Whats on the work bench? – Page 8 – ARCANE Scenery and Models

Cry God for Harry!

My War of the Roses project gathers pace once more and before I update you with my latest progress (and explain the quote in the blog title – not WOTR, I know!), I would like to say a special thank you to Martin Stephenson and Vexillia. Martin has very kindly helped with my research into the heraldry and in particular, the livery colours that I should be using on my troops. His web site Vexillia, is great source of reference and if any one else is embarking on a similar project, they could do no better than to visit Vexillia. I also bought three lovely little reference books from Vexillia. They are packed with information and well worth the money. Even better the service from Vexillia was first class, with both of my orders being sent out in a day and received very promptly. Thank you Martin.

Three invaluable references from Feezy Water Publications, available form the Vexilia web store.

Three invaluable references from Feezy Water Publications, available from the Vexilia web store.

I was also intrigued to note that two of the books have been co-authored by Dave Lanchester. I know Dave from having a stand right next to him at the Partizan shows at Newark and I had not realised how involved Dave was in the Lance and Long Bow society. I suppose the clue should have been that the Lance and Long Bow stand is usually situated right opposite us at Partizan and Daves Partner is often on the desk….Doh! I will be having a slightly different conversation with him at the next Partizan show. Instead of bugging him about books on the subject of Napoleonic Warfare in the Caribbean, it will be nice to chat about WOTR in between customers!

Harry Hotspur fly’s the flag!

One of the joys of my hobby is the historical research into the background of the characters and battles that took place. However, much as I take this seriously and spend a great deal of my leisure time reading, visiting battlefields and museums, when it comes to the painting and modelling, I am happy to take a less rigorous approach. My collection of figures are painted to the best of my ability to represent a generic force from the period that I am interested in rather than a specific unit or army in a specific battle. I’m just not into button counting and although I do like to get the detail as correct as my research allows, I am happy to go ‘wildling’!

You’ve given us the wrong armour and livery!!!

The figures above are a case in point. I have recovered them from the bottom of my lead pile and repainted them to be part of a siege force that will include a trebuchet model that I recently acquired. I suspect that the armour is more suited to a period earlier than the WOTR. The livery colours are a nod in the direction of Warwick (EDIT! whoops! just rereading my books after I wrote this post and I’ve actually used Talbots livery…. Ah well, it will still do as I like the red and black!), for no other reason than there is a superb working replica of a trebuchet that I have seen in action at Warwick castle!

Another batch of Men at arms ready for basing.

Meanwhile, I continue to work my way through the Perry’s Foot Knight set, with another 6 Foot knights completed and waiting for the basing to be completed and six more foot knights well underway.

The final 6 foot knights in armour – just the detail to complete.

In the back ground of the above picture are the 12 foot knights that have tabards over their armour. Completing these will mean that I will have finished the boxed set and added 36 foot knights to my retinue. It was painting the tabards that had made me pause and do some research on WOTR livery. I have decided to paint these in a mix of colours, White and blue, Red and Black and Red ( Murray) and Blue. This should give some variety to the look of my force, now 90 strong!

The army groweth!

If all goes well over Easter, my main force should be complete and ready to take to the table to fight against Sir Andy of Bingham, Sir Peter of Woodborough and the Lady Jasmine of Papplewick! And so to my own army, led by Harry Hotspur. If you haven’t already guessed, yes, that is the Tottenham Hotspur flag that my standard bearer is flying. At some point, as the army grows, I will add some more authentic standards to the force but for now, it’s a good day to be a Tottenham fan!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

As I have mentioned above, if like me, you are starting out on a WOTR project, you could do no better than to visit the Vexillia site here:

VEXILLIA

You will find some very usefull free down loads as well as some excellent reference material.

Of course, if you need models, paints, bases scenery, go to our shop:

ARCANE SCENERY

We have the Perry’s plastic range in stock and at the time of writing we post free to most worldwide locations.

I have also created a new category for the blog, War Of The Roses, and gathered all of my other articles that are relevant under this category. This includes a few Lion Rampant battle reports and my visits to Stokes Field and Warwick castle, as well as how I have painted m some of my figures.

WAR OF THE ROSES BLOG ARTICLES

Happy Modelling!

War Of The Roses

I have been thinking about building a War of The Roses Army for some time now. I have a Lion Rampant Retinue that would serve as the core of the army. I just need to expand it so that I could field a much larger force and perhaps try a new wargaming rules set. It is a bit of a distraction from my Napoleonic project but sometimes a change is required to prevent painting fatigue and I was feeling the need to try something different.

Pike men on the work bench close to being finished.

I’ve also had six assembled and undercoated Pike men on my modelling board for well over a year. They were left over from my Lion Rampant Retinue and were not needed at the time and so not finished. I had also recently bought a lovely Trebuchet that perhaps would form a nice centre piece or objective for a Lion Rampant game. The final piece in the push, was that following our recent display game at The Bingham Napoleonic Days, Andy Callan offered to revise our Napoleonic rules to make them suitable for WOTR.

The Trebuchet is also primed and ready to be painted.

So, with all this in mind, the first job was to finish the pikemen and then decide what to add to the army. I decided that I needed to expand the core of the army – the men at arms. The Perry’s make a lovely set of English Foot Knights for the period. A box of these would give me 36 Foot knights in heavy armour, as well as a couple of Command figures. I also thought that they would be nice and straight forward to paint. I had no intention of doing any really serious research on colour schemes. The box art of the Perry’s set, Pinterest and the couple of books that I have on Medieval Warfare would do for now. I just wanted to get on with the figures and as I have commented in the past, too much analysis leads to paralysis!

Foot Knights assembled

As four of the torso’s on each sprue of the Foot knights are modelled in full armour, research on colour schemes, could wait. I would leave the Foot Knights with Tabards for last and get on with painting! Assembling the Knights was fairly straight forward, although a bit fiddley. I could have done with a bit more guidance in the instructions but on studying them closely and looking at the box art, I soon had the hang of it and assembled my first six figures. There is little flash or mould lines to remove and to be honest I wasn’t sure that some of the mould lines were actually edges to armour plate!

