Athenian Hoplite 1/16 scale

I've just completed Miniart's 1/16 scale Athenian Hoplite. This is a fully plastic kit with all of the parts on one sprue. Assembly was pretty easy but like most of their figurine kits it took a lot of plastic filler to cover holes, misshaped limbs and general seam lines. On top of that there was a lot of flash.  The figure was painted using acrylics, which is not normal for me. I usually use oil paints on a larger scale figure like this.  I think the figure came out pretty well. 

I went with a darker skin tone because I believe the people back then spent more time in the sun and considering the geographical area it made sense.

I was rather disappointed with the decal as it took a lot of work and Microsol to get it to conform to the shield.

You'll notice the scabbard is held on with a piece of string. The kit didn't provide anything to attach the scabbard. I was lucky to find some string in my wife's sewing kit that seemed usable.

1/35 Italeri M13/40

Here is my first post for the 2018 Analogue Painting Challenge, an Italeri 1/35 scale M13/40 tank. I picked this up at the local IPMS show this past October. I decided to try building a model again after not doing one since I was a teenager. I've always liked Italian tanks and when I was gaming WWII Italians I always portrayed them as they were on the Eastern Front against Russia.  

So this tank is done in the Eastern Front Grey and then weathered heavily since the snow and rain would have taken a toll on the metal. It was fun to do something like this again. I may have to do some more.

A project for my daughter

Over the last few weeks I've been working on a project for my daughter.
As of today I've finished it.  My idea for the project was to paint some figures and give my daughter some encouragement and strength.  I know it's sappy but I'm a dad and I guess that's what we do. Right?

Anyway, below are the Dark Sword Miniatures I've painted for her and the diorama I put together for her. 

The Dark Sword Miniatures are nice sculpts. They have some great detail for 28mm.  They were all painted with Artist acrylics.

The Rogue

The Wizard

The Knight

Under each figure I wrote what I thought are the strengths for each character.

The diorama. I'm going to wrap this and give it to her for Christmas.