Commission Figurines 6mm MDF Cavalry

I finally get round to painting up the Commission Figurines 6mm Light Cavalry figures I was sent over a year ago. The biggest advantage at least from my point of view these figures have is the speed and ease of painting.

If your aim is to paint up a large force quickly, or your on a tight budget these figures could be the ones for you. At wargaming distance they will look rather good, especially if you go a few shades brighter. I swapped some Adler Poles for some more Commission figures last night so will be doing a few more at some point (infantry and artillery) but not in the next few months.

So I painted the first two as Polish Hussars, the 10th and 13th to be exact. These are now part of Lee's collection as he is building up the Poles so it did not seem worthwhile for me to paint them up as well. Being Hussar figures they were perfect subjects.

Where MDF fall down for me is the flatness of the figures, somewhat 2D in a 3D world. BUT if I was painting a whole army this way then it would be less of a issue. Having seen a whole battle fought with these models I know just how good they look.

The other two bases are Chasseur Regiments for my French army and by painting over the Pellese it simply disappears. 

I have been given the idea of painting up stands of these figures to be used with Command & Colours Napoleonic's that I play with my son. Given the speed of painting and cost involved I think I just have got to have a play with it. Not sure how I will store them though...........

1st and 5th Regiments, Prussian SYW Dragoons

I can now boast a fully playable Prussian SYW army, whilst of course Lee can boast TWO painted armies, these being Russian and Austrian.

I now have three of the six dragoon regiments that took part in the invasion of Saxony. I have the figures for the other three so at some point these will be painted up as well.

Regiment 1 von Norman these fought throughout the war with the same commanding officer. The figures are Lancashire Games and whilst needing some cleanup were not so bad as to make it a pain to do.

They are reasonably detailed, to the point I actually left some of the detail out. I did have trouble with the swords of both commanders with them breaking off. One was possibly due to being in and out of the pack a couple of times whilst the other was not helped by me dropping the figure. The other painted regiment had none of these issues.

The coats on this regiment (and the next) are quite light, much lighter than Prussian Blue so they stand out more. The regiment has black cuffs and coat tails which is quite different from the usual red. Overall I remain happy with Lancashire Games figures and it's hard to beat their quality to price ratio. It has certainly made it possible to build a 15mm army without excessive costs.

The second regiment is Regiment 5 Markgraf with the same bright blue coats but the more regular red cuffs and turnbacks. 

The saddle cloths and pistol holders are both red pipped with white where the other regiment was another light blue colour.

It really feels good to get to this point with my army, not that I have a game as yet planned with them as the next game with Lee will be 15mm Ancients, it's been two years at least since Lee got his army out for a game. In fact it's so long ago we were using Fields of Glory. I think Lee will like the change of direction Hail Caesar has taken. Of course this is helped by his knowledge of Black Powder.

6mm ECW Infantry, Painting Both Sides

Back to 6mm and my own painting, though not all my figures. Baccus will be releasing a much expanded and by the looks excellent new ECW and TYW range. Shame then both Lee and me have four starter armies between us! Indeed we have rather too many for the real thing but that is not going to stop us. Flags are also from Baccus, all told from three flag sheets, hopefully they will bring out more ECW ones. They will be doing some for the TYW.

I am very slowly building up both armies so getting another eight regiments of infantry off the table is a big plus. I intend to use this years challenge to get to a point where we can get a few games under our belts. Only issue is that I am not that far into writing a set of rules for this. I really want to use rules that capture the feel of the ECW so it's not something I want to rush.

Parliaments four regiments. I am building a mix of Essex's armies that fought at Edgehill and the Newbury campaign. This will allow us to play games set between 1642-44 and sets me up nicely then to paint up the New Model Army and the Kings Naseby army. Well that's the plan, much time will pass before that comes to pass but for now I am happy with recent progress.

The London Trained Bands played a big part of Essex's and Wallers early campaigns but their use was tempered by their lack of enthusiasm for long term use or their use far from home. A problem the King could relate to with some of his forces. Here we have the red regiment.

The other three regiments were all part of Colonel James Holbournes Brigade at Newbury. Col. George Langham's regiment had a blue standard with yellow tapers. I had to paint the white tapers of this flag yellow (tapers being the wavy lines designating the company number streaming from the George). The green coats are pure conjecture.

Col James Holbourne's own regiment are believed to have had red coats and yellow standards. I purposely chose a different red to the Trained Bands to add more variety. Some of the red regiments will of course be used as a base for the NMA, why do twice the work?

Col. Francis Thompson's are lacking in any detail I could find but I had to paint them up as this is my Grandfathers name! I chose blue coats and a white standard simply as they went together. In fairness it's pointless to get too hung up on uniform colours and standards as most sources fail to supply detail or it's contradicted from one source to the next. Add the fact that uniform coats were supplied in different colours at different points in time and often supply was none existent forcing troops to source their own meaning many a regiment had a real mix of colours towards the end of a campaign.

So those sad sacks are now part of Lee's army, all wrapped up with their mates. Meanwhile the King has yet to put his troops in quarters, too busy trying to get a submission ready for Friday I guess ;-)

Lord Percy brought his regiment down from the north to join the Kings Oxford army. The regiment is said to have had white coats as a fair few of the northern regiments were clothed in such manner. The blue standard is even more of a shrug at history but again I liked the look. It is assumed that the regiment was at Cropredy Bridge but certainly was part of the Oxford army a short time after.

