Oh no!... Another piece of Nostalgia.

 Greetings...

My interest in 19th century wars my well have started with articles called the Seven Week War by Robert Gibson... published in the Airfix Magazine in 1970.

Up till now all I have had are some very faded photocopies which have become almost unreadable in places...

Then these turned up on eBay...

And today they turned up on my doorstep...

I am looking forward to nosing through them and trying to remember what life was like when all I had to worry about,was if the teacher would believe the lies I was going to tell about where my homework was.

All the best.  Aly

Shiny Napoleonics... Von Lützow’s Freikorps

 Greetings...

A nice new unit for my Shiny Napoleonics...

Von Lützow’s Freikorps...

I first saw this stylish unit painted in the shiny style on the Hinton Spieler blog...

https://thehintonspieler.blogspot.com/2017/08/lutzowers-at-last.html

Matthew (Wellington Man) did such a splendid job that I new I must have a unit like them in my collection...

My battalion was made using Minifigs as opposed to Hinton Hunts...

The original figure was a Brunswicker wearing the early uniform used in the Peninsular...

I removed the plume and built up a Prussian style shako cover using Green Stuff, I also cut off the braid on the front of the coat and the chin scales...

As you can see I didn’t strip them as the paint had been applied quite thinly...

The hats were sculpted over three or four days so it didn’t feel like a task.

My test figure for the uniform colour was...

Kapitän Daumen hoch...

I was very pleased with the results and quickly moved on to the whole unit...

“sehr guter alter Junge“

The standard was... well... copied from Wellington Man 😁

With a little help from a picture I found on line...

Ok...  So... There’s no way I could screw up here then... is there?

And the stupid mistake is................................Pretty obvious!

My only (pathetic) excuse is that I haven’t done any lettering for a while and I was to focused on that to notice that the damn thing was upside down...

Anyway... After some swearing and a few subtle reminders...

The finished standard...

Hurra! (Dummkopf)...

The Uniform is a base coat of... Citadel... The Fang.

Which was  given two coats of... Citadel... Contrast... Black Templar...

This gives a nice blueish black...

The Piping is... Citadel... Evil Sunz Scarlet.

The Belts are just painted pure Black...

The Standard is... Citadel... Evil Sunz Scarlet and pure Black.

The Standard Fringe and Lettering is... Citadel... Averland Sunset... 

Highlighted by adding some... Wargames Foundry... Lemon Light 1C.

I have to say that I am really really pleased with these... I was a bit unsure about how the gloss varnish would look over the Contrast Colours... but it worked a treat.

I also stole another idea from Wellington Man... I have no shame...

I rebased my Lamming Neapolitans on slightly thinner bases so that now they don’t tower over their Minifigs allies, I also took the time to correct a couple of things with the paint job that were bothering me... 

The bases are as always...
https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/bases/round-cornered-bases/


The paints are Wargames Foundry and Citadel...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

I have more shiny things to come and hopefully a game report...

All the best.    Aly

Lion Rampant... More Sassanid Spearmen.

Greetings...

Yet another unit finished for this project...

More Sassanid Spearmen... this time they are Unarmoured. 

I decided to give these guys simple white clothes... a nice quick paint job.

Well that is what I thought... they actually took a lot longer than I thought they would.

I can’t think of a reason why... they were a pleasure to paint in fact... maybe that was it.... I got lost in the moment...

Anyway they are done and I am very pleased with them... they have a bit of a rowdy look about them, which probably means that they will run at the first throw of the dice....

I recon that I now have (more than) enough units for a game... so I will probably take a pause from painting more and get them on the table...

A couple of solo games then one (a certain defeat ) with my daughter...

The White bits are... Citadel... Pallid, Wych Flesh.

The Leather goods are... Citadel... Skrag Brown and Doombull Brown.

The body of the Shields and the Spears are... Foundry... Spearshaft Light 13C.

Then it’s a wash with Aly’s Brown Liquid and highlighting with the original shades... the white was given an extra highlight with added pure white...

The miniatures are...
Aventine... https://aventineminiatures.co.uk/

The bases are...
Warbases... https://warbases.co.uk/

The Shield Transfers are from...
Little Big Men Studios... https://www.littlebigmenstudios.com/

The paints are Wargames Foundry and Citadel...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

Next up.... probably something shiny.

All the best    Aly

 

A Song of Blades and Bronze... More Northern Europeans.

 Greetings...

