Phil's Wargames Stuff: 2023

Saturday, 4 March 2023

Napoleonic Austrian – 15mm- Shako II

This Austrian army, wargame wise is based around 1809, with combinations of helmet and shako, mainly as these are what I had collected over the years at Bring & Buys, etc, so a lot of various manufacturers from Mini-Figs series 2 (even maybe series 1 in there somewhere)Battle Honours, Fantassin, Old Glory AB Figures and others, I am sure.

Although I had acquired quite a lead pile of Austrians, I never needed to paint them as my Pal Harry always supplied them when I lived in London. So when I moved to Wales the stash was looked at for painting. Also the majority of scenario books from Michael Hopper involved mainly Austrians against Napoleon.

So, in July 2021 I took stock of what I had in the way of Austrians. With approximately 1000 Infantry, 100 Cavalry, 10 guns & crews, and about 30 Commanders, I made a start. I did have some already painted, but the forty five or so years had not been kind to them, so they needed a revamp. The army was finished in March 2022. Since then I have finished a few units that were missing a couple of figures, but as of today the Austrians now have:

27 (24 man) Line Infantry Battalions, 5 (18 man) Grenadier Battalions, 1 (18 man) Jaeger Battalion, 5 (24 man) Grenzer Battalions, 5 (20 man) Militia Battalions, 14 Cavalry Regiments, 7 Guns, 4 Limbers and about 40 various Officers. The four base Battalions are for the larger formations adopted by the Austrians and in the rules can take an extra kill before breaking. I have some left overs and will see what units they might make, possibly more Skirmish stands or some more Militia maybe.

You Tube video here> (2) 15mm Austrian Napoleonic Army (Shako II) - YouTube

Grenzers 2nd Rate as formed, best used as Skirmishers

Hungarian Line Infantry

Line Infantry

Line Infantry & Militia

Light Cavalry

Chevaux-Leger

Dragoons & Kuirassiers

Skirmishers

Artillery

Sappers

Grenadiers

Commanders

CiC plus ADCs

Friday, 24 February 2023

Nazgul- The Ring Wraiths, Lord of the Rings

“The Nine” and more. The eight Ring Wraiths with their Captain, The Witch King of Angmar in full garb or as a Wraith. I only have seven mounted at the moment. These are all metal figures, as I refuse to pay for Fail cast (Fine Cast) from GW, as metal is a lot more resilient. Only two of the Wraiths are mentioned by name and that is the Witch King and Kamuhl the Easterling.

My Palette for these fellows is as follows: Undercoat Black aerosol, next is a Purple Wash (Leviathon), then a Dark Grey (Humbrol 106) heavy drybrush, then a thinned down Black (Humbrol Matt 33) dry brushed (thin enough to allow some of the grey to bleed through.

Next I paint the armour and weapons using Chainmail, then Agrax Earthshade (or any brown wash). I finish with a dry brush of a wood brown (Humbrol 110) and Varnish.

Tuesday, 21 February 2023

100 Days Buildings (6mm) in 7 days - For Shako II

Due to the size of the footprints of many of the buildings that encompassed the 100 Days, Waterloo Campaign, and the relative size of a Shako II Battalion on the table, I had to compromise. Although Total Battle Miniatures (TBM) has started production of 10mm Waterloo buildings, their footprint will still be to big for our battle.

TBM makes most of the village and towns in template form, made of latex, which is easy to paint with Acrylic paints. The buildings fit into recessed areas in the template and look fabulous. TBM use a system in that all the buildings are of a size that will fit any of the recesses, very clever!

Onto the painting of the buildings and templates: I spray undercoated all the building black and then a second coat of Tan Earth (Coat d'Arms 524), leaving the roof black.

The roofs were painted in a Deep Red (Miniature Paints 42) or Olive Drab (Coat d'Arms 502), Then Dry Brushed in places with Foundry Nipple pink (16A) or Faded Khaki (Coat d'Arms 537), dependant of base colour. Thatch was Base, Tan Earth, dry brush an off white/ cream (I used Bone White), and then heavy dry brush Faded Khaki. I then dabbed some Olive Green (Coat d'Arms 226) on all the roofs for moss growth.

The White Walled buildings were stippled on, and the red brick walls were heavily dry bushed with the same red as the roofs. Shutters and doors were painted umber and then dry brushed Faded Khaki (the khaki dry brushing was all done at the same time, but I have broken it down for the sequences).

The next process was to paint all the ground and the bushes with Matt Earth (Humbrol Acrylic 29), then when dry Olive green for the bushes leaving a little earth colour to show through. Next was back to dry brushing with the Faded Khaki to highlight all the earth and heavy dry brush of the red brick walls. The penultimate process was to give a further highlight to lighten areas of wear of wheel ruts, etc. Varnish and then flock

Now to find some nice storage boxes.

I started these on the 14th Feb and finished them on 20th Feb.