Life In Mono

Yesterday I posted a general update containing a picture of some "work in progress" (WiP). Now I don't normally post WiP shots but I was testing my new tripod and the pictures were was so good it would have been a shame not to include at least one of them. It helped that the figures were the excellent 15 mm 3D prints of Arab camel riders from Red Copper.

To publicise my post I shared the picture on Bluesky, where I am vexillia.me.uk, and the Society of Ancients forum. To my surprise it generated quite a decent response. As the likes rolled in (it was more of trickle really) I started messing about with the image. In the end I removed the background and produced a monochrome version:

Have a play with the slider to compare and contrast (desktop only) then read on for an interesting painting tip.

Work In Progress Summer '25

It's been just over a month since I posted anything. I try to post at least once a month, however this last month has been difficult. Partly because things in the real world haven't gone well, and partly because it's been so blinking hot. These things have combined to sap my enthusiasm. Even so, I've not been completely idle.

15 mm Greek Hoplites (Essex)

Introduction

Decades ago (and I am not kidding) I bought a sample from a professional figure painter. It was a "adjusted" figure from Essex Miniatures MPA27 Later Hoplite Greek: Theban Hoplites Boitian helmet. The over arm pose had been changed to "at rest" (spear vertical) by bending the throwing arm. I never did buy more than the sample, but I kept it to use as inspiration.

More recently, I've decided to morph my Later Macedonian Art de la Guerre (ADLG) army into a Pyrrhic army. This requires some elephants, a few slingers, some later cavalry, and some hoplites.

The Later Macedonian army lacks units with "punch". It does best when the pike can pin a target and grind their way trough it, but, as the army is quite small, this can leave the flanks of the pike very vulnerable. The elephants will add some "punch" and the hoplites will add stable width (I hope).

Luckily, one of my mates found some Essex hoplites, and a few Freikorps command figures, in his loft. Money changed hands, and now they are all painted.