Spring Break-Some Project Breathing Space

It's Spring Break. Got a week of relative peace to catch my breath and get paint on figs. I've finished the first load of cavalry. Turns out it there were 34 figs. Victory without Quarter calls for 12 figure units so I've got almost three regiments based and ready to play. Am waiting for my GMB flags. I went ahead and bought one of each of their cavalry flags so I can easily change them out as needed. Have heard they're great...waiting to find out!

I received a box from Sandy Botond in Katy, Texas over the weekend. I took a group of students to San Antonio for a Robotics competition so I've not opened it YET. If this is what I think it is, you may be able to hear a Tejas yell from your home.

I'll post pictures later today! Keep checking back

Battle of Schweinkopf-Day Two-Put off for Two Weeks

We're putting off the second day of the battle for two weeks. I've got work obligations next weekend...I'm taking a group of students to a Robotics competition in San Antonio. Hey...even a BAD day in San Antonio is a GREAT day!
Am working on my ECW cavalry. Work has been a time grabber. I'm almost done with the first36 horse...am working until I get 96 figures completed. Then the foote!

Battle of Schweinkopf-Day One

We put out the word for Napoleonics last week and fought the first day of the Battle of Schweinkopf at the Rat Palace III in Red Oak. Glad to be back in business playing after several months of forced inactivity. Thank goodness the heater was finally working like it should. We use Clay's "Ninja Rules" and they work great! Good Job Clay!
Our Napoleonic armies represent a cross section of wargaming history. We have scads of "old school" Hinchcliffe, Minifig, infantry, artillery and cavalry. We've got Peter Guilder, Ed Phillips, Jim Cooper and Cleve Burton painted armies and figures on the table. We both started gaming when Hinchcliffe figures were the "gold standard. We now have Old Glory, Front Rank and Mirliton figures in the armies. We've got some great armies painted by some of the legends of the hobby. We definitely are blessed!


Now, step in the "way-back machine" and let's visit the first day of the Battle of Schweinkopf!

The Battle of Schweinkopf cannot be found in the battle reports of Soult, Napoleon, Archduke Charles nor the reports of either Tsar Alexander or Bagration. This was a "battle by mistake" as both armies were on the move looking for fresh fodder, German spirits and available Germans of the female persuasion.





Day One:
The French deployed along the road to Schweinkopf anchoring their line alongside a pig farm. Apparently the odor d' piggie didn't bother the swarthy French at all. They snuggled right up and awaited the Austrians. The Russians were content to move their artillery and commence a preliminary bombardment of the French on top of the rise to their front. Bagration's comment was noted as "these conscripts are fresh from the Ukraine, let them see the artillery before tasting a whiff of grape".

The Austrians did not hesitate and launched a double envelopment on the right flank, pushing the French from the pig farm. The Russians continued their bombardment due to a message from the Russian cavalry commander saying his brigade was delayed due to some bad sauerbraten and too much pilsner









Eventually the tardy Russian cavalry commander reported on the field with 3 regiments of Dragoons, 1 regiment of Cuirassiers and the elite Tsarina's Hussars, known lovingly as the "crabby hussars".

Bagration ordered the cavalry to immediately eliminate the pesky French Light Cavalry that was slowing the advance of the left wing. The cavalry battles were a wash with numerous French and Russian casualities for little tactical gain. A dust cloud in the distance announced the arrival of the French Heavies: Cuirassiers and Horse Grenadiers.



The center and right flank was hotly contested with the French taking hard causalities. The Austrians and Russians could not break the French line. We ended the first day with "huzzahs" and threats in a gentlemanly fashion.

The battle will take a siesta until next week. The game's afoot and the forces are deep into the fray!

Stay tuned!

Cavalry on the way!

I painted 24 Heavy Cavalry and 3 Renegade Cuirassiers (Lobsters) over the weekend. Only 12 more to do in this bunch. Picked up a cool OG Artillery deal and another bag of OG Cavalry (I think they're command...I definitely can use them.
Am getting rather frustrated at the lack of information on standards carried by some regiments. I'm using Folorn Hope set of ECW scenarios and some of the flags and regiments just can't be found. I've also got Ede-Barnett's old Flags of the ECW paperback from the Stone Age. Can't seem to find them in there either. Where's the disconnect? Guess it's because it's been over 367 years since these forces were in the field.
I'm outa' here. Gotta' get an instructional presentation done.

ECW Buildings On The Way, Cavalry Questions, and Clubmen

My good friend Sandy Botond (from Houston..oops..I meant Katy, Texas) has constructed several buildings for the ECW project for me.
Here's pic of the farmhouse. I'm really looking forward to getting these buildings onto the table. I'll need to pick up some Foundry civilians and appropriate animals (sheep and herding dogs) to make this complete..

