With your shield or on it...

Time to finally squeak in my second post for the month. This one follows the last, in which I wrote about painting up some 15mm Gauls for Sword and Spear. This last week or so I managed to find some time to start the basing of two units, and I also decided to give some shield transfers a go. I read a few posts, watched a couple of YouTube tutorials, and purchased a set of transfers for testing from Forged in Battle, the same company that produces the miniatures I have.

8 figures to each base. I prised the miniatures from the stands I have been using to paint them on, and glued them down. Next time I may do the front or rear row, use the basing material and then do the second row and finish the basing material...

Here I've used Brown Earth paint from Vallejo. It's almost like gauche. Very thick and tacky to apply. The texture though looks brilliant. My next step with these is to dry brush lightly and use a mix of static grass and tufts to add some detail. I think they'll come up nicely. Note the painted shields...

These are the transfers. They look lovely, but do require a lot of preparation. First, the bosses need to be cut out (apart from the circles which are punched already, as you can see in the image of the reverse below). This means using a scalpel to carefully slice out the crosses, so they will neatly go over the raised bosses on the shields. It is painstaking and annoying. Especially given that several of the shields look very similar, but are actually differently sized. On the smaller ones the boss extends to the very rim, meaning you can cut the transfer into several pieces if you're not careful.

After cutting out the bosses, the shields themselves need to be cut out. This is also painful.

You might notice that the shields in this image are now white. Why? Because of the man second from the left in the back row. He was the first test, and I left his shield painted to see how the transfer would go. It barely did. It is almost invisible. So, I spent the next hour or so repainting all the shields white again.

The Brown Earth from Vallejo I used on the bases - very nice, but a bit annoying to work around a set of miniatures already based. I will rethink that for my next set. On the left are the two bottles I used to help with the transfers. I read that these are highly recommended as they are excellent in helping the transfer come off and adhere to the shape of the surface. The shield transfers from Forged in Battle are actually sticky. You peel away a tiny film of clear plastic on the front and stock them face down on the shield. Then apply water to the back. I wasn't sure how this would fly with the Micro Set and Micro Sol, but I tried it anyway and it seems to work fine. The transfers come off easily, are easy to reposition, and set snugly against the shield surface.

For all the pain, the transfers look brilliant. I still have to repaint the rims, and touch up any little gaps here and there, but I think they look very nice. Once fully complete the units should look great. Jobs left to do: repaint the shield rims and touch up. Dry-brush the bases. Apply some static grass and tufts. I'll post again once they are all done.

I also managed to glue down my Gallic camp... all the pieces here are from Baueda, and look great.

Lastly, these two books came in the mail. They'll be handy in working out colour schemes and whatnot for my troops. Both are lovely and contain excellent art.

The Gaul of It...

It's been longer than I had intended, since my last post. In the meantime I have been working on a science fiction short story, which is nearing completion, and getting some freelance work done. I haven't managed to blog much, but I have posted a couple of episodes of the On Minis Games podcast, so that's something.

It was in editing one of these episodes, in which we were talking about some painting goals for 2018, that I started to get the painting bug again. For various reasons it has been over 12 months since I last put brush to model, but finally, that streak of inactivity has ended...

I wanted to paint, but what? I have an army for Kings of War, Sharp Practice, Infinity, Sword and Spear, Chronicles of Anyaral, and more, all of which sit naked, all of which I hope to get back to the table. In the end I went with an old favourite, a scale that has always appealed to me: 15mm, and that meant Sword and Spear.

I can't remember when we last played this game, but I do know I enjoyed it a lot, and that my friend and I swore in blood to paint our armies before playing again. At the rate I was going, this was never going to happen, and oaths in blood are all good and well if you plan on following them up.

After we trialed Sword and Spear I bought a 15mm Gallic force from Forged In Battle, and very nice the miniatures are too. I love small scales, and 15mm is probably my favourite. I have been looking forward to having a painted 15mm army for some time, just not perhaps putting in the work required to create it.

Interestingly, these miniatures do require some assembly. This is not something I have experienced with the 15mm models I have used in the past. Some of the spears need to be clipped from their bases and glued into place, but the models are good quality with a nice level of detail. In the picture above I have sorted out the miniatures that will form the bases of warriors in my Sword and Spear force. It will be 8 figures to a base for these, and ultimately I want around 10 bases to give me some flexibility in force creation. So far I have painted 4 bases worth...

