Prepping, prepping, prepping....

....and no painting

I've spent yesterday evening and a little bit of this evening prepping more of my 30YW figures. My plan is to have a good lot ready for a painting spree over the long weekend - for those not in the UK who won't know, Monday and Tuesday are public holidays to celebrate Her Maj having been Her Maj for 60 years.

Prepped so far:
18 musketeers (the extras I ordered to allow me to do 3 regiments as 9 bases rather than 6)
36 cuirassiers (3 regiments)
12 harquebusiers/reiters (1 regiment)

I'm going to slow down on the prepping, to just do 1 regiment a night, which should allow me to do some painting as well.

Tomorrow evening I've got a 800pt game of FoG against Gordon - he's practicing with his Lidians for Roll Call in 2 weeks time. I'll be running a Sarmatian army with Scythian allies.

WIP: 30YW Foot, The Blue Regiments #5

Finally finished!

Klear/ink* coat done - check
Glued to bases - check
Basing texture gunk** added - check
Basing texture dry-brushed - check
Matt spray varnished - check
Static grass*** added - check

* I went for a mix of 5 drops Quasar Black + 40 drops Earth Brown (Magic Color acrylic inks) in 100 ml Klear ("Pledge Multi Surface Wax" for those in the UK) which seems to have done the job well. The mix i was using before for the Sarmatians has double the amount of Earth Brown, which i thought would make these guys look too grubby.

** I made up a mix of roughly 2 parts Reeves Modeling Paste and Reeves Coarse Texture Gel coloured with Earth Brown ink. I also mixed in some Fine Brown Tallus (Woodland Scenics) although I'll probably leave this out next time around as it made it more difficult to push the mixture into narrow gaps between figure bases.

*** Noch Gaugemaster "Meadow Grass flock"


Once the basing texture had dried (much quicker than normal - this might be due to the warm weather or maybe to the addition of modeling paste), I touched up figure bases a little with Flat Earth 983 where the Klear/Ink had pooled, then dry-brushed with Revell Afrika Brown. This was all done last night before I went to bed.

This morning I did the matt varnish spray. Up until recently, I've been doing this inside with windows open. A couple of weeks back I realised that I was being stupid. The 2 flats below mine have a window bay at the front of the house, which gives me a small "balcony" that I can clamber out of my lounge windows onto, so I've started spraying out there - no more fumes inside the flat!

This evening I did the flocking. Thinking it might speed the process up, I applied 50% PVA to all of the bases before using a puffer to dump the static grass onto it. Yup. the PVA had almost completely dried by the time I started flocking - so much for saving time, I had to go back and reapply PVA and re-flock the lot.

I haven't added tufts to the bases - I might do later on, or maybe flower clumps.

For those of you who have been reading rather than just scrolling down to find the eye candy, thanks and here are the pretty pics:


Before flocking:

Flocked:

The Blue-Red regiment has 9 bases and is treated as a "Later Tercio" in FoG:R. The Red-Green and Green-Blue regiments will also be done as Later Tercio units when I paint them up.

The Blue-Green regiment only has 6 bases - later on I might add another 3 bases.

I'm going to be doing removable standards which can slip over the front-rank pikes, allowing me to use the figures for whichever army I want it to be. I might buy some commercial ones, but I am tempted to do my own - I just need to make time to design some templates. As I mentioned in a post a while ago, doing my own flags will also allow me to do some jokey mottos - pastry/bacon themes for Danish, appropriate songs from the discography for Saxon, ....

Now that the figures are based I can see that I was right about having tried to make them too non-uniform - the only places where the differences are clear are the hats and to a lesser degree the breeches.

I had originally intended to put 3 pikemen plus the drummer and colonel on the command base - luckily that idea had been dropped ages ago as the bases would be far too crowded. I'm quite pleased with the front rank musket bases - including the standard bearers gives a great look to the regiments.

Before I completely forget, the last time you saw the Old Glory cuirassiers was after they'd been based, but before they'd had a matt spray. That has now been done, but I've since gone back over the armour with a brush coat of satin varnish. Here's a piccy:

Tomorrow I'll crack on with the Sarmatian "other cavalry" and start prepping my 30YW cavalry - I've got 36 cuirassiers and 36 harquebusiers/reiters to do, so I'll probably tackle the cuirassiers first. After the Sarmatians I'll knock out the Red-Green foot regiment before painting the cuirassiers.

