25mm Old Glory, Napoleonic French Center Company, March-Attack in Greatcoats

Finally finished a gameable French force for the 1812 Retreat game. Here are 30 privates, two sergeants, and two lieutenants.The rest of the regiment has functionally dissolved for our purposes here.

This campaign game will really feature the exploits of  a single 1:1 scale voltigeur compangie, but I thought I 'd do the remnants (portions of the 4th compangie) of the parent regiment. The 4e is the company that would serve directly to the right of the voltigeur company when in line which is why I chose them - plus I like the purple pompoms.The command elements have been seen elsewhere here.

The nice thing about this Old Glory pack is that it separates neatly into half in shakos and half in les bonnets de police.

If one wanted to represent raw un-trained troops, these might be good ones. And they are far less mustachio'd than their shako clad counterparts.

Being 1:1 ratio, I'll try to maintain historical practices. That means that with only two lieutenants they must each command 15 men per their respective sections. To play most skirmish rules, the sergeants could peel off 7-8 miniatures each creating 4 units of  8-9 men. That's pretty depleted and perfect for this campaign.

Other notes:

1. These are the 1809 uniforms which miraculously can't be seen under the coats.
2. Erroneously, OG sculpted the great coats onto the back packs and since there's dispute about what color coats were worn by the line, I painted the alternative tan color on the packs. 
3. I know painters like the break of painting  many different colored coats on their French units, but re-provisioning occurred at a higher level than the company one. If they were re-issued clothing it was at the battalion level and above.

The sergeants. Their faces are a bit youthful but the pose is encouraging and inspires confidence right?. Too bad they are lightly wounded already too - also perfectly appropriate for this campaign.

Note the chevrons indicating rank.

Formally, there is no formation of 8-9 figures so they'll have to operate together, unless given separate orders for subdividing.

There's the anachronistic Transylvanian peasants defending the 4Ground picket fences. Buildings by Pegausus Hobbies - still haven't finished the chimneys.

Thanks for looking: questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

25mm Old Glory, Napoleonic French, 12lb Cannon

More roadside detritus/battlefield objectives - the rest of the battery is intact and will appear when the crew is completed.

Old Glory officer for scale

Yes - I bought brand new guns just to chop up and found a spare tree that escaped the bigger bases already seen here on this blog.

Perhaps there's some powder, matches or burnable wood?

Some bits from Black Hussar/Westfalia Miniatures who do a lovely set of artillery equipment (last entry at the bottom): http://www.triangleminiatures.com/BHM.htm

Thanks for looking: questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

25mm Old Glory - Transylvanian Peasant Infantry

I bought these looking for some variety to accompany the Perry partisans for the 1812 Russian Retreat game, but in the end I decided to only allocate 10 of the 30 figure pack for this. Like the other Eastern Renaissance Cossacks they are probably not quite right, but they are in furs and look Slavic enough in attire even though it is quite medieval. Of course Russian serfs  lived a life indistinguishable with medieval peasantry up until the 20th century so it's not too far off. The others will be NPCs or henchmen for whatever Gothic Horror stuff I get up to later.

The guy second from right is decidedly looking downward. Sculptor's notes might be handy here.

Some harsh lighting! Notice the number of white haired guys to represent men "unfit" for conscription which I'm guessing was a low bar. The page boy haircut on the others I made blonde suggesting fair youths perhaps not yet ready for service.  The leader (center in the red cape) is the only one with brown hair. I plan on having white hair on as many as possible if the sculpt is right.

I've mentioned elsewhere that Vallejo Flat Red has a gold tinge to it somehow. No orange was used at all in the painting of the cape so not sure how that gets in there.

These will give any Frantsuzskiy foraging party a hard time, especially if they are caught.

My two favorites of the bunch!

Thanks for looking: questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

Sparrow Innovations Rounded Huts and Pagoda

I found these at Michael's last year - these will serve as the "Before" shots and is basically how they come, which is not too shabby. Working on the "After" shots now ...

Stay tuned ...

1/72 Scale Pegasus Hobbies Russian Buildings & 28mm 4Ground Weathered Wood Picket Fences

I still have the chimneys to do, but couldn't resist setting up a scene. Visible are the two farms houses (R fore and back), the 2-story log house (center), and two log houses (L). I'm not going to snow cap these so they are otherwise completed.

