Crimean war 6mm - phase 1 done!

Eight bases per side plus the little command stand. Really enjoying painting these little figures and I have more on order to expand the armies. Also have some suitable 6mm buildings on order from Battlescale so I can give them a test run on the trusty folding card table which I'm looking forward to.

Each side consists of 4 units of infantry (1 is designated as 'Guard' identified by the red flags), 1 unit of skirmishing infantry, 1 heavy and 1 light cavalry, battery of guns plus the command group base. All figures by Irregular Miniatures.

Some Turkish Delights & Schombergs Horse.

Latest off the painting desk are the 9 figure 20mm Schombergs Horse of the WSS for Tony and the 15 piece Turkish Command set for John. The Cavalry are Les Higgns/PMD and the Turks are from a plastic box set by Mars. All were a joy to paint.  I once again splashed the colour on the Turks in line with the box illustrations, lots of lavish gold etc, giving them slightly stronger highlights than usual to enhance the impression of rich colours. French line and Guard pikemen next up for John, 12 of each.

Delighted to say that I will have the 20mm Volksstuurm on the way to me shortly for painting which will ring the changes.

The 6mm Crimeans continue to hold my interest and I'm close to finishing the phase 1 armies for a trial game but I'll save the photos for the next post when done. To begin with I'm going to make use of the trusty old folding card table (2'6" x 2'6") to get me started as I work slowly on the planned terrain tiles. I have more on the way from Irregular to reinforce both sides.

First the Cavalry for Tony, dark brown horses were requested for this regiment with a grey for the trumpeter. Gloss varnish as requested.

The Turkish HQ set by Mars for Old John of course! A harder plastic these, akin to Warlord figures.

1st Regiment of Foot Guards.

There is something special about the British Foot Guards and I was delighted to be able to paint these splendid castings for Tony. Les Higgins and PMD (Phoenix Models Development) 20mm figures.  Finished in a Gloss varnish it was the first time I had applied Gloss in many years and was a little nervous as I applied it (Valleyo) but it dried very quickly to nice clear coat. Tony will apply a second coat of his 'house varnish' when they arrive home. Photos below include a couple of 'before' images, the Gloss really does bring out the strong colours. For information the red coats were built up from the black primer coat with Cavalry Brown (my go to dark red  with excellent coverage over black), Flat Red mid tones then pure Scarlet highlights. The mounted and foot officer then had a final touch of Aramanth Red which is an Orange Red for that slightly superior quality cloth look. As always I ask myself if I would be happy to have them in my own collection (if I had one these days!) and that is quality test for everything I paint.

Schombergs Horse coming next for Tony.

Below shows them 'in the flesh' as it were pre gloss varnish.

More 6mm Crimean War - and a plan!

 Beautiful morning here in Rochester, coffee and toast, fed the cats, walked the dog, primed another eight 20mm soldiers and ready to spend a few hours painting.

The 6mm's are coming along nicely, I REALLY like the Irregular Miniatures cavalry castings, the horses are slightly chunkier than Baccus so I can get some highlights on the rear, it's really about carefully picking detail out of the black base with these figures. 

I have a bit of a plan for the Crimean war, a modest one to begin with but it's a plan! I'll be starting with just 8 bases per side, 4 line infantry (one of which will be designated as Guards) 1 skirmisher base, 2 cavalry ( light and heavy) and a battery of guns, plus a command stand. This will allow me to play through some small solo games. The board will be just 2 x 3 and what I want to do is to make it up from 6" interchangeable squares with all terrain features modelled on. This will be phase 1, and beyond that there is the option to produce more terrain squares and many more figures, but that's for the future. I estimate that within a few weeks this could be done. I'm thinking of 3mm MDF for the basic squares, sealed with varnish before texturing. I envisage winding roads and streams, hills, woods and towns all modelled onto the small squares, this is something I have wanted to do for years now.

Of course the commission painting comes first, I'm currently working on English Foot Guards and a regiment of horse of the WSS for Tony. I have an enquiry to paint 80 German Volkssturm in 20mm scale something I would enjoy doing if confirmed so fingers crossed. I just can't capture the subtle tones of the reds with my old phone camera but I'm really pleased with the first 8 soldiers.

Added the Scots Greys, Rifles and more Russians to the 6mm's, I'm not certain that the Greys still had that red patch rear of the bearskins by 1854, references are hard to come by?