Page 25 – Steve’s Hobby Blog

Napoleons Coach – Finished?

This project has certainly turned out to be even more of a challenge than I originally thought. It has been as much of a test of my patience as my modelling and painting skills. Indeed, I think that if it wasn’t for the fact that there is no other project that is really pressing, I would have shelved this one and moved on. However, I have found a bit of time through the Holiday season to work on the coach and I’ve made steady progress.

As often is the case with this sort of project, I have changed my mind somewhat in how it will be finished. I had originally envisaged the coach being captured by the Prussians after Waterloo. Two things changed my mind. One, being the amount of additional time and resource to complete this diorama ( I hadn’t even got any spare Prussians to add to the diorama) and two, the more I looked at the model of Napoleon, the more I wanted to include him in the piece. There was also the issue of the size of the base required. Just basing the carriage and figures was going to need a fairly big area. So, I decided to finish the model as shown in the Warlord box art, albeit with the door of the carriage open.

As regards the base, I decided to use a laser cut Movement tray measuring 9cms by 21cms. It’s actually designed for 4 x 10 20mm infantry bases but it looks about the right size. I glued on the frame and then lined the tray with cling film. I then filled in the tray with standard milliput. The reason for doing this is to produce a infill slab that will not warp the base when I start to ‘landscape’ it. It’s a trick that I learnt from the military modellers. So once the milliput had dried, I removed it from the tray, peeled off the cling film and then super glued the ‘slab’ back into the tray.

Milliput slab cast!

slab glued into tray

The next stage was to carefully drill into the back wheels of the coach and insert two pins that would secure the coach to the base. Now if I had thought about it, I should have done this before painting the coach but I managed to get the pins into place without causing any damage. Using these as a guide, I then drilled two holes through the milliput so that I could fix the carriage to the base. Before this was done, the whole base was coated liberally in Vallejo Sandy Paste. This allowed me to sculpt some wheel marks into the base as well as hoof prints and generally texture the ground work. I then pressed the coach into the base, using the pins to locate the carriage and carefully added the horses whilst the paste was still wet. There is enough adhesion in the paste to affix the horses but the slow drying time gave me the chance to adjust everything. Finally, I used the two figures of Napoleon and his guard to press out an indent for the bases. Again, the slow drying time gave me the chance to move things until I was happy with the layout.

Once that was dry, I gave the base a coat of Vallejo Chocolate brown and then turned my attention to finish painting the horses and figures. Incidentally, before I talk about the figures, I ought to mention that prior to fixing the coach down I had repainted the coach itself. I noticed that I had painted the top of the coach green where it should be black. I was also not happy with the various greens that I had managed to get. Just to add to my dissatisfaction, I tried to copy the style of shading shown on the warlord box art and that hadn’t worked for me either. So I repainted the black bits black & highlighted them with sea grey. The green was repainted with Vallejo Reflective green (70890), shaded with a light brown wash and then I decided that I wanted a slightly gloss finish to the paint work so I gave the panels a coat of satin varnish. The final touches were to add the gold lining and detail to the coach body, springs and the lamps and to paint the box on the back of the coach brown with brass details.

To finish off the coach, I used some thin clear plasticard to glaze the windows. I also painted the wheel rims with steel but then dulled this down with a black wash. The final thing was to add some light weathering to the wheels, springs and bottom of the coach itself using various shades of brown. I didn’t want to overdo this as I had left the horses in a near pristine finish but I felt a bit of mud would help the overall look!

Napoleons Berlin Coach gets a base!

The picture above shows the coach on it’s base before the weathering and with most of the figures in place. As far as painting the figures, I pretty much tried to copy the art work and the superb painting by Andres Amian Fernandez. A bit of a lazy approach as I didn’t do my own research as I would usually do. However, my excuse is that I am unlikely to be painting many French in the future…

Art work from the Warlord website

The coach outriders when finished looked a bit darker than I had intended and Napoleons coat a bit lighter but I was happy enough with the overall effect. I wont detail all the paints used for the figures but I used my basic technique of block painting the main colours, washing with a black ink and then re-highlighting. The other addition to my technique was to give the figures a couple of coats of anti shine varnish in between paint layers. It seems to help protect the paint as you are working and somehow adds depth.

Napoleon & his Guard

The final job was to complete the base. First of all I added some extra material around the bases of the figures and horse to blend them into the base. Everything was then painted chocolate brown and then highlighted with various mixes of Flat earth & Iraqui sand. Once dry, I added the green scatter, The static grass and my usual mix of grass tufts and flowers. So that’s it for now. I do like to contemplate my work before it is finally finished and I will go back and tweak a few bits. For example, I know that I need to repaint the sides of the base to tidy this up and I may add a few more details to the base – but for now the model is finished and it’s on to the next project!

Napoleon visits Little Bingham

An Ongoing Saga!

