On the Work Bench IR-Kurprinz

Thank you to the members of the miniatures page who helped me out with the uniform details of Bavarian IR-Kurprinz. I booked my room for the SYW Association Convention yesterday and am planning on playing in the Bring Your Own Battalion (BYOB) game. In my case it will be the first Battalion of IR-Kurprinz. The battalion will be 54 strong with 48 fusilier and officers and 6 grenadiers. To the left is my first attempt at a Kurprinz fusilier. The figure is Crusador miniatures Austrian Fusilier. I still have a few questions on the uniform and may expend some creative license. The musket has metal bands crossing the barrel. My osprey books do not show these bands, should they be brass? Is this an inaccuracy on the model? Some sources list the breeches as light blue and I may paint the breeches blue for some more contrast. I am not that happy with the white either. I may use a dirtier off-white for the small clothes and facings and this brighter white for the straps. One last question what color should the gaiter buttons be yellow to match the coat?

Here is the rear of the figure, I may make the bow on the que blue. Should the buckles on the pack be brass? I may also go a little lighter with the blue but have not decided yet.









To the left is a picture of a general I started working on last night, being inspired by Ionnis' Minden Colonel picture featured on the Minden Miniatures page and the Alte Fritz Journal. I like the face of this model quite a bit, he looks very determined. I am a fan of the Dapple Grey horse so this fellow may get one. I painted the cuffs and facings black per Bavarian Generals but am not sure how to paint the lace on the cuffs and front of the coat, I will have to look into this. I painted the saddle furniture dark blue with yellow outline.

Here is a staight on shot of the face, once again very serious man. I will complete the face by painting the bottom lip a bit more pink.




View from the right.

Closer view from the right. I received a gift certificate from Lowes for Christmas so I am going to buy another lamp today after looking at these pictures. I like the Crusador miniatures and they are affordable for my 28mm stuff. I look forward to posting pictures of the Battalion as it is painted and I look forward to the BYOB game in March and meeting some of you face to face.

Parting shot, a very close-up picture of the general allowing one to se the brushing and painting technique.

Some thoughts over the Holiday Break

It has only been four months since I started blogging and creating Cavenderia and I may need a bit of revisionist history. My original history for Cavenderia were irish Catholic immigrants fleeing persecution from the Anglican English and settling on Europa. Cavenderia has evolved to be situated along the Dalmatian Coast, Dalmatia=Cavenderia, works pretty well both happen to end in ia, both are catholic nations and under Austrian rule. However, having read a bit about Dalmatia now I believe I really need to start working on irregular troops, pandours, grenz, Hussars from Twinj etc. The army should have a less organized and more irregular feel to it. I will try to incorporate Venetian architecture and more Italian heritage into the land i.e. the Venetian occupation prior to Austria. Cavenderia has a week fleet and Dalmatia had a strong merchant fleet but relied upon Venice to protect it so that fits. The title Prinz for Geoffrey I believe will still work as a hereditary representative of the Hapsburgs. Just a few thoughts on the story line.

I received 15mm old glory Anatolian sekhans and 10mm Austrian dragoons in the mail over the holidays and a regiment of Crusader 28mm Austrian fusilier regiment for Christmas. The Crusader minis will be the start of Bavarian IR-Kurprinz which I will take with me to the SYW Association bring your own battalion BAR game in March. After painting up some Sekhans I will post them with questions and I should have the first couple of dragoon uniform templates up soon. I am currently ordering another 28mm fusilier regiment (24 figs) (48 fusilier total) 8 grenadiers (I will field 6 in the battalion for a total of 54 figures) and a 3 pound cannon and crew. I already have some Crusader officers on horseback. This brings up a question, on the Seven Years War project page IR-Kurprinz has red stock, white cuffs and lapels, yellow waste-coat and breeches, but in Bile's book the waste coat and breeches are white and the stock black. Does anyone have any additional info on this brigade and where I might order some nice looking flags for the unit.

So my schizophrenia for scales continues with my 10mm old glory for grand tactical, 15mm eureka and OG for skirmish and building up to fight the Bizerrcans and now 28mm diplomats and Bavarians for the SYW Association convention. So much painting so little time. I hope to get some photos up of work in progress next week, ship off some diplomats and order some more. The Alte Fritz has painted up a ambassador to send to me, which is unsolicited and very nice. I believe, and I may be wrong, but this is the first figure painted to represent the new imagination battalions of Hesse-Seewald if so quite an honor. You can see the ambassador Herr Doppelganger on der alte Fritz journal or EvE. That is all from here tonight ciao,

Season's Greetings from the Cavenderia Diplomatic Corp.

