I just could not avoid mentioning Covid -19 or the Corona virus crisis in writing my blog. In such strange times it would have seemed somewhat perverse to ignore what is probably the most momentous event to affect the country, if not the world, in my lifetime. However, I’m not going to record all of my thoughts on the subject here. There are enough comments, opinions and people minding other peoples business on social media and the mainstream media without me adding to the torrent.
I also have no idea how to pitch any comment. Anything that I write in a serious vain could be considered too preachy. A joke, and I’m not taking things seriously enough. That said, I cant help but try to find some humour in a very dark time. To put things in some sort of perspective, rather than my modelling output increasing, my painting hours have actually decreased over the last week, due in some part to lack of sleep and my mind being elsewhere as I firefight the next stage in trying to keep the business going through these difficult days.
Salisbury, Gloucester and Faulconberg in the process of being based
At least I still have a business – at the moment. Thanks to the incredible support of my small, loyal team, my suppliers, the fantastic postie ( I must get his name!) and of course, my very loyal and supportive friends and customers (often one and the same), we are still trading and sending out modelling supplies across the world. We will continue to do so as long as we are permitted to do so.
Everyday, for the last couple of weeks, we have been having a Grass Snake meeting at Arcane ( A grass snake meeting is a bit like a COBRA meeting, only shorter and less toxic) to work out with Julie, Hayley and Kevin how we will operate. Each day the plan has lasted until about 5.00pm when the latest announcement changes everything. For the moment, our latest plan is holding. Julie and I are working three days together, Hayley (AKA the Packaging Princess) is taking the two ‘quieter days’ and working on her own. Kevin is supporting from home and in reserve should one of us fall ill.
Another gun crew nearly finished, ready to join the York army.
As I have been married to Julie for 40 years, we have practiced social isolation on a number of occasions and staying 2 meters apart at times has certainly kept one or both of us alive…There, I couldn’t resist a joke!
Gun crew ready for basing
So Arcane Scenery is still trading, along with other online retailers and if we can help you with your hobby, we are here to do so. Despite everything, I have found some time for painting. I’ve said before that I find it very helpful and allows me to tune out of the world and for a short time forget whatever is causing me stress. As you can see from the pictures, my War of The Roses army is still growing. I may even get it finished over the next few weeks!
The next batch of figures primed and ready to paint.
THE COMMERCIAL BIT
Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:
I thought that in this weeks blog that I would show the progress on my War of the Roses light cavalry and show the method that I used to paint them. Once I had assembled the riders, I mounted them on painting sticks by drilling a hole in them and mounting them onto a wire. The picture shows them primed with a grey primer and the first two colours, Vallejo flesh and Army Painter plate mail applied.
Riders primed and ready.
The next stage was to block in the main colours, in this case Off white and Flat green. As I mentioned in my previous blog, I have no intention of creating a specific unit or retinue from a battle in the WOTR. The idea is to create a generic army to fight club battles. So although these colours are more appropriate for Tudor bowmen, these troops may well be fighting for a Yorkist retinue!
Block painting the livery
The next picture is a bit of a jump in the painting process! I finished the block painting by using a Buff/white mix on the bow covers and arrow bags; Vallejo old wood was used for the bows and the riding boots were painted with Vallejo Orange brown or light brown to mix things up a bit! The belts and accessories were painted with either leather brown or burnt red. I then brushed on Army painter Dark Tone quick shade. Once dry, the figures were sprayed with a matt varnish and then the white, flesh and metals re highlighted to give a crisp finish.
Finished figures on their horses.
Close up of Light cavalry
Once I was happy with the riders, I finished the basing using my usual technique that I have covered many times before in my blogs.
The completed unit of light Cavalry
Close up of the unit – I have since been back and added some detail to the Commanders face.
With eight mounted bowmen finished, it was on to the remaining four cavalry in the box! I have painted these as Scurrers or Prickers and again, I have chosen the livery colours at random, using burnt red and yellow. Here they are still mounted in their painting sticks!
Scurrers!
Here’s the completed models on their horses. With these now finished I just need another four to make up the unit. I’m not sure whether to get some metals or see if I can just get an extra sprue. In the meantime, I’ve taken a break from the cavalry and I’m now working on some more Footknights and Characters.
Light Cavalry on the prowl!
I do need to add some flags and Standards to the unit – I’ve just received some very nice standards from Citadel six flags but have yet to try them. My army is approaching completion, with some 200+ figures now painted and based. It is lacking flags though – watch this space!
