Spanish Swordsmen

These are plastic figures for the board game Anno Domini 1666. I don't really care much about the game itself, but the figures look good, so I bought some of the expansion sets. They are useful for small urban skirmishes, or I can run the four swordsmen (including a NOT Viggo Mortensen Alatriste) for The Pikeman's Lament as a four figure Aggressive Forlorn unit.

A Town House for 'Dark Nights in Trashburgh'

After having the bare cardboard sitting on my windowsill for months, in the end I completed a scratchbuilt 28mm town house piece for my 'Dark Nights in Trashburgh' 17th century urban skirmish project. It is mostly made from cardboard, balsa wood, plasticard and texture paste for the walls.

Alfred Von Richthausen's Rote Reitter

As promised in my last post, I checked my new phone camera and it does a-okay. So I took the opportunity of fair weather today, and reinforced with camera flash, took photos of my freshly completed Warlord Cuirassiers.

Although I'm Hungarian and it's sort of against traditions, I like the concept of heavy cavalry in all of its forms. After attending a presentation on the subject before Christmas, I promptly got this box on my wish list. The Mrs and Santa coordinating their efforts, the dozen reiters were under the tree by the right time.

When I started painting the figures I had no clear concept in mind other than having one half with swords and one with pistols done. In good 'Cossacks: Back to War' tradition (where by default one faction is red and one is blue) my Imperialist infantry has a red/orange theme, so I chose to go with that. The rest is history.

TYW Imperialist Infantry - Warlord plastics complet'd

Great news everyone! A long time ago I got a bunch of Warlord plastic Pike &Shotte infantry sprues on one of their regular sprue sales. Well I'm proud to announce that I painted all of them. That's three sprues so 39 infantry, plus I added one from an earlier batch.

Eloise, Octavia and Three Doggos

 

Here are two female figures produced by the Polish company Wargamer: Eloise the Musketeer and Octavia the Cuirassier from their Hot &Dangerous line, to be used as character pieces in my 17th century games. Further, there are three Green Stuff World resin dogs.

As usual I spent a lot more time painting them than regular rank and file types. Eloise on the left received a succession of oil washes for example, so between the basecoat, varnish, wash and highlights there were about three weeks' worth of waiting time.

I only had to make minor modifications on the figures, such as chopping off the useless soft metal sword blades, and some filling work here and there. The casting of the metal is good quality and the parts fit well. Even though I shortened Eloise's boots a good length, she is still on the very tall side of the nominal 28mm scale, while Octavia is more proportionate, as you can see on the picture below.

Here they are with an Empress, Warlord and Bloody figure for scale comparison. The standing figures are pinned to a 25mm MDF base - they came with their own cast metal bases but I didn't like them very much. The dogs are nominally 1/56 scale but just may also be a little bit on the big side.

The boxer and beige dachshund are painted after family dogs. At Eloise's feet is the French bulldog Cardinal Richelieu, who is sadly not very well behaved and has to be yelled at constantly - for the amusement of the other Musketeers.

(As a disclaimer, I know that these types of dogs may not have existed in such form during the 17th century, but we can all agree to overlook that.)

My crew is big and it keeps getting bigger

The Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago plastic crewmen set is kind of useful. The figures work well with swasbuckling adventure type games, and you get a lot of spare parts per sprue in the set you can use to kitbash other things. 

While they are kind of monopose and a bit on the smaller side of 28mm, and also require more prep work than, say, a Perry plastic figure, they are on the other hand easy to paint.

Hakkaa päälle!

These are three Warlord plastic cavalrymen, with minor conversion work. For my Pikeman's Lament (or other skirmish) games I wanted some sort of cavalry other than your usual harquebusier/cuirassier, badly equipped, untrained but motivated, all in all, something like the Finnish horse serving under Gustavus. 

Of course there must be a way then to discern these from their more respectable colleagues, so one of the figures received a Bloody Miniatures head swap with a fur hat, and the other two got copies of the same fur hat instead of a helmet or soft hat. The back of the figures' heads did have the end of a lobster tail sticking out (which the soft hat would have covered), so I put some extra green stuff there to cover it.

I think they look fierce enough, and will do their duties well until I can get some Cossacks or Croats. They have no pistols, and wear a basic brown buff coat.

