Little Tanks & Tiny People

I finally got around to taking some pictures of my latest project. Here's my full repainted WWII Dutch army, apart from the armoured car. Not much more to add, other than the recipe (below). Infantry Heavy weapon teams Marines Uniform: Blue grey 70.904. Marines: Heavy blue 72.143 Helmet and gas mask canister (marines): Refractive green 70.890 Leather: Leather brown 70.871 Bread bag, webbing, rifle sling: Medium Grey 70.987 Wood: Flat Earth 70.983 Metal: Natural steel 70.864 Boots: Black 70.950 Coat (marines): Heavy blue 72.143 Skin: Basic Skin Tone 70.815 Wash: Umber 73.203

It’s time to get some more content on this blog for 2025 ! I bought these WW2 Belgians way back in 2021, but it took until a few months ago to finally get around to them. The figures are all from the Warlord Games range and the Renault FT is a 3d print that I got on Ebay.  No lengthy post this time, just the paint recipe: Uniform: Green Brown 70.879 Leather: Leather Brown 70.871 Boots: Black 70.950 (Leather Brown 70.871 for officers) Wood: Flat Earth 70.983 Bread bag: Medium Grey 70.987 Helmet and canteen: US Olive Drab 70.887   Then a veeeeeeeery thin coat of Army Painter Soft Tone Quickshade, followed by a few highlights of the original colours with some white mixed in.

I already teased in  my 2024 roundup that I was working on an Athenian hoplite army. I’m now a fair way into what will be my largest army to date. I’ve finished 48 hoplites, 12 archers, 12 slingers and 8 cavalry, for a total of 80 figures. I’ve still got another pack of 48 hoplites to go, but I think I may take a little breather and paint something else for a little bit. All figures are from Victrix. Assembly is rather complex, with each figure consisting of a separate body, head, arms, shield, spear and sword. Just assembling the hoplites took four or five hobby sessions. These hoplites are from the older Victrix kit. I really like the sculpts, but there could have been a bit more variety in the head sculpts. I would also have liked some more heads with Corinthian helmets. Both of these problems are solved in the new kit, however. I did pick up a spare sprue from the new kit on Ebay, just to add in some alternative head sculpts. Spikey phalanx! Shield transfers are from Little ...

I've painted up some more Cyberpunk Sisters of Battle. Most are duplicates of the ones I did before , so I'll just show the new ones. First up is Saint Celestine, or Saint Cyberine if you prefer. Saint Cyberine Canoness Sister Superior and Sister with Heavy Flamer Another 13 Cyber Sisters still to go...

From olive drab back to purple. I’ve finished the tanks for my growing cyberpunk Sisters of Battle army , who I have named the Sisters of Synth. Land Raider I thought the retro look of the Horus Heresy range would fit well with my cyberpunk theme, so I picked up a Land Raider as the transport for the Command unit. I thought about picking up two Rhinos from the range as well, but that would set me back another 70-80 Euros. I remembered, however, that I still had two old S.O.B. Rhinos laying around. So I opted for stripping them back to bare plastic and repainting them. I also removed some of the more gothic-looking details like purity seals and relics. Painting was really fun, but I think I’ll skip on edge highlighting for a little while… Rhino 1 Nearly identical Rhino 2 Base: Royal Purple 70.810 Lines: Light Turquoise 70.840 and Magenta Fluorescent 69.056 over Pink 70.958 Panel lining: Heavy Blue 72.143 Highlights: Pink 70.958 Bolter: Bright Orange 70.851 Metal: Gunmetal ...

Bit of a longer post this time, as I painted up an entire Cold War Dutch army for Team Yankee! The army consists of five Leopard 1Vs, five Leopard 2s, two PRTLs, two F-16s, two West-German Tornados and a set of Dutch mechanised infantry.  Leopard 2 Team Yankee is set in the mid 1980’s, at which time the Royal Netherlands Army was in the process of replacing its Leopard 1V’s for Leopard 2’s. Delays meant that this process took quite a long time. In fact, there had also been severe delays in procuring the Leopard 1, which meant that there were even some old 1950’s vintage Centurions left in service!   Leopard 1V For a bit of variety I picked up a set of Leopard 1Vs and Leopard 2s, but for gaming purposes I’ll run both as the more powerful Leopard 2’s. I also bought two Cheetah PRTLs (Pantser Rups Tegen Luchtdoelen = Armour Tracked Against Aerial Targets). This vehicle is derived from the German Gepard and is basically an anti-aircraft turret on top of a Leopard 1 chassis. Ch...

Back in 2022 I repainted the majority of my Space Marine army . I’ve now made a modest start on repainting my old metal Sisters of Battle army as well. Having completed Cyberpunk 2077 and its DLC earlier this year, I was heavily inspired by the synthwave colour palette of my character’s outfit. I’m aware that the bright clashing colour scheme may not be for everyone, but I think it looks pretty cool and unique. I’ve painted up my first squad and plan to add another squad and a Canoness. I might add some Sisters Repentia as well, although I’m not sure if the colour scheme will work very well on them. Painting was fairly straightforward, apart from the magenta on the fabric. On the whole I love Vallejo paints, but their Mecha Color Magenta Fluorescent does not cover at all! Even after five coats it still doesn’t cover properly. The colours I’ve used:  Base: Royal Purple 70.810 Fabric: Light Turquoise 70.840 + white for highlight, Magenta Fluorescent 69.056. Highlights, hai...

It took a while, but I managed to finish my six knights, Elrond and Haldir. The varnish turned out a bit more glossy than I would have liked, which makes photographing a lot more difficult. In person they look much better, I think.

