Old Glory 15mm 19/25th Converged Grenadiers

The last of the Old Glory are painted up as the 19/25th Converged Grenadiers. A few differences in the uniform add a little more fun to painting these guys up.

The figures are sold in a mixed pack of command and marching figures. I would like the option to buy extra command figures for all the infantry packs as their mix leaves me short of musket carrying cannon fodder. As may have been noticed before a handy way round this is to add a mounted figure. In this case making up for the two missing troops. 

Just like the previous post these are great looking figures with good poses and bags of character. The detail on the drummers for instance tick the boxes. 

I have already painted up the 19th Regiment but could paint the 25th which would give me the option of having the grenadiers with their parent battalions though that will probably be unhistorical for these regiments. 

I still have three bases worth of command figures and I suspect these are going to be close to the front of the queue. I have enough to play most games but if I get a larger game in I will need a couple more for sure.

Old Glory Prussian SYW 18th Regiment Prinz von Preuben

I have had these figures since I first started my SYW Prussian army. These (along with some grenadiers) were based up to allow us to play whilst building up a painted force. I just never got round to taking them off their bases and painting them despite their failure to get used after a few months at the start. It always seems weird buying Old Glory from Timecast and Blue Moon from er well Old Glory. I am sure their is an explanation and hopefully it will be added below in the comments section. The flag is from Cadogan Hobbies on Ebay. They do all nations but sometimes they are not listed and you need to get in touch.

The army is based on the Prussian invasion of Saxony something of a walk over given the size of the Saxon army. However it gave me something to build an army round. It fights against Lee's Russian's and Austrian's and Joseph's growing French. 

Old Glory are very nice figures, do tend to need a bit of a clean up but the mixed poses and quality of detail make them both a joy and a task to paint but once finished you can be really happy with how they look. These are one of the two last units I managed to paint before going back to work. I still have five battalions of Lancashire Games figures to paint up as well as a Dragoon regiment and a few more guns. Then the question is get more to build it up further or go after another nation? Of course I can just stick with adding to Joseph's French and not bother going further until I might actually need them?

Rather pleased with how the drummer came out with these. The three colour pompom's were fun too!! At least this was the last army I actually played with. I just need to get all my units out and check what forces I actually have!

Prussian SYW Artillery Old Glory

I add to my Prussian 15mm SYW army with these Old Glory guns that are supplied by Timecast and not the Blue Moon which are supplied by er Old Glory. Whilst I am not really up against it for artillery with my current infantry levels I do have enough figures for another division.

 Lee and myself show number of figures on a base to determine what type of gun is being used. Battalion guns have just two figures so as you can see here two of these are battalion guns. This will give me more flexibility with the current force I already have in play.

One gun has three crew showing it as a standard gun whilst four would depict a medium gun. As you would expect from Old Glory the castings are high on detail but do need a reasonable clean up. Not too bad with small numbers but the idea of cleaning up a few battalions is a bit off putting. Maybe that's why the infantry are still waiting.

I've not had a game against Lee in a few years and despite painting up a reasonable force of French for Joseph we have not got a game in in ages either. His force is coming along and will be the next up for painting in the SYW as I still have three battalions of infantry already prepped and ready to go.

The three figure gun in fact is a Howitzer though I don't think Black Powder makes different use of them it's more to have something a little different on the table.

I am getting through a reasonable amount of painting now I am getting back into the swing. Some of the things in the queue though are a bit more time consuming but I also have a number of quick paints to allow something to be coming off the desk every few days or so.

First Finish of 2020

And just like that I equalled the posts of 2019 LOL. These are three battalions of French SYW infantry for use with Blackpowder and belong to my son. I actually started these in last years painting challenge and their they sat. In the end three painting sessions saw them finished. Always a bit embarrassing when they finish so fast given the time lapse.

He has three more undercoated so I should get those done in the next month or so. A few things ahead of them in the queue. I know after that he still has some artillery and dragoons but not really sure if he has any infantry left.

The three regiments they depict from the left are Picardie (Regiment 1), Due Roi (Regiment 12) and Briqueville (Regiment 23). The figures are Lancashire Games from their 15mm range. I find size wise they fit well with Old Glory. I also have the Prussians and I find those castings better than the French in that the French have a little bit of misalignment on the standard infantry figure (turnback slightly worse than the full frock coat) which shows worst on the cartridge box at the rear of the figure. Still at the price they are tough to beat for value for money and are really quick to paint.

