Thursday, April 9, 2020

From PeteF: Quatres Bras with Old School 25s - legere battalion (120 points)



The French order of battle for Quatres Bras was 32 infantry battalions, 6 artillery batteries and 12 or so cavalry regiments.  It's going to come to 800 foot and 200 mounted figures. This is the fourth of the ten light infantry battalions that I need to put together and will take the army to 18/32 battalions.



Most of the troops will be 25mm Minifigs, an old school sculpting style that I really like. The uniforms are not necessarily accurate to the Hundred Days campaign - by which time a lot of the Armee du Nord was pretty ragged in any case. These troops will represent the 2nd battalion of the 1st light infantry.

Elite Company Voltigeurs





As part of this week's hobbying I dug into the boxes of old 25s that I've snagged on EBay to see what gaps I'll need to fill in from Calivers Books - who still sell them and are open for business. I don't think I'm going to need that much - mainly mounted chasseurs. I've got quite a few troops that will need rehabbing - hopefully not too much paint stripping. If I could avoid distractions I might even get the army finished in the next year or so. We have a local convention that's just been cancelled for this May.... with a bit of focus Quatres Bras in May 2021 could be possible.

Elite Company Carabiniers

In the meantime the 2nd/1st (or is it 1st/2nd, or 1ere/2eme?) will take their place alongside their fellow grumblers.


Centre Copanies
  
Attack Column




From TamsinP: 28mm WotR Knights & Men At Arms


Some of you may have been wondering where I've been and why I haven't posted anything yet. Well, you can rest assured that I am alive and have been painting. It's simply that I have been working on a large project and haven't had anything ready until today. Now that I'm in the swing of things, you can expect a fairly regular turnover of painted figures from me.

For this post, I am presenting the first few bases of a 28mm Wars of the Roses army for Art de la Guerre. I decided to start with the foot knights and men at arms, just to get the bulk of the plate armour out of the way.

First up, the Royal Bodyguard knights; you can have one base of these (either mounted or dismounted) in ADLG:






You can also have two bases of mounted or dismounted "Men at Arms":






And up to six bases of "Knights and Retinue Billmen", who can be foot knights or billmen. So far I have painted six bases of foot knights, but there will be some bases of billmen later on.







This little lot took just under a week to paint, and then the basing took a couple of hours a day for a couple of days (during which I have been painting the next set of figures).

I haven't added tufts or flowers to the bases yet. I'm not sure that I will for the bulk of the troops, maybe for command stands.





From GregB: Another Stompy Sci-Fi Machine

Let's get stompy! A "Nemesis Warbringer" class titan for Legio Mortis. This is a plastic model from GW's "Adeptus Titanicus" game.
OK, for this post, we get back to big, stompy machines from the grim darkness of the far future! This is a "Nemesis Warbringer" class battle titan from GW's rebooted "Adeptus Titanicus".  This is a plastic kit from GW. It is painted in the colours of Legio Mortis, a titan legion that fights in the name of Horus Lupercal, Warmaster and last hope for humanity!

Lots of detail on the rear, as always, including the pseudo-industrial components holding whatever mysterious bits that power this beast.
This variant of titan chassis is a relatively new release for GW. The other three titan venerable chassis designs - the Warlord, the Reaver and the Warhound - have been staples of Adeptus Titanicus/Epic games and setting for decades. Forge World shook things up a bit by releasing a new type of Titan a couple of years ago - the "Nemesis Warbringer".  It first appeared as a model for the 28mm 30k/40k game - one of those model kits from Forge World that are so expensive you might as well buy a car instead.

Rough size comparison photo...
Fans of the rebooted "Adeptus Titanicus" had wondered if GW would ever release a version of the model to use in the new game.  The company has a record of paper-thin commitment to non-core games such as "Adeptus Titanicus", so for my part I was skeptical...but I was wrong. The plastic Nemesis model did appear (along with some super cool new terrain) earlier this year.

Another comparison photo...bigger than a Warhound (front) and Reaver (back, right).
The "Nemesis Warbringer" is a heavy, full-on battle titan, heavier and a little more capable than a Reaver, but still not as potent as the Warlord class titan.  One imagines that plans for the "Nemsis Peacebringer" did not get past the preliminary consideration stage with the Mechanicum Parliament. You can see how it fits size-wise in some of the photos here.

Standard Reaver-sized laser battery on the right arm...the other carries a volcano cannon (again, Reaver-sized).

