Evilstu’s Historical Tinkering

After a bit of a hiatus from the ACW decided to do up a box of Confederates. Then sort of kept adding bits… Now have the core of 2 Sharp practice forces ready to go at least… Slightly tempted to start doing some of the more specialised units, but will see how that goes given there are a few other projects in train presently… All miniatures from Perry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeJKn3KAwJw

OK, proof of completion shots below, got across the line with a few hours to spare to complete my Thirty Years War project before the 400th anniversary of the Battle of White Mountain. have another 14 character minis painted up which just need basing and still need to add a few banners but still going to claim a moral victory. Will line everything up and take some prettier photos later this week and post…

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

OK, 2 weeks to go until the 400^th anniversary of the Battle of White Mountain – my self-imposed deadline for getting the core of a couple of Thirty Years war forces prepped. Catholic League side is fieldable as is – just need a couple more ‘big men’ to lead. Opposing them, yah… that’s still a bit of a stretch… I did manage to get my Swedish Infantry unit finished and varnished this week. Coats were Dark Prussian Blue highlighted up again and again with Prussian Blue which didn’t seem to have any effect until I eventually saw them under natural daylight at which point all looked ok… Yellow was done with Yellow Ochre, which is my default yellow (and which I highly recommend trying out if you think you hate painting with yellow…). So with the Scots and the 3 field pieces which I’m also working on (photos & guide next update as I want to document the recipe for the gun carriages for later reference…) that should provide enough of a core foot force. I have 3 blocks of cavalry which have gotten as far as assembly and undercoat which still need to be actioned, plus one more gun crew figure and big men.

So, with 14 days left on the shot clock I need to:

• Paint and base 24 cavalry
• Add flock to bases on 100 foot
• Complete three in progress field pieces
• Paint and base 8 mounted and six foot command models

Think I should be Ok to get this done as long as I don’t add anything additional to the project list to be achieved by 8 Nov (and as long as nothing goes properly sideways in real life…). Once the core forces are done can add whistles and bells and bulk things out further at a leisurely pace as the mood takes me. Which will mean I can then dip into some other projects for a bit to mix things up. At least that’s the current thinking…

Ok well actually kicking off with a box of Scots Covenanters who will be pulling double duty and standing in as Scottish mercenaries fighting for the Swedes. Recipe I’m using for ‘hodden grey’ is a base coat of Vallejo chocolate brown, first highlight 2 parts Chocolate Brown to 1 part Vallejo Sky Grey, final highlight 1 part Chocolate Brown to 2 parts Vallejo Sky Grey. If that sounds like too much hassle just coat in Army Painter castle Grey and give it a wash with AP Strong Tone Ink and I think you’d land in about the same place… Bonnets were Vallejo Game Air Magic Blue toned down with a mix of the hodden grey final coat until some of the magic was gone…

Bases done and varnish on. Core Catholic League force now completed. Will still needs some more leaser figures for Sharp Practice and maybe some more whistles and bells like artillery if I want to use this in ‘big battle’ games.

Finished the bases on the Catholic League forces tonight – whole army has had bases edged in AP Oak Brown where required, then a coat of Vallejo Brown Mud texture paste applied, then PVA and a 3 step flocking consisting of fine grass, mixed fine flock and a very fine clump foliage (There’s probably a name for this…). Also got the cavalry pennant on (which may have been called ‘cornets’ if I remember correctly, handy to have them riding right next to a musician holding an actual cornet… No possibility of confusion there…) so now just need to edge those in with paint then the whole force is ready for another coat of varnish and we’re good.

General hobby-a-thon continues. Spent first half of the morning getting distracted by potential fantasy projects for later, then got back on track and did a bit of a tidy up of the hobby area to clear my gaming table. Wanted to set down the terrain I had to see if there would be a sufficient footprint to make for interesting games. Will obviously need to cut down the mats to smaller sizes and set up more appropriately but I think this is going to be enough as is once what I have on hand is finished off.

Also started basing the Catholic League side of the project, and got the third unit for the black wash that will ruin all the layer highlights I have done so far but which I still feel compelled to apply because reasons. Anyhow…

Will progress bases tomorrow, mess about with terrain a little more and then start working on the Swedish side.

