ACW Skirmishers

 

Just a quick post from me to squeeze in the last painting of the month.

I've been working on a slow burn 10mm American Civil War project for a while now. It's not progessing very fast, but I have just added four bases of skirmishers - a total of 16 minis:

 

 

All the figures are from Pendraken and are excellent to be fair. I have a fair few more to paint up yet. I do intend to do more in depth post on the minis and the project later down the line, so keep your eyes peeled.

I've been allowed to use these 16 to claim an "any model" slot on the hobby bingo competition, which puts me at 80 points - somewhat behind the leader Lewis. March has also been my slowest month of the year so far, with only 25 minis completed. However, I remain slightly ahead of schedule for my target of 600 minis (of all scales) for the year.

Rubicon Panther

 

Continuing the theme from the last post of "models I have had for far too long," the next complete mini is a Panther tank that I think I got way, way back in the black Friday sale of 2013! This particular tank is a Rubicon kit that I picked up along with one their

The model has a tyical stop/start history. It sat unloved for it's first six months, until one day when I had a building frenzy and constrcuted this along with a few other vehicles for Bolt Action. After that, it spent years on the shelf without any porgress until two years ago. Then, I was commissioned to paint three tiger tanks and whilst I had the airbrush out I did this and another one of my vehicles - laying down the base colour and camo. It then spent another two years on the shelf. 

However, as I try to reduce the lead mountain during 2021, my first goal is to clear the half built shelf - where this has sat during that time. It finally bullied it's way to the front of the queue, and this is the result:

I have taken a fairly basic approach. Once I had dusted it down, I added decals, weathered them in and then hit it with a thinned agrax wash. Afer that,I drybrushed it, chipped it and painted in a few details. 

Now at that point I would normally seal it with Klear floor varnish before adding oil paints for weathering and then pigments, finishing it all off with a matt varnish. However, because I want to get stuff done and I think it is at a pefectly good table top standard I decided to finish there. It has now been put in storage with my German Army in the hope that it may one day see the table top. 

Bingo wise, it is another box done so I am now at 70 points - I need to up my game a little on that front.

Bolt Action 25 Pounder

 

As part of my ongoing efforts to clear the shelf of shame (where all my half fnished projects lie), I have finally gotten around to completing some artillery for my late war British army. 

 

The story behind this model will be a familiar one to many wagamers. It was given to me as a christmas present way back in 2015 (I think) and sat on the unbuilt shelf for years. I decided to finally get it build and painted back in 2019 but only got as far as building and undercoating. However, it still languished on the shelf. It's good to finally get it done. 

Lets do some pics:

 

In Bolt Action the 25 pounder is a light artillery piece with three crew. I have mounted them all a single base for ease of storage and transport. Being an all metal model it's quite a hefty piece.

Overall, I was happy with the crew but not so much with the gun. To save time I didn't weather the gun with my usual oil paints and just gave it an Agrax wash after adding chipping. In retrospect I should have done the wash first then chipping etc as the effect was a little overwhelmed by the wash. However, when based, it is not too bad and it is, at least, done. 

This kit is so old it was back when Warlord Games provided a limber and three other crew, so they have been painted up as well:

The finished mini was not quite what I wanted it to be but I am just pleased, afte 7 years, it's done. The shelf of half done shame is starting to clear!

Hobby bingo wise, I used this to fill an Any Model slot, and it gave me another 10 points.

Irish Brigade Complete

 

As promised, here is a little post all about the now complete Irish Brigade. I shall mix a little bit of history in along with the photos.

 

The history of the Irish Brigade in French service stems from the various religious wars of the 17th centruy (I don't think people were very good at getting along back then). It all started with King James II being kicked out of England and into exile in France in 1688. This was over the English not being overly keen on a Catholic monarch, and after he had a son it seems they certainly didn't want him to stay and cement his dynasty, so off he went,  in an event known as the Glourious Revolution.