WIP: 30YW Foot, The Blue Regiments #4

I'll start with the pics first again:

All done apart from:

• Klear/ink coat - I will probably do a gloss coat first and also use a lighter mix than I have been using for the Sarmatians
• Basing apart from flock
• Matt spray varnish
• Flocking and tufting

I should (fingers crossed) be able to get the first 2 bits done this evening, allowing me to do the matt varnish spray in the morning before work and the flocking/tufting when I get home.

The question now is what hops onto the painting table next? I guess the Sarmatian "other cavalry" should be next, and while doing those I can prep some of my 30YW cavalry. Which leads to another question - cuirassiers or harqebusiers? I think I'll decide on that one tomorrow.


Lessons Learnt

• I definitely went too non-uniform with this batch, which made progress slow. I'll see how they look when they're based before deciding which bits of non-uniformity to eliminate.
• It was a lot of figures to do in one batch. For the next batches I will probably do 1 regiment at a time. With the paint drying out quickly in the current "heatwave", it probably makes sense to do less figures at a time anyway.
• I have revised the order of painting - I got several bits in the wrong order this time round, which meant going back to do touch-ups.

Broadside 2012; WIP: 30YW Foot, The Blue Regiments #3; A Secret Project

First up, it appears that the Milton Hundred Wargames Club have been let down by 2 of the 3 wargames mags that they had paid for advertising in. With only 2 weeks to go, various bloggers are doing what they can to spread the word by posting the details on their sites and now I'm joining them. I've posted the advert at the top of my left hand sidebar - click on it to go to the show's site.

I'm hoping to go on the 10th, if only to wind up Fran and Ray - Postie's Rejects are putting on their first ever game at a show, so it would be nice to give them some support..



WIP: 30YW Foot, the Blue Regiments

As you can see, they're coming together nicely. I should have them finished apart from basing tomorrow if all goes to plan.

Done Today:

• Shoes, boots and gloves
• Hair and beards
• Hats
• Leather bits
• Musket stocks and pike/halberd shafts
• Dry-brushed "apostles" and match-cord

Still To Do:

• Collars
• Cuffs
• Hat feathers
• Other decorative bits
• Metal bits (sword hilts and pike tips)
• Company Flags
• Drums
• Klear/Ink

Secret Project

I've ordered some figures today for a secret project which I'll be working on in between batches of 30YW figures. I won't be posting any photos until they're finished.

WIP: 30Yw Foot, The Blue Regiments #2

Damn, curse and damn and curse again - I have gone down with yet another cold. I must admit I was feeling a bit grotty yesterday, but I'd put that down to tiredness and the hot weather. However, this morning I woke up and could barely move or keep my eyes open. As a result, after popping out briefly to do some essential shopping, I've spent most of the day crashed out. That seems to have helped as I had recovered enough to do some painting this evening.

On with the WIP

"*Cough!* Didn't you have a game of FoG last night? Where's the AAR?"


"I did and I'll do an AAR tomorrow, but to shut you up I'll post a pic at the end of this post> Now, can I get on with the WIP stuff please?"


"OK"




WIP: 30YW Foot, the Blue Regiments

Done today:

• Troopers' Breeches: Green Grey 886, Green Brown 879, Germ Cam Medium Brown 826, Germ Cam Pale Brown 825
• Troopers' Stockings: Pale Blue 906, Pastel Green 885, Light Grey 990, Pale Sand 837
• Junior Officers' Stockings: Ivory 918
• Colonels' Stockings: Off White 820
• Flesh: Flesh Base 341 (Panzer Aces)
• Ground Colour: Flat Earth 983

Tomorrow's Bits (if I have time; in no particular order):

• Shoes, boots and gloves
• Hats
• Musket stocks and pike/halberd shafts
• Hair and beards/'taches
• Collars
• Leather bits

Well, here's the bit of the post you've no doubt been waiting for - the pics:

Last Night's Game of FoG

I got to the club early, which gave me time to relax, have a drink and chat with folks before my opponent turned up. Alan was due to arrive a little after 7pm, but it was nearer 7.30pm when he got there. As this was also when the curry I'd ordered from the bar was brought out, we didn't start playing until 8.30pm (although we did get the terrain placement done while I was eating).

