Austrian Napoleonic Dragoons in 6mm from Henry Turner

 Good day friends and welcome to the weekend.  I had fully intended to post this yesterday as one of this blog’s semi-habitual Napoleonic Thursday post, but my computer had some issues and no matter, here they are today.

While I have some Austrian cuirassiers in my collection, I didn’t have any Austrian dragoons (though in 6mm it’s hard to tell the difference between the two) so I easily rectified that by printing myself a mass of 6mm figures thanks to Henry Turner’s Europe Asunder Napoleonic Kickstarter that I’d backed last year.

The figures are based as per my usual standard for 6mm Napoleonics, giving me either a division’s worth for a grand scale game like Blucher, or a full regiment of four stands (1 command stand and three rank and file bases) for Sam Mustafa’s LaSalle 2.  I have a separate post planned for basing units for LaSalle, coming soon.

The flags were purchased from Stone Mountain Miniatures.  To their credit, they have a good selection of 6mm flags, though it took me a very long time to receive them.   I always want to cut self-employed hobby business owners a lot of slack.  Who knows what’s going on in their personal lives? 

A quick word on Henry Turner’s figures.   I printed these on an Elegoo Mars 2 resin printer.   The results were quite satisfactory, the figures have a decent amount of detail, though some have told me the horses don’t look convincing.    I wouldn’t print his figures at any scale larger than 10mm, but for 6 they satisfy and mix nicely with my Baccus collection.  I’m a fan.

I have a lot of 6mm Napoleonic stuff currently on the painting desk - a substantial mass of Austrian grenadiers and some Polish Uhlans, and after that lot is done it’s back to the big scales for a while.

Cheers and thanks for looking.  Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Warlord Victorian British Infantry

I recently finished this unit of 28mm Victorian British infantry for my alt-ACW project.  These are metal Warlord sculpts, I think by Paul Hicks, for their Crimean War range.   I am fairly sure that these figures are which are OOP as I couldn’t find them on the Warlord website.  I bough them practically for a song from a very generous friend at last year’s Hot Lead convention.

The figures are painted using Foundry paints and the flag is from Adolfo Ramos.    There was only one banner bearer in the unit, so I opted for the regimental flag rather than the national flag, just because I liked the look.

These figures, added to my existing Perry British Infantry Force figures, give me a small brigade, which I’ll try to get some pics of the next time we have some sunlight.  Hopefully they’ll see some action in defence of Upper Canada soon.

Cheers and thanks for looking.   Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Things I Did in 2022: Early Imperial Roman Cavalry

Parish work has been rewarding this last week but has left me with precious little time to paint or to post here.   With a slight respite this afternoon, here’s a return to some of the projects I completed last year.

Following on the heels of a surprise turn to Ancients Gaming, I decided to paint some Roman cavalry as adversaries for my Germanic warriors.   I have only a vague idea of how the Romans used cavalry in Germania, probably more as scouts and line of communications troops than on the battlefield, but I’m sure they had their share of skirmishes and patrols.  I showed this figures to my friend, Consul Homo Lepus, who knows more about Romans than I do, and he was impressed that the Victrix figures come with quivers (right word??) for their javelins, as well as blankets, canteens and other useful kit.

These are 28mm plastic Victrix figures, with shield transfers by Little Big Men Studios.  The horses are painted using Foundry tri-colour paints from their “Horse” paints set.   I’m still figuring these paints out but in general I’m pleased with them and would use them again.

Command figures:

I have quite a few more ancients to paint, including Roman auxiliary infantry and archers, and more lead Germans thanks to the Wargames Foundry Diamond Jubilee sale last year where my finger slipped and I bought rather a few.As I may have posted here earlier, I acquired the Germans last year when the local gaming group was playing a lot of skirmish games using Clash of Spears rules, and I may stick with them or perhaps look at Too Fat Lardies’ Infamy rules.   I also have a set of rules from Helion, Three Ages of Rome by Philip Garton, which I confess I’ve barely looked at since it arrived.  

So ancients are not a back burner project, exactly, more of an interesting diversion which I’ll pursue this year.

Blessings to your brushes,

MP+

Der Alte Fritz! SYW Prussian Command Vignette

Hello dear friends and readers:

July was a busy month with travel and family commitments, and precious little blogging, but a lot of Seven Years War brushwork to show you in this and the next few posts.

Here’s a Prussian command figure, Der Alte Fritz himself!  The figure is by Front Rank, one of a four casting foot command set.  Black undercoat, painted using the Foundry tri-tone paints and system.

