Match Reports of The Dutch at Campaign 2014

In a report spanning 5 pages and almost 10,000 words, you can revel in the exploits of possibly the blandest army ever to take the field on this website, the Dutch (of the 80 Years War - no, me neither) as they duplicate their World Cup heroics and take on a limited themed pool of other similar but generally better armies in a competition in which the last army to be used was the decidedly non-dull Pirates.

Have a look at whether lots of average troops can actually take on lots of Superior ones - and be amazed at how infrequently a 35 point ship can feature in 5 consecutive battle reports.

Wake up and Smell the Edam !!

15mm PSC Infantry being painted

I bought a box of Plastic Soldier Company's new re-tooled WW2 British in 15mm recently. The box is excellent value, with three full platoons of figures, including light support weapons all in one box - almost 150 figures!

I decided to paint them up "on the sprue" as an experiment - and here is a full walk-through of that process, showing the paints I used and some photo's of the finished articles as well :

By Fire & Sword Ottoman and Polish Commanders

At Salute 2014 I picked up a lot of stuff I didn't really need - but this sort of fell into the "might be able to justify" category - commander packs from Fire & Sword for Poles & Ottomans.

Admittedly it was as much about seeing what these figures looked like in the flesh as any real need to add more generals to these two underpowered FoGR armies, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much "stuff" each pack comprises. 6 Generals/officers/Musicians, wire spears (pretty long...) which are the pointed type, plastic bases (for By Fire & Sword rules I guess) and some nice high resolution flags on good quality paper.

The figures are now undercoated and added to the painting queue - from first impressions they are a bit lanky and the horses are the same, but the detail is very good if a little fine compared to some of my other figures. Pictures to follow when they are done (don't hold your breath..)

Lists from The National League FoGR Competitions

Mine and my opponents lists from The National League (Campaign) are now published on the FoGR Wiki. You have:

• Later 80 Years War Dutch (x2)
• Hugenot (x2)
• Later Imperial Spanish (x2)

(hint - the Dutch one came first... and last in the period!)

Donnington Louis XIV Infantry

Today, for your delight and delectation, we present a series of photos of a Louis XIV era infantry unit using Donnington figures, in the final stages of being painted and based:

This is the unit just block-painted. I've not really got a particular army to use them in as I have a very full Essex Miniatures Louis XIV army, but I just liked these figures. Potentially they might be some sort of Jacobite unit in an otherwise Scottish/Irish army?

This is after adding the coat of Army Painter Strong Tone (the middle one in the range)

The figures are from Donnington's WEC ranges, sold as singles.

I tend to paint a base coat of a patch of dark brown underneath the apostles, and then almost drybrush them on in a linen colour. With the Army Painter as well they can really "pop" out quite nicely.

That rogue 28mm priest keeps sneaking into the shot on the far right, doesn't he..?

This appears to be after they have been matt varnished, this  time with a brushed-on Testors Dullcote. With just one unit on the production line, spraying is a bit of a waste so the brushed-on Testors is a better option

Now with the base colour painted in. I am half-tempted to put an ink wash over the rather bland bases, however this would mean reverse engineering an awful lot of figures so perhaps not... Anyway, they are now starting to look almost finished.

And this is with static grass added

A nice colourful unit, with a reasonable variety of figures and poses.

And a final close up of the shooters.

QR Miniatures Pancerni

Just realised that I'd not posted any pictures of the Pancerni after putting up some carbine-armed horse from QR of Poland.

Well, here they are (click on any photo for a larger version)

I added the rather oversized lance myself - I think the figures actually come with swords and stuff, but I seem to have mislaid some of the hands (which are separate)

Nice to see someone actually shooting a carbine from horseback

This shows them next to Old Glory Pancerni. They are a little less bulky in these shots, but on the table the difference is really not noticeable at all.

Aquilifer added to the 15mm Renaissance Manufacturers listing

Italian manufacturer Aquilifer have now been added to the 15mm Renaissance listing, with their range of 12 Scottish and Highlander figure packs.

