Picture of the Week

 Found this old picture while sorting through some old stuff, made me smile.

zulu shield patterns

 This is a guide I drew up a few years ago to help me with my Zulu war project. It might prove useful to someone else getting into the era. I hope it helps, Simon.

Essex and Irregular 15mm

So a day on and the Essex delivery has arrived. The Essex figure is the first one, he is a bit shorter with a bigger head, but that shouldn't matter once he's mixed in.
 

I think they work well together, it'll be nice to have a bit more variety on the bases with slightly different poses.

I also ordered a pack of the kneeing soldier too from Essex. This one works particularly well I think, especially with the loading figure from Irregular.

The main reason for ordering these extra Essex troops was the fact they have powder flasks around them (apostles). As I want to create Jacobite regiments with their slightly older equipment. I thought a few of these mixed in would fit the bill. Irregular don't seem to do the earlier period. At 15mm it doesn't really matter, as a lot of the detail will be lost in the smaller scale, so a nice mix of both should look good.

The two makes work even better from above which is how they will be seen most of the time.

UPDATE: Next up Luriko figures.

They have finally arrived, the last of the three to turn up. I have seen them described as 'heroic' in scale and I can see why. What they lack in historical accuracy though, I think they make up for in charm. They remind me of 15mm Front Rank figures, if that makes sense.

The Luriko figures have bigger heads and features, but lack the long coat of the period unfortunately.

The standard poles I made 35mm in length, with the pikes being 45mm. I think this looks right.

I measured the standard poles against the standards just to be safe.

Luriko and Irregular figures, you can see the irregular ones are better proportioned. However, the Luriko look much easier to paint and have a bit more character to them.

Height wise the two work well with eachother.

From above they should work too, my plan is to use Luriko now to create the regiments, with a sprinkling of other makes to add variety.

A bag of brush bristles I brought from the old house has come up trumps again, as it is the perfect size for 15mm pikes etc. I knew it would be a good idea to bring them with me and so spent a good while cutting off the bristles with scissors. They also make great spears for 20mm Native Americans. They have also been known to litter the bases of 28mm War of the Roses bases as arrows...very useful indeed.

The pikes are given my usual treatment honed in 28mm, with the ends flattened and shaped. I also flatten and shaped the metal tangs just below the blades with the pliers. They should look good when painted.

The 30 man regiment is stuck to card ready for spraying.

The standard bearers, one of each manufacturer.

The smaller Dixon figures don't work so well with the Luriko. Still, one or two will find their way into the regiments why not, shame to waste them.

League of Augsburg

I've decided to give this period another stab. I started a regiment in 28mm a few years ago but It never really went anywhere. I think I was put off by the numbers of regiments needed for a game.

Well, my latest attempt involves 15mm figures and I'm hoping I can bash out enough regiments that I catch the bug. I haven't painted this scale for over twenty years, but I do have fond memories of my early teens painting ACW 15mm armies.

The figures are from Irregular miniatures and look good. Their proportions are good also, I have another couple of ranges coming too. The plan is to mix up all the different makes to vary the poses on the bases. The Essex figures look good.

Let's see if I can paint more than a single regiment this time.

 

Warfare 2025

I'm off to Warfare tomorrow to help run a fun zombie game set in the 16th Century.

 It's a clever game put together by the clubs chief game designer, Simon George.
 

Keep your powder dry and aim for the head!

These are some shots taken over the last few months from various play testing sessions.

Look for the light blue shirts that say Prince Rupert on them and you'll find us.

 It's always good to put on participation games and to see people remember us from last year. New year, new game but still firmly set in the black powder era, only this time with a spooky twist.

The game evolves around a group of stranded Foot guards desperately trying to shut down four undead portals. 

These portals spew out hordes of the undead that close in on the weary patrol. The guards, however, do have certain traits depending on their troop type and there are also terrain pieces that can aid in their struggle.

A barrel of spare powder put to good use.

If your at Warfare tomorrow come along and say hello, it's always good to catch up face to face.

UPDATE:

Well what a couple of days that was. I'm knackered now but it was a lot of fun and of course the cherry on the cake was winning an award.

We won 2nd prize for the participation game,

A lovely touch to the game were the exquisite props crafted by Richard Brown. I hadn't seen these before the day and was blown away by the craftsmanship. They really did help carry the game along and every player commented on them.

