Charlie's Perry Miniatures medieval blog - UPDATE at last! 3rd Feb

[Atheling]

Nice work Charlie 

Darrell.

[tomrommel1]

very nice progress

[Charlie_]

I'm pretty pleased with the axeman, he looks quite menacing don't you think?

And these are two more of the metal archers from Crusader Miniatures. Again, with the bow-hands replaced by Perry plastic bow-hands.

[Captain Blood]

Excellent. Like the unshaven chops on the billman. You must have built quite a force already 

[Charlie_]

Excellent. Like the unshaven chops on the billman. You must have built quite a force already  

Thanks!

Yes I'm quite pleased with the unshaven faces, I've done quite a few of them now.

And yes, the count now is at... 72 painted.

18 billmen / halberdiers in House Tully colours.
14 archers in House Tully colours.
15 billmen / halberdiers in neutral colours (currently with a House Bracken banner).
12 archers in neutral colours.
And 13 assorted others... men-at-arms, standard bearers and other loose ends.

A lot more to come! For me it's all about large units of ranked up infantry. I find the billmen look best in three ranks, at least 7 wide... When I put both my bill units together they look really impressive! I think 21 or 24 are good sizes, 3x7 or 3x8... So a few more batches and I'll have two big units like that.
My Tully units now feature every model in red and blue uniforms.
My 'neutral' bill unit will be able to change its allegiance just by swapping out a few models, ie the banner and a few livery jackets.
I've got a few models in green livery scattered around, I'm now going to start making a mixed bill & bow formation unit of them, for a house of my own creation. So a banner and a few more green jackets on the way, to be bulked out by the 'neutrals'.

Once I've got at least four hefty battle-ready units, I will do some group shots. Perhaps after Christmas? Then I can start thinking about adding other types... I've got pikes, crossbows and cavalry all waiting patiently (haven't painted a single horse yet!)

It's tempting to have fun just painting interesting men-at-arms, commanders and standard bearers, but I can only really justify doing many more of them once I've got units for them to lead. So until the new year, it's just going to be lots more bows and bills! Then perhaps in January I will treat myself, I've got a few very nice conversions for character models I'm looking forward to painting...

I've got into a good routine now of doing one batch a week, finished the basing, varnishing and photographing on Monday evenings. I was doing batches of 5, but this last one was a batch of 6 and that wasn't too arduous, I'm gonna try a batch of 7 this week.

[Charlie_]

Batch of 7 this week.

It's starting to look like a small army on my shelf now...

[tomrommel1]

very good progress

[Admiral Benbow]

Great work, and so constant! I wish I would have your lack of distraction ... 

[sukhe_bator]

I'm loving these Charlie - thanks for the link. Hopefully it'll inspire me to put paint to plastic!

[MattW]

Batch of 7 this week.

It's starting to look like a small army on my shelf now...

I really like the neutral cloth tone that you have there- what colours are you using on the billmen? I've got my own GoT project that got pushed by the wayside for 10mm fantasy, but all the ASOIAF on this board lately has me inspired to pick it up again...

[tyrionhalfman]

Your progress and pace is really impressive. More nicely painted minis. Thanks for sharing

[Charlie_]

I really like the neutral cloth tone that you have there- what colours are you using on the billmen? I've got my own GoT project that got pushed by the wayside for 10mm fantasy, but all the ASOIAF on this board lately has me inspired to pick it up again...

Thanks, I'm pretty pleased with how it came out on those three actually.

I've been slightly changing and adapting my method on each new batch I do, and I reckon those three look the best in terms of cloth. However I used A LOT of stages on them, and lately I've done the same thing with just three stages that looks just as good I think. So I'm still refining it.

Basically the base coat is citadel colour Rhinox Hide, each layer of highlights adds a bit more of vallejo Bonewhite, stopping well short of pure Bonewhite for the final layer. The first layer after the base coat pretty much covers everything, so is another basecoat I guess. That's all there is to it. As I said, I used probably too many layers on these guys, looks great but took forever. If it's just sleeves like the spearman, three or four layers works fine.
Along the way the mix looks rather purple, but it soon works up to this nice creamy grey sort of colour.

If you look back at some of my first painted ones, it's a similar thing but with a different sort of hue. That's because I changed brown along the way. All companies seem to do a pretty identical bonewhite, but getting different shades of dark brown to match up from different companies is a nightmare! This is what I've settled on though, and I will use this colour going forward.


By the way, I'm aware there have been no updates since December. Don't worry, I'm still busy painting! I'm just not posting up every model I paint now. I've also started working on terrain, so am thinking I'll just stock up on them and then WOW you all with a big army shot on terrain! Though I might post up some of my favourite latest ones sometime before then.

[Faber]

 

I missed this thread!
What a project! I love the whole Riverland concept. Very smart to paint some troopers with neutral color scheme. Sure I'll steal the idea as soon as I finish the Clegane core army. Woa, I'd really like to play with you! Clegane and Lannister Vs Tully and Riverland houses, perfect match! 
Love the kitbashing and painting too. Keep em going, I want to see the groupshot on the battlefield!

[Charlie_]

Here's a little update, just to prove that I'm still working on it.

I've painted quite a few since the last pics, but I'm not gonna put up every model I paint now. I'll just periodically share with you a selection of my favourites.

So here are eight which I think work particularly nicely, either in terms of poses or painting.



I am still really loving how these faces come to life with paint. And duplicates don't always come out the same - note the halberdier with breastplate and the archer in red and white use the same head, but I don't feel they look like clones.

[Captain Blood]

Well worth the wait Charlie. Another nice set of figures.
Is the archer, top right, a Perry body and arms with a Crusader head?

Yes, it's incredible how the same head used on different bodies and in different stances or postures, produces a completely different 'feel' (rather than octuplets!)
One of the many joys of Perry plastics