War of the Roses Army
THE COMMERCIAL BIT
Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:
‘Never mind the Bill Hooks’ will be available as a full colour supplement with the June edition of Wargames Illustrated. If you would like the current issue, click here:
This past Saturday I attended the ‘Bingham Napoleonic Days’ event with the NG13 Wargamers. We were putting on a demo game and for this year, Andy Callan had found a nice set of scenarios that had been published in the ‘Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy’ Magazine. The articles, written by Rob Harper, detailed how General Lecourbe was able to conduct a rearguard defence of Eastern France against the invading Austrian Army. As well as giving a nice overview to the campaign, Harper also provided a series of linked scenarios that gamers could use to re-fight the campaign. We chose our favourite rules set ‘Black Powder’ for the battles and for the skirmish scenarios, used ‘Rules for old wargamers with short memories’, a home brew mash up written by Andy.
First Scenario. French defend the Tile factory
As a group, we are happy to use what ever troops that we have available in our collections to fight scenarios. We dont get too hung up on getting exactly the right regiments on the table. Indeed, as I had no Austrians to field, I took a brigade of Prussians to fight alongside their Austrian allies. It added a bit of colour to the Demo game and we were happy to point out the discrepancy to our visitors both verbally and in our briefing handout. We were playing Second Edition Black powder and the only minor rules amendments that we made were to take away the ‘Follow me’ rule from the Austians and to remove the order bonus for Columns. The Austrians had shown a remarkable lack of ambition in the actual campaign and we felt that these amendments would be enough to reflect this Austrian caution in our games.
The Prussians push onto the French Right.
Andy and I took the Austrian/Prussian Alliance and Pete Harris, fought as General Lecourbe, leading the French. As usual, I was playing and trying to take pictures, so although I had plenty of pictures, they weren’t necessarily of the key moments – I was too engrossed in the game!
The French reinforcements arrive and move to the front.
The first battle of the series had The Austrians struggling to deploy their forces against a French force in a good defensive position in a tile factory on a hill in front of the village of Dannemarie. Both sides had reinforcements that they could bring on, the Austrians being hampered initially by the ‘traffic jam’ on the main road. The French had no such problem but they were out numbered – if the Austrians could bring their army onto the table.
General Le Courbe oversees the defence of France!
The initial part of the battle saw the French comfortably holding the Austrians in front of the Tile Factory. The Prussian detachment was able to flank the building and move to threaten the French right. Lecourbe was able to deploy his cavalry and push the Prussians into square whilst moving reinforcements to counter the threat. As the pressure built on the Tile factory the Austrians were presented with a relatively weak French right flank. All they had to do was to deploy their Cavalry brigade and bring on the extra Infantry brigade that was dawdling off the table…
Prussians attempt to by-pass the tile factory, only to be met and contained by the French reinforcements.
The Austrian Cavalry failed in six turns to throw a command roll of 8 or less!!! Clearly, the Austrians thought that they were going to a dance, but didn’t even send the three and four pence!!! With no reinforcements to exploit the weakened flank. The French tied all of the Prussian infantry into squares and began to out-shoot them, bringing them close to breaking point. Although the Austrians did eventually manage both to deploy their cavalry and break the French Brigade defending the Tile factory, the game had reached it’s end in the allotted twelve turns. It was a tactical victory for the French who were then able to fall back in good order ready for the next battle.
Battle Two The defence of Chavvanes-sur-L’etang. The Prussians push on!
After a bit of scenery shifting by Andy, we were ready to fight the next scenario, the defence of Chavannes-sur-L’etang. The Austrians were again partially deployed off table but this time, there was a bit more space for them to deploy and the main bulk of the army was soon threatening the French, who were deployed in and to the rear of the Village. Once again the Prussians moved aggressively forwards onto the right flank of the French. This time they by passed the village, leaving their Artillery and Austrians to deal with this threat. The initial stages of the game were dominated by 5, yes, 5 blunders during the orders phase with 4 for the Austrian/Prussian alliance and one for the French. Although not fatal for either side, the result was that the Austrians were once again slow to deploy and support the Prussian advance. The Austrian cavalry were doing their version of the Hokey Cokey – In Out- In Out of the game!
The Austrians attempt to pound the Village into submission!
Despite these tribulations and the difficulties in encountered in crossing the various streams, some progress was made by the Alliance, with a French battalion being destroyed in the village and the Prussians driving off an artillery battery on the right. Lecourbe kept his cool and was able to steady the line. He sent a replacement batallion into the village, reinforced the right flank with an infantry battalion and sent his cavalry to hold the Austrians to the left.
