MirBach Regiment

It has been awhile since I've been able to post the completion of another regiment, but life has been keeping me busy. As a direct result of this, my painting has probably suffered a bit as I again try and find my style.

I used all my previous palettes except I changed the flesh by using more panzer aces flesh tones in the mix. 

I have Rall's regiment about halfway done and on the way as well as a number of skirmish infantry.

 

24 Perry Figures

For sale, some AB Napoleonics

I'm selling off some 15mm AB Napoleonics. To spare me from retyping the list via a kindle, here is a link to the listing. Listing is here

1812 in Wisconsin

My wife and I don't spend too many weekends at home while the ground is still free of snow. Our lastest kid-friendly weekend away had us visiting Prarie du Chien about 3hrs away and then across the river from Marquette. There were plenty of attractions for the kids at the long standing Ft. Crawford, fur trade museum and the native effigy mounds back over on the Iowa side.
There had long been European and native contact here as part of the fur trade and I believe this is dated back to the late 1600's. In 1805 Zebulon Pike was sent to explore the Mississippi River Valley. The picture above is from "Pike's Peak" (one of two peaks bearing his name in the U.S.). It is here that he recommended the building of a fort. The government however opted for a site down in the valley along the river. It is there that this area saw its only battle during the war of 1812.

The wargamer in me was hoping for, at least, some small scale action to be recreated in a skirmish game. As I understand it, 650 British approached and engaged Ft. Shelby with 60 Americans inside. After initial surrender terms were turned down, the British managed to run off the gunboat supporting the fort with some accurate cannon fire. After a day or so they were close enough to toss heated shells at the wooden walls. This was enough for the Americans, as surrender terms were then accepted. A fairly unspectacular affair without any loss of life. The British renamed it Ft. McKay before destroying it upon their departure.

Later on, Ft. Crawford was built to replace it and today the second military hospital still stands. This weekend the fort hosted a smalll group of reenactors (mostly from the civil war era)which the kids enjoyed immensely, especially the cannon and musket firing and the interaction enthusiastically offered by the reenactors.

As my daughter's history class continues to study Iowa history, we'll probably head here next.
Below are a few photos taken around rhe area.

On the miniature painting front Mirbach's regiment is 99 percent done with Rall's at about 30 percent .

Wilhelm von Knyphausen

As my work on other units continues I decided to slip in the completion of the Knyphausen figure by Perry. Its obviously not my best work, but will do just fine on the games' table.

As the base size for Knyphausen, per the Brandywine scenario, was going to be much larger than the ones I had used previously for commanders, I needed a simple idea to fill some space. I'm not ready talent-wise to do a fancy little vignette, but I wanted to do something that was perhaps new for me and that I could use later. Looking around the scrap pile I found a Hessian officer I wasn't going to use and glancing over at the terrain area I noticed some supplies for creating water effects...why not. The final idea was to create a small often-wet/muddy/marsh area which may be encountered almost anywhere. Utilizing some greenstuff I created the edges of the water area and painted the inside using some dark greenish-brown paint before proceeding to use my normal basing up technique using wood glue etc. The final step, of course, was adding the water mixture. Although needing some further refinement I think it turned out acceptable and will no doubt come into use again somewhere else.

F&D Continental Mounted Officers

Saturday Morning found me progressing through a number of large units and looking for a minor distraction. Although there were a number of candidates, I decided on these two Continental Officers I had ordered from Jim over at Fife and Drum.

My goal with these was simply speed. I wanted to see how quickly I could paint these while keeping them eligible for most game tables. First of all, the castings are full of detail and very clean/crisp to work with. The thinner and more proportional size created an unexpected challenge as it was a break from what I've been familiar with. I didn't think that something as simple as this would provide a challenge, but it did.

I believe the end result was satisfactory, finished in a morning's painting alongside other figures. They probably do look a bit "rushed" in places, but after all...they were.

American 12pd Artillery

After a long time on the edges of the painting desk I finally put the finishes on these guys. I used Eureka's Molly Pitcher Crew along with two Front Rank 12pd guns.

I'm always trying to do things that are new to me when painting. With these I wanted to experiment with 3 different shades of white on the same figure to perhaps represent different weaves, cuts, or fits. I believed the shirts to be a loose fit so I chose to paint them the most white. The waistcoat I saw as a slightly more refined garment, so I used the menolith white to give it a slight sheen. The pants I imagined to be the tightest fitting clothing and as always when a person is working, they are the first to get scuffed, scraped or dirty. I decided on a slightly more gray shade to reflect that condition.

I'm unsure of the results, but these guys were, for me, an experiment in this direction.

From 2012 to '11

As 2011 closed with a flurry of non-wargaming activity and I've not had much opportunity to add on the blog. Most of my painting since October has been for other people and a unit or two I painted to sell on ebay, but I should have some of my own pieces to post shortly. My time at the painting desk has greatly increased and looks to be steady on in the near future.

The biggest development has been the arrival of Contessa Rin, born in December. The picture is roughly 20 minutes after she arrived. At that point, she looked like a set of lips and some hair, but luckily we found the rest of her.



I'm trying to convince the wife that 5 is enough, but time will tell...