Off to Origins

Heading off to Origins in the morning with my friends Mike Fitzgerald his nephew and Twighlight 2013 publisher Keith Taylor. If you have not heard Keith has recently released the RPG Twighlight 2013, Twilight 2000 third edition. Here is a link to the web-site for interested parties.

http://www.93gamesstudio.com/site/

I have looked over the miniatures events for Saturday and am looking forward to playing Volley & Bayonet which I have not played before. The scenario is a Toulouse in the Napoleonic era. Additionally, I am going to attend a seminar or two on game design and publishing. One seminar is sponsered by Mayfair games.

One lecture of interest is the Villainous General Bragg and the western theater of the American Civil War, probably will attend that. I will take a bunch of pictures for a future post. Finally I always enjoy the vendor's room.

ciao,

Duc de Brissac and IR-Bourbonnois

I was able to do some painting yesterday and have added another general to the French forces for my western theater scenario.

To the left is the Duc de Brissac, Old Glory (OG) 15mm Seven Years War French General. The Duc will be leading the French cavalry so I thought this very animated miniature would suit him well. He is based on a metal washer which had renaissance ink flocking gel and regular flocking gel and static grass added.

Here is a view from the side. I spent a little bit more time on my general figures, adding eyes and concentrating on the lace etc. On this miniature to add a little more contrast I added the stockings showing above the boot and put him on my favorite horse to paint, the dapple gray. French generals did not wear specific uniforms so the idea for this uniform is blue coat as most infantry and the rest from a nice site, I can not recall the link at this time.

The other side of the general you can make out his yellow waste-coat and some additional gold on the cuffs. For an experiment I tried a green gray highlight on the horses reins, I think it looks nice, I will probably use this more often in the future.

What is a cavalry general without cavalry? Therefore the next unit I am painting are some Curiassier Etranger, so the Duc will not be lonely.

It has been suggested, jokingly, that I have miss labeled my miniatures as 15mm when they are actually 25-28mm. Here is a side by side with a Front Rank Austrian general for comparison and legitimacy :) Although technically speaking with enough photo-shop tweaking one could manipulate a 28mm figure photo :))

I have completed painting IR-Bourbonnois who will be under the command of the formerly photographed General Chevelas.

I enjoyed painting the drummer in his royal coat. I have not completed the basing on the entire unit when I do I will post. to the left is a sneak-peak of the unit. I am not certain that I am completely happy with the leather belts, oh well plenty of French to experiment with.

Another view of the infantry with a better shot of the chain lace on the drummer. I went with an actual metallic gold for the trim of the tricornes per Mr. Protz recommendation. I really like the blue on the drum and wish the regular infantry had a bit more color, oh well, such is life.

A side-by-side photo with a 28mm Bavarian drummer for scale reference. The 28mm drummer is Crusader and part of my Bring your own battalion that fled on turn two at the SYW convention this year.

The wife has to work this weekend so I may have a greater painting output than usual and should have an update on the attempted rescue of Spyridon Dukas for the Adriatic campaign early next week.

ciao,

First Completed Brunswickers and French

I have completed my first historical regiment for my western theater scenario. Pictured to the left is the Duchy of Brunswick Leib Regiment. The figures are Old Glory (OG) 15mm Prussian Infantry. Uniform colors were researched using William Biles booklet: Uniforms of the Seven Years War A Painter's Guide Volume 1: Prussia, England, Hanover, Hesse-Cassel & Brunswick. The flag is the pre-1760 version of the leib standard provided by http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=Brunswick_Leib-Regiment

Second picture of the Leib Regiment with a better view of the standard. The bases are 3/4" x 1" metal bases by Wargames Accessories ordered through http://www.scalecreep.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=217_218 The bases were textured with Flocking Gel from http://www.renaissanceink.net/index.php?body=gels.html

Final picture of the battalion. After the Flocking Gel is applied to the bases I finished them off with some static grass and model railroad flocking from http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=woodland+scenics&aq=f&oq=&aqi=n1g10 purchased at my local craft store. I use generic craft paints that you can pick up at places like A.C. Moore.

