Caribbean modelling project

I thought that I would have a bit of a change from painting the troops at Waterloo, but I still fancied something from around the same period. So just to be different, I’m going to be painting a small group of Chausseurs de Irois. These are black troops that fought for the British out in the Caribbean – Haiti specifically.  The models are from the Trent Miniatures range – They’re  fairly straight forward to paint and I’m using a uniform reference from Osprey books.

I’m hoping to make a small skirmishing force from the West Indies as it will allow me to play some interesting battles as well as putting together a small ‘What if?’ campaign. If all goes well, I can add a bit of variety to my collection, both in terms of scenery and troops!

 The actual men that formed these units were originally slaves and as I understand it the British government paid the plantation owners £3k per slave, who were then conscripted into the army for five years and at the end of their service, given their freedom. They were  treated as per ‘normal’ troops during their time in the ranks, although this may not have been much of an improvement on their previous circumstances in some cases! These Black Battalions were vital in providing manpower for the British Empire to defend it’s Colonies. Not only was there a shortage of troops to garrison the islands but the casualty rates amoungst Europeans through sickness was appalling.  The white troops that were sent out would have to endure  a very long sea voyage  and then within six weeks many would be  dead of yellow fever. So £3k might seem  expensive for a ‘recruit’, but it was  cheaper than the alternative.

And so to the painting!

1. The first colour that I used was a mahogany brown, Vallejo 70846, to do the faces, hands and feet. You will have noticed I am painting over a grey undercoat, I quite prefer a coloured undercoat to black or white and as usual with my figures, I am going to use army painter quick shade to speed things up. However, I think I will go back over the figures and add some highlights to give them more definition.

2. Next coat of paint is Vallejo german extra dark green 70896. It’s a really dark green and seems to match the Osprey picture. This has been used to paint the coat and hat plume. Next will be the black 70951, to paint the hat, belt and scabbard.

3. The picture above shows the figures a bit further into the painting process. I have used flat brown, 70984 for the musket stocks and the handle of the machete natural steel,70864,  for the buttons and musket  and brass 70801 is used to paint the belt buckle and details on the musket.  I’ve painted the trousers in off white 70820, I think it gives a nice white without being overpowering, and unusually for me I have painted the eyes of the figures using off white, and also,  the cartridge that the figure is biting. Finally, I used Vallejo light brown 70929 to add detail to the stocks and machete handles.

4. the picture above shows the figures after the quickshade & matting have been done. I always paint on Army Painter Quickshade rather than dipping it, so that I have some control over how it looks. Make sure that the quickshade is left overnight so that it really sets nicely, and then it can be matted down with army painter anti shine matt spray. I have used Vallejo 70994 dark grey to give definition to the belt and machete cover, and I did go back and highlight the plume, and also the cuffs and arms with a bit of the original green, lightened with off white. I also redid the trousers as the dip had ‘dirtied’ them down a bit too much.  On the face around the eyes and nose and on the hands and fingers, I have used mahogany mixed with  white to highlight these features.

For basing I am planning a totally different basing scheme, As they’re fighting in the Caribbean, I’d like something a bit more jungle like. So at the moment I’ve just covered the bases in sand ready for a bit of scenic work. In the next post, I’ll show you the finished figures along with details of the basing.

 

The items used so far:

Trent Miniatures Chasseurs de Irios

Renedra 20mm x20mm bases

Vallejo Paints- 801, 820, 846,  864, 896, 951, 984, 929, 994

Army Painter: Matt, Quick Shade

Basing Sand

 

 

Monday Round up

We”ll do this in a reverse order of excitement (although depending on your perspective…).

We are extending our range of Tamiya spray paints which are ideal for painting your tanks pretty speedily. We have added 14 new colours to the range, so you’re sure to find something to suit…

We have also added to our ever growing base range, again there are bases for pretty much every need…

If you need to do some filing, and who doesn’t?, we have the Flexifiles in all their glory back in stock. If you haven’t tried these you might wonder what the devil these weird things are. They are perfect for sanding in curves, and you need to do that don’t you? Is your model 2D and with no curves? Really?…Really?…Have a look at the Flexifiles

From Plastic Soldier we now have in the German Half Track kit which offers you 3 tanks for 12.95. Meaning you can swiftly develop your army in well made qaulity tanks, for relatively low cost. Also from Plastic Soldier we have the fourth varient of the Sherman tank, and in the pack, which makes five tanks, you can make two versions of this version… Never need you have that emabrrassing moment of turning up to the skirmish in the same tank

The ever popular SAGA range warband packs and blisters are in and available to buy. This game has really taken off. To the extent that we can barely keep the  dice still long enough to put them on the shelf. Buy these chaps while you can we never can predict how long we will have them!

