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.

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.

Fredrick The Great in 15mm

I needed to add at least one new command stand for my army as it is growing at a reasonable pace. So who better than the gaffer himself?

All figures are Old Glory via Timecast and have a good amount of detail, not all of which I have graced with paint ;-)

Normally command bases have two mounted figures but this being the C-in-C gets three models on it. Being THE commander, i.e. Fredrick The Great himself I wanted a bit of a cameo look about it so here we have one commander pointing, a ADC looking and Fred ignoring. Classy yes...........? eh ok I get your point :-)

The base is larger than the other command stands so it's obvious who the boss is. I actually have another base with three figures on that is on the normal size so being a bigger base will help a lot.

Painting up three? well five takes about the same amount of time so why not get another stand done. So I should have enough to keep me going until I get a few more cavalry units painted up, then I will need more so I guess I will be painting up another couple of bases worth in the not too distant future.

I like everything about these figures except the standing horses front legs. They should really have a gap between them but are cast with this filled in. After too much time trying to cut the metal out on previous figures I have just left it well alone. No deal breaker but a little annoying as it did not have top be done this way.

With just under two weeks left till the painting challenge kicks off you won't see any big units cross the table but I hope to get a few more single figures and maybe a small unit or two done before it all goes OTT. I still have time before the challenge starts to finish off more prep. I am mostly slowed down by opportunities to prime prepped figures. I have plenty ready to prime but now have ran short of sticks to put them on, I need to paint something then!

SYW Prussian Converged Grenadiers

Been a gap in posting, lots of reasons none of them that good but I am back with something new to show you. Whilst I have not blogged for over a week I have been painting and prepping, sometimes at real stupid times but until I can get back to normal I will be taking advantage of the opportunities LOL.

I finally finish off the second battalion I have of Old Glory (via Timecast) these also being a converged battalion made up of the grenadiers of the 24/34th regiments. These are a little more interesting as the two regiments did not have a matching uniform. The trousers and waste-coats being yellow for the 34th and white for the 24th.

The mitres are also quite different with the 34th having silvered plates (during campaign the silver paste would sometimes come off leaving them with a brass finish. The 24th have the standard brass plates. The rear of the hats also are different, represented here with different shades of blue. Rather than mix them together I have them half and half as I think that would be the way they would organise them. Especially when first brought together to aid unit cohesion.

Old Glory as you would expect supply a good looking set of figures which adds to the painting time but gives plenty of reward for spending the time.

I really enjoyed painting these guys and these make my infantry quite a force, really need to get a few more cavalry and a gun or two painted. I will be getting four dragoon regiments for Christmas so expect more horse flesh to been seen in the new year.

I have prepped quite a few figures for the coming challenge but only three guns and crews for the SYW so I need to get a few battalions at least prepared over the next three weeks. Especially as I plan to paint up a few for The Boy. 

Not that I plan to stop painting till the challenge starts but most of what I will paint will be single figures. I have also been preparing for when I make holes in the painting queue. First up the four regiments of dragoons. Also the long planned 6mm figures to extend the pike phalanxes. Enough figures for another four units. If things go really well I could have them finished by the end of the challenge. If so then the Macedonians will probably be halted until I can get a fair few more Persians painted up to balance the numbers.

von Szekely Hussars SYW

It's not often that I don't enjoy painting something and even less that it effects the finished result but these sit in that group. I am not saying I did a bad job but they could and should have been better. Given the new size of cavalry units I should buy another pack so that I am able to generate three units but at the moment I just don't want to.

These are Old Glory as supplied by Timecast and whilst they have the detail that the infantry get the sculpting seems to have been done by someone else. Whilst the riders were quite easy to clean up the mounts were less so, especially the horses with closed legs (front) which were just too much trouble to separate. Right from first inspection I was disappointed with them so I did not enter the process with a positive view.

It's not all bad, they paint up well but maybe it's the uniform colour which looked really ugly before the ink wash was applied but I found myself cutting corners to get them finished which just adds to the annoyance.

Regiment One all ride chestnuts with white tails but I wanted a bit of a campaign look about them so have a few riding either chestnuts with brown tails or horses of other colours. Just wait till I do one with dapples! I am pleased how the braiding came out on the pelisse which was a great bit of sculpting. 

For all the moans above I am happy with the look and look forward to using them in games. I will be needing other Hussar units later but before that I will paint up their heavier brothers.

Originally we were going with two bases 60x30 with a total of eight figures for light cavalry and ten for the heavies. However on seeing the SYW game by I think Nottingham Outlaws we were struck by the mass look of the cavalry and decided to copy it. Light cavalry will have ten figures and heavier types will have 14-16 figures per unit, quite a bit more painting to be done then.

The new bases are 60x60 with two per regiment allowing us to use some form of column. The obvious side effect other than time to paint is the extra outlay we have committed too. It could get worse as I will be looking at Blue Moon as an alternative to Old Glory but that choice will wait till after I have painted up a few Lancashire Games regiments.

Casualty Markers for SYW

I only have two battalions of infantry and two guns and already I am on with the casualty markers! Well seeing as we will be using Black Powder (at least to start with) I thought they would look better than dice and have the advantage of keeping the correct score if knocked a bit.