This blog post should have been my last post of the year but due to the busy time of the year it was never published. Never one to waste work, here it is as planned:

No, I’m not going to do another post about my attempt at modelling Napoleons Carriage. I have made some more progress but this post is about my recent battles with Jasmin using our Saga armies. I hadn’t played these rules for some time, so when Jasmin asked if I fancied taking on her Irish warband it was too good an opportunity to miss. To be fair, I had also been thoroughly enjoying the Last Kingdom on TV, so any chance to shout ‘Shield Wall!’ seemed like a good idea!

Jaz is a new comer to saga and had never played before. I hadn’t played for at least a year and had not come across the Irish before, so to start with, things were a bit slow. After a few games though we are almost up to speed and the games are becoming just a little bit more competitive. The Irish have some really tricky abilities that can be quite lethal when used in combination. The most recent game was the River scenario where points are scored simply by getting your warband across the river and , of course, keeping them there.

My strategy from the start was to hold one bridge, to prevent the Irish from crossing, whilst forcing the other bridge to get as many of my warband across as possible. The Warlord and a unit of Hearth Guard were chosen to hold one of the bridges. The rest of the warband, a unit of Hearth guard and two units of warriors, would force the other bridge.

The Anglo Dane warband push on!

It was then a case of using the battle board to break up and slow the Irish to ensure that they were divided and unable to resist my steady advance. Jaz tried to use her unit of war dogs to score an early victory and get across the river first. However, the unit of Hearthguard soon put paid to these, although in doing so were nearly wiped out themselves.

The Danes force the river crossing!

Although just one solitary Hearth guard remained he lead the Warriors across the table and then on his own held off the Irish reinforcements! The Warriors, despite taking random arrow fire, held their nerve, crossed the river and staked their claim to the available victory points!

Death or Glory!

If all was going well at this river crossing, things were not so straight forward at the other. Jaz had decided that she would use the main bulk of her army to force a passage here so my Warlord and second unit of Hearth Guard faced off against their Irish counterparts who out numbered them two to one. Despite a valiant fight, my warlord and his retinue were massacred to a man but prevented the Irish from crossing the bridge.

Irish Warlord and Retinue

It is here that the game ends as time had run out and the game had run for it’s scheduled 8 turns. On counting the victory points, the Anglo Danes have won the scenario, having got the most troops across the river. However, the Irish had the satisfaction of killing the Anglo Dane Warlord and all but one of his Hearth Guards. If there was to be a sequel, the Irish were in the stronger position. So in the end we considered the game to be honours even as we both had our victories to boast about!

We’ll definitely be playing more Saga in the future. It’s a great rules set for a club night game and with a good number of scenarios to choose from, there’s plenty to keep you occupied. Even better, there’s not too many figures to paint to put a retinue together. So may be I might just try some of those Irish warriors my self – Footsore do an excellent range…..

And so we are into a New Year! I did spend a few moments planning my next projects but first there’s Napoleons carriage to finish…

Napoleons carriage – still work to do!

‘Tis The Season To Be Jolly!

Unfortunately, being jolly and the serious work of painting miniatures don’t always go together. Now that doesn’t mean that I’m not cheerful or happy when I’m painting – far from it! It’s just that after a couple of Jack Daniels or a glass of beer, my concentration seems to go along with any ability to paint between the lines! So if the socialising at this time of year gets in the way, so does the logistics of getting ready for Christmas. It seems that we have been on the Christmas countdown since October and things are now reaching crisis point. ‘Oh my God, it’s the 10th of December and we haven’t got our tree yet’ is the latest distraction and it’s difficult to slide off to the garage to do some painting when quite clearly there are more important things to do. Personally, I’d prefer to fit this Christmas malarkey around my hobby rather than the other way around but being a wargaming Grinch isn’t really an option, especially when the wife plays the Granddaughter card!

Napoleons Coach – brass trim added

So the opening paragraph is really my apology for making very little progress with modelling and painting in general and Napoleons coach in particular. You can see from the shaky picture above that I have added the gold trim, painted the lights and the trunk at the rear of the coach. I’ve also repainted the green using Vallejo Reflective green although something has gone wrong with the wheels. Whether it is the different under coat or I’ve just picked up the wrong paint ( Jack Daniels effect), the rear wheels definitely look different to the rest of the coach.

Napoleons coach close up

So it’s back to the paint table and another coat of green. I’m also very tempted to paint the wooden Chassis green, just leaving the springs and metal work in black. Of course the real difference will come when I start the shading and highlighting. A dry brush over the main colours followed by a light ink wash will help. However, I think that what is really needed, is a good solid session of at least half a day working on the coach rather than the odd 15minutes here and there. On that basis, I cant see Napoleon in his coach this side of Christmas, so the good news is that it may be sometime before the next Coach blog article….

