Front Rank Pavlovsk Grenadiers - Completed

Well I broke down and used a hair dryer to speed up the Minwax drying time - it seems to have worked as the Testors Dullcote is pretty flat. Added some highlights to the green coat, as well as a little black-lining around the chest straps. The mitre plates and bayonets were dry-brushed with gold and silver - just to make them a little shiny again.

My buddy will be giving me some Foundry Russian Cuirassiers in exchange for painting a few figures for him. Hopefully, they won't be too small next to the Front Rank guys. Eventually I'll also add either some Warlord Games or Old Glory 2nd Edition line infantry - or wait for the Perry plastics.

In the meantime, these guys will hang out in their barracks and let the British fight the French.

Front Rank Pavlovsk Grenadiers - WIP +1

Gave the remainder of the grenadiers a brush-on stain of Minwax Tudor Satin. Once the stain dries overnight they'll be given a finish of Testors Dullcote, followed by some highlighting of the coats. The mitre plate will also get a dry-brush of gold, and the trousers a dry-brush of white. Then they'll get based on 40mm square Litko plywood stands.

Prior to the stain they were given a production-line block paint job. I used a darker green than the first test figures.

Tomorrow I'll meet my buddy Pat L. at The Game Matrix to pick up some plastic Ancients he asked me to help glue together for a Lydian WAB army he's building for Adepticon in April. He's giving me some plastic stuff in exchange. Pat just returned from Strategicon where his Early-Macedonian WAB army was undefeated - and incidentally beat Jeff Jonas' Ptolemaic army. Pat is tireless and is running a WAB Dark Ages Campaign for some of us here in WA State; he's also going to GM a WAB "tournament" at Enfilade! in May. Although I've really come back to playing, and enjoying WAB, I do plan on running a largish Trojan War game using Hail Caesar. I hope to have that project up and running after Enfilade!

Front Rank Pavlovsk Grenadiers - Test Figures

Decided to try using a white undercoat - thinking the Minwax stain would darken the final product appropriately. It looks okay, but I'll go with a darker green on the coats for the rest of the figures. These are Front Rank figures that I won off of ebay for a great price (about half the normal cost). No highlighting has been added to the basic block painting prior to the dip. Here is how they look after a finish of Testors Dullcote.

The stain didn't black line the straps as well as I wanted, so I'll likely go over these areas. I also gave the metal areas (mitre plate and musket barrel) a wash of black first. The Vallejo Gold didn't cover the white undercoat that well at first.

Anyway, the sculpting and poses really simplify painting - no hard nooks and crannies to get to. Here's an interesting surviving example of a grenadier cap; with musket ball holes, presumably.

Front Rank Chasseurs a Cheval - Completed

Here they are - based two per on 50X50mm squares. I added a bit of highlighting after the Minwax stain - the green looked too plain if not.

I really like their simple, yet elegant poses; very nice looking in ranks. The horses' tails are a bit long, so I had to bend them to the sides to allow the second rank.

This unit will replace the Cuirassier/Carabinier unit for the Salamanca game. I hope to get a Front Rank Lancer unit in the future - either Polish or Dutch.

WAB AoA Gaming - 2/18/12

Several WAB gamers made it to the The Game Matrix today; including Old Bob all the way up from Oregon. At first I was going to play Bob, but then switched to take on James R.'s Hussites with my Late-Japanese. Adrian ended up taking on Bob's Macedonians with his Medieval English.The Japanese took a beating from the Hussites. The Japanese didn't have anything in their army that could destroy the wagons. With the crossbowmen and handgunners manning the wagon, it was an impossible task for the Japanese.

A decimated unit of Retainer spear did mange to reach a wagon; however, hardly anything could be done to the Hussites behind their well-defended position.

Soon all four Retainer units, two each bow and spear, were destroyed - mostly by long range fire from the Hussites in their wagons. By turn 5 it was declared a Hussite victory; practically all of the Hussite units were still intact, and only the Bushi infantry remained in strength. Even the Bushi cavalry had taken a beating - again from long range covered fire.

On the other table, it appeared Adrian's English were getting the better of Bob's Macedonians

In spite of the feeling like the Takeda at Nagashino, it was still a nice game day - two diverse WAB games being played simultaneously, as well as a large Martian game also going on with most of the NHMGS regulars. It was very nice to have Bob make it - considering he drove up from another state! We plan on more games in the near future - WAB and others too.

Front Rank Chasseurs a Cheval - WIP

Nursing a bad toothache I focused on the Front Rank Chasseurs I recently won off of ebay. This time I'll wait a day or so for the Minwax stain to dry completely before spraying with Dullcote. Luckily I'll be playing some WAB tomorrow so I won't be tempted to use the hair dryer on them.

Prior the stain they were given a pretty basic block paint job; the black parts were given a little bit of dry brushed highlights. I had started to shade some of them, but stopped after I realized it would take way longer than using the stain. For rank and file guys like these, I've found that once in formations a basic paint job looks fine.

I like how most Front Rank cavalry have the saddle and carbine attached to the figure - this not only speeds up painting, but makes for a sturdy gaming model.

Warlord's Maximus and War Dog

Finally finished this set; I had to take a bit of a break as I had a minor medical procedure (let's just say it's part of an exam for those of us 50 & over), as well as still nursing a pretty bad toothache. Anyway, the horse is really nicely posed and sculpted. The rider, Maximus Overdrivus, isn't bad, but seems to be lacking some details. The facial features and the armor embossing are hard to make out. To be fair, very little of the face and armor embossing are exposed in the first place. The head and helmet do seem a bit undersized though; maybe that's the look the sculptor wanted - to exaggerate the the body size and sword. The dog is very nicely detailed, but I think the pose with the legs all drawn in doesn't look as dignified as it could've been otherwise.

Once again I couldn't wait for the Minwax stain to dry overnight on the horse. I used a hair dryer to speed up the time and sprayed with Testors Dullcote. As you might be able to tell, the horse still has a sheen to it; maybe the stain underneath is reacting to the spray coat. It won't really matter much on the gaming table though. Speaking of which, tomorrow is another day of WAB gaming. I could take the EIR army too - now that the general is finished. One more thing, I see that Blogger recently started using a comment verification code that is hard to make out - so if it gets to be pain to leave comments, I understand. Best, Dean