August 2018 – Steve’s Hobby Blog

Limbering up…

Well ‘Artillery August’ is coming to an end and I had planned to complete some extra support for my Waterloo based army but I’m afraid that I will fall short. To be fair, my goal of completing two limbers, and five artillery pieces and the crew was very ambitious for the amount of time that I have to paint. To put this in perspective, I had planned to paint two limbers, 12 horses, four riders on the limbers, 6 outriders, 5 cannon and 20 crew in four weeks. Still lets look on the positive side. I have completed the two limbers, four limber riders, six outriders, 6 horses and 6 more are nearly complete. I also have 2 more cannon nearly ready for service, so another month should see this project finished…

British Horse Artillery Limber completed – awaiting basing.

So, to back track a bit and give some details of how I went about painting these lovely models from Warlord games. I have already discussed my choice of ‘grey’ for the limbers and guns in my previous blog, 50 Shades of Grey here:

50 SHADES OF GREY AND A TOUCH OF BLUE

This article was posted on TMP and as a result of some really good feedback, I’ve gone a bit heavier on the weathering of the wheels. There was quite a discussion regarding whether the wheel rims on the wagon would really be black – they were painted so for the ‘Parade Ground’ but it was felt this paint would soon rub off in service. So I think that I will re visit the weathering on the cannon and limber wheels and make the steel a bit more obvious. This then of course leads to the debate as to how much to weather equipment and uniforms. That topic in itself would be worth a blog article or two but I think that it is a question of personal taste. I am focused on producing units for wargames to the best of my ability, with the time that I have, not diorama standard figures. If you would like to have a look at the TMP thread, click here, there is some superb research in one of the links on the British Artillery.

TMP THREAD

Foot Artillery Cannon and Limber awaiting weathering and horses!

When it comes to painting the horses, I am now happy with my ‘triad’ of colours method. I prefer to start with a black undercoat, and then paint the base coat, with the other two colours wet and dry brushed over the top.

Limber horses – work in progress.

You can see that the right hand horse is a bit messy from dry brushing but once the horse furniture is repainted in black, things look a bit more natural. For the Foot artillery horse I used triad of Chocolate brown, Flat Brown and then Mahogany Brown. I added a touch of Iraqui sand to the Mahogany Brown for the final light dry brush. For the Horse Artillery Limber I used a triad of Flat Brown, Flat Earth and Cork Brown for a lighter finish.

Saddle Horse for the limber

Once the detail is painted – steel chains, brass buckles etc the horses are ready to be based. I’ll also add some white or black ‘socks’ to at least four of the horses for some variation. I don’t usually quick shade my horses but I did use army painter quick shade to finish the Horse Artillery Horses – it does make them more durable and helps with shading the saddle blankets etc.

Horse artillery limber – Lighter brown horses after Army painter quick shade applied.

As always, after the quick shade has been applied, I use a brushed on Matt varnish and I will usually rehighlight any whites and metallics to get rid of the ‘dirty’ effect.

The full limber on it’s Renedra Base.

I have used the new Renedra specially designed Limber bases for the limber and team. These bases are a bit thicker than normal and are reinforced underneath to help support the weight of the model. I have also used a standard 25 x50mm base to raise the limber up to the same height as the horses, who have their own integral bases moulded on.

Out riders mounted for painting

To paint the out riders, I use a blu-tack ‘saddle’ to mount them on Plastic tubes. They are then undercoated with a grey undercoat and block painted. I then paint on Army Painter Dark Tone quick shade and when dry, use a brush on Matt varnish. Once this is dry, I re paint the whites, leaving any shading and re highlight the metallic and lighter colours where I think necessary.

So with one limber more or less complete, the other awaiting it’s horses and both needing the basing completed it’s just a small matter of finishing the crews of the two foot artillery guns:

Foot Artillery crews ready for priming

and of course, getting on with the Horse Artillery – which is what prompted this project….

Horse Artillery still in their packets

As you can see, I have no hesitation in mixing manufacturers figures. I think that it gives a nice variety in poses and any minor difference in size is barely noticeable on the table. I will have Victrix, Warlord and Perry Miniatures happily mixed together on the table! So Artillery August looks like turning into Artillery Autumn but once these are finished I will not be adding any more British artillery to my army for a while…..

