steve wood – Page 15 – Steve’s Hobby Blog

Artillery Autumn – Jumping the traces…

My modelling continues to be dominated by my obsession to finish my Artillery project. I am having to use all of my self control not to be distracted by other more tempting models that I have recently acquired. So far , I’m sticking to the plan…’I’ve started , so I’ll finish’!

I had already decided but was further encouraged by some excellent feedback on TMP to add the traces to the limbers. I thought that this would be fairly straight forward and that it would be easily done once the horses were based. In my mind, I had decided that I needed the horses to be fixed in position to enable me to measure the traces accurately. This of course is true but the mistake that I made was that I should have prepared the horses before I had even started to paint them by drilling out the small holes where the traces would fit.

I also needed to make the traces. I had thought that I could use the wire used to hang pictures as this looks about right for the ropes. There was an issue though. The picture wire that I had was too thick and also would not work with the chain that I had in my spares box. I could go and either search out some narrower wire or a different sized chain but my patience was wearing thin and I wanted to get the job done. I decide to wind the rope myself, using some thin florists wire.

Wire traces in my bench vice

My first attempt at winding the rope was a bit patchy – I was trying to do the job by hand and the result was somewhat non – uniform to say the least. Regardless, I pressed on, and with ‘ropes’ the correct size, I was able to thread them through the chain to make my first trace.

The first trace!

It was then just a question of cutting them to the correct size and gluing them to the horses….it was at this point that I realised I should have drilled the holes first. Even with the smallest of hand drills, I couldn’t get an angle to make a decent hole and I was in danger of damaging the paintwork on the model. If a bad workman blames his tools, then I maybe not that bad after all, as it was my tools that came to the rescue. Using my Zuron flush cutters, I was able to get a perfect flat cut on the ropes and with a combination of Expo thick super glue and spray activator, I managed to get the traces to adhere to the horses.

First traces fixed to the horses

It isn’t a perfect solution and if I’ve made it sound easy, trust me it wasn’t! It took about 30minutes to get the first trace in place during which time I had stuck it to myself about six times, ‘lost’ it on the floor, stuck it to the tweezers and developed a whole new combination of swear words, which is quite an achievement for me….Fortunately, to paraphrase an old movie poster, ‘nobody can hear you scream in the garage’.

Two traces done…22 to go!

At that point, I gave it a rest for the evening. Overnight, I had a brain wave and remembered how to wind model rope from wire. The solution is simply to put a cup hook into a hand drill, fix three lengths of wire into the mini bench vice and then fix the wires to the cup hook and wind the drill at a steady pace – perfect traces every time!

The hand drill does it! Perfect traces every time!

With the traces more uniform, I was able to make faster progress and over the course of the next two evenings, I finished making and attaching the traces. There is just one problem. Whilst the joints on the traces are quite strong when pulled, any lateral movement tends to dislodge them. So even with the reinforced Renedra limber bases the weight of the model will cause the base to flex – no problem – the traces flex and hold. But, pick up the model and accidentally press the traces and as likely as not they will snap off , as I have found to my cost. Despite this, I was able to finish the landscaping on the base and I think that I have a nice model for my cabinet.

Horse artillery Advance!

So I now have a slight dilemma, do I add the traces to my other foot artillery limber and make it look nicer for the cabinet or do I leave the traces off and make it a more robust model for gaming? I think that I will add the traces but see if I can work out a way of drilling the horses without damaging them. There’s usually a simple solution to all problems. Hmmm, may be a bit of masking tape will protect the horses and give the drill something to ‘bite’ into…?

Horse Artillery Limber complete.

Whilst I summon up the enthusiasm to tackle the traces on the Foot artillery limber, I have decided to crack on with the crews for the guns.

Royal Horse Artillery Gun Crews – W.I.P.

