Painting and Modelling – Page 11

Mountain Gun

I decided to add something a bit different to my post-Napoleonic Fleurians – a mountain gun to accompany the light infantry on their raids and missions through rough terrain.

This is a Perry Miniatures set from their Carlist Wars range. There is also one more crewman with a telescope, who I’ll do later as a Big Man for Sharp Practice. I wouldn’t normally base a gun (and this one is only sitting on the base, not fixed to it) but it’s so small that it needed a bit of extra height once the crew were based. Even so, I still think it’ll be christened the ‘ankle biter’!

For Sharp Practice I’ll add a couple of light infantry to the crew to make it up to the normal 5 figure group. Clearly it won’t provide a lot of firepower but hopefully it will be an interesting piece to use in some scenarios.

Hello Sailor!

Quite a few sailors actually.

I’ve recently painted these Foundry Miniatures crewmen for the general manning of cannon and boats in my post-Napoleonic Sharp Practice games. I like the figures a lot, although they are definitely 25mm rather than 28-30mm so look a bit like children next to more modern offerings from other companies! That said, they won’t generally need to mix with others that much, so it doesn’t really matter. I added a piece of card under each figure to add a little height. Think of them as 19th century Tom Cruises or Rod Stewarts with platform heels! 😉

Now to the serious stuff – two dozen superb Mutineer Miniatures figures, tooled up for landing party operations, and painted very very nicely for me by James Roach (Olicanalad). These have just arrived here at Medetian Naval HQ and I started on the basing straight away so that they can join the fleet as soon as possible.

With my river/coastal terrain sections and a variety of boats, I see some fun games coming this year!

New Hussars!

I’ve had these for several weeks but, to my shame, have only just finished the bases. They were a commission painted for me around Christmas time by the very talented Dave Jarvis who has contributed to some very highly regarded collections, most notably John Ray’s gorgeous 18th century armies.

The figures are Minden Miniatures Austrian Hussars, and they’ve been painted to represent the Hesse Kassel Hussars in the Seven Years War. I wanted a colourful unit that represented the best of this dashing troop type, and let’s face it – I wouldn’t have fancied painting them myself! I will use them for my imagi-nations of course, and they’ll see service in big games as well as Sharp Practice skirmishes (hence the basing style), and in both the 18th and 19th centuries.

As you can imagine, I’m delighted with them and they’ll add a real touch of class to my growing forces. The detail work is amazing and the horses are done in the time-honoured paint/wash on, wipe off style. The trumpeter’s grey is particularly stunning, with the dapple painstakingly rendered.

Dave is, quite rightly, kept very busy by his regular clients, but hopefully there will be a slot for some painting for me sometime during 2015. I know what I’ll be sending to him as I already have the figures here ready!

Mustering some new gunners

I’ve recently managed to finish some artillery crews for my early 19th century forces. These chaps will be coming to Ayton in May, and will mainly see service after that in Sharp Practice games.

Firstly, Fleurian field artillery (Victrix British Napoleonic plastics). Guns to follow, with yellow carriages as per their 18th century predecessors.

Secondly, Fleurian colonial artillery (Foundry Crimean Turks). They’ll be getting guns with red carriages. The officer at the front will be based as a Big Man and I’ll come up with a name and some personality traits for him. Well, he’s got real character hasn’t he?

Next up, probably the Medetian marines to go with the 2 samples I painted a while back.

It’s Been a While..

February was a pretty hopeless month in hobby terms, too much of everything else got in the way and I don’t seem to have got much done. That said, I’ve not been entirely idle.

Basing up a decent-sized batch of 6mm Franco-Prussian War figures to paint for a big game took quite a bit of time, and wasn’t very photogenic. However, I’ve started to get through the painting now, although the deadline is looming faster than I can wield the brush and a friend has kindly come to the rescue with some stand-ins in case I need them.

I have finished some French batteries and a general, pics below, plus some Bavarian jager and infantry. More artillery tonight, and then on to some further command groups.

I did take a quick picture of some units on a terrain board, to give the visiting players a heads-up on what to expect and to explain some of the keys concepts of the rules I use (Realtime Wargames’ To the Last Gaiter Button)..

After this weekend, with back-to-back 4-player games there will be plenty to post about, so I’ll be sure to take lots of photos.

The Grenadier Guard

The Medetian Grenadier Guard, that is.

Following on from an earlier post where I mentioned the figures making up this unit, I have now finished the regimental standard and the bases, so they’re ready for the parade ground. This is a ’30’ figure regiment, although there are actually only 29 of them. For Sharp Practice it will provide 2 groups of 12 elite infantry. At Ayton they’ll probably be brigaded with the 1st Grenadiers, who look pretty much the same except for black equipment straps/crossbelts.

