Unarmoured Early Byzantines (Batch Two) At Last!!!

Anyone who has read my last post will realise that I have been battling with some quite serious mental health issues of late. All I will say on the subject, if you are curious please is refer to my previous post. Whilst I think it is healthy to give voice to mental health issues I do not want to repeat myself nor digress for too long from the subject of the blog.. All I will say now is that the problems are ongoing and have had a negative effect on my painting output. I am fighting my "inner demons" and I will find a way to beat a path back to my normal self one way or another.

The group of eight miniatures featured in this post were finished about a month ago and only over the last week did I find the stamina to get the varnishing process on the way! My usual method of brush on Humbrol Gloss, a week to let the gloss go off and then a couple of layers of Windsor and Newton Professional Matt Vanish spray over the top to get a nice flat finish. Talking of which, the W&N vanish can have the effect of dulling down any metallic paint and it was interesting to note a post by James Morris on the Lead Adventure Forum featuring some of his Wars of the Roses for Never mind the Billhooks that the full plate armours looked the business without any varnish at all. This is not really an option with metal miniatures, especially with a lot of cloth and flesh involved (from memory James's were Perry plastics) so I've been trying out the AK Interactive Ultra Matt Brush on Varnish on some old miniatures, leaving out the metallic areas. The AK Interactive Ultra is ideally ideally meant to be applied with an airbrush, which might explain the speckling that I am getting on the miniatures which is I have to say, a big "no-no" IMHO as it can ruin the overall appeal of a miniature. It might take some time to get the results I am looking for. When I do, I will of course post up some comparison pics.

An airbrush is something I have never used and really want to avoid the expense of buying a decent rig. 

I should add, yesterday I have managed to get to work on the last eight miniatures for the unit which has raised my sense of Elan, which is of course a very good thing. So, a positive :>)

First Four:

Command:

The unit as it stands thus far. Sixteen out of the twenty four miniatures that will make up the finished unit. I usually manage to find a way in which to make the miniatures "talk" to one another. This has been an unusually difficult job with this particular unit. Maybe down to planning (or rather lack of) or perhaps just an audit of my current mental state(???). I think I managed to get a couple of the command miniatures to express a feeling of urgency. What do you guys think?