Sniffer Dogs and search parties....

...are not required! Though I can see why Dave thought it might be so!

Sorry for lack of posts lately. This has been largely due to life handing me a few months where painting has simply not been done at all.

First there is work! As some of you know, I work for a Local Authority Education Team, supporting Primary schools in difficulty. It's always a job that requires many hours per week working at home, just like teaching...Well, this term has seen the workload explode out of all proportion. Which has meant I've lacked time, energy and motivation to paint. Any spare time I have had has been spent making loud noises on my guitar, as that's very therapeutic when one is stressed!!
Then there's the wargames club. Our venue (pub back room) became untenable due to the Council's decision to bulldoze said pub...VERY soon! at the same time, I was elected club secretary, just as we had to move to our new venue (a spanking room at Peterborough Museum - absolutely top notch...am sure that Lord S would approve, as it is in a class above most other wargames club venues, dontcha know!!) This has taken several hours of admin time to sort out...leaving less time for painting!!!!

Then, and this is the good bit, there's the MARVELLOUS news that Mrs Hawes and I are expecting a wee baby Hawesling which is due in September this year. HUZZAH!!!! This has meant a vast re-organisation of the spare rooms upstairs to accomdate Junior's nursery and has prompted the purchasing and building of a vast IKEA storage system in which to gather and store all my wargaming paraphernalia...father-in-law and I are completing the construction this very weekend....

So, that's why no painting updates!!!!

It has meant that I now will not get the El Cid done for Warhammer World in May, which is a bummer. However, that project will simply go back on the backburner while I consolidate my ever growing Arturian collection with more welsh and a mass of saxons (including a bunch more for my very patient commission customer, Tony, who is awaiting the second Gedriht unit for his Sea raider army.) as thereis no timesacle for them and as it's virtually all foot I have to paint, it'll be speedier than the El Cid. Also, I can paint basic Arthurian foot in my sleep, so it's easy....

Anyhoo, as I am reorganising everything, I may drag out the camera and snap some of the stuff you haven't seen... maybe the Caesarian Romans which (all 3000pts worth!) are going to the club for a mega bash on Monday evening against a Pontic type affair done using the Armies of Antiquity Alexander list. So I may snap the best units for you if I get a mo in between IKEA building this weekend...

Laterz....

More Perry Caballeros Hidalgos...

Some more Perry conversions...

Here is one of my character models. Note the shield design, shamelessly nicked from an Osprey book about Normans! Also, note the sculpted lower tunic beneath the mail hauberk and the rather cool tunic border..BTW I've found a great way to do gold tunic borders: Basecoat with GW Bestial Brown and then use Foundry Ochre 'Shade' to outline the pattern, highlighting with the 'light' Ochre. Works a treat!

Now some unit shots of Caballeros Hidalgos. There will eventually be 12 of them plus the general and ASB in this unit... I really like the way the madder red and ochre pulls the whole unit together... Click on the unit pics for close-ups ...it doesn't always work on here, but these ones seem ok.
More to come shortly...

Merry Christmas

To all of my blog-reading buddies, whether avid readers or casual pop-in types, may I wish you all the best for Christmas and for 2008! Wherever you are, have a good one!

After the Christmas break, expect to see a shedload more El Cid. I have almost all the figures I need now (just waiting for the fabulous Perry boys to replace the ones that their Christmas Gremlin c*cked up in my last order..despite said c*ck up, the Perry chaps were brilliant, and have sorted it out big stylee, BTW...) so I can paint with a furious frenzy! Along with those you'll see the next unit of Saxons being painted for Tony, so it'll be a busy old time...

See ya....

El Cid Spanish Caballeros Hidalgos

Here are the first few models in my El Cid army. I've actually painted a few more than this, but the photos came out a bit shite, so until I can re-shoot those, these will have to suffice for you:

All Perry miniatures (the whole army will be) many of which have been subtly converted to give them flowing Andalusian robes under their mail and tassells on the shields. The round shields are from the 'bitz box'. (One can never underestimate the value of a 'bitz box' and I often pick up spare shield packs, etc for conversion purposes....)

More to come shortly...I hope to have the entire unit complete by New Year...

The Great Plastic Figure Debate...

Just my 10p worth since the announcement that the Perry twins are gonna do 28mm plastic historicals....

Bloody great idea! It's always good to promote low cost, high quality and the Perry models will fit that perfectly! I guess it depends on what they actually produce range-wise, but in general, it can only be a good thing in that it may facilitate a few more folk into buying armies that they previously couldn't afford....

I actually don't think that many will suffer for it...there will always be metal ranges that folk want but that the Perry boys won't do in plastic. However, what it may do is hurt the metal manufacturers who produce lower cost but not such good quality metals for the ACW and any other ranges the Perries make... It may also make a few manufacturers think about the price they charge for their metal figs (Foundry, are you listening?) although I appreciate that the cost of metal does keep rising...and I don't mind paying decent money for quality stuff, to be honest.

Anyway, time will tell. I'm just dreading the day that the Perry Crusaders and Sudan models come out in plastic...cos the unpainted figure mountain may rise dramatically chez moi... :-) :-)

British Kingdoms Teulu on foot

Here are my British Kingdoms Teulu on foot. They are a mixture of West Wind and Gripping Beast figures. Many of the West Wind figs have been subtly converted.

This is the last unit to be painted for my British kingdoms army. I still have about 20 Welsh foot to paint to make the army look less 'Roman'. I also have the West Wind mounted models to paint and these models will replace the more 'Roman' looking ones when I field the army in future. The more 'Roman' looking models will be drafted into the Romano-British units that I have begun to paint. Eventually, I'll be able to field 2 x 1500pt armies, one of British kingdoms and one of Romano-British, which will be cool. Not to mention the Saxon and Frankish allied units...

Below are pics of the whole Teulu plus close-ups of the Gripping Beast Wolftail Warriors, Arthurian heroes, etc that I've used in the unit. Other pics (West Wind figs) can be seen on the SAD WAB forum...

Next up, will be some heavily converted Perry Crusaders which are going to form my El Cid Christian Spanish army...I bought the models for half an army when the range first came out, painted a few then did nowt else. So, I've been tarting up the ones I painted back then and have been converting like crazy... Pics to come of the first few as soon as I can...

At LAST!!!! SAXONS!!!!!!

Yup, here you are, Tony! Your Saxon Gedriht in all their glory! I hope that you like them. Bill...great sculpts, mate!! Such a joy to paint! If you want to use any of the pics yourself on your website, just go for it....

For those who've not come here from the WAB forum, the bucklers are by Little Big man designs and the banner is handpainted. The blond hair is done in two ways.

1. GW bestial brown, snake-bite leather and bubonic brown

2. GW Snakebite leather, Bubonic brown, bleached bone

Anyway, enjoy the pics!!