More vexillology

Hello again.

Opportunities to actually finish things seem a little thin on the ground nowadays, a view not helped by my desire to paint my own flags. I could print off some examples from one of the various websites covering such things. I could purchase examples from one of the various purveyors of such things. I could just use fewer flags!

But, what greater focal point is there than a big flag or three to finish off a unit? Back in WRG 6th days, it always seemed to be the armies that could have personal army and/ or sacred standards that I came back to when trying to find out what army I wanted to collect and when trying to develop that "killer list" to try and enhance my dodgy generalship. Ancients was never really my thing, so I needed all the help I could get!

I like flags, banners and standards, which is probably why my butterfly tendencies seem most at home in those centuries when such things feature strongly and prominently. My English and Scottish medieval, my Swiss and Burgundian armies, my Thirty Years' War collection, my fledgling Williamite and Jacobite forces all feature prominent and numerous vexilla. So it is only right and proper that my French & Indian Wars units have the same treatment. Even my 10mm Crimean War Russians have flags! It might also explain why, despite the best of intentions, I still cannot bring myself to paint my any of the Second World War stuff I own, my Vietnam War figures, the Macedonians/ Successors I have had lying around for almost twenty years...

So here are the latest examples of the breed, courtesy of some calico, some brass wire and some acrylic paint.

His Majesty's 27th Regiment of Foot (The Inniskillings) will soon be done and their standards are here to help rally the troops to completion and an outing at Barrage in Stafford on 8th July.

G

The figures are Redoubt

I hope I have done the regiment justice. I like the difference between their flags and the norm for British Army units in this period, the regimental number simply replaced by the fortification badge of the city of Enniskillen/ Inniskilling.

A Labour of...something

Hello again.

I chose the 43rd Foot as one of the regiments to feature in my Seven Years' War in America (aka French & Indian Wars) project for three reasons:

1. They were present at many of the actions in that war.
2. I had pictorial references available depicting uniforms and so on.
3. I wanted each regiment I painted for this project to have a distinctive facing colour, so all units were different in this regard, and their white facings fitted the bill nicely among all the buff and yellow of other regiments.

All went well during the painting of the rank and file, with which I have always commenced the units for this project, but then it came to the reversed colours worn by the musicians. I might dislike painting red, but how was I to do a white uniform without using a white undercoat, which I very, VERY RARELY even consider?

Now, back in the day, I painted an entire Austrian 15mm Napoleonic army's infantry units, all 15 of them I think, from a black undercoat and very decent they looked too (IMO). However, a single, 28mm "character" figure in a white uniform, painted up from a black undercoat and surrounded by a host of figures painted from a red undercoat got me thinking that it just would not look right. Hmm.

I took the plunge.

Now, there are many who swear by the white undercoat, but it has simply never worked for me. I never got my head around any sort of technique that left me with clear, delineated transitions between colours that I like, that meant I did not have to keep over-painting mistakes, etc. And that hideous sliver of white showing through where you could not quite get the brush...In short, painting figures only became a hobby when I discovered black undercoats (thank you, Kevin Dallimore!). White has been used exclusively for largely "white" or experimental things since then, such as skeletons, water elementals and Death Guard (mine are actually insipid green...it's a long story).

Anyway, I could see no satisfactory way around the white undercoat route for this guy, so away I went. For the first time also in this project, I chose to do the complicated regimental lace on this figure that British infantry regiments were adorned with to a greater or lesser extent at this time. I had just done "white" or "yellow" beforehand and will for subsequent units. But this guy needed something to offset all the white, so he got the blue dots/ squares (whatever they were in reality) on his lace, as worn in my main picture of the 43rd, as found in the Osprey "Combat" series book, "British Redcoat vs French Fusilier" by Stuart Reid. A double page spread of a soldier from the 43rd features on pages 12 and 13 and a whole camp scene of the regiment preparing on page 46. A little conjecture on the cap finished things off.

Purists may find a few issues to attend to, but I am happy with him, especially as he will join up with 23 of his colleagues very soon.

G

The viewpoint from which he will usually be seen, in the front rank of a regiment of 24 figures in two ranks of 12.

Hmm. A tad rough in places with the blue...

And thank goodness the drum shell was a simple affair!

His Majesty's 58th Foot

Hello again.

I trust the snail's pace at which I am getting through my French & Indian Wars project will improve as the daylight hours lengthen now it is British Summer Time, but I have now at least finished His Majesty's 58th Regiment of Foot. The main source I have used for this regiment is the colour plate in the Osprey "British Redcoat vs French Fusilier" title in their Combat series, number 17 of that series to be precise. To be even more precise, the aforementioned plate is on page 59 of the book and the regimental flag on age 65!

This now makes three of the planned seven regiments of British foot completed and the fourth is now underway. I will not spoil that by announcing which regiment that is, but will, of course, post some pics when it is done.