Season's Greetings from the newly commissioned Cavenderian Diplomatic Corp. (CDC) From left to right are pictured Herr Colonel Hermann Godfrey, Signori Vittorio Moretti, Signori Umberto Basso, Signori Paolo Cipriani and Monsieur Dashiell Jeansonne.

The newly formed CDC are to be dispatched post haste to set up diplomatic relations as follows Herr Hermann to the Principality of Hesse-Engleberg, Signori Moretti is to visit our esteemed cousin at the Reich Duchy of Beerstein. Signori Basso begs to study under the master standard designer David Leinenblatt in Freistadt Tipplebruder, Signori Cipriani to our ally The Duchy of Mieczyslaw and finally Monsieur Jeansonne is to be dispatched to Saxe-Bearstein.

If the goodly lords of these nations will send a postal address to Prinz Geoffrey their diplomats will arrive within the first month of the year. This is of course only the first members of the CDC and the Prinz's top aid Detlev is dutifully searching for the proper representatives to be sent to the Grand Duchy of Stollen, Soweiter League, Duchy of Pfalz-Kognat-Obersayn, Frankszonia, Hesse-Seewald and of course the perfect Femme fatal to be sent to Monte-Cristo.

I would like to give a special thank you to Nic Robson of Eureka Miniatures http://www.eurekamin.com.au/ for supplying the majority of the CDC and John the OFM for suggesting the figure with the tea cup from Eureka. If either of you has an imagi-nation the CDC would certainly make a visit.

I hope to send many diplomats out to other imaginations as I can and hopefully the diplomats will send occasional correspondence to Cavenderia through the EvE web-site. I believe going forward the figure with the tea cup will become the official Cavenderian diplomat figure as I like his snobby look, except for Monte-Cristo which will probably be Black Scorpion's Governor's Daughter figure. Below is a close up of the three Signories. I hope to bring diplomats with me to pass out during the SYW Association Convention in March as well.
Happy Holidays everyone.

On the workbench (Bashi Bazouks)

The following are pictures of the Old Glory 15mm Bashi Bazouks I have been painting, this entry is to illustrate how to make the same pose look like several different warriors and posing a series of questions I have about Ottoman irregular troops, in this case Bashi Bazouks.

The first picture is of the first post with turban and vest probably my favorite figure style wise in the pack. These were the first I painted up since then I have learned that the Ottomans wore ruby and mustard slippers, need to verify this. Did all troops wear the red and mustard slippers or just Se khans and/or Janissary? I like the third and fourth from the left best as the color scheme looks the most like the romantic portraits I have seen, however resources have said that the bashis wore just about anything so the greens and blue lend a bit of rag-tag to the miniature. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Up next Bashis in bandannas. I like this figure, reminds me of pirates the most, especially with the stripe pants on the farthest from the right. I tried some darker skin tones on a couple of this figure. Would the Ottoman army have had darker skinned members? I do not like the green head gear on the first bashi.

Probably the best sculpted of the bunch. These have red and mustard shoes. I painted under-shirts on the two figs on the right. A couple of questions. Would they have had undershirts? They have what looks like a buckle on the front of the headgear would this be metal and what is it? Are these models actually bashis or similar to another type of infantry? The detail in this model is nice.

Picture of the back would cow-skin quivers be appropriate or what color might they be? Did they have designs on them. The large knife in the sash on the right hip, would it be in a scabbard or unsheathed? The sword on the left hip would it have a brass or silver hilt?

Command stand types and a horrible swordsman pictured above. The standard bearer is not too bad, and the commander and drummer are o.k. but they look like marionette wizards not really proportional. Would the commanders be wearing more metallic colors or be dressed like the rest? What were the drums made out of. The bashi second from the right is the other multiple fig in the set, he is waving a giant sword with one hand and an axe in the other.

Here is a shot of the bashi with the sword from above. The sword wraps around his head, I do not know what this says about the quality of steel in the Ottoman empire but I think a little more attention should have been given to this model. All of the swordsmen have limp swords.

