steve wood – Page 24 – Steve’s Hobby Blog

The saga continues.

On the face of it, painting a war band for Saga shouldn’t really take a month. After all, around 40 figures is all that is required. I suspect that some painters out there could knock these out in a couple of days, if not faster. I know of some wargamers who will paint in concentrated bursts to complete an army and then spend a month or so without painting anything. For me it is a case of slow and steady gets there and so having completed my band of levy, the next job was to paint 8 Fiana or hearth guard. I tend to paint in short sessions of just an hour or so but manage to get at least three of these sessions in a week. My method means that there is always something on the painting table and when I get a spare 10 minutes, I move a project on. So although I have been spending time on the Fiana, whenever I have had a spare few minutes I have been preparing and researching the next batch of models.

So back to the painting table and my unit of Fiana. As you can see, they are all armed with Dane Axes, which makes them pretty lethal in combat, reducing your opponents armour by one. Used at the correct time in a game, these boys will crush the opposition with their ferocity. There’s just one problem, their own armour is reduced to 4, making them a bit of a one hit wonder when faced with equal opposition. As with my Irish Levy slingers or ‘Kerns’ I have used a fairly limited palette of earthy and drab tones. As these figures represent Hearth guard though, I have painted them with a bit of decoration on their clothes. The basing followed my usual practice of using the Vallejo Dark Earth paste, painted and dry brushed to bring out the texture. I then added some green scatter. I have also made some movement trays for my saga units. I wont be using these in the game but it makes a convenient way of storing and transporting the models. They also look a bit more organised in the figure display cabinet. ( refer to my previous Blog post ‘Round Base, Square hole’ )

Footsore Fiana in their movement tray

Of course I also added some tufts to the bases to give them a bit more texture. Again, I have kept with the Javis Tufts to give the army a cohesive look.

The finished unit of Fiana, complete with tufts!

I have also completed work on the Sarissa Dark Ages A frame hut. You can see it in the background of the top picture. Here is a better picture of my Irish Warband, based and in their movement trays defending their one and only hut!.

Fiana, Kern and A frame house.

You will see that I have painted 8 Fiana to count as Hearth guard, these will count as two points in my Saga band. However, the plan is to paint at least two other Hearth Guard, that will serve as Curadh. These are used as single warlords and are detatched from their parent unit of Hearth guard to operate as ‘Champions’, generating their own Saga dice, benefiting from the Warlords ability and generally able to cause mayhem! The Footsore pack of Irish Heroes with Dane axes look like good candidates. Although I will use them as ‘standard Curadh’ armed with javelins in the actual game, these models look like they are the Champions that they are supposed to represent. Here they are undercoated and ready for painting.

Footsore Curadh ready for painting

You can see that I have use a black undercoat for these figures as the chain mail will be easier to paint by simply dry brushing with Vallejo steel. There are three figures in the photo. The one on the far right will be my Pack master for the wolf hounds that I intend to use as one unit of warriors. Now as regards the Wolfhounds, I am going to take a bit of a liberty and use the Irish Wolf hound from my own DeeZee range. He comes as part of a the ‘Large Dogs’ pack and is a very big model as you will see from the pictures below. I realise that he is out of scale but I don’t think that this will matter for the purposes of the game. I wanted my dogs to look like they really could pull down a fully armoured warrior! You can just imagine the warriors of the time talking about their encounters with the wolfhounds…’You should have seen them Aeflaed, they were as big as ponies, ‘orrible great things that would rip your throat out!’

Irish warrior wolfhounds!

I’ll have to do a bit of conversion work on these as I would like to have at least three different poses. If they look the part, I’ll see about getting them cast as a pack as part of the DeeZee range, so it might be a while before these are ready. In the meantime, I have plenty more to paint!

A final note. Last weeks blog was an account of my day at the Saga Ironman Day at Wargames Illustrated. There is now a very nice video that shows how the day went and as I am in it, it seems appropriate to include a link here:

And the Wooden Spoon Goes to….

I mentioned in my last blog that I would be attending the Wargames Illustrated event ‘Saga Iron Man’ held at WI HQ in Nottingham. The Saga Iron man Tournament format was such that all you had to do was pay your entrance fee and turn up on the day. Everything that you needed would be provided, from well painted armies, tables and scenery through to the Saga dice and measuring sticks. Even refreshments and dinner was provided! To make matters interesting and to really test your knowledge of the game, the Armies would be assigned randomly on the day and each game would be played with a different army. There were to be four games for each player in total, each against a new opponent. The word ‘tournament’ usually has me running for cover. I’m not a tournament player and don’t really like the idea of competitive wargaming – it can bring out the worst in players and nothing is quite so sad as grown men arguing over toy soldiers – I speak from shameful experience here!

However, events held at Wargames Illustrated HQ have in my experience been extremely good-natured and thanks to the friendly, approachable nature of Danny, the owner of WI, the Event days are well worth attending. They are as much a social event and a chance to meet like minded people from across the hobby. I put aside any concerns and signed up for the day as a chance to play Saga with armies that I had not used before and an opportunity to learn more about the game. My expectations were happily fulfilled although at times, I was well away from my wargaming comfort zone! The battle scenarios were fairly straight forward. Each side had 5 points of troops and the idea was to kill as many of the enemy as possible. The player with the most points at the end the battle won the game and the player with the most points at the end of the day would be the Saga Iron Man. Here is an account of how the battles went.

