Category: Modelling and Painting Articles

Mexican Reinforcements

Andy goes south of the border.

The fifth batch of figures completed this year are a few additional figures and a cannon for my Mexican forces for the Maximillian adventure.

These are made up of half a dozen Wargames Foundry ACW Union Artillery crew in shell jackets, a cannon and half a dozen odd Mexican officers, infantry and dismounted cavalry.

I’ve had the ACW Union Artillery crew for a while, these will serve as Mexican Republican gunners (some American troops did go south at the end of the ACW, with ex-Confederates joining the Imperial forces and ex-Union troops joining the Republicans). I’m going to be a bit hazy as to whether these are actually Americans or Mexicans, but I wanted to be able to field some “Well Drilled” field guns for the Republicans in “The Men Who Would Be Kings” games, so I wanted some uniformed artillerymen.

The Mexicans and the gun were bought from Colonel Bill’s at Cavalier earlier this year, so having these figures finished in less than a month after purchase is something of a record for me!

After cleaning up any mould lines, giving the figures and gun a wash in hot soapy water to remove any mould release agent and letting them dry, everything was undercoated with Humbrol grey acrylic primer. Paints are Vallejo unless stated otherwise.

The gun was painted Prussian Blue, with an AP Blue Tone wash. Metal plates were painted black and bolts Gunmetal Grey.

The foot figures were all given a Dark Sand base coat on hands and faces, followed by a Dark Flesh top coat and an AP Skin tone wash.

The officers and artillery crew had Flat Blue jackets, trousers were either Flat Blue or White. Anything Blue was given a good wash with AP Blue Tone. Artillerymen’s epaulettes were piped Flat Red.
A couple of the artillery crew had unbuttoned jackets, so I painted their shirts Deck Tan. One officer received a Golden Yellow waistcoat. Officers buttons were painted Brass, and other ranks buttons Gunmetal Grey. One officer had his boots painted Saddle Brown, everyone else had black boots.

Belts, other boots and pouches were painted black, as was all hair. One artilleryman had a water bottle painted Red Leather with German Camouflage Beige straps, a second had a haversack, also painted German Camouflage Beige, and one a ramrod painted Beige Brown with Buff wad.

The two Infantrymen had the same basic paint scheme as the artillery crew. Musket woodwork was Beige Brown, metalwork was Gunmetal Grey.

The two dismounted cavalry men are irregulars, so had a less uniform paint job.

The one on the left had Light Grey shirt with White undershirt, Saddle Brown vest, Chocolate Brown trousers, Mahogany Brown hat and Black boots. A bit of a study in brown! The other figure has a white shirt, Blue scarf, Dark Grey jacket, Black trousers and Saddle Brown boots. Carbines are Beige Brown woodwork and Gunmetal Grey metalwork. All the figures bases were painted Army Painter Banshee Brown and then patches of flock were applied.

Next in the Maximillian painting queue will be a dozen French Foreign Legion mounted infantry. The end is almost in sight!

A Tents Moment

Andy proves that there are no depths to which his puns will not stoop.

I picked up a frame of Renedra Saxon Tents a couple of years ago, and finally got round to finishing them.

There’s very little assembly to do, the ends of the ridge pole are seperate pieces that needed a little filling once put together, and the open tents have an upright pole at one end.

These didn’t take too much effort, the tents were undercoated black, including the inside of the open tents; and then painted Vallejo Deck Tan, Light Grey or Dark Sand. The tents were the washed with Army Painter Green Tone or Soft Tone (for the Dark Sand tent) and the wooden poles and tent pegs painted Beige Brown.

A coat of matt varnish finished them off.

Now some of my Vikings have somewhere dry to sleep!

Wars of the Roses Army

At the start of my posts about doing a Wars of the Roses 15mm army I mentioned this was actually the first time in 35 years of Wargaming, that I have put together a complete historical army. Yes I’ve painted a force of 40 odd Dark Age warriors for Saga, but this was the first full army. While collecting and painting up this army I have been watching and listening to various Wars of the Roses documentaries and reading a number of books about the period.
It’s easy to see the appeal of doing historical gaming but I know when to stop over accuracy and just get on with a good game.

Earl of Salisbury’s Forces

For the game to come we will have two players per side, so I have the larger part of my army under the Earl of Sailsbury with a slightly smaller force under his son  Sir Thomas Neville.

Sir Thomas Neville’s Forces

On to the game, we are going to be using Sword and Spear. So stay tuned for the battle report that will hopefully be reporting a victory for the Yorkist cause.

