ndcblog
eldannardoAs promised, I managed to finish another Marlburian unit. This is the Regiment Picardie, the senior line regiment in the French army. I thought that it would be a bit boring to paint with all that grey, but on the contrary I really enjoyed it. Marlburians are really a joy to paint – I love seeing them come to life under the brush.
And here is a close-up of the drummer. I really like how the livery turned out.
Not content with finishing the required regiment on time, I have also managed to sneak in a Demi-Brigade of French Revolutionary infantry. These are also Lancashire Games figures, but closer to true 15mm.
Yes, it is yet ANOTHER period. These were very easy to paint as well. I think it is just the whole 15mm thing being so different from 28mm in terms of painting time. The plan is to do about 11 French battalions and the same of Austrians. I’m thinking Bonaparte in Italy 1796, and basing the armies on the orders of battle for Arcole. If the project flies (and like the Marlburian one, I’m pretty sure that it will), I might even get some Prussians in there too.
And in the true spirit of Anglo-French friendship, here is a photo just for the hell of it:
‘Tirez les premiers Monsieurs les Anglais’ (OK it is a little early for Fontenoy, but it is a great quote!)
Yes, for the eagle eyed amongst you, I have rebased the English. It doesn’t matter what size your bases are for the Rank and File rules, and this system gives me the flexibility of using Beneath the Lily Banners or Principles of War, or even Shako.
I’ve also decided to amputate the command system from Warmaster and sew it on to rank and File. I think the two will complement each other superbly.
Next: Churchill’s Foot for Marlburian, due 26th July.
Nate
Just got back from NATCON yesterday. Three days solid of playing Napoleonics. I was borrowing an army off the unpire, Russell, to use with his First Volley rules. These are very much in the style of the ‘Grand Manner’ rules, with very large battalions.
Russ gave me 1813 Austrians to play. They were mostly militia and 2nd Class troops with a couple of good cavalry regiments thrown in. I was beaten in the first two games by Andrew’s 1805 Russians and Mark’s 1812 Franco-Swiss. Then on Saturday I was trounced by Paul’s 1812 Russians and Kevin’s 1813 Italian- Wurtemburgers. I have to say by that stage I was feeling a bit down on the poor old Austrians. They seemed to be scared of their own shadows and the 6 pounder artillery was getting thrashed by bigger guns on a consistent basis. But the four games had given me a good understanding of the rules, and an insight to the army I was using.
The fifth game was an extra long one on Sunday was against Simon’s Saxons. I’d worked out a pattern for deployment that could see me get the most out of my cavalry brigade, and realised that using the militia as cannon fodder was probably a good idea, as retreating militia didn’t give the same disadvantages to morale as a retreating 2nd class unit.
The game was played at a leisurely pace, as both Simon and I are rather new to the rules and we wanted to make sure we understood them to the best of our ability. The game consisted of Simon launching a huge cavalry offensive on my left flank while I made an attack on the right with my infantry. There was a big gap in Simon’s centre which my dragoons exploited, but they just didn’t have enough time in the end to do the damage which they might have done. Simon’s Guard Zastrow Cuirassiers smacshed themselves against my 2nd class squares, but depsite the inability of the squares to do any dmage with volley fire, the squares stood firm. The 6 pdrs managed to get within canister range of Simon’s artillery, and whilst he was masked by his own troops, I let rip. It was the first triumph for the Austrian artillery all weekend!
In the end time was against us and a count up of victory points showed that the Austrians had won. Despite enjoying the whole weekend, the last game did contribute to an overall positive feeling from the competition. I’m not sure of the final points tally, but I’d be pretty sure that I was placed 6th in a field of 6. Without the last game, I probably would have been 7th! But placings wasn’t the rationale for playing – it was all about learning the First Volley rules so that the Rotorua Irregulars could play them and start to use a standard rules-set that would work when travelling to other climes. At the same time I had some good games with a great bunch of guys who played in a fantastic spirit. I’ve now determined to build a French force for First Volley, and look forward to future games with the ‘Mid-Island Mercenaries’ (as Kevin called them)!
(Sorry there are no photos, I forgot my camera!)
Nate
First up – the 2 Victrix British battalions have had their flank companies added and are now complete. Here they are in all of their glory:
And a closer shot of the flank companies. Yes I’m aware that they are meant to be on either side of the battalion like the French are, but I got them quite a bit after the centre companies, and I wasn’t going to rebase everything!
