Refererence of painting 162: The 95th Rifles.

First into battle and the last to leave...the 95th.

These pictures were taken at Kelmarsh Hall Living History Day 2011. It's worth mentioning that all the re-en actors here do the two days for free just for the love of the thing and at the same time teach so much to the general public. Hats off to them I say.

It's great to get up close and see the actual equipment being used and hearing the weapons going off etc. Great stuff.

Colour Reference: 95th Rifles.

95th Rifle colour Reference.

Many thanks to these very kind chap who cheerfully chatted to us for at least an hour. It was nice to see the uniform up close and study the equipment too.

The Baker rifle with it's classic sword bayonet.

Through the Paint Hole; 95th Rifles

Hello, and welcome to another 'Through the Paint Hole', this week in the spot light are the famous 95th Rifles.

Their dark rifle green uniforms and black facings gave these men the nick name of the 'sweeps' on the battlefield. They are still some of the most popular British troops of the Napoleonic wars, thanks to many written accounts and a little help from Sean Bean.

Kettle, pot, black I would say wouldn't you...

I haven't got around to painting my 95th quite yet but by looking at this reference, I would probably go for a bottle green washed with black ink and then highlighted with bottle green again. Anyway that's enough from me lets get on with the show...So join me, as we go throoouuughhhh the Paint hole...YAAAAAYYYY

VIKINGS!

Shieldwall!

Push on Boys!

Secundus revisits the Civil War after eight years away, read all about it.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

This picture was inspired by the true story of a fellow gamer and blogger that I read today. I have to say I do think about this scenario at least once a week and shiver.

Rebasing the Boyz

Musings of a Madman

Lately, I have been hard at work painting up another Union Regiment for my ACW collection. Being the first armies I started to paint way back in 1996, they are looking a little tired now and the painting standard is pretty low. So, I hope to repaint some of the early work and re base them to bring them up to date with my other collections.

However, I have been stopped in my tracks by the big basing question. On what size base do I put them. Having thousands of old ACW rule books kicking around from the time I decided to write my own, I have gathered that 40mm by 40mm comes out on top for the most popular games.

I like the idea of putting causalities on my stands and having at least five figures to a base, inspired by the pictures in the old Fire and Fury rule set.

Of course this led me to start looking at larger 60x40mm bases.

I could get a lovely looking base going on with that much room to play around with, my only problem was would that effect the game play? Would huge bases make a firing line just too long to game with?
Less bases was the answer, but that would effect the formation of the unit with less stands to arrange etc. Anyway you can see the problem and being an old perfectionist it has been on my mind for most of the week.

I think although I like the idea of putting loads of character into the bases I will go back to 40x40mm bases but vary them with figure numbers and causalities. This way I will still keep the multiple bases for unit formations and vary the look of units etc.

I need to get out more!

The Hungry Lieutenant

Being Civil

Union Artillerymen

Confederate Charge

Being Saturday I've grabbed some time to colour up these ACW pictures for the a new Osprey quiz book.

My first true war gaming love was my ACW Blandford uniform book and my Minifig15mm armies.
It's interesting to note, that even though I had a uniform book, I still painted most of my figures incorrect. Mind you at 15 I didn't care. How things have changed.

LIFE 3, HOBBY 0,

I have decided that Thursday will be my painting night. It's so hard these days to find time for anything 'hobby', that I have been forced to choose a night to do it. It's off to a bad start though as last night I had to go out.

I also have a pile of cartoons that are gathering dust that need to be Blogged, some of them are hardly relevant any more. Life 3, Hobby 0.

Pictures From the Edge

Under pressure...

Back to the Celts.

Next week is Celt week! They aren't going to paint themselves...

One from the Vault.

Painting Time...

I'm finally getting my head in gear as far as painting is concerned. It's hard getting back into the saddle after a long time away from the brush, but I'm going to start with just a couple of figures and lower myself back in gently.
It doesn't help that Boney keeps on at me to rebase his armies, I just haven't got time Boney...get off my back!

Roman Legionary

Horse hair crests can make a man look bigger than he is, psychological warfare in the ancient world.

Finishing off the legions.

I have finally got around to working out and painting up all the missing command bases for my Roman forces. For many years some of my oldest legions have been without their Eagles, well not any more. It's a little thing but it means I can sleep easier at night now.

Next up are those Celt cavalry which have been gathering dust over the last few months. Now the Cybermen are done I can get back to them and hopefully clear the table.



Eagles for the armies of Britannia, Africa, Pannonia and Gaul.




Above is the Eagle for the African forces, made up mostly of old veterans recalled back into service.

The Luck of the Dice

Dark Elf Surprise.

I had a lovely surprise the other day when a lone Dark Elf turned up on my door step. It had been sent by one Steve Cooper, who, after seeing my passion for the old eighties figures, had dug out then sent me one.
I didn't have that particular model which was a bonus. I was also very taken back by the extreme kindness of the chap who had to cross fire and high water to find my address. Many thanks Steve it was a wonderful surprise!

As thanks here are some real Dark Elves:

Lord Snagnec and his Black Cavern guard gather to study the strange creature killed by Longoth's arrow.
Beyond all the Gods, could it be...? The mythical being known only as a female...

The Waterloo Collection DVD's

After doing my usual trawl through Amazon to check on new Historical releases, I was delighted to see three DVD's of the battle of Waterloo.
These seemed a little too good to be true at first but they turned out to be really good.
Three 90 min DVD's covering the whole waterloo Campaign narrated by a team of battlefield tour guides, which works well. Although I had to smile at their football style, blow by blow account of Derlon's attack.
I've learnt loads which is the main thing and they are good to have on in the background while you paint. I Recommend them.

Surround Sound

Staying in tonight, listerning to tunes on my favourite sound system.

Hightech CyberLanding Shuttle

Flocked and locked, these bad boys are on a one way mission to Earth, hold on to your Enfield Alan here they come!

Can you spot the five Stealth Cybermen...no...good aren't they.


A lone Tommy calls out in vain but is quickly silenced.

Job done, right I'm off for a Cyberpint down the Cyberpub. Mind you going to the Cybertoliet might be difficult, as I can't find the Cyberzip in this damn silver Cybersuit.

Cyberstrike Force Assembled and Ready

After the Silver spray paint was dry I gave the figures a wash of black Ink. This worked really well, better than dry brushing the Silver on. This looked much closer to the original suits worn by the actors in the 80's. Here is the completed Cyberforce. It contains four squads of seven, a Stealth squad, a heavy weapon (Cybercannon), a scout squad and of course, a Cybercontroller.

Each squad is lead by a cyberleader with his black handle bars denoting his rank. There are also two casualty figures that I made up from the old Citadel plastic range. If I find time I'd like to knock up a few more, but time is a rare thing these days. Talking of time, this must be the quickest army I have ever painted.

The Cyberforce producton line.

The Cybermen reveal their secret weapon.

All based and now sprayed with Silver car paint, they start to look like real Cybermen.

As their mighty strike force starts to take shape, they begin to take of the air waves with their superior technology.

Good Cyberman reference was quite hard to come by, but these detailed action figures proved a God send. Highly detailed and with detailed weapons they proved better than anything I could find in print or online.

French lancer Waterloo 1815

This is a member of the Elite Company of the 6th Chevau-Leger-Lanciers. The 6th differed from the other lancer regiments by having buff coloured equipment instead of white, also the Elite companies had red crests rather than the usual black.

News from the Front

A French light Infantryman.

Back from Holiday

Well I'm back from Egypt and ready to kick some serious lead ass!