Mini Mania-Napoleonics and WOTR

Apologies once again for lack of blog updates. The upcoming publication is taking up blogging time and not much has been happening. Hopefully in the coming weeks towards the Prestonpans Wargames show, blog posts might increase.

Anyway, quick update on what I'm up to. Currently finishing off Spitfire for some aerial cover for Bolt Action and just started painting a Lowland Scots Army based on the forces of Earl of Mar for The Battle of Harlaw 1411, for Lion Rampant for the Claymore Rampant event in April, run by the chaps at Claymore Castings. More photos naturally anon.

Anyway here is another selection of past painted materials.

I used to work as a Volunteer and Uniform assistant at the Royal Greenjackets Museum in Winchester, a goldmine with its Waterloo model for any military modeller and wargamer if there ever was one. Luckily they sold the old Suren Tradition of London 54mm figures, which are beautiful and are on my shopping list sometime in the future. Depicted on the Retreat to Corunna, it depicts the ragged nature of campaign uniform in Spain 1809. Again very pleased with the facial features, hope this is a project will return to imminently.

Part of the ongoing 1/72 scale Huge Napoleonic project, these are Italeri 1eme Dragoons, cracking sculpts. Although the image is not particularly good, am very pleased with the Eagle and Guidon, although naturally, these were not often carried on campaign.

Being Portsmouth born and bred, Nelson's naval campaign's were naturally going to pop up at some point. Forged in Battle's 1/3000 scale Napoleonic ships totally do the job. Hoping to expand to the British Navy sometime later this year, these depict the Franco-Spanish fleet of Villeneuve for Trafalgar. While the sculpts do not have the detail of say 1/1200 Langton's, they have a certain charm and the lack of having to rig anything is a bonus in my book. Probably going to be used for Osprey's recent "Fighting Sail Rules

Following on from this is my Army for Lion Rampant. Created for use in the Glasgow Phoenix Wargames Society club project last year, based upon the 1460 Towton campaign during the Wars of the Roses (untrue to form I lost more battles than won). Using a combination of Perry's 15th century Infantry (by far my favourite miniatures company, particular as some of the faces are quite familiar in the reenactment world) and Irregular Miniatures, my force was based around Warwick the Kingmaker's retinue. Called "The King Rat" by the likes of David Chandler, Richard Neville and his ilk Salisbury and Westmoreland basically acted as the powerbrokers in Machiavellian British 15th century politics, back sliding everyone and very much under their banner prelonging withdrawal from the Hundred Years War in France, while deposing, deposing and then reimposing the monarch in the form of Henry VI and Edward IV respectively at St Albans, Northampton, Towton and finally with his death and dismemberment at Barnet.  Certainly for a further painting reference, If you are not using either Osprey's or Europa Militaria books as painting guides, a top class further painting guide is the Kingmaker Exhibition at Warwick Castle, depicting Warwick's household and Retinue preparing for the battle of Barnet, the costuming and dummies being respectively done by Ninya Perry (the Perries wife) and Gerry Embleton, of Osprey and reenactment fame. Well worth a look.

Armour, where possible has been painted using gloss varnish, a military modelling technique I think works quite well. Above is pictured a captain holding aloft the family banner for the de Neville's, rather than the more apparent Bear and Ragged Staff

Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick himself. The Gothic English harness he is wearing has not been painted at all. Instead the armour has been burnished using a pin head in a pin vice, to allow the base metal to shine, then briefly around edges, mail and gauntlets been washed to highlight and then coated liberally in gloss varnish-a technique I think will continue to be used due to how impressive it looks.

