Blog – Page 19 – Steve’s Hobby Blog

Cuban War Dogs

My Caribbean project continues with the addition of a set of Cuban Chasseurs with dogs to my collection. These troops, or more accurately mercenaries, were brought across from Cuba by the various combatants in the Caribbean to fight against the rebellions and revolts taking place. The British imported these mercenaries specifically to suppress the Maroon rebellion on Jamaica but I understand that they were also used on Haiti. My references have come from an account in an book by Robert Charles Dallas written in 1803, ‘The History of the Maroons’ that I found online. As well as describing the Cuban Chasseurs, he gives an account of the brutal training regime inflicted on the dogs and how they were used.

Reference: The History of the Maroons.

In 1795 the second Maroon rebellion took place and despite being faced by some 5000 British soldiers and militia, the Maroons held their own and fierce guerrilla warfare led to a stalemate. It is claimed that the introduction of the Cuban Chasseurs and their dogs broke this stalemate and ended the rebellion.

Chasseur and Cuba Bloodhounds

The dogs have been described variously as a cross between Lurchers and Bloodhounds, although it is possible that they were a variety of Great Dane. It could just be that the breed itself wasn’t consistent but it was the training by the Cubans that made the dogs so effective. To paraphrase from the book, ‘These people live with their dogs, from which they are inseperable. At home, the dogs are kept chained and are never unmuzzled but for attack…..The Chasseurs beat their dogs most unmercifully, using the flat side of their machetes. As a result the dogs coat is much harder as is the structure of the dog…’

In the book, there is an account of how during the voyage from Cuba the dogs got loose and tore apart the cattle that were also on board. On page 129, there is also an account of how the dogs were demonstrated to a commander in Jamaica to see how they would react under fire. The dogs were loosed on a small body of troops and despite a volley of musket fire being discharged (presumably blanks) the dogs charged home into the ranks of the soldiers, seizing the muskets in their jaws and causing the commander to run for his carriage to escape, before the handlers brought the dogs under control.

My understanding is that such dogs were used by the Spanish and French troops as well as the British and the Cuban Chasseurs that trained them were held in high regard. They were most effective at fighting against irregular troops in rough ground and helped to avoid ambush.

Trent Miniatures sell a pack of these ‘troops’ so I wanted to add some of them to my collection.

Trent miniatures Cuban Chasseurs

The pack includes two Dog handlers, or Chasseurs and four dogs. As you can see, I’ve cleaned them up and primed them in Army painter Leather brown. Painting was a straight forward task. It is said that the Cubans favoured a red checked shirt, so I have finished one accordingly. Using the picture from the Robert Dallas book as a reference, the other Chasseur is more plainly attired. Similarly, I have gone for a simple finish for the dogs, with one white, one light/orange brown and two Dark Brown.

Painted Chasseurs & dogs

The figures are based using a special ‘sabot’ style tray to enable the dogs to be unleashed during wargaming.

Unleash the dogs!

These bases are not yet available through my shop but if there is sufficient interest, I can have more cut. I finished the bases in my usual style with the Vallejo dark earth texture, woodland scenic scatter and Gamers grass tufts.

I have already used the dogs as a unit in wargaming as I am in the process of developing a set of rules for the Caribbean conflict. We conducted the first play test last week and although much was learnt, there is a long way to go before the rules will be ready.

If you would like to purchase the Cuban Chasseurs and their dogs you can do so by clicking here:

CUBAN CHASSEURS CAR09

Vallejo paints and textures can be found here:

VALLEJO PAINTS

Woodland Scenics Scatter here:

WOODLAND SCENICS

and Gamers grass here:

GAMERS GRASS

All are available post free at the time of writing.

Napoleonic War in the Caribbean

The war in the Caribbean is project of mine that has been rumbling along in the back ground for some time and I think that I am now in the mood to move it forwards. I have been painting bits and pieces for this theatre for some time but it’s been a bit of a solo project and has taken a back seat to my other interests.

I decided that I would first paint all the variants of the Trent Miniatures Caribbean Slave packs. They are sold as random mixes but I managed to persuade Duncan to let me have one of each type. First we had to identify them!

Revolting Slaves – with firearms.

Revolting slaves with hand weapons

There are actually 30 variants. Although the pictures show 31 figures, there is a duplicate hidden in there! I already had painted a couple of packs of the revolting slaves and also a pack of Maroons but the idea was to build a decent sized warband of these guys to represent the small detachment of men led by Jean Kina in Haiti. Jean Kina was originally a slave but now freed, who came to command a force of up to 300 men (depending on the references that you consult) and fought for the British on Haiti.

This leads me perhaps to explain some of my fascination with the Caribbean in this period. The period of interest spans from 1793 to 1815 and during this time, there was a constant conflict running across the whole of the Caribbean area, including some parts of South America. The nations involved included the usual suspects of Britain, France, Spain and significantly, the Slaves and local population but the nature of the conflict and climate meant that many disparate troops types were sent out to fight on the islands.

I suspect that the lack of huge set piece battles has meant that the war has not been well documented despite the fact that the stakes were so high. Britain, France and Spain, gained an incredible economic benefit from the area and these Islands were crucial to these countries ability to finance their wars elsewhere. To be clear, most of my little knowledge comes from reading just one book, ‘Death before Glory’ by Martin Howard and some web articles. However, this has been enough to whet my appetite and I am rapidly learning as much as I can whilst continuing to build my forces.

Block painted Caribbean fighters.

As you can see from the picture above, once cleaned up, the figures were temporarily based, primed with Army Painter Leather brown and then painted in an assortment of pale colours to represent the sort of clothing worn in the Caribbean. I used the Vallejo Black brown to paint the flesh and highlighted with chocolate brown.

