Macedonian Armies after Alexander 323-168 BC (Men-At-Arms / Osprey)

This new Osprey book on the Post-Alexandrian Successor armies seems to be generating some heated debate on TMP right now - and I thought everyone only bought them for the pictures !

UK Edition :

US Edition:

Donnington Flags

I saw regular show exhibitor Damien from Donnington Miniatures at Warfare last weekend, and he sent me over a bit of info about the flag ranges he's created to go with the rather nice ‘New Era’ Medieval figures he's now producing.

The exciting bit is that apparently some TYW flags are in the works and so if they are up to the same standard as the current flag sheets for Vikings, Saxons, Normans, 100 Years War, Gascons, 14^th/15^th Century Scots, French Ordonnance, Swiss, Burgundians and WOTR it'll be a good extra addition to the list of flag suppliers on my 15mm Renaissance Manufacturers page. 

There is even an instructional video available on the website to show you how to use them.

The flag sheets are available in 15mm scale and in other scales on request to A&M. The number of flags varies, with lots on each sheet - £5 per sheet for 15mm scale and £10 per sheet for 25/28mm scale. For more info contact Ancient & Modern Army Supplies:

Website:                      www.ancient-modern.co.uk

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 ..

Venexia's free Louis XIV and Italian Wars flags..

... are still online at the old Venexia site - some great little flags and also uniform guides for Savoy and France in the Louis XIV era - used as the basis for this army seen here in action at Britcon 2011..

Best to grab them while they are still around - perhaps Venexia's new owners Sgt Major Miniatures will repost them, but who knows...!

Painting table, or dogs breakfast ?

Do you ever find yourself wondering if you have too many projects on the got at any one time?

Well, try and spot some of the bits and pieces clogging up my workbench at the moment...

28mm Old Glory arquebusiers, Warlord Games horses and harquebusiers... and a half-finished 20mm modern British Afghan truck and container for Force on Force lurking in the background. And some 15mm pirate cannons in the foreground. Of course.

6mm modern Heroics and Ros Americans (and Russians), 15mm Old Glory Three Musketeers, 15mm Forged in battle Tiger 1's, 15(ish)mm Museum Gendarmes, 18mm Vexillia TYW command figures and some modern aricraft and a Cobra helicopter. And a 28mm ECW general won as a trophy... and an odd 10mm German 'shreck man part way through being rebased.

15mm Streltsi, Polish and Russian foote from Old Glory, various Avar foot from Khurasan, Mikes Models Winged Hussars, plastic Caesar Miniatures women in short skirts with Uzi's, a 20mm modern Russian from Elheim, some 20mm Modern British from S&S, a bit of baggage from Donnington

28mm mixed manufacturers Landesknechts - and a 15mm Peter Pig pirate boat !