THE Williamite

I modeled King William III depicted in the fighting around Donore graveyard in the closing hours of the Battle of the Boyne. This fantastic Warfare Miniature presents a stark contrast to that of King James II and represents the different manner of leadership they employed. King William III is accompanied by a trooper from Wolseley's Enniskillen regiment.

The base was constructed from a piece of pink insulation foam, sculpted with a hobby knife to resemble stone and textured in the same manner as my bases. I attached the models with a hot glue gun because superglue melts the foam. The fences are bits of off-cuts left over from basing one of my Danish Horse regiments last week.

More Glorious Revolution models coming up - Dutch Grenadiers, two squadrons of Schomberg's Horse, and Duke Schomberg himself!

Sehested's Regiment

Here is the last of three regiments of my Danish Horse Brigade...

I thought it was worth showing the back of this regiment for the bases. These are the some new Warfare Miniatures Cuirassier models (as are all of my Danish horse). These were painted  in a two to four layer method with the new range of Games Workshop paints over a black undercoat.

Coats: Mechanicus Standard Grey (Base) - Dawnstone (Layer) - Administratum Grey (Layer)
Cuffs: Macragge Blue (Base) - Altdorf Blue (Layer) - Calgar Blue (Layer)
Vests, Trousers, Gloves, and Carbine Straps: Steel Legion Drab (Base) - Tallarn Sand (Layer)
Neck Cloth, Hat Lace, and Saddle Trim: Administratum Grey (Layer) - Ulthuan Grey (Layer)
Officer's Coats and Saddle Cloths: Mephiston (Base) - Evil Sunz (Layer) - Wild Rider (Layer)
Flesh: Bugman's Glow (Base) - Reikland Flesh (Wash) - Cadian Fleshtone (Layer) - Kislev Flesh (Layer)
Brown Horses: Rhinox Hide (Base) - Agrax Earthshade (Wash) - Doombull Brown (Layer) - Wargames Foundry Spearshaft A (one of the horses is darker and lacks the final highlight)
Black Horse: Eshin Grey (Layer) over the undercoat - Nuln Oil (Wash) - Eshin Grey (Layer)

Whew! These are the best Warfare sculpts yet and I really enjoyed painting them. I managed to paint all three units in two weeks. More troops for my Williamite army next week - Dutch Grenadiers!

von Donop's Regiment

Here is the second of three regiments of my Danish Horse Brigade...

These are the some new Warfare Miniatures Cuirassier models (as are all of my Danish horse). These were painted  in a two to four layer method with the new range of Games Workshop paints over a black undercoat.

Coats: Mechanicus Standard Grey (Base) - Dawnstone (Layer) - Administratum Grey (Layer)
Vests, Trousers, Gloves, and Carbine Straps: Steel Legion Drab (Base) - Tallarn Sand (Layer)
Neck Cloth, Hat Lace, and Saddle Trim: Administratum Grey (Layer) - Ulthuan Grey (Layer)
Cuffs and Saddle Cloths: Mephiston (Base) - Evil Sunz (Layer) - Wild Rider (Layer)
Flesh: Bugman's Glow (Base) - Reikland Flesh (Wash) - Cadian Fleshtone (Layer) - Kislev Flesh (Layer)
Brown Horses: Rhinox Hide (Base) - Agrax Earthshade (Wash) - Doombull Brown (Layer) - Wargames Foundry Spearshaft A
Black Horse: Eshin Grey (Layer) over the undercoat

The last regiment will be posted tomorrow...

Juel's Regiment

Here is the first of three regiments of my Danish Horse Brigade...

These are the some new Warfare Miniatures Cuirassier models (as are all of my Danish horse). These were painted  in a two to four layer method with the new range of Games Workshop paints over a black undercoat.