At my current rate of progress it will be the end of September at least before everything is finished. I will have expanded my army collection to include a horse artillery battery of three guns and a limber and my foot artillery will have an extra 2 ( possibly 3) guns and crew as well as a new limber. With nine guns in my collection I think that I can say that I have enough British Artillery for now!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

I have just decided to feature the three most useful tools that I used in this Project:

THE BENCH VICE

ZURON FLUSH CUTTERS

EXPO THICK SUPER GLUE

We have a huge range of tools, paints and adhesives in our range, to browse, just click into our shop using the link at the top of the page. At the time of writing, we post free to most worldwide locations.

Happy Modelling!

Battling with Black Powder

In what could be the last battle with the ‘old’ Black Powder rules set before the relaunch of the new version on the 6th October, I faced off against my long term gaming buddy Pete Harris in his new gaming room. We are both great fans of the Black powder rules set, having fought many a battle with them and enjoyed the easy going social atmosphere that the rules set bring to our games. We tend to play the ‘Vanilla version’ with very few of the extra rules from the supplements. We find that this makes for a simpler, fairer game, with less need to refer back to the rule book and fewer contentious issues to resolve. Our games are played in the course of an evening, on a smaller 6 x 4 or 8 x 4 foot table and so we use 66% movement and ranging distances. We also use half size units on the smaller tables for these ‘club’ battles. My British Battalions are actually split into 2 x 12’s, two units for the price of one! Pete has organised his French infantry into 16’s for club battles – the French are more likely to form column and 16’s look nicer. Cavalry are 6 per regiment, we simply split the full regiment of 12 for the club games. We still use one gun for our artillery but when we do get the chance to play larger battles, then we find that batteries of two guns look nice! Once on the table, there are enough figures to give the ‘feel’ of a decent sized battle but there is still space for the armies to manoeuvre.

French Army deploy into line after a rapid advance.

The only flavour that we have added to the basic game is to Give the French ‘Pas de Charge’ which effectively means that a level 8 general will pass orders for infantry columns on a 10. The British get first fire for their battalions but must fight in line. We do not give the Brit’s counter charge, or use any other of the rules in Albion Triumphant. These two simple changes are enough to ensure that the French will tend to be quicker to move around on the Battlefield and the British will tend to fight a more defensive battle.

The British Heavy Cavalry Brigade and the First Infantry Brigade.

Another change is our points system. It is very much simplified with standard Infantry battalions and Light Cavalry worth 2 points, Artillery 1.5 points, Lancers 2.5 points, Heavy Cavalry 2.5 pts. Add one point for D3 Heavy cavalry, Add 0.5 point for light Infantry, add 0.5 point for rifles. We also adjust by a point or so for elites, large units, small units etc. It is by no means a perfect system and how we got to those values is lost in the mists of time. However, it works and allows us to bring approximately equal forces or if required, deliberately unbalance the forces. For our battle tonight, Pete had 30.5 points and I had 31 points. This gave us both 2 Brigades of infantry and one Brigade of cavalry. If that sounds as though the forces were identical, the detail will show that this is not quite the case. For example, Petes’ cavalry brigade consisted of two regiments of Lancers and one regiment of light Chasseurs plus a Horse artillery gun. I had two regiments of Household heavy cavalry. There were other differences in the make up of our Infantry Brigades but I wont detail them here. You can see our original points system in an older blog here:

BLACK POWDER FOR CLUB NIGHTS

There’s one other rule we usually follow for a club night battle – we go off to the pub for a nice meal and a drink before settling down to play – We find this helps to put everyone in the right frame of mind! We don’t like to battle on an empty stomach!

THE BATTLE

The French Infantry occupy the Farm House

The French won the initiative and immediately advanced to capture the Farm house on the British Left. The general push forward saw them advancing on the Central pass between the hill and lake and attempting to capture the large hill that would dominate the battle. The British in reply decided that the French could have the Farm complex and moved their army to the open ground on the right. This would allow them to flank the French with the heavy Cavalry brigade and a strong infantry brigade, leaving the Rifles to defend the left wing and the rest of the brigade to hold the central pass.

