Addition by Subtraction

 

In our hobby, there are often times we are faced with the prospect of culling our herd of toy soldiers. It can be a cathartic process, liberating us to pursue other ventures by freeing up space and adding money to the pocket. 

There are very few instances where I have regretted ridding myself of a certain project or certain miniatures. Most of the time I don't even notice the absence.  

The HMGS Fall In convention is fast approaching and I will be there selling my excess hobby clutter in Wally's Basement. Some are projects that began with great promise only to fizzle out, other projects failed before they ever started...still in shrink wrap and never opened. 

There will be 15mm Hundred Years War, 28mm King Phillips War, boxes of unopened Star Wars Legion Droid Wars and many hobby and history books. Stop on by if you are interested, they will be heavily discounted. 

I realize the hypocrisy of this post right after posting about a rather large order of plastic miniatures (over a thousand). However by culling excess, we make room for the new...

Christmas Come Early (or Late)!

This past Tuesday was a most happy day as a parcel arrived at my doorstep from Wargames Atlantic. As a Christmas gift for myself in late November/early December, I indulged in the eagerly anticipated 10mm Azincourt pre-order event. Less than a month after Christmas they arrived. 

Inside the package were the boxed sets for both French and English Azincourt armies! Also included were some 10mm fantasy Dwarves and Boneblades (aka undead). 

Backside of the English Azincourt army box above reflecting the contents inside. In the image below is a sprue of English. The figures look good, looking forward to figuring how I will base these little fellas and a plan of attack for painting them. I don't realistically see me starting this until perhaps the summer as there are other projects in the queue. 

One of those projects ahead of these little buggers is my 10mm SCW project. I thought I finished enough figures for a full infantry company plus support. Instead, my "fuzzy math" betrayed me as I was about four rifleman short of the necessary amount. I quickly prepped about a half a dozen more infantry and also prepped some T-26 tanks, CV-33 tankettes, mortars and 37mm anti-tank guns. There was also supposed to be a Lancia Italian armored car but that assembly was so fiddly that I gave up...and I think I may have assembled the gun shields on my 37mm anti tank guns upside down. 

SCW Progress Report

I've been grinding away on the International Brigade infantry company for my 10mm Spanish Civil War project. 

I managed to finish painting on one platoon and some support weapons. I based a few of the attachments and an HMG. I also managed to finish base painting on the remaining two platoons and the accompanying attachments and support weapons. 

Since I don't really have much finished to show at the moment, I will show you this:

On the left is one of the Italian CTV squads I painted back in 2023. To the right of them are some finished International Brigade: Maxim HMG, a commander base (with a fella aiming his Chauchat) and a Maxim-Tokarev LMG attachment. 

Since it's been nearly 3 years since I based the CTV, I couldn't really remember what color paint I used for the earth on the base as well as the static grass. 

I initially painted the International Brigade earth with "Teddy Bear Fur" but that wasn't the proper color. I was able to determine I had used "Coffee Latte" and corrected the problem. The static grass isn't a perfect match but it's close enough. 

I'm hoping to finish the International Brigade this week and get them based up. Those will be the next update. After that, I plan to finish the rest of the CTV and perhaps some SCW vehicles. 

Troll Country and Dark Lords

As previously mentioned, I had ordered character and packs and some trolls from Copplestone to supplement my Orc (and possibly undead) armies. After a few days off during the holiday, I finished some of these. 

The Copplestone trolls come 9 to a pack in 3 poses, they are pretty massive fellas for 10mm. I could squeeze two of them onto my 40mm square bases. I went with a pale green-grey color and painted them in a similar style to the WA orcs with alot of the black undercoat showing.

I didn't invest alot of time in these figures even though they are very nice sculpts. My objective is to get this army painted quickly. As you can see above of the troll rears, highlights were minimal. 

Next up is a Saruman-like leader of the dark forces. There is no face under the hood. I have seen many wonderfully painted versions of this sculpt online. For me, I wanted him more like a wraith or spirit so I decided I would just prime black, dry brush with a blue-grey and apply diluted blue Contrast to the dark lord and his sword (which was painted a metallic silver). The horse was given a diluted wash of Contrast black/brown mix. 

A picture showing the size difference between the Copplestone trolls and the WA orcs. The trolls will make a very nice addition to the orc army.

The dark lord rallying some orc axemen. The two ranges are very compatible in my opinion.

The dark leader charging at the head of some orc wolf riders.

