Language Warning!

REBASING. There. I've said it.

Told you I'd be using rude words and when it comes to my hobby time there's not much I find more offensive than rebasing to be honest. Still, I've had my interest in the WSS stuff reignited and looking to use The Portable Wargame (or another grid-based system hint hint Simon Miller!) that meant I needed to rebase all my existing French stuff.

A couple of hours of careful prising and I was able to remove all of the following from their original 25mm square bases and reorganise onto appropriate single base arrangements. The cavalry are in groups of two where only two squadrons are available, or in a single group of nine where three or more are present.

Having done that I was inspired to paint some more and enjoying the break from all things 28mm
I was able to knock out another four foot in the space of about the same number of hours. There is something incredibly satisfying in sitting down to paint and then walking away from the table with a unit absolutely completed including flags.

I've got some artillery and some staff prepped for painting now some more on those when complete.

Cheers,
Millsy

The Scottish Project

Ah, the heady delights of a new project! This week the last bits and pieces arrived so I can now begin work on [drumroll...] The Scottish Project! That's right, a new year and a new project. Not to say that the 55 Days at Peking project or the Warhammer Fantasy Empire project and going to be neglected, just um... "sharing my attention" with my new baby.

Like a certain play be Shakespeare I cannot speak it's name. Actually that's complete bollocks, but it was a good opening so what the hell. Anyway, my new project begins today - recreating the Battle of Auldearn in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in 10mm and using Simon Miller's forthcoming For King and Parliament rules.

The whole box and (quite literally) dice. Everything I need to get cracking

Miniatures

Fortunately for me Pendraken Miniatures have a comprehensive and quite lovely range in 10mm which fulfills all my needs to cover both sides of the conflict. I'm starting, as any loyal subject of the King would, with Montrose and his forces.

One of the benefits of 10mm is cost and I was able to source all the miniatures and most of the flags required for under A$130 including shipping. Last night I spent an enjoyable hour or so divvying everything up into units.

Orders of Battle

With Simon's help and plenty of reading I've assembled an order of battle for both sides. The units involved won't change much from here although the unit stats might get tweaked a little over time once I've seen how things play out on the table top.

The Covenanters are numerically superior but inferior in quality and short on commanders, meaning the additional units will be less effective overall and harder to manoeuvre as well.

Basing Arrangement

One of the strengths of For King and Parliament is the lack of off-table record keeping and I've stretched that to the max in how I'm basing and recording data.

Units will sit on a single 90mm x 50mm base, with miniatures occupying the front 2/3 of the base and the rear 1/3 reserved for unit name and dice holders for recording experience/hits, ammunition and dash (if cavalry). The right-hand (7mm) dice holder will contain the hits dice, green for "raw", yellow for "seasoned" and blue for "experienced". The one or two left-hand dice holders will contain the ammo and dash dice.

Basing Style

I want a really atmospheric highland feel for the bases so I'm going over-the-top on tufts and bushes. This is the look I'm going for...

Photo credit "Must See Scotland - Flowers of Scotland"
https://must-see-scotland.com/flowers-of-scotland/

Martin from Tajima1 very kindly did a custom order for me (in record time no less!) and created heather tufts in a matched purple colour using his "moss mix" tufts as a base. Combined with the same moss mix tufts I should be able to get a close approximation of the dense highland ground cover above.

And that's about where I'm at right now. Time to kick on and actually paint something!

Cheers,
Millsy

3rd Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge finale

The 3rd Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge over on Curt's wonderful blog has just finished up. Now that all my final entries have been published it means I can load them up here as well.

Overall I finished 13th on the points table out of 47. Not bad at all but that's not really what it was all about for me. I was just keen to be involved, share some great work and push myself to get some stuff completed. Here's the outstand miniatures that haven't appeared on the blog so far:

First up is 13 x Eureka Miniatures Prussians in 28mm from their Franco-Prussian War range. I’ve had these undercoated for so long I can’t put a date on when I bought them or why, which is both laughable and a sad indictment of the depths of my addiction.

