Memoir '44 - British Infantry.

 To represent the British tommy in the game it is a difficult choice.  The game manufacturers do produce some British infantry, but they are dressed for the desert campaigns.  Fortunately I had a couple of boxes of the latest Airfix production, which was their rather odd WW2 British Infantry set.  I had no other use for these figures and so decided to paint some of them for use in some of the scenarios.  Strangely some of the figures are wearing their gas mask container on their chests, B.E.F. style, yet they have PIATs, which are late war items.

Anyway, splashed some paint on them, based them and here they are:

The last group to be painted will be some US airborne troops.  I have a number of choices but in the end settled on ESCI figures, largely because I have plenty in my spares box!

British infantry advancing in Normandy:

The Great Plastics Revival - Airfix Infantry

 Another couple of Airfix units, as I continue to work my way through the enormous plastic mountain.

This time it is a unit of Airfix 'Waterloo French Infantry', painted straight out of the box in basic French colours:

The second unit is of British infantry, again, straight out of the box, but with a Newline metal officer:

I continue to work through these figures in between other projects.

More adventures with Speed Paints

 Over the past few weeks I have been dabbling with painting 25mm figures using Army painter Speed Paints.  Overall I have enjoyed using them, however, I had run into difficulties with the paint bleeding into lighter colours (especially red) and later in applying white.

My solution has been to paint most of the colours in the normal way with Speed Paints, which is very quick.  Once dry, I then give the figures two coats of Army Painter matt varnish.  It is then possible to paint on the detail, such as cross belts and shako cords.

Overall, not brilliant, but acceptable and an easy way of churning out multiple battalions.  Here we see three units, one Portuguese and two British line.  They are a mix of figures.  The Portuguese are mostly Ros British and the British are in the main Minifigs S range.  

British Infantry 1690

 Last weekend I painted some more 54mm Williamite period troops.  This time it was some British infantry from Irregular Miniatures.  In fact they are from the Marlburian range but Ian Kay very kindly changed the heads to incorporate the broad brimmed hat that preceded the tricorne.

These troops are from Kirke's Irish Regiment that fought with King Billy in 1690.  They were a delight to paint, only taking a few hours using speed paints:

An Experiment with Speed Painting

 My nephew Will has been impressing me with the number and quality of painted figures that he manages to turn out.  He can paint a battalion in a fraction of the time that I take.  His secret is speed painting.  He uses Contrast Paints upon a matt white undercoat.

Now, I have a heap of SYW figures to paint, consisting of many 24 figure battalions and I wondered if speed painting might be the solution.

I invested in a box of paints from Army Painter and set about experimenting:

Essentially, in a single coat they provide a dense wash over the matt white base coat.  It is a bit like watercolour painting in that you do the lighter bits first.  It took me about three hours to paint 24 figures.  The paint dries very quickly so as you come to the end of one colour the first figures are already dry. 

The only time consuming part was painting the white belts and lace - that took longer than painting the base coats. Here is the result:

In my view the quality is not as good as the traditional way of painting, but if you want to get battalions onto the table quickly this is a good way of doing it.

Ros Napoleonics

 I have had some Ros 25mm figures sitting on the work bench for a while just awaiting some final touches and basing.  Yesterday I finally completed them.

The first batch, just for a change, are some French Imperial Guards, painted as the Dutch 3rd Regiment of Grenadiers:

I have also finished another British line battalion:

I have added these to two other battalions painted a month or so ago to form a new brigade:

I still have some fusiliers and a light infantry battalion to finish.

And some Tommies........

 Also from Irregular Miniatures, I have just finished painting a British infantry company for my WW1 trench war project.  Again, nice figures and fun to paint:

More Colonials

 Last night I finished off another of my Irregular Miniatures 25/28mm Colonial British line infantry:

I now have three battalions completed:

There are two more remaining, a naval infantry battalion and a further line battalion.  In addition, there are two cavalry regiments to do.  i also have a final Abyssinian unit to finish off.  Once all this is done I will have completed two of the Irregular Miniatures 100 piece armies.

Steady Boys...........

 Minifigs 25mm colonial British infantry in line ready to receive a charge with volley fire:

My Minifigs colonial project is almost complete. I have some mounted infantry on foot and some skirmishers to complete and maybe some cavalry a little later.  On the painting table is a large group of Pathans getting ready to kick the British out of the valley!

Another Irregular Miniatures Unit

 Last night I finished off a unit of British line infantry from Ian Kay's Irregular Miniatures. As with the other offerings from the company, the castings are delightful and paint up well:

I have a couple more of these units to paint as well as some cavalry.

