Sunday, 31 January 2021

6mm Figures & Vessels from Dave.

Shared today by Dave are some fantastic figures and vessels painted by Dave for his Irish WIlliamite Wars and Pirates Projects

Rear Rank (L to R): Lord Grand Prior's, Gordon O'Neill's & Earl of Antrim's
Front Rank (L to R): Lord Louth's, Lord Bellew's & Lord Eustace's

Some 6mm Irish for the 1690 campaign. These 6 regiments were among those who fought for King James at the Battle of the Boyne.

Next-up are some vessels from Dave's growing nautical collection, all 1/450th Peter Pig.

Seems that Pirates liked the smaller vessels as they were faster, more maneuverable, and were able to get up and over shallow seas. 


A Schooner

A small warship - a Brigantine

A Sloop

Great work Dave!

AHPC XI, Mike W - Warhammer Beastmen Herd

So after completing work on the Lizardmen and Skeletons in my last posts, I fully intended to return to something more historical. How wrong I was!


Figures waiting to be painted, can you see the red one?


Work turned out to be much busier than expected and so I reached out for a bunch of pre-primed Beastmen figures that were lurking in the same box and the Lizardmen I'd just completed.

Finished figures 

I'd put these to one side as they were primed in black with an over spray of grey, not my current preference but when I finally had time to devote to some painting the chore of cleaning up flash and priming 20-30 figures wasn't very appealing...

Unit from their Right Flank

Thus, I decided to work with the Beastmen, despite the fact that, many years ago,  I'd for some reason painted one of them red, my guess is that they were going to be some sort of Chaos Beastmen horde but this time round I decided to go for some more 'natural' colours.

And the same unit form the Left Flank

Not knowing what the natural colour of a Beastman was, I opted for the obvious, Army Painter Monster Brown!

Monster Brown is a fairly light coloured brown so I also used a bark brown to do all the Beastman fur  and hair. I dry-brushed the monster brown with bronzed flesh to give the creatures a kind of semi-human effect,

The eight smaller, thrusting spear armed Beastmen

I opted for a dull red colour for all weapon handles, with steel blades and a brighter red loincloth on each figure.

Some of the larger 'Front Rank' Beastmen

Other details were added as required before using a flesh was on body parts, strong wash on fur and wood etc and dark wash on the weapons.

Close-up of Musician and a couple of the larger Beastmen

The banner was done to represent a Beastman hide with a red logo added. Shields were painted on the sprue and then superglued into place before matt varnishing all.

Command Figures (L to R), Standard Bearer and Champion, plus one other

By wat of change I pre-mixed some fine sand, electrostatic grass, died sawdust ad sponge fragments to apply to the figure bases.

Oddly the set seems to have been marketed as a Beastmen Horde / Herd, this seems t explain why 8 of the 20 figures are significantly smaller than the others. I took this to imply they were 'youths' and I have placed them in the back ranks of the unit armed with small shields and long thrusting spears, so they can join in the fighting from a distance whilst the big guys get in close with two hand weapons each.

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it...

When Claymores did Wield - The Teams

 


By way of introduction, here are the teams, results of the first Councils of War will be available Tuesday, likely in eth afternoon! You'll then get details of your next scenario options...




Wednesday, 27 January 2021

Tales of the Clan McBlack and their part in the ‘45 - Part One

Soon after the army reached the rallying point at Glenfinnan it made camp for the night. Hoon McBlack was sitting in his pavilion and in the dim light of his stubby sputtering candle he and his Captains were making plans for the next day. It was a freezing cold, frosty night, one where even snow thought it unwise to fall. Because it was so mild Hoon had the flap of his pavilion opened up to let the balmy warm air waft over him and his men. 

Hoon McBlack
“Clement weather for August is it not” says Captain Gleen, “Aye” says Hoon, “I’ve né seen nothing like it”. 

At this a runner came into the pavilion sweating profusely from the cold. 

“My McLaird, there’s a Mcentourage from James Stuart come into camp”. 

Getting up with a start Hoon said 

“What, the Prince himself has come ta greet us?” 

“Ne my McLaird, just one of his flunkies” Sullen faced Hoon sat down again. “Urrrgh” he growled “We’re ne gooood enough furrr the Prince himself. Who has he sent then?” he asked angrily

“It’s William Murray Marquis of Tullibardine, one of the seven companions who accompanied the Bonnie Prince aboard the Du Teillay my McLaird”. 