As before, the majority of the figures are Eagle Figures, but I have mixed in a couple of Redoubt command figures to ring a few changes. The stockier build and bigger hats make them stand out somewhat, as you will see in the attached photos. The flags are my usual hand painted on calico affairs attached to brass wire poles.

I was working on this project with no real anticipation that these figures would see a games table any time soon, but Nephew Nick has confirmed his availability for the Barrage Show in Stafford on 8th July, we have met up to determine exactly what we need to do to put on the first game (build terrain, paint some more units, rope in a couple of other players, etc), so I now fully expect them to see the light of day for the first time at that show on that date.

So, without further ado, here are the 58th.

G

HM 58th Regiment of Foot, c.1758

The gold writing on both standards was achieved with a gold-coloured fine nibbed pen courtesy of Daughter Eleanor's art materials. I shall certainly be using it again!

One of the Redoubt command figures, the other one carrying the black, regimental standard

I have to say that I find painting British infantry more difficult than their French counterparts, with the exception of the drummers. The Eagle Figures casts have cast-on, raised lace, whereas I am forced to largely paint on the Livree du Roi for the French drummers.

Not quite what I had hoped for

Hello again.

Well, the much anticipated West Midlands Military Show has come and gone and, as the title of this piece states, it was not quite what I was hoping for.

The weather. The good, old, unpredictable weather. You see, we had a cold snap and that put paid to the efforts of a lot of traders, gamers and punters to make the effort and get across to Wolverhampton for a day. It was a little confusing, as the likes of Pendraken and Eagle Figures made it down all the way from Teesside, yet others could not make a far shorter journey it seems. Hm.

Walking into the venue, the effect of the weather was clear from the start. A lack of people in enough numbers to make me feel like I knew where I was, the rows of empty tables and the general lack of hubbub all gave full voice to the fact that this year's show was not going to be the usual cornucopia of sights and sounds (and, unfortunately, smells...Why do so many wargamers venture out into polite society with not a crumb of soap having garnished their particulars for some time beforehand???)

I did take my camera, however, and it was charged. I even took a few photos. But, to be honest, so few games meant there was a lower chance of something really catching the eye and I spent far more time chatting to people and basically forgot to take many photos at all! There were a few things to tempt me to open the wallet - the new version of "By Fire & Sword" (in a handy A5 paperback format) and the Imperialist miniatures to go with the same very nearly saw me hand over some cash to Roland Hynd, formerly of Stafford Games fame and now back as an online trader. I was also sorely tempted by Bicorne Miniatures and the chance to boost my dormant Thirty Years' War figure collection. And the chance to obtain some French and/ or British cavalry for the Seven Years' War was forsaken, so Ian at Eagle Figures got nothing from me this time either.

I needed paint, steel paper and some more 10mm Crimean War figures and had intended getting nothing more. What I actually bought was:

• the required paint
• a copy of "Gaslands" by Osprey, the new car wars rules
• some mdf figure bases for when I finally get my 10mm ACW collection up and running
• yet another Crimean War army pack from Pendraken, bringing my quantity of Russian infantry available to 600 figures, artillery pieces up to around 15 with crews and neatly rounding off my Dragoons brigade to the sort of size at which I want to field it
• a Crimean War Highland Brigade pack from Magister Militum
• a brigade pack of Rebs for the ACW from the same source

and..............................

....a fair selection of 10mm Sassanid Persians, also from Magister Militum, as it is high time I actually owned the army I like better than any other!!! I knew I would never get together a Sassanid army in 28mm, especially as I like to field both sides in any project, but I think it highly plausible I will get one together in 10mm, together with suitable Roman opponents.

So, to finish, just a few photos that I did take of a couple of games I did like. Apologies to the team putting on the Sino-Japanese War 1937 affair, which looked rather good, and to some of my old Stafford Games chums with their Battle of Oudenarde display, but I did not get the relevant photos. Sorry.

G

I do not often see a Brummbar on the tabletop, so had to take this one. I simply do not know who put the game on, but 28mm WW2 done pretty well I thought.

Everyone should have a Panther

Ant those pesky Typhoons need a swift reminder to stay away now and again

A nice Peninsular War clash which caught my eye but, again, I do not know who did it

A nice little model

Very nice bit of modelling

WMMS Time!!!

Hello again.

Just a quick reminder to any who might need it that the West Midlands Military Show is on this Sunday, 18th March, at the Aldersley Leisure Village, Aldersley Road, Wolverhampton, WV6 9NW. According to the advert in the March issue of "Wargames Illustrated" (issue 365), entry is a paltry £4 for adults, half that for Concessions and free for children, so get yourself along to spend BIG at upwards of 40 traders, enjoy games of various hues, both participation and demo, and enjoy the ambience of what is undoubtedly one of my favourite shows of the year.

