New - Donnington TYW Flags

As trailed in a previous news item, Donnington are about to release some new TYW flags, and Damian was kind enough to send me a set of the Swedish ones.

They come as part of a sheet of 16 different flags including both Company and Command flags for regiments in the army of Gustavus Adolphus during the Thirty Years War.

I quickly added a few to my (sorry Damian!) Lancashire Games Pikemen, who generally serve as Swedes in my armies, and this is the result.

The flags are printed on decent paper, and I stuck them together with my usual adhesive of choice, PVA Wood Glue - my carpenter brother-in-law once told me that PVA Wood Glue was stronger than the wood it joins, so that works for me.

The "rocket science" about Donnnington's flags is that they are printed with a larger-than-the-flag guideline, so you cut out along the guideline, stick them together and then snip off the excess on the three sides away from the flagpole. It's not rocket surgery, but it does mean you are gluing and folding a much bigger piece of paper, which makes lining up the two sides a lot less fiddly.

These are from the Red Regiment - which I suspect will be no great surprise to many of you TYW experts out there...The flags are printed with shading on them to suggest that the flags are waving in the breeze, which as you can see enhances what is actually some very limited "bending" of the glued flags in these photos.

The one I was sent was "Sheet 2", however I've been told that Donnington will be selling at least four infantry sheets and either or two cavalry sheets in this range. I did also paint the edges of the flags red once they were stuck together - because of the guidelines this was a lot tidier than with some other flags I've tried this on.

At £5 per sheet of 16, these flags aren't exactly cheap especially given the increasing numbers of free flags out there, but they are definitely better than the quality I manage to produce using my home printer, and are on better paper stock as well -and they may well see action in the new year!

The Jacobite 15mm ranges find a new home..

At Warfare today I discovered that the Jacobite Miniatures ranges formerly carried by Stronghold have found a new home - the moulds for the ranges previously sold by Stronghold have now been acquired by a chap who plays at the Wargames Association of Reading club, and are gradually going back onsale under the name Elite Wargames And Models.

Apparently they got basically a load of unmarked moulds from Stronghold, and so are gradually working through the moulds they have to try and piece together the ranges. They have no website as yet, but one is probably coming - in the meantime they can be reached at elitewargamesmodels@gmail.com. So, I guess email them for a list of the figures they are selling right now.

Here are some pictures of them in the bare metal:

Compared to Essex figures (below)

 Compared to Peter Pig figures (below)

 and compared to Old Glory Figures (below)

I've also updated the Renaissance and Ancients manufacturers directories with the new details.

Buono Estente Oxford 2012 !

There is a veritable flurry of activity on this website this week as two sets of photos get immediately followed up by FOUR match reports, where the Imperial Spanish take on Transylvanians, French , Swedes and more Swedes in a themed TYW competition in which I was the "Catholic" half of a pair - with my team-mate being the Protestant. 4 games against Protestant armies was the result...

See how the forces of the Infante did    in this near incomprehensible (other than to anyone who remembers the Fast Show) report.

Scorchio!!

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 ....

15mm Comparison photos for Renaissance

I've just added a load more comparison photos to my site showing the scale/height/bulk of Peter Pig figures against a lot of the other manufacturers - like this one...

(Peter Pig and Old Glory)

Acies Edizioni TYW Generals

I've actually finished some of the massive lead mountain that has been clogging my desk for a while - and Much to Martin at Vexillia's delight no doubt, the first things to be done are from his newly acquired/distributed range of Acies Edizione TYW figures.

These are at the bigger "18mm" end of 15mm - they tower over some Peter Pig figures I am also painting right now - and whilst they look a bit bland in the bare metal they have actually surprised my by how well they finish up and take a coat of ink.

These are a combination of the infantry and mounted command sets, although I had to drill out the flagpoles for all of the figures as the metal that they come in is quite soft making the cast-on flagpoles totally unworkable. The drilling was pretty easy to do - well presuming you have a Mini Drill

The mounted command set includes Wallenstein and Tilly apparently - however these two chaps are generic mounted trumpeter and flag carrying blokes

This looks more like a famous person. The infantry have been painted in yellow with a red sash, probably when I was thinking I might have them finished to be commanders for a Spanish army I used in a competition earlier this year....

This flag is one of my favourites from Alex Flags 

The inking is using Army Painter Dark tone - I bought it accidentally as I had used Strong Tone before. It seems to me more "black" rather than just being a darker brown compared to the Strong Tone - not ideal for these figures, but it does work well on white/grey horses I think.

This is a Saxon flag from the Grimsby Wargames Society site 

Slightly shiny finish - I ran out of Testors dullcote halfway through the spraying session 

This chap looks very much like my 28mm Tilly figure

I base the figures before painting them - unusually these were undercoated in white, largely to bring the yellow colours up more strongly than compared to a normal black undercoat. The base is painted in a matchpot tin of  emulsion from Homebase - much cheaper than buying real paint !

For some reason everyone in the TYW had a moustache

and finally...

Here they were just before being Army Painter'ed and varnished ..

FOUR voting and rating systems now online..

Madaxeman.com has gone Voting Crazy with FOUR separate online interactive rating systems now operating, for 15mm Renaissance Figures, 15mm Ancients Manufacturers, 20mm Moderns and now, 10mm ACW Manufacturers.

All these pages feature comprehensive manufacturer listings, links to their sites, an online rating system you can vote in, and details of what ranges they carry (apart from the ACW one, where of course they all have both Union and Confederates - and you don't need me to tell you that I suspect...).

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15mm Renaissance Manufacturers Directory

I've now added a 15mm Renaissance Figures Manufacturer directory to the site to complement the 15mm Ancients one. You can now see a full list of 15mm Renaissance figure manufacturers, with details of the ranges they carry, links to their website and also have the ability to rate their figures and see what other gamers have voted for.

4 FoG:Renaissance battle reports

The long anticipated and long delayed battle report series from Usk 2011 is now up here on the site in full frilly-collared glory. Marvel as Hugenots take on one lot of Swedes and three very different lots of British in the new era of Renaissance warfare. Full Hannibal-tastic analysis, as well as the odd genuinely useful instructional video from Garibaldi and von Half-Wittgenstein .

5 More FoG Renaissance lists added

5 lists for FoG Renaissance added, from the Usk 2011 competition. Swedish, ECW Royalists (x2), Hugenots, and Restoration British all at 900 AP

Oxford - FoG Renaissance Game 3

A Right Royal Catholic Civil War takes place. Click the photo to go to the Report

First FoG Renaissance Battle Reports

The first two reports (of 4) from Oxford FoG:R Doubles have been posted - TYW Catholics vs Swedes and then Ottomans. Get a feel for how the forthcoming rules work, and also meet the greatest general of the Renaissance age, Sir Henry Hannibal!

Clink on the links in this post to go to the report.