Highlanders

Another British Peninsular regiment painted and based.  This time its the 79th Highland regiment.  Figures are the usual mix of foundry and perry.  The officer was a conversion with the top half of a foundry figure and the horse and legs provided I think by a Victrix mounted officer. Flags are GMB. Im struggling with my camera to get any truly decent shots.  No chance of an upgrade at the moment.

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.

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

Happy New Year!

Happy new year one and all.

Despite the fact that making something a new years resolution is one way to ensure it doesn't get done I have committed to updating this blog at least twice a month.  Will I keep to this?- only time will tell.  My other NY resolutions are to get fatter, drink more, become less organized and alienate people- I am just being realistic.

I was appalling at the updates throughout 2011 so the only way is up.  I did quite a bit of painting during 2011 including making some serious headway on 28mm Napoleonics as well as  re-basing and 'refreshing' my AWI collection.  I also played three war-games which is a 200% improvement on 2010.  2011 was also the year when I discovered Black Powder rules and I suspect life will never be the same again.

As far as possible I'm planning to post pictures of minis as they are completed so use this blog as a record of my painting endeavors whatever these may be.

My plans for 2012 painting are currently-

Complete phase one of 28mm Peninsular Naps- this will involve completing a Brigade each of French and Brits with a couple of cavalry regiments and a battery of guns each.  Phase two will extend this to division sized forces with more guns and cavalry.

Finish the last few elements of my 28mm AWI collection- these figures look pretty dated now but I still love em.

Paint up some 28mm ECW- I have a number of figures from Bicorne- I'd like to get a dozen or so infantry regiments done initially.  Im looking forward to seeing what comes out by way of ECW version of BP.

I have some EIR and Celts from Warlord games of which I have painted a few- I intend to paint up enough to be able to play a decent sized game.

Other plans may include starting to paint 6mm Napoleonic figures with the aim of playing a refight of Waterloo in 2015- Im sure Im not the only one obsessed with the battle and keen to mark the anniversary.

As I haven't actually yet completed any figures in 2012 here are a selection of pics of AWI Brigade Commanders which were either painted up during 2011 or rebased.  This was to enable the formation of Brigades for Black Powder games.  I made use of some characterful 7YW miniatures from Foundry for some so some uniforms are very very anachronistic (or just plain) wrong.  I however couldn't care less- purists, sharpen your pitchforks and light the torches.

Tarleton showing his ruthless side.  Front rank figures painted long ago but rebased 2011.



















 A Hessian brigade commander and sergeant.  Foundry figures of Prussian (?) origin painted 2011.

 

British Infantry commander and servant- Foundry figures- highly inaccurate for AWI!

Finally American Militia commander from Perry

First painted and based Naps

Have made a lot of progress on my French Naps since last post and now have a full brigade of French  ready to be based.  First to get the sand and tuft treatment is this French gun.  Perry miniatures foot artillery loading. More to follow.