Back to the grindstone

After my last post I am posting the results of my experiment to convert the front rank french to 'scruffy' Spanish.  In addition to the bicorne wearing figures I also had a go with some with shako.  Regardless of the inaccuracies of uniform I think they pass the test of looking 'Spanish'. Only got one reasonable photo the bicornes.  With the shakoes I sliced off the french front plate and added a bourbon rosette with green stuff.

  

Happily sanity and reason has temporarily returned to Fort Biskit and I have put the prospect of a Spanish army to one side for the time being and I have recommenced my painting of my Anglo/Portuguese forces.  To complete I need to paint two battalions of Portuguese line, a detachment of Cacadores and two guns.

I am finding the line infantry something of a grind and am not very inspired by Front Ranks figures on this one.  They are nice enough but lack some character compared to others- the Cacadores on the other hand are great.  To brighten things up I  included a converted mounted officer in ym first regiment.  Pictures attached.  This was the combination of a Portuguese head, front rank body- a british ADC with cloak I believe and a Victrix Horse.  A bit of green stuff and away.

Obligardo!

Peninsular war continues

I have reached what I regard as a milestone in my Napoleonic Peninsular collections.  I now have 6 battalions of french infantry, skirmishers, a battery of foot artillery and two regiments of cavalry.  To face them I have completed 3 regiments of British infantry, skirmishers, a squadron of hussars and battery of horse artillery.  Phase one was supposed to be a brigade each plus artillery plus one regiment of cavalry.  However I found myself in a groove with the french so just kept going.  The Brits were more of a slog- all that red- but very satisfying to see the end result.  My little British force is shown below- terrible picture and I will post some better shots of each unit as these are based.  Figures are Front Rank, Foundry, Perry and a couple of conversions for the officers.

Have decided now to consider this the end of phase one am now ready to move into phase two. Two things I should now sensibly do.

Firstly, I decided not to base the units as I went along partly because when I started I wasn't sure what rules to use- then I played Black Powder and Im hooked.  I decided on my basing scheme but then- apart from one french gun have not based anything yet as I didn't want to break the painting flow.

Alternatively, the original plan involved balancing out the forces with a brigade of Portuguese including a regiment of Front Ranks lovely cavalry.  And I was set to do that- but then Front Rank released their reinforcement packs of French infantry.  Absolutely brilliant and just what the range has needed for ages.  I bought two packs- one with bicornes.  I thought I would put them aside until I was ready to paint more french.  But looking at them and taking inspiration from Clarence Harrison who has converted Victrix revolutionary French to Spanish infantry I wondered how much conversion it might take to make these French into Spanish.

You can see Clarences fine figures at the link below:

www.quindiastudios.blogspot.co.uk

I have now undertaken literally minutes of research and decided that- provided I am willing to ignore a number of historical inaccuracies (I am) this could work.  I don't know what the fascination is with conversions but I get a perverse pleasure in turning figures that are supposed to be one thing into something else.  Maybe its because in some way this makes my figures feel unique, or perhaps its just that its fun to mess about with a Stanley knife and green stuff- who knows.  Anyway I am going to experiment and see what happens.

I've decided to undertake the following conversion. I have removed the pom pom from the shako and I have given the majority of the figures big Spanish looking (imho) facial hair.  Possibly reinforcing national stereotypes- who knows.  So pretty simple and the results shown above.  In terms of painting I intend to create a scruffy looking unit from the 1810 to 1811 period so before shipments of British arms and uniforms come through in significant amounts.  Figures will have a mix of old beaten up white uniform and brown peasant cloth.  I'll do six figures mix in Spanish Officers and see what happens.  Will post the results when finished.

Been gone too long...

Unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity to post anything for a very long time. So much for my new year resolution to post every month at least. But no matter- I have forgiven myself and I have not been idle on the painting front.

First up I have completed two cohorts for my Roman army.  I wanted these to be of the veteran variety and deliberately grubby and battle worn.  Cohort One:

With the second cohort wanted to have more of a shield wall look and for them to look as though they have just received a barrage of spears and arrows.  Relatively simple conversions which entailed chopping off the arms and re-glueing into the required position.  They look anatomically odd close up but look fine based up as a group.

Next up I have completed another Celt war-band- The leader figure is a druid type figure and I cannot remember where he came from. Anyway he got a severed roman head as a standard and the basing again follows the previous approach of trying to make the warriors look like a mob of bloodthirsty maniacs. 

Also completed three chariots - need to add one more to make this a proper unit.  

Finally  a small unit of slingers and another chieftain and standard bearer.

 

All figures with the exception of the 'druid' are warlord games.

According to my calculations I have now completed 181 foot, 5 Cavalry, 1 civilian and 3 chariots so far this year.  Not the most amazing tally but moving in the right direction.

Im off work today so going to do some daytime drinking this afternoon and going to Twickenham tomorrow. Yeeeha!

Archers

More additions to my Roman Invasion Of Britain forces.  My first Romans- a small unit of auxiliary archers.  And just to keep things balanced a unit of celt archers.  More warlord games figures but metal this time. Nice figures- my only complaint is that they had a fair amount of flash to clean up before .  On the other hand they paint up really easily and have a perfect period feel.

So these 16 figures bring my total for 2012 to 105 foot, 5 cavalry and one civilian.

Even more celts

I've added another war-band to my Celts.  These are again Warlord games figures- again a pleasure to paint.  I discovered that in my last order from Warlord I had mistakenly ordered two of the Celtic army standard bearer.  The leader of this warband is therefore a simple conversion of this figure with the standard replaced by a sword.  Again I've sought to arrange the figures in a pattern which gives a sense of movement to the formation.  Also pictured blow is my first command figure who is also from warlord games. I cut the head off a Roman casualty figure to add extra gore. Another warband will follow soon.  

This brings my 2012 tally to a total of 89 foot/5 cavalry/ and 1 civilian

More AWI

As I said in my last post I thought I would try painting up some Perry AWI figures to see how compatible they are with Front Rank- especially when based.  So here are the results- 6 fusiliers.  I really like them but they are very thin when compared to FR and I'm of the view that they are just not compatible. At least now I know for certain.  Maybe I will wait and see how inspiring the Black Powder AWI supplement is when this comes out- not for some time I believe.  If properly inspired it would be good to re-do my AWI using Perry figures. We shall see.

 I am playing an AWI game next month which will have a scenario heavy on narrative.  For this I wanted a female figure to play the American mistress of the British CiC.  She's been captured by the rebels and may be put on trial for espionage- scandalous! Surely Washington hasn't authorized this! The British elite forces have the task, amongst other things, of rescuing her.  She look a bit sulky but can you blame her. AAR will follow in due course.  I think this is a Foundry figure- I may be wrong.

Finally, also for the AWI game I did a quick conversion to provide another mounted rifleman- this gives the unit four figures which I will field as a 'small' unit in the scenario. Another Front Rank mash-up. I think this figure gives the right impression of these not being cavalry proper

Now with these complete it will be Romans and Celts all the way to the finish line.

The 2012 tally stands at 59 foot, 5 Cavalry and 1 cannon completed.

Medieval Knight

I have had a box of Perry WOR knocking about for a bit and had an urge to paint up one of the foot knight figures and this is the result.  I did also base up two of the bowmen but have decided to pop these back in the box.  Great figures but I am not going to allow myself to start on another project. Figure is based on a 1p piece to give a bit of heft.

Total figures completed now stands at 52 foot, 4 Cavalry and one cannon