Pike and Shottember Update… Success!
Adam: This has been an interesting month. I started off well, with a full unit of 24 models completed in the first three weeks! These are the Valois French Legion pike block: replete with their banner, from the fantastic Pete’s Flags, and bases completed.
I wasn’t sure about the green rims and the brown bases but looking at them now I’m happy. They tie together the many different uniform colours nicely. The banner is for a regiment from Provence, so chosen because I have a Provence regiment painted for my Seven Years War French, too!
I’ve also managed to complete eight of their Milanese allies. Unfortunately, the last week of this month has been completely taken over by work, so besides a further seven guys half painted, I’ve come up short on lapping myself with a second unit!
Considering I set myself the target of one general and 24 pikemen, I think I’ve succeeded (even if the general isn’t done- there’s enough troops to make up for it). Over the next month I want to finish off the remainder of the half done stuff and get the generals finished.
As mentioned last month, all models features above are from the Assault Group renaissance collection.
Hopefully finishing these guys won’t be too strenuous a task, as myself and Rob will also be starting Blood and Plunder pirates to add to our historical gaming. We hope to have a few forces ready for when this virus goes away. And finally, I’ll let Rob reveal the awful pun for next month. Enjoy!
Rob: So this month, with the launch of Blood and Plunder’s Raise the Black Kickstarter, we thought we’d name the month Arrrrctober (Cheers, Dave!) and paint up some historical pirates. From the original Blood and Plunder I have the English Starter Set, so will be painting up some of the militia, as well as a variety of miniatures that arrived from Firelock. A video tutorial for William Kidd will be up on Wednesday, and you can expect more piratey goodness as the month goes on, as well as a mix of the usual videos and tutorials.
So, back to Pike and Shottember. In the average month I’ll maybe paint 5-10 miniatures in addition to the ones who I paint for videos or blog posts, and this month I had to paint up a regiment of 20. It was no small feat. With limited hobby time each week I needed a way to get them from this:
To this:
I started painting them in the usual way, but knowing how I shade and layer, and the amount of detail and slashes in the uniforms, I knew I’ve never finish them in time… Thankfully the answer was in the pots of Contrast paint I’ve had since they launched I’ve not really used too much. Well, they worked a treat! It’s the first time I’ve used them to paint a large amount on any miniature and there’s some excellent attributes to them which I’ll cover in another post at a later date. With the contrasts and one highlight on some areas, they looked fine, and I’m really happy with how they turned out.
For the first time in what seems like an age, we succeeded in one of our casual challenges. I also manages to add some contrasts to the landsknechts handgunners and zweihander units below, so will be continuing these around the next unit of Landskecht pikemen and a commander (who is wonderfully flamboyant!) this month.
As you look at the colours of them, you may recognise them from old Warhammer units, and this is because I’ll also be using them as free guild miniatures in friendly games of age of Sigmar. Here’s to another month, and another unit of pikemen! 🙂