Greek cavalry and Successor elephants done.

And together at last! Thebans and hamippoi from Xyston along with a test pair of the Potbelly Miniatures Successor jumbos (sans towers).

 

There's nothing negative to be said about Xyston, and the Potbelly models were good to work with. I do fear for the pikes, as the 3d printed plastic is quite brittle. To replace them was going to cause problems as well, so I decided to leave them be and if they break I will cross that bridge when I come to it. It would be great to have the option to order them with open hands, but they are very good value and take paint nicely. They are a little larger than your usual 15mm Indian elephant, but they should look good on the table and on the whole I am very pleased with them.

Next batch of figures

I had previously harped on here about how keen I was to next get stuck into painting some Persians. Well, so much for that: this next batch (due for magic wash tomorrow) is Greek cavalry and hamippoi of the Theban variety. 

Xyston figures. My goodness, they are a treat to paint. I am a workman, not an artist, so am not able to quite do them justice, but even so, they are wonderful to work with. They do take a bit of prepping, mind....

I'm also working on some 3d printed elephants and from the Xyston pile have another 50-odd Greek cavalry and 80-odd Theban hoplites prepped. 

Successor beasts from Potbelly. Drybrushing underway.

With work extremely busy at the moment but without much tangible to show for it it has been nice to come back home to practical hobbying and feel like you are getting somewhere in at least one aspect of your life!

Libyans on base

There have been a few delays but we've finally got to the fun part - taking the freshly varnished figures off their temporary strips and arranging them on their bases. I think I've said it here before, but it's the part of the painting process I enjoy most. 

The hard work is done and the game - as it were - is almost afoot.

To delay things further, the reason it took about four weeks to get these chaps to this stage is two-fold: one, I decided to bolster the ranks a little, and two, it has been difficult to find the right paints I use during the basing process.

The extra figures I got are from Potbelly Miniatures, a 3d printing enterprise based in New Zealand, of whose existence Mike of Bucellarii kindly apprised me a few posts ago. They are nice figures, but the resin used presented a challenge - none of my glues would work! It took me a bit of time to find the solution, which turned out to be Cyanoacrylate from Avetek NZ. 

The other problem (still not resolved, unfortunately!) is paint. In Japan I used to finish figure bases in Tamiya Flat Green, cardboard bases in any variety of green or khaki, and the edges of said bases in Mr Hobby H58, Interior Green. In order to maintain consistency, I wanted to use the same colours over here, but had not got them yet. I therefore ordered a few pots of the H58. These took about a week to arrive. When I went to use them, I found to my surprise that it is no longer the same colour. I wondered if I'd ordered the wrong code, and went to check: apparently Mr Hobby changed the formula in 2019. 

So I was stuck. I had two pots of paint that won't do the business. Do I order some black and try to mix them to the right colour or find something from another manufacturer that's closer? In the interests of saving time and shipping costs I tried buying a Humbrol pot from a local store, but that is not quite right either. Hmm.

It wouldn't be so bad if this were Japan. It would take ten minutes to find an alternative hobby paint at the local Joshin, and even if you got things wrong it would cost you about $10 for the various paints and thinners I've picked up so far. In New Zealand these mis-steps have cost me $80 and I still don't have the right colour. Oh well. It's never going to do much for your equilibrium comparing prices of hobby products between NZ and Japan!

So I will just use the wrong colour in the meantime and hope it is only me that notices the difference.

The figures drying on their bases (with the offending H58 in the background!)

One thing I have reason to be thankful for is that I was able to bring my non-hobby acrylic paints back here from Japan with me, so it's rare for me to need to actually buy any paint. I shouldn't grumble too much!

Anyway, on to the flocking stage, and I have a game planned for tonight with SP, so it should be a good long weekend.