Category: Figures

Chasseurs for Fleurie

Despite having a week away I am maintaining momentum with my Fleurian 19th century forces, and have finished the next group – a dozen light infantry Chasseurs to fight alongside the Voltigeurs from the previous post.

These are very nice figures from Perry Miniatures – early ACW militia in capes/greatcoats and full kit. With the shako they look nicely European so I have pressed them into Fleurian service. The colour scheme is basically the same as the Voltigeurs; green and red, with brown and grey kit.

I have another dozen of these to do including some command figures, some of which will be based as Big Men for Sharp Practice. I’ve made a start already so they should be the next finished figures I post.

Combined with the Voltigeurs they’ll give me a regiment of light troops for next year’s big multi-player imagi-nations bash at Ayton. I think that being able to form up (on their sabot-type bases) as well as operate in skirmish order will be very handy in the desert where ambush could lurk behind every bush or wadi!

 

 

 

 

 

Finally Some Fleurians

Last weekend’s game of Sharp Practice reminded me of my plans to paint the opposing side for my early 19th century Medetians. I’ve got most of the figures, I’ve just been busy on other projects and hadn’t made a start. This has now been remedied with an initial batch completed.

These are a dozen Fleurian Voltigeurs, ready to take the fight to Medetia’s Bersaglieri in the hills and forests of the borderlands. I have used the key Fleurian colours of dark red and light grey, and gone with dark green greatcoats. The line infantry will be in the same grey and red, with rolled green greatcoats on their packs, so things should tie in well.

These ‘Voltigeurs’ are actually Perry Isabelino infantry from their Carlist War range, which is great to delve into for post-Napoleonic imagi-nations armies. They were nice to paint but pretty awful to prepare and clean up. The number of small ‘worms’ from the casting process is pretty bad on many Perry figures it seems, and there’s always at least one left that you only find when you start painting!

 

 

 

 

I’ll be doing more Fleurian light infantry next, a couple of units of Chasseurs. Then it’s leaders (Big Men), line infantry and artillery. Cavalry will generally be hussars borrowed from the 18th century armies and deliberately single based for this very reason.

Arrival of the Big Men

The Sharp Practice rules by the Too Far Lardies focus on the actions and impact of key leaders, referred to as Big Men. These are the officers and NCOs who take command in the heat of action and who are given personalities to add flavour and narrative to the games.

For Saturday’s upcoming game at Goat Major’s we are using a variety of figures to meet the requirements of the scenario. Most are in 18th century attire, but some are from a slightly later period. We’re not bothered, as it’s the game that’s going to be most important. One contingent I am providing is 40 ‘light infantry’ who will be on single bases to allow them to adopt skirmish order. For these I’m using my ‘post-Napoleonic to mid-19th century’ Medetians, in their distinctive Tyrolean hats (Victrix plastic Old Guard Chasseurs with Perry plastic Austrian heads). This meant that I needed a few ‘Big Men’ to lead them, something I had been meaning to get round to..

So, this week I have been busy painting these guys. They are on bigger bases than the rank and file (25mm vs 20mm) to help them stand out. Although I really only needed 4 for Saturday, I’ve managed to do 9 (4 officers and 5 sergeants) so I’ll have a variety to choose from for future games. I have a couple of Jager Big Men and a couple of mounted officers still to do which I’ll get round to sometime.

Here they are, Perry figures bar 2 from Front Rank. There are a couple of conversions; the officer waving the newly-added RSM sword and the one with 2 pistols, both of whom were originally pointing or designed to hold standards. They’ve also had head swaps. Hopefully they’ll make a decent showing in their first outing!

Officers:

Sergeants:

 

Rock it!

It started innocently enough. Goat Major suggested number 11 from the scenarios book, The Compleat Fondler, for our game of Sharp Practice he’s hosting next Saturday. ‘Sounds good’, I said, spotting, as GM had done, the need for a couple of rocket launchers. I offered to have a go at knocking something together. The Goat generously anticipated a lack of results and said we could always just use a couple of guns to represent them. The gauntlet was laid down then!

I knew I had a box of Victrix British Napoleonic artillery and thought I might use the gun carriages, at least temporarily. Then I spotted the limbers on the sprues and thought they might do even better. At this point I realised that I didn’t have much of a clue about what a period rocket launcher looked like, so I Googled Congreve and looked at some images. A ladder with some upright supports – not very inspiring (or mobile!)

