And another new project...

Ever since Eureka released their 28mm Lace War Follies range, I have been very tempted/seduced
by the sculpts. Not normally something I would like with caricature style, these are different. Over the past few conventions I have purchased some "samples". I decided to order a regiment of grenadiers, after reading Neil Thomas One Hour Wargames book. I will either use these rules or Maurice, but they will be imaginations Red and Blue armies. Here are some "Red" soldiers to left: a grenadier and an artilleryman. More to follow....

Risorgimento Continued...

It has been a while since I revisited my 10mm Risorgimento project. Other projects and real life have interfered with this neglected lead pile. Recently I noticed Pendraken released some new figures to their 19th Century (Crimean I think) range. I have always wanted to paint up a Neapolitan Bourbon army to refight Volturno. With the release of Italian infantry in greatcoat by Pendraken, I decided these were a good enough proxy for my Neapolitans. I ordered some as well as some Austrian uhlans to act as Bourbon lancers. Here are my first two complete units:

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Rear view of the Neapolitan line infantry. I am sure they are nowhere near perfect, but they are the best sculpts (and very nice sculpts at that) for the Neapolitans. They are depicted wearing the grey/blue overcoat with madder red trousers.

The flag is made from heavy tin foil and hand-painted. I am very pleased with how the foot turned out. The Neapolitans can't fight a lick, but they sure are pretty!

Some Bourbon lancers, I should mention the colors are darker than the photos indicate. Dang flash!

The rules for wargaming this when I get my armies complete will be Neil Thomas' 19th Century set. Now I need to paint lots of Garibaldini ti fight my Papal and Bourbons...

Balkans War at Sea

I have always been fascinated by both the Balkans War, as well as pre-dreadnought naval warfare. The only complete range for these ships in either 1/2400 or 1/3000 that I am aware of is Navwar's. Slightly intimidated by Navwar's "archaic" ordering process, I took the plunge by ordering Greek and Ottoman fleets. I was pleasantly surprised by the quick turnaround on my order via snail mail. I was also pleased by the castings, while simple and robust they are excellent gaming pieces. 

The Greek Fleet: Destroyers in the background with three Hydra-class battleships and the Georgos Averoff in the foreground.

I added masts to the models with a Dremel drill and florist wire. The bases are Litko.

One of the Hydra-class battleships has a third mast. I painted the ships various shades of grey based upon period photos and illustrations.

Here is the Ottoman fleet: Destroyers in the background, Battleships and cruisers in the foreground.

I opted to paint the Turks in a pale khaki color. Sometime around 1912, the fleet went from khaki to grey. Khaki is more striking and helps differentiate them from the Greek grey.

I have only gamed with these fleets once, refighting Lemnos using the ruleset "When Dreadnoughts Ruled the Seas". I had the benefit of the rules author GMing the game. The Greeks won a hardfought victory in the refight. Despite losing some destroyers and a Hydra-class cruiser, the Greeks sunk all of the Turks with the exception of the two Brandenburg-class battleships.

Moving on from a project....

Selling off my 15mm Late 17th Century collection. I realized I wasn't ever going to get around to painting it all up. Maybe I will re-visit the late 17th century in 10mm at a later date. This is what the collection entails:

Musketeers (472 pieces):
130 Lancashire
32 Mick Yarrow
310 Venexia

Pike (149 pieces):
95 Venexia
24 Lancashire
15 Mick Yarrow
15 Scottish Pike (for Killiecrankie)

Grenadiers (56 pieces):
45 Venexia
11 Lancashire

Command (66 pieces):
58 Venexia
11 Lancashire

Cavalry (73 pieces):
60 Venexia Cavalry
9 Mick Yarrow
4 Lancashire

30 Mick Yarrow rebels (Sedgemoor)
15 Venexia Dismounted Dragoons with 5 horses
1 small artillery piece w/ 3 crew

54 painted Figures (3 regiments: 2 British, 1 French)
3 painted Rebel cavalry (Sedgemoor)

I am asking $280 plus shipping (continental US only please). 

10mm Dark Ages: Step by Step

After posting some Saxons and Late Roman Cataphract pictures on The Miniatures Page, two colleagues (Zargon and CPBelt) mentioned something about providing a tutorial of sorts on how I paint the 10mm figures. I doubt this series of photographs describing the process is all that informational, but here goes:

First step in process is to clean up the figures (filing flash, mold lines, etc.), rinsing them in soapy water to get any grease and dirt off, and gluing them to popsicle sticks. Below are two "sticks" of 10mm Irish.

Once the figures and glue are dry, I prime them tan. If I am out of tan, they can be primed grey or light green. Any lighter, neutral color will do.

After priming, I take Vallejo "Sepia" ink and give the figures a wash. This allows me to see all the details and provides a "black lining" of sorts in recesses which makes painting them much easier. In the case of the Irish, I forgot to take a photo of this stage, so here are some Arthurian cavalry in this stage as a proxy.

