Thursday 26 May 2016

Athenian DBA Xyston 18mm

Again it's been a good while time since my last blog post, life has been pretty hectic the past few weeks, months and probably year or 2 so fingers crossed for the next few months. Anyway I have continued with the help of the MMM group challenge and chats to make some good progress on some almost forgotten projects. The 1st of these is my little dabble with ancients. . .

I am pleased to say I have finally completed my 1st DBA army, and if your interested I have made a wee video of the completed troops.

The troops are from the Xyston range of ancients and are absolutely lovely little figures. I've painted them up as an Athenian army to either fight other Greek states or Persians. At 1st the idea of drilling the hands, attaching the shields and after the painting applying the decals/transfers to the shields filled me with dread however they came together really smoothly.

I have really enjoyed painting and also basing the little dudes, the figures have so much character and the variety of poses make them a joy to collect.

The decals I used for the shields are from Little Big Man Studio, after the 1st couple of efforts they went on really sweet and add so much to the finished figures.

Another massive plus for the figures is the quality of the horses, again there are a good few poses and the horses are lovely sculpts.

I thoroughly enjoyed painting the linen on these wee guys and it was a great change from my Naps. The Vallejo model colour range has so many rich shades that are perfect for painting ancients.

I think I maybe painted an extra base or 2 as its easy to get carried away when painting them.

With the basing I had considered using static grass or a combination of burnt grass and tufts however after having looked through pictures of the area I decided to use 2 different types of tufts and keep the ground work quite light. I'm happy enough with the finish.

So what next? Well I still plan to paint my Napoleonic collection however as a fall back I have Macedonians, Persians and plenty more Greeks if I fancy a change.
Next up will be a Prussian cavalry command.

I hope everyone is enjoying their painting and gaming,
Happy Wargaming!!!

30 comments:

Jacksarge Painting said...

They look brilliant Paul! It's great to see your brushwork on miniatures from other periods & manufacturers - the Xyston minis do look good.

peter said...

Fantastic painted figures and as said on FB, wonderfull shields!

Greetings
Peter

Carlo said...

Had to look twice when I saw the Athenians mate. Wonderful job.

Ray Rousell said...

Stunning paintjob Paul, and those shields......

Phil said...

Superb, excellent job!

Jonathan Freitag said...

Quite unexpected to ancients off the workbench. Marvelous results!

Phil C said...

DBA? who mention DBA here! :o)
lovely painted figures and flocking of bases to boot too Paul!

cheers

Rulane10@gmail.com said...

What a delight! A lovely change of colour, and beautifully done. Looking at Ancients in the past I've been put off by the 'uniformity' of many makes but these have loads of character and variety. The perfect

GaryA said...

Very nicely done Paul, but you're doomed to the hell that is the 'just one more army' BDA bug! NOBODY sticks to just one of two armies . . BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Paulalba said...

Lol your so right, gotta have them all!

Paulalba said...

Thanks very much Loki!

Paulalba said...

Thanks Ru, yes I like them a lot for the quality and the variety. Really nice!

Paulalba said...

Lol I thought you'd like them Phil, great to get them done. Had the inspiration to get them finished when I started hunting for figures for someone hint,hint.

Furphy said...

The brush work is excellent and the basing helps magnify this 😍.
Regards Gav .

Rulane10@gmail.com said...

Got cut off...the perfect backdrop to your legendary painting!

Gonsalvo said...

Great looking pocket army, Paul, and a nice change from the Napoleonics.

Paulalba said...

Thanks Gav, it's like like painting up guard chasseur a cheval, you can't really fail to Finish with a pretty unit as the colours are so nice!

Paulalba said...

Thanks Ru, you always encouraged my paint. Really appreciate it buddy!

Paulalba said...

Thanks Jonathan, yeah I love ancients, ww2 and ACW however when your building up Napoleonic armies and you hav by got a tremendous amount of time it's tough.

Paulalba said...

Thanks very much Phil, really appreciate your comment!

Paulalba said...

Thanks Ray they were a lot of fun. The LBMS transfers are awesome, really finish of the shields. Had hoped to bump into you on 1 of the MMM chats, thought it would've great for the posties rejects, hoped you guys would run some of yer famous games to watch?

Paulalba said...

Lol thanks carlo, yeah it is a little unusual for me. Really enjoyed them. Next will be back to the norm.

Paulalba said...

Thanks Peter, much appreciated buddy, I know it's said a lot but they pretty much paint themselves with the style of the sculpting. Good to see your work in the group it's a friendly little community.

Paulalba said...

Hi Jacksarge, good to hear from you buddy, sorry I missed you in the chat. Jamie said you were on. It's tough with the time difference. Would have been good to catch up. The Xyston figures are lovely to paint, lots of fun.

Millsy said...

Absolutely gorgeous sir!

Edzard said...

Paul, what did you use for the Bronze? They look great, very nice tan on them!

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Lovely little army Paul!

Christopher

Paulalba said...

Thanks Peter,yeah I think the DBA armies will be my fall back when I'm feeling a bit napped out.

Paulalba said...

Thanks very much Michael, they were great fun to paint up. Good to see Liverpool make it to the Uefa final, shame they couldn't go that stage further.

Scotsgrey said...

these look absolutely superb! As always very inspiring but I never paint to your standard. You have talent as well as skill. We could always have a DBA day at the club!