USS Argus, from the War of 1812   I've been doing a little bit of work on some Black Seas miniatures lately, my interest in the game being reignited by the new release of Hold Fast , the first major Supplement for the game. Black Seas was actually the game that pulled me back into the hobby, back in 2019. I'd always thought I'd like to get into an Age of Sail game, so when I saw an issue of Wargames Illustrated with a Black Seas sprue included, I bought it straight away- and Covid-19 ensured my return to the hobby was complete. At the time, these miniatures were probably more than I was ready for- with the rigging, gluing the sails on, and trying to paint each individual cannon- after 1 test Frigate (a minor disaster) I had put the project to the side for the more familiar human-shaped miniatures I knew. I've finally returned though (as I tend to do with my hobby-butterfly ways), and made a few key changes to make my life easier. Painting To start with- I spray painted

  The second of my Blood Bowl Mercenary Mini-Star Players for my Sevens League- Drib Dripplespog the Gnoblar is here for a good time (but maybe not a long time). This was great fun to paint- I have a soft spot for the little Gnoblars, and I've been looking for an excuse to get one for a while (not sure I want to take the full plunge into Ogres!). In a way, I'm a little sad it wasn't the Gnoblars who got their own team rather than the Snotlings, but hey ho. Drib was nice and easy to paint.  The skin was a base of Waaagh Flesh, a shade of Biel-Tan Green, and then highlights of Waaagh Flesh and Warboss Green. The shirt was the Fang as a base, followed by Nuln oil. I then came back and highlighted the raised areas with the fang again. The socks and wristband were Celestra Grey and Nuln oil. The trousers were just Abaddon black. The bottle used the contrast paint Talassar Blue. For the mouth- I first painted the inside with Bugman's Glow, then a wash of Reikland Fleshshade.

  I've been planning to add a few Mercenaries for the Sevens league on the Blog, acting as low-end Star Players that might hang around in the lower leagues of Blood Bowl. For the first of these players, I found a cool 3D printed Amazon sculpt floating around on Ebay, and decided it would be a good break from what I'd been painting recently (Middle Earth Orcs). For painting I decided to go for quite a limited colour palette- similar to how you might see Amazons/ Greeks depicted in a Hollywood movie. I base coated with Mechanicus Grey- my go-to for lighter colours.  The clothes are very simply Ushabti Bone and Agrax Earthshade- before running back over to clean up with the Ushabti again. The gold again was very simple- just Retributor Gold and Reikland Fleshshade.  For the skin, I started with Bugmans glow, washed with Reikland again and then brought it back a bit lighter using Cadian Fleshtone. The hair was done using XV-88, Agrax again, and then a 50-50 mix of XV-88 and Yriel Y