I wanted Fritz to have a table as a focus for the command group vignette, and found an STL file from Vae Victis called The Cartographer’s Table which of all the 3D tables I found was the most interesting.

The book (Voltaire, perhaps?), the map and the compass, all point to the image of Frederick as the Philosopher Soldier King.

The sharp-eyed and sharp-witted among you may recognize the map unfolded on the table.   If you recognize it, leave a comment (hint, think of a related board game).

The staff assemble to hear Frederick’s complicated plan (another frontal attack with horrendous casualties?  a flank mark starting hours before dawn through unreconnoitred terrain?  Do tell, Your Majesty).

 

Something about the expression and face on the chap in the blue cape reminds me of Derek Fowld’s character on Yes, Minister.

Cheers and thanks for looking, more Prussians coming soon!

MP+

Another Year, Another Painting Challenge Done and Dusted

On 21 March, the first day of spring, Curt Campbell (aka The Snowlord) called Time on this year’s Painting Challenge.   I’ve taken part in these efforts off and on over the last decade.   The AHPC has become an international hobby community with painters of all different skill levels and interests.  It’s a fascinating snapshot of the miniature hobby landscape.

Here's the happy builder and painter with his total output for this year's Challenge.

This year I focused mostly on 6mm historicals, but thanks to the special theme rounds or mini-challenges I was inspired to paint this set, The Triumph of Frankenstein, sculpted by Bob Murch of Pulp Figures.

It was also an opportunity to play with my new 3D printer and try make some scenery for a mini diorama:

My post for the Challenge, with more pictures and some “How I Made This” details, is here.   

Taking a break to paint these figures was a welcome rest and an enjoyable diversion.  Sometimes I think we get too focused on our big projects in painting and wargaming, and we forget the pleasure of just doing something for fun.  

Cheers and blessings to your brushes,

MP+

 

Tak

28mm Foundry Victorian Civilians

Hello friends:

I can’t believe it’s almost the middle of January and I still have some finished projects from 2021 that I haven’t blogged here, so today I can offer these four Victorian ladies and gents from Foundry.

These minis were primed in Citadel Corax White and then painted with the Foundry tri-tone paint system, which I’m slowly feeling more comfortable with.  I’m happy with some of the colour gradients in the men’s suits and the blue dress.

These four were a test paint from several bags worth of Foundry’s Victorian civilian range.   I’m happy with them and plan to paint the rest for ACW (and my alt-ACW) tables.

Cheers and blessings to your brushes,

MP+

More 6mm Napoleonics: Baccus French

On the heels of my last post about 3D printed 6mm figures, here are some “old school” (do we call them that now?) cast metal 6mm Napoleonic French from Baccus that marched off the painting desk just before New Years.

 

The figures are Baccus code NFR02 French Elite Infantry 1806-1812.   I’ve painted them all with red hat plumes, cords, and epaulettes to make them easily distinguishable on the table top as an elite or veteran unit.  Flags are likewise from Baccus.

This is my standard base for 6mm foot or horse figures, and is the Base Width that I use for measuring if using Sam Mustafa’s LaSalle or Blucher rules.

I have a considerable stash of Baccus figures yet to paint - Bavarians as well as Revolutionary era French in bicornes, so I have lots to work on while I get the teething issues with my Elegoo Mars 3 printer sorted out.  Elegoo thinks the machine shipped with a defective LCD panel, which means the light came out everywhere and the print pattern was impossible.   They’re sending me a replacement part from China, so I may order a second machine to play with while I wait.

Cheers, and blessings you your brushes,

MP

 

Guns for Der Alte Fritz! : 28mm Front Rank Prussian SYW Artillery

Hello friends.   I hope you and yours celebrated as well a Christmas as may be hoped for in the second year of the great plague.   As the old year winds down, I’m trying to get some finished projects off the painting bench.   Here, mustered into service of my small but growing 7YW Prussian army, are two 28mm guns and gunners.  I ordered them just before Front Rank was sold by its owners to Gripping Beast, and the last time I checked the GP website the FR ranges were still unavailable, so glad I got them when I did.

Each set of four crew included the aggressively pointing officer, so I kept one of these two models in reserve for a command vignette of some sort.

These figures were painted using Foundry triad paints over a black undercoat, and I’m slowly getting comfortable with these paints.   The silver officer’s sash gave me some trouble, so in the end I painted it in white, gave it a black wash, and then picked out the raised pieces with a Citadel metallic paint (Axebreaker, I think it’s called).

