Blog – Page 11 – Steve’s Hobby Blog

DeeZee Cavemen!

We have been planning to add some packs of cavemen to our DeeZee range for about four years now! Part of the problem was finding a sculptor that I could actually sit down with and explain exactly what I had in mind. I’m just not comfortable with communicating via skype and other such modern technology. It was important for me to be able to sit with the sculptor and talk through the process. That problem was solved when Paul Matthews (our social media consultant) was able to introduce me to Matt Sofar of Knuckle Bone miniatures. Matt already had a small range of fantasy miniatures and was looking to do some freelance work to extend his portfolio. Even better, he was happy to come in and talk through the commission and provide a sample sculpt before we proceeded with the full commission.

Shaman Leader DeeZee tm

The original plan was for just 8 cave men – two packs of four but as Matt produced his sculpts we decided to go for a ‘command’ pack of the chief and Shaman and then two packs of four cavemen; ten figures in total. One pack would be hunting and thrusting with their spears, the other pack, stalking or walking as though part of the hunt. We have deliberately used a generic title of ‘cavemen’ rather than specify the type. However, I hope that it is clear that we tended towards a more Neanderthal look, both in features and clothing. If all goes well, there will be other ‘tribes’ that we will add to the range. We also wanted to avoid the ‘ripped’ look of some depictions of cavemen. I’m a great fan of Frank Frezzetta and that genre but decided that we wanted our cavemen to look as though they were living on a feast or famine diet, mainly of meat and they didn’t have access to the local gym! As my brother kindly quipped, ‘did Matt use you as the model?…’

Cavemen Ready DeeZee

The models are made to fit with the existing DeeZee range and so are on the large size for 28mm figures but they all fit on a 25mm round base – ideal for a skirmish game. I suspect that they are too tall in reality – from what we know, cavemen tended to be shorter than todays human. We also made the chief slightly larger. He needs to be big to keep his place as the boss!

Cavemen Attack DeeZee

There are embryonic plans for a rules set to be used with the figures but these are a long way from being playable, never mind published but the three packs do make sense with what is written so far. It was of course essential to have a chief or leader and we thought that he needed an assistant. I had originally thought that this would be a ‘son’ type figure but Matt came up with the idea of a Shaman. We have probably stretched reality here a bit but the model does look cool, so a Shaman was added, complete with baby Mammoth or baby Brontetherium skull.

The other two packs are the Cave men attacking and Cave men hunting. As the sculpts progressed we decide to have a pack of cavemen that were clearly engaged in some sort of activity with their spears – whether hunting or fighting; and another group that were perhaps a bit more relaxed!

Cavemen attacking

I think that Matt has done a great job with these attacking poses. These men are clearly trying to get their next dinner or fight off a rival tribe. I particularly like the one crouching down in the long grass!

cavemen hunting

The cavemen hunting are meant to be walking or stalking as they make their way to find their dinner! My favourite is the guy with his spear over his shoulder, although the one looking over his shoulder would look great in a diorama with a Smilodon lurking in the background.

The clan!

Once Matt had finished the sculpts, we went to our friends at Footsore to get the master molds and then the production molds made and the cavemen were ready to launch! The painted models above are my first attempt at painting them and I have tended to go for a simple paint job just to get them ready for the web store pictures. I’ll detail how I went about painting these in next weeks blog but in the meantime if you would like to have a go at painting them for you own ‘tribe’ just click the links below.

We do have plans for more cavemen in the future, both in terms of adding a few more characters to this tribe and producing another rival tribe. As always, much depends on how well these sell through and I am more tortoise than hare when it come to business these days…..BUT watch this space or at least follow us on Facebook to get the latest news!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

You can buy all of the DeeZee models from the arcane scenery web store and at the time of writing we supply post free to most worldwide locations!

For the Chief and Shaman, click here:

DEEZEE CAVEMAN CHIEF

For the cavemen hunting, click here:

DEEZEE CAVEMEN HUNTING

For the cavemen attacking, click here:

DEEZEE CAVEMEN ATTACKING

For the full tribe, click here:

DEEZEE CAVEMEN TRIBE

To see all of the DEEZEE range click here:

DEEZEE MODELS

Happy modelling!

A Weekend of Wargaming!

If it’s possible to have too much of a good thing, then I certainly achieved this with my wargaming last weekend. I had been invited to join the ‘Lancaster Boys’ wargaming weekend hosted by Mark Lodge deep in the beautiful countryside of North Yorkshire. The three hour drive up from Nottingham with Andy and Ian was very pleasant – Ian was doing all the driving (thanks Ian!) and as a bonus, we stopped off at the small town of Otley to visit a bookshop. The shop was rammed full of military books and as well treating myself to a copy of Military Dress of North America for just £4.00, Andy and Ian discovered some interesting treasures for their book collections.

I also found a copy of the board game ‘Risk’ – the 18th century version with all the minifigures for just £3.00 in a charity shop. The visit to Otley was rounded off with a most excellent sausage and bacon cob and a mug of tea and it was back on the road to head up to Marks house.

Mark has the sort of wargaming set up that most of us can only dream about. A purpose built ‘stable block’ is home to a huge custom built wargaming table and a collection of figures, scenery, books and memorabilia that had me drooling! His passion is for Hinton Hunt figures and preferred scale is 20mm but there are armies in all sorts of scales and periods. All beautifully painted, based and labeled. Mark is also the new owner of the Jacklex figure range and is in the process of revitalising this classic range of 20mm metal figures. It’s well worth a browse and you can see his web site by clicking here:

JACKLEX MINIATURES

A small sample of the Jacklex miniatures range.

As an opener for the weekend, Tim (another founder member of the Lancaster Boys!) had downloaded a War of the Roses Table battle from the Wargames Vault. The game takes just 20 minutes or so to play. Rather than use ‘blocks’ or counters for the units, Tim had produced some lovely playing pieces using 20mm plastic figures – all beautifully painted and based. Tim had also ‘upgraded’ the reference cards that supported the game, making the game more intuitive to play and after just one game I think that I had the rules sussed! The game was based on the action at Bosworth -I played four times over the weekend winning two and losing two games, with Henry and Richard both victorious and losing equally!

War of the roses table top game underway.

The main game of the evening was a Zulu War encounter, with rules and umpiring courtesy of Andy. I’ll let the pictures provide the narrative:

The battlefield – all is quiet!

The left horn of the Zulu army attacks first and pushes back the British piquets.

The chest and right horn of the Zulu army emerge from cover!

the Left horn charges into the British camp - in the background the right horn is advancing whilst the British are distacted!

the Left horn charges into the British camp – in the background the right horn is advancing whilst the British are distracted!

The chest and the loins begin their advance on the camp. The right horn of the Zulu army moves ever closer whilst the struggle on the left continues.

The right horn makes contact – desperate times for the British!

The camp is completely encircled!

The Zulus on the right break through into the camp.

All is lost! The Zulus have broken through on the righ and more Warriors have arrived to overwhelm the centre. It's time to save the colours, Boys!

All is lost! The Zulus have broken through on the right and more Warriors have arrived to overwhelm the centre. It’s time to save the colours, Boys!

