A Sole Archer

This last week's offering is one lonely Persian archer. I have, as expected, been far too busy with school this week to make much headway. Still, in other news, I got another module of the Vallejo paint rack, which rounds out my set-up nicely. Furthermore, I now have 3 Persian and 3 Cissian archers!

That's all for now!

Babylonian Immortal & Another Cissian Archer

Got the previously-painted Babylonian Immortal touched-up and washed as well as a newer Cissian archer. Probably won't get any more done this next week and a half with tons of school piling up. But, once I have time, I plan to finish the Persian archer in the background as well as work on those two hoplites. Additionally, I am going to highlight all the previously-shown minis and then get them some sealer sprayed on.

Cheers!

Archer & Sparabara

Finished touching up the basecoats and them washed this Persian archer and Mede Sparabara. I have the Sparabara's Spara (shield) mostly ready to go, but will wait to add it until right before I am ready to base. These two will still need some highlights (and I might try better eyes too). But regardless, here they are!

That's all for now! Hope to get the Babylonian Immortal done soon, two more archers as well as another Spara.

A Few More Archers

I got two more archers (a Cissian & Persian) touched-up and shaded this evening. They still need their quivers, but I thought I'd show them off anyway.

Additionally, I got this hoplite his side-arm a day or two ago. I re-shaded him to further dull the scabbard between the second and first images, but I included them both to show the contrast in color-schemes between the two hoplites' accessories. I like the red accents but do need to ensure I don't go overboard with color on them. The upcomming Indians, on the other hand, will have plenty of fancy scabbards :)

In the Pipeline

A package from home arrived today containing the minis I had in-progress that I forgot last month. Consequently, the worktable now has quite a few guys in the pipeline to work on finishing up. I have chosen about five to work on for the immediate future and will hopefully have an update with them finished in the next few days. Here's some of what's coming up.

Updated Workstation

Unsatisfied with how I've just had my paints in a jumble, when I saw the modular Vallejo paintholder racks (and since I have mostly been using Vallejo paints), I decided to give it a try. I assembled it today and am quite pleased with how it looks. I think it'll be a lot nicer in the future to work at this table with the stand holding and organizing my paints. There are currently four Persians on the worktable--an update on them will hopefully be forthcoming this week!

Thracian Test & Another Hoplite

The last few days I have worked on a Thracian w/ Rhomphaia (by Warlord Games); with him I tried some colors I have not used as much--Vallejo blue-violet and blue-green. The result is not quite what I was hoping for. The colors are just too close together on the color-wheel and do not look great side-by-side in my opinion. I think that while I love purple, I am going to start using it less on these minis as it was not as common a color during the time-period I am going for. 

Additionally, I have finished base-coating and washing a second hoplite. I am far more pleased with the results I achieved with him vs those of the Thracian. 

Here we have the Thracian & Hoplite in-progress.

    Base-coats

 

With Washes   

 The lighting in that last picture is not the best. I'll try to improve my camera skills in the future.

And a comparison shot with the previous hoplite.

 

All-in-all, it's nice to keep making progress and to experiment with minis that will make up smaller factions in the armies. My hope is that in their eventual unit of 12, that particular Thracian will look a bit better in aggregate as opposed to how he does right now solo. Next update will probably be working on previously-base-coated minis that I left at home that I am having shipped to me at school to finish up.

This & That

The last few days' work has been a mishmash: I have finished the first hoplite, re-shaded the Cissian archer, started testing a basecoat on a Thracian, and begun experimenting with another basecoat color-scheme for another hoplite. 

Here are the five finished Persians. On the far left we have the re-shaded Cissian and on the far right we have the Persian Immortal with figure-8 shield and sagaris. 

 

 

 

Here's the three guys who are built who were worked on the most these last few days.

     The two Persians that were worked on this week.

Thracian w/ rhomphaia test. Not sold on it yet. 

Profile-view of the "twin" Immortal and Hoplite.

The color-tests for these Mercenary/Athenian hoplites. 

That's it for this small update. Hopefully I'll have some more substantial progress in the coming days, but with school assignments and work, it's more-likely that it'll be a slow drip rather than a steady progression or a burst of sprints.

Hoplite & Immortal

Today’s work consisted in finishing the undercoats of the hoplite and Immortal I started yesterday. I did the same color scheme to save paint and am happy with how they’ve come out thus far. Now I have to decide what shield to give the Immortal: a crescent, figure-8 or Spara. If you have any thoughts feel free to chime in! Next up is another hoplite to help the Greeks catch-up to the Persians (though they’ll still be outnumbered ultimately).

 

 

        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                      I gave eyebrows a go on this immortal. Not sure it was quite successful, but I am experimenting with giving the minis a bit more detail. 

Now they just need some accessories (and touch-ups): a sword for the hoplite, spear and shield (I'll use a Victrix transfer for that) and the shield for the Immortal (once I decide on which one to use). Then they'll get washed, highlighted and based. Since I want to use these guys for both Warhammer Ancient Battles and Mortal Gods, I am going to have to come up with some creative compromise for the basing that I have yet to figure out.

Start to the Persian and Greek Armies

Last semester I took a graduate seminar (while in undergrad) on Xenophon's Anabasis of Cyrus and was inspired to get into historical minis having previously collected GW LOTR/Hobbit and 40K Orks. While this does not mean I am abandoning those ventures, I will be shifting my focus and attention here to Persian/Indian and Greek armies. I have started two blogs before for those respective systems, but never painted enough to give any meaningful updates. I hope that that will change here. I am getting more painting hours in as relaxation from the stress of senior year and am excited to share with y'all what I've been up to. 

Cheers,

Daniel

PS: Here's a prelude to what I am working on. 

Cissian archer, Persian Melophoroi (Apple Bearer) and Mede officer with sagaris. 

There guys were experimented on with two different washes. The Army Painter soft tone on the left, and the right two with a Citadel wash. These were also the first minis I've ever done a wash on and the second minis I have ever painted after some Rohan warriors from LOTR. So, room for improvement, especially with the failed attempt at freehand painting Ahura Mazda on the Apple Bearer's shield.

    Athenian hoplite (left) and Persian Immortal (right) in progress.

                                                                                

                                                                 I think that this wash (Citadel), but less heavily applied than the last one's, came out best.

            Next up to be touched-up and then washed!

            Persian Immortal in Babylonian garb and two Persian archers.