Caribbean Fighters based

I had decided to used Army Painter Quick shade Dark Tone to speed up painting and then rehighlighted were appropriate. The basing was my usual Vallejo Dark earth Texture paste but I added some gravel and small stones for additional texture.

Close up of basing

The bases were finished by painting first with Chocolate Brown, then a Chocolate Brown/Iraqi Sand mix, finishing with a light dry brush of Iraqi Sand. Finally, I added some green scatter and some grass tufts and they are ready for the table.

Jean Kina’s Fighters are ready for battle!

There’s plenty more in the pipeline! As well the land operations there was plenty of action at sea, so I will have a use for my growing naval detachment.

My next project - a small loop fpr naval engagements.

My next project – a small sloop for naval engagements.

If you would like to read more on my Caribbean project and the figures that I have painted, click here:

CARIBBEAN BLOG POSTS

The Trent Miniatures Caribbean range is available here:

TRENT MINIATURES CARIBBEAN RANGE

The Vallejo range can be seen here:

VALLEJO PAINTS AND TEXTURES

All Square – part two

Earlier this year, fellow gamer and modeller Chris Kirk showed how he intended to build an infantry square to use as a marker when playing Black Powder. You can see the first blog article here where Chris explained how he would convert the models:

ALL SQUARE – PART ONE

The model is now finished and as you can see, it looks very nice indeed!

British Infantry Square

Chris decided to paint the figures as 27th Regiment, the Inniskillings. The 27th is famous for the stand that they made at Waterloo. Towards the end of the battle, they had moved up to take position just to the left of the crossroads, some 200 hundred yards behind La Haye Sainte which had by now fallen to the attacking French. They were ordered by Sir James Kempt not to abandon their position and to hold at all costs as their presence would stop the French infantry from further penetration of the British centre.

The 27th stand

This left them terribly exposed to both the French tirailleurs who had taken position on the small knoll to the side of La Haye Sainte and from the French artillery that had moved up in support. The casualty rate for the 27th was horrendous. Without moving a step the regiment lost over two thirds of it’s men, the highest casualty rate for any British Battalion that fought at Waterloo. The Battalion was commanded at the Battle by a Captain, John Hare. There were 19 officers in total, of which sixteen were killed or wounded. Of the total of 747 men in the battalion, 493 were killed or wounded in a matter of hours and yet still they stood in position, holding the line.

The Square – close up!

The lady in the model represent one of the remarkable stories of Waterloo. In the midst of the carnage unfolding in the square was a soldiers wife, who though pregnant, had refused to go to the rear and stayed with her husband. She busied herself attending to the wounded until she herself was struck in the leg by a shell splinter. Her poor husband faired even worse, losing both of his arms.

The Square holds firm

The model, as well as being a practical gaming piece will serve as a small reminder of the bravery of the 27th. The idea of such a model is that it will be used on the table and not just appear in a glass cabinet. Chris and I had quite a discussion about such ‘practical dioramas’ that allow the gamer to stray beyond just churning out regiments to fill the battlefield. The square marker is just one of these ideas – others will follow!

Safely in the Cabinet

Victorious Miniatures

The launch of a new range of miniatures is always an exciting prospect. However, it’s not quite so easy as it looks and many start ups fall by the wayside once the initial enthusiasm has passed. I hope that this is not the case for the latest range that we are happy to support! Victorious Miniatures is a venture undertaken by long term wargamer and enthusiast, Keith Tait. I have often had the pleasure of facing his armies across a wargames table, so I was intrigued when he told me of his plans to launch his own range of figures.

NAPBR15 Duke of York

My first reaction and words of encouragement were ‘are you mad..?’ I reminded him of the well known quote, oft repeated in the industry ‘how do you make a small fortune in the model soldier business? – Start off with a big one…’ Keith was undeterred. His project was to be a labour of love and he was planning to build a range of figures that he had always wanted. The commercial side was only important in as much as he hoped that the range would eventually become self financing and grow accordingly. And so Victorious Miniatures was born.

NAPBR16 Sir Ralph Abercrombie

The initial ranges have been sculpted by the very talented Mark Simms and focus on the British Army circa 1793 – 1795 in the Flanders Campaign. The figures are compatible with Perry, Warlord and Victrix miniatures. Even better, they compliment the Trent Miniatures range, who cover a similar period and are great favourites of mine.

NAPBR01 Round hat command

The two main commanders have been sculpted, the Duke of York, who led the expedition, and one of the Generals, Sir Ralph Abercrombie ( also spelt as Abercromby). The Line infantry is represented by four packs: a command pack, Centre Company Infantry marching; Flank Company Infantry Marching and Skirmishing Infantry. These infantry are all wearing the round hats and long tailed frock coats of the time. In addition to the standard line troops, there are also some very nice Highlanders. Before you reach for the tin of tartan paint, fear not! The Highlanders in the Flanders Campaign were wearing standard issue trousers. So there is no excuse why you cannot have a Battalion of these in your collection!

NAPBR03 Round hat Flank coy

Following on from the initial releases, will be British infantry in bicornes, giving another option for your growing army. Although designed for the Flanders Campaign, I think that these new figures will be useful in other settings. The troops sent to the Caribbean at this time would have been similarly equipped and I guess that they will be suitable for service in Ireland. To be fair, my knowledge of uniforms in this early period of the Napoleonic wars is still lacking, so don’t take my word for it!

NAPBR05 Highland command

However, I have just finished reading the first part of Wellingtons biography by Rory Muir ( an excellent if somewhat lengthy read). I was intrigued to find out as early as 1793, Britain had planned to invade France in support of the Vendee insurgency with a force under the Command of Lord Moira. The landing never took place due to a heavy defeat of the rebels but the possibility of ‘What if’ scenarios would make an interesting game. Sharp Practice would provide an ideal set of rules! Wellington was present in the Flanders campaign. He was Lieutenant-Colonel of the 33rd Foot. His first action was at the Battle of Boxtel where although not involved in the initial attack, his regiment successfully covered the First Guards withdrawal, repulsing a French attack ‘throwing a few cool and well directed volleys into the enemy’s squadrons, obliging him to decamp’. So I guess that I have an excuse to get my first battalion of Victorious Miniatures!