Knights ready for priming

I then blu-tacked the figures to my spray board ( an old piece of Hardboard). The picture shows how you can tilt the board and the figures stay in place whilst you spray! This means that you can get to all the places on the figures, even underneath.

Primed! Army Painter plate mail primer.

To prime the figures I used Army Painter Plate Mail sprate. Any good silver primer will do the job but the Army painter range all works well together, so I prefer to use it. Once primed, the figures are taken off of the spray board and mounted on temporary bases. Blu-tack is used – it is fine for both metal and plastic figures and I have been using the same ‘lump’ for some years now – so is good value for money!

The foot knights on their temporary bases.

I then gave the figures a good wash with Army Painter Dark Tone Ink. The picture above shows the contrast achieved, with the figure on the left being inked.

Foot Knights after washing with Dark Tone Ink.

Once the dark Tone ink is dry, the next stage is to dry brush with Army Painter Plate mail paint. It matches the original primer and starts to highlight the figures, bringing out the detail.

First Plate Mail dry brush coat.

The next stage is to dry brush the figures with silver. In this case I switched to Vallejo Silver as it was what I had on the work bench. The Army painter version would work just as well.

Silver Dry Brush added

I tend to use a very light dry bush for the silver but repeated it a couple of times. I think this actually helps to ‘polish’ the top areas as the paint dries.

Time to start picking out the detail.

I then picked out the detail using vallejo ‘New Wood’ for the weapon shafts, Flat earth for the leather strapping, Leather brown and saddle brown for the scabards and other leather wear. I also picked out the flesh and used off white for the trousers (hose) that show at the back of the legs. Finally, the swords and scabbards were detailed with Brass and black where appropriate. As a final touch, I washed some of the areas ( Faces and leather straps) with soft tone ink and touched up any obvious errors that I could see and the figures were ready for basing.

Foot knights ready for action!

With six Foot Knights and the Pikemen added to my Lion Rampant retinue, my army is starting to take shape. I’ve sent off for a book on WOTR colours, so when it comes to painting the figures with tabards, I will have a better idea of how to approach the subject. With 18 more Foot Knights in full Harness to complete, I’ll have time for a bit of research!

The Retinue gathers.

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

As always, most of the models, paint, basing and tools that I use come from my shop:

ARCANE SCENERY AND MODELS

At the time of writing, we still send out post free to most worldwide locations. Here are some direct links to just some of the categories that we have.

PERRY MINIATURES MEDIEVAL RANGE

ARMY PAINTER RANGE

VALLEJO PAINTS

Here is a link to my Pinterest reference board for WOTR – I’m still adding to it!

PINTEREST BOARD

Of course, if you have a facebook account, you can follow me here by ‘liking’ my page. I regularly post pictures of what I am working on and you can see what is new in the shop.

FACEBOOK

Happy Modelling!

Ready for the Weekend?

This weekend I will be attending the ‘Bingham Napoleonic Days’ event and on the Saturday, participating in a small Wargames demo game set in the Peninsular. The game scenario has been devised by Andy Callan and he has also put the rules together – they are a version of his ‘Rules for Old Wargamers with Short attention spans’. Pete Harris is building the table. The game is a skirmish around a small Spanish hill top village. My contribution is to supply the British contingent, who will be assaulting the village and driving out the French and rescuing the villagers.

Protect the pub! They still have beer!

As the game is a fictional event and is designed as much as an introduction/explanation of wargaming to a generally bemused set of non wargaming visitors, we aren’t too precious about the details of the uniforms and combatants. However, It was an excuse to dig out some of my unpainted Peninsular figures that I had accumulated and create a ‘Forlon Hope’ that would lead the assault on the village.

Another six figures to complete!

Well, I am just about there but as usual, I will still be painting and basing the last few figures on Friday night. They are not critical to the event, so if they are not finished, it wont be a disaster but it will be nice to have them done. I am quite pleased with the ‘command’ base that I have put together using the two limited edition figures that were supplied with the ‘Albion Triumphant’ supplements for Black Powder.

Albion Triumphant!

I’ve used a Sarissa Precision Bolt action gun team base that will allow me to use the figures separately if I choose to do so, or to remove them as casualties. These ‘sabot’ bases are very useful and allow a bit more flexibility than permanently basing figures in a Vignette, so that they can be used for wargaming but look nice in the figure cabinet.

Albion Triumpant rear view

Incidentally, when it comes to basing, I always try to work in three’s or five’s. Hence the little rock formation at the front of the base that’s there to ‘balance ‘ the figures. It’s something that I was taught in my earlier career in retail whilst learning how to put up window displays ( something all shops used to do in the olden days!). The idea was the everything should be grouped in threes or fives as it was more appealing to browsing customers. My wife worked in H Samuel and was taught the same trick, although they also had to set the clocks at ten to two as it gave the impression of a smiley face….I digress somewhat!

The Drummer boy is finished - jst some tufts to add to the base.

The Drummer boy is finished – just some tufts to add to the base.

You can see that I have mixed figures for the unit. There is the Warlord figures, some Foundry figures and some from Casting room miniatures ( although these are an off shoot of Foundry). The height differences are minimal and I have no hesitation in mixing and matching. The figures that are still on the workbench ( casting room miniatures) are a bit slighter than the others but a trick to hide that is to add a bit of plastic card to the base to raise them up. It will only need a millimetre or so but helps to level things up. I don’t really have a problem with the slight height differences in some figures. I know that some of my colleagues can get vexed by this but I like the variety and if anything, it is more realistic to have different sized people!

Another view of Albion Triumphant.

So I better get back to painting these last few figures. If you can get to Bingham on Saturday, you will be able to see them ‘in the flesh’ so to speak! The event is free to attend – just click on the link below for details.

