The Spanish Ulcer.

As it's half term and the house is very busy and noisy painting has slowed up a bit this week. But I'm still getting a bit in as and when I can. I mentioned previously that I was sent two Falcata Spanish infantry as a 'test paint' for what will be a full early Spanish army in 20mm. Tony dislikes the black undercoat/white uniform look as I know well, and I agree that while the 'skeleton suit' look works OK on my 15mm Essex figures it does not really work so well on larger scale figures, so I set to thinking about an alternative method to represent such predominantly white uniforms. I have of course seen many different methods used with varying degrees of success, but I was determined to avoid any kind of Army Painter type wash over white paint, as it - to my eye at least - leaves the finish far too grubby or dirty looking.

After a lot of thought and research I decided to trial a Vallejo white primer which is then washed over with a coat of 'magic wash' . The wash is made up of Klear floor polish with added water and black ink, and it leaves a remarkably good surface for overpainting but above all it picks out most fine detail in a subtle grey while leaving the surface areas clean. I am grateful to Kev Lowth (aka 'Fat Wally') for his advice in the use of the wash method, and anyone who might wish to see more pics of units painted in this style should take a look here (link). Just a note to add that kev specialises in 15mm figures painted at speed, and his method uses a second wash over the completed figures and the bases. I use it only once over the undercoat.

So I present here a series of images to illustrate the method as used on the two fine Spanish gents. What I can't show is just how well the wash takes the paint, the colours are vibrant as there seems to me to be a lot less absorption as with a straight black primer, and unlike a standard white primer there is no chance of finding small areas missed leaving the white showing as the wash runs into ever crack and crevice. I'm really taken with this method as it's very efficient from the painters point of view and leaves a great finish.

*Edit - the backpacks remain unpainted while we research the correct shade for calfskin.

This unit has black facings as you can see, but even so I still think the finish is very strong and not a skeleton suit in sight! I would certainly anybody painting white uniforms  to give this method a try.

Essex 15mm Russian lancers.
I painted these four figures yesterday in between prepping up some 20mm ECW's and ACW's for the next week or so. I could find little uniform detail for these so went with that as shown and to be honest they will only represent generic Russian light cavalry in my C&C games anyway.

Commands & Colors 'Epic'.
I'm interested to find out more about this. From what I have read it features a double sized board and allows for large scale battles fought across the much wider frontage. The card hand is played differently and allows for more than a single card to be played so more units can be moved each turn. I have got to thinking that this could potentially allow me to represent more realistic formations, for example to have 4 of my 4 single figure units representing a brigade and possibly to include a command figure or two per 'brigade'. I could also brigade several cavalry units together which would enhance the game visually too. I'm just thinking about it for now, but if anyone has any relevant links about this I'd appreciate it if you could send them to me.

Right then, back to finishing of some Essex Chasseur a cheval for myself then it's onto more commission work while the wife, kids and Grandaughter are all out!

20mm Peninsular Dragoons, Hinton Hunt's and more 15mm Essex.

Phew, it's been quite a busy last couple of weeks on the painting front! But it's also been very rewarding from the point of view of working on some very nice 20mm castings, all of which are going into what I regard as two fantastic model soldier collections.

Hinton Hunt vintage figures - these have been painted for Ian, who's fine HH blog (link at right) I have been following (I think), since 2007. There is a bit of a story behind this unit too as I was first sent these very same 24 figures for painting about 3 years ago or so, just about the time my mental health broke down and I had a major breakdown. I simply could not even so much as pick up a paint brush, it took months, and my recovery is still ongoing, so in a way it kind of felt like I was completing the circle when I painted these and I was delighted to be given the opportunity to finish them. Funny how different things seem now, and I remain very much aware of just how positive an experience painting soldiers has become for me ..... I woke up at 4am this morning thinking about horse colours!

I kept in mind the overall style of Ian's collection, and tried to use a style that would fit in. They have been given a coat of Vallejo Satin varnish.

