More TYW

 

First already painted unit converted to the new basing  - two units of the Blue Brigade.

I had to paint two extra strips of Musketeers and an extra Pike strip.

The skirmishers out front are Peter Pig ECW figures.  The first Peter Pig I have ever bought and painted.  They are slightly crude (the Epic figures are much easier to paint) but match okay in size.  I have painted another 8 which will go at the front of two strips of Musketeers to make a commanded shot unit.

Two more units (Yellow Brigade and a grey unit) to also convert and then I'll paint some Imperials to see what Tercios will look like.

I also have 3 more sprues of almost complete Swedes (Black, Red and Green) which will give me 13 infantry units for the Swedes when they are complete (and I have painted extra pikemen, etc).

Rethinking Epic Thirty Years War

 

I have been having a long think about my TYW Epic project and came to the conclusion that the units (at 180mm wide) are just too big for my playing area and are going to result in lack of manouevre in any games.

I looked into possibly splitting the sprues in half and came across Dartfrog's blog  ( https://dartfrog06mm.blogspot.com/search/label/TYW ) where he has gone through the the same exercise and I am impressed enough with the results to decide to copy it and to base everything on one base for a unit. These should still work with Through the Square Window (which I think are my rules of choice) as they don't use stand removal.

This way the units will be 3.5" wide which is only about 90mm.

I have put together a test Scottish in Swedish service unit first to check how it look but the sprues split surprisingly easily, and I think the results once painted don't look any different from normal wargames distances.

The first test piece for TYW rebasing:

 

Painted in 3 hours (2 hours while not watching Traitors last night and this morning at 6am when I couldn't sleep).

 

Happy with the look and there is something wonderfully tactile about hold a whole unit like this in your hand....

Also I have ordered a whole load of Scottish and English musketeers from Peter Pig to add to the stands to make them look a little bit busier and more dynamic with some skirmishers out the front.

It also means that the 3 Swedish units I have finished will suddenly be 6 units (once I have painted another couple of strips of pike)

There are few reasons for going with this change, one of which is the realisation that I don't have the time to produce everything I want to get painted and on the table and smaller units take less time to produce.

I like the idea of a single base unit for Pike and shot - it eliminates some of the problems which arise with sets like Black Powder and Pike units targeting musket units  and lets you abstract the unit’s abilities into a single unit.

I think I am over my desire to produce really big units for the look of it - I use 12 figure units for my Napoleonics and my 25mm Franco-Prussian and they look fine to me, let me put on the size of game I want on the normal 6 x 5 table we have at the Guildford Club and fit more easily into my games room.

My main opponent away from the club prefers games that last 2 hours rather than 3 or 4 and playing on a smaller table lets me play the same game and get a result without reducing everything to 6 units a side.  I would prefer longer games but manage to get 3-hour games at the Guildford Club and occasionally at home.

I also have half an eye on using these for a hex based rule set or on grids which is something I have moved to for some periods  - the games are quicker, remove problems to do with wheeling, etc.  A single base unit less than 4" wide will fit on my command and colours mat or on Hexon if I went down that root.

Lastly, I actually like the look of the single base units over the very wide standard Warlord Black Powder unit.  I never had any intention to model exactly the ratio of Pike to Shot in each unit (been there, done that with Forlorn Hope) - I am happy just changing the unit's stats to match the firepower, melee, etc.

Through the Square Window rules use 30mm stands to make up units (with 6 pike and 4 musket stands in a Tercio) so I could have gone that way with this, but I find small stands too fiddly.  I like the look of the Tercios games I have seem in style which uses bases like this - but dislike the use of order cards for every unit, which I think would slow games down massively.

I do realise that quite a few people don't like the look or the abstraction, but everyone can choose their own solution. 

 

Epic Pike and Shotte Cavalry Sprue

 

Finished painting a test cavalry sprue.  The figures aren't quite as good as the infantry sprue due to the limitations of the moulding process, and some are slightly odd, like a couple of the Harquebusier and one of the mounted dragoons in particular.  This makes them slightly harder to paint with washes, as they lack and detail on the front of them, but I have managed to get something reasonable done.

As always some quick photos, bases need finishing and they need varnishing.

2 bases of Harquebusier cavalry, 1 battalia commander, 1 light gun, 1 heavy gun, 1 base of mounted dragoons and 1 base of dismounted dragoons.

 

 

 Partial bases - the 2 curassier figures you get on a sprue and 6 out of 9 commanded shot needed for a base.

The sprues are definitely designed to be painted in 3s, so that you get a complete units of types, e.g. a battery of guns, 2 x Harquebusier, 1 dragoons, 1 commanded shot, etc.

I might get some horses from Peter Pig or somewhere and make horse holder bases for the dismounted dragoons, I'll see.

