Painting update

This is a quick update from the painting table.  It's actually been a fruitful week, which makes a nice change.  Aside from prepping and priming two DBA armies, I've been working on sprucing up three lots of figures.  Firstly, these Carthaginian Poeni cavalry from Chariot I mentioned in an earlier post.  They still look pretty rough, but they're much better than they were, and should now be passable on the gaming table.  I will always cringe when I see those pteruges, but as that's the best I can get them to look we'll have to take them as they are.  Any suggestions for improved pteruge treatment would be gratefull accepted!

The main problems with these fellows were that I'd been in a rush to get them ready for a game so my prep work was a bit amateur and that I'd primed them in less than ideal weather conditions meaning that the undercoat was grainy rather than smooth.  It was a bad way to start, and the original paint job was atrocious. 

The second and third tidying-up batches were of figures I picked up from ebay about four years ago, not long after I first got into ancient wargaming.  The paint jobs were rather worn after years of use and a rocky transit from the UK, but I'd never really thought about taking a brush to them until I saw BigRedBat's posts on his ebay touch-up jobs.  These fellows were an experiment, and as they've turned out OK and there are a lot of foot figures that need the same treatment the experience should stand me in good stead.

I don't know that these figures are, but they could be minifigs (and whatever they are, they badly need to be flocked!).

Finally, I'll finish with something forward-looking: my half-finished Old Glory horse archers. I'm not very good at matching colours in these kinds of situations (I prefer painting colour schemes that are a bit more uniform!), but it's an enjoyable challenge, and while I'm not entirely happy with some of the tunics yet, I'm learning a lot about my paints and my limitations as a painter, which has got to be good.

Incidentally, I primed these chaps with gesso as another experiment, but found that the gesso is probably a little too thick for 15mm figures.  While it can be used it in an emergency, I'll stick with the spray priming as much as possible.

So, a good painting week by my (admittedly low) standards!

Next job is to finish up the horse archers and get started on some of the Normans, for whom I really must find a decent painting guide...