“A roll of the die” (week 18)

Well I managed to make it through this week without being dragged into anyone else’s projects (thank you Myles), so it was back to the old “random painting generator” for this week’s blog entry. Out came the coins of destiny (actually they were just a couple of coins from out of the jar of two pence pieces I keep in my painting table cupboard!). Anyway a head and a tail meant it was “VBCW” time again so “Merlin’s” list was retrieved and the roll of the D20 gave me number fourteen which equated to…

Box 14 – (4x Policemen firing rifle, and 2x Border collie Dogs)

Now as some of you will probably know I have been (slowly) working my way through the “Very British Civil War” figures I bought from “Irregular Miniatures” last year and though I am still a little under half way through them as yet I can now see the beginnings of a nice little collection growing when I open their box (I keep my figures in box files in case you’re wondering), but I digress, as I was saying I’ve painted quite a few of these policemen over the last couple of months so you’ll forgive me if I don’t go into too much detail over the painting of these particular “boys in blue”. So working from a black undercoat they were first dry-brushed with royal blue before I painted in the wooden stocks of their rifles in chocolate brown and butternut, after this I added the metallic parts of the guns along with the buttons and badges in chainmail. Flesh was next European and pale flesh being the colours of choice, and then this group was given chocolate brown hair highlighted with chestnut. Next after I had touched up the boots and belts in black these were highlighted with dark grey and lastly I added their warrant “cuffs” in black and white. There done, I hope I didn’t bore the regulars to much with that.

Now the other figures that box fourteen contained were two little 28mm scale Border collie dogs, these I purchased from “Warbases” while at the “Fiasco” show in Leeds at the end of last year. This pack contained four of the furry little blighters one of which I converted into a “Bearded Collie” as part of the Mo’vember challenge “Blax the Kleric” and myself had with each other last November. As for the other three I had always planned on painting them up as the three “collies” we have owned ourselves (the two current ones and our first now sadly departed). Penny was reasonably straight forward to paint as she is a red border collie (sometimes known as a “Welsh” collie) I started with the usual black undercoat and then painted her with coffee and the then heavily dry-brushed this with cream, then using chocolate brown I painted on an undercoat of her markings (not easy as she wouldn’t sit still!) and then I highlighted these with chestnut brown before finally adding her eyes and mouth in black again. Holly on the other hand was a little more difficult (as is Holly herself) as all the dog figures have the curled over ears many borders have whereas Holly has “perked” up ears (a bit like a German shepherd) so these had to be carefully filed away before her upright ears could be added in “greenstuff”. Then the painting process could begin much like the above up until I added her markings, for she is what is known as a “blue merle” collie, so I laid down an under coat of dark grey before highlighting this with “splodges” of light grey and black. Then finally I added her eyes and mouth in black as well. Now all I need is a figure to represent me looking cold and soaked, ball “flinger” in hand and I can recreate many of our walks on the tabletop. Seriously though, it’s nice to have these miniature representation of my “girls” as I love the scruffy little madam’s to bits.

All of the above were treated to a coat of Quickshade and after basing in my usual fashion where spray coated with matt varnish.

I think that will do till next week, Cheers Roger.