AWI Marine Ensigns & Colours

One of the details that really enhances an tabletop army is a proper set of regimental colours, and since unit-specific flags add so much character to a miniature army, but British Marine Colours are somewhat difficult to come by (and a bit of a contention among reenactors), I settled on creating my own.

After doing some [somewhat dubious] research into the matter, I went about creating my flags based on some accounts of the Regimental and King's colours likely carried by the Marines in Boston and the early stages of the Revolutionary War. Several sources cite a tailor's receipt for silk flags, describing the use of the fouled anchor and the rose and thistle motif commonly used by most other regiments. While not explicitly mentioned, I included St. George's Cross on the Regimental since it is specified by the 1768 warrant, and the Marines did their best to be able to fit in when on land campaign alongside the army. (Also it adds a lot more visual interest).

I will do a separate post to describe the process used to design the flag graphics, so for now suffice to say it was done using the Adobe Creative Suite, and printed to scale (used same measurements as the flags printed in the Perry painting guide that came with the figures) on a professional digital press on nice uncoated paper stock, which was then glued in place with watered down PVA.

From here I'll be adding the rest of the set's command group: an officer on foot and musician.

British 8th Foot, War of 1812

My commissioned set of 8th Foot, War of 1812 is now complete. The company is made of a mix of Front Rank and Foundry figures, which blend quite nicely.

2nd Detachment of Marines (Perry Plastic Redcoats)

Now for a quick progress update on my ongoing AWI British Marines project.

British Marines Shore Party

I have now complted the first 8 British Marines from the American Revolution. These Perry Brothers plastic figures have been a lot of fun to paint so far, but it has definitely been a learning process.

AWI British Marines Test Figure

Allow me to excitedly show my latest test-model. This figure represents a hopefully company strength group of British Corps of Marines from the American War of Independence, and the model is one of the relatively-new Perry Brothers plastic redcoats. I've experimented with a new basing scheme hopefully evocative of the Northeast woodlands.

In the coming weeks I'll be working to build up his regiment, and will post progress as it happens, with the distinct possibility of a step-by-step on the paint scheme and basing, so stay tuned!

Can't see the forest for the trees

A column of Hessian Grenadiers march though the wilderness of New England, as Continental Militia rush out from the nearby woods in ambush.

Continuing on from my first two tree stands, I have been building toward a forest that can cover half of the surface of my gaming table.

Arming the HMS Sophie part 1

Having come across a good deal on a set of six turned brass cannon barrels at a local hobby shop, I am finally able to start properly arming my ship models. However, since they did not come with laser-cut wood parts, this means building my own naval gun carriages from scratch.

HMS Sophie Part 6 - Aft Cabin Renovation

Finally jumping back into my 28mm Royal Navy Brig project, it is time to revise the windows for the aft cabin. I feel my current version detracts from the rest of the model, so I am removing the part, and adding windows based on examples of 18th C. warships, and simplifying them to fit the look and scale of the ship.

Königstiger Rescue, Part I

My friend ZE Whitlow has given me a rescued Tiger II for Christmas. He had acquired it second-hand, and it had some issues, which he figured I could correct. The original model is a Panzer VI Tiger II, with a Porsche turret. However, the turret was missing all hatches, the radio operator's machine gun was missing, the exhaust system was destroyed, and, oh yeah, the previous owners had glued the wrong gun onto the front!

Pirate Paint-a-Thon

I was recently asked to put on a miniature painting class/clinic for a local youth group. It being a church-based, kid-friendly activity, I needed a range of miniatures that would both engage my 6th grade target audience and come across as innocuous and unoffensive to their parents. I did some searching, and toyed with the idea of splitting up a set of Medieval Knights and Men-at-arms, but something was lacking. I just wasn't sure it would really draw in the kids and get them excited to paint toy soldiers.

The answer was surprisingly right in front of my face. PIRATES! With the dearth of recent swashbuckling movies, and everyone's favorite Disney attraction, they had widespread appeal, and their now stylized image no longer carries with it the political weight and negative stigma that the original group of, well, criminals had.

With a theme chosen, I went in search of good models that could be used for beginners painting without being un-fun or lacking too much in detail. While I personally love the sculpts of the fine Swashbucklers range of Wargames Foundry, I could not afford such figures on the tight non-profit budget I was working with. Luckily I stumbled on Old Glory's Pirates range, and was immediately sold when I saw the pictures.

I decided to create my own painting guide to ease instruction, since you can't easily show a 1 inch figure from the front of the room (i have no live video with large screen). I painted a sample figure from our set, using only the limited paint pallet we have for the event, to show step by step how we could work with what we have.

As the even drew closer, the number of attending 6th graders became increasingly uncertain, so we decided to get some extra men to paint. After searching for a plastic option for pirates and finding nothing, we ordered up 2 boxes of Wargames Factory WSS figures. Being soldiers from about the GAoP, we decided they would do. At the very worst, they would work as local island Governors' Guards or the like. The added bonus was that we would have something to practice on before going straight at the nice lead figures.