The Whole Bloody Regiment

First post of the year, so happy New Year to all of my readers.

These are actually the leftovers of 2024's painting queue, as I ordered most of the figures back in April I think, so they took a while to complete.

Anyway, here's the entire batch of Bloody Miniatures foot figures, kind of looking like a rag-tag Swedish unit from the Deluge period (at least that was my intention) in an impromptu set-up of two wings of seven shot, two blocks of nine pike, extra officers and Spötte the dog.

By the way I collected the pebbles that decorate the bases in Stockholm (they use this kind of grout there for extra traction when it snows or freezes as far as I can tell), so the figures are definitely extra Swedish.

TYW Cuirassiers

Here are a few snapshots of four recently completed 28mm scale mounted figures, two Empress lobsters and two Warlord plastic demi-cuirassiers. I mixed them up to make a three-figure unit in Pikeman's Lament, with one extra rider. I have six more Warlord plastic riders, three of which will be mounted Mousquetaires and three Finnish/Swedish galloper cavalry.

Light conditions aren't optimal for photography right now, but I tried my best.

Floyet House WIP #1

On my 'auxiliary' Battle Campaigns blog I hinted at a mini-campaign, comprising five scenarios, which would culminate in the siege of a fortified house. 

Thus I've started building the house in question, a distant relative of the Hungarian hussar fort, the Romanian cula and the English/Scottish borderland bastle house. This will be the most ambitious of my cardboard buildings so far, being quite large in 28mm scale, with a playable interior, LED lights, and many other features.

The Tiny Monkey Inn

I have a terrain-heavy seventeenth century 28mm skirmish project in mind, titled "Dark Nights in Trashburgh." It is mainly inspired by the Alatriste and Fortune de France books, and centers on urban combat, a sort of baddies vs. catchpoles/upright civilians type of game.

(The project title derives, obviously and sort of unintentionally, from Strasbourg, but it's also a sort of ironic reflection that most things we use for scratchbuilding would otherwise usually end up in the litter.)

For this, obviously, I need more buildings than the single guardhouse I built before, so I planned a few: an enlarged version of the old gatehouse I started in 1/72 scale, a multi-storeyed rich citizen's estate and a wattle and daub style inn, with accomodations on the upper floor(s). Some of these would have internal lighting and games could be played at night or dusk, using the light from the windows, bonfires, tokens with built-in LED torches etc. This is the first installment of the series.

As with most scratchbuilds, doing the inn was an on and off type of thing, with large intervals waiting for the glue and primer to dry, then shelving it for something else, all the while contemplating the next thing to do, but finally it turned out to be a rather handsome building. The most interesting and at the same time tiring part of such builds is to think well ahead about the construction process.

I started this project with my wife and the tiny monkey is sort of a catchphrase between us, hence the name plate of the establishment.

Bloody Pike and Shot

I was very excited when Bloody Miniatures announced their rank and file figures. Don't get me wrong, I really like the Warlord plastic foot figures, but they just lack variability. Larger pike and shot regiments are economically feasible by using plastics, that's for sure.

Anyway, here's the first dozen painted of that line, with a few Looters and Pikemen en Mélée mixed between them. Some have Empress wire pikes. There is an experimental casualty marker included, which I produced by taking a press mould copy of one of the figure's backs, its front side is entirely featureless. The base accepts a 14mm six-sided die to show the casualty score.

Saker and Artillery Crew

This is a scratchbuilt medium-sized cannon, with a long barrel made from the mizzen mast of the Zvezda 1/100 scale Nina sailing ship, wheels of a keychain souvenir cannon and a carriage made of balsa and coffe stirrers. The trunnions and ironings are made of green stuff.

It is crewed by four Empress (ex Bohemian Miniatures) early TYW gunners in tall hats, a group of splendid figures.

Since then I've managed to buy a plastic WSS era gun from Warlord, so my artillery for the period is steadily increasing.

Frostgrave Crewmen Conversions

Mention was made of these fellows before, the North Star plastic figures box for Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago. With some kitbashing work, the figures work just fine as 17th century unarmored bods, highwaymen, robbers or other rabble characters. They are also good for pirate skirmishes - I experimented a bit with making a planked base and a dirt base for each figure, but it did not really work that well.

