Don't you hate it when...

... you've just finished painting the first 30 figures of a 36-figure unit of RSM Prussian infantry (in the marching pose), then you reach for the little plastic bin they live in only to find that you're actually now  completely out.

And you've pledged not to buy any more lead until the end of the year.

It's taken a while, but...

... I've finally started getting around to basing up my artillery.

I'm considerably under the influence of Keith Flint's proposed games rules at this point in time and as you've guessed am moving smartly away from singly-basing everything.

I've made a start on some of my French guns and limbers.

These are a couple of middle-weight guns, something like 8 pounders. Guns, teams and limbers by RSM.

This is a heavier piece. Pretty sure it's a Holger Ericsson design. The limber an team are once again by RSM, as is the driver. I think the latter is one of the best mounted figures I've ever seen, with lovely, natural posing; a real credit to the sculptor, Steve Hezzlewood.

Next up, I'll start on my Prussian Artillery.

IR #48 Erbprinz von Hessen-Cassel

More RSM Prussians

I'm going to take a week off painting RSM minis as I was given by madame and the kids a couple of packs of the re-engineered Tradition "Willie" Gardes Francaises for my birthday last Sunday. They look rather nice and will go well with the couple of the older Suren officers I painted up a few years back.

As to the Prussians, I have four units of Foot and three of Horse with another three units worth of foot on the blocks in the form of unpainted castings and another of Horse to be getting on with. After them, I'd rather like to do one more of foot and horse each. The former preferably as one of the Grenadier Battalions of IR 15. I mean, if you can't paint the Garde, then what's the point of toy soldiers then, eh? That ought to get the Prussiand up to a state where they can reliably match it against my French armies - eight battalions and seven squadrons once everything is all based up.

From Kronoskaf:

This Fusilier Regiment was created on July 28 1755 from Garrison Regiment XIII stationed at Minden, which had been raised in 1743, and from Wied Fusiliers. Furthermore, Dossow Fusiliers, Jungkenn Müntzer Fusiliers and Garrison Regiment IX contributed another 360 men. The new regiment also received the "old" uniforms of Wied Fusiliers. The regiment had no district to levy its troops and had to rely on recruitment.
In August 1755, the new fusilier regiment was transferred to Wesel where it replaced Wied Fusiliers while the latter took post at Minden. On May 31 1756, the Hereditary Prince Friedrich of Hesse-Cassel took command of the new regiment.
During the Seven Years' War, the regiment was under the command of:

• since May 31 1756: Friedrich Erbprinz von Hessen-Cassel
• from January 8 1757 to April 28 1763: Friedrich Wilhelm von Salmuth (aka Behringer)

The fruit of the past week and a halfs' painting time

Service Record
In 1756, the regiment garrisoned Wesel.
In 1757, the regiment formed part of the Prussian contingent which joined the Allied Army. On March 24, the regiment marched to Bielefeld. In mid June, it took part in a minor engagement against the French near Bielefeld. The Allied Army vainly tried to prevent the French invasion of Hanover. The regiment then retreated towards Magdeburg.
In 1758, the regiment initially served in Saxony under Prince Henry. During the Autumn, it joined Wedell in his campaign in Pomerania against the Swedes. However, the regiment was soon recalled to Saxony to defend Dresden.
In 1759, the regiment began the campaign with Prince Henri in Saxony. On May 23, it took part in an engagement against Austrian light troops at Aue. On August 6, during the Austro-Imperial invasion of Saxony, the first battalion capitulated at Leipzig but was allowed to retire freely. On August 20, part of the regiment was part of the garrison of Wittenberg who surrendered and retired to Potsdam. The second battalion took part in the defence of Dresden which surrendered on September 4. The defender were allowed to retire freely from the town and the second battalion joined Finck's Corps. Meanwhile, on September 8, the 1st battalion of the regiment took part in the Combat of Zinna where it was deployed on the left wing. It was at the recapture of Torgau.
In July 1760, the regiment took part in the unsuccessful attempt to recapture of Dresden. On August 20, it fought at the Combat of Strehla before retiring towards Torgau.
In 1761, the regiment served on the Mulde under Prince Henri.
In 1762, the regiment served in southern Saxony. On October 15, Syburg detached the regiment to get hold of the heights of Erbisdorf before Campitelli but it was surrounded and captured as soon as it debouched from the village.
N.B.: The grenadier company, which originated from the Garrison Regiment XIII, never joined the regiment and kept its former uniform until 1776. This company was converged with grenadiers from Dossow Fusiliers (2 coys) and Garrison Regiment IX (1 coy) to form the Nr. II. "Standing" Grenadier Battalion 

Done - IR Nr5

I polished off the last little steps of this project this morning - green bases and a good coating of gloss varnish.