Next up are three random 28mm miniatures from the lead pile which have been orphaned from their projects. I always seem to end up with a couple of these where painter’s block kicks in and they get put aside to await inspiration. The two clerics are Gripping Beast dark ages figs and the other chap is I think an Essex high medieval fig.

Following on we have some 10mm War of the Spanish Succession French cavalry. These are all Pendraken miniatures, painted up to represent the first and second cavalry lines of the Marquis du Bourg's Corps at Blenheim. All up there are 60 miniatures grouped into units of 12 and based in threes so they are riding nice and tight, boot to boot.

The first line consists of the regiments de Royal (4 squadrons), de La Ferronnaye (2 squadrons), de Levy (2 squadrons), de Prince Charles de Lorraine (2 squadrons) and de Choiseul (2 squadrons). The second line consists of the regiments d'Anlezy (2 squadrons), de Livry (2 squadrons), de Heudincourt (2 squadrons) and de Dauphin Etranger (2 squadrons). Every different unit has a flag even though most a just two squadrons. I figure they would all need rallying points and it looks great to what the hell.

Next there are a pile of 15mm Russian artillery from Flames of War - 79 crew and command plus 12 guns to be precise. These are all Battlefront miniatures. I was looking for something quick to bump me over the 1,000 point mark and I’ve managed to churn them out in roughly 12 hours for the lot. That works out to roughly one gun base plus one command base an hour. There is a bit of detail work to do like adding a map but that can wait til after the comp. I seem to have ended up with extra command but that’s fine – far better than being short which is what often happens with these guys.

 

And finally, this is my entry fee for the challenge, Ronin #7. I wanted to do some storytelling and also go a bit beyond my usual boundaries (it’s a challenge after all). I won't retype the whole longwinded enrty, just provde a link to the original blog post. There are plenty more pics over on Curt's blog along with the background, etc. I think it's some of the best work I've ever produced but you be the judge.

So that's it. I'm pretty burnt out but have had a total blast. Curt has worked his proverbials off posting close to 400 separate entries at 20 minutes each - do that math, that's an awesome committment by any standard and he deserves bucket loads of praise and thanks.

Cheers,
Millsy
 

Wars of the Spanish Succession French Infantry

This is the start of my Franco-Bavarian army for the 10mm Wars of the Spanish Succession. I’m intending to do a fair chunk of the Blenheim order of battle over time, starting with Prince d'Isenghein's Brigade in Marquis de Rosel's Corps. This formed part of the centre of the line of battle around Oberglauheim.

These are all Old Glory 10mm figures which I nabbed off eBay some time ago. Unfortunately I ran out with one battalion to paint in order to complete the brigade. Being me there will always be more orders for more tin so no real drama although it would have been nice to do the lot in one go. These come in strips of five, so I had to cut a single figure off each strip to fit in two rows of four on a 25mm square base. This gives me good sized units for Maurice at 32 figures each. When battles get really large we’ll use something simple rules-wise I think.

 

 

 

 

I painted these using the same method I use for 15mm figures and in truth there is next to nothing different in terms of effort required. Over a black undercoat I have two shades of grey for the coats and other bits, followed by another 8-10 colours depending on complexity of the uniform. I initially thought they would be quicker and was berating myself for mucking about but then another challenger on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (IanH) replied to my comment on his 6mm stuff saying the same thing – 10mm takes as much effort as 15mm for him too.

So to close a quick summary of regiments: 1st Poitou (red and blue colour), 1st Guyenne (pink and green colour) and 2 battalions of Regiment de Beauferme (red and gold colour). The second battalion doesn’t carry the white colonel’s colour I believe, hence the double up on the red and gold. Regiment d'Isenghein will be added in due course.

Next up for me is more 10mm WSS, starting with 10 squadrons on horse forming the first and second cavalry lines of Marquis du Bourg's Corps.

Cheers,
Millsy