Big News & what I have been painting

I cant believe its March already, so much for me keeping this blog up to date. Still here I am again.
Its been a busy start to the year for me will plenty of painting. I completed a large amount of Zulus and painted up some Colonial Naval troops to act as crew for the Steam boat I built last year.

I also managed the attend a local games club for a couple of weeks and played Zombicide and Tanks

But the main thing I have been doing this year is planning, I have reached a point in my life and career when I want to work for myself. To this end I have decided the relaunch my commission painting. I have a few more ideas that will run along side this but those will be kept under my hat for now.
So if you know anyone who needs the service's of a top notch painter send them my way.

I will be creating a Facebook page this week and share my commission's on this blog and on Facebook.
I will also carry a stock of painted units that can be bought direct from me.
Exciting times ahead.
Peace James
Exiles Painting.

Zulu's and Necromunda progress.

How have we got to almost half way through January already!!. I set myself a few goals for this month and have been working hard towards them.

 Zulu's have been stuck together and undercoated and yesterday I painted the fist two units, well almost. I undercoat my figures in my old garage (on its last legs with no windows or doors) and have an old washing machine that I use as my table/stand I had undercoated the Zulus before work and in the evening I popped in to grab them. I have no light in the garage but the table is just in the entrance so I step in grab the board of figures and step out...usually. We have been having some very strong winds in the UK and that day had been such a day, as you can imaging plastic Zulu's have very little weight and had been blow off the table onto the floor this I only worked out after my step into the garage resulted in a crunching sound. Yes one base of Zulus took the brunt on my 18 odd stone and are beyond repair so one unit is a base short and will be made up to strength in the next batch. I still have the base work to do but have with the look of these Zulu's and they do not take long to paint.

 As I showed in the last post I stuck the Necronuda figures together in short order and have decided to paint them one at a time rather than as a batch. I completed the first figure and am very happy with the colours picked

While moving my hobby stuff around before Xmas I uncovered my old Necromunda figures, I have to say they still look good and will be seeing action as soon as I complete the latest figures.

 As I was working on prep before Xmas this occurred which I am sure many wargamers will understand.
Wargamers train of thought... Need to finish undercoat on Bloodbowl orcs, have some paint left so will undercoat a few more Zomicide black plague figures of Dad's... Must stick more Zulus together as I promised Dad.. While the glue is out might as well pre base them... Guess can pre base the rifle armed ones too... Seems a shame not to base the Sudan mounted as well. So an hour later desk is full of stuff little of which I planned to paint.

One of my big goals for 2018 is to get back regular gaming, I had looked at two local wargames clubs both of which meet in Stoke-on-Trent (about 30-40 min) but they meet on Thursday and Friday both days that my Wife works evenings so I have never felt I could get over. but this week I looking into maybe a Boardgames club and found one only 5 mins form me that meet on a Tuesday evening Cheshire Gamers I love a good board game and will take my Zombicide along but after introducing myself over social media very quickly found that a few of these games want to move over to miniature wargames... I am sure I can help with that .

So I will be popping along this Tuesday and seeing if I like it.

Bring on the Swede

When I started this guy I was thinking about the big guy of the squad in Clint Eastwoods Heartbreak Ridge.

So to me he is the Swede, just what every SWAT team needs some heavy support. This figure is from Foundry Miniatures Street Violence SWAT team but I think he would fit in as a survivor in a Zombie game. He is on his way to Ebay, had great fun painting him and am finding I can fit the odd single figure in alongside my commission works, so with that in mind I have picked up these great Sharpe Figures from Alban Miniatures which when completed will also wing their way to Ebay to fund my lead addiction.

I have finished my Zulu War commission, they will be varnished tomorrow and get packed up when that's dry. Customer is basing them so have stuck them to this board so they can be varnished.

Zulu War figures the Paints

I have been asked by my customer to let him know the paints used on his commission, I thought it would be fun to share it with you guys also. When I get round to painting my own Empress Miniatures Zulu War Brits I will do a true SBS with pictures but with commissions time is money so just the paints and a finished figure.
First up Flesh, the most involved process, Base flesh then flesh washed with flesh wash then flesh applied again final highlights with elf flesh.

Next up the uniform, Scab red base coat with red mid tone and then highlighted with one of those luckey errors you make, I needed terracotta colour for the Masai warriors and could not find my GW stuff I popped on to wayland games to order some Vallejo paint to use. I had to go by the colour tab on the website and picked the one that looked closed enough to terracotta when it came it was no where near the color I needed but I found it the best for highlighting red.

