Whats on the work bench? – Page 18 – ARCANE Scenery and Models

What’s on the Work Bench 26th June 2014

Landwehr With Muskets at trail

A couple of projects are moving towards completion. First of all the Prussian Brigade is slowly getting there. I have been painting another 10 Prussian Landwehr to complete the second Landwehr Battalion. These are Warlord Games metal Prussians running with Muskets at the trail. It means that I have a bit of variety with my troops and I hope that when these are mixed with the casualty figures already painted, there will be a bit of a story being told, with the officer ordering the advance in the face of enemy fire. I know that some wargamers like to have their models in similar poses and certainly for the sake of quickness, this helps when painting. I prefer some of my models to look a bit different, so I’m quite happy to mix it up a bit!

Landwehr Advance!

So, although I have painted 94 Prussian Infantry & Landwehr figures, the brigade is still not quite there! I have sent for a separate Prussian Infantry command sprue from the Perry’s – this will allow me to complete the 2nd battalion of the infantry. I also have a couple of Prussian Generals from Foundry to paint to make up the Brigade command. At this point, the Brigade will be ready to take to the wargames table but of course there is always more to add but at least I have the main rank & file done!

Sarissa Dark Age Church

As a break from painting figures, I thought that I would make a start on a church for ‘Little Bingham’, the fictious village that occupies my wargames table when it is not in use! I have a test piece from Sarissa, the Dark Age Church, and I thought that this would make a nice addition if painted up. So, to start, I just sprayed the walls of the Church with a Textured spray bought from B&Q. I first masked off the door, but otherwise just carefully sprayed over the MDF. I was quite pleased to see that despite the thickness of the spray, some of the MDF etching & detail still was visible even the fine detail around the windows.

Church window detail

I then just painted the roof tiles with a dark grey Vallejo paint. Again, the detail of the tiles are still visible. So the next step is to weather the the walls & roof with a quick dry brush & add some Ivy & moss. Hopefully, it will be finished for the next workbench!

What’s on the Workbench 14th June 2014

Napoleonic Gun Boat!

Somewhat encouraged by the news that Northstar Games, in conjunction with Osprey, will be releasing a new rules set for Pirates – ‘On the Seven Seas’ I cracked on with my gun boat project and here is the finished result.

All the crew painted and facing the right way!

Gunboat from the Bow

I painted the crew in dark Prussian Blue Jackets with off white trousers. Although there wasn’t a formal uniform as such, most sailors were kitted out this way. The head gear would have varied and of course the shirts & neck ties could all have been different. I have gone for a fairly straight forward colour scheme with a few red & light blue neck ties to brighten things up. The Marines were of course in uniform. I have used an Osprey reference guide and painted them with the standard red coats, Black ( Navy Blue in reality I think!) facings, off white trousers and white lace. All colours are from the vallejo model colour range. So for the time being, this model will sit in my cabinet to await the Osprey rules set. I suspect that I wont be able to use the boat but it will provide a nice bit of scenery. Although the rules are set in the 1600’s when pirates were in the ascendancy, I’m sure there will be a chance to modify the rules to incorporate these more ‘modern’ chaps! I plan to expand my naval force with a detachment of Marines, supplemented with some sailors to make a good sized shore party.

So, it’s back to the Napoleonic Army again, and of course on with my Prussians!

What’s on the workbench 8 June 2014

With the onset of summer (allegedly!), my painting seems to slow up, and as I’ve mentioned before it’s not fast to start with. So progress on the various projects is hampered by the need to mow the lawn, weed the borders, power wash the patio, wash down the garden furniture, clean up the barbeque, light the barbeque, cook the burgers, open the beer, drink the beer, drink the beer, drink the beer….you get the picture!

Ice Age Range!

But the baby mammoth has his tusks now and has joined the rest of the herd! If you would like one, he is now available as part of the DeeZee range. We’ve also added in the Lucid Eye Neanderthals and the Bestial huts, so if you would like to start building your own Ice Age collection, it’s all in one place now!

I’ve also made some progress with my gun boat, with the oarsmen almost finished, leaving just the marines to complete. The gun boat is one of those models that looks better from a distance. I mentioned that the crew needed quite a bit of work on them but some of the detail hasn’t cast too well and this is more obvious close up when the mini’s were painted. Still, the model will make a nice centre piece for my growing Caribbean collection.

Gun Boat & Crew

Incidentally, there is a big mistake with the positioning of my oarsmen on the gun boat! I hadn’t spotted it until I was looking at my own picture and it is just as well because they would have been glued in as they are. If you haven’t spotted it, I’ve got the oarsmen facing the wrong way! They should be facing the stern not the bow!

Also on the work bench is the last of my Prussian Landwehr troops. These are more metals from Warlord and will finish off the final battalion, giving me two battalions in total.

So over the next week, World Cup Football and Barbeques permitting, the plan is to complete at least one of these projects, not least because I am eager to get to work on the new Hanoverians from Warlord!

Whats on the Workbench 29th May

Gun Boat!

Oh dear! I’ve been distracted from finishing off one project by the lure of something more interesting…..

I guess it’s a common occurrence and it explains why most of us in the hobby have a ‘lead mountain’ lurking around in a secret location. A bit like the Wife’s handbag and shoe collection…

Well, last year, at the Derby war games show I saw a lovely model of a naval gunboat and thought that it would make a nice addition to my collection. I justified buying it as I could use it in the Caribbean campaign that I will one day play. Having had the instant gratification of buying it and showing it off to my mate, once home it went up onto the shelf – ‘for later’.