Boxca01 Chinese Dragon cannon

I digress! Back to Victorious miniatures ranges. Also available are some very nice Chinese cannon for the Boxer Rebellion, the next period in which Keith intends to build his range. I am very much looking forward to more of this period becoming available. That said, if I can use these for the earlier Taiping Rebellion of 1850, I will be able to scratch another wargaming itch and my special edition Flashman figure will find a use on the gaming table!

The Victorious Miniatures range is now available to purchase from both Keiths own web site here:

VICTORIOUS MINIATURES

or, from the Arcane Web store here:

Arcane Scenery/Victorious Miniatures

Please take a look at these new models and of course, if they appeal, your support will be most welcome. If you are not ready to purchase, a ‘like’ click on the Victorious Miniatures facebook page will at least help cheer Victorious Miniatures on!

Victorious Miniatures Facebook page

Keith will need all the help that he can get in building his range. I know that he has some great ideas for future releases and of course all of us here at Arcane scenery wish him the very best of luck with his new venture.

Geisha Spy

I’m still very much enthused by the Test of Honour Game and my only regret at the moment is that I’m not getting enough game time in! However, I still have my Napoleonic project lumbering away and having just finished 18 British Lifeguards with another 6 about to hit the paint board, I fancied painting something different. I remembered that I had yet to paint the limited edition Geisha Spy that was released with the bundle, so I thought I would spend a few nights painting her.

Geisha

I had already done some research on Geishas wearing Kimonos (not the most unpleasant of tasks…) and collected some pictures onto my Pinterest board here:

SAMURAI PINTEREST BOARD

I tend to think about projects in advance and often will put together a reference board way in advance of actually painting the subjects. If you check out the rest of my boards you will guess what my next Napoleonic theme will be if I ever finish my British! I digress, the pictures are very inspiring but way beyond my painting capability. So having given the overall colour scheme some thought, I went with a similar scheme that worked well on my unarmoured samurai. They came as a pair so I thought that I would keep to the same pallet. The picture below sort of captured the look and colour scheme that I was after.

So one evening was spent cleaning up the model, assembling it, filling the gaps that seem to appear around the joins on the hand and priming in a neutral grey, my preferred primer colour. The initial colour blocking was quite straight forward. The model is beautifully cast and molded so it was a very straight forward task to paint. I used all Vallejo Colours. The main kimono was painted in Sand Yellow 70916, the trim, Sky Blue 70961, the Kimono sash, Dark Prussian Blue 70899, Hair, Black 70950 and skin tone was done using Light flesh 70928. I did think about using white for the face but many of the pictures show Geishas with a pale flesh rather than the full white make up and I preferred this. The fan was painted in green…for the time being…

Geisha with first colours blocked on

To add shadows and depth to the kimono, I gave it a wash of thinned down army painter dark tone ink. This helps me to see where the folds in the cloth lie and hence where the shadows would be. I then repainted the Kimono with the sand yellow, leaving some of the darker shadows. I then added some white to the original colour to add some highlights to the top of the folds. I also used a very fine brush to add some dark lines to the deep folds and creases and the borders of the sky blue trim. I used a skin wash to add some shadow to the face but this was watered down until it was practically clear. It just added enough shadow to the face and neck.

Black lining and details to hair ornaments etc added.

I then painted in the eyes – I’m not good at these! The next step was to thin down the black lining and shadows by over painting and to add a bit more detail to the hair ornaments. I also added some highlights to the sky blue Kimono and the sash. The sash was easier to do than I thought. I first dry brushed it to show where the detail was and then carefully painted on the ‘stripes’ in a lighter blue.

Face & eyes done. More highlights added to the trim.

I use the photographs as a way of reviewing my work. It allows me to see the model and pick up on any obvious errors. In the next picture, you can see that I had missed painting part of her sleeve – I couldn’t see this in ‘real life’!

spot the missing paint!

Despite constantly picking up errors and correcting them, there was still something very wrong with the figure. It some how wasn’t working. I asked Rob, a colleague at work what he thought the problem was. It was obvious, the fan was the wrong colour! The green just wasn’t working. We had an interesting discussion on colour theory but the upshot was that I had introduced too many colours onto the model. I over painted the fan in light blue and it instantly looked better.

a new fan!

Once again, using my pinterest boards as a reference, I painted a simple cherry blossom design onto the fan and added a few further highlights to the kimono. I also added her finger nails in Ivory 70918 and touched up any more obvious mistakes.

Nearly there!

The final stage was to add some pink and white to the cherry blossom to the design on the fan and to re base the geisha on a plain MDF base that I had painted to match the Sarissa shrine that I had previously completed. My Geisha Spy was ready for the table!

Geisha spy at the shrine.

The geisha was a most enjoyable model to paint and certainly stretched my painting skills. It made a pleasant change from painting Napoleonic units! Although close up, there are still a few errors and the paint job isn’t as smooth as I would like, she looks great at a distance and is a nice addition to my collection!

If you would like to join the fun with the Test of Honour game we have a full range available in our shop here:

SAMURAI RANGE

All the paints used are also available from our Vallejo range here:

VALLEJO MODEL COLOUR

Incidentally, if you are looking for a specific colour, rather than browse through all the 200+ colours listed, just put the number into the search bar. So sky blue is 70961:

Search result

Finally, at the time of writing, all products, except aerosols, are post free to most world wide locations! I hope that you enjoy your modelling!