These are again Old Glory via Timecast  and are actually from the artillery pack but are obviously casualties. So much so that I did not want to use them on the gun bases, but as I am using just three figures on the smaller guns these were spare. They also do a casualty pack so will probably pick one of those up in the future once I am well into painting the figures I have in hand.

Again these are nice sculps with plenty of detail. I wanted to tart them up a bit so added flocking powder to a grass tuft for a flower effect. The base is one of the smaller dial markers from Warbases (30mm diameter) and yes I will be buying more at Partizan this weekend.

The fourth one saw me use a spare drummer from the two battalions I painted up first. Originally he was going on a command stand but I could not resist getting him finished off. I still have a number of spare unpainted figures that could make it to command bases but these have yet to be painted.

I have just prepped up three battalions of Prussians from the Lancashire Games army pack so these will be started at some point this week. Size wise they work fine with the Old Glory ones, well the infantry do, not checked the guns or cavalry yet. Talking of cavalry I have a regiment of Hussars also on the table so will have to get these started as well. I even have a couple of old limbers that will be painted up soon just to have them ready. 

SYW Prussian Guns

As promised last week, here are my SYW Prussian guns. With these I think I temporarily pass Lee on units finished. However I do know he has a few guns in the almost finished so unless I get on with some more bits he will have the lead over me again.

These are again Old Glory as supplied by Timecast and like the infantry have a great amount of detail. I have another four guns to do, another heavy and three lighter guns as well as four horse artillery guns. Lots to go at then but I won't need to paint up many more for awhile as I need to paint up bits of what I don't have.

I have used four figures for the heavy gun and just three for the lighter one. All guns have the same size base so this will help show the difference between the two sizes.

Both guns and crews painted up fairly quickly which was a big plus after the slow work on the two infantry battalions. I now have to decide what to paint next, I have a regiment of Hussars prepped but I have also received the Lancashire Games army pack so may paint up some of the infantry to see how fast they paint up. I will also move onto their cavalry as I only have the heavier cavalry via Lancashire so far.

Were still a month or possibly two away from having a game which will allow more painted figures to be on the table which is good. Just over a week to Partizan which will probably see a few more bits bought for the project but the main event will be meeting up with fellow bloggers at the Northern(ish) Bloggers Meet, very similar to the Salute Meet.

Prussian SYW Number 1 Regiment von Winterfeldt

Well it took some time but in the end I got there. I am basing my army mostly on the opening attack into Saxony at the start of the SYW. Even though I will be mostly fighting the Russians but hay we can't always be perfect.

The figures are Old Glory, supplied by Timecast and the flags are Fighting Fifteens both I can heartily recommend. Old Glory figures needed a bit of a clean up and are very well detailed. The only issue with this is the amount of time it took to paint them due to the high level of detail. 

Lee and myself took a lot of time discussing the make up of units and base sizes each coming from a different angle before finally settling on 18 figures over three bases for infantry and 8 cavalry over two bases. Command have around three figures dependant on command level and guns on a single base with one gun representing a battery.

The colonels battalion gets two flags and is displayed here with the three bases in column. I went with a base coat of Dark Russian Blue followed by a highlight of Prussian Blue. One fully painted I inked with Nulin Oil and then highlighted again with the main colours to make them pop. 

The second Battalion just gets the one standard, I have a flag for a third battalion but the regiment only had two during the Seven Years War. I may yet use it but for now it will remain a two battalion regiment.

It was quite a slog painting up two battalions at the same time, I think I may take a leaf out of Lee's book and go one at a time in future. However I have bought a army pack from Lancashire Games and as they are not as detailed may keep to a larger number for these. My aim is to get enough painted up quick enough to actually get a few games in whilst the project is still new.

I do like the way they turned out and the rich colours of the flags really makes the units pop. Our first games will have to include unpainted mini's but at least some will come dressed for a fight.

Next up will be a couple of guns and a few casualty markers and then either a regiment of Hussars or a combined battalion of grenadiers, but before that I have the small matter of a couple of pike blocks to finish.

Prussian Seven Years War Test Figure

I bet I am not on my own in not painting anything post challenge, well that is until today. However I have spent a fair bit of time cleaning up figures for the new project, that being the Seven Tears War. I have four infantry battalions and one Hussar all awaiting paint and so thought it might be a good idea to paint up one figure before launching into 18 figure battalions.

These are Old Glory 15mm as supplied by Timecast rather than the Blue Moon supplied by the UK Old Glory. Confused? then your not on your own LOL. The infantry are really nice and mostly clean castings requiring less prep than some. The cavalry though have very nice riders but the mounts of both the Hussars and the generals are less than impressive. So much so I will probably shop around for better models for my cavalry.

The first regiment will be Regiment Number 1 Winterfeldt that had two battalions, both of which have been started with the base uniform colour.

Overall I am pleased with the result whilst Cath thinks it's a bit dark. So what do you think? Should I add another brighter highlight after inking or stick with just the touch up of Prussian Blue I have added post inking here?