Tuesday 4 May 2021

A gradual recovery & sorting the Pigs!

As I'm still out of action on the painting front I have turned my attention to doing a bit of planning for the ECW project as a means of taking my mind off jabbing myself with needles and monitoring, as my blood/glucose levels are very gradually being bought under control from recent raging highs! It's looking like I'm going to be insulin dependent, but to be honest at least I know I'm going to feel better and I'm getting excellent care in these difficult Covid times.

Today for the first time in ages I sat at the painting table and based the last three units of 6mm WSS figures for Gerry and have to say I really enjoyed it. Once the glue is fully dry I'll give them a soak of Sepia ink followed by some static grass and finally the red/blue edges to match the rest of Gerry's collection. This will complete the seven additional bases.

Planning the Pigs.

I have been giving much thought to this over the last couple of weeks and have decided to go with the Peter Pig plastic bases (40mm x 30mm) as my standard infantry and cavalry base. This means that my foot regiments will comprise two bases of 8 muskets and a central base of 8 pike plus 3 or 4 command figures and horse of multiples of 2 figures, probably 8 per unit. I considered deeper/larger Foot Regiments but have in mind the bigger picture of a planned 4 x 3 table where I want to be able to create a little bit of 'Olde England' with it's towns and villages, enclosures etc in modular form with the flexibility to lay out campaign based terrain. I want this to be a long term 'keeper' project where the terrain is as important as the model figures.

With another smaller top up order from PP that arrived this morning I made a start on sorting them all out into plastic business card boxes and it's a very satisfying sight seeing the lead mountain for the months ahead. Small additional monthly orders going forward should keep things ticking over nicely. I also have an order in to Battlescale for some of their half timbered buildings in 10mm scale.

Once I'm back painting again I'll be keeping busy with commission work for Old John and some ACW Peter Pigs for Graham C in addition to my own stuff. I doubt I will do any more 6mm's unfortunately as I have noticed it's been slightly harder to focus on the fine detail work in this scale.

My focus for the ECW armies will be Hopton v Waller 1643 from the Forlorn Hope army lists, but more in due course. 




Below: One for Gerry (finally!).



Below: The planned composition of the Foot Regiments, possibly two colour bearers in front rank if Martin at PP will allow me to vary the contents of the command packs as I believe is possible on request.


Below: left to right, Foot command, pikes, muskets, horse in helmets, horse command and horse in hats. Still to sort are artillery, dragoons, cuirassiers and a few other bags.

22 comments:

  1. Peter Pig do make some great figures. I look forward to see this new endeavour progressing.

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    1. Cheers Ray, this one is going to be slow and steady!

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  2. Good that your health is stabilising. The Peter Pig figs are lovely and they are a great outfit to order from. I will enjoy seeing this force and your table moving forward.

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    1. Thanks Norm, I'm beginning to feel better :) From experience I know PP's customer service is second to none and of course the figures are little gems. Martin has confirmed that they can do special packs of 8 standard bearers for me which is fantastic considering the rest of the pack has to go back in the melting pot when the moulds are spun!

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  3. Looking forward to seeing your progress. Peter Pig produce some excellent ranges

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  4. You’ll do a splendid job with these. I’ll be watching closely! Glad to hear you’re feeling a bit better!

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    1. Hi there JBM. My energy levels are gradually increasing, Diabetic Nurse said my body had probably not been producing inulin for months, no wonder I was struggling! Just need to get my painting mojo back now. I think seeing your ECW venture along with Steve the Wargamer pushed me back over the edge.

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  5. Really glad to hear things are turning around and I’m certain you will start to feel a lot better in yourself.
    Like you I’m a big PP admirer and I’d planned on 40x40 bases for the ECW - I think that came from the Keep Your Powder Dry blog so 3 bases to a regiment and if it was a pike heavy unit then the centre base could have an extra rank of pike placed on it. .
    Really looking forward to seeing this project blossom and I’m glad you’ve found a ‘keeper’ 😁

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    1. Thanks Graham. I have had a lot of time to think about things recently, and I want this to be a long term modest keeper project.

      I might now go with 40mm x 40mm MDF bases as Steve mentioned below a tendency for the PP plastic bases to warp and the extra depth will allow a little more dressing on the bases.

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  6. great to see you feeling better, Peter Pig figures do look good, look after your self
    cheers old John

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    1. Many thanks John and yes, phew, I'm starting to feel a lot better now as the insulin kicks in. Just so glad I went to A&E when I did (pushed by wife and daughters because I hate hospitals!). Had I waited another 4 weeks for the Doctors appointment I dread to think of the consequences. GP surgery has been very apologetic following investigation and acknowledged the error, should have been flagged as 'urgent'.

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  7. Looking good!

    The medical stuff soon becomes routine as life goes on. I hear you on the eyes though!

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    1. Many thanks for that Ross, I'm counting myself lucky so no complaints about the daily routine of jabbing and testing. The old eyes struggle with 6mm's now, I can still paint them but will stick with 15mm and above now :)

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  8. I love the Peter Pigs.. in my opinion even better than the new Steel Fist range... but having used them I swapped to MDF for the bases as I found the plastic warped...

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    1. The Pigs certainly have a unique charm and are very accurately portrayed. I do like those little faces :)

      I hear you on the plastic bases, was also concerned about getting the base texture to key in so going to go with MDF. Sadly Tony Barr has retired his laser cutter so I'm using Warbases and what an excellent service they provide.

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  9. Those 6 mm War of Spanish Succession cavalry look superb Lee!
    Organising and planning is quite time-consuming, but an enjoyable part of the whole, I find. Figure prep. can be a bit tedious though...!
    Regards, James

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    1. Thank you James. It's something about the Baccus design and casting that makes them a cut above any other 6mm ranges in my opinion. As for the Peter Pigs they are just so clean and crisp, barely anything to clean up. I'm currently figuring out a basing composition that I'm happy with, and the brushes are finally back out again :)
      Cheers,
      Lee.

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  10. Gosh, they're good looking ECW figures, I look forward to seeing them with some paint on in due course! Good to hear your feeling better too!
    Best Iain

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    1. Lovely figures the Pigs Iain and I have started painting them! I'm not going to rush through this time though, a long term keeper, this time I mean that :)

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    2. You will forgive me if I reserve judgement on that based on your history!
      Best Iain

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    3. Ahah, Iain! Something has clicked in my brain, suddenly I'm beginning to feel my age and a sense of my own mortality, I have even given up listening to Hawkwind although I intend to put that right at some point! I want to actually OWN some soldiers again now, I am all cleaned out. We shall see I guess, but I think the madness was upon me, I had no need to sell them, but was kind of hooked on doing so.

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