Just Horsing Around

Well another week has gone by and I continue to paint and do wargaming stuff for no apparent reason. I can see no potential gaming in my immediate future and I wonder why I keep at it. Not to worry, though... I have to do something to reduce the masses of figures in my possession that are waiting for their share of colourful, acrylic covering.

Over the past week and a bit I've managed to paint up a brigade of 10mm English Horse. This is Palme's Brigade at Blenheim. I must admit that I stole one of the squadrons from another brigade to make up numbers - The regiment with the green flag - The Earl of Plymouth's (4the Horse Regt) which was split up between brigades at the battle. But here they are, reunited in all their 10mm glory! The others are Queen Dowagers Regt (9th Horse) with the blue flag and Lord Cavendish's Regiment (8th Horse) with the yellow flag.

They are a very pretty little brigade and they were very easy to paint. I did the horses using contrast paints, except for the greys, and they came out quite nice. I under coated the figures in black then gave them a good dry brushing with a ghost grey (very pale grey). Then I applied the Contrast Paint - several different shades of brown and a few black. Very fast and effective.

I'm pretty happy with the results and next on the list is a Hesse-Homberg horse brigade which will give the English/Allied army 12 squadrons. (actually, I'm still debating whether to do a Hesse-Kassell brigade: Auroch's Brigade).

Another thing I finished that has been sitting on my paint desk for a while is a train of baggage mules/ponies/horses/donkeys. I was given these a couple of years back by my friend Darryl but I never knew how to tackle them. They were mounted on bases and just sat there for months.

As I was painting the 10mm Horse I decided I'd use these as a test to see if I could use the contrast paints for what they're intended. So that's what I did. Other than the harness and a few other little details these figures are 95% done with contrast paints. I think they came out well and they took very little time to complete once I decided on a painting method. They're not super detailed but they look nice and they can be used in any number of eras. Thank you Darryl.

And that's it for now. I want to do more 10 mm but I might spend this week tackling some of the other half-painted things that have been sitting, patiently on my desk for the past months or years before I get stuck in again. Then again... I may not.

Cheers,

IanKH