Here are some nice League of Augsberg Dutch militia I'm basing up, painted by Dan Toone and David Millward. There will be red and blue units. I just need to do the standards.

Happy New Year, all! Here i am still sculpting a vaguelly-neanderthal head on this tapir, for Prax. Need to add hair!

Early stages of work on the Founder of my Morocanth tribe. It is all getting very "Island of Doctor Moreau" round here.

...and this is the wip high llama tribe founder. I still need to make a weapon for him; likely a dagger axe.

Over Christmas, I've been finishing a very large high llama which will be the herd protectress for my Praxian army. It is heavily converted from a toy llama model.

I have added a second battalion of Nettancourt to my French WSS collection. I love having 2 battalions of the same regiment, especially the way the second lot of standards echoes the first, but with a twist. Some minis are from ebay, some painted by me and others by Jack Greenaway.

I've been distressing and fitting standards; 4 down and 4 Garde Suisse) to go.

Messing around with the new North Star 1672 Louis XIV. I've put him on a rearing horse; that's how he is in all the portraits. He's a super sculpt!

Here is my Carignan-Salieres battalion, now fully flocked. This is battalion 10 of my 16 battalion 1672 initial target (I plan a first game at the end of February). The minis were painted by Nick Buxey and Richard O'Connor. Once tufted, I'll take a proper photo. Standards are Not by Appointment.

A WiP shot of my two new auxiliary cohorts, part based. These are going to be the Tungrians, who supported the Batavians at Mons Graupius.They are lovely old Foundry minis with a couple of Aventine centurions. They are the work of four different painters, including Shaun McTague and myself.

I'm clearing the decks by finishing off a couple of units of nice old Foundry Saleh Roman auxilia, a mix of ebay purchases and stuff painted by mate Shaun to match. I have painted the majority of the shield designs- trying to make them look somewhat irregular. Basing tonight!

...a quick wip shot of my 1672 French artillery. I plan to have six guns plus fusiler guards, but will start with basing these two. Many of the crew are simple conversions from pikemen.

Making basing. Chamfer edges, line underneath with thin magnetic sheeting, fit extra magnets, superglue.

Some 1672 Spanish musketeers and Polish dragoons. I am getting distracted by the lure of Eastern Europe; Poles, Cossacks, Ottomans and even Tatars...

...another week, another brigade to base. This time its the Gardes Francaises and Gardes Suisses, 1672-stylee. I still need to add flags and officers. Battalions are of 28.

WiP shot of my first 1672 Spanish battalion, painted for me by Outpost Miniatures Studio. I made up the Flags of War standards.

Basing tray; the Coldstream Guards and the Lord High Admiral's Regiment for 1672 (banging flags!), and the second Battalion of Nassau-Friesland for the WSS. Also a couple of stands of WSS dragoons.

Back in the summer, I did a Podcast with Jared Fishman of the 20 Sided Gamified Podcast, co-hosted by Peter Anderson (AKA Gonsalvo), the well-known American gamer. It was a whole lot of fun, and has just gone live- you can find it hère: open.spotify.com/episode/5lH9...

Basing up the Lord Admiral's Regiment on my FK&P06 bases.

Made up some new Flags of War standards for the Royal Admiral's Regiment, 1672, predecessors of the Royal Marines.

All set up for our big game today at Partizan!

Tarting up a battalion of Dutch Guards, flogged to me by Raglan of this parish. They now more or less match the 1st Bn, behind.

I have more-or-less finished a dozen WSS dragoons; two dismounted squadrons of six. Basing tonight!

Some more work on my new terrain cloths; vigorous brushing softens and lightens the colours. I plan to spray again with a final topcoat if the weather stays sunny.

I finished some drummers for my French regiment "Nettancourt" in livery colours. I've tried to paint detailed faces on these- they came out pretty well. Also happy with the lacing. Took a long time, though. :-/

Today, I have mostly been spraying terrain fleeces with the help of chum Ian. Enough for a 28' table; future-proofing.

Today some Romans, by way of a palette cleanser from the WSS. Painting some new auxilia minis (foreground) to match a unit I bought at Colours and am renovating; nice hand-painted shields. These are super Saleh minis from Foundry, and very nice to paint.

This is a photo by my mate Ian, of the French advance at Saturday's game at Colours. I edited out the ugly bases using ChatGPT, but it is otherwise unchanged.

All set up at Colours for tomorrow's game; on the second floor by the lift. Come and say hello!

Off to Colours!

Here's another thing I'm working on, that I'd postponed because of Colours but just restarted. I'm painting extra Gendarmerie to match 9 lovely finished ones at the back. They are very hard work because of all the silver lace and buttons. I need over 50 of these, which is a whole lot of silver lace!

Night flocking, as I desperately try to finish stuff for Colours on Saturday, where I will have a modest Lust for Glory game. If anyone wants to place a last-minute To the Strongest! order for collection at Colours, it's not too late; i can refund postage and chuck in some chits.

I'm basing the final minis for my Colours game next week- two more battalions of Gardes Françaises and one of Swiss (Stuppa). GMB flags on the GF, and Not By Appointment on the Swiss, which David very kindly designed for me. Unusually, I mostly painted the front battalion; they came out pretty well.

Still basing guns. The French are almost done, and I'm just starting on the Dutch. c.17th French guns are chunky!

I have not yet finished the guns, but am getting close. Pretty much everything is painted. I laboriously replaced the five brushes and sponges on the left figures with extra-long versions to match the length gun barrels, 'cos short looked wrong. Next, I plan to fit the gunners, and grout.

Working on my French WSS artillery, just starting to base them. These lovely models are from League of Augsburg, and have the characteristic French long bronze barrels with scrollwork.

I've primed some guns for my French, nice scrolled barrels from League of Augsberg. The hard bit is going to be painting the ironwork.

Prepping WSS flags; there's quite a lot of work involved in getting them right! I like a bit of wear. The edges need touching up, Poles painting and finials adding.

...basing up 8 French battalions; almost at the point of doing the standards.

I've been messing around with editing the background, bases and cloth of some images from my Salute game using AI; quite pleasing results. So far, my impression is that the AI is good with terrain, but rather less so with the minis.

Mons Graupius in play; the Roman cavalry is getting the best of things on the wings. Most of the Caledonian skirmishers have gone home for an early haggis supper, but the warbands aren't yet committed. With Wargames Illustrated, Pen & Sword, Rick Priestley and author Simon Elliott.

All set up for To the Strongest! Mons Graupius tomorrow, with Wargames Illustrated in Rick Priestley's lovely wargaming space. Those are the Caledonians on the eponymous mountain, the equally numerous Romans are on the plain, below.

Today, I am mostly flocking cows. And sheep. The cows work very well in the 15cm standard BatBases, 6 to each.

Ten foot of mountainous background for next Tuesday's game. 28mm mini for scale.

Mea culpa; it has been a log time since my last post. Today, I shall be mostly making/refurbishing heather for a big game next week. Nothing says "Scotland" quite as firmly as massed clumps of heather; I plan to have around five square feet of it.

Morocanth piling forwards, heads down, through a withering hail of arrows

Morocanth trot forward towards the perhaps illusory protection of the cactus forests, as fast as their stubby legs will take them!

Batty, looking hungry, at Vanquish today.

Back to Prax! At the Vanquish show in Bourne End today, messing around with fantasy stuff.

All set up at Partizan; DG11, come and say hello tomorrow!