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.

28mm Napoleonic French - Chasseur a Cheval

Just a quick note to show you a French Chasseur a Cheval I have for sale on ebay at the moment. All funds raised will go to buying more figures.

French Chasseur a Cheval

painted in oils, enamels & acrylics

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

The 4mm Grass Tufts used on the base are available from me at pjwalke@live.com just see my other post showing how to use them.

matt varnished with testors dullcote.

Manufactured by the world renowned 'Perry miniatures' and painted by me at  theminiaturepaintingstudio@live.co.uk

ebay id: peterw3169 
item id: 121392230471

Anyhow, all the Best, Peter

28mm Ancient Thracian Commanders Base - The Peloponnesian Wars.

28mm Ancient Thracian Commanders Base:

At last I've started the Thracian Army for my Peloponnesian Wars campaign. All the command bases are 60mm frontage by 80mm deep to give me a chance to add a bit of character to the base.

Thracian general 'out on a jolly'.

Thrace was a bit of a wild country but the Thracians I'm trying to depict are those which were recruited to fight in the Peloponnesian War i.e. throughout mainland Greece.

 Visual guide to basing Thracian command vignette:

sandless pollyfilla smoothed onto the base.

Slate shards superglued on, the standing figure has been pinned to the slate. A hole was drilled through the slate.

sawdust and 2 grades of small rocks are PVA glued on.

Slate is very easy to work with and very easy to drill.

I thought about having the warrior in the green cloak stand on top of the rock, but half way up seems to have a more subtle effect.

sawdust added to the top of the rock. This will be painted a grass colour.

figures manufactured by Wargames Foundry

and painted by me at theminiaturepaintingstudio@live.co.uk

Not sure about the Thracian Army standard colour, I might repaint it red, black & white. 

Glue dried ready for the next stage: Painting the base.

I forgot to take pictures of the painting stages :) but the dirt is burnt umber oils mixed with tan enamel, then progressive lighter shades of the same colours mixed with yellow then white to give a gradual tonal effect. The grass was washed in green mixed with tan, then highlighted with the same green + tan mixed with yellow.

Finally testors dullcote matt varnish was sprayed over the whole vignette.

The slate was repainted in part in enamels where necessary

Oh and of course I've added grass tufts and a few flowering weeds which I produce, available through pjwalke@live.com

Anyhow, Cheers for now, Peter.

The Hundred Years War - French Commanders

The Dauphin Charles

Another 28mm French Medieval commander from the Hundred years War: The Dauphin Charles 1356, this character was to be the future king of France Charles V.

This mini is currently available on ebay, either search for Ebay seller: peterw3169 or item ID: 121385222759

THE FIGURE
Manufactured by 'Front Rank Miniatures' painted by me (at theminiaturepaintingstudio@live.co.uk) in oils. enamels and acrylics, a matt varnish was sprayed on with 'testors dullcote'.

REFERENCE
Usually I use any source available this time it was osprey's 'French Armies of the Hundred Years War' Men At Arms series No:337

THE BASE
The base is plasticard 25mm x 50mm ground texture 'sandless polyfilla', different grades of stones were used The ground textures once dry were flooded in washes of browns (burnt umber oil paint mixed with tan leather enamel), then highlight with grades of tone of tan, tan+yellow, tan+yellow+white.

The Grass tufts were made by me (available on ebay, just search for ebay sellers ID: peterw3169 or lord_jaggard ). The flowers again just grass tufts with PVA glue brush onto them and dipped in red sand. The shrub is a cut down tree glued in place with bostik.

Cheers for now,
Peter.

28mm Ancient Boetian (Theban) Greek Army - The Peloponnesian Wars.

Ancient Boeotian (Theban) Greek Army.

And so onwards with the recruitment for my Peloponnesian Wars campaign. The idea is to fight a number of campaigns based on 'clash of arms' boardgame: The Epic of the Peloponnesian Wars, partly because they have a fantastic map ideal for wargamers, see below and also because it has good game mechanics especially for sieges. To that end I have finished the Spartan and the Athenian contingents which are full armies (see earlier posts), these will be supplemented by smaller contingents e.g. the Boetians, Corinthians, etc.

The Epic of the Peloponnesian Wars map has overlayed hexes each with its own serial number, so no mistakes in jotting down movement orders there then !?!. 

So with that in mind here come the Boetians:

Hoplites wearing Classic helmet styles waiting for their more 'peculiar' Boetian helmeted comrades.

After spending a several days painting 24x upper class heavy hoplites for my Boetian Army, I figured that the classic Boetian helmet wasn't really used for hoplite formations, it seems to be a cavalryman's helmet, also there is no evidence that it was made of bronze either?!?

So ignoring this assumption I have added 6x Boetian style helmets to my hoplite phalanx just in case :)

Boetian style helmets.

Boetians ready for action.

Heavy Cavalry forms part of a small Boetian cavalry contingent.

The Heavy cavalry have a varied mix of helmet styles and clothing. I like the blue Thracian style 'smurf' helmet.

The Grass Tufts are available from me from my eBay listings just search for user id: peterw3169

After studying a lot of greek pottery I realised than tunics cloaks had a lot of zigzag multi-coloured etc. patterns on them.

stored ready for battle

storage box 4 litre box from the 'Really Useful Box Company'

All these Figures are from 'Wargames Foundry'

Hoplite spears from 'Aventine miniatures'

Next on the workbench are the Boetian Light infantry comprising some peltasts, archers and slingers.

Then next are the Corinthian,  Thracian mercenary, Syracusan, Greek mercenary and Thessalanians contigents, then at last The Peloponnesian War can begin :) 

The Argives come in half way through the campaign apparently so I can leave these till last, with the Persians potentially near the end of the war (Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus's armies).

Cheerio for now.