My current preoccupation is mid nineteenth century warfare. You can’t travel far without meeting the resurgent French Empire. Here is my offering on french artillery around the time of the Franco Austrian War of 1859. Being a few years before the American Civil War it can be argued that conflict obscures the war which inflated French self belief and probably contributed to their Prussian undoing by 1870.
In 1848 the Tuscan Army headed north with other contingents to join Piedmont in expelling Austria from the Italian Peninsula.
Their uniform was really a throwback to Napoleonic times. Unlike some other troops the soldiers wore a Shako – bell shaped. With white tunics and blue trousers there was a nod to Austrian influence.
Like the Danish Infantry in Painting Pedestal 22c, these figures are 20mm metals from Irregular Miniatures. They are sold under their Colonial range as Regular British Infantry serving in India.
This unit is part of an occasional series that aims to paint many of the units described in Osprey Men At Arms No. 520 Armies of the Italian Wars of Unification 1848-1870 (2).
The flag is homemade using dried out lens wipe paper and permanent marker pens – very quick. Well the Tuscan rebels like most had to rustle up their armies in quick time.
Brigata Milano was part of Division Turr being formed before crossing from Sicily to the mainland. The figures have good animation I think.
The bugler has a kepi – all the rage at this time (1859/60). He has acquired some Piedmontese uniform trousers.
I have again used the fine words and black and white pictures of osprey MAA 520 Armies of the Italian Wars of Unification 1848-1870 pt2.
You can find out more on the Garibaldini troops Garibaldi took to Sicily with him and those that followed on in my recent postings.
Finally you may notice the easter egg style basing!
My anglo saxon army is growing with the addition of many more bases. I am settled on 80mm wide impetus style basing where the idea is to inject a little variety into figure presentation. This is quite easy with strelets who produce a reasonable pose mix with each set they make. In the case of the anglo saxons it gets even better when you buy they big battle sets as I did. The stamford bridge set is the only one currently available though.
I decorate the base with budgie grit on pva glue (games workshop idea) and use a three colour painting technique. Dark red earth base colour with heavy dry brush of yellow ochre over it followed by a light yellow/white top dry brush. I am looking for sandy and dare I say summer like conditions, no green green grass of home for my troops.
I used some little big man shield transfers for 28mm anglo saxon bucklers on a few of the figures. They blend in ok I think.
I finish with some foliage. In this case I am using Peco Railway scenics which are autumnal or greenish brown grasses.
So thats it for now, next up on show are my first “el cid” Hat 1/72 figures posing as Italo-Normans.
As much as I like too fat laddies productions and no doubt infamy will get the thumbs up, other manufacturers and scales are doing business.
Minairons have just dipped their toe in the 1/72 scale market. It is a test of the customer base and unlike kick starters you could say this is a rolling start production even if the roll is barely perceptible to start with.
They have opted for the back end of the baroque, or great northern wars or malburian or as they have called it – the war of the Spanish succession.
Starting with some skirmish troops their low key announcement showed the figures contrasted with the splendid zvezda great northern war swedes.
These look fantastic and very tempting……
After what seems like an age my latest painting efforts are nearing completion. This dark age group is the largest I have painted in one round and that has taught me a lesson. Small is beautiful as in 40 odd figures take a while to get completed. Volume means quicker painting but overall completion is longer. I like the idea of completing one or two bases and then starting over again. That feels like a better painting cycle.
So I will complete my Carolingian cavalry with my Mediterranean style basing
I use gloss partly because it gives protection as these figures are to be handled and partly because at 3 feet away on a game table it lifts the colours
The budgie grit bases will get a 3 stage paint job and some tufted plants!So that’s it for these chaps, next up are some strelets normans
All History is bunkum, only the future matters
— Henry Ford or something like that
Back to basics or is that basings? Most wargames today have taken from boardgames the token or counter principle and many miniature figures now find themselves stuck to a base with some others of their kind.
Yes there is another strong theme of individually mounted figures although, because of gaming time, this will usually reduce the figure count on the wargames table. So if you want to show lots of figures and still finish a game then multiple figures on one base is the way to go.
First up are some posts on my current struggles with basing style.
The Wargaming Erratic 