Vikings Finished!

 Here they are all finished up and ready to hit the mail.  After spending all the time sprucing these guys up I almost wish I could keep them, but I have my own collection of Vikings to paint from the old Ral Partha line.  I hope they turn out as nice as these.

28mm Essex Vikings in the Snow WIP

Just thought I would post some pictures of a viking DBA army I have been working on.  These are repaints of some Essex Vikings that I am selling for a friend.  They are almost done with the exception of the shields which need shading, highlighting and designs, as well as some work on the faces and a few miscellaneous tweeks.  I'm hoping to get $350 for these so if anyone is interested please let me know.

HO scale buildings with Linka

Here are several buildings my son and I have recently finished using the Linka plaster building system.  Basically you just use the rubber molds to produce interlocking plaster pieces which can be used to make a wide variety of buildings.  We also have the brick and log cabin sets which we will be using shortly.  The models are the perfect size for 20mm or 1/72 scale figures.  They are a little small for 25mm figures, but I intend to use them as scenery for some SAGA games and my old Ral Partha true 25's.  

Finding the right plaster was a challenge, but eventually we got some dental stone from my son's orthodontist and discovered it is just the right mix for this process.  We order it in 20 pound packs now from a plaster company on the web.

The pig pen is probably my favorite building even though it was the smallest.  The roof is made with standard Linka roof tiles, over wich I layered model railroading grasses to make the thached roof.  The pig is part of a wonderful set by pegasus 1/72 scale models.

The Manor house

 The Farm House.  This was a fun model as the windows were actually made by combining two of the cast parts and then making a silicon mold of the new "original" using regular silicon caulk and a tiny bit of blue paint as a catalyst which we then used to cast the rest of the windows.

The trees are the cheap Lifelike model railroading plastic trees that I stretched a fiber canopy over and then detailed with sea moss pieces and then simply flocked with turf and leaves using a spray adhesive.

ACW scenic pieces

I had a lot of fun with these scenic pieces.  The cart horses were just standard Old glory horses with a bridle, but no reins or tack otherwise, so I sculpted all of the blankets, collars, and horsey stuff out of green stuff or card stock.  The reins are just thin strips of paper.  The chimney is a hovels piece meant to represent a burnt out house which has had the chimney converted to a camp stove.  The cavalry are made with more Old Glory horses with hand sculpted saddle cloths and blanket rolls.  The riders are Dixon figures.

American War of Independence - Hessians

 These lovely fellows have been on my desk mocking me for at least a year and I am so pleased to have finally finished them.  They are 54mm AWI figure from "All the King's Men".  I got in some games this past weekend using the ATKM rules at Nashcon and had a blast.  The owner, Ken Cliffe, provided most of the figures and hosted an incredibly entertaining and stunningly gorgeous game.  Of course it helps that my side scored a decisive victory!

The flag for the Hessian Lieb regiment was copied directly from the internet and printed on linen paper.  The source was an 18th century period painting of the regiment; here a link:

 http://www.vondonop.org/uniformleib.html

 The officer, complete with crop with which to beat his subordinates into submission.  I chose to black line all of the fiddly detail with an ink liner which took some time.

Speaking of taking some time, what was I thinking when I decided to give these chaps blue ticked overalls.  I would stripe one or two pair a night, but that was all I could handle at one sitting.

Odds and Ends

 Here we have a recently finished Baueda 25mm WWII piece from their skirmish line.  I just painted it on a lark to see what they were like.  The display piece was fun and I enjoyed the painting process.  The figure is a bit "Heroically scaled" for my taste, but well sculpted.

I have yet to play the skirmish game, but a friend has a bunch painted up so I'll give it a go before too long.

I used a snow product from Noch to detail the base.  It is great for a light dusting of snow, but I'm not sure if it would work well to represent deep snow.

Mindstalkers

Here we have a 40mm figure for the game Mindstalkers.  Scalecreep miniatures currently has the whole line of superb minis on clearance at 75% off.  I've never played the game itself and suspect it is a bit dead, but with figures like these I may just make up my own rules for a fun skirmish fantasy game.

I painted these miniatures a couple of years ago and didn't realize until I had taken these pictures how dusty they had gotten.  Live and learn!

The Pavise design is that of lady luck.  I tried to give it a two-dimensional Medieval look and was somewhat pleased with the result, though freehand painting has never been my forte.

Spartans Finished!

The Spartan Phalanx in all of its manly glory.  In addition to these there are psiloi, Auxilia and a Horde element which can be seen in previous posts.  They come as a starter set from Gorgon Studios.  The price seemed very reasonable and they are top notch figures.

A less birdseye view which lends them a more ferocious aspect.

I love basing psiloi.  There is so much empty space on a base that you can do creative things.  On these I have painted up tree bark as striated rock, a trick I learned from my friend Paul P.