Warlord ECW Artillery and Emplacement

I've been working on a Warlord 28 (?) ECW Saker box set lately. Here's how it went together and a little bit on how I put artillery pieces on my game table.

I painted the figures and gun model separately. The gun was made of resin and went together pretty well. No major mold issues were found on the model. The crew was flashy but no more than Old Glory. There were some weird pointy bits of flash that needed to be cut off. If they weren't, they'd tear up my Scharff paintbrushes.
I built the wood field works pieces from balsa. It went together easily and takes paint well. The gabions were a mix of Dixon and a resin set I picked up from a friend of mine. I liked the variance in "plashing". It made the emplacement different from the others in my ECW collection. I base coated the gabions with an old shade of Polly-S Ogre Dark Brown. I use this color for most undercoats requiring a deep brown with a flat hue. I always prime my figures white. I use Rustoleum Flat White primer. I don't mess around with anything else.

I use Minwax Polyshade Urethane when I want to add depth and seal pieces for the war game table. Some people use a "dip method". I find that to be tedious and messy.
My method is a little bit cleaner. I use a flat brush and paint a light coat on the pieces I want to stain. It really works well using this method. I clean my brushes with Turpenoid Odorless Turpentine. It definitely can be used indoors without spousal dissent.


My groundwork process has been adapted from Clarence Harrison (Quindia Studios). My complete ECW collection is done in this style. It's simple, easy to do and looks good on the table. I first paint the base with Vallejo Beasty Brown. I also paint the bases of the figures. I use hot glue to put the figures on the base. It works and works well. I use a thinned down Elmer's Glue (50-50 mix) to hold the ballast on the base. I use a mix of medium brown and fine brown ballast by Woodland Scenics. Let the ballast dry and then glue down some medium and fine rocks from Woodland Scenics. I also put a coat of Flat Finish on the base and figures after doing some dry brushing on the wood pieces. I used Vallejo Cobra Brown highlighted with Vallejo Iraqi Sand on the edges to bring out the highlights.

I added ballast to the gabions as well to keep some consistency for the emplacement. The Warlord figures are well animated and really do make the diorama work. I'm sure someone will pick nits on the colors but I wasn't there so I'll use the ole' artiste's eye!

Completing the model was pretty fun. My standard basing highlights are:
Dry brush Vallejo Iraqi Sand over the dark brown ballast. Painting the base before putting the ballast down tends to help with any areas that didn't work with the thinned down Elmer's glue.
I use an additional thinned down Elmer's glue solution to put down static grass in random areas. I know that the emplacements were probably similar to the trenches of WW1 in terms of mud, mess and torn up ground. I use the static grass to break up the colors of the emplacement. The rocks are painted Vallejo Basalt Grey. They are highlighted with Vallejo's Light Grey and then highlighted yet again with a light touch of Liquitex Medium white. Don't ask me why I use white but it just looks good to me and draws the eye to the emplacement.

Here's a pic of the completed Warlord Saker box set. It's expensive in comparison to Old Glory but the figures and project turned out well. It was fun to do....Recommended for those that putting an ECW collection together

Sniper Emplacement Update

Got the emplacement primed and the "wood works" base coated. The light brown stuff is Vallejo Pumice I tinted Iraqi Tan for my 1st Crusade project. This stuff is really cool. I've used Elmer's Wood Putty for years but this stuff just kicks its butt. One of my friends gave me the wicker works and the "pie shaped" gabion. It just looked the part.

Here's the emplacement with a coat of Vallejo's Game Color-Beasty Brown. This is the base coat I've used with the ECW collection to date. I bought about 24 bottles. Guess I'm the dummy and should have had Home Depot mix me a quart right? Nah, I'm just a slut to keep wargaming vendors in business. Just like the First Consul in Washington, I'm just spreading the wealth around a little. :) One of my friends gave me the resin pieces. He said he got them via E-Bay. If any one's interested; I'll drop him a line and see from whom he purchased. They really look nice. I've got a bunch so field works (get it?) will be next after King Chas I (pre ax man) gets painted. It just seems that this project goes on forever!

I should have the sniper emplacement done over the weekend. I'll bring out my gun emplacement over the weekend too. It's taken from Funken's Renaissance book and contains hand built fascines, lots of mud, some funny bits and will get re-crewed with ECW gunners and ECW period ordinance.

Keep checkin' back...and keep yourself outa' the ditch! It's supposed to be a gully washer here in Big D on Wednesday-Thursday.

