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

One Size Fits All - 10mm Napoleonic's

One Size Fits All was the second record by The Mothers of Invention that I bought some time in 1976 or '77.  How does that fact relate here? I don't know.

I started doing 10mm Wars of the Spanish Succession a couple of years back and thought I might buy some Napoleonic French to see if they are easy paint. I got them prepped them and left them to get dusty. But, now that I'm back to painting and trying to clear things out I decided to try my hand at these tiny guys.

They were certainly quicker to paint than 28mm but not as easy as the WSS / Marlburian figures. Even with a couple of hiccups and a bit of a learning curve, this battalion took about 5 days to complete. I reckon I could do another in about 4 days. They have a little bit of detail in the straps and badges etc, but not too much. I considered doing buttons on their cuffs but I didn't worry about them. The flag is over-sized but I like them that way. I made it myself using Photoshop. In fact I made a whole sheet full of them including the fanions for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th battalions.

They look pretty nice and a few brigades full of these battalions would look very nice on the tabletop. I'm going to do another battalion in a couple of week but first I want to add some more troops to my WSS English (especially some horse). I only have a single brigade at this stage and I need more before I can start gaming with them.

For the sake of comparison here they are next to their 28mm compatriots. I've also added a couple of overhead shots so that you can get an idea of the footprint of the battalion in line and column. Each base is 50mm x 25mm, 2mm MDF.

That's all for this time,

Cheers and thanks for reading.

IanKH

Rowe's Brigade ~ War of Spanish Succession

Greetings folks. Once again it has taken me a while to get back to this blog and make an entry. As mentioned in previous posts I lost my wargaming mojo and couldn't motivate myself to get into the hobby room and do any sort of wargaming related stuff. I tried several times but I just wasn't feeling the love I once had.

However, it seems that my mojo has come back this time and I'm finishing off things that got left half done on the painting table. I'll post some of the other things later some but first off all I want to post this one...

This is Rowe's Brigade. My first 10mm English brigade for the War of Spanish Succession. I actually started and competed all the infantry within a week or two near the start of the year. I was going to post them here and realised I didn't paint a commander (Brig. General Rowe). My intention was to paint him and some guns and then add them to the blog. Unfortunately that's when my funk hit home and they sat there, partly done, for months.

As it is, I painted and finished them all in one night. I got back to painting by doing some French Napoleonic's and just kept going to the painting table every night to finish them. Then I started on these guys.

My choice of Rowe's Brigade for my first English brigade is because it includes The Welch Regiment. My grandfather was in that regiment for 30 odd years, from WWI up until being evacuated from Dunkirk. That's them up above with the blue standard with the red dragon.

I don't have any real idea how to base these figures. These battalions have 7 bases with 5 figures on each. This is to give the effect of a longer, thinner line to represent the English formation for firing by platoons. By comparison, my French battalions have 5 bases each with 6 figures which give a shorter more compact impression to represent their deeper formations.

The guns have limbers which can be placed to represent the guns being limbered or they can be placed behind, and facing the guns, to represent the ammunition train when the guns are deployed. They look good too.

And that's it. All the figures are Pendraken 10mm. I have more to make and I think the next lot will be some horse. The next infantry brigade won't be English but I'm not sure what they'll be at this stage. I'll do what I generally do, which is to find a brigade that looks pretty, with flags that I like and that I can easily reproduce in 10mm. I also have to see which grenadier figures I have available so as to determine what country I can do next. That's not really a consideration when doing French but it is when doing other nations. 

I figure that one more infantry brigade, some horse and some dragoons will be enough to start doing some games. Although I'm still looking for the right set of rules. I found a set of rules in a folder on my

pc. I read them and they sounded like just what I want. Then I realised it was a set of rules I wrote myself a long time ago.

Some Guards for King Louis ~ Gardes-Françaises

I thought I was finished painting French for my War of Spanish Succession but, as I was getting some Allied battalions ready for painting I decided to complete a half finished guards battalion that I started at the start of 2023. It was actually painting these figures that stopped me painting WSS in the first place.

The reason I stopped painting earlier in 2023 is that these figures are just too detailed for 10mm. They're Van Dyck Figurines and whilst they look outstanding and have beautiful detail I find them really hard to paint. You'll often hear people say about the smaller scales: "I could never paint those they're too small!" the usual reply goes along the lines of: "But you don't paint them in detail. It's all about the mass effect." 

Unfortunately this doesn't hold true for Van Dyck Figures. They have fantastic detail for 10mm. The level of detail would be great even if they were 15mm and because of this they almost demand detailed painting. This for me is a deal breaker. My recent love of 10mm is that they are easy to paint and I can pump out big battalions and squadrons at a heft pace... But not with these figures.

The first battalion was half done and still took me about 4 days to finish whereas I've been doing 36 figure battalions in about 3 days from scratch. That's two per week (or three squadrons of horse in the same time). The second battalion took me about a week of some pretty solid painting sessions. That's what I'd spend of a 28mm battalion. That's not good!

