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!!

Hello all! It's been a few days, but here's a few more pictures of work in progress on my French infantry regiment, d'Humieres,  from the War of the Grand Alliance, or Nine Years War. First up is the drummer. The information I had on him was drawn initially from the series of articles written by Mark Allen in Wargames Illustrated, from Issue 49 (I think!?) onwards. As an introductory series to uniforms and units of the period, they've been a really useful source of basic information, but as they're long out of print, I had to pop over to WI and buy a CD of scanned pages which detailed the articles. It's been worth it so far, but as with all sources, it's worth looking at others, or the original works where the information was drawn from - but more on that another time. The follow up notes in a later edition of WI (also on the CD as one of the articles), suggested that the livery for the drummer could be based on that of the regiment's Colonel-Proprietor, Louis-Francois d'Aumont, who was 'in charge' between 1689 and 1702. The yellow colours, and black and white lace are based on an illustration of a trumpeter of a cavalry unit of the d'Aumont family, and so inference is drawn that the infantry  musicians may have had the same 'uniform'. My interpretation doesn't quite match the picture of the trumpeter's clothes, and it's not clear if the white cross was used by the 1690's, but it's not a bad approximation!

 

 

Next up are more shots of my pikemen, from different angles, showing off their grey uniforms, red cuffs, breeches and hose, and the details such as five o'clock shadow and different neck scarves and gauntlets. Little touches that just add a bit more realism!

 

 

Finally, there's a picture of one of the standards from the regiment. This is the Drapeaux d'Ordonnance, or 'Regimental' colour; the other being the Drapeaux de Colonel, which was a white cross on a white background. French regiments normally carried one of these Colonel's colours in the first battalion, and the 'Regimental' colour. Other battalions of the same regiment would then carry 2 or even 3 of these regimental colours. I've had to repaint this Drapeaux d'Ordonnance twice, as I wasn't happy with the initial colours at first - they started out as being far too greeny-blue! It's believed that the tassels or cordeliere, were used to wrap and tie up the material of the colours when they were furled, but there's debate about how long they were, or even when they introduced - either by the start of the 17th century, or sometime after 1700!! The white cravate or scarf at the top of the colours was introduced by the French to their standards, after the Battle of Fleurus, in 1690, when French artillery fired on their own side. White sashes began to be worn by French officers, and the scarves were added, though not universally ( and sometimes not even in white), by the infantry and cavalry, to avoid 'friendly fire'! As usual, the standard is hand painted, paper sandwiched over aluminium foil and glued/stiffened with white PVA glue. The cravate is made out of green stuff, and the tassels greenstuff and twisted fuse wire.

 

 

 

Over the last few weeks, I've gained so much help from people on the League of Augsburg 'Fighting Talk' Forum, that I feel it's only right to offer continuing thanks to these fine fellows. Many people deserve a mention, but above all is 'Arthur' who really has come up trumps with some wonderful information on the d'Humieres regiment. More information on the unit when I have made further progress - I'm continuing on the command stand at the moment! Until next time!!



Summer time!!!!

Well it's been a while, but here's the opening salvo from a 'newish' period for me - the Nine Years war, also known as the War of the Grand Alliance. These are pikemen from Regiment d'Humieres, a French unit that served in the Neerwinden (Landen) campaign from 1693. They are based up for 'Beneath the Lily Banners' - a rule set I picked up last year, and have fallen in love with!! More info later, but at least I'm back!!

Progress so far - Comte de Tescaux' Regiment

 Hello again! It's been a few days since the last blog, so I thought I would give people an update on the Mauritzanian project 'rebirth'. I've set my self targets for each week's painting, and this week it's time to get my second standard bearer, drummer and 2 rank and file figures completed.

Here are a few pictures of the progress so far - some of you may have seen these chaps already, in previous posts, and they are chaps I painted a while ago. Already done are my first 'rank and file' figure - varnished and based, and two command figures - the Colonel and 'Drapeaux d'Ordonnance' or Regimental colours. I often paint up a test figure, just to get a sense of what the regiment or unit will look like, and this is the case with the chap below. Given the name of the regiment, and (coincidental) link to many High Street UK shopping consortiums for this Mauritzanian project and the units involved, it seems as though the 'records' show the Comte de Tescaux' Regiment has a colour scheme of (off) white, red and blue.....unsurprisingly! Having said that though, they do look suitably French and early 18th C. ish.

