Sunday 21 August 2011

Yippee-ky-yay, muddyfunsters!

After last night's "I dunno, should be able to do this but there's not much time left" post, I'm a bit smug today.

Thanks to the motivational powers of John McClane, I've got my goal for August done!
"If I can illuminate this entire ventilation shaft with just a cigarette lighter, you can get your models painted!" 

Alright, that's a bit cryptic. Basically, Die Hard came on TV after I posted last night. Mrs Matt went to bed, so I watched the whole thing in the spare room while painting, and got the baggage train all but finished - I just had to wait for some glue to dry from adding sand to the base.

The baggage train awaiting foliage
I made time this evening to finish it off. The base was painted up and drybrushed, and I varnished the whole thing. You might be able to tell in the photo above that the varnish left some white bits. I haven't had this happen before but I've seen it affect other people's models, and it's a pain. Supposedly it comes from water in the air when spraying the varnish (I knew it looked like rain out but I wanted to get it done!) and you can counter it by spraying again. I didn't want to risk that though, so I touched up the discoloured areas - fortunately there weren't many - and added the foliage. 

The final effect is quite nice if I do say so myself (and I do)!

The slave girls of a merchant, along with other wares, are offered at the roadside as the army advances

Flanked by his lictors, a senator pontificates. The officer's helmet covers his face, so we can't see how bored he is...
Some baggage has been unloaded here already, as more arrives on the cart
The precious supplies, including the legate's personal money chest, are carried on a cart guarded by the veteran triarii
The finished scene from above....

... and my original design from the start of the month.

I would also have a photo here of the command marker that I've finally finished off, but the blogspot photo uploader keeps crashing and I don't care that much.

What do I do for the rest of the month then? Well, I don't expect to have a lot of free time, but I do have the following to do to "finish off" this army:

4 principes
4 hastati
4 triarii

That might be a bit ambitious, but I'll see what I can manage in August...

6 comments:

  1. I like it a lot :-) Well thought out and tells a good story

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  2. Well thank you very much - it came out better than I was expecting :)

    I'd been meaning to make something like this for a long time. My intention now is to make more things along these lines, especially unit fillers for games like WFB or Black Powder where you have large block units to move about.

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  3. I love it! I like all the little touches, like the sunken road, the mix of figures and the feeling of a busy road. Very nicely done.

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    1. Thanks very much! It was looking at yours (which are great) that reminded me I'd done this, and that I haven't played Impetus for too long.

      As I said at the time I really enjoyed making this and want to do more, but somehow in 18 months I've not really got around to it. I can sense a new year's resolution brewing...

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