Here we have the next batch of Northern Europeans...

I had intended these chaps to feel a bit more rank and file... Plainer cloths and less tattoos...

I have however failed in this... as I got carried away... I really enjoy painting the tattoos and the plaid and I am finding it difficult to hold back.

So for now I will say that the more rank and file troops will ‘mostly’ have bronze shields.

There are some slingers in the Bronze Age pile I may move them up the queue...

I would also like to add a Northern European chariot... and Mharaid would said she would really like another one pulled by giant geese (you will of course remember that there is a fantastical element to this collection)

A couple of years ago I bought Mharaid a lot of Britains (54mm) hollow cast farm animals... at the time every other eBay auction had Geese Geese Geese, which would be perfect.... not now though... the hoarders have got in there and emptied the shelves... utter swines!

I will persevere. 😆

So here are the toys...

All of the tunics started of with Citadel Administratum Grey and then the different plaids were added with a mixture of muted colours.

I am very pleased with the results and I will no doubt get carried away again with the next batch...

The miniatures are...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/european-bronze-age-scandanavia-north-west-europe-1600-bc

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


The paints are Wargames Foundry and Citadel...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

All the best    Aly

Shiny Napoleonics... New toys

 Greetings...

I recently received a lovely box of new/old toys in the post...

These are from the seemingly inexhaustible collection of the late Eric Knowles... via David Crook (http://awargamingodyssey.blogspot.com/ )

They are a mixture of French Cavalry and British ,French and Brunswick infantry.

They are mostly S Range Minifigs but there are a few Lammings and some dashing Garrison Hussars... which I am finding hard to resist renovating immediately.

At least I won’t run short of things to do as Nottingham ‘braces’ Itself for a local Covid lockdown...

I should have something Bronze Aged and Shiny next....

All the best.  Aly

A Song of Drums and Shakos... Men in Black

 Greetings...

Of course by Men in Black... I mean Brunswickers... though I suspect you already guessed that.

These guys have been edging their way up the painting queue for a while...

I have been very keen to paint them and as Mharaid and I are planning a game soon I thought I would get them done.

They are the Leib Battalion figures from Front Rank Miniatures...

Painting Black on Black is an interesting problem and something I have wanted to try out for a while.

I have used Contrast Black Templar over a Mid Grey undercoat... Two slightly diluted coats.

I have found that using two thinned coats gives more even finish...

The leather gear and buttons were painted with flat black and gloss varnished to give a textural contrast.

In a moment of madness I decided to paint the White Horses on the backpacks... about half way through I was starting to wish I hadn’t... but now that they are done I am very pleased...

They have turned out well and are anything but dull...

Mharaid (Aka Von Rust ) is looking forward to using these troops... The uniforms match her/his cold black heart...

The Uniforms are... Citadel Contrast... Black Templar... Two diluted coats.

The Muskets are... Citadel... Mournfang Brown.

The Knapsacks are... Wargames Foundry...  Charcoal Black Light 34C.

The Canteens are... Citadel... Thunderhawk Blue.

The Valises are... Citadel... Administratum Grey.

The Facings are... Wargames Foundry... Sky Blue 21B.

Aly’s Brown Liquid was washed over the flesh, metals, canteens  and muskets.

The miniatures are Front Rank Miniatures...

https://www.frontrank.com/product-category/napoleonic/napoleonic-brunswick/brunswick-infantry-reinforcement-packs/

Paints from Games Workshop 
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

And Wargames Foundry 
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint

The bases are Warbases.
https://warbases.co.uk/

All the best.   Aly

Yet Another New Book...

 Greetings...

This lovely new book arrived in the post yesterday...

Painting 28mm Wargame Figures 4... The Western Front 1914-1918.

By Mark Hargreaves...

This is a splendid book... Mark is up to his usual high standard... we have all of Marks techniques on show...

It is well laid out and filled with helpful and useful information... German bayonet knot colours anyone...?

I always enjoy reading and seeing how others paint toy soldiers... so this was always going to be a must for me...

Mark asked if he could use some of my photos for background shots... I was of course delighted to say yes... I was even more delighted to see that one of my photos is on the front cover...wow!

If you are at all interested in painting khaki and Field Grey... rush out and get this.. You (and Mark)will be all the richer for you doing so...

https://www.caliverbooks.com/bookview.php?ec9sjqomqvme5di28n58rfhmj5&id=28382&subcatcode=C&subcatno=56

All the best   Aly