Also, these figures don't fit with the Pedraken figures very well and that, plus the high detail is why I decided to do them a Gardes-Françaises. The uniforms aren't quite right so I just gave them a perfunctory "paint conversion," to give them a representation of the proper uniform. As it is; they're 10mm and using the 3' Rule they pass muster well enough. Just don't look too close and expect perfection.

Anyway, this was a labour of love and now they're part of my army. They do look nice and I intend to add a Gardes-Suisse battalion to complete the brigade some time in the future but for now I'm going to concentrate on an English brigade: Rowe's Brigade @ Blenheim - First regiment is Ingoldsby's Foot ~ the Welch Fusiliers, who later became the 23rd Foot. They are primed and ready to go.

One thing I realised as I was taking these photo's is that I forgot to give them a brigadier. I'll have to find a figure and rectify this situation.

A Brigade of Dragoons for The Sun King

I finished painting these chaps a few days before Christmas but I didn't do their flags until last night after a day of eating and greeting. These little fellows make up a small dragoon brigade for my War of Spanish Succession French. Once again, they are 10mm Pendraken figures and, as you can see, I've done them both mounted and on foot (with a base of horse holders).

The yellow facings are Regiment de Fontbeausard and the green is Regiment de la Vrilliere. They are both from Fontbeausard's Dragoon Brigade commanded by Comte de Dreux at Blenheim. I don't have any more mounted dragoons but I have enough left over to make another couple more dismounted regiments; so I'll do a dismounted dragoon brigade sometime time in the future.

I'm going to stop building this little army for the time being. I got a package from Pendraken last week with the troops for my Grand Alliance army (roughly equal in size but a bit more infantry if I recall correctly) but I've decided to wait on a couple of deliveries of some books on uniforms and organisation before I tackle these chaps. I'm of the opinion that I should base the Dutch and British differently: 5 figures to a base and 7 bases to a unit to represent the larger battalions in longer, less deep, 3 rank deployment. When I read a bit more I'll make a decision on that score.

In the meanwhile I intend to get some Napoleonic 28mm Prussian cavalry done or maybe I'll try my hand at 10mm French Napoleonic's. I'm also still trying to determine what to do with the little houses in the background. I think they could make great village pieces with a bit of work.

Three Brigades for le Roi du Soleil

As mentioned in previous posts I've been working on my French for the War of the Spanish Succession, or "the Marlburian Era" for those readers with a more Anglo-centric bent. These have been going a lot slower than I expected due to various reasons (including an old injury to my neck affecting my ulnar nerve not helping at all!!).

Also in a recent post, I debated the possibility of rebasing my initial bunch of units. I did a test unit and really liked the result but I then took some advice from Ken the Yarkshire Gamer (Never Re-base!!!) and decided against rebasing; even though I preferred the look of the test unit... So I re-based that single test unit to go with the rest. Then I thought: "I have more units to do and I intend to do a Gramd Alliance army too. I know what I'm like and I know I won't be happy and I'll end up rebasing them anyway at a later date. Better to do it now when I'm just starting out." 

So I rebased all the infantry (the horse and guns are fine). Sorry Ken. 

Anyway, as you can see in these pics my little French army has grown from one brigade of foot to two brigades of foot, a brigade of horse, a couple of guns and several commanders. I'm also in the process of painting up a brigade of dragoons. This is certainly enough for a small battle.

These first photo's are Tourouvre Brigade led by Chevalier Tourouvre (who'd have guessed). It consists of 1st and 2nd battalions of le Regiment de Toulouse (green & yellow flags), 1st Battalion Regiment de Loraine (blue and green flag) and the red flag is Regiment d'Isenghein which is a Walloon battalion. D'Isenghein is from another brigade but I included it to make the brigade up to 4 battalions (and because I had left over figures).

Below is a photo of the first brigade I made: Montmorency's Brigade. I've mentioned this previously but the reason I made this brigade is because the suburb next to the one where I grew up is named Montmorency. I use to live there 30 odd years back. This brigade is, of course, lead by Chevalier Montmorency.

Below is Silly's Brigade minus one regiment. The regiment s on parade are Orleans (three squadrons), Montreval (centre) and Ligonday (left). Missing is Pouanges (I have the figures and I'll paint them up when I finish the dragoons). I've based the horse differently to the infantry. The foot are on 25mm or 1" squares and the horse are on 50mm x 25mm. I'm not certain but I think they could be commanded by Mr Silly.

In my opinion these 10mm figures don't really lend themselves to close up photography as they're better suited to mass effect. At least my efforts aren't going to win any prized for miro-detail. However, I do like them. They have enough detail for a nice paint job without the need for the detail that I deem necessary for 28mm. A battalion or a horse regiment can be done in a couple-o'-three days. I've been going slower than I planned but these new additions are about three weeks work.

My cannon: Just the two for now. I don't know how guns of this era were organised. As far as I can tell there wasn't much organisation where the guns were concerned. I'm saying that one model equals 2 or 3 field guns so my little contingent is a half dozen cannon and I'll leave it at that for the time being.

