A return to form

Well, it's been a while.

Since my last post over 2 years ago, I've finally got around to getting my Blogger account back under my control and to pick up the brushes.

It's been a crazy few years, by far the most eventful in my life. From joining the army to losing my mother, to moving to the other side of this giant country, my life style is very different than the one I lived when posting here.

I'll be honest, I haven't touched the brushes much or painted in the last few years, but I have kept my collection, and just recently bought some more models. I had to very hastily move my collection across the country and unfortunately break a lot of my models in the process.

I'm still settling in on this side of the country, and have recently changed to using acrylic paints since I had to throw my enormous enamel paint collection when leaving the east.

Not making any promises, but I will try to start updating this blog again, from models to firearms, along with old war memorabilia I've accumulated over these years.

Thank you for your patience, whoever is still reading this!
FF

Hat Alexander's Macedonian Hypaspists

 Good morning!

 Here are the creme of Alexander's army, the elite infantry. I had fun trying out different colours on these guys, but I do not want to go as far as the osprey books did, and have them look like rainbows.
 

I really like how this guy's helmet turned out, it is exactly how I wanted it. Unfortunately I could not replicate it on the other ones since the wash was too dark.

Up next I will be posting my Numidian army, being completely finished painting the Zvezda set, and having finished the infantrymen from the Hat set.

Thanks for reading,
and have a good weekend!
FF

Hat Iberian Warriors Pt.1

Here they are in the plain old white clothes and red lines. I have more in different more creative colors coming up, and it turns out you can bend them and they'll stay that way, making the more flat poses (especially the slinger) a lot more interesting!

This fellow's spear broke so I replaced it with a sword from the Caesar Hoplite set (probably not accurate, but close enough from afar!)

My favorite pose of the set.

Caetrati

 

Scutarii

 Very nice poses and good detail, thinking about picking up another box along with the Orion one. Shame there are no armored figures to use as chieftains, seems like I will have to make some myself!

Thanks for reading,
and have a good day!
FF

Zvezda Numidian Cavalry Pt.1

Here are some of my test figures of Hannibal's infamous Numidian cavalry. April has been the month for Punic Wars for me, and these were a must have. I painted their skin a little too dark, but the next ones will be done with an even lighter tone (seems like the historians are still debating their skin colour).

On this first batch I decided to play it safe, and not get too creative with them, and have made much more interesting ones since (coming later!). I like the speed at which they can be painted, and the figures are up to Zvezda's incredible standard. Just spend some time trimming away at the extra plastic found under their arms and such.

I am planning on getting the hat set at a later time in order to bolster the ranks.

Thanks for reading,
and have a good one!
FF

Strelets Roman Ceremonial March & Ranks pt.2 - Centurion & Signifer Customs

Good Saturday Morning!

It's Easter, and what an appropriate time to post Romans.

These are some of the guys from the new Strelets boxes, the Imperial and Repulican Marching and Ranks sets.

I decided to test out my converting skills, since I want to start sculpting full figures of my own, and made some into Centurions and Signifers, since the set lacked them.

They are very well done figures, just needing a lot of care to remove the flash and extra plastic, but they are well worth it, especially at the price they charge.

Starting off with the two Republicans. I simply used bodies from the Republican Ranks set, shaved the helmets down a bit, and made the crests of Greenstuff. I shaved the pilum into a stick.

He looks like he's ready to dish out some discipline...

Here are the Imperial Centurions. They have the bodies from the Republican set, but the heads from the Imperial set.

Vorenus looking disappointed.



A work in progress, my first attempt at carving an animal head.Shield From Caesar Celtic Warriors, and the eagle is form Hat Roman Command.

And for Lilith, my Persian Zebra rider.

 And that's it for today.

Happy Easter! Enjoy the time with family,
Thanks for reading.
FF

Hat 1/72 Huns (as Mongols)

Good Sunday evening!

I finally got back to taking pictures, now that my phone situation has been surpassed. I am now trying out things with fixing the photos I take by using the edit feature in Google Photos (just fixing the colours, not photo shopping the imperfections!).

Here is one of the sets I got from my brother a few months back. I actually had problems with one of the sprues where a horse was incomplete and a rider had a less detailed face, but after contacting Hat they sent me an entire sprue to replace that figure. Thanks Hat!

Since last posting, I have decided to no longer pursue my wide mild-fantasy direction with my figures, and instead using them as, "light history" as one may call it. Instead of having one big Game of Thrones type world with Romans, Greeks, Samurai, Mongols, Conquistadors and late Medieval Knights all struggle in the same timeline, I will break them up into their appropriate times (ex. Samurai vs. Samurai; Mongols vs. Arabs, Chinese, Europeans; Greeks vs. Persian; Romans vs. Celts, Carthaginians, Germans, anyone who isn't Roman).

Anyways, here are figures. They could work as Huns, but I am using them as Mongols. They are quite large for steppe nomads, only being comparable to the Zvezda set in scale (and even then they are bigger), but that can be passed off as them wearing extra layers of clothes ;).

Now as can be seen, this guy has been modified a little. That is because I recently acquired some Greenstuff, which is excellent for adding little things to models, and is actually quite cheap for the amount you get! Highly recommended.

My favorite modification of the bunch, I really like the way the helmet turned out.

Anyways I have quite a few photos taken and ready to go, and have gotten my life a little bit in control, so expect more posts finally!

Up next should be some customized Roman Centurions made from the strelets marching sets.

Spring is finally here, so have a good week!!!!!
Thank you for visiting,
FF