We both had all infantry armies, mostly heavy foot with a small number of light foot units. Alan also had a few medium foot units. Unfortunately, the combination of very slow moving infantry and a very awkward terrain layout meant it took several turns before we got to a point where we might actually get some close combat. Sadly, that point was reached as we ran out of time.

There had been some - mostly ineffective - shooting from a couple of turns in, which had resulted in a couple of light foot units on both sides dropping to disrupted. Typically for me, one of mine then got dropped further  to fragmented then failed it's cohesion test when a charge was declared, causing it to break.

If this had been a competition game, the score would have been 12-8 to Alan.

Anyway, here's the pic I promised, taken at the end:

Terrain pieces (Left to right):
Steep hill; Impassable terrain; Gully; Brush; Forest; Steep Hill

Just In Case....

....I get home too late to bother posting tonight, I though I'd do a quick post before leaving work.

WIP: 30YW Blue Regiments of Foote

I managed to do the black undercoat and Oily Steel dry-brushing of the metallic parts last night. I've also sorted the paints I will be using for the rest of the painting.

After that, I went through the drawer with the 30YW minis waiting to be prepped and sorted them into regimental bags. I'm still a bit undecided how to approach doing them - in mixed brigades or as batches of a given troop type? I'm leaning towards the second approach as it will be easier to maintain consistency between regiments of a given type.


Gaming tonight:

I have another friendly 650pt medieval FoG game tonight as a pre-competition practice. I've revised my Swiss army list a little, and they will be facing Alan's German City League forces - a very historical match-up.

And that is why i might get home too late to bother posting.

Oh, and I have remembered my camera this time. Whether I'll remember to use it is an entirely different matter!

WIP: 30YW Foot, the Blue Regiments #1

I didn't post yesterday as it didn't seem worth it just to say "Well folks, I did do the matt varnish spray on the cuirassiers".

I had a meeting after work (I'm a trustee of a local charity) and by the time I got home I was hot and tired and not in the mood to do much apart from veg out on the sofa, so no more painting got done.

Today is a different matter though, and a small change in the planned sequence of projects. I've decided to make a start on my 30 Years War foot. I'm doing the foot as 3 "brigades" each with a 9-base regiment and a 6-base regiment

The Blues - will have red or green facings (blue = Dark Blue 930)
The Reds - will have green or blue facings (red = Vermillion 909)
The Greens - will have blue or red facings (green = Flat Green 968)

The "facings" will be the cuffs, stocking ribbons, officers' trousers and collars, "company" standards, hat feathers, drum barrel and such like.

Done so far:

• Blue jackets
• Blue trousers on most officers and drummers
• Blue boots for one officer

My original plan for the "company" standards was to do them split colours - half in the regiment colour, half in the brigade colour. Having done the blue, I've realised it would be much more sensible to just do them in the regiment colour.

Later on I will do the black undercoat for metallic parts (armour, musket barrels and rests) and might dry-brush with  Oily Steel 865 if I have time before bed.

Here are a couple of pics for you:

I think I should probably start prepping the "Blue" regiments of cuirassiers, harquebusiers, dragoons and a generals stand. I might as well get a full command done in one stretch.

For those of you thinking "That's a lot of figures to do in one batch", set your worries aside  - it is only 54 figures, all infantry, all fairly uniform so it won't be anything like some of my previous schemes with assembly line painting of Sarmatians.

WIP: Old Glory Cuirassiers #5

"Hang on a second - why is there no wall of text before pictures?"

And now, demonstrating their expertise in close order drill:

Whoda thunk it? This mercenary rabble are in fact very well trained formation horsemen!

And here's a big close-up pic for you:

Yup, I got ahead of where I said I'd be when I posted last night. I cracked on and did the remaining bits of paintwork and the Klear/ink before going to bed. This morning I stuck them on bases and adding the texture gel before going to work. This evening I painted the texture gel with Flat Earth 983, dry-brushed it with Revell "Afrika Brown", added tufts then added some Noch "Meadow Grass". All they need now is a coat of matt spray varnish and they're finished. I'll do that in the morning.

