Off the Painting Table (May 2015) part 2

I’ve done it! My Teutonic forces completed in less than month! My idea of painting all the white cloth before painting the other areas paid off. Apart from the chainmail and armour there was so little to add. I am especially pleased with the foot spearmen because the shield designs really accentuate the figures. The flag also stands out.

The unit of mounted crossbow was less pleasing. I did not want them to look too like my knights, so I decided to paint their cloaks grey rather than white, and to add a green band to the horse barding. The green band tended to negate the decal applied on top of it, which I mistakenly believed to have a white interior on the shield design. I did consider going back and repainting this part of the figure, but decided in the end to leave it alone.

The foot crossbowmen came out OK, less flashy than their spear counterparts, and I wish I had not used a bare-headed figure in the mix.

I finally finished off by painting the free figure handed out at Salute; an English longbowman giving two fingers to the French! I have a good collection of these Salute figures which sit in a display case and are not part of any of my gaming armies. The picture is again blurred, I can’t seem to get my camera to take close-ups of figures (most annoying!).

Interestingly the completion of the Teutonics has pretty much finished off my ‘lead’ pile that requires painting, and therefore I don’t foresee another ‘Off the Painting Table’ blog post for a month or two. I probably won’t buy any more figures until the Attack show at Devizes in July, which gives me plenty of time to consider my options about what I do next. Having no painting will also encourage me to do some more actual gaming, and next w/e I hopefully will play the next game in the ongoing Longstreet ACW campaign.

Number	Scale	Period	Manufacturer	Notes:
97	15mm	War of the Roses	Peter Pig
16	15mm	Pony Wars	Peter Pig	Casualty markers
12	28mm	C17th British Cavalry	Wargames Factory
20	28mm	C17th British Infantry	Wargames Factory
12	28mm	ECW cavalry	Warlord Games
14	28mm	ECW pikemen	Wargames Factory	Conversions
8	28mm	Jacobites	Col. Bill’s
1	28mm	Napoleonic Rifleman	Bicorne Miniatures
1	28mm	Horse and cart	4Ground
6	28mm	Mounted Baltic Pagans	FireForge
6	28mm	Baltic Pagan Bidowers	FireForge
36	28mm	Baltic Pagan Foot	FireForge
6	28mm	Baltic Pagan MAA Foot	FireForge
6	28mm	Baltic Pagan MAA Horse	FireForge
12	28mm	Teutonic knights	FireForge
24	28mm	Teutonic infantry	FireForge
6	28mm	Teutonic mtd crossbows	FireForge
1	28mm	Salute free figure

 

Off the Painting Table (May 2015)

May is the second month in a row that I have done next to no gaming! This month I have been hit by ‘man-flu’ which laid me low for a week or so, and then I took a short break in Prague. This is a lovely city with much historic interest. The beer is good but the cuisine seems to revolve around dupplings. We were very fortunate with the weather and visited many of the tourist sites. My interest in the Hussite movement has been re-ignited, and perhaps it is time to get my Hungarian and Ottoman armies out again and let the war-wagons roll!

At the tail end of April I visited Salute. This show is just overwhelming, and the temptation to spend and start new projects has to be resisted. I contented myself with buying a few essentials (paints, bases, transfers etc.) and then wandered around admiring the wonderful demo games. In my opinion the best game was the AWI naval landing game inspired by the Cornwall novel, ‘The Fort’ – wonderful terrain, figures and especially the beautiful ships! The theme of the show, Agincourt, inspired many games but the HYW period is not one I want to indulge in myself. There were naturally a few Waterloo based games as well, so any French visitors would feel most put upon! I am not going to attempt a full review of the show because there are many posted on various wargame sites which do the job much better.

This month I have focussed on painting up my Teutonic forces. I assembled all the figures required using the FireForge range of figures. This was most satisfying, I really enjoy putting the figures together, adding variations in weapons and poses. I then primed them using a grey primer. I next decided to paint the white cloth components on all the figures in one go! This process took many days and I almost got snow-blindness from all the white I was using. Anyway once done, a major part of the total painting job was complete and would not need to be repeated. I next painted the two 6-man units of knights. This was completed fairly quickly, there were few colours to add, most work was metalics for the armoured parts of the figures.

Once the figures were painted they looked fairly ‘anaemic’ but now was the time to apply the transfers I had bought at Salute produced by ‘Battle Flag’. Application was a time consuming business, with each figure requiring at least 8 different transfers. Those applied to flat surfaces (e.g. shields) were easy, but those going on curved, moulded surfaces (e.g. cloth horse barding) were much more fiddly. The instruction sheet does suggest using a transfer application solution, which I don’t have, and I would highly recommend using such a product in the future. Anyway, after two days of work, and much swearing, the task was complete and I must admit to being very happy and impressed by the results. The transfers really bring the figures to life and represent one of the best buys I have made, because I doubt whether I could come close to achieving the same quality if I had relied on my own brush skills.

The next painting task is the first 12-man unit of Teutonic foot spearmen, which I hope to complete in the next week or so.

Number	Scale	Period	Manufacturer	Notes:
97	15mm	War of the Roses	Peter Pig
16	15mm	Pony Wars	Peter Pig	Casualty markers
12	28mm	C17th British Cavalry	Wargames Factory
20	28mm	C17th British Infantry	Wargames Factory
12	28mm	ECW cavalry	Warlord Games
14	28mm	ECW pikemen	Wargames Factory	Conversions
8	28mm	Jacobites	Col. Bill’s
1	28mm	Napoleonic Rifleman	Bicorne Miniatures
1	28mm	Horse and cart	4Ground
6	28mm	Mounted Baltic Pagans	FireForge
6	28mm	Baltic Pagan Bidowers	FireForge
36	28mm	Baltic Pagan Foot	FireForge
6	28mm	Baltic Pagan MAA Foot	FireForge
6	28mm	Baltic Pagan MAA Horse	FireForge
12	28mm	Teutonic kights	FireForge