Equally fast running off the shelf are the Trent Miniatures Battalion packs. New in are the British Black Rangers. Often these are of the when it’s gone it’s gone land so if you want them, buy them before someone else does!

And finally, from Victrix, the Athenian Armoured Hoplites. These are the best quality plastic models that the boss man has seen in quite some time. So much does he love them that he’s considered reneging on his promises to Mrs boss man and making an Athenian army…if he can think of a way to fit them in his house that is.

Personal Projects: Rob’s rats…

Though Arcane’s main theme (such as it is) is Napoleonic, as that is what the bossman loves, not everyone about these parts is a fan of the little French dude, or indeed historical gaming…

Office Ninja Rob is a fantasy gamer and is currently in the process of building his latest army for Warhammer Fantasy, a Skaven army. Rob tells us more about the army, which is currenly in progress…

Why skaven?

The models are really distinctive, everyone has elves, dwarves and orcs but skaven are unique.You also get a big army, and its not one that many people do because its allot of figures to paint. Most Skaven armies are around 200 infantry plus toys.

What is the design theme?
Basically based on medieval Japan. Its a quite interesting period of warfare. It is very different and distinctive. I guess I liked it because the people did things because it was their duty and not because some bloke in a castle said do it or I’ll chop your head off! I’m doing it because I like doing it!

 What does your army consist of?
At the moment I have got the Doomwheel, a warp lightening canon, 25 storm vermin, and 75 clan rats. So far. Plan to have eventually everything…Vermin Lord, Screaming Bell, Gutter runners, Abomination.

What is your approach to painting?
Spay them brown! As with most figures that are not of a sci-fi origin they lend themselves well to a brown base coat. This covers one of the main fur colour as well which cuts down the amount of block colours you need to apply. I’ve got a strange basing style as well, I’m using bamboo skewers to create the effect of the army moving through a forest. I will eventually add clump follage to these to finish the tree effect.

What did you play with before the skaven?
My previous army was Warriors of Chaos. It was the first amy I collected for the WFB game system so I have got a little bit of everything. There’s no particular style with them I was just getting into the game.

What else do you play?
Hordes and War Machine.  I have two armies. Cygnar classic blue good guys with lots of guns and lighting bolts, and Circle of  Orboros , which are forest druids with pet werewolves. I haven’t painted any of these yet, they are still in bare metal. As Privateer Press are an American company there are no painting requirements to play. It’s not that I won’t paint them I am just concentrating on the Skaven at the moment so I can get them tournament legal.

Any painting hints?
Colour primers. 90% of everything that you paint you can paint off a grey or brown primer. Most colours will apply well straight from the pot. I thin everything down with water to get smooth coverage, its better to put two coats on and keep the paint smooth. For paints I tend to shop around for paints I primarily use Vallejo’s model colour, a few gems from the foundry range and what’s left over from my Workshop paints. Although I haven’t used it on the skaven, quickshade, or Army Painter dip is really good, you can paint things really fast with it.

If you’d like to show off your work email us at arcanescenery@gmail.com

Monday round up

This week we have a mixture of new and new to us. As you probably know by now, Steve is on a mission to ensure that Arcane has the most complete ranges possible (its that collector thing “must have ALL!”). So some of our items this week are filling in our ranges, or in the case of some are items that have been out of the country for some time, those Chinese model makers didn’t want to share toys I guess…

The first item is new, its some bullets. Perfect for the AFV Long Tom gun the Howitzer 155mm and 203mm bullets and stowage case in 1:35 are ideal for adding some ballistic realism to your model. AFV are a very popular brand with some great reviews across the board.

From Trumpeter we have now in the  WW2 LCM 3 USN Vehicle Landing Craft, and T-34/85 1944 Tank. These are both in the 1:72 scale and are filling in our ranges, to make them all the more complete. Trumpeter kits are highly detailed and very accurate kits; ideal for the historic enthusiast modeller, but also great on the games table.