They now have their own website, which has also been added to their listing in the Ancients 15mm directory

PSC 15mm British Infantry

I've been painting some of these chaps, and very nice they are too. This time it's an experiment in painting on the sprue. The base colour is an undercoat of Khaki spray from Halfords, which turned out very pale, so I added two washes of Windsor and Newton Peat Brown ink, and then did the straps in Faded Khaki from Coat d'Arms. 

Here they are with a final coat of ArmyPainter Strong Tone, prior to matt varnishing

The bases need some grass to hide the figures bases I think

FoGR Army Lists from Usk

Lists of the French Italian Wars, Ming Chinese, Scots, Caroline Imperialists and Ottomans (morphed from the FoG:AM Ottoman army) as seen at Godendag 2014 this weekend in Usk now all posted on the FoGR Wiki

• French Italian Wars, 
• Ming Chinese
• Scots, 
• Caroline Imperialists 
• Ottomans

Match reports to follow...

3 extremely well-plastered Match Reports..

Coming hot on the heels of the last lot, here are 3 more hardworking, professionally crafted well put together match reports that not only amuse and entertain, they also sweep up after they have finished and save up the earnings from ad impressions to send it back to their families

Yes, it's a Polish Army riding to the rescue in three reports from the Milton Keynes round of the Southern League 2013 !

PIRATES! The Buccaneers return in 4 more match reports

The "I can't believe it's a serious army choice" Buccaneers return in 4 match reports from the BHGS Doubles, taking on opponents from the year 1695 in a fury of pirate-based action.

See a 900AP Pirate army in action against non-historical and entirely infeasible opponents such as The Tatars, The Anglo-Dutch, The French and finally, The Poles and Lithuanians as Piracy reaches shorelines previously thought safe from the scourge of the Caribbean (especially the Tatars, on account of Mongolia technically being land-locked).

The reports even feature proper maps and stuff so you can make some sense of the action, as well as just being vaguely amused by the bits I've spliced into the reports..

The French go to Southampton

A textbook Italian Wars French army, containing the mandatory Mikes Models Swiss Pike Kiel takes on three opponents in one day in the Southern League round held in Southampton.

See all the usual stuff, with the added bonus this time of a new commander for the French Army being deployed and using his extensive linguistic skills to explain his success - or lack of it perhaps..?

Arrrr! Here be Pirates!

In one of the most extensively trailed competition writeups ever seen anywhere on the whole internet, the Buccaneer Army takes to the field at Campaign in Milton Keynes (well, where else would you expect to find Pirates eh?) for 5 games of cutlass-swinging, eyepatch-wearing, blunderbuss-shootin' Pirate-ey action of the most intense type imaginable.

See how me band o'hearties fared in combat in 5 pages, 200 pictures and several thousand words of puns, random links, irrelevant videos and three of the best episodes of Madaxeman TV ever broadcast!

Arrr!

The Pirates are Here!

My much-heralded Pirate army is now finished - just some ship rigging to finalise and then the whole thing will be ready to take the field in a rather ineffective yet amusing manner.

The whole process of painting them can be followed on my Facebook photo album (Facebook access not required).

The ship is almost done as well, and will make it's appearance online hopefully this week.  

The Maratha In The Southern League

Don "The Don" McHugh organised a round of the Southern League one-day FoGR competition in chilly Clevedon recently and this encouraged me to field yet another new army (made up of rather dubiously morphed old figures) - the Maratha.

Now, in 3 fully detailed and historically accurate match reports you can see how the Renaissance Indians did against Samurai, Jin Chinese and finally full widescreen Technicolor Aztecs.

The reports also feature expert critique and analysis from a new member of the Madaxeman.com Pundits Panel, our resident expert on Indian armies, the legendary General and Indian King Hannibalipuripathi

Pirates!

My Pirate (well, Buccaneer) army is gradually taking shape - keep up with the progress on my Madaxeman.com facebook page, as I add photos to a gallery of "work in progress" Pirates...

Looking for 15mm Napoleonics?

