28mm Late Republican Roman - Civil War.

28mm Late Republican Roman - Civil War.

Julius Caesar's Army.

After finding some time and an empty space to paint, I thought it was a good time for me to start finalizing Julius Caesar's army for a Late Roman campaign I've been planning for some time.

Usually starting from the top down, the plan was to complete Caesar's command base, then his German bodyguard cavalry (apparently he mobilised 300 of them) then 2 veteran Gallic legion cohorts (of which one at least was to be a detachment of the famous Xth Legion ) then two other legionary cohorts, some Gallic mercenary cavalry and mercenary archers (Cretan) and finally a camp vignette.

So here goes, Caesar was bought on ebay as a 'Companion Miniatures' pack together with some Roman cavalry. Only 6 German bodyguard cavalry were required, to make them unique I smuggled in a 'Wargames Foundry' German Romanized officer and converted 3 remaining cavalrymen to Germans by replacing their heads with heads from 'Black Tree Designs' German warrior range. It was just a case of drilling and pinning these together, the result seem to work out fine. A suitable dour uniform was picked for them (as was common for Ancient Germans) but they still retained a mix of Roman equipment and their German style shields.

Caesar's German bodyguard cavalry black-washed.

Caesar's German bodyguard with their dour uniform and mix of German and Roman equipment.

Having painted Caesar himself numerous times over the years I decided this time I would break with convention of having him with a red cloak and red tunic, this time he'd wear a purple cloak with gold laurel border indicating his imperial ambitions and yellowish tunic with blue decoration. With hair greying at the temples, this gave him the image of a mature, experienced statesman and battle hardened military commander, I had a problem with picking his horse, apparently Romans liked the idea of their generals riding white horses, I'd prefer to paint a grey or black horse. So I propose to do both and pick the best.

Caesar primed and under-painted.

Caesar Almost done, just his horse to paint now.

Legionaries of Caesar's Xth Legion washed in hard-wearing black enamel paint, ready for their undercoat.

The Two veteran legionary cohorts will be somewhat undersized compared to their less experienced colleagues comprising 20 figures each..

legionaries based with  grass tufts I produce, now  just the shields and pilum to add

to be continued....

28mm French Revolutionary Armies & Enemies

28mm French Revolutionary Armies & Enemies.

Continuing with the French Revolutionary project I had a chance to finish a single French 8 pounder gun and crew, these can be used for either the Army of the North or Napoleon Bonaparte's Italian and Egyptian campaigns. The crewmen are from Brigade Games whilst the 8 pounder gun is from Hinchliffe.co.uk available through Hind Figures Ltd. The 8 pounder was supplied with 2 different barrels so I could have made a 6/4 pounder if required.

Brigade Games provided the gun crew, they also supply a crew loading so I'll try and order one in the near future.

Also are a few pictures of Monsieur Bonaparte as Consul I managed to finish this week, the figure is manufactured by Trent miniatures and available unpainted from the 'North Star' website northstarfigures.com

Hopefully I can finish the rest of the French Revolutionary infantry battalion soon.

28mm French Revolutionary Armies & Enemies

28mm French Revolutionary Armies & Enemies.

A project which has interested me for a long time when I stumbled across Brigade Games' 28mm French revolutionary miniatures some months ago and purchased 1 battalion of 24 figures to create a line battalion for either the Army of the North or Napoleon Bonaparte's Italian and Egyptian campaigns.  I'll add some pictures of these revolutionary infantry at a later date as I am halfway through painting the figures.

So I thought I add some pictures of General Brune I managed to finish this week, the figure is manufactured by Trent miniatures and available unpainted from the 'North Star' website http://www.northstarfigures.com/

General Guillaume-Marie-Anne Brune.

Painted in Oils Enamels & Acrylics to get the best colours available.

The French General commande in Italy 1798 and  Holland 1799.

He wears a scarf around his waist in Revolutionary Colours. 

18th Regiment de Ligne Italian campaign 1792-1797.