We have quite a few HobbyBoss items that have appeared this week. First of all the rather dashing Drainsine “Krasnaja Zvezda” which is a Russian diesel train with KV tank turrets. Then from the 1:35 scale we have some contributions from the other Red Army, the Chinese. There is the ZTZ 96A MBT tank, which is also known as type 88C main battle tank. Next we have the BJ2022JC YONGSHI SUV, which is a light military vehicle often used on the parade ground, and another tank the ZTZ 99 MBT. To even things up a bit we also have the American M3A1 Scout car  in its early production model, which was a scout car not really suitable for scouting, and so was often used for other duties.

Do check out our new items here and here as items are being added all the time…literally.

Monday round up

This week we have had a really big restock on Perry Miniatures and in particular some of the Napoleonic ranges.

We have from their plastic range the French Napoleonic Heavy Cavalry, and British Napoleonic Line Infantry. Whilst from their beautifully moulded metal range we have the French Heavy Cavalry Generals, Napoleon and his staff, and French Mounted Generals. If you’re not a Napoleonic fan we also have back in stock the European 1450 Mercenaries and American Civil War Cavalry.

We are really big fans, as are many people, of the Perry ranges. The brothers are master sculptors who prior to setting up their own range worked at Foundry. Their kits are not only beautifully modelled, but they also come with really helpful painting guides. You aren’t obliged to follow the guides, but if you are just starting out with Napoleonics for example, they are very useful to give you an idea of what you might want to paint them as, before you launch into buying big books of uniform guides.  Many of their plastic box sets come with a multitude of heads to allow you to have variety in your troop.

Also new in stock, and something that has confused a few people, so we thought we should mention it is the Saga Skraelings. If you haven’t read much Viking history in your life you might not be familiar with these chaps. They are essentially the Native Americans that the Vikings reputedly met when visiting Greenland. They come with their own battleboard and rules, and though history suggests only the Vikings really met them, you can play them against any of the other Saga Armies.

Check out our newest items in our store!

Ebob and Fray Bentos

We love hearing from our readers and shoppers, and this week’s hobby post is from Ebob. Ebob has to take the award for  the speediest hobby completion, taking just a weekend from purchase to completion.

Basing his scene on the Battle of Fray Bentos, which was not a battle over unappetising pies, but a battle involving a tank nicknamed Fray Bentos in the First World War. Ebob has made use of this Emhar model, which he reports was good to put together though the rails were tricky as they are in three parts.

And this is what he has produced…

If you want to know more about the battle there’s a couple of sites that might be of use …here and here.

If you’ve got a project you’d like to tell us about please do so by commenting or using the contact form!

Monday Round up

Do you like tanks? You do? Well do we have an update for you. Especially if you like your tanks BIG. We have lots of new tanks, reappearing tanks and range extensions. On mission “Complete the range” we have extended many of our 1:35 scale ranges. We have so many tanks in this round  up that they are by country…

Russians

There’s the Zvedva T 34/85  and T34/76 and T90

 

Germans

The VK4502 Vorne from HobbyBoss, the Tamiya PzrKpfWgn IV, the HobbyBoss Land Wasser Schlepper with a rather awesome grin (who doesn’t want a smiling tank?) and MRAV Boxer. Then from Armourfast, tanks that are so good even the pernickety folk in Military Models seem to like them, we have the StuIG 33B and Panzer IV D; not only are they great kits, you get two tanks in each kit. And to complete your tank there is the Tamiya Tank Crew. If you prefer your vehicles a bit smaller there is the BMW motorbike.

 

Britishers

From Tamiya there is the Crusader Mark I/II and Universal Carrier. And from Miniart, a new but already very popular company, we have the Dingo Mark III Scout Car.

Chinese

The ZLC2000 Airborne IFV (does that mean they fly this thing?!) from HobbyBoss

Uncle Sam

The Tamiya M36 , HobbyBoss M4A3E8 with its terrifying mouth, and Armourfast M36

 

But if tanks aren’t your thing, don’t despair, we have plenty of new items for you too.

From Trent Miniatures we have some new ‘battalion’ packs. Its on quotes, because whilst some are actual battalions, it is hard to say the revolting slaves are a battalion. More of a large group of rather angry people, but that’s a bit lengthy to stick on the box. The revolting slaves and the consular garde are our favourites from the new packs, and are ideal for extending your Haitian revolutions or late eighteenth century forces.