Battle 1

Your Byzantine Army awaits you.

Having drawn a random rune, which gave me my starting position, I moved to the relevant table to see which army I had drawn. Flipping ‘eck! I was playing Byzantines and my opponent was using Pagan Russ. Both armies feature in the Varjazi & Basileus supplement which I had not even read , let alone played the armies. Fortunately, my opponent, Nick Simmerson was almost as inexperienced as I was and was prepared to be patient as I blundered along trying to get to grips with my new battle board. Nick lived up to his deserved award of ‘Most Sporting Player of the day’ and patiently explained how he thought both armies would work and the best strategies to use. We got on with the game and thanks to some decent dice rolling I did manage to inflict some damage on my opponents army. At times, the battle felt a bit like two drunks fighting in a darkened room as we got to grips with our respective battleboards. Nick used the Pagan Russ control of the weather to slow my army and limit the effect of any ranged attacks. However, as the two sides closed and went on to the attack, it was the Byzantine side that edged the contest and gained a narrow victory 11 points to 9 points. Still, a win was a win and feeling a bit more confident, I moved to the next battle, hoping that I would get something that I was familiar with.

The Pagan Russ advance into range

Battle 2

My next force was the Strathclyde Welsh. Oh dear! I knew very little about this army other than the main advantage it had was that you could deploy off table and still use these units to score hits on your opponent. Furthermore, you could enter at any point to surprise your opponent and outflank him. My opponent, another Steve, was using Jomsvikings, with whom he seemed remarkably comfortable. It turns out that they are his army of choice…bugger! I decided to deploy a large unit of mounted warriors off table in the hope that I could outflank my opponent and roll up the wing of his army before he could react to the danger. With hindsight, I would have been better off splitting this unit into smaller units to gain more abilities from my battle board. I also underestimated the power of the Wrath of the Jomsviking. Initially, I was quite happy to let him build up his store of wrath, thinking that I would be able to punish him before it could be used. Oh boy, was I wrong about that as well. I had a big unit of Levy and for all the good that they did in the battle, I could have sacrificed these guys to keep the Jomsvikings quiet!

Strathclyde Welsh take the flank.

In the second turn, I unleased my out flanking move by bringing on the large unit of warriors and supporting them with a unit of Hearth guard. The combat was a qualified success as I wiped out all of a warrior unit except one man – this turned out to be critical as the wrath of the Jomsvikings was now unleashed on my army. The counter attack saw the remains of my warrior unit killed out right as well as a unit of hearth guard. By protecting the last man in the Jomsviking warrior unit, my opponent still had his full quota of saga dice to roll, whereas by the end of this turn I had lost two dice and in effect half of my army. From there, it was all down hill as the wrath of the Jomsvikings built, I had very little left on my battle board to fight back with and so the Strathclyde were ground down until just the levy were standing. I conceded defeat and although my initial success had gained 8 points, my total for the morning had left me firmly in the bottom half of the tournament table. Surely things could only get better.

The last charge of the Welsh.

Battle 3

The Russ Princes face the Steppe Tribes onslaught

After a very nice lunch of meatball stew, potatoes, bread, cheese followed by a lemon meringue tart all washed down with a diet coke, my carb levels were restored and I returned to battle. Any optimism that I had quickly evaporated when I found that I would be commanding a Russ Prince army and fighting the Steppe Tribes. The Steppe tribes are an official Saga army but their stats only appeared in Wargames Illustrated issue 311. To make matters worse, there was only one copy of the battle board so through out the battle I had no idea what was coming. To go back to my analogy of two drunks fighting in a dark room, it felt like I had one arm tied behind my back as well. To make matters worse, all of the good fortune that I had had with my dice rolling in the morning turned to bad luck. In three rounds of rolling saga dice I managed to roll all crosses, or the worst symbol on the board. If I had been playing yahtzee, my score would have been brilliant. I could barely get my units to move and as for the abilities on the saga board, they remained a mystery. My combat dice were just as bad. If there was a prize for rolling 1’s, I would have won it in this game. It’s fair to say that I took a hammering and scored a mere 3 points.

Battle 4

I moved to the next table with some trepidation but cheered up a bit when I saw that I would be commanding Normans. They are an army that I have some familiarity with even though I have not played them. Even better, I would be facing the Anglo Danes, my army of choice and at least I knew exactly what they were capable of. Maybe now I could get some points on the table. That initial burst enthusiasm was some what tempered when I found that my opponent was Andy from Ainsty castings, the current Saga World Champion. I was about to get a lesson in how to manage a Saga army!

The Normans confidently advance

Rather foolishly, I decided to take the fight to the Anglo Danes, although I tried to pull them out of position by attacking along the flanks. I underestimated just how effective levy slingers could be against mounted troops. Within a couple of turns, I had been badly mauled, losing hearth-guard to mere sling armed levy. The Anglo Danes were solid and were able to keep their defensive shape and resist any attempt to isolate a unit or charge it down. At this point, I realised that my own bow armed levy had the ability to double their range and that by using some of the other saga abilities on the board it could have been my archers that were whittling down the Anglo Dane army whilst they slogged across the table to me. Of course the other ability was that the Norman hearth guard could have been shielded behind the crossbow men and archers ready to charge through them at the right moment. This at least would have given me the initiative in combat. In the event, though, I was goaded into charging the very solid Anglo Dane line and it was again my misfortune to be on the wrong end of a beating! The Anglo Danes had a well prepared battle board and what ever small success I enjoyed was quickly punished by a fierce counter attack. My warlord was eventually pinned and over come by the Dane Axe wielding enemy hearth guard. Once again, I was nearly wiped out to a man but I did manage to score 9 points, a better haul than my previous two games.