Slow Coach…

With all the time preparing and fighting the Battle of Bitteburg, my painting time has been somewhat curtailed. It’s also that time of year when the pressure is on to get ready for Christmas a month in advance of the actual event! To be fair, some of this is driven by family get togethers, when presents are exchanged early, whilst socialising and catching up. The net result is that very little progress has been made with my various modelling projects.

Horses for Napoleons Coach

I have made some progress, though. The horses are nearly finished and I’ve started to paint the coach itself. I’ve decided to paint pure white horses for the coach, rather than greys. Just to make life difficult for myself, I’ve been layering the paint on to build depth of colour and highlights rather than my usual technique of ‘paint & wash’. So the horses were undercoated in Black, painted Light Grey, then Sky Grey and then Off White. I have used a Vallejo Light Grey wash over the mane and tail to bring out the texture. I then touched up the horses tack in Black, painted their eyes and decided that I had enough of painting them for the time being!

Off Side Horses

There is still much to do though. The hooves are black at the moment and these need to be painted either in a light brown or beige. The metal parts of the tack need to be picked out and the tack will need highlighting with a black grey to show the detail. I also need to do some more work on the faces, to add detail to the muzzles, nostrils & ears. Finally, I might add a bright white highlight to the horses. I’m deliberately going for a very bright stark look to the horses. I realise that they would in reality have muddy hooves & legs and I may yet add this but I wanted the horses to look over exaggerated in their pristine appearance, as though they were specially chosen to pull the Emperors coach.

The coach itself

As for the coach itself, I’ve started to paint this but I’m not happy with the shade of green. I’m using Vallejo flat Green but it looks too bright. I think that I will go back and repaint it in the darker Reflective Green shade. I’ve picked out the interior seats with a Red Black and used Saddle brown for the coach mans seat. The wheels are also painted green although I’ve experimented with a darker green for the front wheels. All this messing around has meant that I’m still a long way from finishing this project. I think that given a good long painting session rather than the odd half hour here and there I could get this done but with even more commitments looming for the Festive season, it will be a couple of weeks before I can even think about basing this project.

The Battle of Bitteburg Part 2

In the last report, I explained the background and set up to our fictional game ‘The Battle of Bitteburg’ In this article, the focus is on the battle itself. As a player, it is quite difficult to write an entirely impartial view of a battle. Not only are you very involved with the battle as it unfolds around you, but it is easy to lose touch with the detail of what is happening elsewhere. In my case, I could see what was happening to my immediate left and right, but our far right wing was very much out of sight. I could only rely on the reports of the general commanding the Division there. Those reports tended to be somewhat vague. When asked how it was going, the standard reply appeared to be ‘OK’. There was very little detail to flesh out the situation and to be fair, once I had ascertained that things were OK, I was happy to focus on my own problems!

Now if I was having trouble working out what was happening on a large wargames table, goodness knows how they managed it in real life! So with that in mind, on with the battle report.

Turn 1. The armies advance

Turn 1. Having started the game with a blunder on the far left wing, the Allies seemed to hesitate as orders were failed all across the left wing and the two divisions involved simply stalled. On the French side, progress was much faster as the whole Army advanced in good order, taking up positions in the woods and buildings that occupied the centre of the table. On the Left, the French advanced in good order to the river, taking advantage of the confusion in the Austrian Division. The only firing was from a solitary British rocket battery. No casualties were inflicted but the French were rattled at the range and potential damage that could be caused.

Turn 2 French advance to the River

Turn 2 saw the Allied army making slow progress forward, with the first reinforcements arriving on the battlefield. On the left, the Austrians had started to sort themselves into some sort of battle line. The Prussians had occupied the village in the Austrian deployment zone and the rest of the Prussian brigade in this sector attempted to bolster the weaker wing of the Austrian Division. In the centre, the British and Hanoverians had successfully advanced and joined with the main Austrian force on their right. The French in reply, continued with their remorseless advance, their army looking the more cohesive of the two. The first Cavalry skirmish resulted in a minor victory for the British Hussars as they shook their French equivalents forcing two French Cavalry Regiments to retire shaken.

Turn 3 French cross the river

Turn 3 The battle for the centre

Turns 3 and 4. As the armies closed in the centre, the action really started and the game began to take shape. On the left an Austrian Cavalry charge ended disastrously, with the Austrians being soundly beaten both in the initial combat and the follow up move, resulting in the loss of a brigade of heavy cavalry. This allowed the French army to confidently cross the river, putting even more pressure on the Austrians. Left of Centre, the British and Prussians closed with the French, initially with some success as a French Battalion was broken by fire power and many casualties were inflicted. The French reply was equally devastating, with the Somersetshire Battalion broken and the Prussians occupying the village hammered by artillery fire and forced to evacuate. Frustratingly, the main body of Austrian troops in the centre, commanded by the Supreme Commander were struggling to move and make their numbers felt. The ‘Grand Battery’ of 5 guns that had been set up was largely ineffective and was becoming masked by Allied troops, limiting the targets available. On the far right things were going ‘OK’…

Turn 4 French are pushed back on the right.

