Modelling Tips & Ideas – Page 5 – ARCANE Scenery and Models

O.C.D? – No, just organised.

Good grief! What happened to November? I was supposed to have finished my Portuguese brigade by now. As usual, life has got in the way, and as we approach the ‘Season to be Jolly’ there is less opportunity to sneak off to the garage and get some painting done. I guess the clue to my progress has been in my blog – no pictures of Portuguese in the last few posts. Mind you, I have had some good wargames with my friends and as I will show you, I have nearly finished the complete regiment of the 23rd Portuguese line infantry.

In the meantime, chaos theory has proved it’s existence in my games room (garage) and the amount of stuff lying around is preventing me from actually using my gaming table. Quite how it all got there is a mystery. It was time for a tidy up again. I find that too much clutter is just a distraction. The first task was to get rid of all the sprues with spare bits from the Portuguese Infantry that I haven’t used. I just cannot bring myself to throw away anything that might be of use in a future, as yet, unimagined project, so like most modellers I have a fairly comprehensive ‘bits box’ or rather a collection of bits boxes. They actually date back to the start of my hobby in the 70’s. I kid you not! Here is a picture of one box:

My early bits box – spot the Almark Japanese Infantry figure..

The sharp eye’d amongst you will see crew members from the Airfix Dennis Fire Engine, Old Bill bus, the bits from an Airfix Highlander and some racing car crew, some of whom found life as converted snow speeder crew for a star wars diorama that I built. Part of the fun when building from scratch or converting was to rake through the bits box in search of a piece that you knew would be just right if only you could find it. I decided that some sort of organisation was required. So my sophisticated solution was to put all the little bits into a plastic bag…

My first attempt at organisation – seperate out the small bits!

Even now, it’s fun to look through the heap. Oh look! There’s a frozen Han Solo from the Boba Fett ship that I built. Clearly, there must be a better way. As I re started historical war gaming, I needed a new system for spares. So I treated myself to a set of mini drawers – I now had the height of sophistication in bits boxes. A separate drawer for Dark ages, a drawer for Napoleonic Heads, a drawer for right arms – you get the picture.

The New Bits system!

However, there is still a slight problem. Never mind the space that the drawers started to take up, I have to remember what’s in each drawer and finding the right arm (literally!) is still a faff! And so, I now introduce my latest innovation in the world of bits boxes!

Zip lock bags and post it note technology!

Oh yes, zip lock bags and post it notes are some of my favourite stationery essentials, so why not combine the two and use them to catalogue the spare bits as I cut them from the sprue. As you can see, the hand writing is a bit dodgy, as is the spelling – I meant ‘Barretina’ – but once they are placed in a card index box, I will always be able to locate the bit that I want…..

And so back to the Portuguese. The regiment is taking shape and here is just a quick preview:

23rd Ameida Regiment take shape.

As you can see, I have included a couple of British Officers as part of the command, which I think adds a bit of ‘flavour’ to the regiment and is a fair reflection of the composition of the Portuguese Army in the late Peninsular period. Once the basing is complete, I’ll post some better pictures of the whole regiment. In the meantime I’m off to write some Christmas cards. Bah! Humbug!

Portuguese Men of War.

My attention has been very much on domestic and nursing duties this past week and so my hobby has taken a back seat. That said, I have still found the time to sneak off and get some painting done and so I have made some progress on my latest batch of figures, Napoleonic Portuguese Infantry. As I have mentioned previously, I have painted these for an article that will appear in this months Wargames illustrated, issue 349. If you would like a copy, it will be available, post free from my shop here:

WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED

Wargames Illustrated 349

As you can see from the article, I had painted a full battalion as well as part painting another battalion to show the various steps that make up the process of batch painting these troops.

