From Russia with Models

Hello again, dear readers! Another update promised 'tomorrow', another update arriving many weeks later. Are you surprised? No! Will this happen again? Yes! Anyway, on with the blog!

Having measured these chaps, I am pleased to confirm my suspicion that they're 15 mm.

The big news is that I went to Russia last month, and found some actual toy soldiers in a market. Skillfully I haggled the vendor. "700 roubles?" "Yeah, alright." "No George, 600!". Thank goodness for siblings, eh? Judging by the context, I assume they are Teutonic knights (Who were rather unreasonable to the locals in that area), so I'll get some more, add Russians, and re-enact Alexander Nevsky in my dining room.  

Rather nice models, but almost certainly full of lead.

It's not all good news, unfortunately, The reason that I've spent a lovely couple of hours painting models and blogging about it today is that I'm off work with a nasty bout of mental illness. Roll on nice, relaxing, creative activities and talking about feelings. This is a modelling/gaming blog, so I'll try not to talk about my problems too much, but I'll let you know if I can't post updates because I'm in Bedlam.

First work done on Brettonians in an age.

Onto more detailed news of shed-time. I managed to make a start on some shields, painted lots of brown, painted rather a lot of colour, and have decided on two sorts of gambeson: Brown and Cream. Brown uses GW Scorched Brown (as was), washed with "Argax Earthshade" (yuk) highlighted with Vallejo Beastly Brown, and Brown washed again. Cream uses Vallejo Bonewhite and the same with some white paint added, and washed twice again. 

Brown ink wash looking good on my gambeson fellows.

I'm not sure if multiple ink washes are a good innovation, or just a sign that I use too much paint when I'm highlighting. Also, I find that lots of Vallejo paints, especially colours other than blue, are a bit watery and should be left to dry a little, perhaps.

Have decided that any model with a coloured tunic needs a white undercoat to not look awful. Must obtain some white spray paint to undercoat such models.

 Now, some forward-thinking sophistry. wrote earlier about painting enough models for a Saga warband, but having had a look at the historical wargame rules market lately, I've decided to buy Lion Rampant instead (when cash becomes free). Unlike Saga, battles are decided with cold steel rather than 'magic spells', which can give an army unique flavour, but also move the emphasis away from the desperate slog of combat that I imagine medieval combat to be like.

I've been thinking about a campaign game set during The Anarchy, which deserves a post on it's own so you can skip it and keep looking at the pretty pictures. 

ALL ANIMALS ARE PAINTED BUT SOME ARE MORE PAINTED THAN OTHERS

I know it'a a cliché, but if you've been affected by any of the issues addressed in this blog, here are a couple of websites that might have some useful info:

NHS Mental Health

MIND, info and support