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.

 

 

 

A Ruined Church - Refurbished

Regular readers will remember the Ruined Ruined Church.

It looked like this.

I based it on a square of thin cardboard and then glued that card onto a slightly larger thicker piece with a square cutout in the centre.

 This stops the building pirouetting on a high spot should the base warp a little.

The walls joined together poorly with big gaps here and there.

I filled the deepest parts of the gap with Milliput.

Later I filled the gap flush to the wall and then incised a stone pattern which blended with the original wall. Once it was painted you could hardly see the join.

I covered the floor with thin squares of cardboard and gave them a wash of plaster, just enough to fill the gaps bit and leave a bit of edge definition. I also added another ruined wall carved from blue insulation foam as well as some rubble heaps and dislodged masonry.

I added some partial roofing timbers made with strips of balsa wood and a few tiles from the tiling sheets marketed by Warbases.

I base painted all the major surfaces using acrylic paint. I also added a few patches of sand glued down with PVA.

I then highlighted various areas by dry-brushing here and there using a variety of colours.

I then made a tree with twisted copper wire, some cut up pot scourer and some masking tape.

I then bent the roots to fit its intended location on the church base,

I added a couple of knocked-in doors from balsa sheet.

I flocked the tree and glued it into place.

A local monk came along to investigate the refurbishment. If he's looking for a fuller restoration then he'll have to pray to a higher power than I.

Farewell Brother!

Purchases at Targe

I paid a visit today at the Targe wargames show in Kirriemuir.

Targe is a lovely small show, a 90 minute drive north of Edinburgh. I was there mainly to sell more of my recently deceased (actually a year now) friends wargaming collection to further raise a charitable donation to Combat Stress in his name.

http://kirriemuirwargames.co.uk/targe-2013/

I also made a substantial early payment to Combat Stress to the tune of £4000 which was gratefully received on their behalf by Charles Stewart Grant. Charles is another wargamer, you may have heard of him. I have some way to go with the remainder of the collection.

http://www.combatstress.org.uk/

My bonus points consisted of a few purchases.

Another single arch bridge by Warbases.

So nice I got a two arch bridge.

And went the whole hog and got a three arch bridge as well.

While I was at it I got a Hay Cart complete with hay load and carthorse.

http://war-bases.co.uk/

Keep following this blog for their construction.

I also got a spray can of matt varnish from Erik at Figures in Comfort. He tells me it is good. I don't believe him so I'll just have to test it out.

http://www.figuresincomfort.net/

I also snapped up a mint copy of this book for a fiver from Graham Robertson Books.

And finally could the chap who left these figures contact me and I'll make arrangements to return them.

Progress is being made with the Ruined Ruined Church and a freebie sprue of 28mm Napoleonics.

Watch this space.