William Murray
At this Hoons face dropped, “Murray!” says he “Thaaart loser.” 

“Why do you call him a loser?” enquired Captain Tomagg. 

“Because he came over in 1715 and 1719 where we got our arses kicked at the battle of Prestonpants. Let him come however and we’ll show him real Clan McBlack hospitality”.

As he approached Murray was wrapped in a thick silk lined woollen cloak, gold embroidered jacket and white cravat. His golden locks fell from beneath a gold laced Tricorn and his breath poured out from his cupped hands like steam as he tried in vain to warm them. 

“Lord Murray” says Hoon, “Ya very welcome ta ma hoom from hoom. Now come in an warm ya self by this roaring candle and take off that heavy cloak and put on this blanket of warm porridge. Och man, yu’ve spent tooo much time in the warm climbs of Italy and have become soft. Tis balmy warm weather for August. Ah can if you so wish close the flap over ta keep the heat from the candle in the pavilion but yeeel hav te put up with ma men an me sweating like pigs if ya do”. 

“Och lads né, twill be fine as it is” says Murray.

“Doya have anything warming that ah can drink though?” 

“Aye, we have a fine feast a coming soon that yull be sure té enjoy”. 

The feast consisted of fine meats, cheeses and bread which surprised Murray for he thought Clan McBlack still feasted on Porridge. 

“Och né” says Hoon, “Those days are long gone but there are those that harp back té the old days and still lust for the stuff but for me tis good riddance”. 

Hoon and his captains were filling their flagons and gulping down vast quantities of Porrigine, the like of which Murray had never tasted before, and was glad he never had to taste again, it felt like his insides had melted. Scratching his head Murray frantically tried to find a point of conversation and his eyes alighted upon an object standing in the corner of the Pavilion. 

“What's that in the corner there?” 

“That” says Hoon walking slowly over to it and patting it proudly with his paw like hand “is the great sacred McCaber of Clan MacReekie that we captured in a raid only last week and we’re holding it hostage until the McReekies come to their senses”. 

“So the Clans are still at war with each other then?” asks Murray, and then all of a sudden it sunk in “You’re doing what, holding it hostage?” 

“Well” say Hoon “the thieving bastards stole our bucket so that was that, so here it is in our safe hands”.

 “So you went to war over a bucket?” exclaimed Murray. 

Looking at Murray rather bemused Hoon said “Aye, over a bucket, and what’s wrong wi’ tha’, you know the Clan ways, anything for é fight. I think only last year we went té war with Clan MacHaggis” 

“What was that over” inquired Murray “A wash basin?”

“No” says Hoon “They insulted ma wife’s hat pin so we gave ‘em what furrr. Ma Lord, yé really have spent too long in Italy and yeeve forgotten where yé come from”.

Looking rather sheepish Murray tried to change the conversation and made mention of the clan’s camp followers, something that he wouldn’t normally bring up being a man of his high stature, but Murray couldn’t help but be curious.

“I say” says Murray, “Those camp followers o’ yours the ones without beards, what race are they?”

“They” Says Hoon “are the same as us “Porridginii”. 

“and the ones with beards?”enquired Murray “Those are “Porridginii” who haven’t shaved”. 

“I see” says Murray. “But why do only half of them shave?” 

“So that they can tell the difference”. Says Hoon 

“Tell the difference from what?” asked Murray 

“Between those that have beards and those that don’t” says Hoon looking rather stupefied.

“To avoid all this confusion” says Murray, “why don't the ones without beards grow beards? 

“Well, that would be rather unfair” replies Hoon. 

“Unfair?” asks Murray “Why?” 

“Well” says Hoon “The ones without beards are women, you see. That's how we tell the difference, you understand” 

“My God” exclaims Murray “So is it the same with all the Porridginii, your women look the same as the men?” 

“Och eye” says Hoon “It happened té ma family. When I was young, I couldné tell the difference between ma mother nor ma father, so ma father made ma mother grow a beard”. 

“Ahhh” replies Murray ”an yé were able té tell the difference?” 

“Né” replies Hoon 

“Why not” asked Murray,

“Because ma father had a beard, too!”

