Mostly Renaissance Command Stands

I was recently looking through my renaissance armies and AWI continentals and realized I was missing a few command stands.

I had the  2 of the miniatures for the Continental light infantry stand painted already. I did an arm swap on the NCO and I built the musician form an extra  figure I had left over.  The musician arm holding the horn and the both the NCO arms are modified Victrix French 1808-1812 arms.  I had seen some research when I was reenacting that hunting horns may have actually been used in the continental army. one specific reference is to using  conch shells as substitutes because the musician's "horns" hadn't arrived yet.  Horns or bugle-horns adopted by the british jsut ptior to hte American revolution, and presumably by the Continental army, had more in common initially with hunting horns than modern or later 19th century bugles(see Article). Also given the propensity of  Colonists of German descent to equip themselves with German weapons(german rifles anyone?),  it follows they might use the traditional German hunting horns also.  This unit in my collection was painted to be light infantry of a Pennsylvania regiment, so there you go. that's my rationale. 

Continental Penn. Light Infantry Command Stand,
Perry Miniatures, with Victrix arms.

Different angle with better view of musician.

The Eastern renaissance Command stands consist of a Sipahi, a Janissary, and a Polish guard Haiduk stand, All The Assault Group(TAG) Miniatures. TAG  Miniatures are always fun to paint.  THE Polish Haiduk command packs each come with a young boy holding a weapon for his officer, which adds a lot of character I think. The musician is from the haiduk musician pack. the Ottoman Janissary command stand is one janissary officer with one of the "exclusive" miniatures, which is an ottoman higher officer of some sort.

TAG Sipahi command stand

Sipahis Reverse angle

Polish and Ottoman Infantry command stands

Infantry reverse views.

so with this the AWI and Ottoman projects are pretty much done for now. I still have 24-ish renaissance polish cavalry to paint, but I have no where to store them at the moment. and I won't bother finishing them until I have a decent storage option.  Sadly that will be a while as I'm still unemployed at the moment and very low on funds.

World war 2 Terrain

 Its been an interested month.  I've half-painted about 30 figures and assembled some french cavalry but I've been Pretty unmotivated about actually finishing anything. this past weekend I was looking in a box and I found a 4Ground Polish Rural Dwelling model, and a pack of 4Ground Yard Panel fencing with Gates.  both of these will work well for eastern front terrain so i decided to get them assembled and based up. I also had a pack of Wizkids Deep Cuts log piles, that I tossed into the pile to work on.

4Ground Polish Rural Dwelling with
scratch-built fence

I built a wooden fence using 2 types of balsa wood(posts and planks) and  matchsticks(crossbeams).  i used a steel wire brush to accentuate the wood texture.  the building kit came with fur for thethatch roof.  I soaked it in PVA to harden it and then I highlighted it with light cream colour. i then applied patches of GW Agrax Earthshade wash(brown) and Athonian Camoshade( green-brown) wash to mottle the colour a bit.  I also added a pile of stacked wood from the deep cuts pack to one of the walls on the opposite side of the base from the fence, and added a trio of matchsticks to the peak of the roof to cover up the seam of where the teddy bear fur pieces meet. Otherwise the building is unmodified, other then some Scenic Express  Super Turf  texture foliage around the base to make it look less like a building glued to a piece of HDF.

4Ground Polish Rural Dwelling internal detail.

 this kit is well designed and is much nicer looking then some of 4Grounds early, more simplistic looking buildings. the interior has a nice stove/fireplace and the front door opens and closes. it also comes with matte board blue shudders.

Wizkids Deep Cuts Wood Piles(3). I fixed the
stacked woodpile to the building.

I left the remaining 2 wood piles lose so they can be placed as needed. they aren't big enough to affect anything so they are just around to add some character to tables. still they are nice and not hugely oversized like some end up being. the Wizkids Deep Cuts line is as always wonderful. 

4Ground Yard Panel fences with Gates.

 

The Yard Panel fencing is nice looking and easy to put together, but badly designed.  They have the fence panels situated along one edge of the base, with no overlapping bit to improve stability. As a result if left unmodified, they fall over if you breath a little too heavily.

lower angle of 4ground fences for height comparison

As you can see below, I added some pebbles I have kicking around to help counterbalance them. this makes the fence sections much more stable. the fences are tall enough to lock infantry LOS, and give concealment to even large-ish tanks. I didn't check but it may actually completely block a 1/56th BT-7 or T-26.

Rear view to display rocks needed for stability.

If anyone is interested in what makes the models i used for size comparison, the tank is an Army Group North Miniatures T-28 medium tank, the infantry in front of the panel fences are Crusader Miniatures  Soviets, and the soviet infantry inside the fences are 1 each of The Assault Group and Black Tree designs.  the AT gun on the building base is a 47mm at gun I got from AGNMiniatures (old force of arms model?) with crew from Warlord Games and Black Tree Designs.

Given my fickleness with painting, I'm now aiming to have at least one new post a month. if I'm in the painting mood, I'll post more often. when the mood strikes me I paint a ton, so I'm sure I will end up with a good deal more then 12 posts in 2021. But i think otherwise that is a more reasonable way to ensure I get some progress done on something regularly.

Pandemic Projects: Ten Years in the Making...