It is with a little sadness that I must report that we at the "Wyrley Retinue" will not be laying on a game this year, as life has sort of got in the way of things, but I shall be there as a punter and will have a sum of filthy lucre in my sweaty mitts that I will be my usual eager self to part with. It is the first time in around six or seven years that we will not be there with a game, but we WILL BE BACK!

Whatever your gaming persuasion in whatever scale, I am certain you will find the vast majority of your desires at the show, just as I hope to.

So, get yourself along there this coming Sunday. I will post some photos of my day there assuming:

a) I do not forget my camera, as I seem to do all too often, and,
b) it is actually charged when I come to use it!

See you there!

G

An Attempt At Command

Hello again.

Having painted up the rank and file a week or two back, I thought it high time I put the command element of His Majesty's 58th Regiment of Foot together as well. And here they are.

As previous readers may recall, I had a choice of five regiments from which to choose, all of whom had contributed towards my Combined Grenadiers, and the prospect of black facings and yellow lace won out, hence the 58th "getting the gig" this time around.

The figures are an equal mix of Eagle Figures (the drummer and national flag ensign, albeit converted slightly in the latter case) and Redoubt. When the photos were taken, they still needed to be varnished and, of course, added to their parent units, which still needs the bases texturing. I will post the complete unit once it is complete.

The flags are my usual hand-painted on calico affairs, a time-consuming but surprisingly pleasant affair this time around. I even almost managed to get the straight lines straight too! The flagstaves are brass wire. I chickened out of trying to paint the regimental number in the centre of each flag and used a gold pen with a narrow nib, courtesy of Daughter Eleanor's art materials. It was still a bit of an "ask" writing so small and getting it neat...

G

Eagle Figure converted slightly by the removal of his original cast-on flagstaff.

Redoubt officer

Redoubt ensign

Eagle Figures drummer

1st (Tsarevitch) Dragoons

Hello again.

It is almost a year since I bought the first of my 10mm Crimean War figures at the WMMS show last March. I painted up all except the cavalry unit I got with that first purchase - one of Pendraken Miniatures' Russian Army Packs - within a few months, but that final unit of dragoons lay dormant whilst I moved onto other things and did a bit of on/off research.

That research largely concluded with the purchase of Laurence Spring's "Uniforms of the Russian Army During the Crimean War 1854-1856" at the Derby show last October. Talk about a one stop shop for Russian uniforms! Well, almost. I have other books with colour pictures!!! What Spring's work does include however are orbats and, under the auspices of the 2nd Reserve Cavalry Corps is the 1st Dragoon Division under Lieutenant General Montressor. The 1st Brigade consists of 1st (Tsarevich) Dragoons and 2nd (Grand Duke Constantine Nicolaevich's) Dragoons.

The Tsarevich Dragoons can now take the field with their foot-slogging comrades.

I have really enjoyed painting these 10mm figures and will be doing more, not only the ones I have already bought, but I foresee some others coming along too.

What do I like so much about the 10mm I have done so far?

• They are obviously a LOT EASIER than my usual 28mm figures!
• As a result of that greater ease, they can be finished a lot more quickly.
• When I paint 15mm or 20mm, I feel obliged to paint them like smaller 28's, i.e. still with attempts to shade and highlight accurately. I still do this with 10mm figures, but it somehow seems like the effect is easier too and not just because of the size differential and reduced workload. They just seem to suit the style I paint in.
• They cost a lot less, although this is partially offset by the need to paint more figures and the need to buy more as I want bigger units.
• It is worth putting in the extra bit of effort with 10mm compared with 6mm figures, as you can still see it, especially en masse.
• Easier storage, less weight on the shelves and all those other practicalities that prevent my house from collapsing under the weight of lead in my proverbial mountain!

In truth, I have only painted Crimean War Russians so far, which are hardly the most difficult paint jobs around. I may feel a little different when it comes to the rather more sartorially-dressed British. Also, my other purchased range so far is American Civil War, so that should not tax my skills too much either, but we will see. I like the scale/ size so far and expect to continue to. Watch this space!!!

Anyway, the pictures show my Tsarevich Dragoons in all their "glory". I have another complete Pendraken Miniatures Russian Army Pack to paint, so the 2nd Dragoons will ultimately join the 1st to form the whole brigade. However, that is it for now whilst I finish my latest FIW regiment.

G

The complete unit so far, all seven bases of it. I may add more in due course.

A quick close up.

The command element.

And the whole army. One Brigadier (actually a Dragoon Officer figure from the pack - I only needed 14 figures out of the 15 in the pack for the unit), 2 battalions of Jager, 1 battalion of Naval Infantry, 3 battalions of the Minsk Regiment, 3 artillery pieces and the dragoons.