However, the scenario mentioned that these rockets weren’t Congreve’s but were the invention of a competitor mad-scientist, so I decided that I had plenty of artistic licence to play with. I also remembered that I had a Warbases balcony set to plunder for bits, and I was good to go.

Assembling the limbers couldn’t have been easier. The main body, the axle and 2 wheels went together with plastic cement and I was then onto the rocket launcher frames, using the very handy balcony supports in the pack and some cut down railings. The pre-squared-off MDF meant everything was easy to glue together.

I also added a some bits to hold the rockets (which I wanted to be loose, not stuck on) in place – some thin metal modelling tube at the bottom and a couple of bits of card at the top. Next up were the rockets themselves. I was originally going for a very simple (lazy) approach – just pieces of brass rod, but I decided I could do better with a bit of effort. So, the brass rod had cut-down flags poles with pointy heads (from Huzzah! Miniatures) super glued to their tops, and I wrapped and glued some cotton thread round them to look the part – and to leave a length hanging down as the fuse. I made 4 so that my 2 launchers could be fully loaded.

The assembled battery, and showing the removable rockets:

 

The painting was pretty straight forward; black undercoat followed by Prussian blue main coat, and a lightened shade of the same as a drybrush/highlight. I picked out some metal fittings on the limbers with a metallic wash and then moved onto the rockets. These received brown shafts, black-grey heads (I was tempted to go with red and white but controlled myself) and pale ties and fuses.

So, here’s the finished battery, proudly paraded by Captain Bardolino and moved into position for a test firing (although if I was a member of the crew I’d be giving the rockets a much wider berth!):

 

 

I couldn’t resist the firing option, which simply involved some plastic tube as a sabot for one of the rockets, with cotton wool wrapped round it. A fun couple of hours all round, and watch out Major Goat!

Further 6mm arrivals

A few more regiments of Fleurians have arrived to swell the growing army of Medetia’s 17th century enemy.
Two units of infantry with pike and shot, and the Chevalier Garde Regiment of cavalry, on their grey horses. A sub-general completes this small contingent. This is already the best effort I’ve put in on my 6mm collections since 2011, so I’m determined to try to finish a few more units before my eyes plead for mercy and I have to revert to bigger figures! I have a further 2 cavalry and 4 infantry units plus a couple more generals I’d like to get done, which will bring the Fleurians up to par with the Medetians at 30 units each. Then for a nice big game 🙂

Figures are Heroics & Ros.

Pics:

 

 

 

Slow progress but a few recent additions

What with a busy social schedule and a general lack of effort, I’ve not achieved much in July. Not feeling particularly big project-motivated, I’ve dabbled with a few bits and pieces instead. I’ve prepared a few items of scenery and some random figures for painting at some point in the future, and tried to press on with finishing the GW Fortified Manor, which has presented a bit of a painting desk blockage while it remains part-done.

I have managed to complete a few small items though. One 6mm cavalry unit for my 17th century Fleurians (Heroics & Ros figures as always) and a couple of 28mm figures for the same period but in skirmish size. These are a replacement for the regularly-skewered Lieutenant St Denis, one Capitan Sancerre, a Redoubt figure brandishing a sword. I’ve also painted a Warlord Games armed priest which might be useful for general use across a number of periods.

Hopefully August will be more productive!

Pics:

 

 

 

 

 

St Angelo’s Ghosts

The last figures I painted for the May multi-player extravaganza at Ayton were a unit of Hussars. Having done exactly the same in 2013, I knew what I was letting myself in for – Hussars are not the ideal troop type to have to finish to a deadline, there’s always more detail to find just when you think you’re nearly finished! Still, despite the stress and fatigue of again finishing them on the Friday morning (the day I was travelling..) I now have another unit of Hussars in the collection.

I suspect that if I didn’t paint them to a deadline I would put off doing them indefinitely. Guess what I’ll be painting at the start of next May?!

I didn’t have an opportunity to post about the new unit at the time, but they galloped onto the table after the smoke from the recent battle at Spurlacco had cleared and posed for a few shots.

This unit is part of the Medetian army and was raised by the Cavaliere di St Angelo, a noble from the northern uplands of the country. St Angelo chose to dress his regiment in white and other pale shades and mount them all on greys (a common horse colour in the region) – hence their nickname, ‘The Ghosts’.

The figures are Perry plastic Napoleonic French Hussars, using the mirliton head option, the presence of which in the box is a real boon to people wanting to use them for the 18th century.

