Problem solved.

No not a dramatic all singing all dancing issue but one that has vexed me.  Back on the 11th September on this blog (Here is the link) I admitted than I had lost a set of arms. I still have before anyone says.

Cutting a long story short as I am now assembling (Prior to painting, expect them next week or the week after, a unit of sergeants spearmen. ) As they are being assembled I came across another set of arms that I thought "They'll do!" I have 1 spear too many and I think 6 sets of arms to many. A natural solution was formed. Simply take the arms from an Unmade spearman and give them to a man at arms.   And that very quickly/simply is how I solved the problem.

I personally think he fits in very well and while the spear is slightly long I have no issue with that at all.

Currently on the painting table:

• Alien arachnid. 28mm (or is he!)
• Lion Rampant spearmen. 28mm (in construction.
• Zombtober figure. 28mm.
• Pendraken Spanish Civil War 10mm Light MGs (possibly with a view to buy "Bayonet and Ideology!" next Selwg show.

So lots Started, BUT alas not lots finished. But at least I have this unit finished now (other than a varnish).

Thanks for looking. No idea what I will finish next. You never know it may be Crimson skies (still reading rules so VERY unlikely).

All the best Clint

Green and Yellow men at arms Lion Rampant

Yes a unit (well very nearly) of Men at arms for Lion Rampant. I do intend to do another at some point so stay tuned. Actually no need to stay tuned it will probably be a few weeks time. So dismounted Knights or Men at arms come in units of 6 in Lion Rampant. Yet still fight better than most other units.

The banner bearer needs to be changed. Nothing wrong with the banner or the painting but when taking him out to varnish he fell on a concrete path and shattered and I have lost an arm. No rush for this but it shall be done shortly after Selwg wargames show.

I did look at putting yellow at the top of the banner and green beneath. It seemed the most logical arrangement, and that is exactly why I did not!

The figures are all Perry Agincourt British men at arms and therefore 28mm. As such they will fit in with my Lion Rampant forces quite well. There iare exactly the right amount of left and right arms so I cannot go for different options this time which also means I cannot easily switch out weapons. Thus they all have 2 handed weapons in the form of short spears or Pikes Battle axes, pole axes and the like. I quite like this as it adds to the look of butcher-ism!

I have been busy last night rebasing figures. So most likely that next time as I prepare for a "GRUNTZ" game. And the hope of learning the rules. As such I am currently making some more terrain. I shall do a walk through probably next week.

If there are any "GRUNTZ" players who read this I may well have some questions about force composition next time.

Until then good painting, enjoy the days ahead and paint your hearts out if you can.

Oh Krupp!

Today I have finished 2 Krupp field guns and 8 crew. 4 Crew for each gun. I did have to email another blogger to make sure the colour of the gun carriage and gun barrels were correct. It was a bit of a surprise when he said they were. Well I always think the worst and expect to be wrong so I was delighted to be on this occasion correct!

Clearly these are Egyptian Army Krupp's and Egyptian crew. The white uniforms and red fezzes indicate that. I am not sure if Matt has any Mahdi Crew for the guns time I am sure will tell. And if so I look forward to painting them.

The Guns were easy to put together, 4 pieces. 2 wheels, 1 Barrel and one gun carriage. So assembly was reasonably swift and straightforward. Painting was also straightforward, the guns were a simple grey and the crew were painted first cream and then hi-lighted sufficient times to reach a white top coat. So as figure painting goes very straightforward with no complications.


As I said I would do a group shot of them all the last 2 pics are just that, these 2 guns and crews and the previously painted mounted officers.

So with luck I will be able to get some of my own done ready for a Saturday post.... Probably a pair of Wolf Runners for Secrets of he Third Reich! But I may well get sidetracked.

So take care, have fun and paint like crazy when you get a spare moment.

All the Best Clint

William Hicks. (Painted)

After the close of the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War, he entered the Khedive'service and was made a fellahin of Arabi's disbanded troops, sent in chains from Egypt. After a month's vigorous drilling Hicks led 5000 of his men against an equal force of dervishes in Sennar, whom he defeated, and cleared the country between the towns of Sennar and Khartoum of rebels.
pasha. In 1881,Sudan was controlled by Egypt; Muhammad Ahmad proclaimed himself Mahdi and began conquering neighboring territory and thus threatening the precarious Egyptian control of the territory. Early in 1883 he went to Khartoum as chief of the staff of the army there, then commanded by Suliman Niazi Pasha. Camp was formed at Omdurman and a new force of some 8000 fighting men
collected—mostly recruited from the
1883 The Egyptian ministry, however, did not then believe in the power of the mahdi, and the expedition started from Khartoum on 9 September. It was made up of 7000 infantry, 1000 cavalry and 2000 camp followers and included thirteen Europeans. On the 10th the force left the Nile at Duem and struck inland across the almost waterless wastes of Kordofan for Obeid. On 5 November the army, misled by possibly treacherous guides and thirst-stricken, was ambushed in dense forest at Kashgil, 30 miles south of Obeid. With the exception of some 300 men the whole force was killed. (See the
Battle of El Obeid).
According to the story of Hicks's cook, one of the survivors, the general was the last officer to fall, pierced by the spear of the khalifa Mahommed Sherif. After emptying his revolver the pasha kept his assailants at bay for some time with his sword, a body of Baggara who fled before him being known afterwards as "Baggar Hicks" (the cows driven by Hicks), a play on the words baggara and baggar, the former being the herdsmen and the latter the cows. Hicks's head was cut off and taken to the mahdi.

