Border Horse - red caps

 The border horse for ECW forces has begun, this is the final stretch for my expected ECW troops.

Closing in on the completion of the ECW project for the tabletop minis.  I have begun to put more thought and assemble the materials for an ECW campaign system (beyond a simple digital mapping tool).

I only had enough piano wire for two units, this was the first of them, then an opportunity to search for wire in Victoria came and I found some that will work, the store clerk said that getting the wire in was getting harder and the exact thickness I wanted was not in the store, nor had they had any for more than a year.  The hobby world is having supply issues also...

Again I used the fast paint method, though the troops got to the ink stage in only three days, (painting for about 30 minutes at a time) - it was more than a week later that I got the time to put into getting the later stages done.  They have been finished for a week now, and I was only able to get them out for a few photos and assemble this blog post as the 'life' workload has suddenly jumped up.

no shots of bare metal this time
as I had the shots of them bare in an earlier post

after the base coat, comes the dark chocolate under layer

then a 'damp brush' white light tan highlights layer

earth tones under color
(you can see how wet it is as it just went on before the photo)

ink stage
then they all sat for a few days
which was probably for the best
in letting the ink dry completely

first of the colour layers
I did dark blue to go under the
brown inked silver chain-mail I was planning

the red goes on, with some orange highlights

the riders are all then mounted to the horses
before getting the matte coat spray

all matte coated, and flocked, awaiting their use in battle
or at least one more photo shoot on the base stands

the unit assembled on the metal base stands
with teddy bear fur and flocking

the beauty shot, featuring the commander
with a crown on the St George cross on their shields

forward, reverse view, showing the armor a bit better

Now I have some space ships as a project for my middle son to do up - before returning the the ECW forces.

House changes are still looming as the family seeks changes, there's a big game in November now (see previous post here) and I'm still on call for the tones dropping with the volunteer fire rescue along with regular and possible extra training in the coming months.

Blazing Brushes! Speed painting of horses and earth tones.

 Been a while since my last post, I have been busy editing a how-to video about the horses painting technique and making plans for games in the coming winter (more about that in a future post).

As I am working my way through some more English Civil War era miniatures, this time the video was focused on two Scottish 'officer' model conversions, or more accurately, their horses.

The finished product

The video takes you through all the steps, which I followed in a week long set of painting sessions.

Beginning with bare metal:

bare metal horses
attached to a 'painting stick' for handling
using hot glue

base coat

'wet' white brush

color and ink

other side color and ink

manes and tails

other side of manes and tails - with stockings and blazes

finished product

now in detail with music to watch the process go by

the last step before removing from 'sticks'

coming up more of the painting done this summer and game plans for winter

English Civil War - Cuirassier or Heavy Horse or "The Lobsters"

A mighty gift from Jeff (of Saxe-Bearstein fame) for Yule in 2014 was a Warlord Games set of Cuirassier, for I was working on the Army of Parliament and Jeff was doing the Royalist muster.

The Cuirassier unit of most note in the ECW was Heselrig's Lobsters, which performed field duties for Parliament.

It has taken me many years to finally break them out from the box again and this year I was determined to have them finished.  For now with Rob of Codsticker's Historicals we are continuing the English Civil War project that Jeff and I started.

Enough of the background now onto the work:

bare metal

mounted on fender washers, the plastic horses were then put onto wood spacers that I use to hold the minis while painting, the riders are mounted onto cut card, then 'combined' once ready for the (now) matte coating

after grey base, the mix of black & brown paint is liberally applied

a white 'damp-brush' layer on everything to pick out highlights

reds, oranges and yellows for the horse and equipment 'under color'

inks to capture the details

second inking for the horses and cloths are colored, as the riders get more attention to detail, for many of the riders in the armor, I did a mix of 'black' and 'burnished' metal looks along with a brown 'rusted' look that was achieved historically by actually exposing the bare metal then using a varnish 'polish' to lock in the red-brown coloring - I did it with a mix of thinned out silver with lots of brown ink.

horse blankets get details and the riders get final highlights

transfer to horses for the matte coating

final product now on the magnetic stands (flash photo)

 
At long last my heavy horse is ready, just in time too as Rob and I will be moving forward this spring with the ECW war in the west campaign.  A battle coming that calls for none other than Heselrig's own!

Sounding the muster: English Civil War Cornish Horse

The concept of 'heavy horse' was certainly in existence during the 1642-51 English Civil War, for the continental armies of the 30 years war had been using them.

Only the Parliament actually had any Cuirassier, though many officers and some other notables in the ranks with their own means, wore the plated armour of the true Heavy Horse, I have decided to use the demi-lancers of an earlier period as part of my Cornish Royalist forces.  Partly to give them a distinctive look and partly to make note of the more limited arms that the Cornish Royalists had access to so they were making do with the older arms that were still around.

As usual, they all start out as bare metal castings:

bare metal

grey base coat

block 'under color' of dark brown mix, put on very wet and thick

a 'wet brush' of an off white, mostly eggshell like color mix of white and brown

under-coat of primary horse colors, red, orange (most of them are orange) and yellow

inks layers done and dolor sets on the horse blankets and troopers, now transferred to their mounts

gloss coating layer done, awaiting flocking

Brushworks: English Civil War Welsh Horse

Completed three squadrons of horse and four command elements (and another dog!)

Again I used the high-speed horse painting methods.  This lot was started on September 11 and finished on September 30.

bare metal to base coat

undercoat (top), 'white' layer (middle), under color (bottom)

Ink layers and color, then mounted on horse and gloss (protection) coat

This then led to the completion of this 1/3 of my planed Royalist force:

Inspired by the 1980's show "By The Sword Divided" I have put this troop in purple with a layout of the cornet to match the Lacey Troop

Command stands and a red coated horse troop

then a troop in just buff coats ... and metal cuirass, I know the Royalists did not really have such armored horse, yet I wanted one troop to fulfill this role if we decided to allow an 'a historical' option.

Command units, including one that had a bad 'hat' that I cut off and put a sword in his hand instead.

Now was the time to assemble the full Welsh Brigade:

overview 4 Horse and 4 Pike & Shotte forces

I was not certain the horse banner would look as good as it did in the end

the red and green troops certainly match well together

combined with the white are the tricolor of Wales

The massed effect is always a great look

Now the 'giant banners' take on a great effect once the mass of troops get assembled

Next up is more preparation of painted items for the coming xmas market (yes we have decided to make a go at doing an xmas market in December).

Then I am right back into the ECW with the Cornish forces, though there may be some more sappers and engineers that may be put into a higher priority, it is my aim to have all of the Royalist army ready to face my Parliament by next spring.