On the Workbench: Two Regiments of Royalist Horse

Completed today are two more regiments of Royalist Horse for the forthcoming ECW battle, the Battle of Glastonbury.

These are Sir Humphrey Bennet's Regt in the lead with Sir George Vaughan's Bluecoats in the rear. In reality they could be any Royalist Regt and with Bennet's Horse having no distinctive coat colour making it even more generic. In time I will paint up command stands with orange sashes enabling them to switch sides!

The trees in the background are the improved versions of cheapies from China. Aside from adding foliage to bases I am experimenting placing loose clump foliage around the wood perimeter. I will use a couple more different shades when placed on the tabletop to make it look a little more realistic. 

Followers of the blog will know that I prefer single based trees for the versatility that offers. The downside being that it will be extremely difficult if not impossible to replicate some of the impressive dense woods placed on some tabletop battlefields. Foliage is at its most dense around the outer perimeter of woodland and I am hoping to improve the appearance of my woods by replicating that. How far I go with it will depend on how much it affects play. The more terrain you add the more impressive the tabletop but can also be a hindrance to moving figures around.

On the Workbench: 6mm Streams or 2mm Rivers

A few months ago I converted several river sections I had made for 15mm ACW to streams/runoffs for 6mm. These were acetate with one side painted. I am now adding to them and include here a short tutorial on how these were made.

It is a very simple method, cheap, quick and quite effective:

The first stage is to paint one side of an A4 size acetate sheet (I apologise for the slightly blurry image but hopefully you get the idea). 

I used a mix of cheap artists acrylic paint. Black, Chocolate Brown and Tan. A dark shade was maintained using the brown and tan to create an irregular look. To protect the paint I gave it a coat of spray gloss varnish.

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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:

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Blitzkrieg Commander IV Templates

A new purchase arrived today from Pendraken. They have started producing templates for Blitzkrieg Commander IV and I have acquired most but not all (I did not need suppression and deployed markers). So what have I purchased?

This is the 30cm Air Support Bomber template and the 20cm Artillery Concentration template. 

The 20cm Artillery Barrage template.  

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On the Workbench: Prince Maurice's Horse & Lifeguards

More cavalry finished for the ECW Battle of Glastonbury:

These are Prince Maurice's Lifeguards in front with his Horse regiment behind. Probably not historically accurate but I have his lifeguards all in the Continental Pot with near identical horses. I felt his lifeguard should stand out from the rest with a more uniform appearance.

I have been trying out different camera techniques here (thanks Peter Little). I am finally discovering more of what my camera can do having owned it for several years! One of the issues I had with many photos was keeping the whole unit in focus. I have tried here Peter's suggestion of F8 in depth of field with the optimum shutter speed for the lighting conditions. More experimentation is needed. All the photos I took came out a little dark and I needed to lighten this one before posting. With any luck I will be able to eliminate the annoying glare some suffered from, particularly with light desert bases. 

On the Workbench: ECW Cavalry

Another unit has been completed for the Battle of Glastonbury. This is the Royalist, Earl of Caernarvon's Horse:

The regiment was split into 2 squadrons for the battle. Rather than one large regiment I painted the second squadron as the Earl of Northampton's Greencoats. They are virtually indistinguishable from Caernarvon's Horse but gives me another unit for future battles.

Another development involves a decision to increase my knowledge of photography! So far I have been only using basic settings on my camera and hoping they turn out ok. It will never be a hobby in its own right for me, I am just simply not enthused about cameras! However, I am conscious that some photos have not turned out as I would have liked. Daylight bulbs have been installed in my room which has greatly helped but I am finding certain colours create glare (especially desert bases) and others become garish (light blue on my Matildas and Hopton's bluecoats). So, fingers crossed, you should see more consistent photos in the future.

For camera buffs, mine is a Nikon D3100 SLR with no add-ons. Apart from that is a newly purchased Remote Shutter Release to speed up the process. Even though the camera is mounted on a tripod, pressing the shutter button can still create a slight wobble resulting in out of focus shots. I resort to using the shutter timer release, which although only a 10 seconds delay, can be time consuming if a number of photos need to be taken.

For the time being, now that I am on a roll, my ECW project will continue (with of course the 2mm Napoleonics and tree upgrades on the side). 

Nap Campaign: Map Moves 25th March - nightfall 27th March 1808

Starting with an overview of the entire campaign area over the 3 days:

Nightfall 25th March

Nightfall 26th March

Nightfall 27th March

I will now zoom in on the 3 theatres: North West, North East and South West.

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On the Workbench: River upgrades completed + ECW Cavalry

A busy time since my return from distant shores has limited my wargaming activity. I did however, manage to complete a project:

The large pond/small lake on the left marked the completion of improving the appearance of my river sections. They are resin purchased from Baccus. The latest river sections are flexible latex so I am guessing the resin versions are no longer available. Next up will be the streams/runoffs using acetate (see separate 'On the Workbench' posting for details).

Some progress has been made on figures. A large ECW Royalist cavalry regiment destined primarily to be the Earl of Caenarvon's greencoats. It was split into 2 squadrons for the Battle of Glastonbury and I have therefore decided to paint the 2nd squadron as the Earl of Northampton's greencoats which, apart from the cornet, will be virtually indistinguishable. 

In the background another small brigade of 2mm Napoleonic French line takes shape.

One the Workbench: 6mm WW2 for Op Nostalgia

This will be my final blog post before I go on hols from 22nd July to 9th August. I will be back to the Stone Age with no internet! I will therefore not be able to respond to any queries or comments until my return.

Today saw the last units completed before my break. This completes all the figures I need for my invasion of Rhodes game in the Op Nostalgia WW2 campaign. I do have some terrain to complete, particularly airfields.

This will be the German CO base which in this case is the Rommel set from H&R. This consists of Rommel, 1 officer and 2 motor cycles. The other 3 figures are various command figures from their new Africa Korps range. You can see here the difference between the old figures (Rommel etc) and the new. Size increased and definite improvement in quality. 

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On the Workbench: ECW Royalist Redcoats

Further progress is being made on my ECW project with the completion of a redcoat regiment for the Royalists.

This is another large regiment with several more planned of this size. Figures are 6mm Baccus.