As you can see, the game ended in victory for the Zulu’s, with the British being overwhelmed as they put up a desperate defence of their camp. To be fair, the British were vastly outnumbered and it was difficult to see how they could repulse such a huge army without some sort of fortification – somebody should have laagered those wagons! As a side note, the game was actually based on the Battle of Little Big Horn but with roles reversed. Custer’s three columns were represented by the Zulus and the British camp represented the Sioux Encampment. The Little Bighorn river is seen meandering gently through the centre of the table and the Zulus were hidden in the hills above. If ever you are stuck for inspiration for the basis of a game, taking a historical scenario out of context, so to speak, is often an interesting solution and certainly worked well for this battle!

The following morning it was a Napoleonic encounter to start the day. The battle was based loosely on the early exchanges in the Battle of Leipzig 1813 and was umpired by Ashley, using another ‘home brew’ rules set. Once again, the pictures should provide a very short narrative to the Battle. I find that whilst playing, I forget to take enough pictures!

The Prussians and Russians to the left, French to the righ. Let battle commence!

The Prussians and Russians to the right, French to the left. Let battle commence! Early deployment moves as the Allied army advances onto the table.

The view from the French side. The French centre and left are holding the Russians but in the distance the Prussian are making steady progress, threatening the right flank.

A decisive moment in the battle - the French are outflanked by Cavalry and the Prussian Infantry push them from the village holding their right flank.

A decisive moment in the battle – the French are outflanked by Cavalry and the Prussian Infantry push the French from the village holding their right flank.

Prussians win the battle on the Frencg right flank - the French decide to pull back conceding the battle!

Prussians win the battle on the French right flank with the Prussian infantry pushing forward and the Cavalry routing the French infantry and over running their artillery – the French decide to pull back conceding the battle!

The day was rounded off by two other games. Unfortunately, I dont have pictures but the first was a Russian – Japanese naval battle which resulted in a draw with both Fleets suffering a hammering and the unfortunate Russians losing a ship on the last throw of the dice.

The second game was another play test of our War of the Roses rules set ‘Never mind the Bill Hooks’. I’m happy not to have pictures of this battle as I was the Lancastrian Commander that managed to make rather a mess of the whole battle. The initial deployment was not too clever and this was compounded by a rash cavalry charge that resulted in the demise of the whole unit. We used our best unit, the heavily armoured foot knights (24 points) to chase around after a unit of Irish kern (9 points) at the rear of the battle and finished things off with a forlorn charge that resulted in the death of the Army Commander Harry Hotspur – it wasn’t a good day for Tottenham fans….

Harry Hotspur on a better day!

And so with five games played in less than two days, I felt a bit ‘wargamed out’ but it had been a most enjoyable weekend. I also ought to mention that the guests included Simon from S&A Scenics. Simon had produced much of the scenery on the table and if you are looking for high quality, reasonably priced ready made scenery, head over to his web store:

S&A SCENICS

Also present was Ian of Irregular Miniatures. At the time I couldn’t remember ever coming across Ian’s company, which was strange as he has one of the largest range of figures in the UK, with scales ranging from 2mm to 75mm! However, when I returned home and checked out his web site I found that I had quite a few of his models in my collection! I had bought them over the years at various shows and it was his Dad, not Ian, that had served me! Check out their web site below, there are some real gems to be found!

IRREGULAR MINIATURES

To close the report of a most enjoyable and memorable weekend, I must again thank the ‘Lancaster Boys’ for their invitation and in particular Mark for his amazing hospitality.

I hope that you all enjoy your hobby as much as I do – remember that our web site will have much of what you need and even better, we supply post free to most worldwide locations! Click here to see our shop:

ARCANE SCENERY

Happy Modelling!

War Of The Roses Crossbowmen

I have been working on completing my War of the Roses army and I wanted to add some crossbowmen and hand gunners to my contingent. Apparently, whilst used for sieges, there is no primary evidence that Crossbowmen actually took to the field of battle during the Wars of the Roses. I am now able to confirm that this is not the case, by providing photographic evidence of crossbowmen at the Battle of Bingham Fields 14.55. Mind you, I did put them back in the storage box at half past three, so it was only a short debut for them…

Crossbowmen in action at the Battle of Bingham Fields.

Regardless of whether they did or didn’t actually fight in the main battles of the WOTR, the Perry’s include crossbowmen and hand gunners in the Mercenary Infantry boxed set and illustrate them as Burgundian Mercenaries. It would be a shame not to complete these figures and make them available as small units for my Army. The current set of rules that we are using for our WOTR battles ‘Never mind the Billhooks’ have been written by Andy Callan and are in the process of play testing. The rules allow for small units of Skirmishers that can act independently of the main army to protect the flanks, larger units, provoke your opponent, skulk in cover and generally be a nuisance in the game without ever being a decisive force. Crossbowmen and Handgunners are ideal for this role in the game, (although bowmen and Irish Kern are also permitted) and protecting them with Pavises will also help when facing Archers or other skirmishers.

Pavises with LBM decals applied

Here is a quick guide as to how I went about painting these figures, as well as some of the assumptions that I made whilst doing so. As usual, I tend to ‘batch paint’ my figures for my wargames units and so once they were assembled, I undercoated them with Army Painter Leather Brown spray.

Crossbowmen primed and ready to paint – flesh already done.

The next step was to start the block paint process. I tend to work from the inside out and top to bottom of the figure but this is only to give some structure to my painting. I paint in short ‘bursts’, up to an hour in one sitting, so having a routine allows me to pick up where I left off without having to think too much about the next stage. Whilst painting the helmets in Army Painter plate mail, I realised that it made sense to split the 12 figures into 3 sub groups for painting as they had slightly different clothing.

Crossbowmen – plate mail added

When it came to painting the clothing, I used Vallejo 70809 Royal blue and 70820 Off White for the Sur coat or tunics. The Royal blue being a nice bright blue to differentiate the Burgundian’s from the other troops in my retinue. The rest of the clothing was painted with a choice from 70821 German Camouflage Beige, 70814 Burnt Red, 70869, Basalt Grey and 70899 Dark Prussian Blue.

Clothing on Crossbow men block painted.

When it came to the crossbows, I painted these in Vallejo Old wood 310 with the detail picked out in Dark Brown and plate mail for the metal parts. The boots and leather equipment were painted in a variety of browns. I must confess that beyond looking at the box art, I didn’t put too much time into researching ‘uniforms’. I wanted to get these figures done fairly quickly. So much so, that I stopped taking pictures of the step by step process…However, the hand gunners in the next picture will give you an idea as to how the figures look after the block painting is done. Note the crosses on the front and back of the tunic. I had been concerned that my painting wouldn’t be up to this but in the event, it was straight forward enough.

Hand gunners being batch painted.

Hand gunners – rear view

The next stage is to paint the figures with Army Painter Quick shade Dark Tone. This stuff is excellent at pulling the colours together, adding shading and bringing out the detail on the figures. I find it superior to inking the figures as it provides a hard varnish that will help to protect the figures when gaming. However, the Quick shade (and ink, for that matter) can ‘dirty’ the figures, particularly the lighter colours. It is a straight forward job to repaint these areas using the shading as a guide, this also has the effect of adding some additional highlighting.

Crossbowmen - you cna see that I've repainted the whites.

Crossbowmen – you can see that I’ve repainted the whites.