Turn 4 things are getting hot in the center

Turn 5. The Austrians on the left were trying desperately to hold back the advancing French but refused all aid offered. They were convinced that the tide would turn and that Callans first rule of wargaming, ‘He who crosses the river first will lose’ would apply. The British and Prussians were ready to deliver a killing blow to the French Centre. Unfortunately, the firing was ineffective and the French weathered the storm, their morale intact. Once again, the Superior Austrian forces in the centre were unable to engineer a break through and the majority of their forces were snarled up in the rear of the battlefield. Meanwhile, on the right, the Austrian division had pushed forward and although four battalions were forced into square they had effectively bottled up the French on this wing.

Turn 5 The pressure mounts on the Austrian Right

Turn 6 The British are held – The French Cavalry plug the gap

Turn 6. Left of centre turned into a blood bath! A whole British brigade was broken and effectively wiped out. The French also lost a brigade but managed to retire in good order as replacements were on hand to cover them. The Prussians in the ‘hinge’ were also severely mauled and on the point of breaking. The Austrians on the left were now crumbling in the face of the French advance. The French had now secured all of the river crossings and were moving up the reserve artillery. In the centre, the main Austrian army remained deadlocked, unable to exploit the few small gaps that had opened up. At least over on the right things were ‘OK’…

Turn 6 The French cut the hinge

Turn 7. The French tighten the noose! Despite there being clear gaps and weaknesses in the French line, the Allies seemed unable to exploit them or break through. A clever redeployment of French Heavy cavalry plugged one gap and the continued arrival of reinforcements kept the allies on the back foot, penned to the edge of the Battlefield (table!). The Austrian Left flank had all but failed and was desperately holding on. The Prussians holding the ‘hinge’ between the Austrian and British divisions were now on the back foot, holding as best they could. The strong Austrian centre had pushed forward but was unable to relieve the pressure on the left. The only good news was that these Austrians were now in contact with French forces on the right and the Allies right wing was now secure and making progress.

Turn 6 at last the Austrian Centre is on the move

Turn7 the Austrians threaten the French Flank

Turn 8. There’s a certain look that winning players have as the game swings in their favour and I could see it across the table. The French confidence was high, their strategy had worked, the dice had not been too unkind and the end was in sight! On the left, the Austrian division was fading away and to make matters worse, they had been cut off from the rest of the army as the French had now secured the village guarding the ‘Hinge’. The British and Prussians had been badly mauled, losing two brigades of infantry and were effectively pinned with their left flank badly exposed. The main Austrian force in the centre was largely untouched but had been unable to fully deploy or break through any gaps that appeared in the French lines. The only good news for the allies was that things were ‘OK’ on the right… Well, to be fair they had steadily fought their way into a winning position but were unlikely to be able to influence the outcome of the battle.

Turn 8 The Austrian right pushes the French back

With the French winning in two sectors, drawing in one and only under pressure on the far right wing a victory was declared and once again, Napoleon had triumphed. The Allies were retreating in reasonable order although, it was possible that one wing of the army would be entirely lost in the retreat.

Turn 8 Napoleon watches the French advance

It was time to mull over the battle, the victors enthusiastically planning the next meeting, the losers holding a ‘post mortem’ to work out what had gone wrong!

We will be back again in the New Year!

The Battle of Bitteburg 1816

Once every three months or so we play a ‘mega’ battle where all the units that we have painted are placed onto the table. The last battle that we fought in this way was our Waterloo tribute, on June 13th. The battle of Bitteburg was the follow up played on Sunday 22/11/2015. We don’t get too vexed about how many troops are on each side, as long as they are painted , they are on the table! We are also quite lax regarding uniforms. I know that purists will find this difficult to accept but provided the troops are from the Napoleonic era, we are quite happy to mix Peninsular Uniforms with Waterloo issue. Likewise early revolutionary French will face off against 1815 Prussians. We even had a battalion of Caribbean troops to bolster the Allied numbers…

The scenario was as follows:

Following Napoleons victory at Waterloo, the Allies were able to retreat in good order back into Belgium, holding Napoleon back from capturing Brussels. The Allies were however, in no position to go back onto the offensive. Despite his victory, Napoleon was prevented from further pursuit of the British and Prussians by political unrest at home and again had to return to France to settle matters once and for all. Meanwhile, a combined Austrian/Russian Army was approaching from Germany and reinforced by a small Anglo Prussian force, threatened the borders of France. Napoleon swiftly marched out to meet the oncoming army and battle was joined just outside the town of Bitteburg.