Now the figures are a bit stocky and there are large mold lines to remove, but they are at a decent price and can be purchased from within the EU (this box is from Fireforge Games).

Warlord plastic and Bloody Miniatures metal accessories were used to create this first group (the rest will mostly include Arabic/Berber types so less conversion work is required). I included explanations for each figure on the picture below:

Now that I have Blue Stuff at my disposal, I can also make resin copies of various headgear I can use with other figs, mostly big hats and morions from the Warlord figures which are destined to arrive soon.

Empress/Bohemian TYW figures

I purchased a smaller group of figures from Empress Miniatures a little while back: two cuirassiers, four artillerymen and seven foot combatants. The first lot is painted - these are earlier TYW types.

They include a caliverman, a veteran musketeer, four pike and an officer with rotella and sword. They are going to supplement my existing continental TYW forces. 

They scale well with Warlord plastics, less so with Bloody Miniatures, which are about half a head taller on average. But, of course, such height differences occur between real people, so sometimes I don't understand the hassle with trying to make every single figure of a uniform height and body size.

Captain Kahlen and the Bog

Perhaps you are familiar with the captioned image about Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor movie (which I can't seem to find right now), where it is stated that the movie is historically accurate on two points: 1) there was a place called Pearl Harbor and 2) it was attacked.

Something similar is true about the recent Danish movie Bastarden, based on a 21st century novel, which we watched in the cinema and mostly enjoyed (the violence against animals and some extended suffering scenes were a tad outdone in my opinion), in that 1) there was a man named Captain von Kahlen and 2) he went to the Danish bogs.

Anyway, this was sort of an inspiration to build a murky bog/heathland, as I did not really have any terrain pieces that are rough going but do not limit line of sight. 

So I took a piece of 2mm MDF board I had lying around, built some pools with spackle and cork, and then painted the thing using my regular methods. The water effect is glossy acrylic medium and some varnish on top. The larger plants are from my go-to fake Ikea plant - they make good jungle pieces for small scale (such as naval) wargaming, or bamboo stalks etc. for 28mm figures.

Captain Kahlen in this image is a Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago plastic crewman figure converted with Bloody Miniatures weapons. I'll post the rest of the bunch sometime later.

 

Bloody Miniatures - The Fighting Men

In this third, and most likely final (for a while) installment of Bloody Miniatures showcase, we turn our attention to the warriors and fighting men.*

(*Since then another order has arrived, so I will be able to post some later.)

In the first image, a forlorn hope, fighting with halberds and partisans.

17th century 'Civilians'

Continuing with the Bloody Miniatures theme, here are a few more painted figures, this time perhaps with better lighting conditions. And I also made a makeshift background.

First up, some females armed to the teeth and ready to defend their fief, their honor, and/or the family cutlery.

Captain Alatriste

This is a conversion from 'The Pistoleers' Bloody Miniatures figure pack, depicting the famous fictional (?) character.

I trimmed off the mortuary sword blade and added a longer rapier, a Spanish cup hilt and a longer scabbard. I also made him a moustache with Magic Sculpt.

(It is a nice touch by the sculptor that the figure holds the blade in his left, so the guard is on the reverse side.)

I deliberately gave Captain Alatriste a rag-tag outfit, using muted colours, and a well-oiled buff coat, as he should have appeared on many occasions while fighting in the tercios of Spain.

Bloody Miniatures - Heavy Cavalry

 (And a reminder to learn to take pictures with my phone properly)

I've come across Bloody Miniatures by accident, on the '17th century Wargaming' Facebook group. At first I hesitated to purchase them, because all I had for the period were Warlord plastics, and the Bloody figs were quite bigger than those. 

In the end I bit the bullet, and since then made two more orders (including one for Christmas), because, in all honesty, these figures are amazing and they sort of brought back the enjoyment of painting into my life.

Now these horsemen were in the second order, and I will most likely not post the rest in the order of purchase, just the way I can get them out of their storage boxes.

This is 'The Lobsters' pack of three figures and horses. They painted up rather easily, the only hindrance being that I could not paint the dark bay horse with the rider attached, so I glued them together after painting. I'm not entirely content with the bases so might redo them later.

Usually when I paint larger units, I make the horses uniform as well, but as these figures are a character each, I thought the nags should be a bit different as well. I think the paintjob turned out to be rather nice.