Test Of Honour New Scenario – Battle Report

The club that I normally attend is having a bit of a summer break. It seems that everybody is busy at the same time this year. So rather than go to the club, I hosted a game in my newly tidied games room AKA the garage, with Andy Callan as my opponent. When Andy organises a game at his place, he usually comes up with a well thought out scenario, usually based on an actual historical battle, so I thought that I better put some preparation into our game. The plan was to play Test of Honour and as we have fought our way through the scenarios in the book, it was time to think of something new.

As it was, I went for a variant of the Spy scenario, so not too original, but it did present some extra challenges and once again, this simple game provided a very enjoyable evenings play. The scenario was as follows. A samurai and four retainers were defending a shrine from marauding war bands. This small band of fighters were unsure as to where their allegiance lay and could be persuaded to join one of the warbands and fight on their side to protect their property. All a player had to do to recruit the defending warriors to his band would be for the Hero Samurai to persuade them that they were the force for good!

Do You want to be in my gang? I’ll give you this head…..

The Set up was quite simple. The ‘neutral defending’ Samurai and his warriors were set up on a mid line, in cover, exactly between the two players forces who were allowed to deploy anywhere along their base lines up to 6 inches into the table. The cards and tokens for the ND force were placed to one side of the table. Apart from blocking line of sight, they would not be part of the game unless ‘recruited’ by one side or the other. This process was quite simple. To recruit a neutral warrior, the hero samurai from either side would have to make base contact with the warrior. On the next activation, he would then take a test of wits. If passed, the warrior would be successfully recruited to his warband and the neutral warriors card and token would be moved to the successful warriors side of the table. On the next turn, the token (or tokens, in the case of the samurai) would be placed in the bag and he would be activated as normal and fight for his new master.

The neutral warriors were deliberately spaced across the table to allow both attacking warbands the chance of recruiting extra men. Obviously, the prize was the neutral Samurai. However, the game would only be won if one of the hero Samurai were slain or one of the opposing forces were driven back to their side of the table and the shrine secured. We set the turn time for 6 moves but if there was no clear outcome, we were happy to keep going. As it was 6 turns was enough! We were using 21 points for each opposing warband.

Archer for hire.

So how did it play out? To start with, both of the hero Samurai charged towards the shrine in an attempt to recruit the neutral Samurai. However, once it became clear that I was going to win that race, Andy decided to draw back and concentrate on moving up his war band in support of his Samurai. I had chosen bowmen as my ‘fire support’. Andy was using musketmen. I was dubious as to how effective that musketmen would be in groups – I was about to find out! I quickly persuaded the neutral Samurai to join my band and leaving him and the wise Samurai to defend the temple, the Hero moved off to attempt to recruit more reinforcements.

Wise Samurai and his new best friend under fire!

This turned out to be a big mistake! My two samurai were now unsupported as Andy’s warband closed the gap on them. To make matters worse, my warband was lagging behind as I used any activations to allow my bowmen to shoot rather than moving up troops. My archers were somewhat ineffective as they were shooting at long range. The opposite was the case for Andy’s musket troops. When used in a group of three, they benefit from having four dice to hit, and then four dice to kill, all at 20 inches. So musket fire combined with Andy’s Samurai both charging in meant that I lost my newly recruited Samurai and my wise Samurai in one blood thirsty turn!

Are you sure you are a wise Samurai? It’s feeling a bit lonely out here!

My hero Samurai had managed to recruit an extra bowman but this was small consolation. In my rush to gain recruits I had split my warband and my Hero Samurai out of position and isolated. Even worse, Andy’s musket men were now working extremely well as a team, one group firing, the other reloading and causing damage with every shot.

Newly recriuted Samurai faces the opposing hero.

Newly recruited Samurai faces the opposing hero samurai, his new best friend having already been dispatched!

My archers continued to be ineffective even as the range closed. Despite their best attempts to keep Andy’s Samurai at bay, they closed in on my hero.

Archers fire!

With his spearmen drawing my archers fire, my own Hero under musket fire, his Hero and wise Samurai closed for the kill and cut down my hero Samurai to win the game. The moral of the story being never listen to a man who wants to be your friend if he is holding someone else’s head….

Once again, Test of Honour had delivered an excellent evenings entertainment and this apparently straight forward rules set has enough depth to keep you coming back for more. Maybe I need some more musket men….

Incidentally, once we had finished that game we moved onto a game using mounted Samurai. I know from the feedback on facebook there is a feeling that these are over pointed in the current rules. I certainly feel that this is the case, so we made some minor changes to their rules. First up, we allow charge at 9 inch range – it seems daft not to. We allow a 6 inch move and fire for mounted archers. We also allow an extra dice for avoid when targeted by missile fire. It all worked very well but to be fair, we both had mounted Samurai. It will be interesting to try these amendments when one player has a warband on foot only and see if the game is still balanced.

If you haven’t had a go with Test of Honour and would like to try it, we have all the sets currently available as well as the superb Sarissa scenery in my shop here:

SAMURAI

Jonas Jones Part 3 – Napoleons Foot Guides

Napoleons Guides, converted Trent Miniatures

Once again, I’m happy to bring a guest post from a regular contributor ‘Jonas Jones’. Jonas likes to look for interesting and obscure subjects to model using the Trent Miniatures range as the start point. Now that should give you an idea of who Jonas is! Converting metal miniatures can be quite a challenge, unless you are talented with the ‘green stuff’. However, sometimes a simple head swap can lead to some interesting options. It is in this field that Jonas excels. In the first of his articles, ‘Off with his head #1’, a complete decapitation was required. OWHH#2 was more of a trepanning than a complete decapitation, but with the same end in view. In this short piece Jonas just replaces the headgear rather than the full head!

