Hanoverians for John.

Here are 24 more Strelets figures for John painted as Hanoverian Guard infantry as per reference supplied. Always useful to take photos because I just noticed I have not painted in the white cuffs on the 8 command figures! The flag is an impression of the illustration, tricky on a cast on flying colour but not a too bad  I hope. As is my standard method now for red coats I start with Cavalry Brown base, Cavalry brown/Flat Red middle tones and Aramanth Red highlights. The blue is Dark Prussian Blue base with about 50% Azure mixed in for the highlights. Muskets, flag pole, shafts etc are Flat Brown with Flat Earth highlights. I'll start on the Hanoverian Cavalry regiment next week and then probably paint Graham's next regiment of Peter Pig foot Denzil Holles' Redcoats along with a pack of petards and crew. I also have in the pipeline some 18mm Prussian Uhlans and artillery crew for JBM.

I'm enjoying painting the Strelets figures and have more to do including a box of dismounted French Dragoons, lovely box artwork and John has loaned me a beautiful reference book with a note to take my pick and surprise him with a colourful unit and there are plenty to choose from.

38th Regiment of Foot - Strelets 1/72nd figures.

Just finished are these 24 plastic Strelets WSS figures for Old John representing the 38th Regiment of Foot. Great figures to paint and good written references supplied which really helps. I will go straight onto 24 Hanoverian foot in marching pose, also Strelets. 

I have also been doing a bit more painting in 2mm scale. However, it has become increasingly clear to me that I will probably never find the enthusiasm to actually use these figures (surprise, surprise!), as much as I have enjoyed painting them. The challenge of seeing what I could bring to them was the attraction but I'll probably stop there I think and pass them on.

A few notes on painting 2mm blocks.

I'll be back painting the big guys tomorrow for Old John, but I have spent an enjoyable couple of days working on more 2mm ECW bases. So far I have completed 12 bases of horse and 7 bases of foot with just 6 more left to do. I have another order in for artillery, dragoons both mounted and dismounted and more foot which will about complete the two armies that I have in mind. I dug out my cope of One Hour Wargames yesterday and even felt a tinge of excitement at the prospect of having a small game!

I'm surprised at the level of detail these blocks have and the way to approach them for me at least is very much the same way I used on the 6mm stuff I have painted, that is to say a nice flat black undercoat then dotting and dashing with a 000 brush. Leaving some black showing gives a bit of depth. I try to add a tiny dot of flesh to the faces as it seems to jump out, and I'm finding that a tiny dot of silver on the top of the helmets also has the same effect. For the horse blocks I have tried to get the impression of that blackened armour/buff coat look, my trusty Japanese WW2 uniform is the base coat for the buff touched with a pure buff highlight. For the horses I'm using Flat Brown, Flat Earth, Cavalry Brown and again the Jap. Uniform, all of which are very paste like  with excellent coverage over black. A fine line down the front of the horses heads adds to the look as a finishing touch.

Thanks to a tip from 'Jacksarge' I'm going to add some texture to the bases using Tilers Grout, I'm not going to completely cover the bases, just add a little of the grout here and there before painting in the same colours. I did get a lot of compliments on the basing on the FB 2mm wargamers group so was tempted to leave it as is, but I hope my plan with the grout will enhance them slightly.

So, here are three bases of Roundhead horse painted in a single session yesterday (I actually painted two more in the afternoon! I plan to use a colour coded dot system on the rear edge only to show unit quality, training etc as I'm keen to avoid labels in this scale. 

Buggering around with 2mm blocks!

Knocked out a few bases worth yesterday afternoon. I think to this standard - which is probably as far as I would want to go in this scale - each base took around 10 minutes actual painting time, which is really not bad going. A couple of armies could easily be finished in a couple of dedicated days! I will texture the bases once I source some fine sand but for now this just gives them a bit of a lift. In my view they represent something between figures games and board games, but whatever, I'm going to have some fun with these. 

Starting Johns Strelets today, I have to say that once undercoated in black they are up there with the best metal figures with really nice proportions and long muskets, I'm looking forward to seeing how these turn out. I'm going to painting in batches of 8 foot figures per day. 

