Great news everyone! A long time ago I got a bunch of Warlord plastic Pike &Shotte infantry sprues on one of their regular sprue sales. Well I'm proud to announce that I painted all of them. That's three sprues so 39 infantry, plus I added one from an earlier batch.
Random&Creative
Miniatures in Multiple Scales
Aug 14, 2025
TYW Imperialist Infantry - Warlord plastics complet'd
Tags:
28mm,
30YW,
renaissance,
warlord games
Aug 11, 2025
The Battle of Kostas Channel
This was my way of celebrating International Naval Wargaming Day 2025 - a little late as I played the game on Sunday. Rules used were my own 'Block Galleys' set, available from the Rules page of the blog.
A small Holy Leauge squadron approaches the narrows between Postavtomatikos and Saronikos Isles on the Aegean Sea. They are past a great battle and low on ammunition. Their main goal is to allow the large lanterna to reach the safety of the opposite table corner.
At this moment everything seems calm around the islands...
Tags:
gaming,
naval,
renaissance
Aug 8, 2025
Eloise, Octavia and Three Doggos
Here are two female figures produced by the Polish company Wargamer: Eloise the Musketeer and Octavia the Cuirassier from their Hot &Dangerous line, to be used as character pieces in my 17th century games. Further, there are three Green Stuff World resin dogs.
As usual I spent a lot more time painting them than regular rank and file types. Eloise on the left received a succession of oil washes for example, so between the basecoat, varnish, wash and highlights there were about three weeks' worth of waiting time.
I only had to make minor modifications on the figures, such as chopping off the useless soft metal sword blades, and some filling work here and there. The casting of the metal is good quality and the parts fit well. Even though I shortened Eloise's boots a good length, she is still on the very tall side of the nominal 28mm scale, while Octavia is more proportionate, as you can see on the picture below.
Here they are with an Empress, Warlord and Bloody figure for scale comparison. The standing figures are pinned to a 25mm MDF base - they came with their own cast metal bases but I didn't like them very much. The dogs are nominally 1/56 scale but just may also be a little bit on the big side.
The boxer and beige dachshund are painted after family dogs. At Eloise's feet is the French bulldog Cardinal Richelieu, who is sadly not very well behaved and has to be yelled at constantly - for the amusement of the other Musketeers.
(As a disclaimer, I know that these types of dogs may not have existed in such form during the 17th century, but we can all agree to overlook that.)
Tags:
28mm,
30YW,
green stuff world,
renaissance,
wargamerPL
Aug 6, 2025
A Return to Home Sculpting
I continue expanding my 28mm 17th century Eastern European collection. I just placed a hefty order with Warlord Games for that purpose. While they do not specifically carry much besides their Winged Hussars (of which I bought a box), their generic pike&shotte troopers are easy to convert or be used as dollies for more unconventional types.
However, that order has left my wallet a little bit bare, so instead of investing in another heap of lead, I turned to more economic solutions. I still have a lot of Green Stuff and Magic Sculpt, and also a bunch of Oyumaru/Blue Stuff for making press moulds.
I'm in awe of Master Tidmarsh's homecast figure collection, and started thinking along the same lines. However, I don't have a shed or other secluded place where I can tuck casting equipment safely away from pets, so I shall remain with my tried and tested method.
I made a previous post about experimenting with the thing, and learned a few things since:
1) The figure shall be cast without the arms attached.
2) The best end result occurs when you add a bit more resin to the mould than the volume of the casting, but just a little bit more to avoid excessive flash and/or distortion.
3) Applying constant, but not very strong pressure to the mould while curing makes a better result (as the oyumaru itself is a bit flexible).
4) Static poses where the figure can be easily 'cut in half' vertically generally work better.
With that in mind, I made a master sculpt from a Perry HYW archer's body and a Frostgrave crewman's head. All it needed was some filling, sanding, classic Cossack hairdo and a few buttons on the coat.