Next up, another step in the direction of a 500 point Warmachine force – Gorten Grundback, my warcaster:
Finally, a side project of sorts. I’ve always wanted to wargame the New Zealand Wars, and even had a pile of Old Glory figs painted up at one stage. But I was so annoyed at the fact that they were not particularly accurate, I sold them all off.
I purchased some Eureka miniatures British Imperial troops and Colonial militia a couple of years ago. They have just sat there, but I am now determined to use them for a game based on Legends of the Old West. So I have put together my first unit – 9 figures of British Infantry.
Generally I am pleased with how they turned out. However, there was one serious flaw. I used Citadel Midnight Blue as a base coat for the figures, and it worked well for the blue areas, but lifted through the white and the grey! It is visible in these photos. I have painted over these areas since varnishing the figure, but it is nearly impossible to eliminate this purple pigmentation. I’m severely disappointed, and have resolved never to use GW paints again! It isn’t too much of a resolution ,as I pretty much use vallejo for everything now, but don’t have a deep blue-black. I’ll order one tomorrow.
The other NZ Wars figure that I’ve painted up is a conversion from a Perry Miniatures plastic American Civil War figure. I’ve used Green stuff to give him a Pork Pie cap, and cartridge pouch. I think he has come out quite well. He needs a few touch ups, as I’ve painted him very quickly to see if the Green stuff additions work:
Since this photo I’ve tidied up the paint spills and flattened the forage cap down to give a sharper angle. I think he came out OK and fits in quite well with the other figures. He will be the first of a converted company to fight alongside the Eureka figs. I’ll probably look to have 3 units of British Regulars, one of militia, and some artillery. I might even have a go at some olonial Defence Force Cavalry. I still have 11 Maori left over from the Old Glory days and will probably add to these . 20 or so should be about right. My thinking is to get the Old Glory Militia pack, as these give some more variety in dress.
Nate
Filed under: Napoleonics, Wargaming, Wargaming works in progress, Warmachine
To start off, I said that I was going to post a battle report from our DBA game in the last post. Unfortunately the pictures turned out quite dull, so I’ve abandoned that goal. This week I have made a point of doing an hour of painting every night, and have finished the 12 Victrix British that I had been working on for the last month or so. Napoleonics are labour intensive to paint but look so good when finished! This latest battalion is the 28th Gloucesters with their lovely yellow facings. I now have 8 more figures undercoated and ready to go, which will be the flank companies for the 2 battalions that I have already finished. when they are done (hopefully by next weekend), I will put up a post of the completed British battalions.
After that, I will be starting the Vistula Legion lancers, as I plan to paint 2 battalions from both sides, then a support choice, then 2 battalions again as a regular pattern. I plan to chip away at the Napoleonics steadily throughout this year.
As stated before, the next combined project for Dan and I is Warmachine. I have a Mercenary force, he has Cygnar. My Mercs are heavily Rhulic, and the plan is eventually to be able to field an entirely Rhulic army, now that the Horgenhold Guard have been released and can add some variety to the troops choices. I painted a Hammerfall High Shield soldier in grey a couple of years ago. Then I painted the Ghordson Driller in khaki, and then Durgan Madhammer in khaki. So I went back to the Hammerfall guys and decided to go with a ‘WWI British Tommy’ theme. After painting the first figure, here are the results:
And another view showing the Hammerfall Shieldsman to the side:
The scheme is nice and simple – Vallejo khaki for armour plate and British Uniform for the uniform. Webbing is buff.
I’ve bought the Too Fat Lardies rules for Through the Mud and the Blood. All of their rules get quite positive reviews on TMP, so I thought I’d splash out the 7 quid (hardly a major dent in the wargaming finances) and see. Initial skim through is positive, but I’m not sure about having to make a deck of cards. I like the idea of a card driven system, but it is actually making them that I’m not so sure about, as I am a perfectionist and making stunning cards could seriously cut into figure painting time!
To finish off this post, a couple of photos of the painted Napoleonics in action, fighting it out over a bridge:
The 1st battalion 18th Regiment crosses the bridge, supported by the second battalion at the river’s edge.
The 54th West Norfolk battalion trades volleys with the French.
That’s all for now. I’ll try and have something interesting next time!
