On The Painting Desk- Gladiators, Gangsters and Greeks.... Oh My!

If you recall my ambitious plans for 2019, I had a lot of painting goals on the list.  I have not been completely idle on that front.  I started the year very strong with a number of Blood Bowl teams and a few old Inquisitor models painted.  Since then, my painting has been a little bit more…. Eclectic.  There was even a point where I thought I had painted all the models in my collection! Thankfully, that did not last long and more came in the mail.  That was close!  You know the old saying about wargamers that paint everything in their “To do” pile….. they die!  I narrowly escaped death!

My first order of business was to finish off painting some old miniatures that were leftover from the Gladiator range.  These were from Crusader and I painted all the other Gladiators in my collection.  Only two were left.  They were modeled off the movie Gladiator and I think they were supposed to be Emperor Commodus and Tigris of Gaul from the movie. 

I plan on using these guys for The Games: Blood and Spectacle of course, but I also will be using them for Broken Legions as an Argonauts warband.  Commodus will be the leader, and Tigris will be the Herculean Champion.  In a pinch, I can use Commodus as a leader for Men of Bronze too. 

Here they are finished.... not great shakes but again I used all cheap acrylics from my local big box retailer.  I really need to get a new set of actual miniature paints, but they are just so darn expensive!  

Also on my goal list for 2019 was to paint some gangs for use in Turf War.  I plan on updating all the artwork with pictures of these models and other Wikimedia Commons stuff.  That way I can get it up for sale on my Wargame Vault page.  To do this, I ordered some of the Copplestone Gangster range from Brigade Games.  They arrived very promptly and I am very happy with their quality. 

I had previously written up some previous gangs and I soon selected the models to make up one of them.  While traveling for work I managed to get them painted up.  1 gang down, and 1 more to go for full games of Turf War.  Plus, I can paint up some extras for expansion, replacements, NPCs, etc.  The craft paints worked okay on these guys with a helping of dark wash. 

Then, I put together a bunch of Victrix minis for Men of Bronze and Heirs to Empire.  These gentleman are here to fill out my Macedonian and Successor Pikeman blocks and a unit of Hypaspists. If you squint closely, you can see a Corinthian Hoplite unit in there too.    

I went to town painting the Corinthians so I can get some new Men of Bronze battle reports up.  Again, I used the local craft paints.  This time I was very displeased with how they turned out.  The white did a terrible job, and I was not happy with the metallic paints either.  These guys are going to be in the background of the shots.  On the bright side, I only broke one spear while painting them!  Can you spot it? 

After painting these guys, I am going to wait to paint up my Pikeman and Hypaspists until I get some better paint.  I want them to look much nicer than these guys turned out.  I gave the rest of my Spartans and Corinthians back to my friend to finish painting since he does a much better job.  Just look in the Men of Bronze book to see the difference.  

Next, I got a ton of 6mm miniatures for the successor period from Baccus.  I also got some 60 x 60mm bases.  I have never painted 6mm before so if you have any recommendations I am glad to hear them!  I am going to wait to paint these until I get some decent basing materials and actual mini paints.  I don't think the craft paints are up for the challenge.  Plus, I need these guys to do some more playtesting and pictures for Heirs to Empire.      

Finally, I have 1 MKV All Quiet on the Martian Front Tank that I found hiding in a cabinet.  That is probably the miniature that kept me alive!  It was undercoated but not painted.

As you can see, there is a lot on the go now.  Hopefully, I can knock some of these out before the  season goal review.  Right now, things are looking a bit sparse on the number of goals completed!  I mean, that post is right around the corner!