The flags are from Cadogan Hobbies and are the best priced flags I have ever got my hands on. The print quality is not at all bad and you get all the available flags. I had difficulty finding the Prussians originally and at this point no French are showing but if you contact them they will make them available. They also do the cavalry ensigns as well.

I am waiting for a bust and brass rods to arrive so will be playing around with my airbrush which will allow me to play catch up with the other finishes I managed last year.

Lancashire Games French SYW Heavy Cavalry

Recently finished up a couple of heavy cavalry units for The Boy. These are Lancashire Games French cavalry from their Seven Years War range. Having painted up quite a few of this suppliers figures I do find them really quick to paint. The detail is reasonable and I do miss out a few of the smaller details to speed things up but they still come out looking fine.

We use Black Powder rules which allow you to be creative with your basing. Were not over happy with the army list book for this period but it does supply you with stats for the units but beyond that it really does not help in producing a realistic or balanced army. Indeed the author actually states he is no expert on the period!

This regiment is the Royal Cravate, having looked at a display game that used a larger than standard number of figures we decided to copy them. Light cavalry have twelve figures a regiment, dragoons have fourteen and the heavies sixteen making each cavalry unit average about £7.50 a pop. Of course any units that use most of the other suppliers the cost is somewhat more.

The second regiment is Meustre ds Camp and as usual The Boy picked which units he wanted me to paint. He still has a lot of unpainted cavalry so I will be back to this army again fairly soon. 

The flags are from Cadogan Hobbies who sell on ebay and are very good value for the quality. I have the flags for just about all the cavalry and infantry for Prussia and France and for under £28 and that's hundreds of flags!

The Boy is a bit low on unpainted infantry so will look to pick some more of those once I get a couple more battalions painted. I also bought some Blue Moon command figures for him that will give him another two command stands and allow for a mounted officer on one of his infantry bases. Will have to look for other command figures at some point to further expand his command options.

If you do go down the route of buying Battle Packs from Lancashire Games be aware that most of these packs are just the standard figures, command figures have to be bought on top of these packs, annoying if you don't realise and have to make a second order. However shooting Alan a email to check prior works well as he is quick to respond.

French SYW Artillery - Lancashire Games 15mm

The Boy's army continues to grow, he has had noticeable success in a recent game with his guns, blasting my poor infantry to bits as I advanced towards his troops so it was not surprising that he should favour yet more guns.

As such I painted up a couple of battalion guns and a medium giving him a little more flexibility. He will need a couple more battalion guns when I paint up a few more infantry battalions for him.

As he has a artillery Battle Pack from Lancashire Games so still has plenty of guns left to go at. I also have one as well as the Blue Moon gun pack so we won't go short.

In fact these have taken the table once already but suffered from the usual luck that first time used troops tend to suffer. Still The Boy's army continues to grow, he even has two regiments of heavy cavalry on my workbench at the moment that will soon be finished.

His next troops though are likely to be 6mm British Napoleonic's he is hankering after a few horse artillery batteries having played against my French ones a few weeks back.

Two 15mm French Seven Years War French Infanty

I continue to add to The Boy's army, this time with Regiment 43 Bourgogne and as usual these are from Lancashire Games but a slight change to normal I had included grenadiers on one stand.

Having painted a reasonable number of these fellows up it was straight forward, the flag is from Cadogan Hobbies I bought the sets for French infantry and cavalry and the two sets for the Prussians  so literally have hundreds of the buggers.

These have already seen action in a rare loss for The Boy. The three bases allow us to move them in march column or deploy in line. The cavalry come on 60x60mm bases that conform to three bases of infantry.

Just four grenadier figures on the right hand base allows them to have the correct position and adds a little something to the base. Difficult to believe we have been building these armies for over two years now. Still once I have a couple more cavalry units painted he will have a reasonable force for a full game.

It's never worth just doing one regiment so her we have Regiment 37 Royal Roussillon, The boy picks the units he wants painting based part on uniform and part flag. Mostly the flag is the driving force behind the regiment, here the two uniforms colour pops nicely.

Again I did grenadiers for this regiment, not sure how many more units worth of infantry I have for him left to paint but I have at least two units worth plus at least four of cavalry.

