Norsemen archers

One type of miniatures I was lacking in my Norsemen collection was archers so it was time to paint some. They were really fun to paint and Im considering getting more archers later on. I like the sculpts and they got great faces but unfortunately their arms are extremely short and that drags the miniatures down somewhat.

The miniatures are bases so I can use some of them in a skirmish game but still with a multibase for bigger battles. The miniatures are from Gripping Beast.

Napoleonic Vivandiere

At the same time I painted the last unit I also painted this little piece.

Its a Vivandiere from Warlord Games.

http://www.warlordgames.com/store/black-powder/napoleonic-wars-1789-1815/napoleonic-wars-vivandiere-the-soldier-s-comfort-1789-1815.html

Exempt from the 1793 "Law to Rid the Army of Useless Women" vivandieres would follow the French army and sell the soldiers food, drink, and sundries like tobacco, wig powder, and writing paper and ink.  They were married to soldiers called "Vivandiers" who were the only soldiers granted permission to sell goods.  Too busy fighting and drilling to sell, naturally this duty fell to their wives.    
Vivandieres would be a regular sight in many armies over the years that followed.

A nice little model. Allways fun to paint those little special miniatures.

Not the best pictures but you get the point.

So whats next in my Napoleonic project ?

Maybe some of those "Useless women" mentionend in the text previusly...
I had my ideas of a new unit on Hussars or some light type of mortars or cannons with some scruffy looking crew.

Frankly I dont know. Im upp for sugestions.

French Line

I am always a bit reluctant to paint a Napoleonic unit. The gluing and the priming part is no big deal but about the time I have added the first blue color on the uniform I suddenly stop. About that time the unit gets but aside for something funnier to paint.
All those straps, linings and whatnots. The uniforms are so full of details.

All this mean that the unit usually takes long time to finish and get standing half painted for a long time, just getting a new color or new detail between other projects.

About the time when I’m almost done with the unit, its start to get really funny to paint it and I start to plan the next unit, what it should be and how I should paint it. And the next unit I’m guessing will get stranded about half painted also…

 

Enough about that. 

 
Here we have a new French Napoleonic unit.

The miniatures are from Warlord games.
I added some paint on top of the paper banner to make it more lifelike, in particular gold paint.

When I thought I was done with the unit I sprayed it with a varnish but this resulted in the wash got all smutched out and the details destroyed. I think it has something to do with the cold and the spraycan not mixed enough.

But with some new wash on the unit I think I saved it. It looked better before but its still good enough to game with.

 

With this unit painted I can start to plan the next Napoleonic unit… I’m thinking on getting some small mortar or light cannons next but nothing is decided yet.

African trackers

Tribal trackers.

I used Perrys excellent plastic African box and drilled small holes in some hands and gave them wire spears. As I think thinner throwing spears are more fitting then stabbing spears to these skirmishing trackers. And skipped giving them shields to lighten up their burden and further set them apart from the regular tribals.

 

I continued testing with painting and keeping it simple. I added a layer of Vallejo big can of dip/wash before the wash from Armypainter as the painting technique from the previous blog entry. With the thinking that the Vallejo dips effect of creating an almost burned feeling to it should darken it further.

Not the best of pictures but you get a decent enough image of them.

Married Zulus

Another small unit of tribal africans. This time its Zulus from Warlord Games plastic married Zulus.

http://www.warlordgames.com/store/black-powder/anglo-zulu-war-1879/anglo-zulu-war-married-zulu-regiment-plastic-boxed-set-1879.html

I tested a new technique on these to speed up the painting process. I started with a brown primer from Army painter http://www.warlordgames.com/store/hobby-supplies/the-army-painter/leather-brown-colour-primer-spray.html and used that as the skin color. 

 After the other basic colors as the shield and clothing and so on was painted I washed it all with Armypainters Strong Tone Ink http://www.warlordgames.com/store/hobby-supplies/the-army-painter/warpaints-strong-tone-ink.html

The skin was then highlighted with Valejjos model color “German Cam. Pale Brown” 70825.

Im very happy with the result with such a quick job. As my Tribal African project never was intended as a primary project just a side project this is perfect. Good result in little to no time.

These veterans were given white shields to really make them stand out from the rest of the Zulus.