Introduction



Thanks for visiting my page. To help with navigation, here is a list of popular pages all about Marching in Colour

* The History of Marching In Colour - who is the man behind the words and service, how did it all come about

* Commissioning Models for Painting - how the process works, start to finish, and what you can expect

* Gallery of Artists Work - with over 20 years experience, here is a small sample of finished commissions

* ITEMS FOR SALE - as well as painting models, I also sell pre-painted models and assorted loose models and scenery on Etsy and Ebay. Links here!

* Trade in your old models for Painting Credit * click here for details

* To see details of all current commissions booked-in and estimated completion dates - click here

SCENERY and TERRAIN - for pre-made, handcrafted items of scenery and terrain, please click here

For TUTORIALS please follow this link - click here


Monday 26 July 2010

Daemonette - Games Workshop

Here is a model a painted a couple of years back, just because I liked the look of her/it?



Its something of a showpiece for me, and took a good few hours work. Mainly painted with GW paints, thined down. The markings on the head and outer thigh were done using a VERY thin brush!

Hope you like it

Thanks
Chris

More 6mm WW2 British

Heres a few photos of a recent commission I took for World War 2 British Infantry. Models are all Adler Miniatures and are overall very well sculpted and cast.

Firstly a mortar team.



Various Infantry and Engineers.








Vickers machine gun.



And finally a Bren gun.



Thanks!
Chris

Thursday 15 July 2010

Naval Battle Report 1 - (1804, Battle of Cape Santa Maria)

Action of 5th October 1804
The Battle of Cape Santa Maria

Rule set: Trafalgar (Warhammer Historical)

Players: Chris (Britain)
Lee (Spain)

Intro

Aside from a regular Saturday night group, my friends and I haven't done much gaming lately, so finding that both myself and my good friend Lee 'Skirmish Phalanx' where available we decided to meet up and have a light game of Trafalgar.

Being a sucker for 'history' over 'points values', I persuaded Lee to re-fight a real naval engagement, and to try and keep it as level as possible I choose the Battle of Cape Santa Maria, as it had 4 ships per side, and in game terms (points values) this meant a balanced game. Having only 4 ships each also suited the time we had available and our mutual desire for a quick, easy game.

History
You can find a good article on the battle on Wikipedia (link at the bottom), but the brief is as follows-

The British have learn t of a Spanish Fleet carrying vast amounts of treasure. They know the rough location of this fleet and have position a squadron to intercept.
Britain and Spain are not at war, however it is believed that Spain will soon declare, so the British Commodore was sent orders to intercept the treasure ships, peacefully if possible....

The Order of Battle

SPAIN
Medea (40), Flagship, commanded by Capitán Francisco de Piedrola y Verdugo
Fama (34), Capitán Miguel Zapiain y Valladares
Mercedes (36), Capitán Jose Manuel De Goicoa y Labart
Santa Clara (34), Capitán Aleson y Bueno

BRITIAN
HMS Indefatigable (44), Commodore Graham Moore
HMS Lively (38), Captain Sir Graham Eden Hamond
HMS Amphion (32), Captain Samuel Sutton
HMS Medusa (32), Captain John Gore


THE BATTLE

TURN 1
The two forces spot each other, the British Navy heads straight to the Spanish, sending a signal to stand to and prepare to be boarded. The Spanish naturally decline the offer....



TURN 2
A sudden change in the wind leaves the Spanish Flagship the Medea clambering to fix sail. In a panic the Spanish sailors make a mess of things, and the Medea drifts to a halt while the rest of the fleet pass her by. The British seeing the flagging Medea make a bee line straight for the distressed vessel.

TURN 3
Still unable to fix sail the Medea chooses to drop anchor and await the British fleet, the first to arrive is the HMS Indefatigable and the two flagships exchange broadsides. The Inde coming off with damage to her rudder, but the Medea is set on fire!
HMS Lively, Amphibian and Medusa all combine to give the Spanish Fama a good licking, who sees her Foremast taken down. The Fama and the Mercedes return fire at the British ships, the Spanish gunnery proving most ineffective with only minor damage to the British.



TURN 4
The British sail past the Spanish and all arrive within shooting range of the flagship Medea, the damaged Indefatigable managing to drop sail enough to remaining within broadside range.
The combined fleet action is enough to see the Medea strike her colours, it doesn't look good for the Spanish! But what is this!? HMS Amphibian is spotted straggling behind the convoy, and still within range of the Spanish guns!



Santa Clara and Mercedes find themselves with the opportunity to unleash raking broadsides down the Amphibian and the Fama assists with cannon to the side. The combined assault, even at range, is enough to put the Amphibian out of action, and she strikes.

One all.



TURN 5
The Indefatigable managers to repair her rudder, and with the Medusa following makes a tight circle back round to the Spanish line, the Livery is forced to go wide due to avoiding the Medea and finds itself a little way off from the main pair.
The Spanish way the cost of losing the Medea against the knocking out of the Amphibian, and decide to attempt to cut off the Livery from its sister ships.


TURN 6
The Fama and Mercedes head off to intercept the Livery, whilst the Santa Maria blocks its route to the Inde. All ships exchange fire, except the Indefatigable who has out-sailed her companions. With the Inde unable to bring her guns to bare, the Spanish have the better of it. The Liverly holds up well against the Spaniards, but the toll of being out gunned with the Indefatigable unable to find a target, takes its toll on the British.



TURN 7
The Indefatigable and the Medusa prepare to turn back onto the Spanish, but a sudden change in wind forces them to a virtual stand still. Meanwhile the Livery finds herself continuing to fight two ships, as the Santa Clara takes the place of the leaving Fama. The combined broadsides inflict some serious damage on the Livery.