The trousers are Prussian blue then highlighted with Prussian blue mixed with a little blue.

Helmet is Khaki then washed with dark tone then over painted with the Khaki again.

The Webbing is a light Khaki base and an off white main color.

The last few paints are for the gun and to highlight the black areas.

Zulu War Commission and Ronin

I will gloss over Derby as I am sure that many people had a good time at the show I did not nuff said. Once I got back home I cracked on with the first 4 Zulu War figures for commission these pictures I have sent off to the customer for the OK and then will complete the other 20, these are from Empress Miniatures and I have a couple of hundred of these to paint for me and my Dad.

To go with the Ronin buildings in the last post I had a delivery from Perry Miniatures which will give me enough for a few forces, I loved painting the Perry's Samurai for the winter challenge so they were my first stop when I was looking for figures to play Ronin. Before you ask about the base's they were from another of my hair-brain ideas that will not be going any further and as I have almost 100 of these base's I wanted to try them out, and I think they fit well they will give my Ronin figures that little bit of difference and as you can see they do in fact rank up if I ever need to. (base's from Warbase BTW)

Monks

Ronin

Handgunners

Samurai

Bowmen

I am busy prepping a few more commissions for ECW and LOA, so James is a busy boy.

Painting Update

So it has been fun to get back up to full speed on the painting front. I have completed the base's on Johns FIW French Inf and just have some tuff's to add and hit them with a varnish.

I have also completed the first 2 AW Miniature Indians and started the flesh on the next two.

With all these different projects on the go at the moment I have been prepping like a madman, I have not had this much prep completed since the build up to last years Winter Painting Challenge. Added to the plastic Saxons I completed while on holiday I have been busy pepping some fantastic Foundry Viking/Norse ( these are the wonderful old Citadel Norse range) below is only the start of the viking horde I am doing them all on individual bases so they can be used for all forms of game system.

While still on the dark ages I have been working through some Saga forces that will be up for sale when completed, the current force is a Welsh one and I finished the Levy bowmen.

I have to admit that I have not been having a great time at work these passed few months the last week before my holidays was one of my lowest points, I sucked it up and ground out that last few shifts and hoped it would not effect my holiday. I had a great holiday and did not think of my work once while away, unfortunately things had not changed and with in 10 min of starting my first shift I felt the need to do physical damage to someone/ something. This is all more than anyone should put up with and I have decided that my 13 years at my current job will be over as soon as I can. This will effect my hobby in a few ways first I might be a little less active online while job hunting and second I need to make my hobby do a bit more that pay for its self so I will be jumping back into selling on evilbay  Ebay. To this end I have dug out a squad of Foundry Zulu war brits that will be going on Ebay this weekend I am posting them on here first so if anyone wants to make an offer feel free I will be looking for around £25 plus postage.

24th Regt Zulu War

These 20 28mm Zulu war figures are from Backtree Design the website has a sale on at the moment but I have to warn you that I know of many gamers who have had issues with postage taking a long time from this company. I did not have an issue but while I like the figures as a painter as a keen history buff of the zulu war am not keen on the sculpts its mainly the pith helmet that bugs me.
The unit is the 24th Regt from Isandlwana I have had great fun painting these and will be selling them off. I have an entire British Army sitting in my lead pile waiting for winter, these are from my current favorite figures for this era from Empress Miniatures. I am still in shock that with a rare glowing globe hanging in the sky today I was able to take these outside and take pictures in a very good light. The pictures are very big so click on them if you want to see these guys in their full glory.

I have finished the unit of Rangers and will photo them when I complete the base's and I have completed the 15mm WW2 Germans. Next up I have another unit of Forest Indians with bows and might crack on with some of my Oldhammer Dwarfs.

Assegai Officer

I have almost finished the unit of Zulu war British, these are BlackTree Design Figures which while very nice are not my pick for this era. This may give you a hint as to what I will be mostly painting if Curt run's the Winter challenge again (and I get a place), I bought rather a lot of Empress Miniatures Zulu War british at Salute this year which are sitting on my shelf waiting for winter, I will be buying and building lots (and lots and lots) of plastic Zulus this year ready to be primed for winter.
I have just a few highlights and the lace to do before I finish the base's, hope to have them completed this weekend.

I have also made good progress on the F&IW Rangers.