If your tastes are a little more Wild West than West Indies then the new bank from the range of wooden buildings  may suit you perfectly. As would the Crusader Woodland Indians.

For Saga fans, and we know there are many of you, we have a new range of counters, with designs for each of the different armies, so you can keep track of where you are in the game easily. Also for keeping track we have measuring sticks for the armies, so that you can easily identify possible attacks without having to carry a geometry set around with you.

From Strelets, who are great for those really unusual armies, we have some new Swedes, French and Romans. Its worth a browse through the Strelets category just to see the diversity!

 

Till next time, happy modelling!

 

Just a note…

Hi folks,

We’re having a little blog rearrangement. The Friday round up will now be the Monday round up, and mostly the posts that were on Mondays will now be on Fridays…mostly.

We thought we should let you know just in case you thought you were going mad.

🙂

Monday gaming post

By Mick Rood

Hello and welcome to the Sturm Uber……………. Blog, a periodical visit to the Flames of War tournaments held at Maelstrom games in Mansfield and strongly supported by Arcane scenary through providing prizes such as the MDF buildings in our range and particularly the popular Zvesda 1/100 vehicles from the ‘Art of Tactic’ game. Not specifically intended for Flames of War but the scale of the vehicles and aircraft is perfect for the game. Sadly, the infantry being at 1/72nd scale aren’t appropriate, unless of course you play FOW at that scale. Just in case you didn’t know Flames of War covers WWII battles mainly intended for 15mm scale but playable in most scales although probably a bit unsuitable for 28mm where more skirmish/squad level rules would be appropriate. The Flames of War ruleset is supported by the vast Battlefront range of figures and army books covering a large part of the 1939-1945 conflict, the book and figure releases come hard and fast.

Sturm Uber………….was originally set up by the lads at Maelstrom when they supported the Battlefront range but some trade differences meant that stopped temporarily. Whilst Maelstrom had a business difference they knew FOW was very popular amongst its club members and wished the players should continue. They invited Myself and Tommy Brown, regular ‘Flames’ players, to maintain their FOW competitions on their calendar. So the ‘ReluctantConscripts’ were born and our first venture was Sturm Uber Europa set in the Mid War (1942-1943) period covering the War in Russia, Western Desert, Tunisia and Early Italy/Sicily.

Considering the theatres and terrain is a considerable part of the pleasure of Flames of War. It has simple but comprehensive and effective terrain rules that allows players to enjoy good detailed terrain without loss of playabilty. Potentially a competitor can find themselves on the open desert or in the claustrophobic horror of Stalingrad. The ideal, of course, is to have the right mix of opponent in the right theatre but competitions tend to spread history somewhat so that isn’t guaranteed.

Sturm Uber Europa in June 2011 was Mine and Tommy’s first joint effort and our aims were to maintain the quality of the Maelstrom events and appeal to the wide competition circuit. Saturday morning saw 30+ players landed at Maelstrom for the weekend and 5 full games. The day always starts with briefing and doughnuts as the draw is concluded. It is always the intention not to have, so called, ‘Blue on Blue’ games where you play the same nationality as yourself. The quirks of army choice don’t always mean a perfect balance but the lads feel that the best enjoyment comes out of historical faceoffs where the uniqueness of each nation/force is brought to the fore. Flames of War cleverly brings out the traits of each nations fighting style, this is further enhanced with particular unit traits.

Maelstrom sorted out the food for us with their expanding kitchen facilities and looked after the drinks side with the very busy bar. I would like to add in a thank you to Maelstrom at this point, not only is the venue excellent for this type of event, the staff on food, at the bar and in the shop are always there to help with Gary Moore and all of them working their b**ts off to look after us.

The event includes awards for best sportsman and best painted army, the competition for these prizes was very close and shows the ethos of most players to make the experience enjoyable for BOTH players. The painting standards were excellent and the skills of all the entrants to be admired. We don’t allow unpainted/unrepresentative figures except in the most exceptional circumstances. Take some time to check the pics of the various forces.

Fierce fighting ensued and here are pictures of some of the excellent armies showcased at Sturm Uber Europa.

Strum Uber Deutschland.

November saw the second outing and Sturm Uber Deutschland continued the WWII story covering the Late War (Late 1943, 1944) with terrain for Normandy, Italy, Russia and Poland. Although this period of the war saw vast distances quickly covered, the hardest fighting had bogged down into city ruins, Normandy bocage and Italian hills and vineyards. The big breakthroughs often came after weeks of gruelling fighting. This can produce some fantastic terrain where the detail is increased as the terrain closed down for these bitter fights.