Here is a picture of the windmill that Sandy has built for the ECW game. This will look great not only with ECW but with SYW and my extensive 25/8mm Napoleonic collection.

Being an American and Texan, I don't have a good mental concept of an enclosure. I've Googled some pictures and it seems as if enclosures look a lot like hedgerow country in Normandy. Any help would be appreciated. The same question applies to field stone walls. Kinda' a weird question but living in upper New York state as a kid, we used to play and make forts out of stones found on field walls. We were always told these walls were constructed because the farmers didn't have a place to store the stones they turned/cleared when plowing.
Here is a snap of the pub Sandy built for me. I'm keeping the name of the pub close to the vest. We've got a few good names in mind however! :)

Cavalry pictures will be forthcoming this weekend. They're progressing quite well. Everything I've read points in the direction that cavalry units had no "uniform" appearance other than the sash each side wore early in the war. I'm not painting these units with uniform sleeves, etc. but am painting them with buff coat and sleeves. I'm planning on building the ensigns to where I can interchange flags. I should be able to use each stand interchangeably.

Now...to those club men. Where can I get club men? Should I just use farmers, civilian rioting mobsters, guys with pitchforks and torches (ala Frankenstein movies) or what. I'm just full o' preguntas today. Any help would be appreciated.

Can you paint this many horses in 1 hour 45 min?

Got busy tonight and oil rubbed over 30+ in 1 hour 45 min. No record but this process definitely beats the hell out of basecoating, washing, waiting for the wash to dry, it looks like crap because it muddies up the color, do it over, get pissed off because it never works like "they say" on the boards or in the wargaming mags.

Yep...I'd never go back to the old fashioned way of painting horses.

Should have this cavalry finished out in the next 10 days or so.

ECW Painting Progress To Date

Here is a little painting progress on the ECW project to date. My photography skills are not very highly honed so these will have to do. My camera is an old Sony 2.1 megapixel monster. It works and is paid for so that's what I use.

As I've blogged before, my collection is a combination of OG, Foundry, Renegade and whatever strikes my fancy via Bartertown and EBay I also recommend Lead and Dice. It's a pretty cool site that apparently does the searching on EBay for specific periods and types of miniatures.

Below is a down and dirty gallery of some various and sundry ECW units and subjects. All were taken in the Rat Palace III. It's my game house in Red Oak, Texas. I've got a 16x6 table with over 200-2'x2' terrain squares. They are completely indexed and fit together superbly. The Rat Palace is a great place to play. It has spousal amenities such as an adjacent pool, hot tub/spa room , multiple patios, adjoining cabana and covered arbor. I'm pretty blessed that's for sure. Anyway, keep checking back for ECW army progress. As posted below, the first 3 units of cavalry are primed and on the painting block.

Gallery Stuff

Typical ECW Planning by Committee

Artillery Line

Red Dragoons

Lobsters

Lumbering Limber
More Lobsters

Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

Last Artillery Shot..'bout time eh?