These two young lads had great fun and scored the highest points out of the entire event. The youngest keep coming back to ask about his score throughout the day, it made a big impact on him.

I'm not in any of these photos as I'm the one taking them.

A great looking little prize, we are getting quite a collection now.

Oathmark Heavy Orc Infantry

I made up a few of these guys last year, but then I kind of passed them by. I was wrapping up my Middle Earth project for the year and I didn't really get to review these guys. Well, I fancied painting up some orc filth and so I broke open the box again.

These chaps are heavily armoured as the name suggests. They have some great characterful heads, I tend to use the armoured ones but it's nice to have options.

There is a nice bit of Angus McBride influence in the style of the armour which is always good. The poses are also quite energetic and animated, so they work well for an advancing front line.

The figures come with the option of a hand weapon and shield or a double handed affair. There is also a scattering of belt knives and axes to fill them out.

These will be the start of my Gundabad force just to make them different, they will be re-enforced by Wargames Atlantic orcs when they finally get released.

It's always nice to paint a few orcs every now and then, you can never have too many. I will add some green stuff to these once the glue is dry.

A couple of scale shots for good measure.

 Short legs and long ape arms, these make great Mordor Uruk-hai.

Creating a standard from a wet wipe. Once the shape was cut out I coated it in PVA so it will dry hard.

Quick, easy and effective. The ragged edge should look good when it's painted.

A simple shape was cut out with scissors and I pulled at the bottom edge with my fingers to make it look torn and tatty. 

So simple to do, I'm going to use this style for my Gundabad orcs and paint them red. The red colour will make them stand out from the other orc forces. 

UPDATE:

Well as always, I got carried away with the orcs again. I couldn't resist adding some other makes to the Oathmark plastics.

My absolute favourite thing still is creating orc weapons out of brush bristles. Orc weapons are crude and nasty, these bristles once flattened with pliers can become a number of brutal weapons.

A new thing I tried today is scoring the plastic so it looks like wood and adding some fixings under the blade. This is done by scoring around the bristle so it looks like binding.

The spear shafts can be chewed by the pliers a bit to make them look more orky. Dents and grooves in the wood looks good and takes away that smooth platic fiinsh.

I love these crude hacket looking blades. I just squeezed the very tip a bit more and it flared out, making a great orc weapon.

The same was done for this one, the result was a very filmic weapon from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

An oversized mace gets swopped out to a crude simatar.

Simple but effective.

These plastic bristles are tough and take super glue really well. There is no breaking or popping off with these hand made weapons.

I ended up dipping into a box and grabbing some other makes. They all go really well with the Oathmark ones. Scotia Grendal, Oathmark and Ragnarok miniatures.

I started to play with the idea of the new Gundabad standards. These will be pendants rather than hanging banners.

Creating leaders from the Scotia Grendal range.

Now it's time to start personalizing these figures. My green stuff is old and was a nightmare to sculpt with. It didn't want to do as it was told, but I pushed on and made orky looking garments.

Simple looking cowls and capes, all with holes and rips.

The pendant banner was made from a wet wipe again, washed with PVA. I couldn't resist adding so green stuff to the metal figures too 

This cloak is interesting, it looks like heavy leather.

These banners will make Gundabad stand out for sure.

Crude and rude.

I think the putty just helps cover some of the joins and add more character.

The first banner man gets a fur cloak to bulk him up a bit.

Another officer from Scotia Grendal.

I did try to create different looking furs. I will have to order some new green stuff as this lot is past it's best. I didn't realise it had a shelf life.

I also dug out some resin figures I bought a couple of years ago. If I don't paint them now they will never get done. The resin figs are a good size and fit in well. There is no need to add any putty as they are already very detailed.

The resin orcs from eBay fit in perfectly with the other makes.

A lovely crude orc spear, it certainly looks at home in those greasy paws.

These cloaks were hard to do with my old putty, but the results don't have to be Elven quality with orcs.

I ended up with quite a gathering when I finally put the putty down.

These look good together charging forward.

Just to add some variety, I swopped this orc's big axe for a plastic sword. Many models sculpted in the ninties have oversized weapons, so it's good to tweak some.