British Move to the right

It was now that the French ran into trouble. The artillery battery trying to gain a dominant position on the hill stalled, failing it’s orders to move thereby hampering the rest of the French brigade from moving. A blunder on the left also meant the the other brigade was not moving. Even though the French Commander was able to intervene, the French were unable to fully implement their plans. The Brigade on the far left was now playing catch up in pursuing the British, whilst the French cavalry were divided and vulnerable on the right.

Brish hold the pass – Rifles hold the flank!

The British Cavalry seized the initiative and the full Brigade charged a regiment of French Lancers. The ensuing combat saw the Lancers shaken and withdrawing in disorder. Although the lead British cavalry regiment had taken wounds, it was still able to follow up and charge the French Light Chasseurs. The resulting combat saw them forced from the table and the French Cavalry Brigade were now broken.

On the left, the Rifles had taken a pounding and before too long, they were unable to stand the pressure exerted by the full French Brigade on the left, resulting in them breaking and leaving the table. They had bought just enough time for the British to bring reinforcements to the centre to hold the pass and rout the lead French infantry unit.

The British Left under pressure. Can they hold?

For 5 turns, the French Artillery unit attempting to ascend to the top of the hill failed it’s orders, stalling the brigade and frustrating the French army in its attempt to dominate the centre of the Battlefield, whilst the British continued to press from the right. The French Commander was heard to shout ‘must I do everything myself?’ in frustration, as order after order was failed by his brigade commanders!

Withe the artillery stalled on the hill, the French infantry march into a trap!

With the artillery stalled on the hill, the French infantry march into a trap!

Eventually, the large French infantry unit ascended the hill only to find that they were in the jaws of a trap and facing two gun battery’s and five battalions of British infantry. They too were routed. With the British Heavy Cavalry now rested, they were now threatening the rear of the French army. Although the French were taking a heavy toll of the British brigade on the left, the game was up for the French. The Second Infantry brigade was broken and the Army decide to pull back, leaving the British in control of the field!

Heavy Cavalry break through! Fench rear under threat.

POST MATCH ANALYSIS!

Once the French had captured the farmhouse it was pointless to try and challenge on the left. It is difficult to take on infantry in fortified positions, so a move to the right was inevitable for the British. The surprise was how effectively the British were able to execute their orders. Conversely, the French had appalling luck with their orders rolls, leaving the commander to pick up the pieces and do the best he could. This gave the British the opportunity to exploit their numerical superiority on the right flank, whilst holding the majority of the French infantry on the left and in the centre. For once, the British Heavy Cavalry did as ordered and were more than a match for the Lancers. The real bonus was catching the French lights on the edge of the table, they were always going to loose the combat and get pushed back from the field of battle. With the French Cavalry gone, the British were free to move their infantry without threat.

Merde! Le Gun est stuck in ze mud…

The French gave the British Brigade on the left a good mauling, breaking them in the final turn but it was too late to save the battle. The French commander was going to have a serious talk with his Brigadiers!

French Infantry advance. These guys did their job!

It’s nice to win a battle but in fairness to Pete, I should point out that the last time our forces met, he trounced my army in three turns! The dice gods can be very fickle!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

It’s no secret that I am a great fan of the Black Powder Rules set. I think that it facilitates a great game without losing sight of the fact that the hobby is about having fun with friends whilst playing with toy soldiers.

The new version of Black Powder is due to be released in Early October, provisionally on the 6th. If you would like a copy post free, with the exclusive miniature then simply click here!

BLACK POWDER VERSION 2

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:

PERRY MINIATURES

What a Distraction!

What a Tanker rules set.

I’m not going to moan about the lovely weather and the Football again! No, I’ve been introduced to a new game, “What a Tanker!”. Written by Richard Clarke and Nick Skinner of Too Fat Lardies fame, the game is a simple and fun game of tank combat in World War Two. Fortunately, the game only really requires Two tanks per player ( you can of course just use one) and most wargamers will have a couple of tanks kicking around their collection somewhere! In my case I have some pre painted 1/72nd scale tanks that I had picked up cheaply as part of yet another of my ‘collections’, so I was good to go! I dusted off my late war Churchill and Sherman 75mm and trotted off to my mates house for a game. That in itself was a pleasure – no hernia inducing lifting of my growing Napoleonic army. Just two tanks, some dice and a ruler and set of rules and I’m sorted!