Cheers! Happy Modelling!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

The details of the Bingham Napoleonic Days can be found here:

NAPOLEONIC DAYS

Although the figures in this weeks blog are not available from Arcane Scenery ( I think some of them may be OOP) all of the finishing and painting products are, even better, we send post free!

ARCANE SCENERY

You can see a huge range of bases and movement trays in our shop but here is the link to the base used in the article above:

GUN TEAM BASES

I hope that you enjoy your modelling and wargaming!

Whats on the work bench? 21/02/19

Despite being busy painting, nothing is really finished! I seem to have too many ideas and not enough time, although that isn’t really unusual. So this weeks blog is as much an attempt to re focus as to show what is on my work bench. I guess that I am steadily working my way through the lead pile, although I visited the ROBIN show at the weekend and managed to add to it…more on that later.

The Forlon Hope gathers strength!

My Forlorn Hope gathers strength, with another eight figures completed. The facings are yellow, as they are supposed to represent the 29th Worcestershire’s in the Peninsular. They are all individually based as my intention is that they are for a skirmish game rather than a ‘big battalion’ game.

Ensign completed

The limited edition Warlord Games Ensign is also completed but needs basing. I’m dithering as to whether to put him onto a standard 20mm square base or to use him as a ‘big man’ and base him on a 60mm round base along with the limited addition Rifleman from Warlord. It’s the second option that appeals at the moment as I think they will make a nice contrasting pair.

Riflemen and drummer boy.

As you can see, I actually have two of the Riflemen, so basing one up separately and one with the Ensign will work nicely. I’m going to try a quick paint job on the riflemen as an experiment. I have undercoated them with Army Painter Dark Angel Green and will leave this as the base colour for the uniform, just painting the rest of the detail. Out of focus is the drummer boy for the 29th – yellow is not an easy colour to paint and there are constant queries on social media as to what the best method is. In this case, I have first painted with Vallejo Yellow Ochre and then recoated with Vallejo Deep Yellow. In reality, this is perhaps a bit bright but should show nicely on the wargames table.

Highlanders!

I’ve 48 Highlanders assembled, 24 of which are undercoated and 12 of those have made it to the back of the workbench to have their hands, knees and faces painted in flesh. At the moment, I’m distracted by other projects so these are getting a sort of deferred batch paint job! When ever I have some spare time or paint, I’ll put the next colour on – black hats next!

Napoleonic Trebuchet!

I mentioned above that I had been to the excellent ROBIN show in Nottingham. Being determined only to buy if it would help me complete an existing project, I had kept my wallet firmly in my pocket until I came across the IronGateScenery stand. Well it was loaded with goodies, all produced using 3D printers and top quality too. My will to hold onto my money was broken by the Mortars and siege ladders but then, having succumbed, I bought the rather lovely Trebuchet, the village well and some Aztec scenery – don’t ask, it all just looks fantastic…

Aztec Scenery – the finished product on the Irongatescenery stand.

To be honest, I could have spent a great deal more as the range is superb. There’s a link to their web site at the bottom of the page so go see for yourself.

DeeZee White Rhino

As if I haven’t got enough to do, plans are afoot to expand the DeeZee range. I would like to produce a painting guide to each one of the 37 packs ( with more to come….). I also don’t have my own painted version of this model so I’m starting with him. It’s going to be a busy year!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

Although the figures in this weeks blog are not available from Arcane Scenery ( I think some of them may be OOP) all of the finishing and painting products are, even better, we send post free!

ARCANE SCENERY

You can see the full range of rather lovely scenery from IronGateScenery here:

IRONGATE SCENERY

You can see the full range of DeeZee Models here:

DEEZEE BEASTS

Happy Modelling!

Forlorn Hope.

My painting this week has been a bit hit and miss. That said, I have still found plenty to do, sometimes you have to go backwards to go forwards. So I’ve been tidying, dusting, researching and preparing a couple of projects for the future. One of those projects is in support of the Bingham Napoleonic day to be held on 2nd March. I’ll post a link at the end of this blog to the event itself, but it involves a small Napoleonic demo game set in the Peninsular War. This was a good excuse for another dive into the lead pile to see what I had that would be suitable.

Peninsular skirmishers

I found a few Foundry Peninsular Light infantry and the limited Edition Warlord Games Ensign that came with the first Black powder supplement, Albion Triumphant ! I actually had about 20 figures but decided to focus on just eight, leaving the ensign to one side for the time being, as the rest lent themselves to a quick batch paint.

Early stages of the batch paint

I used my tried and trusted approach to painting, working from the inside out, to block paint the various colours. Flesh first for hands & face; Black hats, boots cartridge cases & bayonet scabbards; Iraqi Sand Bread bags; Pastel Blue water bottles; Flat brown for muskets. It was only during preparation that I noticed there were some differences in the figures. Four of them are clearly light infantry ( kneeling and climbing), four are line infantry but in light kit. Also, these final four are clearly very early Peninsular uniforms.

Facings done.

The early Peninsular chaps still had their hair in the ‘queue’, so I followed the colour scheme for the 29th Infantry 1808 ( Worcestershire Regt) from the book ‘Military Dress of the Peninsular War’. The others I painted as 52nd light infantry. As they are intended to be part of a ‘Forlon Hope’ assaulting a village somewhere in Spain, I’m not too worried that they will be from different regiments. In the same casual approach that I have adopted for the new year, I’m not going to get too excited about the differences in uniform. It will make a nice conversation piece at the game, should any one notice!

Figures nearly complete.

The picture above shows the figures nearly completed – at this point, I just needed to paint the lace and cross belts, brass for the buttons and buckles and touch up any obvious mistakes. The final step would be to paint them in Army Painter quick shade, matt varnish them and then re paint and highlight the lighter colours.

Completed figures awaiting basing.

