American Civil War: Confederates (17)

I've been wanting to add a three-gun battery to the American Civil War Confederate collection so that I can field a starting force for Longstreet.  I had completed a Union battery last month and bought another Perry American Civil War Artillery from Arcane Scenery set in preparation.

As I had signed up to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, this was definitely on the list of things to get done, you're not allowed to paint before the 21st December but you can assemble and prime, so this has been ready to start on for a couple of weeks now.

Starting at 0500 on Friday, I used my standard base-coat, wash, highlights method and the bases were completed on Saturday evening ready for dull-coat and photographs on Sunday morning. The majority of the Confederate uniform being Vallejo Basalt Grey, the gun carriages are off a basecoat of Beige Brown.

The battery comprises two 12lb Napoleon cannon and a Howitzer and shall be joining my ever-growing ACW collection. 

This gets me out of the starting blocks for the challenge.

You can find the Painting Challenge post here.

Peasant Cart

My lovely wife has continued to surprise me with the gift of mdf over the festive period, this week a 'Peasant Cart 1' from Warbases.

Fortunately I already had a draft horse in the bits box, I added a load of logs made from 1/4" dowel secured in place with rope fashioned from bakers twine stiffened with PVA glue. The whole thing was primed with grey car primer then painted and based over the weekend ready to be entered into the Painting challenge.

I've amassed quite a baggage train over the past year!

The entry on the Painting Challenge is here.

Ammunition wagon

Victoria ordered me some treats from Warbases and today I finished off the Ammunition cart that she gave me last week.

A great little MDF kit that shall no doubt see some use in our Sharp Practice games over the coming months. The draft horse is also from Warbases.

The cart is a base-coat of Vallejo Bassalt Grey highlighted up with Light Grey and the horse is mainly Vallejo Saddle Brown highlighted up with a bit of Iraqi Sand.

The mane, tail, blaze etc. are Iraqi Sand highlighted up with Ivory.

I intentionally left off any crew so that they can be used across different eras.

Only took a few minutes to get painted. I've got quite the baggage train on the go now!

9th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge

A new departure for me, I've signed up for Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge now in its 9th year.

I'm not allowed to splash any paint on my entries before the 21st December, but you can assemble, clean up and prime. So, assembled and primed already I have a battery of Perry Miniatures ACW artillery ready to be painted for my Confederates plus a Confederate limber and team, again from the Perry's. A box of un-assembled Zouaves completes the ACW task list.

I also plan to crack on some more with the Hundred Years War project and I plan to clear the deck before the 21st by completing another six French mounted Men at Arms, and cleaning up then priming the Perry French mounted command at Agincourt set that I have.

That's the short term goals sorted, I plan to pick up some more Agincourt infantry over the next week or so and there is kilos of stuff in the 'pile of shame' that I could crack on with too.

On the first day of Christmas....

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me,

Four geese a hissing.

It does not really scan, does it. But yesterday Victoria gave me a pack of geese from Warbases, and very much appreciated they are.

Lovely castings and just a few minutes to clean them up and prime them and about another half hour to get them painted up as Canada Geese defending their patch.

Hundred Years War: French(1)

This week sees the first of the French Hundred Years War contingent completed with two bases of mounted Men at Arms from the Perry Miniatures range.

 I used a mix of mounted Men- at-arms with and without the 'white armour'.

I can see already some 'bendy lance,' especially on the blue and white one, and I think that this is going to be exacerbated over time by them not fitting in a 4ltr Really-Useful box.

There are another half-dozen of these on the paint table at the moment and I also have the French mounted command at Agincourt ready to be cleaned up.

This is the first use of the cavalry custom bases that I ordered from Warbases and I rather like the effect.

I'm working away in Buffalo, N.Y. next week so shall be kept away from brushes and paints, so likely no updates for a bit.

Some close-ups of the individual Men at Arms.

Hundred Years War: English (6)

Just over a month after starting painting these two boxes of Agincourt English Infantry the final six Men at Arms were completed.

They have been a joy to paint and I've already started on some mounted French Men at Arms to have something to play against these with.

I've also managed to do the custom bases for these dozen units. These were a special order from Warbases, I wanted a 80x60 round cornered tray to hold six infantry or three cavalry, I'm rather happy with how these turned out.

I just need to figure out what rules to play them with now, I'm tempted with Warhammer Ancient Battles, Hail Caesar and To the Strongest! but all of these will require a lot more painting be done. I've tried Lion Rampant the once and was not that enamoured, maybe I need to give them another go.

Here are all 72 figures from both boxes arrayed with the Men at Arms in the centre and flanked by the archers. The stakes on the bases are also included in the 'English Army' set from the Perrys.