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WHAT HAVE I DONE

If you can't send help send more 'Mechs.

That's the horror of it, you just start with a couple of hours painting every other day or so and the next thing is you're surrounded by an acrylic-painted nightmare. Still, it gives me content to post here, so not all bad then.

Men of Gondor with Conquest Norman arms. I'm not entirely convinced by the freehand trees. The shield bosses didn't help.

The first test-models of the Men of Gondor have turned out rather well, and serve as a good example of dark greys being used to make black look more black. I don't think the kite shields will fit in very well with the Perry original shields, but I do like visions of Tolkein with deeper roots in history than the recent films.

Shadow Hawk (left) and Battlemaster (right)

After many weeks of turning to paint it and backing out at the last minute I've finally done the Battlemaster in a winter camo scheme. They were another design licensed from Fang of the Sun Dougram, and are introduced during the bit where our heroes are fighting in the snow.

The Shadow Hawk is something of an oddball, in that the plastic cast has the laser on the wrong hand and no shoulder missile launcher. I therefore drew up a variant of my own invention that matches the layout. It's painted in plain grey reminiscent of the schemes used on the old BattleTech computer games. The logo is from the Blazing Aces (Mechwarrior 1), with a 'B' for Gideon Braver, the protagonist of MechWarrior. It looks a bit silly next to the 'A'.

Next batch of hoplites on the go

Hoplites are being done in batches. I recently heard that ancients tended towards more vibrant colours than the traditional white and bronze which will keep things from getting too uniform. I could never do Napoleonics, a hundered people in the exact same shade of blue would do my head in.

The Stinger (left) and Locust (right) from last update in better lighting conditions

Finally got improved pics of the Locust and Stinger, on whose right arm you can just about see the dark blue I contrasted the light blue with. Not my sharpest moment. The locust, as I mentioned last time, has been modified from a walking pose to a running one and is painted after the F-86 Sabre. A lovely aircraft that one, none of the camo nonsense you see on jet fighters nowadays.

Cicada (left), Awesome (centre) and Hunchback (right)

Here you can see the 'Mechs that came painted in the (second hand) intro box set. I haven't stripped them as the paintjobs are more or less complete. If they start getting worn I'll do them in colours approximating these, but there are quite enough models to paint already.

Hermes-II (left), Assassin (centre) and Enforcer (right)

Finally, amid all the commercialism and overeating, let's spare a thought for those who won't be happy to find soldiers under the tree this year...

Merry Christmas