First Table set up – note scenic cloth

We were using the basic Black Powder rules with a few of our own additions and modifications. There were four players on each side. Each player commanded a Division made up of between 3 and 6 brigades of Infantry and cavalry with the appropriate artillery support. In all there were over 3000 figures to go ontyo the table! The French deployed their forces first, with the Allies responding. However, all players could only deploy half of their division, the rest following on, one brigade per turn at the Divisional commanders discretion. One player on each side was appointed ‘Army Commander’ and was given the ability to issue one additional order to each division ( four orders maximum) to any unit or brigade that had either not moved or failed an order to move. The Army Commanders rating was 9 and these orders were unaffected by distance to the unit. (We assumed a very fast ADC would issue the order!) However, the Army commander was still required to pass the order on a dice throw as usual and of course, subject to the ‘blunder’ rule.

Apart from adding to the fun, the idea of the extra order was to create a pause at the end of each turn so that the players would get a feel as to what was going on else where in the battle. In addition it ensured that all four players on each side kept in turn with each other.

The Zig Zag Table set up. Pete takes a break before deciding whether to place more cover on the tables!

Rather than lay the tables out in a straight line, we adopted a zig zag shape to create some ‘pinch points’ on the battlefield. This gave us about 26 feet of deployment area per side! Scenery was set up by three of us the day before the battle and placed arbitrarily to break up the battlefield without giving either side a particular tactical advantage. We modified the rules regarding fighting in buildings to make it easier for assaulting troops. The first round of combat would be fought as per standard Black Powder rules. If the defenders won the combat, the assaulting troops would immediately recoil, regardless of the outcome of the morale role. If the combat was a draw, the troops would remain locked in combat but the defenders would have their save modifier reduce from 2+ to 1+. In the event that the attackers won, the it was assumed that they had fought their way into the building and subsequent rounds of combat would take place subject to normal combat rules with no further advantage to the defenders. The aim was to encourage the assault of buildings!

The last of the Allies are deployed

With all of the above in mind, the troops were deployed, the Allies had the first turn and The Austrian Commander on the left wing gave his first order of the day… and with the first roll of the dice, a double six! A blunder! The omens did not look good for the Allies…

All troops deployed – let battle commence!

To be continued.

Napoleons Carriage on the Workbench.

Napoleons Berlin Carriage

It was some time ago that I mentioned that I was about to start work on Warlord Games version of Napoleons Carriage – see my blog entry ‘A Confession’ . I was hesitating to start the project for two reasons. One, I was struggling to find the information that I needed regarding colour scheme etc and two, I had decided that I wanted the door to the coach in an open position for reasons that I will explain later.

Well, I’ve tracked down a brief account of the famous carriage. I didn’t have to look too far – on page 419 of the book ‘Waterloo Companion’, by Mark Adkin is a short description of the coach and how it was used. Incidentally, Mark Adkins book is a must have item for any Napoleonic Wargamer. If you haven’t already got it, then put it on your Christmas list now!

Waterloo Companion

The carriage is described as ‘ a large green carriage’ used by Napoleon as a mobile command post. It had strength, stability and manoeuvrability and was weather-proofed. It must have been quite a large affair, as one seat across the back was partially partitioned so that two persons could work, without being thrown around. Opposite was a lockable cabinet that could be converted into a writing desk. There were other cupboards containing everything that Napoleon might need. A silver chronometer hung on one wall and Napoleons seat could be transformed into a bed!

Napoleons Coach assembled.

The Warlord Games version is clearly not a scale model of this actual coach but is a very good representation as far as a wargaming piece goes. Which leads me to remind myself that I am neither interested or capable of making a detailed scale model of this subject, merely a passable representation that will look good on my wargames table as an objective or conversation piece. In this respect the Warlord Games model is an excellent model.

Napoleons Coach under coated – dare I take a scalpel to it?

The real coach was captured and plundered in the chaos and confusion after the battle of Waterloo. Indeed on the 19th June 1815, Commissariat officer Tupper Carey passed it, still surrounded by Prussians ‘scraping and sifting the ground, in consequence of a report that some diamonds had fallen from their settings in the night scramble’. Although the Prussians stripped and plundered what ever treasures were aboard the coach that day, the coach itself was returned to England where it eventually ended up in Madame Tussauds in London but was destroyed by fire in 1925.

So having decided that I would like to build the model, I decided that I would depict it as being captured after the Battle of Waterloo. In my minds eye, this would simply involve the Carriage being halted by the Prussians and the start of the search for plunder. It is quite an ambitious diorama for me to build and I suspect that it will take some time. The first task was to see if I could safely remove the door of the coach. Using a new, sharp scalpel blade, I carefully cut around the frame of the door, both inside and out. Fortunately, Warlord Games use a good quality resin, rather than the cheap & nasty brittle sort used by some manufacturers, so after about 20 minutes of patient cutting, the door was safely removed!

Napoleons Coach – door removed

And that’s about as far as I have progressed with this particular project. I think that it will take me some time before it is actually completed. I intend to paint it in stages and the horses are the first on the painting table. Having undercoated them, I’ve given them a coat of light grey, the idea being to gradually highlight them up to white. I’ll post updates as I progress with the painting.

