My mother-in-law is AWESOME

Given that Sandra was 50% responsible for the creation of the wonderful creature I am privileged to call Mrs Millsy, you might imagine that would be enough to earn my mother-in-law the title of AWESOME. In the event that you presented such an argument I would in no way disagree. Quite the opposite.

Sandra is not one to rest of her laurels however. Despite a VERY recent knee replacement she happily agreed to craft the most amazing birthday gift for me. When asked what I would like I mentioned I was sick of photographing my miniatures against a bland background and what I really wished I had was a nice artist-rendered landscape. At this point I was quizzed on what it should look like, how big it needed to be, etc.

Instructions were duly delivered - a rolling country landscape devoid of man-made structures that might place it in time or location. Roughly 1/3 land and 2/3 sky. Also, it needed to be approximately two feet wide and one foot high. Even better if (in terms of style) it could look something like this...

and in terms of content look something along the lines of this...

and this...

So you can imagine my immense delight when I popped by on my way home today to be presented, completely out of the blue with the finished product - a completely bespoke landscape painting intended purely for the use in photographing my painted tin.

And here it is...

To say I can hardly wait to try this out is the understatement of a lifetime. Thanks Mum, you're AWESOME.

Cheers,
Millsy

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

ECW Royalist command stands

These are the last of my ECW for a while. These are Bicorne and Renegade 28mm miniatures and represent colonel’s colour parties from the regiments of Talbot, Northampton, Apsley and Rupert. Talbot’s colour is actually the first captain’s colour
(the colonel’s colour is pretty plain by comparison).

I'm currently working on some 28mm Napoleonics so stay tuned for those.

Before I forget, on behalf of all the lads here at Canister & Grape we wish you all a safe and prosperous new year and plenty of additions to your respective lead mountains!

Cheers,
Millsy

Ye King and thee Royal Standard for ECW in 28mm

There's just time to squeeze a few more command figs into 2012 for my ECW force...

In this instance its Charles I, by the Grace of God King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith. The King is accompanied by his most loyal servant Sir Edmund Verney, carrying the Royal Standard. I put a good effort into my bases these days and Curt was kind enough to reward me with an extra 10 points in his 3rd Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

I've got another 8 command figures (all foot) on the painting table nearly complete.
They will comprise the 4 command stands for my pike and shotte regiments.

Cheers,
Millsy

The Earl of Northampton's Regiment of Foote

This is the Earl of Northampton's Regiment of Foote, clad in green coats. These are mostly Renegade with a smattering of what I *think* are Old Glory bough on fleaBay. I'll play these in WECW as 16 x unarmoured steady pike with 2 x sleeves of 12 shotte. The shotte were completed for the 3rd Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

That brings me to a total of 160 pike and shotte painted over the last 6 months or so. I've got four x two man command stands on the painting desk at the moment. I'm also bidding on some more command so I can field some of the shotte seperate from their parent units as folorn hopes if required.

Finally, King Charles I and Sir Edmund Verney are all finished and based. Once they have appeared on the painting challenge they'll be on display here too. Stay tuned...

Cheers,
Millsy