Everyone began to roll around with laughter slapping their hands on the table or their thighs and spilling Porrigine everywhere, some even fell off their stools with mirth, Murray just sat their totally perplexed. Half drunk with Porrigine and seeing that Murray wasn’t laughing he said to Captain Tomagg 

“Tomagg, Tomagg, go, go get the thing”

 “The thing?” said Tomagg, 

“Yes the thing, ya know wha ah mean man, the thing!” Says Hoon bleary eyed 

“Oh the thing” says Tomagg knowingly.

Staggering off he shortly came back with a large wooden box which he placed on the table. Grinning stupidly Hoon opened the lid slowly. “Shhhooosh” says Hoon drunkenly with his finger over his lips,

“Don’t make a shooound. “Come look” says he beckoning Murray with a floppy hand. 

To Murray’s surprise the box was filled with water and floating in the water was an enormous trout. With a deft hand Hoon plucked the trout out of the box and threw it on the table. It sat there for a few seconds then began to thrash around gulping for air. By this time Hoon and his men were laughing so much that most of them were rolling around on the floor holding their stomachs whilst the others were slumped over the table with tears rolling down their eyes. 

“Ohhh my God” thought Murray, “They’re all bloody mad!” 

Next came Highland dancing with hairy beardless maidens that would have made a troop of chimpanzees look as though they had alopecia but Hoon and his men drooled over them as if they were the most striking women in all of Scotland. The evenings “entertainment” was rounded off with Hoon and his men running around the pavilion with huge mallets chasing after a Tortoise like creature that ran faster than anything Murray had ever seen, and with more than just one cracked skull.

With the sound of laughter and snoring slowly receding behind him Murray made his way back to the marquee of the Bonnie Prince. Bedecked in Moy Hall plaid the Prince was in conversation with his Generals but on seeing Murray the Prince approached him with both arms outstretched. 

Prince Charles

“Hey Mama Mia, Lordá Murray, howá isá youá doing?” he said in a fine Italian accent. “Haveá youá beená toá seeá the MacaBlacks?” 

“Yes I have M’Lord” says Murray 

“Andá whatá areá theyá likeá" 

“Well M’Lord they’re um, they’re, well they’re all completely Bonkers M’Lord”. 

“Whatá isá thisá Bonkers?”

Murray thought for a while and said in Italian “Essere suonato M’lord”. 

“Essere suonato! Are theyá notá the ferociousá warriors thatá á haveá beená told about?” 

“They are definatley ferocious warriors M’Lord but they’re completely Mad ya know”. At that point a servant came in to offer Murray a warming glass of scotch. 

“Hoon has a caber standing in the corner of his pavilion that he’s holding hostage M’Lord”. At this the servant dropped the tray of drinks with a crash and looked aghast. The Prince turned to him and looked him in the eye 

“Heyá, youá smashá my glassá I smashá yourá faceá now getá outá myá sightá. These MacReekies don’tá makeá veryá goodá servants. So hesá holding á caber asá hostage is he, Eyesá seeá whatá youá meaná. Butá weá haveá toá haveá asá many men asá we caná getá hold of” says the Prince. 

The Prince then turned his back to beckon one of his generals. Murray looked down at the floor and muttered to himself 

“Well you might want to consider enlisting their women if you need recruits that badly”.

Tuesday, 26 January 2021

AHPC XI - Mike W, Egyptian Undead Skeletons

My final post of the day is a batch of Warhammer Tomb Kings undead skeletons, painted to contribute to my new mini project. I'll now get back to some more historical figures - or maybe some Orcs for the Orc Room!

The finished unit.

These old figures were found over the weekend, they were actually undercoated already so the painting job was already to go! On the white undercoat I applied a dark tone wash and allowed it to dry. Then I dry brushed with a a light earth colour and then applied another wash before dry brushing with a bone colour created from light sand and light earth colours.

Row of 5 figures

Weapons were painted black - taking a leaf from the recently completed Lizardmen, and shields were painted light blue.

Another Row of figures

Gold trim was then added to all the appropriate laces and then bark blue and light blue details were added to complete the look. All pieces of cloth were dry brushed a light sand colour.

Command Row of the unit

Figures were then dipped in Army Painter Strong tone and when dry they were given a matt varnish. Fine sand was added to the stands and a dry grass tuft added to each base.