The Norman Army attempts to pull the Danes out of position.

Results

Unsurprisingly, I had accrued the least number of points on the day with the exception of one other player, Jon, who also had a total of 31 points as well. The winner, Andy, had 80 points so that will give you some idea as to how far behind the pack I had fallen. If this all sounds like a bit of a disaster, it wasn’t by any means. I had had a great day and whilst I had been on the end of three thrashings, the games were all very enjoyable and I had learnt a tremendous amount about the game of saga. I know have a basic working knowledge of six armies that I had never even considered using and I had been given a masterclass in how to use the battleboard to maximise an armies ability. Furthermore playing against four new opponents had given me a far greater insight into the way in which a Saga army could be deployed and used. Up until the day, I had always discounted levy as being a waste of points, particularly as they do not generate saga dice. I now know differently!

I am confident that should I get the opportunity to play in another such tournament, I would improve not only my points haul but also the way in which I manage my army. I think that I will be a much improved player! I guess the final thought is that if you play like General Custer: carry out insufficient recon; underestimate your enemy; split your forces; fail to capitalize on your strengths and charge in like a bull at a gate, you will get massacred!

Footsore Irish Slingers – Done!

The recent spell of hot weather hasn’t helped with my painting or modelling projects. Apart from the paint drying as fast as I could use it, it’s been too hot in my garage to sit with the lights on whilst painting for any length of time. Far better to sit in the garden with a nice cool drink! Despite that, I have completed the unit of Irish Slingers for my new Saga army, albeit with a bit of a rush to have them ready for this blog. I have finished these guys in some fairly earthy, drab colours and have not worried too much about any decoration or embellishments. I concluded that if all you had on the battlefield was a sling or in the case of some of these boys, a rock to throw, then they weren’t too far up the social ladder ( if even on it) and therefore their clothing would be pretty basic.

Irish Slingers ready for action

I used the Army Painter strong tone ink to get the shading and then highlighted using the original colour with some off white added. As for basing, I used the Sarissa 25mm round MDF bases. I have a general rule that I use MDF bases for Metal figures and plastic bases for plastic figures. There’s no real reason, Renedra plastic bases would be fine, it’s just a personal preference. Once I had glued the figures to the base, I used my new favourite thing to blend the figures to the bases – Vallejo dark earth textured paste. The next job was to paint the base and texture paste with a Chocolate brown and then highlight by adding Iraqi Sand to bring out the texture. Once dry ( which didn’t take long… see my comments above!) I used some watered down PVA to coat the centre of the bases around the figures and dunked them into my green scatter mix. The final task was to add some grass tufts. I decided to ‘road test’ the new range of Javis tufts the we have just started to stock.

The Irish like a bit of cover!

I decided on the Autumn mix 6mm tufts, which are not too bright a green and blend well with my scatter base. My first thought was that they were a bit too big to use straight form the pack and so I cut one in half. However, on the next figure I used the whole tuft and decided that this gave a good effect. After all, the Irish in Saga like to operate near to cover! To brighten up some of the bases, I added some of the Flower mix 10mm tufts. I did cut these down and unusually for me used them sparingly on just four of the figures. Overall, I am quite happy with the effect and pleased to recommend these new tufts. So my first unit is ready for the table!

Get ready for action! He’s rolling dice again!

So it’s onto the next unit. This time I’m going to have a go at the Footsore Irish Fianna with Dane axes. These warriors will hopefully cause mayhem as part of my Saga band and count as Hearth Guard, so eight of these will form a good part of my army. As the photo below shows, once the figures have been cleaned up, I attach them to a board using blutack and spray prime them. In this case I am still using Leather Brown. Blu tacking them to the board enables me to hold them at all angles to ensure that they are well primed. Next step is to put them on temporary bases, again using blutack and to get painting!

Fianna, Primed.

As well as working on the unit of Slingers, I have been ‘pimping’ a Sarrisa dark age A frame hut as the first piece of scenery for my Saga games. I have made some more progress but not quite finished it. With hindsight I should have made this as a step by step blog article in it’s own right. Here is the progress so far:

Sarissa A frame hut W.I.P.

As you can see from the photo, I have highlighted the thatched roof by dry brushing it with Vallejo Desert Yellow first and then again by adding off white to the desert yellow. I’ve added some Vallejo Dark earth paste to the edges of the house to give it a rougher texture. Finally, I’ve base coated the timber that will show with chocolate brown. The next picture shows this a bit better.

timber base coated

As you can see, the paint does not cover the laser etching, allowing this detail to shine through. I will be doing a bit more work on this and I will show you progress in the next blog.

I am at the Wargames Illustrated Saga ‘Iron Man’ day this weekend. I have low expectations as to how well I will perform in a tournament. I don’t really like Tournament wargaming, I’m not comfortable in taking the hobby too seriously and worry that I might…. However, The Wargames Illustrated days have in the past managed to create a nice relaxed atmosphere and I hope that I will learn a great deal and meet some like minded people from the world of wargaming. Read all about it in the next Blog!

