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! 

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.