Union Cavalry unit, Bonnie Blue Flag

On checking the regiment size for cavalry in Bonnie Blue Flag, I noticed the unit was quite small. 4 mounted bases and dismounted was similar with the fourth base being a horse holder.

I was inspired to paint one up for a bit of a change. I took inspiration from the author Kevin Calder himself and based my dismounted cavalry on round bases. 

 As my infantry are mounted on 45mm wide bases, I used the same measurements for the round ones. 

Some figures from eBay sparked the idea as they came with a few horses too.

Cavalry and infantry bases. As there are only a few in a regiment, I will use three figures to a base to bulk them out.

 

I stuck the figures down to the base, the next test is to see if I can paint them on this size of stand. My sharpshooters were mounted on 60mm bases so they were a lot easier to paint around. As my infantry are stuck down in a row, they too are much easier to paint. This will be interesting.

Well, after painting up a few bases I can safely say they weren't too difficult. There's enough room on these 45mm stands to get around the figures with a brush. Some of the piping was a bit tricky on some but nothing too bad.

The three horses I put off for another day. These will finish the unit once done.

I also need to source a standard for the command base.

The figures are from 1st Corps and like Dixon have a style all of their own.

That was fun, I enjoyed that. Another unit ticked off.

UPDATE: I got those blasted horses done, like most people I find them a bit of a chore to do.

I sprayed the unit with Halfords Matt varnish, then gave the uniform a coat of Ultra Matt varnish from AMMO. That way the metal and leather work will have a bit of a sheen to it compared to the material.

Just need to flock the base and they're done.

UPDATE: Spurred on by the recent joy of finishing a unit, it wasn't long before I was going through my drawers digging out more troopers.

These figures have been sitting unloved for over twenty years, nice to get some paint on them and push them into service.

There are some Redoubt and Foundry troopers, the Redoubt ones have to be stuck together. This is quite nice as you can create different characters.

I also did some research and came up with the idea of giving my cavalry regiments skirmish bases...or picket bases to be more accurate. 

In Bonnie Blue Flag, all regiments can throw out skirmish lines to soak up fire, there's no reason the cavalry units can't have the same.

Here we see a new cavalry regiment of three stands with a skirmisher stand behind. The skirmish stand is 35mm with two troopers on it. This can be advanced six inches out in front to form a picket line.

Good old Redoubt figures, it was great to put these together and base them up. It's a shame about Redoubt miniatures these days, I guess I'm lucky to have ordered these many years ago.

Here two broken standard bearers (Dixon) have been turned into horse holders with the help of some twisted brush bristles.

The finished horse stand gets a brush bristles too to help keep the horses steady.

A new picket line prepares to go out ahead of the dismounted regiment. These stands of two troopers can be put with the mounted versions too.

The couple of extra stands I had done before get turned into a full regiment with an added command and skirmisher base. The horse stands will come later.

Painting up Gundabad Trolls.

while I was finishing up the forces of darkness, I thought I would slap some paint on these trolls. Both trolls are resin and I bought them a while ago now. They are heavily influenced by the Jackson films in the look of their skin and armour.

After I cracked the secret of painting 'Jackson' trolls some time ago, I really enjoy doing them. 

I have too many to use in one battle, but like the orcs, sometimes I can't help myself and start after batch.

 

I think this troll is my favourite of the two.

These sculpt looks impressive but on closer inspection, details are a little crude.

The trick I think to painting these thick rhino hide creatures, is to start with the under colour first. So the soft belly and under skin colour, over this can be dry brushed the grey hide plates.

So the entire troll is painted in the soft skin colour first. Don't be too worried about the other details as these all come later. I think it's this quick stage painting of these monsters that makes them so addictive to do.

To make these Gundabad trolls look and feel a bit different, I might try a few things with their armour. Black armour would look good or maybe the verdigris look I used on the orcs.

Some nice rhino and rock reference.

Creating Orc Standards

I want my Gundabad units to be clearly distinct from the other orc formations on the board. To this end I plan to insurt some more flags and banners into them. These Gundabad orcs are all about branding!

I started off looking through eBay for some cheap standard bearers, this wasn't easy, but I did see this guy who was broken. I thought I can fix him up with a standard in less than no time, so bought him.

 

There was also a set of the resin orcs I like, that were marching with pole arms. Luckily, the pole arms were separate and so a flag pole could be inserted instead. Having long, brittle resin pole arms would never have worked anyway, but tough brush bristles are a different story. So I rounded those up too.

To add some variation, I tried different techniques out with the standard poles. I added supports and tried some that were trailing behind rather than the usual cross post.

I started off by gluing these with gel super glue to keep them in place.

I then added blobs of super glue around the post joints.

On top of these blobs I then tied cotton to act as rope. This was nice a crude looking, orcs don't spend much time on such things.

It wasn't long before I had a new group of orcy looking banner men.

I used the odd plastic piece to finish off some of the banners poles.

Poles crudely tethered together.

The next step was to cut up some pieces of Wet wipes to use as the banner itself.

These were soaked in watered down PVA to give them form when dry.

This guy above with the big banner was created a week ago to go with the big war boss character. I had to curl it slightly so the orc could see.

Rough and ready, the more tattered... the better.

I pulled and ripped the edges of the wipes to give them a tattered look.

These will look good when sprayed with undercoat. A few holes in the banner is always a good look.

The wet wipes!

Brush bristles are bloody great aren't they!

A sea of black banners is the idea, one for almost all of the bases.

UPDATE: I found some time today to paint up the latest editions to the horde. Including the mighty warlord character.

This character is meant to either represent a warlord from mount Gundabad, or a mighty black Uruk chieftain in Moria.

His armour was given verdigris and green ink washes to age and weather it.

Funny enough, I ended up choosing the earlier of the two Lund sculpts to be the war chief. There's just something a bit simpler and cleaner about the design. 

The standard bearers were painted quickly then given loads of mud washes to dirty them up.

Orc United are playing away today and all the boys are out in force.

UPDATE: The standard bearers are now mixed into  other bases. 

The command base isn't quite finished yet. I will need to give it some more thought.

The mud effects work well on the banner.

7 to a base looks good on orc bases, makes them look more packed and horde like.

This great figure finally looks more like a leader with his new standard.