Now if you look at images of Cossacks, be it art or reenactors, you can see that their dress varies from the plain to the very garish, and I thought it's easier to have a very plain master and dress the figures up later once the basic one is cast.
So that's what I did, I made a pair of moulds and started producing clones of Oleg Basikovich. Fortunately I've got an abundance of spare arms and weapons, so the first four troopers and a sergeant are already complete and await their first lick of paint. As you can see it's rather easy to vary their headgear, add a longer overcoat or lacing etc.
My final goal is to build 2x8 pike-armed Cossacks and 2x8 with muskets, for the latter I'll use spare arms from the Warlord firelocks set. With the two moulds I can produce two to six figures a day, so it's not a far fetched goal at all. I also have some artillery crew and rabble foot in the making.
Later on I'll of course expand the collection with commercially produced figures, but these shall serve well as a core for my army.
Tags:
28mm,
cossack,
renaissance,
sculpting
Aug 4, 2025
Ottoman Galiots (and Islands)
Originally I wanted to play the Battle of Denmark Strait on this year's International Naval Wargaming Day, but as usual, I got sidetracked and finished other ships instead. Bismarck and Prinz Eugen shall wait.
Instead, I've completed a pair of corsair galiots and four island sections, so the Mediterranean it shall be. I wrote a scenario to playtest my Block Galleys rules live for the first time. I'll play the game on the coming weekend and submit the AAR on the blog.
Tags:
1/350,
naval,
ottoman empire,
renaissance,
scratchbuild,
terrain
Jul 31, 2025
Painting Tally July 2025
As usual, my painting output after a very productive month is kind of reduced. I think this period of odd months actually helps not getting tired with anything.
July's goals were:
Paint 1/72 WSS/GNW figs - well done
Paint the German ships for the Denmark Strait - hadn't done anything
28mm Warlord, GBP, FG:GA plastics - done, I finished a bunch of cavalry and foot
Block Galleys - done, finished a galleon, two galiots and four island sections
Play at least one game - a recurring feat which I had not met, unless you count the pair of scenarios I wrote.
Let's get on to the figures:
28mm
Completed
2x Wargamer 17th century ladiesthree resin dogs12x mounted Cossacks16x Warlord plastic shotte
4x terrain pieces (I counted the island sections as 28mm hills)
1/72
Completed
32x GNW infantry8x GNW cavalry1 GNW gun + 4 crew
Primed
16x GNW infantry8x GNW cavalry1 GNW gun + 4 crew
Assembled
5x GNW guns
1/350
Completed
1x Zvezda Revenge2x galiots
As a side note, I'm in a situation (very rare for wargamers/collectors) where actually the greater part of my 28mm collection is painted, all I have are ten piratical crewmen, some Perry HYW bods and maybe a few Landsknechts that I hadn't touched. But I shall remedy that next month with some fresh loot :)
This brings my total Painting Unit value this month to 916, not a bad number at all.
If somebody is interested in my PU system I would be more than glad to share it, but my thinking is I will make a summary at the end of the year and fine tune the system. I started using it in Feb and ten months of data might just be enough.
For the matter of purchases, I bought the 1/72 plastics and three 1/350 plastic ships on a local hobby store sale, plus some craft store paints (mostly for terrain and basing), a large amount of 2mm plasticard, PVA and plastic storage boxes.
Furthermore I held a great purge and threw out a lot of useless stuff.
Tags:
diary
Jul 28, 2025
The Cossacks Are Back to War
These are the Gripping Beast Arab Light Cavalry & Horse Archers figures converted to represent generic Eastern European 17th century cavalry. The figures do more or less lend themselves to that with their garb and weaponry, so all I did was use laced torsos and sculpt fur hats on the majority. For the lack of firearms I'll just suppose they are of the poorer type.
(The title of course harkens back to the now more than twenty years old Cossacks: Back to War PC game, playing which I spent countless hours.)