Overall, I am very pleased with this 10mm fantasy diversion. I will try to keep it relatively contained although I see myself fleshing put the undead and dwarves (which I have yet to paint). Next up, I will return to 10mm Spanish Civil War as I have some International Brigade primed and ready to paint.

Skull and Bones...

Using the holiday break and copious amounts of dry brushing and inking, I finished all of the Wargames Atlantic Boneblades, with the exception of the command stands. Nine total bases of sword and shield armed skellies. 

I like how they turned out and I'm glad I went with the mix of shield colors to give them some vibrancy. In my mind these guys would be grabbing whatever shield and sword they were buried with or whatever they found lying around the tombs. 

A few pictures from the rear and side. You can see these sculpts are a bit 2-dimensional...I'm not complaining. They paint up easy and you get over a hundred figures for less than $23. You can break up the 2-dimensional look but canting some of the strips slightly. I picked up some Copplestone Castings evil characters and trolls that will be added to the undead and orc armies.

 

I've included a photo so you can see a size comparison of the WA and Copplestone 10mm ranges (L-R: WA Orc, WA Boneblade, Copplestone Orc, WA Orc, Copplestone Troll). The troll is quite big but I suppose they are supposed to be....since they are trolls.

Next up, I plan to work on some 10mm Spanish Civil War...I have some International Brigade and CTV that need some attention.

Boneblades!

 As previously mentioned, I picked up a box of Wargames Atlantic's 10mm undead (which they call Boneblades). I would describe the box as a unit set as opposed to any army. Tere are three identical sprues in the box with sword and shield warriors. There are also 3 casualties and 3 command stands with a war banner. (One per sprue). You get about 108 skeleton warriors and I think 117 total figures. 

I painted up one of the sprues (sans command), it gave me enough warriors for 3 bases so the box should yield 9 bases of warriors. 

Here is the rear view of these sculpts. They are very quick to paint. I primed black on the sprue, dry brushed with off white and then clipped them from the sprue, cleaned cut marks up with an exacto blade and mounted to popsicle sticks. I hit them with another dry brush to get to the areas I could when they were in the sprue. After the shields got some diluted paint on the fronts and backs. The final bit was to paint the metal on shield rims, helmets and swords. 

The figures next received an Army Painter Strong Tone wash. Normally I ink after a gloss varnish to prevent the ink from staining the paint too much but I wanted these little bone fellas to have dingey, dirt stained look. 

Here is an aerial overview picture. You can see the sculpts are a bit two dimensional. I imagine this is a result of the strip printing method and also the fact they are scrawny skellies. This 2D is less present on the orcs and the dwarves. To make them less 2D linear, I broke up the ranks a bit. Overall, I'm pleased with these fellas. Over a hundred figures for about $22 USD. They paint up quick and paint up well. 

Painting them brought back memories of my mid to late teens. Having just jumped into the GW hobby, my older brother would drive me to gaming stores and also fund some of my purchases. One of those early acquisitions was the Undead Army box sets filled with scores of plastic skeleton warriors. While they were fiddly to assemble, they were pretty darn easy to paint.

With those memories all coming back, the experience of painting these sculpts more enjoyable. As I get older, I have learned to cherish these old moments in time and enjoy the making of new moments that I will cherish now and later. 

Mission Complete!

I never really thought I'd purchase, paint, own a 10mm Orc army. Then Wargames Atlantic comes along and released 10mm Orcs for their Fantasy Battles range. So now I own a full army....all from one box that cost less than $50!

I finished the 6 bases of Orc archers (front row behind the command bases) which effectively renders this project complete. The box provided enough figures for me to field: 6 bases of sword and shield, 3 bases of heavy axe, 3 bases of spear, 4 bases of wolf riders and 3 command stands. I still have a dozen or so loose figures that I didn't need (yet). I ordered Copplestone Castings 10mm fantasy evil characters which should be compatible in size, theme and style with the Wargames Atlantic sculpts. The plan is to include a wizard/shaman command base to the army. 

I should mention that I was in Huzzah Games the other day and saw that they now have the Wargames Atlantic dwarves and undead. Since I have a box of each on the way, I opted to buy another box of Boneblades so that I can field a proper army once Wargames Atlantic released their undead cavalry. 

I might fiddle around with the Boneblades now, I imagine they will paint up quick (essentially prime black, dry brush, pick out details like shields and weapons and ink).

I also plan to work on some 10mm International Brigade for the Spanish Civil War. Let's see how these next projects come along....