Freshly painted Imaginations Hussars

Full of nasty germs and half-blown away things have been moving slower than a very slow thing in low gear here at Chez Millsy of late.

Having said that, I've managed to clear the decks somewhat the last 36 hours or so and have finished another unit of cavalry for my Imaginations project which has been hanging about half-painted for quite some time. See them in all the glory here...

Cheers,
Millsy

Paint Table Saturday

It's been a while since I've done one of these but that's largely due to the fact I seem to have a lot of stuff only just started on a Saturday afternoon and consequently not much for show and tell.

Today, however, I finished a unit of 18thC hussars for my imaginations project. Evan and I have a game coming up next weekend and these chaps will be making their debut in the service of Herzog Mikhail Johann von Hollerenschaut IV of Saxe-Coburn und Buchholz.

And so ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the just finished and yet to be based CR Nr. V, von Leightfynggar's Hussars!

These are Front Rank miniatures from their 18thC Austrian line. Lovely miniatures but for some reason they gave me the very devil of a time to paint. Not sure why but they are done now so no matter. I have another unit to do which will be predominantly blue but given how frustrating these were I suspect they will be a while making their way onto the workbench.

With the hussars out of the way I've started work on an artillery regiment, AR Nr. 1, von Fuse-leighter's Battery, once again Front Rank Austrians. They will have scarlet facings and despite the fact the gun carriages look black they are in fact base coated in a dark green.

In other game related news I managed to at last pick up a unit of Warhammer Fantasy Grave Guards for my Army of the Lichemaster project.

I've been after these for a solid 2+ years but until now have not managed to find a complete unit at a decent price. I'm more than a little chuffed to finally get my mits on these.

I've also managed to pick up the last two Alan Perry sculpted chaos hounds (undead and scorpion tail) from this set:

These will soon join their friends who I painted earlier this year in the painting challenge...

Picking up a couple of hounds seems somehow poetic as we lost our last four legged canine friend yesterday. Hardy, our beautiful lab/kelpie cross, has been with us for something like 14 years but hasn't been himself for a few months now since his little life partner Minnie passed on. It seems losing his constant companion exacerbated his ageing and various ailments. In the end we decided we had to do the right thing for him and let him go no matter what we wanted.

Both of them were rescues (like all our pets) and it's a little easier knowing they had a wonderful life full of love and companionship instead of the alternative. We think Hardy had been mistreated before he came to us but he soon shook that off and the real Hardy came out, full of energy, quick as lightning and as gentle as you could wish for. Here's Hardy and Minnie together in much happier times...

Who, me? No, I'm fine here thanks. You can go outside and I'll just stay here...

Stackable dogs, the ultimate in space saving inventions!

And finally, here's how he looked the day we brought him home. Completely irresistible I think you'll agree...

See you later mate and thanks for the memories :-)

Cheers,
Millsy

Imagination infantry regiments completed

This morning I finished painting two new 24 man regiments for Evan's imaginations army from the fictitious country of Velikye Byelgorodniya.

The first of these is the Kholodniyy Borscht infantry regiment in their glorious beetroot red jackets. Their regimental colour reflects their beetroot-centric theme as well...

The second unit is the Kapusta Zemlya infantry regiment, famous for their duck-egg green jackets (or should that be cabbage green jackets)?

The miniatures are all wonderful Front Rank stuff from their Seven Years War range. I really enjoy painting them which is probably a good thing as I have close to another 150 in boxes to do (and that's just the infantry!)

On the painting table at the moment to follow these will be a small unit of hussars for my army along with some foot artillery. If you are interested in our imagination project you can visit the blog which contains background info, maps, and our desperate attempts at humour.

Thanks for popping by!

Cheers,

Millsy

Sunday Workbench

With the phoney war seemingly coming to an end I've been beavering (or should that be sabling?) away on some units of imaginations infantry for my genial protagonist buddy Evan.

The first of two regiments is near complete and requires only basing and flags (which I've already designed).

The second regiment is also coming along nicely and is really just awaiting buttons, bows and accoutrements to reach completion. Flags are ready to go for this unit too. I'll easily have this finished by the weekend and can base both up together.

In other news a small commission and a steadily sinking GBP has enabled me to go on a spending spree on fleaBay / AbeBooks and add a further NINE tomes to the steadily growing classic wargames book collection. I'm particularly keen to finally get my hands on Charles Grant's Ancient Battles for Wargamers and The Battle of Fontenoy. More on that as they arrive in the post of the next few weeks or so.