An Irish Saga

My output continues to be slow and steady but this week I have made a start on my new Saga Warband, the Irish. I am using the Footsore figures that are available from my shop as I really like the sculpting and the poses of the figures. Even better, Footsore have a ready made 4 point Irish War Band that will form the core of my army. That said, I have decided to add in some Irish Slingers and some other extras so that I can field at least 6 points, possibly more. I have also decided to make some scenery specifically for my Saga games. The ideal outcome of all this will be that I have a Saga ‘kit’ of a couple of boxes containing my army, rules & dice and the scenery that I need to play a game. Well that’s the plan! With this in mind, I have started to ‘pimp up’ some Sarissa Dark Age buildings, well one at the moment. So here is my progress so far. Last week, I showed that I have primed and prepared the Irish Slingers ready for painting. I had also painted the flesh using Vallejo dark flesh. Rather than use my usual method of block painting and quick shade, I thought that I would try a variation and use ink and highlighting to see if I could get a slightly better finish. Unlike my Napoleonic figures, I wanted each figure to look more individual.

Irish Slingers from Footsore primed with leather brown and Flesh added

Having spent so long painting Napoleonic troops where every figure pretty much has the same uniform, I find it quite difficult to paint a batch of figures where they all are clothed differently. I have been tempted to paint them one at a time but this will be an even slower job for me and will waste paint, as I inevitably squeeze far too much out on my pallet! The solution for me is to use a limited range of colours and vary them across the figures. As you can see from the next picture, I have chosen a batch of earthy and drab colours and this is how the figures look once they have been block painted and washed with strong tone Army painter ink.

Irish slingers block painted & ink washed. Colours used in the background.

The next stage is to repaint the colours, leaving the shadows created by the ink and to create highlights by adding a bit of either off white or Iraqi sand to the original colour. I also used normal flat flesh to highlight the skin.

Figures repainted & highlighted

The lighting makes it all look a bit harsh. I hope that this picture shows them in a better light!

Irish Slingers in cover

As you can see these are not properly based yet. I will finish the next six figures and then base the whole group in one go so that they look similar. It is also a chance to correct any obvious errors – the camera is good for spotting these as you can see…. Whilst they wont win any painting competitions, I’m sure that they will be ready for the table soon.

In between painting the Slingers, I have been attempting to add some detail to the sarissa Dark Ages A frame hut. I thought that I would add some teddy bear fur roofing as a start.

teddy bear fur roofing being glued in place.

The first job was to cut the fur to shape using kitchen scissors ( don’t tell the wife!) and then to stick it into place using PVA glue. The clamps are just holding it whilst the glue dries.

Roof coated in glue & primed

The next stage was to coat the teddybear fur in watered down PVA glue, wait for it to dry ( two days!) and then I have sprayed it with Army Painter brown primer ready for a coat of paint. I’m not sure whether to paint the roof grey as this is the actual colour that thatch goes as it weathers or a light brown or straw colour as this is the colour that seems to be used more by modellers. I’ll show you progress in my next post.

Finally, with all of this dark age stuff on the work bench, I did finally find the time to order my flags for the Cornwall regiment that I finished some months ago. The flags are from GMB, my favourite flag supplier and they certainly improve the regiment. Here are the command stands.

32nd Cornwall Regiment now with flags!

A rest is as good as a change!

I’ve had a very relaxing week away on the beautiful island of Skiathos in Greece. Time to catch a few rays and take a break from the usual routine and recharge my batteries. As well as taking a break for work I also stayed away from my hobby. So no packing up soldiers to paint for me – I even resisted taking my usual historical fact and fiction reads. Instead, I made do with a Lee Childs thriller ‘Gone Tomorrow’ and the latest page turner, ‘Girl on a train’ by Paula Hawkins. Both exceptionally good reads. I did backslide a tad, in that having burnt through those two paperbacks I found that I had ‘Woe to live on’ by Daniel Woodrell on my Kindle. I came across it by accident and didn’t realise that I had it or even what it was until I started the introduction. It’s a terrific read and a tale of the American Civil War, in particular the war in Missouri and the conflicts between the Jayhawkers and Bushwackers, culminating in the raid on Lawrence in Kansas. The Film ‘Ride with the Devil’ is based on the book and I can recommend both if you are at all interested in the American Civil war period.

I hadn’t done any research on the Island of Skiathos itself. Being in Greece and close to the mainland , you would assume that there would be plenty of history to see, so to speak, but apart from a couple of Monastery’s the Island doesn’t seem to have much in the way of antiquity to see. So, I hadn’t planned on any Historical research or visits to historical sites. In fact, the only excursion that we had planned was a boat trip to the neighbouring islands of Scopelos and Allonissos. The purpose of which was to do a bit of Dolphin spotting, sample the local food and of course visit some of the locations that the film ‘Mama Mia’ was filmed at – more of interest to my wife than myself.

Pirates weapons on show at the museum at Allonissos

As it turned out, on one of the islands, Allonissos, there was quite a good little museum to visit. Billed as a ‘pirates’ museum, it actually had quite a nice exhibition of both pirates weapons as well as other weapons from the Greek war of independence, WW1 and more recently, WW2.

Yet more weapons!