When it came to the pavises, there are two distinct types supplied in the kit. I decided that the one’s with the spikes should be mounted separately on 15mm x 20mm bases so that I could use them for either the crossbowmen or handgunners. The Pavises without spike would be glued straight onto the other six crossbowmen figures (the ones that were loading). I used some milliput to make a mound on each base and stuck the pavises straight into it. You can also see that I have attempted to blend the LBM decals into the pavises by painting around the edges and adding some ‘mud’ to the bases.

Loaders with pavises

An attackers view of the Crossbowmen!

The pavises were simply glued onto the back of the figures. To make them look more accurate, I really should have provided straps but as I have repeatedly said, these are wargaming figures not museum exhibits. I think that they will pass muster…

I based the figures using my current basing method. Vallejo dark earth paste was placed on the bases with some ballast added to the edges. The bases were then painted and dry brushed to highlight the stones and detail before adding some woodland scenics scatter. Another three units are ready to be added to my army – ‘skirmishers’ fight in units of 6 in our rules. The opening picture to my blog shows the crossbowmen posed in front of part of my army. I’ll let you know how they fight in a future battle report!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:

ARCANE SCENERY

Perry’s WOTR plastic range are here:

PERRY MINIATURES

Happy Modelling!

Black Seas – Age of Sail Battle Game

I’m very fortunate to be in the business of wargaming, modelling and painting, in that I get to see many of the products released in the development stage and well before they hit the shelves. Black Seas is a good example of this. I had seen the ‘test shots’ of the models on Gabrio’s desk ( Gabrio, being the author of the game at Warlord) months ago. However, I try not to get too involved in every new product. And, unless it is directly concerned with my hobby, my excitement stays at a business level.

Occasionally though, something comes along that really excites me as a hobbyist. Black Seas is one of those items! I have been eagerly awaiting it’s release and I am very pleased to have obtained a retailers prelaunch pack. So here is a sneak peak at what you can expect from the Rulebook. I must say at this point that I have only played one game at the Warlord open day and whilst I thoroughly enjoyed it, I wouldn’t review the game play on the basis of that outing, so the focus of this blog is simply on the actual book. No doubt, I’ll bring you a full battle report in a future blog, once I have put my fleet together!

THE RULE BOOK

The Black Seas rule book is on my desk!

The rule book is to the high standards we have come to expect from Warlord. Black Seas is a very well produced, full colour 96 page soft back book containing the rules to the game, scenario’s, back ground information, modelling and painting guides and more. Here’s a selection of pictures from the book, captured using my iPhone, so the picture quality isn’t studio standard but gives you a idea of the book itself!

Core Rules section – a basic introduction to the game

First impressions are that the rules are clearly explained, with plenty of diagrams to help understand what is going on.

Movement explained

Once you have mastered the core rules, the additional rules broaden the game.

Additional Rules section

As well as the rules to the game there are 13 scenarios to play through to get you familiar with the game mechanics.

The Scenarios section

The advanced rules cover items such as Fire Ships, ‘Fire as she bears’, more realistic wind effects (wind effects are simplified in the basic rules), and other add ins to improve the gaming experience.

Advanced rules – Fire as she bears!

There is a very brief overview of some of the battles of the Carronade era, giving some historical context to the game. This section is illustrated with pictures from Osprey books, so there is plenty of visual reference material to use. This is a good introduction for those not in any way familiar with the naval wars of the period but I suspect that ‘old hands’ will find the section as a useful reminder of stuff they already knew!

Historical backgroud to the game.

Also for all you ‘land lubbers’ out there, there is a very useful basic guide to the anatomy of a fighting ship of the age!

The anatomy of a fighting ship

The rules have some ideas as to how you can link your battles to play a campaign, with a small section opening the possibility of linking your Black Seas games into a Black Powder campaign. This has already got me thinking of my Napoleonic Caribbean project!

Campaign Rules

And finally, advice as to how to go about rigging and painting the superb miniatures that come with the game. The ship models are at 1/700th scale and are lovely models in their own right. I will be reviewing these in a subsequent blog, as I put my sample ships together!

The Ships rigging guide

The painting guide

So, that’s just a quick look at the inside of the rule book. In my next blog, I’ll look at the other contents of the game as well of course as the ships themselves. But if you would like to see the sprues, then head on over to the Arcane Scenery shop – we still have copies of the latest Wargames Illustrated magazine which has a free sprue from Black seas on the front cover as well as an in depth look at the game.

The Frigate sprue.

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

If you are as excited as I am about the new Black seas game, you can pre- order it post free from Arcane Scenery here:

BLACK SEAS – THE GAME

If you would just like the rules book, you can pre-order it here:

BLACK SEAS RULE BOOK

Both items will be supplied with the free limited edition figure if you pre – order.

At the time of writing we still have stocks of Wargames Illustrated issue 384 with the free Black seas sprues. You can choose either the frigate sprue:

WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED FREE FRIGATE SPRUE

or the Brig Sprue:

WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED FREE BRIG SPRUE

These are selling through quickly, so if you would like a copy, visit my shop or click one of the links.

Happy Wargaming and Modelling!

The Black Watch

To give them their full name, the 1st Battalion, 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of foot, or the Black Watch, is the final Highland regiment that I wanted to add to my Napoleonic collection. I am using the 100 days War order of battle as the basis for my Napoleonic Army. The Black Watch is the last Highland regiment that I need to complete and the penultimate battalion required to finish the British contingent of the 5th British Infantry Division at Waterloo. I already have the 1/28th, 1/32nd, 1/95th and 1/79th of Kempts 8th British Brigade as well as 2/44th, 1/92nd of Pack’s 9th British brigade. The two brigades together, along with the 5th Hanoverian Brigade, formed the 5th Division under the command of Sir Thomas Picton.

1/42nd Battalion Centre Companies

As usual, I referred to the superb Mont St John web site for painting details – I’ve put the link below. The challenge in painting Highland regiments is of course the kilts. As yet, paint manufacturers have woefully failed in attempting to produce tartan paint, so you have to do it yourself! ( That was a joke by the way – a very old one, but a joke nonetheless!) As I had already painted two Highland regiments, I was fairly confident that the Black watch would be straight forward as there are just three colours, Blue, Green and Black. My painting skills and patience are not sufficient to make an exact copy of the tartan in 28mm scale – I wanted something that looked about right for the wargames table. As is often the case, I did a ‘test figure’ before committing to batch painting the Battalion.

Black Watch Sergeant next to the Camerons and Gordons.

I was reasonably happy with the result but did try a figure with a slightly different, lighter green on the kilt. It made little difference and if anything, I preferred a darker look to the kilts so adding an extra black line to the design had the desired effect. Just for fun, I produced a very quick step by step guide to how I painted the tartan. It won’t be to everyone’s taste but if you are new to the hobby, it might be helpful as a place to start.

Vallejo Prussian Blue 70965

First I painted the kilts in Prussian Blue Vallejo 70965. You can see this both on the paper above and on the actual models below. For clarity, I’ll show the rest of the process on the paper only.

Kilts in prussian blue

Next paint three stripes in Vallejo reflective green 70890. The trick here is to select the right sized paint brush and to make sure that the paint is flowing easily off of the brush by thinning it to the consistency of milk.

