Planceniot Update

I've been pottering along getting my 6mm armies ready for my solo Planceniot game

Below are some units of the Young Guard. The first time I have ever painted YG figures so I had to learn a lot about their uniforms and also painting lace on small figures is easier than I thought. I need to flock the bases and some other small jobs and they are ready to go.

Below 16th brigade, IV Corps (von Hiller.
The first of the Prussian's painted and ready to be finalised and finished (With some French Legere on the side).

 

A close-up of my Landwher units.

So full speed ahead. Another 20 or so Prussians and more cavalry, 10 or so french and I'm all sorted. I don't have the exact cavalry units needed in some places so their countrymen of other units will stand in their place.  I have the terrain base tiles glues so I then need to texture and paint them - then move into my board and plan the table.  Ground scale will be blown out of proportion most likely but then again - its only toy soldiers.


I am also slowly re-basing my 28mm French and finishing off the 6mm Sudan and 10 Vietnam so next week I hope to play a few solo games to get used to the rules again.

New to brush care

I had two posts written in draft that have dissapeared over the weekend. I never delete drafts so Im not sure what happened - perhaps I mistakenly clicked on delete when logging out when my FF freezes (Due to that crappy HP software starting up).

I have recently started to try to take more care of my brushes as most are showing wear and tear. I have been really lazy with brushes, I simply use them till they die and then they get moved onto use with PVA for bases and then buy some more. very lazy and a waste. I did think I was cleaning them (clean water etc.) but over time the paint builds in the ferule and they slowly clog up. with child and that cat I have also had some interruptions that have me forgetting brushes loaded with paint. These then dry and lose all use. I'm not expecting the brushes to be back to new but just to look after them better and prolong their life.

So a month or two ago I scoured the interwebz for information and and tips and found two products:

1. Masters Brush Cleaner 

I used this on all brushes one night and wow it did a really good job of getting paint out or brushes I thought were clean. I also left it on some dead brushes for an hour and they came back to life slowly. Afterwards the brushes had more life back on them and regained some shape and I was very happy. I uses this at the end of every session and I'm finding it really helps clean the paint I can see.


2.Winsor and Newton Bruish Cleaner and Restorer. 

Some of the brushes though really need a defibrillator type shock so I used another product.

I have to say this stuff is the kryptonite to dried paint. The old brushes I soaked 9They were 100% dried solid) came back to life and all the dried paint came out of them. I think they have regained almost 70% of their quality and that is the end result I was looking for. It has no odour and is water soluble and it has worked wonders with these old brushes.

A good result from my searching on the internet and other peoples blogs so thanks to all those that posted videos and comments on the webs for others to see. I remember as a kid using turps on those Humbrol enamel paints -I must have been high as a kite for a time. Now I'm older I am more fussy - I found even the smell of Tamiya Acrylic to be bad so can only use it in the garage.

Cheerio.

Recent musings.

I’ve done a lot recently but haven’t bothered posting an pics – I find I should spend more time doing things and playing things than worrying about photos, lighting and all the nonsense that goes with it.

 Rally Round the King

I have been playing a solo campaign using the Rally Round the King mechanics to get some game time going. The human armies of the fantasy world are based on Historical armies (Which I know nothing about) so it has been fun painting and getting use to different troop types and their abilities. In my campaign the nations are Orcs, Goblins, Border Kingdom (Normans), Tropillium South (Late Western Roman), Treyine (English 100YW), Elves and or course Dwarves. So far it has been entertaining and a good excuse to learn more about Ancient warfare and how these battles fought. Of course I know very little about tactics in these ages but I’m slowly getting the hang of things. None of these games are blog friendly (Played on a simple green cloth) but it has me entertained and is satisfying my need for some fantasy wars.

A few brief shots below of some of the first battles of the year (Horrible board). I am working on a proper wargames board and decent scenery but for these initial games I just threw it down and rolled the dice. It would be nice to play some ancients but would mean learning another rule-set meh !

 Elves try to get the Dwarven gold but the solid battle line wears them down.

Goblins try to back stab the Orc nation and getting a royal beating\massacre.

Romans

Tropillius is based on the Late Roman empire and in this campaign it is twice the size of anyone else. Bigger borders mean more troops so I have been painting Romans to my hearts content. I have never painted a Roman before so I have tried to base them on a historical look but I’m not sure I have it. Anyway at least its an excuse to have a Roman army that could be used for DBA. Its interesting how little I knew about the Romans and how vastly they changed over time - I thought it was all Asterix type legionnaires for centuries.