Sherman and Churchill ready for action

To be fair, Andy had set up the table with plenty of scenery, including the obligatory scattering of dead cows that were found over Normandy battlefields. He had also visited the Toofatlardies web site and downloaded the dashboard and other bits. You can see them here:

WHAT A TANKER DOWNLOADS

By the way, as far as I can see the downloads work perfectly- the people making the comments saying that they will not work may need to look at their own computer….

There are plenty of other reviews of the game out there on the net and ‘play through’ videos on Youtube but the one that I found the most useful is the one put together by the Lardies themselves. At just over thirty minutes long , it’s well worth a watch and you will be up to speed with the rules in no time.

The only thing is that I am unable to show you pictures of our game. I was so engrossed with the action, I forgot to take any! What I can tell you is that we had great fun playing the game and once we had got through a couple of turns, most of the rules/gameplay became second nature. The Lardies are experts at ensuring that their games are playable and create the sort of fun that most gamers will enjoy. The idea that initiative changes with each turn encourages players to take risks and creates those ‘cinematic’ show downs to produce high points ( or low… depending who wins through!) that keep the players engrossed in the game and provide the talking points afterwards.

My Sherman seemed to take on the character of a certain Brad Pitt movie, dicing with death and being constantly in harms way. It managed to survive most of the game- clearly there was a contract for a sequel in the offing! Andy’s star tank, a Jadgpanzer IV, quickly dealt with my Churchill, despite the superior armour of the Churchill but then he was promptly forced back into a wood and sat there as no movement dice were available! I think the correct word is schadenfreude as I watched Andy get ever more frustrated that his tank wouldn’t move. Eventually, it was the Jadgpanzer that won through, lumbering out of the wood (pun intended) and finally giving Brad Pitt the heroes ending that he was looking for! He who laughs last and all that…I only needed a small beer to overcome my brief disappointment at losing the game. Brad will no doubt be back again, perhaps next time with something more ‘shooty’ than the Churchill – pass the tank catalogue…

May be I need a bigger tank!

So we have another game to add to our repertoire. A slight distraction from Napoleonics and Samurai but with very little needed to get into the game, a welcome change. If you have a couple of Tanks gathering dust in your collection, I thoroughly recommend this game to you.

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If you would like to get hold of this rules set, they are available post free, worldwide, at the time of writing, here:

WHAT A TANKER!

We have a huge range of 1/72nd scale tank kits in our shop. For a fast build, I recommend the Armourfast range, with two tanks per box, you only need spend £8.50 and you are in the game!

ARMOURFAST TANKS

ALL 1/72nd Scale Allied Tanks

ALL 1/72nd Scale Axis Tanks

Finally, if it’s scenery that you need we have plenty! However, We have just added some very nice 20mm or 1/72nd scale buildings to our range!

1/72 scale Buildings

I hope that you have as much fun as we did with these rules!

They think it’s all over…..

Well, it’s the day after England were knocked out of the World Cup by Croatia and I am somewhat melancholy as I sit to write my blog. To be fair, I haven’t much to write about. The World Cup gradually became all consuming for me and for once, my priority wasn’t the models on my work bench. Football combined with the hot weather meant that I have been spending less and less time on my modelling projects. Indeed, the last blog that I wrote showing my own work was dated 14th June, a month ago.

The last of Daimyo’s Retinue on the work bench

In that time, I have managed to finish painting the last of Daimyos retinue. One mounted Samurai completed in a month is hardly something to crow about but I suppose it is progress. As I have been nipping out to paint and base in ever shorter bursts, I haven’t recorded my progress but six of the retinue are now complete.

Daimyos retinue

Retinue showing detail of Arrow catcher.

As you can see, the last mounted Samurai that I completed has the Arrow catcher or Horo in place. I painted a very simple design on it to add some interest and based him in my usual style.

