Painting finished for 2021

 

The desk has been closed and the area tidied up.

 

Based figures are in transit to their permanent home and the first 2 regiments of Confederates and their bases are painted and ready to be finished off.

 Everything's ready for the tree!

Union cavalry and artillery

 These complete the initial Union 'army'.

Two Parrott Rifles, a 12 strong cavalry squadron and the general has been 'upgraded'!

One shortcoming of the range is the limited number of artilleryman poses! The gun barrels are painted in German grey rather than black.

The cavalry figure is supposed to have a slung carbine across his back... but this is missing on both the master and mould that I have!

Didn't expect toget started on these but might even get the painting finished before 'tree day' tomorrow. Gloss spray and basing don't depend on the tree, so if I do get the painting finished it gives me two regiments of Confederates I didn't expect to have. In theory, that would mean that could play the first game in Featherstone's 'Battles with Model Soldiers'. I mean, I could... seems weird, two units a side on an 8' x 5' table. Actually, I couldn't do it - my table is only 4' wide!

Union General.

 Finished cavalry and artillery, just not got photos yet. Have done the general though.

Seemed unnecessary to paint leatherwork on the horses' face on the cavalry, probably a mistake not painting them here!

Should also give him a beard.

It's a matter of always looking

 Can't remember the last some Minifigs 1 piece 'S' Range cavalry came up on Ebay, but I'm always on the lookout for them.

The lot included some Assyrian cataphracts - my cataphract unit is full, but these will be able to fill in the spaces of the heavy cavalry giving me 2 12 figure units.

Next, couple of Persian spear armed cavalry. Only ever seen these on Ebay once before... missed them because I forgot about the auction... Still, few more years and enough more might come up to make up a unit. Think of the long game.

Finally, the lot included these. Might find a use for the Hinchliffe Clibanarii some day.

Thing about these is that they were listed as Byzantines and there was no mention of including Minifigs - so I'm quite pleased with myself for spotting them.

3rd Regiment finished

Must admit, I'm really beginning to hate how that blue appears in photos - much better in reality!

 

As a whole they look quite effective and are a lot easier to paint quickly than Napoleonics!

Currently I'm working on a cavalry squadron, 2 Parrott Rifles and a mounted general. Put together, it's enough for one side of a battle - hopefully I'll get the other side sorted in the New Year!

Rose ACW

Part of the 'scratting around for interest in painting' effort.I've tried several times to get ACW armies going, coming across a couple of A4 boxes of Rose ACW figures made me think 'why not?'

Simplified as per my current norm. The uniform blue looks a lot darker on the figures than in the picture.

 

I initially tried to get a full 6 x 6 quota of stars on the flag; best I could manage was 5 x 5.

Because the black doesn't show up very well on the actual figures I didn't bother painting the peak of the kepis black. Honest, on the real thing you don't notice it!

 I'll see how it goes. Might get another unit done before Christmas then see about cavalry and artillery.

Getting there slowly

Still looks messy here, but it's mostly boxes that have been sorted.

 

Couple of hours later looks a lot neater.

 

Even tidied up the casting area!

 

Lots of metal found for recycling - up to about 27kg now. Should last a couple of years.

 

Painting still going slowly though - enthusiasm waning a bit on Assyrian cavalry.

So quickly churned out a few more cultists. They look better on the table. Honest.

 

Still not doing Assyrians. Sorted a mass of Rose 20mm though - had already (several years ago) made a start on some Confederates, so thought I'd start on a couple of units of Union soldiers.

 Going to have to get a move on though. Christmas approaches, and in a week or so my painting desk will have a Christmas tree in front of it!