2023 was an awesome year for my hobby life, as it was the first year I really dove into my painting. I began to see results that I was proud of. This year took me to a variety of scales and periods, and I enjoyed every bit of it. Another hobby milestone this year was my first commission, which I can definitely see myself doing more of in the future. Thank all of you that have been following the blog, I’ve loved doing it and hope to continue, so please subscribe to get notified whenever there’s a new article!!
Vikings!
My Vikings were a project that I started in 2022 before finishing up this year. Most of these are 28mm plastic miniatures from Victrix, who makes very nice quality miniatures. I used a very simple method of blocking in colors before putting a wash over the entire mini, which turned out very nice in my opinion. I have used these guys for both Ravenfeast and SAGA, and had lots of fun with both. All in all it is close to 100 painted miniatures completed between last year and this year.
ACW Confederates
I painted up part of the Confederate army for a group I play with. These were 15mm 3d printed miniatures sculpted by Henry Turner. The figures are a little lifeless but well detailed, and forgivable at 15mm. I enjoyed painting the variety in color of the hats, pants, packs, etc. We used these for the rules Longstreet and played quite a few games over the summer, and we had an absolute blast.
Cowboys
These 15mm cowboys were a quick break from another project, and were a nice change of pace. I got these Old Glory minis when the Tombstone Tinderbox, sold by Little Wars TV, was on a closeout sale. I had just gotten my wet palette when I painted these, and many of the miniatures include my first attempt at mixing colors.
6mm WW2
This summer I finally dove into small scale with WW2, and I will never look back. I went with the Eastern front, as it is my favorite theater of the war. The infantry were very easy to paint, it was just a matter of nailing down that uniform color, and adding a few details to make them pop. My favorite part of this project was painting the tanks, which I used a drybrushing based method, to get the effect I was looking for. The only tedious part was painting over 60 Soviet trucks!! It added up to a couple hundred infantry all metal from GHQ, and over 150 3d printed vehicle models. I tried A Fistful of Tows 3 with these before becoming heavily involved in the playtesting of Schwerpunkt, a more operational style game. If you’d like to get involved with the Schwerpunkt, contact the author at [email protected], I highly recommend.
War of Spanish Succession French
This small unit of 20 figures was my first commission. They are 28mm figures from Front Rank, and they are probably the nicest miniatures I’ve ever painted. I painted them in the style of the Regiment Bretange, as well as an artillery crew to accompany.
10mm AWI
My so called ‘blog project’ is my American War of Independence armies for the Southern Campaign. With over 500 10mm miniatures from Pendraken and Irregular, this was quite the undertaking. I really enjoyed researching the unique uniforms and all of the bright colors. I think these guys ended up looking really cool, and I can’t wait to get them on the table in January.
More 6mm WW2
I just couldn’t help myself, I had to expand my collection to the Western Front. I painted up a sizeable American army and a handful of German ‘big cats’ to counter them. I finally got a chance to paint some metal vehicles, and I love the heavier feel to them. About 40 vehicles and 100 infantry were painted in less than a week. This was my fastest project, and I hope I can get that speed back in the new year.
6mm Thirty Years War
This one is has barely started, as the two units shown below are the only completed ones. This project has been going very slow, with a combination of the holidays and the flu bringing hobby progress to a stop. Hopefully this will change in the new year, because these guys are looking really cool and I want to paint more!!
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Until next time- Joshua, The Napoleon of the West
