Capt Maynard - On the Seven Seas

A friend has asked me to paint Capt Maynard from North Star Military Figures Royal Navy Crew. He wanted to get my take on flesh and basing so here's a short tutorial on how I did him. Dougie

Neil wanted the Capt based on a 2p piece so the first stage is cleaning the figure, gluing him to the base and blending the cast base in with milliput.

The base was to represent a desert island so I decided on ground only and no vegetation. The base has been painted in VMC 873 US Field Drab. I then glue ballast on for the terrain, I use Woodland Scenics Dark Brown Ballast fine code B71. This is a good match to 873, use white glue to attach it and wait for it to dry. We then dry drush the base up in progressively lighter shades using the following colours;
VMC 843 Cork Brown
VMC 912 Tan Yellow
VMC 847 Dark Sand
VMC 837 Pale Sand
The edge of the base is then tidied up with 873.

I prime the figure in Matt Back, I use VMC but any will do.

I use a fairly standard triad system for painting flesh, this is my standard european version it can be easily enhanced by putting further shades on but this has just 3. The flesh areas are intitially panted with the shadow shade, VGC (Vallejo Game Color) 44 Dark Flesh. Leave the eyes black and the very darkest of shadows.
Next we add the main flesh colour which is Foundry Flesh 5A.
To highlight the flesh areas we use VGC 4 Elf Flesh.
To pull it together paint the bottom lip with VMC 802 Sunset Red, highlight it slightly. Only paint eyes if you're up to it and can do very small precise dots of white either side of the pupil. If they're too big you'll spoil the whole face, better to leave them black and in shadow! The photo below has the eye left black in the following shot you'll see I've added the white.

The white areas added and the eyes sorted.

Painting completed

The whole figure and base edge is given a coat of Humbrol 35 gloss poly for protection.

The figure then has a Matt varnish applied I use Daler-Rowney Soluble Varnish Matt for a dead flat finish and we're done. Next stop the Caribbean !

Dux Bellorum

I've always had a bit of an interest in the Arthurian Age and after reading, "Arthur and the Lost Kingdoms" by Alistair Moffat I got a copy of the "Dux Bellorum" rules by Dan Mersey.
This is an element based system that I was impressed with and there is an excellent article by Steve Jones in issue 62 of "Wargames Soldiers & Strategy" giving further scenarios and an increase in element base size to that of "Impetus" with an element having a frontage of 120mm. The number of figures per base will be following Steve's recommendations and as an example a base of ordinary shieldwall will have 14 figures, in 2 ranks of 7. This allows you to go to town on the 28mm figures and create mini dioramas for the elements!

My intention is to build a Late Roman force as well as a Sub-Roman or Arthurian force. Using my normal painting style for these number of figures would take a while so as a complete about face for me for the last couple of months I've been scouring eBay and bring and buys for painted Late Roman figures. I'm not massively concerned about the quality, they'll be getting tarted up and rebased and I'm now at a stage to crack on with the Late Roman force.

It'll be organised as below;

1 element of Mounted Companions
1 element of Cataphracts
1 element of Ordinary Riders
4 elements of Ordinary Shieldwall
1 element of Bow
1 element of Mounted Skirmishers
1 element of Foot Skirmishers

Here's some of the figures I've collected.

Some foot soldiers, the guy on the right is how this unit will look.

I acquired a unit of 12 cataphracts, I only need 6 so I've completed 6 of the figures and there're now on eBay , this will hopefully cover the cost of the figures and I get my unit as a bonus.

This is one of the 12 Cataphracts as I bought it

 
And here's the unit thats on eBay, this is how the elements will look, 120mm frontage with 6 cataphracts on.

Next up some bow, the figure on the right has been "tarted up"

I'm finding this is a much quicker way to get the units finished, I'd probably prefer to do all the painting myself but there are advantages to using this method.
Dougie

On the Seven Seas

My eldest son has been into Pirates since he was taken to see Pirates of the Caribbean with Mr.Depp, he's also flitted in and out of figure painting as his fancy but this has recently increased since he got a copy of the recent Osprey Pirate rules, "On the Seven Seas" by Chris Peers. The photos below show his Hollywoodish crew, that he's painted using a mixture of washes and the system that I use. They're quite good, he hasn't painted for a while and its got his interest going so everyones a winner. Of the 15 figures I've painted Capt Jack, the flag and the African, Alex has done the rest and he's improving dramatically!

