Saga Arabs

I'm on a roll, another project finished! Saga Arabs this time. I've always loved plastic figures and the newer generation of plastics are a God send especially if your like me and love converting figures and doing Frankenstein conversions! Although for once I've pretty much built these straight out of the boxes.

 8 horse archers, 8 foot archers, 8 spearmen and 8 swordmen. The swordsman are made by combining parts from the Arabs cavalry boxes and the Arabs infantry box. Slight conversion maybe but nothing drastic. 

 I enjoy painting and very rarely game nowadays! So these may not stay in my collection for long, space is becoming rarer and rarer but i keep meaning to thin out my collection. I'm attending hammerhead this weekend and hopefully I will sell a few bits and pieces at the table top sale. Although not spending any money I make on something new and shiney will not be easy! But I'm waffling on so back to the figures. 

 Every warband needs a leader and here's mine, hopefully a true leader. 

 The swords are here, a bit of mixing and swapping of parts but they appear to work out pretty well. 

 The spears, I let myself run riot on the shields, after seeing some the patterns I couldn't resist.  

 The bows, it was nice to paint these. No shields so pretty quick to finish. 

 The mounted bows, the hosres are lovely looking crearures and paint up a treat, some of the riders needed to be matched to certain horses or it requires a little bit of trimming to get them to fit.  It could just of being me or I was just unlucky. 

 So thanks for looking, feel free to comment and thanks again for looking 

Cheers for now Russ  

More SAGA Vikings

After a couple of weeks I've managed to finish up a few bits and pieces off the paint table! So I've added some more Vikings to my collection. I've gone for a mix of berserkers and hirdman, the Vikings are Gripping Beast plastics and I've converted the berserkers from Warlord Games figures.

 I added some different shield designs, I'm not the best at freehand but hopefully once mixed in with the rest of the warband they will blend in nicely. Painting shield's is part of the course but they can make or break the look of the figures. 

 The berserkers are a easy conversion from the warlord games figures and although not perfect they do the job nicely. Ive added a few tattoos although I'm not entirely happy with them! 

 The first four Hirdman I gave them all spears and apart for the green shield looking more Irish than viking! I think they worked out pretty nicely. 

 The second four are armed with a mix of swords and axes. I wasn't impressed with the GB plastic Vikings at first! The Saxons where the first figures I built from Gripping Beast and I was impressed massively with them. Then when I started on the Vikings they didn't seem as easy to put together and I didn't think they looked as good! But once i painted some I changed my mind and hopefully it shows. 

So as always thanks for looking 

   All the best

                  Cheers Russ 

A trip down memory lane

I strayed into old territory with my more recent works! Airfix, Italeri and Revell kits. I had more fun then I expected revisiting some of these old kits. Although I'm pretty sure the wespes were matchbox when I first built one. Still it's being almost forty years since I last built some of these kits. 

    So on to the models

 From left to right, pakwagon from hasagawa, two Stugs from Airfix, two wespes from Revell/matchbox and an armoured car from Italeri! It's given me a chance to add bits and pieces to each kit and make them more individual. 

 A lot of the crates are made from scrap ends of balsa wood and bits and pieces of plastic card. The tarps are made of tissue paper soaked in PVA and rolled or folded up. There are of course accessories from both PSC and various other manufacturers that I've horded over the years. 

 I've a few more models to add before I've finished, three PSC half-tracks, an Airfix Tiger and a marder. It wasn't really my intention to get into 20mm WW2 but I've enjoyed this walk back down memory lane so it may not end here.

So thanks for looking 

Cheers for now Russ 

Viking Saga Warband

I wasn't sure I would get these guys finished today but I've managed it.  Even I'm not sure how I managed it! I'm normally not that well organised but I proved myself wrong.

The figures are mainly Gripping Beast plastics apart from a few slight conversions from Warlord Games Celts plastics.

 I've got to start with the warlord, straightforward figure from the Viking hirdman box set. I'm still not 100% about his shield but it's just finding a design worthy of a son of Odin. 

 The full warband in all its Viking glory! Berserkers, hirdman and levy  it's almost all there. 

 Hirdman/hearthguard, I could of doubled up on these guys but I wanted berserkers to add that bit more variety.

 Berserkers made from Warlord Games Celts, easy to do and how could I not have some in my humble little warband. 

 The shield's are all painted by me, I could of cheated and picked up some decals for them but I wasn't organised enough to pick some up! That and my wife says I'm to tight to buy any. 

