I decided to have a break from painting Samurai and instead have a go at some individual models that I had stashed in my desk drawer. I started with a model from the LOTR battle strategy magazine. I have the full set of these magazines and since COVID, I am working my way through the whole collection, painting all of the models that came with the magazines. I have now reached issue 45 and the subject of this magazine was a mounted Captain Faramir in his Men of Gondor armour.
He was fairly quick to do but to be honest, I didn’t really enjoy painting him and I’m not entirely satisfied with the result but he’s done and in the cabinet!
The next figure is the free figure given out at Partizan. I have quite a collection of these now and I make a point of always painting the give away figures at any show that I attend now, rather than just putting them in the lead pile to gather dust. The figure represents a female pilot of the Auxiliary Transport flight. A cursory glance on Google showed the flight suit to be a light brown colour, so I used my standard paint scheme for British WW2 uniforms. A triad of Vallejo Burnt Umber, English Uniform and Khaki Grey. I’m quite pleased with this figure although I may have ‘over tufted’ the base!
The next three figures were from the company Battle Flag. I had reviewed these for Wargames Illustrated and previously painted the Bishop of Wells from the set. These were a joy to paint and I am quite pleased with the result. In the main, I copied the examples on the Battle Flag web site.
I have vague ambitions of creating an Elizabethan Army to fight against my Irish. If it does happen, these will definitely be my commanders!
The next figure on the work bench was Giovanni of the Black Bands, a Giants in Miniature figure from Wargames Illustrated. I have a number of the GIM figures but only acquire them if they fit into my various collections. I was tempted to start a sub category and try to collect all of them but the last thing I needed was another distraction from the other projects that I have on the go. In fact I think there is a joke in there regarding sub categories – most wargamers would probably have a U boat collection if they had the space! I digress. Giovanni will be added to my growing Italian Wars collection. His armour looks blacker on the model than in the picture and I decided to paint him with white stockings rather than brown boots as shown in the WI sample.
Finally, another G.I.M. figure from WI; Blaise De Monluc. Again, I pretty much copied the WI sample but left off the saltire badge which I thought looked too fussy. I had intended to use Blaise as a Captain for one of my Galleys in NMTBoathooks but I forgot that was the case and used a standard basing. He will also be fine for my Italian armies though.
So that’s it for now. I have a few more personalities to complete and then it will be back to more Samurai!
Happy Modelling!