The FR gun castings come with two barrels each, one I think a 12 pounder and these ones below I think are the 6 pounder versions.  I’ve painted and kept both and have not glued the barrels to the gun carriage, which I think gives me some flexibility in deploying them.  The carriages were painted somewhat expressionistically in Foundry Union Trouser Blue, which I think gives them a Prussian look.  The ground material is a latex scenic piece from Barrage Miniatures, and the backdrop is something I found after doing a Google search for “18th Century German landscapes”.

Getting ready to set up camp on the painting bench is a Prussian fusilier regiment, followed by a Prussian cuirassier regiment, and at the rate I’m painting, we may see on of these two units by February.

I’ll be back over the next few days with some last projects completed in 2021.  

Cheers and blessings to your paint brushes!

MP+

Lady Rathbone's Raiders: Some Pulp Figures

Have you ever painted figures just for the fun of it, without a really clear idea of what they were going to be for?  

That was my motive for painting these five 28mm figures from two-fisted Canadian sculptor, Bob Much, proprietor of Pulp Figures.  This set, called Lady Rathbone’s Raiders, had just been released and somehow snuck it’s way into my shopping cart on my last trip to Bob’s site.

Faithful readers of this blog will know that I am partial to Pulp Figures, and have painted a lot of them for my Rockies Ablaze project.   However, these figures seem kitted out to take on a dangerous tropical paradise, so I don’t really have a clear use for them at present.

 

 Nevertheless, I like the strength and whimsy of these figures, as well as their racial diversity.   Not sure who Lady R is, but like a good pulp character, she has an exotic and varied crew at her back.  I also enjoy painting unique figures, which feels like a painting adventure, free of the dull constraints of the same uniform X 20 or X30, though these figures mostly ended up in predictable military colours, except for the Lucy Liu-is sword lady, who got a treatment of Citadel/GW contrast paints.

  

 

Perhaps they are on a rescue mission to find Amelia Earhart?    That sounds like a pulp tale in the making.  Now, to find some tropical islanders and perhaps Imperial Japanese sailors and soldiers?   That sounds like a fun project in embryo. 

 

Thanks for looking and blessings to your die rolls!

MP+

 

 

New Troopers for the Czar: Foundry SYW Russian Cuirassiers

There was much excitement here last week as a small package from Madrid arrived in my post box.   I’ve become a tiresome convert to Adolfo Ramos’ flags, I think he’s simply the best in the business, and his presentation flags mounted on poles with the tasselly things are the bees knees, if you don’t mind paying a little more and waiting a little longer.  This is my third order from Adolfo and I’m a huge fan.

All of these are for SYW units in the painting queue, starting with the newly finished Kievsky Regiment of Cuirassiers.    Seeing as the standard bearer is cast holding the standard pole, I ordered the 25 and 15mm versions to be cautious, and was pleased that I did so, for it was the 15mm flag that fit.

 A warm spring day on the parade field as the newly raised unit is mustered into service under the watchful eyes of several generals.

 Father Piotr Mikhailovich blesses the banners and prays that they will fight well for their God and for their Czar.  The Orthodox priest is a figure painted and given to me years back by my friend and podcast partner James Manto.

 “May God bless you with good dice rolls!"

 The regiment passes in review.   These are Foundry figures, I purchased six of them years ago in a bring and buy, and recently bought another six to make up the unit when the SYW bug returned.     I think Foundry SYW figures are even better than Front Rank for the detail and animation of the faces.

 

This regiment gives my Russian army some badly needed hitting power in its cavalry arm.  Now back to the Prussians who have several regiments and a battery in the queue, along with impatient Alte Fritz and his staff! 

Thanks for looking.  Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Friday Fantasy: Thistle and Rose Barbarian Raider Cavalry

These four rough and smelly riders are finished and mustered into the ranks of the wild Dunlending hillmen opposing the Kingdom of Rohan for my Lord of the Rings gaming.   These are 28mm sculpts from the Vendel catalogue that was taken over a few years ago by Thistle and Rose miniatures.  I have quite a few of their hillmen foot counterparts, which I’ve collected to use as allies of my Isengard orc and Uruk army in the service of Saruman, so it’s nice to have a small mounted capability for my Dunlendings.

 These are very basic sculpts, with minimal detail, but they have their own old schoo charm, rather similar to Minifigs in style.    The horses supplied are likewise very basic, without a ton of detail.   Because they’re such simple minis, I painted them much more quickly and basically then I usually do for, say, Seven Years War figures.   I had to drill out the hands to fit the spears supplied with the minis.