These are Victrix Old Guard Chasseurs (which my existing Medetian infantry are based on – albeit most of those have Tyrolean hat head conversions). I bought them on ebay, already painted by a talented chap who turned out to be quite local. I then altered some of the colours; trousers, epaulettes, tassels and some equipment. The flag template was designed in MS Excel, printed out and highlighted.

They’re based singly on washers for Sharp Practice, but for Ayton they’ll be on magnetised group bases for convenience and to fit in with the rules, as shown here. The separate officers and NCOs are Big Men for Sharp Practice but add a bit of style to the main unit.

We Are Sailing

Basing your otherwise finished figures can take an age, can’t it? Even so, I finally got round to completing this merry bunch of Medetian naval types.

They’re a pretty eclectic lot – a mixture of Perry, Mutineer and Victrix figures. Although they’re from a variety of actual historical periods they’ll all be taking part in the Medetian expedition into the back of beyond at the Ayton gathering in May. Let’s just hope there’s a river! I’m trusting you Iain!!

While the gatling gun and anyone in a pith/pipe helmet is clearly going to have limited future use, the others will be able to take part in my post-Napoleonic setting using the Sharp Practice rules. Now I just need to finish the small marine contingent, and I have a plan in motion for some stout sailors to go ashore with them. Oh, and the previously tried, tested and calamitous rocket battery is being handed over to the navy to operate, so there are some crew to paint for that.

It occurred to me that my rocket launchers are painted in two shades of blue, which is appropriate considering that ‘blue on blue’ is their likely contribution to the battles at Ayton. I’d just like to apologise in advance to any allies who’re on the receiving end…

The Byzarbian Queen

Steaming (slowly, no doubt) into view below is the most recent addition to the Grand Duke of Medetia’s glorious navy, the colonial steam boat Byzarbian Queen.

This is a very nice and simple to put together MDF model from Sarissa Precision, which I ordered via ebay for a tenner; great value in my opinion. It all came laser cut on two A4 sheets of MDF. Everything went together very easily and even the thinnest parts like the awning supports seem robust enough to survive regular handling.

I gave the hull a coat of white, the boiler is in gunmetal and the awning received white and Medetian-blue stripes for a bit of colour. It was a very quick paint job as you can appreciate! I’ll add a flag at some point too.

I decided to leave the awning structure and the mast removable, for ease storage and to allow easier access to deck space for figures. It’ll hold about a dozen of my 19th century guys on their 20mm round bases, but will normally just be crewed by the three naval types you see in the pictures. These are a mix – Perry officer conning the vessel from the foredeck, Mutineer Miniatures Bosun’s mate (with shouldered monkey) at the tiller and another Mutineer figure taking the roll of flustered engineer.

I have a few more nautical coves to finish, along with the rest of my marines. Then they’ll need a mission somewhere!

A Bit of Painting

Although posts have been a bit thin on the ground so far in 2015, I have managed to get back to the painting table.

These are the last of a unit of 30 Medetian Grenadiers, that I’ve been converting a few at a time with a partial re-paint over the last few months. I bought them on eBay as French Imperial Guard Chasseurs (which is of course what the figures are – by Victrix) and have modified things like their trousers, epaulettes and drums, plus some equipment and tassels, etc. A fair bit of work in reality, but I was starting with nicely painted figures and it was a lot quicker than doing them myself from scratch.

They will muster as the Ducal Guard Grenadier regiment, differing from my other Grenadier regiment by having white cross belts (well, there was no way I was going to re-paint that lot!)

The worst bit was getting them off their plastic bases, to which they’d been stuck with full-on bonding cement. No breakages, but lots of cutting and cursing! Never again..

The mounted officer is a Perry figure, who’s going to double up as a Big Man in Sharp Practice games and as a Brigadier in big battles like the one coming up in Ayton in May. The nearest drummer is also actually a Perry, as I needed one more figure to bring the unit up to strength.

I’ve also got a number of other items and batches on the go, one being some carbine-armed Sipahis to go with my existing lance-armed unit, as a second rank or as a separate detachment. These are RSM figures, based as light cavalry for use with both my 18th and 19th century Medetian/Fleurian armies. As they’re fairly simple figures and widely spaced on the bases, I’ll be painting them assembled and in situ. It should work – I did the lancers this way and they’re in 3s!

More soon, thanks for popping in.

Medetian Bersaglieri Leaders

Recently finished: two leader figures for my post-Napoleonic Medetian light infantry – the Bersaglieri. These troops effectively count the same as British Riflemen in Sharp Practice games, and very effective they are too.

I use Front Rank Austrian Jager figures, as they have the appropriate headgear for my early 19th century Medetians. These two are an officer (Lieutenant Verdicchio) and a sergeant (Rigato), based as Big Men for the rules. The sergeant does actually have a face, I just struggled to get any decent light onto the front of the figure for this quick photo shoot!

This leaves just 20 more rank and file to do next year sometime…