I ain't been lazy Mum!

This week I didn't realy paint up some project related stuff as I (once again :-/) lost a bit focus.
So I ended up painting two "Imperial Arquebusiers" by Freebooters Miniatures a nice & little german company. The figures belong to the "Freebooters Fate" Fantasy-Tabletop. Don't know if it's that well known outside Germany though here it has a ever growing fanbase.
The figures themselves are simply great. The casting is absolutely crisp, almost no mould lines, though therefore an almost unbelievable richness of detail. At least way more detailed as a common painter as me could ever paint^^.
I painted two other Fantasy Pirates too but I just don't know the manufacturer as these were bought by my wife in one of these '...these are soooo cute' moods. IIRC the figures belong to a discontinued range. They are nice sculpts too, though they are not as detailed as the Freeboorers ones.

At first a pic of all of them:

Rush for Berlin 2: Soviet Support Weapons

These are ready since sunday, though I haven't had the time to take pictures of them. Originally intended for 'Secrets of the third Reich' or 'Rules of Engagement' these were sitting in my drawer unpainted for quite some time. I never was quite happy with the old sculpts. Nevertheless I decided to paint them up in order to use them for 'Operation Squad'.
I was totaly surprised by how they act painted. Especially the ZIS-3 Crew turned out quite well (at least in my oppinion^^).

Unfortunately my cam seems to get older as it's not able to catch the colours right. The ZIS-3 Crew comes closest to the actual colours. Have to get a new one soon, I think.

The whole bunch consisting of ZIS-3 with crew, 82mm mortar and Maxim MMG. All figures from the Bolt Action range by Warlord Games.

Rush for Berlin 1: Soviet Rifle Squad for Operation Squad

As I urgently :-) had to buy the plastic Soviets from Warlord Games at Tactica I  decided to start a soviet rifle Squad for Operation Squad.
First I was not too keen on the box as I have the German plastic Infantry too and I don't like it. The arms are too slim, the weapons too tiny and the bodys too clumsy.

So I was realy surprised with the new Soviets. The weapons seem to have the correct size (at least they don't look like toys), the arms are well proportioned and the casting is crisp.
Painting these guys was sheer fun.

Ok, let's start with the pictures:

First the 500pts. Squad as a whole

Impressions from Tactica 2013

This weekend Mike (http://dreispitz.blogspot.de), Chris (http://christopher-bunkerhill.blogspot.de/), Franz (Sorry, no Blog^^) and me made a trip to the Tactica 2013 in Hamburg.
The weekend was great and we had a lot of fun.
We met a lot of nice people and the atmosphere was very relaxed.

Beside the traders (where I almost not only spent all my money but my soul^^) there were lots of great looking tables. Unfortunately because of the overflow of impressions I didn't manage to take pictures of all the tables though all of them would have earned it.
And for those I photographed I don't always remember who made them :-)

So now on to the pictures!

First of all the amazing "Adventures in Bruegelburg" table using the Bruegelburg Miniatures Range by Lead Adventure Miniatures.

Fall of the western Empire 11: Late Roman Warband ready for battle

These days I finished the last three mounted Palatinae/ Advocati and now I'am finally done with my Late Roman Warband. Unfortunately I've forgotten to take pictures of the last group of Comitatenses I completed last week.
I have to admit it was hard to stay focused especially in the last few weeks particularly as I normaly am some kind of project hopper.
I don't think this project is realy finished for long but it feels great to say so.
As I started the warband I never would have believed that I'll need four months to get 54 figures done but better late than never.

At first a groupshot of warband in all its pride:

 

If I'll have enough sparetime after our trip to Tactica this weekend I`ll try to get some better pictures done.

Fall of the western Empire 10: Comitatenses!

Yesterday I finished the first eight Comitatenses for my Warband. They were sitting on my shelf almost finished for some days now as I was to lazy to give them the final varnish and do the basing.
Anyway... 5pts. ready two more to go.

Fall of the western Empire 9: Last of the Limitanei

After two weeks of a hard time at work I was finally able to get the last four of my Limitanei/ Pseudocomitatenses ready for battle. This gives me a legal 4pts. Warband for SAGA. To finish (at least for a while) this project there are only two groups of Comitatenses comprising of eight figures each and three mounted Palatinae/ Advocati left to give me a reasonable sized 7pts. Warband. As 6pts. is the regular gaming size this allows me to customize the army to a certain degree. As I don't think I'll set this army on a backburner for long there will be lots more stuff to choose from. At the moment I'm thinking about some ballistas and scorpios as well as some cataphracts. Not sure how to play these in SAGA though.

Fall of the western Empire 8: Another Bunch of Limitanei

After painting up the first mounted Palatinae I switched back to the Limitanei or more like pseudocomitatenses leaving the pain of painting horses for the end of the project.

Fall of the western Empire 7: First painted miniature this year

First of all I would like to wish all the readers of my Blog a Happy New Year.

Ok now on to some serious stuff. I painted up my first miniature this year and some more are already on the workbench. You see the new year starts quite productive for me.

I painted up the first of four mounted palatinae. The miniature is from the Late Roman/ Early Byzantine Range from Musketeer-Miniatures as almost all of my Late Roman Warband.

Fall of the western Empire 6: Early Saxon Levies

I've been a bit lazy over the holidays so I didn't paint up that much but finally finished a group of saxon levies for SAGA/ Dux Britanniarum. Miniatures are all from Westwind Miniatures out of their great arthurian range and I've to say they were realy a joy to paint. The casting is crisp and the miniatures have a lot of details. Unfortunately Westwind doesn't seem too eager to promote them in a way that would do them justice. I also realy like the separate head system from westwind as it grants a lot of variations.