Akhalis, Kala-Paga, and a thin red line.

 In between writing and selling soldiers I am actually getting a little painting done. Never as much as I'd like but then you never do really.  The fruits of the last couple of weeks appear in the pictures. 

 The Kala-Paga are the elite Maratha cavalry - several steps up from the Pindaris and suchlike that the bulk of their cavalry often consisted of and that the British were so disparaging about. No, these chaps  were the paid(in theory) more or less 'regular' cavalry of Maratha armies. Much better armed and equipped than most and able to fight as 'battle' cavalry as well as raid in the 'gaminia Kava' style of normal Maratha warfare. There were never that many of them and ten percent of Maratha cavalry is possibly a bit generous. I've given this first bunch the 'national flag' of the Marathas the saffron yellow carried from the time of Sivaji the Great if not earlier.

Maratha National flag. Models are mostly Redoubt but the standard bearer is an Old Glory Turkish Spahi on a Stadden 30mm horse.

Sikh Akhalis, warriors for their faith. These chaps fought Mughals, Marathas and indeed anyone else including the British. The British first encountering them in a skirmish in 1809. 

Sikh Akhalis. All Old Glory 28mm from the same pack, though there are more head variants than shown here. More to paint. 

British Infantry of the Sikh Wars period. These are the 31st Foot. Command and Flank companies still to finish. But we are getting there. 

Old Glory 28mm British Infantry from the Sikh Wars range. These from the centre company in shell jacket pack. 

Differing Visual Aesthetics in Wargaming

 There I was varnishing  some refurbished old lead dudes and a thought came to me- well it happens once in a while -  and this  singular occurrence prompted another thought. Wow two thoughts joined together I'll be doing stream of consciousness next ! But no, I am not James Joyce nor was meant to be, the thoughts were in fact idle musing upon the Visual Aesthetics of wargaming and how much they have changed and morphed over the years and equally how much my own views and attitudes to the visual side of the hobby have changed .

 Now to be accurate I have always viewed "the look of the thing" as somewhat more important than the actual dice rolling.

 After all, if this was not so, then I would not bother with the model soldiers in the first place but would stick to screens or little bits of cardboard. I am aware that this is heresy to some who view the actual game play as the epitome of their hobby. Fine. No problem, enjoy yourselves, that is the point do not involve yourselves in the rest of our hobby  there is no need you can get your  painted armies delivered  to your door and begin fondling your numbered  cubes over the table almost immediately.

 Now I am not(well not much) having a go at people who use painting services. I have done so myself. and, once in a while still do. There are some fine chaps providing these services. I have units painted by Steve Skinner, James Main, Darren Taylor and Jez at Shakespeare Studios to name but four and I have never been less than pleased with their work. There are of course other fine painting services out there who do sterling work to judge by the amount of gear I send to them repeatedly on customers behalf's.

Mind you, I have also  several times encountered painters who are complete pillocks and seem to spend half a lifetime telling you why they have not completed your order on time, or even started it yet, and the quoted "6 weeks" inevitably becomes 6 months or more. This is especially galling if you have been daft enough to pay them a deposit. I know of one customer who has been sorely tried by the fact that  for various reasons "Painter X" simply will not finish his commission and has half painted units scattered about like confetti... ten months and counting for some of them .As my Granddad  would have said "Sod that for a game of soldiers". Buying it done,  is not always the simple option.

 No hopefully this goes a bit deeper. The problem , for me at least,with buying your stuff  "ready to play"  means that if you are not careful you are buying someone else's view  of how YOUR collection should look  someone else's vision , someone else's aesthetic. Now if you are a games player you may not give a monkey's about this and that is all well and good for you. But not me. Being only a games player would be to deny  much of the interesting "other stuff" that makes up the idea of the "Compleat Wargamer" (to misquote Isaac Walton) and yes in some  very small way possibly a more complete, thoughtful and rounded human being- something that seems to be in shorter supply now than formerly, though mostly(only mostly) , in my experience, outwith  the wargaming hobby.

 

However, let us not be too precious about this, let us simply, for the sake of discussion, assume that you think the look of the thing has some importance for you . Okay so that is decided . Where do you go next?

 

Sikh Cavalry painted in the  "received style" of the 1990s. These by Dave Jarvis.

Indian Mutiny figures. Painted and based by me again in the 1990s received style.Though I always undercoat white or grey rather than the colour killing black.

