Liebster Blog Award has reach Nowhere!

I am honored to announce that, much to my surprise, I have been made the modest recipient of a "Liebster Blog Award". I have seen lately this award coming and going on various blogs I follow. I found interesting to watch how it was jumping from a blog to an other, but I was far to imagine that a copy of this golden friendly dude would end up on my page. I am not even sure that I really deserve it, considering how recent is my start with the bloging enjoyment. Well, at least Jonas M from A Conflict of Interest things I do, and I owe him a all lot of thanks for that. Hadn't he choose me, surely I would have choose him for his painting style is clearly one of my favorite out there.

"Lovely painted models from Ni. Tchirititch from Canada. Check out those shields!"

Unfortunately I can't award him back, this would make no sense, and would ruin the all purpose of the chain of rewards. So, before I unleash the hunger of the mighty Ouroboros, lets have a careful reading of the rules:

- "Copy and paste" the award on your blog, and talk about it a bit.
- Select for the award your five favourite blogs with less than 200 followers, leaving a comment on one of their post to notify them that they have won the award. You need also to list them in your own blog.
- Enjoy the moment, knowing that you have just made someone's day.
- Of course, there is no obligation to pass the award, but it is a good deed really.

So, here is my short list:

- Dramatic Katastases
Great blog about the LotR, constantly growing hordes of an equal painting quality, great ideas for scratch build and for converting, and the best profile picture I have seen so far!

- Par la bouche de mes canons
The new born blog of a combat hardened wargamer, better known as Archiduc Charles by the Napoleonic Era fanatics. I have some insights of what's coming next... Lets only say you would not want to miss that.

- Sam's Minis World
This one is not a wargaming blog nor is it dedicated to 28mm figures, rather than that, it displays jewels of medieval and fantasy in 20mm, and some superb oldschool Mithrill miniatures of the LotR. I am always moved by the poetry of Sam's approach. Unique to my point of view.

- Toma's Minis World
The best blog I have ever cross dealing with a colorful period that I really enjoy, 17th century warfare in central Europe: polish hussars, Cossacks, Ottomans… Here again not 28mm nor wargaming, but check those conversions on such small pieces. And painting is breath taking. A period I'd like to give a go.

- Wargaming in 28mm and sometimes smaller
If you don't know John de Terre-Neuve already, you have been sleeping under a rock in deep oceans, last couples of years. I am only surprised that he is not awarded already. Well I better hurry before he gets 200 followers…

Now, I am kind of curious to see to who they will turn the favour.

The first 1000

I have been thinking that each significant step in the history of this very blog should be underlined by something special, like an unrevealed figure from some collection of the past or currently off the painting schedule.

Thus, in order to celebrate the first 1000 of page views at Nowhere to Lead Soldiers, let me present you with this pair of combat hardened voltigeurs of the 1er Léger regiment.

These two skirmishers of the Movember kind are part of a project that has slowly gone out of fuel a couple of years ago. I originally wanted to recreate Bauduin's brigade of the Jerôme Bonaparte Division at Waterloo, with the blurry objective to take the bunch  out for a pick-nick somewhere close to the orchard of Hougoumont. Building this little project on my own, I ran out of mojo, after spending to much time trying to have the black of the eye right in the middle of every single eyes… In the end I only managed to paint half of an half brigade, which make something close to a quarter, if I am correct, or even closer to a "nowhere to lead soldiers" award in the guinness book of failed wargaming projects.

This thing said. These were some great Perry figures, some of their bests, so I have been wise enough to bring them in the new land where I have settled. And the customs control was kind enough to let these guys of francophone ascendences cross the boarder.

Since then, I have been lucky enough to find two people of choice to game with, who among their various qualities, share an unconditional taste for the Napoleonic Era and about everything related to it. John (here) and Iannick (here and there) are both the tireless owners of amazingly numerous Napoleonic armies, and even if they don't really need me to clutter the battle field with my own minis, I sometimes feel tempted to give an other go at the period. The serie of great napoleonic games we have been playing lately has of course to do with this. As much as the great set of rules designed by Curt of Analogue Hobbies we have been trying a few weeks ago (see the AAR here and there) and that we have already swear to play again.

Now, would this occur in the future, I might this time follow their wise pieces of advice: "Don't paint the eyes, you crazy fool", "Don't paint two layers of highlights", "Don't spend more than 40 minutes on a single figure", and "Don't paint the eyes, you crazy fool"…

Many thanks to all who have been following this blog so far. 

New shields on the blog

Well, the title says it all. At first I thought I'd name these new shielded warriors New kids on the block... But this sounded way too absurd.

It's a relief to show these rough beards, since it took me quite long to finished them. I must say that painting shields directly on the figure, is a completly different story than painting them when they are attached to a flat cardboard. 

In the end this new serie does not come out to bad. Only It has me sweating a little more. On the other hand, these are lead soldiers and after having been caught by the versatility of plastic figures, I start to feel more and more conservative as time goes by.

Now I really like the new patterns I tried with the mix of white, blue and red. Although it was hard to achieve regular curves (still need to improve on this soft spot), it seems to me that both shields looks quite fine, and have this bright eastern touch to them. But, I can't tell the same about my two attempts with the yellow, green and white designs. Not that I do don't like them, rather that they don't stand out as well as I expected. White against yellow doesn't make for sharp contrasts.

I tried to have a special attention on the shield above, since this character is supposed to be some sort of hero/captain/leader, or Drar if we stick to the LotR rulebook... Or is it Murin? Anyway, this one supposedly depicts a flower pattern taken again from a drawing by Bilibin. You guys tell me if you can see how the leaves and petals are arranged together.

Last of the new cool kids. This bearded ten years old has some quite nice red facial hairs, isn't it? He was supposed to carry an ugly GW shield cluttered with carved crows. I thought a kid this age could not carry such an heavy piece of iron, so I went with something more handy for his infant arm.

That's it for the moment. Oh... and, please have a look back to my previous post. I have been adding new pics. Last time, I felt a little puny with the double-handed axes. May we keep this place colourful and friendly!

A rabbit, a dwarf and an humble piece of land.

I have been fighting on different fronts lately, slowly building up a new gameboard for SAGA skirmishes, and painting a new batch of Anglo-Dvergish, at the same time. And, hum... you know what they say about chasing two rabbits... This ended up with two rather unproductive weeks which I found quite frustrating. And an Halloween party hangover did not really help. I was only kept motivated by the decisive progress I made on the preparation of a short SAGA campaign to be played between Skraelings and Vikings for the domination of Vinland. And the enthousiastic correspondance that John and I had while creating and editing the scenarios. But more on that later...

More double-handed axes...

Some new dwarf warriors shall finally see light during the week. Meanwhile, here is a group of dwarves armed with double-handed axes, that I painted few weeks ago, but did not found the opportunity to publish a descent picture of them. As this blog is also a mean to keep record of all units I paint, here they are. I might field them as two points of Anglo-Dvergish hearthguards.

Now,  my primary goal with the dwarves is really close to be achieved. Thus, I have thought my next move should be completly devoted to terrain building. And fortunatly, the postman rang my doorbell at the end of the week, right on time to support my efforts toward this new objective. So here is a preview of what is to come next: an awfully cool slice of perryness.

Perry Miniatures, Medieval Cottage.

I'll try to arrange the wattlework fences in some sort of medieval way, and I might cut it down into pieces to round things a little. By the way, am I the only one who find some sort of ressemblance between these really handy Renadra fences and the equally famous artwork of the Limbourg's Brothers ?

February, Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.

I might try to stick to their colour schemes...