Irish Brigade: Dorringtons Regiment

 

Another post about the Irish Brigade!

This time I have completed the fifth and final regiment - Dorringtons regiment. Without further ado, lets see a picture of the battalion in all its glory:

 

 Again, red coats, but with blue facings and yellow hat lace. 

This regiment was a little more time consuming than the rest as there was also yellow lace edged around the cuffs, pockets and waitscoats of the soldiers. Not a tricky thing to paint overall but it did mean they took a bit longer. Here is a look at the individual bases of the unit so you can see more detail:

The troops:

The centre company:

The left company with drummer:

The right company with the NCO and Grenadiers:

Some differences from the last regiment is you'll not the lack of reversed colours for the NCO and drummer. I am not really sure why, but it seems some regiments did and some didn't when it came to reversing colours. 

Finally, the command stand, again with the amazing flags:

At first glance, with the red coats and red cross on a white background, you could be forgiven for thinking these are English troops, but nope - definitely Irish. 

That makes the Brigade of five battalions all complete. I have laid them all out out together to photograph (which is very ticky!), and I plan on doing a post next week with some of the history of the Irish Brigade to go with the photos, so stay tuned. In the mean time they will be posted off to the new owner this coming week.

For the 2021 Hobby Bingo, it closes another box, making five in total for 50 points. I have yet to complete a line but I think I remain in second place at present. Hopefully, I will have a more prodcutive March to catch up.

Irish Brigade: O'Briens Regiment

 

Another regiment was all finished up today, this time O'Briens Regiment:

 

 

Once more, these are all from the excellent Ebor Miniatures range. The same colour scheme was as before (red jackets), but with yellow facings. 

Here are some more detailed photos of each individual base:

 These are the core troops of the regiment, consisting of 13 soldiers, three grenadiers and one each of an NCO and a drummer, both of which are easy to see due to their blue coats.

This is the base consisting entirely of troops. I think the yellow and red scheme is vey striking. 

Here we have the drummer with his escorting troops - these go on the left flank of the regiment. The drummers of this period are vey flamboyant, with reversed coats, livery and hopefully if you zoom in you can see the colonels coat of arms painted on the drum. 

The right flank is occupied by the NCO and grenadiers. The grenadiers have even bigger cuffs (if that is possible) and more pouches and a powder horn, presumable where they kept the genades. As per the drummer, the NCO has a revesed coat so he stands out. Presumably there was no such thing as a sniper in the war of Spanish Succession!

Last but not least, there is the commad stand. I love the flags that the client supplies, they really make the regiment stand out. The officers also wear much brighter red coats as well which I think really helps the base pop. 

I am already making good progress on the final regiment for the Irish Brigade (Dorringtons Regiment) and hope to be able to post that up soon. Once that is done, I'll get a post up with the whole brigade lined up.

Hobby Bingo wise, this ticks off a "10+ Model" unit, which puts me at four boxes complete and 40 points. I believe that puts me in second place amongst our little group of three.

Belated January Roundup

 

Just a quick post (albeit weeks late) to round up the first month of the year. 

So, we had the following miniatures all completed last month:

2 x Irish Brigade Regiments (42 minis in total - 28mm scale)

1 x Brigade of Scottish in Dutch Service (24 minis in 28mm scale)

1 x Unit of Roman Hastati (24 minis in 15mm Scale)

 

That's a grand total of 90 minis finished in one month - I have to say I am very, very happy with that. In terms of my target of the year of 600 minis, it gives me a great headstart and it adds up to 378 points (under the Analougue paiting system) towards my 2021 target of 2000 points. 

For the first month of the year - I'll take it!  

Hobby bingo wise, we weren't allowed any duplciation in January, but I was able to use those four units to close three boxes - a "unit of 10+ models", a "unit of 2+" models, and "any model." 30 points overall so far, which i believe puts me in the lead amongst the three of us taking part.

 

War and Empire 15mm Minis Review

 

I figured that I would get a review post up for the 15mm Romans I have painted up fairly recently. 

As I have mentioned, these are made by Forged In Battle. I believe they are mostly well known for  their WW2 figures (which I must give a whirl one day), but a few years ago they branched out with the War and Empire Range of Ancients.