The picture above shows the completed figures. Of course the next step is to base them but I am waiting to see how our demo board looks before proceeding.

Capture the house!

As you can see, the next project is to finish a house for the board. It may be that we don’t actually use the house. It was originally bought for my Caribbean project but the building looks ‘Spanish’ enough for both the Caribbean and the Peninsular, so whether it’s used or not, it will be another useful edition to my collection.

Assault on House 13!

So, I’ll go back and finish that Ensign and following a meeting planned tonight, I may need to paint a few more figures for the game. I also need to do quite a bit of work to finish the house, so the next few weeks look busy!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

Although the figures are not available from Arcane Scenery ( I think some of them may be OOP) all of the finishing products are, even better, we send post free!

ARCANE SCENERY

If you would like more details about the Bingham Napoleonic weekend, including time table of events and how to get there, click here:

BINGHAM NAPOLEONIC DAYS

Happy modelling!

Rocket Man – Part Two

Well, in the song, Elton sings that ‘I think it’s going to be a long, long time’. As it turns out, I have managed to finish the diorama featuring the Warlord Rocketeer within a couple of weekends. The idea of just getting on with the model rather than spending ages researching has paid dividends. I have cut some corners, made some assumptions and used a bit of artistic licence but I am pleased with the result. Here’s how I went about the final stages of finishing and basing the figures.

Rocket troop basing plan

I replaced the original lances that I made from spears with some thinner 0.8mm brass rod from Albion alloys. I may have cut them a bit too long but went for an unsophisticated approach in keeping with the rest of the model and simply guessed the ‘right length’ based on the reference pictures. The ‘string’ holding the two sticks together is some thin Florists wire wound around the rod and super glued into place. The Pennant on the sticks was simply cut from paper and painted. I used a darker blue than two of the reference pictures show, preferring this over the light blue.

View from the other side.

Once the painting was finished, I positioned the figures on the base that I had chosen. I prefered a smaller MDF Oval base rather than a Rectangular artillery type base. I doubt that the model will get regular use on the wargames table and the oval base looked nicer. I also wanted to keep things close together – I suspect in reality, the horses would have been a bit further away from a rocket that was being launched!

The ‘rocks’ at the front of the base are there to fill a space although they are extremely accurate, having been picked up from a certain area in Belgium!

Basing in Progress

Once I was happy with the layout, I covered the base with Vallejo Dark Earth Texture paste and placed the figures into the paste. There is no need for glue, the paste will hold them securely but in the unlikely event that I decide to re base the figures, it is a simple matter to cut them free. I also sprinkled some coarse grit around the stones and some finer grit at the rear of the base to give some additional texture.

Rocket troop ready!

The next stage was to paint the base. I use a earth coloured emulsion called ‘Delhi Bazaar’ that I picked up from a DIY store as the first coat. I then dry brushed it with the same colour mixed with increasing amounts of Vallejo Iraqi Sand. The rocks and grit were also highlighted with a final coat mixed with white. I then added some scatter (Woodlands Scenics Green Blended Turf) and once this was dry, pressed the rocket launcher tray into place & glued the rocket in. It was then a question of adding some nice tufts and flowers and my Diorama was completed! Incidentally, the officer in the pictures is nothing to do with the Rocketeer. He’s another Warlord figure that I finished basing at the same time.

An Officer observes the launch!

View from the other side.

So another project from the lead pile is complete, Next up some Peninsular War Light infantry for a forth coming Napoleonic day in Bingham – More details to follow!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

Nearly all of the materials that I used are from my shop, Arcane Scenery:

ARCANE SCENERY

To make life easy, we post out free to most worldwide locations! You can see our range of Woodlands Scenics here:

WOODLANDS SCENICS

Vallejo Textures & pastes can be found here:

VALLEJO TEXTURES

Albion Brass rod can be found here:

ALBION ALLOYS

If you would like to get hold of a Warlord Rocketeer, you can go to their web site or contact me here:

CONTACT ME

Our web store shows live stocks, so if something that you want isn’t there, just email me and I will let you know whether we can get it and how approximately long it will take.

Happy Modelling!

Rocket Man!

I had been taking my hobby a bit too seriously at the back end of last year and getting overly concerned with ‘what is right’. Fortunately, I have my mates to sort me out and inject some common sense into the debate. When it comes to Napoleonics, detail is both a blessing and a curse. It is the details and minutiae of the uniforms that make the period so fascinating whilst at the same time providing a ‘barrier to entry’ to many in the wargaming hobby, who decide that having fun is more important than arguing about buttons and facings and so move into Fantasy or Science fiction for their hobby fix.

That Space marine has got the wrong colour facings!

I had fallen into the ‘too much analysis causes paralysis’ mode and as a result some of the projects that I had consigned to the lead pile were being buried ever deeper because I was worried that I wouldn’t make a decent enough job of them. I’m not sure what happened over the Christmas Holiday period but something triggered my JFDI switch and I decided to just get on with what ever I fancied to the best of my ability and knowledge.

I’m not sure if this is the book but I have enjoyed all of them!

So I started on a little project that had been on my mind for a while. I actually first got the idea years ago from reading a Bernard Cornwell Sharpe novel. I can’t remember which one it was but it involved some troopers from a Rocket detachment pretending to be Lancers. I then saw the Warlord model of a Rocketeer launching his rocket from the ground and thought that he really needed a mate to hold his horse. Put the two ideas together and you have one guy with the rocket sticks looking like a Lancer with his pennant on the rocket sticks and the Officer firing off the rocket on the ground.

Warlord Rocketeer.

As far as I know there is no model of a Rocket detachment trooper riding with the rocket sticks so I would have to convert one myself. So in the spirit of JFDI, rather than wait to find the exact figure or horse, I went through my bits box and this is what I came up with:

Rocket trooper WIP

I’ve no idea where the horse is from – it just looked about right. I did have to ‘dock’ his tail though and remodel his hind quarters. I also added a saddle roll from green stuff and a cup for the rocket sticks from a piece of evergreen tube. The rider is a ‘spare’ from the Perry’s British Light Dragoons set. I have shaved off his boots, cut off his sword hand and added an open hand from a spare Victrix arm.

