Warlord, Wild Bill Hickok and a Fish

I've been logging long hours at the painting table tying up loose ends and rushing projects to the tabletop.  As a result, today's drop is a bit eclectic.

Up first is Gripping Beast's Macbeth.  He's a giant of a man who serves as a hero for a Scottish warband in SAGA.  The 3rd photo down gives you some idea of how large this figure is.  Let's just say he was not impressed by the puny Wild Bill.

Wild Bill and the bank heist figures are for Dead Man's Hand.  I think Bill would be pleased with his sculpt, especially the long and lovely locks!

My dad found a ceramic fish at a yard sale over the summer,  Since it was badly worn, he asked me to repaint it.  It looked like an ideal project for an airbrush so I set it aside until I bought one. Six months later, I still don't have an airbrush so I gave it a go with my brush. I'm not used to working in 1 to 1 scale and the flat surfaces were a challenge. A green wash and a sepia wash helped hide my brushstrokes. I don't think taxidermists have to worry about me cutting into their painting business!

In the weeks ahead, my posts will be focused and fish free. Our ancients group is switching rules and I'm painting up two new 15mm ancients armies as part the changeup.  If I want to see our ancients group grow, I need to have spare armies to lend out or field at demos.  Seeing as how I sold off most of my ancients collection last year, I've got a bit of work to do!  

Paging Mr SAGA

Today's post is filed under "Loose Ends."  First up are 8 warriors to round out my Breton warband. I got tired of painting horses in my fall Breton run so these fellows sat while I rested. Combining my Bretons and Normans, I can field 20 mounted warriors and 36 mounted milites, enough for a Hail Caesar army!

I've meant to paint up baggage for SAGA for some time.  SAGA allows you to base baggage on 40mm x 40mm bases up to a 50mm by 100mm.  You can use livestock, civilians, wagons and/or carts to make up baggage.  Each player in the Grand Melee is required to bring 3 pieces of baggage to the event. With this fire under me, I finally got to painting mine up.  I went for a distressed grey wood and I'm reasonably pleased with how it turned out. Carts and peasants are Gripping Beast, as are the mounted warriors above.  

EDIT: I've had requests for the wood painting recipe. Unfortunately, this time it's a little sketchy.  I didn't take notes because I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out. 

I started with black primer, then dark grey applied with a wet brush.  Take care to keep black intact in the recesses where you can. I did this by using the side of my brush. Drybrush with a lighter grey and wash with Army Painter Strong Tone. Finish with a beige green drybrush & highlights on tips and edges. I think I used Vallejo German Camo Beige but I didn't write it down and I have LOTS of light greens. I hope this is helpful and I will take notes next time!

You'll note my baggage train isn't carrying anything at all.  My thinking is that villains and marauders will pass on sacking an empty baggage train and pursue something more loot-tastic. Let's see how this strategy works down at the club.

Last up is my reworked Norse Gael warlord.  After a frustrating stretch of 4 losses, I decided to tweak my list by running my warlord with a Dane axe.  This lowers his armor class but he'll dish out more hits and get 5 dice with the "Howling Axes" ability.  I repainted his base to match the rest of the warband and added a second figure.  The end result is a nice improvement on the original. In his first game out, my warlord not only survived a number of enemy strikes, he also brought home a win. I can only conclude that Odin approves of this revision.

I love a man in a uniform - done!

These WW II Brits for Chain of Command are done, and just in time. I was getting burned out by the sameness of painting up 100 British soldier. Now it's time to move onto something else.

Infantry Section:  An infantry section plus five riflemen. Leftovers and spares perhaps?   

6 pd AT gun crews #1 and #2: They're single mounted to make it easier to remove casualties from the AT gun.

Vickers medium MG team: This was my favorite set from this run of figures.  The Vickers is a WW I throwback.  

While looking for painting inspiration, I learned something interesting about the Vickers.  It was used for indirect fire at ranges of up to 4,500 yards. Such fire could catch the enemy by surprise and restrict movement.  It was used to good effect against trenches, road junctions and dead zones.  The Vickers had a back sight with an extension for this purpose, as seen in the photo below.    

British at Overloon, Netherlands using plunging fire.  

Some of our SAGA players also play Bolt Action so I'm painting up a force to join them. Here's my first drop of Soviets.  With 2 boxes of Warlord Games plastics, I'll be lucky if I have all my fingers left when I'm done.   My hands look like I was in a knife fight that I lost quite badly!  

Everything counts in large amounts

It's time for a quick look back at 2014. With both of my kids off to college, I was able to paint frequently AND get out for weekly games.  This gaming life is the good one!

SAGA is our game of choice since the epic SAGA Storm game day.  The Storm brought many new players in and I can find a match at Fantasy Flight Games on most Thursday nights. I’m thankful for the new friends I made last year through this hobby.

I’m also thankful for my brushes and paints.  Painting quiets my mind like nothing else and helps me forget my workday troubles.  Painting to audiobooks and podcasts is my favorite thing. I try to listen to something that matches my project.  As I was assembling two boxes of Warlord Games Soviets this week, I listened to Von Lucks “Panzer Commander.”  Luck's stories fired my imagination and carried me through the tedious process of assembling 70 plastic soldiers! 

I'm looking forward to new projects in the new year.  Some of our new SAGA players also play Bolt Action so I'm going to give that a try.  I painted lots of WW II figures last year but they were all on contract. This year, I'll paint a Soviet force that can double under Bolt Action or Chain of Command. With Muskets & Tomahawks in rotation, I'd like to also paint up my first French & Indian War figures.

I have a couple of things I'd like to accomplish this year.  I'd like to slow down and work on improving my technique.  Failing that, I'll trot out Stalin's line that "painting in quantity has a quality of it's own." Or something like that.  I'd like to put the brush down and make quality terrain this year as well. These recent pics illustrate how great terrain lifts up a game.  

My OCD-fueled painting tally shows 434 28mms and 1,271 15mm painted in 2014.   28mm output is down a bit from last year but 15mm is up. The excruciating details of what I painted are below the break.  

Here's to the New Year.  May it bring you great gaming and painting!