Keep Your Powder Dry

Every agrarian society needs livestock, even in 15mm land. So I thought I'd better provide some. My inner model railway modeller/ reader of glossy rule books with idyllic 'scenes' voice told me I needed more, yes more, battlefield clutter. First up are some piggies. These are from Hovels, and were extras from my    'Pig Sty' 18D5 (from their ancients range). Next up are some chickens. There should probably be lots more of these, but can I face painting beaks and combs on such tiny things? Yes, I can. So no doubt there will be more of these at some point, when I next place an order with Pendraken. Considering England's wealth was based upon the wool trade I thought I should have lots of sheep. Is forty sheep a lot? Enough to make a landowner fat and wealthy from the profits. Probably not. More will arrive from Pendraken at some point I'm sure. Pendraken have a very useful range of animals in a plethora of figure sizes, one of their cats is located on a Parli...

In a moment of madness I wondered if it would be possible to recreate Streeter's famous plan of Naseby using my 15mm figures. Streeter's Plan of Naseby Bit of a problem, haven't got a copy of Streeter's Plan; I do however have an original copy of Sturt's Plan. (If you don't know what I'm talking about see here for an explanation.) My original Sturt Some 'egging on' meant it was happening... Some caveats: topography wasn't going to be in the recreation, nor were the correct regiments in the correct places (shoddy, I know) for example Waller's dragoons stood in for Okey's at Sulby Hedges (there is a little bit of real Sulby Hedges grit on their basing though - does that count?). Figuresare ture 15mm, buildings form Hovels, Total Battle Miniatures, Naseby windmill is my own conversion of an Ironclad Miniatures Russian windmill. hedges are from S&A Scenics, and roads from Fat Frank. Naseby village t...

Always on the look out for buildings and scenery that 'works' with my true 15mm figures, I returned to the Hovels website. This time I had a look at the Ancient 15mm range - hidden amongst the Roman marching camp and Celtic round houses are a few wattle and daub farm buildings which have seventeenth century potential. My rationale to myself: cheap construction and maintenance methods would no doubt continue to be utilised until a cheaper better option became available. Hence wattle and daub thatched outbuildings are a 'winner', but not roundhouses. First up is the 'Raised Grain Store' 14D5. Next, 'Oblong Thatched Store' 15D5. During my initial teacher training it was drummed into us that we should never ever use the 'o word' <shudders>, they are rectangles. So for all you teachers out there I apologise, I am merely quoting Hovels's title of their rectangular thatched store. Last offering from the Ancients range is 'Pig...

Having posted pictures of my attempts at painting thatch, which I thought were quite good, I realised how shoddy they actually were. Possibly the greatest benefit that this blog has given me is the sight of my own painting attempts super-enlarged in all their gory detail. I knew that my dark ages buildings thatch was awful and needed redoing, but I had thought that my Hovels medieval range thatched buildings were 'okay'. Wrong! So after much experimentation I came up with the following recipe for painting thatch. They look right for 15mm, maybe supersized on tablet or laptop screens might do them an injustice. Basecoat: RailMatch 'worn tarmac' a mid to dark grey. Once applied it looks just wrong, and I understand why many people turn to the yellow and brown palettes. Next up was a very heavy drybrush with Foundry Moss 29B. A green brown,  it toned the grey down considerably but seemed much brighter than I hoped for. Final step was a glaze of Windsor and Newton nu...

Whilst perusing fleabay I came across a 'lot' of ECW buildings for sale. All Hovels models, many from the English/rural range but also many that I didn't recognise. A quick look at the Hovels website and I found them in the medieval range. Sadly I missed out on winning the auction as I think the seller had absolutely nailed the colour of the thatch. Some models in the range are much more suitable than others, here are the ones I chose. Not 100% happy with my thatched rooves, think they need a bit more grey... Update: thatch has now been repainted. Keep an eye out for a future post on painting thatch.  see here Here's the updated buildings. 4M5 7M5 5M5 6M5 8M5 If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider  supporting  the blog.  Thanks .

If you have read my earlier post about the Red Lion pub, you'll be aware of my thoughts about wargaming terrain. You'll also know my paint palette colours for my ECW buildings. Here's the rest of my buildings from this range from Hovels. I seem to have got a little carried away with the 'generic houses' (1T5 and 2T5) - to give a little variety some have slate rooves, some tiled. The church (4T5)...  ...the blacksmith's forge (6T5), which looked much better once some flock was added... ...and the manor house (7T5). My usual paint regime applied here: undercoat of Liquitex raw umber; windows Foundry Prussian blue; white panels badly painted white (so patches of undercoat show in parts/ and white is patchy); wood frames RailMatch weathered black; stone work RailMatch weathered stone painted on badly, again to give an uneven coat; slate rooves Coat d'Arms slate grey; tiled rooves Coat d'Arms orange, then heavy dry brush of Coat ...

I am a firm believer in scenery being as important as figures in a wargaming sense. We spend hours lovingly painting our figures, only for all that hard work to be undone by a dreadful battlefield on which we play. Which brings me to my first post about buildings. Here's a tavern from the  Hovels  English/rural 15mm range (3T5). I have taken the tavern sign from an ECW sprinkles pack and added it to the building. A simple enough job with a pin vice. I am particularly pleased with the pub sign - a Google search found the sign (a real seventeenth century one), which I resized to fit and printed onto inkjet decal transfer paper. Printed using an HP deskjet, so nothing fancy. The decal paper is really simple to use as long as you follow the instructions! The instructions said the image needed sealing with three coats of varnish. Don't whatever you do use brush on varnish, as the first coat makes the image run. I used Army Painter spray on matt varnish which seems to have ...