Saturday 31 May 2014

Painting Table Saturday No. 30

Actually my current main project are the KGL riflemen but as a little distraction I proceeded with my dark ages cottage. I used Mirco's painting guide more or less and yesterday evening I soaked the roof with a PVA glue, water, paint mixture. The construction to let it dry was one of the most unusual construction I've built up for wargaming stuff so far:
Today there is a SAGA meeting with a close friend of mine but I'll try to proceed with the cottage. On Sunday at the latest.

Apropos Saga: Last Friday we had a Saga game with 18mm fantasy figures. During the week I was too busy to prepare the pictures but I'll do my very best to present a short AAR on Sunday. Anyway here a little teaser. The blue guy didn't participate but to my mind the picture's worth showing nonetheless:


Enjoy your weekend !

Monday 26 May 2014

2nd Light Battalion KGL - Eight men finished

Unfortunately I missed the Paint Table Saturday this weekend. But I wasn't lazy anyway. Here are the first eight riflemen for my 2nd Light Battalion KGL:
The battalion was part of the Kings German Legion which was founded in 1803 after England lost its Hanoverian possessions to Napoleon. The legion consisted of eight line battalion, two light battalion which were - at least partly - equipped with Baker rifles, four batteries of foot artillery, two batteries of horse artillery, two regiment of heavy dragoons and three regiments of hussars. Overall there were between 20.000 and 30.000 Germans who gathered under the banner of King George III. Mostly of course from the lost Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg but from other occupied German countries as well.
The KGL took part in all major British campaigns during the Napoleonic wars. They fought in Hanover, Pomerania, Kopenhagen and during the Peninsular Campaign as well as during the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo.
The 2nd Light Battalion KGL gained immortal fame during Napoleon's last battle when they defended La Haye Sainte. Under command of Major Georg Baring the helt the estate until late afternoon when the ran out of ammunition.
Some friends and me are planning to revive this very event in a special scenario for Black Powder. As one of the "British guys" - those bumblebrains collecting the British forces for our Napoleonic games - I got swept into the preparations of the game and agreed to paint some riflemen. "Some" in this case means 40 since we decided to play the scenario with a 1:10 ratio...
 So these are the first eight and there are some more to follow rather soon. The miniatures are from Alan and Michael Perry's excellent Napoleonic range and although I didn't like the colours that much - too much black - it was real fun to paint them. Once again some figures with very characterful expression.

For further reading about the KGL I highly recommend North Ludlow Beamish's work. It's a contemporary report which was published in 1837. Although there is a reprint edition it's available for free at Googleplay here in German and English.

Wednesday 21 May 2014

Rude Scotsmen for Fran

Finally they're finished!

Here are the two Rude Scotsmen I painted for Fran. Please send me your address, mate!
The figures are from the excellent range of Westfalia Miniatures. They're sculpted by Paul Hicks and have an excellent amount of detail below and especially above the kilts.
As usual I painted them with Vallejo Model Colours but didn't deploy Armypainter Quickshade this time. Instead I tried to build up the colours in three stages from dark to light. Actually more work to do but for those excellent sculpts I enjoyed to spent more effords than for simple rank and file troops.
The base is prepared with my usual mix of sand and stones and painted with my usual earth tone. As little bonus I added an additional musket from a Perry plastic sprue. It just didn't make sense to me that one of the boys should taunt the enemy unarmed...

Although I'll be sending them to Fran gladly it's hard to say goodbye to the boys. Probably I'll have to order another set of them sooner or later.

Anyway I hope you like them. Actually they're some of the best results I was able to perdorm thus far...

Saturday 17 May 2014

Paint Table Saturday


Actually my weekend was busy with large scale painting since two rooms in our flat had to be renovated. Maybe you recognise the colour leading to the girlish style our older one wanted...
Anyway with the kind help of my father we finished the job rather early today and maybe I'll find some time to finish a couple of models which I worked on this week. Please excuse the poor photos. I'll have to work out a new setting I presume:
Additionally I finished the painting of the rude Scotsmen and only basing work is to be done. Hopefully I'll get the job done tomorrow at the latest.

Enjoy your weekend !

Monday 12 May 2014

New Painting Table

Unfortunately the last weeks were rather quite at my painting table and blog. I tried to follows your blogs as constantly as ever but I didn't find the time to paint or build. This week I was even too late for the Saturday Painting Table post. But at least with a good reason since we had moving day on saturday. Although we didn't move completely we had to vacate the most overfilled room of our flat to make room for our future family member. So the last weeks were occupied with sorting things out, packing cardboard boxes and taking down shelves. On saturday two friends of our approached and we rearranged everything in our corridor and unpacked most of the boxes.

Anyway because I lost my man cave lumber room thing I was in desperate need of a new place to paint. Finally saintly Mrs Monty and I agreed to look for a nice fall front desk for our living room where I could store the stuff I need for the  more or less daily painting session. After disappointing visits at local furniture and second-hand shops we found a small ad of a nice Colombian woman who wanted to sell some furniture because she'll be moving to Eastern Germany soon. So for a fair price I got a Biedermeier fall front desk and a suitable chair. Probably it's not original but a reproduction but actually I don't care. It's in a very good conadition, fairly priced and I like the way it looks:
My new painting desk...
To improve it I'll have to prepare some paint bottle holders for the rack bays. Just a kind of tray with holes to locate the painting bottles. Maybe movement trays work with a little conversion...
In addition I'll need a larger desk to save the leather cover from accidents with water or paint.

But nevertheless I spent some time at the desk yesterday and proceeded to paint some SAGA Viking Levies as well as the rude Scotsmen I've been working on for the last weeks. At least those are nearly finished now although the mobile phone picture is rather bad:
Next weekend we'll have to paint the new nursery but I hope to have more time for painting afterwards...