An aggressive move by the French cavalry holds the Austrians
The Prussians charged home, threatening to break yet another French battalion, but the French were able to pass their morale test, hold on and lock the Prussians in a vicious hand to hand combat that continued over the next couple of turns. Although eventually beaten back, the French had inflicted sufficient casualties on both of the Prussian battalions to shake them causing the brigade to fall back. The supporting Austrians were too late to help out and unable to exploit the weakening French right flank. Meanwhile, on the left, the Austrians tried to push through the French cavalry, only to be counter charged and were soundly beaten! The Austrian cavalry then managed, to not only fail their morale throw, but the supporting units also broke as well. The Allied advance was in tatters and the French were victorious!
The Prussians fail to break the French in combat and are periously close to losing the brigade.
We then moved onto the third scenario which was a skirmish game. Unfortunately, I did not take pictures and so will not include it in the report. In view of the superb French performance, it was clear that Pete had done Lecourbe and France proud and won the day! In real life, Lecourbes campaign was described as a “master class in defence” which Davout thought worthy of a Marshal’s baton. Sadly, worn out by his exertions, Lecourbe died in October 1815. His name is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe – a well deserved recognition of his achievements.
The French Cavalry charge home and are victorious! Both Austrian Cavalry regiments break as well as the supporting Austrian Infantry!
The event itself was, as always, a very pleasant and enjoyable day. My only regret was that I was so engrossed in the games that I did not attend any of the Lectures or have a chance to browse the books on sale! We had a good number of people through to watch us and to join in with the games. Wargaming isn’t really a spectator activity but I hope that those that did get a chance to roll dice and make some of the command decisions enjoyed themselves. As always, it was great to meet up with friends and like minded hobbyists.
Bingham Napoleonic days Look out for the 2021 event!
We are very much looking forwards to next years event. If you are available in early March, put a note in your diary. Entry to the event is free and I know that the programme of speakers will be of the usual top quality.
THE COMMERCIAL BIT
To get full details of the Bingham Napoleonic days, including a list of speakers, click here:
Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:
Trent Miniatures make a lovely model of General Lecourbe ( as well as a few other revolutionary Generals!). I you would like a Le Courbe to lead your army you can get him here:
My War of the Roses army is approaching completion, although the project is suffering from a bit of ‘creep’ with my habit of finding that just one more unit would be a good idea! The light cavalry were supposed to be the final unit that I would add. The challenge to my OCD/collectors habit was that the Perry Miniatures plastic box set gives you 12 light cavalry and I only needed 8 to make a unit. My solution to this dilemma was to decide to build 8 of the cavalry as mounted bowmen and then make another unit of 8 Scurrers by adding some metals to the four remaining plastic figures.
Perry Light Cavalry assembled
But first of all, I needed to get the plastics completed. I assembled all of the figures in the box first and then decided to paint them, six at a time, starting with the horses.
Primed horses
As you can see, I primed four of the horses in brown, one in black and the last one in grey. The different base coats giving an indication of the different colours that I would paint the horses! By the way, I use army painter rattle can sprays to prime my models. When it came to the colours for the unit, I had decided that I would paint them in green and white for no other reason than I fancied this combination. History purists might find this cavalier approach ( Ooh! Good pun!) somewhat unacceptable, particularly as the colours are close to Henry Tudors’, who was a Lancastrian and the rest of my army is based on Yorkist commanders. However, I am painting units for the rules set that we are using’ Never Mind the Billhooks’, rather than creating a specific WOTR army and I feel comfortable in mixing and matching as I see fit. Lets just say that these troops are Cheshire journeymen happy to draw a bow for who ever pays them – in this case, Lord Harry Hotspur!
The four brown horses.
I painted the four brown horses more or less as Bays, using a mixture of browns and washes layered on using my dry/wet brush technique. The horse with the light mane was painted using Green Ochre – I would never have chosen this colour based on it’s name but it does work well! It was then a case of painting the livery in green or green and white.
The black horse
The Black horse was highlighted with black/grey and then very lightly with light grey. I used Buff to pick out some of the livery, again not because of any historical accuracy but because I liked the effect!
The white horse was painted in exactly the same way as I painted Richard III’s horse (see last weeks blog) and so I had my first six horses ready for basing.
Six Light Cavalry Horses ready for basing.
In next weeks blog. I’ll detail how I painted the riders and completed the unit, but for now here’s a picture of the first six figures that I have completed – The basing is still to be finished.
Mounted Bowmen
The sharp eyed amongst you will see that a Prussian Jaeger has sneaked into the picture! So with the six mounted bowmen completed it is onto the commander and standard bearer to give me my eight mounted bowmen.
THE COMMERCIAL BIT
Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:
‘Never mind the Bill Hooks’ will be available as a full colour supplement with the June edition of Wargames Illustrated. If you would like the current issue, click here:
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