Coats and Cuffs: Mechanicus Standard Grey (Base) - Dawnstone (Layer) - Administratum Grey (Layer)
Vests, Trousers, Gloves, and Carbine Straps: Steel Legion Drab (Base) - Tallarn Sand (Layer)
Neck Cloth, Hat Lace, and Saddle Trim: Administratum Grey (Layer) - Ulthuan Grey (Layer)
Saddle Cloths: Mephiston (Base) - Evil Sunz (Layer) - Wild Rider (Layer)
Flesh: Bugman's Glow (Base) - Reikland Flesh (Wash) - Cadian Fleshtone (Layer) - Kislev Flesh (Layer)
Brown Horse: Rhinox Hide (Base) - Agrax Earthshade (Wash) - Doombull Brown (Layer) - Wargames Foundry Spearshaft A (the officer's horse is darker and lacks the final highlight)
Grey Horse: Mechanicus Standard Grey (Base) - Dawnstone (Layer) - Administratum Grey (Layer) - Althuan Grey (Layer)

The next two regiments will be posted over the next few days...

Fighting Talk Forum

The forum is back up...

Games Workshop

I don't know what kind of local readership my blog gets, but I am happy to pass on the information that Virginia Beach, VA will soon be home to an official Games Workshop store...

First to the Fight!
As part of Games Workshop's expansion across the country, squads of Space Marines are descending on new locations! Stop by on opening Saturday at noon and be the FIRST TO THE FIGHT with activities, contests, and a free stuff (like the patch, buttons and poster shown) while supplies last!

Conversion Competition - We'll provide the bitz, you bring the tools, excitement, and creative genius!

Space Marine Painting Competition - Grab a Space Marine and paint your heart out! Be sure to bring your paint and brushes for this fun painting contest!

Scenario Challenge Competition - Bring your favorite 40K or Warhammer Fantasy army and/or the Lord of the Rings forces and face your opponents in quick, fun scenarios. Participants can play up to three games each if time allows.

The store's first day opens at noon. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners for all "First to the Fight" competitions will be announced at the end of the day.

JANUARY 26th
Hilltop East Shopping Center
1564 Laskin Rd. Unit 172
Virginia Beach, VA 23451

Fighting Talk Forum

Quick heads up... The Fighting Talk Forum is down. Our webmaster is climbing mountains in Tibet (!). I might be able to clear up the problem, but although we obviously has admin rights to the forum content, we don't have access to the software platform to allow us remedy a technical glitch. The rest of the League of Augsburg (including the store) is still working just fine. Thanks to everyone who has contacted us through e-mail about the forum and please understand that we may not able to reply to everyone...

We'll have things fixed ASAP...

Danish Horse in Ireland 1690

There were three regiments of Danish horse in William III's army in Ireland. However, these regiments were only about half the size of the Dutch and English in the same theater. For the purposes of my collection and Beneath the Lily Banners I will be fielding each as a single six-model unit.

The regiments were raised from existing Danish units and provided new uniforms. Dan Schorr provided me with the following information regarding these:

Juel's Regiment - Schomberg in a letter to William III in March 1690 noted that “the horse I see are white lined white and buff waistcoats.” The white color was probably the light grey referred to as steel grey. The first unit to arrive was Juel's Regiment in March 1690. The other two were delayed. Therefore, it is safe to say that Juel's Regiment wore grey faced grey.

Sehested's Regiment - A camp roster for the Allied Camp in July 1696 shows the coat and facing colour of units. The Danish cavalry regiment von See (earlier Sehested's) shows the unit with white faced blue. Again, the white color is most probably a steel grey.

Donop's Regiment - The most questionable coat and facing color is that related to Donop's Regiment, but based on the color of the standards issued (available from the LoA store), it is probably grey faced red.

It is likely that the regiments were equipped with breast plates and this gives me the chance to use the new Warfare Miniatures Cuirassiers, of which coincidentally I just received three squadrons!  The Danish horse would also be classed as 'Bullet Horse' in BLB, meaning they are trained to advance at a slow trot almost to contact at which point they would discharge pistols before closing with swords, so I will be modeling them with pistols rather than swords.