Three stripes of Green – vertically or horizontally – which ever you prefer first!

Now paint another three stripes across the first three. Again, let the brush do the work. The only other point to note is to try to space the stripes evenly at about the same width.

Reflective green 70890 cross hatched.

Now purists could paint the squares where the green lines cross with a slighter lighter shade. I ignore this detail – I am looking for a decent approximation of tartan, not an accurate reproduction.

Cross the lines! Outline the green lines in black.

The next two pictures show that I take a finer brush and again, thinning the paint to ensure that it flows smoothly, outline the green lines in black. You can see that it doesn’t have to be perfect! A steady hand does help but you can always touch up the green lines if the black is too thick.

Outlining complete

The next part is tricky and again, you will need a steady hand and importantly the paint must be thinned so that it flows off of the brush in one stroke. So paint a black line through the blue squares, both vertically and horizontally!

cross hatch through the blue squares!

Repeat the same pattern through the green lines.

Cross hatch through the green.

You can see that I’ve made a few mistakes but I’m not too concerned and the next picture will show why. That said, it would be easy enough to correct with a touch of green paint. It’s worth pointing out again that you are painting a cloth pattern on a small miniature and unless you intend to enter your figures in a competition, perfection is not required.

The finished pattern, cut from the paper.

I did the above step by step in about 10 minutes last night just for the blog. Hence the glossy look on some of the pictures – the paint was still drying! I hope that you agree that the finished result, which I have tidied up by cutting from the paper looks fine for a battalion of wargames figures. Incidentally, I do paint straight onto the figures – this an exercise to show the method.

The nearly completed figures

So this is how my first batch of 12 figures look at the moment. A few points to note. The Black Watch had all red tufts (hackles) on the centre company, red over green for the light company and red over white for the Grenadiers. I need to ‘dot’ in the green squares on the hat band and of course they need to be based properly. All of which I’ll do once the other 12 have been painted. I also need to go back to the test figure ( the sergeant) and add some extra lines to his kilt!

Another view of the first 12 figures

I hope that this has been useful to anyone that is wondering how to go about painting Highlanders. In the links below you can see how I went about completing the Gordons and Camerons. I’m putting these aside for a week or so, whilst I go back to my War of the Roses army – there’s only so much tartan I can paint in one batch!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:

ARCANE SCENERY

The Victrix Highlanders can be found in the Victrix category here:

VICTRIX MINIATURES

We carry a huge range of Vallejo, either browse the category – or to find individual paints, type the number into the search bar:

VALLEJO

You can visit the Mont St Jean site here:

MONT ST JEAN

To see another blog article on painting tartan, in this case the Camerons, click here:

TAMING THE TARTAN TERRORS

Happy Modelling!

John Rattenbury, Sir John Savage and other distractions!

You can tell that I have been distracted over the last month, as my blog has been focused as much on Battle reports and shows as it has on painting. Add to this, I have only written two blog posts since the end of July and you would be forgiven for thinking that I have had very little hobby time. My Wife would disagree! To be fair, it’s been a bit of a mixed month, with some nice weather, meaning that gardening and family barbeques have been a major part of my leisure time.

John Rattenbury takes to the seas!

However, I always find time for my hobby and the truth is that I have not been quite as focused as I usually am when it comes to churning out the next unit for one of my armies. Duncan at Trent Miniatures hasn’t helped. He keeps producing some lovely character figures for his range and often pops into the office to show me the latest release. I was very taken with the new figure of John, or Jack Rattenbury, a famous Devonshire smuggler from the turn of the 18th century. I stopped everything to finish him and add him to my collection of maritime subjects!

John Rattenbury, the lastest addition to the crew!

I’ve also been working on my WOTR army, assembling the balance of a box of Perry’s European Mercenary’s. With a bit of ducking and diving, I now have 12 crossbow men assembled and primed, 6 handgunners and 12 Pikemen ready for painting.

The next batch of my WOTR army ready for painting.

With the crossbowmen being the first on the list to complete, I painted the Pavises that go with them and used a set of LBM decals to finish them off. I think that they will need a bit more work before I add them to the figures but I was very pleased with how straight forward the LBM decals were to apply, despite making a few mistakes with positioning.

Pavises with LBM decals applied

When chatting to Duncan about my WOTR project he reminded me that the Newark Character range has a model of Sir John Savage from the Battle of Stokes Field. Well, it would be rude not to include him in my army! Once again, Everything was put aside whilst I finished Sir John!

Sir John Savage joins my retinue!

As if this all wasn’t enough, I am working on the final Highland Battalion for my Napoleonic Army, the Black Watch, or 42nd Highland Battalion. I wanted to do a ‘test shot’ of the tartan pattern that I would use and so finished off a sergeant to see how he looks next to the other battalions.

Black Watch Sergeant next to the Caerons and Gordons.

Black Watch Sergeant next to the Gordons and Camerons.

I think that I’m going to go with the dark pattern, essentially, my usual approach to painting Tartan but with more black lines! He looks a bit better in the next picture, as I have retouched the hat band and covered the grey base.

Another picture of the Sergeant of the Black Watch

As is often the case with my painting, I’ll mull over whether to change things – I’m thinking of a slightly paler green tartan stripe but I better make my mind up as the other 11 on the painting desk are moving towards completion!

42nd Battalion Highlanders!

As if all of this wasn’t enough to keep me busy, there is also the small matter of the forthcoming release of the DeeZee Cavemen. There will be 10 cavemen in three blisters and I had test shots of four of the poses to play with. As a teaser, here is a picture of my first attempt at painting them. All being well, there will be more information and details of how I painted them to follow!

DeeZee Cavemen – sculpted by Matt Sofar of knuckle bones miniatures.

So, August has passed and we are well into September and the weather here already has that Autumnal feel, with the evenings being both cooler and shorter. I doubt that I will find much more time for painting in my busy schedule but perhaps this month, I can be a bit more focused!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:

ARCANE SCENERY

If you would like a model of John Rattenbury, click here:

JOHN RATTENBURY

Sir John Savage can be found here:

SIR JOHN SAVAGE

Perry’s WOTR plastic range are here:

PERRY MINIATURES

The Victrix Highlanders can be found in the Victrix category here:

VICTRIX MINIATURES

You can see the DeeZee range here…. but you will have to wait a bit longer for the cavemen!

DEEZEE MINIATURES

Happy Modelling!

The Other Partizan

The ‘Other Partizan’ show at Newark goes from strength to strength in it’s new location at the Newark Show Ground and under the steady stewardship of the organisors, Laurence Baldwin and Richard Tyndall. This will be the last time that the show will run in August – it moves to October for next year. This can only be an improvement as far I can see. The summer slot has meant that it can get rather too warm in parts of the exhibition hall when the sun is at full strength and there are other pressures on both traders and visitors, in the form of Holidays, that get in the way of attendance. October should be less of a problem with regards to temperature and it is a great time to get back to your hobby with the nights drawing in and fewer distractions elsewhere. That said, with over 800 people through the doors this year, attendance is not a problem!

Iceni and Trinovantes meet the romans in battle! A most impressive display!

Iceni and Trinovantes – some of the detail was fantastic!

