March painting

Phew! Been a long time. I had a great start to February and was on track to really get ahead for the year... but unfortunately the second half of the month got to be insanely busy so nothing else got painted after the first 2 weeks.

First half of March was more of the same, but for the past week I've been back in the saddle getting some painting and terrain done.

First off the painting desk was a new unit for my FIW collection, Canadian Militia by Old Glory.

 

The sculpting was a bit crude compared to most of the other models I've been painting up so far. As opposed to the Warlord/Conquest models where I really think it was just the casting that was the problem, I get the sense these were mediocre sculpts to begin with. Not terrible, but definitely less than the Crusader and Conquest models I've been using.

I like the fact that they have the long "tuques" that makes them instantly recognizable as Canadians, though, so they were worth getting. They also fit in well size-wise with my other FIW stuff, as opposed to Redoubt or Galloping Major which seem to be a bit bigger. I think I'm going to have to go with Old Glory for my British Light Infantry for the same reasons that I went with these guys.


I also painted up a few fantasy models over the past month.

This is a Reaper vampire model that I've had for quite a while, since before Bones existed as a line... he's a metal model in a wide stance, so wouldn't fit on a standard base.

I only plan on using him in Frostgrave / Song of Blades & Heroes anyway though, so fortunately both of those games are "low stress" when it comes to basing.

Next up is a Barbarian, also for FG/SoBH. He's a Rackham model that was produced for the game Confrontation, which I bought but never played. The model line is awesome though. I have a good number of their minis but have avoided painting them because they intimidate me!

The sculpting is so fine and the studio paint jobs were so incredible that I never felt I could come close to the image I have in my head of these models. This guy sat on my painting desk for over a year. I base coated his skin and weapon and originally planned to do a non-metallic metal on him. That didn't go to well though, so back to the drawing board. He sat there untouched for many months and finally I finished him off this weekend, figuring since he wasn't going to live up to my expectations I might as well get him done and add him to the display case.

Even though he didn't come out as I hoped, he looks pretty cool and I'm happy with him. Definitely spent a lot more time on him than most of my Bones models!


Finally, I got a "bonus" model done as my buddy James sent me a whole bunch of Warhammer Fantasy models that he apparently no longer wants. I will store them in my basement until he changes his mind... but in the mean time, there was a High Elf Mage in the lot that I had painted for him over a year ago and left the base undone so he could base it to match his army.

Well... the army will now never be completed, so I threw some flock on him, varnished him, and "bam!" instant extra model completed this month!

I took some additional shots of these guys in a new terrain piece I was working on too, using a much more "serious" camera. Most of my pics are done with my cell phone so I wanted to see if there was a noticeable difference. Unfortunately I haven't downloaded them yet so I'll have to do that in another post.