28mm Edo Japan: The Ronin, Samurai, and a Kid.

Democracy at work.
Thanks to everyone who voted in the poll! It was a clear victory for the Edo collection. These miniatures have been designed for skirmish gaming so I started with un armored figures. Bear in mind that the Edo period is historically the twilight hours for the Samurai. The bright colors of earlier periods have fallen out of fashion and are replaced by more muted colors.

Each group or "Buntai" as the Ronin ruleset calls them is defined on the table top by a similar color. In the case of the Ronin, I use variations of blue. It's just a way to let players further identify the roles of the figure in the game.

28mm Perry Miniatures: Ronin

28mm Perry Miniatures: Ronin

Conversion: Lone Wolf / Miyamoto Musashi
The last miniature is a head swap. I also added long hair (hard to see in the picture) and played up the mustache and beard. Miyamoto Musashi was known to keep his hair and clothing unkempt as means of distracting his opponents. If you are a fan of Samurai tales and don't know of Lone Wolf and Cub you owe it to yourself to find out.

28mm Perry Miniatures: Ronin and son / Miyamoto Musashi

Employed Samurai
The next group represent Samurai that are still employed. Sort of the middle class Samurai for this period. Their group color is green and they tend to have more detailed and brighter colored clothing than the Ronin to show their status.

28mm Perry Miniatures: Samurai

28mm Perry Miniatures: Samurai

Pro Tip: If you have two of the same casting, paint them in completely different color schemes to hide the similarity.

28mm Perry Miniatures: Samurai

40mm Peninsular Project: Here's Where The Fun Begins!

The last of the prep work.
I've been making steady progress on the British Light Infantry, finishing up the last of the brown/black washing of the rifles, belts, backpacks, etc. I have a rather hodge podge collection of paints and inks i use so I can't give readers a "recipe" for this part of the technique, so  you will just have to eyeball it. The final mix should be a bit more brown than black and roughly 1/2 the opacity of the paint you would normally apply. Don't thin with water, use the ink instead.

Be sure to cover pretty much everything not already painted at this phase.

Here's the fun bit. Making faces.
With the black/brown in place it's time to start putting the mid tones and highlights on the figure. Either by habit or necessity, I like to start with the faces. I find that it makes it a little easier to power through any boredom that may arise when you are painting all the straps and belts that come later.

To the right are the paints I used, with the scarlet washed over the cheeks and knuckles after the final skin tone highlight is applied.

Next up: coats and pants.
Once the faces are complete, move on to coats and pants. I have decided on grey pants for the officer and a beige white for the Lights.

By making the base coats dark, you can get away with a mid tone and one highlight. If you want to push it further, and ad a final layer you can, but I'm trying to get these done as quickly as possible.

I'm still trying to decide if I am going to "dirty up" the legs of the pants to seem muddy. That kind of detail seem to work with the 40mm scale but would take more time...

Pro Tip:
Once you have mixed a grey reuse it on other figures in the unit. The bags, officers gloves, and bed rolls are all based around a mid grey with a soft beige added rather than pure white.

A mid tone red with scarlet highlight.

Reuse the grey on the bed roll and bag.

Officer with face, coat and pants completed.

The Perry Brother's Retire!

It seems the brothers have stepped away from Games Workshop to focus on their historical miniatures! I don't really paint fantasy miniatures anymore, but in honor of this auspicious occasion I thought I would post one of my favorite miniatures from their tenure with GW. I really should get around to basing these fellows.

28mm Gandalf the Grey

28mm Gandalf the Grey

Are You Not Entertained?

I have several collections that have never seen the light of day. So we are going to let the masses decide what I will show next. Here are your options, vote for your favorite at the poll on the right.

1/48 scale Star Wars Star fighter 

28mm Pulp Sci-Fi:

A fairly sizeable collection for Sci-Fi Pulp miniatures and terrain for skirmish gaming. Includes vintage Ral Partha and current miniatures from Hydra Miniatures, Games Workshop, Wargames Foundry and more.

28mm Perry Minatures: Baby cart not included.

28mm Perry Miniatures: Edo period Japan
A large collection of miniatures and terrain intended for small skirmishes. Now being used for the Ronin ruleset from Osprey Publishing.

28mm Wargames Foundry Gladiators

28mm Wargames Foundry Gladiators:

A small collection sculpted by Mark Copplestone from back when the Foundry made great figures.

40mm Peninsular Project: Base Coats and Research.

The Light Division under Beckwith

The Light Division.

I had a chance to review some of the materials I have acquired over the years in preparation of this project. Like most of you, I really enjoy the Sharp Series of novels and movies. So any skirmish game has to involve the 95th Rifles in some respect. Here is a quick look at the organization of the Light Division in August of 1810. Looking a little further down the road, I will need miniatures to represent the 1/43 of Foot, the 1st Cacadores, and the 1/95th Rifles. Throw in some Spanish townsfolk, Monks, and Guerillas and that should do it for the British.

