28mm Landsknecht Command

Just a short post today. This time out we have a Landsknecht command stand to add to my slooowly growing Italian Wars collection.

The mounted Oberste is from Wargames Foundry. He's casually draping an Imperial banner over his shoulder while haranguing one of his doppelsöldners ('double-pay' men) who, in turn, is traipsing alongside him with an imposing Zweihänder sword. The swordsman is from Warlord, previously of Pro Gloria Miniatures.

Banner is from Pete' Flags. 

This last shot is of the Landsknecht commander following behind some Swiss Reisläufer from Bern with their evidently peckish 'mascot'. 

Thanks for dropping by folks. Have a great week!

Entry #9 to the Lead Painters' League: 'If the First Effort Fails Send in Ney'

Ney leading the French cavalry to their destruction at Waterloo.

The road to hell is paved with... well, you know rest.

Yes, I had the very best intentions to have a newly painted submission for each week of the Panters' League. With this in mind, I had my 9th entry (a unit of Anglo-Saxons arrayed in shieldwall) painted, based and ready for photos - but then I decided to give the figures a spray of clearcoat. This is were my good friend Francis will groan as he'll immediately know what happened next. Yep, the spray-can that I had picked up, shook and sprayed was NOT clearcoat, but rather BLACK PRIMER.

The Anglo-Saxon shieldwall with an extra helping of gunpowder stains...

Fuuuuck. (And this, by far, was the least of the expletives that were uttered in the minutes following 'the incident'.)

To be honest it was not a complete disaster as I managed to catch my gaff during the first pass. I know I'll be able to fix the figures by touching-up the colours' mid-tones and highlights, but I knew wouldn't have the time to repair the damage before the League deadline, which loomed in only a few hours.

So I sat down, collected my thoughts and went over my options. It was obvious I'd have to forfeit the bonus points for not submitting a new entry, but I had to send in something to serve as a suitable stand-in. So after looking in my display cabinet for a few long minutes I made my decision. As the Emperor would say, 'If the first effort fails then send in Ney.' 

I created this command stand of Marshal Ney last year and it remains as one of my favourites as I really enjoyed working on it. It's composed of four 28mm Perry sculpts - all very dynamic and wonderfully animated. As the submission has to have a minimum of five figures I decided to include a casualty stand of a cuirassier toppling from his charger to compliment Ney and his staff. Again, another excellent Perry vignette which has a great sense of speed and movement. 

So there you have it. Like the unfortunate cuirassier, pride cometh before a fall. It serves me right for being in such a rush (again). 

Next week's entry will conclude the League and it calls for a Science-Fiction theme. To be honest I'm a little out of my element on this one and so I've spent an inordinate amount of time puzzling over what to do. In the 11th hour I discovered some figures that I found quite fun so I'm going to give them a whirl. Come by next week if you're interested to see what I've managed to put together for The Final Push.

(AND my clearcoat spray now has very bright red tape on it...)

From Millsy: 28mm Austrian 18th Century Commanders (40 points)

From Millsy:

These are a couple of senior commander stands for my 18thC Maurice project. 

The figures are all 28mm Front Rank Austrians, although I’ve gone to town with the uniforms as they’re for my imaginary nation. 

The rearing horses are nice but you do get the feeling the riders are barely hanging on at times.

Those are beautiful command stands, Millsy. I like the saturated colours that you've used and the groundwork complements them nicely. I do have to agree with you about the somewhat odd poses.  A couple of them look like refugees from a Terry Gilliam illustration.

These four German fellows will give Millsy 40 points.

28mm Napoleonic British Command

Just a short post on a new British command stand I completed recently.

Figures are from the Perry range. In order to make the stand less Waterloo-specific, I cut away the 'Belgic' shako from the right figure and replaced it with a bicorne from a Victrix sprue. I still have some work to do on the white horse as I'm not too wild on its midtones. 

I'm working on a few Napoleonic vignettes right now so I should have something on them in a week or so.

The 1st of July is quickly approaching so Happy Canada Day to those of the 'Eh' persuasion!

