Work In Progress: More Russkies On Horsies

February is Russian month is winding down, and these chaps are taking up most of my time at present. Front Rank 28mm Prussian Hussars that are being pressed into Russian service. The paint scheme is quite attractive: yellow pelisses with red piing and black fur trim, red and black headgear, red trousers, red and yellow sabretache, powdered whigs. I am still experimenting with yellow. I bought a bottle of Army Painter Daemonic Yellow for the job but the shade seems off to me, not bright enough. I then tried Americana Cadmium Yellow which is alarmingly bright. I may try a blend of the two next.

The goal remains to have them finished and based before the Analogue Painting Challenge ends on 20 March. These aren't the kind of figures I can speed paint. Even though the Front Rank line may be a little dated, they are beautiful sculpts, and deserve some time and attention, though I still question the return on invested time in painting this kind of figure in 28mm. I could likely turn out a division of Napoleonic cavalry in 6mm in the same period of time. But ... they are pretty.

The Mad Padre 100/100K Contest!: There's Still Time To Play!

As valued readers of this blog will know, I announced a contest exactly a month ago when this blog hit two milestones: 100 followers AND 100,000 page views. As I described it, the contest was as follows:

Write a poem (free verse, rhyming couplets, haiku, sonnet, limerick, rap) about something you've seen or read about anywhere in this blog. If you're shy, you can simply email it to me at madpadre atsymbol gmail dot com. If you're bold, you can show your creativity for all to see as a comment to this post. You have until Sunday, 2 March, to come up with something. Since not all poets are created equally, I will choose the three entries at random. In order of their selection, the first, second and third winners will get to choose one of these miniatures.

The miniatures in question. As you can see, I've made a little progress since 25 Jan, and I need to get a shift on and finish them and get credit for them with Curt for the Analogue Painting Challenge. The figures are a WW1 British dispatch rider (Great War Miniatures) and two adventurers from Bob Murch's Pulp Figures.

Prizes will be chosen from submitted entries at random, though Mrs. Padre will cast her discerning eye over them and pick her favourite for a fourth SUPER BONUS PRIZE. Now, a number of you have minged and whined about how your'e not good poets, you're not very clever, blah blah, snivel snivel, etc. Milords and ladies, there are three prizes to be picked at random, so you can write something like "I like Mike's Blog / As much as my dog" and you're in - only you can't use the blog/dog poem, that's just an example. So no excuses. Get on it.

Since Mrs Padre and I will be away this coming weekend, I am pushing the deadline back to SUNDAY, 10 MARCH. So far there are four entries posted. If you want to play, leave a reply here or email them to me. Now, back to the paints. I'm thinking a brunette for the explorer lady and a crisp white shirt for the chap in the pith helmet.

New Follower Friday

It's Friday, and it seems like a good time to say hello and thank you to the nice and interesting folks who have signed on as followers of Mad Padre Wargames.

Michael Awdry, from the UK, is one of my fellow brush ronin in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Michael's entries to the challenge have featured some beautifully painted Colonial figures. I have to say, I've never seen anyone paint a finer camel. His blog, 28mm Victorian Warfare, is fascinating and is kindling my interest in this period.

Danjou's Hand, from Mrs. Padre's birth state of Georgia, USA, runs a fascinating blog, Tabletop Diversions, where he writes good and thoughtful stuff about RPGs. He also has one of the coolest monikers out there.

Monty Luhmann is from St. Paul, Minnesota, and runs the blog Twin Cities Gamer. Monty and I have shared some emails on our mutual interest in the Ottoman army and on the SYW rules Maurice. He's a helpful chap and a talented painter.

Thomas Richardson - sorry, mate, your Google profile doesn't say that you have a blog. If there's anything you'd like folks to know about you, please reply and I'll add it to this post. Glad you're here regardless.

Pete, who also goes by the intriguing handle of Puggle Monster, is a regular on the Guild Wargamers site, and blog at SP's Projects Blog, where he wages "A futile fight against entropy". Pete does interesting things with modern wargare and knows his way around a T34 tank.