This little museum turned out to be a bit of a treasure trove of interesting exhibits and had I had more time, I would have spent much longer investigating the exhibits and taking notes for future research. As it was, we had agreed to meet back with the ladies and so time was at a premium. It also didn’t help that the museum had a superb balcony bar with the best views of the harbour! So I spent more time nursing a cold glass of beer looking out over the bay, enjoying the cool breeze than I did on any serious research…

The view over the Harbour from the Museum balcony bar.

All in all, the museum is well worth the 4 euros entrance fee and is a nice diversion on a very relaxing holiday. Back in the UK for the weekend I found that I was ready to pick up my paint brush again and for the last couple of days I have cracked on and finished my next regiment of Portuguese infantry. It has now been confirmed that they will be appearing in Wargames Illustrated Magazine so if you would like to know how I have painted them ( and indeed why I have chosen certain options when doing so) you will have to purchase the magazine. The regiment is the 11th Penamacor from the Central Division and according to my references, would have been brigaded with the 23rd Ameida Regiment ( which is the featured in the WG article)

11th Penamacor Regiment

I’ve taken a liberty with the unit size as really the regiment would have consisted of two battalions, the first Battalion having the main colour, the second Battalion having the secondary colour, in this case the red flag. So it would be more accurate to have a regiment of 48 figures in two separate battalions of 24, each with their own command and just one colour.

Command Group 11th regiment

I may yet revert to this configuration. It will be easy enough to do as I have put each ensign on a different base, so it would just be a case of painting the extra figures and finding some extra officer figures or musicians to make up the command group. I say easy, it does mean painting another 24 figures in the identical facings and I am sorely tempted to paint the next regiment with the yellow facings just to be different. For now though I am having a break from Napoleonics and next up on the work bench are some Footsore Irish Slingers for my new Saga band!

Irish Slingers from Footsore

British Napoleonic Spare Wheel Wagon

This is a conversion that I actually finished some time ago and whilst I had all the step by step pictures I didn’t get around to writing up the article. A wheel wagon isn’t going to make much of a difference to your army’s firepower but I have been fascinated by the logistics involved in getting a Napoleonic army to battle and a subject like this makes an interesting talking point. I saw the plans in Franklins superb book on British Artillery and thought that it would make a nice project. The only picture I have is from the actual book itself and I hope that showing it here will not offend.

If you dont have this book in your collection I thoroughly recommend it. It is of course available from Amazon and many good military booksellers!

So onto the conversion itself. I used the British gun carriage from the Trent Miniatures range, pack number BA01, the British Light 6pdr and long 3pdr. You will have the barrels left over but these will no doubt come in useful for a future project! You will also need a pack of British wheels from the same range pack number EQ07. There are 8 wheels in the pack, so again, you will have some spares. Both packs are £4.99 each and are available post free from my shop at the moment, so for under a tenner you will have a nice new wagon and lots of spare parts! The wheel wagon itself consists of the carriage and 5 wheels in total:

The main components laid out ready for assembly

You will also need a few scraps of 1/8 inch square balsa, some evergreen plastic rod and some thin evergreen plastic strip. You will use so little of these items that rather than purchase these, a delve into your scrap box may find some bits that can serve instead. If my lack of exact dimensions for these parts is a bit frustrating, it is more to make the point that even Franklin says that the wheel fixings ‘are conjectural’ so feel free modify as you wish.

I used a small piece of balsa and a short length of rod to make the central axle that would hold the two side mounted wheels. A similar piece of balsa and rod was used to make the front axle for the

other spare wheel. Both axle holders were detailed with some thin plasticard strip. The strip is only about 0.25mm thick so is easy to bend and mould around the components. I used super glue for all the construction. It was the easiest way of gluing the various components into place but mind you dont stick your fingers together as I did!

It is then just a question of adding the wheels themselves and the wheel wagon is complete. The next picture shows the main wheels on and the spare ones ready to slide into position. I have also fixed the two equipment boxes that are supplied with the gun carriage into position. As you can see, I have also primed the wagon ready for painting.

At this stage it is easier to paint the wagon before affixing the wheels. I used the British Artillery grey paint from the Foundry range. I then added white to the colour and dry brushed the whole piece to get the highlights and show the texture of the wood. When dry, I picked the metal work out in matt black and used steel to add chips & highlights, particularly on the wheel rims. I also stippled various shades of brown lightly onto the wheels to represent a bit of mud & dirt. The picture below shows the wagon as it would have been attached to a standard artillery Limber. I think that four horses might be more appropriate than six though!

Wheel wagon and Limber

As you can see in the final pictures, I added some wheel caps from small discs of plasticard to fill in the gaps on the ends of the wheels. These are easily made by punching them straight out of a plastic sheet using a button hole punch ‘borrowed’ from the wifes sewing kit! That is it, done. Another wagon to add to my growing collection.

Wheel carriage rear view

Wheel Carriage side view

Austrian Artillery Fusilier Battalion

This week’s blog is courtesy of a long standing friend of Arcane Scenery, ‘Jonas Jones’.

Jonas, is constantly coming up with new ideas for the Trent Miniatures range using his vast knowledge of the French Revolutionary Wars. Many of the conversions that he creates just involve a simple ‘head swap’ or the addition of a weapon or piece of equipment. In this case, no converting is necessary, just a change of colour scheme.

