THIRTY YEARS WAR PIKEMEN BY MALPLAQUET MINIATURES

Another shameless commercial , as Mammon reigns in the Atticus household. Just finished this batch of grubby pikemen which were great fun to paint. Renegade Miniatures have real character without being too goofy like a lot of Foundry figures, or a bit bland like Perry's.

Block paint, drybrush, wash and highlight worked well to give that ragged look one associates with the TYW.

Available to buy here, or comment below and I'll be in touch.

(THIS UNIT NOW SOLD)

I am tempted to do a small TYW force for myself (Mansfeld's band of mercenary scum would be jolly). 

I have just taken delivery of a small order of medievals from Front Rank for my Venetian army. Lovely crisp castings. Roll of February when I can start painting for myself.

MALPLAQUET MINIATURES

Buoyed by the success of selling my 1/72 figures mentioned in the last post for a goodly sum, I have decided to have a go at painting figures for sale. Now, I am well aware of my limitations as a painter but as I have sold the odd batch before, someone must like my style (or pity me).

I think the secret is to find a niche in the market that there is some demand for, and I tend to make extensive use of washes which speeds up the process. This tends to make the figures look quite grubby, and combined with drybrushing they look dusty as well! This grotty realism seems to be all the rage at the moment, and although I prefer my own figures to be nice and bright and shiny, I find painting the grubby way much quicker and fairly therapeutic.

A slot I have thought about is painting Oldschool style traditional regiments for sale... Spencer Smith, Minifigs, Warrior etc..... what do you think? Nobody else seems to do this, but demand may be non existant.

We'll see how things go. I sold a few hundred quids worth last year, so I starting the new year with a plan to paint one month for sale, and one month for myself. So far this year, I have painted 8 Spartans, 6 Norman Cavalry, 14 ECW infantry, 12 Outlaws or rangers and 3 LOTR trolls! It is rather fun chopping and changing periods and keeps my interest up.

Pricing is a contentious issue... I wouldn't dream of buying prepainted figures myself, but then that is the best part of the hobby for me, gaming comes a long way second. For others the game is everything and there seem to be plenty of folk with no inclination or time to paint, but who want painted minis to play with. There are some stunning figures for sale on ebay...I was amazed to find one painter selling plenty of 28mm historical infantry miniatures at £60+ EACH. They were works of art, but even if I could paint that well, I'm not sure I could spend all that time on one figure without getting bored. It just shows there are plenty of punters who have funds to spend on their hobby (and good luck to 'em). Conversely there are some pretty basic paint jobs that are selling as well.

(EDIT: ECW UNIT ABOVE NOW SOLD)

I am pitching my figures at about £6.50 for infantry and £15 for cavalry which of course includes the cost of the casting, but nor basing. I've sold at this price before, and it seems an average price for workmanlike figures, which I hope mine are.

(EDIT: NORMAN CAVALRY UNIT ABOVE NOW SOLD)

Anyhow, I will post new units as they come up for sale, and please pop over to my page here at Malplaquet Miniatures ebay sales.

Any constructive comments would be much appreciated as well, and commissions even more so!

BACK, BUT JUST FLOGGING STUFF!

Hello all...it's been a manic year and ages since my last post. I have been painting, but lack of any form of camera has put paid to my posting progress. The current project making good headway is 28mm Italian Wars and I'm well ahead with a Venetian army. This post is just to put up some pictures (taken on Mrs. Atticus' phone) to show a prospective buyer my 1/72 TYW figures I am selling to finance more purchases (including a camera).

 EDIT... ALL SOLD THANKS!

LINCOMBE BARN HAUL

I decided to pop over the the Lincombe Barn Tabletop sale in Bristol this morning, as there are often bargains to be had.... today was no exception and I came back with the following (none of which I need of course). A couple of times I hesitated over the purchase, which resulted in the seller knocking something off the price....I must remember that trick.

2 Boxes of 28mm Old Glory ACW infantry (76 mint metal figures for £25). I have been thinking about this period for ages now and this seemed too good an opportunity to miss.  I can always paint them and sell them if the project comes to nothing (justify purchase frantically).

Really nice sculpts, with a sort of Peter Gilder feel about them

A book on the battles of the ACW £2

A Citadel Fighting fantasy warrior 50p from 1984 (this will be going on ebay or will end up as a 54mm orc).

2 Reaper Frost Giants £8 (been thinking about getting these for a while, and the supply of Reaper figs seems to have dried up since Brexit and Trump).

2 Plastic trolls £2 for both, for a box of 54mm LOTR figures I'm hoarding. Pelennor Fields in 1/32 will be impressive.

Finally for £10 a tray of 96 25mm Renaissance Spanish, from the collection of Donald Featherstone. I picked these from Chris Scott, who had no idea what make they were, neither do I. A couple of Hinchliffe bods,but the rest are quite slight and beautifully proportioned Pikemen, musketeers, swordsmen and halberdiers. These might be heading to the front of the painting queue. If anyone can tell me what make they are I would be grateful (the pikeman has an S code on the base, but I don't think they are Minifigs).

So, all in all I spent more than I intended, but was pleased by my swag.

A DAY TO CELEBRATE

Hurrah.... the 19th May, the day England was declared a Commonwealth in 1649.

Have a good day.

DABBLING WITH TECHNOLOGY!!

I'm something of a Luddite and generally eschew new technology as I don't understand it very well and it scares me. However this ostrich mentality has left by blogging in the lurch as my trusty camera died some time ago, and I have shied away from getting a decent mobile with camera (my current mobile telephone is a 9 year old Nokia which has been maltreated, dropped, washed twice and generally abused, but is still functioning).

However a post from Alan at Tradgardland demonstrated that with perseverance one can overcome these technological hurdles, so I borrowed Mrs. Atticus' mobile and managed to take some pictures with it!!

I've been managing to do a bit of painting and even some gaming recently, and a chat with 2 of my wargames buddies has enthused me to try painting some Italian Wars figures. I've always been keen on this conflict since the Peter Gilder days in Miniature Wargames. Rather than dashing off and buying loads of new figures however, I thought I would try and use figures from the lead mountain.

To start with I thought I would have a go at an unctuous Cardinal, which no Italian Wars game should be without. Perry Miniatures make a cracking cardinal model, but I already had an Essex one, so added a chinstrap to his hat, which made him look a bit more Renaissance than Medieval.

Painting defects show up in these photos, but at least I got some paint on figures which is the main thing. The sidekick banner bearer is an Essex johnny too, and just as I had finished him, I dropped him and 2 of the crosses on the banner broke off. 

I like the cardinal figure as he reminds me of the actor Murray Melvin

I'm painting up some handgunners at the moment and have an idea to do a Venetian army in the defence of Padua 1509, although this chap has a Papal banner at the moment.

SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF ROBIN HOOD

I've been painting but not blogging, and am working on some Robin of Sherwood figures I hope to post soon. In the meantime here is a Robin Hood song which seems apposite today.

Hope to be back soon, but am working lengthy hours so I can contribute to my oldest son's underfunded school.... funny but I was under the impression I had already coughed up in my taxes.