Around a decade ago my friend Jonathan Holmes and I started doing an eastern renaissance skirmish project. I bought a whole host of Polish From The Assault Group.  Jon was going to do Zaporski cossacks, but he sustained an injury that made it hard to paint, so the project was shelved. Some time later the infantry component was repurposed for my Polish themed ImagiNation.

In my attempt to find something to paint this week(Still lots of Napoleonic to go, but waiting on a shipment of bases), while searching through boxes I found my not unsubstantial Renaissance polish cavalry contingent. I have 32 hussars, 16 Pancerni, and 11 Rieters.  8 of the Pancerni were painted, and about 12 of the Hussars were half painted.  I pulled out the hussars and had at them.

 

32 TAG Polish Winged Hussars

 

TAG hussars done in the traditional red and white.

Winged Hussars in less traditional blue and yellow

As always TAG miniatures are lovely models and fantastic to paint. I have 2 renaissance armies, and I've painted dozens of modern british and iraqis(which i then sold), so i have a great deal of experience with TAG. 

I snipped off the white metal lances above the ball guard and drilled out the balls to replace it with music wire. I shaped the tip using a dremel with a grinding wheel.as with all my flags, the pennons are printed off, folded around the lances and glue together using carpenters glue.  I wrap the pennons around the shaft of a narrow paint brush immediately after I've glued together the pennon, so when dry it takes the wavy shape.  The carpenters glue makes them surprisingly resilient.

 

Finally, my mother made me this:

Bunka interpretation.

This is Japanese embroidery called Bunka. we took the reasonably famous picture by Angus McBride(below)  and my mother recreated it in this rather unique form. I have yet to frame it, but when I do it will grace the wall of my game room!

Original picture by Angus McBride

More Pandemic Projects: Ottoman Additions

 Earlier this week I decided I was going to paint my 2nd unit of Ottoman Sipahis of the Porte.  I don't paint these lightly, as the first unit I painted took something like 12 hours?  That is roughly 3 times what a unit of 8 normally takes me. In fact I have had the second unit of 8 kicking around for more then 6 months, and I was finally recharged enough to take them on.  I hadn't photographed the first unit, janissary bases, or giant friggin' cannon because although they were painted, they were not based when I took photos of the whole army.

 

The Assault Group Ottoman Sipahis of the Porte
(the Sultans household cavalry)

 

Other side with shields.
newly painted unit in the lead

 I'm less happy with the geometric patterns on the new unit.  I though I should cover up the black lines I had painted on as guides, but it turns out they give everything a crispness that really makes them pop.  I don't really have the skill to paint them without those lines. it was way more obvious once i saw the pictures. I Also noticed i forgot the white feathering. I'll be going back over with the black lines  and feathering the legs to finish them.

 

New bases for my TAG Jannisaries

I got some new bases for my TAG Jannisaries to bring them closer to the basing for Beneath the Lilly Banners: With Tooth and Claw Suggestions.

Ottoman Giant Friggin' Cannon.  Crew are TAG
miniatures, cannon is from Wizkids Deep cuts line

Giant Friggin' Cannon from the other side

Finally there is the Ottoman Giant Friggin' Cannon, as I call it.  this is a cannon from the Wizkids "Deep Cuts" line of fantasy terrain and accessories. This line has a lot of great generic items. This thing was only $7 bucks canadian!! That's almost half the price of any normal sized cannon from Front rank etc.  Its actually modeled on the Tsar cannon but it looks great with my ottomans. Now all I need is a 12 horse limber for it!

That's it for now. All the ottomans I own are painted now. in a week or two I may have some terrain projects ready to be photographed.

More World War 2: Japanese type A reinforced Platoon

I like doing less well known periods of ww2. When I started my early war french project over a decade ago, it wasn't really something everyone though of in miniature gaming.  It only really got big when bolt action started releasing early war armies.

I originally had some Soviets too. although they very much fell by the wayside as i got caught up in the throws of my 1940s french and Germans.  they were always the third army I had, but never really got a lot of love.


when my France 1940 project was near a close I jumped into my ww2 box and found most of a TAG Japanese platoon I've had since The Assault Group miniatures stopped being distributed and went direct sale only. I had totally forgotten I had these. I decided I would paint them up and reorganize my soviets for 1939.

Warlord/Italieri type 97 Chi-ha platoon.

The Assault Group Infantry Platoon, Type A

Support teams. the mmg is TAG, the other 3 are Brigade games
with Additional TAG crew

Squad Close up

Platoon command, snipers, Grenade Discharger Squad, and a Forward Observer at the back.

This platoon is not quite complete.  I need some engineers, and I need 6 more infantry to complete the 15 man strong sections for the  type A platoon.  the main infantry element at the battle of Kalkhin Gol was a reinforced "type A" division, which had more manpower and more equipment. I also have 3 Company B Type 89Bs that are next on the block after I finish my BT-7s(only a little weathering left to go)

I really want to add some type-95s and type 92 Jyu-sokosha or 2, and a type 97 Te ke tankette. you know, all the really obscure stuff lol.


Incidentally if anyone wants to trade 6 TAG infantry with Rifles(or the above mentioned tanks), I have a whole host of extra miniatures.  I have  4 or 5 officers, 7 LMGs(4 prone), 2 snipers, and 4 infantry with knee mortars.  I think I also have 4x 4-figure 81mm mortar teams advancing. All TAG miniatures.