Giveaway minis… they are done and ready to go in the post

I had originally planned to have these done by the end of last weekend. But last weekend it was too bleeping hot to paint (these minis required a lot of detail work and the paint kept on drying on the bris before I even got close to the minis with it) and this week lots of private matters intervened, so they are only done now. The good thing is, they are ready to go in the mail tomorrow, but I wanted to show you some pictures first. So in the order that they were painted (please excuse the crappy photos… these are just quick workbench shots under artificial light, so I hope unpacking these minis will come as a pleasant surprise to the winners):

The mini of Edward I “Longshanks” gave me some creeps for some reason, so I decided to start with him first. I the end this turned out unfounded and I quiet enjoyed painting him. Being from the dark ages where paintings and sculptures are essentially no good for details, I decided to take some artistic license with him, but also chose to be partly inspired by the movie Braveheart since I felt that the sculptor (eBob) did the same. I went for a dark red with the barding on the horse and the tonic of the king as opposed to the rather orange cloth used in the movie to depict some expensive, high pigment dyes.  This caused some problems, since I had decided to paint the Frisian he is riding as a chestnut (like the horse in the movie) which provided very little contrast. So I gave the horse white socks and  skin coloured mouth area which did the trick. Matt left me the option to either do the base myself of leave it plain so he can match it to his armies. I opted for the later. I always hate it when a base does not fit the army theme and I know my basing is a bit off the beaten track, so I just cleaned up the base here. I used a lipped style base as per the eBob Rebellion rules.

Up next was Napoleon. I was helped a lot by the fact that I already painted a Napoleon about two years back and could go back to my research here. All in all it was a straight and fun mini to paint and I was happy that it did not have a mould line running over his face like my Napoleon. There are different images of Napoleon out there. some with a green vest others with a white one. Just as with my mini I decided to go for green. With his white trousers and shirt as well as the grey coat he would just have been too boring without. Fran wanted no particular base since this mini will join his collection of minis painted by other bloggers, so I went for the rather more showcase´y lipped style base here and added some static grass and flower tuffs (unfortunately small ones on account of the base size).

Last is Uxbridge. Just like Napoleon he benefitted from he fact, that I had painted this mini about two years ago and did not have to look up things like horse colors or uniform specifics. This mini held me up somewhat. A couple of years back I had put him on a large base (not sure why) and during painting I found that there were a number of places that I could not reach. So I had to remove him from the base and mount him on a film container as I do with all my Napoleonic minis for painting. But unfortunately this meant another days wait while I waited for the glue to dry. All in all I can only say that I really enjoyed painting this mini (for the second time). I think it is one of the finest in the whole Perry Napoleonic range in all its dash and splendor. Monty will most likely use this mini as the nucleus for a Napoleonic force. Since the people he will be playing with are not entirely sure on the rules they will use and how to base the commanders, I left him unbased. This will give Monty the option to base him accordingly, plus I always feel that Napoleonic commanders of this rank should have another few minis on their base and this will keep the option open for Monty as well.

So now I will pack these up and tomorrow they will go to their new respective homes in the UK and USA. Hope you three will like them and i will see them on your blogs when put to game (or showcase) use.