And the commanders: The general at the centre and his subordinates are Pendraken - like the rest of the army- but the brigadier figures are from Van Dyke. The Pendraken command figures are lovely as are the VanDyke, the problem is, is that the VD figures scare me a bit. They are so detailed that I find them intimidating to paint. I have their French Army box and they are just too detailed. I intend to paint them as Garde Francaise and Garde Suisse because they won't fit with the Pendraken figures so I feel I need to make them as a distinct brigade.

And here's the whole little army again with the Comte d'Arco out front and ready to lead them into battle. The extra brigadier will be in command of the dragoons.

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As you can see, I made some small scale woods (I'll post how I made them at a later date). You'll also notice the buildings. These are from a collection of a dozen or so miniature buildings that my mother collected. I inherited them when she died and I've had them for a while and not known what to do with them. So I've had an idea and I intend to do something with them to incorporate them into some terrain.

I also have a Pendraken order in the post for the aforementioned Grand Alliance army. I'm looking forward to building it so I can incorporate troops from various nations. I've ordered enough figures to build an equivalent sized force and I've already started researching uniforms etc.

War of Spanish Succession ~ Maybe More Rebasing

Greetings folks. I've been keeping busy by adding a new brigade to my 10mm French for the WSS. I finished a three battalion brigade and on the last battalion I decided to base the figures differently. The figures I've done so far (7 battalions in all) are based 10 figures to a 50mm base with 3 bases to a battalion. This makes 30 figures on a 150mm frontage. 

I like the look of the 3 bases. It makes the units very easy to move around and to store. However, I'm not so keen in the way that the figures are spaced out to much. So, just to see the difference I base the most recent battalion onto 25x25mm bases with 6 figures per base. This gives me a battalion of 30 figures on 5 bases. The figures look packed together much better but the ease of the 50mm bases is gone and the battalion doesn't look as tidy.

Another thing to consider is that the frontage of the 5 bases fits better with my cavalry (squadrons on 50mm bases) and I can also deploy the battalion in a march column much better. There is also a central command base which might be handy for some rules somewhere along the way. On the subject of rules the 5 base system will work with the Honours of War, WSS supplement, which is another consideration to take into account.

So, if I want to change my basing it will be better to do it now whilst I only have 6 other battalions that need to be done. At this scale the project will only take a couple of hours so it won't be as painful as other recent re-basing projects.

As it is, I intend to finish off the cavalry brigade and add a Gardes Française brigade before moving onto an Allied army to oppose these fine chaps. So it's best that I make a decision soon. Luckily I have a multitude of 25mm squares from all the Oathmark boxes that I've bought over the past few years. 

First WSS Brigade or My New Obsession With 10mm

I've continued with painting up my 10mm War of Spanish Succession troops (Pendraken Miniatures) and I've finished my first brigade ~ Montmorency's brigade at Blenheim. I think I've mentioned it previously, but the reason I selected this brigade is because the suburb right next to where I live in Melbourne is called Montmorency. I grew up in this area (and moved back after many years serving in the Australian Army) so the name and place are very familiar to me.

I love this scale. The only issue I have is that I have to order all the figures from the UK because there are no distributors that I know of in Australia. But that's no real problem. I just have to order large and wait on the flippancy of Australia Post.

I did order a box of Van Dyck miniatures but I have issues with them. Let me expound: The VD miniatures are fantastic and incredibly detailed as you can see by the command figure below. However, I've been trying to paint an infantry battalion and I' just can't do it. The figures are so detailed at 12mm (and: No! They do not scale with Pendraken 10's) that I can't see them well enough to paint them properly. The mounted officer below was easier as a single figure but 30 infantry figures lined up on tongue depressors are beyond what my eyesight can manage these days. (I wear two separate pairs of glasses in order to see both distance and close up. My eye's ain't what they once was.)

Anyway, enough of my whinging.

I love the look of these battalions. The figures are pretty basic but on mass they look fabulous. I'm still sticking with the oversize flags and the VD officer figure sits well with them. He's a bit larger but he is the commander and he is separate so the difference isn't really noticeable.

The two new battalions are 1st Bearn and 1st Vermandois. 

1st Bearn. I'm not really keen on this marching pose for these figures. It's okay but looks a bit off to my eye. I've ordered more from Pendraken but this time I've opted for the march attack pose (below) and a mix of figures to make up some nice looking firing lines.

1st Vermandois: The same march attack pose I used on a previous battalion (1st Bourbon) but this time I didn't snip off their bayonets and they look much better for it.

So that completes my first brigade. I still have figures from my initial order (French army pack) that I can get stuck into before the next lot arrive. I prepped a couple of cannon last night and they look like they won't take too much effort so I should have them finished quick smart. After that: some horse!

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Soooo... Van Dyck miniatures... Those infantry are just beyond the limits of my eyesight - and, before you ask, I do use a head set with magnifying lenses when I paint. I am going to press on ahead with painting up some of them but I just don't think they're going to work out, which is a real shame. If they do work out okay I'll use them for the Guard Française or something.