Nate
I’ve been very quiet on the blog lately, mostly because I have been so busy with other things. But a question on TMP about converting Victrix Brits into Portuguese caught my attention. I have scraped a few figs and prepared them to be Portuguese, but they aren’t due to be painted until after I’ve done 4 battalions each of French and British.
But as the request was there, I thought I’d make myself do some painting and practise a Portuguese figure to see how it would turn out. Here is the result:
I used a craft knife to remove the tufts on the shoulders, the lace from the front of the tunic, the brass shako plate and the lace on the cuffs. I could have used green stuff to create raised buttons and the new brass shako plate, but decided it could be painted on instead. The uniform isthat of the 20th Line regiment as found in the Histofig plate http://empire.histofig.com/-Portugal-.html .
Please remember that this is a rushed figure (wargames standard). I just wanted to see if the conversion came off without green stuff. I think yes. But you can judge for yourself.
Nate
Here’s three elements of Victrix Brits that I’ve finished. One box of Victrix gives me 4 units of 12 figs, and I’m waiting on the flank companies box to furnish me with the 4th element. They should be just about on their way as far as I can tell – Caliver books was expecting them in.
I’ve combined the same poses into one unit, but with the different bodies there is still quite a bit of variety.
Compared to the Perry Miniatures these figures take a long time to prep and put together. They are truly multi-part kits, and I have to say that I was quite lazy with seam lines and sink holes. No putty was used in the hats where there were slight indentations. I’m not overly concerned, as I’ve always believed that a good paint job will hide a multitude of sins, and the worst of the offending flash was removed. The other major clean up job was clipping down the big rectangular bases to make them fit onto my bases without their bayonets ramming into all and sundry.
I put the models together completely, aside from leaving the drum detached from the drummer, then sprayed them in Chaos Black undercoat. I touched this up, as usual, with Tamiya Acrylic flat black.
The rest of the painting was in two tone aside from the overalls, which were three shades. One remark about painting British is that they are quite a bit more involved than Napoleonic French. This isn’t because of the extra lace, as this is just a little bit more white to paint. The difference I think was very much in number of colours required for the accoutrements such as the rucksack and the water bottle. This meant that they take, on average, a little longer to paint than their nemesis.
Painting them alrady built was actually easier I think, as the arms could hide spots that required extra detail, notably the bastion lace on the front of the tunic. As I have 2 marching battalions to paint with open fronts, we will see if this makes the painting any more onerous.
During the process a bayonet broke off, as I paint on a multiple base and whilst painting one figure, knocked the figure on the other side against the painting table. The flimsiness of the bayonets is one worrying thing about these plastic figures. However, as predicted in my post about the French, The bayonet proved very easy to reattach with a little bit of TamiyaModel glue. It even reattached when I broke it a second time from doing exactly the same thing! In all, I wouldn’t say that this is a major problem though. Although this bayonet did break, I actually bumped others in the same way several times and they remained firmly attached.
One of the Shakos is missing its plume, as I broke it off in removing the head from the sprue. I would have reattached it, but dropped it and it is now nowhere to be found. Never mind – campaign dress.
So would I recommend Victrix British Infantry? Pros are: I believe that the sculpting is excellent. The faces have a lot of expression and character. The multiplicity of poses available are excellent, and even if you prefer all of your figures in the same pose, you can get 4×8 identical figures per box. 5 boxes would give you 4 battalions of 40 for 100 pounds (NZ$250), or in my case 8 battalions of 16 from 3 boxes (NZ$150/GBP60). So they are cheap. Painting them is a pleasure (mainly due to the final results).
Cons: They take a decent amount of time to take off the sprue and put together – significantly more time to prep than either single cast metal figures or the Perry Plastics. The bayonets are a little bit sensitive (though not prohibitively so), and for those demanding all figures in the same pose this is not the set for you.
Overall: My British infantry are all going to be Victrix. Partly this is an issue of cost, but I genuinely like the figures. I’m not looking forward to putting them all together (2 boxes to go), but then I’m not really looking forward to painting them either (I am looking forward to them being painted…). Should I have waited for the Perry British? I don’t think so. I would have had to cut all the heads off and swap them for Peninsular heads anyway, so I doubt I’d have saved any time. As stated before, Victrixfit well with the Perry figures. So in summary, I like them and recommend them.
