Isles Class Trawlers

Someone on TMP mentioned Isles Class Trawlers and I thought I had a couple of them stashed away in a cupboard so I hauled them out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isles-class_trawler

HMS Lindisfarne

HMS Ailsa Craig

I did these donkeys years ago as part of a coastal war series. One of them is a bought model, possibly Skytrex and the other is scratch built by my own fair paws.

I painted them both (in my impressionist period).

Can you tell the difference?

Merry Christmas Everyone

Merry Christmas Everyone

A Dip in the Dark

Here's a few pictures to show the effects of different washes/dips on a blue suitable for Napoleonic French. (apologies to any manufactures missed out, this is what I had on my painting desk at the time)

All the figures were completely basecoated in Regal Blue from the Citadel paint range marketed by Games Workshop. It is a medium dark-ish blue bearing in mind that the wash/dip will darken it further. The main aim is to find a one stop shop for anyone doing French in blue in large numbers.

Figure 1, untouched Regal Blue. (click on the photo for a larger version)

Figure 2, Army Painter Strong Tone (acrylic) straight from the dropper bottle.

Figure 3, Army Painter Strong Tone (acrylic) diluted 50/50 with tap water.

Figure 4, Army Painter Dark Tone (acrylic) straight from the dropper bottle.

Figure 5, Coat d'arms Black Ink Wash undiluted.

Figure 6, Coat d'arms Chestnut Ink Wash undiluted.

So there you go, form your own opinions please.





















Here are mine:

Figure 1, Regal Blue unwashed. OK as it stands but depends on the figures natural shadows, quickest to finish.

Figure 2, Undiluted Strong Tone, quite OK on the blue but perhaps too severe on lighter colours i.e.pants.

Figure 3, Diluted Strong Tone, similar to number 2 but perhaps gentler on lighter colours.

Figure 4, Undiluted Dark Tone, not a lot different to number 2.

Figures 5, Undiluted Black Ink Wash, way too severe.

Figure 6, Undiluted Chestnut Ink Wash, wrong, wrong, wrong.

Warlord Games - Hanoverians

My box of Warlord Games Hanoverians arrived this morning (Friday). I thought that was pretty good going, I placed the order online late on Monday evening and they came through the letterbox early this morning, not bad going for the Christmas rush. Postage was only £2 as well making £22 in total.

The box is certainly colourful with an artists impression of a unit in march column.

The back of the box has a few useful words and a picture of a completed unit showing what you actually get in the box.

Inside you get another bundle of words, which are quite useful.

Unfortunately the colours are on the back so make sure you read them all before cutting out your desired flags.

There are six sprues identical to the one I posted about earlier. This will give you 30 rank and file figures which can all be made unique by careful selection of heads, angle of heads and choice of back packs.

You also get a bag of metal figures.

These turn out to be the unit officer on foot, another figure which might be another officer (I need to inspect it more closely), a pair of standard bearers (different poses), a drummer and a sapper.

These figures are also headless, a variety are included (you could also use spare heads from the plastic sprues), a pair of steel flagpoles and a pair of finials. So a bit of drilling and modelling skills are required and some superglue.

Here's a reminder of how the freebie sprue turned out.

I'm reconsidering how I painted these figures. I may have to touch up the white straps and lace depending on how the rest of the unit turns out. When I paint them I may leave out the 'white' parts, varnish and ink the figures then add the white parts and varnish them again.

Given the current state of my painting queue (20 bases of 10mm Napoleonics waiting on varnish and flock, a unit of Perry French Infantry half painted, a unit of Perry Dragoons (mounted and foot) glued up and waiting for paint, two 'mystery' gunboats and a partridge in a pear tree) it may be January before I can start.

Can you guys wait a bit?

Painting Warlord Games Napoleonic Infantry

I got a couple of freebies at Crisis, well, my chum got one and I got one but both ended up in my grubby little mitts.

They were sample sprues from Warlord Games, one Napoleonic British infantry and the other Hanoverian infantry.

 

The sprues each comprise of five bodies (marching pose, one is an 'elite' ranker), five regular heads, one bandaged with cap and one bareheaded head, five backpacks (with subtle variations) and an additional pair of 'elite' wings.

There was no flash and only a few mould lines which scraped off easily.

It took but a minute or two to snip the pieces out and glue them together. I did take the precaution of washing the complete sprue in some warm soapy water first.

A close-up of the figure shows that there is a lot of detail on the figure but I am depending on the painting technique to bring it out.

I took my cue from an article on the Warlord Games website.

http://www.warlordgames.com/painting-napoleonic-british-step-by-step/

I made one or two slight changes to fit my own style namely to not use a spray undercoat/basecoat. I'm not a great fan of spray painting although it does have its place.

I started with red all over the jacket area.

Then dark-ish grey over the trousers, being neat along the junction of the jacket and then flesh all over the head and hands.

