Part I
For many years I have been a bit of a butterfly with a variety of projects on the go from barely started to almost complete, and everything in between. However, the recent purchase of a new electric car has substantially reduced my reserves and caused me to refocus my hobby. If I am going to continue spending money on it I need to know that it will be towards an end result. Many years ago I had a regular opponent who had a Scots army for the ECW (Covenanters). I had a Waller western army and, although not related to any historical encounter, we had a lot of enjoyable games using the original version of Regiment of Foote. It was however one of the rare occasions where I produced only one army, and then my opponent had to leave the club for family reasons and no one else was interested. My Waller army went.
Recently two things happened:I started to reread the new Regiment of Foote rules, and a friend back in UK put me on to the Maidenhythe fictitious ECW campaign. This takes the form of a series of linked scenarios, and it also has a list of units needed. Consequently there is a purchasing end point and a purpose for collecting and producing armies. Furthermore, the PP units for the game are small, so a unit can be produced in a relatively short time.
The next consideration was where to start. I had begun to collect PP ECW figures again when still back in the UK, so I opened the box to find that I had a fair few to start with, so getting the first few units off the ground was viable. I therefore sorted out my first infantry unit, which I shall describe in part II.
Hopefully my game report of the new version of ROF will bring you some inspiration Andy!
Thanks Sean.
Part II
On with the ideas. I intend to use the Maidenhythe lists to produce the armies such that there is little waste (although I am going to still need to buy figures). I decided to start by painting up what I already have to fit the first scenario. If I don't have enough then that is the time to order more to complete the first scenario and fill any gaps for the second scenario. Next I checked the lists to make sure they had skill/experience levels I could fit to RoF. There are veterans and gallant gentlemen, which I will lump together, and there are untried, which will be conscripts (will also include militia and clubmen in this bracket). All other troops will be considered trained.
Next I wanted to easily distinguish them. I am going a bit ahistorical here, but have decided to give veterans a full uniform of jacket and trousers; trained will have jacket uniform only, with a few civilian jackets thrown in; conscripts will have civilian clothes and trained band flags. It is after all a fictitious campaign which will later feature Scots Covenanters and Highlanders.
I have now sorted out the figures for my first unit. To beef them up I will try and get 8 pike and 6 muskets to a base and also paint up some prone dead and wounded with each unit I do, and a mounted or standing wounded figure for the half base, which will make it stand out more as a half base and further show that the unit is taking losses.
I mounted most of my figures on painting sticks, with a couple on the unit bases and the morale markers on 20mmx30mm bases, and painted them with Vallejo grey primer.
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The following morning I gave them a coat of black magic wash to enhance detail and provide another protective coat, after all these figures will be seeing a lot of action come the New Year.
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Thoroughly looking forward to seeing how this project develops. I'll take a look at the campaign system as I'd like to use it for my own fictitious setting. Parliament need to recover Henry Goddard and William Parsons from the clutches of the dastardly Royalist commander Horce Beilby-Tipping!
I concur that Les is a dastadly commander of horse.
martin :)
I was particularly attracted by the necessity for a siege gun in one of the scenarios. If there is no actual siege I will factor one in. Can't have the new Regiment of Foote and no siege.
Yes it's a must.
Keep posting Andy. This is of great interest to me. I have Royalist/Parliament/Scottish and Irish ECW armies so if your electric car can get to SW France you are welcome to come and beat me up on RoF-2002.
@Sean-using your video to get into newer RoF.
Right--back to fitting new pikes!
That's a nice offer, but I think it may be asking a lot of an electric Twingo. Hoping to go back to Lyon one day, but that will probably be by train.
Part III
This project is still progressing, although a little slower than anticipated. Nevertheless here is an update. I have now started to block paint the first battalia. I have settled on a light blue jacket, although not all the men have acquired one, or the one they got has already been ruined - "Yeah.....it's ruined :(." I wanted to get this as reasonably accurate as possible so that the black wash would do most of the shading for me, but it is trickier than I anticipated. Also these days I need to take a break after 30-45 minutes.