I'm pretty satisfied with the look of the regiment so far and will now noodle away at a few grenadiers for them then finally some command in the shape of a few standards, some drummers and a colonel.

I think I spied some fusilieers in the pile, so perhaps they may be next.

Sessions Five and Six

Again a poor photo for which I apologise.

Sessions five and six saw all the black bits painted - hats, cartridge boxes and gaiters. A little toucching up was done on the white cross belts.

I like a nice cross-belt, I do.

Then some black-brown for the muskets, , then some yellow-white-red for the pom-poms, more red for the neck-stocks. metallics on (sword-hilt, cardtridge box plate and mustket battel and bayonette and we were pretty well done. I'll do the bases in green tonight and then gloss the living daylights out of them before sitting back and waiting for my next batch of Renedra 45*40mm placcy bases. Lovely.

The eagle-eyed among you will note that I have made a belayted start on the Regiment's grenadiers. Well done you! A day or do more and I'll have them done along with the command types ans we'll have them done by my birthday this Sunday.

A very satisfactory state of affairs.

Now, on a completely unrelated note, I was reading Charge! on the bus yesterday morning as I made my liesurely way to work and noted the following passage quoted by Young and Lawford from one Captain Nolan:

"In the retreat of our army from Burgos (in the Peninsular War) three squadrons of French chasseurs charged some squadrons of our rearguard; one of these advanced to meet them; both lines pulled up and stood fast, until one Frenchman made a cut at the man opposite him, upon which both lines instantly plunged forward and engaged; the Colonel of the chasseurs was killed, most of his officers wounded and the French were driven back with heavy loss."

It is interesting how like accounts of tribal warfare this sounds. How tentative the confrontation is to begin with.

How unlikely it is that masses of horsemen will go crashing into each other.

Third and Fourth Sessions

Forgive the flash photography.

All blue coats and white belts now painted. You might be able to spy a few with their hats and gaiters painted in the background.

On we go. More black planned for this evening.

Second Session - IR 5

At the end of the second session the hair and red coat-tails are all complete. I can still afford to be a bit imprecise at this stage as any mistakes will be covered up in later painting stages.

The red coat-tails require an fair amount of concentration due to thenumber of folds and re-entrants in the material.

In the third painting session I will paint the dark blue coats and perhaps finish up with a coat of matt varnish to protect the fairly delicate painted surfaces from any handling they may suffer. In the fourth session I'll be painting the white belt that supports the cartridge box and the white waistbelt. I will not be washing the colour on at this stage as I will be looking for good coverage at this stage of the painting process.

Experimenting on Jacobites

 Here is the progress so far. Painting tartan is actually relatively easy, especially if you're just making it up. I've gone for fairly high-contrast designs as you can see.

The hard part. The really hard part is painting the lines on the heavily draped and folded pieces of cloth* that depend from the shoulder or are rucked up around the waist.

*Nomenclature fail.

First Painting Session

As you may surmise, I have decided to paint the unit as Infanterie-Regiment Nr 5 (Alt-Braunschweig), with straw coloured small-clothes and facings.

The first session went quite well with well thinned coats of flesh-tone and yellow-ochre going on nicely over my matt white undercoat.

I'll call the hands, faces, small-clothes and facings done.

Next time around it will be the red coat-tails and hair. Thrilling, eh?

Back to Ones Roots

I've been footling about the past couple of weeks doing anything but paint miniatures. The paintung funk is on me and I just can't bring myself to do anything much with toy soldiers.  Plastic kits are another thing and i've had a bit of fun painting an Airfix Spitfre and a couple of Emhar Whippets.

In this midst of these frolics, I noticed that I've been running this blog for about nine and a half years. The anniversary falls in August. Co-incidentally, poking around in the various plastic tubs that house my many collections of toy soldiery, I see that over that time I have actually painted quite a few large-ish units of RSM Seven Years' War figures which i have been re-basing to my newish 36-figure standard.

I appear to have enough infantry at least to do Sittangbad over twice. So, perhaps I ought to play the game.

I am tinkering with rules and am waiting on some bases from Renedra, so once those two elements are in, I think we might go forth.

While I wait, I may as well try returning to my roots and thin the RSM lead pile a bit. These are Prussians. I'm thinking of a red-faced unit with straw-coloured smallclothes.