Sarge At Arms is a new blogger,and is the son of JackSarge, a follower and friend of this blog. Sarge Secundus shows great promise as a painter, and his first blog post shows some creative uses of old Airfix figures.

Howard Han is a friend of mine and colleague in the Canadian Forces. He's recently started World War Two gaming in 15mm, and has an impressive collection amassed already. I hope he won't mind if I mention this collection of his figures. Howard, you need to start a blog, buddy. If you're in the Ottawa area and looking for opponents, sing out here and we can connect you with Howard.

Finally, a shout out to Krista Johns, a young lady of indomitable spirit, a kickass army wife, and creative spirit. Krista isn't a follower, but she did leave a very clever poem as an entry in this blog's 100 Follower and 50K pageview contest, which is more than most of you sorry mooks have managed to do. There is still time to get your entry in, so whaddya waiting for? Krista's blog, Flat-Out Whimsy, chronicles her gutsy recovery from a pretty horrific accident. Krista could use some followers, fellas. She's good people.

Thanks again, all. I woudn't do this without you.

Die Kosaken Kommen! February Is Russian Month Continues

For my sixth entry in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, I decided to steppe up my game and do a large entry. These seventeen bad lads are 20mm World War Two Soviet Cossacks, in soft plastic from Revell. I am fairly sure they are out of production now, because they don't show up on the Revell website.



I chose to paint these fellows as per Plate E in the Osprey Men-At-Arms 216, The Red Army Of The Great Patriotic War. The red kubanka cap with white cross on red shows that they are Kuban Cossacks. Those splashes of colour, along with the blue trousers with red piping (as per the Revell box art) will give this unit some death or glory swagger amidst my drab Soviet hordes.



Command stand. The CO sweeps the steppe with his binos for unsuspecting fascists while his aide has dismounted to hold the reigns of his boss' horse. I never noticed this, but the review of this set on the Plastic Soldier Review website points out that the standing figure is way out of proportion to the other figures, I'm not going to let that bother me, they make a good command stand all the same. Actually the PSR entry gives this figures good marks for variety and historical accuracy.



The designers of this set cleverly cast the capes separately, so they could be fitted on the figures once removed from the sprues. For the most part they went on without trouble, though for several figures I had to use putty to hide some gaps between the cape sections.



The charging figures are quite inspiring and ferocious. I opted for round bases for all these figures, on the theory that charges would be pretty ad hoc and irregular affairs, and not the boot to boot and knee to knee formation that the traditional square base implies.



The pack includes one figure firing his rifle, so I decided to base him separately. He can be a lone scout for the rest of the unit.



I am curious to see what these fellows will get up to on the tabletop. Last month I was preaching here on my blog about how reconnaissance actions are not well represented in wargaming. I can imagine these Cossacks engaged in scouting, supporting partisans behind the lines, and raiding German rear echelon units, so I have some ideas for games with these mounted Ivans.

Now, speaking of mounted Ivans, back to those SYW czarist hussars. I can hear balalaikas and drunken singing coming from my painting bench!

The Resurrected Armies Project: Coming In April

It's been a quiet weekend at the Mad Padre's painting chapel at the edge of the frozen prairie. Work continued on my 1 to 1 scale terrain painting project. It will be a while yet before I get a posting message from the military, allowing me to put my house on the market, so we are putting the time to good use getting it ready for showing. A colleague who came by this weekend pronounced the house as "cottagey" (not really sure what that means) and liked the original woodwork, so I am hopeful that we will get the right buyer who also likes "cottagey" homes. In other news I completed a unit of 17 Soviet WW2 Cossacks in 20mm on Sunday, continuing the theme of February as Russian Month, and got the pictures off to Curt for the Analogue Painting Challenge. If you're not tracking the Challenge, I'll show them here in a few days. On the painting bench as of last night are a unit of 28mm SYW Prussian hussars, who have already been told that they are being painted as Russians. I've told them they'll get the same schnapps ration, only in vodka, so they're good with that.

