From BruceR: Leopold's Leopard Company (10mm x 108 and 2 cats + 5 = 115 pts)

I've returned to the paint desk after 7 days gone over Xmas and 4 over New Years.  Oh, the trials of retirement.  Holidays were great and I hope all are well in the AHPC.  After Percy, Melvin, and Mad Mick as single entries I sat down to some actual work.

Gratuitous Holiday post:  Me and some friends doing a crab etc... boil and drinking on New Years Day in Minnesota with temps at -4 F.

In my Warmaster journey I have turned to Etsy (don't 3d print) for models and oh the options.  I'm adding some bits to an orc force and decided my Later Byzantines can be used for empire and with additions Dogs of War.  So, I broke out my first battalion of little fellas.  I do have a few DOW 28mm but never tried to create an army when I was playing WHFB.  

The first force is one I always was drawn to: Leopold's Leopard Company.  The Leopard skins just too cool.  From Little Wars TV I discovered the guys use a printer who actually removes supports (What?) so I ordered a few bitz and I'm hooked.  Filament Resin Hunter is the Etsy store, the creator is Varus Miniatures and I've had great luck with this store.  

In preparing I decided the white pike tassels and black shafts would have to be replaced with red and a lighter color for the shaft.  With this in mind I did a test run using my wee method of painting small things "blob painting".  Black undercoat and simply hitting spots with the chosen colors.  2' rule for 10mm.  

My test strip and it is full steam ahead.

Even at this scale I paint the same, inside out.  So, flesh, armor, Leopard head, and then the other odd bits.  Most infantry in Warmaster are set along the long edge of the base, with pikes the rules require the unit to be set along the short edge of the base like cavalry.  Under the game system pikes treat cavalry charges as if they are in protected terrain.  Downside is you have trouble in terrain such as woods.  Duh, I guess carrying a 12 ft pike among the trees is a little tough.  The models are set with some pikes at 45 degrees and the rest as support.  The command stands are the flag carriers.  

The paint lineup, all star is Vallejo Silver Air Brush 

I did these in two batches.  With 28mm I tend to paint 8-10 figures at a time.  I don't army paint.  This worked okay, though my brain likes to see things done so I might go back to smaller batches and do a unit at a time.  

Work in progress shots:

On the paint sticks attached to beer tops

messy hobby desk

For the flags I used some ancient GW decals again, these from an empire sheet.  I'm amazed they still work.  I had a red, blue and yellow lion head and thought close enough.  The blue and red look good, the yellow could use some outlining.  I simply painted the red stripes over the white base and highlighted.   Another fun add is two of the command stands have leopards in the rank.  ( I admit I did not paint spots)

Here are the three units of Leopold's Leopard Company, ready for the field.

I'm very happy with how the units turned out.  A little concerned as I did snap three pikes while simply moving models around so could be a problem on the table.  Able to glue them back, but my Magister Militum metal model pikes just bend.  Oh, well I imagine pikes are lost or broken in battle in the real fantasy world.

Cheers everybody.  

Points:

108x pike men (10mm foot @1pt) =  108

    2x cats  (10mm foot @1pt)        =      2

Total                                        110

Calculating seems easy at this size.  

I will continue to thank all involved as we live in turbulent times and this hobby as well as this gathering helps me unplug.  So, stay well and do what makes you thrive.

My only poke at the world's craziness is that I have used Arial as my font for all posts.

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Sylvain: Bruce, Saskatchewan is not that far from Minnesota, maybe you could send some crab our way... I'm glad you went back to the painting station because the result is just astonishing. Even though the figurines are part of large unique, their individual features can be easily distinguished. It's a great demonstration of your talent. I will add 5 points for the flags and increase your total to 115. Joli travail!