Arab and 9th C Norwegian pics.

Well, I hope you enjoyed them, even though the pics were taken in a bit of a hurry. Don't forget, you can click on the pics to enlarge.

Darrell.

Erm,,,,, apologies......

Hi,

Apologies to everyone for the delay in getting the pics of the finished army up. What can I say? I've been extremely buisy trying to catch up with a backlog of painting in order that, one day soon, I actually get around to slapping some paint on those Musketeer arabs and GB Vikings that have been sitting around in their undercoats for months. I'm very proud of both the Arabs and the Vikings that have come off the old painting table thus far so maybe I'll post up some pics as a little teaser.........

Some of the Viking units have some very old unreleased GB models that Darren was kind enough to spin for me so I do feel some pics coming on........

Cheers,

Darrell.

Did he or didn't he??

For all you chaps and chappesses out there that are wondering if I managed to finish the army in time for the WHW WAB Campaign weekend, here's the lowdown..........

So, painted all throough the night on Thursaday evening and into Friday morning! Got everything to the point where I had only the Kontos and Shields to do on the last unit. Packed clothing, soap, brushes, paint etc. Jumped into Andrews car and headed over to the East of bonny Scotland and pressed on south to Notts. Hit the hotel early due to the chaps at Foundry having the audacity to take the Bank holls off. Opened mini case to find that I had leaft the riders sitting in my studio........

Tears welled up in my eyes, well almost, I'm a tough little critter you see ;o) Erm.... not!

Later on that evening as the beer started flowing tears welled up in my Scottish compadres eyes as the full hilarious realisation of what it meant to have a unit of just horses grace the battlefield would look like :o))))))) I have to admit that it was quite funny. Just not that funny :o)

The GB chaps came to my rescue the next day and furnished me with a unit of suitably tough looking bu#$ers. Nice of them to be so quick about it, but not before they had raised a smile at my predicament.....

Anyway, I am pleased to announce that the army is finished and that I intend to expand upon it a little here and there so I can use it to cover a few morte bases, Fall of the West, Heraclian Byzantine that sort of thing. Pics will be making an appearence soon, but I'm snowed under with painting at the moment so it may be a day or two. Oh, and there's Cannonade in Falkirk tomorrow (a most excellent show for anyone who hasn't been).

The pics above are of the excellent GB display at WHW. A sight to behold........

Good news........

The good news is that I put the finishing touches to another unit of Huns recently. The bad news is that I won't be using most of them :o(. After the performance of a unit of Gassanid Bedouin Cavalry I was experimenting with in last nights game, I've decided to drop 7 Huns and add a further 2 to the existing unit. That leaves me with enough points to field the Bedouin Cav. and a small unit of Gassanid Lights.

All seems good. The army would appear to be on it's way to completion and in time too!! Hope I ain't counting my chickens as I have three banners to paint up on top of 34 mini's, though I reckon the banners will be my last minute Friday night project.

For obvious reasons I've decided to leave all the details of how I have gone about putting the army together until after the WH weekend. This will include a rundown of all the painting methods, colour choice and army composition as it evolved.

Darrell.

I can't get no sleep.

Now the frenzy has really begun in earnest! I tried to paint up 30 hosses yesterday and only managed to got half way through which leaves me with 15 more, plus 30 chaps to sit upon the beasts to do in two and a half days. I blame taking photo's and blog updates, not to mention my steam powered version of photoshop. Oh, and it's club night tonight and an 'in period' game that I can't afford to miss, as so far my Justinians have been made to look a bit silly on the wargames table. Actually 'tis I who has looked silly, but after my late arrival to WHW last October (hic) on the Saturday I can handle any amount of humiliation now :o))))) Updating Blogs take time. Something I had not considered.......... hmmmmmm.........

Fingers crossed.

Darrell.

Painting Blind!

Hey, here I am again. I've been ordered by Bill and others to update this Blog thing of mine so not wanting to dissapoint my audience (if indeed there is one) I will let you know what's been going on thus far. So, fully finished except for a bit of static grass i have two units of Huns and the Bucellari done. So that's roughly half the army which isn't bad considering I have less than four days in which to get this show finished. Am I panicking? Yep, but I will get this project finished or die trying! Don't hold me on the death thing though, could be most unpleasent ;o)

I'd like to take a moment to say that the 'Darren Harding Hoss Painting Method' Tm has worked a treat. I really did not expect this so mucho kudos to Mr Harding for introducing me to this very time saving mode of painting. It's not a method I'd use inevery army I intend to paint but it is certainly the way to go if you're in a hurry or just want to put an army on the table, sans infantry, in a decent amount of time.

Painting Blind; a new theory in the speedy production of colourfull toy soldiers. OK, for anyone that tells you that leaving out the eyes on a mini is a good idea, well, don't listen. I made a decision early on in the project to avoid minor details and stick to the major stuff you see from about two or three feet away from the table. Bad idea. It has actually taken me longer to leave out the eyes than it would have to paint them in. Don't ask!! I can't explain. Must mahe had a knock in the womb or something......

