Charge!

 So after almost 3 years, I have added to my HYW project. A unit of mounted knights/men at arms. 
Taken forever to do these. Did half long ago, then spent 3 weeks doing the 2 next and a few days on the 2 last.

8 mounted men at arms.

I spent forever working with decals on the last ones.

They do look like a colourful bunch.

My best figure ever?

I think so.

I don't normally do extreme close-ups, as I generally don't feel my painting holds up to the scrutiny.

But I went all out with this guy and spent the better part of a day on just him and a buddy.

While not perfect, I think I can say he is the single best miniature I've painted, in any period.

I'm very happy with the skin tone, I've been using Foundry Expert flesh, but never been happy with the result. But I happen to come over a "how to" and it said simply putting a bit of grey in the flesh tones gives a more natural look, and I agree.

So expert flesh A and B gets a mid-grey colour and the other 4 gets a lighter grey. In this case, I skipped Expert Flesh D, as there simply isn't that much face to paint.

For the coat I used Reaper paints ultramarine blue, as the triad has quite extreme differences, I had to mix them in various amounts so those 3 base colours ended up being 6 different hues.

The big letdown is the Shield, I do think I'll give him a new shield with a shield transfer, as I simply can't freehand paint. 

The shield is inspired by John the blind's coat of arms, but I didn't even try and do the lion. And in the end, the number of blue/white stripes didn't end up correct either.

The Miniature is Claymore French man at arms, I love these figures.

 This guy has an asymmetrical armour, his weapon arm, has more plate on it, he has plate from shoulder to elbow.

Besides the shield, my major complaint is the leather, didn't turn out as well as I wanted.

Time Travel +500 years

Well I had to compromise my vision.

 My plan was to do 18 "skirmishers" and 24 MAAs. But my project had ground to a halt, and I felt I had to just finish the units, or I might not continue with the project. So, in the end, my skirmishes ended up with 12 and my MAAs ended up with 18.

The skirmishes worked out quite well when I put stuff on the base, but my MAAs should have had at least 4 more figures. They are to spaced out.

With my previously finished unit, my french "army" his a whopping 3 units.
 But I know from experience, that it's always harder to get a project going than continuing it. 4 finished units look so much better than 3, and 5 looks amazing next to 4. It's an exponential curve. I find it much easier to do more units for my GNW project which is now closing on 500 figures, then finishing my first TYW unit.

 Anyway, all figures are Claymore, the skirmish base, is a mix of crossbowmen and pavisers. (I started this base before Claymore released their paviser/crossbow teams)

 The MAAs base is well Claymore MAAs. the flags are temporary, simply printed out and fitted to removable tops, so I can change the loyalty of the unit. The flags should probably have been space out more in the back, and not been so close. Depending on what rules I use, and what the rules allow, the MAAs and "infantry" can either be separate units. Or combined into a "large" unit with the MAAs in front and the infantry at the back. In the end, my vision was compromised, but my hail mary did work and seeing 3 finished units, makes me want to do more.

Claymore has released several packs of infantry now(my infantry are pavisers with random handweapons.) I do hope Claymore will release some cavalry soon, as I've found no cavalry what fit with claymore(either in armor style or quality of casting)

The skirmishing base, worked out fine with logs and bushes.  

 While the basing did help the MAAs, they are still a bit too far spaced.

How a large unit would look like, with the MAAs at the front and infantry at the back. 

The ginormous French armada of 54 figures.

While 54 isn't a lot, this still means my HYW project is the 4th biggest I'm doing.
The first one by several country miles is GNW with somewhere between 450 and 500 figures.
Second is my SYW project with slightly less than 300.  

Closely followed by Napoleonics with some 200-250. 

And so my HYW project at 54 comes in at 4th.

Old style Frenchies

Last time I worked on these were almost to the day one year ago today. 

I've wanted to continue on these for some time, and I came over some new style bases, and wanted to use those, I had finished 16 last January that were based, so I ripped them from the base and finished the unit. 

They are quite a lot of work, with all the different colours and small detail.

These are Claymore Pavisers, with regular shields also from Claymore, with spears from Curteys and various hand weapons from Front Rank, changing them from pavisers to "infantry" 

I added two claymore MAA as "command" 

I love the end results, they are very animated and colourful.

Because of a meter of snow in 24 hours, we were without power and internet for some time, I planned on putting them up on Tirsday but that wasn't possible. 

 

 Here they are 24 infantry, 

A good mix of weapons, some pole-arms, spears, maces, flail, two diffrent swords, war-hammer.  

The flag and pendant didn't turn out as I wanted

End of year raport

Well, it's just a couple of days left in 2017 and I did manage to squeeze one more unit out of the year.
I did try and finish it as I noticed I had 1 post more this year than last year, but this year I did the end of year raport for 2016 in January 2017, so it was really even. But with this post and a new unit, I did beat last year.

I'm actually supprised I only beat 2016 with 1 post, I did 9! Napoleonic blog posts in a few months. I felt really productive, yet I beat 2016 with just 1 post...