The Trent Miniatures Legere in Mirletons (FLe01) are very nice figures in their own right, but cut (saw) off the Mirleton and replace it with a plumed Bicorn and you will have a passable likeness for Napoleons Foot Guides as they appeared in Northern Italy and the early days of Egypt. The appearance of the Foot Guides in Italy would be a bit of a ‘what if?’ as Napoleon left them behind to guard his base HQ. They were only a couple of companies strong at this point. However, at the time of the invasion of Egypt, they would have been built up into a small battalion, more than 400 strong.

Later in Egypt, they were issued with a new uniform, like the rest of the army. For the early months they would look quite resplendent in green coats, red breeches and tall red plumes. Jonas has chosen to vary the breeches on some of the figures – a reflection of the rigors of campaigning! The plumed bicorne that Jonas has used has come from one of Toussaint Louvertures officers in pack CAR08 but a spare plastic one from a Victrix or similar set would do – you may just have to build the plume up. All of the figures shown have been painted according to information from Knotel Prints.

So just enough of an excuse to build a small unit of guides to field with your army and confound your opponent when he questions the colour scheme of your new unit! Regardless as to whether Napoleons Guides is to your taste, perhaps there are other units that you can make with a simple head swap. Sometimes, a simple conversion is faster than waiting for you favourite figure manufacturer to produce the unit that you need to finish your army!

Backwards to go Forwards

I’m afraid that my modelling and painting have been very much curtailed this week. I decided that it was time to tidy out the garage, or as it now is, my wargaming room and have a good tidy and cull of some of the ‘rubbish that I have been collecting. I think that ‘collecting’ or hoarding, to be more accurate, is a spliced on gene that most wargamers possess.

Tidying the workshop started with dusting down some of my own models.

Fortunately, Julie, my wife, has been away for a break so I could get on with making a mess whilst sifting through some of my collection of models and spare bits. Quite why I have kept so much of it, I really cant explain. I guess you never know when you are going to need that off cut of Teddy Bear fur to do some thatching on a Dark age building and those bits of balsa are sure to come in useful one day. Some of the stuff is just weird – bits of electrical appliances, widgets from beer cans ( yes, seriously!), even deodorant bottles. I wonder what other modellers keep in their bits boxes, just in case…..

To be fair, I have been building models for some 54 years now! I’ve been through many phases, from radio control Airplanes, Boats and Yachts; Scale plastic models in all scales, Science fiction Modelling – yes, Star wars and Dr who, through to wargaming via 40K and now Historical. So, another clear out was due to make way for the next lot of useful bits that I might acquire! The biggest problem that I have is getting rid of models that I have completed. I just don’t like to sell them. As well as being a record of my hobby, they hold many happy memories. Occasionally, one gets broken beyond repair and ends up in the spares box, but by and large I have kept many of my models – here are just a few of them taken at random.

At-AT diorama

This At-At diorama was built some years ago when I was into my Star Wars phase. I think that the kit is an MPC one produced back in the ’80’s. I have a number of Star Wars dioramas that I have built – Unfortunately Jar Jar Binks cured my of my Star Wars obsession but the latest films have perhaps redeemed the franchise. Here’s a picture of me building the AT-AT with my son – as he is now in his 30’s, you can see that it was a while ago…

Building the AT-AT – home made work board!

I also had a thing about Dr Who. There was a series of models made by a company called Sevans. The models were large scale and took some building as they used a variety of materials. The intention was to build a collection of characters, including the Tardis. I managed three models as below.

Cyberman, Dalek and Ice Warrior

The Dalek was radio controlled and had LED lights in the ‘head’. Unfortunately, the motor interfered with the Radio control so after a few crashes I gave up on it! It did amuse the family though! I may yet get back to this collection. I have a model of Davros in the loft somewhere!

From Science Fiction modelling, it was an easy step to get drawn into wargaming with Games Workshop 40k figures. I was an early adopter of the new ‘Rogue Trader’ rules and figures. However, due to work commitments, I initially did very little gaming but spent much of my time painting and modelling. I do enjoy the process of scratch building, although at the time, a lack of both money and to be fair, availability of the models pushed me in this direction. The cabinet below contains my own scratch built Bane Blade and Variants – all made with recycled plastic card and based on plans in White Dwarf Magazine.

Taleth Heavies – just one part of my Imperial Guard Army!

My last phase of 40K was the Necrons. A shame that I actually got tired of waiting for GW to update the Codex and release new models as I have a huge collection of Necrons – some 7000 ‘old points’ and at the time every variant that they had released. In fact, to introduce some variety into my army, I started to convert and build my own models.

Necron Destroyer variant with ‘drone ‘Scarab.

I still have a soft spot for Necrons and might just add some of the later models to the collection if ever I am bored or fancy a change from painting my historical armies….

Brixham Trawler Valerian

The model above was actually scratch built by my Dad. Its a working scale model ( in that it sails!) of a Brixham Trawler, The Valerian. It is of course very precious to me and a reminder that it was my Dad that got me into the hobby. It’s given me endless hours of pleasure and an escape from every day life and its ups and downs. I profoundly hope that your hobby does the same for you.

Thanks for reading a bit of a self indulgent blog this week. The Man Cave is just about finished so I should get back to painting this week. The aim is to get back to painting Napoleonics – I have a regiment of Lifeguards to finish!

British Life Guards – more to come!

All Square!

This weeks post is a guest post by the very talented Chris Kirk. Chris has recently ‘converted’ to Napoleonics and is in the process of building his army. Like most of us, he has agonised over how many men should be painted to form a Battalion and then how best to base them. There is of course no correct answers to these questions. It largely depends on what rules set you have decided to use and even then, there is usually some flexibility. After much thought, Chris had decided that he would like his battalions to be made up of 32 figures and that to make life easier on the Wargames table, he would put his figures into a movement tray, complete with Battalion name plate and space for casualty and disorder markers. We had these trays custom made for him by those clever people at Sarissa Precision and they were based on the smaller 12 man trays that I use for club night games.