The entire range has been realeased by three waves of Kickstarters, all of which have been successful. These have expanded the range from the days of the Greek hoplites, though to the Vikings, Nomans and Saxons in the last expansion. The range also includes buildings for various periods. There is pretty much everything you could need for most armies and a massive Roman Selection.

Price wise, you can buy units of 24 infantry or 12 cavalry for around £12. An army of 8 units will set you back around £90, giving you a small saving. So at a rough estimate, you are looking at around 50p fo a infantry figure and £1 for a cavalry mini. Not bad prices. 

My first criticism comes on that front though. You can't buy them individually, only in these packs and the packs are designed for their upcoming rules. Each pack has command elements in it so if you want to make bigger units you will inevitably have spares. Though it is worth mentioning it that when I contacted them about buying individual figures they did say it was possible if you ordered enough, so there is some scope for broader uses. 

Down to the figures themselves. Since I have painted most of mine, I didn't have many unpainted minis to photograph, but here's some Triarii and a horse from the Cavalry unit I am about to start:

As you can see, detail is very good, flash minimum, and overall they are really crisp, clean casts. Very nice to work with and they have suited my painting style quite nicely. The shields are moudled on to the figures, which for me is a bonus at this scale. I would have liked a little more metal on the small base, as they can be pain to mount for painting on sticks as I do, and sometimes fall ove quite a bit when I am basing them, but that's a minor  gripe. 

Clean up time was very little with these, and I was able to get them prepped in very short time. Here is a fully paintind unit:

Final thought - if you are doing a 15mm Ancients or Dark Ages project, you should certainly conisder these. Whilst the way they are sold is a pain, it's a minor gripe and they are good value for money and should be on your shopping list without a doubt. I will certainly be ordering some more very soon. 

Galmoy's Regiment Completed

 

As part of the ongoing work to get the Irish Brigade done I mangaed to finish the Galmoy Regiment back in January. 

Quick overview: The Irish Brigade I am working on is five regiments strong and represents the Brigade in French service during the War of Spanish Succession. Each regiement is 21 strong and they are based for a game system called "Beneath the Lilly Banners." The main difference is the trapazoid shaped base for the command element.

Heres some completed photos of Galmoy's regiment:

 

Like the rest of the regiment it's in red uniforms. However, these have blue facings and yellow lace along with gold buttons to mark them out from the other units, which have green, yellow or white. 

The figures for the whole Brigade are all from the excellent Ebor Miniatures range. This is the second brigade of Ebor minis I have done (I painted some Bavarians for the same client last year) and I do like the figures. I will try and do a review of them one day.

The flags, I think, are stunning. I always get asked about them but sadly they are just provided to me for fitting by the client - I don't know where he gets them from other than to say they are custom made for him. 

Just two more regiments to go which I am hoping to get done in February so stay tuned for an update.
 

Hastati Completed

 

I've unintentionlly fallen behind somewhat with my blog posts - I had intended to post more often in January, but was so busy painting and doing overtime I didn't get chance.  So a lot of the posts over the next few weeks will actually be from my January output.

Way back in 2019 I decided that I would get into Warmaster Ancients, and went for 15mm. I chose the War and Empre range from Forged in Battle and ordered the republican army start set, as my friend ordered the Carthagians. We had big plans (as always) but they fell by the way side. 

Fast forward to January and I've finally painted nealy all of them. The most recent is a unit of Hastati (I hope I spelt that right!).

During the Republican period, there were three types of legionnaires. At the rear were the veterans, the Triariri. In front of them were the more experienced soldiers, the Principes and at the very front (excluding the skirkmishers) were the Hastati. These were the new boys. 

Here is my unit of those young bucks:

These were painted in the old base coat, wash, highlight method. I have gone to the trouble of adding shield transfers from Little Big Man Studios. Fiddly to do in this scale, but I think they finish the unit off. 

The unit itself is 24 strong, and mounted on 40mm by 40mm bases. Whilst based for warmaster, they could easily do double duty for Hail Caeser. 

I now have just one unit of the starter army box set, the cavalry, to do. They are not too far down the queue. Currently, this is the state of the army:

It's turning into a tidy little force and consists of two units of Velites (the skirmishers) a unit each of the three types of legionnaires and a general. I would need to roughly double the size of the army for a reasonable game of Warmaster, so that will have to be the plan. 

The next stage is to find some opponents for them. Warmaster allows armies from different time periods to face off, so I just need to find another amy to collect.