Category Archives: Dark Ages

The Lead Painters League Entries (or what I’ve done in 2018 so far)

Posted by vonkray on

The Lead Painters League is an annual competition run by the fine folk on the Lead Adventure Forum. I’ve long admired the dedication and quality of the entries for this (which has now been running for something like 13 years) and many of my favourite painters have been competitors in the past. It’s been a ‘bucket-list’ thing for years – I even had an abortive attempt a few years back but that was sabotaged by a house-move.

This time I prepared a little in advance and was genuinely suprised and delighted to come second against some wonderful competition. I feel like a bit of a fraud to have placed so highly in all honesty and need to work on my story-telling aspects next time.

It’s quite a tough challenge for a painter with such inconsistent focus as me. Nine teams of at least 5 figures each over nine weeks, ideally in some sort of scenic setting. In my case the final result is a pretty good summary of my current projects although I must confess I’m a little burnt-out by the end and fancy painting something very different. Perhaps some SciFi would be a nice change …

OBHFootsore Miniatures Late Roman / Aurthurian
MoNCopplestone Miniatures 15mm BarbariansKeith_Manchurian_Expedition_New_Round3_USECopplestone Miniatures ‘Back of Beyond’ Warlord Chinese with Empress Minaitures FT17
Keith_GoToYourGuns_Round4Perry Miniatures Sudan Naval Brigade heavy weapons
Keith_DareToDie_Round5.jpgCopplestone ‘Dare To Die’ Warlord Chinese with HLBSC Schneider tank
VichyPerry Miniatures 28mm Vichy French
Keith_LandingPartyAtArms_Round7Copplestone Castings British Naval Brigade
Keith_Uncharted_Round8Foundry/Copplestone Darkets Africa
Keith_Vale_Round9Foundry Caesarian Romans (Copplestone sculpts)

Some Summer Output

Posted by vonkray on

So, I’ve been busy on several projects over the summer, some examples below.

Painting in Malta is slightly different to the UK, with temperatures and humidity so high. I’ve had a devil of a time getting my airbrush to work for more than 5 minutes at a time, and paint behaves a little differently in the heat (not to mention the exciting things that happen to varnish in this humidity).

Overall things are moving along and I’m really enjoying painting again. Really loving painting some Dark Ages figures (especially the Footsore range) and have a new 15th Century Lion Rampant project in the wings, shared with someone who I’ve met on the island.

I’ll probably write a little more about Dark Ages ranges soon. I’ve been picking up a lot of what’s available with no real plan other than that they are great to paint and the background fascinates me. Comparing the different ranges side by side has been an interesting exercise, and there are some newer ‘players’ on the market including the rather excellent Saxon Miniatures range.

Aella

Footsore Miniatures Aella sculpted by Bill Thornhill. An absolutely brilliant figure and one that I might paint again at some point!

Germanic_Chieftain

Warlord Germanic tribe command type. Steve Saleh sculpt and very characterful.

Naval_Officer

Empress Miniatures Zulu War Naval Officer. A Paul Hicks sculpt … need I say more?

SAS_Jeep

The finished Perry Miniatures SAS Jeep. The picture doesn’t really do it justice (I would say that though wouldn’t I?), but it is really quite tiny and looks nice in-hand. The original casting needed a little clean-up, but nothing too stressful.