Sudan. Perry Miniatures Black Watch.

Finally, the completed unit of Perry Sudan Black Watch. 

Still coming up for air! Perry Miniatures AZW Gatling Gun Limber Team.

Good grief.... I am still painting during "stupid June". This was a delight to paint. The gun is separate so that it can be removed when the gun is deployed.

Another Last Gasp! A Bonus Breath Before the Madness.

Well, the nonsense really does start next week so I was rather pleased that, with a few new changes to the calendar at school, this last week provided some painting time. This is the first time in goodness knows how many years! So I made the most of it. Here is a recently released Perry Miniatures 28mm Anglo-Zulu War British Royal Artillery Gatling gun and team. The limber team to pull this will follow later in the summer.

The blue uniform of the RA at this time was very dark. The base coat was VMC Black, the mid-tone a 50-50 mix of VMC Black and VMC Dark Prussian Blue and the highlight (if you can call it that) was just a little more Dark Prussian Blue added to the mid-tone. The Officer's Patrol Jacket is even darker! The photos seem to suggest that I have just slapped on one coat of dark blue paint.

The Last Gasp Before the Madness Begins. Sudan Black Watch Test Pieces.

So, before the enforced break from painting begins I managed to get some time to play about with a couple of Perry Miniatures Sudan Black Watch figures before I start work on the main body of the unit (20-odd figures) during the summer. I really like this paint scheme. Government Tartan is very dark so I tried out a digital macro image of the Sergeant in the hope that it shows up. I must not forget that the Piper needs to wear Royal Stewart Tartan!

Footsore Miniatures WW1 British Cavalry. The Completed Unit.

Here they are, temporarily attached to bases for the sake of photography. They will be based elsewhere. 

Time to lay aside the brushes for a while. June and early July is a horrid month for work commitments so I enter my annual period of enforced "down time. If I get the inclination there are a few one off figures (some of the Wargames Illuratrated figures and a Salute 19 miniature) in the pipe-line that will get done but then.... when the time comes.... I leave the Great War for a lot of late Victorian stuff. Looking forward to that.

Achtung! Flugzeug!

I don't show enough photographs of the 1/48 scale model aeroplanes that I have built and painted over the past three or so years. I am not a skilled model maker. I am still a kid inside when it comes to building these kits. I want them built and finished speedily. If I could get away with hanging them from the bedroom ceiling I would! I content myself with seeing them fly above the wargames table. I don't have an air brush or any of that fancy sort of technology so painting is done with brushes and acrylic paints. So, here is a Phonix DII (Special Hobby kit), a Roland CII (Eduard Weekender kit) and a monster Gotha GV (a vintage Aurora kit from the 1960s and 70s).

Painting Guide Review

Those nice chaps at "Wargames Illustrated" have been so kind as to produce a video flipthrough review of my painting guide published by Partizan Press and available in the UK through the Caliver Books website and in the USA through On Military Matters: 

Footsore WW1 British Cavalry and Trench Raiders

A welcome return to the early war on the Western Front. These figures will be based when they reach their "forever home".  Footsore have recently withdrawn this range to do some work on the moulds and they tell me that they will be back later this year. To be honest, yes, the bare metal figures needed a bit of work before painting, particularly the horses, so I look forward to cleaner and crisper castings in the future. These are lovely sculpts to paint. Six more Lancers to come and this job is complete.