Prepping is done

Dedication is a wonderful thing.  A number of army painters will recommend against doing what I just did, because it can be discouraging to see the overwhelming number of minis to be painted.  I wanted to get all this out of the way.  I plan on painting them in batches and then being able to mix up my battalions because of that.

I know, I know.  At this scale the variety really isn't that visible.  But it is to me and that's all that matters.

Here's how it works.  I need 8 battalions.  Each stick holds 8 minis.  So I can paint each 8 the same except for the battalion designation.  Those will go one per mini per stick.  I can do the bulk of the army painting the regular style then just do the battalion designations across sticks.  Poms and plumes are quick paints.

On to pictures.

Infantry 04 - Prepped and Primed

This is the command figures and the skirmishers.  Total of 24 skirmishers, 8 eagle bearers, 8 drummers, and 3 sub-commanders.  I had to break up some of the organization to make it fit on the bookcase.

Infantry 05 - Prepped and Primed

More command figures.  6 mounted generals, 8 mounted commanders, 8 aides de camp (I think), and 64 grenadiers.

Infantry 06 - Prepped and Primed

Regular infantry. 104 advancing fusiliers.

Infantry 07 - Prepped and Primed

More regular infantry.  96 fusiliers.

So that brings the minis so far to 329 and that's just the core infantry.  I think I've got too many of the fusiliers but I'd rather have too many than not enough.  The mounted generals were just because I had them, I was prepping and priming minis and they might be a fun break to paint.

My paints are on order yet.  I'm using Reaper Pro Paints for the bulk of these.  The paints are vinyl based so they cover very well in one coat.  Very important in painting this many minis.  And I'm planning on painting in what I call "cartoon style" so the colors are very vivid and stand out well on the table.  With so many of them bunched up together the subtle stuff gets lost.  One of the club guys has his painted that way and I really liked it.

While waiting for the uniform color paints I'm going to work on skin and hair this Saturday.  That is easy enough - base coat and wash.  I don't even know if I'm going to do the highlight since I'm going to try moving away from the dark brown wash to the lighter, more reddish flesh wash.  I'm also going to be just a little OCD and paint each stick with a different color of hair.  That also gets a simple wash.  I know it shouldn't show much from a distance but I'll know and when someone picks up a stand of minis it will look like I made a lot more effort than I did.

The next shots should show paint on the minis.  Primer is not a color!

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Prepping an army

Like I don't have enough armies.  Previously I showed some 15mm I was painting.  Now I've got most of the rest of the army and have been prepping like crazy while I've got some time and the need to do repetitive tasks.  I'm still waiting on the paints I want but I've got painting I can do until they come in.  French Conquest is pretty easy - red, white and blue.

Here's slightly less than half of my line infantry.

Infantry 03 - Prepped

Each stick holds 8 minis and there's 12 sticks.  It should have been 11 sticks but I had enough for one more and I would rather have too many prepped than not enough.  I still need to do at least 10 more sticks of regular infantry.  Yes, I need a total of 232 minis for my battalions.

Here's a combination of my Grendadiers (need more), drummers and eagle bearers.  The drummers and eagle bearers all belong to the command unit - there's enough of those.  Yes, I have 8 battalions to do.

Infantry 02 - Prepped

And finally the skirmishers (done) and the horses for the commanders and possibly sub-commanders.  I'm not sure if I'm using those horses or if I have other ones for the sub-commanders.  I need to dig through the unprepped stuff and see what's there.

Infantry 01 - Prepped

Hrm.  The last stick of skirmishers at the bottom didn't seem to be in the picture.

Let's total up.

• Line Infantry - 96
• Grenadiers - 24
• Drummers - 8
• Eagle bearers - 8
• Skirmishers - 32
• Commanders and Sub-Commanders (we'll count as half since the riders aren't attached) - 12

Grand total - 180 prepped minis.

Next up is the remaining line infantry.  So that's another 88 or 96 minis, depending on how many I prep.  Or maybe 80.  I'm hoping there's more Grenadiers in that set since I need another 40 to fill out the battalions.

For those who don't know the Lasalle rules a battalion consists of 4 stands, 8 minis each for 32 minis per battalion.  With one exception.  There's 3 stands of 8 infantry and 1 command stand of a mounted commander (counts as 2 minis), a drummer, an eagle bearer and 4 infantry.  Mixed in with the 28 infantry are 8 Grenadiers.

I need a total of 8 battalions since I'm playing French.  We get 2 additional battalions when we attack.  This is before the French turned into cheese eating surrender monkeys.  Along with a regimental battery (artillery - 3 cannons and 1 howitzer) that makes up my core force.  Of course the artillery needs to be modeled and painted as both limbered (hitched to horses) and unlimbered (unhitched and about to cause havoc) so essentially it needs to be painted twice.