Well that is the history. This is a Perry Miniatures 28mm figure and has one of the best sculpted horses I have ever painted. The whole figure is very nice but I was particularly fond of the horse. Yes it is painted for Matt and is now part of his Colonial collection. I hope to put a few of my own figures on the blog tomorrow. (Shhhhs! Don't tell anyone). So until then have fun paint things and if possible play a game or maybe 2.

All the best Clint

Batch 4 (Finished)

Yep later than expected the latest batch of Burpas are now all based varnished and put away. I was expecting to finish them last night but a day later here they are. & figures finished since the last update, they are a mix of makes, Perry, Foundry and Empress miniatures.

Obviously another leader in the purple with a silver horse on his shield, the others are somewhat duller in colours with cream and brown dominating. There are other colours as well, mostly as turbans or belt sashes or shields just to break up the earthy tones. One rather flamboyant chap is in baby blue and pink (or as I like to call it faded red!)

They all fit in with the horde as the bottom picture shows as the whole batch stands together.

Quite a fearsome bunch!

Thanks for looking and maybe something on Sunday and maybe nothing til Tuesday I just cannot tell yet as nothing is even started.


So with luck see you soon, all the best Clint.

Back on schedule..... maybe only for 1 day

 being back on schedule is not all that! It just means that you are struggling to finish things for the next deadline.

Anyway 3 MORE Burpas for Matt all 28 mm figures and all (I think) different makes. (Empress Foundry, Perry). All Indian Hill tribes and all set for the colonial period.

Yes a group shot will be taken at a later date. the figure on the left has a breech loader with the other two have muzzle loading black powder weapons. And while the guy on the right is brandishing a knife I think we can be sure that the other two have knifes as well tucked into robes. (The guy on the left carries a sword and shield as well so we know he is ready for close combat!)

That's it for today, keeping it short and sweet.

Cheers guys thanks for looking

More 28mm Sudan

 Yes I painted these up for Matt. They are 28mm Perry Miniatures Egyptians circa 1882 ready to battle the Mahdi. The rankers are in white uniforms and officers are in Navy blue. When I say white they are actually painted cream ,then cream and white mixed and highlighted in white. Just painting them pure white would not allow for any highlights so I started with white primer and the applied the cream just so it was not patchy.

There are 2 officers, 2 musicians and 2 flag bearers each with a different flag. The flags were bought in and are paper. I made the mistake when attaching these of not making them flow the same direction. By the time I realised the glue hard dried and it was too late to change it. You can all imagine me kicking myself!


The  chip on the second flag bearers base is repaired now. So do not fret about him. They are all based on 2mm MDF round Bases and then filler is applied to get rid of the "step of the metal figure base. It takes a little longer but it really is worth doing as it gives a much more professional result.








The other 18 figures are all marching. At first look they are all the same, But a closer look reveals several differences in the figures. Simple things like a moustache or clean shaven or the tassel on the fez (You may if you wish call it a tarbush), but I will use the word Fez just because Dr WHO says that Fes's are cool, and that's good enough for me.

Thanks for looking today. And with luck I will post again soon. I am currently painting for eBay sales so it may be a mixed bag for the next week or so. But it is just as likely that I will give up and carry on with my own things but I am hoping to get a little money together for the local show in a couple of weeks.

Take care of yourself Clint

Technicolour Paint monkey

I was going to do an AAR for the club game on Sunday but here instead are 2 Sudan Cavalry circa 1882-89. These two figures were painted for my friend Matt, who was both pleased and delighted with them. He was not expecting me to go to so much effort in painting them. They are both Perry miniatures in 28mm. Both standard bearer and tribal leader were fairly straight forward to paint and being sculpted by the Perry brothers were a joy.

These are now in Matts collection and I hope they do make the table top sometime soon as it would be a joy to see them take the field. (Even if they are bullet magnets). The horses were also a pleasure to paint. the comparison horse armour was not! But now they are done I know the process so any in the future would and could be done much faster. Each individual triangle has to be painted by eye and I would have liked to have gotten them a little more even. Not that I am going to worry about it too much but I do know I can do better next time.

