An Armies Army heads up ....

Ive neglected my blog recently however given my circumstances I'm hoping I can be forgiven :) New job, two small children and now  a new anterior cruciate ligament...(as you do)are to blame, however given the fact I cant place any weight on my knee for the next two weeks, then only partial for 4-6 weeks Ive plenty of time to work on some armies army stuff with a little more organisation behind it!

With that in mind, I am moving on with my grand scheme. That is using the British troops as dollies and creating some new forces using them as a base. That basically means stripping my greens of weapons, heads, armor and webbing, leaving just the basic pose ,feet and hands.

These are in the process of being mastered (this week ) with several head options. Ive had my sculptor the very clever Martin Baker create several heads for me, so rather then building one line of infantry at a time, Ill have the heads to build quite a few. Well the infantry anyhow! Additions come later.  These forces include : From Top left to bottom right

The USA 
    The airframe design allows for multiple additions, for scopes, cameras, sensors and additional armor as per requirements.

The sub Asian Forces 
The Patka inspired helmet was designed for Sikh forces. It also conveniently is an excellent helmet and is being used by several sub continent forces . For the sci fi edge, it has its additional camera and sensors and will likely have an optional half visor/HUD


 Islamic Federation Forces (Soviet /RUSK sponsored forces) bottom left

These are very old school German DDR inspired. They will however have an array of sensors and cams incorporated under the large rims.  The rest will be a simple rusk head conversion, with some additional keffijeh's around shoulders.  Ill also add some goggles. Ill also have different HQ and the odd additional figure. I will also have some new heavy weapons. A recoiless rifle, mortars, HMG and ATGM teams


Sino / PLA forces. Bottom right
      As per my PLA concept artwork Ive designed a helmet and Martin has sculpted something that matches very well.

The European Federation Forces (German inspired) Single photo

As Ive already began work on these as per below, however Ive now the heads. I'm going to refine the shoulder armor, however they are pretty close to how I want them

and thats about it for now! More to follow as soon as I have my concentration back. Im still a little weak and hazy from Friday Op, however getting back to senses fairly steadily :)

Ive some information on vehicles and Ill post an update later :)

comments as always welcome!

thanks

Keith

Some painted efforts! My first group effort! Im quite pleased as its group painted

Airbrush base, block painted and wash.

Armiesarmy needs you!

Hi everyone, Armiesarmy needs your help!

I've been trying to write up some background fluff and scenarios for my figures, however for various reasons I keep failing. Then I thought how much great stuff I read I here and wondered if anyone would like to give it a go and help out? I'm trying to create some starter packs and offer several generic rule friendly scenarios with the figures (any rules manufacturers interested let me know!) and a background history. It may contain unique figures depending on the scenario, like a downed airman for example.

If you fancy giving it a go, drop me an email or comment.
If you can include any examples that would be great
Ill be honest and tell I'm trying to do everything on a budget, however anything I use I can give credits and some figures :)

Cheers Keith

German Euro Forces - WIP

Here's a couple of heads I'm going to use and a converted Infantry man. I need to get the heads mastered so I can add them to the troops. I find it easier to get a few heads ready, master them for consistency.

 With balaclava

The rifle has a neat little triangle shaped barrel and underslung GL. I'm going to redo the shoulder armor so its a tad smaller and consists of two overlapping layers.

Anyhow, let me know your thoughts.

thanks

Keith

A cunning plan......

Its almost....safe to say that I am coming to an end of the kickstarter project...... I still have some rewards to be posted and pro painted, however now that Salute is out of the way my casting service can fully put his efforts into casting the remaining figures, whereby I will immediately get the items out into the post! Once this is compeleted I will give the go ahead for the Brits to be available on the blackhat online shop :) So for those that missed  it...... hint hint :)

Anyhow, on to my cunning plan....

Its safe to say I was not entirely pleased with the kickstarter outcome, I have had fantastic support and feel I have let them down in shipping the rewards. I know it is out of my hands , however I'm still annoyed with the slipped shipping dates
I'm less annoyed about the costs, however it has given me a reminder that I need to recover my costs! With this in mind, I am holding off on investing any additional funds, from now on the project will be self funded! That is, any costs I recover from sales, will go into creating the new lines as opposed to me running before I can walk without any viable plan!

So the easiest way I can recover costs is to increase the items people can buy without spending this on new sculpts! So Ive come up with a cunning plan (as I mentioned)! This is rather simple in fact, where I will use the current Brits as dollies. This simply means I will remove webbing, helmets, weapons from the original greens and then do them again.

So with all this in mind Ive two 'factions' on the go.  The first is a very simple conversion of the Brits to create the Scots guards battalions. These will be troopers with Glengarry hats and more noticeably, some will be kitted in kilts. One that can deflect a round or two :)

Running alongside this will be a series of other factions, so the second one will be 'German Heer' inspired. A sort of EuroForce if you will. Ive began working on a sketch or two, so Id thought Id show one of them.

As you can see they are very much a first draft and I will work on better sketches. They are again very modern/future war with a harder sci fi edge weapon. They will have their own look, which the helmets, armour/webbing and weapons will highlight, I hope!


 The final part of the cunning plan...... (once I have enough in the pot), is that Ill be then working on the PLA or Asian Pact inspired forces I have already shown. I do not believe I have the skill to do these myself, so Ill be after a pro, hence the greater costs. Its unlikely Ill be using kickstarter as to be honest, the hidden costs and difficultly in full costings means I will end up losing money and that isn't allowed by the wife :)


Anyhow, let me know what you think on the draft and Ill continue to add more sketches and even greens as I do them. I'm always interested to know what forces people would like to! I am thinking Indian and Brazilian are towards the top from a personal level and Ill be thinking about their look as I go along. So any ideas are again welcome!

Right then...back to work

thanks all

Keith

Post Apoc anyone?

Toying with some conversions, so Ive been working on some head swaps.


They are more stalker/survialist then Mad Max and will utilise my current lines. Expect my troops as dollies with mixed weapons ,head swaps and additional baggage, capes and gas masks items.

Here are the heads. I will add hoods, goggles, visors etc to the base items

Let me know what you think. The berets and wooly hats will also be used as straight conversions with the rusks.

cheers

Keith

Is that a biggggggg bag of my figures....

yes ...yes it is :)

Casting is well under way and I will begin shipping over the next few weeks. Hoping all metal will be out to you or the painters by March. Again sorry for the delay, however the end is in sight!

thanks again all

Keith

Hard suited Power Armor

Another of the masters :)

Quick paint job on a spare master

A quick paint job as I couldn't resist! This is a spare master, most of which are now being used to make production molds. Hope you like it

Ill get some better pics up soon, these are using poor light and my phone

cheers

Keith

It takes a shape......

The master molds are nearly ready :)

Combat wombat tanker

WIP

Its a militia operator crewman. I like it. I will work on some other options. If anyone is interested I may make a set.

concept artwork

Just an idea on a future faction. An Asian inspire force.

Comments welcome, particularly around your thoughts of another kickstarter. Im hesitant to do another as Im thinking ' Not another b###y kickstarter'! I guess if I run one and it fails, I know not to do it:)

Cheers

Keith

Wait....Theirs more!

Just a few more!

Some infantry with underslung GL's . A sniper
2 command figures
ATGM team (the loader is also dollie for any mortar team, it will be replaced with replacement tube for ATGM) and a the rather lovely, if I do say so myself Grenadier.

New Milita Paint scheme

Trying to paint up some militia for my personal collection

What do you think on this paint scheme?

ta

Keith