Not a fan of stiff flat flags I like a little movement in them so some repainting tends to be required where the flags show white crease lines but it's worth the extra effort.

15mm Lancashire Games French SYW Infantry

Well a month without posts and it flew past. Not having your own computer was a real pain in the backside. Though I was not aware it had been a whole month since I posted here. Well I now have my own computer again so expect more posts again, though I have painted far less than you would expect without the distraction of a computer.

Two more regiments for The Boys army, it's starting to take shape now and we hopefully will be getting a few more games in soon.

This is the 6th Regiment La Marine which fought it's first battle of the Seven Years War on the 26th July 1757 at the battle of Hastenbeck which was won by the French. This was to be the only major action the regiment was to actually fight. It was at a number of other battles but was never fully engaged, though detachments did fight a number of actions.

The regiment wore grey-white coats with black facings making them a little different. The red waistcoats are hidden on most figures but you get a good view of one in the first picture.

The colonels standard is fairly plain which is good as I don't want the whole army to be a blaze of the more fancy ones. Talking of which......

Having the odd blaze of colour and detail makes the army look better so I think he can be forgiven for picking these guys.

These are Regiment 16 Dauphin which also was part of the same army as Regiment 6 but these were more involved in future battles so look to have seen more action.

The coats are white as have been most of the regiments I have painted for The Boy and this really helps make the light blue facings pop.

So overall I am impressed with the Lancashire Games casting's. Some of them shave the ammunition pouch somehow cast so that at the mould line they are staggered and whilst it is not very obvious it's still disappointing when the rest of the figure looks good.

Above is the four regiments I painted during the Analogue Painting Challenge making five painted up all together for him. I need to add a few more and more cavalry and then he will have a more balanced force.

Talking of the challenge, it finishes on Monday. I have two small submissions so rather limp over the line this year but I have still painted up far more than I had expected.

15mm French SYW Infantry and Vapnartak 2017

Posting is a bit irregular at the moment. Partly down to the painting challenge, ironic that. Also my computer is in the last gasp of life as it keeps freezing and is a right pain to use far too much of the time.

First up the show at York, not much to show for my trip as I only bought some double dice cells for our English Civil War armies as the rules I am working on will use unit strength and morale factors rather than just the one score to represent both. I also bought some roof tiles to use on the 15mm buildings I bought from Warbases a few months ago. The Boy did better out of me gaining two units worth of Heavy Cavalry and a battalion of French grenadiers all from Lancashire Games. This will complete his army from a point of view of giving him a viable force to play with. Being a wargamer though it's only the start of his army and will be added to as time goes on.

The show it self was heaving. I think it will need to change venue as it's just far too cramped to the point of contravening fire regulations. On a personal level the stairs ended up being just too much and I ended the day in so much pain that on getting home I was violently sick (sorry Lee but if you only knew the struggle not to chuck in your car) and was driven to bed only getting up to say goodnight to the kids, not good.

Anyway on to a more pleasant subject. Last week I finished these two battalions of French infantry for The Boys army. These are again Lancashire Games 15mm SYW figures and again ticked all the required boxes for me and The Boy.

Regiment 2 Champagne sport a white uniform with red waste coats just the same as regiment 3 so the only difference for these two regiments is the flags.

Being the first white coated units I have painted post discovering the ink wash technique I was somewhat in the dark on how to paint these up and had a minor wobble when I added the black ink wash. In the end it was mostly a case of repainting the white but as a heavy highlight and overall I can be satisfied with the result.

Regiment 3 Navarre had the same treatment but I had watered down the ink some for these and so had a better base to work to. In the end though you can't really tell any difference. I have two more regiments on the desk at the moment so will approach them with a bit more experience. I was considering using the system Tamsin suggested but decided to save this for some future ones when I have more time to get it right.

I continue to be impressed with the results I am getting with the Lancashire Game figures. The casting is not perfect and I missed some mould lines but I can't complain with the effort to results ratio and will be buying more Prussians for my army when I get to the end of the figures I have in hand at the moment.

The Boy will now have three battalions of infantry with another two almost finished so I will move onto his heavy cavalry next. I have been looking at some of the other regiments such as the Irish, Scottish and Italian, lots of uniform colour and interesting flags so looking forward to doing some of these for him once his basic force is painted up.

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.