More Figures for Duke, Elector, King

 As a means of avoiding painting up more figures for my V&B 100 Days Campaign, I have continued to produce V&B stands for use with Duke, Elector, King (DEK).

Blue coats and yellow facings inspired by the box art of the Airfix Washington's Army set

The figures used are primarily from the Airfix British Grenadiers set (PSR review here). The blue coated ones had previously been painted in an attempt to represent grenadiers from Napoleon's Imperial Guard. The quality of the paint conversions ranged from bad to ok in quality, so I decided to repaint them as generic 18th Century Fusiliers with blue coats and a variety of facing colours.

At this stage I am leaving the flag as a plain block colour

Rear quarters view from the front

The process involved painting out detail such as splashes of red paint on the shoulders to represent epaulettes, repainting details such as white belts, and touching up missing paint from coats, muskets and bearskin hats. 

I kept the red facings for this stand

I also took the opportunity to base up some skirmish stands in order to use up painted figures that I hadn't been able to justify using on regimental stands as either they were left overs from creating a previous stand, or to use them would require me to paint additional figures in the same paint scheme

A mix of Airfix and Atlantic figures

The first of these skirmish stands has been painted and based in a similar style to the first of the fusilier stands above. The prone musketeer is from the Airfix Washington's Army set, while the kneeling rifleman is from the Atlantic Davey Crockett set (PSR review here). 

The view from the rear

The second stand consisted of to figures that I painted up, but didn't use in the production of my first stand for DEK (click here for details). It also gave me the opportunity to use more of the autumn leave flock that I like!

The third skirmish stand consists of three of the Airfix British Grenadier figures painted with forest green coats and trousers with green facings.  The webbing and pouches have all been painted black. The paint job on these three figures had largely flaked off so it had to be entirely redone.

A trio of not riflemen

The green coats and trousers, coupled with the black leather equipment, makes me think of British Riflemen of the Napoleonic Wars. I suspect that AWI British Legion units may also have been an source of inspiration for the original painter.

The black works well with the green

The final group of figures painted and based up is the last of my Lucky Products Hessians that I started painting back in 2013. The first group I painted up as Grenadiers of the Hesse-Cassel Regiment Von Rall (click here for details).

Lucky Products AWI Hessians

This group I decided to paint up in a similar style but without the stripped mattress ticking breeches of the previous group. I did decide to paint the drummer in reverse colours though. While Hessian troops of the AWI didn't have their musicians in reversed colours, I felt that it would be quite pleasing for an imagi-nation force.

While not the prettiest of sculpts, they do have a certain charm

If I ever get more of the Lucky Products Hessians I would be tempted to paint them as 18th Century Persian or other eastern, troops as the mitre of the Lucky Products figures would lend itself to a paint conversion to other similar conical headgear.

The entire group (almost) 

I still have some additional stands to repaint - both blue and green coated regiments - and once they are completed I can start work on painting tricorn infantry stands.

Indian Villages

Late last year I started work on making some V&B BUAs for use as Indian settlements. The plan is to use them for both French and Indian War, and AWI, wargames. The first, and most complete, is a large resin lodge from the BUM Huron set. I have added in a skin drying frame from the Imex Friendly Eastern Indians set to add detail to the piece.(click here for PSR's review of the set)

Still needs something more...

My plan so far is to mount Indian forces on the 1.5 inch square V&B skirmish stands, letting each large village/town template take four stands.

Of course each BUA can still take two line stands.

BUA with garrison and removable insert.

 I also decided to use the huts from the Imex Eastern Indian set to make another BUA, and as a result decided to use some resin native grass huts that I had purchased years ago for another project to make up another two.

The Imex huts.

 I believe the resin huts were originally intended for use as African huts for 19th century colonial gaming, but they seem to be passable as Indian dwellings. Of course feel free to tell me if you think they are hopelessly wrong.

The resin huts.

I am still settling into the new job and into Palmerston North, but so far both seem quite nice with plenty of positives. Next week only has three working days - of which all three are training days, so I have plenty to keep myself busy!

18th Century Teeth and Tail Round Up!

I'm been painting up some more bits and pieces for my AWI Volley and Bayonet forces - a project which is probably going to morph into something much larger no doubt - and have been attempting to finish items that are sitting on my work bench.

Some field works from an Italeri set.

An Airfix Hessian Jager Amusette - a view of the business end.

And the view from behind.

Currently these Jagers are amongst the very few stands of AWI Airfix that I have painted from bare plastic. (Click here for the previous post on these)So far I have been able to produce stands by refurbishing figures painted by others. On that note I would like to thank Geoff (via Glenn) for providing the figures for the below stand. All I needed to do was touch up the very nice existing paint job, wash them, and then base them. Easy!

Another stand of Airfix AWI for V&B!

The same stand, but from behind.

So that's the teeth part of the round up done, now on for the tail! First up I have a canoe from Nexus reissue of the Atlantic "Davy Crockett" set. (As always here is the link for the review from PSR). The set contains a number of very useful items for making up logistic and transport stands for both 18th and 19th century North American games.

A trapper in a small canoe.  I have another to paint up.

Another view of the canoe. This will be dwarfed by the big canoes from BUM.

 And of course I have more wagons. First up are an Airfix wagon that I got from Glenn. I replaced the team of small horses with two from the Revell Thirty Years War Artillery set. The second is a rather cart like wagon from one of the ranches in the Bum Wild West Town range. It has gained a driver from the Airfix Wagon set, and a horse from the French Artillery set.

Wagons? Or a wagon and a cart?

 I am also trying to make up my stockpile of Conestoga wagons before I start on my other wagons. The reason being that they are the most 18th century American wagon I have, and I figure I should make them up before I start on the others. So I finished the one I had started on here - and this time I managed to put the driver/rider in the correct place!

Another completed Conestoga Wagon., and the one I made previously....

Two more Conestoga await construction..... 

 And naturally, I have started another project before I have finished any of the others, but I have managed to have a cull of surplus items (look here for such items) - or use the shiney new tab at the top!

New stuff via Glenn - Alexander and some friends...

The Big Red Brick Factory - a manufactorium themed BUA for Volley and Bayonet

As promised in the last post, this one will feature an industrial themed BUA. The original plan was for this BUA to represent a nice red brick church, but having been playing a little bit of Total War: Empire lately, I decided to go with something else, something more industrial.

A stand of Airfix French troops  stand guard.

I also thought that having a nice cannon foundry on the table top would be a nice homage to RTS computer games that I have played over the years that have players stick factories down on the virtual battlefield.

The view from above - I was very tempted to add smoke coming out of the stack using pillow stuffing.

The rear view.

I did some basic research on what 18th century factories and foundries looked like, and on the processes used to create cannon. Given the constraints of the 4 inch by 6 inch BUA template, and my desire to have a 3 inch by 3 inch lift off section, I tried to create something that gave the suggestion of a 18th century foundry, rather than a detailed model of one.

The front yard, complete with conical furnace.

The cone also makes a convenient handle.

I still have a number of BUAs to finish for V&B, but I have also been working on making various teeth and tail elements for my 18th century forces. Hopefully I should have enough finished soon to be able to make a posting about them.

The Old Red Barn - a rural BUA for AWI Volley & Bayonet

Recently I finished work on another BUA for use in AWI Volley and Bayonet games. I decided to build one with a barn for the major building and put a drying shed (or corn crib) and some fencing on the rest of the base.

Some Airfix AWI French mill around the barn.

Two regiments of French garrison the BUA.

I went with a traditional red colour for the barn as when researching the colour of AWI gun carriages it had been suggested that red was a very common colour  available due to its use on barns. The other factor was than I wanted a structure that looked used and well maintained, rather than rundown and abandoned.

The drying shed and a broken fence. I dropped the building just prior to taking the photos.

The rear view. I cunningly replaced the rear part of the barn with flat matchsticks.

I used as the basis of my construction a Plasticville HO scale barn that I purchased second hand when I was in PA last year. I also managed to pick up a boxed set that I will probably make up straight from the box for use in ACW games.

The box showing how the barn should be made.

Defended BUA and lift out section with drying shed.

Next up is the V&B 18 Century Industrial BUA.

Avast 2014!

2014 has well and truly arrived in New Zealand and I have already started making wargaming purchases, planning future games, and working on finishing some current projects. Particularly ones that could be used to add value to other projects...

Original paint work on left, new paint job on right.

A few years back I discovered some cheap toy pirate ships for sale, so I bought five of them with the idea of painting them up and using them for gaming. A friend of mine has a rather large lounge with blue carpet and the idea was to use them for a type of naval floor war game. Like a great deal of projects, this one has languished for a number of years before I recently got inspired to relook at pirate stuff after seeing my friend Ken's 15mm collection of pirate stuff.

Now with Hat Marine for scale.

Having acquired a couple more ships (more on that later) I have enough ships to put to sea two small fleets. All I need to do is a little prep work - removing stickers and blogging some holes - and then I can paint them and use them.

Another view of the two ships.

The paint job will be fairly basic, but hopefully quantity will have a quality of its own! Plus once I finish the fleet I can use it for gaming, rather than have it sit in a box waiting to be used. After all, why have toys if you don't play with them!

Close up on stern detail.

 Thanks for looking, and I hope you all have an excellent 2014!

Urban Renewal

Christmas has been and gone, but it proved to have been a very nice one! On the wargaming front I was given a few ex JB Models Airfix kits, which will prove useful for Harad. I also received a Kindle Fire which will also prove useful on the gaming front - both for research and for in game referencing of PDFs.

Sometimes potential is rather hidden.

Whilst shopping before Christmas I came across this rather garnish toy house. I presume that it is a knockoff of another item - the main hint being that it has cast on it half a latch and hinge system but not the other half of the item. It screamed potential.

It came with furnishings. I have a plan on how to use these as well...

My plan was to see if I could turn it in to a suitable BUA for AWI Volley and Bayonet games. This meant that I could tinker with the way I left the open space open on the stand. Rather than having enough room for a full Brigade stand on the base, as I normally do, I instead left room for two Regiment stands to be side by side.

Lucky Products Hessians inspect the house.

Plenty of room on the inside.

 I removed the stickers festooning the house inside and outside, and then sprayed the the whole thing with nice brown spray paint - inside and outside!

Now in a less painful brown colour!

I then mounted it on a base after hacking off any overhanging bits and crudely applied some bogging where required.

Quickly added plastic card - My favourite cladding solution!

Some white plastic card was affixed to the back and was hacked to size.While not an elegant solution, it is a very functional one, especially give the constraints of the V&B BUA base size.

A rather more sedate colour scheme!

I then applied paint, wash, and a new white picket fence for the the front of the yard.

A closer look.

The back was painted in a way that I hope will look streaky and washed out, and hopefully drawing attention away from the neat straight up and down lines. I considered making the lines go side to side but decided that vertical would look better.

Poorly white washed at the rear with two stands of Airfix Americans.

Of course the main effort I am looking for is that of troops behind a fence, in front of a white pillared house.

A much better view - the BUA garrisoned by Airfix figures.

So a rather quick and cheerful conversion ready for the tabletop! Now I just have to paint up some more AWI troops!