I will be posting WIP pics as I finish each stand and my goal is to paint all three squadrons by the end of the month. I am going to try and exclusively use my Citadel paints for the project. I still love my Foundry paints, but may have grown a little complacent with color combinations. My palette seems to include the same jars with one or two exceptions for each unit. In addition to posting pics, I'll list the paint combos I use and any problems I run into. Juel's Regiment is up first...

Nassau-Saarbrucken-Ottweiler

Here is both the last unit painted in 2012 and the first unit posted in 2013 (didn't have a chance to finish the bases until yesterday)!

This will complete my Dutch brigade minus a unit of twelve Dutch Grenadiers (which I will be painting this month). The details of their uniform are rather sketchy. One account lists them as pale grey coats with blue turn backs while another lists them with red turn backs. It was Dutch practice to replace uniforms every two years, at the colonel's expense. Availability of cloth was more of a concern than maintaining tradition at this time, so it may be that both uniform accounts are correct! In any case, I chose red and made the coats a darker grey to make them stand out from the Brandenburg regiment with whom they will march. As mentioned on this blog before, a quick flag change and this unit could be any of a dozen other Dutch or Irish units...

The officer is again a simple conversion. He comes from the WLOA20 staff officer group and was originally handing a glass to a mounted officer. I just removed the left hand and sculpted my own. The tree and fence are from the Games Workshop Walls and Fence sprue.

Next up will be a King Billy vignette to lead my Williamite army and the grenadiers I mentioned above. Still to do - three battalions of Huguenots, two squadrons of Schomberg's Horse, and two squadrons of Danish Horse. Add some brigadiers and artillery and ONE side of this collection will be finished (at least until I get some units painted for the other side)!

Quindia Studios 2013

Whew! Welcome to 2013. One of the neat things about keeping a blog is looking back at what you accomplished (and bothered to document) last year in the hobby. I took a look at last year's New Year post and had a laugh about what I thought I was going to do. The best laid plans...

However, I did manage to stick to some of my resolutions, one of which was tackle some of the lead and plastic I had around the house which garnered me two new 2000+ point armies for Warhammer 40k. I purchased very little of what I used to build these. I also learned that painting two armies in alternating blocks of 500 points is a fast and fun way to add to a collection and avoids being burnt out carrying the same palette around for months.

The second goal was to get stuck in on my Grand Alliance armies, which I managed fairly well, though I didn't finish as many units as I planned, but eight battalions of foot and two squadrons of horse is enough for one side for a small game of Beneath the Lily Banners.

2012 also saw the launch of my flag sheet empire to support the Warfare Miniatures line. I managed to cover most of the units involved in the Irish theater 1689-92 of the Glorious Revolution. This endeavor has been met with fair success and 2013 will see expansion of this period into other theaters and other periods as well, starting with the AWI.

So now, what else do I look forward to in 2013?

1. More Warfare units for the Glorious Revolution! I still need to paint three battalions of Huguenots and two squadrons of Danish horse to finish my initial goal for William III's army, then I will start on the Jacobites. My goal for the army of King James II is six battalions of foot, six squadrons of horse, and four squadrons of dragoons (modeled mounted and on foot). As I mentioned I will also be adding to the flags available for this period.

2. My debut as a wargames author with Wordtwister! 2013 will see the release of a horse and musket skirmish game that I have used for games in my home for a decade. The initial release will focus on the period that runs parallel to Beneath the Lily Banners, but the rules can be adapted for anything from ancients to any pre-mechanized period. I have used them for Ireland 1690, Spain 1810, and Africa 1890. There will be other efforts for Wordtwister as well which should include a BLB scenario book for Ireland...

3. Historicon 2013! Barry and I will again put on a BLB game at Historicon. Details are still sketchy but I will be building a new table specifically for the game and painting lots of Warfare Miniatures for the effort. I will of course document everything on the web!

4. I love Warhammer 40k so I don't doubt there will be expansions to collections (or more new ones). Maybe this will be the next 'A Tale of One Gamer' series.

Ok, there is no telling what else I will get into this year, but I'm looking forward to it. Hell, I might even make time to actually play some games (no, seriously). Thanks to everyone who keeps checking in and I hope everyone has a great 2013!