Barrels of Fun

Andy has us over a barrel…

I picked up a few packs of 28mm scenery from Frontline Wargaming last year; they’ve been sitting around gathering dust, so during one of the recent washed out weekends I sat down for a painting session.
There were a few pin holes that needed filling and filing before the brushes came out.

Paints used were Vallejo (V) or Army Painter (AP) acrylics.

I undercoated the scenery matt black, and then painted them a variety of shades of brown (V). Once thoroughly dry they were given a wash of soft or dark tone (AP), depending on the shade of brown paint, then varnished with matt varnish (V).

25WW6 – Water Troughs x3

The water surface on the horse troughs were Painted Dark Sea Grey and given a couple of coats of gloss varnish (AP). The pump was painted Gunmetal (V) and given a dark tone (AP) wash.

25MR2 – Table benches and chairs

25MR3 – Brewery / Vintner (4 vats,2 tubs, bottling table)

The metal bands on the vats / barrels was painted Gunmetal (V); the bottles in the crate were painted Luftwaffe Camouflage Green (V), and then given a coat of gloss varnish mixed with AP green shade. The water in the tubs on the table was painted the same way as the horse trough water. The contents of the large tubs were painted Dark Sand (V) and washed with AP soft tone wash.

Finally a pair of ladders, I’m not sure of the manufacturer, but they were bought at Rochester Games and Models. 28mm figure for scale.

Wars of the Roses Archers

Finally got the last of my Wars of the Roses units completed. This time it was the archers. As with the other units I did buy a number of different brands but ended up just going with Essex miniatures and Peter Pig for the unit commanders. Like the other units I wanted to avoid the uniform two rows of miniatures on a base and so for the fist units of archers (the Retinue archers), I created a clear front line with a archers milling around on the second row.

Essex Retinue Archers

I wanted a mix of archer types and did a couple of militia archer units again using Essex miniatures.

Essex Miniatures Militia Archers

When painting the militia archers I realised that all but one of the miniatures was in a shooting stance, I could not therefore have a second line, but I wanted the militia archers to look undisciplined, so put them in irregular lines on the base to look more like a mob.

With the archers done so was I, but my would be opponent for the planned Wars of the Roses game mentioned having some artillery. Entering in to the arms race I also put a unit of guns together.

Essex Miniatures Wars of the Roses Artillery

I do have plans to do some other Wars of the Roses units like spearmen, some Welsh and other mercenaries. But this will do for the first battle.

A Small Start

Andy finds his painting mojo again…

First items finished this year are some reinforcements for my 6mm English Civil War forces.

We’ve played quite a few games of Sword and Spear recently, these are Ancient & Medieval rules, but on the publisher’s forum there were some discussions about adapting them for the Pike & Shot era, so I thought it might be interesting to try these out. To do this I needed to paint up some Commanded Shot, Firelocks and Camps.

My ECW forces are based for Polemos on 6cm wide by 3cm deep bases, either 24 foot (in varying proportions of pike and shot) or 9 or 10 horse to a base. I’ll be using these for the Sword and Spear try out, so needed to keep the same size bases.

The figures are from Heroics and Ros, painted with mostly Vallejo acrylics. Once painted they were stuck to the bases, labelled with unit description and flocked.

Commanded shot were detachments of musketeers taken from regiments of foot and attached to cavalry brigades to augment their firepower. Not always a successful idea, as the horse were slowed down by the foot, and if the horse routed or went off in pursuit the commanded shot were left on their own.

For the Commanded shot I decided to have 12 figures per base, painted as if they were from 2 or 3 different regiments (above).

Firelocks were foot equipped with early flintlock muskets rather than matchlocks and usually assigned to guard the train of artillery; lighted matches and gunpowder not being a good mix.
For the Firelocks I decided on 16 figures per base.

For the camps I bought some tents from Bacchus, and raided the spares box for various figures to add to the bases, some are from H&R and some from Irregular Miniatures. I built the camps on 6cm square bases.

I also had some carts and wagons, so did some baggage bases.

Finally some group shots, the Parliamentarian camp and troops.

And their Royalist opponents

Gael Force Norse

John Lambert gets his axe out.

I’d enjoyed using Norse Gaels in Saga Version 1 and was interested to know how they might fare under version 2 of the rules. I thought this faction was one that had changed the most under version 2 so decided on a new build based on the Footsore Irish and Viking ranges, taking advantage of the 3 for 2 offer they had running at the time. All figures painted using Artist’s acrylics.

