Light Troops

Here's the latest stands submitted to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge; a stand each of Newline Gothic archers and Miniart Roman skirmishers.

I've used the bow-string technique I tried earlier on my Roman archers to jazz up my archers. I reckon it's worth the effort and certainly makes the clone effect of the same poses less noticeable! The Newline figures are very nicely sculpted and produced, but they do lack a little in variety of poses and animation.

The Miniart figures have the opposite problem to the Newline figures, though. Wonderfully dynamic poses with woeful production values! I persist with them because they're the best in this scale for historical accuracy and realistic, dynamic poses. 

I'm really conflicted about these guys; they're really great from a distance, but butt-ugly close up!

These chaps earned me 30 points, with a couple of points extra for the bowstrings, which brings me to 25th place int the challenge and 12 points away from my target of 600 points. After getting nowhere near my estimated total in my first outing, it looks like I'll actually exceed it this time! WooHoo! 

More Roman Cav & Gothic Skirmishers

The latest entry in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge consists of the following:

HaT Light Cavalry (classed as Light Javelin in Comitatus),

HaT Medium Cavalry (classed as Heavy Javelin), 

and a Gothic skirmish stand using Strelets and Miniart figures. One of the Strelets figures has had his axe removed and glued to his belt, to be replaced with a javelin.

Gothic Command

Here's my latest stands in my ongoing Comitatus project; Gothic infantry and cavalry command stands.

The infantry stand features Newline Design commander, draco bearer and buglers. The commander is supported by warriors from Strelets (with shield mod) and Miniart.

The cavalry stand are all Miniart, though the commander in the middle has a plume added, and one of the warriors has had his lance replaced with a draco standard from the Italeri infantry set.

Gothic Heavy and Light Cavalry

This is my latest entry for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge which earned me a total of 45 points, including a few points extra for the hand-painted shields. Italeri kindly moulds the pattern onto the shields which makes it easier, but also limits the patterns somewhat.

The shock cavalry stand includes the figure brandishing a sword, which I had to convert because the original blade looked like he was brandishing a table knife rather than a weapon! After carefully cutting out the original sword and making a groove in the figure's hand, I replaced it with one of the swords from the HaT Roman Medium Cavlary set and glued a sliver of sprue to replace his thumb which didn't survive the surgery. He looks a lot more menacing with a proper sword!

I'll be making a couple more stands of each, before going back to some more infantry, skirmishers and archers, then switching to the Romans to give them more skirmishers, archers and heavy and light cavalry. Before long I'll have enough on both sides to have my first battle!

I'm Back!

Since the commitments for my Borodino project have been completed, I can now continue adding to my Late Antiquity project. Hooray!

Expect to see more in the next few weeks as I paint up more Germanic infantry and cavalry as part of the 4th Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

As a taster of what's to come, here's the latest Germanic tribal infantry stand using Strelets and Miniart figures.

Miniart Archers - Painting Challenge Entry #8

Here's a small half-stand of Miniart archers I completed for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. My output has definitely slowed, but I'm hoping to have some more Roman medium and light cavalry and some more Germanic infantry (possibly Germanic cavalry, too!) before the challenge is over in mid-March.

I've used the same brush-bristle technique for the bowstrings as I used in my first archers' stand, and set the off-centre, so that when they are standing formed up with the other archer stand they won't be in any danger of taking out the front row!

Whereas the Italeri archers are definitely Romans, the Miniart figures could conceivably be used for Germanic forces too.

Gothic Hordes!

Another Late Antiquity entry for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. This time a Germanic infantry stand. The front row are all Miniart figures, while the rear are Strelets. I had fun with these, and the reward is that Curt awards extra points for hand-painted shields!