Murawski Miniatures

While some of you probably already know Murawski Miniatures, the miniature company recently started by my good mate Roger Murrow, of RTB at large fame, I'm sure many don't. The project was originally a private endeavor although Roger was quite willing to sell the figures to those who contacted him. Being of Polish descent, Roger was always fascinated by the Duchy of Warsaw and is working to create a complete range of Poles for the 1807-1813 period using the talents of Mr Paul Hicks.

I was lucky enough to discuss the project with Roger often in the last two years and to see it evolve from concept art to greens and finally the finished metal figures. The reception was so positive that Roger eventually decided to start a company and build a website to sell his range and hopefully to expand it in the future to include other smaller and often ignored states.

In the last year or so Roger sent me a couple of samples and I was very impressed with the sculpt and casting, but unfortunately I was busy with various other projects so I really didn't have the time to paint any of them. A few weeks back I had a good discussion with Roger about where his range was going, future releases, etc. and got quite excited by his ideas. Roger often mentioned to me his lack of enthusiasm and skills on IT related stuff like blogging, forum presences, photo editing, etc. which make up quite a fair bit of a miniatures business advertising nowadays. Which is something I'm not bad at, so it seemed obvious...

I'm very happy to announce a collaboration between myself and Roger. I will take over most of the digital side of Murawski Miniatures so that Rog can concentrate on the rest of the business.
So expect news, updates, early reviews and everything else involving Murawski Miniatures en primeur on this blog, amongst other things. Roger is certainly not in this for the profits, but rather out of enthusiasm for the period, so really all the help I can give him can only benefit me and other Napoleonic 28mm enthusiasts.

This is also the perfect opportunity for me to start a new Napoleonic army, something I've been itching to do for a while now. Yes, a Duchy of Warsaw force! Obviously set in 1809. I'll talk more about this in future posts.

So yesterday a package was waiting for me in my mailbox; the complete range of Murawski Miniatures. Oh goodie! That meant line infantry in both full and campaign dress, Uhlans, skirmishers, mounted officers, generals, AdC's and artillery. A mini-Xmas!

I intend to review the complete range of figures over the coming weeks and months, as I paint them. 

And if you're a fan of the era or just like nice miniatures, go have a look at the new website. 

Golden age of miniatures, hey?

Upgraded Napoleonics

I'm in the process of reassessing my Napoleonic project and consequently updating my Austrian army (rebasing and going from a 16 figure regiment to a 24 figure battalion). 

This is my first "upgraded" Austrian batallion : 
  
The first battalion of the (IR11) Erzherzog Rainer regiment

 If you're interested, you can see a pic of the original unit on my website Clash of Empires (as well as tons of other Nap pics in the picture gallery and the blog) as well as more pics of the upgraded battalion and a long winded explanation for the change.

I won, I won!

I have to say I have the worst luck in the world when it comes to random draws and such. I NEVER, EVER win anything. I'm not kidding. Last time I won anything was in 1985 when I won a Playmobil castle set by mail draw (it was an amazing set though). I haven't won anything since.

The last thing yours truly won by luck

But not anymore! I indeed just won the Special draw prize from Lokis Great Hall, which is a fantastically painted Thor miniature. Yeah!

Now I don't own a Viking army or anything like that, but it will nonetheless find a place of choice in my display cabinet. I love to get my hands on well painted miniatures to observe the technique and brushstrokes up close. 

So thanks a lot Andrew! Hopefully you just broke my curse. I have to say contests have been going well for me recently...

This calls for a happy dance!

 

Ooooh...free stuff (Loki's Great Hall 2nd Anniversary Give Away)

In a clever and Machiavellian attempt to increase traffic to his blog and to celebrate the blog's second anniversary, Mr Sanders over at Loki's Great Hall has started a giveaway which includes all kinds of cool prizes for the winners. Our task is to link to his blog and then comment the shit out of it. So please, have a thought for a poor Canadian in need of more figures and click on the link above, you'll feel better for it. I'm on a roll right now, having almost won something yesterday, so now is not the time to let me down!

