15mm Napoleonic French Cuirassier and Voltigers

If you've been following us you probably recall a Napoleonic French army we did for a customer: French Napoleonic Army The army was based for the Lasalle Rules. Here are some additional units the customer added to enlarge the army.

First up the cuirassier. These are the from the 2'nd and 3'rd cuirassier:

Next we have the voltigers from the 4'th and the 18'th. There are bases of both skirmishers and "open order" infantry:

  Next up for this customer is a Russian army. I'll post pictures when it is done.

Ruined Temple

This is a temple vignette that Bob and I created for an order that accompanies the set of Foundry's Greek mythological characters.

If you'd like to see the characters that go with this temple, refer back to a previous December blog post: Ancient Greek Heroes.

It was first painted with Grayed Orange Yellow 12, then dry-brushed with Stained Ivory, and again with Creamy Ivory.  We wanted a warmer effect to the stone, something almost rosy like the photographs of Greece.

The little urn is black with Burnt Sienna designs.  I looked over images of Grecian urns on the web and then did a kind of abstract people in movement and wheat pattern band at the top.  I think it does the trick and gives the impression.

The foliage is from Scenic Express; Silflor miniNature prairie tufts and beech tree are the taller pieces.



I went on to have some fun with the photographs; I insisted that there should be some people in this landscape. ;-)

"Oh, hey, look at this great urn; I bet it's worth a lot!" says the barbarian.  Rolling her eyes, "Let me see if it has any magical properties before you touch anything," counters the sorceress.  The monk just stares, shakes his head at the ignorance of looting and thinks to himself, "Why did I even come on this adventure?"

Because they were caught-up in their thoughts, they failed to make a spot check for the giant that was hiding behind one of the columns.

And then it all becomes hazy as a magical effect takes hold of the party.

 Okay, so these figures are our regular D&D gaming figs, so if you see some chips that's because people have ham-hands.  And no, I don't have too much time on my hands.  I simply procrastinate well.

More Display Pieces for Acheson Creations

Here are a few more display stands we have completed for Acheson Creations. It includes the first few figures for the Kaiju Kaos  line/ ruleset and a couple of huts. Allison did the painting on the figures and I did the painting on the huts.

First up are three pieces For Kaiju Kaos: an undead pageant winner, or some such thing,  a werewolf, and what line of miniatures would be complete without an evil scientist? Overall the figures are a little rougher, but with a little care and time do paint up well. Even if you're not a Kaiju Kaos player they could fit in with a bunch of other type of games. I'm pretty sure a few will end up in my pulp or zombie games.

Next up are some 28mm huts. Now if you follow us at the shows you'll notice I've actually done in a more accurate grey than our usual newer ocher-ish color. Let me go into this a bit more. I can't count the number of people who have come up to the stand at shows and complained that we did our thatch wrong as thatch turns grey. While accurate, my experience has been grey thatch doesn't sell. Well, eventually you can sell most of the pieces, but that's only after you discount them to get them off the table. Fact is yellow thatch sells. In droves. By the dozens. As a result, 99% of the thatched roof buildings we paint up have yellow thatch and will in the future. When the sales shift the other way, then we'll start painting more grey thatched roofs than yellow thatched.

The first is the old standby Celt 1 code, with is a simple celtic hut, with a removable roof. This would serve quite well as a generic round stone hut. 

Next up is a new piece, a Pict house (code Pict 1), priced from Acheson unpainted at $15. Quite a neat little piece, and fairly large as it stands 5 1/2 inches tall to the peak of the roof, which is removable.  I actually painted two of these exactly the same, so we have one floating around for sale at $40 unbased, with a base with some flocking, flowers, etc figure it for $45. It needs either based or just flock applied around the outside of the hut yet, but other than that is ready to go. It will eventually find its way onto the webstore or to Fall-In.  With the record we have of selling grey thatch, I foresee us having this one for quite awhile. Please prove me wrong.

Gnomy Monday

 I was extremely excited to begin painting these Gnome Reaper figures.  I think they are simply adorable and so well sculpted; personality just oozes from these figures.
So, let us talk inspiration.  Of course I perused the D&D players handbook in the gnome section for what they typically look like and wear...that was good.  I didn't have to do that, I just chose to.  With that said, D&D reports that gnomes are brownish skinned with fair hair and blue eyes; they enjoy to wear earth colors and like adornments on their clothing and gems.  Yeah, I know, I sound like gnomes are real.  But, what if they are?  We wouldn't want to insult them.

Here are the three gnomes I worked on:

 Cassie

She has straw colored hair and very light blue-gray eyes.  Went with gold accents on neutral/natural colors.  Wanting her staff to stand out, I kept it black and made the gems a bold red.  My favorite part is the set of keys in her braid at the back. ;-)

Marius Burrowell

This gnome has character to spare!  His face is so full of gesture.  Because gnomes are so compact, I wanted to keep things very simple and keep the colors to a minimum.  I think the key in smaller proportioned figures is to pick a couple objects and make them stand out and keep the others rather subdued.

 Corim

I love the devilish brilliance in his eyes so I made them a bright blue in the same color as his sash.  The spiked shape of his collar prompted me to choose a earthy red for his shirt.  Again, keeping it simple I chose a grayed-orange yellow for his pants and dark brown for boots.  All the focal point should be in his eyes and magical feat.  I am considering adding a little sparkle to his flames...not sure yet.

More Black Hat/ Scale Creep Display Stands

This is the latest batch for Mark Severin/ Scale Creep of display pieces. I'm running a bit late here as I wanted to get these out to Mark last week, but we had a death in the family so everything's behind a bit as we try to catch up.

These stands are more of the Black Hat figures that he carries: Late Imperial Romans and Persians.

Black Hat Late Romans

Black Hat Persians

Kardakes

Guard Cavalry

Roman Legionnaires

Roman Legionair Command

Immortal Bowmen

Apple Bearers

Dromadary Riders

Heavy Cavalry

Roman Cataphracts

There's still a Persian Chariot that I'm picking away at. When it's done I'll get some images up.

Back to the painting table!