Keep Your Powder Dry

Today's post is geared squarely to newer readers of KeepYourPowderDry (who might, coincidentally, have just ordered boxes of new shiny things from Warlord Games); regular readers may find this post a useful virtual index page. Latest figure from the production line nears completion  If Epic doesn't float your boat: you are going to have to decide on what size* figures you want to use; or more importantly work out a trade off on how much detail you can be bothered painting, or even if you can actually see the figures to paint them. Another consideration is what sort of games would you like to play and how much space do you have to play in? Those of you wondering how to tweak, and supplement the look of your Epic figures might find parts 2b and 3b of my Which Figures? posts. Here are links to all of my Which Figures? posts: Which Figures?  - the original post, where I ruminate about what I want from figures, and what led me to choose Peter Pig. Which Figures? What is Avai...

A bonus post. Crivens! On a Thursday too! In my quest for the easy-life, I have come across a number of bits of stuff, that, well, just make everything easier. Regular readers (hello both of you) will be aware of my almost evangelical zeal for the joy of blu-tack. Those of you who are new a quick precis: blu-tack is a really good way of holding figures/sticking them to the cutting mat when doing stuff that will almost certainly result in loss of blood when you get it wrong. Drilling out hands, drilling heads, major conversions that involve sharp stabby, pointy things basically. For an example see here . Tongue depressors/waxing sticks are cheaply and easily available on fleabay, and make the painting of large numbers of figures a lot easier to manage, less messy, and a heck of a lot quicker. But what of those figures that are really awkward, or need extra bling?  Enter the painting handle. There are some really fancy wooden ones, with celtic designs etched on to them. Blingtastic, ...

A question that I asked myself the other day was: "I wonder how long it takes me to 'do' a regiment?" So I've decided to time and document the process. I already had the figures, had researched which regiment it would represent (coats and flags), and emailed my request through to Maverick Models to have the flag produced. So I imagine I have excluded a fair chunk of time there. Nor have I included 'prevarication' time - all that time spent deciding what colour to chose, trying to find elusive pots of paint that aren't where they should be, deciding what music I should listen to whilst painting, cleaning brushes, filling water pots, drying time etc.  This is one of my standard regiments of foot: 34 figures with separate pikes, and a casualty marker. I'm not the most accomplished painter, my painting style is more akin to waving a brush in the vaguely right direction. Nor am I the quickest. I am of the school that believes if the sculptor put the...

Here's my attempt at a step by step guide on how to do it - a really simple task, that just seems very daunting. All you really need is a little confidence in what you are doing. But be warned - once you've done a few, it becomes quite addictive. First clean up your figures, removing any mould lines and flash. This is especially important for the head, do this whilst still attached to the sprue. (As it is much easier to do now.) Next up the scary bit. It's only scary the first time you remove a head. Grab the head with a pair of pliers and twist. Try and twist in one smooth motion, and keep going until the head comes off. In case you are wondering, those are really small pliers, not an extreme example of 15mm scale creep The 'head twist' doesn't work for some figures, mainly because of their pose. In these cases you will have to cut them off. I have a nifty pair of snips that does the job cleanly. However I do much prefer the head twist method as it lea...

Caveat: if you want a guide to painting horses that employs 16 shades of the same colour to highlight and lowlight horse flesh look away now. This is a quick and easy average painter's guide to painting horses averagely. I must confess that I am not the biggest fan of horses; I blame having a horse mad older sister, who didn't have a horse but had a little brother she could bully.  So I always used to paint horses as quickly as possible, dark brown, with dark brown manes and tails, and dark brown tack. My token gesture to 'not dark brown' was the occasional white flash or sock. Here is my current horse formula. Well it works for me, and my horses look, well, horse like. Colours: I avoid greys and blacks unless absolutely necessary (commanders being known for only riding horses of a specific colour, or certain Napoleonic cavalry units). So my horses are almost exclusively chestnut , bay or dun . In the seventeenth century there wear superstitions surrounding hor...