Sunday workbench

Whilst I've been quiet Canister & Grape blogging-wise that's not to say I've been quiet hobby-wise.

In fact, quite the opposite. Evan and I have been busy rekindling our long-neglected imagi-nations project... Die Kriege des Zobelshuts. To that end I have been painting away on a unit of infantry for Evan's fledgling army and I'm pleased to say they are nearing completion.

These are lovely Front Rank SYW Russians in 28mm and I'd almost forgotten what a joy they are to paint. I can see myself painting quite a lot of these in the near future, right up to and possibly including this year's instalment of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

Speaking of which, it's this time of year when our Northern cousins start thinking of long, cold nights spent cosy and warm with brush in hand. Down here of course we think of long, warm nights with the air conditioning cranked right up and brush in hand. And how do I know it's nearly that time of year? Well for one, my backyard is packed full of local avian fauna...

King parrots, Eastern rosellas, rainbow lorikeets and more (no, not a Norwegian Blue!). The buggers won't even wait until I've had a chance to hang the new bird feeder, preferring to eat from my hand or from the table. There are worse ways to spend an afternoon than painting minis and feeding birds I suppose...

Cheers,

Millsy

If Thou Blowest Not Thine Own Trumpet...

...then who shall blow it for thee?

Things have been a little quiet on the painting front over here lately, but we have not been completely idle. Long-term followers of C&G may be aware of a companion project of ours, an 18th Century ImagiNations blog, The Wars of the Sable Hat.

This blog chronicles the ongoing diplomatic and military tensions between the Duchy of Saxe-Coburn und Buchholz and the Principality of Velikye Byelgorodniya over the disputed province of Nizhny Bublik.

The armies for both sides are being painted and based by the esteemed Mr Mills, and the latest regiment

(yep, these guys)

is now on display here, with some background by your humble correspondent.

Please feel free to saunter over and bask in the ambience of a bygone age that never really was; here endeth the shameless plug!

Stay tuned...

Ev

Painting Challenge Update

I'm a bit behind on my Painting Challenge Updates because I've been chained to the table in a desperate bid to take down Dave Docherty in our little side challenge. As of yesterday my efforts paid off (thankfully!) but it does mean I've been remiss in showing off new toys. So without further ado, here's some more of the recently painted stuff...

First up is the 1st Novi Byelgorod Grenadiers of Velikye Byelgorodniya, an elite unit from my mate Evan's army in our imagi-nations project, Die Krieg des Zobelshuts. Velikye Byelgorodniya is an 18thC Russian analogue and the uniforms follow the Russian style of the period (up to a point anyways). The miniatures are the wonderful Front Rank SYW Russians. Along with Artizan and Copplestone they are my favourites in the historical 28mm space. I made a bit of a hash of the order for these (to say the least!) and ordered officers for all the troops. I figured given the status of the unit that was OK though and they look pretty good en masse...

Next up are some Scots foote for my ECW project. These are all Renegade Miniatures and I've painted them as a generic unit for use by either side. The plaid was a learning experience but one that I enjoyed and I'm confident doing it now. It's all part of growing as a painter and all that.

 And here's a shot of all the ECW that was painted during the Challenge this year.

Lastly, a few pulp miniatures from the "undercoated and then forgotten" pile who took my fancy as something different to break the monotony. These rather exotic chaps are "WW1 Germans with Rocket Packs" from Eureka Miniatures and fall well and truly into that category. I believe they are now out of production which is a real shame. Now "WW1 Germans with Rocket Packs" is not a very inspiring name so I prefer to refer to them as "Raketenschiffjager", which to me sounds a lot more Pulpy.

Right, that's your lot for now. I'll try and swing another post or two this weekend to catch up. I've been promising a few pics of my entire ECW collection and the weather is fine. Maybe that'll happen sooner rather than later.

Cheers,

Millsy

Basing, a Prince's New Coat and a Warning from the UN

Hello all. Something of a mixed bag to finish the weekend...

First up, I've finished the last couple of odd Necromunda figs I was working on and based the lot up. Remember to click for larger versions of the image.

Secondly, Grand Prince Dmitry IV Dmitrovich of Velikye Byelgorodniya has a new coat! Click away to read all about it.