Rocketeer Diorama WIP

This is how the Diorama was shaping up but at this point I thought it might be worth doing some research. I found these three pictures on Pinterest and added them to my reference board.

Rocketeer Ref 2

Rocketeer reference 3.

As a result, I changed the saddle roll to two saddle rolls or valises, I also extended the docked tail with green stuff as I thought that it looked a bit short. I also made the rocket sticks from some spears and changed the pose so that the rider was now holding the spare rocket sticks.

Rocket trooper WIP 2

Having slept on the changes, I decide that I needed to add a stripe and buttons to the troopers’ overall. Again, a dive into the bits box and I found some Evergreen 10/000 plastic strip which I used to make the stripe and some 40/000 rod that I sliced to make the buttons. Evergreen strip is an excellent material to use and reacts well to liquid polystyrene glue, so a few coats of glue and it was relatively simple to mold the stripe to the legs of the trooper. 40/000 is the equivalent of 1mm and slicing this sized rod is a challenge for my eyes but once glued in place, a quick sanding down meant that they too blended in with the trousers. With hindsight, the buttons are a bit on the large side, as is the stripe but the job was done and if I convert another dragoon, I’ll get a smaller sized evergreen rod to slice! I had intended to photograph the conversion in progress but stupidly undercoated the conversion in my rush to get the project moving. Below is a picture of the trooper, now painted.

Painted Troopers

The next job was to paint the horses. I decided to change from my usual ‘recipe’ for brown horses and try a much paler brown. So the base coat was Vallejo Flat Earth, followed by Cork brown with a Green Ochre top coat/highlight. The Horse furniture was painted with leather brown, blanket dark Prussian Blue and I used Brass for the blanket detail. With the colours blocked in, I will either use a quick shade or ink to bring out the details.

Officers horse colour blocked, awaiting ink wash.

The next task was to get the troopers horse painted. I decided on my usual triad of Chocolate brown, Flat brown and Flat earth for the horse. The rest of the model was painted as above.

Troopers horse, block painted

Troopers horse, reverse view.

As you can see, I don’t have a fixed plan of how things should look and use the photographs to modify or correct as I go along! The diorama is coming together though and in the next picture you might notice that I have decided to use a smaller oval base for the diorama and I have decided to ‘quick shade the Officers horse. I will do the same with the troopers horse using the strong tone or dark brown quick shade.

The diorama is coming together!

A different view – The quick shade will matt down nicely.

Having had a look at the pictures, I decided to add some socks to the troopers horse.

Pull your socks up!

And that is as far as I have progressed with the project this week. I’ll quick shade the troopers horse and then Matt Varnish both horses. I’ll need to highlight some areas on the horse, specifically the blanket and possibily the leatherwork. I’ve also decide to replace the rocket sticks with some Albion Alloys Brass rod that is a bit thinner than the spears that I am currently using. The rocket also needs painting but I am nearly at the basing stage. I think that I will also add some definition to the troopers overalls just above his boots as it doesn’t show up very well.

It is a bit nippy out in my Garage at the moment and even with a heater on, when sitting still, painting, it is easy to get a chill, so my painting sessions are a bit shorter than in the Spring! However, this coming weekend should see a bit more progress – perhaps even basing!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

Regular readers of my blog will know that most of the materials and models that I use are available post free from my shop here:

ARCANE SCENERY

It’s worth pointing you to the Evergreen plastics range this week – I find this stuff invaluable when converting.

EVERGREEN PLASTICS

The bases are from the Sarissa MDF range here:

MDF BASES

and if you would like to have a look at my references on the Pinterest site just click here:

STEVE’S PINTEREST BOARDS

Incidentally, joining Pinterest is free. If you haven’t got an account, I very much recommend it as a way of collecting reference pictures.

Happy modelling!

Mining The Lead Pile and Finding Fun!

I started the New Year with a post entitled ‘Bitting and Bobbing’ which is a fair assessment of how my modelling has continued so far this month. In the last fortnight I have gradually been working through some unfinished units and figures that have been at the side of the work bench for some time. A good example being my battalion of Nassau Infantry that were finished last February but were languishing without a flag. Well the flag is now added and I think I’ve got it the right way up….

Nassau Infantry at last have their flag!

Talking of flags, I decided to ‘reflag’ my Battalion of Coldstream Guards. They actually did have flags but I was unhappy with the quality. I had bought the original flags at a show but with hind sight they were oversized and badly printed on glossy paper and nowhere near as good as the GMB flags that I normally use. So they have now been replaced with GMB printed flags which are a much better size and a much better colour and quality.

New Flags for the Guards!

I have also been working my way through some officer figures. This fellow was a limited edition from Warlord, I think, so although not quite finished ( the basing needs to be completed) he is almost ready to join his Regiment.

New Officer – just the basing to complete and a bit of a tidy up.

I am gradually assembling the two Battalions of Highlanders, the 42nd and 92nd Battalions. I have one Battalion of 24 assembled and have started on the next battalion. Once I have them all assembled, I’ll start the challenging task of painting them but I am in no rush to start! Incidentally, the trees behind the figures are from a Garden Centre – it may be too late now but I recommend checking out the sale section in your local Garden Centre, there are bargains to be had for wargamers!

Next Battalion of Highlanders assembled

In my previous blog, you may have noticed a random Caribbean Maroon figure on the work bench. I have actually painted him before but somehow he has gone AWOL from my cabinet, so I decided to replace to re- complete my set of Trent Miniatures Caribbean rebels and Maroons. Out of the blue, Duncan, of Trent Miniatures, announced that he had released new pack of Caribbean casualties so I grabbed a pack and finished them all in one batch. My Caribbean collection is now complete for the time being!

