Second Rank, Fire!

You can expect to see quite a few somewhat similar looking posts as I work through my War of 1812 British force for Sharp Practice.

So much so that I've decided to open with a picture of everything I've done so far just to make it clear that this is a different post.

As you can see, I've added another six light infantry, completing one of the units in the Select Embodied Militia Force I'm working towards.

In case you didn't know, the Select Embodied Militia were a full-time and uniformed militia raised in Lower Canada and formed from volunteers and man vlchosen by ballot. They were much better trained than what most think of when the word militia is used and are probably analogous to what we might consider as soldiers doing national service.

There's not much to say about the six I've painted as I've approached them in exactly the same way as the last seven, and I think I managed to do them more quickly (but not by much).

I've now got twenty Line Infantry to do, so I'm tempted to do them in batches of ten now that I've got my process sorted out.

I begin with a Ghoul Grey/Grey Seer undercoat and start by giving all the black and grey sections a coat of Basilicanum Grey contrast paint. I then dry brush the trousers in Administratum Grey as it's the messiest part of the process, before moving up the model from feet to head, starting with the boots.

The black parts get a coat of Black Templar contrast paint as I go, and after I've done Flesh Tearers Red contrast paint on the jacket, I shade the jacket with Agrax Earthshade. I then use Talasaar Blue on the facings before highlighting the jacket in Mephiston Red before doing the many straps in Skull White.

I then move onto the backpack which is done simply in Black Templar, Administratum Grey and Skull White. The skin is Gulliman Flesh highlighted in Kislev Flesh, whilst the plumes on the shakos are Loren Forest washed with Biel-Tan Green. Muskets are Wildwood washed with Nuln Oil (after the metal is done) and the straps (which I realised I'd missed last time) are again Skull white.

Finally I do the metals in Leadbelcher and Retributor Armour, washing them where appropriate, before basing simply with Javis Battlezone Scatter (Fields).

It's quite laborious but I'm currently enjoying the proncess, so I want to strike whilst the iron is hot and get some more done soon.

Acquired: 76

Painted: 145

Lead Mountain: 686

The British Are Finally Coming!

Very long time readers of this blog will be aware that eleven years ago I first put paint to miniature on some Native Americans to finally begin my long postponed War of 1812 project.

Two years later I started a United States force for use in Sharp Practice, an army that took another six years to complete.

I have finally turned my attention to their opponents. The British-Canadian army.

After completing my US Scouting Force and their somewhat unlikely artillery support, I thought I'd leave things there.

However, not having enough Native Americans to create an opposition has prevented me from ever getting around to playing a game, and so returning to the War of 1812 has sat in the back of my mind until last year.

Whilst attending one of the two Partizan shows I encountered two very persuasive chaps selling second hand miniatures at a very reasonable price to raise money for veterans.

Money exchanged hands and I walked away with an indeterminate number of Perry Miniatures plastic British Napoleonic infantry.

I immediately regretted my decision as although British Napoleonics have very much been near the top of the list of armies I always wanted (thank you Sean Bean), the concept of actually painting them has terrified me.

However, several months later, the muse has finally taken me and I sat down to work out what I could do with the miniatures I had.

A quick scan of the War of 1812 supplement for Sharp Practice told me that by using some of the Native Americans I already had (an an unpainted mounted Officer), I could put together a Militia Force with 33 infantrymen.

A quick examination of the sprues revealed that I had 34 miniatures to play with. What's more, I had though that I was going to have to use the covered Belgic shakos of the Waterloo campaign, but the sprues also held just enough plumed shakos that were more prevalent during the war.

There were also enough arms with more decorative epaulettes to denote the 12 light infantry were required and I was able to rustle up just enough 20mm round bases.

I was on a roll.

Now I just needed to paint them.

I've actually been pleasantly surprised by the painting process. I've been much more methodical that I ever usually am, going back and forth to source material to ensure I got them right.

There's less red to paint than you'd think, but there are a lot of white straps and lace to detail on.

These seven are the first section of Light Infantry (hence the fancy epaulettes and green plumes) along with their corporal, and I've painted them with the blue facings of the 1st Battalion of Select Embodied Militia. Conveniently, these were also the colours of the 1st (Royal Scots) Regiment of Foot, which gives me options to deploy these models as British Regulars as well.

I'm really pleased with this first batch and keen to get on with some more.

