American War of Independence Project: British 63rd Regimet

 I've happily finished another unit for my Crown forces for Sharpe's Pratice rules. This is the 63rd Foot. I regret not having gone with the cockade hats. These Perry metal figures are nice, but I'm having a doubt about all this feather stuff. I know the soldiers when on campaign and especially in the hotter regions in the south would take the pins out of the cocked hats so to protect themselves from the sun and elements. 

Also painting the lapels and turnbacks would provide more color, which I like. Well que sera sera as the saying goes. I will trudge on to the next unit in the que.

Oh and my flag order got lost in the mail and had to be resent, so still no flags for any of these boys.

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

American War of Independence Project: Queen's Rangers Foot center companies

A couple of weeks ago I posted the Queen's Rangers Hussar's, and Dragon's. This is a unique unit in that it ended up by the end of the war having Infantry, Cavarly, and an artillery piece or two that it captured. I'm posting the center companies I completed this week. Unfortunately my flags have still not showed up so I decided to post pictures anyways. For this unit I have some Grenadiers, and light troops to paint.

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

American War of Independence Project: British Generals

 Painted up two British Generals today for my Sharpe's Practice collection. Tomorrow I will tackle the Queen's Ranger's foot troops I have, and then I will only have two units of British regulars to paint. Then I will have to buy some more dudes to flush out what I think I need.

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

American War of Independence Project: British Light Troops

 For the ruleset Sharpe's Pratice, skirmishers are grouped by six's, so here is my next unit. I based these off of the 63rd Regiment that fought down in the southern campaign, and while I know they had green facings, I have no idea what headgear they actually wore. Based on a painting I went with this particular head gear. I had a choice of three different head styles. These Perry miniature light troops come with that option.

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

American War of Independence Project

 A friend of mine has a passion for the AWI and for quite a while now has talked about it but not moved forward with it. So about a month ago I gave him a gentle push off the cliff of indecision and told him I would help and paint one side. He chose the Patriots, which was fine with me because I think I'll have an easier time painting the British (or so I thought). 

So after a discussion about what scale and what ruleset we'd like to start with we landed on 28mm and the ruleset to start with in Sharpe's Practice. I wanted nothing to do with plastic, I just wanted metals so I could get straight on with painting them. We decided Perry Miniatures had the best line and choice for the period. 

Last week our order arrived and I got stuck in right away. Bayonet charge style! We are going to start with the Southern campaign as this provides us with lots and lots of small skirmish type battles that are suited for Sharpe's Practice. 

I've painted up this week 16 Cavalry of the Queen's Rangers Hussars and Dragons. Here are a few photos.

... the Hussars

.... and the Dragoons

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

King Williams War in Ireland: Viscount Kenmare's Regiment

 Using the excellent book from The League of Augsburg "For Ireland and King James!" I picked a regiment out that caught my eye. Viscount Kenmare's Regiment also known as The Caps. As per the book they may have been Fuzileers and supposedly all the men wore Grenadier caps. As to what they actually wore who knows, but it was a nice change of pace from painting floppy hats and added a bit of color to my growing force of little tin men. 

Unfortunately Warfare Miniatures only make models with the whole fancy grenadier kit, but that's okay I made it work. The book illustrations are superb and hopefully my attempt at painting the models will bring them some justice. I also lament not having a steady enough hand to paint the fancy lettering on the caps, so it was just plain yellow. 

In the end though I was happy with them.

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

 

King Williams War in Ireland: Artillery

Cannons aren't exciting to paint, but everyone needs one! Added a couple to my growing floppy hat war collection.

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

 

Algernon Pulls It Off! Some BE2c's for the Brits.

 I finished up three BE2c's for my growing British WWI aircraft collection. The BE2c's were used for reconnaissance, artillery spotting, and bombing, and initially gave good service. It's inexorable decline began when the Fokker monoplanes grew in numbers and their pilots found the BE2c an easy victim. Newer designs slow to get to the front required these to stay in service longer than they should have been allowed at the expense of it's service men. 

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

Age of Chivalry: Condottieri Army Italian Mounted Crossbowmen

 The last unit for my commission done. Mounted Crossbowmen for the Saga Condottieri Army. Hopefully they'll bring their new owner glory on the battlefield.

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

Algernon Pulls It Off! A set of WWI air rules.

 So I am going to try out this ruleset and see how it plays. I had gotten rid of all my 1:285 WWI aircraft awhile ago, but I keep feeling the call to come back to it. It really, really helped that 3D printing has come along, and that dudes out there that are printing are getting smarter on the resin mix so they're not so brittle. So I purchased a bunch from a guy and I couldn't be happier.

Below are some of the DH2's I just painted up for the British, and one photo has a dogfight with an Albatros D.II (which is a metal aircraft). 

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

King Williams War in Ireland: Troop of Hugh Sutherland's Regiment and another Senior Commander

 The project I started back in early July is complete! I have finished a troop of horse from Hugh Sutherland's Regiment and another Senior commander base. 

So the scenario I used for the template of what to paint can now be played. Now my goal is to double what I have, and add some artillery pieces. 

Here are a few photos of my latest project work.

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

King Williams War in Ireland: King James II Life Guard 2nd Troop

 At the end of August I suffered burnout and stopped my Williamite War in Ireland project. This past week I picked up the brush again and carried on. I'll have one more troop to paint and then I'll add some more infantry and a few pieces of artillery.

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

1:300 scale WWI German Albatros D.II

So back in the day, I used to attend Historicon and I signed up for a game called Hostile Aircraft. It was when the rules first came out and the author was an interesting fellow, but cool. After that game experience I immediately signed up for later ones he was running. I was hooked. 

I collected a bunch of aircraft, and then lost interest over the years. Family, work, etc. bla bla bla. Finally a few years back I got rid of them all. 

Then I saw a few vids from Steel Fist, and bought some more bloody aircraft. That was a year ago and I really didn’t do anything with it. Then that dude from Steel Fist had to go and mention the Facebook group Algernon, and so I joined that and got hooked again after looking at all the cool aircraft.

This time I think it will be better. Algernon is much simpler (Hostile Aircraft actually gave my friend a migraine trying to figure out 3D combat) and a bit more laid back. So I think I will enjoy it.

So after digging out my books (thank god I kept those, never throw away your books!), and tried like hell to remember the colors I needed. Here are my first four Albatros D.II's, my hands aren't as steady, so the free hand almost drove me mad. Then I find out that the two packages of crosses I had, one sheet was fine, the second sheet was misprinted, same for the other package. I was not happy but I went and put on the crooked crosses anyways. 

Now off to painting some DH2's, hopefully I can get in a game next month. 

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin