April - Overcoming an aversion to black

So with April at a close I can proudly announce that I have overcome my aversion to black and as a result finished all the planned projects!

So onwards to May; My planned projects are as follows:

Master Gunner & Sentinel 

Saker Cannon & Crew (inc engineer)

Demi-Culverin

Painting: Pike & Shotte/Pikemans Lament - English Civil War: Foot Dragoons

In this post I will outline how I painted 12 ECW foot Dragoons, the important part (in my opinion) is that I didn't use black at all!

The paints used were from the Vallejo game colour range, unless stated otherwise.

I started by undercoating them all in grey.

I used the following process, which was consistent on all of them
The coats were paint with GW Mephiston Red
The musket stock was painted with Scorched Brown (72.045)
The musket barrel, trigger and lock was painted with Vallejo Model colour Gunmetal grey (70.863)
Musket fuse was painted with Plague brown (72.039)
Flesh was painted with Tan (72.066), then Dwarf skin(72.041)
The collar was painted with White primer (72.002)
Any Sash was painted Imperial Blue (72.020) then highlighted with Magic blue (72.021) then washed AP Blue tone
Sword hilt was painted with Chainmail silver (72.053)

Trousers, areas of leather and hair were all painted differently using any of the processes listed below

Leather (including shoes and hats)

• Beasty Brown (72.043), then Leather Brown (72.040)
• Beasty Brown (72.043)
• Leather Brown (72.040)
• Scorched Brown (72.045)
• Scorched Brown  (72.045) then Beasty Brown (72.043)
• Plague Brown (72.039)

Trousers

• Sombre Grey (this was also used on the cuffs of the (red) jackets) (72.048)
• Plague Brown (72.039)
• Desert Yellow (72.063)

Hair

• GW Iyanden Darksun
• GW Macharius Solar Orange
• Scorched Brown
• Beasty Brown
• Leather Brown
• Earth (72.062)
• Cold Grey (72.050)

Once the model had been painted AP Strong tone was applied all over except for areas of skin, muskets, Sword hilt and trouser painted with Sombre grey.
Areas of flesh were painted with AP Flesh wash
Muskets, sword hilts and sombre grey trousers were coated with AP dark tone

The command group was painted using a similar method with some changes/additions:
Leader
Bright Bronze (72.057) then Glorious Gold (72.056) on the jacket trim and the sword hilt
Chainmail silver (72.053) on the halberd blade

Drummer
Drum skin: Bonewhite (72.034)
Drum trim: Imperial blue, AP Blue tone
Drum string:Plague brown, AP strong tone, Bone white (72.034)

Standard bearer
Standard pole/Lance: painted beasty brown

once all the models have been painted I covered the bases in sand, painted it scorched brown, then covered it with static grass

Painting: Pike & Shotte/Pikemans Lament - English Civil War: Parliamentarian Trotters

I have completed part of this months target, the English civil war parliamentarian trotters.

As ever the majority of the colours used are from the Vallejo colour range, unless indicated otherwise.

I started with a grey undercoat.

I painted the riders first, starting with the tunic using Plague Brown (72.039), then the pistols wood with Beasty Brown (72.043), the metal for the pistol was painted with Gunmetal grey (70.863).
Leather including the sword scabbard was painted with Charred Brown (72.045)
Boots were painted with GW Abaddon black
Any other metal (armour, gauntlet, buckles, helmet etc) was painted with Chainmail Silver (72.053)
The sword hilt was painted with Bright Bronze (72.057) then Glorious Gold (72.056)
The sash and trousers were painted with Imperial Blue (72.020)
I tried to paint the hair differently; one in GW Iyanden Darksun (Foundation Yellow), one in Beasty Brown (72.043), one in GW Abaddon Black, One in Leather (72.040), one in Earth (72.062) and one in Plague Brown (72.039)
Flesh was painted with Tan (72.066) then highlighted with Dwarf skin(72.041), then washed with AP soft tone
Once all the base colours were on and the riders were tidied various washes were applied.
Tunic & light colour hair: AP soft tone
Leather and dark hair: AP Strong tone
Pistol and sword hilt: P3 Armour Wash
Sash and trousers: AP Blue tone, then highlight with Magic blue (72.021)

The horses were painted using the instructions found here: https://www.facebook.com/brushstroke.painter/photos/ms.c.eJxFzcENwDAMQtGNKoLt2Oy~;WCXUpNenjyCUgKJzdezUQ8OoDFofCMQkon4oQ84B0pOdtxhD32KlJ3FeFNWFrbkTjgvWCyN9HpY~-.bps.a.2094007537507166.1073741883.1691782607729663/2094009374173649/?type=3&theater
The paints indicated in that link are all GW paints so I used the dakkadakka forum paint conversion chart https://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Paint_Range_Compatibility_Chart.
With the exception of Eshin Grey which I had to make by mixing black and Cold Grey (72.050).
The saddle and various straps were painted with Charred Brown (72.045). On some of the horses I then painted the saddle with Beasty Brown (72.043). The saddles were washed with AP strong tone.

The bases were then painted Charred Brown (72.045), covered in PVA and dipped in sand, once dry the sand was painted Charred Brown (72.045), covered in PVA again and covered in static grass.

Summary:
Rider:

• Tunic: Plague Brown (72.039) wash with AP Soft Tone
• Sash and trousers: Imperial Blue (72.020), AP Blue tone, then highlight with Magic blue (72.021)
• Leather gloves, straps and scabbard: Charred Brown (72.045)
• Pistols: Beasty Brown (72.043) & Gunmetal grey (70.863).
• Sword hilt: Bright Bronze (72.057) then Glorious Gold (72.056), P3 Armour Wash
• Helmet, Buckles, stirrups: Chainmail Silver (72.053), P3 Armour Wash
• Flesh: Tan (72.066), highlighted with Dwarf skin(72.041), then AP soft tone 
• Hair: GW Iyanden Darksun (Foundation Yellow), Beasty Brown (72.043), GW Abaddon Black, Leather (72.040), Earth (72.062) and Plague Brown (72.039)

Horses:

• https://www.facebook.com/brushstroke.painter/photos/ms.c.eJxFzcENwDAMQtGNKoLt2Oy~;WCXUpNenjyCUgKJzdezUQ8OoDFofCMQkon4oQ84B0pOdtxhD32KlJ3FeFNWFrbkTjgvWCyN9HpY~-.bps.a.2094007537507166.1073741883.1691782607729663/2094009374173649/?type=3&theater using dakkadakka paint conversion chart (https://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Paint_Range_Compatibility_Chart.)
• Saddle: Charred Brown (72.045) (some highlighted with Beasty Brown (72.043), AP Strong tone.

March Objective

So with February out of the way I have achieved a lot more than expected;

In addition to the objective I set myself (See "Well that was Quick") I also completed the following:

Genestealer Cult: Clamavus

Infinity: Nomad: Moderator of Bakunin with Spitfire

Infinity: Nomad: Wildcat with heavy rocket launcher

Infinity: Nomad: Reverend Moira  - This model had been started last year, so was just a case of finishing it off 

Bolt Action: Soviet infantry (This photo was taken before I finished them, I forgot to take a photo of the finished set)

As such my target for March is as follows:

6 ECW Cavalry armed with pistols (trotters in Pikemans Lament)

4 Genestealers

2 Familiars

1 Genestealer Patriarch - started previousily

Painting: Pike & Shotte/Pikemans Lament - English Civil War: Musketeers (Scheme 2)

What follows scheme 1....scheme 2 of course!

So like scheme 1 below is a basic overview on the scheme, originally described in my Firelock storming party post. I will go into more details in this post as to how it was applied and what paints were used, most of which were from the Vallejo Game color range, unless otherwise stated.

Scheme 2
Undercoat British Battle Dress (Bolt Action - Warlord spray)
Straps: Leather
Flesh: bronzed flesh
Metals: Gun metal
Gun stock: Bestial Brown
Boots: Bestial Brown or Black or Leather or left as undercoat
Wash with AP strong tone

So I started with an undercoat of British Battle Dress (Bolt Action - Warlord spray), then painted the skin in Bronze Fleshtone (72.036), as you can see its rather messy but I won't worry about that at this time.

Next I painted the guns, bags, powder holders, boots, hair etc Beasty Brown (72.043), then painted Leather Brown (72.040) on some of the boots, some hair, and all of the bags, powder holders etc.

Then I used Abaddon Black (GW) on the gun barrels, boots and hair. Then Gunmetal (72.054) was applied to the gun barrels.

In this picture I'm showing the different hair colours, I've already described the browns and blacks used above, the other colours are Cold Grey (72.050) and Hot Orange (72.009)

The collars and cuffs were painted Ceramite White (GW), then the models were tidied up. The coats and trousers were tidied up using British Battle dress from a Flames of War paint set. Then Army painter strong tone was liberally applied

Once the strong tone was dry, I drybrushed the coat and trousers with Earth (72.062), the leathers with Plague Brown (72.039) and the flesh with Elf Flesh (GW). I then applied a Matt Varnish (70.520). Next was I covered the base in sand and once dry painted it Charred Brown (72.045) then covered in static grass.

There you have it, like the previous post, 16 musketeers ready for ECW or KoW.

Regiment layout for Kings of War

Painting: Pike & Shotte/Pikemans Lament - English Civil War: Musketeers (Scheme 1)

I decided it was time to paint something different to Kings of War undead, and thought I've overlooked my "For King and Country" box set for too long. Also by painting up something from that box set I have a painted unit for my Kings of War Kingdom of Men army - Double win.

As some of you may remember (or can easily reference by looking back through my blog posts) I painted my Firelock storming party first and from that I came up with two painting schemes - this was so I could split my army for intro games.

So below is a basic overview on the scheme, originally described in my Firelock storming party post. I will go into more details in this post as to how it was applied and what paints were used, most of which were from the Vallejo Game color range, unless otherwise stated.

Scheme 1
Undercoat: Camo green (Halford)
Straps: Leather
Flesh: Bronzed flesh
Metals: Gun metal
Gun stock: Bestial Brown
Boots: Bestial Brown or Black or Leather
Wash with AP strong tone

So I started with an undercoat of Camo Green Spray from Halfords, then painted the skin in Bronze Fleshtone (72.036), as you can see its rather messy but I won't worry about that at this time.

Next I painted the guns, bags, powder holders, boots, hair, belts and straps with Beasty Brown (72.043), then painted Leather Brown (72.040) on some of the boots, some hair, and all of the bags, powder holders, belts & straps. You'll also notice I found a stand of 3 more, so I quickly got them up to the same stage as the rest.

Then I used Abaddon Black (GW) on the gun barrels, belt buckles, boots, and hair (Left picture). Then Gunmetal (72.054) was applied to the gun barrels, firing locks and belt buckles (Right picture).

In this picture I'm showing the different hair colours I've painted, reflecting the different ages in a musketeer unit. I've already described the browns and blacks used above, the other colours are Cold Grey (72.050) (Darker grey of the two), Stonewall Grey (72.049) (Lighter grey of the two) and Hot Orange (72.009)

The collars and cuffs were painted Ceramite White (GW), then the models were tidied up. The coats and trousers were tidied up using Yellow Olive (72.064). Then Army painter strong tone was liberally applied

Once the strong tone was dry, I drybrushed the coat and trousers with Camouflage Green (72.031), the leathers with Plague Brown (72.039), the musket fuse with Bonewhite (72.034) and the flesh with Elf Flesh (GW). I then applied a Matt Varnish (70.520). Next was I covered the base in sand and once dry painted it Charred Brown (72.045) then covered in static grass.

There you have it 16 musketeers, all ready to fight; Be it during the English Civil War or in the fantasy world of Mantica for the Kingdom of Men (As a unit of arquebusiers). But 16 is such a horrid number for Kings of War (although perfectly legal for a regiment (1/2 unit size +1)) I prefer the whole 20 so 4 more are to be built soon.

Thanks for reading.

Regiment of arquebusiers for KoW

Miniatures: Pike & Shotte - Ordnance battery

So back in May I bought the Pike & Shotte Ordnance Battery, which has been sitting in my cupboard gather dust until now!

Now I've decided it's time to come out, be built and taken to the fields of war!

The Packaging 
So the box has some great artwork on the front and a great picture on the back of the models built and painted, as well as a list of what's in the box..sort of, we'll come to that later.

The cardboard itself is a little flimsy for the contents as it's packed full of resin and metal.

The resin scenic bases and the barriers are wrapped in bubble wrap and the artillery & crew are split into two blisters: One contains a Saker cannon, the other a Mortar and Demi-Culverin

The Models

The scenic bases are beautiful and highly detailed. However mine came out of the box warped which annoyed me slightly until someone online pointed out that if I dropped them in warm water they would bend into the required position and as it turned out it was better than that: once removed from the hot water the bases flattened.

Saker cannon, crew, master engineer, sentinel and master gunner. The cannon lacks any real detail, other than the wood frame, but then it's a cannon, does it need any? the crew and other models a beautifully detailed.

The same can be said the Demi-Culverin, mortar and crew.

The building of the models

The cannons had the most flash, which in most cases was quickly removed, however there was some more difficult pieces on the holding bar of the wheel, which took a little while to remove (compared to the other bits). But as the models only consisted of four parts they went together quickly and easily.

The mortar fits straight into its scenic base, then two little metal straps are placed over the arms, holding the mortar in place.

The crew and other models had excess metal and flash, but again this was quickly removed. However on some models the part the flash was attached too was a little flimsy so when the flash was removed it bent the part, resulting in a wobbly, rather than straight, item.

I was torn whether to glue the cannons and crew to the scenic bases but I have decided not to for ease of storage. So the crew have been mounted on 20mmx20mm bases.

All in all it took no more than an hour to unpack, clean up and put together. It has made me realise how much I prefer plastic models over metal, as metal chippings cover my desk or ping off across the room. But now I have artillery for my Parliamentarian force or my Kingdom of Men: One box of miniatures, several uses - now that's resourcefulness.

Demi Culverin, mortar and crew on scenic bases

Painting: Pike & Shotte/Pikemans Lament - English Civil War: Firelock storming party

Following on from the Pike & Shotte post I made the other day here is how I painted my firelocks.

I have two different schemes (even though I can only have one unit of firelocks in my army) so they can be split for any intro-games.

Scheme 1
Undercoat Camo green (Halford)
Straps: Leather
Flesh: Bronzed flesh
Metals: Gun metal
Gun stock: Bestial Brown
Boots: Bestial Brown or Black or Leather
Wash with AP strong tone

Scheme 2
Undercoat British Battle Dress (Bolt Action - Warlord spray)
Straps: Leather
Flesh: bronzed flesh
Metals: Gun metal
Gun stock: Bestial Brown
Boots: Bestial Brown or Black or Leather or left as undercoat
Wash with AP strong tone

I then glued sand to the base using PVA, once dry I painted it with graveyard earth, drybrushed with khaki. Once the paint had dried I glued on static grass.

Now it could be argued that the sand phase is unnecessary if its going to be covered with static grass, but I did it so if the static grass falls off then is not just a flat brown base.

Hope this helps/inspires

Painting tip: Pike & Shotte: English Civil War

The following was posted by Rook Heath in answer to a how to paint p&s:ecw query by someone on the pike & shotte Facebook group:

Rough rule for English troops. Infantry : Don't use the Highland bonnets. Footwear brown shades, breeches greys and browns, armour black or gunmetal, equipment undied leather, shirts unbleached linen to white. Only the jackets were uniform colours. Go reds, blues, greys and green. Mutted yellow too. Nothing garish. Powder bottles on the bandoliers were generally recorded as painted black. Powder flasks (triangular ones) wood or leather covered with brass fittings probably.

Horse. Equipment and jackets as infantry. Leather 'buff coats' anywhere between dull yellow through undied leather to mid brown but I tend to go paler rather than darker. Buff coats could be long sleeved or for variety paint a few with jacket sleeves showing. No evidence of uniformed saddle cloths. Footwear black through brown.  Btw facing colours (cuffs and collars)  and shade you like but they would be used to identify regts. Eg skippons foot, red coats yellow facings, blue regt London red coats lined with undied linked. Hope this helps

Artillery. Not uniformed so think as infantry but muted colours, plenty of undied linen for shirts etc. Dragoons as infantry.
Armour and helmets were on the way out so for English Civil War avoid helmets in anything but pike. Montaroes (the funny looking peaked hat) were almost exclusively royalist except perhaps officers. Monmouth caps (wool bobble hats with or without peaks) were very common especially for pikemen with helmets removed.used as helmet padding.