Surely the next thing to do is to decide what kind of look you want for your collection and for your tables when you use that collection. Now when you go to shows or read a magazine or up to a point browse the zillions of wargaming sites on the internet the does seem to be a certain "received look" followed often seemingly by worshippers at the "Church of the Bloody Expensive Rulebook" and those who kneel to the altar of  the "eye candy" within said B.E.R. Now don't get me wrong, sometimes this is appropriate and even necessary but somehow these days I find all of these set ups looking very similar to each other so that you can barely tell one from another- especially when they have been bought and paid for rather than built by the owners fair hand. I've done a turn at "received look"myself, sometimes alone sometimes with   significant help (though never by simply buying it done) and sometimes still do,   but I have never been a slave to convention. After all the "received style" changes every so often as a new B.E.R. appears Indeed rather the opposite- "The Resistance Lives On" so to speak. I want something a little different something a little closer to unique. Not always, but sometimes when the mood takes me, I want out of the current wargaimng rut. 

The Need for Individuality.

This is one of the reasons why I have- for some games and periods, some of the time- reverted to older "retro" rules. They have a different feel to them . It is the same with "retro" figures they frequently have more individuality. They lack the tediousness of "perfection". With many of today's plastic(or indeed metal) perryclones you are hard put to tell one make from another, still less when all are painted in the "received look"- often with extra knuckles.  I like models and units with a little  style and a little individuality so,  in some cases, I mix makers in the same army or even in the same unit. The idea of having the same army based in the same way for the same rules as every other  chap has absolutely no appeal whatsoever. One of the advantages of older figures was that you could tell a Lamming from a Minifig from a Garrison from a Willie . Variety was the spice of my earlier armies.

Even within my own pretty modest collection I don't want all the armies or games  to look the same. Up to a point each period should have its own look . Sure. there will be similarities and sometimes even a bit of crossover- especially with scenery - but the idea is to create something  with a little individuality rather than another same old same old. In terms of the look of the thing this might sometimes mean a more "stripped back" and simplified terrain more consistent with the "retro" look of some of my armies.

An example of a somewhat more "stripped back" terrain style which seemed in keeping with the  retro feel of "Charge!. by Young and Lawford. 

So my "retro" ECW collection looks subtly different from my "modern" one even though they  have sometimes appeared on the same table for a bigger game.  Its the same for the retro and modern AWI groups too. Though for these , being smaller collections by far -are not quite stand alone yet, but once they are will be used for different style games. The "modern " set being used for rules such as British Grenadier and the "retro" set for Featherstone. Of course they can, at need, come together for larger games in either discipline where a "pure" look  for either is not needed during er... playtime . 

"Retro" E.C.W. painted in the style I used in the 1970s- though these days hopefully with more skill. Most of the figures in this unit are Les Higgins 30mm castings out of production since  the late 1970s.

More "Retro" E.C.W. This time mostly Hinchliffe Foremost- still available. Again painted in the shiny 1970s  style .

You may have gathered by now that the actual game play is the bit of this hobby I treat with the least seriousness. The reason is simple, the actual dice rolling is of no consequence. I don't do competition so I don't often care about such minor matters as win or lose. Win UNHISTORICALLY mind, now that is of some matter -at least to me but  in our group that is very difficult to achieve in Umpire controlled games where the Umpire knows his period and the rulebook is merely a toolbox  for him to select the bits he needs to run the game. No army lists no points systems simply a scenario and a narrative.

The more usual "look" this time a 15mm game our group did at the Durham show in 2019. Models Blue Moon Marlburians from Jim Mains collection

 My point here is that each wargamer should be free to choose his own "look". I have for instance "gone off" - for some periods the heavy terrain boards in the Marlburian game photos in favour of the more portable cloths and "assorted things to stuff under cloths" to make hills and dead ground. For some games that approach is simpler and more effective. I have -in this case- reverted to an earlier time. 

Another demo game at Durham- this time 15mm moderns. Those MDF boards do weigh a bit- but look good. 

A similar game using the same models but with a different look.  That "desert cloth" fits in a holdall rather than a van ! 

The choice as they say is yours ... discuss! 

Getting organised... Finally

I've had a small collection of 40mm models for the later 30 Years War for some time but I could never quite decide what to od with them.  The problems were all of my own making. 

