More medium foot (sigh)

I turned my attention back to the pile of medium foot in the Battlelore set. These are boring as hell to paint and there are a lot of them!

I production-lined these with varying pant and shirt colours but overall similar looks. The result is okay.

Again, the shield decals make the minis pop.

Up next: Some Dwarfs carry pike are almost done (fiddling the tartan a bit) and then the club on Tuesday.

Lions Rampant

I braved a rain storm (in Edmonton in January?) and drove out to Bruce's place to try out Lions Rampant. Bruce had painted up a bunch of 15mm figures for the game: a mix of Essex mounted and Peter Pig foot.

The game was a hoot: very light, few rules, stark choices and enough randomness that it was fun. I had a knight-heavy army and watched with alternately delight and horror as they charged off after whatever was close. Jeeez!

Very simply rules that you could explain and play with anyone. I wonder what the fantasy version is like (as I paint up my Battlelore dwarves)?

Up next: More 15mm Battlelore. First some foot then some Dwarven pikemen.

Battlelore: First of the mounted

I finished off the first of the mounted units for Battlelore. I picked three different poses and did a unit of each for a total of nine figures.

These fellows with the long swords are from the Code of Chivalry expansion (I think). Overall, these are probably the nicest of the mounted figures, with decently sculpted horses.

These fellows are from the same expansion. The horses are a bit squat-er bit the key problem is their lances are terribly warped. I tried all of the usual tricks to straighten them but the plastic is very soft. I wonder if I can disguise the issue a bit with some pennants?

These are the regular cavalry from the original base set. The riders are nice enough but the horses looks like a pony and a pig had a baby.

You can see the difference between a bad and a good horse in the shot below.

Up next: I'm off to Bruce's to game Tuesday. I should have another dozen medium foot done by the weekend. I'm also working on a dozen dwarf spearmen (as a change of pace).

Battlelore: Last of the bow

Okay, so aging in-laws sidetracked my plans this week. But I did manage to complete the last four units of bowmen among the Battlelore troops I have been painting. I decided to paint these as units with reasonably uniform duds.

Up next: Gaming-wise, it is hard to say, but I have three units of mounted troops almost finished. Then probably more medium foot (since there is a seemingly endless supply of these guys).

Battlelore light and heavy foot

A cold a snowy weekend gave me some time to make progress on my Battlelore painting project. Today I finished off the light foot as well as some of the heavies.

There were 16 light foot so I painted them in a batch.

The Little Big Man shield decals really help. The decals didn't fit the lights as well as they did on the mediums so I ended up extending some decals to cover the whole shield with paint.

Mostly that worked out okay and the shields are very colourful!

I also started on the heavy foot. The fellows below are (I think) the foot that came with the original base game. The shield decals really help an otherwise uninspiring pose.

I also bought an expansion and it came with more dynamic heavy foot.

These guys had a pattern embossed on their shields so I just painted that instead of bother with decals.

Up next: I'm hoping to play some Cry Havoc at the club on Tuesday. On the painting table I have the rest of the bowmen (thank goodness: 32 identical bow is a chore) plus a few mounted troops.

Sherman paint fiasco and Battlelore troops

So, over the Christmas holidays, I painted up some Shermans for a game in a hurry. I didn't let the spay primer cure and, when I applied the matt finish, the paint crackled. You can see the crackling in the picture below on the right. I've never seen that before. 

I didn't want to have to strip and repaint the tanks so I tried to fix it with a second coat of the magic dip (above left). This muted the crackle appreciably. I then dull coated against and the result is acceptable (below). I need some US and Russian stars to finish these (and some other tanks)--anyone have some 15mm or 20mm decals they want to sell?

I have been painting the figures in my Battlelore game. I finished 16 medium foot. The results are okay (why are they all left-handed?).

The addition of some Little Big Man decals really help the figures along! These were a tiny bit fiddly to apply and needed some paint to make them fit. But overall I'm happy.

The crispness of the decals creates a much better effect than I could likely get with my shaky hand!

Up next: Bruce is hosting Cry Havoc at the club and I am painting on the Battlelore figures!

Battlelore crossbow troops

I moved a few more Battlelore missile troops to completion as I await decals for the foot. This batch are crossbow men from one of the expansions.  Not a bad match for the bow that I painted last week.

There were a dozen of these guys, comprising three units. I did their caps as metal. I wonder now, looking at the pictures, if they are actually leather?

Again I tried to mix up the colours to create a colourful and slightly ragged look to the troops. Battlelore uses banner shape and colour to denote who is who so the outfits don't need to be matchy-match.

These guys are all right handed. I'm working on the medium infantry right now. They are the most numerous pose and they are all southpaws. Which is weird.

Up next: Likely some more Battlelore but timing will depend upon the arrival of shield transfers.

Spartacus at club night

We had an even dozen guys out at cub night on Tuesday. Kevin hosted Bruce and I in a game of Spartacus.

Memo to self: running a dominus is not a good business proposition. Chen and Dave played some Zombicide (with some sort of different board than I have seen in the past).

There was also a game of Frostgrave (during a chinook, it appears).

And a redux of a Chain of Command game. Lots of things (and people!) blowing up here.

Up next: Some more Battlelore figures are drying!

New project: Painting Battlelore

With the new year comes a new project: to paint up my first edition Battlelore game. I've always thought painting these guys would be interesting and this will be a nice change of pace from my 172-scale WW2 project.

I've ordered shield transfers for the armoured figures. While I await those, I decided I would start on the light troops without shields.  First up are half of the archers. I decided to paint (rather than flock) the bases after viewing some images online.

The figures are about 18mm tall (bigger than the 15mm guys Bruce brought over for comparison on Wednesday) so you are seeing them a twice their normal size. For generic monopose game pieces, they paint up pretty well.

Up next: Club night is Tuesday (maybe some Memoir 44) and I'm working on more of the Battlelore troops.