Whether this enthusiasm holds remains to be seen.

Acquired: 76

Painted: 139

Lead Mountain: 692

Show & Tell

Due to.a range of differing circumstances, I haven't been able to attend any wargames shows this year, and so when Matt suggested going to Partizan in Newark this weekend, I jumped at the chance.

I didn't go with any particular intentions to buy anything, but I was more interested in seeing what I could grab for a bargain and look at some intimidatingly detailed demo games.

For example, this one...

This massive game was by Shrewsbury Wargamers (I think) and is themed around the battle of Rourke's Drift, but using Warhammer 40k Praetorians as the British and Orks in place of Zulus 

Interestingly, the chap I was talking to wasn't aware of the Bloodbath at Orc's Drift campaign from the very early days of Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

One of the things I like about wargames shows is that they remind me that I'm also a historical gamer, something that is easy to forget in an online space that is dominated by the grim darkness of the far future.

For example, this eastern front game in a ruined city reminded me just how long it has been since I played a game of Bolt Action.

It's also a reminder that I should probably build more terrain as good looking boards make a massive difference, as is clear from this Vietnam game. However, I'm always stumped by the question about where I would store it all.

It's aldo good to see what else is out there. This really involved, multi-level board reminded me that Burrows & Badgers is the sort of silly thing that has the potential to garner my interest.

I've previously resisted due to other games demanding my attention, but I'm nearing the end of several projects and so since might open up for some anthropomorphic shenanigans.

Mind you, there are other projects I haven't looked at in some time that I could easily return to, such as VBCW, something for which I do have a few bits and pieces still to put together, and I still need to return to Vlad's Army for 7TV, which covers a lot of the same ground in terms of terrain and miniatures.

Speaking of 7TV, although this board was using homebrew rules, it definitely had the same vibe as 7TV as Martians attempted to stop the world's billionaires colonising their home planet.

In the centre of the picture you can see Jeff Bezos and his delivery drone, whilst Donald Trump is just visible on the platform behind the rocket discussing the most wonderful plans that anyone has ever seen (everyone has been telling him they love this big, beautiful plan) with an unseen Elon Musk, who is dressed as Homelander from The Boyz, naturally.

And so we get to the part where I reveal what I picked up:

1. The show miniature is a Polish paratrooper, which I'm not sure I gave a use for, which is a shame.

2. I bought a boat because I've decided that I do want to work towards a proper board for Carnevale, and making it a dock should reduce the amount of streets I'll need to build.

3. My Blood Angels will be getting reinforcements in the form of a single Terminator and a very old Vindicator, which needs some TLC.

4. I grabbed Pirates of Lunar City, a feature pack for 7TV that I don't already own. I want to get back to the game and I find the feature pack provide good motivation.

5. Finally, and providing the biggest hit to my running totals, I bought 33 Napoleonic British from a very persuasive member of the RAF on their charity stall. These will allow me to build a second Sharp Practice army for the War of 1812.

I genuinely enjoyed this show as I think I've been so focused on clearing my backlog for a while, that I haven't thought about other things I'd like to work on. After today, I think I have a few different and exciting projects to look forward to.

Acquired: -42

Painted: 447

Lead Mountain: 356

You can't run in a campsite...

...you can only ran, because it's past tents!

Ahem...sorry about that. I've just finished this mini project and I'm a bit frazzled as it was in tents!

Baddum-tish!

Sorry about that, there's just not very much to say about this post.

I found myself with a bit of time this weekend as I'd finished the Orcs surprisingly quickly. Therefore I looked around for something that would be quick and easy to bash out.

A pair of Renedra bell tents for the bill.

A base coat, contrast layer and drybrush sorted the tents out pretty sharpish, but waiting for glue and paint to dry on the base was the most time consuming element.

I'm pleased that I managed to make the open tent a little more interesting with a tent pole made from a kebab skewer and the bunk that comes on the same sprue as the tents.

I also added the firepit (easily made from small stones and slivers of wood) for a bit of visual interest.

I've made sure that I've kept this for potential use with historical projects, particularly the War of 1812, as the other tent scenery I've done (from the same set) is either modern or pulp themed (although these are fairly versatile in their use).

Not much else to say really.

Acquired: -73

Painted: 435

Lead Mountain: 337

Status Quo Ante Bellum

The war of 1812 project is over*.

