28mm - Napoleonic French Infantry - Peninsular War- Perry Miniatures

 

Followers of this blog might be particularly pleased to see that I have gone back to historical miniatures after a couple of posts of odd fantasy and Star Wars stuff!    And what a way to go back into historicals, but with Napoleonics!

This is the 69e Regiment de Ligne who were part of Foy's Division at the Battle of Salamanca.

I must admit that there is a reason why I decided to paint up a regiment of French Infantry for the Salamanca battle.  On Jan 1st this year I made the decision to take a battlefields tour to Spain and Portugal.  So in September I spent a superb 8 days in excellent company on a tour run by 'The Cultural Experience'.  This has led to renewed enthusiasm for the Napoleonic period for me.

I might yet do a post saying a lot more about the whole tour and share the best photos of the 750 that I took (thank goodness for digital cameras!).  

I'm still labelling up the photos and of course going back to work and the joy of being lost in the quagmire of running a department again has meant that I have barely paused for breath since.  I will say now though that for the wargamer who is interested in history, this has been another reminder of just how important it is to see the ground to get any really useful understanding of the battles.  

Books are good, but walking the field is incomparable.

One kind of photo that I found myself taking was of the ground of the battlefields. So many in Spain have not yet really changed at all, other than in minor details. There is so much that still remains as they appeared back 200 years ago.  I took a lot of photos of the ground around my feet. The colour of the soil, flora and rocks was something that I really wanted to take images of.  It's hard to beat the confidence it gives to then apply it to the bases of figures.  The photos above were taken at Salamanca. 

The flag is produced by the outstanding GMB Designs.

The Perry's figures are from the 1807-1814 plastic boxed set.  As usual from the Perry's the figures look wonderful and assembled really well.  I love the look of them and the many options that can be used for them.  I opted for the Grenadier bearskins but without adornments.

The Voltigeurs are wonderfully animated. I decided to base them for skirmishing, though there are sufficient in the box to have some marching figures in the column too.  Painting 36 figures for a Battalion is probably enough for me!

The photo above is another from Salamanca with a view of the battlefield behind.

The Greater Arapile above.

Above is a view of the Lesser Arapile from the French positions on the Greater Arapile.  It's easy and yet oddly difficult to imagine that this was the exact place where the Portuguese infantry advanced and then were beaten back with the French following up so aggressively that they did take the Lesser Arapile, until more British infantry defeated them and repelled them again.

A few more shots of the line companies.

Following the trip to Spain and Portugal, I purchased several boxes of 'Gamers Grass' Dry Tufts which seemed to me to give a good approximation of the grass shades I could see. I mixed these in with a few others on the bases to add interest.

I'm taking a pause from painting figures at the moment. I always feel relieved after finishing a unit of Napoleonics, as I do find it exhausting, if immensely satisfying.  I'm now painting Spanish scenery from Grand Manner (I managed to get some of his last castings before the owner closed the business up).

I should mention that the tour (in case anyone wishes to do it), visits a lot more than just Salamanca.  I'll finish labelling up my photos and probably will do a more detailed post in the near future.

28mm - Ewoks!

 

After the last posting of Games Workshop spikey things for Bloodbowl, I imagine that you logged in expecting to see a normal posting of scarlet tunics and ranks of figures with levelled Brown Bess muskets...well that's what I thought I would be doing too!

I was gifted a set of unpainted Ewoks by Jane, a dear friend of mine. She saw my Star Wars Legion figures, which I am organising to play Star Wars - Chain of Command with.  I think it was for my birthday a couple of years ago that she gave me the gift of Ewoks.  They have sat unpainted for a couple of years, but I kept them in the cupboard behind my painting desk.  Ewoks might be a quick 'win' so I thought. Perfect to paint after painting something complicated.  What could be hard to paint about furry teddy bear characters? Well, nothing really, but I did found myself doing Google searches of 'Ewok faces' and such like for the last two weeks to remind myself what the furry beasties look like!

The two figures above are wonderful. One appears to be shaman like, with a sheep-like skull on his head, and the other looking wizened has the double light-sabre of the Darth Maul style, so he must be a leader or a warrior of skills.   

I use different base edge colours for Chain of Command for rapid identification. Senior leaders (Officers and SNCO's) have a red brown base edge.  JNCO's have dragoon green bases edges.  The remainder have British uniform khaki edges.

I liked the Star Wars Legion figures from when I first saw them, but I was less keen on all the cards and paraphernalia needed to play it.  I liked Chain of Command from when I first saw it, and although it is primarily a WW2 set of rules, it is very versatile for skirmish gaming.   There is a Star Wars - Chain of Command group of Facebook which is where I came across the very helpful group and their useful folders of stats etc for converting CoC to play games set in that far away galaxy a long time ago.

