Another unit for my growing Danish army... Warfare Miniatures, of course! The mounted officer is from one of the Cuirassier Officer packs (tricorns & front plate only).
When the set arrived, it was just much fun as I thought it would be to dump everything out of the box. My wife watched bemusedly as I sorted through all the toys. After a quick glance at the rule booklet that came with the set I happened to remark, "These are designed for children, but will make for a good introduction to the period." My darling bride replied, "That sounds like my speed... maybe I could play."
...
I started building stuff that evening.
Basically there are enough models included in the box to field four units of infantry, one unit of cavalry, and two guns per side. Not world conquering armies, but enough to get started. Of course I immediately discovered I didn't have quite enough models for the way I wanted my units arranged so I promptly order a few more kits.
Given how easy these are to paint, it took far longer than I liked, but I managed to finish my initial goal for the Union infantry!
My wife is originally from New Jersey, so she'll be the Yankees (I got the squint eyes when I told her this, but she hasn't made me sleep on the sofa yet). These are flagged as Pennsylvania troops, but my first expansion will be a New Jersey brigade. I've actually designed things to be pretty generic and could re-flag these units if desired. Stands can even be rearranged to make regiments of different sizes (one of the reasons I've kept the command stands separate).
The cannons are also finished, but not yet based, so I'll take pics of those after I finish the Union general. I'm skipping the cavalry for now. The rules for cavalry in the quickstart rules don't do a great job of representing them. I'll worry about
I can't start a project without considering long term goals. Obviously my first order of business will be to paint the Confederates. After that I want to add two more infantry units to each side and break them into brigades of three. Each side will then get their cavalry, complete with dismounted elements. Limbers for the guns, brigadiers, and a couple of vignettes will round out the armies. After that? We'll see...
More on this project soon!
From the back cover:
It is time to give the Irish army which fought against Willem van Oranje between 1689 and 1691, the attention it has long been denied. For nearly three years it campaigned without proper resources and funding. Its opponents were in the main, professionals from all over Europe.
Against a backdrop of enormous political and social upheaval it continued to fight for King James II/VII whilst being constantly weakened by factionalism and cynical manipulation from Versailles.
This book is a guide to the infantry regiments which fought in the final campaign during the summer of 1691 culminating in the Battle of Aughrim and the second siege of Limerick. It provides invaluable insight into the provenance, officers and history of each formation. It is lavishly illustrated by Clarence Harrison and provides inspiration for wargamers to recreate the campaigns fought in Ireland on the tabletop.
Hardcover, 88 pages, 32 color plates and two maps.
League of Augsburg Shop (for most of the world)
Warfare Miniatures USA (for, well... the USA)
This was a huge project and we are proud of the results. You can grab a preview PDF here!
Done! It took longer than I liked, but I finally finished the small starter army for the British in my Crimean War project. I'm hoping to get these lads on the table soon to throw some dice against their Russian foes, which I finished back in January.
With the initial goal met for my Russian army, it was time to turn to some opponents and I decided to start with the valiant sons of Great Britain.
My starter army goal is similar, but not identical to the Russians:
More soon!
I've been steadily painting, but for some reason blogging is a chore right now and I can't seem to be bothered to post on a regular basis. The blog has become more of a personal hobby diary for me rather than "Look at what I'm doing!" Regardless, my starting Russian army for the Crimean War and A Gentleman's War is finished! It's remarkably satisfying to reach a set goal.
Artillery is one of the strengths of the Russian army, so I decided to field two guns for this tiny army. I plan to add limbers soon, but for now I'm happy to deploy them reversed with the crew marching ahead to depict them on the move.
I've painted these dragoons as the 1st and 2nd squadron of the same regiment (distinctions on the hat trim). Russian cavalry units tried to have the same color horses throughout the regiment and I thought black would make a nice contrast to all of the brown and tan greatcoats.
You can't have a Crimean War Russian army without Cossacks! I'm going to definitely build more of these ruffians, but I only needed one for my initial goal. According to A. V. Viskovatov, the flags of the Don Cossacks were the same as the line cavalry. They bore the inscription "For the Deeds of the Don Host to pacify Hungary and Transylvania 1849." Several regiments may have had other slogans, but I'm keeping my flags as generic as possible.
This has been a fun project so far. I have the British mustered on the painting table and I'll post my plan for them and some initial photos soon!