It was the first time in years that I was there as a customer rather than a trader. We have an arrangement with Sarissa Precision to take some of our ranges to shows, so Sarissa were doing the hard work whilst I loafed around at the show! It was a pleasure to wander around the games and chat to friends without having to look over my shoulder at what was going on at my stand. I stayed the full day, fueling up on coffee and other refreshments at the excellent catering facilities in the hall. The show has a nice friendly atmosphere, there’s plenty of space, even with such a good attendance. The lighting is excellent, so you can see just how much work has gone into painting the miniatures on display. Free car parking, as well and easy access is a nice bonus! The great strength of the show is it’s consistency, so that you know which traders will be there, enabling you to plan your purchases. That said, it was good to see a couple of new traders and one in particular, ABC brushes, managed to prise open my wallet!

55 Minutes in Peking! By Victorious Miniatures

The format of having the inspirational demonstration games ( look but dont touch) at one end of the hall and most of the participation games at the other end made it clear where you could join in and roll some dice. That said, I find that the guys playing the demo games to be very welcoming and open to conversation. I think that it would help if the participation games were on smaller tables and had clearer ‘guest’ seating. Some sort of indication as to how long the game would take would also help. I found that I didn’t engage as much with the participation games as I didn’t know how long I would be committed to a particular game. Perhaps some of the manufacturers could persuaded to move their games into this area. Mind you, it’s easy to come up with ideas but as a trader, I know how much time and effort goes into just getting the stand to the show and manning it without having to find the resources to run a ‘remote’ demo. You also want your customers to be able to see that the product on the table is available to purchase. So I am mindful that as a spectator, my observations are at odds with playing on the pitch, so to speak!

Blood and Plunder – Leicester Phat Cats

Without wishing to be controversial, I actually think that from a Historical Gamers point of view, the Partisan shows are superior to Salute, with quality winning over quantity. The relaxed, friendly atmosphere, easy free parking and access, great selection of traders (yes I am biased here!), great showcase of historical games, a history resource area and good value refreshments mean that you will have an enjoyable day with more of your money spent on your hobby rather than the logistics of being there. If you can make a weekend of it, there is plenty of History around Newark to absorb you, from the Newark Aviation Museum (which is next to the Newark showground) to the Town of Newark itself, cradle of the English Civil War! Oh, and Stokes field down the road, if you fancy a bit of WOTR history. With Games Workshop in Nottingham, about 40 minutes drive away, you can even scratch your fantasy and 40K itch, so to speak!

Detail from the Battle of Madonna Dell’ Olmo

I’ve posted a selection of the games that caught my eye through out the blog post and below. They are only a small selection of the games on show and really don’t show half of what is there. The pictures do not do justice to some of the larger games. A really great day out for me and I’m very much looking forward to the next Partizan. If you can get there, you will not be disappointed!

The Great Northern War

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

If you are unable to get to a show, don’t worry, at Arcane Scenery we have a huge selection of products to help you with your hobby and even better we send your order out post free, to most world wide locations! You can see our shop here:

ARCANE SCENERY SHOP

To keep up to date with the partizan Shows, visit their web page here:

PARTIZAN SHOW

To see the Wargames Illustrated Video of the show, click here:

WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED TOP GUIDE

Dan, the owner and editor of WI showing off his steady cam skills!

Happy Modelling!

DeeZee Woolly Rhino and Cavemen

It’s been nearly three weeks since my last blog but I have been busy with all sorts of projects. As far as my War of the Roses project goes, The heavy cavalry are now complete – I have 12 ready for action. I have also built 12 Crossbowmen, 6 Handgunners and 10 more pikemen as well as painting 12 Pavises for the crossbowmen. I’ll write an update on this project in a future blog along with a report on the playtesting of ‘Nevermind the Billhooks’ – the WOTR rules set that Andy C. is developing.

Likewise, my Napoleonic project continues, with the next 12 highlanders, representing the Black watch, primed and the batch paint is underway. I use any ‘spare’ time to add colour to these until I get to the tricky tartan bit, when they will get my full attention!

Batch paint on Black watch with pavises in the foreground

I have been distracted by the latest addition to the DeeZee range. Not so much a new item as a re working of an old one. The mold on the Charging Rhino DZ8 was beginning to burn out, so we took the opportunity to re do the master and put the model into resin. I dont think that it’s a secret that we have a very good working relationship with the folks at Footsore and the master Resin Caster, Vince, was happy to take this on as a project. I was delighted with the results and the detail of the model shows much better in resin than it did in metal.

DZ08 Whoolly Rhino Charging - now in resin

DZ08 Woolly Rhino Charging – now in resin

This coincided with the production of the first ‘shots’ of the new range of DeeZee cavemen that we have commissioned. They are being sculpted for us by the very talented Matt Lupus, of Knuckle Bone miniatures. So I had a good reason to ‘park’ both the WOTR and Napoleonic projects and move further back into history to paint some cavemen and a Woolly Rhino!

Cavemen and Whooly Rhino primed and ready to paint!

Cavemen and Whooly Rhino primed in Leather brown and ready to paint!

I will write a future blog explaining what we are doing with the cavemen – for now, I’ll just say that there will be 10 cavemen in the initial release and of course if they sell well, we will add to the range. It’s a new venture for us and once the figures are available for production, I will be pleased to show them off in full! For now, I’ll focus on the Rhino and tease you with them in the pictures as I was working on them at the same time as the Rhino!

Fur now painted Chocolate Brown.

Once the Rhino had been primed with Army Painter Leather Brown, I painted the fur with Vallejo Chocolate Brown 70872.

Flat Brown Dry Brush

Using a large flat brush, I then gave the Rhino fur a heavy dry brush in Flat Brown 70984.

Fur Highlighted by dry brushing.

The picture above shows the rhino with his fur highlighted again with Flat Earth 70983, then Orange Brown 70981 and finally a light dry brush with Orange Brown lightened with Green Ochre 70914. I used the same large flat brush for all the dry brush coats. The toe nails were then picked out with Black Grey 70862 and the Horn painted with Iraqui sand 70819. I added some ink to the inner ear and around the legs to give these areas more definition. Incidentally, the horn should probably be the same or a similar dark colour to the Rhino fur as it is not really bone but I wanted the horns to stand out on the model!

Basing The Woolly Rhino

I gave the horn a brush over with Ivory 70918 and painted the eyes black 70850. The rhino was then mounted on a Sarissa MDF base and using Vallejo Dark Earth Texture paste, blended in. The large ‘rocks’ are small stones from the garden, the smaller grit is ballast from the Woodlands scenic range.

Base painted with Emulsion.

I used my tried and trusted basing routine to finish off. The base was painted with Matt Emulsion – Dehli Baazar and highlighted with dry brush coats mixed with Iraqui sand. I’ve covered how and why I use Emulsion paints for basing in a previous blog here:

DONT JUST DO IT…

It was then just a case of adding some Woodlands Scenics green scatter to the base ( I had decided on a Spring time look rather than Winter!).

Grass added to the base

I had also toned down the brightness of the horn by painting with Army Painter Soft Tone – this also brought out the detail at the base of the horn.

Gamers Grass Tufts added to base.

Finally, I added a mixture of Gamers Grass tufts to the base to finish things off. I’m quite pleased at how he looks and also how straight forward the Rhino was to paint.

Woolly Rhino completed and based.