As he was building British battalions, they would spend much of their time in Line formation so the need to take them out of the tray would be mainly limited to when they were forced into square when using Black Powder rules. In the course of discussing this, Chris decided that rather than take the figures out of the movement tray, he would make some ‘generic’ square markers that could be used to replace the line if forced into square during a game.

If this seems like a lot of extra work, it is, in the short term! However, Chris really enjoys his modelling and painting and the option of making some mini dioramas was too tempting for him. Rather than paint another 32 figures for each square, Chris decided on using a 120mm x 120mm movement tray to represent the area would then build & paint just enough figures and scenery to give the impression of a square. In doing so, he needed plenty of casualties and the following sequence of pictures shows how he achieved this. I hope that you find it as instructive and useful as I did. I have now added another project to my list!

The start point for a casualty – a Victrix standing figure.

Remove the base, leaving as much of the boots as you can!

Cut V’s into the backs of the knees. this will allow bent legs at the knees. Remove feet at the ankles to reposition as if gravity is taking over the limp body.

Re assemble legs and flatten the back so that the figure lies flush with the ground.

Add a suitable head – this one is actually from a Warlord Ancient Briton set!

Add the arms – once again, gravity is king! Whilst there will still be some finishing touches, once the polystyrene cement is dry the figure will be roughly correct and ready for filling.

A selection of casualties made using the same procedure. All waiting overnight for the glue to really set hard before more filing down to ensure that they are flat and any cleaning up to be done.

Trimmed of flashes. Green stuff applied to gaps. Heels of boots created where needed. Arm sling and head bandage added.

The Square takes shape!

I hope that this has been useful. As you can see, it is a work in progress and once Chris gets the rest of the figures to complete the square and of course, paints them we will return with the finished article. I think it shows how useful Plastic figures can be when it comes to making your own units. I know that some wargamers have very fixed views when it comes to plastics versus metals. I like both and when it comes to converting, I think that this article shows how plastic figures can be adapted and remodelled far easier than metals.

If you would like to try your hand at conversions, we have a massive selection of fillers and tools to browse through here:

FILLERS AND TOOLS

You can get Victrix plastics here:

VICTRIX MODELS

and Glues and Adhesives here:

GLUES AND ADHESIVES

Scenery for Samurai

It’s funny how once you get into a groove, it’s difficult to get out of it, particularly if you are having fun! I had finished all of the original Test of Honour figures as detailed in last weeks blog and my intention was to go back to painting my beloved Napoleonics. I did mention that I fancied painting some buildings but they were going to have to wait. However, having had a couple of really fun games of TOH at the club, I decided to get on with making some scenery.

I had some plastic aquarium plants that my brother had sent me, kicking around the back of my work bench and I had long admired the Sarissa Temple Shrine so I thought that I would make both bits of scenery. It may seem like a strange combination but sometimes two slightly different projects are as fast to do as one. Whilst one piece is drying or setting, you can get on with the other. Having just two projects is about right for me as I don’t loose my concentration!

‘Bamboo grove’ assembled.

The ‘bamboo patch’ was the first on the work bench. I already had an idea how I would make it and stole an idea from John Grant at the club, who uses old DVD or CD’s as his bases for scatter scenery. I’ve got plenty of these kicking around as they were giving out DVD’s with some newspapers in the past. Quite why I thought I would need a documentary on Pilates escapes me now but at last it was going to be used for something useful. So using the label side as the base I partially covered it with milliput, pressed three pebbles that I had grabbed from the garden (I didn’t even bother to wash them!) and just stuck the tall aquarium plants straight into the milliput as shown above. I used some cut down pieces at the edges to taper the height but otherwise, assembly was as straight forward as it looks.

Building the Sarissa Precision Japanese Temple.

Whilst the milliput was setting, I turned my attention to the Sarissa Temple. These laser cut buildings are just superb in my opinion and actually look fantastic whether painted or not. I like to ‘pimp’ them up a bit and in this case I had decided to paint the building and add some tile effect to the roof. Before assembly, I lightly sprayed the back of the interior pieces with black primer. This was just to keep the inside of the building black as I didn’t want the MDF showing through the windows. It’s not a necessary stage but does improve the finished model. If you plan to paint the interior, now would be a good time to do it.

Before I assembled the roof, I used the panels as a cutting guide for the textured plastic sheeting that I was going to use. It is actually ‘O’ Scale or 1/48th scale Spanish Tile textured plastic card from JTT products. It’s thin enough to easily cut with a sharp scalpel and the only thing to bear in mind is to make sure that the tiles are running the right way on the roof, ie. downwards! I then used super glue to attach the sheet to the MDF roof pieces, although a contact adhesive would have been a better option – my tube of Bostick had dried up though, so super glue did the job. I then assembled the roof as per the kit instructions.

Tile sheets glued to the roof.

Once the roof was assembled, I used 1/8th evergreen tube pack 224 to fill the corners. The picture above shows my progress, with the tube blu-tacked into place to test fit before gluing to the tile sheet. I then covered the tube with a strip of single tiles cut from the tile sheeting. At this stage, I used standard polystyrene glue as you can see from the picture. I assembled the rest of the building but did not glue the centre to the platform so that it was easier to varnish. I used the red mahaogany woodstain shown in the picture straight from the can and applied it to the MDF without any preparation. It took around four coats to give me the gloss effect that I was looking for.