TURN 8
Having just prepared to turn, taken into account the change of wind, the Indefatigable and the Medusa curse their luck as the wind changes back to its original course! This leaves both ships dead in the water, as sailors clamber back and forth constantly trying to control the sails. The Livery, though badly damaged, breaks through the gaps left by the Spanish ships, but given the loss of the Amphibian and the damage to the Livery, the British decided to call it a day. The Spanish survive the assault. The gold is safe.

AFTERMATH
Alas! History did not repeat itself for the British this time around. In real life the British won, destroying the Mercedes and capturing the other 3 Spanish vessels, with next to no loss to themselves.

The game ended much as it started - what proved unlucky for the Spanish, the initial wind, and poor rolls by the Medea to recover, ended the Indefatigable and the Medusa's attempts to re-enter the fray, and whilst the British have the edge over the Spanish on gunnery, it was a lot to ask of the Livery to face two equal sized Spanish ships.

All in all a good couple of hours play!

I hope you enjoyed this battle report and I would love to hear your feedback, opinions and comments. If you have any questions on the battle on the rule set used, I will do my best to answer them.

More reports to follow!

Thanks
Chris
(and Lee)

Wiki page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_5_October_1804

Tuesday 13 July 2010

WW2 - British Infantry (6mm)

Heres a little 'sneak peak' of a painting commission for 6mm World War 2 British Infantry. The pic is currently awaiting client approval (I paint a sample then email the photo to the client), before I start the main army.

These are 6mm models from Adler Miniatures.

The bottom of the photo is the models close to actual size.
The top half is blown up approx 150%.

As always - comments and feedback really appreciated!

Thanks
Chris

VIETNORK - Part 2: Troop choice, Uniform Guide, Ork Flesh




1000pts - bang on!
Flicking through the rulebook I managed to sort the models out into a reasonable straight 1000pts. Sticking with the Vietnam theme I wanted to make this as much about infantry as possible, so this "Plar'tun" consists of 3 Rifle sections (15men, including heavy weapon and Nob), a 5-ork burner team, and my first effort on 'Air Kavalry' with a squad of Stormboyz (Jump pack Infantry).

I may be tempted to buy some Defkoptas for this army, but as its already 1000pts and in the end I want to sell this, I really want to avoid spending money on it. But I suppose as the bikes are just in the list to make up the points, these could be removed and koptas added.

The UNIFORM



I tend to mainly use Vallejo paints these days so all the models received a base coat of 72067- Caymen Green, before being dry brushed with 72031- Camoflage Green.

Vallejo paints are hard to dry-brush with as they are very thin, giving the paint a good shake, and cleaning the brush several times of paint before the actual dry-brush seems to work best.

The only change to the models at this point is to the helmets. All spikes and furs, skulls etc have been removed and all helmets trimmed to create a standard 'round' GI helmet.


ORK FLESH



Once the uniform base coat and dry-brushing was complete I added a base layer of 72028 - Dark Green to all flesh areas on the models.

The muscles were then painted with a smudging of 72030 - Goblin Green. This was applied unevenly - thickly on some parts and on some models, and almost dry brushed onto others. The idea being that I didnt want all the Orks to be identical. The way I see Orks is varying shades of green! I always think the older, more grizzly the Ork, the darker more hagged his skin.



All the skin was then given a wash of Dark Green ink. With the somewhat erratic Goblin Green coat, now blending perfectly to create to finished skin tone. As you can imagine the differing layers/thickness of the Goblin Green on the other models gives a good mix of Ork ages.

The final photo is enlarged to show the effects of a simple dry-brushing over a base coat, as well as the finished skin.



Part 3 to follow soon - thanks for reading!

Feedback always appreciated.

Chris

Monday 12 July 2010

Project - VIETNORK



I was having a rummage the other day, like all gamers do, through my odds and sodds, and boxes of long forgotten models, when I came across a box of 40k Orks. Now 40k is not my cup-of-tea and I only came to own these models after helping a friend out by lending him some money... long story short, 'neither a lender or a borrower be', when my friend was having trouble paying back the money he said "Do you want my 40k Ork army instead??"

I should have said "No", but what is a friend to do? I said "Sure, no problem..." and so they have sat in a box for the last umpteen years, alone, unused and forgotten.

Until the other day.

Im not a 40k player, but I fancied a change from painting historicals, and so I thought I would try something a little different with this army and mix two periods - 40k, and the Vietnam War!

The idea of Vietnork was born!

Over the course of the next few weeks I will be adding to this army, painting sections at a time, and posting the report here as well as on my facebook page, charting my progress and hopefully giving you hints and tips on how to paint 40k Orks.

At the end of this project the Army will be for sale. I am open to offers as we progress, or will list it on Ebay once its complete.

More blogs to come real soon on this project, or for now you can head over to my facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1275313348) for sneak peeks at more photos.

Thanks
Chris

Welcome to Marching in Colour

Hi, and thanks for taking the time to check out my blog.
I am an artist, working full time, who specialises in 'toy soldiers'.
This blogspot will be used to showcase my work, keep clients upto date on current orders, and to generate new commissions.

If you are interested in having any models painted, need a character for RPG, or fancy starting a new period and want a complete ready made army, please get in touch - Im the man who can help you out!

My rates are reasonable, and I offer several perks such as guaranteed completion dates, loyalty bonuses, and a free magazines (Wargames Illustrated or White Dwarf) for all orders over £150.

Contacting me is easy - just post here, email me at Project_Vehemence@yahoo.co.uk, or visit my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1275313348