Painting Challenge entries 5 & 6: French Middle Guard and FoW objective marker

Back and rested after the tournament so it's time for blogging again. Last week I managed two entries to the challenge, though it was slightly aided by the fact that I forgot to post the Guard the previous week :)

First up 3 battalions of Middle Guard for Waterloo. The miniatures are from Victrix and the flags from GMB designs. I'm still a bit unsure whether I like the Victrix plastics or not. The detail is sometimes quite soft and the bayonets snap easily. The poses are also somewhat limited or at least could have included a bit more variety especially on the bodies and things like facial detail are over exaggerated. Still they are extremely cheap with 60 figures costing only 23 pounds and I've been buying them from sales at about 20 euros a box.

The paintjob was fairly simple with the minis basecoated blue with my airbrush and then all the details being block painted. I did add some variety by painting most of the backpacks differently and added some detail by highlighting the face as I find most people always focus first on facial features so a bit of extra effort there helps lift up the quality of the rest. After a basic paintjob I applied a dark brown wash to add shade. Final touch was painting mud by stippling two different shades of brown. It's another quick thing to do with a battalion taking maximum 15 minutes to muddy up and really lifts the impression of quality a lot higher.

My second entry was a Flames of War objective marker from Kerr & King. No figures on it though so no points for me from this. However I needed it for the tournament and it was a nice little appetizer before my next larger paint job so doesn't really matter. Not the best quality resin, but luckily small air bubbles etc. don't really matter in a subject like this so clean up was a breeze. Basecoated dark brown and then drybrushed with various different colours trying to leave the paintjob on things like the brick wall different shade in different areas. As a final touch I added some chipping with a sponge.

I'm back ahead of schedule with 658 points now all together. 342 to go until my target of 1000. As with all plans my original plans of painting have changed with my whims and things like the Chimera have been skipped. I won't be able to finish my Great Spined Dragon in time for the "Hot" challenge either, but I have a feeling we'll still be seeing him done during the challenge anyways.

WIP: 92nd Gordon Highlanders

Well I finished the first three bases of the Highlanders to get one final submission into Curt's painting challenge at Analogue Hobbies. Still two more bases to go. I didn't quite reach my points target of 1000 in the challenge, but over 800 points is still quite well considering that I did have a 3 week holiday in between.

Anyhow here are the 3 finished bases, couple of more coming up in the following weeks after I've finished one school project.

I also dug up my old Tau project and decided to breather new life into it now as a new codex and new models are coming out for them. Most had broken during transport when we moved into this apartment so I just decided to strip them of paint and reassemble everything that had broken (which was pretty much everything). Target for April is to get a 500pt force done to be able to play smaller games with them.

Reinforcements

Well I got something done again. Most of these have been painted previously, but I only managed to get them based and photographed now. My last semester in the University has been keeping me quite busy especially in combination with work obligations. Anyhow here is a mixed bunch of minis.

First up General Pack, commander of the 9th Brigade at Waterloo. Perry metals as is the infantry colonel with him.

Then a British 6 pounder. Victrix plastics which are quite nice and versatile.Too bad they don't do the limbers.

And last but not least some skirmishing Voltigeurs for the 21st Regiment.

1st Royal Scots

Finally managed to get these guys finished and based today! The units is a mix of Victrix and Perry plastics. They work pretty well together with no big problems or gaps left to fill. Too bad the backpacks etc. are not really interchangeable without a lot of sanding and resculpting work. The flags are again from GMB designs. I really love their stuff eventhough it's maybe a bit too big. But at least it makes the units stand out on the table.

Painted with Vallejo paints as usual and finished with Army Painter basing stuff.

Probably should clean the units better before taking photos. A lot of static grass stuck on them now that I look at the close-ups.

Ensign Kennedy

1st Royal Scots are going forward nicely. When looking for ideas for a casualty base for them I stumbled upon the story of Ensign Kennedy of the 1st Royal Scots who was wounded during Waterloo and wouldn't give up the Colours despite being mortally wounded. He was carried away from the battlefield by a Sergeant and would later die of his wounds.

I knew I had to redo this scene for my casualty base. Apparently I'm not the first one with the idea though. However I've started converting the vignette from leftovers of some Perry and Victrix boxes and sculpting some from greenstuff. The basics are pretty much done now. I still need to improve the legs of poor Kennedy and work on the torso before starting to add details. Anyway here are some shots of the progress so far. Sorry for the bad photo quality as my phone doesn't handle the winter darkness that well.

79th Cameron Highlanders

Next up the 79th Cameron Highlanders. Mostly Victrix figures with some arms and weapons from Perry leftovers. I have to say I was extremely disappointed by the plastic used by Victrix. Quite a lot of parts breaking of at the slightest touch. Interestingly enough the flank companies seemed to be made of some different kind of plastic and they held together quite well. Even without the brittle plastic I think the quality isn't on par with Perry and I will probably try to stick with them on the plastic figures.

The Westfalia Miniatures Rude Highlanders are just some of the best minis I have seen. I also have their Prussian Chirurgen set and I can't help but wonder how they manage to get the castings done that cheap with such a high quality.

Painting tartans was quite challenging but in the end I think they turned up pretty nicely. I simplified the Cameron of Erracht design quite a bit to make it more suitable for a gaming situation. Maybe not the most correct one, but looks good to me.