Caribbean casualties in progress – basing about finished.

Completed Caribbean Casualties

Maroon leader – replacement complete!

I have long admired the Warlord British Napoleonic Rocketeer and had added it to my unpainted figure ‘collection’. It was one of those figures that I intended to do something with but I wasn’t quite sure what. Well with my new found carefree approach to my painting projects, I decided to get on and paint him as well as converting a horse holder to go with him. I’ll detail how I made the companion in a future blog but here is a picture of the work in progress.

Rocketeer! WIP.

I have a version of this cheeky figure already. As you can see, he’s still a W.I.P. although since writing this blog he is nearly ready to join his officer. I’m not sure whether to make another small vignette with him, an officer and a DeeZee dog (you can see I have two versions of DeeZee dogs that are being worked on in some of the other pictures) or whether to put together a battalion of odds and ends and spare figures just for fun. It’s the latter option that appeals to me at the moment. I seem to accumulate random figures from friends, so it might be fun to have a battalion of characters and misfits.

Cheeky Chappie!

And there’s more…well actually, there isn’t but I have just re-read ‘Sharpes Tiger’ by Bernard Cornwell. Once again, I am reminded that history doesn’t have to be a dry subject and with a bit of imagination it can be exciting and fun. I know that some find the ‘facts’ and detail the most important part of the hobby but if you are not careful, the pursuit of absolute accuracy can result in nothing ever being finished. The more I read, the more I am convinced that we really dont know half of what went on, so why get too hung up on micro details? A thought that I will return to in my next blog.

However you choose to make and paint your models, I hope that you have fun and enjoy yourself and if we can help at Arcane Scenery, please drop me a note.

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If you are interested in the revolutionary wars in the Caribbean, then Trent Miniatures have a superb range of miniatures. You can see them here:

WARS IN THE CARIBBEAN

We have a range of animals, including dogs and tigers in the DeeZee Miniatures range. You can see them here:

DEE ZEE

Bitting and Bobbing!

The Christmas holiday break can be a good time to get plenty of modelling done but for me the opposite is true. We were actually working through the break, as long as the post office was collecting, we were packing. Although there was time off on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day, hobby time was at a premium. After all, it’s a social time of year and sneaking off to the garage for any length of time to paint models is somewhat anti social when you have invited the family over for Christmas. Besides, there was alcohol to drink and food to eat – always a distraction for me!

It’s not just models that I like making! Scotch eggs, Cranberry sauce and a home cooked ham – Lovely!

Mind you, nobody complained when my Granddaughter, Emily, came out with me to paint a DeeZee Platybelodon. She decided that a nice light blue shade would be best for her version of the beast! We actually managed to get the model based and she was very proud to take her new model home. At five years old, she did a pretty good job! Kids love painting and modelling, they just need some help at an early age and if they get the bug, they will be producing better models than us old ‘uns!

Emily and her Platybelodon!

So, apart from the Platybelodon, I actually haven’t finished anything over the break but progress has been made. As a change from painting battalions, I decided to paint four Officer figures that I had in the lead pile to bolster my command structure!

New officers!

Three of the figures are about finished but all need basing. The two staff officers are Warlord figures and will just be added to the appropriate battalions. Wellington and Crawford (in the Background) are from Front Rank and I will probably mount these on 60mm round bases as part of a vignette and use them as Brigade commanders but I have yet to finalise details in my mind.

I also cleaned up and undercoated a couple of other random figures as well as starting to assemble some more Victrix Highlanders.

A mixed bag on the workbench

The other task that I completed was to go through my ‘lead pile’ and list down just what I had squirreled away. I wont be making any rash promises about how I will finish everything this year but the exercise was worthwhile and reminded me that I had bought some of the items for a reason and it was time to get them painted! So rather than starting the year with a firm plan and a promise that I wont keep, for the tiome being, I am going to go where ever the modelling muse takes me.

At the moment, that means that I will be making 48 highlanders to complete the 42nd and 92nd Battalions but if I take a break to complete a Samurai or piece of Caribbean scenery, then I wont get to uptight about it. Having lists, challenges and goals can be very effective in achieving results or kick starting you after a lull.. However there is a danger that they can turn your hobby into a chore. Everything in moderation, is a good motto, and long as I am modelling, I will be happy!

Once again, Happy New Year and I hope that you enjoy your modelling.

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

The Arcane Scenery web store has a huge range of products that will help you to complete your modelling projects and we dispatch post free to most worldwide locations. Just click here to see our ranges.

ARCANE SCENERY

I would like to point you towards the Albion Alloys Abrasive ranges. You can see that I am using the sanding sticks to help assemble the Victrix Highlanders – The sanding sticks are excellent for use with plastics – I wouldn’t be without them and a pack will last for ages;

ALBION ABRASIVES

We also carry the Victrix plastics range – they are without doubt amongst the best plastics around. The highlanders are simply lovely figures.

VICTRIX RANGE

Happy New Year and a Cautionary Tale!

The 2/44th advance through the snow!

The ‘Old year’ has ended for me with a lesson that I have often experienced but have still yet to learn! When it comes to painting and modelling, if you rush you will make mistakes! I have been working on a really nice set of figures produced by Three Armies and unusually, they portrayed British infantry in Greatcoats. I was in no hurry to finish them until I had this brilliant idea of having them marching through the snow and using them as an Arcane Scenery Christmas card. As with all my Christmas preparation, I had left it a bit late but it seemed like a good idea and I knew just how I would execute it!

2/44th advance with colours on the correct side

My friend, Andy Callan had a job lot of snow covered trees – he had picked them up at a bargain price from a local garden centre last year – Andy is not only a very experienced war gamer but a canny bargain hunter! As the scene was going to be a temporary one, I needed a quick, cheap method of reproducing snow. Another of my Gaming buddies had the answer – use salt. So, a quick trip to Sainsburies and for 37p, I had all the snow that I would need.

