Raising your hat

 I recently made the mistake of buying some Warlord musketeers on eBay, and I have to say I didn't think much of them when they arrived. I can't really place my finger on why I dislike them, but they just don't have the right 17c 'feel' that Redoubt or even the venerable Foundry range do.

The hats come separately, which doesn't make for a very realistic fit on the little bald heads the figures have, but my main beef is that all the hat crowns are far too shallow (imo) for the early 17c . I cracked open the milliput to rectify this

The new recruits with their extended hat crowns. I'll skim over the top with liquid green stuff .

This guy has a sort of shoulder cloak on. The end of his musket is flared like a blunderbuss...meh.

Presumably an ensign. The coat and hose are about 40 years apart and he has a little purse on a string over his shoulder. Not very gentlemanly for the 17c.

I'm not sure about this fellow. Fine detail but just something that doesn't ring true.

Better clothing, and nice to see someone actually loading their musket, but really... resting the butt on the ground when moving with a unit? 

Better...I quite like the early feel of this one, definitely been on campaign and again, nice to see a musketeer priming his pan .

That's more like it. Lose the full beard though..

Another moan is all the hats have feathers stuck in them. Not ostrich plumes which were readily available and cheap, but presumably pheasant feathers.

Good pose. Leaning into the musket. 

So a mixed bag. I don't think they sculptor really understands 17c clothing and drill like Brian Rigelsford of Redoubt, Steve Jones of Captain General or the Perrys. But fine detail and crisp castings. 

Conflicting Intelligence

I've had the mounted figures of this command base finished for a while, but have just completed the standing chap.

I wanted another command base to represent a non specific leader, and possibly a bit of a bungler.

Lost in the Mist.

The chap on foot I picked up from a rummage bin at Overlord earlier this year. The other two I bought new, but all are Redoubt figures. Foot man I imagine to be a gentleman volunteer fighting with a partizan....

The base can be used for 1600 up to 1642 so fairly flexible. I'll flock it once I've decided what mixture to use.

Blow Wind Blow Part3

 I've finished the windmill ( apart from applying flock to the base).

Overall I'm quite happy with it. The sails are a bit on the small side, but any longer and I think they would have been a hindrance to transport and storage.

I'll set some pictures up on a proper tabletop one day, but here it is on the unholy mess of my workbench.

A Bavarian pikeman lays claim to the mill on behalf of the Emperor.

I added a worn millstone from Debris of War .

The ladder and tiller came out fairly well.

I was pleased with the brickwork, painting a light colour to represent the mortar and then dry brushing brick red

I've just watched a very good video on

 YouTube about the siege of Leiden in 1573. The defenders moved windmills

 from outside the walls and reassembled

 them within to provide flour.

I'm just chopping up some coffee stirrers to make some artillery bases , so hopefully I'll be posting those soon.

The Gallows Tree

 While I was in the terrain making mood, and the primer on the windmill was drying, I knocked up a couple of pieces that would have been seen all over Europe in the 17c.

Here are a couple of examples of paintings with gallows evident, and if course there's the well known Magpie on the gallows by Breughel.

Here's my version so far.

There is a bit more of a twist on them than is visible in this picture, just to show the warped wood as in the last painting above.

Also a leaning crucifix. 

Hopefully these will add some flavour to the 17c tabletop.

Blow Wind Blow Part2

 I've finished all the modifications to the windmill kit, so it's ready for priming.

I added more bits of balsa to the sails as I thought they still didn't look organic enough.

Front and rear 

and the 'axle' end was made from the end of an old paintbrush.

The ladder, tiller and tilting mechanism are completed.

I then coated all the additions with Modpodge for extra strength and to hopefully disguise any visible printing ridges.

I was pleased to discover this was a common design in England as well as Northern Europe, so it will be usable in ECW games too. Ready to undercoat now. I'll attach the sails after painting, and add a few extra details.

Finally Sunrise from the Growlery (my mancave ) window this morning.

