Pausing the Empire I thought I would try a few orcs, so I assembled and printed a few from Monstrous encounters. Mainly contrast paints followed by a 2:5 Nuln oil wash, which dulled the metals a bit. I prefer Mantis warrior green to the left over Karandras green, but might mix both.

Steam tank goes "Trundle, trundle, KABOOM!"... 😅 To be varnished and flocked but happy with this; a bought hull design with added decorations to the shields, and then a 3D-tinkered turret where I replaced the ugly, hexagonal barrel with a proper bronze one, be it balls or steam it fires. 💁

15th century Italian Kickstarter, part 2. Now with light and heavy horse plus siege/earthwork engineers/workers. www.kickstarter.com/projects/upp...

This "quick revamp" of my 40 old halberdiers basically became a full repaint, and I really should have re-primed them and used contrast paints. Already filled in with paint and varnish by 20 y.o. me they have suffered some more but with shield transfers and a new command I'm very happy with them.

Some Warhammer flags created using the Armoria heraldry tool. I made up a few Altdorf-themed ones as a trial, not sure which will look best on my halberdiers.

The rank fillers from MOM miniatures for my halberdiers are finally done! Some quarter master or other, I presume... 💁 Much too busy models for me; the only thing worse than my eyesight is my skill...

With 30 minutes to spare I have finished the last figure for the year, for a total of 261. Not bad for what has been a shit year... 😐 Happy New Year!

Two of the second halberdier command group finished, now it's just one champion and two new unit fillers to add. I didn't like the effect of the dogs I did so I'll add a quarter master/paymaster-like git from MOM miniatures instead, which will fit in better with plumes and whatnot.

Two simple unit fillers for Pellehammer; lacking two figures so these will go in the front rank of my halberdiers. I could have made them more flashy in Altdorf blue and red, but this will do as a 20 minute effort.

Now, I'm not saying that this is the best figure I have ever painted, but it's far from my worst. The first of the command groups for my revamped halberdiers, and since I didn't paint them very well I of course had to rein in my considerable artistic brilliance now to make this one match them...

Done some Pellehammer flags in Armoria for my Imperials and Tilean mercenaries. The white eagle on is however from the interwebs.

I'm not saying that I bought a very cheap but good and seemingly sturdy griffin model to create my own mounted Pellehammer Imperial general, but I might have...

Not sure how your lives are going, but I have a steam tank at least! 🥳 Now I just need to ruin it with some painting...

I tried applying my homemade as-per-the-old-boxart transfers to my roughly revamped 33 y.o. plastic halberdiers, and I'm VERY happy with the result! Why didn't 20 y.o. me do this properly back then? 🙄

Struggling on with my FANTASTIC idea to rather brutally revamp my 33 y.o. GW halberdiers I've decided on the old-school shields on the boxes I bought back then, so created similar transfer ones in the Armoria app. The shapes are not perfect so need cutting down a bit but they'll also wrap around.

So...someone seems to have ordered 18 new brushes. 😳 Better get painting then... 🙄🙈

I bought this lamp too: much lampiness for little money! 👍

I found this poor fellow during an expedition into the cellar storage. After some 35 years of idling he might have to be stripped and forced to join the Empire..

Despite my low mojo I have at least assembled 4 pairs of company veterans/heroes and vexillum(-ish, no flags intended) bearers (doubling as musicians) to lead my soon-to-be revamped 35 y.o. plastic GW halberdiers. Most likely for Midgard Heroic Battles, unless I can sneak them into Sharp Practice...

Just a first, rough trial of the design and fit, with "transfers" just printed on paper and held on with water. They need to be a tad smaller, like 1 mm less on each side, but the actual transfer will also wrap around the edges nicely. The design works, methinks, good enough for government work...

Not motivated to do something serious I'll revamp these 35 y.o. halberdiers. Just a simple rebase and glow-up, and a dazzling, homemade shield transfer to draw the eye, as I don't want to fully repaint them. I have some in green and blue too, so they could be two separate units for Midgard or so.

I finished another mounted arquebusier. Sadly the horse looks a lot better than the rider... 🙄

Since I'm contemplating some Great Northern War I just want to promote this old site with a tremendous amount of details about uniforms etc. www.tacitus.nu/english.html

I took a wild swing at one of Charles XII's lads, and it's not too bad. I feel I lack some colours, like a proper buff and possibly a slightly more muted yellow, but then again I might try @sonicsledgehammer.bsky.social's Marine juice for these so an initial bright yellow might be good. 🤔

Having ever longer bouts of no mojo at all I might give GNW a wild swing in the dark. I have two KS from Battlecat Miniatures (Swedish and Russian) and the effing Danes can be simulated. Tbh the Battlecat quality has become very unsatisfying with many mistakes but I have fixed most by 3D assembling.