You might have noticed that not all the soldiers in my army actually wear the colours or livery coat of the Neville/Warwick Household. Serving as a means of differentiating within the rules for Lion Rampant army lists (2 retinued units, 2 yeomen units) as well as within real life, these soldiers in blue coats actually represent the Windrush Frei Compagnie, as often depicted within the Medieval Siege Society. Returning from the wars in France and the continent during the 1450's as a Free Company of Routiers, without employment (and certainly around the time of Jack Cade) they started ravaging the Suffolk lands under Warwick, who was forced to pay them to stop their excesses. I think this quite clearly matches the clear mercenary attitude towards the makeup of medieval armies. I am currently considering matching them with a further army (two is always better than one, means someone has something to play) for a game based around the 1480 second battle of Bannockburn/Sauchieburn/Richard III's failed campaign in Scotland, again using converted Perry's (ability to be used for later Flodden), watch this space/

Mini Mania pt.2 Military Modelling 54mm and Above

As well as being a wargamer, I am also trained as a historian and archaeologist and therefore also like delving into the minutiae and makeup of the details of soldiers equipment and clothing, a feature that 28mm and below really doesn't do justice. Often the kits are expensive or hard to comeby, hence my ability to work on them only happens occasionally. But I defy anyone who has read or picked up an issue of Military Modelling, not to be inspired to try their hand at more detailed larger scales. However the following are my attempts in plastic to replicate the look, feel and nature of period soldiers.

 English Man-at-Arms/Billman 1415, 54mm Italeri. The Hundred Years War has always been a conflict that has fascinated me, whether watching Henry V, reading Bernard Cornwell, or exploring the connected battlefields in The Scots Lowlands, but raising a wargames army doesn't appeal (whatever the Perries throw at us) because the idea of raising a French army of the period doesn't appeal. Maybe it is the style inherent, maybe it is continued losses until Carcassone and Castillone-maybe it is a set in stone English sensibility (they did raid and burn up and down the coastline from where I originate from). Anyway this was my limited commemoration of the Agincourt 500 and I'm rather proud of him. The armour has been finished off in gloss varnish and colour scheme has been taken from a contemporary livery coat.

The following two are my continued frustration at not being able to attend the 200th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo this past year. As such, I have a long term goal (as suggested in Arthur Taylor's 1972 Discovering Model Soldiers) of targeting part of my modelling towards painting every uniform of La Garde Imperiale (A Grenadier a Pied Tambor, officer and artillery team wait patiently on the desk). Naturally, this cuirassier wears the uniform of 1e Regimente Cuirassiere, 54mm A Call to Arms.

But the pride and joy of the past year has to be Sergeante de la Grenadiere de la Garde, 110mm from Miniart Figures. I wish more people did these still like Airfix, although this seems to be a dying fashion today, with interests naturally gravitating towards WW2 (although Tamiya are lovely). Clothed in dress uniform, on guard in the marble halls of Fontainebleau, the floor, plate, brocade, buttons and musket have been finished in Gloss Varnish, while the bearkskin and plume in Satin. One feature that I take great pride in all my models is painting faces, as it is here you can differentiate most between masses of troops, I feel because of my dark colour palette a feature too often missed. Here I have to blow my own trumpet and say I am really proud of the face and think it portrays a small level of emotion, even if under the rigours of service. The model is not quite done yet, the base I would like to give a coat of gloss varnish to and add a plaque, possibly with the Imperial Cipher or an Eagle in Chains. 

In a couple of weeks will also post up the start of my alternating modelling project, a rifleman.

Next up, my favourite period by far, the era of Pike and Shotte, the 17th century.

Inspiration

Well as I'm starting this blog, I might as well tell you all a bit about myself. When I often mention this to people, they seem to immediately jump to the conclusion, Do You play Warhammer? I have  been known to dabble in those dark depths, collecting armies of Orks, Space Marine's etc., I know a lot of people who continue to dabble in the Games Workshop hobby. Yet for me, it doesn't really jell anymore. The fact that a) everyone does it b) Games Workshops present prices are extortionate, where you are going to be paying at least £10 a miniature c) whenever you go into a shop they try and corner you and get you to buy their newest most expensive model, book, gane etc. really puts me, in my experience off wargaming. Ok there's nothing wrong with that, they do produce very well sculpted miniatures, their paint range at present is second to none and one of the reasons I keep on going back and they have a really well thought-out marketing agenda and a dedicated fan base. But in this time, when we are all pulling our belts tighter due to cuts, do I really want to be part of the crowd?  

