The War of Spanish Succession... New Toys

Greetings...


My good friend Adrian popped over today with some Front Rank WSS British that he no longer wished to keep in his collection...
Most of his troops are Foundry and he has always felt that the Front Rank figures did not really fit in...


So after some wheeling and a little bit of dealing I now have about eight new battalions... Hurrah!
I will be re-basing and re-flagging over the next few weeks... and then possibly a parade.

Adrian is responsible for my first venture into The War of Spanish Succession when he got me involved in a massive demo game of The Battle of Blenheim...


24ftx6ft all built in a room half that size...


Over 30 years ago... how time flies...

A picture taken many years ago...

Nice one buddy...


All the best   Aly

The War of Spanish Succession... Many Shades of Grey.

No... Not the new novel by E.L.James...


Just a little update on how my latest cavalry units are proceeding...

This photo and the lighting doesn't really do justice to the subtle mix of grey shades and dapples on these horses... but its there ... honest...
Hopefully I will get some reds done this evening...


All the best.   Aly.

Google+... R.I.P.

Sod Brexit....


What about Google+exit?...


Hmmm! doesn't sound so hip and trendy... does it?


Shock Horror!... I have just realised/discovered that all of my comments-here and on other blogs-have been with a Google+ profile....


I have now changed it to a Blogger profile... Surprisingly easy as it turns out.


This may mean that all my older replies and comments will disappear or that I will become a man of mystery and be known as unknown...


Hopefully everything will sort itself out...


Whatever happens no insult is intended... I meant everything I said...


Here is a link to some useful info...


https://blogger.googleblog.com/2019/01/an-update-on-google-and-blogger.html


All the best... Aly/Unknown...

Shiny Napoleonics... The Royal Scots Greys

Hurrah!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIDvyGifRE0


Well if that doesn't get your Napoleonic dander up ... nothing will...


The first (shiny) unit...
I actually painted these last year... but I have fussed around with the standard and the basing until I got the look I was after...

The Royal Scots Greys...


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Scots_Greys


It couldn't really be anything else (for me, that is)... One of my favourite British units, I have spent many an hour in their museum in Edinburgh Castle.


https://www.scotsdgmuseum.com/


One of my first purchases on this shiny journey was a rather large unit of Minifigs S Range Royal Scots Greys... More than I needed in fact.

They were neatly painted and in very good condition...

The one thing that I wasn't to keen on was the way the horses were painted...they had been stippled in two shades of grey... I wanted a smoother finish...

I managed to match all of the colours from my collection of paints... so I could tidy everything up a bit... All the metal work was redone with modern 'brighter' paints... The horses were repainted with mostly...


Citadel... Stormvermin Fur and Administratum Grey.
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling?N=3815391097+3918877057+2542067766&Nr=AND%28sku.siteId%3AGB_gw%2Cproduct.locale%3Aen_GB_gw%29&Nrs=collection%28%29%2Frecord%5Bproduct.startDate+%3C%3D+1552829820000+and+product.endDate+%3E%3D+1552829820000%5D

Everything was given a coat of Aly's Brown Liquid... I experimented a bit by adding some Acrylic Gloss varnish to the mix to see if it would deepen the shine ...

Everything was re-highlighted with the original colours slightly diluted with some Acrylic Gloss Varnish...

 They were then given a generous coat of...

 Wilko's Gloss Yacht Varnish...


Did the extra gloss layers deepen the shine of the finished figures?... Probably not!
I shall use my normal method next time...

The bugler certainly looks very shiny...


I wasn't sure what to do with the guidon. I didn't fancy drawing the whole thing out free hand but I did want a more hand painted style...

After a number of unsuccessful tries and a complete loss of patience I went for one from GMB Designs.
https://gmbdesigns.com/product-category/28mm-range/28mm-range-napoleonic-wars/28mm-range-napoleonic-wars-british-1801-to-1815/


Its a little oversized... as its from the 28mm range... but I rather like big flags.
I sealed it with matt spray varnish then gave it a good coat of gloss.


I think its turned out rather well.

