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French Artillery Sons Finis

As they say in New France.

Those English upstarts are in for a bit of a shock when these appear…. or maybe not as my opponent may read this!

These were finished a lot quicker than expected. Out of interest whenever I say finished I mean painted. I am going to sort the bases out when everything is painted. That way they will all look the same. Too many times I have finished a unit and then, when put next to the one before I realised that the flock was a different shade (being a total pillock I would base them based upon memory rather than heading out to the shed to check).

I also managed to get some more done on the HQ.

These are in the tunic rather than the soldiers coat. So mainly blue with white gaiters and a black hat. I am not looking forward to painting the colours. The problem is they are folded! I already have two colours, regimental and kings colour so these are pretty much going to be spare.

If I look at it another way…it shall be a mini challenge!

After this lot…the woodland tribes pack… lucky me…lots of War paint!

Oh and I succumbed…

I ended up getting three….I will never, ever have to buy gold paint again….

My little boy loves painting every so often so a nice cheap way to let him.

I must get some more heads and arms to make them a bit different.

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French Artillery… Further Work

Today was a bit busy,

I was trying to get the entrance to the shed wind and water tight. Managed it even though the double glazed window became single glazed… don’t ask.

Anyway a bit if relaxed painting calmed me down a bit 😖

I have decided to put a glaze over the red to try and blend in the colours a bit. To be honest though the look much better at about a metre.

Still a long way to go, but still keeping the momentum up. Tomorrow I hope to get the crew finished. Not to mention some more done on the howitzers and a start made on the infantry ensigns and sergeants… which I keep forgetting about… not to mention my long haired militia man (a simple conversion from hat to hair). He was my original Hawkeye.

The shed… with the new an improved window…🤬🤬🤬

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French Artillery…First Steps

Managed some painting again….

These are not in their coats, so they are basically red uniform, black hat and white gaiters. I have seen some depictions of the gaiters being black, but as everything else in this force is white it might look a little odd.

They are sitting drying as I just shoved a dark red wash over them. Tomorrow I will paint the dragon red and then highlight with the bright red.

Hopefully they won’t take very long to do…. famous last words???

The artillery will get a dark wash, and highlighted with a lighter blue. Metal work on the carriage is black with a bronze barrel. Again…shouldn’t take that long.

I have actually fired a 12lb cannon (minus ball) I helped crew a gun when not messing about as a cavalryman. I faced said gun as a British Light infantrymen a couple of years before. It was much more fun firing the thing than watching it go boom towards you!

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The Militia are Finished

Huzzah…the colonel leads them out

So next up up we have…

Artillery

Evidently there were only two howitzers. I have enough for three crews of four. So I am now on the hunt for a cannon to build up the fire power. To be honest I would have preferred a larger base for the howitzers but it was the only appropriate circular base size I had.

These will have red tunic and breeches, a dark blue coat with red cuffs and turn backs. I also need to paint up the ensigns and sergeants that I forgot last time. The officers will match in with the infantry.

As a total aside… my game came!

Once I have had a good look at it, I will write a post about it.

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Militia…Almost there

Finished work late tonight, so not much done

Still the metalwork on the muskets to do as well as some more highlights here and there (the black hats for instance).

Then onto the artillery methinks. Three howitzers and crew.

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Militia – now with faces

A smidge more done on these.

To be honest one can hardly see the any difference apart from the base flesh tone. I also added a dark wash to some of them prior to high lighting the clothing. Powder horns have had the metalwork added.

Quite a bit to do, weapons, hair flesh wash and highlights. Still, every little helps as the saying goes!

To be honest these are beginning to grow on me.

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Militia and a Couple of Milestones

Tonight was a bit hectic so not much painting happened…

Not much, but at least I managed some,

The Essex miniatures Militia… well I think they are. To be honest they weren’t as bad to slap paint onto as I thought they might. The fringed jackets however are a nightmare! My fringed jackets are cloth as opposed to buckskin. I fancied a bit of a bright colour hence the blue. They still need a fair bit doing on them. But I believe they will ‘come alive’ when their hands and faces are done.

