Saturday 24 December 2016

From BenF: Aaaaand we're off and painting... (48 Points)

Any of you who frequented my blog (littletinmen.blogspot.com) will know that over the past year I've been... well, shall we say less than prolific - with my online presence of late.
Real life has taken hold, but while I've not been posting much online (apart from twitter), I've been busily painting away, and particularly working on speeding up my methods so that I can get some armies painted. I must say, it's been working well for me, as over the past 12 months i've completed I've a 15mm Roman army, a 20mm Chain of Command Waffen SS platoon, a load of 6mm Cold War Soviets, as well as 28mm French and British Peninsular War forces for Sharp Practice 2.

So, this challenge is just perfect for me to try to push myself a little. My goals for this are to get a shed-load of 15mm Forged in Battle ancients painted up for Sword and Spear/Impetus/To The Strongest. I'll start with some bits and pieces to complete my Republican Romans, then on to Alexandrian Macedonians, Carthaginians, Achaemenid Persians, and possibly some 3rd century Romans and Sassanid Persians.. I've also got some WW2 20mm odds and ends that I need for my Chain of command forces, some of the lovely 28mm Fantasy Flight Star Wars figures, and will also be starting on some 28mm AWI forces for Sharp Practice 2.

My goal is 400 points, which i'm relatively confident I should be able to meet. As a teacher, I've just begun 5 and a half weeks of holidays, and other than some work around the house and a week away, I don't have much planned, sop should have heaps of time for painting.

First off, here are three elements (12 mounted figures) of 15mm Numidian light horse. I used to paint everything in the 'Dallimore' style, layering up. Looks great, but takes ages, particularly if you actually want to get an army completed. These are base/wash/highlight, which to my eye looks quite similar, and takes much, much, much, less time to complete.



While the Numidians can serve with my S&S Romans, I've based them to tie in with my planned Carthaginian army, so have gone for a southern Mediterranean feel. These are the gorgeous Forged in Battle figures. Next off the bat for my 15mm ancients are some war elephants and Italian allies.



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First, welcome aboard Ben! It's great that ypu're using the Challenge to get a project off the table - many (including myself) have done amazing things during this three months of madness.

These Numidians look wonderful - very neat and tidy. I really like the decorated hide shields and the chunky bases. Very, very nice work.

I look forward to seeing your upcoming nellies and Italians.  I have a suspicion you will get a LOT done in the next five weeks.

29 comments:

  1. Nice work Ben and welcome to the Challenge!

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  2. Lovely figs, Ben - I thought they were 28s!

    Great paint job and an excellent first sally. And it's always good to have a project to keep you focused!

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    1. Thanks Evan, i'm hoping to get quite a bit done over the next few months.

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  3. Great work Ben. Good to see you got the skin tones right! I've heard good things about the FiB ancients and this just validates what I've heard.

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    1. Thanks Michael. They are awesome little figures, and really easy to paint up.

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  4. Very nice Ben - the shields are great.

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    1. Thanks mate. I've been loving the SP2 1759 French you've been posting by the way.

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  5. These look great. I really like the Forged In Battle Ancients and need to get some at some point. I am really looking forward to seeing your other units appear here

    Ian

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    1. Cheers Ian. Hopefully some more stuff will be coming up soon!

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  6. welcome to the challenge and great start, I love the base wash highlight effect I too have worked hard to speed up after doing a dilliamore style painting before.

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    1. Cheers mate. I still use the Dallimore style for command figures, but am increasingly moving towards the wash highlight - particularly when you see the quality of someone like Sorastros Painting on youtube.

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  7. I love these numidians, really great basing. 3 months of this quality is going to ge a joy

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    1. Thanks Martin. We'll see if I can keep the stamina up when I get to multicoloured Achaemenid Persian heavy cavalry... :)

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  8. Great looking horsemen, Hannibal ad portas!

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  9. Do I NEED another ancient army? Well No but seeing these is not doing anything to keep my wallet shut!

    Welcome to the challenge and if you keep showing these I think a purchase or two is almost inevitable.

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    1. Thanks Clint. That was the kind of thinking that has got me where I am - FIVE unpainted 15mm ancient armies. Still, thats what the challenge is for, isnt it :)

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  10. These are gorgeous! Really like your take on the shields.

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    1. Thanks mate. I'd love to take credit for the shields, but they are actually LBMS decals - lovely they are too.

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  11. Nice Numedian cav, Ben! Very clean brushwork on them too!

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  12. I like these guys a lot Ben, great work! Clean crisp brushwork and the vignette basing really works well. Kudos for the hand painted shields.
    Welcome aboard and please find again!

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  13. Welcome to the asylum Ben - a great bunch of light horse to start with :)

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  14. These are really well done and especially well based. Bravo. The horses are kinda adorable, too.

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  15. I love the earthy tones and the basing!

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  16. Great work, Ben. You can't go wrong with light cavalry - and these chaps look excellent!

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