As for the cavemen…all being well, I expect to have them in production for late September – watch this space for more details. In the meantime, they are off to catch their dinner!

Here comes dinner!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

Deezee miniatures, including of course, the Woolly Rhino, are available post free from my shop here:

DEEZEE MODELS

We carry a huge range of Vallejo – to find individual paints, tyope the number into the search bar:

VALLEJO

You can buy Sarissa bases here:

SARISSA MDF BASES

We have a huge range of basing materials but check out Woodland Scenics here:

WOODLAND SCENICS

and Gamers Grass here:

GAMERS GRASS

Happy Modelling!

Warlord Open Day – Salt Peter Demo Game

British Exploring Officer scouts the terrain!

As good neighbours and friends of Warlord Games, we were very pleased to be invited to their Open Day to put on a Black Powder Napoleonic demo game. It’s no secret that I am a great admirer of the Black Powder Rules system in general and the Napoleonic period specifically. After a conference with my gaming group, the NG13 gamers we decided to re-run a version of an early demo game that we had played, ‘Combat at Foz D’Arouce’, this time using Black Powder as the rules for the game. You can see the battle Report for the ‘original’ Foz D’Arouce at the Bingham Napoleonic Days Event here:

COMBAT AT FOZ D’AROUCE

Foz D’Arouce – setting up the table.

The challenge in using Black Powder was that the table is only 4 foot by 4 foot. However, we have our own version of Black Powder that we use for our club games called ‘Salt Peter’. This stripped back version of Black powder allows us to play a decent club game on a six foot by four foot table in an evening. To be fair, it’s not so much ‘stripped back’ as sparing with the use of any of the additional rules or supplements. All measurement is reduced by two thirds and the units used are generally half the normal size, so a Battalion of troops is represented by 12 figures. Of course, there’s no reason why they should be referred to as a Battalion. They could just as easily be a company, with the ‘Brigadier’ or commanding officer, in charge of a detachment of Company’s. Purists may baulk at such a thought but the aim of our games is to spend a couple of hours in good company, using the figures that we have painted and collected. We try to restrict the ‘serious’ side of the hobby to our research, reading, painting and modelling. Gaming is for fun!

French Hussars – these troops would be late for the battle!

The game would again be using the superb table that Pete Harris had produced and this time, it would be Portuguese versus the French, for no other reason than I had a Portuguese Brigade that needed an outing on the table! Having said that we had stripped back the additional rules in Black Powder, we did have some extra Scenario specific rules that we had agreed on before the Battle. These related to deployment, command structure and limitations imposed by the scenery. These are listed below in the additional PDF.

The Portuguese Army Deploys

And so to the Battle itself. Pete, playing the French, had won the roll to choose the table side for deployment. I won the roll to decide who went first. Apart from a small unit of Skirmishers (Cacadores for me!), both armies were deployed off table and had to be ordered on. In addition, the units would initially be in march column. The commanders might know that the enemy were coming, but our troops didn’t! We had also placed a limitation on the number of orders that could be given – two was the maximum, which not only restricted movement but made fancy formation changes a bit trickier…. My Portuguese Army deployed in full but was somewhat crowded as it attempted to cross the river using the bridge and the ford. The French had no such obstacles to negotiate and the first brigade marched on without hindrance. The second brigade, however, failed it’s order and stayed off the table.

Portuguese delayed by the river crossing

By Turn Two the French advance party of Skirmishers had reached the top of the Village and a Company of troops also marched towards the gates to fortify themselves inside. However, the second French brigade still refused to come onto the table. What should have been a bonus for the French then turned into a slight distraction. We had said that any commander rolling under 4 on an orders roll would receive a ‘bonus’ unit of skirmishers. The French achieved this in turn two and the second unit came on to the table – they also headed for the village.

French Voltiguers secure the village.

The Portuguese had managed to get a squadron of Dragoons across the river to threaten the French advance, as well as deploying their artillery. However, the balance of the force was still either on the wrong side of the river or stuck in it. The Cacadores, who were supposed to be rushing to take the footbridge at the top of the village had decided that a slow walk to admire the view was more appropriate and were making poor progress. The opening shots of the battle started with little effect but it was game on!

French about to march into the Village

With the possibility of getting both units of skirmishers into the village the French commander halted his other battalion and diverted them to the main combat. The second French Brigade still refused to come onto the table! After all, Pete had spent the last few days lovingly painting a unit of French Hussars just for this scenario…why would they want to get into action and spoil their uniforms! If the French were being shy, the Portuguese were still struggling to clear the river. Once across, each unit had to test to see if it was disordered. To pass the test a 4+ was required. 3 out of four of the Portuguese failed! Meanwhile, although now joined by a ‘bonus’ unit of 95th rifles, the Cacadores were still taking their time to move up to the footbridge and now decided that it was time for tea!

The only good news was that the French were slow to take advantage of the Portuguese congestion. Their advance delayed by the move towards the village. The Dragoons had put a French unit into square under the nose of Portuguese artillery, holding their line. This at least kept the French at bay.

Portuguese cross the river but are caught in march column.

By now, Pete had a sudden moment of clarity and realised that with his General off table, he was entitled to a re roll should his missing brigade fail their orders! In addition, instead of trying to move the cavalry first ( Who required an 8 on two D6) he would start with the infantry, who in column, needed a 9+ to get moving! This new strategy worked and the second French brigade moved onto the table. Things were not looking so good for the Portuguese. To add to their woes, one of the Portuguese units attempted to reinforce the first one over the river only to find itself stuck in column with it’s flank facing a French unit… merde!

Portuguese caught in Column!

It was too tempting for the French to ignore, they charged in to attempt to batter the March column and break through. Confident of victory in this part of the Battlefield, Pete directed half of his second brigade up the hill behind the village to head off the threat of the very slowly approaching Cacadores and 95th units. The Portuguese were made of sterner stuff! Despite having to take the attack in the flank, with no reply permitted, they survived the first round of combat passing their morale test and turned to face the French unit, eventually winning the combat and pushing the French back! The Portuguese artillery fire into the unit in square was beginning to tell and casualties were mounting on both sides.

The French attack!

One of the French units broke under fire, running from the battle, forcing the French Commander to march his other brigade back down the hill ( Hmmm that sounds like a British tactic, first perfected by The Duke of York….) to support the forward brigade. Despite this set back, the French inflicted sufficient casualties, using additional fire from the skirmishing units now safely in place in the village, to break the Portuguese brigade, who retreated back across the river. Meanwhile, in all the chaos, the second Portuguese brigade had started to deploy and mauled the lead French brigade, causing it to break. The Cacadores had made it to the bridge….

Portuguese under pressure

Although the Portuguese had taken a beating, with the lead brigade broken, the second brigade had now deployed successfully in strength and started to hammer the French. The French were now in a worse position. The retreating brigade was hampering the movement of the second brigade, blocking line of sight and because of the earlier attempt to flank the village, the brigade was strung out and it’s forward units vulnerable to fire. A successful round of shooting from the Portuguese persuaded the French that the battle was lost and they started their withdrawal from the field. The Cacadores never did cross the bridge!

The Portuguese advance!

Cacadores reach the bridge

A marginal victory for the Portuguese and a most enjoyable game on a most enjoyable day. We played the game at quite a slow rate as we were stopping to chat to visitors to explain how that game was going and answer questions regarding the scenario.

