You can tell that I have been distracted over the last month, as my blog has been focused as much on Battle reports and shows as it has on painting. Add to this, I have only written two blog posts since the end of July and you would be forgiven for thinking that I have had very little hobby time. My Wife would disagree! To be fair, it’s been a bit of a mixed month, with some nice weather, meaning that gardening and family barbeques have been a major part of my leisure time.
John Rattenbury takes to the seas!
However, I always find time for my hobby and the truth is that I have not been quite as focused as I usually am when it comes to churning out the next unit for one of my armies. Duncan at Trent Miniatures hasn’t helped. He keeps producing some lovely character figures for his range and often pops into the office to show me the latest release. I was very taken with the new figure of John, or Jack Rattenbury, a famous Devonshire smuggler from the turn of the 18th century. I stopped everything to finish him and add him to my collection of maritime subjects!
John Rattenbury, the lastest addition to the crew!
I’ve also been working on my WOTR army, assembling the balance of a box of Perry’s European Mercenary’s. With a bit of ducking and diving, I now have 12 crossbow men assembled and primed, 6 handgunners and 12 Pikemen ready for painting.
The next batch of my WOTR army ready for painting.
With the crossbowmen being the first on the list to complete, I painted the Pavises that go with them and used a set of LBM decals to finish them off. I think that they will need a bit more work before I add them to the figures but I was very pleased with how straight forward the LBM decals were to apply, despite making a few mistakes with positioning.
Pavises with LBM decals applied
When chatting to Duncan about my WOTR project he reminded me that the Newark Character range has a model of Sir John Savage from the Battle of Stokes Field. Well, it would be rude not to include him in my army! Once again, Everything was put aside whilst I finished Sir John!
Sir John Savage joins my retinue!
As if this all wasn’t enough, I am working on the final Highland Battalion for my Napoleonic Army, the Black Watch, or 42nd Highland Battalion. I wanted to do a ‘test shot’ of the tartan pattern that I would use and so finished off a sergeant to see how he looks next to the other battalions.
Black Watch Sergeant next to the Gordons and Camerons.
I think that I’m going to go with the dark pattern, essentially, my usual approach to painting Tartan but with more black lines! He looks a bit better in the next picture, as I have retouched the hat band and covered the grey base.
Another picture of the Sergeant of the Black Watch
As is often the case with my painting, I’ll mull over whether to change things – I’m thinking of a slightly paler green tartan stripe but I better make my mind up as the other 11 on the painting desk are moving towards completion!
42nd Battalion Highlanders!
As if all of this wasn’t enough to keep me busy, there is also the small matter of the forthcoming release of the DeeZee Cavemen. There will be 10 cavemen in three blisters and I had test shots of four of the poses to play with. As a teaser, here is a picture of my first attempt at painting them. All being well, there will be more information and details of how I painted them to follow!
DeeZee Cavemen – sculpted by Matt Sofar of knuckle bones miniatures.
So, August has passed and we are well into September and the weather here already has that Autumnal feel, with the evenings being both cooler and shorter. I doubt that I will find much more time for painting in my busy schedule but perhaps this month, I can be a bit more focused!
THE COMMERCIAL BIT
Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:
If you would like a model of John Rattenbury, click here:
Sir John Savage can be found here:
Perry’s WOTR plastic range are here:
The Victrix Highlanders can be found in the Victrix category here:
You can see the DeeZee range here…. but you will have to wait a bit longer for the cavemen!
Happy Modelling!