Donnybrook Diaries.....making ground!

Hello again - It's been a while, but I've gone to ground because......I've been making ground! Well, terrain to be specific. About three months of the last year has been taken up by making terrain boards; an afternoon here, a couple of hours there, it all adds up. But now, after twenty or so years of being interested in this hobby, I'm now the proud owner of two large terrain boards, that give me a war gaming table measuring 4 feet by 4 feet.

The boards are made out of MDF board, with timber battens along the edges, then this was filled in with polystyrene sheet. Inspiration came from many sources, but was especially drawn from Gary Chalk's excellent series of articles in Wargames Illustrated, way back in the dim and distant past. Lots of sand and PVA glue, filler, a polystyrene hot wire cutter, varnish, emulsion paint mixed up at my local DIY store to match commercially bought model paint, towelling (inspired by Dave Andrews' beautiful terrain boards), static grass, reeds and bushes from various modelling shops.....the list goes on, in terms of what I have used. But the end results have been worth it. The bridge is from Hovels, and is a permanent
fixture.

 Ideas for the layout of the roads and the river, have come specifically from Clarence Harrison's excellent Quindia Studios website. Clarence has a guide on there about making his own terrain boards, and I wanted to make mine flexible, and adaptable, just like his. Although the bridge is fixed, I can use this particular board from the Mediaeval period, right up to the present day, which suits me just fine. I will eventually do another river board, which will feature a wooden bridge, which I will use for all my pre-Mediaeval games, but that is a way into the future. I like the idea of having a fixed bridge, as for me, the look of war gaming terrain is almost as important as the flexibility, and this just looks 'right'. There is also a ford located further down stream, which I'm sure will be used in some of my games.

 The colours of the board have been mixed to match GW's Steel Legion Drab as a base coat, then the 'Sand' no. 10 triad, from Wargames Foundry. This has a mid-tone to it, allowing terrain ranging from Europe, north and south, all the way to the United States, to be portrayed. Eventually over the next few years, I'll be building up collections for the American War of Independence, ACW, Peninsular War, as well as continuing with my Donnybrook ECW project, amongst others. So here I've got a random selection of buildings - Spanish and European - on display, and my first completed bases for my League of Augsburg period French force. That will be making a bigger appearance next year, but this year's aim is to complete my Donnybrook forces. I'll leave you with a few more snaps of the boards, as now it's time to crack on with some actual figure painting! These boards have taken up a LOT of time over the last few months, but I'm just a tad happy with them. It's definitely been worth it. Next year will see a 'hill' board being made (I'll play with the hot wire cutter again!), but for now, it's on to the important business of figure painting. See you far sooner than last time!

Command base finished!!

Well, finally, a few weeks after the last post, I've got my command stand finished! People who have been following this blog over recent months will hopefully be pleasantly surprised to see my drummer and standard bearers now joined by the first two of the rank and file infantry. The basing has taken place over the last week or so, in stages, and was finally finished off tonight. I've taken inspiration from Barry Hilton's post here http://leagueofaugsburg.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/i-wanna-tell-you-story-tales-with-toy.html

and I've added some water to the base. Now, realistically, this water should probably be a mucky shade of brown, but, I like the bluey-green; slightly artistic in some ways, but it's reflecting the summer skies of a European summer!!(Maybe.......) I've added a few pictures including the pike stand, just to give a sense of numbers.Next up will be the two 'rank and file' bases, starting with the officer and sergeant. Ten more figures, then Regiment d'Humieres will be finished. Until next time.......

Next Ensign.......progress!

 Hello again!! A few days on, and here's more progress on d'Humiere's Regimental Standards - this time the Drapeau de Colonel, or 'Colonel's colour' - the equivalent of the 'Royal Colour', in British/English regiments. It features the white cross of France on a plain background. Most Drapeau de Colonel in the French army of the period were variations on this theme. This time, I've gone with a white standard pole, and silver cordeliere or tassels. The white cravat or scarf at the top of the standard pole is made out of Greenstuff as usual, and the figure is Wargames Foundry (as usual!!)

The final photo is a picture of the 'command base' of d'Humiere's regiment, as it is at the moment. Both of the ensigns are now painted, and with the drummer, look rather impressive. I've just got 2 rank-and-file soldiers to do, to finish this base off. I've tweaked about with the position of the figures since this last pic was taken - and learnt a lesson, about NOT sticking figures down too early, or with superglue! It's incredibly difficult to move figures about afterwards, if you're not happy with the position of them, so I'll have to re-think my basing 'method' in the future..... I suppose I'm just too eager!!

Until next time, when this base will be finished!!
See you soon.

d'Humieres' Ensign

Hello all!! Still here - though for various reasons painting, and therefore posts, have been somewhat lax over the last few weeks! But I'm still working on my League of Augsburg French, and here's some pictures of the regimental ensign for d'Humieres Regiment. He's not even varnished yet, so keen I was to get some pics on here!!

 As you may notice, there's a couple of things that have changed from the last picture of the standard - I've altered the colours of the tassels - the cordeliere - to match the colours of the field shades of the actual flag. It has been suggested that these cords were either in the same colours as the flag, or often silver.The flag pole has been painted blue in this case, as was sometimes the case; sometimes the poles were also the same colour as the flag field colours, or in the case of the Drapeaux de Colonelle - the standard with the white cross of France, on a white background - the standard pole could be white. These details were picked up from French Infantry under Louis XIV - 1688-1714 by Robert Hall, which I picked up in CD form from Baccus Miniatures at the recent Castle Donington Show. It's those little things that just add so much more 'oomph' to these figures, and I'm blown away by the level of detail in Hall's work - reasonably pricey but well worth it!!

This figure has been a joy to paint - one of the old Perry-designed Wargames Foundry Early Marlburian range, and he certainly looks the part. Time to get some varnish on him, then get to work on the next ensign, and the Drapeaux de Colonelle! See you soon!!