I think my next side-project will be to do myself a nice baseboard for photography of finished units.



Space Demons:

I had a chance this morning to touch up the metallic black on the King. I've just done some test washes with different colours on a few of the figures to see which works best. I'm not sure that any of them do, but we'll see how they look when the washes have dried.

WIP: Old Glory Cuirassiers #4

Well, my bank account has taken a big hit today - I've bought my replacement fridge-freezer and while I was there decided it was time to replace my gas cooker (also 16 year old) as well. I'll be taking another big financial hit this week - my annual travel card is due for renewal.

That's enough about life stuff though. What you want to hear about is painting and to see some pics.

Old Glory Cuirassiers

Done today:

• Trousers
• Boots
• Gauntlets
• Belts, cartridge pouches and scabbards
• Faces and hair (on those without closed helms)
• Hat of standard bearer
• Flagpole/lance of standard bearer
• Wooden parts of pistols
• Saddles (where visible)

It sounds like a lot, but broken up into little bits it didn't seem to take too much time.

Still to do:

• Metalwork
• Stirrup straps (just spotted I hadn't done those!)
• Error correction (need to touch up some of the armour)
• Klear/ink coat
• Basing

As I'm not gaming tomorrow night, I'll probably get these finished apart from basing which will get done on Tuesday.

I also did the flesh on the Sarmatian "other cavalry" but didn't take photos. Once the cuirassiers are done, I'll finish these.

Next Up

• Scythians
• Battlebots
• 30YW foot
• Space Demons

RIP....

....my fridge-freezer

After 16 years of faithful service, it passed away this afternoon or early evening.

Of course, this has meant me having to spend a couple of hours emptying and defrosting/cleaning it so I haven't got round to doing any painting. It also means that I will need to buy myself a replacement tomorrow and take a day off work during the week for when it is delivered (no car, so I can't just pick one up on the day).

On the gaming front....OK, on the "adding to my lead mountain" front....I am becoming sorely tempted to order my own medieval Swiss army. So far I'm managing to resist the urge - looking at all the stuff I already have waiting to be painted (the remaining Sarmatians, the Scythians, my 30YW army and buildings, tons of sci-fi ground forces [infantry and vehicles], 3 GZG sci-f fleets, 80% of a 6mm ACW starter pack from Baccus 6mm plus some terrain) does make me want to not add anything else right now.

The other big issue with the Swiss is painting them - do I do a lot of small forces from several cantons or a large force from one with a couple of smaller ones from others? Well, I'll have plenty of time to think about that as it will be ages before I'm ready to order another army....


....I hope!

WIP: Medieval Camp #1

Ooops - meant to post last night but forgot. Never mind, here it is now.

It's just as well that this is essentially just a temporary camp. Last night I decided to do an ink wash (Magic Color "Earth Brown") and it went horribly wrong, which took me an age to clean up. Once I have my 3 games in the club tournament out of the way (NB - could be more games if I somehow do well enough to go through to the 2nd round), the pavilion will go into the pine disinfectant to strip the paint off and I will start again from scratch (not making the mistake of gluing it in the middle of a 80x120mm base.

The permanent camp for my eventual medieval army(ies) will have more than just the one pavilion. I'm actually considering mounting camp parts on separate smaller magnetic bases, which can then be combined together to make a full size camp by sticking them onto a 80x120mm steel base. This will make them much easier to transport.

Piccy time!

This afternoon and evening I will be doing some more work on:
the Old Glory 30YW cuirassiers
the 24 Sarmatian "Other Cavalry"
a second post for today....

I Hate It When....

....I forget to take my camera. In other words, no pics of tonight's game :(

This was certainly an interesting experience for me - running an all foot army. It was also useful for helping me decide on the army list I'll use for the club tournament.

The main thing I have learnt is that two armies of mostly heavy foot take an absolute age to come to blows. I must admit that despite the snail's pace, it was handy having all my troops "drilled" as it meant manoeuvring was much easier. Oh, and that superior pike and heavy weapon units rock!