2/44th full batalion

I just had to temporarily base up the figures and add the flags and I was good to go!

It’s cold out there!

I had already ordered the flags from GMB, my favourite flag supplier, but I had to make the flag poles. There are some supplied with the figures but these are just plain wire, lacking the finials. Fortunately, I had some spare and using the thinner wire spears that we sell, I knocked up the poles with finials and painted them. It was then that the problems started. I was trying to attach the flags rather late in the evening – well past 11.00pm and I should have known better and waited a day but time was running out! To make matters worse, the garage where I normally do my modelling was freezing, so while the missus was tucked up asleep in bed I moved operations to the nice warm kitchen. Of course, every time I wanted a tool or paint brush, I had to go back to my workbench. Instead of cutting the flags on my proper non slip cutting mat, I used the breadboard. So first of all, I managed to slip with the scalpel and steel rule and sliced the top of one side the regimental colour a bit short and at an angle!

Colour party 2/44th

After some cursing, I managed a reasonable repair and with a bit of careful folding and a repaint job it looked OK. Next up, the Kings Colours, this time I was very careful and made a great job of cutting out. There was a bit of drama when I knocked the PVA over but it cleaned up OK and nobody saw it! I carefully fixed the Kings colour to the flag pole – perfect! Order was restored. I just needed to glue the poles to the figures and once everything was dry I would be ready to take the pictures the next day. Bugger! I had managed to glue the top of the super glue onto the bottle. Nothing that couldn’t be fixed – a pipe wrench and a pair of mole grips and I got the lid off. The fact that it would never go back on again is neither here nor there, I could super glue the flags on and get to bed. Job Done!

It was tough in Russia!

All was calm the next evening as I set up the photo shoot. I was quite pleased with the result and had some fun not only photographing my new Battalion, but also some Napoleonic Zombies that I had borrowed from Daz at Warbanner. I was so pleased with the result that I put the pictures up on Face book to get an opinion on which was the best picture to use. It was only at this point that it was pointed out that I had attached the Kings colours upside down…Bollocks!

YOU PUT THE FLAG ON UPSIDE DOWN!!!!

Ah well, lesson learnt. Again. I have managed to soak off the flag and re attach it the right way up but as you can imagine there has been a bit of damage and I will probably replace both flags the next time I order from GMB.

The flag is now the right way up! Just the permanent basing to do.

So, a cautionary tale and a lesson learnt again. My New Years resolution is now sorted – I’m going to stop worrying about how long it takes to complete a project and just enjoy what I am doing without rushing. In the mean time, Happy New Year! I hope that you have fun with your modelling!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

Unusually for me, most of the stuff featured above isn’t available from Arcane Scenery but if you do need paints bases, glue, proper fake snow and a huge range of kits and wargaming figures, they are available post free to most world wide locations at the time of writing.

THE ARCANE SCENERY SHOP

You can see the Three Armies range of figures here:

THE THREE ARMIES

The fantastic range of GMB Flags can be seen here:

GMB FLAGS

The salt is available from any decent Grocers but you do get nectar points at Sainsburys…..

Paintvember – The Painting Challenge

Yes, it’s a horrible title, Paintvember, but it did capture my imagination and as a result of a challenge issued on the Painting and Sculpting facebook page, for once I joined in one of the social media challenges. I normally steer well clear of such nonsense (I’m talking social media challenges – not painting), regardless of how worthy the cause, so no moustache growing, abstaining from booze, chucking ice cold water over myself or any of the other mass madness that goes on. This was simple, just commit to painting, sculpting or modelling for 30 minutes a day for the month of November and post your progress up on the facebook group page. It seemed like a good way of focusing on my hobby and it would be interesting to see just what could be achieved if I spent some time everyday doing some painting.

Victirx Highland Infantry assembled ready for painting.

To be fair, it wasn’t a great stretch, I paint for a short period of time on most weekday evenings but usually have at least one evening off, if nothing else than to actually wargame! The weekends can be mixed. In the summer, there is plenty of other distractions and even on rainy winter weekends, there are things to do and people to see, meaning that my hobby is put to one side.

So what have I learnt?

The first thing was that it turned what can be a solitary part of the hobby into more of a social occasion. Social media can be useful when those contributing are not only giving encouraging feedback but also showing what they are painting as well. I looked forward to seeing how my facebook chums were progressing with their projects and the skill and variety of projects on show was certainly inspirational. Getting a few likes was heartening and helped to keep me focused.

Red coats on!

Batch painting is ideal for this sort of challenge. It helps that I have a work area that I can leave in a mess and know that it wont be disturbed. So if I am working through a batch of figures I can easily find just 5 minutes to get a bit more colour on a figure. I think that this becomes more difficult if you are working on a ‘masterpiece’, one figure to a high standard or trying to paint a larger model. When I was working through my Highlanders, I had a set sequence, Flesh, Hats, Boots, cartridge case, jacket, bread bag, water bottle and so on. So I always know which colour I would be blocking on the next model.

The 30 minutes a day (minimum – I often did more!) does keep a project moving and so even when I thought that I might stall or wimp out of the challenge, the small goal of just paint for 30 minutes meant that I picked up my brush and did some more. The ‘Elephant’ was eaten a spoonful at a time!

79th Camerons close up.

It helped that I had a couple of projects on the go at once. As well as painting the Highlanders, I was working on a new batch of movement trays for my collection. So if I wasn’t in the mood for painting or if I needed more than 30 minutes for a stage, I could switch from painting soldiers to the trays. I think that having a couple of different projects on the go at once is quite useful but would suggest that they do need to be different. Perhaps a scenery piece alongside a unit of figures is a good mix.

The 79th Camerons finishe as part of the Paintvember challenge!