20mm Peninsular Heavy Dragoon brigade. 
These three regiments represent Le Marchants cavalry brigade - the 3rd/4th/and 5th Dragoons. The figures I think are 20mm Falcatta castings with old Minifigs  S range heads added, I'm sure Tony will correct me here. I think they are therefore somewhat unique? They took a lot of work, but  again the motivation of producing something a bit special kept me at it! They need a coat of varnish and Tony will add his 'house' base colour once they return home. I'm still seeing small bits that could do with a touch up. Please excuse the number of photos.

 

I have also managed to paint a few figures for myself, more 15mm Essex figures of course, some Russian Militia with fine beardy faces and some Polish infantry. I'm following up with Russian lancers, dragoons and hussars then French chassuers a cheval, lancers and hussars.

I also continue to play Commands & Colors on the board with the figures painted so far.

Replacing the C&C wooden blocks.

Over the weekend I managed to bring my 15mm Essex figures (French and Russian) up to the 200 painted figures mark. They are fine figures and I have long been a fan of Essex castings going way back. The first time I visited the little shop attached to the production workshop convinced me that these were the figures for me. The shop was and is crammed with painted examples of all the ranges, and I have always maintained that they look far better in the 'lead' than they do on the Essex website. For some reason they always appear slightly 'dwarfish' and the painting is not always perhaps the best quality.

As I thoroughly enjoy both painting and photographing wargame figures I present here numerous shots taken on the C&C board, all Essex of course. I just need to finish off a couple of French guns and I'm ready for a first bash with these. Much more is planned though as I continue to replace all of the C&C wooden blocks with figures. Should keep me happy for quite a while yet. Hussars, Russian militia, more line troops, lancers etc etc in the pipeline. Once I have covered all of the French and Russian blocks I'll go back a step and replace all the British and Portuguese blocks before moving onto the Austrians. I also intend to do Dutch Belgian and Brunswick blocks etc for the two Hundred days scenarios.

That bloke again.

Russian gunners with cossacks and Grenadiers in support.

C&C 'Guard Grenadiers - 8 blocks!

Russian Cuirassiers.

French line and dragoons.

Old Guard Grenadiers with raw recruits in front (these count as C&C 'Militia' and the greatcoats help to identify them).

It's behind you! French gunners awaiting their guns.

This is one of my favourite Essex command figures.

French cuirassiers charging.

Golymin 1806 and final shots of the 6mm ACW's

Commands & Colors - Russian scenario #2 - Golymin 1806.
I now have this scenario set up and have made the pre battle 'Mother Russia' roll. You can see the 'paper strength' markers added to these units. I had a good long think about this scenario, it looks very challenging for the French as the Russians are deployed in depth and are basically undertaking a fighting retreat. Any Russian unit that exits the battlefield from the Russian left flank sector earns a VP. There are sufficient 'strong' units on the board to hold up any French attack while the smaller units slip away to safety and a victory - at least it looks that way to me. While there is a large French force deployed upon the Russian right the Russian position there is strong, with a well sited foot artillery battery, bought up to paper strength by the pre battle roll. I really don't know how to begin the French move, the 5 card hand is very powerful as you can see, such that the French could initiate a speedy all out assault. But I'm cautious, and have learned from playing this game that it usually pays to develop attacks more slowly, making sure units are well supported etc.

I finally decided to move the French cavalry against the Russian right, forcing one unit to form square. On this note I have to say I do wonder slightly about troops being able to form square in woods, I can only assume they are in a clearing or something! It's a good position now for the square as cavalry can only roll a single die against them and there is always the -1 fighting into woods deduction, so this negates any dice throw against them ( am I reading this correctly?). I can of course bring up infantry to attack the square however in a subsequent move.

I'd just like to ask any C&C players here what they would do? How would you have opened this battle? You should be able to see the French hand in the photos.

Commission work.

I Just finished off some basing this morning so thought I would take a few shots for the blog. Been enjoyable to paint some Baccus figures again. Pics show the 14 infantry bases, 8 artillery bases, 2 cavalry bases and numerous command bases. These add to the previous 8 infantry bases so they represent two nicely balanced armies.