Monday Again!

Daniel Lanois - The Maker

Like the post title says it's Monday again... has everyone recovered from putting the clocks forward? Yes? So let's get to the old man music then :-)

Daniel Lanois was born in 1951 in Hull, Quebec, Canada. Professionally, he's probably best known as a music producer and engineer, having produced albums by Peter Gabriel ("So"), Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, and others, but he was best known to me for his collaborations with Brian Eno in producing U2's seminal albums "The Unforgettable Fire" and "The Joshua Tree." But in addition to producing and engineering, Lanois has had a productive solo music career too. His song "The Maker" was released in 1989 as a track on his LP "Acadie." I love this song and its rolling bass line and ambient sound. My other favourite from this album is "Jolie Louise", an upbeat but dark and tragic folksong. Have a listen to it as well.

Now to the painting! This week we have:

• Helblaster fury from SanderS
• Some Soviet freebies (and the start of a new project?) from NormS
• Bolt Action in the Pacific from SteveA
• Star Wars goodness from AaronH

Have a great week everyone.

Dallas

The 'Resistance' Theme is Now Up!

Hi All!

Just briefly nudging into Dave's late Sunday to notify everyone that the entries for our last theme: 'Resistance' are now up on display on the Bonus Theme blog so please click over and check out all the terrific submissions (and remember to cast your vote for your top three picks).

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My entry for the round lifts shamelessly from the theme poster, which is Banksy's 'Rage, The Flower Thrower'. The original can be found in the town of Beit Sahour, near the wall separating Israeli and Palestinian communities on the contested West Bank. It depicts a rioter in sharp black and white, throwing not a Molotov cocktail, but rather a bouquet of flowers, which are depicted in colour. 

It's one of Banksy's most iconic pieces and can be found on t-shirts, posters and geegaws everywhere (in fact, Sarah has it on her favourite coffee mug which she got in Antwerp when we were last there). I found a 3d design of the image on Cults and printed a 40mm copy to work on.

To echo Banksy's stark contrast of the b&w figure to the flowers, I dusted off my greyscale recipe that I used for my WWI project and did the figure along the same lines. 

It was fun getting reacquainted with painting in greyscale, though it's been a good while since I've tried it. Thank goodness I had the sense to keep a paint journal, otherwise I'd be completely hooped trying to remember the shades I originally used.

Banksy's work is a powerful statement on protest and non-violent resistance, and I thought it particularly apropos considering recent events, especially in light of the people of Minneapolis being nominated for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for their nonviolent resistance to the ICE activities in their city. 

I'm sure the President was absolutely thrilled to hear of this news as well. :)

Enjoy the entries and remember to vote for your favourites!

- Curt

Barks - Rusty Terrain Entry (25 Points)

Some rusty skully scenery to dress my tabletop. I do like these arcane tech pieces; it is a struggle not to really go to town on them. I also painted up a fistful of crates and barrels- these were quick wash and drybrush jobs.

Did you know you can fit 125 skullz on this?

My marble statue technique is white; washed pale grey; thin sepia to cracks; then thinned grey veins.

Skullz: +147 (total 192)

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What a great and weird tech terrain piece (and knowing GW 5x the price of what it should be!) and wow that should really help out your skull count.  I like the dirty rusty paint job, but wonder if maybe you should wash the skulls and mechanicus symbol to blend in more with the dirty nature of the rest of it?  Shame to wreck the clean painting, but I think it might be more cohesive all dirty.  Just my take though, which counts for nothing :-). I do really like the marble effect on the statue though.

As for points, the tech piece looks like it is pretty sizable piece with a lot of detail to work on, so I am going to score it at 15 points (about the same points as a normal sized building).  As for the crates while simple, there is enough detail on there the count them as a small building so I am going to go with 10 points. 

- Byron 

From TimP - A Host of (Very, Very) Late Saxons 225 pts

Another very late submission this week and apologies Dave, I promise to get in on time next week, which due to a trip to Bovingdon Tank Museum means it will probably be my final submission... but we'll see.

This week is the balance of the "line" Late Saxons / Anglo Danes. I detailed the painting technique with last weeks post, So rather than bore everyone with repeating that I'm going to start with a reference that probably will be lost on any one but Brits of a certain age.

As mentioned last time, I committed the cardinal sin of changing focus during the Challenge, losing me precious time. I had prepared 55 figures, breaking down into 21 casualties, 4 cavalry and 30 foot figures.

 Before we get onto the Bully's Star Prize of the Saxons, let's have a look a what you could have won...

Mix of Dead Man's Hand and Threat Level Emergency Response Figs I planned.

OK, that done... since last week, I've finished the balance of the Saxons. Bases (which I had PVA glued my usual "Budgie Grit" onto.

They were then painted with GW* Rhinox Hide (leaving any of the bigger "stones" which are the crushed shell included in the sand. I then drybrushed them with GW Tallarn Sand. 
*GW used as shorthand for Citadel 

Finally I used a variety of Gamers Grass, Dark Green Shrubs, Dark Moss 2mm and Forget-Me-Not, Poppy and Pink Orchid Tiny Flowers. The tiny flowers I especially liked.

Now onto the photo dump 

All the King's Thegns...

Apologies, as I struggled with lighting on some of these,
but that is the full 44 in batches of 4.

I'm claiming these done, there may be a shield or two extra, but I messed up the order with Victrix and new decals won't arrive until next week. Or I may leave some shieldless for a bit of variety. That will certainly make a difference in Pillage to represent all the armour types in that rule set.