Painting Portuguese article

The article is entitled, The Perils of Painting Portuguese, not because the figures themselves were difficult to paint but because of the problems that I had in getting good reference materials to confirm the various colours. To find out more you will have to purchase the magazine but I am willing to share some of my references here:

https://uk.pinterest.com/horzawood/portuguese-napoleonic-uniforms/

It’s a link to my pinterest boards and if you are interested in painting some Portuguese infantry, I hope that you will find it useful. If you haven’t come across this site before it is a very useful way of gathering reference material for a project and if you check out the rest of my boards you will have a clue as to what I am interested in painting next!

So back to my work bench and as you can see, I have finished and based the Infantry:

Portuguese Line Infantry

And the command group are nearly finished. They are just awaiting the last touches of paint, a coat of quick shade, matt varnish and then basing!

Command Group still W.I.P.

I’m afraid that the pictures were taken in haste for this blog post – once the battalion is complete I’ll post some better ones! That said, Portuguese infantry may be occupying my work bench for some time to come. The reason being is that I have decided to build the full regiments for both the 11th Penamacor from the Central Division and the 23rd Ameida Regiment which were brigaded together in the Peninsular War. Each regiment consisted of two Battalions, the first battalion carrying the Royal Standard, the second battalion carrying the Regimental flag. So in all, I will need 96 figures, which means that I have another 48 to paint. I have decided that I might as well complete these whilst I am ‘in the groove’ so to speak, rather than come back and of them later. It will also force me to do a bit more research as to which battles they fought in and who they fought alongside.

Portuguese Infantry in movement tray

So there will be plenty to keep me busy as we go into the Autumn and the clocks go back! My target is to have a full brigade of Portuguese, complete with Cacadores as skirmishers and some artillery support. Unless of course I get tempted elsewhere…..

Doing Up The House.

Following the completion of my Irish Warband it was time to move on to a new project. I planned that this would be some scenery for my Saga games and rather than dive into the next pile of miniatures that are waiting on the painting table, I thought that now would be a good time to try my hand at some scenery making. The goal is to have some generic scenery for each period that I am gaming in, so that when I am off to the wargames club, I can just pick up the appropriate boxes and I’m ready for battle. I also thought that having some nice scenery would also improve the look of our games. I dont expect to reach Wargames Illustrated standards but having scenery that is relevant to the game will improve the visual appeal. I have some nice Sarissa Precision Dark Age buildings that I am working on at the moment. Previous blog posts have shown the first of these buildings that I have completed, the A frame Hut, in the background of my Irish figures.

Fiana, Kern and A frame house.

My next building was to be the Timber Framed House J14. I covered the roof in ‘Teddy Bear Fur’ thatch, to match the A Frame hut and then coated the fur in PVA glue to flatten it down and stiffen it up. Teddy Bear Fur is just one way of making roofing for these buildings. Gary, from March Attack, the designer for the range, prefers to use pan scourers as roofing and they look just as good, if not more effective. Other choices include flannel cloth or even coco fibre hanging basket liners. I think that it is a question of taste as they can all look realistic. I went with the teddy bear fur primarily because I had some to use up! I think that it’s worth pointing out that the Sarissa Buildings look very good with just a coat of paint, I just fancied trying a few ideas to pimp them up! So having covered the roof, the next stage was to add the timber framing.

To do this I used some standard matchsticks. I didn’t actually use the headless hobby variety – we do sell these in the shop in bags of 2000 for just £2.99 – but as I was at home, I resorted to a box of Swan Vesta’s that were handy! I used the etching on the building as a guide and cut them to the right length. It is then a simple matter to glue them to the building using PVA glue.

Sarissa Dark Age House j14 with framework added

You need to gently sand down the tops to let the roof fit nicely but it is a relatively simple job to do. Once the frame work was glued into place and dried I used Vallejo Dark Earth Paste to represent the mud or daub filling in the panels. Actually, you can use any of the Vallejo pastes as you will be painting over them At a push Polyfilla or a similar product will do! I used a squared off coffee stirrer to apply the paste, leaving the frame work showing. You can see that I used the stirrer to roughen up the paste to get more of a texture.

Applying the daub!