Back in 2017 I set about painting up a rather disorganised bunch of miniatures I'd amassed for a War of 1812 American force, and with these few miniatures I've now completed everything that I have for this project.

Those of a historical bent might notice a couple of things of interest.

Firstly, the War of 1812 lasted until 1815, and so completing this small project has actually taken two years longer than the war itself.

Secondly, the War of 1812 concluded with the Treaty of Ghent agreeing that everything should go back to how it was, "status quo ante bellum". At the beginning of this project these miniatures were sitting unused in the cupboard...and unless I can get really persuasive, it looks like that might be their fate.

At least they're painted.

I finished off the command for my Dragoons in the same was as the rest, except for the fact that as I was using parade uniforms (white breeches and not blue) the bugler is dressed in all white.

I dud realise that the silver helmets should have been black, so I took the time to fix that for the whole unit.

Finally I added a flag. I couldn't find out if the US Dragoons carried flags or guidons at this time (they would by the 1830s), and I'm pretty certain  that this one is wrong. However, I did find a images on a blog of someone who'd done something similar, and so I figure that at least I'm not alone.

Additionally, given the amount of historical inaccuracies in this unit, I figured it didn't matter. They might as well have pointy ears and be riding unicorns.

The cannon and crew are the final part of the mismatched ebay bundle I picked up years ago and I left them until last as they are not part of the base army list I'm.planning to use for Sharp Practice.

The miniatures are from Wargames Foundry and are the least dynamic miniatures from that pack. I can see why they ended up on eBay as the crew look totally disinterested in firing the cannon.

The uniform is the 1812 pattern of the US Artillery and models with shakos would be more versatile for the war.

My small force already has somewhat mismatched uniforms which I'm handwaving away has supply problems in the outpost they are stationed at.

The uniforms are full of kit, braiding, turnbacks and other details that plague napoleonic uniforms and the Foundry sculpts are quite small and fiddly.

Added to this, the two with muskets have backpacks that took me pack to the frustration of having to paint an embroidered 'US' on each, as I had to with the line infantry.

The cannon (I'm not sure what size it is; I think it's a 9 pounder) was a fairly simple affair. I discovered from another blog that the Americans painted their artillery in a mid-blue (this might be a little dark) and they were usually made from cast iron rather than bronze, hence the fact it is black.

And so that's it. My Scouting Force for Sharp Practice is done. Technically I am short two models (one officer and one artillery crew) but my French & Indian War civilians can fill those gaps easily.

The base force is four officers, 16 line infantry, 8 cavalry, 6 riflemen and 6 woodsmen skirmishers. Depending on the scenario I can add in the artillery or use my Woodland Indians in a variety of roles (Warband, Skirmishers, Local Scouts).

So I'm finally ready for an actual game.

The Christmas bulwark continues to build and I have a healthy lead heading into the tail end of the year. Perhaps of more concern are the remaining boxes I need to tick off on the bingo card.

I might need to do something about that...

Acquired: 116

Painted: 192

* Is a project ever really over. I've noticed that North Star have a small War of 1812 range for Muskets & Tomahawks. They look nice...

Here Come The Cavalry

Long time readers of this blog (both of them) might remember the following details:

1) Periodically I am drawn back to an ongoing interest in gaming the War of 1812 and have slowly been assembling a force of Americans for eventual use in Sharp Practice.

2) I hate painting horses.

The second fact explains why it's been three years since I last returned to the first fact, because what I needed to paint was these guys...

When I started working on a Sharp Practice force, my hodgepodge collection of miniatures best suited the 'Scouting Force' list in the War of 1812 setting book.

As such, I'd painted Line Infantry, Riflemen, Woodsmen and a few officers, leaving me with just some Militia Cavalry a couple more officers to do.

However, I did not have any Militia Cavalry models and so I decided to use such miniatures as I had to create the 1st US Dragoons instead, sacrificing the versatility of muskets for the hope of a glorious charge or two.

Button counters may wish to stop reading right now for the sake of their blood pressure.

The models that I had were half a box of Perry Miniatures French Dragoons that Matt had given me. Although at arms length they might pass muster as US Dragoons, to those who know what they are looking at these are all kinds of wrong.

However, as long time readers of this blog will be aware, expense is always a good counter to accuracy in the world of Cheaphammer, and the rest of my force plays fast and loose with mixing appropriate headgear in the Line Infantry.