However, he still had some supporters and decided the next year he would try his luck in Ireland - it seems the parliament there were still fans. After some issues though he requested some help from his French mates, but they, quite understandably, asked for some troops in return, and just like that the Irish Brigade was formed. 

Comprising of 5000 men in five regiments, they entered French service and were amalgamated into three regiments straight away.. The Brigade was kept seperate from the "Wild Geese," another unit of Irish Men in French serice, at this early stage. They often get confused.

The Irish Brigade would go on to serve in the French army for just over 100 years and became an elite unit. Although it took on recruits of other nationalities over time, it retained a lot of it's Irish heritage such as uniforms and flags until nationalised into the French Army in the late 18th Century. 

The Irish Brigade I have painted is representative of it's service in the 1709 Battle of Malplequet as part of the War of Spanish Succession. 

 

The five regiments are all named after their colonels at this time, giving them names such as Dorrington's, Obrien's etc. The battle of Malplequet was a large and very bloody affair, vey much an Allied Pyrrich victory as they drove the French from the field. However, the Irish Brigade was reported to have driven all before it in the battle and even captured several English standards. 

I have really enjoyed painting these, when all put together I think they look immense - especially with those lovely huge flags. The War of Spanish Succession is one that is on my list in the future as it such a colourful era. Sadly, with so many other projects, I have no idea when I will get around to it. 

I am please to say this order is with a vey happy client. His next commission is four units of Swedish Life Guard for the Great Northern War including something I have never painted befoe - pike armed troops! Update for that before not too long.

Man O' War

 

Whilst I sort out the post for the Irish Brigade, I thought I would take you back to the early 90's for a short spell.  

My wargaming origin story centres firmly around Games Workshop. The short version of the long story is that a friend bought a copy of the September 1990 White Dwarf to school and it got passed around the social area and when I saw it, well, that was that. My hobby was decided there and then and my long wargaming journey began...... 

I have pretty much moved on from GW now, but I have fond memories of some classic games. I recall my mum having to step ove huge games of epic on the kitchen floor whilst making dinner for example, and much fun was had with Necromunda. 

Another game that I never did as much with as I liked due to being restrained by being 13 was Man O War. I sold my copy way back in 2007 for some reason, along with my dwarf fleet, and it's nagged at me ever since. It gradually krept back into thr front of my mind over time, and for the last year I have been casually watching it on eBay, but never quite pulling the trigger. 

Suffice to say, lock down gave me the final kick I needed and I managed to snag a little bundle off of ebay:

I have to say I was happy with the price I paid for this and it's pretty much the whole game. The core box contains a lot of rules with the two expansions adding flyers, monsters and new fleets. I decided to jump right in:

As you can see - plenty of stuff. The books are in good condition as well with little to no wear on them and no rips that I can see. It did take an age to sort through it all, and compare it to the contents list for the three boxes. I was a little nervous as initially it seemed loads were missing. However, I eventually found I was missing templates for just four ships - which I was able to get off ebay on their own for next to nothing. The only individual thing I cannot yet get is the range ruler for elf ships. However, this is essentially a 12 inch rectangle of blue cardboad so nothing a tape measure can't replace. There were also no dice, but after 30 years as a wargamer this is not an issue!

The ships were in a slightly worse state:

In the core box you originally got a dozen galleys - the idea being six were pirates and six Empire. As you can see, the standard of these is differing and three have been converted to chaos galleys by having the ram's heads replaced with skulls. No big deal, they've already had a trip to the freezer so I can remove the masts.

My initial plans are to strip the galleys and paint all twelve as Empire ships - this will give me a really good core to build a fleet around. On ebay you can buy 3D printed replacement masts (already ordered) and I've snagged some extra sails as well. Once these are done I plan on adding ships as and when they pop up at a reasonable price on eBay. My intial two fleets will be Empire and Dwarves. 

I have already really enjoyed this litte nostalgia hit and look forward to charting my fleet build up with you. As a final little reminder of the way things were - anyone remember spending ages looking through catalogue pages like this?

 

What glorious memories!