My Final Entry to the Lead Painter's League: Quar Infantry and Assault Tractor

For the last submission to the Lead Painters' League the organizers asked us to provide an entry based around a sci-fi theme, with extra points for providing an opposing side along with some sort of suitable creature or vehicle.

I spent a looong time racking my brain trying to come up with a submission that was suitable, a bit unique and something that I might actually use. Not easy. Finally, I remembered that ZombieSmith offered these fabulous figures from their game, 'This Quar's War'.

The Quar are sort of a mash up of world-weary aardvarks in a quasi-WWI setting... They have a aesthetic that reminds me of the Heavy Metal and Epic Illustrated magazines of the 80s. Weird but strangely compelling. I've really warmed to them since starting this first set.

The automatic shotgun team is a very nice set. I decided to tart-up their base with some extra groundwork to give the impression that the team has had some time to prepare their position.

For the fellows with the cheche-like headscarves I wanted to do some of them up in pinstriped coats as an homage to those the Moroccan Goumiers wore during their time in French service in WWII. 

(I think I may go back over these with a dull red pinstripe to help lift the effect.)

I made the sniper team from a couple odd figures and replaced the marksman's short barrelled weapon with something a little more over-the-top, more reminiscent of a bedouin jezail.

Now I really have a hankering to add a bird marching to the end of the barrel...

The camo scheme for the assault tractor was derived from images of those iconic German helmets worn during the last years of the Great War. 

The style is very mannered but I like how the effect turned out on the whole. I need to touch up some of the paint and add some more stowage and an aerial.

Fun! Nonetheless, all this being said, my Quar haven't really generated much interest amongst the LPL voters. Sigh. Oh well, no matter, I had a great time working on them and look forward to adding some more in the future.

Entry #9 to the Lead Painters' League: 'If the First Effort Fails Send in Ney'

Ney leading the French cavalry to their destruction at Waterloo.

The road to hell is paved with... well, you know rest.

Yes, I had the very best intentions to have a newly painted submission for each week of the Panters' League. With this in mind, I had my 9th entry (a unit of Anglo-Saxons arrayed in shieldwall) painted, based and ready for photos - but then I decided to give the figures a spray of clearcoat. This is were my good friend Francis will groan as he'll immediately know what happened next. Yep, the spray-can that I had picked up, shook and sprayed was NOT clearcoat, but rather BLACK PRIMER.

The Anglo-Saxon shieldwall with an extra helping of gunpowder stains...

Fuuuuck. (And this, by far, was the least of the expletives that were uttered in the minutes following 'the incident'.)

To be honest it was not a complete disaster as I managed to catch my gaff during the first pass. I know I'll be able to fix the figures by touching-up the colours' mid-tones and highlights, but I knew wouldn't have the time to repair the damage before the League deadline, which loomed in only a few hours.

So I sat down, collected my thoughts and went over my options. It was obvious I'd have to forfeit the bonus points for not submitting a new entry, but I had to send in something to serve as a suitable stand-in. So after looking in my display cabinet for a few long minutes I made my decision. As the Emperor would say, 'If the first effort fails then send in Ney.' 

I created this command stand of Marshal Ney last year and it remains as one of my favourites as I really enjoyed working on it. It's composed of four 28mm Perry sculpts - all very dynamic and wonderfully animated. As the submission has to have a minimum of five figures I decided to include a casualty stand of a cuirassier toppling from his charger to compliment Ney and his staff. Again, another excellent Perry vignette which has a great sense of speed and movement. 

So there you have it. Like the unfortunate cuirassier, pride cometh before a fall. It serves me right for being in such a rush (again). 

Next week's entry will conclude the League and it calls for a Science-Fiction theme. To be honest I'm a little out of my element on this one and so I've spent an inordinate amount of time puzzling over what to do. In the 11th hour I discovered some figures that I found quite fun so I'm going to give them a whirl. Come by next week if you're interested to see what I've managed to put together for The Final Push.

(AND my clearcoat spray now has very bright red tape on it...)

Entry #8 to the Lead Painters' League: 'Rise Up, Sons of Scotland' - 79th Cameron Highlanders

Here are a few jocks for my 8th submission to the Lead Painters' League - four charging Highlanders from the 79th Regiment with a couple flanking 'shock troops' for added colour.

I decided to try my hand with the Cameron tartan but soon wished I hadn't. I've discovered, the hard way, why most sensible people stick to the Gordons or Black Watch as the 79th tartan is composed of a bewildering collection of nuanced colours and shades. Nonetheless here is my stab at it, to which I cringe as I'm committed to another 40-odd figures to complete the battalion (eek!).

