Allegiant of the Order of the Fist conversion

In an interruption from my run of Dystopian Legions blogging, I bring you something that has been floundering in my bits box, but I brought out this week to finish off.

For my Amon theme list, I can take multiple Allegiants. Amon can have 4 monks, but I can't see myself ever running that many, but then again, I have yet to test them in MKII. I have one miniature based and undercoated, but the stock pose is uninspiring to say the least. I have therefore been looking for conversion ideas for the other two I have. So that I might differentiate between models on the field, and also, as I don't like fielding duplicate minis especially for solos.

With that, out came the bone-saw, and off came his leg!

starting point

point of no return

into position

bit of greenstuff

After that, all that remained was to place the fists in a realistic position in regards to the new leg position. I didn't like the way the left arm sits, it doesn't fit with the new leg position, as it looks like he'd be unbalanced. That seemed easy enough to fix with a little light filing and a pin wire to give it a new position. I filled in the space with some liquid greenstuff to complete the elbow.

And here's the original sculpt, for reference.

All that remains is a little more green stuff to round out the elbow, then it's into the paint queue for these guys.

For inspiration for other modifications for these figs, please refer to the following links. I may be following one of these for the 3rd and 4th monks.
Monk 1
Monk 2
Monk 3

Posted on the PP forums here.

Kingdom of Britannia: HMG

Not the cleanest paint jobs, and there will be some touching up to do on the faces in particular, but here are some shots of my Kingdom of Britannia HMG team, as they will be entered for this month's Colore ton Monde (it has wheels, so it fits).

They are painted with yellow/buff facings so that they may be added as a support option for my yet to be bought 3rd Rifle Section, the Prince of Wales' Own Volunteers/South Essex, although, this may require the green-stuffing of three feathers, and or an eagle on the pith helmets, just to really make them stand out. It was a choice between this, or to paint them as actual artillery copsmen in blue. I decided to go with more red-coats for now, as I still want red to be the main colour of the force, at least to begin with.

Yaum the Machine

We will now take a break from our usual posts for this public service announcement.

My friend and opponent Yaum, has decided to offer his extremely impressive painting skills out to you, the general public.

Go check it out, the page is in french right now, but the minis speak for themselves (the man himself speaks English though, so do not hesitate to field questions/requests to him in either language). Having seen some of these minis 'in the flesh' so to speak, I can certainly say the photos here don't do them justice, it is a pleasure to lose to such finely painted miniatures.

I'm already looking out what I want to have panited by him...

One Year Ago Today

Over on his imaginatively titled blog, 'The Wargaming Site', Phil has started a little meme, by posting a little look back at his blog posts from one year ago. As my blog has now been running for over a year, I too can join in on this little retrospective journey. I have chosen today, as 1 year ago today, I posted not one, not two, but four separate posts. What a binge!

The first was a sneak peak, posted in the morning, as I was in a great rush to post some pics of the minis I had painted the evening before (ah youth!)

Then there was a WIP of my Napoleon vignette. This one has at least been pushed a bit further forward since last year, but is by no means finished. This may indeed be the kick in the pants I need to complete him. Napoleon is all but done (a little finishing on the face), and Roustrum Raza needs quite a bit of work, then on with the base and tidying things up. I could really complete this in an evening if I was motivated.

Later in the day, I posted my painting scheme for the 95th Rifles, partly as a memory aid for myself, partly as information to others. Quite luckily too, as I have never gone back to finish these guys, they are in exactly the same state as they were after this post (with one mini half finished, still stuck to a cork). Coincidentally, this post has also been my top read post. The title may be the reason, as I'm sure it gets much traffic from google searches for that exact phrase. Although I never know of anyone has followed it, as no bugger has ever commented on it in that regard (well, except one Irish Bugger).

Lastly, I posted the actual minis, of the 95th Rifles, along with a little retrospective of why I am invested in the unit, which goes along the same lines as every other gamer's attachment to these guys I'm sure.

So there we have it, another little retrospective look at past blog posts. I'm sure some of which will be new to my more recent followers. Enjoy!

Urban War: Free Rules Download

Urban Mammoth have announced on their facebook page, that all the Urban War rules are now available free to download. This is a good thing for me, as I have two fully painted squads ready to go for this, and a whole bunch more minis for Urban War and Void back in the old country that I could always bring over at a later date. What's also good for me, in terms of convincing others to play, is that the rules are also available in french.

Anyway, go check out the free stuff, and the minis are quite cool too. If you want to see some painted up, I have some here and here, go have a look.

The Bigun's Painting Blog II

As an update to the last Biggun's painting blog, we had another little impromptu session whilst the Lil'un was having a nap on Sunday.

First off was to base the mini she had been working on last time. We stuck some sand on it, then left it to dry. She wanted tiles at the back (after I showed her the Secret Weapon bricks I had, which she was quite taken by) and leaves and flowers at the front.