UPDATE 7/2/09
It has been brought to my attention on TMP that my drummer would not be yellow if the regimental facing colour is green. I kind of knew that drummers were in reverse colours, but did not think that the Brit drummers were ever in green. As I was shown otherwise, I have repainted my drummer to match the facings of my regiment! I’ve wargamed Napoleonics for 21 years and read countless books on the period, so to make such an elementary error is a bit embarassing. Still, I guess it goes to prove that no-one can know everything about the Napoleonic era in just 21 years!
Here is the repainted dummer. Not the best photo, but gives you the idea!
Nate
The holiday period is usually quite slow for me. We go away for a week to the beach (this is the southern hemisphere we are talking about), as well as have the whole family shindig at Christmas time. The upshot is that not a lot has been completed in the three weeks since my last post saying that not a lot has been done. But I have finished off the second battalion of Perry French, as well as put together a box of Vixtrix British. I’ve also ordered cavalry and guns for the French from Elite Miniatures, and 2 more boxes of Victrix – 1 of centre company and 1 of flank company. That will give me enough figures for eight battalions of Brits, and I’ve already got 8 battalions of French to face them.
I’ve got hold of the beta version of some rules being developed by a guy named Andrew in Aussie. I’ve read through them a couple of times and I think they are exactly what I’m looking for. They are kind of like Shako, but also reminiscent of Warhammer Ancient Battles and Flames of War. They have plenty of character, but the great thing is that they are designed with 16 figure infantry battalions and 8 figure cavalry regiments in mind, and for games of about a division a side (in fact they are designed for Brigade sized engagements in tournament play, but I like the divisional option). One of the reasons I like the 8-10 battalions and 2-4 cavalry a side sort of game is that this fits with the scenarios that Charles Grant has in his scenarios for wargamers book. True, I believe he envisaged slightly bigger battalions being used, but I’m one of those people who has too many wargaming distractions to sit down and build 48 figure units!
Anyway, latest pics with the basing for the Tactics and Gloire rules:
The first battalion of the 18eme Ligne, and:
The second battaion of the 25eme Ligne. I haven’t put the white dot in the centre of their pompom yet, and the command stand will actually be used in the first battalion when that is painted. I’m waiting on some Elite minis for all the greatcoat figure commands, and they will, of course, have the fanion, not the eagle.
How I painted them
I’m quite used to using black undercoat, so if something works for you, try something new! I felt that I wasn’t getting quite the finish I wanted on the white bits with the first couple of figures, so I went and bought a GW Skull White spray can and sprayed the figures still on the sprues. I had previously already sprayed them black, and it ended up giving some interesting shadow effects. No detail was obscured, but I wouldn’t recommend doing this as it is a bit of a waste of spray!
I then popped the figures off their sprues and cleaned up their mold lines with a blade, just scraping them down. On some of the figures I left them, and with others I touched up the white of the undercoat. In the end I only touched up the trousers, as it is quite possible to paint solid colours straight onto the plastic without priming. Cleaning mold lines on these guys takes about 20-30 seconds a figure. Plastic is really easy to work with in that regard.
In order to pick out details and give myself some shading, I used the GW Badab Black wash, and washed the figures all over. This provided the shading for the white undercoat, as it comes out in a convenient grey-black if diluted a little.
I then applied paint, using mostly Vallejo colours but the uniform blue is GW Midnight blue highlighted with Regal Blue. The faces are Vallejo Dark Flesh, with GW Ogryn Flesh Wash and then highlighted with Vallejo light flesh. The eyes are not my best work and I think that my hand is not as steady as it once was, or I’m less patient than I was. They are black lines with 2 white dots added.
The white parts were picked out in solid white for highlights (I use vallejo white), but the washed undercoat was left as the shade. If I felt it was too dark or not looking right, i touched it up with soem Vallejo London Grey.
The Backpacks were painted seperately glued on after the figures were finished. The reason I did this was to ensure that when drybrushing the light brown on the backpacks I didn’t have to go and touch up anything else on the figure later, and because with a white undercoat it is really noticeable if you miss any of the detail between the backpack and the figure. Incidentally, the backpacks are the only kit to glue together on the average figure. You need to add and arm to the officer (with the sword), the eagle to the Eagle bearer and the drum and arms to the drummer. I put all of these together before painting. I’ve only used a couple of skirmishing figures, but they are not much more work than the rest, just needing the arms glued on.
