The Tale of Historical Wargamers Season 1, Month 2 (July completed and August WIP)

[f2k]

The Tale of Historical Wargamers Season 1, Month 2 (July completed and August WIP)

This is the thread for month 2 of The Tale of Historical Wargamers.

The first week of this thread will be dedicated to showcasing your completed work from month 1. Please refrain from posting comments and WIP pictures until week 2, at which point the thread is open to commenting, WIP pictures and whatever else you might want to post.

What’s it all about then?

This is all about increasing awareness of historical wargaming and indulging in our inner history-geek.

Any period, any company, any scale... If it’s historical, then this is the right place.

A WORD ON PHOTOS – IMPORTANT!

640x480 please! Or use thumbnails.
If you really, really want to show off a bigger picture, then put a link to it – it means those using slower connections aren't waiting for big pictures to load.

If you want to use bigger pictures then please host it on an external site like photobucket and link to it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q : What army/scale/period should I choose?
A : That’s entirely up to you. As long as it’s a historical wargame then you’re welcome in this tale.

Q : How many points should I aim for?
A : Since we’ll be painting models from different games and scales, this is mostly up to you. You should, however, hopefully end up with a normal sized army for your chosen game.

Q : How much do I have to paint?
A : You should try to paint approximately 10% of your army each month. For skirmish-level games, you should paint approximately 1/5 or 1/10 of the warband each month, depending on whether you’re doing a “mini-tale” or a full tale, with a minimum of one model per month.

Don’t worry if it’s not up to Golden Daemon standard. Few of us can paint to that level so don’t let yourself get stuck trying to finish a single model. Well, if your monthly quota is a single model then, by all means, fell free to spend the full month painting just that. But for the rest of us, getting done on time is more important than delivering an award winning paintjob.

Q : Can I include historical background in my months post?
A : You not only can, you’re highly encouraged to do so. This is, after all, a tale of historical wargammers, so the historical background is important.

Q: Can I still join?
A: Sure, as long as you have a historical army to paint.

Q : Can I drop out?
A : Well, we’ll be sorry to see you go. But real-life has a way of intruding at the worst possible moments, so if you absolutely and necessarily need to leave then do so. There are, after all, more important things in life than toy soldiers.

Q: So, who’re the participants?
A: Right now the participants are:

f2k: 653. Schwere Panzerjäger Abteilung (World War 2)
emperorpenguin: Union & Confederate (American Civil War)
Tonny: Soldiers of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk (15th century English)
C-Coen: Romans (Early Imperial Age)
DarkAngelsG: 25th Panzergrenadier Regiment Gepanzerte Panzergrenadierkompanie (World War 2)
Eternal Hatred: Vikings
sigur: Imperialists (30 Year War)
Kisanis: Canadians (Worls War 2)
Whitwort Stormbringer: Gladiators
Hakkapelli: Swedes (30 Year War)
Codsticker: Andalusians (11th century Taifa Kingdom)
Harry: Vikings and Normans
Xazil: Australians (World War 2)

[emperorpenguin]

Sorry f2k but my army should be listed as Union & Confederate or American Civil War. If only I had to paint the Pennsylvania 155th and nothing else!

[Harry]

Reminder of what I am painting:

I am painting some stuff for SAGA. Specifically some Vikings and some Normans

For my vikings I will be painting some of these .....

http://www.solegends.com/citcat89aut...74068-1-03.htm
http://www.solegends.com/citcat89aut...74068-2-03.htm

... and also so early citadel Normans

Each SAGA army has a Warlord and units made up of three different qualities of troops – household warriors (known as Hearthguard), standard warriors and levies (who are normally armed with missile weapons). The points system is simple – One point gets you 4 Hearthguard, 8 warriors or 12 levies.

So I will post my Warlord and a unit in Month 1 and then just add a 1 point unit (of 4, 8 or 12 minis) each month.

This Month:
For my vikings I have painted my Warlord and 4 berserkers.
The Minis: The Warlord is Wargames Foundry. The berserkers are citadel Norse/Vickings. Two are very early pre slotta minis.
Paints: All painted using citadel paints and washes. (Do ask if you want to know specific colours, recepies, etc.)
Basing: Basing is Bestial Brown dry brushed with snakebiye leather and bleached bone mixes, small rocks painted in greys and static grass.
Highs and Lows: Mostly highs. Love starting into new projects. Love my Tartan trousers ....not perfect but first time I have tried that. Nice to get the boats painted up. Lows ... had a bit of trouble settling on colours ... can't seem to find many good sources for inspiration.
Next months plans: 4 Heartguard













The Warband so far:



I also painted these to represent the warband in Man-O-War Games.

[Harry]

The Normans:

This Month:
For my Normans I have painted my Warlord and 4 Hearthguard.
The Minis: These are all originally Citadel minis although they are still available now produced by Wargames Foundry.
Paints: All painted using citadel paints and washes. (Do ask if you want to know specific colours, recepies, etc.)
Basing: Basing is Bestial Brown dry brushed with snakebiye leather and bleached bone mixes, small rocks painted in greys and static grass.
Highs and Lows: Mostly highs. Love starting into new projects. Been wanting to paint these for a while. Liking my swarthy, 5 o'clock shadow on the faces.. Lows ... As with my vikings had a bit of trouble settling on colours ... can't seem to find many good sources for inspiration and I forgot to paint the darn shields ... I will do them this month and update the pictures.
Next months plans:8 Warriors with Crossbows.

My Warlord: Baron Boeuf de Bourguignon.



The Heartguard:

[Xazil]

Looks like I dropped off the list.

Doing a Flames of War - Australian force.

First month I have done a couple units of carriers.

[f2k]

I’ve changed the list of participants a bit. Hope it’s more accurate now.