Well, I was tidying around in the garage this wet bank holiday weekend and came across it. What a great little project to complete, I thought. It wont take long as the uniforms are pretty straight forward to paint and they use a similar colour scheme to the Prussians, so I might as well have ago at finishing it. 2014-05-25 18.01.28

Unfortunately, things aren’t that simple. The figures weren’t quite as cleanly molded as I would like. Now I dont mind doing a bit of cleaning up, scraping down mold lines , getting rid of flash etc. – but these figures were just hard work! In fact, rather than cleaning up, it felt at times that I was re-sculpting them….Nevertheless, I persevered and I did make some progress. In fact, actually, the figures turned out to be quite nice and when put all together on the boat, do make a nice model. So the boat and the crew are finished. Just 5 marines and the ten oarsmen to go. So much for a quick project….

The full crew awaiting painting…

What’s on the Workbench 22 May 2014

Landwher Casualties

Despite a busy couple of weeks, including a short break in Belgium ( more on that later!) I did manage to finish off the 5 Prussian Landwehr casualties – not literally, of course – but they are now painted and based and ready to join their unit. The figures have been painted with the following Vallejo Paints:

Face & hands – Flat Flesh 955; Hats & coats – Dark Prussian Blue 899; Boots, Hat detail & cartridge case – Black 950; Musket straps, packs & equipment detail – Leather brown 871; Misc. equipment – Iraqi Sand 819, Powder horns – Dark yellow 978; Musket Stocks – Flat Brown 984; musket barrels, buttons & other detail – natural steel 864, Detail on muskets & straps – brass 801; Trousers & Straps – Off white 820; Blankets – neutral grey 992.

As these figures are from the Silesian Region, I gave them Yellow facings (yellow 953) and red shoulder tabs (Flat red 957). Technically, the colour of the tabs should vary by battalion, but I like the red & decided to go with this scheme with all my troops. The only other variations were the hair colouring – I just use a random mix of brown & blond! Oh! and one of the figures has light brown (Val929) trousers.

Once the basic colours

2014-05-22 10.14.46

were on, I painted them with Army Painter Dark tone and when this had dried for 24 hours, I sprayed them with Army Painter Anti shine varnish

I then go back and highlight some of the colours to make them stand out, notably, the white, yellow & flesh and I finish the bayonets with a bright silver ( val 997).

For basing, I re-based all the figures on Renedra 20mm square bases. I use a filler to level out the bases & then paint them chocolate brown. The next stage is to cover with Forest Brown scatter & then Flower field Static grass. The final step is to add some flowered and plain grass tufts for a bit of interest on the bases. The final picture shows three of the figures with their battalion as they advance into battle!

As a final thought, whilst I was over in Belgium, I visited the Battlefield at Waterloo and of course a full report will follow; but it only seems appropriate to include a picture of the memorial to the brave Prussian soldiers that fell during the battle for Plancenoit. prussian memorial at plancenoit

What’s on the Workbench 15th May 2014

Well, last week it was the Prussians and if all goes to plan they should be finished for next weeks post. This week, there is something different to show you, a baby mammoth- aaaah! We are gradually rebuilding the DeeZee range of animals and have had two

2014-05-08 12.42.33

new models sculpted by our very good friend Cedric. The first one is of the baby mammoth. Here’s the little darling being painted. I’ve still got the tusks to add and some more detail to add to the base but you can get an idea of how she (he?) will look when finished.

Once I’ve finished the baby, I’ll publish some pictures on the blog with the rest of the mammoths that we stock. The idea is to create a herd of mammoths for another project that we have on the go…….

Watch out for more information in the coming year and also for the next cute releases in the DeeZee range….

What’s on the workbench? 8th May 2014

It’s been a while since I have managed to to add to my blog in any regular fashion. I’m afraid that I have had other distractions that have prevented me from writing a regular blog – just finding some time to actually paint & do some modelling has been a challenge. I hope that this has now changed and I now have both the time and the facilities to keep my blog up to date. Of course as well as keeping me amused whilst writing the blog, I hope that there will be some content that is useful to anyone who is good enough to spare the time to have a look at my musings….

I thought that one way of giving some continuity to the blog would be to show just what I am working on at the moment. The danger being that some of my projects drag on as I am not the fastest when it comes to modelling & painting. As I usually have three or four projects on the go at any one time. I will perhaps alternate between a couple over the weeks. So what is on the workbench at the moment?

Prussian Landwehr Casulaties from Warlord Games

I’m working on Prussian Landwehr at the moment. I am in the process of building a Prussian Brigade for my Black Powder games and I need to add a couple of units of Landwehr to the brigade. I already have two command groups painted, as well as 30 marching troops ( The Warlord games plastic boxed set). I’ll need another 15 troops to be able to make up two battalions of 24. Rather than just buy some more of the marching troops, I thought that I would add in some Prussian Landwehr Casualties for a bit of flavour! The picture shows my progress so far. They have been cleaned up, undercoated & received the base coat of Flesh & dark Prussian blue. I’ve added a picture to give you an idea as to how they will look when they are completed an added to the unit. Of course they are on temporary bases at the moment, so they should look a bit better once the painting & basing is complete! Prussian Landwehr advance into fire!

1 … 16 17 18

Category Archives: Whats on the work bench?