Unit Standard Bearer


Unit Musician

Unit Champion


AHPC XI - Mike W, [Oubliette] Warhammer Lizardmen Regiment

Whilst skulking around my piles of figures, looking for old Warhammer Skeletons to press gang into my new Egyptian Undead mini project, I came across some sprues of Warhammer Lizardmen that had remained forlornly in a box of bits for many, many years.

Completed Unit of 14 x Lizardmen

Mixed amongst them were a also a few Beastmen, these need some more work to pull together into a presentable unit for the challenge - need to find a lot more bits in the bowels of the plastic pile - but hopefully there'll be something to see in a few weeks time...

Another view

So what we have here is 14 x Lizardmen, including a Standard Bearer and a Musician, I must assume the Leader for the unit is around somewhere but to date (well over the weekend) I could not find him.

Unit's Standard Bearer and Musician

My guess is that these figures have been languishing near the bottom of the pile for about 16 or 17 years, time enough to give them a nice lick of paint...

I opted for a Green and Ochre colour scheme for these creatures, highlighted with red accessories and a lavish amount of 'old' gold for decorations, along side various more natural spikey bits on their shields. The weapons I'd keep muted, with black spear shafts and a slate grey blade, with a shiny silver cutting edge!

Three of the Lizardmen - more close-up view...

As usual I undercoated in white before painting the creature's under bellies an ochre colour, then I used  a bright green to do their upper halves and some smaller scales that extent along their limbs into the more general ochre areas.

Three more lizardmen

Their mouths got a red wash and teeth highlighted white, spikes along their back were done in natural  pale ochre colour, some were capped with golden ornamentations. A Dark Tone wash was applied all over.

Shields were painted on the sprue

I left the shields on the sprue and painted these red with gold trim and 'natural' horn spikes where needed, these were washed with black ink. Where I have to dos a lot of similar shields I often leave them on the sprue to get a consistent feel and  then superglue them in place when ready.

This approach also means I can be painting the shields whilst the figures are drying and vice versa.

Final view of the scaly creatures

I have deliberately left the figures with a gloss finish as I wanted to convey that they are wet, I need to figure out some way of reflecting this on the bases - i.e. puddles of water etc.

AHPC XI, Mike W - 28mm Border Ruffians

A quick batch of 11 x 28mm Elizabethan Border Ruffians, I found these lurking in the 'to do' pile and after doing the Irish last week it seemed a natural progression to get these guys completed as well.


Finished group of figures

I believe that these figures are from the Reiver 'Flodden' range, so arguably a little early for the core Border Reiver period, however I'll use them as low status garrison troops or town guards etc.

Halberds at the ready

All of them are in leather jacks, with various degrees of chain mail and helmets present to give additional protection. All are in some kind of 'hose' rather than trousers - which seems to be the give away regarding exact period that they are from, however a number are also in riding boots and a couple are in bonnets that give them the Border Ruffian look and feel.

Some grim agricultural tools in use

As ever, I undercoated these in white and then allied various layers of paint to build up the base colours before using ink washes to highlight and shade as needed.

Guys with Bills

The weapons that they carry look pretty grim, a number of Halberds / Bills plus some pretty fierce looking agricultural tools converted to military use!

Two more of the little guys

All sealed with matt varnish and a fine sand and electrostatic grass finish to the bases

More agricultural weapons and a spear

Sunday, 24 January 2021

AHPC XI - From Grahame H, 15mm 1866 Austrian Army

My plan for this years challenge was to paint a 15mm 1866 Austrian Army. Given the limited size of my table, 6’x4’, I decided, unlike my other armies, to be sensible and paint an army that might actually fit on the table. So I decided to painted 12 infantry battalion, 3 cavalry regiments and 2 gun batteries. 

What I didn’t think I would do was paint it within the first month. 


All the figures are 15mm Essex, so rather than show you every unit, and avoid duplication, I have just taken some pictures that show the various units.

First the infantry battalions. There are 12 of theses, each with 32 figures. Every 3 battalions makes a regiments. The only real difference is a small coloured patch on the collars so I have only shown one regiment with its 9 figure jäger attachment and its 2 commanders. 


Next are the cavalry. 3 regiments each of 18 figures. 