I am now starting on the "Command figures" such as priests and earldormen. I've genuinely found the Early Mediaeval (Dark Ages for KenR) period fascinating. I'm of an age that when I went to school English history began at 1066 and what came before was not mentioned. But there is a rich history there ripe for wargaming - which, let's face it, it what this is all about...

May you always roll a 6 (if needed). 
Tim P

From DaveD. Got to love a bit of Bully. It’s good to see you catch up with the balance of these lads . The planned stuff is just starting to season in the pile of potential. Let’s call that 225 . Yep 1066 and all that . 

From Mike W - A mixed bag of Genres & Scales (324 Points)

Just when you thought it was safe to avoid Orcs in my posts, I present a batch of 20 x Orc Bowmen, although many would say no ewal Orc would consider using a bow... 

These guys are 3D Prints from Highland Miniatures, via eBay and I although they do not match the look and feel of my existing collection  I just liked the sculpts and wanted to paint them!

Batch of 20 x 28mm Orc Bowmen

Closer view of the right flank of the Orc Bowmen

And the left flank, featuring the banner

In my head, I'll use them as 'civilised' Orcs that have taken to dressing like humans, albeit, some strange Orcish cult (Gorka or Morka or both!) with their deep red cowls and forgoing the traditional choppas and spears for bows.

The command group

Three Bowmen

Three more...

Another three, although I like these guys as a one off, I don't think I'll get any more as they are so different from the others in my collection

Four Bowmen

And the last four!

This really is the end of my Orcs for this year but don't worry I'm sure I'll not be able to resist more eBay bargains in the next few months!

Next I have some 100 x Warlord Games Epic ACW 15mm infantry, painted as the 10th Tennessee 'Sons of Erin' Volunteer Infantry, an Irish unit featured on the cover of an Osprey Men-at-Arms book I have.

The full unit

These were painted in much the same way as the AWI infantry I submitte din a previous post this year, being grey clad rebels these guys were pretty straight forward to do and the use of a watered down black ink wash helped pull th edetail out of the figures.

First of five bases!

Second....

The command base, flags printed out and attached.
Unfortunately the 'Sons of Erin' green harp flag is not really that visible.

Fourth base!

And finally.

THe artillery base and teh mounted commander were painted up - really as they were part of eth figure sprue, they will be deployed somewhere in my Rebet army!

The rest of this week's post is taken with a couple of odds and ends thtat have come off my workbench....

A 28mm Skeletons armed with sword and shield.

This guy is wearing a Bedouin head wrap sourced from a Gripping Beast Arab Infantry set.
His original skull is at his feet!

Another view

Finally a Chaos cultist who has stumbled upon a couple of unfortunate travellers, I can't remember where the figure came from but it was for a long forgotten project.

Chaos Cultist with his victims

His nasty looking weapon

A rear shot

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SKULL POINTS

+1 Skeleton

+6 Recount on previously submitted Chariot! If allowable...

POINTS

20 X 28mm Orc Archers @ 5 Pts ea.                    100 Points

100 x 15mm ACW Infantry @ 2 Pts ea.                200 Points

1 x 15mm ACW Cannon & 4 crew                         12 Points

1 x 15mm Mounted ACW Officer                             4 Points

1 x 28mm Skeleton                                                    5 Points

1 x 28mm Chaos Cultist                                            5 Points

TOTAL                                                                  326 Points

From DaveD. Well that is a decent output indeed . More Orcs indeed  , what’s not to like , but civilised ones He he . The Epic ACW is of course epic . Plus odds and sods - cracking . 

From DarrellH 6 Late Roman Equites Scholae Palatinae- Speed Painting Horses experiment! (66 points)

A while ago I came to a decision regarding army painting where I planned to speed paint two armies for every one that I took my time over. Some may think me sprightly at 58 but I'm beginning to "feel it" in terms of how much can I paint in my life what can actually be used useful on the wargames table? The trick being able to paint fast enough as to get units ship shape and battle ready on the table at pace, but not to lose too much by way of quality.

Basically my methodology for painting horses as fast as possible has come to this.

1/ A black undercoat over a black primer. Then a medium grey drybrush, then contrast paint, Goregrunta Fur (lol) and for variation, Wyldwood (lol). Both gave a (sort of) oil wiped look to the horses but were perhaps more subtle. I should add, the contrast paint was painted on, but unlike like a wash, rather as an even covering all over the horses. The first time I tried the method was on some plastic Elven Steeds, which gave a very good even subtle finish after just one coat (see below).

The Black Undercoat, Neutral Grey Drybrush, Contrast Paint Method: Plastic Elven Steed

The next step was to try the same technique on a metal horse. unfortunately, the results were not the same as metal castings always have some "pitting" due to the manufacturing process and this showed on the horses. 

For contrast, the Black Undercoat, Neutral Grey Drybrush, Contrast Paint Method:

2/ I was essentially back to square one (I did keep the horses for the second rank of the Equites Scholae Palatinae very much in keeping with painting up the army as fast as possible). I then, quite by accident, heard via a chap on a Facebook forum about the makeup sponge technique for horses. I was (very) unfamiliar with this concept so did a little digging and with the help (and support!) of one of my Facebook friends, Nigel Higgins, I gave it a go with quite astonishing results! 

I will put together a tutorial at some stage as if you are willing to cope with the drop in quality, this is going to save a lot of wargamers a lot of time! They are far from perfect but do look like they have been layered up; good enough for me!

Makeup Sponge Method

So, after waffling on for a good while, without further ado, the unit of Equites Scholae Palatinae for my Late Roman army.

Equites Scholae Palatinae:

Cheers

From DaveD . Another great looking entry . Interesting re the paint techniques. Be interested in the actual time from start to finish .  There is a lot work in your entry so I’m calling it 66