The bases are from Warbases...
https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/bases/round-cornered-bases/


They were painted Wilkos Urban Jungle Green...
https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-emulsion-paint-tester-pot-urban-jungle-75ml/p/0310653
Then sprayed with Games workshop Munitorum varnish...
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Citadel-Purity-Seal-2017


I am very pleased with these... its been a good start to this collection.


Back to painting more grey horses...


All the best   Aly

Shiny Napoleonics... A bit of inspiration.

When one thinks of inspiration for Shiny Napoleonics , the obvious place to go would be to those wonderful figures from Peter Gilders collection that I first saw in Military Modelling way back in 19 something or other...


This piece of inspiration comes from an altogether different source ...


When I was doing a bit of internet research for the Royal Scots Greys I came across this image...

Ensign Ewart of the Royal Scots Greys capturing the Eagle of the French 45th Regiment of the Line at the Battle of Waterloo.


This is a porcelain miniature by the military artist/sculptor Michael Sutty... I know this piece rather well because for many years it was on display in an Edinburgh shop called Jenners...
I remember being mesmerized by it ... not just by the sculpting but also by the subtlety of the painting...the contrast between the matt finish of the horse and combatants and the gloss of the leather and metal... and the smoothness of that matt finish.


This is everything I aim for in my miniature painting and I think I have been trying to capture this  style from the moment I picked up a paint brush.


Here are some more example's of his beautiful work.

Thank you Michael Sutty...




I have also realized that whether I am painting for gloss or for matt I paint pretty much in the same way... it is just the varnish that is different.


All the best  Aly

Schilling-Figuren height comparison...

Just a quickie...


I said that I would post a height comparison for the Schilling-Figuren Napoleonics that I picked up in Hamburg...


Well here it is...

Perry,..Schilling-Figuren,...Eureka,...Front Rank

As you can see they are a lot taller than you would expect for 20mm... in fact closer to 30mm to the top of the head... although they are of a much slighter build than most 28-30mm miniatures.


I still don't know what I am going to use them for... but as I said ... I neeeeded them...


All the best   Aly

Hammerhead... 2019

This weekend Dave Andrews and I popped over to Hammerhead in Newark...


https://www.hammerheadshow.co.uk/


I must say this is an excellent show... the whole premise is that all of the games are participation games... participation games may not be your thing... but it certainly keeps people in the building... And it is definitely popular...
The show was indeed busy.


There were a lot of lovely games... due to various distractions I didn't take that many pictures... but here they are...

Paperboys ... from Peter Dennis.

A witch racing game... a lovely building.

No idea what so ever... but delightfully weird...

Wytch King or Parliament... by the Bunker Boys... lots of madness on every inch of the table...

A lovely Pulp Adventure game... What I find hard to believe is that this is a gaming mat...

Albedo Combat Patrol... based on the comic Albedo Anthropomorphics...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo_Anthropomorphics


https://wargamesbuildings.co.uk/epages/950003459.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/950003459/Categories/Albedo_Patrol


Definitely not everyone's taste... but very nicely done...

A nice WW2 game...

Star Wars...

Wellington in India... Very nice...

A Very British Civil War...


Did I buy anything?
Of course I did...

Some lovely buildings by EWM...
I like these ... they are a nice size and I think they will fit well with my Hudson and Allen buildings.
If you went to Pauls stand I hope you got a handful of his ginger nuts...


https://earlywarminiatures.com/


Okay...
I want you to brace yourself now...


Maybe Dave and I were tired ...
Maybe we were possessed by daemons...
Maybe we  went out off our minds...
Maybe we were hypnotized into buying the first thing we saw..

6mm Napoleonics...
Yes...
No you are not seeing things...
6mm Napoleonics...
The scale of the Devil...


And...

Hex terrain...






Okay...
Dave and I have both got a set of Command and Colors... we have talked about finding a way of using miniatures instead of blocks and what scale could we use...
And while we were looking at Baccus Miniatures Napoleonics we thought ... lets do it...


https://www.baccus6mm.com/


It was just a short jump to Kallistra...


https://www.kallistra.co.uk/?page=8


I think my butterfly is asserting itself...


This one wont be happening overnight... I am still trying to work out how to paint the little buggers let alone do the terrain... I also want to finish my WSS.






All the best   Aly