Warlord Sniper and Arty update

I've finished the sniper and artillery crew figures. Am slogging together a mini diorama for the sniper. What have I noticed? The Warlord metal figures are definitely smaller than OG and have some weird sharp edges and points where the sleeves or cuffs are. I had to clean them up a little better than any Dixon but not as much as OG. The metal is more brittle than OG or Dixon. They may work as a unit but again; will NOT mix with OG. There's just a large size differential! Will post pics later today.

Warlord Artillery on the way-The Sniper too!

I've put the base coats on the Warlord artillery gunners and sniper. Will get a coat of Minwax on them, highlight and then get them based. Whew...all I have left in this project is to get the King's diorama and entourage completed. I'll paint up another Warlord infantry regiment before Millenium Con in Austin and use up the box. My plan is to give away any of the spare stuff left on the sprues. Drop me a line and I'll try to get them to you when I'm completed.

Saturday Update-Finally..A Head to Head Comparison

Dang...you woulda' thought that I was having a root canal by the length of time it has taken me to get this far on this unit. Geez...it's only 16 or so figures. The picture on the right is where the unit is at this point. I've put together a head to head gallery at Flickr. Please click here or on the title to take you to the gallery.

ALL THE BLUE FIGURES ARE WARLORD MINIATURES. THEY ARE THE MINIATURES WITH THE IN PROGRESS BASES AS IN THE INSET PICTURE

The unit is being based at this point. I've borrowed (stolen in a gamer's fashion) Clarence Harrison's basing style. It's simple and once it's dry is robust for fat war gamer fingers, dropping on the table, etc. This unit needs another24 hours for the basing sand and rocks to dry. I won't paint them until Monday afternoon at the least. I use Clarence's formula to the T. The bases get painted with Vallejo's Beasty Brown (I won't waste money on crappy GW paints-ever), let dry, painted again with a diluted Elmer's School Glue mix and dipped into mix of Medium and Light Woodland Scenics ballast (brown). The brown paint makes the places in which the ballast didn't stick invisible unless close. I then use a bright green static grass (again NOT GW) to work in on the bases. Clarence advised me to use a camouflage type of pattern so multiple bases go together well. Again, advise well taken to heart! It works and looks good.

Let's take a few moments to discuss head to head how Warlord compares to Old Glory, Dixon, Renegade, and Perry figures on the game table. As previously blogged, the Warlord figures look consistent with the other manufacturers on the game table. That's OK with me since I've got more to paint out of the box set. The OG figures are curiously chunkier than the Warlord (a little more well fed perchance?) and are a tad easier to paint. As has been blogged before, both sets of miniatures take my "git 'er done and don't Richard around with the project" style of painting. This may disturb more sedate and organized painters but; it works and looks PDG on my game table. Has for years!

In my opinion, Warlord figures will not mix well with OG, Dixon, nor Renegade but should mix quite well with Perry since these figures are on the scrawny side of 28mm anyway. I will paint another regiment or so plus some F'Lorne Hope to add to the collection. They do look fine when built into solely Warlord units. Funny how that works eh? It's a vast British conspiracy right? The Warlord figures just don't have the deep "cuts" (folds?) necessary for producing large amounts of contrasts on the figures. I'm not disappointed but probably just lazy...I would rather not do the Dallimore glop and paint every single musculature like a Rubens painting. I want to get things started, get things done and have units look good on the table in a reasonable time frame. Putting Warlord figures together is an extra time irritant for me. I knew that going into this mini-project. Would I buy more? I don't know. I want to see their cavalry just to see if I can paint plastic horses using my 30+ year old oil rub method. Hope Rustoleum primer sticks to horse's butts like it did to the musketeers.

For an inexpensive (relative term in any hobby) way for gamers to get started or add units quickly to an existing collection; Warlord ECW figures may be something to consider. I'm an old school lead junky and like the weight of figures on the table. I'd also paint Warlord figures if I was doing a demo game in which I didn't want my primary collection to get abused by fat, stinky war gamers with greasy hands from eating at Mickey D's.

We have a news spot here in Dallas called "Deal or Dud". I'd rate these figures a deal but if they don't get painted and still played....their OWNER is a DUD!

Wednesday Update

Am plonking along on this little project. I've completed the base coat colors for the regiment and have brushed on a light coat of Minwax Royal Walnut stain.

Here's a list of the colors I used for the regiment. Only Vallejo acrylic paints were used.