British Light Infantry Officer

Making Progress On Pants.
I had some time this weekend to get a quick base coat on the 40mm Infantry. I am/was having a bit of an internal debate over the color of the pants. Originally, for the sake of time I was going to do all white. However, once I began poking around I found the following image online. The pose of the 40mm Infantry Officer almost perfectly matches the illustration. Needless to say, this is why I love Perry Miniatures. Their castings are usually very accurate and often inspired by period artwork. So once I saw this, I had to have the Officer in Grey trousers.

British Infantry re-enactors

Getting Started: Base Coats:
The Osprey Book (Wellington's Army in the Peninsula 1809–14)
 had this photo of re-enactors that looks much different than the typical image of the British soldier from the period. The colors are rich and deep. The white's are crisp and sharp. So with that in mind I set out to apply the base coats. I have show this step to illustrate how you can apply these early layers of paint without too much care. Often, when I look at painted miniatures on the internet you only see the finished product. Which I think gives the impression that each step of the painting process must be controlled and labor intensive. If you follow these next few posts you will see how it's the building up of layers of color that make miniatures appear more 3-D. In effect you are painting to enhance the sculpture by painting up from dark to light and only the last few layers really need to be neat for the miniature to be effective.

Pro Tip:
The correct consistency for your paints should be like milk. Thin with water and mix the paint well. This ensures the pigment and medium with incorporate thoroughly, giving you a slight "watercolor" effect that will reveal the highlights on the figure. Making them easier to pick out in the last stage of painting.

British Light Infantry (recruit)

British Light Infantry (veteran)

British Light Infantry (with grey pants)

For Sale: 18mm Peninsular Project - SOLD!

Once, many years ago, I started the very same project I am doing in 40mm in 18mm. Using the amazing AB Miniatures I collected and recreated units from the light division in 1810. I even got so far as to paint up a element from the 95th Rifles. However, my father's failing eyesight has made 28mm un doable, much less 18mm. So, with deep regret I'm selling off this collection.

Purchase the Lt. Division including Riflemen (painted and unpainted), Light Infantry, Spanish Cacadores, British Hussars and French Light Infantry and I will throw in a unit of Cossacks for FREE! Contact me for a complete listing and final head count of the miniatures.

$35.00 - SOLD

Buyer pays USPS flat rate shipping. Will ship Internationally.

18mm AB Miniatures painted as 95th Rifles on metal stands

18mm AB Miniatures painted as 95th Rifles on metal stands

18mm AB Miniatures painted as 95th on metal stands

Here's what you get. Contact me for entire listing.

The British are coming!

I'm starting the 40mm Peninsular project with several British Light Infantrymen and a Light Infantry Officer. The two infantrymen are the same figure so I have done some light bending and repositioning of one to give him a more casual appearance. This miniature will be classified as a veteran. His counterpart will be a rookie as Song of Drums and Shakos lets you assign different attributes to individuals in a unit.

What's with the stick?
My father taught me to paint miniatures, and this was his answer to keeping your fingers off of primed castings. I like it better than using individual corks or paint caps, as the stick allows you to twist and turn the entire group to get at hard to reach places. You might notice the handwritten notes by some of the figures. Another advantage of the paint stick method. The pre-basing is a recent innovation and should save time as the figures near completion.

Perry Miniatures 40mm British Light Infantryman

Perry Miniatures 40mm British Light Infantryman

Perry Miniatures 40mm British Light Officer

Pro tip:
Base identical poses together on the same stick. This allows you to "learn" the miniature and will speed up your painting time.

Heading into the Peninsula!

After hoarding a small collection of the wonderful 40mm Perry Miniatures for several years, I have finally found a rule set that I think will do them justice. Songs of Drums and Shakos from Ganesha Games. It's a skirmish game that lends itself to individual basing and the larger 40mm scale. The overall plan is to start small and eventually grow the collection to use in larger games like Sharpe's Practice or even Carnage and Glory II.

40mm miniatures on round bases.
Here is my proof of concept figure. Originally painted as a gift for my Nappy loving father, I always intended to come back to expand this figure into a collection. At the time, this was my showcase standard of painting.

Perry Miniatures French Voltigeur

Perry Miniatures French Voltigeur

Perry Miniatures French Voltigeur

Must paint faster!
Although Songs of Drums and Shakos doesn't require much more than a handful of figures to play I don't want to spend to much time on each miniature. So here is a second test figure (I didn't bother to finish some of the details after I saw the washes would work) using some of the Games Workshop washes to replicate my older ink wash technique. This 28mm light infantry man took a third of the time to paint than the 40mm Voltigeur so I should be able to produce enough miniatures for a unit in a reasonable amount of time with an acceptable painting standard.

Perry Miniatures Plastic British Light Infantyman

Perry Miniatures Plastic British Light Infantyman

Southern Front Sign Up Now Open!

My sister blog, Historical Miniatures Battles is now reserving spots for 12-14 gamers for our Guilford Courthouse re-fight at Southern Front 2014.

Use the contact form to the right or send an email to David Bonk at the following email address.

dbonk@nc.rr.com

I hope to see you there for this massive gaming event!

Southern Front 2014
November 21st, 22nd and 23rd 2014
North Raleigh Hilton
3415 Wake Forest Rd,
Raleigh, NC 27609