Wan’t happy with the gates on the larger orchard so pulled the vertical planks off them and set about weathering all the gates and posts. Then got to detailing the wall bases to try and make everything blend in and look a little more ‘lived in’. Presently have weights on the larger orchard trying to flatten the card it’s built on. If it doesn’t improve overnight I’ll dampen the cardboard and re-try (what could go wrong?…).

Additionally re-based 10 trees on some 3d printed bases for greater stability. Will detail those up tomorrow. Also got wooden fences primed and a bunch of civilians and animals undercoated. I’ll make a tabletop of this yet… 😉

Tonight will be watching something mindless on TV and trying to get the base colours finished on my last unit of Catholic League infantry. once that’s done, I’ll need to base the lot, which could be a full day job in and of itself.

Got my Swedes and Scots glued on to bases today – I have worked out that priming the bases in brown, minis in white and then gluing the two together means I don’t have to mess around with painting base edges. Wish I’d worked that out earlier as I’ll still have another 160 base edges which were already primed white to paint for this project… anyhow… I’ll know for next time 😉

Pushed on today with more on the terrain front. Got more 3D printed brick walls primed, and assembled and gap-filled the wooden fences. Also built (non-functioning and hopefully once I’m done with them, dilapidated looking…) gates for the orchards and got those affixed. Also started the process of detailing the walls to try and hide joins between the wall sections etc.

Finally broke out the airbrush and got some base colours down on the houses.

Some prep-work done for the anti-Hapsburg side of the Thirty Years War. All Warlord minis. Even with low-part count minis I assemble really slowly, so it’s taken a solid chunk of the last three days to grind out the below, but this will be the ‘meat and potatoes’ of the 2 armies done. I can then add some fun ‘whistles and bells’ like dragoons, storming parties or proper cuirassiers later.

The back left tray contains a box of Swedish Infantry – block of 16 pike with command and 2 sleeves of 12 musketeers. As with the Hapsburg side I’ve left the musket rests off as these won’t fit onto the 20mm square bases I’m using. I think these may have begun to be phased out mid-war in some forces anyhow as muskets were made lighter by shortening the barrels.

Back right tray has 2 units of commanded shot (you get 6 really nice single piece metal shot minis with each of the Swedish Cav boxes) and a Swedish Leather Gun plus crew.

Front left tray has a unit of Scots Covenanters who I will be using as Scots mercenaries in Swedish service. So a hodden grey paint scheme and blue caps and they can happily pull double duty as Covenanters or Swedish mercenaries as required (paint scheme luckily works for both…).

Front Right tray has a Scottish Frame Gun, Scots Saker and a couple of characters (Covenanter commander, Lord Leven and a Standard Bearer). Lord Leven fought in the Thirty Years war before returning home to fight in the English Civil wars so again will happily work in both periods. The Saker seems to be equivalent to the generic cannon, but the sculpts on the crew are just brilliant. So much personality! Really pleased with them, will take close-up pics once painted. The frame gun was my surprise of the week. Wasn’t really too taken with it initially, but as with the saker, the crew sculpts are excellent. Also, there is a mule included which has a second frame gun strapped to it’s back. So the two can be combined as a display piece, or you could have a limbered/unlimbered tabletop option, or alternatively use the mule on it’s own on a second base to turn the one blister into a cheeky 2 gun battery.

Below photo shows the cavalry from 2 boxes of Swedish cavalry. As I’m running in groups of 8 I can get 3 units out of the 2 (12 cav) boxes. Used the metal command figures and helmets for 2 groups of Swedish Cavalry – I’ll field one as light cav, and the other (the ones with the armour sculpted on) as Swedish Cuirassiers. The last 8 I used the plastic brim hats and sword arms, making sure to use the riders without cuirass and with sword hilts hidden whee possible (so I didn’t need to curt the tops off the sheathed swords to remove hilts – planning trumps my inherent laziness in this instance…) which I will use as a unit of Finnish Hakkapeliitta (Having no head for languages I’ll confess I may not got the spelling right on that one first go….), so all in all a fair bit of flexibility and variety from a couple of boxes, plus plenty of spares into the bits box.

Warlord have also just released a bunch more TYW characters so I may need to pull the trigger on another ‘bits and pieces’ order so I have some variety in command figures.