Austrian Artillery Fusiliers Firing

The Austrian Artillery Fusilier Battalion ,1798 – 1801 was formed specifically to support the artillery batteries of the Austrian Army. The uniform and equipment was much the same as other infantry units except that rather than white uniforms, they were brown. The photographs will give you an idea of the colours to use and for wargamers that have an Austrian Army, painting in brown will be a nice change from the Austrian ‘white-as-far-as-the-eye-can-see’!

Austrian Artillery Fusiliers Firing – rear view

A battalion of troops dedicated to supporting Artillery give an interesting opportunity for some tweaks to the Black Powder rules. Perhaps giving Artillery accompanied by these troops the possibility of being supported in combat ( the current rules specify that Artillery cannot be supported in combat) and some degree of supporting fire when the Artillery is threatened would give a slightly different flavour to the Austrian army list.

Austrian Artillery Fusiliers in march column

Jonas has let me know that if you would like to paint your own Austrian Artillery Fusilier Battalion, you simply need to use the Trent Miniatures packs AH98/01, 02, 03 and 04. The figures above were actually painted by Dave Woodward – Jonas is too busy coming up with the next conversion idea to paint!

Changing the subject slightly…. I recently took the above picture to show a friend the extent of my Caribbean collection and surprised my self with how it has grown. There are over 100 figures in the army now, including a joint Royal Marine & Royal Navy landing force, 3 units of Black troops, a unit of 60th rifles and a substantial force of Maroons and slaves. I really must sort out some rules and get these troops on the table!

Round Base, Square hole.

Back in April 2015, I wrote a blog article entitled ‘It’s All About The Base’ where I explained why I thought that the base was the most important part of finishing a figure. It’s still a view that I hold and judging by some of the frequent questions and queries on forums and Facebook it is an important subject for most wargamers. The problem is that we all seem to have our favourite way of basing our models, influenced no doubt by the rule set that we are using.

Maroon skirmishers

I’ve recently been working on some Maroons from the Caribbean wars and next up on the work bench are a batch of Dark Age Irish Slingers for Saga. Both sets of troops are designed to be used in a skirmish game and so I have based them on 25mm round bases. The problem is, I don’t like them – the bases that is. I cant explain why, but I prefer square bases. I particularly like 20mm square as a base size and in the past I have been more than happy to use these. Even for my Napoleonic troops. The problem of moving regiments on the table is simply solved by using movement trays. There are some difficulties with movement trays in that they hold your units in a rigid formation, which can make it tricky when negotiating terrain. It also makes formation changes awkward. My British do tend to stay in firing line but if forced into square it’s a nuisance having to take them out of the tray to form square. However, movement trays generally make deploying, moving and even storing your army easier.

Irish Slingers undercoated and based for painting

Just recently I have started to use 40mm square bases for 4 figures. This is ideal for Napoleonics as they rank up nicely, you don’t have to use movement trays, giving you a bit more flexibility but it does mean that you have to think about how you put your regiments together. It’s no good mixing flank companies in with centre companies and you need to think where the ensigns & officers are going to go onto the bases. My Napoleonic Battalions are built as 24’s. This is ideal for Black Powder and even better, I can split them into two 12’s for club battles, giving me two battalions for the price of one.

four to a base

I am currently thinking about how to design a movement tray that will allow me to incorporate a disorder marker, casualty marker as well as a name plate for the unit. If I perfect it, I’ll add it to the blog. Even better, I’ll sell it in my shop….

movement trays make movement easier

And so back to the round bases. I think that I will have to get used to them if I am going to play Skirmish games but I do have a solution for making them look easier on the eye when they are back in the cabinet. Yes, movement trays are the answer, this time with 25mm round cut outs. It helps with my OCD tendencies to see the troops all lined up smartly, even if on the games table they spread out a bit! So once they have finished their battle they can go back into the tray for storage and then back to the display cabinet in smart order!

Irish Slingers will form line!

The New Partizan Venue and other ramblings…

We attended the our second show of the year. Partizan, at the George Stephenson Hall at the Newark show ground. Although some customers remarked that they missed the lovely architecture of the old venue at Kelham Hall, I think that on balance the new venue has much to commend it. For a start, it is easy to get to, the parking is free and the Venue itself is spacious and well lit. Even better, there is a good café on site where you can sit and have a coffee and a bite to eat whilst chatting to your mates. Architecture aside, I thought that the new venue wins hands down compared to the cramped and badly lit Kelham Hall.

Arcane scenery at Partizan

The new date was also well chosen. In the past Partizan has fallen on a Bank Holiday meaning that it tended to clash with other family activities and the rest of the country being on the road! So from my point of view, Partizan was a great success and I am already looking forward to the ‘Other Partizan’ to be held on 21st August. The organisers, Richard and Laurence, have had to move the date because of other commitments at the Venue but I feel that this will be to the shows advantage, as it will avoid the late bank holiday and the ‘Back to School’ season.

The really good news for Partizan (and of course Richard and Laurence) was that the show had increased numbers visiting. With nearly a 50% increase on numbers, the only downside on the day was the queue time to get in. That will be sorted for the next show, so if you are free I recommend that you put the date in your diary now.

The Grand Melee starts!

