Monday, March 12, 2018

French Cuirassier and Austrian Aid de Camp

Our local group is taking the plunge into new Napoleonic rules set General d' Armee so I used last week to prepare for our first game. 

The order system of General d' Armee calls for a quite a few more Aide de Camp than I had.  I painted 5-15mm Austrian Aide d Camp.  They are from Battle Honors.  I really enjoyed painting the figures. For older sculpts they nicely detailed. 

Here are the 5 Aide de Camp


I decided to add some punch to my my french forces so I painted up two units of Cuirassier.  The figures are from AB, which is in my book the best 15/18mm figures you can find.   To top it off if you are in the US you get to buy them from Eureka Miniatures USA  which is run by Rob Walter, on of the nicest guys in the hobby.   Amazing figures and outstanding service, what more could you ask for.  (I may be a little biased)

I painted the 3rd Cuirassier which were in Nanouty's division at Wagram. 


I also painted the 12th Cuirassier from Nansouty's division. I really like the yellow collars and appointments,


Here picture of the full group


In total I was able to complete 29-15mm Cavalry for a total of 116 points.  Which I believe will just make my challenge goal of 2500 points.  Whew, that was a close one. 

Monday, March 5, 2018

AHPC #7 The Potpourri Post


The last week has been a real challenge to stay focused.  I have been all over the place painting a little of this and a little of that. 

I tried to stay focused and finish off my WWII project.  I got a pretty good start working on the last of my Americans.  I painted 20 28mm Americans with winter equipment from Warlord Games.   I really liked the figures but the castings are a bit brittle and had excess flash.  When unpacking them I had three rifle barrels that were bent and covered in heavy casting residue.  I managed to break the barrels while cleaning and straightening them.   I know Warlord has fantastic customer service but running short on time I didn't want to wait for the replacement so I repaired the figures.

Here are the two squads of American infantry in winter gear.




I used  the snow texture paint from Games Workshop called Valhallan Blizzard. It was really easy to work with and looked pretty good as I got the hang of it.  I may go back and add a bit more of the texture at a later point.  My advice is put on more than you think you need it seems to shrink as it dries.  On the whole I think it gave a nice snowy look.

Here is the group together.


After finished off the first group of WWII Americans I hit a bit of a block.   So I jumped back to a little side project I have been working on occasionally.  I painted a 24 figure unit of British infantry for the War of Spanish Succession.

The figures are all 28 mm Front Rank.  I think Front Rank make some of the nicest figures around.  The figures are a bit exaggerated which works well with my painting style. They are on the well fed side of 28mm so they don't always mix well with other manufactures.  The unit they are supposed to represent is the Welsh Fusiliers.   The flags are speculative as I was unable to find good documentation.




The last bit of painting I was able to complete was to finish out some troops needed for an upcoming game of General d Armee.   My  Austrian cavalry was under strength  so I added some Dragoons and Cuirassier.  All the figures are 15mm and from Battle Honors. 

Here are the two squadrons of Dragoons




And the two squadrons of Cuirassier



The full group



All total for the week (and change) I was able to paint 44-28mm infantry and 28-15mm cavalry

AHPC Post #6

Its been a busy week for me from a hobby perspective.   Thanks to a 3 days weekend I was able to get quite a bit done this week.   I finished up the last of the First Corps World War II Russians.  This week included a couple sub machine gun squads, 2 medium machine guns and an anti tank rifle team.

Here are pictures of the two 12 man sub machine gun squads with supporting light machine gun teams.

Below there are the 2 medium machine gun sections


Lastly the anti tank rifle team.



Here is the full group of Russians



In addition to the Russians this week I was able to move on to some early war Germans.   All the figures are from Wargames Foundry.  I love these figure they are a joy to paint.  Its really great to see 20 year or more old sculpts hold up so well.  Great detail, clean casting and a good variety  of poses.  Whats not to like, oh yeah the cost.  But in my opinion you do get what you pay for with these Foundry figures.

Here are the squads grouped in twos.  The first two pictures are four rifle squads.  I was tempted to paint helmet markings but decided against it since I am planning to use these guys for 1942-1943


The last group of two includes a rifle squad and a sub machine gun squad.





The last picture is the full group picture including the German Platoon commander and his aid.



I was able to finish 93-28mm figures this week.   It was a very focused painting week and doubt very much it happens again.  I am toward the end of my World War II figures on hand.  I have an order placed in early January to Black Tree for more Americans but haven't heard anything from them since my order early last month.  I doubt very much I see them in time so its on to something new for next week.