The horses get their first coat of paint.

New Range of Scenery.

Full-henge from N-FX & Arcane Scenery

We have been working on a new range of scenery with our good friends Nick and Tash at N-FX. The plan is to offer a comprehensive range of scenery for war gamers in all time periods and genres. A rather ambitious task but something that we have been keen to do right from the outset of the business. I guess the clue is in our name.

We already have a few unbranded products that we are able to resell under the Arcane Scenery name and we will start to bring all of these together so that they are more accessible to customers, along with a bit more help as to how best to use the products. Again, a pretty obvious thing to do but a massive task in itself.

The other issue that we have been wrestling with is that of pricing. There are some items that we can buy in from other suppliers such as pet shops, DIY stores, florists and other miscellaneous sources that we know will be invaluable for Wargames – I use many of these products myself. The thing is, will customers be prepared to pay the addition cost for the convenience of having these items in one place and being able to buy in suitable quantities or will they feel that they are being taken advantage of?

A good example of this dilemma is illustrated by the product, Basing Sand. Lets face it, it’s just sand! You can get it for free if you visit the beach. Or, if you go to a builders merchants, you can get a 10kg bag for about £5.00. There will be enough to last you a lifetime of basing! The other alternative is that you can go to a model shop and pay £5.00 or so for a small tub of the stuff. I guess, it is up to the individual which option that they choose. You either pay for the convenience or you get a hernia lifting the 10kg bag into the car!

I have digressed somewhat, back to our Scenery range. We decided that we would start our range with subjects that would support and fit with our DeeZee range of Ice age/prehistoric animals. We also wanted something that would be a little bit different. So we have started with a range of Neolithic ‘buildings’ and constructions.

Stone circle on Dartmoor

I have long been fascinated by these ancient structures. I was brought up in the West Country of England – Dartmoor has many stone circles, standing stones and stone bridges that I visited as a child and picnicked next to! That led to my interest in other such structures, Stone Henge, the Avebury Stones, and more further afield, the Moai on Easter Island. As a teenager of the ’70s I was also sucked into the writings of Eric Von Daniken who postulated that some of these monuments were made by visitors from outer space. All very entertaining, if now somewhat daft, but great background for Pulp gaming.

Moai and Lucid Eye Neanderthal Chief

We have launched the range with four subjects, a Moai, our version of a stone henge and two burial cairns. There is of course more to come, so that you will be able to create a complete themed look for your gaming table or just make a one off feature. I think that the scenery will be suitable for any sort of fantasy, pulp fiction or science fiction themed game. Of course, it will be ideal for an ice age or Neolithic setting.

Small Neolithic Burial Cairn

In designing the range, we have deliberately not gone for exact copies or scale models of subjects but produced our interpretation of the subject. The pieces are sized with ’28mm’ figures in mind but would be suitable for other scales. We have also ensured that there is plenty of texture on the models that can be brought to life with a simple dry brush technique when painting them.

Single Henge

I hope that you will enjoy these pieces and find them useful for your games. The range will grow steadily to encompass some of the more fashionable war games periods, Napoleonics and World War Two spring to mind! Over the course of my blog, I’ll put together a few articles showing how I painted and based my examples. In the meantime, if you would like to have your own ‘henge’ or Moai, click here.

Hello Sailor!

Royal Marine officers

Perhaps a subtitle of ‘Where’s Wally’ would also have been appropriate – you will see why later. This weeks blog will be a bit of a short one. I’ve been diverted from the painting table by a number of distractions, from family weddings to a nasty cold and I have been working on a set of Black Powder campaign rules for the club. However, I have made some progress with my shore party of marines. Having completed 16 Royal Marines, my next task was to start on the Foundry Shore party and Boarding party sets. The Former contains two Royal Marine officers as well as some well armed sailors, the later pack, just some mean looking sailors. Finishing these would complete my raiding party.

Sailors join the action!

As you can see the first batch of officers and sailors are just about completed with the basing to finish. I also have 4 more sailors at the ‘Dip’ stage- although I actually paint the quick shade on. That leaves another 4 to paint in the coming week and then it is on to my next project. I have been a bit lazy when it came to researching the sailors ‘uniforms’ and just copied the painted versions on the Foundry web site. To be fair, although sailors were issued with some sort of basic kit, from what I have read they made their own clothes and wore what was available. There was a bit more of a relaxed attitude taken to their appearance than to the Royal Marines on board. So when it came to painting the soft hats of the sailors, I went for a nice stripey design which in hindsight does look a bit like a night cap or a ‘where’s wally’ hat! Sometimes things dont turn out quite as I planned but I don’t plan to repaint these. It will no doubt amuse my friends when these figures do appear in battle…

Where did you get that hat?