When it came to the Bank Holiday itself, I was back in Newark, this time at the Castle, watching another re-enactment event. This time it was commemorating King John and his last visit to Newark. Of course this was just an excuse for the Medieval Re-enactors to camp out at the Castle and do their stuff! I enjoy attending these sort of events and the guys doing the re-enacting usually know their subject and your can learn a lot from watching & talking to them. The ‘Grand Melee’ held at the end of the afternoon wasn’t exactly up to Game of Thrones standards. For a start, every one kept their clothes on! However, it was all good fun and free, so no complaints from me!

If you are wondering what I have been up to with regards to painting model soldiers, then I am happy to report that I have been quite busy. I have been painting Napoleonic Portuguese Line Infantry and I have almost finished 2 complete regiments, some 48 figures! However, I hope that the step by step painting instructions along with the research that I completed will form the basis for an article in Wargames Illustrated so I cannot yet publish this on my blog. However, here is a picture of the Grenadiers…

Portuguese Grenadiers

To see more, you will have to wait for the magazine! I’m sure that Dan’s photography will be better than mine!

The Campaign has started!

At long last we have started our Black Powder Campaign. The idea is that the campaign will provide an ongoing narrative to our regular Thursday night Club battles and encourage us to try out new scenarios and of course build our armies. This week there were three battles happening and to give you an idea of how the campaign works, I’ll describe the battle that my General, Sir Sydney Ruff-Diamond was involved in.

The first part of the campaign was to randomly choose one trait for each of our Commanders. Fortunately, all of my brigadiers were ‘normal’ with the exception of my Light Cavalry commander, Rowland Hill, who came up with Timid for his aggression Trait meaning that he will have a -1 when issuing a charge order. My opponent, Wayne, or rather his General, Michel Loup, the infamous French commander also had just one Brigadier with a unique trait. One of his Brigadiers, Colonel Cantona, had the High Decisive Trait giving him the option of a re roll for failed commands but failed re rolls will result in a blunder!

We were using our own points system, which although imperfect, is quick and easy to use and allows us to put similar sized forces on the table. If you would like to know more, I’ve covered this in a previous blog here:

http://arcanesceneryandmodels.co.uk/black-powder-for-club-nights/

Tonight we were gaming with about 40 points a side.

We then chose our scenario by rolling a D6. Again, we use a simple list that I have previously posted here:

http://arcanesceneryandmodels.co.uk/scenarios-for-black-powder/

Tonight’s battle would follow the ‘Off Table Deployment’ rules.

With the scene set it was on with the battle. The British started well, deploying onto the table successfully in two turns and they quickly formed into a defensive line ready for the French. Except the French failed to arrive. On the first turn, none of the French brigades deployed and it was not until turn three that the French Army was actually on the Table.

The French Army finish a leisurely meal before deciding wether to give battle!

The French Army finish a leisurely meal before deciding whether to give battle!

With the French arriving so late on the battlefield, they were unable to use their superior mobility to out manoeuvre the British but found they had to commit to a full frontal assault. To make matters more difficult, whilst they were superior in Cavalry strength and Artillery, they lacked infantry support should things go wrong. Sir Sydney Ruff-Diamond had anchored his right flank against a wood, preventing any break though here by the French. He deployed all of his Cavalry on the left flank, opposing the main bulk of the French cavalry. Although out numbered, Sir Sydney was confident that the British Heavy cavalry would be up to the task of holding the French.

French Cavalry threaten the British left flank.

General Loup ordered his Cavalry forward but due to a misunderstanding ( failed order…) the French Light Cavalry found themselves leading the charge whilst the heavies sat back and watched. The British response was immediate and the Scots Greys charged into action, mauling the French Lights and pushing them back, masking their own artillery.

On the right, a French Hussar unit was holding the entire British flank in position but unfortunately, despite Colonel Cantona’s decisive orders, he was unable to get his brigade into position to take advantage of the situation. So rapidly did he give orders, that eventually, some of the French blundered and moved in the opposite direction! Sir Sydney, as cool as ever, held his position, wearing the French down with artillery fire awaiting the inevitable French charge.

Once again, the French Cavalry surged forwards and once again, they were met by the counter charge of the Scots Greys. The French Heavy’s had the worst of it and even though they were led in a personal charge by none other than General Loup himself, they were pushed back, the General barely surviving the combat.

General Loup leads the French into battle only to be repulsed by the Greys!

The British, encouraged by the success of the Cavalry began to edge forward into musket range and the French line started to take casualties. Goaded by the impertinence of the British and still still battle crazed from the abortive cavalry charge, General Loup ordered his infantry brigade to charge the British line. When a clear head is required, Colonel Cantona is the wrong man to have as your advisor. He too, ordered his Brigade to charge and the French Infantry smashed into the British. After some initial success, the French now paid the price for their lack of infantry. The British line held and the subsequent counter attacks allowed them to outflank the French Brigades, counter charging to great effect.

Pressure relieved as the British charge home to the flank

General Sydney Ruff-Diamond looked on with pride as the French were repulsed in disarray. General Loup had gambled that he could break the British line and allow his Cavalry to mop up but he had under estimated the British resolve. There was nothing left but to surrender the field.

Sir Sydney gratiously accepts the French surrender.

Sir Sydney graciously accepts the French surrender.

A great start to the Campaign, with certain Commanders already making a name for themselves and in Cantona’s case, living up to the name that he had been given! Both army commanders will gain an experience point for their Army that in time will allow them to improve that traits of their commanders. The British also gained a French flag, a victory marker that will, if sufficient are accumulated, allow Sir Sydney to upgrade one of his units.

