trying to create my first WAB multibase. The new ones are all bases on 20x20 bases, as I am not convinced by the FOG rules yet, so I want to remain flexible.

Here are the four new ones. There are inconsistencies in the skin colour between the old and new Spartans, but I prefer the new skintone a lot better. It looks all nice and sunburned. Spears are custom made.

My Napoleonic army is... growing?

For the past two weeks I have been either putting off or not having time to take a picture of my second Napoleonic British base. Finally I got to do that, as well as take some photos of other miniatures, old and new. The new base is the left one.

The canonball is an idea I borrowed from the wonderful AWI figures of Antipater of the Sweetwater forum (Or SirGodefroy on others IIRC). Check his amazing blog here.) (EDIT: Antipater has just pointed out, that he got the idea from another Sweetwater Forum member, Tellus. So, thanks to where thanks are due! Check the Displaced Miniatures for his brilliant work!)

The photo is not the best quality, but I took it at night, which always messes a bit with my light settings.

My very first Napoleonics

These are some Perry British miniatures for the Peninsular campaign. They are of the plastic persuasion and I simply love their quality and price. I've finally decided that I will field them as the 1st Royal Scots Foot Regiment and so I will need to add the number onto their packs at some point.

The older guy shouting, is carrying a French kit... Not sure if this is historically correct, but it is a Sharpe quote I couldn't resist for my first napoleonics ever.

The house is scratch built and influenced as well as inspired by the amazing Spanish town and table by the famous Lt. Hazel of the Sweetwater, Lead Adventure and Steve Dean Fora (Check out his blog here).

Do click on the pictures to have a better look.

Cheers!

Here we go

Hello there!

Some (very short) time ago I decided to start collecting Napoleonic miniatures, even though I had been shouting my defiance to those "button-counters" for many a year. Well, I am hooked now and I really enjoy painting for and wargaming the Peninsular conflicts.
I decided to start collecting British troops, as I feel quite a connection to Britain and I seriously enjoyed all the Sharpe movies.
Other than that I am also interested in WWII miniatures and ancient Greeks, so don't be surprised if you see any such interludes. I am sure though, that more wargame eras will be making an appearance on this blog as well.
I want to apologize in advance for the unavoidably slow progression of this blog. Sadly, I cannot find the time to paint as often as I'd like. And then there is laziness and silly inhibitions. Therefore... bear with me!

There you go. Enjoy your stay and do comment if you feel like it.

PS: A "thank you for pushing me over the edge" to Axebreaker of Bunker Hill... See? A blog!