The Perry miniatures themselves are nice enough, although I must admit that their age is beginning to show against some of the more modern plastics I've been painting recently.

The standard of painting on these is tabletop quality at best, as I'm never too keen on batch painting and older plastic models don't really play with my lazy painting approaches too well.

I still have three more models to paint (an officer, musician and whatever the Napoleonic word is for cavalry standard bearer) before the unit is complete, but I'm happy enough with them.

In addition to the Dragoons, I've also painted this mounted officer who I think will end up leading my Line Infantry.

The model is actually a British officer from Warlord Games (the uniforms were actually remarkably similar) and I've painted him in keeping with this painting of the Battle of Chippewa.

I'm still not a fan of painting cavalry, and probably Napoleonic cavalry more than most, this are nowhere near my best work.

However, I am pleased to be finally getting this monkey off my back after really quite a long time.

All this means that I'm making more healthy headway on painting more than I acquire, and I'm tempted to keep my focus on some older and unfinished projects for the time being, although I did by another model this week.

Acquired: 115

Painted: 178

New York State Militia

Yes, I’m as surprised by the appearance of Napoleonic troops on my blog as you are. I blame Wargames Illustrated.

I was all set to fill March with a series of apocalypse themed posts whilst wryly claiming that they were as unrelated to Brexit as the closure of a Honda factory, and then Wargames Illustrated give me some free Napoleonic cavalry. Even though I deftly palmed them off on Pete so quickly that I didn’t even count them in my tally, the seed was sown. Before long, I was flicking through Osprey books, sitting down in front of Sharpe and digging out a project I haven’t touched in over a year.

Fortunately, I had abandoned these five militia at the halfway stage, and getting them completed wasn’t as much of a pain as it could have been. However, I have been keenly reminded of the special part of hell reserved for whoever it was that designed Napoleonic uniforms.

Remember the patch on the packs?

Whose bloody idea was that? I need to freehand lettering on every single soldier!

The keen-eyed amongst you will notice that this says NY, for the New York militia, rather than US for the US army. New York was the most heavily involved state militia in the conflict (although Kentucky list more men due to several massacres by the natives they were fighting) and handily have a uniform that allows them to blend in with the US regulars.

The models are from Matchlock Miniatures and are single pose, chunky figures with a somewhat Frankenstein feel to them.

I’ve also painted this officer, which came in with a bundle of figures I bought off eBay. I’ve no idea of the manufacturer, although it’s noticeably smaller than the Matchlock sculpts, and I’ve no idea whether it is even a War of 1812 model.

However, the uniform is vaguely similar to an image I’ve found of an officer of engineers, and so he’s been co-opted as either that role or as a militia officer who’s designed his own uniform.

This leaves my rump force for Sharp Practice just two officers and a single unit away from completion, although I’d prefer to have a more suitable officer for either the Rifles or the Frontiersmen than the Engineer (I see him attached to artillery). Also, the remaining unit is cavalry, and you know how I feel about them...

My plan, should I ever actually play Sharp Practice, is to merge my infantry into one unit which in theory will look like an ad he scouting force, but will probably look more like a group of re-enactors than a realistic military unit. However, I’m trying to get by with what I have.

If Sharp Practice doesn’t materialise as gaming opportunity (I need someone to fight, after all), there is now an alternative in the form of A Song Of Drums & Shakos from Ganesha Games, which is a true skirmish game for around a dozen models per side.

This scale is handy because that is approximately how many Napoleonic British that Matt has painted, and so the opportunity arose for me to actually play a game with my Americans.

My force was as follows:

1 Infantry Officer

1 Infantry NCO

6 Line Infantrymen

3 Riflemen

Matt’s British were:

1 Infantry Officer

4 Centre Coy Infantrymen

5 Riflemen

The first game was about getting to know the rules, but after weathering a storm of rifle shots, my clump of line infantry met with Matt’s and came off better, even chasing down and killing his officer. This ultimately led to Matt’s force breaking, and so on the second game I decided to take some pictures to record my second glorious victory...

...well, that was the plan...

Taking advantage of leadership bonuses from the officer and NCO didn’t help much when I rolled double 1 and failed to active on my first turn.

I eventually got moving and the US riflemen proved how dangerous the marksman rule was by killing one of if the British line infantry.

