The Completed French Army of the North 1871

The General Faidherbe's Army of the North on January 3rd 1871, fielded 2 Corps; the 22nd and the 23rd. Each Corps was comprised of 2 divisions, and each division had 2 brigades. In total the Army of the North had 56 battalions of variable quality and levels of training and 15 batteries of artillery (note: there were no mitrailleuse batteries in the oob).

Prussian Artillery Batteries

The Generals of the French 23rd Corps at the Battle of Bapaume, January 3rd 1871

The battlefield of Bapaume. January 1871 was cold, miserable, and snowy. The French Army of the North, moving to relieve the siege of Peronne was confronted by the Prussian 15th Division at the small town of Bapaume.

This has been a long project, but with these last figures it is now completed. Time to move on to the next project!

The last combat units for the Army of the North

The last French batteries are complete.

The Army is finished except for some generals which I hope to add shortly.

French Army of the North 1871

My 10mm French force for the Franco-Prussian War. 3 divisions of the Army of the North in January 1871. The fourth, National Guard division, is still in the process of assembling.

General Derojja, Commander of the 1st Division of 22nd Corps

 

The scorpion bolt shooter is coming along nicely now. I had a bit of a wobble over how to paint it. It is a wood and metal construction and I have always had a bit of an issue with painting wood. I think I've got a workable solution now. I have tried many times to do a grain effect but every time it just looks wrong. I'll take some pictures and load them up soon.

Simon Hall's new ancients rule set came out to day and I have signed up and ordered a copy. These are called "Mortem et Gloriam" and they look pretty nice. I am hoping this is a really good successor to DBM because I really enjoy ancients wargaming.

Since the end of the DBM 'glory days' I have struggled to find something I am happy with.  I still play a bit of DBM but the pool of players is quite dispersed and relatively small

What follows is only my opinion and I know others see things very differently and I don't want to stop people enjoying the system of their choice.

FoGAM seemed to me a retrograde step more akin to the old WRG systems rather than a progression. I hated the one and only competition I entered - never felt like that before and didn't like it at all.

DBMM seemed to me to take us even further down the WRG rabbit hole.

AdlG just doesn't feel right, the 200pt game seems a bit like big DBA. I have tried to like it but it doesn't quite do it for me.

Now painting up a Warlord Games Scorpion bolt shooter and crew to go with the 24 legionaries I finished in the week. This is metal not plastic and so far it is looking pretty nice. It was a bit expensive though at £12.
I will take a few pictures over the next couple of days.

Finished painting the Warlord Games plastic Romans and have stuck them on to bases. I have still to finish the bases themselves but I will leave this until I can do everything at the same time.

There are a couple of things to note: first 4 figures fit snuggly onto a 60mm wide base and even better on a 20mm deep base. I was expecting problems here but everything worked out ok. However, I cannot place them in a column. The pila get in the way. I have decided to do the next batches of Legionaries with sword. This means the plum wielding models will end up as the back rank.

OK - the LittleBigMan transfers are a bit fiddly to cut out but they then go on very easily.

They are quite sticky so you have to be careful when positioning them and if access to the shield is restricted that can be a challenge. I have done about half (14 out of 24) and that took about an hour.

Latest Project

Just painting up some 28mm Caesarian Romans from Warlord Games. These are the first (non GW) plastics I have painted since the Airfix ones I had back in the 60s and 70s. I am really impressed. The moulding is clean and crisp; the detail of a high standard and easy to paint.

One small worry is will they fit on the base but that aside I am very pleased.

I have to add the LittleBigMen transfers tomorrow and I am a little anxious about that - it would be a shame to spoil the work to date but how hard can it be!

It's been a while but I might just start this up again.

SS Tigers

I have just finished these Tigers from s SSPz Abt 101 in Normandy from June to August 1944.

So What's Next?

My next two projects are underway. The first is nice and simple (!) - 6 Battlefront Tigers, the second a much longer project - Early Bulgars.

I ordered the Battlefront suff from Maelstrom Games on Friday evening and they arrived with me on the Wednesday. Not as good as Empire Games whom I use most of the time but still ok. However, when I opened the Tigers Marsch box and did a quick inventory of the parts I found I had 6 right hand tracks and only 4 left hand tracks for 5 tanks.