Given that I only had a rough 2 1/2 hour window for my portion of this event, it was plain that I needed to prep the figures for the kids. So I spent a week filing mold lines off lead, gluing to washers, adding sand to the bases, and priming about 72 models. It was a race to finish on time!

HMS Sophie Part 5

As I was working with a hand auger, and not a power drill, my mast holes are not exactly the size I was hoping for when I drilled them.

Uneven Hole

To compensate for this, I have wrapped paper around the base of my masts until they plug in snugly.

A completed Mast section

On the test fit, they now stay in place quite nicely, yet are still removable for storage.

There's still much to be done, but i'm pleased at how this is coming together.

HMS Sophie Part 4: Hull details

Bowsprit and fo'c's'le

The bowsprit is nested and glued into a hole i drilled at an angle into the solid hull (another perk of doing the hull as one piece). I've attached the upper part using my craft twine, and you can faintly make out two wire loops. These will attach the removable rigging (forestay and fore topmast stay).

Deck detailing courtesy of Starbucks

The actual deck is made of carefully selected coffee stirs gleaned with permission from local Starbucks. I cut them to size with side cutters, then filed the raw edges smooth on an emery board. They are held down with superglue, as I found that Elmers doesn't hold fast enough to keep them from springing back up. One all glued in place, it is sanded lightly, and i drilled holes at the edges of the planks with a pin vise.

Functional Deck Ladder

The gunwales have ladders integrated onto the sides (as does the HMS Surprise on which I've based much of this). These are spaced to hold figures based with more coffee stirs. My officer of Artillery shows functionality of the ladder, and also serves to give some sense of scale here.

Sophie's aft cabin and rudder

Here we have the aft cabin of HMS Sophie, as well as the top of her rudder. I am not entirely satisfied with how this portion came out, and may revise it in the future. The intent was to make a faux leaded glass window using window screen painted as the lead over a dark blue plastic card underneath. This technique has looked good on some scenery buildings in the past, but does not seem to quite do it here.

HMS Sophie Part 3

Continuing on with the construction of my 18th-19th century Sloop of War, here are some Hull shots of HMS Sophie.

Hull of my HMS Sophie, already afloat in the waters she'll be sailing.

Again, the hull is a solid plank of 2x6 left over from a musket stock project, shaped with planes and rasp files. One gunport was built out of small planks and some plastic card for the iron. I made a greenstuff mold, and copied the port for the rest of the ship.

Close–up of the gun ports and ladder up to the deck

HMS Sophie, WIP Part 2

The next phase in the construction was further work aloft in the rigging. Ive attached the spars to the masts using a system that compromises strength and playability against nautical accuracy. The yards hang from small blocks I made in a similar fashion to the deadeyes of the standing rigging, though with a trench around their perimeter. These are hung via twisted florist wire that will be painted to resemble rope that is wrapped around and through a small hole drilled in the mast. The finished assembly is decorated with actual miniature line to cover my "seams."

The spars themselves are made from square dowels that i shaped down using planes to resemble the shape seen aloft on classic sailing ships.

HMS Sophie, WIP Part 1

[Dusts off blog]

This will be the first in my series of WIP posts to detail the progress on my HMS Sophie project.
I am working on a (roughly) 28mm tabletop Royal Navy Sloop. The model is scratchbuilt, mostly from scrap material about the apartment. Unfortunately, i have lost the camera with the earliest stages of construction on it.
The hull is built at the waterline for gaming convenience, and is cut and shaped from one piece of wood. I used a 2 x 6 from the local Home Depot (left over from my blank drill musket). I rough cut the shape using hand saws, then honed it in using a rasp file. The deck and gunwales were smoothed and shaped further with planes and a chisel.
The forcastle and quarterdeck have been built up using Basswood panels, and I have built gunports cast in green stuff from an original in wood and plasticard.

Moving on to something a bit more visual, i have begun the phase of constructing my masts and spars. The images below show the progression as i've been working on the fore topmast. I started with two dowels of progressively smaller diameter and filed the joining parts to be a bit square. I then added some supports for the fighting tops (i lose sailor points for not knowing their names), cut from basswood. On top of this is placed the tops.



Also important for the rigging, I have been constructing my own blocks, cut from dowel. They are notched around, drilled, and soaked in C-A glue for strength.











So far i have made 32 of these for the shrouds.

More on rigging and some pictures of the hull in the next post.

French Infantry, 1812-1815

I have begun to dabble in the Napoleonic period since the uniforms are just so very interesting. My first venture is with a box of Perry plastic French infantry. The build was simple, only attaching packs and heads, and the poses and casts are comparable to the best offerings in lead. I tried to paint toward the campaign look, and appreciated the numerous covered shako options. I'm afraid that my own knowledge of these uniforms is not entirely up to scratch, so things like plume colors and march order may be a bit off. I've left off the ensigns and drummers for now.