Photos Galore

Day off so been quite lazy and relaxing most of the day. Tidied up flat but spent most of the day going through recent wargames photos and even designed a graphic for the poster I plan to make for the website. Originally designed it so that it would go in my camera onto my camera's memory card, to be printed up on photo quality paper. That didn't work - getting it into the camera I mean - so decided to buy some ink after all and do it the old fashioned way.

Still not got all the photos completely sorted ready for tomorrow night. 1 more to do. Although that gallery is now revamped, lets just say our Border Reivers are going to be making a comeback. The original's have been "fixed" and gone over again before gallerying them with Paul's pics of the game.

Anyway here's that poster I made for the website, presently still a graphic I made in Paint Shop Pro (see above).

Paul Davies and Salute 2007

Today it was my day off. First thing was my much anticipated visit to the dentist. NHS Dentist. Not too many of them about. I was surprised that they charged the patient the patient for treatment as I thought the NHS was funded out of our taxes. Wasn't too much anyway and I work full time. Turns out apart from needing a polish, which is only to be expected after several years dentistless, all I need is a filling on a broken tooth because everything else is fine. That appointment is a month away.

Other than paying some bills, I also arranged with the bank some contents insurance which I did not have before. Its only going to cost me just over £20 a month, which isnt too painful, starting with next payday although there is an initial payment end of the month.

On the way home I dropped by Dave Hewins shop looking for glue to stick my figures to some sort of stands while I am painting them and a craft knife to remove flash etc. Was also looking for some sort of stand to put them on. After talking to Dave, he suggested that I stick my figures on to cardboard and suggested the appropriate glue to do so: UHU, as well as an appropriate craft knife. I bought those items. While I was at it, I picked up the latest issue of Wargames Illustrated.

In that issue there is an article and photos on Salute 2007 by Paul Davies, full-time photographer and member of the Crawley Wargames Club. He had been in the previous issue also with a Border Reivers article. Their Border Reivers game had been at Salute too.
While emailing their webmaster Ian Coleman, attempting to exchange links, I complimented Paul on his photos and article. Paul then contacted me by email thanking me for those compliments and saying that if I needed any advice or help taking photos, all I had to do was ask. He also gave me some hints on painting my charltons. On 3rd May I contacted him again asking for some help on taking photos along with sending him some samples but have not received a response since. I can only assume he has been busy. Tonight I contacted Ian again asking him to pass on my compliments on to Paul, who has written yet another good article on Salute 2007 from a visitor's point of view, with his excellent photos, as well as reviewing 40mm Greeks near the back of the issue.

Got round to painting my reivers again today. One of the white horses was drybrushed white and lightly painted white again (left). The black horse that had been undercoated only black so far was drybrushed, of sorts, in GW Enchanted Blue. All the horses were glued onto temporary cardboard stands, as had been suggested by Dave Hewins earlier. It seemed a cheap alternative to buying some wood to stand them on and with plenty of cardboard on hand it seemed ideal.

The horse that Paul had mainly painted in Brown Umber got another Wash. This time I washed it with a mix of GW Snakebite Leather and Chaos Black (left).


Here is a photo (left) of the horse I drybrushed GW Enchanted Blue. Notice the slight blue spots near the back of the horse.
I would be interested to hear Paul's opinion of my horses so far. That's our Paul from Grimsby.

At the end of this entry there is a photo of my painting box with all the horses stood in it on their cardboard stands, my new craft knife and my GW Citadel paintbrushes, which I used today, which came with my GW paints.

The Citadel brushes are named and to be used for a specific purpose such as detailing and drybrushing. Used the drybrush one today.

Paint with Paul

I had started to fill this entry in last night, which takes time as it always does, when the pc mysteriously shut down and restarted itself, losing everything I had already typed in. Will run my antivirus later.

Went to the club last night where Paul was continuing painting his cuirassiers (left). There he gave me help and hints for painting. I had brought all my reivers and horses and all my paint to the club. Paul also showed me how to paint my horses by actually painting them himself, sorry, demonstrating. He has a very good established technique and can paint quicker than I can down a pint. Paul painted my horses in this way:

My red horse (to be brown) was washed in Burnt Umber. It may need another coat (see left). Though it will be a mix of GW Snakebite leather and black.
Both my white horses were washed in GW Codex grey. Paul said that one of them may need to be drybrushed white.
One of my black horses was lightly drybrushed in Blue. GW Midnight Blue specifically. Looked nice.
Washing was done by drenching the brush in water before dipping it in paint and lathering it over the figure where it would seep into all the crevices.
Paul did say however that I had undercoated too thickly and had not removed the "flash" off the figures. Whoops. I shall remove the flash off my reivers figures before lightly retouching any bare bits with GW Chaos black before continuing my painting. He said that he paints his figures how they dress etc with hands and face first. Paul also suggested I give the horses a white blaze and do the socks on the feet.
Many thanks to Paul for all his help and advice on painting.

There were 2 games on last night: 15mm Napoleonic between Andy Sharpe and Mark Alcock; 20mm Greeks v Greeks between Andy Hamilton and Dave Hewins using Dave's figures. I took photos as usual though this time I used my new toy: a mini-tripod which I bought very cheaply off ebay last week. I had hoped it would reduce camera shake from myself and judging by the results, the tripod worked. Out of the 66 photos I took last night, only about half a dozen were unusable. Thats 10% of the shots. Everything else came out perfectly as I had wanted. As usual, I will preview some of the photos.