For some unknown reason the musicians of the Leib Regiment wore yellow coats with red swallows nests trimmed white. I enjoyed painting this unit and especially the drummer. This is my first attempt at adding lace to the infantry uniforms and I think it turned out pretty good. Simple white lines down the lapels do the trick.

Another photo of the drummer. The drum is bordered with a striped pattern and is supposed to have the Brunswick coat of arms on the brass drums but even my maniacal detailing neurosis has it's limits. The finished battalion is four (4) stands totaling 16 figs. I have based the figures for the Fire and Fury rules Seven Years' War variant Age of Honor. Each figure represents approximately 80 men for a regimental strength of 1,280. Mr. Biles list the regimental strength of Brunswick units as two (2) battalions of 600 musketeers with 140 grenadiers per battalion or 1,480 troops. Close enough for my goals.

Next picture is of French Brigadier General Chevelas. Biles' pamphlet on the French uniforms states that French generals did not adhear to any specific dress-code and wore coats of red, white and blue. I decided Monsieur General Chevelas would were red. I really need the practice painting red not to mention everyone knows the old joke about "Bring me my red jacket!"

Rear view of General Chevelas. In my French army General Chevalas will be in command of Infantry Regiments (IR) Bourbonnois and Rouergue. I have seen several spellings of IR-Rouergue, if any one could give me a definitive spelling that would be fantastic.

Final picture is of a French Royal artillery crew sans cannon, I have not completed it yet. I like the figure who has decided to remove his coat, makes since to me. These are my first attempts at white gaiters. Not too bad but I think I can do better. Next on the workbench is IR-Bourbonnois.

In Cavenderian news, I will be gaming the Rescue of Dukas naval scenario using Warfare in the Age of Reason Volume II, naval rules that I picked up back in March and should be able to post the results soon in a battle report and Adriatic Campaign narrative.

As always you can click on any of the pictures for a very large picture.

Head west young man...

I have had an itch to do some historical units and have decided to indulge my Francophile desires with the purchase of several bags of Old Glory (OG) 15mm French (50 Infantry, 16 Cuirassier, 6 Cannon and crew and a bag of generals). I also recently painted up a unit of Prussian infantry as Brunswickers. After having gamed the battle of Warburg I have developed an interest in the Western European theater of the Seven Years War (SYW) and am painting up a scenario for Charcon (Charleston, West Virginia gaming convention) for the fall. The con game should be very colorful with French against the allies. Cavenderian regiments will fill the role of the French Swiss infantry units allowing me to discuss imaginationhood with any players as well. I painted up the a few ensigns last night and wanted to post them as an appetizer to my renewed painting.

The corp of my new Armee France, from left to right Infantry Regiments (IR), Champagne, Latour du Pin, Bourbonnois and Rouergue. These units will be accompanied by IR-Enghein, IR-Touraine and several Cavenderian infantry units.

The miniatures are OG 15mm as mentioned earlier and the flags are paper flags I made from David's Not by Appointment blog http://nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com/search?q=flag

Click on pictures to enlarge.

The uniforms variances of these units is very slight with only variations of what parts of the collar, cuffs and vests are red. The artillery, cavalry and Cavenderian units will add some additional color to this army. I like the small addition of the buttons on the flags.

The picture to the left is of Brunswick Leib regiment Colonel flag pre-1760 from the Seven Years War Project web-site, http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=Brunswick_Leib-Regiment I have to admit, this is one of the most interesting flags I have seen of the SYW period. The flag inspired me to paint this unit and this is my first foray into painting button lace upon the lapels.

The miniature is an OG 15mm Prussian and I have nearly completed the first battalion. I will post pictures upon completion.

This is a picture of the rear of the figure photographed from some distance to illustrate how the detail of the flag is still discernible at some distance. I can not praise the SYW Project web-site enough for their presentation of unit flags. I must note though that I have found some discrepancy between the site's uniform descriptions and other source materials. For the Allied army and French I am defaulting to reference material supplied by William Biles guides.

Final photo is a close-up of the detail in the Brunswick Leib flag. I will let the picture speak for itself.

I hope to update the blog a bit more in June as work progresses.

On the Cavenderian front, we are beginning construction of our royal coach and eagerly await the arrival of Duke Wilhelm of Beerstein and have began recruitment of additional members to our diplomatic corp.