The Commercial bit

All of the paints, tools, brushes, glues, and finishing products are available post free from my shop here:

ARCANE SCENERY

I would particularly recommend the new Renedra bases if you have a similar project:

HORSE AND LIMBER BASES

The rather superb Warlord Limbers are not held in stock but we can order them in for you and still send post free! Use the shop contact page here:

TO ORDER THE WARLORD LIMBERS

I hope that you enjoy your modelling!

Waterloo Men

The beauty of our hobby is the many facets that can absorb you. I spend a good deal of time modelling and painting (too much according to my Wife!), I game at least once a fortnight and I spend many a happy hour researching, either on the internet or reading. I am currently reading John Hussey’s book on the 100 days Campaign. Actually, it is in two volumes but lets get Volume 1 read first! There’s another facet that I also enjoy, visiting battlefields or historical sites. I have fulfilled one ambition by visiting the Battlefield at Waterloo. You can read about some of my impressions in early Blog articles here:

BATTLEFIELD VISIT – LA HAIE SAINTE

THE HEROIC STAND OF THE INNISKILLING

Cossall Church

Grand excursions like this are few and far between. However, there is plenty to keep me occupied closer to home in Nottingham. I had come across the story of Corporal John Shaw of the life guards in quite a few accounts of the Battle of Waterloo. I have written a small piece on John Shaw for Wargames Illustrated when putting together a painting guide to the Warlord Games Household Cavalry boxed set. Shaw was from Cossall, a small village to the north of Nottingham and I was aware that there was a monument to him in the graveyard at St Catherine’s Church at Cossall but had yet to pay a visit. So this weekend, I combined a trip to Cossall Church with a errand to go out an buy some Wall Paper for the bedroom that we are decorating . Fortunately my Wife was focused on the wall paper, whilst I was day dreaming about Waterloo!

Memorial plate at Cossall Church

As it turned out, the monument, erected in 1877, is a memorial to three Waterloo veterans, John Shaw and Richard Waplington both of the Life Guards and Thomas Wheatley of the Light Dragoon Guards. The latter intrigued me. I thought that there were only Light Dragoon Cavalry Regiments not Light Dragoon Guard cavalry regiments. According to the references that I have so far found, Wheatley was in the 23rd Light Dragoons. I’m not sure if it is of significance and will do some further research. Was the memorial stone creator being generous in awarding Wheatley Guard status? Whatever, Wheatley survived the battle and lived the rest of his life in Nottingham once discharged from the Cavalry.

Cossall Memorial

Memorial inscription

I was unable to locate his grave in the graveyard although I did find other Wheatleys’ buried there – it seems likely that there is a family connection and although a recent web article speculates that the memorial is built on his grave, I am unable to confirm this.

Detail on Memorial

Unfortunately, the church was closed and so I was unable to find further information but I will go back over at some point to see what else I can discover.

Wheatley family grave

In the course of telling one of my wargaming buddies, Andy, about my excursion he said ‘of course, you do know that there is a Waterloo man buried in Bingham Churchyard?’ Well despite the fact I have lived in Bingham for some 27 yaers, I had no idea! So I had a wander around the local Church yard and sure enough found the grave of Richard Holt, who served at Waterloo. Initial information indicates that he was with 40th Foot but I have yet to confirm this. If it was so, he not only fought at Waterloo but was across the Atlantic, fighting the Americans in the war of 1812. I had a chat to the Church warden but he was unable to tell me any more about Richard Holt. He did say that he had a relative called Grey, who served in the artillery at Waterloo and who was also buried in the Church Yard but the grave was now lost.

Richard Holt a Waterloo man buried in Bingham

All in all a most rewarding weekend. I’ve commented before that History is often very close to home – it’s just a question of knowing where to look. I find it all fascinating and the stories surrounding the individuals help to bring the past alive. I do love my hobby!

If you would like to read more about the Cossall Memorial to Waterloo, click here:

WATERLOO: THE COSSALL MONUMENT

50 Shades of Grey – and a Touch of Blue?

OK, it’s my attempt at a click bait title for this weeks blog but there is some rational behind it. The title was going to be Artillery August – snappy but not quite so interesting. So what am I rambling on about?