A quick call to Maelstrom and a left hand track is coming to me. This is a bit of a problem though because I am in a big hurry and I don't really want to be doing one Tiger after I have finished all the rest.

The second point to note is that there are a lot of bits to put together for each Tiger. I had assumed they would be like all the other Battlefront tanks I have bought, with limited bits to stick on. Not so - you have to add in no particular order - the gun barrel, the cupola (open or closed, 3 hatches (loader, driver, hull machine gunner) either open or closed, front and rear mudguards, side skirts(!), bow machinegun and spare tracks for the front. And if you have elected to have the hatches open there are the crew to go in them and finally if you want to put in the aerial there is a bit of drilling to do (I had to supply a bit of thin plastic filament as this is not provided) and finally for the moment, I like to drill out the barrels because I think it looks better. None of that is particularly difficult but it is time consuming.

A Good Matt Varnish

I have been looking for a good matt varnish spray for some time.

I came across Army Painter's Matt varnish spray at the show at Derby at the beginning of October.

I set up to try it out with some trepidation and did a test run before moving on to something important. I have to say I have been very pleased with the results. A smooth coat and a lovely true matt finish. I wish I had found it months ago.

Old Glory 15mm Ancients


I have just taken delivery of some sample bags of Old Glory 15s Asiatic Horse army figures. They came in smaller bags than I am used to with 9 mounted (down from the previous 16) and 24 foot (previously approximately 50). This makes them much more practical with far fewer wasted/unwanted figures.

It has proven hard to find pictures of the figures recently so here are a few shots to help out. (hardly more than a scratch on the surface as the OG range is enormous but .. )

AH1 - Asiatic Horse Army Command. 3 figures with kettle drums, three figurs with standard and 3 generals.

AH2 - Asiatic Horse Army Heavy Cavalry. 4 riders but the mix was skewed towards the bow shooting character.

AH3 - Asiatic Horse Army Bulgar light cavalry. 4 figures



SL2 - Slavic spearmen. 8 different figures. Some with kite shield, some with round or oval.

Disappointed!

I have just received two new Battlefront Churchill Tanks.

The quality of the casting of both leaves something to be desired. I won't send them back as I am in a hurry and a reasonable paint job can hide a number of imperfections.

However, on one the armoured trailer had some of the detail completely missing and other bits poorly cast, while the other had a significant warp in one of the sides. Interestingly the detail apears to be there but in a Dali-esque manner.

Crusader Pirates Ahoy!

I have just finished painting and basing these jolly fine Crusader Pirates. They were fun to paint and I am pleased with the results.

For more pictures you can visit my web site at http://members.lycos.co.uk/lastbunny/crusader.html

The Xyston Greeks are proving to be a little more difficult, I keep putting them off. Must get motivated.

Next Projects

I have been preparing two projects today. The first is an Athenian Greek DBA army using Xyston Miniatures figures and the second is a group of Crusader Pirates from Northstar.

The Xyston Greeks are some of the earliest figures produced by that manufacturer and as such they are some of the smallest. Later ranges have tended to get bigger. In this instance small is not a problem they look very good even before undercoating. There is quite a bit of work involved with drilling out the hands, cleaning up the mould sprue and gluing spears and shields on to the figures and if you add in making the spears that's several hours before you even get the first paint out of its pot.

I ordered the Pirates on Monday, after which I had an email saying they would be sent on Wednesday and they arrived today - Friday - I consider that to be pretty good service

Although I had seen figures by Crusader around until now I hadn't bothered to look at any in detail. I have to say I am quite pleased do far. One small criticism, compared to Copplestone and Artizan these figures needed a lot more cleaning up with a craft knife and a modelling file.

And now something a little bit different

As I continue to test out my 28mm painting skills I am on the look out for new challenges and I found this resin model tucked away in a dark corner of my painting area.

I can't remember who the manufacturer is or exactly how I came by it except I think it was freebie with something else. It's not something I would normally buy but I decided to give it a go anyway. (Note: I have just found the manufacturer - the model is by Ramshackle Games of Nottingham)

I like to think of it as a damsel in distress, in need of rescue by some passing hero (male or female just to remain PC).

Perhaps my next project will have to be the hero - well after the pirates and perhaps another 15mm DBA army, oh and maybe some WWII stuff.

I do quite fancy painting some fantasy figures, but not with over large weapons or hugely improbable musclature - hmm perhaps an orc or two.