For the time being, these figures will go straight to the cabinet, although there is a chance of an appearance on the table later in the month. For now though, they are part of my growing Caribbean/Naval force.

The last of the shore party to be painted.

Painting flesh – Charles Baynon Style

Shieldwall Berserkers Group

I’m very lucky to work in the wargaming industry, albeit on the peripheral of things as a retailer, but as a result I get to see some superb work by the master painters. I have a few favourites, some of whom may be familiar to you, Kevin Dallimore, Paul Cubins, Matt Parkes, Dave Woodward and Andrés Amián Fernández are just a few that spring to mind. I can only aspire to achieve the results that these guys produce. I do however, use them as inspiration and do my best to follow some of their techniques to improve the look of my figures.

Alfred the Great – Footsore

I can now add another name to the list of my favourite painters, Charles Baynon. Charles has been painting some figures for the Footsore web site and I was very impressed with his use of muted colours on his dark age figures that looked both authentic yet still allowed the figure to catch your eye. I asked Charles if he would mind painting some of the Lucid Eye figures for our web store and he kindly obliged. The results were superb and it was in these figures that I could see what had really impressed me with his painting. It was his portrayal of the face and flesh. How did he do this! Well, the simple way to find out was to ask him and Charles has kindly supplied his ‘flesh recipe’ below and allowed me to share it with you.

Lucid Eye Amazons Set 2

Painting Flesh The Charles Baynon Way!

“The ‘recipe’ for flesh it is pretty straightforward. I always undercoat figures black and then paint the eyes first. Having narrowed the eyes to a suitably thin sliver, I then paint around all the rest of the visible flesh with tan brown undercoat ( Foundry tan shade). The next step is to paint the bottom eyelids. This I do with Vallejo Basic Skintone. Although it is labelled ‘basic’ it is very light and makes a good highlight. The next step is to paint the rest with the base skintone. For this I use Army Painter Tanned Flesh. First I dot the tip of the nose then place two dots either side of the tip. The trick is to leave a very narrow line of the tan undercoat showing through to define these dots. After painting the bridge of the nose I paint the cheeks (being careful to leave a very thin line of the undercoat showing to separate the cheeks from the bottom eyelid) then I paint the top eyelids and forehead, leaving a very narrow line above each eye to serve as eyebrows.

Black Scorpion Pirate Women Group

You may have gathered that it is easier to paint ‘up’ to a line than actually paint a narrow line, so it is the undercoat that serves as the lines on the face. I then highlight areas of the face with Army Painter Barbarian Flesh, namely the tip and bridge of the nose, cheekbones, forehead above each eye and, very occasionally, the chin and jawline. The Barbarian Flesh then has increasing amounts of white added to it and I further apply it to areas of the greatest highlights ie. nose, cheekbones and just above the eyebrows. Once I am happy with the result the last part of the face I paint is the bottom lip with Foundry Terracotta Light.

Lucid Eye Female Explorer

I use the same basic recipe for hands, the lightest highlights being the knuckles and fingernails.
For women and larger areas of flesh I tend to use a more subtle colour mix. On women’s faces I often don’t have the undercoat lines to show the wrinkles! I also dispense with the lighter Barbarian Flesh. Instead I just use Tanned Flesh and then build up the highlights by adding successive layers with more and more white added. This gives a much smoother appearance and is more flattering. It is also the technique I prefer to use if painting large areas of bare flesh eg. a Greek javelinman in short tunic etc.

Lucid Eye Atlantean Sword Trio

One last thing, part of the smoothness of tone is also due to the number of times I spray varnish the figure at intervals during the painting process. I found that it was far too easy to, say, rub off the carefully painted knuckles when handling the figure. So I probably spray the figure when I have painted the flesh and then maybe another couple of times after I have completed another particular stage. Just thin coats of varnish are required. I use Army Painter Anti-Shine for this, it protects the figure but, unfortunately, it is not dead matt. The very last coat is the liquid version applied with a small brush. This really does dry to a true matt finish.”

Artizan Mexican Command

I’ve illustrated this article with just a few of the figures that Charles has painted. In my last blog post I mentioned that I was trying to develop two styles of painting. My ‘batch painting’ technique for the rank and file and a more careful traditional highlight & shaded style for my Commanders, Vignettes and Characters. If I can get to anywhere near the standard set by Charles, I will be delighted. I now have some guide lines that may help. I hope that you have enjoyed looking at Charles Baynons work. Should you wish to purchase figures painted to this high standard, Charles sells his figures under the handle of cwb21 on ebay and you can see his latest figures for sale here.

Lucid Eye Harranna of Avisha

Making the mountain into a molehill.

The Lead Mountain is sorted!

I’ve been banging on about my lead mountain for some time now but after some steady progress, I thought it was time to sort it out once and for all! So a rainy afternoon was spent going through my collection of figures and putting it into some sort of order. Thankfully, there wasn’t quite as much there as I thought. The first job was to get rid of all the figures that I had acquired that ‘might come in useful’ or although broken, could be repaired. These went into the spares box or the bin. No point in them hanging around.

