On The Workbench and Other Bits

After posting last night, I sorted out the dried 30YW figures into regimental groups, aiming to get a mix of poses for each figure type in each regiment. I then proceeded to glue them onto sticks for painting. For some reason I started priming one regiment, then realised a few figures in that I hadn't attached pikes, halberds and flags yet - "D'oh!!". It was obviously too late to do that, so I put them away until the morning.
Before doing that job, I had dry-brushed the armour of the Sarmatian "other cavalry". Here are some pics:

The left-most stick has the figures for my 4th command group. I'll probably highlight and decorate the armour and barding later on this evening.


Today's Progress

Having got chores (and fry-up in the greasy spoon around the corner) out of the way, I decided to crack on with prepping the 30YW figures. At this point I realised that my randomisation hadn't worked quite as well as I'd intended for some of the figure types. The shooting musketeers and the pikemen were fine. However, for the standard bearers and non-shooting musketeers, it hadn't worked out as intended.

Just to explain the composition of each regiment I have decided on is:

Front rank:
2 bases of shooting musketeers (3 figs plus standard bearer each)
1 base of pikes and command (3 pikemen, 1 drummer, 1 officer with halberd or standard)

Rear Rank:
2 bases of non-shooting musketeers (3 figures each)
1 base of pikemen (4 or 5 figures*)

*5 figures will fit, but the base would look a little cramped - the extras can always be used for extra bases to bulk up the regiments from 6 bases to 9 bases, although I'll need to order some more pikemen for this (see later in this post).

There were two poses of the standard bearer - 1 with standard forward, 1 with it resting over the shoulder. Somehow I have ended up with 1 of each in every regiment - I would have expected to get at least 1 pair of regiments with both forward or both over shoulder.

For the non-shooting musketeers there were 4 poses (9 figures of each) - musket resting on fork, musket across shoulder at ease, advancing with musket over shoulder and loading musket. 1 regiment has 5 advancing and 1 at ease; another has 3 each of loading and resting on fork; The other 4 regiments have at least 3 poses with no more than 3 of any one pose.

I guess I'll just have to shuffle the figures around a bit between regiments.

Planning the Painting:

I've decided to go with a fairly generic uniform scheme for my 30YW army so that they can easily be used for any army. I'll be using a 3 colour scheme - red with green or blue facings; blue with red or green facings; green with red or blue facings. That should allow me to work on 2 regiments at a time with relative ease.

I haven't quite made my mind up on colours for the cavalry - I may do the same, or slightly different. Dragoons will probably be green with red/blue facings.

Flags:

I need to sit down and draw up templates for the flags. I'll probably do these as line art and fill in the colours with inks. I need to get some very thin brass tube to fit the flags around so that they can slip over pikes.

Ordered Some More Bits:

I've placed an order for a few more bits. I discovered while sorting out the order I collected last week that I'd accidentally ordered 22 cavalry with pistols only, no carbines - these will be fine for late-war but not for the early period. So, as I needed to order some more with carbines I decided to order a few other bits as well - enough shooting musketeers to boost 3 regiments up to 9 bases, some casualty markers, plus a few bits to put on ambush markers (goats and herder, pigs and herder, sheep and herder, chickens and keeper).

Have you spotted it yet? Hint: what did I forget to order (see the regimental composition above).

Yup - I ordered the extra musketeers to boost 3 regiments to 9 bases, but forgot to order the extra pikemen I'll need. I could get around it by changing the pike/command base to 2 pikemen, 1 officer and 1 drummer (which might look less crowded anyway). Hmmm. I like that idea.

Phew!

I also ordered some buildings and tents from Magister Militum for use in 30YW battles.


"*Cough!* Aren't you forgetting something else?"


"Do you, perchance, mean that you wish to see pics of the 30YW foot?"


"Too bleedin' right we do!"

"OK!"

Half of the figures - there's a second tray that looks just the same. You can easily spot the handful of figures that I primed last night.

Front and rear of one command strip

Front and rear of another command strip (different officer on this one)

Front and rear of shooting musketeers

Front and rear of non-shooting musketeers, showing all 4 poses

Front and rear of pikemen - both figure codes visible (one has paldrons and tassets, the other doesn't).

My Campaign Army List

The deadline to submit my army list (in order of deployment) for Campaign is tomorrow, but I decided to send it in today. Without giving away my order of deployment (you never know who is reading), I will be taking:

Six 4-base BGs of armoured lancers
Two 4-base BGs of bow cavalry
Three 4-base BGs of light horse
One 8-base BG of light foot
Fortified camp
4 x Troop Commander