The logs and fences were first primed a very dark brown (Rust-Oleoum Camouflage brown), followed by a slopped on coat of Americana - Mississippi Mud, a heavy dry brush of  Folk Art - Mushroom, finished with a light coat of Folk Art - Barn Wood.

Thatch: same dark brown undercoat, "Citadel" Graveyard Earth (I had this made into a quart at Home Depot), followed by a drybrush of a Graveyard Earth and Khaki blend (50:50), finished with straight Khaki.

Old Glory Renaissance Cossacks in the yard, Converted Foundry Cossack gun and crew to the left and Eureka looters in the back.

I still have the Old Glory Steppes Farmstead as well as the Hovels Russian stuff too and I should have enough for three small settlements on the table or one good sized town.

Thanks for looking: questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

28mm Goblin Factory, Heavy Armored Goblins

I had done up the command for these back in 2011 and luckily taken good notes on the colors and mixing recipes I had used, so I was able to finish the warband so that they fit in seamlessly.

A few years before, I was lucky enough to have befriended Don, the proprietor, at some HMGS con and was able to get basically "one of each" rather than any specific pack and thus I have exactly 39 figures in Heavy Armor seen below with no duplicates. (In retrospect, I suppose I should have taken one more .) Over the intervening years Don released more goblin forces, both "Lightly armored" and "Unarmored", as well as similarly equipped units of goblin cavalry on wolves. Each time I was able to pick up "one of each" of whatever was new giving me a tremendous variety of models.

But being an active duty serviceman, I believe Don's deployments and other issues prevented the Goblin Factory from fully prospering and I note that only small portions of the line remain available at Slave2gaming.com. I consider myself quite lucky to have collected nearly all of what I'd ever need and am grateful that I posses perhaps the finest range of goblins ever made, with almost 200 one of a kind models. They are ol' fashioned in that they are not encumbered with tons of flashy details, yet they have extraordinary character, animation and variety. They look hungry, grovely, with gibbering and hooting faces, but also very dangerous. Hats off to designer Mike Broadbent!

I do need a break from goblins for awhile so will finish up the army command, which to the best of my knowledge is totally unavailable today, then call it quits for a bit here.

I'm also certain there are many figures below that are no longer available, so enjoy!

The Command again

The archers

The Pole-Axe

Axe and shield

Two-Handed Axe  (those horns bug me - both in their sculpting and in my painting. I may go back in and add some more transition in there.)

The goblin in the middle has hair! The only one!

The halberds

I made a point of rusting up the armor on every model though I mostly left the chain mail alone.

Swords and boards: I "sharpened" all the blades by running Mithril Silver over the top most edges.

Shield details

All have glowy eyes

More bronze shields. I tried mixing in dark brown in with the gold for the base coat to mixed effect.

The only goblin wearing gloves is the one at right.

Thanks for looking: questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

15mm Napoleonic, Peninsula War, Pot Pouri

Another post featuring old figures from the vault. First are Battle Honours with a pair of shots featuring what they call "Insurrection Guerrillas". Based and spaced for Empire, these are among my early serious work, completed in the early 90s.

Next are parts of a supply convoy - a drover and some cows - I believe these are all Minifigs.

Normally I would balk at the wooden wheels. but it is Spain in the early 19th century after all. To get the oxen I don't think I had a choice here.

Powder or rum depending on who is defending this one.

To navigate the steep and treacherous trails of the Pyrenees, these mules and donkeys go single file. Donkeys at left are Minifigs, at right are Essex. Handlers are Minifigs.

Minifigs? Mule train from a different range - not sure which.

The ubiquitous 95th rifles - as for the Russian campaign stuff I had decided to double up everything, so by Empire standards, this is far more Rifles that ever served in one spot.

I also did up a units worth with skirmish order spacing, whereupon I would replace stands rather than spread out the close order stands.

These definitely could use another highlight as well as some Dullcoat.

Finally, the other regiment in the light brigade: the 71st. I didn't know then that the officers didn't have the tartan bands I meticulously painted around the base of their shakos.

Thanks for looking: questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!