Applying the varnish

In the meantime, I got on with painting the building itself. I used a Vallejo yellow ochre although the last coat was a mix of 50:50 Yellow Ochre 70913 with Beige 70917 to lighten the effect as it looked too yellow to me. I painted the door and window with the woodstain and then the timber with Vallejo Mahogany Brown 70846.

yellow ochre applied

In between coats drying I went back to my Bamboo scenery piece and once the milliput had dried, coated the base with Vallejo dark earth Textured paste. It was easy enough to apply using a small spatula and a brush to get in between the plants. Once this was dry, I painted it Vallejo Chocolate Brown 70872 and I was ready to start dry brushing!

Ready to dry brush!

I had sprayed the roof tiles black as I wasn’t keen on the terracotta effect. With hindsight a dark grey would have been a better choice. So it was a case of dry brushing the roof with a mixture of greys and the bamboo base with a chocolate Brown/Iraqi Sand mix.

Dry Brushing complete – well not quite – more grey needed!

The picture above shows the shrine assembled with the posts painted a bright red 70947 to match the Tori Gate that I have previously completed. Once I had taken this photo I decided that I needed to go heavier with the grey as too much black was showing through the roof. I had also painted the base of the house in Chocolate brown ready for some scatter. The bamboo looked OK – some additional grass scatter & texture was needed.

Temple & Bamboo finished

The Picture above shows the two pieces completed. I have added some brown ballast to the temple base and my usual mix of scatter & tufts to the Bamboo scenery. I perhaps will add another highlight to the roof tiles but I think that the lighting in the picture doesn’t show it at it’s best. So, now that these two pieces are complete, I really must get on with my Napoleonic Cavalry brigade. However, the Geisha would look nice as part of the shrine….

I think I have my next TOH project lined up….

The commercial bit.

Most of what I have used is available post free at the time of writing to most worldwide locations from my shop. Some items may go in and out of stock – we only list what we have in stock ready to dispatch- the links take you to the correct sections in my shop but if you are having trouble finding anything drop me a message.

For the range of Sarissa Japanese Buildings and other Samurai items, including the Test of Honour sets click here:

ARCANE SCENERY SAMURAI RANGE

For Glues and Adhesives;

ARCANE SCENERY ADHESIVES RANGE

For milliput

ARCANE SCENERY MILLIPUT

For Texture Paste

VALLEJO TEXTURES

For Vallejo paint

VALLEJO PAINT RANGE

For textured Plasticard

PLASTICARD, PLAIN AND TEXTURED

The woodstain came from Boyes hardware shop and the pebbles from my garden! I’m still trying to source bamboo!

The Last Samurai

No, it’s not a reference to the Tom Cruise film, although I do quite enjoy watching it, but an indication that I have now finished all of the models that came with the original Test of Honour boxed set. Yes, all 35 are complete as well as the limited edition unarmoured figure, that was the first model that I painted. I have to say that given the set was just £35.00, I think that I have already had more than value for money both in terms of modeling and painting time and fun had whilst playing the game. If there are awards for Wargames product of the year, then Test of Honour will get my vote. Now I do have a slightly vested interest, being a retailer of said product but given the number of products that I see, I dont think that it is an unreasonable claim. It certainly takes something special to prise me away from painting and playing Napoleonics! Anyway, enough of the frothing and on to the modelling.

Completed Ashigaru Bowmen -Bow strings attached!

I had completed the 20 Ashigaru figures that came with the set and had been using the metal Samurai that I had painted, the afore mentioned unarmoured samurai and a free figure that came with the ‘Painting War’ Fuedal Japaness issue. I had assembled and painted one of the plastic samurai but I wasn’t happy with the result and had put the final four figures to one side.

My usual Samurai Team. A Limited Edition Samurai from Painting war and one from the set.

That changed when I was browsing through the Test of Honour Facebook site and a couple of posts had given me fresh inspiration. I then happened upon some really nice pictures on Pinterest and the combination of ideas gave me the push to build the last samurai figures in the set. That energy coincided with a bit of free time at the weekend and in record time (for me) I completed the figures.

As there were four Samurai left, I decided to make them into two pairs of similar models. It would make painting easier but I could also either use them in a game as a pair or mix them up. Here’s the models assembled.

Assembled Samurai ready for Priming

I stole the idea of one Samurai holding a severed head. It’s pretty gruesome but will make a ‘talking point’ for the army! I also liked the Samurai with the straight arm draw – again, a pose that I had seen elsewhere. I used a Black colour scheme for the two samurai with the conical helmets and red for the other two so primed them accordingly.

Primed and ready to paint

I used slightly different techniques for each pair of models. For the guys in red, I went straight to the paint and blocked out the main colours. I was using my trusty method of block paint & quickshade to bring out the detail. I wont detail all the colours other than to say I had decided that the background colour scheme would be brown, so there is about five different shades of Vallejo brown used. Once the block painting was done, I painted the models with Dark Tone quick shade to bring out the details in the armour. I’ve also tried to add detail to the plates by dotting them with gold. Close up, this looks a bit messy but from table distance I think it’s OK! While I was in the mood for painting dots, I also added some to the tunic arms as they looked a bit bland.

Red Samurai gold dots on the armour and quick shaded.

For the Black Samurai, I went back to using a dry brush technique to bring out the detail on the armour. I used quite a light grey Vallejo 70990 and tried not to be too heavy with the drying brush. I then used 70901 pastel blue to represent the stitching. Again viewed up close, it looks a bit rough but with my eyes, it was good enough!

Black Samuraio dry brushed & light blue stitching added.

As you can see, I only added the stitch to one of the samurai – the other has a cloak and I thought that this would be enough colour without making it look too ‘busy’.

I used Dark Prussian blue for the tunics and highlighted these with Prussian blue. I had considered using a nice dark purple but I didn’t have this to hand and so went with what I had on the paint rack. I also decided to paint the face masks in Brass just to make these Samurai different from the others that I had done. Once the main colours were done, the figures began to look ready for the table.