Victrix British Napoleonic foot artillery

My first attempt at making and painting British Napoleonic Artillery was with the release of the superb Victrix British Napoleonic Artillery set in plastic. This was in the early days of my conversion to Napoleonic wargaming back in 2010! I built the set making a battery of two 9 pounders, a Howitzer and a couple of limbers, one of which, I added horses to.

Victrix 9 Pounder

Apart from a further three guns that I finished for my Prussian detachment, I haven’t added any artillery to my army in nearly 8 years! A strange thing, given that I am fascinated by the machinery of war as much as I am by the uniforms of the period. However, I have been adding to my Artillery park by building some of the ancillary equipment.

The field Forge takes it’s place in Little Bingham

Wheel wagon and Limber

Supply Wagons

Perry’s British Ammunition Wagon

As well as the items shown above, there is also another limber with an ammunition limber, a water wagon and a spare limber and accessories. Quite a collection, so you would think that the last thing that I needed to paint was more limbers. However, Warlord Games had released a couple of lovely limbers, one horse artillery and one foot artillery and in a moment of madness, I was tempted….It was an excuse to add some Horse Artillery Guns to my army.

I started by cleaning up and assembling the guns and then went on to do the same with the limbers. They were then primed with Army painter Neutral Grey and I was ready to paint them. And now we come to the point of the blog post title – what colour is British Artillery painted? Well the answer is straight forward enough. British Artillery was painted a grey colour. Charles Franklins superb book on British Napoleonic Artillery shows the pieces to be painted a light grey – somewhere in the book ( the exact page eludes me as I write this) he gives the recipe for the paint which is a white base with lampblack mixed in a particular proportion to produce a neutral grey finish.

The problem for me is that in 2010 when I first started painting Napoleonics, the references that I initially found seemed to indicate that British Artillery was a bluish grey. In fact if you look at the art work on the Victrix box, the cannon look as though they are almost a pale blue. So when looking for the correct colours, I was pointed in the direction of the Foundry Triple, British Blue Grey and that is what I used to paint my British Artillery.

Next batch of Cannon

Now that I am converted to Vallejo paints, I think that I would now use Basalt grey as the under coat and gradually lighten it using Neutral grey through the light grey for dry brushing the details. In fact I started to do so on these new guns but then changed back to the Foundry Blue Grey. I decided that it was better for my collection to match than to have different coloured artillery in the same army – and no I’m not going back to repaint what I have already finished (that is despite my OCD circuit going into overload!).

Warlord Limbers Block Painted – in Bluey Grey!

As with many colours, the lighting can influence what you see, but there is definitely a hint of blue that probably shouldn’t be there! Once the models are inked or painted with quick shade, this effect will tone down and in the normal lighting conditions that seem to be common for wargames, they will look fine, albeit a little darker than perhaps they should. Incidentally, if you doubt that the same colour can look different under different lighting compare that pictures of the supply wagon with the wheel wagon and limber. I promise you that both were painted with the same pot of paint and highlighted and inked in the same way. It is either the lighting or photography that has changed the Supply wagon to blue!

Work in progress – horses for the limbers.

So August is Artillery month for me. The plan is to complete the two limbers along with the 12 horses and 6 outriders and at least three guns and the 12 crew. I hope that I can then consider this part of my collection complete for another eight years…. I will follow up this blog with progress and show off the completed limbers in the next fortnight or so. I’ll also detail the colours and painting process that I have used to get the models finished.

The Commercial Bit

Nearly all of the paints, brushes, finishes and Models and much more are available, post free from my shop here:

ARCANE SCENERY

I haven’t supplied links to every thing this week but if you look in the manufactures categories, you will see exactly what we have in stock ready to ship. If you have problems finding something, please contact us through the shop link.

If you found this article of interest, there are plenty more to browse, either by category or date but if Napoleonics is your passion, particularly British and their Allies, click here:

NAPOLEONIC ARMY

I hope that you find the articles usful. Have fun!

Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

Prince Bernard was the commander of the second brigade of the Dutch Second Division. It was his brigade that was the first to arrive at Quatre Bras, and joined later by the First Brigade, they held the cross roads there for some 24 hours until reinforced by Wellington late in the afternoon on the 16th. The battle of Quatre Bras is somewhat overshadowed by the much larger affair at Waterloo a couple of days later. If Wellington was ‘humbugged’ by Napoleon in the opening stages of the campaign, it was the Dutch Brigades that initially saved the day at Quatre Bras and handed back some degree of initiative and contol to Wellington. Some commentators have said that the holding action by these two brigades of the Dutch 2nd Division was one of the most important actions by any of the coalition brigades in the whole of the Waterloo Campaign.

Following the Battle of Quatre Bras, Prince Bernard commanded the Dutch Forces holding Wellingtons far left wing, including the important farm houses at Papelotte, Frischermont and La Haie. Papelotte was temporarily taken by the French but subsequently recaptured. The Dutch forces here were also responsible for linking up with the Prussians although my understanding was that there was some initial ‘Blue on Blue’ action before the two armies were joined to advance against the French!

Followers of my blog will know that I had painted up a couple of the Nassau Battalions as part of a demonstration game at the Bingham Napoleonic day, where we based the action on the Battle for Pappelotte. You can read about the fictional battle for Papelotte in my blog here:

THE BATTLE FOR PAPELOTTE

If you are interested in how I built the Sarissa vesion of Papelotte, follow this link:

BUILDING PAPELOTTE FARMHOUSE

To read how I went about painting my Nassau Battalion, you can start here:

PAINTING THE NASSAU-USINGEN

However, despite painting 36 of the Nassau-Usingen Regiment second battalion and a further 12 figures to represent the volunteer Jaeger battalion, I had not managed to complete any Staff Officers. The Perry’s produce a lovely pack of figures representing Prince Bernard and his staff and it was this pack that I decided to add to my collection. I would paint one figure as a Brigade Commander and the other two models would be based together as a small vingnette so that I could use them as an Divisional Command stand in the event that I do actually get around to painting the rest of the Division…

Prince Bernard and his staff, block painted.

As with the rank and file I decided to take the ‘easy’ route when it came to painting the command group and simply primed the figures with Army painter Greenskin spray. It was then just a question of block painting in the other colours of the uniform. I followed my usual reference from the Mont St Jean web site and the research that I had conducted for the Nassau Infantry. It’s possible that this is incorrect for Prince Bernhard, as he may have been wearing a blue Dutch Uniform but I am not too concerned – I am painting a Commander for my Black Powder army not a specific diorama of the Prince and his staff.

The figures have Dark Tone Quick shade brushed on.

The next step is to brush on Army Painter Dark tone Quick shade. You could use ink but I like the protection the varnish gives, especially when painting metal figures. When it came to the horses, I didn’t use the quick shade method. I’m happy with my three colour dry/wet brush technique that I find quick and easy.

The figures on horseback

Once the figures were coated with Matt varnish, I re highlighted the metallic and the lighter colours as well as retouching and obvious mistakes – although looking at the pictures now, I think I have been a bit heavy handed with the horses eyes -something I will go back and fix and perhaps a dab of gloss varnish will help.

Another view of the Staff officers

I had decided that the Officer wearing the Shako would make a good Brigade Commander, whilst the Aide mounting and the Prince Bernard figure would form the command group. So the Command group would go onto a 60mm round MDF base and the lone officer would be on a 20mm x 45mm base, the size I usually use for cavalry.

Nassau Commanders based

I used Vallejo dark earth paste to base the figures. Simply spread the paste over the base and push the figures into it. Then use a sculpting toll or even a cocktail stick to bring the paste over the figure bases and blend them in. I also added some ‘rocks’, from my garden, for a bit of detail.

I then painted the bases with my standard basing colour – Dehli Bazaar emulsion and dry brushed this with an Iraqi Sand mix to get highlights. A bit of scatter was added and of course some tufts and flowers to finish.

The Completed Command for the Nassau

I now have a command staff for my Nassau Brigade!

As always, all of the paints, tools and basing products are available from my shop, post free at the time of writing:

ARCANE SCENERY SHOP

The models are only available direct from the Perry’s web site here:

Monthly Archives: August 2018