Above is a group shot of the bashis in all their colors, they seem to blend pretty well and look menacing enough. I believe I need more red, white and beige and a little less other colors.

Bashis from the front similar as to how they will appear when based. I just noticed the lighting in all of the pictures is not very good, I will have to get some more light. I would appreciate any criticism and comments on these figs as I do not have a reference tomb at this point and have relied on the kindness of those on the miniatures page and Ottoman wars yahoo group, you guys have been great. Either respond to this post or drop me an email with your comments. Commenting on the post would be preferred as this might help someone else out in the future to read.

The pack from Old Glory come with 50 Bashis. I will update this later with number of poses per pack. I would give this pack a 6 out of 10 as it has some really nice figs but the command and the guy with the big sword do not look proportional and could use some work. Anyway that is my two cents.

Just for fun I threw in this shot of my 10mm Iron Brigade pic with Gettysburg flags. Do not know why just took the picture.

Watching the Mailbox

An update on things.

I have ordered some 10mm Austrian Dragoons, 10mm Austrian German Infantry and 15mm Ottoman Sekhans. I ordered them back on 11-21-08 and am still waiting. In the interim I have been painting many Bashi Bazooks and the beginnings of the Cavenderian Diplomatic Corp. I hope to get some pictures up soon and get some of the diplomats shipped out to Cavenderia's allies in the first quarter of next year. I have asked for some Crusader Austrian 28mm to paint up for the Seven Years War Association Convention in March, I hope to attend and bring at least a couple of grand divisions. I have been working on developing the character of Prinz Geoffrey on EvE and he is evolving into quite a bit of a sheepish imbecile, oh well not all monarchs can be heroic. Finally, once the dragoons arrive I will begin soliciting/designing dragoon uniforms. My friend Ray has provided one (1) mercenary troop in yellow coats, I tawt I taw a puddy tat.

In campaign news, still trying to paint up enough figs for the raid on Twinj. The dastardly Bizerrcans are plotting to raid the countryside and it will be up to a coastal patrol of IR-Jung to fend them off. I would also like to solicit anyone who does naval combat to do a battle of the Imperial squadron vs. the Dey's Corsairs. If anyone out there is really into age of sail combat, I would love to have you conduct the naval battles in conjunction with my foe and maybe even develop a Bizerrcan or Imperial captain, Jean Louis is very inventive with fiction so perhaps the story of a Monte Cristan cast away female masquerading as a male first mate under a Cavenderian frigate might be apropos.

Anyway, just an update on what is going on here, oh yeah I have just put my old house under contract and am looking to close by the 19th so hopefully more coin will flow into Cavenderia's coffers. Here is a shot of the new Cavenderian Manor in Huntington. Needs a bit of TLC but that is one of my other hobbies.


Buttresses!!! I actually have a house with buttresses now, can you believe it? They are on the sides of the house as well. Built in 1939 tudor revival home.


One final note, I have been contacted by the editor of http://www.dadiepiombo.com/indexuk.html an Italian/English wargames magazine about publishing my 10mm tutorial in the Spring edition. This is very exciting and quite an honor, I do have to re-work the article a bit and edit it for content and take some new pictures, my sister-in-law is a semi-professional photographer with some incredible gear. I was married in Italy in 2004 so it will be fun for the wife to read my article in Italian. Ciao,

How I paint 10mm

I thought this post might be helpful to beginning painters and also for those who have toyed with the idea of collecting an army in 10mm but thought they might be difficult to paint. I am currently using Old Glory and Pendraken for my Seven Years War armies. I painted the figures below yesterday evening while watching a football game (about 3 hours). You can click on any of the images below to get a really close look at the models. They may look quite patchy this close but look very good on the wargaming table.

Step one. Glue the 10mm strips to some tongue depressors (popsicle stick) using PVA (elmer's) glue. I glued the general to a penny with some hobby glue. I find the tongue depresser helps the figures stay upright during spray painting and gives you something to hold onto while detail painting.

Step Two. Spray "flat" black spray paint to base-coat the figures. I use enamol Krylon indoor/outdoor paint that you find at your local hardware store. It is extremely important that when spray painting your base coat that is be below 50% humidity and between 50 - 80 degrees farenheit. I can not stress this enough if too humid or out of temperature you will get globs of paint and lose all of your miniatures detail. I have had remove paint from many a fig before I learned this. Spray the models from about 8 inches with nice even movment from all sides. You may still need to touch up the black when finished. Allow time to dry.