Warlord – Hakon Maddadarson (The Hall Burner) – front pictured above

“Die bravely my slaves and I will take good care of your Dottirs!”

I mounted the Warlord on a piece of slate for a more imposing look. He has a rare and highly prized white Icelandic Gyr Falcon on his shield.

Daneaxe Heathguard

In version 1, there was an additional Saga ability bonus for taking Dane axes. This has gone in version 2 so only 1 point for this build.

Other Heathguard

I added 2 points of standard Heathguard. In version 1 Dane axe armed Warriors were the best option. In version 2 a powerful ability, Norse can only be used by Heathguard and Warlord so these appear to be a better option.

Gaed Gaedhil

These are fearsome mercenary warriors for which I used the Footsore Scots/Picts

Levy – Slaves

I used the Footsore Irish warrior range for these. Of limited use in Version 1 of Saga, they are a key part of my army in version 2. I painted 2 points of these.

The History of the Norse Gael Earls of Orkney is detailed in Orkneyinga Saga, an epic tale of bravery, treachery and Sainthood as rivals vie for the Earldom, raids in Russia, raids on Sicily, The First Crusade and an encounter with a Byzantine Dromon! How would the 28mm metal version fare on their debut?
The answer was rather well (see Jeremey’s battle report), despite misreading a SAGA ability and missing out on the chance to trap Andy’s Warlord, I really enjoyed the faction and the battleboard mechanics. Well worth a celebratory snifter or two of Highland Park ”Viking Honour”.

Wars of the Roses Cavlary

I finally got my Wars of the Roses Cavalry painted. Unlike the infantry I decided to stick to one manufacturer. When I started the project I got some old cavalry figures from a fellow club member and picked up some samples. What I found was a big difference in the scale of the cavalry. With mass infantry you can get away with differences in sizes, not everyone is the same size and so it doesn’t matter as much. But it was so obvious mixing different manufacturers for 6 mounted miniatures on a base.

15mm Wars of the Roses Cavalry from Peter Pig

I like the slightly chunky style of the Peter Pig miniatures and so was happy to go with them for my cavalry. I do like a bit of cavalry and so wanted to maximise my armies compliment. In Sword and Spear the army can only have two units of knights and so I also did a couple of units of Northern Boarder Horse. I’m really looking forward to getting these into battle.

Now all I have left to do is finish the archers and my Wars of the Roses army is complete. Unless I want more than two command units … hmmm

Wars of the Roses Camp

I was supposed to be working on my Cavalry and Archers for my Wars of the Roses army, but while attending SELWG last October I remembered I needed a camp for my army. You have to remember I don’t normally dabble in the types of wargame requiring a camp for the army. But the intention is to use the Sword and Spear rules and so I needed a camp.

A Suitable Camp for my Wars of the Roses Army

At the show some resin pieces from Baueda caught my eye. Normally I would probably have scratchbuilt the camp but I really like the scenery pieces and they were not that expensive. I went for a cooking set and a tent that would fit the period. To that I added a spare infantryman and a horse.

The base is MDF and I spread bathroom sealant mixed with brown paint on it to create the muddy road and to cover up the figure bases. After painting the figures I flocked the base and added a few tufts of grass and the odd rock. Painting the camp made a nice change as it was like a mini diorama and a good distraction from line after line of the rank and file.

Wars of the Roses Infantry

I’ve finally made progress on my 15mm Wars of the Roses army. This is the first time since getting into Miniature Wargaming some 30 plus years ago that I have put together an historical army.
As I mentioned in my previous post showing the Men at Arms I did not want this army to look like a set number of figures stuck on a base. I wanted an irregular rabble look to the units.

15mm Wars of the Roses Billmen from Multiple Manufacturers

For my armies main infantry I looked at suitable 15mm miniatures from Lancashire Games, Irregular Miniatures, Museum Miniatures, Tin Soldier, Magister Militarium, Donnington, Miniature Figurines, Essex and Peter Pig.
For the life of me I cannot remember all of the companies I finally settled on, I know for a fact I bought Peter Pig, Lancashire Games and Essex. But there are other manufacturers figures in the units.
I’m really pleased with how they came out and think I got the rabble aspect quite well.
Another bonus was cleaning up the figures and thinking I’d only done enough for 4 bases of 16 figures per base. But when it came to undercoating them I found I had enough for 6 bases, result!

Now onto the Cavalry and Archers.