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.
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
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.
Cannons aren't exciting to paint, but everyone needs one! Added a couple to my growing floppy hat war collection.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
Another installment for my friends commission to help along his growing Condottieri Saga warband.
Finished another commander model, William of Orange or a proxy for another General.
One more to go and then 12 cavalry!
The project continues, and I still have steam. One more brigade commander done, two overall commanders and twelve cavalry to go! Then I will be off the leash to paint whatever I want to add to the period. So far this is a good start, and I have not lost interest nor regret putting in the time to do so.
Here are a few snaps of a general yet to be named.