So thanks for taking the time to read my humble blog, 

Thanks for looking 

       Cheers for now Russ

Saxon saga warband

The snow is falling and I'm tucked up lovely and warm indoors, despite the winter snap of snow I've finished up my SAGA 4point warband.

every warband needs a leader and here is mine. Some conversion work was undertaken and the larger base size gave me a chance to do something a bit different. 

 so on to the warband itself, they are a mix of gripping beast plastic Dark age warriors and plastic Saxons 

 Gripping beast makes some cracking plastic figures and I'd almost forgot how good they look and how nice they build up. I'm also impressed with the way the heads are attached. 

 The shields are all hand painted which have turned out better then I expected. Making then look a little bit battered certainly adds more character. 

The Warlord and hearthguard ready to take on all comers. 

  

Not forgetting the warriors 

 These guys are done and dusted and on to my next project! The vikings, and here's a sneak peak 3 berserker conversions

 As always guys thanks for looking, feel free to comment.

 cheers for now 

Russ 

                                             

Thinning out my collection

It's a sad day, I have finally made my mind up to thin out my collection. I'm posting pictures here of some the stuff I'm planning to sell on, just because this the last chance I will get to show them off before I pack them ready to go to Vapnartak's table top sale.
   
          Darkest Africa

 First up! My meagre attempt at Darkest Africa, I think almost everyone has dipped a toe in the period at some time or another. 

 the shield's were scratch built out of plastic card, mainly because I forgot to order some. 

Bolt Action Tanks

 Despite only just finishing up the Cromwell I've decided to part with these, I'm probably going to replace these with Tamiya's 1/48 scale kits. Not gaming means I can get away with the more detailed but more fragile Tamiya's kits.



Black Scorpion Tombstone minis

 These miniatures captured my imagination, but after a friend said what a shame they would never be gamed with! It struck a cord and it troubled me slightly

Finally my High Elves 

 These have being sat on my shelf for way to long now, gathering dust is not a suitable for these highly skilled warrior's. 

 

Unfortunately I haven't taken photos of all the stuff going off to sale, but I ran out if time and to be honest the longer I looked at some of it! I wanted to keep it! 

I may not sell any of it, but it will make me feel better if I try to make some more space! And if I do make some money maybe a new project will beckon. 

So thank you for looking and wish me luck!

Cheers for now Russ

Oak leaf tutorial

OK I've dabbled with another step by step/tutorial it's the first one I've done since I started my blog. I would normally do it through photobucket but now I have my blog well it would be wrong to not to post it here. I have only covered painting the actual smock, I will add a link to my photobucket which covers several tutorials which covers painting the entire figures from start to finish. I am no expert and this is purely my take on Oak leaf camo, so on to the tutorial. I usually use Vallejo paints but GW paints are the order of the day with this one.

Step1

 Undercoat the figure, this is personal choice but I think white works well for this camo pattern.

Step2 

 I used miniature paints Umber but adding black to dryad bark will do the job just as well.

Step3 

 Wash over with nuln oil , this is to shade the recesses in the smock.

Step4 

 Reinstate dryad bark on the raised areas of the smock.

Step5 

 Paint irregular patches of Elysian green across the smock.

Step6 

 Wash Elysian green with nuln oil, this will help to add depth to the creases in the smock.

Step7 

 Now add random patches of Gorthor brown across the smock

Step8

Reinstate Elysian green then highlight by adding white 

Step9 

 Reinstate Gorthor brown and highlight by adding white 

Step 10 

 Now add small random dots of Elysian green mixed with white. These should help to break up the edges of the Dryad bark areas.

Step11 

 Now add small random dots of Dryad bark over the larger areas of colour. This will help to build up the Oak Leaf pattern.

Step12 

 Using a mix of Elysian green and white add smaller dots over the top of the dots of dryad bark. Build the green up over the brown and vice versa.

Step13

 Add smaller dots of Gorthor brown over the dryad bark dots painted over the Elysian green.

Step14

 Finish up painting the rest of the figure, it's being a while since I last did a step by step so please if I have messed it up I apologise, if something isn't clear then just leave a comment and I will try my best to answer it.

http://s1245.photobucket.com/user/bracken96/library/Tutorial%20Waffen%20SS?sort=3&page=1

 click on the link scroll down to view another album and feel free to browse. 

Well thanks for looking hope it helps 

  Cheers for now Russ