Nearly complete

So it was just a case of touching up some of the detail and correcting any obvious errors and then adding some tufts and flowers to the base and the Last Samurai are ready to take to the table.

Samurai charge!

Black Samurai close up

You may have noticed that I don’t usually paint eyes – the exception in this case is the poor guy who has had his head chopped off – it just seemed to emphasise his fate – glaring at his mates who failed to save him!

Red Samurai close up

As well as the figures in the set, I also used some of the spare parts to make some objective markers – I have previously posted these on facebook but it’s worth showing them again.

Objective Markers

So the full Warband looks like this.

Full Samurai War Band!

My next project will be to build a bit more in the way of scenery. However, I’m going to take my time. I have a Tori gate, so the next piece will be the Temple shrine. As for figures, I think that some mounted Samurai will be next followed perhaps by the Peasant bowmen. I really enjoyed building and painting the bowmen in the TOH set so a few more wont hurt and I might just go to town converting them into more dynamic poses now that I am familiar with the kits. That all said, I have seen the next batch of figures that will be released in the TOH collection…..they are simply awesome! So the collection will continue to grow!

Ashigaru Bowmen unit

The commercial bit:

Test of Honour and the current expansion sets are all available from Arcane scenery, along with Cherry trees, Sarissa Scenery and other useful accessories. We also stock vast ranges of paint, glue, basing and scenic materials. At the time of writing it is available (aerosols excepted) post free to most worldwide locations. Click below to go to the Samurai section:

ARCANE SCENERY SAMURAI SECTION

To have a look at my Samurai Pinterest board click here:

SAMURAI PINTEREST BOARD

To keep up to date with new releases, my modelling blog and other projects, like the arcane scenery facebook page here:

ARCANE SCENERY FACEBOOK

To see the rest of my blog entries regarding Samurai and Test of Honour, click here:

SAMURAI BLOG

All of the links should open a new window, so you wont lose this page. Have fun!

Tankfest at Bovington part 2

Continuing my review of Tankfest 2017 held at Bovington, in my last blog entry I had just stopped for lunch and I was taking a tour around the Museums whilst the displays in the Arena were having a break. First stop was the main hall, where the story of Tank development is told. The very first Tank, ‘Little Willy’ is on display as well as a selection of WW1 tanks moving through into the interwar years.

Mark II Vickers Tank from the interwar years.

You soon get to the Second World War, and of course this is where tank development really starts to take off. The Germans opted for sophisticated, highly engineered designs, the Russians & USA adopting a more pragmatic approach based on manufacturing capabilities – simple and effective. The British Tank development appears to have stuttered and despite inventing the concept, our tanks lag behind, being either under gunned, under powered or both.

The A13 Mark III Cruiser tank, armed with a 2 pounder was serving in 1940.

The story of the development of the tank is expertly told, both with the many tank exhibits and Audio visual displays. It is just a joy to be able to see for yourself the different style of tanks and compare size and design.

The Zenith of German tamk design and perhaps the best tank of WW2, the Panther Ausf. G

The Zenith of German tank design and perhaps the best tank of WW2, the Panther Ausf. G

From the Second World War it was onto the Post war and Cold war period. Most boys of my age will fondly remember playing with the vehicles shown here as they were issued as Dinky toys die cast models in the 50’s & 60’s!

Ferret, Scout Armoured Car. As fast in reverse as going forward, a very necessary requirement once you have found the enemy!

Centurion MkIII

From the main hall we drifted into the latest addition to the museum, the Tiger Hall, where for the first time, you could see the Tiger 1 alongside the Tiger II (pre-production and production versions), Jadgtiger and the only Elephant that survives in the western word, temporarily on loan to the museum. Awesome just doesn’t do these tanks justice! They are magnificent! As you can see from the pictures, it was very busy here. However, the spectators help to show just how monstrous these tanks are!

Tiger and Elefant

Preproduction King Tiger & Jagdtiger

King Tiger – the new Arcane Scenery Company car… I wish!

We then stepped through to the Word War Two Hall – Wow! What a collection of vehicles. I was actually so distracted, I stopped taking photos as we were running out of time, so it was off to the the WW1 displays. War Horse to Horse power, telling the early story of the Tank in WW1 in detail.

Mark IV with Fascine

By now we were all tanked out so it was back outside for … more tanks! We quickly made our way to the Tank park to look over the vehicles that would be running later in the day. There was a nice mix of the modern and older tanks to see.

Centurion

Chieftain

Challenger and Challenger recovery vehicle

Some of the veteran tanks were also on display, unfortunately not all were able to run. The Jadganther suffering from engine trouble – not surprising for a vehicle that is 63 years old!

Jadgpanther – static display today!

We were then cleared out of the Tank park as the afternoon programme was about to start in the arena. First up, the modern recovery vehicles, followed by a parade of WW2 vehicles.

Kettenkraftrad – coping well with a churned up Arena

Panzer III – still running well!

Matilda mkI

Home guard arrives!

And on to the grand finale, a re-enactment of the D-Day landings, with plenty of smoke, flash bangs and noise!

US Forces take the high ground!

At 6.00pm, I was ready to leave the museum and having had yet another look around, although I felt that I had had my moneys worth, there was still plenty that I had not seen! The good news was that my ticket is valid for a whole year so if I can get myself back down to Bovington, I can enjoy another look around when perhaps there are not so many people around!

I hope that the pictures inspire you to visit the museum. They are just a small taste of what was on display during the day. If you can get there, it is certainly worthwhile and very inspiring. I have said that I will make my photos and videos available but so far technology is defeating me…You can see some of the video that I shot here, on Arcane Scenery’s You Tube channel:

ARCANESCENERY

I will be adding more videos and the next job will be to sort out the picture hosting – watch out for an announcement on Facebook.

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