Murder of Chief Cornstalk

I will be travelling to Point Pleasant, West Virginia, about 1 hour from my house, this weekend to watch the re-enactment of the murder of Chief Cornstalk of the Shawnee. Point Pleasant was the site of the largest battle of Lord Dunmore's war fought on October 10, 1774 and argued by some historians, myself not included, that the Battle of Point Pleasant was the first battle of the American War for Independence (AWI). The basis for the argument was that Lord Dunmore, Tory Governor of Virginia, was actually in league with the Indians and instructed them to attack the Virginia militia under Andrew Lewis at Point Pleasant while he delayed his wing of the Army en route. I will be filming the activities and taking photos. I may also be inclined to plan a skirmish game around the event. In painting news, since the weather has turned warm I have been doing a great deal of gardening and outdoor work, not much painting production. I have purchased some Perry Miniatures English Civil War figures and have been painting British Colonial Sudan Pendraken 10mm figures. Hopefully I will get back into painting up the Cavenderi troops again soon. I will have a report of my travels after this weekend.

The picture above is of the town's flood wall painted up with the history of Point Pleasant.

ciao

Painting anything that moves

I have been painting quite a bit lately. Just wanted to share a few pics of what I have been up to. To the left is IR-Owens of Cavenderia. My friend David did a nice write-up on the history of the unit in a previous post. The figures are Old Glory 15mm and I will need to finish the bases soon.


Next picture is of some 10mm Old Glory figs that I have painted up as Reichsarmee for my 10mm project. I will detail these in more depth as the project advances.

Next up a new Cavenderi Hussar regiment, the Economou Hussars. I have not written anything about this unit yet but found myself painting up a nice looking dragoon one evening and naming the unit after my Brother-in-law. Perhaps an ex-Morian commander in Cavenderi service. The uniform is dark blue with light blue horse furniture and yellow trousers and cuffs withwhite chords, bearskin hat with yellow bag and black feathers.

Side view just realized I need to finish the horse.

Left side view with a view of his rifle. Very animated pose for the rider but it does not look as thought the horse is willing to start trotting.

Some 10mm mideival miniatures. D'monyar halbadiers and the Dread Lord Redecker. Some minis I am working on for some Warmaster gaming.

15mm Egyptian Fellah Infantry for my Sudan Blog. Very unhappy with this paint job, but this is a review of what I have been painting not the painting itself. :)

10mm Crossbowman, the McGill Free company of crossbowman.

15mm Battle honor fig, sculpted by Anthony Barton, some of the best looking 15mm figures I have seen. I bought a few packs for Fire and fury and Brother vs. Brother rules. This fellow is a southern veteran skirmisher.

Some Yankees have appeared to get the drop on the old confederate.

All figures Battle honors figures sculpted by Anthony Barton. Mounted on pennys for skirmishing.

Warhammer 28mm Greatsword painted up a Landsneck. I went a little crazy on the amount of ribbons and colors but it was fun to paint. I found this old Albrecht Dhurer post card and used it for the background. I do not usually do non-metallic, metallic painting but gave it a shot on this figure. The sword, hilt and breast paint are all acryllic non-metalic paint. I also was playing with my photo software and made the background fade to black and white.

White background. More photography fun. Settling in to paint a bunch of Fuzzy Wuzzys (10mm Pendraken) for my Sudan blog but will try to stay on task painting up SYW stuff and will try to get some games and fiction in soon.

ciao,

Update

10mm project is moving along, I have painted up some infantry and cavalry. A little off pace but plugging away. I will try and get some pictures up soon. I may get to go to the SYW convention yet, looking like 60/40 so I had best get to painting up the Bavarian cavalry. I had a painters moment last night. I was painting some 10mm Wurttemburg Infantry and finished a stand when I looked over and saw an old GamesWorkshop Empire Greatsword figure that I had primed black a while back. I have not played Warhammer in years but something inspired me to pick up the little guy and have a go. Before I knew it, it was one o'clock in the morning and I had a really nice looking fig finished. I am a little tired this morning. I had no idea it was so late I was just caught up in the moment painting away and listening to music. I have based IR-Owens for Cavenderia and will try to finish the bases for a photo. I have believe my next post will be a bunch of pictures of everything I have been painting. It has been a little bi-polar all of the different projects, even painted up some 10mm Napoleonic miniatures, why? I don't know, however just a quick post wanted to share my Zen painting moment and hope you all have one soon.

State of Cavenderia

I have been painting quite a bit lately and formulating some plans. I have been painting 28mm Crusader Cuirassiers as Bavarian Taxis Cuirassiers for the Seven Years War Convention. I have nearly completed Cavenderi IR-Owens as Old Glory 15mm figs and have started painting 10mm Old Glory figs as the Reichsarmee. I have also painted up some 15mm Old Glory Egyptians for my Sudan blog but I digress.

I have been threatening to play a game for a long time but never manage it. Therefore, a plan must be put into place.

1.) I have four sets of rules that I wish to play with escalating bases needed for each system.
2.) I can paint 10mm figs the fastest usually painting up 10 figs or one 30 x 30 mm base during my lunch hour at work.
3.) I have complete reference materials for most historical SYW armies, Pengal and Hurt, Biles, Osprey and web sites.
4.) I have a pretty good relationship with my old glory distributor.

Step one.
Might and Reason Sam Mustafa: only requires two (2) bases per unit, i.e. brigade that means I can reasonably paint up three (3) units a week and should be able to paint up two (2) small armies in a month. So my plan is to play a game of Might and Reason around the first of March.

