Dux Brit army nearing completion

After having given the new TFL Dux Brittaniarum rules (see http://toofatlardies.co.uk) a spin during the playtest time I've been working on painting my Gripping Beast Romano-British forces. I've been way too distracted with other things, and process has been painfully slow. But I am finally getting to the point where I'll be able to field the full "starter force" so I went and took some photos.
Overall I went with a more late roman than "celtic" look. Not based on any hard evidence but simply on personal preference. Slightly biased since that's where my re-enactment roots lie ;)

First NVA platoon

One down, 3 to go...

After the USMC with camo and such, the NVA sure paints quickly once I figured how I wanted to handle the uniform colour. Two half evenings spent painting, afternoon painting and chatting at Murphy's Heroes and then 2 hours or so finishing the basing.

The whole platoon

The platoon consists of 3 9-man squads and one big man (who only turns out on a good day....). In comparison to the USMC platoon with squads of 12 you got to feel sorry for these guys!

Bunker

To help these two guys out, and since I had some spare putty going about, I built 2 small bunkers, one of which is shown above.

Some of the squaddies

Kinda liked RPG gunner, so I included one in every squad. Even if that is a bit too much for realism...

On Patrol

I used three different colours for the uniform. All US khaki drab highlight to different shades of green.

First USMC platoon finished!

I cracked ahead painting another 2 squads and a corpsman to complete the first platoon. Quite happy with how fast I've been able to paint these little guys, 10mm sure is a pleasure in that regards.

The whole platoon

 

First Charlie Don't Surf USMC squad

I finally got around to doing some painting for Vietnam wargaming with Charlie Don't Surf by Too Fat Lardies. I'm using Pendraken miniatures, and found they paint up pretty well for 10mm. Fast, too - definitely faster than when I am painting 15mm.

Company headquarters:

These two stands both (in the CDS rules) represent 'big men' - the guys that get things to happen. On the left hand side a senior NCO, on the right hand side the company command group, with officer, NCO and RTO. The RTO I had to convert from the ANZAC range as the US range doesn't have RTOs.

Platoon command:

In the middle of the first squad is the platoon command group, consisting of the platoon commander and his RTO (again a conversion).

First squad:

Here's the full first squad with platoon and company HQ. Note that there's in total 7 converted figures. In all cases I had to remodel bush hats to helmets. In some cases more, and in some cases less successful. Still, on the table I don't think anyone will notice much.

Oh, and why? Contrary to what Hollywood may have us believe, it's really hard to come across any evidence whatsoever of guys within the same squad wearing bush hats and helmets. Who knows, maybe they did figure that the helmer was useful in keeping their brains in one place?

I am pretty content with the camouflage patterns. After washing and drybrushing they are subtle enough not to scream for attention. I used the army pattern for the helmet covers, and the newer camo pattern for (some of) the trousers. Primary difference being that I added black in the mix for the trousers.

WIP Giant - nearly finished

Another evening of painting and I'm happy with the big guy. I think he will make an impressive/intimidating opponent for my elves!

 

Tomorrow I just need to varnish the bugger, and then he'll be ready for basing on Friday.

Work In Progress - Giant

I decided my Orc army for This One's Split (http://thisonesplit.blogspot.com) needs a few big dudes. I liked the Games Workshop Lord of the Rings Isengard troll, so went for that figure. It will do quite nicely as a giant in 15mm scale. I've put a 15mm demonworld orc next to him for size comparison.

 

Started today and I did the base colours and wash, and a first highlight of the metal and the skin. Overall I like the way the figure is starting to work out. Need to pay close attention to keeping it stylistically close enough to the 15mm army though.

Planning to have at least one of those finished for the demo at Action 2009, Rheindahlen.

No painting done - gone skiing

This week I painted... Absolutely nothing! Instead I have been having far too much fun in Fiss, Austria - a full week of skiing and not a single broken limb.

Some days were sunny, and with excellent slopes:

 

Others were significantly less sunny, with heavy snowfall and 50cm of fresh powder. Hell of a lot of fun to ski, and makes for nice shots after a fall...

 

I have been good though, and worked some more on This One's Split - other than the magic system and flying troops seems we have most of the game mechanics down now. Needs a lot of playtesting though. And I have the first few sketches for the magic system, which now needs to be worked into an actual system.