I've not yet used this machine in a game, but in terms of performance it looks to be tougher than a Reaver (although not by much).  It's "arm" weapons are consistent with those found on other Reavers (with the exception of 'close combat' weapons - I don't think this chassis can be equipped with those). Up on the very elaborate top-mounted platform you can mount either a quake cannon or "Bellicosa Volcano Cannon" - weapons otherwise found on the arms of a Warlord Titan. All in all, it's a kind of hybrid in terms of a battlefield role.

There are secondary weapon mounts on the carapace that look like heavy AA weapons...I don't think they play an immediate role in the current game, but I suppose these might render this machine into a "flak titan" should they ever allow for flyers or - even better - just re-release the rules for "Epic". 

WIP photo - the monster comes together in stages...start with the basics on the legs...
Torso is then added & painted...the main and secondary batteries are painted seperately...
The "Adeptus Titanicus" models are really fantastic kits.  The titans can be a challenge to paint, at least for me, as I find you must paint the sort of base "skeleton" of the machine first, and then paint the various segmented armoured plates separately before adding them to the base components.  I love the end result, but the process can be tricky - and it was VERY tricky with this beast. 
It's busy up there...

Can you see the walkway at the front, and the little observation scopes inside the cut-outs on the huge armour plates?
Close up of the main and secondary batteries on the carapace.
There is a lot going on with that top carapace...including some kind of bonkers walkway.  If you squint, you will see there are two telescope-type observation devices at the front of the carapace! What a marvelous absurdity...I can just imagine some senior officer from the Titan Legion, Space Marine Legion or other, out there "observing" an ongoing engagement.  One assumes they would grasp the hand rails rather firmly when that huge quake cannon up above them fires!

All in all this is titan chassis certainly has a different flavour to the other more traditional ones. I expect at some point GW might intend to release a version of the volcano cannon for the main battery on the top carapace, although with the pandemic countermeasures forcing the closure of the business for now, who knows what plans might have to be dropped.

The obligatory update to the "family photo" from my shelves - Legio Mortis battlegroup with supporting Knights to the front.
At any rate, I look forward to having this machine "take a walk" on a tabletop "Adeptus Titanicus" battlefield someday soon.  As a newly-painted model, I'm sure the chances of its void shields being knocked down and a critical hit destroying its reactor on the very first turn of the game are probably, mostly, low...ish...

Thanks for reading everyone - hope you are safe and well.

Greg

From Millsy: More Italian Condotierri

I'm continuing working my way through the my Italian Condottieri for which I posted my initial work previously. This time I have another three units to show - one of skirmishing infantry and a pair of Italian mounted crossbows.

The infantry skirmishers are a mix of venerable metal miniatures which I picked up a long time ago for another project which I never progressed. I've no idea who made them and I suspect there are a few different makes in the mix.




The two units of Italian mounted crossbows are Front Rank Miniatures with a few Perry Miniatures horse swaps and plastic crossbows from my vast bits box. I bought 30+ Mordheim sprues years ago and they are the gift that just keeps giving for upgrades, weapon swaps and other customisations.




I'd be reluctant to mix the Front Rank infantry or riders with Perry Miniatures on the same bases as the former are definitely at the large end of the 28mm scale. They are lovely minis though and I thoroughly enjoyed painting them. At least the horses mix OK as there are limited options from Front Rank.




More HYW Knights -- in full caparison

As promised continuing my French HYW Joan of Arc period army a stand for Jean V de Linières  Baron of Linières or Lignières, Lord of Rezay, Thévé and Brécy, Master of the Kitchen of the King. The figures are all Front Rank





The standard is laser printed sourced and then edited from here and the caparison is all free hand. I will say that the Lions came out a bit chibi style 😆, must be the big eyes!







The standard bearer is a rough conversion from a figure holding a hand arm in the same style as the others. I realised after the fact that I'd ordered the set of figures with raised hand weapons only and that FR do in fact make one with lances raised that would have been perfect! Oh well you work with what you have and I'll pretend he's pulling the flag back in after it was caught by the wind!


Anyway apologies for a) the useless wash on the lighter colours, that's still something I'm working on and b) the pretty rough and ready fleur de lis -- hand painting sixty odd is a chore but I could have taken more time!



One thing to note for other collectors is that Front Rank are the only manufacturer I've found that will sell horses with saddles included. Most others have the saddles form part of the rider. This makes the horses no good if you want a stand of riderless horses to show knights who have dismounted. I'll be buying some horses from Front Rank for this purpose.

Next up some terrain and a building -- first stab at this for me.