ALY MORRISON'S "BUTTERFLY" ADVENTURES IN THE WORLD OF WARGAMES AND TOY SOLDIERS

Monday 25 October 2021

The War of 1812… The U.S. 1st Regiment of Riflemen.

Greetings…

The first (non command) unit of Americans… The U.S. 1st Regiment of Riflemen.

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

I’ve always liked this unit … In their green and yellow trimmed hunting shirts… Very different from your standard Napoleonic fare…


I am rather pleased with these fellows… they were a real joy to paint.

I will say that the officer does look a lot quirkier than his comrades in the ranks… or maybe he just a bit drinky…

I did think about altering him… for a couple of seconds… just before I slapped the undercoat on. 😁

Captain Drinkmore has however grown on me…


The Hunting Shirts are… Citadel… Loren Forest.

The Fringes are… Foundry… Ochre 4B.

The Trousers and Water Bottle Straps are… Citadel… Pallid Wytch Flesh.

The Officers Uniform is… Foundry… Slate Grey Light 32C.

The Knapsack is… Citadel… Hoeth Blue.

The Water Bottle is… Foundry… Sky Blue Light 21C.

The Rifle Stocks are… Citadel… Mournfang Brown.

The figures are from Knuckleduster…

http://knuckleduster.com/shop/index.php?route=product/category&path=1_21

https://www.caliverbooks.com/figures/catviewer.php?

du8tdt6mba4djrm7e3g8tu8291&producer=126&range=UNITED%20STATES%20OF%20AMERICA&menu=2

The paints are Wargames Foundry and Citadel...

https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

The bases are as always...








Tuesday 19 October 2021

The War of 1812… American and British Command.

Greetings…

Just to be a bit different I decided to start this little project by painting up some command figures…

It seemed like a good way of seeing how well my shiny new Knuckleduster miniatures would paint up.



I am very pleased with the results…

This is the first time that I have painted any of the Knuckleduster War of 1812 range… I do know that they are not to everyone’s taste, but I am quite taken by their slightly quirky style and I found them very easy to paint.

I have based them the same as my 3rd Century Romans but instead of adding small stones I have added little pieces of Privet hedge branch that I took from the garden.

The American Tunics are… Citadel… Kantor Blue.

The British Tunics are… Citadel… Evil Sunz Scarlet… with Kantor Blue Facings.

The Breeches are… Citadel… Pallid Wych Flesh.

The Sashes are… Citadel… Mephiston Red.

The Officers Gold Braid is… Citadel… Retributor Armour mixed with some Foundry Ochre Light 4C

The Horses were painted using various Citadel Contrast Browns.

As always everything was given a coat of Aly’s Brown Liquid and highlighted with the original colours.

The paints are Wargames Foundry and Citadel...

https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

The bases are as always...

https://www.caliverbooks.com/figures/catviewer.php?du8tdt6mba4djrm7e3g8tu8291&producer=126&range=UNITED%20STATES%20OF%20AMERICA&menu=2

They are of course also available directly from Knuckleduster…

http://knuckleduster.com/shop/index.php?route=product/category&path=1_21

A gentle start… but there is plenty more to come.


All the best    Aly


Tuesday 12 October 2021

A new project… The War of 1812.

Yes… The War of 1812…


Greetings…

“ How did this come about ?“ I hear you ask..

Well…

The war came about mostly because of American anger at the Royal Navy stopping and seizing ships on the open sea and impressing as British subjects captured crew, even if they personally had proof of their U.S. citizenship… combined with a long standing desire by War Hawks in the American House and Senate to try and conquer the whole of… 

Oh!…

Of course what you meant is how did it come about that I have started a War of 1812 project…

Well…

I let my butterfly flutter free for a while…

First it settled on something small…6mm Napoleonics… It seemed like a good idea…you know the kind of thing… big battles in a small space…

But… It was… well… just a bit too small…

Next it landed on something just a little bit bigger…

10mm Seven Weeks War (1866)…

Nice uniforms and an interesting period…

But… yup… still a bit on the small side…

Ooo!…

54mm Britains style toy soldiers in a ‘what if’ 1890’s Anglo-American war…

Now I do like the idea of this…it ticks all of my boxes… but I’m not that sure about building large scale terrain at the moment…

Maybe when I’ve sorted my cellar out and have more room…

This was a bit of a surprise… The 30 years War…

I find this period really interesting… both militarily and politically….