I hope that more battles will follow!

Maroons of the Caribbean

The last couple of blog posts might lead you to believe that my painting output had slowed somewhat. In fact I have been steadily working through a number of projects, one of which has been to expand my Caribbean contingent. I mentioned that I am reading the book ‘Death before Glory’ a history of the British soldier in the West Indies 1793 – 1815. The number of nations and protagonists involved in this theatre of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars could keep me busy painting for years to come, not to mention the vast amount of material for wargaming scenarios with regard to both the terrain and the people involved. It certainly is an eye opener with regard to our own history and that of other nations.

My Maroon band stealthily make their way through the forest!

One group involved in the struggle were the Maroons. I use the word ‘group’ very loosely. In reality they were a number of disparate communities made up of runaway or freed slaves that had formed their own free communities in the wild interiors of the various Caribbean islands. In fact, there were and still are, Maroon Communities throughout the Caribbean, some parts of South and Central America and even in the USA. They were formidable warriors and expert at using the terrain to their advantage. The Maroons of Jamaica fought against the British and held the might of the British Army at bay for sometime.

Jean Kina leads his band to attack!

As well as fighting against the British, they also fought alongside them on Saint Domingue ( Now Haiti). One leader, Jean Kina, led a substantial force of freed or runaway black slaves that fought for the British and was involved in number of engagements with the French. So it was clear to me that I needed to add a unit of Maroons to my collection and of course the obvious choice was the figures from the Trent Miniatures range. I have still to finish the bases of my figures. I intend to add more plants and give them more cover to hide behind! But for now the unit is ready for use. I have been blathering on about using the Muskets and Tomahawk’s rules to game in this region and whilst it is still on the agenda ( as it has for the last couple of years) the new Sharp Practice rules look as they may be much easier to adapt. I also think that they may give more flavour to the troops and Characters involved – who knows, I may be able to use a bit of Voodoo. Napoleonic Zombies…now there is a thought!

Voodoo Chile..you wouldn’t want to mess with this guy!

I would very much recommend that if you are interested in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars that you research the conflict in the Caribbean. There is a wealth of material and scope for skirmish games, the history is fascinating and the characters involved may be more familiar than you expect. There is nowhere near enough time or space in a blog post to give you an idea just how much was going on out there. There were very few big set piece battles as was seen in Europe but my goodness, there were some fearsome sieges, amphibious assaults, guerrilla fighting and ambushes. The fighting seemed to be non stop across the Islands as first one side held ascendancy and then the other , with both succumbing to a terrible toll due to Yellow Fever and Malaria.

For now though, I have my Maroon Unit, next on the painting table, for this army, Cuban hunting dogs…

What are you reading then?

There’s no doubt about it, a good film (or even a not so good TV series in the case of Sharpe) can inspire me to get on with my hobby and paint a unit or game another period. That said though, it is my reading that really fires up my imagination. I’m not talking about the research reading that I do, the sort of stuff that you need to do when painting the next batch of troops to check the facing colours and all that malarkey! I’m talking about the sitting quiet with a cup of tea or coffee and losing yourself in a book sort of read. I find that it is fiction that really does the trick for me. Don’t get me wrong, a well researched history book will grab my attention. For example, I am currently working my way through ‘Death before Glory’ an account of the wars in the Caribbean in the Napoleonic era. It is a fascinating read, full of battles, skirmishes and eye witness accounts of the events that helped establish the British Empire in this area.

As a result I am even more enthusiastic about putting together a Caribbean force and over the last couple of weeks I have finished yet another 14 Maroons to fight in a campaign that may never happen! But, notice that I said that am ‘working my way through’. It is taking me a bit of effort to focus and digest all that is going on. No such problems with the book that I picked up recently! It’s Bernard Cornwell’s ‘Warriors of the Storm’. I doubt that Bernard will ever win the Man Booker prize for Literature but if ever there was a prize for writing damn good yarns, Mr Cornwell would get my vote! The Times review on the back of the book was cut down to ‘Blood, divided loyalties and thundering battles’. And that pretty much summed up the book but what a great read. I was through it in a few days and actually slowed down as I didn’t want it to end.

Now if you are remotely interested in Dark Age war gaming in general and Saga in particular, I would say that the ‘Last Kingdom’ series is required reading. I guarantee that you will be shouting ‘Shield wall’ in your mind every time you face adversity!

In the ‘Warriors of the Storm’ there are appearances by Saxons, Vikings, Danes and best of all, the wild warriors of the Irish. I have just got to get on with my Irish warband. Never mind Brian Boru, my leader will have to be Finnan! You can be sure that Bernard Cornwell will have done his research well enough to provide plenty of inspiration for your Saga warbands. Many of the battles are based on real encounters and they are well described, both in terms of the setting and the events themselves. There are some great descriptions of the arms and armour used, the war banners and other equipment. Even better, at the back of each novel is a brief historical note setting the scene for each novel. Of course there are plenty of other books out there that will inspire and I suspect that we all have a few favourites on our shelf. My next read, although I will finish Death before Glory first, is Conn Iggulden’s Wars of the Roses ‘Bloodline’. It’s time I painted a few more troops for my WOTR retinue…

So if you are feeling a bit jaded and need a bit of a boost, treat yourself to a good book. Actually, no, treat yourself to a good read!

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