Then it was simply a case of block painting in the finer details, collars, cuffs, straps, backpack, musket etc. The most difficult part is probably the lace and the straps. I'm 64 and I can manage so I dare say most of you will manage too.

The end result looks a little like this although I did touch up one or two overpainted areas.

I diverged again from the Warlord treatment in that I drybrushed the black shako cover with dark grey to bring out a little of the detail.

The final stage is a brush applied coat of Army Painter Strong Tone and looks like this.

I gave the figures a couple of coats of matt varnish.

I was a wee bit disappointed with the overall tone of the figure, a bit dark I thought.

In an attempt to resolve this I painted the second sprue, the Hanoverians, in a similar fashion with a couple of differences. After all the painting was completed I varnished the figure before applying the Strong Tone slightly watered down and also painted some of the shading rather than expect the Strong Tone to do it. I think it made the figure a little less dark.

What do you think?

The figures themselves are lovely, just enough variation in the poses to simulate a unit marching along but not in a parade ground manner. The heads can also be positioned a slight angles to further add variety.

I think I am quite inclined to buy a few boxes of these figures to make up complete units which will adorn someones army. Now when is my next show?

Mystery Ship(s)

A recent rummage through my lead pile produced a pair of ships whose origin I have forgotten.

It appears to be a river gunboat due to its low freeboard. Going by the turret style it can't be ACW and since it seems to be additionally armed with a single high angle small calibre gun late WW1 or perhaps Inter-War is the likely period.

The hull is a smidgin and a half over 6 inches long and an inch and several smidgins wide and bears no manufacturers mark or code number. (155mm by 30mm)

It does not fit any of my prospective periods except perhaps RCW (on a very far away back burner). I wonder why I acquired it!

Can anyone enlighten me with additional information?

I have a second one still in its original plastic bag, stapled shut with no label or price.

1st Carabiniers

I have finally got these Carabiniers complete enough to take part in a tabletop battle.

Here's how they look.

Once I had finished the 'grey' in my previous post I painted all the other horses as 'blacks', well actually a 'leather black' which is an exceedingly dark brown and then gave them the faintest of highlight with a dark grey. The tack was painted in a true black to make it stand out from the horseflesh.

I glued them in pairs on 50mm square plasticard bases, textured them with a variety of gravel, sand and household filler. I added paint to taste, matt varnish, some tufts and self adhesive magnetic tape underneath.

While they were drying I glued the riders onto some plastic sprue. This allows them to be turned to any angle during painting.

It was a simple job to glue the riders in place after scraping off some of the paint at the points of contact. The grey plastic and the grey overalls hid any errors.

I think they look fine.

I now have to have a think about whether to add the carbines. Will I be able to find a good enough contact point for a strong glue join. That's a problem for tomorrow!

What do you guys think?

A Grey Horse

I have just started painting a unit of French Napoleonic Carabiniers by the Perry Twins.

Here is the most difficult horse, the trumpeters grey.

How does it look?

Right?

Or Left?

I hope I can paint the riders to the same standard!

15mm ACW collection

This is my recently deceased best friends 15mm ACW collection.

It is a massive collection, over 500 bases.

Here is a rough list.

168 Confederate infantry bases (3 figs) (21 x 8 base units) 

8 Confederate mounted cavalry (2 figs) (1 x 8 base unit)

20 Confederate dismounted cavalry (2 figs)

33 Confederate mounted cavalry (loose figures)

14 Confederate dismounted cavalry (2 figs) 1 x 8, 1 x 6 base units)

2 Confederate horse holders (3 figs)

8 Confederate guns and crew (4 crew)

4 Confederate 2 horse limbers

9 Confederate mounted commanders

2 Confederate staff groups (2 figs)

 

54 Union infantry bases (3 figs) (9 x 6 base units)

86 Union infantry bases (3 figs) (several 5-6 base units)

18 Union guns and crew (2-4 crew)

4 Union guns and crew (3/4 crew)

3 USA or CSA 4 horse wagons

6 USA or CSA 4 horse limbers

2 Union 2 horse limbers

4 Union 2 horse teams

12 Union mounted cavalry (2 figs)

12 Union mounted cavalry (2 figs) (2 x 6 base units)

12 Union dismounted cavalry (2 figs) (2 x 6 base units)

3 Union dismounted cavalry (2 figs)

18 Union mounted commanders

3 Union foot officers (1 fig)

 

The units and bases are made and labelled with On To Richmond in mind but will fit many other rulesets.

 

I had hoped to use them with a few of the guys in some big games in memory of my chum. I don't think that will happen now. I have decided that I will put them up for sale, hopefully through one of my usual contacts, perhaps as a complete collection, perhaps as separate brigades. I may even go as far as eBay.

 

If anyone is interested then please let me know.