As you can see from the picture on the right while I may not have gotten the armour exactly right it is by no means totally wrong either. I did not look at this picture whist painting or I would have done far more Red as opposed to cream. But as this is just one historical example I am sure colour variations would have existed so it is not a huge issue for me. This armour for the horse would be good at slowing sword slashes, less good against lance/spear thrusts and virtually worthless to defend against a rifled bullet from that time. But in the desert wearing heavy enough metal armour to stop bullets would be highly impractical. So This was a good compromise for protecting the horse in a battle.

It is best not to try to work out how long it took to paint them both lest us just say longer than I first thought. But as mentioned above I think I could do them faster and better now.

These two figures earned me 24 points in the painting challenge. 10 points for each horse and rider and an extra couple for the flag and because Curt was feeling generous. (For which I am thankful).

Both are mounted on 25x50mm cavalry slotta bases with the holes filled in and plaster added to get rid of the base lips. I hate seeing the metal base edges on figures.

The Flag was commercially bought and supplied by Matt, all I deeded to do was attach it and crinkle it so appear blowing in the wind. Not part of the exercise I really enjoy but the result is worth it.


 That will do for today I will post the American Civil War AAR on Saturday as I am already missing posting the weekly game.

Talking of which I think I have sorted out the details of the next one but will say no more for now as I think it deserves a post of it's own. And at this stage loads of work to do.

Thanks for looking today. All the best Clint

ACW Figures (Rebs)

I have already shown these on Curt's Analogue painting challenge. And time has come for me to put them on here.

Yes we have 12 Confederate infantry to face of against the Federals I showed before the new year. Again Perry miniatures Plastics. With the Federals they all came from the same box. But they did dot seem to battle it out too much in the box and all were quite docile until I started to paint them.

The officer is the only one in full uniform as each of the others has at least one thing non standard on them. It could be Blanket, hat, socks, trousers, tunic or even haversack.  I even took a scalpel to the odd knee and elbow on the figures to create rents and then made sure that most if not all had patches.This was deliberately done to give a rag tag campaign feel for a unit suffering supply problems. I am lead to believe this was the case for much of the war for some units particularly from the south. I wasn't there though so I can't be certain!

Well that's just a quick catch up post. And I only have my GW genestealers now that went on Curts blog about this time yesterday. So I shall give them a little time before I put them on here.

So that's it for today. I hope to post next on Saturday. Until then I hope this year is working out for you.

All the best Clint

Mahdi Cavalry

Well these have been on the Analogue Hobbies painting challenge for about 2 weeks and now I have only just gotten around to putting them on my blog. Ah well such is Life. Yes The Paint monkey was busy with the brushes over the festive period.

I hasten to add that I am painting Zulu's for myself at this stage as well as some Genestealers for a project later to be revealed. But I will say no more for now. And back to the script (This Blog has a script? well no one told me Ed.)

All these figures are Perry miniatures from their Sudan metal range. Firstly we have 2 command figures. While the one on the left has a sword the one on the right is unarmed. (except for a scroll... something about a pen being mightier than a sword..... neither will stop bullets though).


 Then we have 2 groups each of 4 cavalry. They all carry swords some carry javelins or rifles as well, a couple carry all three. As we all know you can never have enough weapons. But you can have too few.


Some likewise have colourful patches on their clothes as a mark of the poverty of the Mahdi. Most do not though. They were a joy to paint and have come out jolly well I think. The next two I do I have been struggling with and when you see them you will understand why! But that's another post on this blog.

The final picture is them all together.. A total of 10 Cavalry in 28mm. And while all the riders are different I Have had a few "Siimilar" (exactly the same) horses. This is no problem as they can all be different shades of brown if need be to help break the unit up.

Thanks for looking today. Happy new year and all that. I may well do a post of plans for the new year next week, or I may avoid it all together.

I shall go back to playing "World of tanks" now at which I do truly stink big time in an ultra wiffy way.

Have fun and with luck see you soon. All the best Clint.

12 ACW figs

 Well here are some more from the Analogue painting challenge. !2 28mm ACW Plastic Perry miniatures. I managed to source these from young Ray with some of my Birthday money. Despite the fact that I gave up Birthdays many years ago people still insist on presents cards and making a fuss when all I really want is to forget all about it!

So please do not offer my any congratulations or best wishes or anything like that.

Anyway these are for me to try out the "Songs of Drums and Shakos "rules. Yes I am aware that the rules are for Napoleonic period and these were about 50 years out of period, but the basic rules should work very well. At least I hope so.

Not so much more to say about these. Perry miniatures, hard plastic easy to put together and fun to paint about covers it. I have some Rebs on the painting table at the moment so I would expect to get them finished by Tuesday next week.

Not drawing this out, thanks for looking and more again soon. Have some fun and paint some figures.

Best wishes Clint