The next category was the free figures given out at shows or exclusives given out with purchases. I am a real magpie when it comes to these figure but they dont always fit into the period that I am interested in and I have kept them because they are ‘collectors’ items. Some of them aren’t even very good figures! Well, they all went into a box marked appropriately ‘exclusives’. I cant see me painting any of these in the near future but at least I now know what is there.

Sorted by Category – Napoleonics win!

As I was going through all the odd figures, I sorted everything into rough periods. They were either ‘Ancients & Medieval’, Black powder era or World War Two. I only have a few bits & pieces for World WarTwo so it was fairly easy to box most of these up and they were the first back onto the shelf. The next category was the ancients and medieval figures. I’ve got a few Roman figures for that Legion that I will paint one day, some Dark Age Warriors that will expand my Saga Band when I get around to it and some War of The Roses Infantry to enlarge my Lion Rampant Retinue into a full army. None of which is going to happen in the next six month, so it was all carefully boxed and added back onto the shelf!

Finally, my Black Powder & Napoleonic figures. As this is my main point of interest at the moment, I sorted them out into Battalions where possible and boxed or bagged them as such. I have it in mind to paint the British 5th Infantry Division at Waterloo. It consists of The 28th North Gloucestershires (yellow Facings), The 32nd Cornwall ( White facings) , the 79th Cameron Highlanders (Dark Green Kilts!) and a detatchment of 6 companies of 95th Rifles. That said, it isn’t going to happen anytime soon, so these figures can go back on the shelf! And so it went, until everything was tidied away, in some sort of order and with some idea as to what I was going to do with each batch of figures.

Somehow, the process of sorting and tidying everything clarified what I need to do next to extend my painted army and of course reduce the unpainted stock to a manageable level. I dont expect to just keep ploughing through the pile in a set order but at least there will be some direction to my painting now. I’ve also resolved that all units will be finished using my ‘batch painting’ system. At least this way I will be able to complete 8 – 12 figures a week to table top standard, so about 2 to 3 weeks for a battalion.

However, for my ‘personality’ figures, I will try to develop highlighting and shading through the more traditional method of blending, ink washes etc. Perhaps, with practice I can raise the standard and speed of both methods.

Royal marines nearly ready for duty!

In the meantime, just to show that I haven’t spent the last week dreaming of future projects, my next batch of Royal Marines are nearly complete, I’ve started on my last batch of civilians and lurking on the back of the paint station is my Shore party, primed and ready for painting.

In fact, I was so pleased with my progress and the organised state of my collection that I decided to treat myself to some new Front Rank figures. Their latest releases includes some lovely civilians that had caught my eye and while I was looking through the web store, I thought that I would have a few of their British Commanders. After all, my lead mountain isn’t that big after all…

The Marines are coming – Part 2 – first batch arrived!

Royal Marines Shore Party

What! Two blog posts in one week! After the excitement of completing the Moai I thought that I would round up my progress elsewhere. As you can see my first eight Royal marines are complete and ready to take to the table. Fortunately, my gaming buddies are very easy going and they wont object if I deploy a unit of Royal Marines along side the rest of my British Army. As I have previously mentioned they will be part of my Caribbean force although they will also see service as part of a detachment in my Peninsular army – when I get around to starting it!

I’ve photographed the final stages of these figures being completed as part of my batch painting process. Once they were block painted, I gave them a coat of Army Painter Quick Shade.

Quick shade Dark Tone applied

The next stage is to give them a spray of Army Painter anti shine.

Anti Shine applied sparingly

Once the Anti Shine matt varnish is dry, I add highlights to the figures. This often just entails repainting the lighter colours – white in particular, the red on the jackets and retouching the metallics with Gold & silver as they can look too dull in places. On this occasion I also attempted to paint in the eyes and added some highlights to the faces – not something that I normally worry about with rank & file troops. Looking closely at the picture, you can see why I tend to leave the eye’s… A couple will need retouching.

Highlights added & basing is started

The final touch is to finish the bases. I used my usual ‘recipe’ of Vallejo Desert Sand to cover the bases. Then painted them with Vallejo Chocolate Brown, highlighted and dry brushed them with Flat earth & increasing amounts of Iraqi Sand added. I then added some green scatter & some of the new Gamers grass tufts and they are done.

Basing completed

The final process of repainting sounds as though it is a bit of a chore but in reality it is quite a quick job. I think that it is worth the time as it also gives you the chance to correct any obvious painting errors. For some troops, it is just as easy to leave this part out and go straight to the basing. After all, these are rank and file troops to be used on the table, not painting competition entries. It all comes down to a matter of taste and of course, time. If you would like to read my blog giving details of all the colours used in the early stages of painting, click here.

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