Trog and Trogmagog

 I've just finished flocking the bases of the 2 Fighting Fantasy Trolls I was prepping a few days ago. It was a bit of a slog painting them but I'm fairly pleased with the results.  

I think the green fellow (Trog) is my favourite. I hope they perform well at the BOYL game, maybe even fighting each other. It has put me in the mood to paint some early Citadel Night Goblins.....

Blow Wind Blow Part 1

 Having painted loads of TYW figures ( which I will get around to showing you), I have begun to think I need some bespoke terrain. Something like this windmill for instance, painted by Sebastian Vrancx in the early 17c.

I had already purchased a secondhand windmill at Lincombe Barn Tabletop sale a few years ago, but while the top part was ideal, the base wasn't.

I think this model was from the old Ian Weekly range, cast in a kind of hard

 foam. I originally bought it for goblins to live in, but that project will have to wait.

I suppose I could have made the lower part and ladder I needed, but I found a 3d printed windmill kit on eBay which would work perfectly. 

So here we are so far 

Windy helps with the repairs adding an extra step.

The lower half with some alterations to make it more like the Vrancx painting above, such as adding risers on top of the brick foundations, and extending the central post.

I added some spars to the sails to make it a look a bit more ramshackle. The original print was very neat and tidy, and looking at other paintings of windmills or the time the sails often look warped and rotten.

(Note the bright colourful clothing of the rustics. Not everything was black and covered in crap as modern Hollywood would have us believe).

After the glue on the spars had dried I added some furled sails made from some linen tied with thread. I'm not a windmill expert, but I think the sails are rolled aside when the mill isn't in use, during storms or times of battle.

The next detail was the 'tiller' ( I must get a book on the proper terminology, but this seems the right word), with which the miller turns the mill to face the wind. The 3d one that came with the kit was straight, but in all the paintings I found, it's curved through the ladder . Happily the resin the kit was made from bends easily when held in hot water.

Now I've got the headache of fitting it through the steps....

To be continued....

A few 17c Types

 I've painted hundreds of 17c figures over the last couple of years for my TYW armies, but of course haven't catalogued the progress . That changes now, so here are a few I knocked out this week.

A couple of Essex figures with a Minifigs shot barrow.

Redoubt this time. Lovely figures, but the moulds must be in a shocking state. The flash on them was terrible.

2 Redoubt ladies are escorted by a Bicorne dismounted Harquebusier. More complaining in that the Bicorne figure was sadly lacking in detail definition, and cast in a dreadful tinny metal. He painted up ok, but Bicorne charge a premium price for their figures and ought to do better. 

Strange to say there seems to be a dearth of 17c manufacturers, or at least new ranges. With semi retirement in view and a strong desire to earn some bread and cheese away from gardening, I'm sorely tempted to do something to rectify this and maybe commission a new range. 

Shadow and Flame

 ...or to be accurate, bright red paint and gloss varnish.  I volunteered to provide this flock of Balrogs for the upcoming game at BOYL, thinking I had all the figures, but on rummaging about, I found I only had a couple of them ( I had owned these all in the past, but they must have gone in my big fantasy purge of 1987). Happily the Oldhammer community stepped up to the mark and I was able to source the missing figures for zero cost thanks to the generosity of members.

The figures in the original picture are nice and shiny.

So I was pleased to be able to carry that theme on and do likewise, so they also fit in with my Prehammer and Joe Dever collection. It was very refreshing to do a simple paint job, lovely gloss varnish and a filler base again after a couple of years of painting muddy 17c soldiers.

The entire flock. Lots of lovely wings, like all good Balrogs should have.

Citadel and Grenadier.

Two Ral Partha specimens.

Citadel demon by Nick Bibby. A dynamic pose, but I had to counterbalance the base as he tips forward. He's still a bit unstable, but better.

I thoroughly enjoyed painting these. So much so I started another batch of vintage fire demons to join them. They are currently awaiting basing.