I must admit that I don't know who made the Ewoks. I believe they are sold on Etsy and are 3d printed.  These are the first 3d prints I have ever painted. I am very impressed by the detail. There was only a couple of minor breakages, but I hope I have adapted these so they are note noticeable.  I do like the amount of detail that can be incorporated.  There are not many lead figures where the bow strings are cast on to bows, so the detail really is top notch.

I'm sure some of these Ewoks are characters with names and distinctive dress, but alas, I was just guided by watching the movie clips and Google imaging generic Ewoks. So choices of dress and kit colours has largely been my own.

    

I'm looking forward to getting all of these chaps on the field of battle soon and pitching them against the Imperial forces.  I imagine they will be good in woodland and ambushes etc, but part of the fun is going to be sending them in Ewok waves against stormtroopers, just for the fun of it!

28mm... kind of! - Bloodbowl - Imperial Nobility

 This is something new for me!  Were you expecting this? I'm not sure I was either! 

So having been impressed by reading blogs and articles about the Games Workshop 'Bloodbowl' game, in 2022 I decided to buy it for Christmas.  I like games with great mechanics and are fun, and as this is the one game that has been in continuous production by Games Workshop, it sounded like it could be rather good!

Well, I have had several games now and actually it really is great fun. For those who don't know, it seems to combine the simpler elements of American football with Rollerball/gladiatorial combat/Ancient Mayan ball games, in that playing the man (or creature) is possibly more effective than playing the ball!

The star player Griff Oberwald with pet bird, who I shall call 'Dave' (and yes, it was a real sod getting that bird to sit there - had to use a blob of Miliput to assist in the end!)

There are two teams in the latest edition box, an Orc team and these Imperial Nobility (who are mostly human).  I understand that they are very wealthy thrill-seekers who play the game for the glory and fame rather than any particular need to make more money.  I painted these as the 'Bogenhafen Barons' team.

Ogre - Big scary fellow!

Now other than some Star Wars figures, I have never painted anything non-historical.   Painting these was way out of my comfort zone!   This team come moulded in bright red plastic and the Orcs in green which give two simple straight out of the box playable teams with no painting required - a really good thing for GW to have done.  The sports gear on these fine fellows is rather reminiscent of the Renaissance period, so I felt that starting the painting project with these would be slightly easier for me!

However, I really didn't know how to start!  This may sound odd as I do paint a wide variety of different figure types, but these, well...these are fantasy figures. I couldn't really see the figures for the spikes and quirkiness! 

To make a start I decided to watch a few simple 'How to' videos on You Tube.  I decided to follow their methods originally, as they seemed to fly through the painting. I did just 4 figures to start with, and I have to say that the videos were really useful.  By the end of a fairly short period of time, I had 4 quite nicely painted figures done.  My confidence was raised and I now had an idea of what I should be doing.

I did more familiar historical projects for a few weeks and then I thought I would paint 4 more of these Bloodbowl figures.  I deviated from the You Tube technique a bit and went back to my own methods, the use of more washes and also black lining in, which I didn't do on the first four models.    I was even happier with these 4 so I went back and black lined in the first 4 that I had done.   I do find that black lining in figures makes such a difference to giving definition and depth to my eyes anyway. It's a technique that I really like.

Number decals are already included in the box, which was a helpful nice touch.  Some of the players have areas on their cuirasses where their Germanic names can be written (if they are short enough).  As there were no decals for this I decided not to attempt to paint Gothic Script.  If I should find decals at a later date then I shall use those, though I rather like to use very long comedy names for these players on the play sheet for some reason!  

I love the ale tankard on the hip of the female figure above!  

There are 14 players on each side in the starter box plus 2 referees. This is in addition to the fold out 2-sided pitch and very attractive hard back rule sets and a host of other bits and pieces.  This makes the starter set very good value indeed! You literally can buy the set and just get playing...perfect!

All of the figures except for the star player with his eagle, and the ogre, are duplicated. So there are two of each.  I decided to make subtle differences between duplicates, hence some with black feathers and others with purple feathers. There are other minor differences painted in too. Combined with the numbered decals this should all help with identifying players during the game.

I have gone for piercing blue eyes and shades of blonde hair to assist the Germanic Nobility aura of this team.

I love the pipe being smoked by the figure below.  It gives an air of nonchalance about these players, who are not playing for money but for the glory of being there - they have bravado and showmanship oozing out of them!

I used mostly Vallejo, Miniature Paints and Foundry paints on these. I use surprisingly few GW paints anymore (mainly because I got confused when they kept changing colours a few years back) and I just prefer the other paints more. The washes are the very effective Army Painter washes.

Below we have them on the pitch!  I really am looking forward to playing these now. Painted figures are so much more fun (but will probably get a thrashing every time).  Does this mean that I have to paint the opposing Orcs now? 

As much as I really enjoyed painting these and succeeding in the real challenge of moving out of my comfort zone, I am looking forward to getting back to some 'proper history' again. I have a few options on my desk so we will see what takes my interest next...

...or shall I buy a team of Goblins....hmmmmm....!