I hope Rook doesn't mind me posting this as I know its a general query that comes up a lot.

This isn't exactly how I paint mine, although I follow some of the principles; I'll be posting an article on how I do mine shortly.

Pike & Shotte: English Civil War - For King and Country Starter Set

After watching a documentary on Napoleon's Russian campaign I got a spark of interest for Napoleonics, so looked into Black Powder. That lead to a journey of investigation into the world of historical wargaming where I found myself looking into Pike & Shotte, which covers (amongst others) the English Civil War.

Having an interest in ECW; thanks to living in various towns that played major roles in the war, I decided that it was time to invest.

So as a good starting place I bought "For King & Country"

I bought directly from warlord. Now I'm not going to go into detail about the issue I had with my order, suffice to say warlord resolved it fairly promptly...again (this was my second order with them directly, with my first also encountering issues)

so what do you get?

• A box - with everything in.
• Pike & Shotte rulebook
• Quick start guide
• 82 miniatures.

So lets review these one by one:

The Box

Good sturdy box, nice pictures and details around the side however no overall picture on the back to get an idea of what the end result should look like.

Pike & Shotte Rulebook

Hardback rulebook, which in my opinion is always a plus as I do love a good hardback rulebook,
The quality of the paper is good with great pictures and diagrams. The rulebook itself is a mixture of history and rules, with some tongue-in-cheek thrown in for good measure!
The rules flow nicely and allow for simple games to be played prior to adding in the advanced rules.
At the back of the book is a nice quick reference guide, which can also be downloaded.
However there isn't an index! now this bugs me no end, there's nothing worse when trying to look up a rule that you can't go to the index and find the exact page. The closest you get is the contents page, which sometimes doesn't take you where you need to be.

Quick start guide

I was told by my mother if I didn't have anything nice to say then not to say anything at all......so moving on.
In all honesty it's good as a reference sheet for the units, but you can't pick this up and use it without first reading the rulebook.
I think I've been spoilt by Flames of War: Open fire, Infinity:Operation Icestorm etc which have a slimmed down version of the rules that you can pick up in play straight away without fully reading the book.

The Miniatures

82 multi-part plastic miniatures that make the following:
58 pike and musket including command
12 Cavalry
12 infantry with Firelocks
The models look good and are quite sturdy, any flash is cleaned up easily. 

The 12 infantry with firelocks go together nicely, giving you two different poses with the arms, and a choice of two hats.


The 12 cavalry consists for 12 horses in two halves, with pistol accessories that can be added to the saddle. Then there are the 12 riders, three of which can be made into a command group (Standard, Musician & Ensign - this is only for unit facing and doesn't provide any benefits) 
The riders have a selection of arms with swords and pistols, although only certain arms fit the bodies. Also on the sprue is a selection of hats, and accessories.


Then I come to the Pike and Muskets.....the pikemen are nice and straight-forward with specific arms and pikes going to specific bodies, but leaving an extra man on the sprue with no pike arm. 
The muskets however are multi-part models most of which require the aligning of the arm holding the gun with the other arm and this becomes a fiddly pain in the posterior. 
As per the other sprues this sprue includes various hats and accessories, although I am unsure where the accessories fit on these infantry as there doesn't appear to be space. 
Then there are two command sprues, which allow you to build a musician, standard and ensign with each, with several accessories also on the sprue.


Overall the models are good quality however there isn't any instructions on how to build these and how they fit together as a unit. 
I have several years of experience with building models but even I had some issues when I was building the cavalry and Pike & Musket infantry. 
The lack of instructions left me bemused as to why I had 4 models left on the Pike sprue with no arms left to be able to use him.* 
Also there aren't any bases, so you need to purchase these on top (or use any bases you have laying about), although they have stands so they can be used as they are off the sprue.


In summary this box set is a good starting point but with areas of improvement - some of which I have addressed with Warlord Games, I await their reply.

*I have since learnt, thanks to the purchase of a parliament infantry box set, that the spare man is to go towards the command group, using the arms from the command sprue