However, not to be outdone, the 95th Rifles won the skirmish battle by killing two of their American counterparts.

With their skirmishers gone, the line infantry had to advance into the teeth of the enemy and took heavy fire.

Despite taking casualties, a presentable line was formed and lead flew in both directions, however, the Americans struggled to to more than force the British to recoil.

Although this looks fairly even, there were British riflemen sealing round both flanks.

Ultimately, the Americans were surrounded, hemmed in and forced to surrender by accurate British fire.

That’ll teach me to start taking photos.

The game is quick to learn and easy to remember, and there was very little rulebook flipping in the second game. The activation rules are cagey as you try to maximuse you chances of success. Matt’s higher quality Rifles has more freedom, but my officer and NCO giving bonuses and group orders to the line infantry was a deadly combination.

I think the game will really shine when we start playing scenarios with specific objectives, and I think the model count is accessible enough to encourage others into the period. Both Matt and I have found a bit of motivation to paint more models from the fact that even a couple of models are useable and can change the way the game plays.

I think this is something we are going to play more of.

That’s it for now, but for those who care, the tallies are as follows:

Acquired: 62

Painted: 27

It’s getting healthier, but the impending arrival of the 7TV: Apocalypse Kickstarter is not going to help at all. Looks like I need to build those cavalry.

A New Year, The New World

Happy New Year and wotnot!

For our first blog post of 2018 we’re off to the New World, which has just got a little more populated with the arrival of two 4Ground log cabins which I received from a certain fat, jolly, bearded fellow.

I really like 4Ground’s pre-painted terrain, as you get all the fun of the mdf jigsaw, but none of the hassle of painting. The cabins are also nicely detailed inside, which is somewhat different to my Perry plastic cabin - although now I have these, I’ll feel a bit more confident about trying to remedy that.

As ever with mdf builds, I’ve made a mistake. I’ve put the long walls of the upper story on the wrong sides, and so there is only one window at the front and two at the back. Rather than risk damaging the cabin, I’ve decided to leave it as it is. I’m not sure it matters that much as buildings such as this were made to suit their owner’s taste and as it happens, having an extra window on the back makes the cabin a bit more defensible from the rear, and the front still has plenty of firing points.

To go with the cabins, I’ve finish another unit for my Sharp Practice War of 1812 force.

These chaps are some Wargames Foundry miniatures that I got as part of an eBay lot. In an ideal world I wouldn’t have such an irregular be single pose models, I’m trying to make use of what I already had available, and the fact that they aren’t painted uniformly helps add a bit of variation.

In terms of painting, I based my colour choices on those group of re-enacters from Kentucky, as researching irregular ‘uniforms’ is a little tricky, and I figured these chaps had found out what there was to find.

In game, the Woodsmen aren’t as good as my US Rifles but they do open up the option of leading another unit through a mobile deployment point to create ambushes and flanking manoeuvres, an ability also available to the natives that my US detachment will end up fighting in their first few games.

Finally, this is a picture of everything I’ve assembled so far. In order to complete my base force, I need to paint five more infantrymen, a couple of officers and nine (nine!) cavalry.

It may be some weeks before these chaps take to a table in anger.

War of 1812ish US Regulars

This week I’ve painted another half dozen War of 1812 US Regulars from Matchlock Miniatures. This time, however, they are in the 1814 uniform (yes, the ‘War of 1812’ wasn’t just confined to 1812...terrible name for a War) and accompanied by an officer. They’ve also been complemented by some appropriately Canadian weather.

I’ve always been aware of the fact that Napoleonic uniforms kept changing and have never really thought about why.

I know it won’t apply to every change of uniform, but whilst I was painting these guys it occurred to me that the US Army changed its uniform to make it easier to produce during the war as the later uniform lacked the facings and lace details of the earlier design. This made painting them much faster, and I can only assume it did the same for the manufacturing process.

Sadly, they kept the labelled backpacks...

I think the single epaulette on the left shoulder  indicates that the officer is a lieutenant (I need to check that), which makes him perfectly appropriate to lead my small scouting force as he’ll only actually have 16 regulars directly under his command, along with a motley collection of other detachments.

Despite them being somewhat old fashioned in their style, I’m quite enjoying painting the Matchlock Miniatures. However, next up are some Woodsmen from Wargames Foundry.