1st Uhlan

1st Hussars

2nd Hussars

The artillery. Two batteries each with 3 guns and a limber. I only have one limber per battery as they are so expensive for what the actually do during a game and Essex don’t make an Austrian limber so I had to do some head swaps on some Prussian one.

Finally the CinC. I have painted a brigade general for each of the regiments in case I want to use a regiment as a brigade and fight some larger battles. 


So that is it. An army in a month and it only cost me a case of tennis elbow and a sore neck. It also seems I need to clean my cutting mat. 

I don’t think I’ll add any more to it (yeah right), well not during the challenge. I am now just finishing off my Prussian FPW army, which is a lot larger than this one. I may post some photos of these later as I only have the basing to do.

Friday, 22 January 2021

When the Claymores did Weald - A '45 Rebellion Campaign

 


Current Roll Call

The Hanoverians

Ear-marked to play HRH Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland is Mark, he is currently overseas fighting the French in Flanders 

Mikey as to be Field Marshal George Wade, based in Newcastle at the outset of these troubles 

Phil will re-enact General Sir John Cope, known as 'Johnny on the Spot', he is based in Edinburgh with a small force of regulars.

It will be a team effort though, all of the Hanoverian Team should discuss and agree their plans.

The Jacobites

John is likely to be Lord George Murray and is rumoured to be bringing at least one battalion of the Appin Brigade to meet the Boy who would be king...

Paul will play Colonel John William O'Sullivan, Prince Charles personal military advisor and officer in the French Army. 

Dave will play the hairy Alexander McDonald of Keppoch chieftain of the mighty Clan McDonald who has said he'll personally lead his Clan Regiment in support of the Prince. 

Nigel is still considering his exact portfolio 

We're awaiting Steve & Rupert's decisions on participating as additional Rebellious Jacobites, maybe playing the Drummond brothers. If Steve is baulking at being a Scot he could be a rebellious English Jacobite, if they manage to get as far as Manchester and Rupert could end up commanding the French contingent, if they get onto play.

Again, this should be a team effort! Discuss, Decide & Support...

Look out for updates over the next few days and outlines for the opening scenario / situation: 

RAISING THE STANDARD

AHPC XI - Mike W, 28mm Elizabethan Irish Kerns and Gallowglas

Today's post sees me flitting back to my Wargames Club's current project - Border Ruffians & Elizabethan Wars in Ireland to paint 15 x 28mm foot figures. I'm so shallow that any reason to change my focus from one project to another will likely distract me!

The Lot as it arrived from eBay

Seven of these little guys represent Gallowglas warriors whist another four represent Kern skirmishers and a final four represent a group of musketeers.

The finished figures

The figures were sourced from an eBay lot that I acquired over the summer but did not have time to paint at the time, three of the Gallowglas figures came without heads so I sent away for some resin Elizabethan heads and added these heads to these figures.

Four of the Gallowglas, all in mail shirts and wielding large axes

Interestingly, I did not realise that at this time the Gallowglas were typically Scots mercenaries that were used to stiffen the forces of the various Irish warlords. In fact in Irish Gaelic, 'Gallowglas' means Foreign Warrior! It was only that I picked up and flicked through a book on the subject that I found out and that was enough to divert me to do these little guys...

Rear view of three of the Gallowglas that have 
additional two handed swords to play with...


The three Gallowglas figures who had head transplants!

The four kerns have a variety of weapons, typically javelins, although a couple have swords. The guy the red tunic would be of higher status.


The four Kerns armed with Javelins, Shields and Swords

Finally I have done four guys with muskets, these guys would have been better paid than regular Kerns and they would have spent their money on better clothes - as per the guy in the red cloak and breaches, or protective helmets etc.

The four musket armed figures with sexy hats, pants and cloak!

Most of these figures arrived undercoated black, I added my own white undercoat and then painted on the generic light brown / ochre coloured cloth. Oily Steel was applied for helmets and chainmail before flesh colour was added for bare skin areas.

Other detail was added as needed before applying coloured washes from Army Painted to add shading. This is a different approach to how I have painted other figures in the collection, where I used a simple Dark Tone wash or Dip to add the shading, I like the results - a brighter, seemingly cleaner resulting figure.

I have a box full of these Irish to do but they would be ineligible for the challenge as many are already pre painted - my task (one day) is to take them off their group bases, repaint to integrate with my existing collection and then put on to single bases.

One day...