These 28mm French Revolutionary miniatures are available unpainted from www.brigadegames.com

The 24 figure battalion will form 1 battalion of 3 in a demi-brigade, they all have similar flags for the Italian and Egyptian campaigns. I am currently working on a handpainted flag on metal foil, I will add pictures when they're available.

Also a Trent miniatures Napoleon Bonaparte as Consul on the Italian campaign, Picture to follow.

Cheerio for now. 

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

The French Regiments: I've continued to build the French foot Regiments for my French-Dutch war, I think it'll consist of 5 Regiments including; Garde Suisse, Picardie, Normandie, Navarre and du Roi , these regiments were at the battle of Seneffe 1674. This I reckon is a reasonable start, then I'll follow with the siege artillery train for both French and Dutch armies together with a couple of vignettes.

Picardie Regiment 1674.

The Picardie Regimental flag is the red flag, the colonels is the white flag.

The flags are made using tin foil which is flexible and allows the flag to be curled even after the paint has fully dried. The tassels and scarves on the flag poles are from 'Front Rank'.

Picardie Regiment 1672.

Normandie Regiment 1672.

WIP French drummers.

WIP French drummers.

The Drum is of wooden construction so I've left it plain brown. The Drummer wears Royal livery of a  blue coat with white lace with red and blue squares. I'll add a detailed picture of the drummers lace later on.

The command stand sans drummer.

The pikeblock.

French pike block. A sash would be white indicating that it is serving in the French army. Armour seems to be in use in this war, a hat replaced the helmet by the later 17th century.

The figures are 28mm tall and are available unpainted from North Star.

I'm hoping to create a mini campaign based on the French-Dutch war 0f 1672-78 using the 'The Perfect Captains' Battle Finder system, Tinker Fox campaign system and a la Hunguenotte available for free from: http://perfectcaptain.50megs.com/bfinder.html

The a la Huguenotte addon has terrain cards specifically for the Low countries (Holland etc.)

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

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

The Cavalry.

At last the latest installment to my armies of the French Dutch war are the cavalry. Each army will have 2 small regiments of horse and 4 regiments of infantry (covered in several earlier posts) based on the forces at the battle of Seneffe 1674. I was hoping to finish this project early this year, then gradually add extra regiments as I found the time to paint them.

French Cavalry Regiment Cuirassier du Roi.
This cavalry regiment was present at the battle of Seneffe 1974. A regiment in the Maison du Roi it was paid for directly by King Louis XIV of France.  A contingent of 400 men were present at the battle.

This cavalry regiment was the only French regiment at Seneffe to wear steel back and breast plate armour, that I know of, all the rest wore just coats or buff leather coats either over or under their uniform. Carrying a blue flag with silver design of a face surrounded by rays, the motto on the flag reads 'Nec Pluribus Impar'.

Uniforms are blue coats with red facings (cuffs), buff coloured breeches silver buttons and white sashes to denote service in the French army and buff hats, Louis XIV had a hatred of grey hats apparently.

French Cavalry Regiment La Reine
Also present at the battle was the cavalry regiment La Reine.

Uniforms are grey coats with red facings (cuffs), buff coloured breeches yellow buttons and white sashes to denote service in the French army with mainly black hats. One or two troopers wear buff coats for added protection. The horse furniture consisted of a red shabraque edged in blue with white lace detail. The trumpeter wears a uniform unique to the regiment.


Dutch Cavalry Regiment No.10 formed in 1672
This cavalry regiment would be Lodewijk Christiaan Graaf van Wittgenstein in 1674, possibly present at the battle of Seneffe 1674. In 1676 the colonel was Albert Ferdinand Graff van Berlo.

Uniform details & sources: Gerpines andd Wagner agree on the facing colours (red cuffs, red waistcoat, red breeches), Wagner and Belaubre say the coat was a dark grey colour. The shabraque was red laced white (silver lace for the officers). A white flag would be the Colonel's/Regiment's flag, a green flag for the squadron.