28mm Perry French Command, Foundry Young Guard Skirmishers and Plowed Field from Architects of War

 

Its been sort of hectic lately, but I managed to get some stuff off the hobby-table this week. I actually started this French command stand at the beginning of the Painting Challenge back in early February. I dunno why, but I found I just wasn't inspired by it, so its been waiting in the wings ever since. Nonetheless this weekend I resolved to put my head down and get it done so here it is.

These are 28mm Perry sculpts from their Waterloo range. The abandoned drum is a plastic extra from a Victrix box. Its funny - I've discovered that most of my command stands are composed of officers who are basically yelling at one another. I guess I always assume that tempers run high during battle so having these guys barking at each other seems sensible.

'Mon Dieu, vous êtes un imbécile! Louis! Did you leave your bloody bicorne back in your tent again?'

I used Army Painter Quickshade 'Strong Tone' on the mounted figures, matte sprayed them and then went over them again to pick up the highlights. I was concerned that the gray horse would end up being too 'muddy'  but it seemed to turn out alright once the highlight was applied. I'm pretty happy with how the Quickshade works on the whole. It suits my painting method which I liken to Kabuki theater makeup - it looks good at a distance, but as you get closer it becomes increasingly  blocky and frankly kinda ugly (Hmm, reminds me of a few pub experiences I've had...). That being said I find it works well for my purposes as I reason most wargaming stuff is seen at an arm's length away.

Next up is a group of 8 Young Guard skirmishers. These are from Foundry but the sculpts, of course, are Perry. I remember years ago seeing these castings in a colour advertisement in 'Wargames Illustrated'. I've always liked the prone and seated figures. These are on the smallish side of 25mm but they seem in the right spirit for Young Guard.

And finally here is another piece of terrain from my winter Architects of War purchase, a large plowed field with a low stone wall on the edge. Like the Vegetable Garden I pretty much painted this stock from the box and overall I'm pleased with the results.

Again, I just added some scenic tufts and groundwork to give it some extra texture.

The command stand and skirmishers will nudge me twelve points closer to John's score as we go into the final three weeks of the challenge.

A New 'Painting Challenge' Recruit - Paul from Scotland

We have a fresh new volunteer to add to our merry band of hobbists who are in pursuit of the vaunted laurels in the Spring Thaw Painting Challenge. Please welcome PaulP from Scotland (also known as Paulalba in 'blogspace')!

Paul has an excellent blog that documents both the progress of his 15mm Napoleonic collection and the gaming from his local group.  I really recommend you check it out - it can be found here:

http://napoleonicsinminiature.blogspot.com/

I'm quite impressed with Paul's painting style as it is smooth, distinct and clean - very, very nice stuff. We have a couple entries from him featured here. First up is a battery of Bavarian artillery. The castings are AB miniatures 15mm (though often referred to in the hobby as 18mm). Paul uses a mix of acrylics from GW, Vallejo, Humbrol, Foundry, and Coat d' Arms. His bases are MDF sourced from Warbases.

Next up is a late-period Prussian command stand featuring an infantry General and an officer from a Landwehr regiment. The General is a converted Battle Honours figure and the Landwehr officer is from Old Glory.

What I find particularly impressive is that Paul is just 3 years back into the hobby after a long hiatus. Pretty inspiring stuff. These two entries gives Paul a tidy eleven points. I expect we'll see much more from him in the coming weeks! Welcome aboard, Paul!

28mm Napoleonic Austrian High Command

This past August, Greg and Linda, two very good friends of ours got married (the fools) to which I had the honour of being one of Greg's groomsmen. In getting prepared for the wedding, I was at a loss trying to figure out what kind of gift to get Greg. Finally, it dawned on me that he needed some officers 'to-the-manor-born' (to lead his new Austrians to their destruction) and so I made up a command stand depicting Archduke Charles and a group of his inbred aristocratic funkies from an old pack I had from Foundry.

I've based them up to be compatible with many of the 'Grande Manner' rulesets that have been published recently. I also made sure to heavily pin all the figures to their mounts and quadruple-coat with the varnish just in case Greg feels the need to fling it across the table when my French roll over his boys-in-white... ;)

Welcome to the Club Greg!

SmackTalk: 'Off'