I was quietly boasting to myself a few months ago - feeling pretty smug actually - that I was at the end of my 'lead pile'. In all honesty, I did not have a lead mountain as such, but rather a modest backlog of 1/72 figures.
With the remnants of my Airfix 'Sheriff of Nottingham' & Orion 'Vikings' painted, I was going to take a rest from it all, cease painting & buying, and just enjoy gaming.
I'm a bit of thrifty guy anyway. I don't really have inordinate amounts of disposable cash, simply because I'm not a high earner, and I've kids, a mortgage, and a twenty year old car with 320,000+ on the clock that won't pass its next roadworthy. Money is always a bit tight.
Then I started playing a bit of Lion Rampant and something happened.
Mate, I friggen' love that game is what happened.
A couple of weeks ago I had my birthday, and my missus, bless her, said 'Just buy yourself something nice that's not too expensive'...I was happy to let her off the hook, usually I try to let my birthday slip by quietly, not make a fuss.
So I did splurge out and I spent about a hundred bucks or so on bumping up some forces for Lion Rampant. Two boxes of Zvezda French, a box of Italeri English...and a box of Russian Farm houses for my Second World War gaming.
All in 1/72, my Goldilocks zone.
Over the past few weeks - time permitting - I've been chipping away at the Zvezda box of 1/72 French Infantry. I'm working on completing the painting of all the figures before I start the basing this time.
As usual, I'm working to my '3 foot from the table' standard, but given that these figures and in particular this period has a lot more colour and pageantry associated with it, I'm experimenting with colour schemes and highlighting.
I'm not 100% overjoyed with my efforts to be honest, but I kind off lack the confidence (and time) to really perfect them. The figures so far seem a little bit too dark...I tried to use some highlights and dry brush a little bit of white to make them 'pop' a little bit.
Test and adjust as they say....but most importantly, I do love painting these little fellas.
My go-to with basing is 1 inch / 25mm washers, with el-cheapo buttons from Spotlight. It's a little more involved than just simple plastic bases, but they do have that 'heft' once finished, and more importantly, all my figures can be magnetised on to larger strips that I use for multiple figures basing and storage as well.
I was a bit disappointed that there were only three Archers in the Zvezda box.
Here are some Crossbowmen. For some reason, there are six of these 'loaders'. Their poses are great, but why six?...I would have loved a few more Archers...
I used a blue wash on a white base-coat in an attempt to highlight the ornate designs on the large shields. Then I added a black wash and a little bit of dry-brushing.
As with everything I paint, digital photography is pretty unforgiving, but they do look ok from a tabletop perspective.
These figures ought to keep me busy for the next few months anyway.
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