I use regular acrylic hobby paints from suppliers like Michael's or A.C. Moore. The paint is quite inexpensive and as long as you thin them down a littel with the addition of some water they work just fine. Krylon has just released a spray can with an adjustable nozzel this allows for a wide horizontal spray that works very well.

Step Three. I dry brush a very dark brown onto the figs. Dry-brushing is when you put a little paint on the brush and then whipe the brush on some scrap paper until there is hardly any paint on the brush. You then lightly brush the entire model. The brown picks out the detail and gives you a little shading for free. I actually used the popsicle stick to get the paint off.

Step Four. This is probably the hardest step, painting the flesh. Painting the hands is pretty easy as just a dab from the brush covers them. However, you want your faces too look like faces not blank helmets. To paint the faces I make a "T" across the forehead and then down the nose. Then I dot in the cheeks and chin.

Here is a close up of the faces. It might take a little practice but it looks pretty good imho. Be careful if your paint is too thin it will bleed into the recesses like a wash, but remember even if it is not perfect this is a very small figure seen from some distance away. I do not worry about the moustaches too much, but if you want you can go back with some black and clean them up later.

Step Five. Blocking in the uniform colors.

The regiment above is going to represent IR-Pechmann from the Bavarian army and also sub for Cavenderia IR-11. Part of the fun of historical gaming is researching the uniforms. For the Bavarians I looked at a book by Biles, http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=Main_Page and some other internet sites. There is some discrepency on what color the uniform components are but I will not bore you with uniform research, this is a painting tutorial after all. The first color is the buff undercoat, lapels and cuffs. Simply dot in the appropriate color. After reading a thread on the miniatures page I found out a dark ochre yellow is a good base coat for buff.

Nest is the blue of the outer coats. You should leave a little black between belts, straps, coats, anywhere there is strong detail. One other note, at this scale and 6mm it is very important to use colors a little brighter so it brings out the details at arms length.

Step Six. Highliting. Once you have blocked in the colors you can go straight to the wargaming table with your figs. However, I like to add one highlight to the figures to give them some extra pazzaz. Simply use a color a couple of shades lighter then the blocking in color and paint it onto the raised areas of the figure. Above you can see a highlight of light blue over the generals coat it is more noticeable if you click the picture above.

Details in blocking in the colors. You will need to paint straps, hat lace, poles, pikes etc. I like to paint in an assembly line fashion, painting all the faces and hands of a couple of regiments at a time. How much detail you put in depends on you. Painting pom-poms on a hat is a very thourough level of detail. Above I have added the straps and hat lining.

Here is a close up of the detail in the drum (brass) the lace on the musicians coat, gloves on the officer with the pike and red turnbacks.

Here is the completed front of the regiment with one hightlight for everything.

Here is a view of the back of the finished regiment.

I am currently basing my units for Sam Mustafa's Might and Reason rules. For the base I use matting material used to frame paintings. My local framer donates waste pieces of matting to elementary schools for hobby projects and when he found out what I was using it for gave me scrap pieces for free. I cut the matt board into 2 inch by 1 inch strips and mount the miniatures accordingly. The general is mounted on a penny as mentioned earlier. Old Glory sales there infantry in packs of 100 and their command stands in packs of 50. With one pack of each you can get 6 regiments with some left over.

I discovered the above product on the web. It is sold as flocking gel at http://www.renaissanceink.net/ It is a little bit of model railroad ballest mixed with putty and comes in different size grains. What is nice about it, is that you can mix it with acyrilic paint and then place it dirrectly on the stands. Use a clean crafting knife to spread the gel on the stand. Alternatively you can use PVA glue and ballast mixed together or for that matter sand from the local playground.

With some practice you can have some very respectable models in a short amount of time. I painted the generals horse as a dapple gray.

A little extra detail like off color straps or stockings on the horse make each model unique.

Above is a picure of the unit and general with the flocking gel added. I usually give the gell one highlight and add some static grass but you could stop at this point. All that is missing is a brilliant flag, maybe one by David Leininblatt of http://nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com/

I hope this helps someone. If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment and I will answer as best I can.