Pyrrhus of Epirus…Oscan/Samnite Infantry.

Greetings…

The Butterfly has fluttered on to a little project I started about a year ago…

Pyrrhus of Epirus… 

https://alystoysoldiers.blogspot.com/2025/02/pyrrhus-of-epirus-first-epirote-phalanx.htmlALYS TOY SOLDIERS: Pyrrhus of Epirus… The first Epirote Phalanx

This time we have a unit of Oscan/Samnite Infantry…

This is a very versatile unit, and can be found in most armies of the period and not just those of Pyrrhus.

As Pyrrhus fought Rome, Carthage and Hellenistic Greece I intend to eventually expand to cover all their forces…

The figures are Crusader Miniatures… Available from North Star…

https://www.crusaderminiatures.com/list.php?cat=1&sub=40&page=1Ancients - Ancient Oscans - Crusader Miniatures

The Tunics are… Warpaints… Dragon Red and Tidal Blue.

                             Citadel… Pallid Wych Flesh.

With contrasting edging…

The Shields are also… Warpaints… Dragon Red and Tidal Blue.

With a Foundry… Buff Leather 7B… Edging.

Everything was given a wash of Aly’s Brown Liquid and then re- highlighted with the original colours.

The paints are Citadel,Warpaints and Foundry…

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint-setsPaint Sets – Wargames Foundry

https://thearmypainter.com/en-gb/collections/warpaints-fanaticWarpaints Fanatic | Premium Acrylic Paints for Miniatures – The Army Painter 

The Bases are as always Warbases…

https://warbases.co.uk/

I am very pleased with this colourful little unit…There will certainly be more.

I am trying to clear a backlog of started and half finished units so the Butterfly will be getting a lot of exercise 🦋🦋🦋.

All the best.   Aly

Late Romans… The return of Re-Basing.

Greetings…

Some of you may remember that a couple of years ago I bought some Late Romans from my friend David Bickley…

These were all re-based and spruced up a little bit…

https://alystoysoldiers.blogspot.com/search/label/Late%20RomansALYS TOY SOLDIERS: Late Romans

Well… I have bought some more 😁… Also from David.

The figures to the top of the picture ( With square cornered bases) are the latest acquisitions and the ones at the bottom (With round cornered bases) are the previous acquisition.

Do you think I have enough?

Personally a few more Huns and Goths wouldn’t go amiss 🤔🙀🤣…

Here are the first two new units…

Archers (Skirmishing) and Legionaries….

These just had a few chips touched up, a light wash of Brown Liquid on the armour and a new Draco Standard for the Legionaries.

And of course new bases…

Not sure what’s next…(Apart from re-basing) The butterfly is still calling the shots 🦋🦋🦋.

All the best.  Aly.

Shiny Napoleonics… Plastic Hedges and Walls.

Greetings…

While having a FaceTime conversation with my friend David O’Brien ( apparently a third of all wargamers are called Dave/David) I was bemoaning the fact that I couldn’t get hold of any Merit Plastic Hedges….

David immediately disappeared from view… And returned with a sizeable bag of Plastic Hedges.

“ You mean like these”

“Yes”

“I will get them in the post”

What a splendid generous fellow 😁.

The package arrived…And…Wow!

A positive Bocage of Hedges…And Walls.

Certainly more than enough for my needs 🙀

Here is the first ( test) batch that I painted.

I decided that I would mount them on MDF bases and paint them in the same way as I painted my Merit trees…

https://alystoysoldiers.blogspot.com/2021/09/shiny-napoleonics-merit-alder-trees.htmlALYS TOY SOLDIERS: Shiny Napoleonics… Merit Alder trees.

The finished hedges in situ…

I am really pleased with how they have turned out…I of course have a few more to paint… I may vary the shade slightly with each batch.

Thank you very much David.

All the best.  Aly

Tintin… A Bordurian Armoured Car.

Greetings…

The Butterfly decided it wanted to see a nice Bordurian Armoured Car…

So here it is…

The vehicle is actually a Daimler DZVR Schupo - Sonderwagen 1921…

Painted a simple Blue-Grey…

What I found quite difficult was underplaying the shading and highlighting to try and get a more toy like feel… Which I think suits this comic based little project 

I am pleased with the end result.

All the best.  Aly

Shiny Napoleonics… Prussian Landwehr

Greetings …

Another slow time with the paint brushes…I’m still putting books back on shelves and I have the disruption of builders returning in the next week or so…

So here are a unit of Hinchliffe 5th Westphalian Landwehr…

In reality they were an under strength unit so only having three stands is fairly accurate… But I will probably get another six figures and bring it up to a four stand unit… They never carried a Standard but I may add one to the extra stand anyway.

For a change I have painted these in a “Wellington Man” style…

https://thehintonspieler.blogspot.com/p/how-i-paint.htmlThe Hinton Spieler.: How I Paint 'Em

This is not the first time I have done this…

https://alystoysoldiers.blogspot.com/2024/11/shiny-napoleonics-wellington-way.htmlALYS TOY SOLDIERS: Shiny Napoleonics… The Wellington Way.