On the terrain front, my replacement hobby saw arrived today so I can get to work on some gates for the orchards (Doweling and coffee stirrers will be the medium of choice). Have also 3d printed and primed a stack more walls, and bases for free standing trees, so should get some terrain sorted soon. Then planning a vineyard, some crop fields and paddocks with livestock, plus a few 3D printed houses. Will then need to smarten up my roads and lanes a little but should hopefully have a reasonably presented table once done.

…Then I’ll let myself get distracted again by other projects…

Still pushing on with my Thirty Years war stuff. 2 battalia of cavalry done and working on the 3rd unit of infantry to round out my battalia of foot. Then a couple more commanders and I’ll have an, admittedly small, Pike & Shotte sized army ready. As I’m planning on using this for Sharp Practice though it’ll give me plenty of options. Banners and bases yet to go but the below image shows progress to date.

Also working on some large, generic ‘drop in’ scenic elements for the gaming table to make it quicker to set up (and to give myself an opportunity to play with some small dioramas…).

Busy with work the last couple of months but as November this year is the 400th anniversary of the Battle of White Mountain, I have gotten it in my head to get some 30 years war stuff painted up by then. The good news is that I am going to get lots of practice on painting horses 🙂

Got my first unit of infantry painted up but I’m not really that taken with the colouring – it looks a little too ‘bright’ so I might see if I can tone it sown a little with a drybrush or similar.

Also, worked out that rather than running cavalry units in blocks of 12 I can get away with units of 8 – will mean I get more units for the same amount of money & time spent painting, they will be easier to maneuver on a tabletop, and the size will be more comparable with he size of the infantry blocks (well, in theory… Infantry blocks could be anywhere between 250 and and a couple of thousand men so scale is going to be a little fuzzy…).

A little more progress on the Ecossais. This hasn’t been as fast as smashing through the generic fantasy armies but I’m quite liking getting back to layer painting.

Trousers and gaiters were done using the Vallejo Black & White paint set box, and deviating slightly from the suggested approach. Base coat VMC70.986 Deck Tan, shade VMC70.821 German Cam Beige WW2, First highlight a 1:1 mix of VMC70.986 Deck Tan and VMC70.918 Ivory, final highlight straight VMC70.918 Ivory. Final look still feels a little beige rather than white but given how bright the rest of the minis are might leave as it presently sits, will see what the result is when the minis are more finished and see if I should dabble further then.

Pack and pack strap was base coated in VMC 70.923 Japanese Uniform WW2, highlighted with a 1:1 mix of VMC 70.923 Japanese Uniform WW2 & VMC70.986 Deck Tan. Shoes and boots were base coated in VMC Panzer Series 70.822 German Camo Black Brown, highlighted up with increasing quantities of the Japanese Uniform/Deck Tan mix, as that was on my palette and I’m lazy…

Also been looking into the Thirty Years War a bit of late. I have been stashing minis away in Black Friday sales etc over the years so decided to get the ball rolling on something 17th century. After all, the 400th anniversary of the Battle of White Mountain is on in November this year. Of course if I miss that I still have a bit of time before the 400th anniversary of Lutzen (no, not that one, the other one…).

Starting point was the ‘Battalia Starter Army’ box from Warlord Games. This box contains six of their standard infantry sprue, each of which allows you to build 8 matchlock armed miniatures and 4 pikemen. Limiting factor is arms and weapons – there is a 5th pike torso on each sprue but no arms to go with. Not to worry these will come in handy. Also included are two ‘command’ sprues, which have 3 torsos and a variety of arm options for captains, Sergeants, musicians (in both drummer and fife flavours) and standards. So using the 5th torso off one of the infantry sprues, the command sprue and the dozen guys on each standard sprue yields a block of 16 pike with 2 sleeves of 12 matchlocks. I’m, basing individually which means I may not have enough real estate to make use of the musket rests (only 2 per sprue but I have some extras stashed) but will see how we go.

Box contents will let you do two of the above, plus 2 blocks of 12 cavalry. The cavalry come with helmet or hat options, a trumpet and standard on each sprue, and a variety of swords and pistols at rest or on the charge. 3 rider sprues and 3 horse sprues per unit (ie six of each of the 2 types of identical sprue in the Battalia box) provides for enough differentiation to prevent the 24 cavalry resulting from assembly from looking the same.

Box also included 2 really nice sheets of ECW flags (I can swap standard models later and get double-mileage out of the units…), plastic multi-bases and 10 Firelock infantry sprues. These sprues contain 1 torso and 2 firelock arm pairings. So using the extra guys from the infantry sprues (and some spares from other projects) I can add some more firelock armed troopers and get them up to a reasonable sized unit.

