More Epic Napoleonics on my YouTube channel!

Just as an addition to yesterdays post I made another short video displaying my collection so far and also to advertise my painting service. Very pleased at how the channel content is gradually picking up views which far exceeds those of my trusty old blog and it's something I hope to develop in the future.

New - Warlord Epic painting service!

Just a quick note to say that I have now added a dedicated link for my new Epic painting service. Given the popularity of these figures and the fact that I get so much pleasure from painting them I think they will sit nicely alongside my standard commission work. I have set the price per infantry strip at just £10 so £20 per base and £80 for a full Epic battalion. Full details on the link above.

Reason for this is that my own BDN armies have hit the stage (36 infantry bases, 12 cavalry and 6 batteries), where I can now just add the odd extra base as and when I feel like it. I'll be adding some Guard cavalry, probably Brunswick conversions and Nassau troops etc but will hold back on the Prussians until probably next year. In the meantime I'm working on the British Guards (60 figures) and have just finished off more British Hussars and a base of Carabiniers. I went with the sky blue jackets after a lot of research as being the most likely worn at Waterloo, the white being reserved for parade dress?

Cheers for now, and have a good Bank Holiday weekend.

Lee.

The paint job @ £10 per strip.

A few more Epic additions and planning a new C&C board!

Commission work. 

The last week has seen more lovely Peter Pig ECW's painted for Graham, so far standing dragoon horses and holders and another 20 cavalry. I'm currently working on 36 dismounted dragoons to match the horses (Blue/Grey and Green coats), and a pack of Blue Moon ECW civilians to finish this current batch towards the Edgehill project (please see Graham's blog at right for photos of the full army of Parliament to date). We are approaching the end of this project now, but I'm told there will be Montrose's army and Covenanters to follow and possibly Manchester's and Newcastle's armies after that! 

End of this week I will be painting some more 2mm bases for Geoff, Napoleonic additions for DBN I believe. I also received a large heavy box from Old John containing 48 WSS cavalry and some additional foot figures. The cavalry are this time Strelets plastic riders but sitting metal LH horses, the  reason for this being that we have found previously that it is a bit of a job to get the riders to sit the plastic horse properly and has required a lot of trimming and the use of green stuff to fill  gaps that can be left. The plastic horses can also tend to lean a bit so while I had no objections to doing the work John has taken this decision and I think the end results will be better and also give them a bit of heft.

Epic progress and a new C&C board.

A few more additions to the Epics also this last week, a base of French Hussars (7th) a another base of British heavy dragoons (Guards) and a combined base of Engineers/marines for the Old Guard. Also the third and last of my British Light Infantry bases consisting of 16 men and a converted mounted officer. I'm enjoying the potential of conversion work with these plastics and have plans for future units. Generally speaking I'm thinking roughly in terms of 3 bases to a brigade including a command base. I have so far painted 31 x infantry bases plus 2 x French skirmish bases and a Rifles base, there are also 10 cavalry bases in all and 6 battery bases each of 2 guns and 8 crew so I have now passed the 700 painted figures mark! Now obviously this has rapidly outgrown the two 12 point DBN armies I had originally planned (damn these Epics), so once again my thoughts have turned to C&C and the potential for big battles with visual impact. For now I will just say that I have ordered some 100mm hexes from Warbases in order to see if this will be the best all round size for my plans. I have some 90mm's here but they seem just a bit tight if I want to fit buildings to represent BUA's etc so I think 100mm will work much better with my 6mm x 25mm infantry bases (cavalry are 30mm deep). More on this as things progress over the coming weekend.

Epic command figures rebased and more Old Guard!

I'm just indulging myself in these lovely Epic figures now! The Old Guard now comprise the 1st and 2nd Grenadiers and the 1st Chasseurs plus a battery of 12 pounders for good measure, all from a £6 sprue with plenty more left on it. I have the combined Engineer and Marin base undercoated and will add just for the variety of the uniforms. I also decided to rebase some commanders on a 60mm frontage single base for DBN as I wanted to try to give an impression of a gaggle of mounted generals on the battlefield and I'm far happier now. Lightly dressed the bases here and there but careful not to overdo it as I'm not using tufts etc on the main bases. I also found that photographing them on the back of a placemat seems to bring out the colours more accurately.

If I had to describe what really attracts me to the Warlord Epics for me it would be 'mass impact'.

  

Epic Old Guard and personalities & 3 Battalions for Tony!

More painting off the production line this week, first of the Epic French Old Guard, some British and French command figures and 3 battalions of 20mm WSS French infantry for Tony. 

I held back on starting the Old Guard until I had painted a fair number of the line troops and having passed the 600 mark I could resist no longer. From the single sprue it is possible to produce an epic regiment of 80 infantry plus a strip of Engineers and Marines, but my Old Guard will only comprise 2 battalions of Grenadiers, a battalion of Chasseurs and a combined base of the Engineers/Marines plus a battery of foot artillery (2 guns). I decided to add a mounted colonel to the command base which required a little bit of cutting and trimming along with a tad of green stuff but I'm pleased with the result.

Also painted some of the command figures, great little sculpts. was surprised how soft and bendy the resin compound is but they paint up a treat.

The three battalions for Tony represent a solid 20 hours of painting over the week and I'm very pleased with the results. I changed from my usual black primer to a mid grey primer for these as I was keen to avoid any stark contrast where black shows against the sky grey coats and I think this is something I will continue to use for white/grey uniforms. 

From Monday I'm back to painting 15mm ECW's for Graham and have some 2mm Napoleonic bases to do for Geoff. 

Guest spot - 'Old John' does it in style!

Over the last week I have been busy painting 3 battalions of War of The Spanish Succession French infantry - a total of 54 figures including 3 mounted officers - for Tony. I changed my usual black undercoat after giving it a lot of thought to a mid Grey, which I must say has worked very well for these Sky Grey coated French and it's a method I will stick to for such troops in the future. I'll describe more with photos in the next post but for now I wanted to share some photos that John sent me of a recent game played on his large table featuring troops from his collection. I'm sure John will fill us in about the figures used and answer any questions but I know there are a 'few' in there that I painted for him!

Edit: John has left a few notes in the comments section. Google won't let him post as 'Old John' (as he is always known), but he lists all the figure manufacturers there, cheers John.