The figures are lovely…

But… I find it really hard to get into pike and shot wargaming… I’m not sure why… maybe I have a phobia about long pointy sticks ( I’m not that keen on Macedonian armies either).

It’s an odd thing really as I always enjoy reading about other peoples adventures in this period…but when I start painting any myself it just leaves me a bit cold… I will try again another time.

Normans and Byzantines in Italy…

I think this will get done it’s a fascinating period full of really interesting characters… what stalled me here was not finding a set of rules that suited my needs… of course there is now a Lion Rampant supplement on the market… so yes… but not right now.


Definitely a yes…
But after The War of 1812.


The least said about this the better…
For those of you who want to know… it’s a push fit limited edition SF 3D Battle Suit… I have two of them.
Move along nothing more to see here… possibly. 😜






Shiny Seven Years War… using Minifigs.
This came close… I even worked out what I might need…
But…  I’ve already got a couple of ‘shiny’ projects on the go.. I think I will get these completed first… at least to point of having a game before I start another.

And now… 


The War of 1812…
It’s pretty obvious really…😁

It of course helps that I have a reasonable collection of books on the subject…




And…It’s one of my favourite periods…

My plan is to put together a couple of forces for Rebels and Patriots…
I think these rules will work well for a lot of the small scale actions that happened during this war…

Next up… 
The first unit…

All the best.  Aly












Tuesday 5 October 2021

Shiny Napoleonics… French 9th Hussars.

Greetings…

Hurrah!… or should I say Hussar!… more shininess.

Another new unit for the shiny Napoleonic collection… this time it’s the French 9th Hussars.







It took me a while to decide which unit to paint… there are so many pretty French Hussar Uniforms.
Looking at the list of favourites I have, I could end up with half a dozen Hussar units in my French army.
The 9th won out this time… It was the brightly coloured Trumpeter that did it for me.

I have however thrown my self imposed period restraints out of the window… I had thought that I was going to stick to a period covering the dates 1812-1815… 
But with these 1808 uniformed Hussars this now makes three units that are outside these limits… 
Well… it’s more about what’s pretty isn’t it… and they are very pretty…

This unit is made up from second generation Garrison Hussars for the rank and file…
The command are a converted Garrison figure for the Standard Bearer.. A Minifigs Officer on a Garrison horse…And a Minifigs Trumpeter also on a Garrison horse… both the horses had to have their saddles removed so that the figures could fit.
The Elite Company are Lamming Miniatures… I was going to put the Lamming heads on some Garrison bodies that I acquired from the very nice Rob Young but in the end I couldn’t bring myself to decapitate the lovely little fellows…
I think they fit in well enough as they are…

I am delighted with these…they are everything I look for in a Hussar unit… yes that lace and braid take forever but the end results are …I think we’ll worth it.

The Dolmans are… Citadel… Evil Sunz Scarlet.
The Pelisse and Breeches are… Foundry… Sky Blue 21B.
The Braid is… Foundry… Yellow Ochre 4B.
The White bits are… Citadel… Pallid Wych Flesh.
The Trumpeter Dolman is… Foundry… Ochre 4B.
The Trumpeter Pelisse and Breeches are… Citadel… Evil Sunz Scarlet.
The Trumpeter Shako is… Foundry… Sky Blue 21B.

As always everything was given a coat of Aly’s Brown Liquid and highlighted with the original colours.

The paints are Wargames Foundry and Citadel...

https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

The bases are as always...

https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/bases/round-cornered-bases/

The Flag is GMB Designs...


There is a fresh Neuchatel Battalion in the works but before that I should have something of interest for those of you that prefer Matte or even Soft-Sheen finished figures…


All the best    Aly