 

 

The flag is just a bit of clipart from the web, printed as a design onto paper and painted. As with my other Hussars, I want these to be available both for 18th century games (where standard base sizes are needed, hence the sabots) and for early 19th century games (where I need them on single bases for Sharp Practice).

This unit balances out the Fleurian Legion Hussars (Minden Miniatures) and I plan to add another similar sized unit of the same figures respectively to each side in due course (in time for the next two Ayton deadlines I guess!)

Battle honours have yet to be earned by this new regiment, although they didn’t lack for courage at Ayton. They were in the first line of cavalry that dashed itself to pieces against Iain Burt’s guns and infantry (fortunately his cavalry wasn’t on form that day or I’d have been thrashed) in front of Pescadrix. Our war correspondent’s mid-action sketch below..

Legion de Fleurie – Light Infantry

Further to my previous post on the development of this imagi-nation formation, since the Ayton weekend I have made some progress. I have continued to put off doing the main battalion (through laziness), so it was the light infantry next. The tremendous Minden Legion d’Hainault grenadiers chose themselves for this and I have kept the uniform blue and red in line with my plans for the Legion as a whole. Basing comes next of course, but I’ve run out of pre-mixed plaster so have posted anyway. I intend to add a complementary unit of Crann Tara Royal Ecossais advancing figures (purchased at Triples) as the uniform is very similar and I think they’ll work well together.

Eventually the Legion de Fleurie will muster the following:

Commanding Officer
1 Infantry battalion (30 figures)
2 Light infantry companies (12 figures each)
2 Hussar squadrons (6 figures each)
1 Light gun (3 crew plus limber)

I’ve thought about also having a battalion gun with the main infantry unit but for now I think the light field piece will do.

The first picture suffers for light a bit, but hopefully you get the gist.

 

 

To Horse!

More cavalry for the Medetian expedition to the battlefields of Granprix at this weekend’s Ayton event.

First off, some older cavalry which I’ve finally gotten around to equipping with lance pennons. This is the El Z’teeth regiment (RSM Ottomans) who fought in the sands of Byzarbia a couple of years ago. I contacted GMB Designs to ensure I got some pennons in red and blue (turned out the Silesian Landwehr Uhlans were what I was after). I touched up the white paper edges with appropriate daubs of Vallejo. They enhance the unit nicely and give them a little bit more uniformity – important now they’re off to war in Europe and everyone else is in serried ranks of splendour!

Then we come to a brand new regiment, the Saxon Rutowski Dragoons, who are in the pay of the Kingdom of Fleurie and who will be fighting alongside the Medetians in Granprix. These are Minden Miniatures Austrian dragoons, and lovely figures they are too. After talking with John Ray I came round to the idea of having some historical units among those of my imagi-nations, and this unit appealled both due to its interesting (but not necessarily glorious) history and its attractive colour scheme.

I have had these painted by the very talented James Roach of ‘Olicanalad’ fame, whose painting on his blog has always impressed and inspired me. James kindly fitted these in among other larger commissions he’s working on and has produced a fantastic looking unit. All I’ve done is base them. Little is known about the flag this regiment would have carried, so James created one based on his research and understanding of the Saxon army of the period. I’m delighted with it and hope the first picture does it justice. More unpainted cavalry will certainly be winging its way to Ilkley soon!

 

Obviously with all of these recent additions, I am going to be at serious risk of ‘shiny new unit syndrome’ at Ayton, but at least pretty much everyone else is too!

Latest recruits

With the big Ayton weekend galloping towards us, I’ve been hurrying to base some figures I’ve recently finished painting. So let me introduce Sebastiani’s battalion of converged Medetian Grenadiers, containing a company from each of the first 4 line regiments. This is a 30-strong unit of Huzzah Miniatures.

I’ve also added a unit of Wurttemberg Jager who are in the pay of Fleurie. These are Perry Hessian AWI figures which have lots of variety of pose. I bought a dozen on eBay which were made up of one pack of command and one of Jager. This meant I needed to convert one of the two figures carrying horns, as otherwise the unit would look more musical than martial! He’s not hard to spot, but at least I managed to arm him and paint him as just one of the guys.

 

Next up will be some cavalry, but with the need for some pre-game secrecy I may not post pics of them for a couple of weeks. Can’t let the despicable enemy (you know who you are) have too much information!