Thinning the Lead Pile - GZG Miniatures

I bought these more or less on a whim about five years ago and they've languished on the lead-pile ever since. However, a friend and i have decided to do a game at Little Wars this May and we've decided on a disguised scenario based on the Israel-Hizbullah war of 2006, so these miniatures seemed appropriate.

 I've gone for an Imperial Stormtrooper crossed with Gundam look for these.

I treated painting all the armour like I was doing AFV models with washes, dry-brushing and chipping. A dozen down, nine on the blocks and another eight to paint after that.

Then it'll be a score or so of the Denizen Mid-Tech Marines I likewise bought a small eternity ago, with lots of man-portable AT missiles..

UPDATE: Just finished painting the next few of the batch:

Each squad had it's own identifying colour.

 

A Bit of New Years' Painting

The Pikes. Looking for a basing scheme.

 Quite some time ago I bought a small pile both of the old production and the newly mastered Willie Landsknechts. I only painted a handful at the time before drifting off with the next butterfly. However since then I've been re-reading Simon Winder's "Danubia" and the bug has bitten again.

I've been rather inspired by this basing scheme.

Our Sutleress. A great comfort to the troops. Perhaps looking for the Eureka Sutlers' Wagon?

 I think I last saw Helga here on Stokes' blog. Sorry Stokes, I used you as visual reference for painting my own!

Poseurs. 1510.

Finally, a small group to show off the figures. I've been very impressed with how well sculpted and easy to paint these were. Highly recommended.

Clearing the Painting Desk

 Languishing upon my paintuing desk for almost the entirety of the year have been these half-dozen Italian vehicles.

 Trucks are by Minimi.

 Tanks are Italeri quick-builds. They've obviously had a hard life. I should do the right thing by the crews and put some sandbags on the glacis.

The L3/33 tankettes are by S-Model/Sextant.Lovely little kits and much less fiddly than the newer releases by this manufacturer.

I have one more truck waiting for me, then we're done with them for now. The top highlight is GW Bleached Bone which looks rather good over the army Painter Desert Sand which I damp-brushed up with a 50:50 mix of that and GW White. The chipping is almost the last of my long-lived pot of GW Catachan Green. The lining in is a suitable dark brown with a teeny drop of black in it.

The War to End All Bores

Hopefully.

I've been re-reading Packenham (among others) on the Boer War these past couple of weeks.

I think I have my head around the main features of the early war.

* The relative deadliness of the beaten zone - both in it's depth and in the volume of fire that could be laid down. In my mind, getting killed in a battle by missile fire is more the outcome of a lethal accident pretty much throughout history, but one that becomes more and more likely as we get closer to our own - doubtless charming - modern age.
* The difficulty that may be encountered in locating an enemy who is well concealed both by design and by the use of smokeless powder. We begin to see the emergence of the 'empty battlefield'. The relative ineffectiveness of artillery due to this issue.
*Entrenchment. Let me simply cite Magersfontein for the correct use of this expedient and Spion Kop for it's incorrect application.
*Communication was a liberating and a limiting factor I feel. Easy to disrupt and hard to maintain, the telegraph allowed improved comunication at the strategic level, but at the operational level, I believe it encouraged generals to believe they could command from the rear.
*Infantry tactics. It took more than a few disasters, and I cite again the battle of Magersfontein and the experience of the Highland Brigade who got themselves trapped 400m before the Boer lines in quarter column and were shot to pieces as they tried to deploy, before the British started to adopt open order and fire-and-movement tactics.
*Poor tactical reconaissance. Would the Highland Brigade have had it's terrible experience otherwise? Would Hart have stuck his head in the noose if he's known the trap he was walking into at Colenso? Indeed, would Long have ridden his guns into rifle range of the Boers that same fatal day? Tactical reconaissance was lacking at this time.

More as it gells. Any input would be more than welcome.

Falschirmjaeger...

...or some Valiant German paratroopers.

For my nephew, Max. Max, they're done! Well, almost. I just noticed a water bottle or two that I missed.

We have an arrangement where he builds them and I paint them.

Nice figures, and easy enough to paint although I would not like to do the assembly myself.

Resuming Normal Services

Lo, and I present for your delectation a unit of Royalist horse in the form of a bunch of one-piece ECW Colonels.

Oh how they languished on my painting desk as I writhed in the grip of my various painting demons. Battles completed and Teen Turtles out of my system (for now) I can turn my attention to the next part-painted unit that similarly pine for the touch of my synthetic bristles.

