Reverend Hal E. Looya

I was looking for a figure as a Holy Man Support option for Sharp Practice v2 American Revolution Period. There are several suitable ones available commercially ranging from monks to priests to reverend types. A good wargaming friend gave me one, but I thought he was a little too pompous looking (the figure, not the friend) for the Ungrateful Rebellious Colonists.

I had a box of the Wargames Factory AWI Militia plastic 28mm figures and decided I could make a suitable figure that was a little more what one find accompanying some rag-tag rebel soldiers. So I selected a figure and added a cross cut from card and a Bible made from Green-Stuff and below is what I ended up with. Meet Reverend Hal E. Looya, ready to bring salvation to the defenders of Liberty and Freedom and Damnation to those who oppose them. It was said where ever he would stop to preach, flowers would soon grow afterward.

 Here he is next to the more formal figure that I plan to use for the British Forces. Please excuse my poor picture taking and staging.

So I don't think he came out to bad. The box of Wargames Factory Militia  has all the figures such that when you glue their head on, they are all facing sort of down. I would have preferred a figure looking more straight ahead or upwards, but he is what he is. Of all the Priest figures I could find, I think the one by Crusader Miniatures, Pirate Motley Crew Pkg is about the most suitable for AWI Patriots, but the one I made is entirely suitable and I don't have to pay for two other figures I can't use. See below:

Thanks for looking

What Mitch has been up to

In one of my weaker moments, I found some Victrix Napoleonics on sale on E-bay and couldn't resist. Sixty figures in a box. Wow! I thought. What a cheap way to get a bunch of figures.

 

When I opened them up. Wow! That's a lot of parts to put together. Much to my dismay, I found you had to glue everything on, heads, arms, back packs and sometimes legs. They were very fiddly.

Wow! Even more parts. So I put a few together to see how it went. The first batch wasn't so good. I was using Krylon white to  prime them with since it had worked well on other stuff. Well the paint must have been old or it was too cold, I don't know, but the paint clumped up on the figures obscuring the detail.

The first ones went into a jay of Simple Green to soak and remove the paint. Next I tried some artist's  Gesso as a primer based on something I read on the web. It worked alright, but I found it was a pain trying to paint the chest area due to the odd positioning of the arms and muskets. I managed to finish the two below and used Army Painter "Strong" stain on them.

Next two I tried painting before gluing the arms on. That worked much better, but was really fiddly. These two below I used the "Dark" stain and liked the result much better.

Here are some more of the first batch after removing the primer and some I left as there weren't so bad. There is also a mounted Afghan leader waiting to be painted for NW Frontier.

 Here its what waiting to be decaled and camoflauged for 15mm WW2 if we ever find a set or rules. the building on the left is being mounted for use with my Boxer Rebellion figures.

Rest of my Hetzers waiting to be assembled. One on the left by Command Decision are squatter. The FOW brand on the right is better proportioned, but more expensive.

 Here are some Brits being painted for NW Frontier.

 Another Box of Naps, this time from Perry Brothers. Much nicer and less parts to put together.

A view of the figures right out of the bow.You can see there are less parts to glue on. Don't know when I'll ever get to these. Another good deal I couldn't refuse. Found them at Fall-In Convention Flea Market being sold by a guy I met at Cold Wars last year.

Another project I couldn't resist. A German pre-dreadnought Brandenburg class battleship in 1:700 scale.

More fiddly parts and that's all the instructions you get.  Wonder how long this will be sitting around before I ever get to it.

Not shown. A bunch of 15mm Panzer IV's and V's. If we ever decide on a set a rules, maybe they'll get more attention. Just bought some Panzer Grey spray paint, so they'll be easier than doing the camo.

That's what is on my painting table. What's on yours?

Using Army Painter "Quickshade"

I bought some of  The Army Painter Quickshade and decided to try it out on some Northwest Frontier Ral Partha figures. I had obtained some used figures from Dennis Trout but they were in pretty bad shape. I also bought some from Great Endeavors http://www.greatendeavours.co.uk/colonials/ as the ones I got from Dennis were limited.  Below is a picture of what the used figures looked like.

Here are some after "repainting"

This is a picture after they were dipped in the Quickshade. It gives them a Glossy look, but does a nice job of shading.

Here is what they look like after spraying the dipped figures with some "dullcoat".

Next is my paint job on a Ral Partha British figure.

Here is the same figure after "dipping".

Finally the finished figure after spraying with "dullcoat".

All in all, the Quickshade does a nice job. The British figure looks much better than the photos show. I now have almost a full TSATF unit of Afghans done. Working on the Brits now. Gawd how I hate painting. With the Brits it isn't too bad. I spray paint them khaki and then there are but 6 other colors, flesh, white belts, brown rifle, shoes and straps, off-white haversack, dark blue puttees, steel gun barrels. Next up Gurkas and then some more afghans.