Having won the initiative and got nice, mountainous terrain (although with the terrain pieces not necessarily where I wanted them) the dice gods kept poohing on me from a great height just when I didn't want it. However, at other times they rolled high just when (and where) I wanted them to.

When we realised what the time was, I had actually lost a couple more units than Gordon, but we worked out that if we'd played on I'd have taken out of his and it would have been a draw.

I did do a little bit more work last night and this morning - I suddenly realised that I didn't have a medieval camp made up. I quickly cleaned up the medieval pavilion I'd bought recently from Magister Militum, glued it to a base and gave the rest of the base a thin coat of Reeves Coarse Texture Gel. Once the glue and gel had dried, the tent was primed white, the base was given a coat of Flat Earth 983, then just before I went to bed I gave the pavilion a second coat of White 951.

This morning I did the colours - tent panels alternating Flat Yellow 953 and Intense Blue 925 with the door frames and post tops painted with Scarlet 817.

There is still some work to do on the pavilion - some tidying up on the yellow panels, painting the recessed wooden doors, lining the joins between panels, washing and highlighting. And the base will need to be dry-brushed and flocked. I'll keep this one quite simple I think.

WIP: Old Glory 30YW Cuirassiers #3

Well, the knackeredness is almost gone and I got some more work done on the cuirassiers this evening.

Done:
White markings on horses - socks, and facial markings (Ivory 918)
Leatherwork - bridles, reins, girths, holsters (Leather Brown 871)
Saddle-cloths, plumes, sashes (Black Green 980)
Ground colour on bases (Flat Earth 983)

I will probably do a couple more bits before bedtime tonight - eyes and saddles (where they show).

Anyhoos, here's some pixels for you to admire:

I probably won't get any painting done tomorrow evening as I have a 650pt game of FoG:AM lined up. I'm entered in the club's medieval tournament, and have borrowed a Swiss army from someone else. This should prove to be very interesting - me fielding an army with absolutely no cavalry (not even light horse)! Tomorrow night is just a practice game against Gordon's "Santa Hermandad Nuevo Castilian" army.

I will admit to being tempted to buy my own Swiss army, but that will have to wait until I've at least finished the bulk of my 30YW army.

And then there are the Koreans, the ....

Piccies from Campaign; WIP: Old Glory 30YW Cuirassiers #2

I'm still too frazzled to do AARs of the weekend's games, but I have uploaded my pics to Flickr. At some point I'll go through and add to the descriptions.

Cuirassiers

I've done a bit more on these this evening:

• Basecoats on horses (3 different browns for the bays, and a red-brown for the chestnut and black)
• Black wash all over on the grey and black horses - thinly on the grey and heavily on the black
• Black wash on cannons, tail, mane and muzzles of the bays 
• Chestnut wash mix on the chestnut
• Dun/bay wash mix on the bays
• Black wash thinly on the armour

Tomorrow evening I'll do the markings, ground colour and a lighter highlight on the mane and tail of the chestnut. If I have time, I'll do the leatherwork on the horses and maybe the saddle cloths.

I guess you want pics? Well, here they are:

WIP: Old Glory 30YW Cuirassiers #1

Sorry - pics from Campaign will have to wait. When I posted yesterday saying that Campaign had left me tired, well, that was an understatement. I was shattered but the adrenaline had disguised it. I was really drained today - just as well I had booked the day off work. Unfortunately it means that i haven't been able to face editing and organising the photos yet.

Besides, it is well over a week since I applied paint to any figures (with a brush anyway - spraying the space demons doesn't count) so it was time for me to get at least something done. Looking at my workbench, the obvious troops to crack on with are the 12 Old Glory 30 Years War cuirassiers that Seb gave me for my birthday. I din't want to do too much this evening (still knackered) so these were ideal.

What have I got done?

1. Black 950 undercoat on armour
2. White 951 undercoat on horses
The undercoats were thinned down quite a bit, but not quite to wash consistency.
3. Dry-brushed Gunmetal Grey 863 on armour
4. Taken some pics

I spotted as I was doing the dry-brushing that I'd missed the undercut of the armour at the back of some figures, so I had to go back and carefully apply some more black.

What's next?

I think the next stage will be to paint the horses using my normal technique. Mostly as bays, probably with the command on a grey, black and chestnut.