Would I recommend them? Yep. Cheap, nice, no more work than metal figures. I haven’t had a broken bayonet yet, and that could be a possibility, but unlike metal, broken bits reattach with just a bit of Tamiya model glue, and I anticipate any problems of this sort being easily fixed.
Compared to the last lot of metal figures that I seriously painted, Great War miniatures Brits where I was clipping and filing flash for hours, these guys are a dream to prep. Last comment would be that the plastics will hold the paint better than metal in terms of taking knocks. It doesn’t take much for chips to start appearing, even on varnished metal figures after they’ve been handled in a few games. I don’t think chipping is an issue with these boys, unless you want to take a chisel to them.
The Victrix British are a different story, and I thought I might try and paint a battalion of them next. They take a while to put together as they are a bit more multi-part than the Perrys. I will also go back to Black undercoat with them, due to very little white being needed. I should say that if you look through my blog you’ll see several different painting styles, and I don’t think I’ve managed to stay consistent through a whole project yet! I have no doubt that there will be a little more experimentation before I am settled on painting Napoleonics!
Note in the background there is a backdrop which I whipped up today. Expect to see it more often. I also have a new camera and am going to get a tripod to make sure that all of my pictures are as good as I can make them in the future.
Next I should have some Flames of War pics to show off. And of course, another Napoleonic battalion should be painted soon.
Nate
I’ve been quite busy lately, and so painting has been gruellingly slow, but I’ve finally finished my first battalion of plastic Perry Napoleonic French. I had a bit of an epiphany a fortnight or so ago and decided that I was going to use the WRG 1685-1845 rules for my Napoleonic gaming. The main reason was that these were the rules that I had used as a teenager upon first starting out wargaming, and there was a somewhat nostalgic feel to them. I don’t think we ever played them properly as kids, but I have the rules now, and they are not that complex. A lot of reaction tests, and just remembering the correct order to do everything in really, but I can imagine after a couple of games it will mostly become second nature.
So what do i think of the Perry figures? Fantastic! They paint up beautifully, and at the price that they are, I can afford to make a decent sized division. I haven’t tried to do any head swaps yet, but will probably do so later. They really don’t take that long to prepare, and technically shouldn’t need an undercoat. However, I did spray these guys black on the sprue, before changing my plan and reundercoating them white. The main reason was that I thought it would make the colours a bit bolder and might save time on the white parts of the model. So some of these figures were painted with black undercoat, and some with white. It is pretty much impossible to tell which was which now.
The goal is a 10 battalion division, and this will require 4 plastic boxed sets and 3 packs of metal command. I’ll concentrate on getting infantry for the Brits and the French first of all, as they are mostly to be found in plastic. By the time I get to the artillery and cavalry I’m hoping Victrix will have released some plastic kits for these things. The only downside will be the consistency of uniform, but i’m going for late Peninsula War anyway, so a mix of uniforms is perfectly reasonable.
I’ve also decided that I will base the American Civil War and the French and Indian War on the WRG rules as well.
Just ordered several new DBA armies, and under the brush right now are the last 3 elements of Alexandrian Macedonians. WAB armies are definitely on the back burner… priorities are Napoleonics, DBA and ECW. I plan on painting rather eratically, just picking up bits and pieces here and there.
Plenty more painting to do.
Time is short and I have a couple of Panzer IIIs to paint before tomorrow night’s game, so a quick post of my first Perry Napoleonic figure. His name is Pierre, and he is the first member of the 8eme regiment de ligne. I hope to do a decent review of the figs and the sprue, but so many others have already done this and time is so tight, don’t hold your breath! But Pierre can’t help but want to show off his new coat of paint, so without further ado…
I’ve been busy with the paint brush in the last couple of days. I wanted to get the Flames of War 88s finished. I wasn’t too concerned with intricate detail in my painting; all I wanted was a result that would look OK on the wargames table. Here is the finished product:
and a close up showing the poor painting on the infantry:
I’ve also been working on a battalion of French Napoleonics using 1/72 HaT figures. I haven’t quite cleaned up the flag yet, but was keen to get the pictures up anyway. I’m going to use the Warhammer rules for them, and thought I’d demonstrate the different formations available. First up – Line:
Next, the Column:
And finally, Square:
I’m quite happy with how they have come out. I’ll do a small division a side with French and probably Austrians (my other favourite Napoleonic side).
Dan’s been busy too, building terrain stuff, more of that next post.
Nate
