Upcoming 1:600 Atakebune video

I've thought that some among you would like to know how our upcoming Atakebune builds, and what it looks like once painted. In this YouTube video below, you can watch how Minis, My Way author deals with it!

Our Atakebune model is close to a deadline now - next month, hopefully!

Painting our Austrophile Grenadiers

Back from the Montmeló town X^th Napoleonic & Black Powder Open, and already on holidays (theoretically at least), I've been pleasantly surprised by another YouTube video tutorial from Minis, My Way, where the author takes an approach to our 1:72^nd scale WSS Austro-catalan Grenadiers:

Don't they look terrific?

Upcoming 1:600 War Junk

I'm proud to share this YouTube video below, where Minis, My Way author deals with our upcoming 1:600^th scale War Junk.

Model itself is about ready to launch - actually, its release is scheduled for next month.

Upcoming polacre ship painting video

I'm happy to share this YouTube video below, recorded by a gaming mate, which shows the painting process of our upcoming 1:600^th scale polacre - a three masted ship quite common in XVII-XVIII centuries Mediterranean waters, that was en evolution from xebecs. I hope you like it as much as I do!

Don't forget to like and subscribe to this IMHO exciting channel!

War of the Spanish Succession Infantry painting video

We're happy to share this YouTube video below, recorded by a gaming mate, which shows the painting process of a Minairons miniatures WSS Austrophile Infantry set, along with its command group. I hope you like it as much as we do!

Don't forget to like and subscribe to this IMHO exciting channel!

Painted xebec sample

I've taken advantage from a business calm week for enlarging my own Age of Sail collection, with one of my 1/600 scale xebecs, that I've finished up as a late 17th - early 18th c. Majorcan privateer.

Contrarily to general belief, xebecs weren't by any means exclusive to Barbary corsairs, but constitued instead the work horse of most Mediterranean navies, either eastern and western - besides of being also extensively used for trading.

My own xebec model is a small 14 guns one, but xebecs could range from this small to really large ones, armed with up to 38 guns - so being capable to fulfill the same roles that a full rigged frigate would in other waters.

Even newcoming naval powers, such as the United Kingdom after taking possession of Gibraltar and Minorca, used xebecs and other lateen rigged ships to build up their local contingents. So I would humbly recommend to anyone willing to set a Mediterranean campaign to reinforce his/her fleet with abundant both large and small xebecs!

Video sneak peek on our upcoming Xebec

Here you have a full video about our upcoming Age of Sail xebec assembly and painting job. Enjoy!

'Miquelets' painted sample - and short guide!

I've taken advantage of these relatevely calm days, at the end of year, for painting a sample of the recently released Austo-catalan Mountain fusiliers, whose pictures might be of interest of some among you. They've been painted accordingly to Archduke Charles' regulations, as described by F. Castellví, who was a contemporary Catalan military chronicler exiled to Vienna after the war.

Following Castellví's descriptions, the standard uniform for Mountain fusiliers was a brown or musk coat with regimental facings, a red waistcoat, blue wide-legged trousers and a particular kind of gaiters called calcilles, made of leather or some tough fabric. It was usual for them to wear a strong, light-weight footwear made with braided esparto fibers, known as espardenyes (sp. abarcas).

Figures from this set have been painted following such pattern, as if belonging to Ebro Riverside Regiment, whose facings were red. However, it wasn't that unusual for some regiments to use blue instead of brown coats, and other variations are known too. As for 'miquelets' in French service, the uniform pattern I've most often seen includes blue coats with red facings, red waistcoats and blue trousers; hat laces would be white rather than yellow. Spain only created regular 'miquelet' regiments later in 18^th century - and these used that very same colour schema too, albeit with red hat laces.

Horn blowers (or should I better say "sea shell blowers"...?) are known to wear a blue feather on their hat. Officers were expected to dress right as their men, and possibly most did so; although it is known for at least one to have dressed a red coat - a colour that regulations reserved in theory to generals only.

Following Vallejo's catalogue, base colours used in this particular job are: 70.985 Hull Red + a drop of 70.951 White for coats, 70.908 Carmine Red for waistcoats, 70.903 Intermediate Blue for trousers, 70.819 Iraqui Sand for gaiters, 70.950 Black for hats, 70.953 Flat Yellow for hat laces and 70.818 Red Leather for beltings. Otherwise, the officer wears red coat, royal blue trousers and white stockings.

As for what is known to-day, variations on the above described pattern were as follows: Guardian Angel, or Manuel Moliner's, Regiment: yellow facings, red trousers; St. Raymond of Penyafort, or Ermengol Amill's, Regiment: blue coat, yellow facings, red trousers; St. Vincent Ferrer, or Joan Vila's, Regiment: blue coat, red facings; Jaume Molins' Regiment: blue coat, red facings, off-white waistcoat and trousers, white gaiters; Segimon Torres' Regiment: unknown; Antoni Muñoz's Regiment: facings possibly yellow, rest undetermined; Joseph Marco's Companies, red facings perhaps red, rest undetermined.

Less can be asserted about irregular 'miquelet' units; for instance, the so-called Aragon Volunteers Regiment was reportedly dressed in blue coats, with also blue or white waistcoats and trousers (no facings known); General Moragues' and Colonel Llirós' guerrilla troopers didn't seemingly wear any uniform at all, although some iconic votive offerings preserved at the Seu d'Urgell town's Diocese Museum do show some dressed in musk or red coats, red or light brown waistcoats, and brown or musk trousers.

Ship of the Line sample

I'm proud to show you pictures of a Ship of the Line sample from our 1/600 scale naval range, as masterly painted by a customer and gaming mate.