 

I don’t imagine that the Dunlendings would have mustered many horsemen.   As I imagine it, they’ve been pushed into the hills  and lower mountains over the centuries by the Rohirrim, fighting a guerrilla war against Rohan’s border forts and garrisons, and retreating where the Horse Lords’ cavalry can’t reach them.  They would likely have a small number of sturdy, smaller horses suited to the rough country and useful for raiding the occasional village.  As you can see by the one shield, they have received some arms and pay from Isengard, who find the Dunlendings useful for keeping Rohan off guard.

One of the sets of rules I want to use for this sort of fighting is the Dux rules by Too Fat Lardies, and in the Dux the Raiders supplement there is some provision for small bands of raider cavalry, so these chaps will do nicely.  Those sheep a few posts back are now in a lot more danger!

 

Thanks for looking and blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Two Film Noir Types from Gorgon Studios

“Midnight, in a city that knows how to keep its secrets …”.  Fans of  the old Prairie Home Companion radio show (I’m outing myself as an old here) will remember the well-trod opening line of each Guy Noir skit.    Certainly these two hard-boiled types seem to have stepped out of an old film noir movie.

These two 28mm sculpts are marketed by Gorgon Studios as a pair of OSS agents, though in truth they’re suitable for pulp and gangster games.  I grabbed them for my on again, mostly off again Weird War Two project when I purchased their British infantry in Norway 1940 figures to serve as interwar Canadians.    I don’t have an immediate plan for them, but but found them a pleasant diversion when painting a small legion of SYW Prussians.  The man is painted in Citadel blue contrast paint, and as I’m partial to blue suits, it looked ok with a nice striped tie.  My wife Joy advised me on the colours for the lady - a white hat with red jacket seems perfect.

 “Say, Biggsy, that’s one big city."

“Sure is, doll face.  Let’s start at this little gin joint I know over in Harlem.”  

Once again, I used a printed image inside my light box, and it worked a treat.

Cheers and blessings to your brushes.  

MP+

SYW Prussians Finished: Foundry Musketer Regiment 2

It’s ben a while since I finished a complete unit, but today I commissioned this unit into service, Frederick the Great’s Muskteer Regiment 2 (Kanitz), 31 28mm castings from Foundry.   I’ve given them a level of attention that I don’t usually pour into my large batch painting, and I’m reasonably pleased with the result.

These first two photos tuned out quite well, thanks to a trick I learned while listening to Ken Reilly of the Yarkshire Gamer podcast interview Australian painter and game Stephen Wold (@oldwargamer on Twitter).  Stephen mentioned that one of his secrets was using a laser printer to create a background, some photo of a sky cloudscape found on the web, and put it at the back of a lightbox alone with some basic terrain like a fence or hedge.  I stole this idea totally, using a backdrop of hills and clouds, and then scattering tons of my basic flocking mix around the figures.  A bit of styrofoam created an elevation for some contrast in the heights of the figures.   Stephen said that this is a simple trick to make ordinary figures jump out at the viewer, and my goodness, it worked a treat!

 Of course, the old saying is faces, bases, and flags.  Not sure about the bases and the faces, but for the flags I like to pay for the best, and the best I know of are done by Adolfo Ramos in Spain.  For the SYW period, I like to put six figures on a base, to capture the sense of close-packed ranks that you see in period paintings and woodcuts.

For uniform guides, I used the excellent Kronoskaf website and its entry on this regiment as well as Haythornthwaite and Fosten’s Osprey book, Frederick the Great’s Army (2), Infantry.  The regiment was first raised in 1655 and had significant battle honours during the SYW, including Gross-Jagersdorf and Kundesdorf.

This was my first unit to be done consistently using the Foundry paint system.  Honestly, there are times when I wondered if i was wasting my time trying to achieve their desired effect on the wood stock of the muskets, the gun metal of the musket barrels, or the black leather of the cartridge boxes.   I am happier with the three tone red on the cuffs and turn backs, and the Foundry flesh tones are enjoyable to work with, though next time I’ll work harder on the eyes, which I think as done here detract from the overall look of these figures.

 

 I had quite a lot of fun painting this senior NCM and basing him singly as the RSM, in case I want to use these figures in a Sharp Practice game.

The Seven Year War was one of the first periods that I started wargaming in, and still appeals.  While I’ve decided to do Napoleonics in 6mm, 28mm seems like the scale I want to work in for this period.    I have some Foundry Russian cuirassier on my workbench, and then a battery of Front Rank Prussian guns to do next.

Cheers and thanks for looking.   Blessings to your brushes!

MP+