Engagement at Kalisz

We are finally playing a game of Naps in a few days, my Poles will get to see their first action!

Its been over a year since we last played, mostly due to my health problems last year. The OOB is not very historical, as it is an excuse to get my Poles and other recently painted units on the table. Should make for a colourful game! And John's scenario looks like a lot of fun.

You can read more about it on John's blog. Expect of course an AAR after the battle.

Bonus theme rounds entries - Hot and Comedy

This year, one of my goal for the Analogue painting challenge was to enter as many bonus themes as possible. Really, it was just a challenge to myself. It is surprisingly demanding, as you basically have a deadline every two weeks, but it is rewarding and it makes you paint weird stuff you would not otherwise have considered. My last two bonus round entries, "hot" and "comedic" are exactly like that.

HOT

 

When Curt announced the bonus theme rounds, I immediately thought that the "hot" round, considering the high number of men in this hobby, would probably have a substantial number of "hotbabes" entries. Yeah, I know, how very original...Obviously you'd supposed knowing that, I'd find something different to paint. Well...you'd be wrong! I indeed decided to go with a hot babe, and what is hotter than a pin-up? Well, how about an angel pin-up?

The figure, "Thief of Hearts Pin Up", is from Dark Sword Miniatures, whch is rapidly becoming one of my favourite manufacturer of fantasy miniatures. It is a very detailed and delicate sculpt, which made it a bit harder to paint and is very different from what I usually do. However it gave me an excuse to use pink, a colour I really enjoy painting. It also made the figure "hot" but in a cute kinda way. Pin-up style rather than Hustler style, if you get my drift. It was my first time painting women's panties!

COMEDY

Of all the bonus themes rounds I can remember, this one was the one I had the most difficulty coming up with a good idea. Comedic? Really, I had nothing in my big pile of lead which seemed to fit that bill. So, again, I turned to my favourite provider of weird and original miniatures, Dark Sword Miniatures. And again the small outfit delivered when after some search on their website I found a great little piece; a Frog Jester! Perfect!

So I went crazy on this little fellow, trying to cram as many colours as I could on him. Hey, a Jester is supposed to be tacky and colourful! It made for a nice little distraction.

So I used pink, 2 types of purple, turquoise, yellow, pale blue and red! And I'm quite happy with the look of this fellow. 

Obviously neither of these figure will find their way on my gaming table any time soon, but its those pieces I *never* would have painted if not for the Analogue hobby. And I do enjoy getting out of my comfort zone from time to time.

Austrian artillery

Today we go back to my first love, the Napoleonic Austrian army, more specifically the artillery arm, with a battery of 6pdr guns. These will come in handy when we play LaSalle, which requires big 4 gun batteries. Anyways one can never have too many Napoleonic guns. I did myself no favour in the competition though as it always takes me forever to paint Napoleonic artillery!

I said it before and I'll say it again; the Austrians just knew how to look good in the field. No exaggerated fluff, no looking like Christmas trees, just a simple and smart dress, and the artillery was no exception. The guns are Sash & Saber, which are by far my favourites and really the only one I use, and the figures are Perry Miniatures. I must say I cursed a lot while cleaning the Perry figs, and it reminded me why I avoid them these days (heresy, I know). The sculpts are great, but the castings were horrendous. Anyways, I'll admit painted and finished they do look pretty good! As usual with the Perrys, the animation makes the figures.

The guns were painted using Foundry Ochre triad and finished with AP, and I really like how they came out. After many experiments in the last few weeks, these were also the first unit to get my new way of painting whites for cloth, using Andrea white paint set. It's less pure white than what I used to do, but I think it's more subtle and more realistic.

If I can muster the courage, and if Curt keeps the madness going next year, I'd like to paint a caisson and some limbers for my guns during next year's challenge! But not this year, I can only manage painting artillery in small dosage!

These guys should have their baptism of fire pretty fast, as we have a game planned in just a few weeks.

I believe this quatuor of guns adds 100 pts to my total. Not bad.