As a bonus, it's a great blog with fantastic painting and I believe you will enjoy the visit very much. Unless you don't like looking at well painted figures...but then why the hell are you reading my blog you freak?! 

Below is an example of the fantastic painting you will find. This entry was one of my favourite of the Analogue challenge.

Award time (yes, I almost won something!)

Curt announced today the Awards for the 3rd Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.  The challenger's choice was my second choice, so I quite agree with the pick obviously. I was pretty sure it would win as it is quite original and very well done. Pretty cool stuff, hey?

You can see the other winners on Curt's blog, all fantastic work. And yes, yours truly was nominated for the People's choice award for his Canaanite spearmen (woo hoo). Thanks to all those who voted for me! Next year, I'm going for the win ;-) 

A pleasant and unexpected surprise on my birthday! (I just turned 34 today).

Canaanite spearmen II

Another post on my biblical project, quite appropriate on Easter Sunday!

My second unit of Canaanite Militia spearmen. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this unit missed the deadline by a day, as I couldn't finish the basing in time. Nonetheless, I broke my personnal record by a mile on these; 24 figures painted and based in 8 days is something of a miracle in my case. I usually take 3 or 4 weeks to do a complete unit, and my previous record for 24 figures was a little over 2 weeks. I'm quite happy also as they don't look rushed to me at all; one of the thing which limits my productivity is that I'm very perfectionnist and I cannot find the will to cut corners in order to save time. So while I did rush these a little, very little cutting corners was done!

So this is my second unit of Spearmen (first one here). The first unit was made-up of marching soldiers while this one is much more animated and in attack pose.

The figures are Foundry, and the casualties are actually Foundry Egyptians casualties (as far as I know nobody makes Canaanite casualties); some of the figures in the pack (like the Egyptian casualty in my Vulture vignette) are unusable as Canaanites but some are dressed close enough to pass as. I'm a sucker for putting casualties in units, especially on units in attacking poses. 

Some close-ups...

I must say I am having a lot of fun putting this force together, more so than I first anticipated. I was afraid all that flesh would get to me, but not at all to this point.

 It's time for a progress report :

If we look back at my original plan:
2x6 chariots

2x24 spearmen (close order)

1x20 archers (open order)

3x12 skirmishers (slingers or javelinmen)

1x Canaanite prince on chariot

I've now finished the following :  

3 Chariots

2x 24 Spearmen

2x 12 skirmishers

(plus a small vignette)

Considering the project was started just before Christmas I'm quite pleased with my progress so far. Obviously next up I will have to work on more chariots. Which brings me to a small change I've made in my army organization; my first idea was to create two units of 6 chariots but now I'm aiming at 3 units of 4 chariots, with the possibility of beefing them up to 6 later on. Most rules I intend to try are flexible on chariot unit size with 4 being the minimum size, so that's not a problem. 

So yeah, next up in this project will be 3 more chariots, I started the cleaning yesterday. Although  I also have some Napoleonics on my painting table. Recently I started doing something I never did before; paint two units/group of figures "simultaneously". I find it really helps my productivity, and when I'm tired with a unit I go with the other one. I however never paint more than two at the same time; more than that and I'm going to end up with a collection of half-painted stuff! And of course as per my usual habit I finish, base, etc. those two units before moving on to something else.

Feast of vultures (Analogue contest last submission)

My last submission to the contest was a small diorama I call 'Feast of vultures', with dead Canaanite and Egyptian soldiers surrounded by vultures. 

The vultures are from Foundry and were sent as freebies with my Shasu Bedouins. Not wanting free stuff to go to waste I figured I had to find a way to include these animals in my biblical project. Mostly it's for the looks but maybe I could use them as a marker of some kind.

The casualty figures are also Foundry. I find the addition of a couple vignettes really helps gives personality to an army, as well as making nice tabletop decorations. They are also a nice distraction in between painting units.