The officers jacket is red laced silver, the trumpeters jacket a brown colour (burnt sienna) with white hoops on the arms, the trooper's jackets are a darker grey. I have added a few with buff coats for protection. All wear the orange sash to denote service in the army of the the United Provices.

I haven't found the motto for the flag yet, I'll add the lettering if I do. I'm acquiring a copy of Wargames Illustrated #173 february 2002 with Mark Allens article on William III Dutch cavalry.

Just figured out Mark Allens handwriting the motto is 'PACEM ARMIS QUERO' loosely translated as: 'peace by force of arms'.

All the squadrons have 6 figures at the moment to aid completion of the project.

The Dutch Army so far:

The Dutch Army 1674

Regiment Schwarzenberg closeup.

I have one more Dutch regiment of Foot and one of Horse to add at a later date. Then next the siege artillery train and command vignettes.

Wars of the Roses 1455-1485

Hi, here is the command base painted last week for Lord Thomas Stanley Earl of Derby.

Sir Thomas Stanley 1st Earl of Derby (1435-1504)

One of Stanley's retainers, livery tawney & green, badge a eagles/falcons claw 'Or'. 

Stanley's personal standard a swallow-tailed banner is hand-painted on metal foil, so it can be reshaped to give the appearance of fluttering in the wind.

Thomas Stanley fought throughout the Wars of the Roses, shifting allegiances a number of times, a true survivor he eventually died of old age in 1504.

These miniatures are 28mm scale manufactured by Perrry miniatures and painted by me at theminiaturepaintingstudio@live.co.uk

The base is 60mm in diameter textured with grass, grass tufts and red flowers to denote his Lancastrian loyalties.

Lord Clifford - with his personal standard.

Thomas Courtney Earl of Devon - with his personal swallow tailed standard.

Walter Devereux Lord Ferrers - with personal standard.

Earl of Essex - with personal standard.

miscellaneous stuff.

Monk & lady vignette.

light bombard.

The Master gunner signals the firing of a light bombard.

This page will be updated when I have some free time.

WW2 in 28mm (1/56th scale) British Armoured Platoon 1944-1945

The Sherman mk.Vc 'Firefly' circa.1944

The 23rd Hussars Tank Regiment.

Continuing with my British armoured platoon of 1944 -1945 European Theater of War, I decided my infantry needed some armour for the 1944 Normandy to the battle of the Bulge scenarios. So I picked up a Sherman firefly complete with 17 pounder gun for some firepower.

Die Waffenkammer make a really nice Sherman mkVc firefly so I thought I give it a go.

 The tracks are separate but come fitted to the hull by the manufacterer so that a perfect effect is ensured, I wish all manufacturers could be this diligent! This does save a lot of frustration...I mean it really does.

A superb clean model, I actually followed the manufacturer's instructions and did wash it with detergent to remove any release agent that might be left on the model from the manufacturing process.

Then I primed it with a medium grey matt enamel paint., followed by a dark green paint.

I got a bit carried away and forgot to take pictures for each stage of the painting process, but it was a surprisingly quick job. Then just add the waterslide transfer decals, let them dry out and add a weathering effect over the whole vehicle.

The '51' decals show the red senior tank regiment of the Brigade, in this case the 23rd Hussars was the senior regiment above the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment and the 2nd Fife & Forfar regiments of the Brigade 

The Red triangle denotes 'A' squadron

Die waffenkamer provides a lot of extras with their model, stowage, seperate tracks and a tank commander, here I have a die waffenkamer tankie with a Warlord games tank commander. The aerial was added from some garden wire.

 The Yellow decal with a black bull denotes it is a tank of the 11th Armoured Division

The gun barrel has a wavy line down it to make it look like the shorter 75mm barrel used on the Mark V Sherman tanks used by the British in 1944. Disguising the fact that it is a 17 pounder tank buster gun instead.

Next post I might feature some stuff I'm flogging on ebay.

Cheerio.