28mm Church Warlord Games/Italeri

 Hello mates,

I recently bought a second hand Warlord Games Church. It is an Italeri 1/72 scale Church, sold by Warlord as a result of collaboration between Italeri and Warlord Games since the last few years.

I wanted this kit since I saw it for the first time, although is not as well detailed as resin kits from Tabletop World, it is a decent model and reasonably priced, and above all,  is perfect for  a Mediterranean Church for my WW2 Sicily project or my XVII c. battles in Spain , like my siege of Gerona 1684 project.

Its size also convinced me, because it is tall but not too big in its footprint (remember it is 1/72). I got my inspiration with smaller footprint buildings from Sidney Roundwood's blog.

By the way, I got it quite cheap and it also came already built in a second hand app in Spain, so the painting process began almost inmediately after receiving it at home!  With the church I also bought a couple of Italeri mediterranean houses, in 1/72 but perfect for 28mm , and they also came fully built although unpainted :)

I usually paint my scenery with airbrush and expensive paints and materials, but this time I wanted to try something different:

A quick'n dirty way to finish off the building in no time!

The church came built, so I primed it in grey.

1) first step was picking a wide brush and craft paints and basecoated in dark grey the stones and red the roof, although the shingles are not modelled as mediterranean shingles and look like slate plates, but anyway I wanted them red.

2) I then changed the brush and started painting individually some stone and bricks and shingles, randomly in different shades of grey or red.

3) After that, I washed the whole model in dark brown oil paint with White Spirit

4) 2 days later, I decided to paint different colors of oil dots in the the whole model, and then fading the dots with the wide brush moistened in white spirit, with vertical brush strokes.

5) 2 days later the fun began with the drybrushing stage, light grey and creamy color in all the stone parts, and light red on the roof.

6) then some static grass and matt varnish.

It was very simple and easy to do , and the result is satisfactory, although it is not an award winning piece of terrain, it does it job in the gaming table.

I hope you find it useful !

28mm conversions! Lakhmid Arab cavalry (Sassanid allies)

Hello guys,

I have been trying to include a little unit of Lakhmid cavalry to my Sassanid Persian army of III-VI centuries since 2017, but without success, due to the lack of appropriate miniatures, Until now (imho).

The Lakhmids were an Arab (Nestorian Christian) kingdom of southern Iraq with al-Hirah as their capital, from about 300 to 602 AD. They were generally but intermittently the allies and clients of the Sassanian Empire, and participant in the Roman–Persian Wars.

In the battle of Dara, and later in Callinicum (533 annd 534 AD) they fought in great numbers (roughly 5000 men, mostly mounted) as horse archers, regular cavalry and some camel riders.

The miniatures themselves are the following:

I decided to use a mixture of Gripping beast plastic Arab heavy cavalry, and Armorum & Aquila Sassanids horse archers in armor. There is also a metal javelinman cut in half and converted into swordsman with bow.

The plastic kit is quite versatile, I used the horses provided in it for all miniatures, and the lower half of the riders for a couple of miniatures, but I cut and sanded the stirrups in order to eliminate them

(they would appear a century later )

The plastic bodies are nice, with lamellar armor, perfect for this project, as I have seen depictions of Lakhmids using it.

example of Lakhmid cavalry in videogame "Attila Total War", just for painting inspiration, but showing an interesting variety of equipment.

Also some heads are suitable for Lakhmids, like the plastic Sassanian style helmet, or the metal helmet with a cloth surrounding it (to prevent the heat in the metal helmet). It seem in that era turbans were not used, so I avoided turbans and other stuff more proper to the crusades era (like muslim curved swords or later types quivers for arrows etc).

In this image of Spanish magazine "Desperta Ferro" you can see a Muslim warrior (left) fighting a Sassanid champion (right), although is a century later than battles between Belisarius and the Sassanids, the equipment probably was very similar, I am referring to the clothed metal helmet of the Arab.

this guy is a Sassanid body (Sassanid provided most of the equipment and weapons of Lakhmids) with an Arab head, with a similar helmet of the previous illustration and screenshot of the videogame "Attila Total War".

This well equiped horse archers is similar to my noble or officer :

Finally, a more modest warrior:

I will additionally use Sassanid shields with its transfers by littlebigmen studios.

I found this banner on the internet, it seems it belonged somehow to Lakhmid Arabs, but I am by no means sure of that... I will not use it becuase the origin of the information is not known to me.

Finally, you can see here, in the good old Warhammer Ancients Battles supplement, a brief description of the Lakhmids in Wargames, as they appear in several rule sets and army lists as "Arab cavalry" and other similar names.