The Warlord open day was a great success and I think the best yet. The main hall was packed full of demonstration games – I was very pleased to be able to try out the forthcoming Black Seas game – it looks great! I’m sure that Warlord will be running the event next year and I would recommend attending. As well as the chance to meet with the Warlord team of sculptors, designers and staff, try out the various Warlord games, there are plenty of other guests there to talk to – Sarissa Precision, Mantic Games and the Terrain tutor to name a few.

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

I’ve added the Quick Reference sheet that we used on the day for the shorter ranges etc here:

BlackPowderUnofficialQRS_66p

It’s a Black Powder Edition 1 sheet, so ignore the modifications for skirmishers hitting with +1.

The ‘house rules’ for the game are here:

BLACK POWDERFOZ RULES

Arcane Scenery have most of the Warlord range available, as well as some 60 other manufacturers. Even better, we send post free to most world wide locations. You can visit our shop here:

ARCANE SCENERY

You can see the Warlord report of the day here:

WARLORD OPEN DAY

Happy Modelling!

The Battle of Pea Ridge Arkansas 1862

Our gaming group continues to work its way through the Battles of the American Civil War, with this battle, based on the action at Pea Ridge, Arkanas 1862. Our small group has long been fascinated by the American Civil War and all of us had a large collection of Airfix /72nd scale armies – conveniently produced in grey plastic for the Confederates and blue for the Union, that we played with and gamed with as kids. I also had a lovely collection of the Britains ACW figures, including the beautifully produced artillery limber. So the temptation to collect armies in 28mm scale has been there and gnawing away, particularly as the Perry’s produce such a great introduction to the period with their Battle set.

However, recently, Andy has treated himself to a huge collection of beautifully painted miniatures that covered both the Union and Confederate forces and this has allowed us to branch out into the American Civil War without having to paint armies! We have already fought a number of battles using these figures and you can see our version of the First Bull Run in an earlier blog here;

The First Bull Run

We are using Black Powder Rules, modified with the Glory Hallelujah! supplement, as well as some house rules that enable each battle to reflect some of the challenges that the Commanders faced on the day. For this battle, the main consideration was the large wooded area on the Confederate left flank, Morgans Wood, bordered by the road. The house rules were that no brigade orders could be issued to troops in the wooded area, each regiment would have to receive separate orders. In addition, units could only move a maximum of two moves per turn in the woods and would suffer a -1 on firing if two moves were made. Musket/Rifle range was limited to 12 inches in the woods. The Union forces were able to deploy first but were permitted to ‘hide’ some of their forces. The Confederates had to indicate their deployment on a map of the table, without first being able to see how the Union forces were disposed. Pete would be commanding the Union Army as General Osterhaus, I would command the Confederates as General McCulloch. Andy was umpiring.

Table layout for Pea Ridge, Arkansas

As ever, the battle report is somewhat one sided and picture heavy, with the highlights from the Confederate point of view!

Initial Deployment, with Confederates advancing into Morgans Woods

Despite the limitations on movement in Morgans wood, I deployed a full brigade into this area. Taking advantage of the new Black Powder rules, which gives brigade commanders a re roll if the Army Commander is present, General McCulloch was moved to oversea operations on this flank. It was not clear how the Federals were deployed as some of their units were off table and hidden. The centre appeared to be unguarded with most of the visible Union forces far out to the right. I had decided to place my strongest brigade in the centre, supported by the cavalry, concealed behind the tree line. The right flank would be held by a weaker brigade under the command of General MacIntosh. The plan was to pivot the whole army on the right flank, with a probing attack through the woods on the left.

General Osterhaus commanding the strong Union Brigade on the right.

Confedrate Cavalry concealed behind the tree line.

Confederate Cavalry concealed behind the tree line.

Confederate Centre commanded by General Herbert

The brigade in the woods were extremely successful in their advance. Not only were they able to maintain cohesion through the difficult going but they surprised an advance Union Regiment and immediately put it to flight with superior gun fire. Or to be more precise, my strategy of having the General on hand for re rolling failed command rolls worked as planned and my dice throwing was extremely fortunate when it came to combat!

Union Outflanked!

With the successful march through the woods the Union Centre was now out flanked and to add to the Unions woes, their reinforcements were late arriving. By the time they were able to deploy their reinforcing brigade, the advance brigade had been broken and once again, they were out numbered and out flanked.

Union advance on the right!

An aggressive move by the Federal troops on the right flank was more successful, pinning the Confederate brigade and inflicting severe casualties. However, the Rebel cavalry were able to push back the Skirmishing line and threaten the rear of the advancing Union Brigades. Despite the Unions success on this flank the centre was crumbling as a second Brigade succumbed to superior fire power!

Pour it on Boys!

A lull in the battle, whilst the advancing Confederate troops reorganised and negotiated one of the many fences on the battlefield, allowed some respite for the Union. The Union almost stemmed the tide but the damage had been done and the retreat was sounded.

Forward! The confederates clear the fence and push on to victory!

Another victory for the Rebels and a complete reversal of the actual historical result! The surprise was, that despite the additional rules, the Rebels were able to force their way through the woods without any disruption and effectively outflank the Union forces. Add to this, thanks to some unfortunate dice rolling, the Union reinforcements arrived far too late, allowing the rebels to deal with one brigade at a time, effectively winning the battle on the left flank and the centre. The aggressive move by the Union forces on the right caused some consternation and badly damaged the Brigade commanded by General Macintosh but not enough to influence the overall outcome.

The Confederates march on – things will get tougher as we get further into the war. I suspect that my jammy dice rolling will also take a turn for the worse at some point….

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

If you would like to build an ACW army, a great place to start is with the Perry Miniatures plastic boxed sets. They are available, post free from my shop:

PERRY MINIATURES ACW RANGE

The Black Powder ACW supplement ‘Glory Hallelujah’ can be found here:

GLORY HALLELUJAH!

To follow us on Face book click here:

ARCANE SCENERY FACEBOOK PAGE

Happy Modelling!

Portuguese Artillery – Part 2

Following on from last weeks blog, here are the final steps in completing my Portuguese Artillery guns and crews. The figures were more or less complete but before I painted them with Army Painter quick shade, I added some detail to the equipment, painting the bucket and ram rod staff with first flat brown and then with a highlight of flat earth. I also gave the soldiers plumes and the ram rod head a coat of black grey as a highlight.

Portuguese Artillery – details added.

The next task was to paint them ( not Dip them) with Army painter dark tone. This will add some definition to the block painting, add some shading and provide a protective coat for the miniatures, reducing the likelihood of damage during gaming.

Portuguese Artillery – quick shade and matt varnished.

The figures are on temporary bases – I toyed with the idea of basing them individually and using a sabot system for the Artillery base but discarded this idea as too complicated. With the figures more or less complete, it was onto the guns!

Guns under way

After priming the guns, I painted the carriages with Vallejo Basalt Grey 70869 and the barrels in brass 70801. I usually use a foundry triad for my artillery but there is a slight blue tinge to their paint so I decided to go for a grey as this is thought to be more accurate.

First dry brush

I then gave the carriages a dry brush in 70870 medium sea grey.