Let's do more math for a total core division.

6 Veteran Infantry - 20 line infantry, 8 Grenadiers, 4 Skirmishers 1 drummer, 1 eagle bearer, 1 commander, 1 horse
1 Regimental Battery - 3 cannons, 1 howitzer (unlimbered with 12 crew); 3 cannons and 1 howitzer (limbered with 6 horses and 3 riders/drivers)
2 Veteran Infantry (attacking only) - 20 line infantry, 8 Grenadiers, 4 Skirmishers 1 drummer, 1 eagle bearer, 1 commander

Now this is where I start sobbing.

6 Veteran Infantry - 120 line infantry, 48 Grenadiers, 24 Skirmishers 6 drummers, 6 eagle bearers, 6 commanders, 6 horses
1 Regimental Battery - 6 cannons, 2 howitzers, 12 crew, 6 horses, 3 riders/drivers
2 Veteran Infantry - 40 line infantry, 16 Grenadiers, 8 Skirmishers 2 drummers, 2 eagle bearers, 2 commanders, 2 horses

Grand total of minis for the core division:

• Line infantry - 180
• Grenadiers - 64
• Skirmishers - 32
  
• Drummers - 8
• Eagle bearers - 8
• Commanders - 8 on horses
• Cannons - 6
• Howitzers - 2
• Artillery crew - 12
• Limbered horses - 6
• Limber drivers/riders - 3

Total of minis for the division.  I'm counting the commanders and horses as separate minis for painting purposes even though they create a single mini.

Total - 337

Sound bad enough?  There's 2 different support divisions as well.  Cavalry and artillery.  Light cavalry is 32 mounted figures and artillery.  Dragoons are 32 mounted minis and artillery.

Oh yeah - I need a commander and 3 sub-commanders.  So that's another 5 mounted minis.

Grand total is around 445 miniatures and if I want to do casualty disruption markers I'll need 15 of those as well.  I can use dice for that but it's not nearly as cool.

This is why you don't count up the number of minis in a historical game.

On the plus side I've got them on the sticks so that I can paint up the 99% that's the same on every one.  The last 1% is the color of the pom/plume to designate the different battalions.  I plan on breaking an army painting rule and not do the same color pom/plume on each stick.  I'm hoping to do some variation in hair and skin color per stick so making each stick one of each battalion will spread those around.  I like a little variety on the battlefield.

Let's hope the weather holds and I can get these primed.  I'm going to prime white since so much of the uniform is white and I want the bright colors for the uniforms. That and my grey primer has been hijacked.

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I didn't forget my elves

Honestly, I didn't.  Once I finally got them here I carefully examined each one, put them in the "good" and "repair" piles and then went about fixing the paint on the ones that got abused.  I have all of the repairs done.  There weren't many - mostly a paint chip or where it rubbed on the foam.

I have to finish up the 3 that were painted onsite.  They were painted but need detail and cleanup work.  They're off to the side, watching me work on a small commission.

Yes, I said commission.  A friend needed some minis painted as part of his booth display at a large convention and asked me to do it.  How could I refuse?  Yes, I know.  Easily.  But that's what friends do.

After all that I hope for pictures this week.

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A couple of pictures of my elf army

I hope to have good detail shots in the near future but until then feast your eyes on the army on the table.

Elf Army 01

Elf Army 02

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Unprepared, as always

Somehow I forgot both the cable and the adapter card to take pictures from my camera to the computer.  I may have to prevail on a friend or two to move them from my camera to my thumb drive so I can post them in something resembling real time.

I've taken some pictures and hope to take more as the convention continues.  I've been lax the last couple of years but I have excuses, as some of you know.  If you don't know, then just consider me a slacker.

Events and commentary so far:

Wednesday afternoon - Rastl's Hot Tub Party was a great success.  More than double the number of attendees.  We had a good time and I think the guys' nads have once again returned from being drawn up into the warm safety of not being in cold water.  Outdoor pools are not heated in Texas and they're a bit of a shock after the hot tub.

A group run to the package store for booze.  Lobotomy Boch, Devil Dog and much Shiner made their way back to the hotel.  Preparation is key.  We love having a package store in the parking lot of the hotel.  Just makes things so much more convenient.

Wednesday evening - Reaper Meet and Greet.  A very informal way for Reaper to put on a spread of food and for folks to start the socializing.  Since July is Reaper's 18th birthday and none of us are around then they celebrated early with cakes.  I don't have pictures but I'll get some from other people.  Each cake had the logo from a different product line.  quite tasty.