My Work bench is somewhat neglected…

Another indication of my neglect of my hobby is the state of my work bench. If you look closely you can see another mounted Samurai – this is the spare Samurai that you get in the set mounted on a Warhammer horse. I’ve actually gone backwards here as although I have added some green stuff to make the horse look more ‘Samurai’ I have managed to break the model.

Green Stuff added but the model is a bit fragile…

In trying to make the pose dynamic, I have created a somewhat fragile model that I doubt will stand the rigours of gaming – if you look closely, you can see that the one standing leg is threatening to snap as well – the white line above the hoof showing where the plastic is weakening.

So, the football is over for England (the play off for third place doesn’t really inspire me) and it’s time to get back to enjoying my modelling, hot weather or not. I will probably watch the Final but will find it hard to cheer for either side. More likely, I think I will tidy up my work bench and listen to it on the radio. As well as getting on with the final mounted Samurai, I can reorganise my lead mountain and decide on the next project.

Samurai Cavalry charge!

In the meantime, just to cheer myself up, I got all of the samurai cavalry out of the cabinet for a photo shoot! I’m actually quite pleased with how they look. The football may be over but there’s plenty to keep me busy!

If you would like to read how I went about painting my Samurai, please look in the Samurai category of my Blog here:

SAMURAI BLOG

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Genesis of a Terror Bird

I thought that it might be interesting to show the processes involved in bringing a new miniature to the market. Arcane Scenery own the DeeZee range and since purchasing it we have been very slowly expanding the choice of models available. Buying the range was more of a whim than a serious business decision but I was intrigued by the models and the potential – if we could build the range and revitalise it. That is not quite as easy as it sounds, as I am no sculptor and Arcane Scenery as an online retailer, has no production facilities. We do have the advantage of being right in the middle of the Nottingham ‘Lead Belt’ and as a result, come into contact with some very talented people.

We have recently started working with the guys over at War Banner and inspired by some of the awesome figures that they have been and will be releasing, I decided it was time to add to the DeeZee range. But where to start? Like many in the hobby, I had plenty of ideas and there was no shortage of suggestions from friends and colleagues. After much consideration, I decided that a terror bird would fit into the range and was commercial enough to appeal to the historical collector as well as Pulp, Fantasy and RPG gamers, meaning that we would have a chance of recouping the investment required.

terror bird inspiration

The first job was to find a sculptor. I had in the past been in touch with a few sculptors in the UK but circumstances at the time had stopped me from progressing with the project. So after past false starts, this time, thanks to Andy Hobday at War Banner, the very talented Stavros Zouliatis was contacted. Stavros had sculpted the soon to be released Warring Clans Samurai figures. I had already been drooling over them as a hobbyist, so when Stavros said that he was not only available to sculpt but also very enthusiastic about the project, it was all systems go! Stavros is based in Greece but despite the distances involved, thanks to the wonders of technology (I am still amazed at what can be done, much to the amusement of the ‘youngsters’ that I work with) it was a relatively simple matter to formulate the model. Using my pinterest board as reference and Facebook messenger as a way of reviewing progress, work was soon under way.

DeeZe Terror Bird being sculpted

The picture below shows the Terror bird nearly completed – the sculpting process took about a week on and off.

Terror Bird Complete

Although the sculpting process was complete, we had to give some thought as to how it would be cast. We decided that the legs would be better as separate pieces to the body and also to add a base.

Terror Bird 'Green' comple and ready fro casting

Terror Bird ‘Green’ comple and ready for casting

The next stage was to turn the ‘green’ ( the name of the original model or prototype – usually made from green stuff epoxy clay) into a metal model.

To do this the green is pressed into a rubber mold and then cooked to produce a master mold. Ben, of War Banner games was responsible for this process. It can be quite traumatic as there is the danger that the original will be damaged by the high pressure involved. I’m happy to say that all went well – we even managed to recover the original ‘Green’, which is often lost in this process.

The mold press machine!

