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That's a great retro look.
If you group them into two L shaped hedges you can use them separately or together to define a forest area for any unit inside the brackets.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/09/05 07:28:03
@Gwyn Chan 'r Gwyll: That probably is my current idea. I mean I have to make jungle bases at some point anyway, maybe I'll make them so either trees or these cacti can be put onto them.
@BarryScott: Thanks Barry! That was my preferred mode, but somehow everybody says that I should make bases for them with detachable cacti....
@Tommygun1918: Heyhey. Thanks very much. Yeah, I made bases, one in an L shap, the other one more traditional.
Part of why I made these cacti is because I'm working on these here right now:
They are, so to speak, test figures for a larger army. They are still WIP, because I wanted to have the blue and the general access approved before I apply decals. Hope you like them!
Eh good that I have minimal time now before getting feedback from the gentleman I painted them for, because today an incredibly important emergency came in that needs to be dealt with "as soon as possible" because someone is starting a campaign. Nothing is more ruinous for my plans than these emergencies, but it is a nice Goff Ork Dreadnought. But then I'm right back on the Ultramarines. So much for the plans for my immediate future. Have a nice weekend.
@Gitsplitta: Cheers! I'm rather happy with how the terrain turned out myself. Considering it was just sitting over there on thecupboard for years with varying layers of dust on it.
@Captain Brown: Thanks, Sir!
Another WIP shot, this time of the vehicles:
Hope you like them so far. I approach this with more caution or a bit more respect than I would contemporary vehicles because a.) if I break something (and with these models it actually is possible to do that) it can't be replaced easily. I mean I have an old rhino/predator somewhere in the stashes, but wouldn't wanna have to resort to using spares from that kit. B.) I have to hit a certain look, right? So progress is slower than I feel it could be, but that's okay. In the end it's about what the final product looks like. As you can see, I opted for not painting the side hatches on the Whirlwind red (as usually was the thing with support vehicles in 2nd edition). But as mentioned before, this is supposed to be an "early 3rd edition" army (main reference being the rulebook and codex Space Marines), which to my interpretation has a few little differences to an all-classic 2nd edition (main reference being Codex Ultramarines). I keep most of the 2nd edition look, as did the studio army of the time, but with tiny little changes that will make people say "this is wrong!" and I'll say "technically I'm not! Which is the best way of not being wrong!". And then people and I have a little, petty staredown before we each realize that the other side knows their stuff and then we have beers and curry and complain about how things are now as opposed to then. The joys of being old.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/09/18 06:53:59
I love that picture of the Austrians marching through the village. It's so lifelike, it brought to mind this scene from the old Soviet War and Peace (even though it's in a different region)
Very helpful instructions on your site as well.
And of course the Marines are a classic!
"Freedom consists, for a large part, in having a good-humoured belly." - Montaigne
Hige sceal pe heardra, heorte pe cenre, mod sceal pe mare, pe ure maegen lytla.
Sigur, wonderful pics as always! I agree... the Nepolionics marching through the town look fantastic (great clip @Aquilifer) and are quite the visual right next to the tanks rolling through in the next shot.
That old boxed set is a classic.
Anvildude: "Honestly, it's kinda refreshing to see an Ork vehicle that doesn't look like a rainbow threw up on it."
@Aquilifer: Oh, thanks very much! Great little clip there, which of course reminds me that I sitll got a box of plastic Russians sitting in the cupboard. But then I got a LOT of plastic things in that cupboard.
@Gitsplitta: Thanks muchly.
Well, the old boxed set is a bit of cheeky fun I had. Just an army shot of the UM army I just finished, with the frame of the Imperial Fists Supremacy Force doctored around it.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Heyhey, by the way: I did a test game of DEMIGOD (fantasy warband skirmish rules with a Greek mythology theme) a few days ago. Here's a rules introduction, review and test game report:
@bbb: Thank you! Yes, this got pretty positive resoance on Facebook. Entirely charming. Funny thing is that on Bluesky (follow me there! @battlebrushstudios.bsky.social ) the "behind the scenes shot" taken with my less than stellar phone camera got more likes than the finished thing with the logo and frame and all of that.