From Rohan straight to Rivendell. I already owned a group of 16 Last Alliance warrior that desperately needed a new coat of paint. To these I added (all second-hand) some additional warriors, six knights on horseback and Elrond.   I also bought a Haldir mini, so that my Rivendell Elves can double as Galadhrim at Helm’s Deep. For any purists out there, I know there were no Elves at Helm’s Deep in the book. But I think Peter Jackson made the right decision by adding them. It makes for a much more powerful scene this way.   In any case, I’ve finished painting the rank-and-file figures. The knights and characters will follow in part two.   I’ve used the following paints (all Vallejo):   Armour: Brass 70.801 Sword and armour details: Gunmetal Grey 70.863, highlighted with Silver 72.052 Skin: Basic Skin Tone 70.815 Robes: Dark Prussian Blue 70.899, highlighted with Medium Blue 70.963 Cloak: Russian Uniform WWII 70.924, highlighted with Dead Flesh 72.035 L...

My Rohan army is done! I’ve finished the last of the 48 Rohan infantry, as well as Théoden and Éowyn. I’d like to take a couple of nice group shots, but I’m not happy with my efforts so far. So for now, it’s just Théoden and Éowyn. I’ve used basically the exact same colours as for the rest of the army, but with some small red details to make them stand out among the rank and file. Up next is a small(ish) Rivendell army…

A little while back I picked up this cool Indiana Jones figure by Stronghold. It’s metal – which I like – and has a lot of character. While painting I realised that the two Lara Crofts that I painted back in 2020 could probably use an update too. So, here you go, three freshly painted archaeologists! I wonder, are there any other archaeologists that I could add to my collection? Indiana Jones (Stronghold) Classic Lara (Hasslefree) Second reboot Lara (Hasslefree)

Two posts in a day! I’ve also repainted this old Space Marine Dreadnought for my Blood Raven army. I painted straight over the original paint job, so it may not be as smooth as it could have been. There’s not a whole lot to say about it. It was a pretty quick job, just two painting sessions and a bit of basing. The colours I used can be found here .

I’ve finished painting up some gladiators and a lion to go with my amphitheatre ! All figures are by Foundry. The sculpting and casting of these metal figures are of a very high standard, but sadly my order was missing a spear. Fortunately I still had the plastic Fireforge Games weapon sprue from customising my Uruk-hai crossbowmen , so replacing it was simple enough. Slightly more annoying was that two of the figures didn’t come with rectangular scuta as shown on the Foundry website. Instead, they have these weird, stylised figure-of-eight type shields that I associate more with bronze age Greece than with Rome. I’m a little annoyed that I didn’t realise this when my order arrived. It’s been over six months now, so it feels a little late to contact Foundry about it. In any case, I’m still really pleased with the end result. Each figure has its own colour scheme and listing all colours feels a bit excessive. I'm not sure if it comes across, but I’ve used three different skin co...

The first twelve of my Rohan warriors are now varnished and flocked! I’ll pack the rest of them away for now, though, until I’ve found some new inspiration to finish them. In the meantime I’ve also been working on my amphitheatre . More on that in a little while. The recipe for these Rohan warriors is pretty much the same as for their mounted counterparts , except that I accidently painted the quivers brown instead of green: Cloak: German Camo Dark Green 70.979, wash with Black Wash 73.201, highlight with German Camo Bright Green 70.833 Quiver and leather: Flat Earth 70.983 and Charred Brown 72.045 Shield: German Camo Dark Green 70.979 + German Camo Bright Green 70.833 for highlight / Dark Fleshtone 72.044 + White for highlight Metal: Gunmetal Grey 70.863 Gold: Gold 70.996

Ooph, that was quite a bit of work! I’ve now finished the mounted section of a new Rohan army: Éomer and 12 Rohirrim. There is not a great deal of variety with the Rohirrim. There are only six poses for the riders, some of which are weapon swaps, and just two horse sculpts. Luckily you can mix and match the riders, horses and shields for a bit more variety. Plus, you can paint the horses in different colours, of course. One of the two horse sculpts has the animal balancing on one leg. For a bit more durability I supported one of the front legs with some cork made to look like rock. I chose three colours for the horses: light brown, dark brown and black. I painted Éomer’s horse white to make it a bit more obvious that he is the leader of the group. Éomer, by the way, is the old out-of-production metal figure. Up next are 48(!) Rohan warriors, Théoden and Éowyn. I may have to break those down into two or more batches, just so I don’t go mad painting green cloak after green cloak ;-) ...

Just a quick silly post while I'm working on a large unit of mounted Rohirrim. Frodo here is just a bit of Milliput into which I pressed the feet of a Rohan rider mini. Then it was just a matter of gluing on some coffee grounds and painting it.

To finish off my Isengard army I repainted 24 of my Mordor Orcs. Mordor Orcs in an Isengard army, I hear you say? Yes, the army manual lets you field them as cheaper alternatives to the more powerful Uruk-hai. And as I already owned them, why not? Plus, they can double as the start of a future Barad-dûr army... But that's for some other time.  The fun thing about painting Orcs is that you can use different colour schemes within a unit, adding some variety and creating a bit of a ragtag look. You're kind of forced to do this anyway, as there are only 12 poses in a box and each one is repeated.  I settled on three basic colour schemes for the fabrics, going for mostly subdued, earthy colours. On top of that, I used two different metal colours for the armour (gunmetal and copper) for even more variety. I  made sure though that the colours were somewhat complementary, so that the minis still feel like they belong together. I used the following colours (all Vallejo): Metal: Bl...