I hope you like it!

More scenery: 28mm plastic Barn

Hello again!

Here you have a very quick & easy project; Renedra's plastic Barn. 

This little piece of scenery is very easy to clean and build, and of course, to paint. I just primed it in Panzer grey, Ammo Mig spray can, after that, I airbrushed only two colours, blue-grey in the roof, for a slightly fantasy look (you know, blue shingles=medieval fantasy) and chocolate brown for all the wooden planks.

After that, I tried a new (for me) technique; to apply several citadel washes to modify the tone of some shingles and wooden planks all over the barn, painting with the ink here and there, to break the monotony, and make the model more interesting. 

next step was airbrushing gloss varnish all over the barn, and give the model some oil washes and oil fading as follows.

I painted several dots of white, yellow, browns tones in the roof, with Ammo Mig Oilbrushers, a very interesting tool for me, much better than using old oil tubes (they have a tendency to get stuck). And a general dark brown wash in the brown part of the barn, and then leave it to dry 48h. 

The funny and easy part wash the drybrushing step,  beige for the brown and light grey for the blue roof... It really gives life to the building, highlighting all the parts in a quick and effective way.

The final part was painting the metal details a giving them a black and an orange wash to give it the sensation of rust,  some green moss in the roof ( Just to give it some green touches) and Voilá, matt varnish and finished.

Actual painting time, a couple of hourse at most... It will not win a painting competition, but is nice enough for me, and it fulfills its role :)

I have not made a base for it, because I don't know yet if I will field the Barn alone or as part of a larger farm... so, for now, without base, If I made a large one, with it, I will show it here.

Cheers!

Marauder's GIANT: Warhammer Monster

Hello guys,


After  month of painting, I have just finished (yesterday!) the mighty Marauder's Warhammer or Oldhammer Giant! I bought him second hand a couple of months ago, and I could not resist start painting him in that very moment.

This miniature is from 1990, and despite its age, is a real gem, is my favourite Warhammer Giant of all time, and will be the centerpiece of my Orcs & Goblins army, or an independent monster to fight with in Warhammer Quest or similar.

In order to paint it, I opted for a classic paintjob, very "Oldhammer"

The way for painting it was the usual;

clean all the metal parts, build the miniature partially, in order to paint it easier than full built,
prime it in grey

then I airbrushed the skin, using citadel Bugsman Glow, and the mixing each time more Vallejo Panzer Aces Flesh, and Iraqi Sand, then a light wash of Reikland Flesh Shade... and repeat the lights in several seeeeveral thin coats of highlights with brush...

Next steps were very straight forward; just basecoat, and highlight each color, it was not as fun because it was very time consuming due to all the different colours of the fabric of the clothes, and all the details.

After the all the details were painted, I attached the right arm and the wooden barrel, after painting them with all that wood grain, time consuming technique, but I think it well worths the effort. I also added a couple of decals and painted over them.

And then I airbrushed matt varnish and then brushed on gloss varnish in metal areas and glass (bottles), then base him with beach sand, tufts and static grass... Here you have the finished product:

Cheers!!

New scenery project: Fantasy/Medieval Village! PART I

Hi guys! 

Sorry for the lack of posts these last few weeks, I have been busy painting my Warhammer/Marauder Giant (I'll finish him in a week or so...). I want to make a village in a big single base, with 4 or 5 houses, and out of that single base, I have my already painted 2 cottages (resin and plastic), scrachtbuilt Tavern, and the Warhammer manor, all of them finished. 

the project will include:

- Laketown house from Citadel, converted

- 2 laketown houses from Citadel, converted and joined into a bigger single building.

- Tabletop Workshop plastic townhouse 

-Tabletop Workshop plastic slightly kitbashed.

- small fences all around/ a couple of barricades

this will make a small village, "modular" with some additions out of the big base featured in this post.

I got some inspiration from this blog:

http://oldhammerinthenewworld.blogspot.com/2014/07/

I will do a similar sized base, but changing all the buildings of course.

the plan is this :

In the "blank" place there will be the double Laketown houses from Citadel.

Some of the slightly modified houses from the extinct Tabletop Workshop:

And a couple of barricades made of various bits in 28mm:

And out of the village base, there is a scrachtbuilt Tavern:

I built it from scracht, but using plastic bits from the Warhammer Manor house...

This Manor House:

These two big buildings (Tavern and Manor house) will complete the Village set I am building right now!

Additionally, there are a couple of cottages around, the first one, in resin, unknown manufacturer, and the second is plastic Renedra.

I hope you like it!!