Once the paste had dried the next stage is to paint the building. I confess that I had made a slight mistake here. It would have made more sense to paint the inside of the building black before assembly or even afterwards, before I started to add the framework. As it is. I forgot and it doesn’t really show.

Dark Age house with daub.

The picture above shows the effect achieved before painting and the picture below show how the building looks from the end with the door.

Dark Age house viewed from the end – note door is left unpainted at this stage.

Once everything was dry, I painted the building with my favourite brown, Vallejo Chocolate Brown, including the door. I then dry brushed everything with a couple of lighter coats, using Iraqi Sand to lighten the brown on the panels of mud. Now, I’m no expert on Dark age buildings, so I wasn’t sure whether to paint the panels in a lighter colour or even whitewash them but I decided that they were best left a dry mud colour – this village hadn’t received a visit from the travelling Dulux Salesman! The next step was to paint the timber framing. I choose a very dark brown. Vallejo German Camouflage Black Brown was a good contrast. I used a light grey to lighten this and then gave the building, in particular, the timber frame, a gentle highlight using the dry brush technique. The final task was to pick out the door hinges with black and to add some black & grey to the smoke hole in the roof.

The finished dark age house, complete with new owner.

The building is now ready for the table and my village now consists of two houses. I have a couple more to finish in a similar style and that should give me a nice little settlement for my Dark Age war bands to fight over! Whilst I was thinking about other scenery that I could use, I remembered that Arcane scenery has it’s own small range of Neolithic monuments. Although not specifically designed for the dark ages, they seem to be useful additions to the table top and will add a bit of atmosphere! Here’s a couple of the pieces:

Neolithic Stone Circle

Neolithic Burial Chamber

If you are interested, the DeeZee scenery range can be found here: DeeZee Scenery

So, my aim of building some new scenery for my wargames has moved forwards. If you would like to undertake a similar project, I would recommend that you visit the March attack site for some very useful Tutorials of how to get the best from the Sarissa Precision MDF buildings. Just a very simple paint job will give superb results as Gary demonstrates in these PDF’s

http://www.marchattack.co.uk/Painting%20Building%201.pdf

http://www.marchattack.co.uk/Painting%20Laser%20Cut%20Terrain.pdf

Yet more Irish!

I have just about completed enough troops for an Irish Saga warband but the OCD part of my personality has taken over and I’ve decided to finish painting the rest of the figures in the Footsore Dark Ages Irish range. I did need to complete a warlord figure and was trying to decide between the Brian Boru set, The Irish warlord and Standard bearer or the Irish Command group. In the end I decided to paint all of them and have done with it! I also have a priest to add in, so there is another eleven figures on the work bench.

Irish Command ready to paint.

As you can see, there is plenty of work to do! With the Standard Bearer block painted and the chain mail dry brushed on the other figures, it will be a couple of weeks before these are table ready. As well as cleaning these figures up ready for painting, I have been busy elsewhere. I mentioned that there were another eight warriors to finish and these are now complete and based. If you read my post last week, you would have noticed that there was something missing from the first unit of warriors – Shields! Well these are now painted and attached and my war band is close to completion.

Irish warriors ready for battle

Here is a view of both units with the Slingers in the back ground.

Irish warriors and Slingers

I’ve kept the shield designs fairly simple for these boys but I am thinking of going with shield transfers for the Lords so that I can give them a more affluent look! I also may resort to a decal for the banners. There’s no doubt that they look superb. My only concern is that in the days of Dark Age Warriors, graphic design and silk screen printing was not a skill set possessed by the local banner maker! So I may rely on my own free hand designs, which, whilst they will be more primitive, may look more appropriate. I suspect that I will use both methods. Perhaps use the decals for the Brian Boru and Irish Command set and my own freehand design for the Saga warlord. The next photograph shows my war band as it is now.