Step two.
Piquet Field of Battle: requires four (4) bases per unit. i.e. brigade, so if I repeat the exact same painting plan as the month of February I should have enough units to play a game of Piquet Field of Battle by early April.

Step three.
Die Kriegspeil: I just purchased this set of rules and have read through it, looks as if most units require six (6) bases per unit i.e. battalion, so I can sprinkle in some grenadiers and follow the same painting scheme allowing me to play a game of Die Kriegspeil in May.

Step four.
Fire and Fury for SYW, large units are required for this game, if I follow my same painting output I could generate eight (8) bases per unit by June.

I have selected the Reichsarmee to paint up as this will let me paint many different uniforms and flags. I think for the allies I will paint up the Hanoverians and Brunswickers. Additionally, I intend to play some additional rules sets when able, Pro-Gloria, Warfare in the Age of Reason, both of which I already have and probably purchasing BAR and Koenig Krieg.

I will attempt to update daily during this run if not at least weekly. Looking forward to this project. I also hope to catch up on some of my old projects, the documentary of the Reich Duke Wilhelms visit and Cavenderi fiction, the fate of poor Dukas has been suspended for some time.

Hope everyone is well.

ciao,

Taxis Cuirassier

Although I may not make the Seven Years War Convention in Southbend this year, my goal has been to paint a unit of 28mm Bavarians each year for the convention. I do not play in 28mm but was inspired by pictures of Bill Protz's war games. The opportunity to play in last years "Bring your own Battalion" BAR game with Bill and other bloggers of note was too much to pass up. So looking around the web I decided auxiliary corp Bavarians would be my contribution to the game. Looking back, Reichsarmee Bavarians might have been a better choice as Mr. Protz fields the French but I liked infantry regiment (IR)-Kurprinz's uniforms.

So long story short, I painted up a battalion headed to the convention and watched my battalion get wiped out on turn 2 by "those dreaded black hussars". I immediately vowed that next years unit must be some cavalry to protect my precious battalion.

I began researching Bavarian cavalry and soon discovered that all of the Bavarian cavalry remained on peace time establishments and did not take the field in battle. Oh well, wrong infantry why not incorrect cavalry to match, so for this year's unit I selected Taxis Cuirassiers. A Bavarian cavalry regiment consisted of 9 companies of 38 men divided into 3 squads or 114 men per squad in BAR 1:10 man ratio that is 12 figs for a cavalry squad.

For Christmas I was given a box of Crusader Austrian Cuirassiers, thank you sister. To the left are a series of pictures of my first Taxis Cuirassier trooper. I also received a new digital camera for Christmas and have not gotten the hang of it yet so the pictures are a bit dark.

I checked some on-line resources and decided the red horse furniture and white coats would make a nice contrast to my blue infantry. I have developed a couple of new techniques over the year in painting and will share them here.

I have discovered that I like to highlight black with a dark gray-green color. I have tried different grays and blue in the past but find that the green really works for me. You might try it and see what you think.

I have also started painting white with a first coat of a reddish brown, followed by a taupe and then a creamy white, this gives the effect of a slightly worn white coat. The cream color makes a nice contrast to the stark white straps.

I am still crap at painting red, but I probably always will be. I paint gray in the areas for the red first, this makes the red brighter but I have not figured out how to make a nice highlight. I have experimented with oranges and adding white but neither works to my taste.

A final note, the build of the trooper is a bit slighter than the build of the infantry and I think this makes him look more proportional, although he does have a very square jaw and shallow face making him look quite a bit like former Pittsburgh Steelers Football coach Bill Cowher.

I have enjoyed painting this fig and look forward to painting up the entire unit. I took a little artistic license on the lapels making them entirely blue as opposed to just lined with blue. One thing that did strike me as odd about the figure was the amount of flashing between the horses' front legs. I had to remove quite a bit and if you look it is pretty messy. Other than that it is a pretty good looking model. Perhaps one day this valiant Bavarian trooper will teach those dastardly hussars a lesson.

Thanks for stopping by. Next up some 15mm Old Glory Cavenderi battalions and when my rules arrive a review of Kriegkunst (General de Brigades, SYW rules).

ciao,

Happy New Year

Thought I better jump on here and wish everyone a Happy New Year and lay out some resolutions. I ordered Der Kriegkunst rules from Scale Creep miniatures today and am very excited about playing a few games next year. It appears my basing for my Cavenderi troops will work out perfectly for this game and with the small scale engagements I should be able to get some games in soon. I have been inspired lately and have started painting a bit recently, I now have a couple of blogs going Cavenderia and my recent Sudan blog, my New Years' resolution is to split my time between the two and try and post more often. I hope everyone will have a great evening and a great year. I need to know how this Olley painting point thing works so I can keep track next year. Finally, I do not believe I will be making the SYW convention this year but I did get some 28mm Crusador Cuirassiers for Christmas so who knows.

ciao,

Sudan Blog

Have not been doing much with Cavenderia the past few weeks, I have been focused on weight loss and a new infatuation, the Sudan Campaign. I have started a new blog www.captainverbeek.blogspot.com if anyone would like to check it out. I will be playing my first Sudan campaign battle this evening and will post about it there. I am thinking of projecting out the history of Cavenderia to the 1880's and perhaps having a fictional Cavenderi Colonial Campaign. In the interim I have base-coated a couple of regiments of Austrian Infantry and French Cavalry to paint up the wife works this weekend so maybe I will get IR-Christie painted and some photos up this week. Promises, promises, I imagine this Cavenderi lull will be over soon.

ciao,