Face:Beige Red
Hats: various shades of Beasty Brown (Game Color), Tan, Orange Brown, Saddle Brown, Red Brown.
Feathers: One was painted with...get this...Ral Partha Gold Yellow. I STILL have about 6 bottles of the old stuff. Hasn't crapped out on me yet. I've got to go to Sherwyn-Williams and get a pint made up since I can't get it anymore. The fifer's feather (say that five times fast) was painted with some Liquitex Medium Viscosity Red. I had the tube laying around, found it under a pile of crap and said..hmm...oughta work!
Uniform Coats: Prussian Dark Blue
Cuffs: Liquitex Medium Viscosity White. Another ancient bottle of paint. It's a 4 oz. bottle and I've had it for years. I think it's majic and refills itself sometimes.
Pants: Some Prussian Dark Blue, British Tan, Yellow Ochre, Russian Green, Medium Sea Gray IIRC. I don't worry much and just paint them where they lay.
Shoes: Various browns..see above and add some Snakesomething Game Color. It's a weird in between light and dark brown. Pretty cool color. I've used it a lot for the ECW project for belts, shoes, horse tack, horse hooves, horse tails, etc. You should buy a bottle and give it a go.
Socks: Light grey, Howard Hues (uh huh...more classic paint) Concrete and an odd color just to not stay bored!
Armor: I use a bastardized Dallimore technique of Black base coat, Vallejo Brassy Brass first dry brush, Vallejo Oily Steel for highlights. This works great with a light coat of Minwax!

Overall, so far so good. I'm still not overly in love with these figures. I like figures that are "cut" deeper with more relief. That type of figure just fits my style.

I had high humidity-white finish-itis tonight. I sprayed the unit with Floquil Figure Flat (yeah..I've still got 12 cans) and didn't pass the "stupid test". I know better than to spray figures flat and leave them out when the humidity is high. No worries, I resprayed them and brought them inside. Uh huh...my spouse has gone to the other side of the house, my dog doesn't love me and I'm sure my feeble senior's mind is getting fried by the fumes. At least the unit is getting painted right?

I paint by the unit and don't dick around painting one figure at a time. Life's too short not to throw figures on the table. My technique is simple:

1. Hot glue the figures on strips of cardboard about three fingers wide. I don't touch the figures, the cardboard is more comfortable than trying to paint on stupid Popsicle sticks and is cheap in "mass quantities".
   
2. Block paint the figure
3. Light coat of Minwax Royal Walnut (NOT A DIP..DIPPPING SUCKS!)
4. Highlight the figures with a traditional highlighting technique. I use a mix of Foundry's glop on each highlight method and a softer complimentary color highlight. I don't know...I paint by the seat of my pants! Whatever fits the figure works for me and they turn out cool for the table.

I should be done with the unit tonight and will get them hot glued (it's a standing joke in my gaming group) to stands. I'll take pics on Thursday and suffer the slings and arrows of not having them based. I know there are several folks that want to see just the size differential and could not give a rat's behind about how they were painted. Well...you'll just have to wait until Thursday won't you!

Warlord ECW Under Construction Update

I've finished the basic tones painting on the entire regiment (16 figures). I've just brushed on some Minwax Royal Walnut stain. I don't want to argue the merits or demerits of Minwax. I don't dip my figures and the light brush coat seals, shades and gives the figure the tone that I want and like. They should be dry enough to flat coat and the highlights will be painted (face, flesh, highlights, any lowlights as well).

Keep checking back, I'll have some pics Wednesday night and definitely will put them side to side with my OG/Dixon/Perry stuff. They're pretty big...larger than the Renegade officers I've got in several regiments. We'll see, my jury's still out and it's weird to work with figures that don't weigh anything.

Warlord Plastics Part 1

I finally got around to getting out the Warlord plastic ECW box set on Sunday, 9/27/2009. I'll blog a "blow by blow" on how they paint up, my opinions (based upon 30+ years of wargaming and painting experience), how they stack up to my other infantry regiments (a mix of Old Glory, Dixon, Renegade, and Perry).

My regiments are 16 figures strong. I know others play larger regiments and some single based (Warhammer ECW?) figures. I play Might of Arms ECW. It is a variant of Bob Bryant's Might of Arms rules I put together because I liked the system and my gaming group understood the mechanics. I'm not going to waste a lot of time espousing/explaining why I use them. Just suffice it that I like them. Period. End of Story. Now to the figures!!!

