A little bit a painting

The past few weeks of posts have been mostly about gaming, but I have not neglected the painting side of the hobby. I have been adding a few more models to my Star Wars collection and also making steady progress on the Anglo-Zulu War project.

My Star Wars collection generally only grows these days when I spot something in a sale and can pick it up at a reduced price, or when there is a particular character I want to add to the collection.

A rebel squad.

The Mandalorian (Din Djarin), Grogu, and Boba Fett. The Grugu figure was converted so he sits in a hovering saucer, the figure just looked too small on the base without the saucer.

A WLO-5 Speeder Tank as used by pirates.

Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso, and their friendly K-250 robot.

Moff Gideon. A useful villain figure.

The Anglo-Zulu War project began at the end of March this year and is now into its seventh month. There are still a few more British units, wagons and pieces of terrain to complete. I reckon I am now about 75 percent of the way through the project and hopefully in the next two to three months will get the figures onto the tabletop for a game.

2 British infantry units added, along with a mounted rifle unit and some lancers.

I had great fun with the lancer unit, which were converted from some spare mounted infantry.

A few days of painting and a surprise package

I have managed to make some good progress with my painting recently, helped by my son visiting for a day of painting. While he worked on his Star Wars Legion collection, I finished a unit of mounted infantry for my Anglo-Zulu War project, adding to the infantry unit, a Nordenfelt Gun (which I may convert to a Gatling Gun later), and naval brigade figures which I had completed the the previous day. With the mounted infantry finished, I decided to paint some Star Wars Stormtroopers I have had sitting around for a while.

Mounted Infantry

Infantry unit.

Naval Brigade units

Stormtroopers

As having a painting day with my son was not enough, I also received a wonderful surprise in the post. James, of the Solo Slow Wargaming and The Chauvinistic blog blogs, contacted me a week ago to say he was posting through some miniatures that he thought I would find useful. When the parcel arrived, I eagerly opened it to discover some carefully converted Highlanders. There are enough figures for a small unit, and they will soon find their way onto the painting table.

Surprise package contents

Converted highlanders. I am looking forward to painting them.

The parcel also contained a selection of ESCI, Call to Arms, and HaT figures. The ESCI and Call to Arms figures include some interesting models, such as officers and buglers, which will be ideal for the command stands I still need to make, as well as adding a bit more variety to the officers leading my infantry units. The remaining HaT figures will allow me to add a couple more units to the collection.

There was also an accompanying letter, in which James explained the provenance of the miniatures, many of which had themselves had been gifts to him over the years. It was a thoughtful gesture and made receiving them even more special. Thank you, James. It was a wonderful surprise.

A blood Red Skies game for my Battle of Britain campaign.

I am not quite sure what my next post will be. Tomorrow I will be playing another remote Samurai game with Jon (playing the Osaka side) and have also completed the next scenario in my Battle of Britain campaign.

A change of painting subject

I have been painting Zulus for a few weeks now, 240 completed so far, and felt it was time for a change of subject. 

The 1:72 scale plastic Zulus completed so far.

The perfect excuse arrived with a postal delivery of some Star Wars Legion models I had spotted on sale. Some Wookiees and B2 Battle Droids were quickly painted up and added to my growing Star Wars collection, adding a bit more variety of units in my skirmish games.

Battle droids.

Wookiees.

While I had my Star Wars figures out, I decided to upgrade the Emperor model. It is a nice enough model, but it looks like an old man rather than a truly menacing figure, even when accompanied by his bodyguard. To give him a bit more menace, I decided to try and add some bolts of crackling energy coming from his raised hand.

My current model of the Emperor lacks menace.

Adding his body guard helps increase the level of menace.

This was done by bending some wire into shape, coating it with glue, and sprinkling sand over it for texture. Once dry, I sealed it with a second layer of glue before painting it in successive layers of mid-blue, light blue, and white to try and create an energy effect. A small hole was drilled into the Emperor’s raised hand, allowing the wire to slot neatly in place. This means the energy effect can be added or removed as needed.

"Luke, turn to the dark side!"

It can be removed when not needed.

Later this week I have a remote Blood Red Skies game scheduled which will be part of my Battle of Britain campaign.

Boardgaming and test painting Zulus

No wargaming this weekend, but there was plenty of gaming all the same. With the kids and their partners over for a BBQ and games day. As a family we all enjoy gaming, and this weekend’s boardgames line-up included the co-operative games "Reign of Cthulhu" and "The Captain Is Dead!". The Captain Is Dead! proved to be popular and we played it twice, narrowly losing in the first game before managing to pull off a victory in the second game. In the evening we wrapped up with "Small World of Warcraft", which was won by my wife. Despite declaring at the start that she did not understand the rules and was going to give the game a miss!

A cooperative game of The Captain is Dead! in progress.

The games day began with hunting down the horrors of Cthulhu.

The day wrapped up with a game most of us had not played.

Planning and preparation for my Anglo-Zulu War project continues. On the rules side, I have been reviewing options following suggestions from "A Wargamer’s Guide to the Anglo-Zulu War" by Daniel Mersey. At the moment I am leaning towards using "Black Powder Second Edition" with its "Zulu" supplement. I need to settle on the ruleset soon as this will help to determine the basing approach I take.

A option to wargame the Anglo-Zulu War.

On the painting table, I have started work on the HaT 20mm plastic Zulu figures. A test group of four were painted. With 600 Zulu figures to get through, I am keeping the painting approach very simple. They are prepared with a wash in detergent and a coat of PVA glue, then block painted with a final PVA coat to give them a glossy finish that I like. 

The countdown is 594 Zulus to go...