I used my own Romanoff miniatures casting together with some Sash and Saber and Drabant pieces  but was never consistent in what I actually built or painted. There were bits of all sorts. Bavarian French Scots Danes and the odd Spaniard, as well as models that were really ECW. Also I could not make my mind up about basing. The earlier models were on 25mm square for foot , the newer on 25mm round for use with sabots. Rules had not been thoght about except for a vague idea to use a variant of Young and Lawford's Charge! from the 1960s as an antidote to the  points based faff and organisational twaddle that is Pikemans Lament. A variant on Forlorn Hope was also a possibility but I wanted to game smaller actions  rather than full dress battles and I was daft enough to think PL would do the deed.  Well I got that wrong so the project went to the back of the shelf for a while even though I liked painting the models and completed to odd few here and there as the mood took me.

40mm Thirty Years War French.  Castings are from my own Romanoff Miniatures range all painted- slowly- by me. Flags are hand painted paper.

 I will probably still have to repaint a few Officers Sashes but finally I begin to have some actual units. What I actually fancy are the early campaigns of Marshall Turenne against the Spanish and Bavarians  and possibly the War of the Fronde in the early 1650s.  Lots of scope for small actions around sieges  and suchlike.  Also quite a few of the troops are pretty interchangeable.

 As for rules well - still a bit of a problem but nothing that can't be solved. Using Featherstone ECW rules as basis  but adding some command rules  might serve but I will need to test the theory as is using a Charge variant . What I don't want is the same old same old just because it is popular - indeed rather the opposite.

Close up of the pikes and colours in the centre. 

So here are pictures of a reinforced rebased and revamped Regiment Champagne chosen because my wife and I like Champagne and always have a bottle or three about the place. Next regiment for the French will be Picardy - with  some of the Queens Cavalry on the go as well. 

 The first officer for Picardy. He is a Sash and Saber figure converted by adding the half Pike the Sword and his hat from Romanoff parts.

TLC for Old Lead Dudes 2

 This has been a long time coming. Half of these Lancers have been on my painting table for over a month. But while other fellows have been enjoying themselves painting away during the lockdown I have been sending out  lots of soldiers so they can paint them. This has left surprisingly little time to actually paint any of my own.

 Nevertheless I have managed a bit here and there. A few sepoys for the Sikh Wars project and these fellows.

 Well half of them anyway.

Polish Lancers of The French Imperial Guard.30mm

 Most are Stadden 30mm with a single Willie (stop giggling at the back there !) while the Trumpeter is an old Minifig 30mm on a refurbished Willie horse. The poor creature needed a new tail  which was provided by a broken Old Glory horse from my spares box.

As regular readers will have gathered these are going into the "Shinyloo" "retro" collection and when possible will be used along with "Charge!" rules for smallish Napoleonic games.

From the Front.

The whole idea of this project has always been a sort of pastiche  of and homage to wargaming in the 1960s and 70s. Back in the 1970s when I started, I may have ogled and lusted after Stadden and Willie 30mm but simply could not afford the price tag. Even 25mm metal in any quantity being beyond my pocket  until the late 1970s. Back then 30mm were usually  3 times the price of  the then 25mm (28mm being an invention of the mid 1990s of course) so it was not until   comparatively recently that I managed to amass a decent collection of these models- most bought secondhand and some in shocking condition , picked up at shows initially  and more recently on ebay.

Two more views of the same unit. 

So these Lancers and the Minifigs General (who although painted as French may not be so but since he arrived French albeit battered  I thought it better for him to stay French ) will join the forces of Napoleon Shinyparte to hopefully once again try conclusions with the Duke of Wellyboot across the tabe in my groups local pub...... Not today though.  The whole look is deliberately retro even to using retro style scenery where I can- old Britians and Merit Trees for example with some even older- but refurbished Britians farm haystacks and Johillco metal hedges 

The venerable Minifigs 30mm General. 

An older shot- when the collection was much smaller - but showing the Britain's trees. 

TLC for Old Lead Dudes!

 It cannot have escaped the notice of regular readers of this blog that I am rather partial to old and out of production 30mm model soldiers. Mkars such as Stadden ,Willie, Les Higgins and Barry Minot  do blow my skirt up certainly much more than the  sometimes rather tedious stuff you see about these days.

2 shots of the repaired Hussar. Painted as the British 7th Hussars. I have another half a dozen or so of these to restore- none need as much work as this chap did.