More Colonials

 Over the last week I finished off a number of projects relating to my colonial collection. First we have some Gurkhas and I have doubled the size of the unit, which was originally only eight figures in number. The figures are by Eureka and are nicely detailed.  In the longer term these figures will be off to Palestine to fight off the Turks:

The next batch of figures have been sitting on the lead mountain for a few years.  They are Boer infantry that came with a load of Barry Minot British colonials.  The castings are in fact by Stadden; I believe they are now sold by Tradition. They are nice delicate castings but are quite small when compared to my other figures:

My final project is the raising of a Brigade of British infantry to head off and deal with my Minifigs Pathans.  These figures have been collected in dribs and drabs over the years and I was a little shocked when I dug them out as I didn't realise that I had so many.  There is a further battalion on the painting table, plus two units of dismounted Mounted Infantry to add to these.

Here we have two infantry battalions, an artillery battery, a machine gun section and command.  All of the figures are by Minifigs:

Really Old, Old School

 I have been promising myself that I would create some British opposition for my Roco and Type1 Airfix German force.  Leafing through some early Featherstone books the answer lies in the Airfix Combat Group set;  a set that I have always liked apart from the lack of heavy weapons. 

I set about assembling a 'company' size force of four platoons and an HQ.  I also converted some Type 1 8th Army machine gunners to create a medium machine gun platoon.  Here they are:

I plan to create two more companies, an HQ and some other support weapons to form a battalion sized unit.

Project Completed.

 Last night I finished the remaining figures needed to complete my Quatre Bras Project.  The planned battle will take place this weekend so painting all of the figures in time has been a 'near run thing!'.

This batch consists of a battalion of Scots:

Another British Line battalion:

A second Brunswick battalion:

Some Brunswick Lancers (converted from Minifigs S range Austrians):

And a Brunswick battery (converted from really old figures):

It will be good to take a break from painting and get some figures onto the table.

More Ros British

Over the weekend I finished off some more refurbished Ros 25mm British.  The first unit is an infantry battalion in belgic shako:

Also one each of foot and horse artillery:

Just two units to go to finish off the allies.  I am running out of time to be ready for the coming weekend and the French may have to make do with what is already finished in my Ros and Warrior collections.

The Collection of Count Goya - Waterloo British Infantry

Count Goya, the prolific collector and painter from north of the border has sent me some pictures of part his wonderful Napoleonic figure collection. These are British infantry form around 1815 and represent most of the British regiments that fought at Waterloo.  I thought I would share some of the pictures. which are  mostly 'old school' Minifigs, Hinton Hunt and Les Higgins examples as pure eye candy. I look forward to seeing more of his armies in the future.

An overview of the British contingent, bearing in mind that the artillery and cavalry are not included here:

The we have some pictures of the various brigades:

Then some closer images of these lovely figures:

Wonderful stuff!

Two more units have been refurbished.

The first unit is made up of 10 Ros British Riflemen, painted to represent the 60th Rifles. Ros did not produce a Rifles command, so I have added a bugler from Minifigs and an officer by Les Higgins. They are now ready to take to the field:

The second unit is a British Line Infantry battalion, again by Ros.  All of the figures are Ros Miniatures:

WW2 British Anti-Tank Teams 20mm & Airfix Arabs

 Continuing my way through my ancient WW2 Hinchliffe figures, I decided to paint some anti-tank elements. The first figures man a 2pdr anti-tank gun, which I think was originally a Hinchliffe casting, but this one was released under the Caldercraft label.  The crew are early Hincliffe gunners:

The second team is made up of the infamous PIAT gunner, who has to drag part of a brick wall around with him that is moulded into the base.  The number 2 on the weapon is actually a mortar loader, but I thought that the team needed two figures:

For a bit of fun I painted a pile of Airfix Bedouin Arabs.  These should make a useful enemy for the French Foreign Legion or even in a Northwest frontier action:

Plastic Soldier Company 'The Great War'

 A few weeks ago I took the plunge and bought a set of PSC's 'The Great War' board game and rules.  I have been thinking about this for some time as I have an interest in WW1 but always tended to shy away from the later trench warfare.  This game appears to offer some fast play rules and the necessary pieces to make this possible. It comes in a huge box that very much matches the Command and Colors game style:

The main differences between this game and the C&C offerings are that the playing area is larger, as are the hexes.  Also, the playing pieces consist of plastic miniatures in 15mm scale, as opposed to the little wooden blocks:

My plan however, will be to transport this game onto the wargames table, with slightly larger hexes and 3D scenery.  I have also decided that the figures need to be painted.  I have completed the British, which I have mounted on bases.  In all there are 150 figures, which is quite a painting task.  This is what I have managed to do so far; British infantry:

There are three machinegun teams:

And three mortars:

I have based the Germans and will be starting the painting over the weekend.  I have also nearly finished off my badly battered medieval knights, with just some final touching up to do.