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I note in passing today the centenary of the sea-fight between HMAS Sydney and SMS Emden at the Cocos Islands. In this unequal struggle four Australian sailors were killed and another sixteen were wounded. One hundred and thirty-four German sailors were killed and sixty-nine wounded. One hundred and fifty-seven come through the action unharmed.

I'll not go into the remarkable cruise of this small German cruiser nor dwell on the inevitable end of her career. Needless to say the cruise of the Emden and the astonishing escape of her landing party are pretty well my favourite sea-story.

I'll let Mike Carleton, journalist and broadcaster finish with a small vignette from his "First Victory" where he quotes the letter of an unknown German sailor who had been badly lacerated by two pieces of shrapnel, one of which had torn a hole in his back:

"We were rowed along to the Sydney one by one, put into a crane and hoisted on board. I myself was put into the ward room, which had been transformed into a hospital. Here too were berthed the wounded of the Sydney. we were at once properly bandaged and well treated as far as circumstances would allow... Next to me lay a sailor of the Sydney. He had his right foot blown away. He bent himself toward me and gave me his hand."

The Sydney sailor was Rich Horne. The two men lay there, side by side, holding hands in silent affirmation of their humanity.

Lest we forget.

SMS Emden

With the 100th anniversary of the fight between SMS Emden and HMAS Sydney at the Cocos-Keeling Islands on the 9th of November fast approaching, I've failed to resist temptation once again and bought the 1:350 Revell twin boxing of the Emden and the Dresden, and at quite a good price, I think.

Both ships are of pretty much the same design, the main difference between the two being the number and arrangement of the screws which Revell have catered for with alternate rear-lower hull pieces.

I note with some interest a good number of after market bits for these kits includeing self-adhesive wood laminate for the decks and frets of photo-etch for the super detailers.

I'm looking forward to these.

TMNT Game... just thinking aloud

Tank Girl April O'Neill

A fairly cheap TMNT game is currently available: TMNT Clash Alley

According to Boardgame Geek:

Splinter has sent Leo, Donnie, Raph and Mikey on important missions: grab the Mutagen, find April, retrieve the AI chip... and pick up a pizza!
On the way, the Turtles team up to battle Kraang, powerful Mutants, and the insidious Shredder in a maze-like warehouse!
-Object: Be the first Turtle to complete your mission by collecting your Mission Tile and returning to your corner home space.
-Game features:
-Three ways to move! RUN through the warehouse, CLIMB onto stacks of boxes, and LEAP onto enemies!
-Multi-level board!
-Customize the terrain by stacking boxes differently every game!
-Play your Action cards strategically!
-Before beginning the game players must place all the platforms on the board, as well as the mission as villain tokens as shown on the front cover of the rule book.
Each player selects his/her Turtle and receives a mission.
Players begin the game with a mission card and two random special action cards.
Each player begins the game in their turtles designated corner of the board. In turn each player rolls dice to move, leap or climb as you navigate through enemies and obstacles in search of your objective.
Players may attack enemies on the board and can even team up to defeat enemies. Defeating enemies allows players to collect additional action cards. Once they have found their mission tile, players must play a "Go for mission" card to collect their mission tile. The first Turtle to find their mission and escape back to their corner wins!
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Sounds like a pretty good basis for a simple, self-contained game.

As it is, the game has great production values for its price. In the end its not a great game for a serious gamer, but it does have some great 3D terrain that is very portable and usable for any miniature game.

I'd probably upgrade it somewhat for my own purposes and even integrate it with my Space Hulk tiles.If that fails to float your boat, there are plenty of other game tiles out there online.

Another idea might be to make up a gridded "battle mat", set the 3D elements up on it and off you go.

You could even pack the whole thing away in a Pizza box.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

 Master Splinter. Let us simply say that this is a miniature with very little detail! Still, a quite easy figure to paint. I thought the face turned out quite well.

 Shredder and his Foot Clan ninjas. Shredder was also an easy figure to paint with some pretty fair detail on his bladed accessories in particular. The Foot Clan were challenging insofar as their limbs really cried out for some painted-in detailing, although their clothes and bug eyes were quite fun.

I found the comic book at my local library yesterday and thought the orange made for a good contrast, especially on the green of the Turtles.

Next time, April O'Neill. I'm trying hard to resist painting her up as a kind of Tank Girl analogue.

Foot Clan

Thats the first of the evil henchmen. Foot Clan Ninjas. Equally capable of doubling up as Foot-bots once the Kraang tech transfer gets going.

I must start thinking about that game-in-a-box idea.

I wonder if my Space-Hulk floor tiles might be useful.