This is not to say that all modern stuff is boring, far from it,  there are a good number of modern makers I like and respect,but a good bit of it really lacks movement and style and that indefinable "difference" that makes it stand out from the crowd. Of course if you want your collection to be the same as everyone else's in some kind of conformity dictatorship go ahead , but not me...
  As I type this I am reminded of an incident that  happened on one of my trips to Historicon- a good few years ago now. I was doing a stint on the Old Glory booth and was talking to a rather pleasant chap who was interested in Napoleonics..... but wasn't going to buy any because he had to get WW2 "because Randy said so". Said Randy seemingly owned the gaming group because it met in his house of somesuch- the details now escape me but I still recall my own distaste at this .. after all it wasn't Randy's bloody money. Even then my thoughts were unprintable vis a vis Randy even though we never met. Peer pressure - shove it where the sun never shines- hopefully with sharp edges.
 So perhaps the foregoing illustrated in part my distaste for that kind of conformity in life as in wargaming-

"What are you rebelling against?"
 Whaddaya Got?

 Some things never change !

So these older 30mm are distinctive and different that is why I like them.
There is a downside. I often buy second hand groups of these and they are  sometimes not in the best of conditions so restoring them has become part of the hobby for me. The Stadden 30mm  hussar in the photos arrived without a sabre and his  Willie horse without a tail. I also had to add a saddle girth and other harness. From metal foil from a decent bottle of Burgundy as  I recall but almost any such foil will do. The sabre came from the spares box and if French as I didn't have a British 1793 pattern in hand and the horse's tail from an old Old Glory horse which I had managed to break at sometime in the past. .

Guard Horse Artillery. These did not need a huge amount of restoration beyns a few tools and a repaint.

 The Imperial Guard Horse Artillery are all Stadden 30mm crew but with Sash and Saber  guns as the bag of crewmen were gunless when I bought them.
 All of these figures will go into the ongoing "shinyloo" project which is currently growing  a bit for a public outing later this year.. Of course when I bored with old and shiny I will go off and paint some new and matt- Sikh Wars or Indian Mutiny .... But for now it is shiny in the driving seat ... but then I do have those Sikh Cuirassiers to finish......

The tale of the Dropped Lancer.

This is my first blog post for some time. There are many and various reasons for this. Not least the minor fact that I did my back in  unpacking my last shipment form Old Glory USA. This slowed me down a bit as amongst other things sitting typing was bloody painful so I didn't do it. Equally  other work still had to be done- getting out the back orders and sorting out all the stock. After all there were 10 boxes of gear o sort out - about 3000 packs of soldiers- maybe a few more. We got it dome, my wife Carole and I, but it was several days slower than I would have liked.

  So you can see , Gentle Reader, that not a great deal of figure painting has been done in the meantime. Yet as I recovered and the pain became merely awful  I did manage to finish a few including the mysterious Dropped Lancer !
 In a previous post  I showed you a unit of Bengal Irregular Cavalry I had painted for the Sikh Wars.  but there were only 9 so - since there were all from one pack of Old Glory figures and they come in 10s where was number 10 ? Answer on the bloody floor where I dropped him  then lost him. Much later he made his presence felt when I stood on him in bare feet. Wrath and bad language did ensue! But the little chap was undamaged  so I plugged in a lance hand and a wire lance and painted him (FYI in many Bengal Irregular units weapons were initially a matter of personal choice and in some only NCO's carried lances in other more or even the whole unit it rather depends upon when and where )
 So here he is,

The 40mm medieval man at arms I picked up from Colonel Bill's along with several other  painted 40mm late medievals from the Italian "Mindstalkers" range. These are lovely  models, actually Fantasy but with a useful number of late medievals amongst them. I have piced up the odd one here and there from ebay. When new the price was utterly eye-watering at around £8.00 per foot fig so I don't buy them new. This chap is actually on a Sash nad Saber horse  and has been though several owners I think. He needed a bit of TLC to repaint dings and scrathes but was in respectable nick overall. So a bit of  repainting and rebasing and he will join my 40mm Wars of the Roses- Late Medieval collection.

The third chap is another 30mm Stadden  of significant vintage (possibly at least 50 years old) for "Shinyloo" Colonel of the 69th foot. He has no regiment yet but will have. I don't add to this- or indeed any other collection in an orderly manner I mostly paint what I want when I want and to the devil with order. After all this hobby is supposed to be.... er    FUN!!!

