Total Pageviews

Search This Blog

Sunday, April 28, 2019

Saxon Invasion and the Birth of a New Project!

Before embarking upon a new adventure I have been trying to close out a few small projects that have cluttered my painting desk for far too long.  First up is a finished camp for a Romano-British army complete with Saxon allies and a Saxon/British longship.  The longship is of course the ubiquitous Essex 15mm Viking longship, but it should work just as well as a small early Saxon or Romano British ship built in the Scandinavian fashion.


 Two Litko plywood bases form the bottom of the scene, with insulation foam shaped and cut with a hot wire to make the bank of the inlet.


 The oars are too close to the bank, but it was a compromise between reality and the required base size for a camp element.  I think of it as the final stroke of the oars before driving the ship onto the bank of a small river inlet.


 The water is made from Sculptamold paper mache.  The rough paper mache texture works very well mimicking the rolling current of water I thought.  The Sculptamold was then painted and gloss coated with acrylic future floor polish.


 Shield decals are by Little Big Man.
 

 The final touch was the scrub and flowering bushes on the bank which are readily available from a number of modelling companies, especially for HO scale model train enthusiasts.

Another Project Nearing Completion


 Here we have some 40mm Mindstalker figures with minor conversions for use in the new release of the Fantasy Trip, Melee and Wizard role playing game.


 The figures are perhaps a bit delicate for gaming, especially the swords, but I'm willing to risk the occasional casualty.


 This was such a fine line of figures which are unfortunately no longer in production.  I was able to get a boatload of them very inexpensively from a collector/or family member who bought out the line.  I think they were the family of the sculptor, but I wouldn't swear to it.


 Great detail all throughout the figures.  The mounted figures are truly amazing!

Bavarians - Regiment Von Kinkel


 I promised a fellow Old School Napoleonics enthusiast, Wellington Man, that I would not let a recent acquisition prevent me from continuing to work on my own Hinton Hunt/Der Kriegspieler 1/72 collection of shiny toy soldiers, so this photo is just to prove that I am still continuing to make progress on my next Battalion.


They will be a battalion from the Regiment Von Kinkel with Black facings piped red.  The Battalion is taking some time and has been delayed getting started, the reason for which you can see below.

And Finally a Massive New Project Begins 


 In these boxes is fifty years worth of devotion to the hobby.  An entire corp of both French and British 1/72 scale miniatures from the dawn of our hobby.  The trip overseas was rough on them and I have spent the last month unpacking and putting them back into top notch condition, though a little detail work yet remains to finish that task, mostly on the delicate and intricately painted foil flags.


 Though I won't have pictures of these for some time, In my next blog post I intend to share a bit of history about the creator of this amazing collection as well as some of his display photos.  Now it is my turn to honor his work by furthering the collection through the inclusion of the French Old Guard, and then on to Russia!

10 comments:

  1. You are a big tease. Can't you just take off the lids from a few boxes and snap a shot or two of the contents?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. To do so would not do them justice! Honestly I don't know when I will truly be able to unpack them. I need to build or purchase a display case for them really. Fortunately I have a ton of pictures of them in their former home.

      Delete
  2. I am pleased that the whole collection has gone to a good home. I know the seller wanted to see it kept together.

    I am looking forward to seeing more of the collection in the coming months. I have you decided on the rules you are going to use?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mark,
      Thank you for saying that. I really got to thinking about this collection and how it would feel to watch it broken up after so much work to create, and decided I would pare down my own collection in order to facilitate keeping this one together. For rules I'm going to follow Wellington Man's lead since it was his Blog that really caught my attention, and try the Muskets and Marshals rules.

      Delete
  3. I'm sorry but I have to let you know in a friendly way that either the oarsmen in your longship are facing the wrong way or your helmsman is at the wrong end of the boat! You helm from the stern looking forward, and when you row you face astern. I have seen this error before in dioramas so you are not alone!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The oarsmen would be facing the wrong direction, but what you failed to take into account is their native Saxon eagerness for battle, so at the last minute before landing, they have turned around to face the shore. That way should an enemy force be on the bank, they are ready to hurl themselves into the face of the enemy!

      Delete
  4. ....but your newly acquired Napoleonic collection looks fantastic!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It surely does! About to post pictures of the first battalion cleaned up, re-based and highlighted, soon to be gloss coated!

      Delete
    2. Hello David - I just ran across your blog and must tell you how much I enjoyed the last few entries. I love Old School wargaming figures and am so impressed with your work. Can't wait to do more reading.

      Delete
    3. Thanks Hal. Having the privilege of taking care of, and adding to, a collection as fantastic as Mr. Tennant's work, is a daunting but rewarding endeavor!

      Delete