The plastic that is used is the equivalent to most Games Workshop plastics I have built in the past. It's not gunky, soft nor does it feel or look cheap. Most of figures have a minimum of flash and mold lines. I was able to trim up some of the mold lines but; they just aren't a problem. The figures remind me a lot of GW plastics in the way they go together and the chunky "Imperial Guard-like" features such as the face and hands. I chalk that up to plastic figures.

It took me the better part of an afternoon to put these figures together. I figure that's because I'm a klutz or just a schmo that is used to working with metal figures. It was a little off putting however because I'd much rather be painting than
assembling. Will quit whining...I bought them to see how they worked so there! There were a few variants in hats, arms and the way weapons were carried. A couple of things that bothered me was the length of the arquebus in relation to the figure plus the modeling of the musketeer's hands. They look rather large in comparison to the rest of the figure. The pikemen are OK but the tassel thing on the end of the plastic pikes is a distraction. I wasn't there to know if it was historically accurate, so; I'll just paint it and shut up. I'm not hip to plastic pikes or flag poles so my jury's still out on how they will fare in a fat war gamer environment.

I've decided to clip off most of the bases as they are pretty large. I also will leave a couple in the original size to see if they'll take basing a little better.


Over all, I'm OK with these figures so far. They're a far sight less fiddly than Victrix. I almost swore off experimenting with ANY plastic figures because of THAT experience. For war gaming, these figures should do just fine. What are they? Inexpensive, and a fast way to build a regiment or two from a single box. In fact, I'm planning on painting two regiments and using the rest as a "Forlorn Hope" (fodder). I wish that Warlord would have packed 48-64 figures to a box set. That would fit my thinking...more figures on the table is better!

Above is the sniper from the "specialist" blister pack. I know Might of Arms doesn't have any way that this guy can fit in but; I'm going to build some "event cards" into the game to spice it up a bit. This guy WILL get his shot! There's another figure in the blister pack that looks like he's holding some type of instrument, firebox or something nasty with which to determine who "is or who is not a witch" Now, all I need for that one is a pond and some rope.

Keep checking back, I'll post up in progress pics and comments on how this mini-project is going. Now, what I REALLY REALLY want is some decent two winged Polish Hussars. I've got some TAG figures but they're only single winged and the distributor my vendor uses is hit or miss. Alright...I digress...I'm done for this episode.

I'm Ready to Run and Play A Fall ECW Campaign

I've been kicking around doing an ECW campaign for several months since completing the first phase of the ECW project. I've read my old copy of 1644 (the red cover version) and the recent Warhammer ECW rules. Both have a mini-campaign included.

My thinking is to use K.I.S.S. as the guiding force for this campaign. I don't want to get into long and drawn out sieges. My main aim is to get the collection on the table and fight field battles. I like the simpler map campaign but want to include a little flavor to the campaign like Scots intrusions/duplicity and the same duplicity of the guys down south of Scotland. I'm not sure how many players I'll get. I figure maybe 1 or 2 players at most. Our group frankly doesn't know the English Civil War, is not very motivated by pike & shotte period. I don't know if I should go ahead and build the campaign or keep looking for some better campaign systems. I've got Grant's Programmed Wargames Scenarios, Wargaming Pike and Shot, and that crappy Napoleonic Campaign book by Hoplite Research.

I want to not fall into these traps:

• Long, drawn out campaign season. That kills campaigns
• Complex economics. Players want to put toys on the table and not be bankers IMHO
• Sieges. I would rather fight a field battle outside a city rather than waste an evening trying to reduce a city and then attack it. Just a personal preference
• Painting more figures. I've done enough and want to concentrate more on painting vignettes, preachers, bishops, and artillery emplacements. I don't think any of our group will paint ECW other than Cameron (painting Scots). We'll see..am not holding my breath however

Any pearls o' wisdom on putting a quick ECW campaign season together would be appreciated.

ACW Labor Day Bash!

I took a break from ECW project to play a larger scale ACW game on Labor Day. We called it the Labor Day Bash! We put on the classic Fire and Fury scenario 'Hooker's Attack". We had seven 7 players and put over 276 infantry stands on the 12x6 table. We played until the 10:30 AM turn and left the game up in the Rat Palace III for conclusion. The figures pictured were painted by Eric Wood, Clay Smith, Allen Eldridge, and Steve Miller. A great day was had by all.

Several requests have been made via TMP to see the Rat Palace and the terrain we play upon. You'll need to go through the slide show. We're blessed with great terrain, a super venue, patient spouses and a solid group! Enjoy the show and the Rat Palace II!! If you want to see a larger pic set, click on the title; it will take you directly to Flicker show.