Although unlike Matthew I will be using acrylic paints rather than enamels…

As I have said these were painted in the “Wellington Man” style… So Base Coat, Wash, Dry Brush and Black lining out…

Here are the basic colours that I used…

Coat and Hat… Citadel… Kantor Blue with a Citadel Drakenhof Blue wash then given a Kantor Blue Dry Brush.

Trousers… Citadel… Pallid Wych Flesh with a Brown Liquid Wash then a Pallid Wych Flesh Dry Brush.

Facings… Citadel… Warboss Green.

Belts… Citadel… Corax White then pure White Highlights.

Napsack and Backpack… Foundry… Moss Light 29c with a Brown Liquid Wash and then Moss Light Highlights.

Black lining was added between the colours and some additional lighter Edge Highlights were added.

The different style made for a refreshing change to my normal process and was a lot of fun.

Although I don’t know how Matthew manages to paint whole armies… I definitely don’t have the patience 😁

All the best   Aly

Testing Times… Tintin and STS…

Greetings…

I’m posting this for two reasons…

One… To show you the test paint jobs I have done for my planned Tintin project and a little reworking on some STS figures.

Two… To see if Blogger will let me 🤔🙄.

These represent Syldavians…

I’ve gone for a rather Soviet look… With nice simple bases.

These are some of my Shiny Toy Soldiers Schleswig- Holstein figures…

As I was putting them out on the shelves I realised that this collection is all over the place… Mixed basing style and sizes, some quite yellowish varnish and more figures than I really need/want for a game

So I thought I would try a quick bit of tidying up on these as well…subtle shading with a bit of lining out…

Similar to what Greenwood and Ball used to do back in the day…

I’m in no mad rush to do more with the STS stuff at the moment…The butterfly is heading for Tintin 😁

All the best    Aly

New Year Catch Up and plans for 2026

Greetings…

Well it’s taken longer than I thought to get this post written up…

I think it’s just been one of these years…

For me it started of with Flu… And a hospital visit.😳🙄

I’ve also had two Cataract operations… Which I must say has made a massive improvement to my life.

I have now got some decent prescription reading glasses for my close up work , but on a day to day basis I don’t need really need any glasses at all… ( I do however carry a pair of shop bought £3.99 readers in my pocket… just in case😁)

The house has been ( and still is) a bit of a building site… but the Cellar is now finished as is the work on my Wargames Room…

The only thing to do is get all my books and toys back on their shelves… This has been a slow process as I have had a rather bad Fibromyalgia flare up which has made moving me and objects rather painful.

Bit by bit I am getting there…

Most of these boxes are now empty and all my toy soldiers are where they should be…

Painting as a result of all this has been at a minimum… but I have assembled quite a few figures in preparation for my retirement…

Yup!

Retirement! Hurrah!… The plan is April.

So! 

What are my hobby plans for the future?

I have planned out/ prepared/ front loaded for 6 - 8 projects/Collections.

In “All Plastic “…

Khazar Wars… Two forces for Lion Rampant…Khazars v’s Rus… Victrix Miniatures….8-10 units a side, all assembled while I was waiting for my eyes to heal…

The first thing I painted after the operations was a test unit for the Rus.

The Hundred Days…

Two moderate sized forces…All plastic… Made up of units that I think are pretty, based up in a way that will hopefully allow me to use a number of different rules systems.

I have already treated myself to a painted unit by my chum Mark Hargreaves at Over Open Sights.

http://over-open-sights.blogspot.com/2025/09/vive-l-empereur.htmlOver Open Sights: Vive L' Empereur!

In “ Metal “…

Pyrrhic Wars…

This is probably one of the bigger planned projects…

Four factions… Each 8 - 10 units strong…

Pyrrhic, Hellenistic Greek, Republican Roman and Carthaginian…

I have all the castings I need ( well probably more than I need 🤔)

Vandal Wars…

Vandals v’s Byzantines… Two forces for Lion Rampant 8 - 10 units a side with options for expansion.

I also have all the castings I need…Maybe 😆

Of course let’s not forget the Late Romans that I have just acquired from my friend David Bickley…

I have some rebasing to do… But I do have all I need…. Yeah!… Maybe 🤔🤣

Tintin…

A small project using Mark Copplestone’s beautiful “Marks Little Soldiers “

https://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/list.php?cat=23&page=1Mark's Little Soldiers - Copplestone Castings

Not sure where this will go… But I’m thinking Rebels and Patriots or Men Who Would be Kings…

Syldavia v’s Borduria… What’s not to like.

Oh!…

And there is The Lord of the Rings…

A bit of an outrider here…

I’ve been collecting various bits and pieces… Thinking “Dragon Rampant “… 

We will see where this goes as I always found it difficult painting Fantasy/Sci-Fi as it reminds me too much of Work… But as I won’t be working things might be different.

Also…

The Youngsters are planning something WW2… Set around operation Knights Move… I’m thinking a little force of Paratroopers… Maybe a Stug or two 😁

There also maybe a visit to “Pillage” later… I’m thinking Normans.

This is all on top of adding a few new units to my existing collections…

Well…

That’s the plan… Sort of…

I certainly won’t be bored…

But we all know what happens to plans….

All the best   Aly.