The Lure Of Old School .

I usually have a game set up to play , but this week my table has been gathering rubbish, books and boxes of figures - so I had a good clear up and wondered - what to play !? . After a think and a cup of tea (and biscuits) I decided on my old favourite - 40mm SYW(ish) . Here we see the Allied Commander The Duke of Cumberland (Fat Billy) and his somewhat slimmer Aide.

I set some terrain up and used the contents of the first box I came across for the Allies (on the left) and diced for their set up positions using the old Featherstone formula - 1-left flank, 2 - left centre, 3 - centre, 4 - right centre , 5 - right flank , 6 - in reserve . The Allies have the British 20th Foote , the Brunswick Regt. Von Zastrow and a company of Prussian Fuziliers (newly painted) and the Prussian Hussars Regt. Reusch

The French Commander The Duke of Camembert (left) watch a unit of Ulhans speed down the road aiming for the Allied centre. The other units in the French army are Regt. Du Roi , Regt. Orleans and a gun and crew. Again I diced for their deployment positions as I did with their enemy.

The rules being used are my old favourites Batailes de l Ancien Regime.

The French Regt. Du Roi deployed in column of companies  , with the Regt. Orleans behind the village , the artillery is on the extreme right flank beyond them .

There is some confusion as the Regt. Orleans have to manoeuvre around the village to find ground to deploy . too their left the Regt. Du Roi deploy into line.

First blood to the Allies ! , the 20th Foote deploy into line and the left company 'gives fire' on the Uhlans as the move down the road. 

The situation at the end of the second move, The French are struggling to gain space to deploy as the Allies form line and the Brunswickers move around the wooded  hill on the upper right of the photo to flank the enemy . The game will be 15 moves long and I will report on it's progress in due course...…..

Hesse-Cassel Lieb Regiment.

Well I've buckled down and got the AWI regiment finished, didn't take long once I got started . The figures are Kallistra 12mm and it is the Hesse Cassel Lieb Regiment , not the best photo I'm afraid .(click on photo to enlarge)

What's On The Painting Tray .

Well I have lots of figures that need painting , some more relevant than others - BUT being a wargaming / painting butterfly I go off at tangents - so spurning the worthier projects I've been painting Warhammer 40K Sci Fi for a project myself and 'A' are doing (more to follow) and some 12mm AWI Hessians which have been waiting 6 months to get finished .

I've got to be in the humour to paint these small figures as they are fiddly , I usually paint them in groups of eight (one base) , here they are blue tacked to a craft lolly stick .

Here they are done , it doesn't take long once I get into the mind-set . I use dabs of colour leaving plenty of black undercoat to act as shadow , these are painted to look okay at arms length .

The 'Corner of Shame' - the figures I should have been painting , start on them next week - probably .

The Horror !

Just imagine !!!!!

The Result Of The Experiment.

Well I've tried out one of the brushes on a piece of Sci-Fi terrain I've been painting and it worked very well . I sprayed the building a stone colour then brushed a dark shading ink over it when it had dried.  I dry brushed it with an off white paint , wiping most of the paint off the largest brush then dragging the brush from the top of the building to the base so there is more of a highlight on the top of the structure and less on the base . There are lots of details to be picked out on the statues etc before it is finally finished. The brush was washed out when I'd finished with brush soap and has dried out well and not lost it's shape - so a successful experiment I think !.

In The Nature Of A Experiment.

I've always used the best brushes for painting figures - usually Windsor & Newton as I believe you pay for what you get in this life , however I do tend to use one brush for everything till it dies of old age and bristleless . A bad habit I have is to use these good brushes for 'dry brushing' and nothing is worse for them - I have the odd brush suitable for 'dry brushing' but never can find it and so use the brush in hand which usually happens to be a good one . 

I was watching a podcast on You Tube and the chap was using women's make up brushes to 'dry brush' , now make up brushes are an unknown quantity to me - so I went and had a look at my wife's make up stuff that seems to litter the window ledge in the bathroom and found the afore said brushes . I thought it best not to try using her brushes for painting - in the cause of marital accord and had a look on eBay.

There are thousands of them ! mostly rather cheap , so I went for these ones - twelve for about £3 , they come in a variety of sizes . I will be trying them out and will report back how they work .