Monday 2 September 2019

On the Workbench: Prince Maurice's Foot Regt

Another ECW foot regiment has been completed. The regiment raised by Prince Maurice:


A slight experiment here. Baccus supply 2 standard bearers in their command strip. So far I have only been using one but with these particular regiments being on the large size, I decided to use them both enabling 2 separate smaller regiments to be created when required:

Continued -




It is a toss-up as to which base organisation to go with as both have their merits. However, the second photo does reflect more of a pike block than the first. I had considered having 8 figure bases for smaller regiments allowing for a 4 x 4 block but decided against it to maintain some consistency. I also like to depict my troops marching in columns along roads etc. and a 4 figure wide base would be wider than my road sections!

There has been a short hiatus in my gaming due to the need to concentrate on progressing my 15mm ebay sales. With my WW2 coming to an end, apart from terrain, my Napoleonics will be the last to go. I will then be able to spend more time gaming, and crucially, having space for larger games. Any I play for the next couple of months will be at the smaller level.

18 comments:

  1. Hi Jon great idea on the two standard bearers, re looking at mine now. Have been experimenting with basing today and will report in when I have some conclusions.

    Great painting.

    Peter

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    1. It will be interesting to hear about your conclusions Peter. Having the flexibility to represent different pike/musket ratios can present a conundrum.

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    2. Hi Jon

      OK, I have tried plasticard in 0.5, 0.75 and 1mm as a base and have mounted 6 infantry figures on 15 x 15mm and 20 x 15mm and 20 x 20mm bases and at present I am favouring 20 x 15 (Infantry only). The plasticard will not rot and on top of that I was listening to the Robert Dunlop podcast on Gods Own Scale and he adds brown bathroom sealant for his ground texture which apparently acts as a protection layer against damp etc if you use card or MDF bases.
      Lots more experimenting to do yet.

      Regards

      Peter

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    3. Thanks for the update Peter. Using plasticard sounds good and as you say does not rot. With my card bases I seal the underside with gloss varnish spray, which also helps when attaching and detaching labels. Should not be a problem with plasticard. The top is coated with PVA when attaching flock and sand and the sides are painted. The whole lot gets a couple of coats of spray matt varnish. So far they have proved resilient.

      I may try the plasticard route. Using artists card is pure habit. How did you get on with the thicknesses? I tend to find that the slightly thicker base (mine are just over 1mm thick) reduces figure handling a little.

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    4. Hi Jon I am finding the 0.75mm is suitable but try for yourself as I am fairly easy on my standards. Also I got the card from Amazon as I could not trust the Ebay sellers from there descriptions.

      Regards

      Peter

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    5. I may well give that a try Peter and thanks for the advice re Amazon. This could prove useful, especially for my WW2 figures where I do not base the vehicles. A thinner base will bring them more into proportion.

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  2. Hi Jon I don't know why but the musketry casualty figures in General de Brigade and popular basing sizes don't seem to tie up to me. I am guessing most players amend these figures slightly as they play?

    I am probably looking at this too deeply but I feel I need to look at the correlation of this part of the scenario more closely. If you have any thoughts on this then please comment or tell me where I am going wrong all criticism is welcome.

    Regards

    Peter










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    1. Hi Peter. I have never really had a problem regarding the casualty figures in GdB. To avoid tabletop clutter I note casualties on an orbat and remove bases when that number of figures has been lost. A change I did make to the casualty charts was to replace numbers of figures firing with number of bases. My 6 figs to a base broadly correlated with the charts but I did introduce a new row of 1 base i.e. 6 figures or less. I also ignored the formation descriptions and purely relied on the number of bases that were eligible to fire (range and arc). Some compromises had to be made as the numbers did not tie up precisely with the original chart but I found it worked fine and nothing appeared broken.

      An option is to simply use the chart as is and either keep a close eye on your orbat to ensure the number of figs firing is accurate or, as I did in 15mm, have some figures based separately to remove as casualties.

      Hope that answers your Q.

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    2. Thank you for the explanation, it is a minefield, and the order of battle does seem to be the only logical way of keeping track of the ongoing casualties and I agree it is a conundrum in it's truest sense. I still have not worked out why I was inquisitive of this and what caused me to think along these lines although how things work has always played some part of my life.
      Hope to meet you one day and have lengthy chat about all things wargame rules.

      Regards

      Peter

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    3. Yes would be good to meet up sometime. Maybe at a wargames show. I hope to get back to Salute over the next year or 2 and I must get to the Joy of Six. A long drive but looks like it will be worth it.

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  3. Excellent paint job, Jon. I am sure that over the years basing has given me more headaches than any other aspect of miniature wargaming. Still does.

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    1. Many thanks Kevin. I have been down the rebasing route several times. Something I am studiously trying to avoid ever doing again!

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  4. I don't know how you get so much detail into such tiny figures..well done!

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  5. Another lovely unit Jon and the highlighted colours really make everything stand out.

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  6. Suddenly occurred to me that you must clip every Baccus base as they come in 4s....what a chore.
    Have you ever done a painting tutorial?
    Steve from Aus.

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    1. Hi Steve. I have not done a full painting tutorial although there is the occasional guidance in some of the blog posts. I may well do one soon.

      Yes each base needs clipping but I try and minimise that as much as possible. Not too much of a chore though although it is obviously an additional process in getting the figures to the tabletop.
      All the best
      Jon

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