A productive weekend

It's Monday morning and I am very tired, however I have come out of the weekend feeling pretty productive. 

I had planned to spend Painting Night on Friday working on more Greatswords, but then I got randomly inspired and instead spent the time converting and assembling my new wagon unit filler for the regiment. This was partly because I needed to work out exactly how big its base was going to be, as that would determine exactly how many individual Greatswords would be needed to round out the unit. 

The answer to the filler base question is that it takes up the room of 18 models (6x3). This is the same as the first wagon I built for my Stirlanders. Turns out I can't realistically jam the thing onto a smaller base if I want to include the horse pulling it. This is fine, but it does mean that the unit will really need to be 60-strong. Anything less and the filler will feel too big. I think I had been toying with the idea of reducing my workload and aiming for 50 Greatswords rather than 60. Guess that plan is gone again...

My new unit filler, set to take the place of 18 Greatswords.

I decided to make the wagon some sort of simple weaponry/supply one. I filled it with weapons and random containers that presumably contain things like gunpowder. I made up a Greatsword guard to help tie the filler in with its parent unit, and I made up a "quartermaster" - the guy in charge of the gear in the wagon. It's not a lot of infantry models for something taking up so much space, but my desire to cram guys on is tempered by my tight schedule and the fact that the base is fairly full already (the wagon is pretty big).

On the left is the quartermaster. The lower part of his left arm was stolen from the Luminark kit, and the magical stuff scrubbed off it. The guy on the right is a random Greatsword guard. Unfortunately that handle and the blade don't line up very well from this angle. Might fiddle with it later. I had to use a great weapon from the old Mordheim sprues, as the one he was holding upright was much, much too long to hold like this.

Another angle on the wagon. The horse is a very old, tired model. One of the first I ever owned - I think he's suffering under about 4 layers of paint there. he got a new tail, though. Not that you can really see it under the seat.

Lots of goodies for the quartermaster to hand out. You can see the magnet he stands on there near the back. He sticks up over the rest of the model, so I decided he needed to be removable. The guard will be glued to the ground to the left of the horse; his sword is too fragile for him to be removable.

Despite using the exact same pieces as the previous wagon did, this time I've assembled it slightly differently. I went for straight sides rather than slanted ones, and I put a driver's seat up over the horse. I was going to make up a driver, but the legs were going to need a lot of green stuff and the horse's rump was going to get in the way (it's all a bit squeezy). So I went for a powder monkey instead. That guy drives like a boss.

The wagon and the crew have since been undercoated, but whilst I was waiting for that to dry on Saturday, I got a bit sidetracked. Having decided that we would in fact require an extra few textured boards for the Heffengen game, a few of us set about getting those ready. And we made great progress, too - the boards now have sand, and were painted black before a brown drybrush. Unfortunately the last step (a bone coloured highlight to align it with the existing boards) was curtailed when we discovered that pot of paint had dried up. Alas. A trip to Bunnings is in order. We so nearly did the entire process in a day. Hooray for warm weather for quick drying.

And in between waiting for the undercoat on the wagon and the PVA and paint on the boards to dry, I decided to start painting something else. Karl Franz finally has a proper mount!

Deathclaw!

This model is gigantic. I kept sweeping things off the far side of my painting table with his wingtip whilst holding him for painting. Well, maybe not the far side of the table. But things that should have been safe.

Karl looks pleased to no longer be slumming it on a horse. He's so far off the ground now, he's practically "ascendant". Not that he gets to use those rules for Heffengen. I need to work out a weapon swap for him too - he's meant to be using a Runefang for the battle, as Valten is waving Ghal Maraz about.

This whole model has been an exercise in simple painting. I could see how a master painter would go berserk on such a fancy model. I kept it basic.

Another example of keeping things simple - I went for a lion's colouring rather than something fancy like tiger stripes. Maybe next time.

Yep, still gigantic. Barely fits in my little light tent for photos.

I'm glad Deathclaw is ready, as that enormous model was looming over my "to-do" list for Heffengen in a large and intimidating manner. Definitely making progress.