Preparing the plastic figures with a wash in detergent.

A test group of 4 figures are painted.

I have also spent a little time on some remaining Star Wars Legion figures. If I am honest, that was probably a bit of procrastination on my part before I start tackling the mass of Zulu warriors in the plastics pile. Anyway, they are finished now, so no more excuses!

Some Droidekas completed. They were very fiddly to glue together.

Some more Rebel troopers. I chopped off some of their heads and replaced them with Kroot and Tau heads from my W40K bits box. I already have a couple of Rebel troop units and wanted this one to look a bit different.

Star War Legion and WW1 Middle East painting

Before I became absorbed with painting aircraft for the Blood Red Skies game over the past few weeks, I had been adding a few models and making conversions to my Star Wars Legion forces. Four of these models were straightforward builds, AT Walkers for the Empire and Rebels, along with a couple of Speeders.

AT Walkers painted for the Empire and Rebels.

A couple of Speeders.

The first conversion involved turning a Luke Skywalker figure into Obi-Wan Kenobi. I reversed the pose to give the impression of Obi-Wan deflecting a blaster shot or standing in a defensive guard. This required removing Luke’s head and replacing it with a spare, along with adding a cloak from the bits box. Green Stuff was used to make the hood and also lengthen the shirt to be more robe like.

A comparison between the figures. Obi-Wan on the left and Luke on the right.

A cloak from the spares box proved very useful as when I make them from Green Stuff they lack movement.

A view of Obi-Wan from the front.

The second conversion made use of the spare torso from the AT walker kit. I added an alien head and cloak from the ever-useful spares box and mounted the figure on a cheap plastic dinosaur, which was slightly modified and fitted with reins and a saddle to create a suitably Star War beast rider.

A beast rider

Another spare cloak was added to this conversion.

With the aircraft painting done (for the moment) I am now reinforcing my WW1 Middle Eastern forces with some additional Indian units. So far I have added one unit of Indian cavalry and two units of Indian infantry. All are HAT plastic 1:72 scale figures. A battery of howitzers is also on the painting table, which will be crewed by some converted Indian figures, although they are not yet finished.

Indian Cavalry - HAT Bengal Lancers were used.

Two units of HAT WWI Indian Infantry. The Officers were added from other WW1 kits.

I hope to get these units onto the tabletop for a game soon.

Waste not, want not, terrain and a Starfighter

In my last post I made some alien-looking plants using seed pods from a Banksia tree which I found on a walk on Christmas day. While making the terrain (see previous post for details), I cut the bottom off each of the seed pods. These offcuts still looked interesting, so I decided not to throw them away.

More alien plants added as scatter terrain.

A day or so later, while sorting through my stash of various plastic plants I have collected over the years, but never fully used. I found some sprouting flower pieces that looked like they could be attached to the Banksia offcuts to create a few more alien-looking plants. With that in mind, I drilled holes to attach the flowers and then painted the pieces.

The following is a quick overview of the steps involved in making the plants.

The off cuts of the Banksia seed pods.

Some unused plastic pieces of plant not used with sprouting flowers.

Holes were drilled into the off cuts to hold the flowers.

The off cuts were given a green wash, dry-brushed with a light green, and finally dabs of yellow added. 

The finished plants on the tabletop.

I think I have now done my dash with creating alien-looking plants for the moment. Keeping with the Sci-Fi theme, a recent addition to my Star Wars Legion collection is a 1/72 scale X-Wing Starfighter for the Rebel forces. I already have a TIE Fighter for the Imperial forces. Although the 1/72 scale models are smaller than Star Wars Legion figures, which stand at around 30 mm tall, the fighters do not look out of place and appear suitably proportioned when mounted on sticks so they stand about 12 inches above the tabletop. With this addition, both forces now have access to air support, and the X-Wing will be used in the same way as the TIE Fighter, providing scenario-driven air support.

The latest addition to my Star Wars collection.

The X-Wing and TIE fighter.

That’s all for 2025…

Gaul Warband, Robots, and Sci-Fi Terrain

Most of my available wargaming time this past week was spent getting some painting done and scratch-building simple Sci-Fi terrain. I had prepared and undercoated a 48-figure 20mm plastic Gaul Warband at the start of the week, but in an effort to delay tackling them I decided to first painted a couple of Spider Robots for my Star Wars Legion forces. One was the official kit, which came with some spare legs and guns. This gave me the opportunity to build a second robot using a scratch-built body assembled from whatever suitable parts I could find in the spares box (mostly unused bits from old Warhammer 40K kits).

The completed Spider Robots. The closest one uses the spare legs with a scratch-built body.

The Spider Robots from the front. Official kit on the left.

With the Spider Robots finished, there was no avoiding the Gauls. Once I got started painting them, I quickly found my rhythm and completed the unit over a couple of days. My approach to painting Ancient armies is deliberately simple. Basic block colours over a mid-brown base coat, which helps hide any missed areas. A final coat of PVA glue gives the figures a durable and glossy finish which I like.

The complete Gaul Warband made of 4 bases.

A view from the front. The figures are mainly 20mm HAT miniatures with a few Italeri Gauls added in.

Finally, while tidying up the storage in my wargames room, I came across some plumbing items picked up at the hardware store that I must have bought with scenery in mind. These were quickly mounted onto some MDF offcuts left over from last week's container construction to create a set of vents for my Star Wars terrain. I will use them either as scatter terrain, or added to the roofs of block buildings to make them look like a factory (and a suitable scenario objective to be destroyed). 

The vents used as scatter terrain.

The vents on a factory building roof. They add a bit of colour to the buildings.