Once the first mold or master mold has been made, a number of metal models are cast to produce the production mold. In this case, we have a production mold that will ‘spin’ five models at a time. Depending on the expected demand, some manufacturers will make more than one production mold. It is the production mold that will wear out over time but more production molds can be made using the Master if needed. Part of the skill in producing the master and production molds is to decide where the ‘feeds’ run the metal into the impression of the model. The mold also needs vents to let the excess metal run through to be cut into it. Once again, Ben, from War Banner games has done a great job and the production mold is casting superb models without any flash or excessive feeds.

Terror Bird Production Mold – look carefully and you can see the guys at War Banner have good sense of humour….

terror bird mold open – this is where the metal goes!

It is now just a case of ‘running’ the molds to build the stock of the model so we are ready for orders. We usually hold a stock of DeeZee models so there is no delay in dispatching orders.

Hot metal in the Hotpot!

The final stage in the process was to get a model painted. Jasmine Storey-Smith kindly offered to paint the very first Terror Bird from DeeZee. I think that she has done a super job and the model looks just as I hoped that it would.

The Painted Terror Bird

Terror bird and Neanderthal

And so the Terror Bird, DZ35 is ready to launch…Well it’s available to sell – it will never fly! It’s quite a time consuming process and has involved a number of people. As with all of these projects, the materials aren’t really the cost, it is the time and skill of those involved that have to be paid for. I must thank again, the team at War Banner, who as well as supplying their expertise and advice, have been great cheer leaders as well. If you are thinking of commissioning your own range of figures, War Banner have all the facilities, skill and enthusiasm that you will need to get your project up and running.

We certainly will add more models to the DeeZee range. Like I said in the introduction, we are not short on ideas! Who knows, we may have a rules set in the pipeline….

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TERROR BIRD

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DeeZee RANGE OF ANIMALS

If you would like to see more of Stavros’s work or to commission a sculpt , click here:

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We hope that you enjoy your modelling!

French Sailors in the Caribbean – some conversions

Jonas Jones has been busy with his jewellers saw and clippers to bring us some more conversions from the Trent Miniatures range. I think that there is a tendency in the hobby not to convert metal figures but Jonas shows that with a bit of imagination, some simple modifications can give quite a bit of variation. The starting point is the pack of French Sailors from the Caribbean range, pack CAR24 ( links below). A useful pack as French Sailors had no regulation uniform at this time, so these chaps could be seamen of other nationalities or augment a pirate crew.

French Sailors from CAR24

The pack was produced for the Caribbean range as in June 1793, about 2000 French Sailors, led by the newly arrived Royalist Governor of St. Domingue attacked the colony’s principal port, Le Cap, defended by the Republican commissioners. In two days of savage street fighting, involving also the National Guard and several thousand revolting slaves, 90% of the town was burnt down, before the Governor and his sailors were beaten back to their ships. Someone noted that whilst the sailors were good fighters, as more buildings having stores of liquor were ‘liberated’, so their inclination and ability to fight diminished! Perhaps building a force of 2000 French sailors is ambitious ( although we will be happy to supply them!). It does seem that a small force or unit would be very useful to have and we could see them participating in many smaller skirmishes! So without further ado, Jonas explains how he converted his latest models.

French Sailor Conversion 1

“This chap was inspired by the closing action from the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid movie. I wanted a two-fisted pistoleer prepared to go headlong at the opposition. (Even braver with a pair of flintlocks rather than the six-shooters!). The figure’s right arm was clipped off with a pair of flush cutters and a right arm from the French Dragoons (Haiti) – pack Car 14 – was substituted. (About 15 seconds work with a pin vice).”

French sailor – Conversion 2

“When Israel Hands made his appearance in season three of Black Sails, the potency of a cutlass and boarding axe combination was demonstrated to perfection: four opponents despatched in about the time it’s taken to type this paragraph! Again, the right arm has been cut off and this time the shouldered sabre arm from the French Dragoons (Haiti) is substituted. The head is from the EDZ08 bare heads pack. Obviously, a man wielding two fearsome weapons would have a fairly stern demeanor; I felt that the moustache provided some “sternification”!”