Dark Age Irish Saga war band

You may notice that I have used a slightly different tray for the four Irish Heroes. I’m thinking of using this style of tray in the game. I know that once combat is joined it makes more sense to move your figures individually, but these trays may be useful at the start of the game to make the movement faster & keep unit cohesion. So with 12 Slingers, 16 warriors and 8 Hearth guard armed with Dane Axes, I can comfortable muster a 5 point Saga war band. The additional 4 Hearth guard ( Irish Heroes) that I have painted can either double up as another Hearth Guard unit or as two Curadh and the Warlord. Once the leaders that are on the work bench are complete, I will comfortably have 6 points, more than enough for the average club game. I haven’t forgotten that the Irish are allowed to take war dogs! That is another unit on the back burner though. I have the dogs, I just need to get them converted and painted.

Finally, I mentioned last week that I was working on some scenery. I have another three Sarissa dark age buildings that I am working on. Although not specifically Irish, the idea is that they will represent a small settlement so that I can use them with either my Anglo Danes, Irish or the next Army that I plan to do, Anglo Saxons. I wanted to add to the MDF finish to make them look a bit more well worn, so as with the A frame hut that I have completed, I have added the teddy bear fur roofs. I also intend to add detail to the timber and daub walls and have started to detail the walls. However, my focus has been on painting, so I have not made very much progress. My plan is to complete the figures in the war band and then I will build the scenery. It’s going to be a busy September!

Sarissa Building with roof added and detailing started.

Rules for Old Wargamers with Short Attention Spans!

Having played Black Powder for some years now, our group has been looking for a set of Skirmish rules for the Black powder era that would enable us to game using a limited number of figures. We all have quite large Napoleonic Armies but when it comes to, say, the AWI, French Indian Wars and similar periods, some of us are still playing catch up with painting. So skirmish rules are the way to go. We had been playing Muskets and Tomahawks but in truth, the groups enthusiasm to learn a new set of rules was on the wane. The other issue was that we were playing M&T’s fairly irregularly so the rules just weren’t sticking in our brains….

muskets & tomahawks from Studio Tomahawk.

The first Skirmish game that actually introduced me to the hobby was ‘Sharp Practice’. With the launch of the new version, complete with the cards, this seemed to be the answer to our problems. The Sharp Practice rules set has a depth to it that really encourages you to develop characters and scenarios and provides a ‘rich’ game play ( no pun intended) that develops into a story line of it’s own. Unfortunately, we encountered the same issues. Although we were familiar with the rules mechanism, the lack of experience and consistency meant that we were having to constantly refer back to the rule book to resolve queries. Of course, it didn’t help that half of our group had sort of read the new rules and the other half played in blissful ignorance, happy to do what ever they could get away with!

The group decided that we needed a simple set of rules that would allow us to play a skirmish game on a Thursday evening that would not tax the brain too much and would be something that could be read quickly and absorbed. Step forward, Andy Callan, veteran rules writer, who volunteered to put the two rules sets together and simplify them down to two sides of A4 paper. Andy has been writing rules and war games scenarios for many years. His rules set ‘Loose Files and American Scramble’ appeared in the very first edition of Wargames Illustrated ( why the hell we aren’t using these at the club is another mystery to me…..) and his current joint project with Peter Dennis is the Paper Soldiers rules sets & armies published by Helion Books that I have previewed here

The rules are not an attempt to replace the other two rules sets. In fact, I would suggest that either are a mandatory addition to war gamers collections but Andy’s rule set serves two purposes. Firstly, it is a quick, playable set of rules that will allow you to explore either a Black powder period or campaign without committing to vast numbers of figures. Secondly, the rules are a good introduction to Card driven activation games. Many players are not familiar with this style of play and are more used to the U Go – I Go turn sequence of most rules sets. The card driven rules activate units in a random sequence on either side. This can be frustrating to players that like to implement carefully made ‘chess like’ strategies. However, if you would like a more ‘cinematic’ type of game, with tense stand offs and risky gambles, the card mechanism is one of the best ways to achieve this. If you do like the way Andy’s abridged rules play and would like more detail, including army lists, either of the two rule sets, Muskets & Tomahawks or Sharp Practice are ideal. Once again, I would heartily endorse both!

