Armies and Enemies of Louis the XIV - The Generals.

TheFrench-Dutch War 1672-1678.

TheGenerals...

This week I have been mostly eating carrots....(Jesse's diets c/o The Fast Show)

AND I managed to finish The Command bases for my French-Dutch War campaign. After purchasing eight mounted Officers and staff from the fantastic 'Front Rank miniatures' I put together one Dutch command vignette comprising a surprisingly portly William of Orange (the bloke who in my opinion saved England from yet another bloody civil war due his participation in the Glorious Revolution and in ousting king James II from power).

I think Front Rank's version of Prince William possibly suffers from a dose of gout

Prince William of Orange 1674 and ADC

AND I finished a command base of the French Marshal Turenne, his command vignette depicts him just prior to losing an argument with a cannon ball at the battle of Salzbach 1675.

Turenne 1675 (the moustaches were added by sculpting 'green stuff'.)

Turenne and ADC

I found a picture of Turenne at the battle of Turckheim 1675 riding a piebald horse, I thought it would make a change from the usual white charger most generals seem to be depicted riding.

Turenne seems to be grey haired by this time, so I thought his wig would be the same colour?!?

AND finished a command base of the French Grand Conde the general who saved Paris from the Allied advance at the battle of Seneffe in 1674...now this bloke actually died of gout...cool.

The Prince Conde 1674 (again green stuff was used for the moustache.)

both Conde and Turenne were present at the invasion of the United Provinces in 1672.

Conde and Aide de Camp

The ADC is a converted standard bearer, I just chopped the right arm off and re-sculpted it with 'green stuff' in a relaxed position.

The Generals vignettes were based on 75mm diameter round bases in accordance to 'Beneath the Lily Banners second edtion' rulset which I haven't play tested yet....or even read yet....I just looked the the pretty pictures...no really there are a lot of very nice pictures in it.

AND finished a Dutch Brigadier.

The small bush and grass tufts were made by me.

I need another two Dutch brigadiers

Again using the League of Augsburgs 'Beneath the Lily Banners 2nd ed.' it has a 50mm diameter base

AND finished a French Brigadier.

I need another two French brigadiers.

The rock is made from cork bark.

The bush was made by me, a box of 120 of these is available through this Blog.

I'm looking forward to using the Lily Banners ruleset kindly sold to me by a good customer of mine....I think that's what happened anyway....cheers Gareth (a.k.a. Raglan).

With the Generals done the French Dutch War campaign is now very close to starting.

Anyhow Cheerio for now,

Peter.

Armies and Enemies of Louis the XIV and the Grand Alliance.

It's slack time at the Pickle Factory today :) so I thought I'd finish a Late 17th Century General Officer I started a week ago. Painted in Enamels, Oils and Acyrlics and varnished in Testors Dullcote varnish, it represents any General officer from the late 17th Century...so from the French Dutch Wars 1672-78 all the way to the Grand Alliance. So this could be French, German States etc.

I have this 28mm  miniature for sale on ebay at the moment. All funds raised will go to buying more figures, The Chasseur a cheval on the previous post was sold on ebay last week and the funds raised went to buying some 'Black Tree Designs' goblins, Coolio.

based on plasticard 25mm x 50mm with terrain effects, grass etc.

matt varnished with testors dullcote.

Manufactured by the world famous 'Front Rank miniatures' and painted by me at  theminiaturepaintingstudio@live.co.uk

ebay id: peterw3169 
item id: 121400367623

Anyhow, all the Best, Peter

p.s. I am available for commission work.

Armies and Enemies of Louis the XIV and the The French-Dutch War of 1672-1678

The French Army: I've already completed two Dutch foot Regiments for my French-Dutch war, (see previous posts) I decided to start on my late 17th century French Army specifically the French Generals command base. I used a couple of paintings for inspiration, one of Grand Conde (battle of Seneffe) and one of general Turenne (battle of Turckheim), though until a manufacturer makes these specific generals I had to make do with generic officers manufactured by 'Front Rank.

'The officers on foot could represent any personalites or regiments as officers generally wore whatever clothing they wished.

I try to add some campaign/battlefield items but find you can easily overdo it, too little is often better than too much.

A sense of urgency has been injected into the vignette by the pointing officer on foot. He is a Guard Francaise officer from 1672 this is before they adopted the famous blue uniform.

A grey coated subordinate officer hands over a map to the blue coated officer on horse

I have painted eyes on each miniature but my photography skills leave much to be desired

Painting Method.

After I primed these 'Front Rank' minis in black enamel to give a good flat opaque undercoat, I wanted to start on the faces first as these give character to the miniatures almost immediately. 

After undercoating the flesh areas with matt white enamel, flesh was mixed from red + yellow + white and painted thinly over the undercoated areas, then a wash of burnt sienna oil paint was applied giving the faces a somewhat suntanned effect. 

 I worked through burnt sienna acrylic mixed with white building up the flesh tones. 

Each stage was allowed to dry fully, then the blacks and greys of the leather straps, shoes were painted. The metals were dry brushed on (gold acrylic) then cleaned up with oil washes flooded over to give a worn look (burnt umber oilpaint) then highlighted with acrylic gold paint. Oil paints Enamel paints and acrylics were used to produce various effects.

The basing was the almost last stage, the miniatures are supaglued to a 80mm round mdf base resulting in a compact vignette. Polyfilla was added to level off the ground, then PVA glue was liberally brushed on with an old no.2 brush,  rocks were sprinkled over the area then sawdust of various grades applied. The dirt/earth effect was obtained by mixing burnt umber oil paint with enamel leather colour, then dry brushing in lighter tones of burnt umber oil paint/leather enamel/yellow enamel/white enamel building up to the lightest colour.

Grass and flowers and a scrub bush were added before the final coat of 'Testors Dullcote' matt varnish which flattens the painting effects.

The mdf base is from http://www.warbases.co.uk the grass is from 'War Painter' available from most wargames online stores and ebay. The small bush I made myself.

Next will be The French Infantry Regiments Picardie and Navarre.