Keep Your Powder Dry

Jings and crivens- another bonus post! (This isn't this week's normal Monday post, this week's normal post is scheduled for Wednesday, International Women's Day - could be a mahoosive clue to what it is is about there.) Having seen a number of 'how to paint...' tutorials on YouTube, and having painted just a few Wars of the Three Kingdoms/British Civil Wars/ English Civil War (delete as you see appropriate) I thought I'd have a crack. Once again, I need to say thank you to Warlord for sending me a preview frame of the new range. The examples that I have seen all utilise speed/contrast paints, and strange things such as zenithal priming. So here is a different style of painting to consider. Caveat: they look pretty rubbish until they are finished - some would say they still look rubbish even when finished.  I freely admit not to being a brilliant painter, at best I'm average. My painting style is firmly planted in the following routine: undercoat (if I r...

As painting season is now officially open, here's my latest paint discovery. Russeted armour? What's that I hear you ask? Russeted armour is armour has been allowed to rust (don't ask how it is encouraged to rust - trust me) and is then oiled and polished.   Russeted armour at Broughton Castle (just ignore the blackened English pot in the foreground) In between bothering tour guides and volunteers at stately homes and cathedrals across the land, I often longingly admire russeted armour, wondering how I could replicate the colour and finish on my 15mm figures. I know that I am not alone. Close up of my first 'new recipe' finished figure Well dear readers (hello all nine of you), I think I have hit upon a paint recipe that almost captures the colours of russeted armour. I have previously shared my first attempt at russeted armour in the e quipment painting guide post . But I always thought that I could do better. Here are the results of my experimentation For this exp...

Hold your horses partner, as the denizens of the former colonies might say. Sashes? If you mean the fancy silk thing worn by officers in C17th portraiture then you are in the right place, but they weren't called sashes. Thems were called scarves. Now we've got correct nomenclature out of the way we can move on. Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes 1641, by Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt You will often see portraits of Charles, his sons, and his nephews wearing blue  sashes  scarves. Only these aren't sashes, or even scarves. These are ribands, signifying that they are members of The Order of the Garter. The Order underwent a bit of a renaissance during Charles' reign, and also his eldest son's, no doubt as a means for raising revenue. Charles wearing the Order of the Garter riband, Sir Edward Walker wearing a rose scarf and a riband signifying that he is Garter King of Arms  But first let's start with who wore scarves and how they wore them.   One only has to look at portr...

A bonus post. Crivens! On a Thursday too! In my quest for the easy-life, I have come across a number of bits of stuff, that, well, just make everything easier. Regular readers (hello both of you) will be aware of my almost evangelical zeal for the joy of blu-tack. Those of you who are new a quick precis: blu-tack is a really good way of holding figures/sticking them to the cutting mat when doing stuff that will almost certainly result in loss of blood when you get it wrong. Drilling out hands, drilling heads, major conversions that involve sharp stabby, pointy things basically. For an example see here . Tongue depressors/waxing sticks are cheaply and easily available on fleabay, and make the painting of large numbers of figures a lot easier to manage, less messy, and a heck of a lot quicker. But what of those figures that are really awkward, or need extra bling?  Enter the painting handle. There are some really fancy wooden ones, with celtic designs etched on to them. Blingtastic, ...

 So I have pontificated about clothing colours (in general)... What Colours To Use? What Colours To Use Part 2: Paint ...regimental coat colours (or not)... Coat Colours Part 1: Parliamentarian Regiments of Foot Coat Colours Part 2: Royalist Regiments of Foot Coat Colours Part 3: The Scots Coat Colours Part 4: Others - NMA, Dragoons & Horse The Trained Bands ...and equipment... Painting Guide - Equipment Only time before I looked at artillery. So here it is. A re-enactors' cannon ready to be fired Artillery pieces were expensive to produce, heavy and difficult to move around. The idea of using artillery in battle (rather than in a siege) was still in it's infancy. Guns were placed before the battle and pretty much stayed there win, lose or draw. Gunners were highly skilled individuals, many having learned their art on the continent during the Thirty Years War, and were often described as mercenaries employed by whomsoever paid the most rather than whose cause their hearts s...

I suppose this post was inevitable; I started wondering what colour palette I would need to use to paint my forthcoming Montrose army. I've already investigated coat colours , general dye colours and how that roughly translates to paint codes , but I needed a rough idea of tartan colours, shirts and in particular those colours favoured by the Irish. Just as there is a wargamer fact™  that 'the London Trained Bands all wore red coats' so there are also quite a number of well established wargamer facts™  concerning the clothing of the Irish and Highlanders. But how factual are these facts? Highlanders Wargamer Fact™: the Highlanders wore yellow shirts .  Highlanders did wear shirts, and some, at least were dyed yellow. Highlander's shirts were made from coarse linen, they certainly didn't lace up at the front (in an Adam and The Ants style). James Gordon's History of Scots Affairs 1637-1641 (written 1841) has this description “As for their apparel; next the skin,...

Having spent quite a bit of time, not to mention a few thousand words, prattling on about the colours (and paint codes) that I use to paint my toy soldiers, it is probably only right and proper that I discuss the hardware carried, and worn, by soldiers. This is an excuse to share lots of little bits of information that I have come across whilst researching my armies, and wider questions such as coat colours. Don't be surprised if there is a digression or three. For those of you new to the blog here are the other posts: What Colours To Use? What Colours To Use Part 2: Paint Coat Colours Part 1: Parliamentarian Regiments of Foot Coat Colours Part 2: Royalist Regiments of Foot Coat Colours Part 3: The Scots Coat Colours Part 4: Others - NMA, Dragoons & Horse The Trained Bands Caveat: these are my observations, with a smattering of references thrown in for good measure, they are in no way definitive. They could never be. The best we can ever aspire to, when modelling soldiers of th...