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To give my eyes a rest I have also started some Joan of Arc buildings for use with Regiment of Foote, and also the WotR. This is again a fairly slow process because I prime by hand, having an aversion to sprays. I primed the buildings in two sittings using Vallejo grey primer. Two sittings because first I primed one half of a building, let it dry overnight, then primed the other half, thus giving me something to hold on to, helped by the buildings being hollow. Next I have started to give them a black magic wash. I do this by laying the buildings as flat as possible and washing one side at a time so that the wash does not run too much. If this works ok I will be able to finish them mostly with dry brushing and some brown Army Painter strong tone to dirty and age them a bit, especially the daub.
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Those are all looking rather good, Andy. The detail on the buildings really stands out and should help a lot with the painting.
Might you want to reconsider black as your choice of wash on the figures, particularly over blue e.g. maybe a shade of brown might work better?
Simon
Well done Andy. New projects always suffer from some slow down after the initial buzz of enthusiasm. Take your time and enjoy the process.
Those buildings are lovely, but goodness me they're expensive in ebay! 😳 The Kickstarter was a very good deal.
Great stuff Andy! Being same age as you I also have to take breaks every 30 mins or so---Otherwise I will get stuck in same position.
Good idea to switch tasks about a bit, That`s what gets me through a large army.
Keep updating the topic. I am really enjoying it. 8)
glad to hear that Terry. Hope you have success with the lights.
Lovely stuff Andy, especially like the buildings.
Hi Andy,
good project. Could I suggest several alternatives for shading, mainly because I've never managed to get magic wash to work :-\
An Army Painter wash (not the gunk in the tin) - I use Strong tone but there's also a mid tone and a soft tone - over the entire figure.
Army painter also do some coloured washes - blue, etc - and use of specific areas
GW Agrax earthshade all over. You can dilue with their medium for a light wash I recently used this on some vehicles and I'm really pleased with the effect. I used a half strength dilution first as this was the first time I'd tried it all over and then full strength where I thought dirt would accumulate.
Brian
Thanks Brian. I am presently trying some orange brown drybrush over the black wash on the roofs of the buildings, followed by diluted Army painter red tone. This seems to be working well. I will round it off with a lightened gold brown drybrush.
Finished the five buildings I have been working on. It took a mix of paint, wash and drybrush to achieve the desired result, but I am quite pleased with how they turned out. First up the church and the half-timbered houses.
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Very pleased with how the Vallejo Verdigris Glaze turned out:
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Really like the little details on this thatched peasant hut, such as the leanto with the leather curtain and the freshly cut logs.
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But are they really 15mm? - comparison with a PP building:
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Really nice work. The wife likes them as well but says there is NOT enough chickens and goats.
Derek
As far as size goes (re your comparison with PP buildings) don't worry about this. Does it look right? is all that counts. Measure the footprint of the building and then scale it up based on the rules. Whoops! Remember that most buildings don't represent buildings at all but a BUA and its surroundings. (Out of interest, see how many of your buildings are longer than the shooting range of your troops. Does it bother us? Nah.)
Very nice work Andy!
Simon
Despite, or even because of, their size/footprint they will still be my go to buildings for ECW and WotR. I quite like the scruffy look which I think is pertinent to an awful lot of buildings pre-mid C20th. This shows up well with Martin's Mexican buildings which also have that rather unkempt look. They definitely benefit from a bit of a mucky wash.
Hi Andy.
I really like the small wee building in pics 6 7 & 8.
I suppose it is now a case of "back to the figures".
Looking forward to that.
Yes, it is a nice building but I realise I didn't put any metallic paint on the axehead in the chopping block (picture 8) and yes, it is back to the figures. My desk is covered with a variety of units from different periods in a various stages of completeness, so my plan is to finish the unit of ECW infantry, then the other units on the table, then concentrate on one game at a time so that I can always have a go to game, especially campaign related, whilst painting up for the next campaign. I will probably go for Square Bashing in Belgium as I have a fair bit of that already completed.