To speed up the painting I painted a regiment of Royalists in blue coats allowing me to paint two up at the same time, these are Lord Loughborough's regiment and was raised in the West Midlands and joined the Oxford army around the same time as Percy's.

Lord Inchiquin brought his regiment over from Ireland. It was not Irish, rather it was a English regiment but it's very likely to have had a fair few troops who were Irish as it would have tried to replace it's loses by any means. It first fought as part of Hoptons army in the south west before joining the Kings army. Again it's thought it was part of the Cropredy campaign. The red standard is a guess. Often coat colours and standard colours are linked but this is not born out with a great deal of evidence. I am happy to have a few the same colour but do not use it as a rule.

Sir John Blackwells regiment was part of the Oxford army and believed to have worn black coats but I am quite sceptical as black coats must have both been rather expensive and probably grey within a few months hard campaigning. However I like the look so went for it. Standard, well your guess is as good as mine.

Painting has slowed down quite a bit this last week as I have found flying is not my strong point and I now know EXACTLY how many steps we have on our stairs. Painting, blogging standing and sleeping have all proved to be rather difficult since. But nothing broken so I should be grateful. Now I am suitably loaded with painkillers so it's off to bed for a night of tossing and turning.

Number 2 Regiment Zieten Hussars

This is the cavalry that Lee also managed to buy by mistake (so he says), They are a very colourful bunch as are most of the Hussars of the period.

We base our cavalry all on the same sized bases but the number of figures on the bases denotes the troop type. Last post had the heavies with eight to a base, hussars just get six figures a base. Whilst not smack you in the mouth noticeable the overall effect and ease of working out unit types really works for us.

Hussars don't carry standards into battle so that detail is wrong. I am just taking it as a captured standard, got to be good for morale.

The detail on these figures is quite good as is the standard of painting. By happy coincidence this is one of the three Hussar regiments that took part in the invasion of Saxony so fits with my planned army. I will not be getting the third regiment for awhile as two Hussar regiments will be enough till I have grown the army somewhat. With so many cavalry units (with another four dragoons in the wings) I will be concentrating on infantry, artillery and more command once I have the dragoons on my painting table finished.

These figures came based but Lee was kind enough to debase them for me making it quicker for me to base them up. So it took about nine months to get to the point where I have a full army ready for a game. I thought that was none too shabby, right up to the point Tamsin turned in A WHOLE ARMY after just three weeks of the painting challenge, not only that she was lamenting the slow start as having the first week of the challenge away from home LOL.

Of course this army is set to grow plenty more. Though I can start to spend more time on The Boys French now. Expect to see a bunch of French infantry here soon.

Santa Clause Gets Based

I was basing up my next entry in the challenge so took the opportunity to get these based up as well. I received these great looking figures as part of the Santa Clause. I wanted to get them based as soon as I could so happy to add them to the 6mm basing session Wednesday night Thursday morning.

These are Lancashire Games again and the same as the two other Cuirassier regiments as I have painted up so fit in perfectly. The amusing note that came with them informed me they are the 9th Prinz von Schonaich Carolath Cuirassiers and hoped I did not own them already. Well I did not so again a great fit for my army. 

The hand painted flag is great. I use paper ones because I don't have the skill to do such a good job so really happy to keep this fine example of skill.

So now I have three regiments of the heavies, just one painted Dragoon and with the regiment Lee game me two hussars (more on these next post). This means I have a viable force of painted figures for a first game. That's ten months after the first figures were bought. Not at all bad, I also have two dragoon regiments about to be started so will have quite a cavalry force to choose from. More infantry needs to be painted soon I think.

So again a big thank you to my Santa Clause, your a top man and these will get plenty of time on the table

Prussian SYW Infantry by Lancashire Games

My third entry for the painting challenge was back to the SYW with these two battalions of Prussians supplied by Lancashire Games. 

The basis for my army is the army that invaded Saxony at the start of the war. As such I have plenty of scope for what units to paint as the army was rather on the large size.

The 23rd Regiment Forcade de Biaix sports the usual red cuffs and turnbacks and was originally raised May 1713 and commanded throughout the war by Froedrich Quirin von Forcade de Biaix.

I have already painted up this regiments grenadiers as the converged 1/23rd so could in theory use the full regiment at times when it was fully fielded as a whole.

The second battalion belongs to 17th Regiment von Manteuffel which sports a most colourful standard I just had to paint it up. Raised 8th March 1693 and saw action in the east mostly against Turkish troops.  It was only incorporated into the Prussian army in 1714 after serving in the Dutch army during the War of the Spanish Succession. The commander throughout the whole SYW was gerd Heinrich von Manteuffel.

I have yet to paint up the grenadiers for this regiment, these were joined by the 22nd regiments grenadiers so they will be on the table at some point along with the 22nd regiment itself.

I will be finishing off basing my Santa Clause tomorrow which means I will now have enough painted units to play a full game without bare lead. I think Lee is at the same point whilst Matt has been there for years.