So if you fancy a go at this style of play, the rules are contained here in a PDF in the link below. Hopefully, if I have the technology working correctly, you should be able to click the link and down load these for free. If you are worried about how to make the cards, there are a couple of simple solutions. First of all, just cut them out of card board – an empty cereal packet will do – remember to write on the blank side though… If you prefer a less ‘Blue Peter’ approach, use an old deck of cards and place stickers on them with the Officers names, and the other miscellaneous card types written on. If you don’t have an old ceck of cards, pop down to the local pound shop and get one. You should be able to pick them up for a pound….. Anyway, I hope that you will give the rules a go and have fun playing them:

SharpTomahawks

An Irish Saga

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

Irish Slingers from Footsore primed with leather brown and Flesh added

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

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

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

Figures repainted & highlighted

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

Irish Slingers in cover

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

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

teddy bear fur roofing being glued in place.

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

Roof coated in glue & primed

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

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

32nd Cornwall Regiment now with flags!

British Napoleonic Spare Wheel Wagon

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

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

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

The main components laid out ready for assembly

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

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

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

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

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

Wheel wagon and Limber

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

Wheel carriage rear view

Wheel Carriage side view

Austrian Artillery Fusilier Battalion

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

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

Austrian Artillery Fusiliers Firing

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

Austrian Artillery Fusiliers Firing – rear view

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

Austrian Artillery Fusiliers in march column

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

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

Round Base, Square hole.

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

Maroon skirmishers

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

Irish Slingers undercoated and based for painting

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

four to a base

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

movement trays make movement easier

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

Irish Slingers will form line!

What are you reading then?

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

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

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

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

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

Snow Bears!

I am not easily distracted when focused on a project. In fact, I pretty much stick to what I have started, regardless of all the shiny new toys that I see every day. However, a casual enquiry at the recent Salute show set my mind working and before I could stop myself, the workbench was cleared and I was off on a complete tangent. The enquiry was, ‘Do you sell Polar Bears?’ I answered that we didn’t but that we did have some nice cave bears that could be painted white. Which made me wonder why we hadn’t done this before.

So as soon as I had a free weekend, I had a go at painting the three DeeZee bears as ‘Snow Bears’. We can’t describe them as polar bears as their heads are a bit on the large size, although the bear attacking looks almost sleek enough. The painting process was surprisingly quick. Once any mould lines had been removed, I primed the bears with a Model Mates Light grey primer.

DeeZee Cave bears primed and ready for painting.

I had already decided to put them onto one base so that they could be display models for future shows. I decided to try a slightly different painting technique for each bear. For the Bear attacking, the one on the right, I first used a Vallejo beige to dry brush the undersides and shadows on the bear. This would give that slight yellowish tinge that you often see on Polar bears. I then used Vallejo Ivory, followed by Silver grey, followed by off white and finally Vallejo white in successive dry brush coats to build up the high lights. For the prowling Cave bear, the one on the left, I simply lightly sprayed him in white over the grey undercoat!

The first two cave bears painted as snow bears.

The details were quite straight forward. I painted the eyes, nose, mouth, ears, claws and paw pads in Vallejo Black. The tongue was painted Beige red and shaded with a brown wash. I added some dark greys around the snout and finally the teeth were tidied up with Vallejo white.

Three Bears!

When it came to the third bear, the rearing bear, I followed the same process used for the attacking bear but shortened down. I still used the Vallejo Beige as a shade colour but went straight to the white dry brush to save time. The base ground work was done initially with milliput ( to stop the base from warping) and then covered in polyfilla to get the snow effect. I also added some Arcane scenery ‘Snow and Ice’ rocks to the base to add a bit of detail.

Base work done.

The final touch was to add some Noch Snow effects to the base and that was my little project complete. A bit of a change from my usual Napoleonic addiction but good fun. I think that if you are looking for a Snow Bear for your games – Frost Grave springs to mind – then the DeeZee bears will look great!

The finished Snow Bears

Another view of the completed Base

32nd Foot ready for action!