Next stage is the most time consuming. I "base-paint" the figures. I usually paint clothes, then flesh, then wood and leather and finally metallics, but it isn't always this order. Fine lines and details don't need to be perfect, no hi-lights, just paint each section the basic color I want it. I usually don't paint shield details or clothing trim yet.

Next up comes hi-light work and trim. Colored bands and borders around cuffs are added. Also, I take lighter versions of all the base colors are used on the figures and add some hi-lighting. Shield designs are painted hi-lighted in this stage. I should add here that I use a wet palette and most of my paints are those found in the eye-droppers (Reaper, Vallejo, etc.). Figures are given a gloss-varnish (I use Testor's) after hi-lighting is complete.

Once the varnish dries (ideally 24 hours but I am not normally that patient), I give them an "ink wash". I used to use a mix of Liquitex acrylic Payne's Gray mixed with Magic Floor Wash. More recently I have been using Army Painter "Soft Tone" from their eye-dropper paint series. It seems to really settle in recesses, even shallow ones. I often add some of my old Paynes/Magic wash to the "Soft Tone" to give it some black hue. The figures below have received this treatment.

After this dries (usually in a matter of minutes), I remove the figures from the popsicle sticks and glue them to bases, along with some pebbles. Below are the Irish alongside some Saxon pals...

Next up, I coat the bases with Liquitex Natural Sand textured gel, which goes on white and dries clear.

After the Liquitex gel dries, I use white glue to apply some Games Workshop loose gravel.

Next up is a base of watered-down brown paint. I use cheap craft paint for this stage. The pebbles are painted gray. I use beat up brushes for this work.

Finally, I drybrush the brown bases with a light tan, and use watered down white glue to add flocking in random patches. Once this is dry, I use super glue to add some Silflor bushes and then dull-coat varnish the stands. They are now complete!

I hope this is informative for some people, I apologize about the poor photos and the lack of detail. If you have any questions, please let me know. Thanks!

Some gaming to go with my painting...

Last night was a rare moment where I had an opportunity to game at my club, the Dulles Area Historical Gamers (DAHGS), with my long-time gaming partner Frank. Frank and I share a love for Sam Mustafa rules, we have played some Grande Armee, Maurice and Longstreet. The figures were 10mm, the conflict was the American Civil War. The scenario was "Walled Farm" or something like that (page 129 of the rules). 

Frank played the Confederates, I was the Union. I had a 46 to 32 stand count and was the attacker. Frank had to defend an objective near the farmhouse and had some reserves available in the 6th turn. The Union troops were Enthusiastic Recruits and the Confederates were Seasoned Vets, so the Union were good at the attack and the Rebels better at defense. The card decks (which give the flavor) were for '62-64.

We hadn't played the rules for some months, so we were a bit rusty but Longstreet is a very easy to learn/re-learn ruleset. We were back in the swing of things after the 2nd round.

Frank's brigade was based on a brigade formed around Northern Virginia, where we both reside. My Union force was based on a Pennsylvania brigade that one of my ancestors, Charles Brooks, was a member. 

My artillery was commanded by none other than Abner Doubleday, who is credited with inventing baseball. I mentioned the figures are 10mm, mine are almost exclusively Old Glory. To be honest, I didn't put alot of time in the basing or painting of these figures. They were more of a rush job. The ACW isn't one of my big passions, so I just wanted average figures painted on the table. I still need to finish the basing on some stands.

A rare victory for me, which I think was more because of the scenario and die rolls than any great strategy on my part. Frank usually whoops me when we face off on the table top.

Indulgences: Saxons and Cataphracts

While I should be plugging away at more Irish and British to complete my armies, I decided instead to give into something different. I opted to paint some Saxon Warriors and Late Roman Cataphracts, now that I finished I can return to completing my Irish and British armies.

The Saxons are a hodgepodge of figures found within the ranges of Magister Militum and Pendraken. Saxon foederati from the Pendraken late roman range, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings from Pendraken/MM dark age ranges, and some Magister Militum Dacians.

I decided to go with a dark red, black and off-white color palette for the Saxons. Since one of the original invaders was "Horsa" (which I believe means horse), the white horse was used as their icon. I added simplistic white horse motifs to the banner and two of the shields.

The Late Roman cataphracts are from Pendraken. Beautiful two piece castings, I had some difficulty aligning the torsos with lower bodies in anatomically accurate poses. I should add that was an issue with my poor concepts of anatomy, not any fault of the castings.

I went with a purple, red, silver and gold color palette since they represent the cream of the Roman heavy cavalry. They may also represent a British warlord's companions in other battles.

I hope to update soon with more British and Irish additions to my 10mm Dux Bellorum collection.