The charging Highlanders are from the Perry range while the two rude lads are from Kawe's Westfalia Miniatures. All great figures, but I must say I preferred the Westfalia castings as they were incredibly crisp and required very little work in preparation for painting.

I particularly like the 'forward facing' lad. The sculptor has done a brilliant job with the expression on his face - you can almost hear a Sid James' patented 'dirty laugh' coming from him.

If you have the time, please check out this week's round over at the LPL to see what the painters have submitted and vote for your favourites.

Entry #7 to the Lead Painters' League: 'A Message for Der Alte Fritz' - Seven Years War Prussian Command Stand

I found that one way to gain a few extra points in the Lead Painters' League is to submit a newly painted team for each week's match. One certainly has the option of submitting older stuff from your existing collection (and foregoing the extra points), but that, to me, seems kind of against the spirit of the exercise. In fact I've been really enjoying the whole process of planning my entries and getting them prepared for the coming week's match.

Anyway, as things would have it, this past week work and life conspired against me and I had very little time to work on any hobby projects. Subsequently Friday rolled around and I only had two figures out of the five completed, and the deadline for submission was 6 am Saturday, my time... Damn. I knew I either I had to pull an all-nighter to get them done, or eat crow and submit an existing set of figures (which I was loath to do). After mulling it over I resolved to forego sleep and stick to my guns in an effort to submit a newly-painted entry.

The lovely Sarah, bless her soul, made me two espressos to power me through the night. So  I started in, furiously painting like a man possessed in an attempt to beat the clock. By 4:30 in the morning things looked promising, with the colours mostly done and the figures based. I only had to finish the groundwork and do a bit of highlighting. Well, when I next looked at the clock it was 5:45 and I blearily realized I had 15 minutes to compose the vignette on the backdrop, photograph it and arrange the images for transmission! Yiiikes! By this time dawn had just broke, but being that it was an overcast day the light was quite dim and the pictures turned out rather crappy. I had no time to set up any lights to reshoot so those were the pics I had to go with. Dammit Janet.

So, if you go to the LPL to take a look please accept my apologies for the execrable photos. I have a suspicion that for all the midnight oil I expended I'm going to get smoked due to lousy presentation. Oh well, as Keitel's Feraud in The Duellists would say, 'La!' 

Anyway, enough of my wingeing, as a consolation I took some time today to reshoot the figures in an effort to show them in a better light (literally).

This is my first effort at painting Seven Years War figures. These are gorgeous 28mm castings from  Minden Miniatures, sculpted by the talented Richard Ansell. The figures are quite slight, almost willowy in their stature, but they have a great sense of presence and lots of character. The detail on them is VERY fine which I found quite challenging to paint. Nonetheless they were loads of fun to work with and I look forward to doing some more.

This vignette will serve as a Prussian command stand. The mounted cavalryman I have painted to depict a member of the Zieten Hussars while his dismounted counterpart has been done up as a trooper of the Szekley Hussars. The 'Prussian' infantry officer is a bit of a bodge. He's actually a French infantry officer but I reasoned that the cut of the uniforms were very similar amongst the combatants so I thought I might be forgiven for this bit of heresy.  My personal favourites are the groom and the blacksmith re-shoeing the hussar's mount. I'm particularly taken with the sculpt of the groom who's seen here firmly holding the horse's bridle while gently stroking its neck with a calming hand. Brilliant stuff. The mounted hussar is actually from another set so I had to do some light modifications with greenstuff to create some saddle harness on his horse. No real biggie. I might swap out the mounted infantry officer for a figure of Frederick The Far Better Than Average at a later date, but this will work for now.

I have a few options for what I want to do for Round 8 but I better get a wiggle on so I don't get caught out late again...

Entry #6 to the Lead Painters' League: 'Citizens, We Must Feed the Revolution'

When I first saw this set of figures on the Eureka Miniatures website I knew I had to get them. They really have a certain charm about them - the young lass ardently kneading the dough with her bare feet, while her fellow citizens busily work it into loaves for the baker's oven. Bread to feed the hungry mouths of the Revolution!

I especially like her jaunty feathered bicorne and the men sporting their distinctive Liberty caps.

I've also included an industrious looking fellow sitting astride some sort of workhorse contraption. He's working on... I dunno, some manner of metalwork? Or perhaps he's a woodworker repairing some vital component of Monsieur Guillotine's Le Rasoir National.  You can almost hear some unfortunate aristocrat getting a 'haircut' in the distance accompanied by a refrain of La Marseillaise. 

Ah, spring in Paris...

I invite you to check out the Lead Painters' League to see all the entries from this week's round.