French Sailor conversion 3

“You’ll remember the bit in the movie The Professionals when the Mexican bandit leader passes his hat across the front of his holster to mask drawing his pistol. That influenced this conversion. It’s one of the boarding pike figures with its left hand snipped off and replaced by the seperate left hand with pistol. The right hand was drilled through as one would for a pike, but then a cut was made from underneath and the hat superglued in. The hat is from the Car19 pack – Poles in St. Domingue. Flush cutters and a small file have removed the Polish head from underneath the hat – there are always casualties in war!”

French Sailor Conversion #4

“This conversion is the other pike chap, left hand snipped off and left hand with pistol inserted as with conversion #3. The right arm has been snipped off and replaced by the sword arm from the French Dragoons pack (CAR 14).”

“This isn’t really a conversion; it’s just the chap firing his pistol given the priest’s head from the Chouan/Vendean Characters bis pack (FCHOU 06). I just felt that it looked right.

French Sailors conversions

I hope the this article will give the reader some ideas as to how to go about making some simple changes to figures to get a new look. It’s surprising how a simple head or arm swap can change the look of a figure and allow a modeler to stretch one pack of five figures to make a unique band ideal for the many skirmish games that are out there. Jonas has used other metal figures to complete his conversions but plastic bits will work just as well – I’m sure that most of us will have a decent bits box to dive into! You often dont even need to use figures from the same period – a dark age figure holding an axe could be used to provide a boarding axe!

If you are thinking of converting figures though, you will find that the Trent Miniatures EDZ range is a good place to start – plenty of options for easy head swaps.

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I hope that you enjoy your modelling!

Daimyo’s Retinue – Progress?

Sometimes things don’t work out the way you would like them to, and for me, that seems to be the way it is with Daimyo’s retinue. Of course, it could just be a case of familiarity causing the dissatisfaction – this is the second batch of plastic cavalry that I have painted. For some reason, I am not feeling the love for this project! I now have two of the Retinue more or less complete and painted in a similar style to my other samurai cavalry. However, they just don’t look as good as I want them to!

The first of Daimyo’s retinue

Now to be fair, they are not yet finished. I need to complete the basing and I know that once the base has been painted and some nice grass tufts added the models will look substantially better. I also will be adding a Decal to the flags and tidying these up a bit, all of which will help.

In the meantime, I carried on with the retinue and painted the Daimyo himself. I had a clear idea in my mind as to how I wanted him to look and the colour scheme that I would use.

Daimyo ready for basing

However, I am disappointed with the result! The colour scheme just hasn’t worked – he looks like he is sponsored by JCB! Once again, I have made the mistake of adding green trim to his cloak. It didn’t work when I painted my Geisha spy so why I made the same error is a mystery! I also think that yellow is a difficult colour to get right and in trying to use such a bold finish with a primary colour, I have made it difficult to achieve the look that I was after.

Daimyo repainted!

The picture above shows a few changes that I have made to try and improve the figure. The trim on the cloak is now Turquoise, to match his trousers. I’ve added some white socks to the horse and given the horse a white mark on it’s head and I’ve added some highlights to the Daimyo’s trousers. The base has the textured paste applied and will of course benefit from being painted.

Daimyo Charge!

So I think that he looks a bit better but the feeling lingers that it is not quite the finish that I had in mind.

It is easy to be over critical and often the answer is to put the models to one side and come back to them a couple of days later. For now, though, apart from the basing, these are done. I console myself with the thought that these are table top pieces not entries for the Golden Demon Painting competition. They don’t look too bad with my other cavalry.

Samurai Cavalry charge!

Daimyos Retinue grows!

So I have another four more Samurai cavalry to paint before the set is complete. With the World Cup about to start, it will be a while before I can show you the finished result. Perhaps watching the football will give me the break that I need from painting….

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Daimyos Retinue is on the Work Bench!