I've been in a bit of a painting funk this year. Although the blog often gets neglected, I've normally continued hobbying "off camera", contenting myself with quick Facebook posts on various groups. For some reason, I've painted almost nothing this year apart from a handful of models to finish my King of Buccaneers 4Play PDF (see the last post) waaaaaay back in January.Something needed to change. I bought a whole new set of paints (Two Thin Coats from Duncan Rhodes). My amazing wife suggested we turn the spare bedroom into a dedicated studio (more on that in a future post... I'm still arranging things) so I have a whole new room for my hobby. I have a pile of projects that could use attention (a handful of units to finish my Boyne collection, British for the AWI, my SYW Imagi-nations, the Sudan... sigh), but somehow I couldn't get motivated to tackle them. What I needed was something to jumpstart the painting routine that used to be part of my weekly life.
I turned to the piles of books that are scattered through nearly ever room in my house for inspiration. There HAD to be something around here to give me a kick!
The core rules are presented for the H.G. Wells era in the decades before World War I, but will work for any Horse & Musket period (and there are chapters dedicated to earlier periods). I have models for several different conflicts in this broad category and if it were just a question of playing games with the rules I could have gotten stuck in right away. Tilting at these windmills began as a quest to get me painting and for that I needed something new. Having just read Flashman at the Charge (again), the choice was an easy one. I toddled off the scour the web for 28mm scale models for the Crimean War!
There seem to be several good choices, but I'll skip the process I went through and just say I settled on Great War Miniatures. I always enjoy painting sculpts by Dave Andrews and Aly Morrison. I am planning out to start with VERY small armies... three or four units of infantry, two or three units of cavalry, and a couple of guns per side. I'm not basing the collection on any particular battle or brigade and will start with Russians and British. They will probably end up fighting over some fictional corner of the Ukraine far removed from the famous historical battlefields.
To ease back in, I picked the Russians first as the great coats would make for easy brushwork. My initial goal (and initial purchase) was:
I'm not a huge fan of the appearance of 12-model infantry units on the table, but another goal of this project is to realize completion. A Gentleman's War allows for larger units and if I manage to finish both sides, I'll explore expanding the infantry to 18 models. I am basing figures individually so I'll be able to reorganize things easily. I will also be able to use the collection with Donnybrook!
So here are my first two units...
In my head canon, these are "companies" because I just can't think of 12-model battalions, but they will be grouped into "brigades" for game purposes. I intend to paint separate command figures who will be scattered through the brigade, creating an appearance similar to my SYW units.
I DID enjoy painting these and have the next models on the desk. I'll take some proper photos on terrain once I get a few more units ready. More (fingers crossed) soon!
Being a proud gentleman of Virginia, I decided to focus on events on this side of the Pond. There were small actions all up and down the coast of colonies, but what drew more of my attention were exploits of the pirates, buccaneers, and privateers. Scattered all through the exploits of these sea dogs were small unit land actions that are perfect for Beneath the Lily Banners and Donnybrook! While they weren't painted, I had a pile of lead I'd amassed for pursuing our period into the Caribbean (after Barry's great game I'd attended in the Old Country).
The Battle of Panama featured an army of buccaneer infantry against a mixed force of Spanish uniformed troops, native auxiliaries, poor artillery (some sources say any guns were left to defend the city), two large units of cavalry (extremely rare in this theater), and herd of oxen! Any time I start a collection, I always look for these kinds of mixed forces so avoid the fatigue of painting six identical battalions. I felt like this would be an amazing looking force on the tabletop.
The King of Buccaneers 4Play PDF is 20 pages and includes two scenarios for Beneath the Lily Banners and one for Donnybrook.
The first game is a 4Play BLB assault on the breach of the San Lorenzo fort which guarded the mouth of the Chagres—the route Henry Morgan had chosen for his invasion of Panama. At the time, the fort was a crude affair of earthen walls between timber palisades. I didn't have anything like that in my collection either (sigh), so I set out to build a custom 24x24 inch tile for the game.
The second game is a standard-sized Donnybrook game on a 48x48 inch table. The encounter is fictional ambush as only a token resistance was staged as the pirates hacked their way through the jungle. It represents the Spanish intent rather than actual defense. As with the previous game, I wanted an bit of terrain I didn't have and custom built the ruined chapel for the center of the table.