Anyway, more handy hints etc when I've got a bit more time. For now enjoy the latest of the pics. Oh, and you are also invited to feel a little on the sorry side for me what with all the painting I have to left to do.

Will he do it? Place your bets now :o)))))

Hmmmm.... where is that b**gger?

OK, "hoops" as Saby likes to say...... general lack of posts. It's my paintbrush to blame, damn thing won't go fast enough. There will be pics of the Bucellari and Huns within the bounds of this space later today.

So, to sumerise, I've been painting like a demon or demonically painting! Those that know me will know which. Those that don't will have to guess........ oh, and you're probably getting warmer.....

Darrell.

What's going on?

Hi,

Apologies for the lack of posting over the past week. I'm still painting the army up, with the renewed vigour and enthusiasm that only panic can instigate :o) Also, Saby has been a bit under the weather so i've been lavishing much of my attention on her. I'm one of the lucky sods who has a partner who not only doesn't mind her partner painting and playing with toy soldiers but who is happy to see passion this litle hobby of ours can bring out in a man :o)

So, after that little bragging session I'm off to finish the Huns and the Bucellari. There will be pics up of units and details within the next day. Yahoo! In the meantime please be contented with a snap of the latest Gripping Beast Wargames Illustrated add add featuring mini's painted up my my good self. Just click on the image for a full sized pic.

Just a quickie......

Just a quick update to say that half the cavalry's mounts are done and I've included some pics of the Barded Biscuit Eaters hosses. I'll probably go ahead and start on some of the hoss riders today so I've finally got some nice pics of some completed mini's on the blog! I've also been mulling over including some Gassanid Arab Cavalry in the list in place of a unit of Huns. Full list to be posted very soon too.

All the barded horses were done using the methods I've outlined in my previous posts and I have to say that after a bit of tidying up they have come out rather well. Talking of tidying up I have discovered (some may call it cheating; I certainly would have a while back) a very neat and quick way of adding a bit of blacklining. For those not in the know, when I usually paint a mini I leave areas of black around the colours that I block in before adding highlights as this greatly improves the visual impact of the paint job and looks very tidy to boot. Some painters prefer to add these areas by blacklining after most of the paint has been applied. Anyway, I digress.....

I bought myself a Staedtler Pigment Liner pen from the local graphics shop and did all the blacklining with this pen. The ink in the pen has to be permanent enough to take a layer of gloss varnish and a layer of matt over the top so if you should decide to follow me and my cheaty ways then make sure you get a pen with very permanent ink or it may react with your varnish and make you cry :o) Oh, and obviosly you want an artificial tip and not a ballpoint; you never know, some folk are a bit daft ;o)

Horseflesh Part Three

Now mix up a wash (not an ink wash) more akin to the original ground/base colour. Then apply liberally, you may even enjoy this bit :o) Leave to dry and check the results. Maybe the hoss needs another coat of the wash? If so, apply liberally once more. The following pics are examples of the horses thus far. I'll be applying another wash.

Basically, keep repeating the drybrush then wash process until you have something that you are satisfied with. The important thing at this stage is to avoid being too fiddley. Keep it simple.

Horseflesh Part Two.

The next step is to give each of the hosses a good heavy dry brush. It's important that you avoid being too shy about the amount of paint on the brush and the first layer can actually be applied whilst the paint is still slightly wet on the brush.

The Horseflesh.......

What we have here are four examples of the undercoat with the ground added. Both the undercoat and ground have been varied in terms of hue as I hopefully want to achieve some variation in the end. The paint is layed upon quite thinly so's not to obscure any detail. That's all there is to it for now....... nice and easy does it as a certain Mr Hugh Cornwell used to say.

OK. I recieved the mini's for the army from GB a week or so ago and after battling my way through the tedious task of removing flash, filing etc (I hates it I tell you, I hates it) I have been trying out different methods of painting horses as quick as greece lightening. I have finally settled on the 'Darren Harding Method' which so far seems to have done the job. In the unlikely event you are wondering what this magical formula could be then I will outline it briefly. First take undercoated mini and roughly apply a brown as a ground. I generally went for various dark browns as they are more akin to what hosses look like in the real world (not that this has stopped me before, I usually just make it up as I go along!!). The next step is to drybrush a couple of lighter shades over the ground and then apply a darker wash. This can be repeated until you are satisfied with the results. From this point all there is left to do is clean things up a little by adding socks, markings and harness. I was actually quite (re: very) skeptical about the kind of results that I'd get but I was more than a little surprised at how well they have turned out. Pics to follow shortly. In the meantime I have published a couple of pics of the new Egil model I painted up for The Beast. Interestingly, (if you're into this sort of thing, and I really am!) the choice of a background when creating a photo makes a huge difference to the final image. With this in mind I thought I'd publish both images to give folk an idea of what is possible with a half decent camera and some card. The first image had a blue backround and the second a white one. The easthete men of dark age culture at GB Mansions have kindly agreed to put up the pics along side the work of Steven Patten, Dave Woodward and Mystic Spirals. Very good of them really. I can't wait to see the work of the other chaps (I'm a bit like that you know).