Second dry brush

I followed this with a second dry brush in 70990 Light grey. With hindsight, I think that I could have used a heavier dry brush for both coats as when using the quick shade, the finish is darker than I planned.

Detail picked out in black

I picked the detail out in black – it was at this stage that I realised that I had glued the elevation screw in upside down…I’m not changing it now – just don’t mention it if you see me….I painted this and the wheel tyres and plates in Vallejo steel.

Guns – quick shade on the right hand gun.

I then painted the guns in quick shade Strong tone. I’ve shown one gun done in comparison to the left hand gun that is awaiting a coat. I think that it illustrates how the quickshade brings out the detail, although, as I mentioned before I have finished with a darker look than planned. The guns were then coated with matt varnish, although on this occasion, I have left the gun barrels in a gloss finish – I just liked the look.

Basing in progress

I used 90mm x 60mm bases that are actually made from two 60mm x 45mm bases glued over a piece of 40/000 plasticard cut to the correct size. Why? Because I have these bases spare from other projects and the size is about right for Artillery. I positioned the crew around the gun a lightly glued them in place. I then Covered the base in Vallejo textured dark earth paste and added some gravel (Woodland scenic ballast) and some rocks (from the garden!). The guns are not attached to the base at all – I can limber them up if required.

First coat of Emulsion

The base was then coated in my new emulsion paint – Dehli Bazhar – see my previous blog for details!

Bases Dry brushed

The bases were then dry brushed with successive layers of Delhi Bazhar and Iraqi Sand mix until I got the look that I was happy with. I added some white to the mix to really highlight the rocks. I wasn’t too worried if I caught the boots of the figures with the dry brush and I also lightly dry brushed the guns, particularly the wheels with the base earth colour.

Scatter added to bases

Using watered down PVA white glue, I added some green scatter to the bases. The final touch would be to add some gamers grass tufts. In the back ground you can see my battalion of Gordon Highlanders that I was basing at the same time. I often ‘batch base’ my units as it saves on paint and glue!

Potuguese Artillery ready for action!

I used a mixture of the Gamers grass dry and beige tufts to represent the drier look of the Iberian Peninsular. The guns are ready to take to the battlefield!

Gordon Highlanders completed

I also finished basing my battalion of Gordon Highlanders, so two projects off the desk – back to my War of the Roses Cavalry now!

THE COMMERIAL BIT

Nearly every thing that I use in my modelling projects comes from the Arcane Scenery shop. We supply post free to most worldwide locations!

VALLEJO PAINTS AND TEXTURES

If you are looking for a particular paint, use the code that I have given in the shop search bar.

RENEDRA BASES

GAMERS GRASS

WOODLANDS SCENICS

Happy Modelling!

Portuguese Artillery Part 1

It might seem that I am jumping around with different projects but there is a method in the madness. I have a Demo game coming up at the Warlord Games Open Day on 20th July here in Nottingham. The NG13 wargamers will be re running a Black powder version of the game ‘Combat at Foz D’Arouce’. We thought that it would be fun to show how Black powder can be adapted to run a Company level game on a small 4′ x 4′ table. Rather than use a British force, I thought that I would get my Portuguese detachment on to the table. Whilst I have plenty of troops, I have no Portuguese Artillery. The Demo game was a good excuse to remedy this.

Warlord Games Portuguese 9 pounder.

As you can see, Warlord make a nice Portuguese Artillery set, available as a 6pdr, 9pdr or Howitzer. I went for the 9pdr version and ordered a couple to compliment my Brigade of Infantry, even though I only needed one for the demo game!

Portuguese Artillery from Pinterest board.

The next issue was to research the colour scheme. I guess I could have taken the easy option and just copied the Warlord photo but I wanted to check to see if there were any alternatives. Unfortunately, that resulted in the usual confusion as different references gave slightly different schemes. The Osprey book that I had gave the colour scheme as ‘Dark blue coat of infantry style with red collar and cuffs…’ However, the Napoleonic source book gives the uniform as ‘Dark Blue infantry style coats with black facings and plumes.’ It also goes on to explain that there were four different regiments but gave no idea if they had different uniforms. As you can see from the picture above, The second Regiment appeared to have yellow piping – nice, but is it accurate?

Another version of the same regiment?

After trawling through the rest of my references and numerous google and pinterest searches I resorted to asking on the TMP forum. As ever, I received some excellent help and information. I was refered to the Osprey books again – this time to volume three of the Portuguese army – I only had two volumes so had missed this! The information was:

If you have Osprey vol 3, turn to page 3, Table C.

It shows the regimental distinctions for the four regiments (1st to 4th). Coat blue, then collar and cuff in a combination of blue or black – blue blue, black black, black blue, blue black in that order.

Turnbacks and piping were red for all regiments. Britches were blue in winter, white in summer. Gaiters black. Buttons yellow.

Stovepipe shako replaced barretino in 1810. Brass plate. Black plume.

Does that help?

Another contributor kindly supplied the above picture. So on balance, I went for the second Regiment but despite my liking for the yellow piping, I have gone with red!

Portuguese Artillery – primed!

So, decision made as regards the colour scheme that I would use, it was on with the painting. As usual, I will batch paint, which will involve a combination of colour blocking, Army Shade and highlighting. First job was to clean the figures, attach them to temporary base and prime in Army Painter grey.

Portuguese Artillery – Flesh

I use Vallejo 70955 flesh for the face and hands.

Portuguese Artillery – black

Vallejo 70950 black for plumes, hat, facings ( collars & Cuffs) boots, cartridge case and sword scarbard.

Portuguese Artillery – hair and accessories.

I used 70822, German Camouflage black brown for the hair (I could have used Black but wanted a slight contrast between the hair and shako) and as a base for the Artillery equipment.

Portuguese Artillery – Uniforms.

The uniforms were painted Dark Prussian Blue, Vallejo 70899.

Portuguese Artillery – white belts

I use Vallejo Off white 70820 for the belts and prefer the softer look to this than the normal Vallejo white.

Portuguese Artillery – Brass

Vallejo 70801 brass for the cap badges, plates buttons and sword hilts & scabbard detail. With hindsight, I have gone out of my usual sequence here. I should have done the red piping next and the brass last. It keeps the brush cleaning water free of metallic specs and the piping will run over the buttons as I was to find out…

Portuguese artillery – Red Piping

The red piping, turnbacks and ribbons on the shako were done with Vallejo 70957 red and the figures are nearly complete. That’s as far as I have got with them but all being well, they will be completed for next week and I will return with pictures of them based and ready for action!

Still to do – I will highlight the Plumes and ram rod heads in black grey, add the blue ribbon and detail to the shako’s, add the detail to the buckets and other equipment and then use quick shade to bring out the detail and seal the figures. A quick coat of matt varnish and re highlight the white belts if necessary.

The beauty of the batch paint method is that there’s no need to do the figures in one sitting. In reality, these figures could be completed to this stage in a few hours. However, my back and eyes wont last more than an hour and it’s rare that I get that much painting time in one session. The batch paint sequence allows me to make progress even in the smallest time gap. So Although I watched the Footie on Tuesday, I used half time to slap some paint on!

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If you are looking for a particular paint, use the code that I have given in the shop search bar.

Happy Modelling!

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Portuguese Artillery Part 1

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