Let's just get going with the new unit.

This is a sort of generic second/3rd line unit, it could be Nyland 5 mennige regiment, that is what I planned it should be, but apparently, that unit never numbered more than 100.
Or it could be the Åbo/Nyland/Björnborg 3-mennige regiment, they did use grey coats in 1700, but they also used karpus, while this one has a mix of tricorne karpus.

So it's both and neither. The reason for the unit is that I've gotten a bunch of free "damaged" Swedish figures that are missing their bayonets.
So I just bought the command pack, I think I even got the flags for free so the unit ended up costing me a whopping £8.5.

I got a second Swedish battalion in the works and it's about time the Swedes got some love, last Swedish I did were back in February.

So what else did I do this year.

12 Numidian cavalry
12 Medieval mounted knights.
24 SYW cavalry
18WSS infantry
6 WSS cavarly

Some half finished unit, that are:
HYW infantry,
SYW infantry,
WSS infantry
WSS cavarly.

But the year has been dominated by the two period Great Northen War and Napoleonics.

 48 GNW cavalry(18 Swedish, 18 Danish and 12 Saxon dragoons.
62 GNW infantry(40 Saxon and 22 Russian)
3 Swedish command.
3 Saxon command.
1 Saxon Gun with 5 Crew.

The Napoleonic score ended at:

120 Infantry(72 French, 24 Prussian,  24 Russian) (plus 12 more Prussian in a half-done unit)
36 Cavalry(24 French, 12 Russians)
3 French Guns.

Both of these periods I have several hundred unpained, Same goes for SYW.
I think/hope these three periods will dominate 2018, But I suspect my HYW period will get some love too.
I'm running out of space, and I want to scale back my other periods. That mostly means getting rid of my Ancients and pike and shot stuff, sadly it's hard to sell stuff when living on the end of the world.



So here are a few pics to show of 2017.

 Saxon force

 French Guns, fun project, involved finding guns from all over the world and my first proper conversion.

 French Force

 3rd battalion Azov regiment

 One of two WSS units this year, French Ponitau

 Second WSS unit, Dutch  Saxe-Heilburg.

 My first unit of Warfare Russian infantry, expect to see A LOT more of that next year.

 My Anti-Swedish coalition army, since then several units have been added to it.

 My SYW project this year mostly saw cavalry, Prussian Cuirassiers 

 2nd Dragoons the Scots Greys.

 Allied Pricipes

 My Swedish army reaching the half way mark.

 The first unit I started on for my  GNW project, started late 2015, finished it in February 2017 the 48 strong Småland cavarly regiment. 

And so far my only Danish cavalry regiment. 

My Danes need more love both in cavarly and infantry.

Warfare will soonish (I think) release Danish infantry, I also hope they will release their dragoons in tricrones so I can do some Danish(and Norwegian) dragoons.

So 2017 is coming to a close, the world is still here(bearly) 

Besides Miniatures, we've added two dogs to our pack. Dalbris she was born in April this year, and Polaris who is just 11 weeks old. 

Regular programing has resumed.

So I'm finally back in the painting groove.

I have  two things to show today, a finished knight unit,  that turned out so so
And WIP of some french infantry.

The knights are front rank, they are kinda fun  to paint as they have quite a varied look, some have brigandines, others have mail reinforced with plate, some have gambeson and some have plate with jupon on.  What pulls down the quality here is my horrible lack of freehand skull. The shields and barding doesn't look very nice.

I'm also  lost in the whole heraldry thing. So I painted random stuff, some are based on   historic French  heraldry with change in color combo, while others are  just made up.

The lances are particularly painful to paint.

Next up are some infantry,  These have so far turned out much much better, partly because the figures are better, they are newer(almost totally new) The mail is one of the biggest changes,  They are proper 3d so painting mail on these are much much easier than on the FR figures.

The sculpts are very detailed, easy to paint, clean and just wonderful. 

 The figures are Claymore Pavisers, I asked for and got regular shields, letting me make infantry. 

The weapons are Spears from Curtey/1st  corps,  while the various other weapons are from Front Rank.

 I do feel they are to spaced out, I do prefer a closer spacing, But I wanted the figures to show, if they are to close  you  only see  my bad shield painting, While my good figure painting is hidden.

 As soon as  you  get a little angle on them, the spacing is less visible.

These are so fun to paint, The mix of, mail, plate, gambeson, and leather. Makes the painting varied.

Again, the shields are not very good, and again random. 

The plan is that these are going to be in duel use.  When  all 24 are done,  they can be their own unit of infantry, But they  can also be used as back ranks of a bigger unit,  with some foot men at arms, being in the front rank. This will be a Large unit in  Hail Ceasar of 48 figures, And I'll use the combined  unit from the main rules.  They will start  the game as men at arms  with all the bonuses this in tales, and once the unit  gets shaken,  it will fights as infantry with all that in tales.