He has slightly modified the original model, just by adding two clear plastic lanterns on stern, as well as a flag staff made from a piece of wire.

As for what I know, its stand is a clear plastic rectangle textured with clear silicone.

Walloon Guards flags sample

Let me show you a printed 15mm sample of our recently released WSS Walloon Guards flags, as fitted on a regiment belonging to my own collection:

The unit only shows the regiment's own colours, due to a customary practice I adopted years ago, when my units were smaller than currently. Then I chose to use the king's colours to decorate generals' stands and special vignettes, so here you can see what this latter flag looks like, once put in place:

War of Spanish Succession flags sample

I'm happy to share what a sample of our recent WSS flags range looks like, once fitted. Work has been done by I.S., a customer who is building a 28mm Austro-Catalan army and hqas kindly granted me permission to show his pictures.

I know I can't be objective because I'm these flags maker --but don't they look terrific?

A customer's Dutch fleet

A customer and mate hobbyist has kindly shared with me some pictures of his recenty built Dutch fleet, consisting of two large war galleons from Minairons, as well as a smaller 'race-built' fast galleon from Skytrex --all them at 1:600 scale. Here you can see what they look like:

He chose not to use the Dutch flag sets I published, but to paint some of his own instead. Bases are clear plastic rectangles textured by means of a clear silicone layer. Also, he glued a small magnet at bases bottom, for higher safety when carrying them.

A T-26 tank 'Open the Box' video

A French user has gently shared with me an 'Open the Box' YouTube video he's recorded --in French language. Here it goes:

A 1937 Chevrolet in FFL livery

These are the pictures of a 1937 Chevrolet truck in 1:56 scale a customer purchased from me recently. As you can see, he wanted it as a Free French vehicle in North Africa, so carrying a Schneider gun, along with some French artillerymen in British gear. A very nice job IMHO.

1/72 Nationalist T-26 tanks (own collection)

Just a few pictures to show you some different markings arrangements for a SCW Nationalist T-26 tank, using a model from the (no longer existing, I believe) UM Ukrainian firm, while the other two are hybrids of Minairons and S-Model kits.

I hope that, despite I being definitely far from the skills of a pro painter, the pictures above can serve you as a source of inspiration!

A Henschel truck of my own

I've been taking advantage of this long Summer season for pushing forward some projects for my own collection. One of these is a Henschel type 33 truck, painted for Condor Legion service with some German crewmen of Xan Miniatures replacing the default Spanish driver. Not any master piece of work, but it will do nicely on tabletop.

Here you have the original article in my personal painting blog (Catalan language only, sorry)

Sadurní tank painted samples

While still awaiting for the Trubia-Naval tank decals to come, I've taken advantage of the spare time I had for assembling and painting some IGC Sadurní tanks for my own collection. Not any master pieces actually, but I think they still look pretty nice anyway.

I haven't assembled them just as they were, but have drawn out some pieces form my spare parts box so as to customize all them at some degree. They all have been added mudguards, for instance (either coming from its tractor version, or from a cannibalized T-26 kit from Mirage. Or I have also tried equipping them with headlights in varying positions, as you can see.

Also, I was curious to see if this tank could have been actually improved by a better armament, so I replaced the MG of one for a small gun (a 37mm or so perhaps). Then I realized this would leave barely any room for the 2^nd crewman and gun altogether, so I enlargened its internal space rearwards. Well, there is room enough now, but no chances for a third crewman either. Well, at least I had some fun at trying!

Militiawomen of my own

This weekend I've finally found the time for finishing up a SCW Militiawomen small company I had planned long ago, for my own collection - little after having released them on behalf of Minairons Miniatures, honestly. Please forgive my poor skills at either painting and taking pictures:

All of the figures there are from Minairons itself, except for two (from Irregular the one, from Barcino the other). Unit has been built for company-scaled settings such as FoW or Blitzkrieg, and conceived as a small size company, consisting of only two understrength platoons, with no further subdivision into squads so as to simulate poorer command-and-control than in Regular Army platoons (see one such regular at my personal painting blog).

As for figures painting, I've used these militiawomen with the aim to test some of the colour schemas in Minairons quick guides, taking advantage of the fact that many girls are dressed in military gear, presumably taken from pre-war stocks - that would also serve for testing the look of a similarly painted Nationalist force.

Look at these three girls above, for instance. While the leftmost one has been painted as if wearing military khaki overalls, as well as belting and gorrillo cap as if from the Assault Guard, the rightmost one has been painted as if dressed in pre-war military gear using 922 USA uniform + 879 Green Brown - one of the choices listed in Minairons Painting Guide no. 2.

Or, here above, these NCO's uniforms have been given same colour as the above, except for the leftmost one's coat, painted 873 Field Drab as if from Republican stocks.

On the other hand, such is the look of the same figure if painted 823 Luftwaffe Camo Green, as if in a brand new uniform.

As for girls dressed in overalls, I've chosen not to paint all of them in a single colour, but to alternate blue, sand, earth brown and olive yellow. The selected shade of blue has been Royal Blue, perhaps too bright for some tastes - but I wished my girls to be colourful.

I have posted a number of pictures else at my own painting blog; if curious about any of those pictures, please ask. I'll be happy to answer.

Built Rosa Luxemburg Battalion

A user has kindly granted me permission to show some captions on the Rosa Luxemburg Battalion he's recently built and painted, to reinforce his 20mm SCW Republican Army. It comprises a Minairons 20GEF011 Militiawomen set, completed with a couple of poses of plastic figures by B.U.M. to fill up ranks. Group is supported by two 20GEV003 Bilbao armoured cars and one 20GEV024 Ford ambulance, also by Minairons. Enjoy the pictures!

This user's original posting at Benno's Figures Forum can be read here.