Tags:
28mm,
cossack,
gripping beast,
renaissance
Jul 16, 2025
Used to Love Her, But Now I Have to Rig Her
I'm on a roller lately with pop culture references in my titles, for which I apologise.
Anyway, my labours on the Zvezda 1/350 Revenge model slowly come to fruition. I put this project off and on for a while now, but seeing the finish line is always satisfying. This is a snap-fit kit originally with plastic masts, sails and shrouds. But of course I had to do it the complicated way.
Tags:
1/350,
renaissance,
royal navy,
wip,
zvezda
Jul 10, 2025
Thinking About the Collection
I had the draft of this post in the making for a while, pondering meaninglessly over what and how to do.
Then I reviewed its contents, and being a firm follower of the simple but effective principle, I chose to uphold myself to the things I wrote! So during the previous weekend I held one of my recurring purges, where I binned a great bunch of my unused figures, terrain and other miscellaneous things.
Now the reason for that is I lack hobby space, and simple emotional value and "this will be good for something" mentality creates clutter. To be organized and disciplined helps keeping the right projects in focus and still allows oneself to be comfortably occupied during precious hobby time.
All of this came from the realization that I have to organize my activities better, because I have a day job, other things I like to do on a daily basis, and time is finite. As most of us are in a similar situation, I thought it would be useful advice.
So here are four things I deemed worthy of sharing that help with hobby projects in general:
1) Planning and creating logs/diaries
I currently have four major documents:
- a project diary where I organize by priority and keep relevant information in a more decentralized manner
- a monthly log where I set my goals for the month and keep track of painting and purchases
- a master spreadsheet with data on the collection, divided by scale and period
- a wishlist for things to buy
Of course this still means that I sometimes lose focus, but leisurely activities cannot be self-regulated that much. This is just a framework so that I don't become too boggled down in details.
2) Organizing storage
The next thing after binning more than five large cardboard boxes' worth of stuff was buying new plastic storage containers. The Danish furniture company Jysk carries transparent plastic boxes that are perfect for my needs and cost a fraction of RUB. I bought a bunch of 8l and 3l ones. I can stack them inside my cabinet and by being able to see what's inside, I can get the things I require out more quickly than having to browse through unlabelled or wrongly labelled cardboard boxes. This helps with knowing what to do next, and where to find it.
3) One period - one scale
I was very much guilty in this for a long while and it actually kept me away from finishing projects near the finish line. It basically boils down to a dialog like this:
- There is a new line of figures for the period I'm collecting, but in an entirely different scale?
- Let's buy it and have four unpainted and unused armies instead of two complete ones!
So I reduced the number of my projects and now I try to stick to heterogeneous scales throughout the collection.
For skirmish games I use 28mm figures, because there are a lot of indepentent manufacturers with good complete lines.
For large battles I buy 6mm figures because of the ease of paint and storage, good economical value and splendid overall effect when painted.
I've had a bunch of roughly 1/450 scale ships, which I also binned and turned to 1/350 instead, to go with my block galleys. I have a 1/1000 pre-dreadnought and 1/2000 WW1+WW2 naval project.
I still have two 1/72 projects, in fact I just sort of started one: WSS/GNW period (that's the new one) and late 13th/early 14th century medieval. I threw out most of my Ancient and SYW figures, and am pondering giving away my WW1 figures and vehicles.
For anything else or ad hoc, I just colour print paper figures and use them as stand-ins. These can be thrown out or reused for basically no cost at all.
4) Feng Shui-ing unnecessary objects
With this we return to the beginning of the post. Sometimes it's necessary to throw away things you just store and don't touch in years. We all have an instinct to collect Shiny Objects, be they pebbles for basing, cardboard boxes for scratchbuilding, or someting else entirely. But you don't need most of those, especially if you lack space. Focus on projects that are important to you.
Tags:
diary
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)