You are never going to get together the 15 curassier needed for a units (needs 6 sprues plus a cornet from one sprue) which would be okay for ECW but not TYW.  Warlord have realise this and provide a "resin" cast box of 15 curassier for a regiment.

I probably have enough cavalry sprues to be able to pull off the 12 Curassier I need along with a cornet and complete this unit anyway.

Another Epic Swedish Unit

 

 

Finished off another infantry sprue for another swedish 30YW Epic unit - yellow regiment this time.  Quick picture showing the result, need varnishing and flags adding.

I picked up another Push the Pike box cheaply off someone who was selling it with some extras for a pretty good price.

So, I now only have 29 more infantry units to paint, 9 cavalry sprues to finish and 3 scots units (probably in Swedish service) and everything will be done.

Planning on trying painting a cavalry sprue next and then I'll switch to painting some Imperial units.

Another TYW Unit

 Managed to finish up the painting and basing for the Grey Regiment.  Still needs varnishing and flags adding...

More Epic Pike and Shotte 30YW

 I have spent some time today painting another frame of Epic figures and thought I'd show them on the frame.

They are nearly done - need to tidy up the separate figures (which I find harder to paint) and then they can be removed, edges repainted and then based up.

These are a Swedish Grey regiment.

Same technique as before. These took about 3.5 hours to paint on and off during the afternoon.  I am actually enjoying painting these.  There is something pleasing about impressionist painting and getting figures finished quickly.

I have now bought the Push of Pike starter set as it was heavily reduced on Amazon (with free postage) so there will be lots more of these, after some French Marlburians are finished off.

Painting Epic Pike and Shotte

 I have been asked by a few people to explain the steps I used to paint the Epic Pike and Shotte figures quite quickly.

Basically the process is:

Leave everything on the frame and undercoat it grey (both sides!) then heavily dry brush white  brushing downwards.

I have some sample Army Painter Speed paints I bought to try (out of professional curiosity) so I used a mix of those, ink washes and normal Coat D'arms paints.

1) Paint the main coat colour with a wash (I used Army painter Magic Blue for the first unit) - just splash it on and cover everything.  If the unit wasn't fully uniform in colour I would miss out a few figures here and paint their jackets or trousers when I painted the hats.

2) Paint the hats in various different shades of Brown, gray and black using washes again. 

I also painted all the shoes with either black or brown at this point, and I used two of the browns to paint the bags which are on some of the backs.

I used one of the browns to paint the bandoliers on the musketeers.

I also used the black to paint the sword hilts.

I also used one of the sandy browns to paint the gloves on the officers and pikemen

3) Paint the Muskets and pikes wood colour

4) Paint the musket rests a dark brown chestnut and paint any hair on the back of the figures.

5) Paint the straps buff

6) Paint the barrel of the muskets, plus swords, top of musket rests and pike points Chainmail silver

7) Paint the armour and helmets (I used army painter Broadsword silver which is fairly dark  -your could paint them chainmail first and then wash them).

8) paint the stockings, drum bits, collars and feathers white - could do hat bands but I didn't bother. I dabbed in the stockings at the front as you can't easily reach all of them.

9) Paint the flesh on faces and hands (I didn't bother painting beards).

10) Paint sashes Red

11) Paint gold on drum rim and anything on the officer that seems it needs it.

11) Touch up anything that really stands out - like white in the wrong place.

12) Remove from the sprue - touch up sides of arms where they were attached with coat colour. Glue on bases, varnish and when dry add flock to base and glue on flags.

DONE

The secret to speed is not worrying if everything is completely neat, as you are just aiming at the look of a whole unit viewed on the tabletop and also using a colour in more than one place -so muskets and pikes the same brown and using the same washes for some hats, bandoliers, bags, etc I did wonder if the figures would benefit from a thin black wash to separate the colours more but decided it wasn't worth that extra step and it would dull down the colours.

Hope that helps a bit.

I reserve the right to change my mind!

 

I have been mulling over the Thirty Years War project I would like to do. I had tried painting a free sprue of Epic Pike and Shotte but didn't really get on with them.  I also bought a test box of the 28mm Pike and Shotte plastic figures.

On Monday I tried assembling the 28mm plastics and got so frustrated with them (I really don't get on with multi-part 28mm) that I threw them in the bin in disgust!

Then I had a look at metals and realised it was going to be far too expensive for the size of games I wanted (circa £40 a unit).

I have been playing around with washes to paint some fantasy and boardgame figures so wondered if perhaps I could use that approach on smaller figures.  I bit the bullet and bought a box of Epic Pike and Shot Battalia for the 30YW on Amazon (£7 a unit - much better!) and they arrived Tuesday morning.

Got them undercoated and started painting on Tuesday - finished today.  I think thay look fine!  They are pretty quick to paint and, once you decide to treat a spue like one 28mm figure, you can gloss over the detail you aren't going to see anyway.