The challenge also focused me on to the question of when could I find 30 minutes to paint as opposed to the oft reached conclusion that ‘I haven’t got time to paint today’. As a result, I have been grabbing short periods of time in the morning and evening to get my session in. The nights when I might have succumbed to watching the idiots lantern have been replaced with something more productive. It’s taken most of the challenge but I now have a completed Battalion of Cameron Highlanders, which in themselves have completed my representation of the 8th British Brigade at Waterloo, complete with their own new labelled movement trays!

Labelled trays completed as well!

I dont think that I will be quite so relentless with my painting over the next 30 days. Sometimes, a break can be refreshing – absence makes the heart grow fonder – but I hope to keep the attitude of looking for opportunities to paint rather than finding excuses not to. As a final thought, social media, when it is social, has been a great help to my hobby. I have been fortunate enough to part of groups that have either provided me with encouragement with my hobby or inspired me by showing me what can be achieved. So no commercial links below, just a few of my favorite facebook groups!

So, finally, a big ‘Thank You!’ to Alfonso Oclaf for posing the challenge. I’ve never met Alfonso but I am grateful for his idea and for helping me to get my Highlanders done!

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Movement trays

Perhaps not the most glamorous part of our hobby but a topic that has interested me for some time. I see an awful lot of questions on social media with regards to the best method of basing figures, this is usually referring to the number of figures per base or the base size rather than the landscaping! There is of course no definitive answer to the question as different rules sets will often require different basing requirements – not only the size of bases will vary but the shape (round or square) can vary.

My new movement trays before assembly.

One solution is to use movement trays as a way of assembling units. This certainly helps bridge the gap between skirmish games, for example, Sharp Practice, and games that use larger units, say Black Powder. The problem is that by definition, the movement tray fixes the formation of your troops, making formation changes difficult duing the game.

Assembled trays

As my Napoleonic collection has grown, I also wanted a way of identifying the different battalions in my army. Yes, I know that they all have flags ( well most of them) but the more my battalions have grown, the harder it has become to remember who was who! So my solution was to design a movement tray system that allowed me to label my troops, but was flexible enough to facilitate different formations. The other benefit of movement trays is that they can help with transporting and organising your army.

As you can imagine, there was no simple solution and a compromise was required. This was made slightly easier by the fact that I play mostly Black Powder Napoleonic games, with the occasional foray into Sharp Practice! I came up with the following system, that has given me a degree of flexibility and solved some of the problems.

Grenadier Company based – four figures to a 40mm square base

First I decided to base all my Napoleonic infantry on 40mm square bases, four figures to a base. That said, some of my figures, usually the flank company’s, are based singly on 20mm square bases. This gives me some single figures to use for skirmish games if I need them. I’ve then built my Battalions in 12’s for a small unit, 24 for a standard unit and 36 for a large unit. However, the movement trays are designed to take 12 figures, so a standard unit will need two trays.

Flank Company on single 20mm square bases

This has the benefit of allowing me to split the unit into two, facilitating most formation changes but also allowing me to field the Battalion as two units of 12 for small club night battles. My new movement trays also have a name plate at the back allowing me to label each battalion. I was lucky with the design – the name plate is exactly the same width as a Dymo electric label printer, making labelling very straight forward. There are also two cut outs per trays to use for disorder and casualty markers – a simple 12mm D6 is used, different colours can mean different results according to the game being played. This allows any disorders or casualties to move with the unit rather than get left behind on the table as is sometimes the case.

Tray showing dice used for markers

I decided that I wanted to ‘landscape’ the trays to help them blend into the gaming table. Some of my colleagues prefer to leave the trays as they are – it again is a question of taste. There is another advantage to texturing the trays. It covers any imperfections when assembled but more importantly helps to hide any differences in basing on the troops. I have been building my Napoleonic army over six years now and occasionally have strayed from my standard basing formula, which any way has evolved as I have found new products to use.

Textured movment trays

To achieve a textured effect I simply coat the assembled trays with Vallejo Dark Earth textured paste as in the picture above. Once this is dry, I just run a sharp scalpel around the edges to tidy things up and remove any excess. It is then a case of painting with your preferred basing colour ( mine is Vallejo Chocolate Brown) and then dry brushing with a lighter mix to bring out the texture. Once the painting is dry, I add patches of green scatter ( woodlands scenic is now my preferred choice) and the trays are ready for use.

Movement tray textured and ready for use!

When it came to labelling, I decided on using the regiment name and number and only will indicate the Battalion number if there was more than one Battalion in service. It keeps things simple and allows me to use the largest font available for most of the labels. I used the Dymo Electric label printer to produce the labels on clear label material. As I said, I was lucky that the width matched my design exactly. The label maker was surprisingly inexpensive – just £14.99 from Aldi!

Landwehr battalions labelled ready for action

Of course the name plate is reversible, so if I decide to change the style – perhaps for a painted plate, I can do so!

British Infantry Division labelled and ready for action.

As you can see, from the front the name plates aren’t too intrusive, so my opponent shouldn’t be too distracted from the game. Another unintended benefit is that the name plate at the rear of the tray protects the bayonets of the units behind, helping to prevent damage.

Battalion in line!

Battalion in column – simply reverse rear tray to form square!

So the task now is to get all of my units into these trays. With nine battalions done, I still have another nine battalions, or eighteen trays to do, but it will be a nice project to do in between painting yet more battalions!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

If you would like to use these trays, they are available from my shop here:

BLACK POWDER MOVEMENT TRAYS

We also have quite a range of movement trays and bases here:

MOVEMENT TRAYS

For Woodlands scenic scatter and other scenic accessories, click here:

WOODLAND SCENICS

For Vallejo textures and paints, click here:

VALLEJO PRODUCTS

At the time of writing all of these products are supplied post free to most world wide locations!

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Category Archives: Whats on the work bench?

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Rocket Man – Part Two

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Mining The Lead Pile and Finding Fun!

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Bitting and Bobbing!

Happy New Year and a Cautionary Tale!

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Paintvember – The Painting Challenge

Movement trays

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