Well, here's the single unit photos:
...and that's that! Actually this was the third time I took unit pictures of the army. Once with cacti in the back, once with just the white background, but it never looked quite right, and I knew that I had to get a proper sky-blue fade background for them. So I went to the copyshop today (last one remaining in town, as far as I know!) and had an A3 sized backdrop printed. Speaking of paper, the back banners are mostly hand-coloured. Three of them I had colour copies of, but of course had to 'reinforce' the colours a bit by hand.
As I mentioned before, this wasn't quite like painitng any other Space Marines army, because I wanted to go with a specific style. So I went a bit ligther on some effects, a bit bolder on others and so on. Interesting experience. And putting them together was pretty cool. Just a breeze. I got another SM army (current figures) sitting in a box over there to build and the amount of pieces to get out of the sprue, clean them... it's just daunting. These here on the other hand - you got the metal body, you clean the arms, backpack, bolt gun and shoulder armour, you glue them on, done. Lovely.
@Captain Brown: Thanks very much! I appreciate it.
Now for something not-quite-entirely different, but different enough: Next on the list: A big old platoon of Volksgrenadiers for Western Europe 1944. Here are some test figures. All Empress figures; lovely. I emailled them to the gentleman I paint these for and hope he gives them the thumbs up.
...and you can bet I accidently put two of the very few duplicates in this collection front and centre! Oh well. 67 figures in total; I split them up into 3.5 batches and not get them done too fast, otherwise things would get less pretty. Right now I'm halfway through the last 1.5 batches and then some general cleaning-up, bases and such. Still loving the faces on these guys.
@Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll: Thanks very much! Yeah, it's a rag-tag bunch, as fitting for Volksgrenadiers. That also allows for some really cool variety (and to slightly cover up the odd duplicate).
Heyhey, happy Sunday evening. Here's some pictures of Volksgrenadiers. Four sections of 10 guys each (one of 12), with Panzerschreck teams or a medium mortar team (these will see action in Bolt Action I was told) each...
...and then three more LMG teams deployed, two MMG teams (one on the move; something you don't see very often) along with two officers and some more mortar team pictures.
After the first photo I still tried to get rid of the little snow cumbs which came off, but soon I just stopped, because it just didn't make any sense. Stuff went everywhere. Anyway, hope you like them!
Some more Marvel Crisis Protocol figures; this time it's baddies.
...and then here's a bunch of 18mm Napoleonic Austrians!
Artillery crews:
A whole lot of dragoons (2 regiments thereof, but loads in each):
Staff officers and Aide de Camps added for some sprinkles of colour.
And last but not least a TON of Austrian grenadiers; enough to deplict all the grenadiers battalions present at the battle of Marengo.
This is just a little cut-out of the whole lot. Bases and flags (as well as cannons) are currently being added by the gentleman who graciously had me paint these for him.
Sticking to the theme, but going 28mm and to the Peninsular theatre of war, here's the 40th (2nd Somersetshire) Foot in 28mm. Perry figures, with a Brigade figure strewn in here and there, I was told.
Hope you like them!
...and here's a little WIP for my own collection:
And that's that for now. How's everybody doing? Slowly settling down for christmas time?
Heyhey, how y'all doing? Had a great christmas? I do hope so.
I rebased my Dark Elves army.
Painted them about 20 years ago when I got into warhammer fantasy for a second time, then based "to fit the army" rather than gaming tables or opponents' armies. Which of course is a weird thing to do, but I was more young than practical.
Here's a shot of my army's last major outing in 2015 for a Kings of War test game:
...and now they hopefully go better with various green gaming tables. I left the painting as it is, with one small exception - the witch elves were eight so far; now they're 27, although I cheated and added the two guardians of the Cauldron of Blood, a cheerleader (they're going for stupid money on the internet, as I saw yesterday ) and another plastic sorceress from 2010 to get the unit to 27. But even without cheating it's still a nice block of 24 figures. Because everyone needs a cheerleader in their ranks. Painting is kept very simple; just so that they match the rest of the army painted 20(!) years ago. Concerning the witch elves- yes, those are the ones from 4th edition. I had a bit of a crush on the 4th/5th edition dark elves back then, even if they're not objectively incredibly pretty. I was also happy with the 2000 dark elf range, with two exceptions: the hydra (and the dragon, compared to the 4th edition dragon). They're too iconic) and the witch elves. They were too thin and too 'ripped' for my tastes, and the hair just wasn't even remotely comparable to the glory of the hairstyles on the 4th edition witch elves.
