Ship's Crew

This is a shot of my Foundry Swashbucklers crew i've put together. I am using the boarding pike models sans pike, so that they can be handling the ship's lines instead.

The figures are pinned to GW bases topped in coffee stirs for the ship deck look. I unwound some jute twine and retwisted it to be rope-sized at scale, and made some proper coils onto the bases.

The ship is more of a fun story than the men, though. My friend rescued it from the dumpster outside a maritime museum, and it was in sorry shape. I spent a good amount of time bringing it back to life with replanking the deck, redoing the rigging, and, of course, giving it a new paint job. The schooner is as of yet still a work in progress, and it leaves me wanting for a bigger ship that could actually hold some guns, but it is a fine craft nonetheless.

Napoleonic British Infantry, Spain 1809, part 2

I have completed my test group of British Peninsula War troops. They were a blast to paint. For some variety, I gave a few grey trousers and the rest white. I really enjoyed putting these together, and love the way they look with varied poses. My favorite is still the one with the bent shako and the desperate look on his face. The basing is starting to have the effect I want when you put them all together.

Napoleonic British Infantry, Spain 1809

As is my new MO, I've started to work on an aggressor force to pair with the French Napoleonic Line Infantry. The Perry Brothers are at it again with another great plastic set. I gleefully picked these up as soon as they became available. The models are their best plastic kit yet! The poses are both dynamic and lifelike. They have really caught a lot of small gestural detail, and these only look better in bulk. The figures look great both individually for skirmish games and in a line together. You have great options for shooting, at the ready, and various stages of loading, They all look straight from the manual of arms, too. One of my favorite options is to have two soldiers sharing out cartridges.

Given my love for the Sharpe's Rifles series, I've chosen to paint them up for the Peninsula Campaign. I prefer the earlier shakos with the gold plates and plumes. It also gave me the chance to do some cool things with the bases. From what I have seen in pictures, Spain has a very interesting and varied landscape not too different from that of my native California. I tried to give it a scrubby look along with rough ground.

 

I'm painting these up as 44th foot since I like yellow facings on my redcoats, and also for the convenience factor of having the regimental colours come with the set. It is worth noting the variance of trotter packs in this set. Though this model shows just the basic pack with greatcoat, there are a variety of other accoutraments attached to the packs, from extra shoes to cooking equipment.

My officer is hatless, and I think he looks a bit like Mr Wickham. 

For this set I've also finally wizened up and worked on magnetic bases, which should ease gameplay, storage, and transport.

A bit of scenery

This is an older image of a small town scene I build in 28mm. Originally intended as  Warhammer Fantasy terrain, it works well for small European villages and for Pirates scenery as well. I built this piece back while working for Games Workshop, as store terrain. The brick was all scribed into insulation foam using a pen, and much of the rest of the construction is all coffee stir and foamcore. Doors and Tower are from GW.