The rules are quite good and deserve a look for a pick up games, I've been talking to a friend of mine whose been asking for tips on my painting style so the next post will be concerning how I painted a figure from Neil's Royal Navy Crew, figures courtesy of North Star.

Some Corner of a Foreign Field AAR

This post has been delayed a while as I've been having a large amount of building work being carried out at Casa Robinson and although I'm retired I've had to give it my undivided attention rather than the figures!
Anyhow on the gaming front, while waiting with baited breath for the Afghan adaptation of Chain of Command from Too Fat Lardies,  me and Alex had a quick run through of the very cheap and very short "Some Corner of a Foreign Field" modern rules.

To set the scene Alex had a UK fire team located beside a small Hut and was tasked with cleaning a compound a short distance to his front. I had 2 local Talibs for hire in dish dash and AKs,

Here's a view of the table from my end, Abdul and Mohammed are in the foreground, the Brit fireteam is around the hut.

A closer view of Abdul, on the left and Mohammed in the crops on the right.

The Brit Fire Team starting the game, activating first.

The Brits opened fire and gave Abdul a light wound and 5 stress markers!

The fireteam Corporal and his oppo dashed to the wall of the compound the other 2 members hit Mohammed wounding him and giving multiple stress markers. When they were activated Abdul failed his morale and ran off behind the cover of the wall trying to stready his nerves. Mohammed ended up in the compound before failing an unconcious test and passing out!
Abdul, his nerves now steady, came back around the corner of the compound and was promptly cut down by the LMG. At this stage the Corporal and his oppo cleared the bodies and secured the compound.

A Brit victory, glory to Alex. The way the stress works I wasn't able to get a round off!!!

A very quick easy system that's fun, its obviously not in the same league as Skirmish Sangin, that regular readers will know I'm very keen on, but it is extremely cheap and very quick to play.

Dougie

"SOME CORNER OF A FOREIGN FIELD" modern rules

Just downloaded this set of ultra low level skirmish rules from Wargames Vault , there's also a review of them in the latest Wargames Illustrated. The whole system on 2 sides of A4! Also included were some army lists/orbats at section level for Afghanistan/Iraq and the Falklands as well as other theatres. Not played them yet but looking forward to how it pans out, thoughts and AAR to follow.
Dougie

Spectre Miniatures

Well folks the postman has delivered my kickstarter from Spectre Miniatures. Spectre are a brand new company that lauched at Salute this year, followed by their Kickstarter, Here's the link,
Spectre Miniatures
 I saw their preproduction figures and a stunning African terrain board at Salute this year and I was well impressed.
We're looking at 28mm ultra modern figures and their initial release covers Africa so we have generic Militia, Paramilitaries, Special Forces, Contractors and covert Agents, think Blood Diamond or Sky 1's Strike Back.
The Postman delivered a box of Spectre goodness,

The packs come in nice boxes with packaging reminiscent of weapon crates, very nice.

I was one of the 51 backers who opted for "The Intelligence Agent" pledge, which got me 12 packs of figures and all their freebies, I also couldn't resist their resin PMC Technical,
To get a good variety I chose the following packs;
Militia firing
Militia with RPGs
Militia advancing
Bullet Proof Militia
Militia Sapeurs
Militia Guards
Witchdoctor and fighters
African Paramilitary
Warlord and Big Men
Private Military Contractors Delta
SAS Recce Patrol
SAS Close Observation
Here's some figure shots,
Militia Firing, 4 guys doing a classic "Beirut unload"

A guy from the SAS Close Observation box, all 4 in ghillie suits about to deliver the good news awesome figures!

And here's a shot of the very tidy PMC Technical, very high quality resin casting.

To round off these are very very nice figures, excellent sculpts and the research is spot on, They're all imaged on the website, link at the start of the post, I've also got a copy of their playtest rules that complement the figures and on first reading they look good, very highly recommended!!!
Dougie

Eureka 28mm Talib

At Salute in April I visited the Eureka Miniatues stand to get some stuff for my 28mm Skirmish Sangin collection, I picked up just about one of everything from the 28mm Eureka Afghan range. They do some very nice Support groups, check them out, here's the link, Eureka Afghan Range
I've knocked out a Talib from Pack 100MOD070 as a tester and I'm pleased with the way he's turned out. Dougie