After more or less completing my Napoleonic Nassau Infantry, I thought that I would have a change of period and complete a Test of Honour Boxed set, Daimyos retinue. I had decided to build the retinue as a continuation of the other Samurai cavalry boxed set and would be using a similar colour scheme for the armour. At some point in the future I’m sure that I will start to play games with larger formations rather than just individual figures and having a degree of coherency in the colour scheme will help.

Daimyo’s retinue ready for priming.

There are actually six plastic Samurai in the set and a metal figure of Daimyo, so with only six horses, I was left with a spare Samurai. It was a straight forward option to find a spare horse in my ‘bits box’, so as you can see, there are now seven riders to paint! The spare horse is actually an old GW ‘Elf horse’ but I will add some green stuff decoration to make it a bit more Samurai. You can see that I have done this before with the other cavalry set by checking a previous blog here, so I will have 14 Mounted Samurai rather than 12, when everything is finished.

Assembly is the usual fiddly process with these plastic models but it is worth using a good plastic glue and of course with patience, the models do look nice once put together. I usually paint the riders separately from the horses but I managed to glue two of the riders onto the horses whilst test fitting everything…What was I saying about patience… To be fair, I had decided to use the arrow catcher on one of the models and it was quite tricky figuring out how it actually fitted to the model. I’m confident that I now have it right but as you can see from the picture below, once primed, it was clear that I had some filling to do before painting! I used the Vallejo putty. It’s fairly quick drying and sands well.

Rider with arrow catcher fitted .

I will have to paint these as one piece models but I don’t think this will be a problem. The other models were primed in black as separate horses and riders

Horses primed

Riders ready for painting

I used my airbrush and Vallejo primer for these models. I am still very much a novice when it comes to using an airbrush but it means that I can prime my models indoors, unlike using spray cans. To be fair, it’s just as easy, and I’m finding that I get better coverage without ‘soaking’ the model.

So I’m ready to start painting. I thought that I would show a step by step guide to how I paint horses. It’s not a strong point for me and there are plenty of great guides out there to help you but here goes with my method that I have put together from watching and listening to other far more talented painters than I!

German Cam. Black Brown – first coat.

I use three colours layered on top of each other and as I want a brown/chestnut horse I’m starting with a dark brown, German Camouflage black brown 70822. Paint as much of the horse as you can see, leaving the saddle cloth etc. and the mane and tail.

Flat brown 70984

The next step is to dry brush the horse flesh with Flat brown 70984. It’s inevitable that the dry brush will stray onto the saddle etc -I don’t worry at this stage as it will be cleaned up later.

Orange Brown 70981

The next stage is a dry brush of Orange Brown 70981 – again you can see that I haven’t been too careful and over painted painted the reins. The idea is really to ensure that what texture there is modeled into the horse itself, is picked up by the dry brushing.

Mane & tail Black 70950

The next stage is to paint the mane and tail black. I also painted the forelegs on the left horse black as he is going to have socks! You can see that I have made a mistake with the right hand horse and been too heavy with the orange brown on his rump and by his front. The front can be tidied and I might tone down the rear with some ink but for now I’ve stuck with it!

Saddle cloth and furniture Dark Prussian Blue 70899

I’ve now painted the saddle cloth and horse furniture with Dark Prussian Blue – things are looking a bit neater now! I’ve also given the mane and tale a very light dry brush using a light grey to bring out the texture.

Lining on the horse furniture!

The next stage was to paint the white socks on the left horse and I added a white patch to both horses heads. I’ve also painted the eyes black. The Horse furniture is lined with a sky blue 70961. I found it a bit stark so I’ve toned it down with some of the dark Prussian blue. The effect is not subtle, particularly close up but it works for me and the lighting is exaggerating the contrast.

Both horses complete!

That’s just about finished for now. I’ve painted the ‘bits’ in steel and done a bit of tidying. After this picture was taken, I painted the hooves black for a bit more contrast. Once the riders are in place and the bases finished they will look fine for the table.

So that is it. I hope that you will find the article useful and it will help you with developing your own technique.

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