Gosh, it's almost the end of June!
The projects continue, albeit slowly.
I have finished off a few more Assyrians, but after painting nearly 200 I have got a tad bored with them and wanted to start something new.
So I moved onto organising my Thebans. There are going to be four large Phalanxes, three with 32 figures and one with 24. There will be a unit of 12 Heavy cavalry and another of 12 Light cavalry, and perhaps three small units of skirmishers, armed with javelins, bows and slings. It's been a very cheap army, with a total outlay of around £30 for almost 200 infantry and 24 cavalry. Bargain hunting on eBay kept the price down. The figures are by HaT and are amongst some of their nicest ones.
I also have started collecting the Ancient Indian army but as yet that is in its infancy, with just a couple of boxes so far tossed into the big plastic bin under the work table.
Other expenditure has been on paints. I mostly use Coat D'Arms, which I like for their smoothness and the fact that they come in large bottles and are much cheaper than GW or Valejo. I do buy the odd GW, but it's rare.
Sadly I missed this years Phalanx show in St Helens (again!) I had forgotten the date, and it was one of those rare weekends when I had actually decided to have a social life and go meet some friends for a shopping trip in North Wales. But on the way there I suddenly realised that it must surely be the show that Saturday. I stopped in a lay-by and checked my Note, and found I was right.
Damn!
Torn between going to the show or carrying on to Llandudno on an undies-shopping spree, I finally chose the latter. And so the M&S lingerie department got my money that weekend, instead of the show retailers. Sorry boys. Better luck next time!
4 comments:
Hi Chrissie,
What? Having a normal life? Hanging about with non-gaming friends? Sounds perectly normal to me.
In order to keep your painting costs down you might want to try craft paints as alternatives to Vallejo or GW or Foundry, While I agree that Coat d' Arms makes very nice paint, it is a bit difficult to obtain here in the US at anything like decent price.
Spent my 65th birthday yesterday painting and organizing some 28 mm ACW figures. Best birthday yet!
I use paints like Delta Ceram Coat for things which need large surfaces covered like horses (I use a dark burnt umber a lot) or all dark blue uniforms (Prussian blue). It costs a quarter to a third of the hobby paints and you might find it worth a try.
Jerry
Hi Chrissie,
Word verification is on as far as I know.
What I was going to remark is that I agree with you about the Coat d'Arms paints. They are my favorite colors for thinks like Bavarian blue, wood brown and the whole range of horse colors. My problem is cost - the price for UK paints is very high, sometimes fifty percent more than an equivalent volume of Vallejo. Idid suggest that some of the craft paints, sold in four ounce tubes, can work very well and I do use them for colors like dark brown horses, black and white horses and for things like Prussian blue uniforms. If you are spraying them with a sealer like Testor's Dull-Cote, the relative softness of thwe paint for say the Americana brand is totally irrelevant. I did not mention it but using colors that stand out is very helpful when doing horses. If you have a dark brown or black horse then use Vallejo red brown or saddle brown for the horse furniture. A light brown horse, such as a light bay or roan might use a dark brown or black. Since you are working with ancients consistent colors for such things as leather work are irrelevant.
Oh, there was a slightly teasing remark which I made in response to you choosing to go shopping with your friends. It went something like "Wow, imagine that! Choosing a real human activity like going out with one's friends rather than hanging out with a bunch of smelly individuals at a wargames convention..."
Anyway, you might be able to lift this onto the reply section of the blog entry...or not. Just thought it would be a good thing to let you know that someone was reading your blog and enjoying what they read.
Be well.
Jerry
I have tried some of the craft acrylics available here in the UK and found them to be okay for terrain, but not for plastic figures. Not tried them on metal. :-)
I think Coat D'Arms are cheap compared to any of the others. The bottles are larger too. I think they used to do the old paints for Citadel a long while back....
Don't Testors do a range of acrylics over there?
Finding a decent matt varnish was hard here a few years ago. Every damn make I tried suddenly seemed to give a satin finish. Finally Humbrol seemed to get their act together and made a decent matt spray again. I bought two cans but seem to have mislaid them somewhere. I just bet the next ones i buy will be give a satin finish again.. :-(
I will use a bottled varnish for gloss, but matt varnish has to be sprayed for a decent finish, I think.
Chrissie
xx
Hi Chrissie,
Not all paints are available at anything like a reasonable price in the US. I just priced some Testors acrylic paint from a major hobby store and it was over five dollars a bottle. Iremembered it being high a few yers ago when I was building some Italian aircraft in 28 mm scale. I do not believe that Humbrol is too available at all and I have never seen any of their products in any catalog.
Go figure. Have fun with the Thebans -sounds like a very nice little army.
Jerry
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