Sturm Uber Deutschland saw an increased turnout and once again the sponsors had been very generous allowing us to give prizes and a free raffle so that everyone left with something.

Once again, Gary and the Maelstrom crew excelled themselves.

So that was the Sturm Uber series in 2011. We will repeat the June and November events as Mid War and Late War but will start the series in March with Sturm Uber Dunkirchen. The first Early War competition to be run by the Reluctant Conscripts and at Maelstrom

STURM UBER DUNKIRCHEN MARCH 2012

36 Players from all over the UK journeyed to Mansfield to take part in our latest Early War event. It was a great weekend, great players, great atmosphere and great food. This was our swansong to version 2 of the Flames of War rules and it saw us out in great style. We had Polish cavalry demolishing artillery parks, trains chugging up and down tracks, hordes of Italian & British tanks and the surgical strike force of the German Heer.
Steve Charlton won not only Best General but also Best Painted Axis army with his lovely grey panzers. Kevin Brewin won Best Axis General and Jez Evans won Best Allied General. Ian Mann ran away with Most Sporting while Mark Mainwaring won Best Painted Allied and Richard Heath deservedly won Best Play Provided Table with his Warsaw board including poster booths and cars.

 

Shown above and below are road sets provided for us by Arcane Scenery and they also stock the river shown and the buildings below, manufactured by Sarissa Precision…

The Panzers batter the Allied defence lines

Richard Heath’s fantastic Warsaw city scape

NEXT EVENT JUNE 9/10 2012

Monday Models

So we have a couple of projects we’d like to mention. That aren’t Arcane projects.

Firstly Kevin Hill from Texas again, with his Western town layout.

Kevin apparently feels he shouldn’t have painted this in that Cola red, because it looks a bit too barn like, but I rather like it. He made the hay bales using a paper cup and glue.

We’d also like to direct you toward something that we found on the internet, not one of our customers, heck we don’t even know the chap. Though we’d quite like to, because we are incredibly impressed. Curos is a modeller based in southern Spain, in Badajos, who has some AMAZING dioramas of Trafalgar and the Peninsula War. We love those ships. They are beautiful. You should take a look at both sites. Be amazed people.

Friday round up

This week’s entry is brought to you to the sound of trashy FM, so if lyrics from what my mother still insists on calling ‘The Hit Parade’ creep in, my apologies.

After a bit of a delay we now have Conflix, Pegasus and Emhar stocks coming in. HOWEVER, the supplier themselves are awaiting imports and these are due in May.

On a similar vein, but we actually have these. Tauro. Yes Tauro AV7s and Fiats. We have them. After two years. No I really did say 2 years. I think they made the poor little tanks come by their own power frankly. But we have them, at last. I’d grab one while you can frankly.

Another back in stock is the Tamiya…*deep breath* …Schwerer Zugkraftwagen 18t und Tielfladeanhänger für PzKpFw Sd Ah 116…which is a bit of a mouthful even by German standards. For those not familiar with lengthy Germanic words it is a half track with transporter. It doesn’t come with the tank though. It makes a very large model which even if not used in game will certainly intimidate any visitors to the house. It is one of several LARGE kits we sell all of whom are fit to intimidate any window sales dude who might foolishly decide to enter your abode.

Finally we have increased our Vallejo range to include new textures, colours and accessories.

Woo, managed the whole post with no Jessie J lyrics creeping in

Mondays Rule

Continuing the Friday round up we have more new and shiny things…

For Saga we have the Northern Fury supplement with four new battleboards-Scots, Anglo-Saxons, Bretons and the rather bemusingly named Jomsvikings. If the Viking sorts take your fancy you might like to consider our special offer of Vikings and ship

Firefight is a new skirmish rules set, primarily designed for larger scale (1/32, 1/35) which uses only a few figures, and thus is ideal if you are just dipping your toes into World War 2 or bigger models. And and and…if you are just trying out we have the ideal set for you. The Firefight rules plus Airfix US and German figures, and the dice all together, an Arcane Scenery exclusive. All set to go in mere minutes.

And finally in the new rules theme something a tad more modern Day of the Rangers: Somalia 1993.

We’d love to know how you get along with these rule sets and it would be great to have some of your battle reports here on the blog!