I've got to do the Colonel's Colours yet, and there is a picture of work so far on the ensign carrying these plain white colours - well, white cross on a white background! I love the way that the Perry- designed Wargames Foundry figures have 'multipose' arm choices for many of the command figures - this Ensign originally has an arm with a sword, but I have cut this off, and drilled out the hand to take a standard pole. By next week, hopefully all these chaps will be done, along with a drummer. I won't be basing them up yet, as this will be the last part of the exercise with this particular unit. Next week will see the start of the 'rank and file' proper, first three figures, then two weeks of four figures each! Fingers crossed I can stay on track! Until next time - tatty bye!!!!

No More Butterflying!!!

Hello again! Nice to be back, on a more regular basis! Although the next post may have people groaning again in despair - as I've decided to put a hold on my Swiss Impetus army for a while, and return to Mauritzania!

'But you've only just started on the Swiss!' I hear the cry. Well true, but it suddenly struck me over the weekend, whilst I was sorting through old figures, just exactly HOW many projects I've actually started. The biggest reason why I've not actually got any projects finished off, is because I've not finished any projects off. Simples really! So it became pretty apparent that I might as well return to old projects - and first on the list is Mauritzania. If I had carried on with my Swiss, it would be at least June or July before I had finished that particular army, then I would need to paint some Burgundians (which I'd need to buy) as opposition. More time, more cost, little point. Other projects - on the other hand - have all been started and I have figures for them. In some cases, I have already begun to paint up figures for the different units. So.....2013 will be the year of continuing on already started projects. Mauritzania, ECW, and if I have time, my Napoleonics. Hopefully the backlog of castings and buildings will be reduced. Above you'll see two gentlemen of the Comte de Tescaux's regiment arguing over a similar moral dilemma to mine.....'Look,' says the Colonel, 'let's just chill and go for a drink. Maybe start on something else, no worries, find a new project.....' 'No!' replies the Ensign, 'Forward! To more disciplined wargaming and painting!' Lets's hope I can follow his fine example! See you soon!

Walls!! (and not a sausage in sight......)

As promised, some pictures of the wall section I have recently made. It's about 5 inches (12cm) long, and made entirely of cardboard, on a plasticard base. I was inspired by an article in Wargames Illustrated ( I forget which issue, but it was the one with the Crimean War theme), which featured the amazing work of Dave Andrews. Dave has a name 'well known' in the wargaming world, not just for his work at Games Workshop, but for painting, model making and sculpting with more 'historical' subjects. Dave's work has always inspired me, right from my first view of his figures and terrain in the 'Shieldwall' supplement for the Warhammer Ancient Battles rules. I'd always liked his work and especially his terrain - including the walls - and I've often wondered how to make them. Up until now, I've either used brick walls from Hovels, or resin walls I've picked up from conventions, then repainted. But a close up view of the walls made for Dave's Crimean War table, showcasing the new range of Crimean figures from Great War Miniatures, suggested that I could make them out of cardboard. So armed with some sharp scissors, a load of cardboard off-cuts, and some PVA glue, I set to.

 

The card is quite thick, just over 2mm, and each piece is about 12 mm long by 7-8mm wide. I then cut off random angles at the corners, and then layered them up on the plasticard base, (about 5 rows) supergluing the first layer to the plastic. I then used pieces slightly wider and curved at the top as coping stones, glued at slightly different angles, to show wear and age. When this whole construction was dry, I coated the wall in a slightly watered down PVA and sand mix, to add a bit of texture, and then let that dry as well. The painting was done using Games Workshop's Scorched Brown (I'm not sure what the new name is after the recent alteration to their paint range) as a base coat, liberally applied to all the niches, crevices and corners; then a range of creams and buffs and browns, gradually getting lighter. I'll post up the exact colours (mainly Foundry paints) another time, when I get my card index back (see previous posts!....) The base is sand and PVA, painted with my usual combination of GW paints, then static grass, Woodland Scenics bushes, and grass tufts courtesy of Antenociti's Workshop. A balsa wood fence post, painted up with dark greys (sun bleached wood), completes the whole thing. I eventually hope to make a few more of these sections, as despite using over 100 'stones' of card, and taking almost 2 hours to do, it's been well worth it. Hopefully even the maestro Dave Andrews would approve! Until next time, tootly pip!! ( Swiss on the paint rack tonight - watch this space.....)