And finally, the UN met recently and have added a new item to their list of prohibited terror weapons. Henceforth it will be illegal under the Geneva Convention to allow small children to roll dice on behalf of grown men. You have been warned.

Cheers,
Millsy

Imaginary 18thC pandours

I've just uploaded the 2nd Glish Foresters (of Blensk) to our imagi-nations blog. These are 28mm Front Rank Russian sculpts, based for Maurice. There are more pics and some back story on Die Kriege des Zobelshuts so feel free to head on over and check them out. Let's hope Ev likes em!

Repainted SYW Austrian Artillery

It's not often that I repaint something from scratch. I'm not saying that I'm now (or ever will be) a painting "top gun", but I get by and most of my old stuff I can stand to look at. Except these artillery pieces.

What I was thinking I don't know but I do remember being quite pleased with them at the time (2006). Most likely it was the heady rush of having finished something the night before needed and heading off for a big bash with the lads.

Regardless, now that I've rebased all my other SYW stuff I simply had to do something with these, so I stripped the guns and retouched the artillerists, plus based them all to the current standard. I think they look a damn sight better but tell me what you think...

2006...

And 2013 (with pretty poor lighting unfortunately)...

With the exception of four lonely spare cuirassiers lurking at the back of the box I'm now down to (a LOT of) bare metal for our imagi-nations project. Tomorrow we try a small blue-on-blue game of Maurice - our very first. Can't wait...

PS. Enough distractions! Get back to the painting challenge Millsy, you lazy dog. ;-)

Cheers,
Millsy

Goodbye 2012, hello 2013...

So that's another year of gaming almost under the bridge. Another rather productive one to be precise, both in terms of painting output, games played and blogging activities.

On the blogging front the number of posts (57 for the year including this one) and the number of followers (now 60 and almost double last Christmas) have grown at a pleasing and steady rate. My good mate Evan and I also started up a new blog entitled Die Kriege des Zobelshuts to chart our progress on a new Age of Reason imagi-nations project. We also joined Emperor vs. Elector and had some terrific blogging fun over there too.

Painting has gone mostly to the plan I established last Christmas, although not without some quite significant diversions. I had four main projects for the year so how did I do in 2012?

Warhammer Dogs of War
Solid progress to say the least. A good number of units painted and a couple of games played to boot. See below for what got completed.

Gruntz 15mm
Whoops. Some progress made, mostly finishing up my New Israelis and the vehicles for my second force. On the plus side I made great strides in 15mm sci-fi terrain so not all bad.

Colonial Sudan
Really good progress here with plenty of Empire and Mahdist units painted plus a couple of cracking games played to boot. Cap it off with both a village and a fort in cork all complete and it was a great year for colonials.

1938 A Very British Civil War
A bit of a bust on the VBCW front. Next to nothing painted apart from a single unit of White Russians. A couple of games played here too but we're not 100% happy with the rules we're using so we're going to try again soon with Disposable Heroes.

All things aside though, I made massive strides elsewhere when there were previously no plans to do so (hapy days!). In addition to the above I managed to complete the following:

• The best part of 180 x 28mm English Civil War pike and shotte miniatures, plus rebasing all my cavalry
• A very large chunk of a 2,000 point Flames of War MW German Grenadier force for the Ostfront
• A monstrous amount of desert defences for Flames of War, used to great effect in our Alamein game
• Two regiments of 15mm French Napoleonic Chasseurs, plus a good few games with Nug
• Rebasing of approximately 80 x 28mm SYW figures, painting of another 20 and a bunch of other reorganisation

Phew! Quite a list if I say so myself... Not that I expect you to believe me without proof so here's some documentary evidence of the year gone. ;-)

 

So what's on the books for 2013? Plenty of games I hope, plus the following painting:

• Some more ECW, mostly command stands plus a unit of dragoons
• A division of Saxons in 15mm for my Napoleonic force
• The remaining grenadier platoons for my Flames of War MW German Grenadiers
• About 30 or so 28mm Napoleonics for Cory and I for skirmish games
  and finally...
• A very large number (200+) 28mm imagi-nation troops for both Evan and myself

Right, that's all that needs to be said to close off 2012. Thanks for popping by during the year and for all the positive comments and feedback. Thanks also to all the other bloggers who share their work and enthusiasm. It's a great motivator and a huge pick-me-up when tired or lacking drive.

Best wishes all and here's to a great 2013 for all of us!

Cheers,
Millsy