In other news the new Sash and Saber 28mm FIW range listing is up on the OGUK website.
http://www.oldgloryuk.com/french-and-indian-war-28mm/26/245

At the moment it is showing as unavailable- and will until stock actually arrives.  But you can see the  list of figures and the UK prices.
I have never personally though it quite the ticket to sell stuff I have never actually seen or held in my hand.
 Now to be accurate I won't have everything- .Initially no snow shoe dudes and no Highlanders and not all of the regulars. they will come across in future or as chaps order them. You can order stuff by emailing me direct on info@oldgloryuk.com and I will see if I can tag it on to my current order  or failing that  wait until the next one goes off to the USA.

A little bit here and there.

We have been very busy of late  so that not a great deal of painting has been done. Stuff that was on my table before Salute is still there. Now  I am not , and have never been, one of those wargamery types who can start at one end of an army and finish at the other without food or sleep or a pint or any normal comfort . Chaps like that make me nervous, obsessive aren't they? Sometimes  bit self- righteous perhaps ? Anyhow I ain't one of THOSE boredom would kicj in far too soon. No I apint what I want when I want and enjoy the process at least s much as the results

  So recently I have bitted about a little more than usual. Some 15mm Marlburian High command  for our groups game at the Durham show in June.  A40mm drummer for Regiment Champagne  for the very slowly growing 40mm TYW project . and finally these two little beauties. Command figures for the Indian Mutiny project. Both of these are from the Mutineer high command set and to be honest I am not sure who is who- though they do come with name labels on the figure and  another as yet unfinished is definitely  Lakshmi Bhai - The Rani of Jhansi as the figure is obviously female.
 Painting these two was a  treat in acrylics and inks over a white base coat to make the colours pop a little. They are added to the slowly growing force of Mutineers - or  Freedom fighters if you prefer.  To take on the forces of John Company

All of my Indian Mutiny forces are from the Old Glory  range and once hey are table ready I plan  to use a hybrid of Charge! and The Sword and the Flame which -at least in theory- should give the right mixture of order and sudden unpredictability. 

Another figure from the same pack I painted a while ago. 

Some of the British opposition - all Old Glory from the same pack CMB2A

And finally  some mutineers- selections from 3 packs. 

Well that's the plan .....

Painting services.

Now in my line of work I come across an awful lot of figure painters. Some very very good indeed. Some not so and some middling. Prices are the same ranging from a good deal to  WTF!! is he having a larf ! Now all of these are of course subjective value judgements not facts. People will pay for what they want so some bloke will be quite prepared to pay £30.00 for a single 28mm foot figure.  Especially if they only want a dozen for their whole"army" . Personally I won't. Hell will freeze over first. Of course I can paint a bit myself but do not have the stamina to be a full time painter. I like to paint what I fancy when I fancy and it is never- for me- about "finishing an army". No army of mine is "finished" unless I sell the lot, usually because it has not been used on the table for a few years. As I have said previously once I sort stuff out quite a few things will have a "For Sale" sign over them . This will include units by some professional painters past and present.

These little 10mm dudes are part of James Main collection. The figures are Old Glory Gradscale 10mm. Jim has also painted numerous units for me and does take commissions but is not a full time painter. He is a builder by trade. 

These 15mm Old Glory Africans were painted for me by Jez at Shakespear Studios. I have always found him very reliable.

However over the years I have used more than a few painters and even pursued one through small claims court- which amongst other things showed me that there are painters out there who are complete arseholes.
 To counter that however many are not. Many are sterling chaps.. Of those in my collection who are still working  full time as figure painters I heartily recommend the following Shakespeare Studios- Jez does the most excellent 15mm moderns including camo and is tasty at other stuff too- including Napoleonics. He did my Falkland War and Rhodesians as well as African Guerrillas. Oh and a lovely battalion of Austrian -Hungarian Grenadiers. All are on the Old Glory UK website. Dave Jarvis  painted stuff for me before he went full time and before I was OGUK. I only have 1 unit of his left- again on the website these being Sikh Wars Ghorracharra  cavalry.

These Sash and Saber 28mm Rebs were some of the first models Darren did for me back in the 1990s 

Old Glory 28mm Turkish Dellis- painted again by Darren Taylor

A bit of wierdness- Cairo Janissaries and Mamluks in 28mm . Old Glory figures again painted by Darren Taylor. The Napoleon in Egypt project there were for stalled a few years ago. I may revive it.

