Assyrian/Shem cavalry done.

Painting these seems to be very slow work! Anyway, 15 strong unit with 2 command groups...

The Shem HoTT army needs 5 cavalry elements so I painted an extra one. By making the extra one a command base I have the option to use them as 2 separate 2 element units in the Assyrian army.

That means I now have a complete Shem HoTT army so everything else I do is pure Assyrian. I'm currently starting some 4 horse 3 man chariots simply by sicking an extra 2 horses on the figure base. Much as I would like to make them 4 man chariots, the cab is just too small!

Mould 130.

Three new moulds arrived today which adds up to 130 new moulds I've had made for Garrison - I don't count any Tiranti moulds I've made myself.

And this is mould 130 - 25mm Persian spears and javelins.

The Persian and Greek archer mould fills in a couple of gaps - it means I can now cast the Greek armoured archer and also makes it viable to cast the archer from the Persian chariot as a figure in it's own right. The Cretan archer is an oddity - it's actually listed in the Carthaginian figure list.

Finally an overdue mould - this one should give me some Scots pikes that are better than the ones on my other mould. The Byzantine officer is there because my only other doable one is on a 20mm mould - I'm trying to keep 25mm together. Should be doing Byzantine moulds later as well.

There are currently three other moulds being made - Assyrian infantry and Egyptian infantry. The Assyrians will benefit a great deal from this  consolidation. 

There's nothing there...

I'm seeing things. It's a mirage...

There's nothing there...

There's nothing...

There...

A few of the other figures I got from Mike. They're painted better than I paint them.

Some of the other figures from the RAFM Dunwich Horror set. Gives an idea of the size of the Horror! Again, all figures were painted when Mike sent them.

From Scotland...

For the last few months regular packages have criss-crossed the UK, some heading North, others heading South... the latest one to arrive today includes a load of 28mm Very British Civil War figures; haven't got round to sorting them yet. Meanwhile, couple of figures from previous arrivals...

A couple of the more spectacular figures from previous parcels. RAFM Dunwich Horror and Byakhee.

The Dunwich Horror. It arrived painted and just needed a couple of patches of bare metal to touch up.

The Byakhee. Arrived with a grey undercoat - I only spent about ten minutes painting it!

Photos never look the same as the original - the purple isn't as obvious on the figure, the red stands out a lot more!

Thanks Mike.

25mm Assyrian chariots

Don't think I could get away with more chariots in the Shem army!

Line chariots, so simplified paintwork compared to the generral. The etched pattern on the side barely shows in real life!

I've kept them as 3 man chariots - probably should have made them 2 man, just preferred 3. However, rather than use the spear figure I've gone for 2 archers.

Might (probably will) do a general and chariot unit as 4 horse 3 man chariots as well. 8 new Assyrian chariots should do for now.

 

At some stage I must do the dozen cavalry I need to finish off the HoTT Shem army!

Meanwhile, back to the Amazons...

 

I'm having a go at doing a drop casting mould using Tiranti RTV65. No idea how well they will work, but if I can get a few reasonable castings out of it I'll be happy - need enough to work on to allow Pete Brown to make a decent mould. If they don't work - I'll try again. If they do work - I'll do some cavalry. Also intend to do a drop casting mould of the Garrison dragon.

Another paused project I'd like to get on with would be to do the Arab(ish) army I intended to do...

I also keep thinking about taking this guy a bit further...

Salute 51

 Firstly, apologies for the poor quality of the pictures - think (know) I need a new camera - current one no longer up to the job!

Steven decided on a whim that he was going to enter a model in the painting competition. So first place to go was the queue to enter his figure. Took an hour... then another half hour to collect it at the end...

Camera is certainly not up to it! Figure didn't win but wasn't expected to.

Actually, Steven didn't finish up putting his model in - I had to because He had to dash off to an activity involving fencing. I took a few pictures earlier on but wandered off before they issued the swords!

Lots of people posting better pictures so I'm just doing some of the smaller games/displays I liked, such as this fairground. Nice little potential horror setup.

Weird - liked this one!

Nice little post apocalyptic set up - I like using these for ideas. This one was called a Trumpocalypse!

This was a nice idea - a series of 'levels' in a game similar to levels in video games . The figures driving around in Dalek war machines look very familiar! 

Down to purchases. Basically Crooked Dice and Bad Squiddo. The Bad Squiddo ones are my guilty concience.  Ages ago painted up Alice and in her first game she got killed. So thought she might like a gang to back her up... and Malice and the rest probably wouldn't be all that reliable. These are a birthday present as my birthday's coming up - originally I had intended to allocate this and more to Black Tree but...

There were lots of stands selling 3D Printed figures. This one is 32mm and really outside my usual range - but I like the figure and it was only£1.

So that was Salute 51. Must get a new camera.

Waste not, want not

 There is a term used in the fishing industry to describe all the fish you net that aren't the target species. These are usually lower value and generally speaking just discarded. Bit wasteful, that's life! Anyway, the term is 'by-catch', and when you are casting figures it's a good term to use to describe those figures on the mould you don't want. They tend to build up until my main metal ingots run out, then they are put back in the pot. 

This lot, though, have their uses. Good generic winged demons, quick to paint and look good.

They've been photographed before glossing - better to photograph, no major white reflections.

Still haven't decided whether to keep them as individuals for pulp games or based as flyers. Doesn't really matter - they'll be joined by more in the future anyway. 

25mm Shem/Assyrian chariot

Assyrian chariot acting as the Shem general. I've done it as a 2 horse 3 crew chariot as per the standard Garrison 25mm Assyrian chariot but have replaced the spear armed figure with a standard bearer. The archer figure represents the general himself.

I don't bother cluttering my chariots up with extra weapons/quivers etc but have at least put reins on. 

OK, don't need them for the Shem HoTT army but could I ever resist doing more chariots? For me, an initial three is very restrained! Suppose really I should get the cavalry finished off first but...

Garrison display boards

 Something from the past. Garrison had a load of figures mounted in display cases for conventions, etc. They aren't/weren't in very good condition, but here's some photos I took of them.