Saturday will be spent painting all the rest of the 2mm bases, about a dozen or so, plus my first attempt at a 2mm village model. Sunday we have family over for lunch so a day off from painting.

So, Irregular Miniatures 2mm ECW 'blocks'. Bases are 50mm x 20mm (as I happened to have them handy). It's impressionistic painting but have tried to represent that blackened armour/buff coat appearance for the horse. Might just give the horses noses a touch of white on the forehead!

EDIT: Knocked up a little village base this morning, great fun and very. very quick. Norm in his comment mentioned the 'camo' pattern on the bases and I agree, it had already occurred to me! I will texture them and reduce the brown area. Going to order more blocks including different formations of horse, artillery and command bases.

Next!

Today I completed the four ECW regiments of foot for Graham, 2 Parliamentarian and 2 Royalist although the only real difference is the offices sash colours. Each are of 27 figures including the 3 command figures, and 2 are 2/1 ratio pikes to muskets and the other 2 are 'pike heavy' 1/1 ratio. Pleased with how they turned out overall and all are now removed from the caps and ready to pack in the morning. Next up are one of Old John's Strelets units of 24 1/72nd scale units representing British foot of the WSS.

Meantime my small (!) tester order arrived from Irregular, 2mm ECW blocks. I really like these things and wasted no time in sticking a few on bases and undercoating them. What you see there was around 30 minutes painting, my eyes were a little tired after todays painting but still I think I about managed to achieve what I had in mind. Please don't bother blowing the images up because this is very much impressionistic painting, if you stand back a foot or so they work as intended I think. The basing will require some very fine sand. I'm just going to do a few bases to begin with and see where this goes, but I'm really attracted to the idea of making some terrain for them and to this end these little buildings by Brigade Models are wonderful.

Looking back at some old work.

I have spent a pleasant morning looking back through some of the old blog pages that have not been linked for several year, actually going back almost ten years! Thought some might enjoy a flick through these images so as I can't figure out how to add a navbar I'll just add them here. Reminds me of just how many figures I have painted and sold over the years and why it makes sense now for me to just paint on commission for friends. 

Above: AWI command bases painted 10 years ago!

15mm Peter Pig AWI's (and a few shots of the PP ACW's) I think I painted these around 10 years ago as they are pre blog.

https://napoleonictherapy.blogspot.com/p/15mm-gallery.html

'Continentals' Peter Pig.

https://napoleonictherapy.blogspot.com/p/15mm-awi-2.html

6mm ECW by Baccus.

https://napoleonictherapy.blogspot.com/p/6mm-ecw-gallery.html

28mm Napoleonics.

https://napoleonictherapy.blogspot.com/p/28mm-gallery.html

15mm Napoleonics (Essex Miniatures).

https://napoleonictherapy.blogspot.com/p/my-15mm.html

6mm Painting Guide.

https://napoleonictherapy.blogspot.com/p/6mm-painting-basing-guide.html

6mm Napoleonics.

https://napoleonictherapy.blogspot.com/p/6mm-napoleonic-gallery.html

Unboxing John's latest arrivals.

I actually did this several days ago but as I'm almost ready to get started I thought I would share some of the goodies within! 

I have another couple of ECW foot regiments to paint for Graham to complete the current batch which will be four in total, each of 27 figures, latest is this blue regiment. For the week ahead I'm going to alternate between the two Peter Pig units and some of John's plastic WSS figures which will be painted in batches of 8 foot at a time. I must say looking at these Strelets figures that plastic soldiers have come a long way since our Airfix days in terms of moulding, detail and anatomy and I'm looking forward to painting them.

Of course beside the plastics ( 2 x 24 figure infantry regiments and 12 Hanoverian cavalry) there is a ton of metal in assorted boxes! John always provides a detailed list of what's what and printed colour references for everything that really helps and saves me a lot of research time so I can just focus on the painting, which is the bit I enjoy. The old Minifigs box brought back memories and a peep inside revealed some lovely old Minifigs Turkish archers.

So, all in all lots to keep me busy going forward. I'm still in the process of putting together a page featuring John's Ottomans, many of them from the collection of the late Eric Knowles.