However when I was going back through my collection I realised that I have quite a few units painted by Darren Taylor- a chap I thought had stopped working- but I was wrong as we reconnected over a mutual client recently. Darren - even as I type is still at it. Over the years he has painted all sorts for me ACW, ECW Ottoman Turks and Napoleonics. The header picture for my first post of this blog are Kings Lifeguard that he painted for me in the late 1990s - still going strong.

These Sash and Saber Prussians were painted for me by Jim Main - as Hessians for my AWI collection. 

So yes there are plenty of painters out there doing a fine job but me I still like to paint my own. Some how I gives me a better sense of ownership of the units or armies in question.

More of Darren's Sash and Saber ACW in my collection. 

These 40mm Thirty Years War figures - Romanoff ans Sash and Saber were painted by me. Included here  simply to prove I do not only use painting services.

A little bit here and there.

What with one thing and another I have not had much time recently for painting . Been rather busy of late getting orders out and sorting gear out in all directions. However I did manage to finish a few "shinyloo" models from a job lot I bought and had a little time to sort though. The British heavy dragoons are Minifigs 30mm I think - though the horses are Stadden. The Napoleon is a small 1 piece casting by Holger Ericsson and is a little beuty- too small for my 30mm as he is sort of "true" 25mm  Now once the undercoat on those Indian Muting cavalry  has dried I can get to them... unless I decide to do more 40mm ECW

Another Napoleon I now have 5 including one on a camel 

British Heavy Dragoons- in this case the Royal Dragoons,

Troops of Horse and Photo software.

These Two troops of Roundhead cavalry have been on my desk for some time- Both will join existing troops to form larger regiments. So the Orange Cornet will join the Earl of Essex's regiment and the Red Cornet Sir William Balfour's  regiment. Both troops will join the "Modern ECW"  army rather than the shiny 1970s one. The Parliametarians in this collection are representative of the Earl of Essex's Army for the Edgehill campaign. The Royalists  more for the Summer of 1643.
 The shiny blokes are of course for 1978 !
 However  I do fancy doing  an "Edgehill-a-like" sort of refight at the Durham show this coming june(assuming of course that they are kind enough to invite us) where I use about 90% of the ECW stuff I own all on one table- the thick end of 1000 figures I think, though I have not actually counted 'em all.

Troop of Sir William Balfours Regiment of Horse. Possibly that of his Major and Son- William Balfour . 

 The models are all Old Glory though the horses- again Old Glory are- or some of them are- no longer in production. We changed our horses a good few years ago as some of the older ones were a bit thin. However I still have a few of the older horses left in my personal stock and for some units I prefer them.

Two troops together led by Sir William Balfour. Though at Edgehill he may have been in Cuirassier armour as the first Colonels troops of his regiment consisted of 802 cuirassiers plus officers.  So I might paint another ! 

Close up of the two troops. 

An 8 figure Troop represents a standard  troop of horse of roughly 70 men plus Officers so figure to man ratio is about 1-10 . However on the table they often act more like "divisions" of 2-3 troops which was the standard fighting  formation- we'd call it a squadron.
 Photo software can do your head in . I took these pics yesterday and the machine then hid them in the bowels of itself when I uploaded them to the computer. Apparently  the photo software  thinks it is Jan 1st 2005  despite haveing accurate clocks and calendars for other functions. Talk about left hand not knowing what the right is doing.

Dimensionally Challenged.

As regular reader will know I like the painting and modelling side of the hobby. More- in some cases- than the mere dice rolloing. I paint figures because I like 'em not merely because I want a few more pretty counters..
 Thismeans that sometimes I paint figures which don't fit into any armies or projects- just because I like them
 This is especially so when I(very rarely) paint any flats.

Marian Roman legionaries .

 I've had a few flats in the lead pile for years adding too them once in a while because I like their delicacy and the fineness of the detail. I'll never be  in the premier league of flats painters but I like to have a bash as a painting exercise.. It keeps your technique sharp. Remember, these little blokes are "30mm"  so about the same size as most of todays "28mm" but much much finer in proportion.

Robert the Bruce. Painting the double tressure was a right pain. 

I think this one is supposed to be Joan of Arc  but maybe not. 

Some flat painters only paint one side  I paint both as one day I'd like to have 2 small forces  either medieval or 17th century.

Yes I do paint both sides. 

However it is all a matter of "point of View"

But we'll have to see . I paint slowly at the best of times and these take real effort. However I've a couple more on my desk. so this tiny collection will grow albeit at a snails pace.