Matchbox "8th Army"

      
        Hi, welcome to another small journey with my painting adventures.This time I will present the first attempt I had with Matchbox figures in the beginning of 2013.These five figures  was part of the "8th Army" issue and they come to me as part of a collection of Matchbox figures I bought. This is not the complete set.

    With these figures had started a new era for me.I tried to
make my figures more detailed in face and the expressions
of these Matchbox figures where great to do that...
 


Even though my painting is still "dirty"
the faces of these figures look great to
me until now!




      Also I started to paint insignia on some figures but not correctly as I can see now. Another problem
 I had, was with varnish. You can see that three of the figures are having a green shading on the uniform.
I still haven't found the reason that the color turned to green after varnishing.It never happened again....
Maybe there was to much moisture that day or something about the stirring of the varnish can...anyway...

 

         The  figure  below is  not a part of this issue but it is  from  the  "British Infantry" .  I don't think that
 this  conversion is  incorrect historically since  there were also long trousers in the desert uniform and the
equipment was the same in most of the cases.

    Here you can see the group together.

    These figures were my favorite job for a long time. I will keep them until the repainting and this time it will
be full set and as accurate as it can be!!!

    I hope you enjoyed the journey and  this post was helpful to someone . Please feel free to ask anything or
leave any comment.Thank you for visiting my blog!!

    Till next time........See ya!!!!.....

Lord of the Rings - Lurtz "On the Rocks!!"

            Here we are again with another "Lord of the Rings" figure, painted at the end of  2011.It is the
 leader of Uruk-Hai Army "Lurtz".
            On this figure I've made my first conversion.I've added a natural stone on the base. The outcome
 was very realistic even though I haven't paint the stone once again... (!$!#).I like very much the face and
 the expression of the figure.I don't like much the tone I gave on the flesh and generally this was a "dirty"
 painting. I believe that priming with black paint has a part in this result.
         

  


          I hope you like the pictures, and this post was helpful to someone!!Thank you for visiting my blog!!


                                                                       Till next time....see ya!!!

Lord of the Rings - Uruk-Hai Captain

   The first metal figure that I have painted was this Uruk-Hai captain from Lord of the Rings collection.
Excellent figure as all of the "Games Workgroup" miniatures.I like the outcome of the armor but the flesh
tones are not painted and shaded properly.Also the base should have been covered only on top.

        The yellow stones that I 've used for these miniatures(see also previous post)are aquarium substrate
 stones.  These stones have very nice shapes and textures. The problem is that at that time I liked them as
 it was. Now I know that I should have painted them...

That's it for today...A small post for a small ugly fellow....

Lord of the Rings - Goblins

   

       I cannot remember exactly witch year I started to buy this collection.The sure thing is that I couldn't
make it over the 13th issue of the magazine and then, it all ends up in a box stored for the future....
       Then sometime around 2010, when I 've been introduced to the hobby, I 've opened the box again..
Finally I have painted the first figures in 2011 and it was these vicious "Goblins of Moria".

        As you can see the full base is covered with rocks and this is something that i didn't like much...
So i didn't use this basing again, except for one figure ,an Uruk-Hai captain that we'll see in the next post.
These figures were easy to paint and they are identical for a beginner.
      I've also tried my luck with this scratch built base for the figures so they can be displayed as a small
diorama.Painted in dark tones representing the dead lands of Mordor.
      I like it, but i don't thing that i will work again with cartoon as a base! Something made of wood or
 plastic would be much better!!

This post opens for Biblicrafts a whole new world of miniature modelling.The world of Warhammer gaming
and 28mm figures scale.I'm not a gamer but I like very much to paint and collect fantasy and LOTR figures.
I've bought a lot of these figures and paint some nice groups witch I attempt to present in forthcoming posts.

I Hope that you enjoy your time here and this post has been helpful somehow...


    
        

Conte Collectibles "French Foreign Legion" 1880-1908

            Once again, it's been a long time since my last post.Becoming a father is the most beautiful thing
but also, as it is expected , has changed radically the time schedule of my life.I spend all of my time to this  little and fragile creature and enjoy watching it learning something new every day! I'm looking forward to
the day that  she will grab a pen and starts to mess this place up!!!

         For now, I'm trying to find some time, late at night, to enjoy some painting or researching....

         With this post I will continue with  my older creations.These figures are painted sometime during 2011.
 At this point  I  would like  to  thank  all  these  friends  that  trusted  their  figures  to  me  and  gave me  the
 opportunity to work with periods and uniforms that I couldn't imagine at that time!!

        So, let's see what we' ve got here...

The Research

French Foreign Legion is an army established at 1831 and fought mostly in French colonial wars but also in WWI and II. Lots of changes have been made in uniform during the years and wars.By checking the uniform and equipment of the "Conte" figures, I concluded that these are soldiers fought in Northern Africa during 1880-1910.

 

 

    

       The pictures above show uniforms from  Morocco and Algeria and are most similar to the figures.

There were also red trousers worn during that period from the Legionnaires but I painted all the soldiers

 in white and only the officers in red.

The Figures

        I like these figures very much! Excellent faces and expressions.Very nice detail and very accurate

 in uniform and equipment.Even though my painting skill was not so advanced at that time, I really like

 the outcome. The only problem  I had with these figures was the mould lines.Fortunately, there was no
 mould lines in the faces!

 

        Here you can see the mould lines in one figure and below you can see some pictures of the finished
 project.

             This was my favorite project at that time, and I will paint it again in the future for my collection.

             Thank you for reading this post and I hope you enjoyed another small journey in the world of
painted miniatures. I would be very happy if this can be of  help to anyone who wants to paint a similar
or the same project.


            ........... 'till next time...See ya!!