Walking in a winter wonderland

It snowed in Montreal yesterday. A lot. Over 45 cm! I had the good fortune of being on holidays and so I stayed home and did not leave the house. A perfect excuse to paint all day.

The joys of the Québec winter...

No, I'm not the poor bastard who owns this car

My backyard...snow almost reaches the top of my hedges

Shoveling is (ahem) an especially popular activity for us locals...

I'm making good progress on my first entry in the Analogue challenge (24 Canaanite spearmen). A lot of entries have already been submitted over there and we're barely a week in!

Happy holidays!

Merry Christmas (and happy Hanukkah) to my all my wargaming friends around the world, you know who you are. I'm always amazed just how friendly and helpful you lot are,  and it's great fun to get to discuss and share my projects with you. 

Also a big thanks to all my followers; this blog has just started but already it's been very active and your comments keep me going.

And remember, now more than ever it is important to remember the true meaning of Christmas! ;-)

Look what the postman brought today

Found a small package in my mailbox tonight; yes the Chariots have arrived from the UK (woo hoo). 

These are Cutting Edge miniatures and they look great. A review to follow soon. 

Just in time for the painting challenge. The gods are smiling upon me...

More Colonial Militia

"Speed-painted" (well as per my standards) in the same batch as the 8 previously shown (using washes instead of AP). Again all Perrys.

 

Next post, we go back in time...

A contest and a new project

Iannick-san has received the immense honour of being part of the 47 brushes who will compete in the 3rd annual Analogie Hobbies painting Challenge. Unlike previous challenge I undertook, this one is about quantity. A long painting marathon of 3 months where our resolve will be put to the test! But more seriously a great opportunity for a bunch of painters to motivate one another in a friendly competition. And 47 participants is quite something! As anyone told Curt how crazy this is?! ;-)

Amongst the 47 one finds my two gaming mates; Nicolas and John. Oh this should be fun. This year, Curt has asked us to make a prediction, to fix ourselves goals for this competition. Now, I know what you're thinking. In the immortal words of wiseman Peter Lafleur:

But rules are rules so I'll abide by it ;-) (more on this later).

So we are not allowed to start painting figures for the contest before the 20th of this month. We are however allowed to clean and prime figures.  The cleaning has begun, and the priming will follow this week-end.

What's on the table you ask?

15th BC Canaanites! Did not see that one coming, hey? Yes, I'm going back to Ancients with a new project, a Chariot/Biblical army. I'll talk more about the project in later posts, but here is the army in bare metal, recently received from the Foundry (bless their new shipping prices) :

 

 
The Foundry Biblicals have been on my radar for a long, long time (just a fantastic old school range) and I finally succumbed. Chariots from Cutting Edge miniatures are also on their way.

So my cunning plan is to use the contest to launch this project and do as much as I can in the next 3 months. Well, with some FIW here and there.

Being a slow painter I know there's no way I can beat some of the freaks participating in the contest (I keep hearing about this Ray dude...) but I'll try to give myself an ambitious target (well considering my painting speed). I figure a higher number will motivate me more than a conservative one. Of course it's a double-edge sword as failure to reach that goal will be even more shameful...

So my magic number is 710 pts.
Here's the tentative plan. It will possibly change as I go along and might very well include more FIW depending on my 'goût du jour'.

- 2x unit of 24 Canaan spearmen (48x5) : 240pts
- 1x unit of 20 Canaan archers (20x5) : 100pts
- 6 Maryannu (Canaan) chariots (35x6) : 210 pts
- 12 Bedouins skirmishers (12x5) : 60 pts
- 16 FIW Indians (16x5) : 80 pts
- and of course the entry fee, a samurai figure. I will use an old but great Clan War figure (1x20) : 20 pts

 My biggest concern and question mark is the chariots; I've never painted chariots (other than a Warhammer Chaos chariot many years ago) so I expect the first batch to be quite time-consuming. 

So yeah, wish me luck!

Colonial Militia

And now, for the enemy...

My first "British" forces, in the form of Colonial militia. The figures are from the Perrys this time, as Conquest does not produce Militia types. Actually, these guys are from the AWI range, but the differences (slight difference in the tricorne, cuffs and such) are subtle enough for me not to care. I like the figs, reason enough. These guys will especially be used to represent settlers, farmers and the likes in various scenarios.

While the animation of the figures is superb, I was a little disappointed by the lack of details on the faces. Made worse by a couple of unfortunate casting lines on faces (grrrrr). Nevertheless very good sculpts.

I have to admit these are not my best work. I fast painted them, 16 in one go in less than a week which is very, very fast for me. I also tried to use the new GW washes instead of the army painter, as a test. Man I miss the old washes...I'm coming back to AP for the rest of my project. Anyways the important part; 16 more figures for my project.

I'll post pics of the other 8 figures in a couple of days.

Liebster Blog Award

I"m now one of the cool kid! I've been nominated for a Liebster Blog Award by Nicolas over at Nowhere to lead soldiers :

Par la bouche de mes canons is the new born blog of a combat hardened wargamer, better known as Archiduc Charles by the Napoleonic Era fanatics. I have some insights of what's coming next... Lets only say you would not want to miss that.

(don't ask, I'm not telling...yet)

I'm honoured that my blog got nominated, especially since it really just started. And since, as any fan of Spider-Man will tell you, with great powers comes great responsibilities, this award comes with rules :

- "Copy and paste" the award on your blog, and talk about it a bit.
- Select for the award your five favourite blogs with less than 200 followers, leaving a comment on one of their post to notify them that they have won the award. You need also to list them in your own blog.
- Enjoy the moment, knowing that you have just made someone's day.
- Of course, there is no obligation to pass the award, but it is a good deed really.

It seems I'm a little late to the party (been quite busy at work recently) so it appears many of the blogs I follow have already been nominated for this award. Nevertheless there are still quality blogs outhere which I believe haven't been nominated yet.

Here goes :

RTB at large : The blog of my good mate Roger, filled with great painting of Napoleonic figures, many now in my possession. Rog's productivity is remarkable, and so is his brushwork.

West Tokyo Wargamers : The blog of a wargaming club in Japan. Founded in part by Robert (known as Stavka to those in the know), wargamer extraordinaire and Canadian now exiled in Japan, the blog features all kinds of different projects and eras. 

Großbeeren 1813 : A blog on the Prussian army of 1813. Also featuring a lovely small range of figures. Some great painting, too.

Page of SADA's Hobby : A Japanese painting Napoleonics. And they are fantastic.

Wargaming in 28mm and Nowhere to Lead Soldiers : well these two have already been nominated elsewhere, but I'll put another good word for the blogs of my regular opponents and friends, John and Nicolas. John's blog is now a staple of the blogging wargaming community and Nicolas' new blog sure is starting well.