Undercoated and ready to paint. I decided to try multibasing the models on icy-pole sticks for the painting process. I don't think I like it very much, and may revert back to single models on stands to paint in the future, I find I have more control that way as I like resting my painting hand on the hand I use to hold the model for steadiness.

The first two lots done, 1 base of warriors. As per usual, I couldn't leave it at a base coat and wash, I had to go back and highlight. It took a few hours more, but overall I am happy with the results.

The other sets finished, ready to be sprayed with a matt varnish. I will be getting some shield transfers to finish them off I think, so they are not quite ready. 

These add up to 3 bases of warriors. They aren't the best, but I am happy with the end results. I base coated over a white undercoat. Washed with a dark brown (Army Painter Strong Wash) wash, and then highlighted in the same colours used in the base coat, I then added a second highlight in some lighter tones. I am pretty happy with how they came out, and am looking forward to getting both the shields finished with transfers, and the basing done. I'll post more pictures when that finally happens.

I also undercoated (with the intention of painting), the figures I have for Twilight: Chronicles of Anyaral. I used a Dunkelgelb brown for the undercoat, which should suit the intended paint scheme nicely. The models are great, full of life and character, and I'm looking forward to painting them with my son.

Variety is the Spice of Life...

In the lull of waiting for various pieces of writing to pass through the editing process and back to me for revision or rejection (hopefully the former), I have been chipping away at various hobby projects. I have come to the conclusion that I have far too many projects I would like to be working on, and far too many games to really give any of them justice. Naturally, and like any good wargamer, the projects I am working on are all for new things.

Aside from recording and editing episodes of the On Minis Games podcast (which I wrote about last time), I also managed to assemble my British force for Sharp Practice; I won't be writing anything more about them this time, I'll cover them in a later post.

In addition to these things, I have started refining a dice system that I think could work nicely with a Dungeon Crawl style game I have been working on in fits and starts for a while now, I have been putting together some scenery, and finally, mulling over which Ancients force I should collect for Sword and Spear.

The scenery I have been assembling is from the Spartan Scenics line of MDF 28mm scale sci-fi buildings. The Starter set is a extremely large and heavy box, full of a variety of buildings, corridors, doors and so on. The instructions leave a little to be desired, but everything does make sense if you group the MDF sheets by the letter codes. 

So far I have managed to assemble two buildings, and have a metric ton of MDF waiting to be put together. The scenery is very nice, with good details, and goes together rather well. All the buildings are designed so that the tops may be removed so the interiors are exposed, and everything is very modular. The Starter set is an excellent purchase, with a lot of stuff crammed in the box.

One of the two buildings I have constructed so far, with some 28mm Zanshi (Yu Jing models, from the Infinity Miniatures Game) added for scale.

As the photos attest these buildings are quite large, spacious, and have plenty of doorways, which may be blocked up by doors, or attached to corridors etc. These are not the two largest buildings in the Starter Set, and I still have a huge pile of stuff to get through (before I open any of the other boxes I may or may not have as well).

All the other stuff from the Starter Set, waiting for attention...

I also got some of the Spartan Scenics resin scenery sets - they have a whole collection of things to fill out and add detail to the rooms, from tables and monitors, to medical beds, cryo-pods, munitions cabinets, crates and even a pool table. I added some pieces to the room to see what they'd look like, and all I can say is that they are amazing.

The detail is spectacular, and they really add a lot of character to the rooms. I'm under no illusions as to whether they will get painted, but who knows... one day perhaps!

Lastly, the other hobby project that has been chewing away at my mind is what force to collect for Sword and Spear. Sword and Spear is an ancients set of miniature game rules, my good friend Quinton (whose blog may be found here) rather likes the idea of Romans, which leaves me indecisively trying to pick between Gauls, Britons, Dacians and Parthians, oh, or possibly Carthaginians. 

I have heard excellent reviews of this rules set, and being a sucker for historical games it has piqued my interest for some time. I am thinking of collecting a force in 6mm, partly because they are relatively cheap, and partly because I have always liked the idea of having a force in 6mm. Decisions, decisions...