Whats going on ?

I have't posted anything in a while. 

The reasons are: 

A) I'm still unable to take good photos of my completed models. Be it 15mm or 25/28mm or bigger. It might be me. It might be my camera I don't really know.

B) My gaming is in hiatus. I don't have any incentive to paint my lead. New army lists in DBA 3.0 mean that taking pictures of soon to be invalided armies is in my opinion pointless now. I don't have figures to convert my DBA 2.2 Hittites and Hurrians in to proper all options DBA 3.0 armies. When I will have spare money I might order them but for now those armies are a testament to army list changes.

C) In my spare time, when I want to paint or convert, I prefer to work on my 1/144 Gundam model kits. I'm learning how to properly use plasticard. This gives me much joy as I'm the sole creator of my work. It's almost as fun as sculpting.

I will try to make better and proper pictures of my 15mm DBA armies but time will tell if I do it.

Quick Info.

In 2 weeks this blog should get some new life. Next week I will have my final exam and then everything will be back in normal state. Probably I will post here some of my other painting projects, not only DBA. Time will tell.

My Thebans.

My Theban army. The picture is't good beacuse I can't get hold on good camera. It gives some idea of how the army looks like. All figures by Xyston. Shields hand painted.

The Cleaning.

I had some time, and the weather felt good so I took my Romans to coat them in GW Purity Seal (satin varnish) and behold what happened:

The whole army got it's purity sealed and have been covered with grayish mist thing. I know it's my fault. I shouldn't have left them outside for this long ( 5h).

I knew that I'd have to clean them, and that it wont be easy. I've read the TMP discussion and with my fingers crossed tried several options.

The first contender was:

Cheap nail polish remover, and the result wasn't satisfying :

The second contender came from hobby supply shop :

Acrylic paint thinner, it costed twice as much as nail polish remover but the result was good, there was some rubbing required and the figures ended being covered in cottonwool:

The last item used was Revell Brush cleaner, costing three times more than acrylic paint thinner:

And the result, was great. Everything was removed. Even the paint.

So what is the best option ? Here it is:

By replaceing cottonwoll with foam that comes in 28mm figure blisters I came with a solution that works realy fast, leaves the paintwork and does not leave cottonwool sticking to pointy elements.

That's all. Hope someone finds it useful one day.

Teaser.

No news ?

It's been a while since my last post. There where no promised photos and one could think I have died. The lack of posting was due to the fact that I was ill, the weather was bad (witch meant no undercoating or varnishing) and I had little time.

Alas I did paint. I've painted 4 DBA camps and some camp followers bases. The Hittites have received their sand, so did few other figures, and now they are waiting for right moment to get it painted. I'm writing now a university paper that will end first stage of my university studies. That's why I can't promise when there will be new photos added (I'll try to do the Hittites this month). But I'll write more on various wargaming and non wargaming subjects.

Hittites almost ready.

I have finally painted the last element of Mick Yarrow Miniatures Hittites (3 elements have have figures sculpted by me and converted Xystons). The whole army is now ready to have its bases and proper photos done. Here is a quick shot from cellphone camera.

Unboxing - Essex Norse Viking and Leidang

Norse Viking and Leidang 850-1280AD DBA V2 - III/40b

All of the miniature packs inside.

From left: Commander 1, Commander 2, Flag bearer, Commander 3, Mailed Axe, Cloth Axe 1, Cloth Axe 2, Cloth Spear, Berserker, Bowman 1, Bowman 2.

3 VA2a Bd (Gen) 1 VA 2b

20 VA 11 Bd

12 VA5 Bd

11 VA4 Bd

3 VA8 Wb

3 VA8a Ps

3 VA7 Bw

Unboxing - Essex Kassite and Later Babylonian

Kassite and Later Babylonian 1595-890 BC DBA V2 - I/21a

All of the miniature packs inside.

From left: Chariot driver, General, Chariot Spearman ?, Auxilia, Psiloi Archer.

1 BSE92a Lch (Gen)

3 BSE93a Lch

15 BS97 Ax

6 BS98 Ps

Unpainted lead waiting for spare time.

Those are the things that are currently waiting for paint:

Untouched, uncleaned:

-DBA Mitanni Army

-DBA New Kingdom Egyptian Army

-DBA Viking Army (in post)

-DBA Kassite Army (in post)

-DBA Early Polish Army (in post)

-3 Bases of camp followers: 1 Roman, 1 Macedonian, 1 Greek.

Cleaned, base coated:

-DBA Macedonian Army

-DBA Macedonian Army

-DBA Hittite Army

-DBA Polybian Roman Army

-DBA Polybian Roman Army

-8 Bases of Italiotes

-8 Bases of additional miniatures to make more Macedonian successor options.

-3 Camps: Roman/Greek palisade 1, Roman/Greek palisade 2, Ancient Near Eastern wall part.

Unboxing - Essex New Kingdom Egyptian

New Kingdom Egyptian 1595-890 BC DBA V2 - I/22a

All of the miniature packs inside.

From left: Blade, Chariot Driver, General, Chariot Bowman, Bowman 1, Bowman 2, Bowman 3, Jevelinman.

1 ANK2 Lch (Gen)

3 ANK3 Lch

12 ANK6 Bd (One is not shown as his axe-mace has been broken).

8 ANK7 Bw

8 ANK20 Bw

2 ANK9 Ps

Work.

Since I have now a lot of work at the university I cannot paint, but I plan on adding more uboxed DBA sets and rearange the mitanni posts so that all the pictures are in one place. I placed a new order at Essex for Kassites, Vikings and Early Polish plus some assyrian miniatures packs to replace some of the figures from Assyrian DBA army by Essex.

Egyptian chariot at the dawn.

A picture of a egyptian chariot by essex made using a phone camera. It was a quick build in bed just to see how it looks, as I dont have time now to work with my miniatures.

Unboxing - Essex Mitanni

Mitanni 1595-1274BC DBA V2 - I/19

All of the miniature packs inside.

From left: Slinger, Chariot Driver, General, Random Horde guy, Aux 1, Aux 2, Chariot Bowman.

1 BS120a Lch (Gen)

5 BS120 Lch (Chariot Crews and Horses)

5 BS120 Lch (Chariots only)

6 BS123 Ps

6 BS126 Bd

6 BS121 Ax

It's been a while ...

It's been a while since my last post, but with the Christmas season I didn't had as much free time as I supposed I would have. On the other hand holidays meant that the chariot era armies that I ordered and wanted to paint along the Hittites didn't came to me :-( So there was nothing to write on.

But the long wait is over. Today I will pick the package from the post office and start cleaning the figures, later I might post some pictures featuring Essex and MY Miniatures together for further scale reference.

Happy New Year by the way :-)