(Hobby)brushing the dust off… (Spring clean ’25)

Firstly, can I thank anyone who’s so much as glanced here.

I’ve loved this project as a focus point for getting back into my hobby after a year off and give me reason to tick things off that I would otherwise have let languish even longer!

I’ve painted 3 units from undercoat stage.

Some proper work on 3 large models (trolls), the vehicle crew and another unit (praetorian cav)

and finished / fixed details on another 5 large models / busts and one regiment.

oddly it’s the last section I’m most pleased with as these are the ones I so often abandon!

So now I just need to decide whether I open multiple projects and keep my logs here going forward, risking spamming OTT with my hobby-waffling, or start a blog or something similar.

this has been a great kickstart back to the brushes and couldn’t have been timed better for me!

I gave the praetorian inf bases a quick brown wash and left them aside to dry again.

With the little parcel here, I set about getting the shields done for my praetorian cav.

Step is worth sharing.

decades ago, I acquired a leather punch. Traditionally used for putting new holes in belts, it looked useful, so I kept it a very very long time…… and then finally it was useful!

Little Big Men Studios transfers are awesome, but they’re not pre-cut. A leather punch like this lets you punch out the center boss holes for shield transfers with ease!

The rest of the transfers are cut out with regular scissors.

the shields are prepped with some Citadel foundation astronomicon grey – the instructions say to use white but I prefer this for both coverage and (a very slightly duller) finish.

Backs get painted with citadel Cathlan brown, and shields glued in place.

then its chest time again and metallic markers are used to both base and highlight the metal trims and bosses of the shields in super quick time

All that remains on these guys is some re-touching to the shield faces with black where the transfers fit isn’t perfect, and then varnish!

finished pics soon!

[ EDIT 2: all superfluous entries have now been filled. Thanks again to those who suggested the work-round to me. Normal project service now continues above. Leaving this here purely as people commented and helped- thank you! ]

I got a number of “timeouts” when I tried to put my last post up.

now it seems every attempt went through- and I can’t see how to delete them!

haven’t got time to get my laptop out right now so apologies for all the repeats below…… here’s a gladiator for no reason other than to distract from my idiocy slightly….

Thank you Victrix / LBMS!

the transfers arrived while I was busy Dad’ing, and gives hope to units being finished!

I remember why I stopped using 6 man bases for my ancients.

getting the sand on was painfully slow!

notes on my basing can be found below regarding my Numidians, but shields are on, then troops superglued to the MDF bases (from warbases…. Of course!) and PVA applied to adhere the sand. They now need to dry while I do my proper jobs and I can try to time it right for ink, flock, and dry brushing, along with sundry detailing…… fingers crossed!

Crests drybrushed VMC white

rest of the skin highlighted with foundry expert flesh D

Windsor Newton Nut brown ink applied over all brass, straps and pilums. I used Peat Brown at this stage for years, but I’ve had problems with it going kind of purpley after a while in the pot and I don’t trust it any more!

Citadel Catalan brown foundation paint used for the back of the shields (after clipping off the frames as their connections are terrible and attach all over the place….)