Well, the drive to finish the troops in my latest battalion continues, although I do feel that I may be rushing things just to get the battalion finished. Continuing from where I left off last week, the next stage in the process was to paint the Belt plates, bayonet scabbard tip and musket plate in Brass, Vallejo 70801. I also added the buttons in steel and painted the waterbottle belt with Leather brown 70871.

Water bottle strap & belt plate added

At this stage I then turned my attention to finishing the back packs and equipment. This involved yet more white paint and the neutral grey 70992 for the blanket rolls. I also snipped them off of the sprue and tidied up the black and any other flaws caused by the cutting. A bit of a tricky operation but on balance , I do think that I have saved time by painting the back packs separately.

The quartermaster issues finished back packs!

The final stage of painting was then to tidy up any major paint overruns, touch up the grey trousers with neutral grey where necessary and add the white line to the bottom of the coats. I also painted the bases Vallejo chocolate brown, 70872 in preparation for basing the unit later and of course, attached the back packs using super glue. Polystyrene cement wont work too well because of the coat of paint- this is the only time that I would use super glue on a plastic figure!

back packs on & bases painted.

Now comes the tricky bit. I paint the troops with Army painter Quick shade. I prefer the dark tone although I know that some will say that the Strong tone, which is more of a brown colour, would work better with the red coats. You could also use an ink wash at this stage, it would give you a similar result but the Strong tone has a varnish element to it which makes the figures more durable when on the table top and it is my intention that this unit will see plenty of action!

Dark tone applied

The next step is then to matt varnish the figures with Army painter anti shine. This again, can be a tricky operation as varnish can be troublesome so I tend to use a light coat at first. I’ll then give them a second light coat after I have based them. That said, I may just resort to using Vallejo Matt varnish and brush it on carefully where required.

army painter anti shine first coat

At this stage they are just about table ready but there is a couple of things to do before the basing. I am going to re highlight some of the white to really make the cross belts stand out on the table and I’m going to paint the bayonets and buttons bright silver. This is also the time to have a last look at the figures and correct any obvious errors in painting. This may seem a step too far but it does help to tidy up the figures. It’s always a difficult decision to decide when a batch of figures are complete. Each time I look at them I can see something else that could be improved but at some point they have to move off of the painting desk and onto the gaming table! As you can see from the picture above, I wll base the figures in groups of four on 40mm x 4omm square renedra plastic bases. I like the renedra bases as they are not too thick and provided you are careful with the basing material, there will be no ‘warpage’. That said, If I was basing metal figures I do prefer thicker MDF bases. It’s all down to personal choice!

The 32nd foot on their bases!

You can see from the picture that I am nearly finished. I used the Vallejo Dark earth textured paste to mount the figures on their bases. There is no need to use glue. Just spread the paste all over the bases and then press the figures into the paste. I then used a cocktail stick to blend the paste over the bases. The textured paste is about the right colour but if you want to, you can paint it. I gave it a quick dry brush to bring out the texture using flat earth, Vallejo 70983 lightened with Iraqi Sand. The final touch was to add some green scatter and some tufts of Gamers grass to add some interest to the bases.

32nd Foot ready for action!

And so it is on to the next job, painting the command group. These are metal figures and are beautiful sculpts. I will take a bit more time with these, so it will be a week or so before the whole Battalion is really ready but for now, the troops are done! To be fair, not the best batch of troops that I have painted but for me, certainly the fastest. I think that I have spent about 12 hours in total on the 18 figures, which is about 40 minutes a figure.

Next up, the command group, primed and ready for painting!

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Category Archives: Modelling Tips & Ideas

O.C.D? – No, just organised.

Portuguese Men of War.

Doing Up The House.

Yet more Irish!

Rules for Old Wargamers with Short Attention Spans!

An Irish Saga

British Napoleonic Spare Wheel Wagon

Austrian Artillery Fusilier Battalion

Round Base, Square hole.

What are you reading then?

Snow Bears!

32nd Foot ready for action!

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