Hm...I have lost track of the number of gendarmes I have painted. 🤔 Between no mojo, choosing rule sets and therefore basing I have actually not based any, but just occasionally painted a few more. 28 seems to be the number now, and I'll need to add more, these are sadly just 3.5 Furioso units... 🙄

The first online game after a summer break saw the notorious spy and womanizer Red Robford sneak away into a newly painted castle with Ms. Bottom to exchange... information... Unbeknownst to them a small French patrol has also occupied the castle, blocking their escape. Help is however on the way!

My Spanish finally added to and re-based for Furioso; as two colunelas (pre-tercio formation), or as one small pike block and two formed shot, or alternatively (if I add fighting bases as these from the Swiss block) two small, one normal (three columns wide) or one large pike block (four wide).

Being a good boy and getting on with the Furioso re-basing and flocking; Landsknecht skirmishers for the pike blocks and the formed Spanish shot for the colunelas or separate shot units.

16 additional Spanish shot to rebuild my two made-up TtS "pike and shot" units to two proper Furioso colunela units, alternative one small pike block and two formed shot. These I now tarted up in all kinds of colours to mix up my parody-painted Spanish in red-yellow-black (right). 16 pike to go.

The 2nd unit of Italian targonieri, intended as generic Italian infantry before 1510, with exchangeable flags. Shield transfers are my own designs loosely based on historical examples and random drug dreams; they would really be more uniform in a mercenary or state unit.

As the Italian shield muppets are ready for basing I have prepared the 32 Spanish pike and shot needed to fill out my two TtS pike blocks into two Furioso colunelas, or alternatively one 8-base pike block and two 4-base formed shot. I'll try hard to paint these really badly to get them done...

The second great shielding is done...

"The re-basing of the Landsknechts", oil on canvas, 1513. Furioso on 60 mm wide bases, or Midgard in a pinch, is the chosen poison so my Landsknechts must go from 40 to 60 mm. The needed table size for Furioso remains a problem for online games though.

I'm picking up speed: I have after more than two years of careful planning flocked my Imperial/Spanish artillery by dousing it in PVA and burying it under a homemade flock mix. It's this kind of precision work that brings the hobby forward... 🙄

I have also finished the first two Midgard units of Italian targonieri mercenaries, with my own shield transfers. Note my patented replaceable flag system, with a tube 3D-added to the figure to hold a bristle flag pole, this so they can be anyone's mercenaries.

I have finally finished the Swiss pike block which has been sitting around for close to a year due to a crashed mojo. I'm quite happy with this, but I need another 3 "canton columns" to give me 2 Furioso or 3 Midgard units, which is something for my upcoming vacation maybe...

The Great Shielding continues... 😅 Still blown away by how good these transfers turned out. 🥳

What? Me assembling 15th century Italian pikemen!? Don't be ridiculous...

Smugness intensifies... 😇

If Smugness was one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse I would for sure be his stableboy! 😇 They are flimsy as duck and I have messed up a few, but the result is fantastic! 🥳🥳🥳 When printing and handling afterwards I did have problems with smudging, but with 3 layers of gloss varnish they are solid.

Finished another gendarme standard bearer. These I will add to annoy people; generic nonsense flags to liven things up, and then have yet-to-do ones with hollow hands for replaceable national flags for proper identification.

I have painted my first "targonieri", the heavy shield muppet infantry of 15th century Italy. Very easy to paint; apart from the humongous shield these gits didn't even carry their own swords, they had a page/servant hovering close by if so. If my transfers work these should look rather splendid! 🥳

Using Armoira to make "proper" Italian Renaissance "tabulaccio" shield designs after pictures on the interwebs. The tool is sadly not finetuned for Italian Renaissance needs so I'm using a pretty large mallet to produce pretty decent approximations, methinks. Google "tabulaccio" if you are bored. 😅

I think I'm happy with this lot; a Midgard unit on two 60x60m bases, also ok for Furioso. Not super-happy with the available poses I have committed the crime of "ball-jointing" some arms to get more "forward" in the fighting poses; this will not be visible after (my) painting. Heads to be added...

Messing around with the targonieri from my 15th century Italian KS I think they will look great on a 40x60mm base, for both Midgard and Furioso; although I'll have to invent the stats for them. They come with a very good tap and hole solution for the arms and heads but I think I'll 3D-assemble them.

My decal trial is (like all aspects of my life) a blinding success! My guessed-at cut out sits perfectly on the surface of the shield with minimal overlap. My move of the designs from Armoria's default positions also placed them well within this smaller surface, so now I can mass-produce designs! 🥳

I have gotten my late 15th century/Early GIW Italian KS delivered, so now we'll see if I can make my own shield transfers for them. First designs to be printed at work are just to try to pin-point the size and shape needed; the shields are quite oval but also curved with straightened sides, so... 🤔

Sadly inspired by @lordraglan.bsky.social's recent river terrain I have ordered a shitload of plastic plants, all of course highly indigenous to western Europe. 🙄 With a dry-brush here and there they could greenify my tables though, in a durable way...

My newly received "humongous castle" KS really seems useful in 28mm. The walls are either one or two levels tall. Yes, there's a 28mm Landsknecht at the bottom there somewhere...