The 333 3rd Ed Challenge- Bases and banners

 I did manage to get to the end of the challenge before the end of July, honest, just... but I have been ill with Covid over the last week and so haven't been able to photograph and post. Previously I had imagined that if I got Covid I would just have a nice clear 10 days to do a bit of painting, sculpting and some blog posts... but no, that's really not how it panned out. Trust me, this is not a thing you want to have. Be safe, get vaccinated, wear a mask. Still not quite back to normal but well enough to take photos and post them so here goes...

Several years ago I painted a bunch of civilians for a big sandbox game. I left of all the basing thinking I would do that quickly at the end... big mistake! It's time consuming and booooooring doing so many bases all at once. With this challenge I got the groundwork on the bases done as I went, just leaving the applying of greenery until the end. Also a mistake! Hours and hours of dabbing foam and static grass... thank goodness for YouTube.

I also left the banners until the very end. When I was a kid I would leave shields and banners and usually not get to them. I didn't want that to be the case here so dedicated some time to getting the banners (only three after all) painted with their variations on renaissance Italian, Spanish and Papal heraldry. I must confess there is one piece not done- the banner top for the main army banner. I had planned for this to be a big bull's head, but I don't have one to hand and didn't feel up to sculpting one so it has remained unfinished. I do have a spare cross from the top of a Warmachine model I'm not using so may swap that in instead.

I needed something relatively quick but interesting to break up the monotony of the bases so knocked out a couple of extras to join the force. A dark elf courtly lady to round out the unit to 10 and a chariot I sculpted based on an unpublished Tony Ackland drawing. Mr Paul Douglas painted another as a gift to the great man himself which he handed over at BOYL. I think Tony was pleased with how it came out.

So that's it. Army done. Right, what's next...