Painting

I have really cracked on with the Bloody Barons project. As of today I have painted 12 units of 24 figures. Thats 288 figures in all. Not painted anything other than these for a couple of weeks now. May break it up a bit with something, perhaps the Confederate cavalry next week. Having said that the order of battle for Towton calls for 23 units so I may just crack on with them. I have 6 more units prepped and ready to go. Also I have the Generals bases and all the necessary markers to get done. I can knock out a unit in just over an hour. I was right in that I have speeded up with getting to know the figures. My simplified basing helps too and I am getting to like it. I picked up some 'spring meadow' flock from Coriatani (sp?) at Triples yesterday and mixed in some of their basing sand and it looks very nice. You can see the mix below

Next is a tray of painted Peter Pig Wars of the Roses. Prior to putting the flock on I paint the base green then PVA it and dunk it in the flock. Really simple but nice effect.

As I have gone on about before I swear by the Army Painter painting method. This base of Billmen was sprayed with Army painter bone colour and then basic colours painted on top with no highlighting or shading. The padded jackets and some clothing bits are left in the bone colour.

Here is another base after painting on 'Strong tone' Army Painter Dip. I then give them a coat of spray varnish (GW 'Ardcoat I think). This is done after the base is flocked which helps to seal rthe flock as well as getting rid of the gloss finish of the dip.

This is a shot of a unit of Retinue prior to the dip being applied. As per the Bloody Barons rules this is a unit of 8 bases of 3 figures, made up of 4 Bow bases, 3 Fighting (Bill) bases and a Captain base.

For my Towton game I am thinking of using a white sheet with some embelishments (bits of green and brown sprayed on). I may even look at taking it to some shows if it works out. The set up will include trees and buildings with snow on them and some hills either underneath the sheet or placed on top.

Triples, the Sheffield show was good, but I was a bit worn out to be honest and left around 2.30pm. Other than a few bits of flock as described, a couple of books and some freezywater banners I managed to avoid buying ANY figures. Good news for the pledge. Had a nice talk with Dace Lanchester on the Lance and Longbow society stand about Towton. I also bought a nice book on Richard III to add to my library. Lisa will be pleased!

Nearly finished 'Azincourt' by Bernard Cornwell. People seem divided by Cornwells output. My stance is you get what you pay for. Dont expect any Booker short list title. Yes some plots tend to be repetitive and you may even accuse Cornwell of bieng formulaic. But they are rip roaring reads that demand nothing from the reader. Other than having a nice cup of tea and a dark chocolate kitkat to accompany you on the ride. Having done all the original Sharpe (not got around to the new ones yet though my grandad has them all) and the Starbuck chronicles which I love, I yet to read any of the Arthur or Alfred books. Azincourt tells the story of Nicholas Hook an archer in Henry V army and centres around the siege of Harfluer and (suprisingly) the Battle of Agincourt. Ok we all know how it ends, but the little subplots, the attention to detail and the battl scenes are great. Well worth a go!

More soon.