Next up was a pirate girl with a monkey. She really took her time with the hair and skin with this one, there,s a real improvement going on here. I for one am very proud of her. The predilection for pirate girls doesn't necessarily come from her, but from the minis I had in the cupboard, therefore, I guess it's my predilection!

She also named both girls and the monkey, but I didn't note down what the names were.

The only problem now is, she's exhausted my supply or random female minis, so her and I are going to have to go shopping for more (and animal minis, which is her other request).  It's a hard life!

Oldie's Hobby Night

I went along to my FLGS last night, for Oldies Hobby Night. The first time I've made it along, although I have been planning to for a while. A good evening, and good to catch up with people I haven't seen for a while. I didn't manage to find an opponent for Dystopian legions, but I did get a 150 point game of Infinity in. This is only the second time my Highlanders have come out to play, and they managed a much better showing than the last time. A fun game, and an impetus to get on and paint these guys. They've moved on down in the paint queue, and nothing has been added since I first put brush to metal, and that was a while ago. There's no reason not to finish them though, as I only have 8-9 minis. Well, except for all the tartan...

Another fun game that was being played was WFB at 500 points This is a fast and simple way to play the game, although it may lack some of the straegic aspect of longer games. This does give me a use for my Bretonnian archers. All I need to do is scrape together another 2 units and a hero or two, but that should be easy enough. Especially since  saw some knights in the bits box at my FLGS. Full army, no cost, just the way I like it! It seems, from trolling the web, and not buying any books, that a 500 pt Bretonnian list entails a champion, a unit of knights, a unit of men-at-arms, and a bunch of peasant archers (with the odd character mini/musician here or there). Maybe swapping out the unit of men-at-arms for another unit of knights. Seems simple enough and attainable. 

First step, go paint my bag-o-archers. I think I'll go with a historical palette anyway, that way they can be used for other games too.

Otherwise, in the same bits box are a few woodelves, which I could put together with these guys. Afterall, 2 armies at that points range is never going to break the bank. Right?

Kingdom of Britannia: KRRC, based and finished

A little unplanned painting session with the Big 'un on Sunday (pics of her minis to follow shortly) meant, amongst other things, I could base the King's Royal Rifle Corp. So now, here are some better pictures of the minis. I still feel like I should go over the face of the drummer boy once more, but they're ready for the table.

I hope to get my first game in with them this evening, provided I can get an opponent. Otherwise, it'll be some infinity, with some mostly unpainted models from a project that's been on the back burner for a long time (and yet consistently shows up in my top 10 page views).

Colore ton Monde: Mars, Pneux d'été/Summer Tyres

I managed to finish the February challenge ahead of time this month, and although my minis bases were not completed (till yesterday afternoon, during a painting session with the Big 'un, but more on that in a later post), the painting was complete. Yes!

Other fine submissions can, as always, be found here. I particulary love Tonio's Chipmunk Weapon Team. Great minis, and great painting as always.

The month of March's challenge is as follows.

En mars, on peut remettre nos pneux d'été...

Pour le mois de mars, nous vous invitons à peindre un modèle avec des roues, ou motorisé. Comme c'est assez pointu, nous étendons l'offre à l’ancêtre de la cavalerie motorisée: vous pouvez aussi peindre un modèle de cavalerie classique.

In March, we can put our summer tyres back on...

For the month of March, we invite you to paint a model with wheels, or motorised. As this is quite specific, we extend this to cover the ancestor of motorised cavarly: you can also paint a classic cavarly model.

This should be easy enough, as I plan to paint the HMG for Dystopian Legions. If not, the rocketeers count, and they're still to be undercoated.

Old Stuff Day

I really like the idea of Old Stuff Day.  Originally the idea of Warhammer 39,999, March the 2nd is a chance to go through the back catalogue of your blog, find a post you feel is under appreciated, for what ever reason, brush it off, and bring it to the attention of your current readership.

Unfortunately, I was not able to blog yesterday, so I'm 1 day out, so sue me!

Ideas for posts that could be used are:

• Posts that you considered special that didn’t receive as much attention as you thought they deserved
• Content that people liked in the past, but haven’t seen recently
• Posts you might have created before your site received much traffic, and now deserve to be reshown
• Or any content you’re particularly proud of!

I think this year, I'll bring to the fore a collection of posts, on the free army I received from a very generous gamer in town. A 25mm army for the Italian Wars. If there are any of the readers who have joined since I first posted these, I'd be very happy if you had any information on the figures or the army.

Infantry 1
Infantry 2
Mounted
Personalities
 
I hope you enjoy this little blast from the past.

As an update to these minis from my end, no, I have not yet managed to game with them, but I have been in touch with some local historical gamers, so it's not impossible that it will come to pass.