Anyway to the milestones. My first blog post was a year ago, which is pretty amazing. Up to this blog I would have been lucky to make a week. I have tried blogging at least three times and never got past the first post.

The second milestone is that on the day the blog reached one year old was also the day I hit 1000 visitors. That is totally weird to me. I honestly thought I would be asking my wife and kids to come and reads stuff so I didn’t feel lonely. As it happens my wife doesn’t follow my blog ☹️.

So for anyone who has visited my blog or are reading this thanks a bunch as it made my day 👍

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Sleepy Hollow… The Full Cast

After mixing about half a ton of concrete yesterday, today was a rest day!

I managed to finish the remains of the Sleepy Hollow set.

Here we have the remaining figures. Two agricultural workers and a blacksmith. A couple in their night clothes a member of the militia and a couple of gentlemen of a nondescript employment.

As with the rest these were a joy to paint.

The following photograph shows the full set.

They will join my French and Indian Wars boxes. I will make a start on the rest of my forces soon.

I am honestly not sure what to do with the extra militia I started painting with the Sleepy Hollow minis.

These match in with the Essex minis, but as can be seen from the photo above, not the Blue Moon ones. The joys of the different meaning of 15mm. I suppose I will have to live with the fact that som3 people are short and others tall 🤔

Today’s painting was supported by an appropriate film!

I bought this online, and having watched it today, it suddenly dawned on me that I had never ever seen the start.

I will have to make some suitable terrain to go with this set. I have some 15mm MDF buildings from 4ground. I did try to purchase some snake fencing and other bits and bobs but their Paypal seemed down and they haven’t answered a number of emails.

I am going to make various fields etc to break up the battlefield, interspersed with a large number of deciduous woodland bases.

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Submarines, Goblins and on the Boat Again

As I am on the boat again, I had a mooch at my Kickstarter pledges.

First up, the one I am most excited about!

Ever since playing Silent Hunter on my PC I have loved submarines. As soon as I saw this I wanted it. Hopefully it will live up to my expectations!

Basically the game ties into an app that shows targets, plays sounds and generally makes it a bit more exciting. It even has whisper mode…. don’t make too much noise when the sub chasers are looking for you.

Next up… Miremarsh….everyone plays a goblin!

I wanted something to play with the kids, and this looked quirky enough to fit the bill.

For some reason I backed a pile of gravestones, really don’t know why… must have been a moment of weakness as I have a pile already!

And finally a couple of books by my best mate Wiggy, who is my gaming buddy.

My gravestones should be here soon, the sub game in December and Miremarsh in August 2019. I already have the RPG books.

Only thirteen more hours to go until I get back to Shetland!

Wish me luck…

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No Painting Tonight☹️

Sat on a boat midway between Shetland and Orkney…

Well okay if truth be known I am nearer Orkney, having left Shetland five and a half hours ago, with twenty minutes to go before getting into harbour. I eventually arrive in Aberdeen at 07.00 tomorrow.

In one of my earlier blog posts I rambled on about never being able to find the stuff I want. Luckily my eagle eyed mate spotted a Starship Troopers game, complete with maps and stand up card figures….

Huzzah!

I haven’t a clue what the rules are like, but I want it for its parts. Success! Plus you can’t really complain when you get it for £15 posted.

And as a coincidence…tonight’s onboard entertainment.

So once my mate has finished running his Star Trek RPG we will be joining SICON as the mobile infantry to protect the United Citizens’ Federation.

The campaigns of Pluto await!

I managed to amass all of the available DVD’s relating to Starship Troopers including the original Roughnecks series. Which I liked more than I thought I would.

I am considering getting the graphic novels, but with the DVD collection mentioned above, I reckon I have a fair bit of source material, after I finish with all of the missions and campaigns in the various books.

Tomorrow, I have about one hour to charge around Aberdeen after my meetings before heading back home on the boat again. It seemed like a really good idea at the time to go by boat. Twenty four hours travelling for six hours of meetings. It takes one hour by plane!

Anyway what follows is a a picture of kirkwall in the dark!