Speaking of the SYW leads me to this photo.

These chaps came out of a box a few weeks ago, in which they have languished and been bashed around for over a decade and four moves. They are the command stands from a Russian Seven Years War army that I put together in the 1990s, as I believe I've mentioned here before.

They are all Front Rank figures, with the exception of the stand on the left with the red flag, who I think are Falcon? The flags are all hand painted, but as you can see at the back of the photo there is a set of flags for the fabled Apcheronski Regiment which I ordered from GMB out of curiousity, and which has also languished in a box for some time. The infantry to go with these fine fellows is in a box, I visited them last recently and they are all doing fine, but restive and eager to revisit their faded glory.

Now I am, as those of you who visit my other blog (the God blog)a preacher, and right now, like preachers everywhere at the start of Lent, I am thinking ahead to Easter, and that has lead me to think of what I am going to call The Resurrected Armies Project.

(Icon of Christ raising the dead. Raising the lead rhymes, and is hopefully not too impious.)

So here's the plan. Sunday, March 31 is Easter Sunday. By then the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge will be over and my focus ("my focus" is a bit of an oxymoron, but bear with me) will no longer be on cranking out new figures. My main painting focus in April, during the first four weeks of the season of Easter, will be on retrieving my neglected and half forgotten armies, fixing them up as needs be (some major flag work on the guys in this picture, for example), painting whatever new figures for them I have stashed away over the years, showing them to you in their resurrected glory, and finally, and most importantly, getting them on the gaming table.

The armies I am thinking of for this project are:

1) Seven Years War Russian army (28mm) - fix the command stands, paint three mounted Foundry generals for them, as well as a unit of Dixon Tartar light horse

2) Late Renaissance-ish Ottoman army (28mm) - this army was previewed a few posts back when I showed off the mysterious love slaves that folks helped identify as possibly Essex Cossacks. There are a lot of figures here that need remedial painting if not stripping and redoing. Also there are two cannon and crew to paint and finish, as well as a mouth watering unit of The Assault Group Spahis of the Porte to paint. Once done, they'll take on the Russians in a test fight of the Maurice rules

3) Soviet army (20mm) - a lot of this is old old stuff, plastic ESCI infantry and badly painted tanks in the wrong colour, so repainting and rebasing will be required. There are some FAA Black Sea sailors to be found and repainted, and if I can unite these resurrected Ivans with the ones I'm painting for February Is Russian Month, then I can do Battlegroup Kursk in 20mm while I work on building up a 15mm Red Horde

4) Medievals (25mm) - my first love. These figures haven't seen the light of years for 20 years. They need some love, and there are some new unlainted. figures in a box that I need to I visit, a unit of half painted pavisier spearmen, etc. James Manto's Blood and Chivalry rules will be just the thing for these dusty figures.

This may be an overly ambitious project for one month, and if necessary I'll carry it into May, since there are seven weeks of Easter this year. If I can get even two armies back on their feet and in play, I'll call it a victory. So, gentle reader, can I entice you into this project? Do you have a mothballed army that you feel guilty about neglecting, and would like to resurrect to new life, glory, and great battlefield victories? You are welcome to join me in The Resurrected Armies Project.

Reinforcements For Russian Month

Yesterday was a happy one at the Mad Padre's Painting Chapel on the edge of the frozen Canadian prairie. Two parcels were waiting for me when I arrived home from work. One contained an intriguing collection of 15mm Battlefront figures, the result of a trade between myself and fellow blogger Chris Stoesen of Wargamer's Odds and Ends (check out his scenario books while you're there). I had a bunch of 15mm ACW figures that were never going to get painted, and he had some WW2 figures, which might, possibly, get painted, and it was a good deal all around. About a third of the minis Chris sent me were Russkies (the chaps in the centre on the popsicle sticks), and so they are going to get slotted into the schedule as Russian February continues.