Photo of Dave Hewins Greeks (left) taken from the other side of the table with the tripod and cropped to center in on the action. All these figures are owned and painted by Dave Hewins and some had recently been re-speared.

Wurtembergers and Austrians engaging in battle at the base of a hill (left). The Austrians are by Andy Sharpe while the Wurtembergers are by Mark Alcock.

Mark also gave me the Red Badge of courage book back which I had asked him to look after. Paul and I discussed John Preece who left a complimentary comment on my blog on sunday. It is the same John Preece who has contributed to Recce in the Battlegames Magazine and who will be at Partizan at the end of the month. Looking forward to it even more.

Before I sign off, those cuirassiers Paul was painting will look like the ones in this photo (left) when completed. This photo was also taken at the club last night.

As always, all photos will be added to their own galleries later. More often than not I let those galleries double as game reports as the action can be followed by viewing the photos. Along with any photos from next week, they will probably all be uploaded just before Partizan.

Horseplay

This afternoon and evening I finally got a much needed haircut. Apart from doing a little tidying up, I got back to my border reivers, mainly the horses and gave 3 of them a coating of white paint. 3 of the horses will be light coloured with 2 of them being white, 2 dark coloured and 1 either grey or light coloured. I used GW Skull white in them. I now keep them in a box meant for drawing and/or painting pictures which is now for my wargaming paints (above).
There is a photo (left)of my white undercoated horses, though 2 of them will be getting a 2nd coat of white as I wish them to be white horses. Hope to paint some more tomorrow. Have not painted for years and decided to do the horses first, partly because they are larger figures.
Watched one of my favourite bond movies "The Man with the Golden Gun" while I did so. Not watched it for years. In fact, it's the first time in months I've actually sat down and watched a DVD. Did so after Doctor Who, which unfortunately won't be back on for a fortnight.

More Border Reivers Stuff

I picked up issues 234 and 235 of Wargames Illustrated today from Dave Hewins Model Shop. I mainly picked up 234 because there was a scenario on The Battle of Antietam in September 1862 of the American Civil War. Issue 235, apart from being the latest one, had an article on the Border Reivers game at Salute by the Crawley Wargames Club of which most of the Reivers on it were by Vendel. Which was obviously what Derek was talking about when I spoke to him on monday.

I undercoated my Border Reivers today with GW spray paint Chaos Black. Not having spray painted before or not painted for years, I just used basic common sense to get them done. Here's a photo of my undercoated Reivers. All Reivers and horses got 2 coats both sides. Hope it wasnt on too thick. This is the paper I moved them to after undercoating them. Still undecided which colours to paint them but I have the photos from our club's game which I took and Dave Tuck's Reivers which he gave me as an inspiration. Don't want them to look the same as other people's Reivers, similar maybe. It may also be easier to set a colour scheme for certain figures and if I have to paint another reiver of that figure, use the same colour scheme i.e. paint reiver with crossbow certain colour, paint next reiver with crossbow same as first one. It was such a nice day they were painted in the back garden on the top of an old washer destined for the tip.

Before undercoating I decided to have a good look at all the Reivers Dave Tuck had been good enough to give me. There were 13 painted in all, with 3 half painted to go on horseback. Dave had also given me 3 white undercoated horses, which were undercoated with the other figures this afternoon. Dave's painting is excellent as I will show you a few photos I took of them in the back garden earlier. Above is a photo of the half and unpainted Reiver figures etc given to me. Below are the photos I took of Dave's Reivers. Enjoy.

The photos taken at the Battle of Almanza game on monday were taken with an exposure of +2.0 without realising it. Normally I take photos with an exposure of +0.0. It has given me an idea as to how to possibly reduce the glare from the lights in photos. All photos of Reivers taken today were taken at my normal exposure.

The Reivers are Here!

My replacement Reivers from Vendel finally arrived this morning. I rang Derek up at Vendel to let him know after all those other phone calls I had made. Hopefully I can get them undercoated today along with all the unpainted Reivers and weapons that Dave Tuck was good enough to give me. I am also planning to go to Dave Hewins shop and pick up a copy of Wargames Illustrated, hopefully the one with Vendel in.
To celebrate finally getting my Reivers, above is an unseen photo from the Border Reivers game on March 12th 2007 at the Grimsby Wargames Society.

Border Reivers Colours

Thinking of which colours I might use. So far I have decided on: Red, Blue, Brown, Green, Black, Grey or their nearest available GW colour but not on which reivers will be painted which way. Swords and Helmets (Steel Bonnets) will be Silver obviously. All those colours will be darker of course.

Over the past few weeks, I have also been busy collecting links on Border Reivers and The American Civil War, so that I can get ready to learn about both.

It seems these Reivers were thieves and raiders. Reiving went on for 300 years on the Anglo-Scottish Border involving many clans. That is one serious crime wave. There are loads of people around today with certain surnames that may be descendants of those reivers. Hopefully I plan to start undercoating mine with GW Chaos Black this weekend.

I closed my ebay shop today. Should have done it months ago as I have had nothing on it since December 2006. Once I have got my time organised, I will put up another large batch. With the shop gone, there is more chance of making some profit.