Evilstu’s Historical Tinkering

Have my first lot of ACW Union troops ready to go. Minis mostly from the ACW starter box, with some of the ‘Union troops in sack coats skirmishing’ kit mixed in. Tried a few different techniques on this one, with mixed results. It’s all a learning progress regardless so I’m happy enough with them. Core force for Sharp Practice which I can add to later when I get around to it.

Recipe was (over a white primer) VMC Andrea Blue on the trousers, VMC Prussian Blue for hats and coats, Black on ammo pouches, boots, equipment etc, VMC Cavalry Brown on the drums, VMC Pastel Blue on the canteens, VMC Deck tan on the canteen strap, VGA Mahogany on the rifle barrels, VGA Sand Ivory highlighted with VMC Deck tan on the blanket rolls, VMC Brass and VMC Oily Steel on their respective metal bits. Flesh was GW Contrast Guilleman Flesh. Black ink wash followed by a top down drybrush with VMC Deck Tan. Simple flock mix on the base with grass/flower tufts for the command minis to call them out a little.

A few of boxes of Perry Miniatures and some parts swapping and it appears I’ll have enough units and characters for War of the Roses skirmishes using Sharp Practice. The WoTR supplement calls for 6 model units helpfully, as that’s how many the Perrys can cram on a sprue 🙂

Have kicked off my 1745 Jacobite Rebellion project in earnest this week by getting a start made on my Royal Ecossais from Flags of War. The minis are wonderful to work on. Started with a straight white primer, then used the GW Guilleman Flesh contrast just to block out the flesh areas (I’ll revisit those later but this is a good way of bringing out the detail for later highlights). Waistcoats, collars and cuffs in VGC 72.010 Bloody Red, which possibly sounds a bit grimdark for a historical project but was the most ‘orange’ red in my collection. Might mix in a little orange for highlights later on. Also need to pick up another pot of something for the dark blue overcoats, which I understand had a slightly purple hue. Again I could mix something but not sure how I’d go repeating later if I wanted to add to the unit, so happy to wait a few days.

Also got the wash down on the AWI militia. In retrospect these guys may have benefitted from a little more buff or cream scattered about their various items of clothing, but I’ll need to do a lot more of these so the 10 shown below will likely be mixed across several units by the time they hit tabletop.

Based and varnished my piper, results look good from a distance so happy enough to kick the project off in earnest (with a caveat that I’ll probably start with the Ecossais who don’t actually sport any tartan…).
Also started work on my first block of AWI militia. I’ve seen a few people using contrast paints for historicals and though that a militia squad might be a good place to give this approach a go. Base colours were a wide variety of contrast paints.
Rifle stocks and straps were VMC 929. Light Brown. Stocks were then covered with VGA 71.036 Mahogany. VMC 70.871 Leather Brown went on all straps and most pouches. VMC 70.921 English Uniform was used for the powder horns and canteens. VGA 71.040 Burnt Umber on the hair, VMC 70.801 Brass on the horn, AP Gun Metal on rifle barrels and a smattering of the buttons, VMC 70.918 Ivory on the stockings, shirts and toggles/cords on the hunting jackets (not a tailor, don’t know the proper terminology…). Once dry will give everyone an ink wash and then a zenithal drybrush with ivory.

Working on a 1745 Jacobite Rebellion force.

Before diving right in and overcommitting on a paint scheme that I would need to replicate on a whole unit (or army…) I thought i’d do a test paint on the piper as I’d never tried painting tartan before. Reasonably happy with the result for my first time around but I’ll have to see if I can find a way to speed up the process for the rank and file. I don’t mind spending 4 hours a mini on the centrepiece models as I do quite enjoy the painting process, but I would like to be able to field a force eventually and I’m realistically going to need a few dozen of these guys minimum for a Sharp Practice force, more if we count the tartan on the Government forces opposing.

In an effort to improve my tutorial game (channeling @amachan here) and to remind myself later, colours used were:

Red tartan: base of VMC 70.957 Flat Red, wash of black ink, repaint VMC 70.957 Flat Red on highlighted areas, mix of VMC 70.957 Flat Red and VMC70.970 Deep Green for the green stripes, pure VMC70.970 Deep Green for the green checks, VMC70.953 Flat Yellow then overbrushed for the yellow stripes.

Green tartan: Base of VMC70.970 Deep Green, black ink followed by VMC70.970 Deep Green highlight, stripes were a mix of VMC70.970 Deep Green  and VMC70.918 Ivory, with checks pure VMC70.918 Ivory.

So pretty much this approach:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/government1745/28mm-1745-jacobite-rebellion-miniatures/posts/2179497

Cap was VGA72.721 Magic Blue, highlighted with a mix of VGA72.721 Magic Blue and VMC70.841 Andrea Blue.

Skin tone was GW contrast Guilliman Flesh over white primer, shaded down with VMC 70.836 London Grey, highlighted with VMC70.815 Basic Skintone and then given a targeted glaze of GW Reikland Fleshshade.

White was a combination of VMC 70.820 Off White or 70.918 Ivory depending on how white a colour I needed and what I had on the palette at the time.

Silver was AP Gun Metal, pipes were VMC 70.929 Light Brown and VMC 70.821 German Cam Beige WW2, Black was VMC70.950 Black and leather was VGA72.740 Leather Brown. Used my homemade black wash sparingly as required, highlights were a mix of base shade mixed with the ivory or off-white as was on my palette at the time.

So a bit more busy than my usual ‘max 10 block colours for tabletop and then AP dip’ but I’m doing historicals to try and improve my painting techniques a little after just spamming out fantasy forces of late. Am now at the point where anything else I try to do to the mini will probably detract from the mini rather than add to it, so will park it here, give a matt vanish tomorrow then try to up my basing game (which is another area I want to work on this year…)

Sixteen Grenadiers to hammer out today before Sharp Practice at Cancon tomorrow night…

Where are we at then?

Presently on my paint bench I have around 100 Perry and Warlord late Napoleonic French in various states of progress.

Assembled and primed I have:

• The start of a 1745 Jacobite Rebellion force, 2 units of clansmen and a unit of Royal Ecossais. The older minis are, I believe, Front Rank while the newer ones I have procured through the Flags of War kickstarter. Just had it confirmed today that there will be a third Kickstarter for this range so already looking forward to it;
• A Sharp Practice sized force of Union infantry from Perry for ACW;
• A unit of AWI militia from Warlord. Am planning on being clever and seeing if I can press some of these into service for both the French & Indian War and AWI;
• a bunch of celts from various sources that I really need to organise into a 600 denari warband for an SPQR campaign (I may be holding off for the Wargames Atlantic Persians to drop, as fabric on a Persian army will be really quick to paint, right?…); and
• A couple of units of Caesarian Romans, see above.

Assembled but not yet primed I have a box of Perry War of the Roses infantry, with a second box and a box of foot knights still on the sprue. So a bit of cavalry and I’ll be away. While this is outside the Black powder period there are a set of Sharp Practice rules for this one which I’m keen to try out… Also part way through putting together some Perry Confederates to oppose the Union force mentioned above. Yeah, assembling minis feels a bit more like a chore to me than fun regrettably. Another point in favour of metals I guess…

Longer term would like to put together a Napoleonic Russian force as the 1812 sojourn into Russia has always struck me as particularly interesting. And I do feel quite drawn to the French & Indian War. Will need some more trees first though…