Now I'm mindful as I writethis that today is Ash Wednesday, and today during the liturgy we confessed "Our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts". I'm really hoping for an exemption from "intemperate love" when it comes to wargaming toys, and I haven't yet heard the call to stop painting or playing as my fasting regime during Lent. Maybe I'm not listening hard enough, I'm not sure. (Holds hands over ears - LALALALALALA). The other box to arrive yesterday was from my pusher (err, I mean, my dealer), James of J&M Miniatures, who lived up to his repuation for fast and courteous rabbit-enhanced service, and sent me a box of five 15mm T34/85s from Plastic Soldier Company and the new Ostfront rules produced by PSC and written by Warwick Kinkade, Battlegroup Kursk.

The T34s are the first products I have seen firsthand from PSC and I am impressed. After wasting three hours of my life trying to assemble and then binning a Nitto Tiger tank model that I got at some flea market, I will only build simple plastic tank kits from now on, and PSC, like Armourfast, are simple. I've only briefly looked at the sprues, but everything looks cleanly moulded and I think I can put all five together in an evening. They are nice kits, and will give me a start on a 15mm Soviet force to allow me to dual-role all the 15mm German kit I originally got for Normandy. I'm sure I can get the T34s done and painted as one of my Russian entries for the Analogue Painting Challenge.

Why Battlegroup Kursk? Chalk it up to my "intemperate love of worldly things", or, if you are slightly kinder, to my "oohh shiny" moment. It does seem an odd move for me, especially as I have TFL's IABSM3 rules and Richard Clarke is within days of coming out with his Eastern Front supplement. If I have to explain it, I guess because people I respect, like Mike Siggins in Battlegames, or Donogh McCarthy on his blog, have said good things about it, and because I've been tracking Kinkade since his involvement with KG Normandy and the late Warhammer Historical. I've read interviews with Kinkade and like some of his design ideas. Am I convincing you yet? No? Oh well. I've only had the briefest of time to peek inside the book. It reminds me of a Games Workshop rules book, hardback, impressive production values, lots of pictures, and a helpful modelling section. I of course am a sucker for eye candy, but I hope to try the rules soon. More to follow on that, including some peeks at my 20mm Soviet army when we get to April and my "Resurrected Armies" project.

In the meantime, may God prosper your brushes and bless your dice rolls!

Pigment Pickle

Gentle readers may recall how excited I was a few posts back about those sweet looking ISU 122 tanks that I had treated, somewhat overzealously, some opined, with Vallejo pigment. Well, I treated treated them with my usual final step, a spray of Testors Dullcote, and when I saw them yesterday morning, I was horrified to see that where the pigment had not dissolved, it had turned white and now loooked like snow. The same was true of a Britannia resin Soviet command truck that I had also treated with pigment. All three will now require some remediation.

I share this with you because this morning I noticed that my favourite penguin, Thomas, had just finished a beautiful British western desert LRDG chaos buggy and had treated it, quite successfully, I thought, with MIG pigment, and was wondering whether to matt varnish it. Not wanting him to repeat the same mistake, I jumped on the reply button. I think Thomas may try some Vallejo Matte Varnish vice the Testors stuff, so we will see if he has better luck, but for now, the cautionary moral to my sad tale is, don't get yourself in a pigment pickle. Be careful how you finish that model, and maybe do more research than I did.

The season of Lent drawing near, with all its privations, I worked myself into a penitential mood Sunday afternoon by painting leather belts, straps, reigns and tack on 17 Revell Cossacks and their mounts, still left on the sprue. Soon I'll start snipping them off the sprue and seeing if I can get their capes (the bat-like dark things you see on the sprues) fit as advertised. If I can get them done by the end of this week, they will be Entry #6 for the Analogue Painting Challenge, and then a unit of 12 28mm Front Rank Hussars to carry on the theme of Russian February.

God prosper your brushes and bless your die rolls!