I've just finished pulling together a new Manufacturers Directory, covering the Napoleonic period, and the completed page in all its glory is now up and running on this website via this link.

So, if you are looking for 15mm Napoleonic wargaming figures to use for FoG:N, Lasalle, Shako, Piquet, To the Sound of the Guns, Grand Armee, Volley and Bayonet, Empires and Eagles, General de Brigade, L'Empereur, Napoleonic Principles of War, Black Powder or any other Napoleonic ruleset you've come to the right place, as my new 15mm Napoleonic Manufacturers Directory page has information about all of the ranges carried by ALL the 15mm Napoleonic suppliers.

Each manufacturers individual listing has details of the nationalities they make, taken from the list of nations explicitly mentioned on their websites - these include: French, British, Prussian, Russian, Austrian, Spanish, Polish (including Grand Duchy of Warsaw), Bavarian, other minor German states (Saxony & Rhine Confederation, Wurttenburg, Hannovarian, Hessian, Saxon, etc) Italian/Neapolitan, Dutch/Belgian, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, and Turks. Many also have generic equipment and dead and wounded ranges too.

For each supplier there is also an indication of whether they are making "15mm" 15mm figures or "18mm" 15mm figures, how they package and sell the figures (singles, packs of 8 etc), details on how you can order from them and a link to their site.

There is also a set of new Auction Pages pulling live auction listings from UK eBay for 15mm French, British, Prussian, Russian and Austrian troops if you don't want to paint your own!

I'm not personally an expert on Napoleonic gaming or indeed the figures so I had some assistance from some of our club members who are - but if there are oddities in the way I have classified and categorized each manufacturers range, please let me know and I can correct them and update the page.

The page is live and online here

More Scots..

This time to give some extra short-range firepower to the Scots, it's Peter Pig's rather dinky little Frame Guns that get an unveiling

 These also feature at least one Essex artillery crewman (the chap in the hat on the left of shot)

 A very by-now traditional Armypainter Dark Tone has brought them up very well. I also used brush-on Testors Dullcote as I didn't fancy getting a spray can out for so few figures.

I've done one gun in brass, and one in a more iron type metal - I suspect the real things were leather but metal looks a bit more, well, gun-like.

Peter Pig ECW Scots

Just in time for the club competition I've snuck in a couple of units of Peter Pig ECW Scots. Here they are being painted in various stages

Based up, figure bases hidden by some wood filler, and sprayed with a Halfords matt white spray (that's a car and bike parts retailer for those of you not in the UK) 

After the undercoat, the figures have blocks of colour added at random across the two units. Here Brown and Green have been added - usually my stuff is a mix of Coat d'Arms colours and some other bits and pieces such as Vallejo

Here I've also added a lot of grey, as I found a good picture online of some Scots units and thought it was worth copying... 

 With most of the colours completed, the Piggy guys are almost ready to varnish and tint

 I paint the feet/shoes and also look to ink them before painting the earth colour on the bases so I can paint over the inevitable messy bits. But it's still a simple looking blocky paint scheme at this stage.

And moments later with Army Painter Dark Tone here they are. Normally I'd use the middle Army Painter tone, but I didn't have any to hand, and with the grey tunics on these guys the darker one works quite well

Not bad for wargaming standard

 Here they are with some colour on the bases, and a few bits of static grass added

And with varnishing - not as good as Testors Dullcote, but I'd run out. I will have to re-spray them later once I order some more.

Close up on the commanders

Peter Pig's Drums of Scotland!

The pikemen - one has a fairly simple bit of tartan

Musketeers - the shine on the bonnets makes them look like they have some sort of yellow patch on the bonnet, but it's just a trick of the light

I added some swordsmen to make the infantry into Musket/Sword infantry... pretty pleased with them for a rush job.

And here is my step by step "Tartan for tiny soldiers" guide:

Start with a plain blue background

Add a cross-hatching of yellow stripes

Finish with a thinner red line in the middle of the yellow

This is with a green background

Then yellow...

And finally red. Simple, but effective on 15mm figures. Nothing too scary ....