In the last ten years, there has been an underground resurgence in historical wargaming, to the extent that we are now gradually being given the chance to buy particular ranges off of the high street again for very good prices e.g. 50 British Napoleonic Infantry for £20. My fascination with the world of wargaming really started when I was 5. When visiting Cambridge during weekend shopping trips, a stop at the Toy Soldier was always a must. An old fashioned shop, with a picture of Lord Kitchener pointing his finger in the window, the shop front was constantly surrounded by 54mm miniatures of British Drummer Boys and Drum Major's, Zulu War Infantry, troopers of the Light Brigade. Going inside, the room was surrounded floor to ceiling with cabinets filled to brimming with large scale diorama's and vignettes of life on campaign as it was seen, during the 18th and 19th centuries, with pieces of militaria from sabres, shako's,  Brown Bess muskets hanging from the wall and then a wargames table I believe depicting the actions around La Haye Sainte, with a huge farmhouse setup and 1000's of beautifully painted miniatures laid in various manoeuvres upon the table.

For a boy of such a young age, it was a treasure trove of senses that was to act as a motivator in later life. This was coupled with a recent viewing of the Channel 4 Gullivers Travels, in which there is a seen depicted in a Lilliputian War Room, where all these late17th-early 18th century perriwigged, brocaded gentleman are pushing Marlburian troops across a board, planning their various wars of conquest; an influence that was to prove a decider a couple of years later. By 10 I was heavily immersed in Warhammer, the various monsters and tales of the ne'erdowells making perfect sense. But by 12, I was looking for something bigger, that had more panache, sense, education, research tied into it. Buying a copy of Wargames Illustrated, coupled with my Dad's revelation  that he himself had previously been a military modeller and wargamer, presenting a series of miniatures, from a French Imperial Bandsmen, with a beautifully soldered on Sabre, to Gurkha rifles, a Boer Exploring officer and a Black Watch sergeant, equally linked to the fact that grandfather and dad had influenced me to start reading Sharpe from the age of 11, made double sure that I had an interest in all things Napoleonic.

The latest craze, paper soldiers, depicting Government infantry circa 1745 by Peter Dennis, allowing for cheap and easily maintained armies.

Today I own a range of armies, from the early Warhammer, to my French and British 20mm Napoleonics using Neil Thomas Napoleonic rules, to the 28mm skirmish WW2 British Paratroops vs. German Volksgrenadier, considering using Bolt Action for, to the pride and joy in my 28mm Parliamentarian Northern Association.

The army has increased in size ten fold since this image was taken, but shows the essential elements of a 17^th century army in line of battle

Yet it shall not all be wargames related. Throughout my life I have been taken around castles, museums, battlefields, places of historical significance and that has had a huge influence. As my dad was an ex-member of Appleyard's Yeomanry of Foote, now amalgamated into Rawdons, reenactment has always played a big part and being so close to the duke of Wellington's house at Stratfield Saye and Basing House, site of the longest protracted siege of the English Civil Wars, reenactment has been very predominant.

Rawdon’s Yellowcoats, the Garrison of Basing House, take it to Waller’s Parliamentarian besiegers.

So that’s a bit about where my influences lie. How about some painting. The following were originally painted up for the Black Powder paint off on the Internet this Christmas (although a return to the ECW, coupled with further WW2 collection side tracked this). Photo’s are not brilliant, miniatures look a lot better in the flesh.

Firstly a battalion de ligne of 20mm French line infantry (mixed Italeri and Airfix), painted using the dip painting method (although personally I use watered down cuprinol, which has the same effect). Flock is made using dyed woodchip/hamster bedding.

 

Next is a 28mm officer of Irish Militia (converted from the accompanying miniature to Black Powder Rebellion, Warlord Games) and 60^th Rifles (wearing pre-1806 draft uniform, not sure of the manufacturer of the castings, possibly early Minifigs?) for the 1798 Irish rebellion. I also have a set of Perry American War of Independence Infantry filling in as Ulster Fencibles. I do not think that I will go as far as making up a force for Vinegar Hill (due to the price of Trent Miniature’s Castings and the number needed this would be unfeasible) maybe a smaller engagement such as Colleraine etc. Might suffice.