Painting Horses-The First 30+

I'm ready to oil rub the first batch of horses over the weekend. I like building armies "cavalry first" since they are the most complex in this period due to the non-uniformity of each unit. I'm sure someone out there in the blogosphere would like to know what the hell "oil rubbed horses" means? It's not pornographic nor does the process violate any laws of the great State of Tejas. Here's a quickie overview of the process. I don't use ANY other method. I've got a copy of Dallimore's book on how to "blob paint" dang near anything. My horse painting process is similar but different. I like the results and have for over 20+ years. They're consistent and look good on the game table. No junk is allowed on my game table in Dallas.
Step 1: Prime 'em right-Use Rustoleum Flat White (not White primer). I don't care that GW does this and others do that. All I know is that I can produce a stunning horse miniature using this process.
Step 2: Glue the riders on the horse. Don't waste time nor "richard" around with silly rider holders, gluing onto nails or other time wasters. I like to get busy and get done so I can see my cavalry rout off the table with regularity. That's why my gaming buds do not allow me to USE what I have painted if we are gaming on the same side.
Step 3: Hot Glue the complete cavalry miniature on strips of cardboard and prime 'em. I do this because I don't like handling figures whist painting them. It's also a good use for all those cardboard boxes that seem to pop up around the house. Cut 'em up and use them! Once glued, I prime the complete figure.
Step 4: Glop Aklyd Oil paint onto the horse and let dry for about 5 minutes. Aklyds are water soluable oil paint. They clean up with water and your hands won't look like you washed in grease for a week. These paints don't have the Turpentine Stank either. That means you can do your horse painting "thang" and the spouse won't have her knickers in a knot about the stanky work area. Doesn't mean you'll get lucky but....hey...one never knows right?
Step 5: Pull the oil paint off the horse with a small piece of foam rubber. I bought an "egg crate mattress topper" from the local WalMart. I've had it for over 5 years. I cut off what I need for a project, cut it into 2-3 finger sized cubes and get to pullin'. This phase goes best with an old B-Sci Fi movie like "Them" or "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers". Don't ask me why. I have no idea!
Step 6: Put 'em outside to dry for 24 hours. It works best in the hot Tejas summer but I'm ok with leaving them out in winter too as long as it's dry. If it is raining like living in Seattle or in London, put them inside. They won't stink up the place and your spouse, significant other or whatever really can't gripe...well..maybe a little. Don't worry about the time factor, Aklyd paints dry where old skool oil paints do not. I just like to do other stuff (drink, watch grass grow, teach school) while these figures are drying
Step 7: Get to paintin'...time's a wastin'! I paint the horses with variations of browns with an occasional Grey and or Black for "texture". I don't paint white horses. That's just for amateurs that are too lazy to paint horses correctly. Paint horse manes, tails and hooves with a dark brown. I still use a Polly-S shade called Ogre Dark Brown. It's not made anymore that I know of and I had a couple of pints made at Home D'Pot about 5 years ago. It's still good after all those years. I drybrush the mane and tail with Howard Hues Concrete. That brings out the striations in the casting. If you don't want to do that don't...I'm just more than a little weird about horse painting.
paint the horse's eyes Black rather than the goofy white then black. Look at a horse and you can't see the whites of their eyes. Dot the eye with a small dot of white. You pick the place on the eye to draw attention to the horse's face. Some really good painters paint the mouth of the horse with a flesh color. I don't do that because every time I do, it looks like the horse is giving everyone a crap-eating grin. If you're good enough to do that, please feel free. I'm just into getting my project done and on the table. My cavalry still looks better than 99% of the crap I've seen over the years. This system works. Try it...you won't go back to slop painting, applying stupid washes that muck up the original color, glob on highlights so the horse looks like a Picasso painting or other techniques that ensure your figures look "wargame table top quality" (like crap).
Step 8: Final finish your figures with Floquil Flat or Testors Dull Coat. I've tried using Minwax over oil painted horses. Take a look at the dragoons. My jury's still out. I like a brighter looking figure but that's just because my eyes are getting dull.

How many figures do I paint at one time? I usually paint 20-30 cavalry at one time. I used to do more than that but that's about all I want to deal with at my advanced paternal age.

I'm posting up some pics of the project to date. Keep checking and let me know what you think. I've only got 120 cavalry to paint so it shouldn't take too long.

Artillery Moving Foward

The project is moving forward. I've constructed the wooden "supports", added the static grass and "slopped in" some different ballast and medium rocks.

The "supports" got painted with Vallejo's Game Color Cobra Leather (stupid name). I couldn't stay away and Minwax'd the supports. They look good and will look better when they're highlighted. The plan is to add some cannon balls-double ought buckshot shot works just fine for that chore. Still need to find some 25/8mm buckets or small barrels. They can always be added later. Sometimes too much on a stand can detract from the model IMHO. The basing took a little more time than I thought; I've posted before that I'm used to Vallejo's PumiceThis is a fun project so far.

I'll post up some pictures of the project on some of the terrain over the weekend. Bear with me on the pics...I just took them while the models were on a piece of sheet steel, illuminated by my painting lamp.

I'm stoked!

Project in Progress

Artillery In Progress

I picked up this mortar and crew off of Ebay recently. Thanks to Allen Eldridge-www.terrainguy.com for making the gabions available. I don't have a clue if the mortar should be bronze, iron, brass or like the old joke "what would a bell made of shite sound like? Dung! Any help would be appreciated. I also just had to take more pics of the artillery park.

Making progress. I've painted four artillery emplacements and am shamelessly copying Clarence Harrison's ideas for emplacements. I did find an easy way to build the artillery "boards". Found a Plastruct(?) architectural piece to work. Cut it, primed and painted it. After drying, I laid on a coat of Minwax Golden Walnut to give it "texture". Ok...ok...I Minwax everything so sue me!

I'm adding some more roughage and some static grass in strategic places. I'm fighting the feeling of adding a command stand with the artillery captains standing under a tree but I'm losing the battle at this point. Am also painting an artillery train guard for each side. I picked up 24 Renegade musketeers from a seller on Bartertown. They'll work just fine as "firelock" guards.

If you didn't take advantage of the Wargames LLC Dixon sale, you really missed the boat. Got my miniscule order today. Now the commands for the infantry can get completed.

Please feel free to post your thoughts and comments as this project moves forward.

Victory without Quarter!