Finished: Roman Scorpion Catapult

I finally finished off the Early Imperial Roman Scorpion yesterday. It took a little longer than anticipated because I decided that a base this size really needed a bit of time and effort put into it.

I used Milliput to model the ground and, while this was still wet, added a few small stones from the garden, together with some smaller scenic gravel. Once that had all dried I undercoated the base black and started drybrushing greys and white for the stony areas and various mixes of green, yellow and brown for the earth. I used some ink washes here and there as well, just to blend everything together. I'd run out of scenic bushes and tufts, so I used an old model tree and cut some pieces from it to use as shrubs. A few daubs of yellow paint gives them the appearance of broom. A final touch was to scatter some of the particles of the tree cuttings around the bases of the shrubs.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with how this piece turned out. Hope you like it.

In progress: Roman Scorpion catapult

Just a quick post to show a couple of progress pics of the Roman Scorpion catapult I mentioned in the last post. The crew are now done so it's on with the artillery piece and the basing. As a side note, I decided not to paint the eyes on the standing figure since he's shielding his eyes from the sun, and I thought that painting the eyes might spoil the illusion of him squinting.

I'm aiming to finish this model early next week in between other projects, so final photos to follow soon, hopefully.

Finished: Celtic Warriors

I finally got round to finishing off my first batch of Celtic warriors this week. These have been more or less finished for some time now. I just had to add some small details and do the basing. The figs, like the Roman legionnaires in the previous post, were from Warlord Games's Conquest of Gaul boxed set. I think there are about 60 Celts in total, so still plenty to do. Because of the poses, I found that it was difficult to get four miniatures on each 40x40mm stand, so just went with three, but they still look fine at that, especially if a second row was added as per the Hail Caesar! rules for warbands. Once again, the shield transfers are by Little Big Men Studios.

Elsewhere, I'm about half way through the French Old Guard Napoleonic unit from Victrix that I'm painting up, and also working on a Roman Scorpion catapult, which I'll post up tomorrow probably.

Finished: Napoleon's 3rd Swiss Regiment

Delighted to say that I finished up the 3rd Swiss Regiment that I've been working on this past week or so. These were the models I had left over from the Warlord Games boxed set of French line infantry - hence no command figs at present. I do like the black, red and white uniforms of this regiment, and they should look good on the wargaming table, and add a nice bit of variety amongst the French colours. Enjoy the photos :-)

Roman Legionnaires

This was a unit I finished a little while back after I had picked up the Conquest of Gaul boxed set from Warlord Games. The box contains the Hail Caesar! rules plus a load of Roman Legionnaires and Celts. I still haven't played a Hail Caesar game yet, but I did enjoy painting up these figs, especially since they didn't take too long. And the shield transfers by Little Big Men Studios look excellent I think.

I've also finished the first batch of Celtic warriors, and will post photos of those soon, once I've got round to finishing the bases.

Roman Auxiliaries

I'm still fairly new to collecting and painting historical miniatures. Most of what I've painted in the past has been for Warhammer and other GW games, and before that I'd buy miniatures to use in games of D&D. I've always been interested in history though - particularly military history - and when I was considering getting back into the hobby I bought some metal Roman Auxiliaries from Warlord Games on a whim. I did a degree in Classical Civilisation at the University of Glasgow, so perhaps that's why I chose ancients to begin with, but at any rate I was rather discouraged by my initial painting efforts and these minis sat unfinished for some time. It was only when I started collecting and gaming again in earnest last year that I had another go at these guys and quickly got them painted up to a finish that I was pleased with.

Since then I've added a unit of legionnaires to my Roman army (photos of that unit to follow), but here are some pics of the auxiliaries for you to enjoy meantime.

(p.s I'm pretty sure the shield transfers I used for these guys are by Little Big Men Studios.)

Work in Progress: Napoleonic Swiss

I have a few different miniatures on the go at the moment. One thing I like to do (unless I have an urgent deadline) is to work on several things at once. Not literally at the same time of course, but I find that being able to work on one project one day, and perhaps a different one the next helps keep me from getting weary of any repetition, especially where large units are concerned. It also means that when I do finish one project, I'm not starting anything from scratch. There will be several other miniatures that are already well under way, so I can quickly begin to look forward to the satisfaction of seeing more painting projects brought to completion.

One project on the go at the moment is a unit of Napoleonic Swiss troops. These are Warlord Games plastics that I had left over from the French line infantry unit I recently finished (see previous post). I've decided to paint them in the colours of the 3rd Swiss Regiment. I have sixteen of these minis to paint, but may decide to make the unit larger, and add a command group.

I took one miniature up to completion (apart from the backpack component) so I could get all the painting decisions made up front before getting to work on all the others. The aim is to have all 16 painted by the end of this week.

More updates to follow, including a look at what other projects are in progress.

Forward, March!

Hello, World!

Welcome to Wee Painted Men, my little home on the internet where I can share with you my miniature painting endeavours - mostly those that are currently on the go, but a few old glories as well.

This will just be a quick first blog post to get things started. I've got plenty to share and to talk about, but the hour is late and I've been sitting at this computer screen for far too long. Besides, I've almost finished reading Adam Zamoyski's excellent 1812, so I want to get some reading time in before bed as well :-)

I recently finished painting up a unit of Napoleonic French line infantry from Warlord Games, so I thought a few photos of that unit would be an appropriate place to start.

Stay tuned for more content...