Finally, to add a third unit and round out the Battalia I assembled a box of Imperial Harquebusiers, again Warlord. Same plastic horses as in the Bttalia Box, but with metal riders. Mostly single piece, just a few metal arms to add, mainly for the standard and trumpeter.

So just need to add in a commander and the first Battlia is ready to march on to the paint bench…

Slow progress due to it being a busy time at work but still chipping away on my 1745 Jacobite Rebellion project. First block is a unit of 20 Royal Ecossais from Flags of War. really enjoying downshifting from speed-painting to something needing a bit more love and attention. And it doesn’t hurt that the minis are amazing either 😉

Primed in white, GW Gullieman Flesh contrast used to block out the skin tones for now (I’ll revisit later on). Blue was Vallejo Game Air 72.722 Ultramarine followed by a wash of Vallejo Game Ink 72.088 Blue. Red was Vallejo Game Colour 72.010 Bloody Red followed by a wash of Vallejo Game Ink 72.086 Red.

Next up will be the white areas.

Have my first lot of ACW Union troops ready to go. Minis mostly from the ACW starter box, with some of the ‘Union troops in sack coats skirmishing’ kit mixed in. Tried a few different techniques on this one, with mixed results. It’s all a learning progress regardless so I’m happy enough with them. Core force for Sharp Practice which I can add to later when I get around to it.

Recipe was (over a white primer) VMC Andrea Blue on the trousers, VMC Prussian Blue for hats and coats, Black on ammo pouches, boots, equipment etc, VMC Cavalry Brown on the drums, VMC Pastel Blue on the canteens, VMC Deck tan on the canteen strap, VGA Mahogany on the rifle barrels, VGA Sand Ivory highlighted with VMC Deck tan on the blanket rolls, VMC Brass and VMC Oily Steel on their respective metal bits. Flesh was GW Contrast Guilleman Flesh. Black ink wash followed by a top down drybrush with VMC Deck Tan. Simple flock mix on the base with grass/flower tufts for the command minis to call them out a little.

A few of boxes of Perry Miniatures and some parts swapping and it appears I’ll have enough units and characters for War of the Roses skirmishes using Sharp Practice. The WoTR supplement calls for 6 model units helpfully, as that’s how many the Perrys can cram on a sprue 🙂

Have kicked off my 1745 Jacobite Rebellion project in earnest this week by getting a start made on my Royal Ecossais from Flags of War. The minis are wonderful to work on. Started with a straight white primer, then used the GW Guilleman Flesh contrast just to block out the flesh areas (I’ll revisit those later but this is a good way of bringing out the detail for later highlights). Waistcoats, collars and cuffs in VGC 72.010 Bloody Red, which possibly sounds a bit grimdark for a historical project but was the most ‘orange’ red in my collection. Might mix in a little orange for highlights later on. Also need to pick up another pot of something for the dark blue overcoats, which I understand had a slightly purple hue. Again I could mix something but not sure how I’d go repeating later if I wanted to add to the unit, so happy to wait a few days.

Also got the wash down on the AWI militia. In retrospect these guys may have benefitted from a little more buff or cream scattered about their various items of clothing, but I’ll need to do a lot more of these so the 10 shown below will likely be mixed across several units by the time they hit tabletop.

Based and varnished my piper, results look good from a distance so happy enough to kick the project off in earnest (with a caveat that I’ll probably start with the Ecossais who don’t actually sport any tartan…).
Also started work on my first block of AWI militia. I’ve seen a few people using contrast paints for historicals and though that a militia squad might be a good place to give this approach a go. Base colours were a wide variety of contrast paints.
Rifle stocks and straps were VMC 929. Light Brown. Stocks were then covered with VGA 71.036 Mahogany. VMC 70.871 Leather Brown went on all straps and most pouches. VMC 70.921 English Uniform was used for the powder horns and canteens. VGA 71.040 Burnt Umber on the hair, VMC 70.801 Brass on the horn, AP Gun Metal on rifle barrels and a smattering of the buttons, VMC 70.918 Ivory on the stockings, shirts and toggles/cords on the hunting jackets (not a tailor, don’t know the proper terminology…). Once dry will give everyone an ink wash and then a zenithal drybrush with ivory.