I also like the new plastic witch elves (although they don't even come close to their Marauder counterparts in terms of hairstyle). But they hadn't been released then, so a bunch of years ago I bought a lot of the Marauder witch elves when I had the chance.
Of course, the standard-bearer of the Cold One Knights was added later as well; it must have been very soon after the release of that box, so 2010? 2009? I don't know.
I don't have an exact plan for what I'm going to do with them, but at least that's done now. It was kind of on my mind. I still have a few things in reserve (remaining plastic cold one knights box, another complete metal chariot and the three boxes of fat stuff that came out from GW [new hydra, new cauldron with show stairs, new black dragon]. I bought those a few years ago in case they disappeared with Warhammer. Didn't happen anyway, but having something like that is better than not having it. )
Btw, the sorceress (in the army photo with the corsairs on the front left) always looks like the one on the left in my head. Same with the witch elves.
What still needs to be done, however, apart from possibly tackling the things mentioned above: The Dark Riders still need pennants for their lances, and the Cauldron of Bloos is missing those scythe blade things. I took them off for Kings of War when the cauldron formed a unit with the Witch Elves. Now I wanted to put them back on. After looking through various boxes, I had to grudgingly realize that I can't find the one round thing. It would be rather annoying if that was gone and my cauldron was no longer complete. Fingers crossed.
Of course you could do a LOT of touching up with the painting and so on, but for now it's nice that I now have a unit of witch elves, the whole gang is now based more nicely in my opinion, and also photographed together. I hadn't done that before either. And for the "omg I have a few days off, I can make my own stuff, what should I do!" Christmas project it was ok. Hope you like them!
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2023/12/29 19:31:03
I always feel that good basing can vastly improve the appeal of a figure. Hat's off to you for taking the time to re-base your old army. Looks great Sigur. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you!
Anvildude: "Honestly, it's kinda refreshing to see an Ork vehicle that doesn't look like a rainbow threw up on it."
Gamgee on Tau Players wrote:we all kill cats and sell our own families to the devil and eat live puppies.
Kanluwen wrote: This is, emphatically, why I will continue suggesting nuking Guard and starting over again. It's a legacy army that needs to be rebooted with a new focal point.
Confirmation of why no-one should listen to Kanluwen when it comes to the IG - he doesn't want the IG, he want's Kan's New Model Army...
tneva82 wrote: You aren't even trying ty pretend for honest arqument. Open bad faith trolling.
- No reason to keep this here, unless people want to use it for something...
Thanks very much. Yeah, I made bases, one in an L shap, the other one more traditional.
Finished Forge World Elysian Army 
Finished Tau Sept Cadre 
Alaitoc Eldar Warhost 
Finished Order of Our Martyred Lady - Sisters of Battle 
Finished Necromundian Imperial Guard Regiment 
B.) I have to hit a certain look, right? So progress is slower than I feel it could be, but that's okay. In the end it's about what the final product looks like. As you can see, I opted for not painting the side hatches on the Whirlwind red (as usually was the thing with support vehicles in 2nd edition). But as mentioned before, this is supposed to be an "early 3rd edition" army (main reference being the rulebook and codex Space Marines), which to my interpretation has a few little differences to an all-classic 2nd edition (main reference being Codex Ultramarines). I keep most of the 2nd edition look, as did the studio army of the time, but with tiny little changes that will make people say "this is wrong!" and I'll say "technically I'm not! Which is the best way of not being wrong!". And then people and I have a little, petty staredown before we each realize that the other side knows their stuff and then we have beers and curry and complain about how things are now as opposed to then. The joys of being old. 