Wednesday night - And so it begins.  ShinerCon (which doesn't really exist, is an urban legend, etc) was once again hosted in my room ~sigh~ but it was nice seeing everyone again and having some fun.  We even kept the noise down because there wasn't one complaint from the hotel or the other con folks staying on either side of us.

Thursday morning - Reaper decided to put on a pancake breakfast.  Freshly made pancakes, sausage, bacon and fruit.  It was wonderful.  I even paced myself and didn't eat too much.  Some rather blurry memories of talking to lots of people and finding out if my army survived being dropped from 4 feet right in front of me while being carried to the car back in CO and how it survived the trip.  A bit of wear but nothing broken.  Many people wanted to see it.

The tournament organizer has been trying to get awards for "best painted army" used in the tournaments because we put in a similar number of hours as the competition painters but just paint more of them.  I don't see that going anywhere this year but maybe next year.  Right now my personal goal is to get the last figures painted and the basing done.

I participated in a few dungeon crawls, 2 of them to make up enough players.  I'm trying new strategies in each game just to make things fun for me.  First it was a standard crawl of picking up loot.  Second was trying to get loot and get to the central room where the good loot was.  If you didn't get munched on by the dragon.  I was very, very lucky in that one and got the maximum value for treasure.  Then I got munched.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to see about taking on the other parties and stealing their loot.  I like trying new things.

I have a game tomorrow morning and the rest of the afternoon to paint minis,  My friend Kris brought a lamp with him (thank you Kris!) and some grass tufts that will make finishing the bases sooooo much easier.    After my game is a lunch break then I think I'll sit in on Kris' army painting class.  I helped proof his class handouts and I'm very interested in what the class has to say.  I neglected to print out my own copy of the handout but will get one so I can take notes for making it better next year.  If he cares what I have to say.

I can't get the pictures off my camera just yet but will see if someone can move them to a thumb drive so I can put them online.  Nothing too interesting but let's see if we can change that tomorrow. :D

OK - off to bed for far too little sleep.  As I've said in the past, if we don't look like death on toast by Saturday morning we're not doing it right.

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More mini progress!

I keep getting distracted by phone calls so it takes me a little longer to get the minis done but I also get the fun of talking to my friends.  Go figure.  Of course I could use my Bluetooth earpiece and try to do both but I hate fixing the mistakes that happen when I attempt to multitask.

I've got Saturday to try to finish painting the last minis and paint the bases.  At least try to paint the bases.  I can always do the basing while I'm in Texas but it would be nice to actually have a mostly finished army for once.

I'm hoping time permits me to put up the light tent and take pictures of what's done.  Well, mostly done since the bases aren't painted.

Once again the newly finished stuff is in green.

Here's the total list of what's being done and what has been done:

Troop 1
Larnach the Grey
Lysette
Caerwynn
Royal Guardsman x 4
Death Seeker x 2
Vale Long Thorn x 2

Troop 2
Chiral, Centaur
Centaur Warrior x 3
Hunting Cat x 2
Faery x 2

Troop 3
Silvermaine, Unicorn

Troop 4
Mossbeard the Treeman

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6 more minis painted

No pictures - I hope to set up my light tent this weekend and get pictures of what's been done.  The bases aren't painted yet but I might take some time to do that since it's pretty relaxing end-of-the-night work.

Here's the total list of what's being done and what has been done:

Troop 1
Larnach the Grey
Lysette
Caerwynn
Royal Guardsman x 4
Death Seeker x 2
Vale Long Thorn x 2

Troop 2
Chiral, Centaur
Centaur Warrior x 3
Hunting Cat x 2
Faery x 2

Troop 3
Silvermaine, Unicorn

Troop 4
Mossbeard the Treeman

The ones crossed in green are the latest ones done.  The unicorn and the treeman have base coats on them so they're "in progress".  Next up are the centaurs since they're kind of grunts as well so they don't need as much attention.

Two of the centaurs have their torsos done and one has the horse body started.  I'm trying to get away from the 'brown with black socks' that seems to be a standard horse color.  Of course it takes longer to paint but looks SO cool.

If I push myself I should have 2 of the 3 centaur warriors done before Saturday and the third one started at least.  Saturday is the monthly paint day so I'll bring a solo figure (one of the ones from Troop 1) and see about getting that done during the paint day.  Maybe 2 of them since I might even finish the first one.  Gotta love army painting.

Oh, and for the record.  Spraying varnish on fairies feels like spraying them with bug spray.  Icky.

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