Back!

I've been away for ages due to holidays, work and now now home internet!! Once normal service is resumed i'll be able to update where I am properly. I now have a 20 man regiment of Confederate infantry done and looking good. I've said before that despite the cheapness of the figures they actually turned out ok.

I've built up my box of cavalry and they'll be my next painting job. Currently on my workbench I have the following to get done:

Wild west buildings - I've got about 4 scratch built buildings to finish off. It's my first attempt at this so results are mixed!

Wild west figures - 4 or 5 citizens to fill out the town (may need to get some more)

ECW cavalry - 2 boxes of Warlord Games ECW cavalry to build and paint although having now played a few games of pike and shotte, I already have more than enough so these boys can wait

WW2 US jeep - I picked up a US jeep on holiday for next to nothing, it's a die cast model so just needs some weathering. I also have 15 US infantry to build and paint for Bolt Action but I've got more than a 500 point army done already anyway so no rush

Dungeons and Dragons - I picked up a vintage D&D box set game at a boot fair recently that included some Ral Partha metal figs. they look cool so I thought I'd paint them up for a laugh

Templar/feudal Knights - I bought these on Ebay ages ago and have done nothing with them, they've been painted already but look poo so I'm going to redo them. I don't know what for at the mo' we'll see.

Hedges - Hedges, hedges and more hedges!!! I now have more hedges than I will ever need :-)

Like I said, once the internet is back at home I'll post some pics and a proper update.

Confederate ACW army progress

I've been working away a lot the last couple of weeks so haven't made much progress. I've managed to get some more of the soft plastic figs painted though. I've also tried out a couple of highlighting techniques for fun.

I tried to do all the variants of the figs (not many!) . All the flag holders are holding those furled up flags so I may get some separate flag dudes as it would be nice to have some unfurled flags on show. I just painted it red and added a darker red wash. Does anybody know of any tutorials on painting furled flags??

I tried some different highlighting techniques. The first fig (far left) is done my normal way - Base colours then washed in GW Agrax eartshade. The next guy has been dry brushed in grey (yes I know it looks blue!) and for the guy on the right I just highlighted some of the raised grey areas. I think I may do more with the highlighted areas. I don't really like the dry brushed guy.

I'm taking the rest of my first 20 man regiment on holiday so i'll get them finished and see how they look together. After that I'm going to do some cavalry.

New project ACW armies

Now the Bolt Action army is done, I'm moving onto the next project. I've wanted to do an American Civil war army for ages now and now is the time to start.

At Salute earlier in the year I picked up some cheap ACW infantry. I managed to get 120 plastic figures for about £20. They're not great quality and were a mixture of Confederate and Union soldiers. I decided to use these as the base for my confederate army as there wasn't much variation in the figures so mixing the 2 will look better on the bases.

Last night I painted up 2 figures to see how they'd look.

I'm pleased. They look a lot better than I was expecting as they look pretty poo out of the bag. Here are a couple of pictures that show the raw figs, primed and fully painted.

They're made of a soft kind of plastic but they painted up fine and will look good when based up.

US Bolt Action army complete.....for now

After a short break due to work I got my Bolt Action army finished last night. All ready to go now. It's roughly the same size as the 500 point army you can buy so I presume it's roughly around there. The make up is as follows:

2 x  10 man squads of NCO, BAR and 8 riflemen
2 x Bazooka teams
1 x Sniper teams
1 x HQ - Lieutenant and rifleman
1 x 30. cal team
1 x Sherman
1 x M3A1 Halftrack

I'm pretty pleased, it's a good enough base army to get going. I've already got my eye on additions though also I may start a Waffen SS army but it'll do for now. I also still have about another 15 guys I can make with the left over sprues but they can wait.

Apologies for the crappy pictures but I took the them on my phone.

I converted the driver of the halftrack into a gunner as I didn't see the point putting a figure in there you wouldn't see!

I tried out some new weathering techniques on the Sherman. It looks ok I think, I need to learn how to do some good looking mud but all in all not bad.

I just realised I didn't lay out the 30 cal team!! I'll do separate picture for them.

Here are the 2 medics I made out of the left overs

 Onto the next project.

Hedges, lots of hedges and a Sherman!

As I mentioned last time, I found a guide on making hedges and it looked pretty easy so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Here's the guide to the page DIY Hedges I went to Hobbycraft and picked up a glue gun and the fat lolly sticks. The pan scourers I got in a £1 shop. All in all about £10 outlay for what will end up being around 80 pieces of hedges (if I can be arsed making that much!).

The pictures are pretty comprehensive on the original site so here are just a couple. I don't have any clamps so I just put the glued scourers under a heavy book for a couple of minutes. Then stuck them onto the lolly sticks.

After that, I sprayed them black, painted the base green and covered them with the flock. Hey presto!

My very first attempt at a tree! Not too bad.

Here's sarge going down a hedged lane with the Half track

I'm pretty pleased overall. I'd like to try some finer flock as the stuff I'm using is a bit thick but it's all trial and error.

On another note, I scored a 1/50 scale Sherman on Ebay for only a few quid. It needs some weathering but it looks great. It's made by Solido.

Warlord Games M3A1 Half-Track Part 2

I've been making good progress this week. I've been concentrating on my US army for Bolt Action, getting the rest of the figs done and painting the half track. I've tried some new weathering techniques on this, I've added rusty spots  and used different washes with some dry bushing as well.

I'm pleased with the result so far but I want to add some mud onto it somehow into the tracks and around the arches. It's still a work in progress as I need to finish the weathering, add the front gun and the driver.

In the background is some scenery I've been making. I found a great page on how to create hedges with pan scourers so tried it out today. They turned out great. I'll take some pics and put it in a separate post.

Warlord Games M3A1 Half-Track

I've got a new project on the work bench. It's a half track for my Bolt Action US infantry. I've still got some more infantry to do to complete my small army but I'm nearly there. I plan to do this half track and then a tank of some sort. I've built up the Half-track and base painted it. It's quite a nice little model. I have absolutely no idea how useful it'll be but it looks cool. I haven't fitted the front gun yet as I'm deciding whether or not to put a guy in there firing it.