[DarkAngelsG]

This Month: Most of a Panzergrenadier platoon (4 MGs, a Command Team, an Sdkfz 251/10, and a Sdkfz 251/1), as well as a StuG III G and a Kuebelwagen. The bases are not entirely finished in that pic, but they are now (sorry, can't take a better picture right now).
The Minis: These are all from the Old Glory "Command Decision" range.
Paints: The uniforms were painted with a variety of colors, but the vehicles were painted with a base coat of (all GW paints) Knarloc Green, the stripes were done in Skull White, the barrels dry brushed Chaos Black, and then the mud was made with modeling paste and some cheap brown paint.
Basing: I started off with the aforementioned mixture of paste and paint, to build up the base. Then I put on some static grass, a little clump foliage for bushes, and some watered down paste for snow (not pictured). As you may notice the basing technique is a little different on my test model. My technique has changed a bit as I figure out what does and doesn't work for these models.
Highs and Lows: Highs: I love painting in this scale, and the infantry were quite fun to paint, especially since they're not all identical like Americans or British soldiers might be. Lows: Painting all those different uniforms is slow. And I don't have a very good painting set up... At all. It's hard to paint when you live in a tent trailer.


History: I'll start off with some general history of the origins of the 25 Panzergrenadier Division. The division had a similar beginning as many Panzergrenadier divisions did, starting off as a Grenadier division in 1936. After their "baptism of fire" in France and Belgium, they were reorganized into a Motorized division and sent off to serve in Russia for three years. The 25th was formally recognized as a Panzergrenadier division as it fought in the central sector of the eastern front from July 1943 to June 1944. By the end of October 1943, the division consisted of:
Grenadier-Regiment 35 with three motorized grenadier battalions
Grenadier-Regiment 119 with three motorized grenadier battalions
Panzer-Abteilung 5 with four tank/assault gun companies
Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 125 with four reconnaissance companies
Artillerie-Regiment 25 with three mobilized artillery batteries

[f2k]

Figured I better post a picture now. I had hoped that I could have gotten a bit more work done on them, but I've been busy most of the weekend and I’ll be out of town the next couple of days so... In any case, it turns out I lack the flock I need for the grass...




The units: Various vehicles. Kfz 15 and 70 troop carriers for a pioneer platoon and Kubelwagens (standing in for motorcycles) for a scout platoon.

The models: All one-piece (base included) from Battlefront.

The paint: They were all airbrushed with a thin coat of 1 part Foundation White and 2 parts water as a primer. This was then airbrushed with large brown and green patches of paint (a mix of 1 part Foundation White, 2 parts Reflective Green and 3 parts water for the green and a mix of 1 part Foundation White, 2 parts Chocolate Brown and 3 parts water for the Brown). To complete the camo, a mix of 1 part Foundation White, 2 parts Middlestone and 3 parts water was airbrushed in between the large patches.

The canvas covering was painted with Stone Grey, the windows with Luftwaffe Uniform, the tires with German Grey, and the seats with Mahogany Brown. Tools like pickaxes and shovels were picked out with Oily Steel and Beige Brown.

The whole vehicles was then given a “magic wash”. I don’t recall where I heard that name, but it truly is “magical”... Well... Not really... You won’t pull any white rabbits out of the paint pot... Anyway... It’s basically a thinned-down mix of brown and black wash, in this case 1 part Nuln Oil, 1 part Seraphim Sepia, and 3 parts water. It did a great job pulling the three different colours together and, at the same time, acts as a filter that dulls the overall colours of the vehicle somewhat.

Finally, a mix of 1 part German Grey and 1 part London Grey was used to carefully apply a bit of chipping and the license plates were picked out in white and given a decal.

Man, that’s a lot of paint for such small models...

I then did some pigment-weathering but it didn’t really come out as I intended. Most of it simply disappears once I applied the final layer of varnish. You can see abit of it on the fender of the Kubelwagen on the nearest base, but that’s about it. Truth to be told, I’m not sure that pigments are the way to go on such small models... But that might just be me...? I might go back and do a bit of airbrush-weathering before applying flock to the base. Guess we’ll just have to see about that.

Basing: As the vehicles were already on a base, I didn’t have to do much. The Kubelwagens had to be mounted two-to-a-base so I superglued them to a large FOW-base and used a thick mix of Polyfilla to build up the base. Once that was dry, all bases were given a thin coat of Foundation White and then covered with Brown Earth texture paint. Finally, they were given a highlight with Dark Sand.

What’s needed now is some grass but, as I said above, that will have to wait a bit. Not a great loss, truth to be told, as I’m thinking about ways to tie the infantry in with the vehicles so it’s obvious which vehicle belongs to which unit. More on that later this month...

Downs: All the troubles caused by the Stuka I intended to do this month. Easy build... Yeah, right...

Ups: Getting anything done at all...

[Kisanis]

I'm Jokering
Working two jobs (albeit, my first fulltime teaching gig is one)

I wanna get some done, but I'm not sure on a timescale this month...

[C-Coen]

Clad in the strong lorica segmentata, equipped with a large scutum (shield) and armed with both a short and very pointy gladius (sword) and two pila (spears probably used not only for throwing, but close combat too), the legionaries formed the foundation upon which the enormous Roman empire was build. In the later first century AD, the legions were increased in size to 5500 men. As opposed to the auxilia, the legions were only open to Roman citizens, and conscription was mostly voluntary. Pay was relatively good, and after having served (a mere 25 years), they received a bonus worth some 13 year salaries.
Originally, they were known as 'milites' (soldiers) or 'caligati' (after the caligae, their studded sandals), though the official name was simply 'pedes' (infantry).


This Month:14 Legionaries
The Models: Warlord Games plastics, some extra cutting and glueing for additional poses but nothing else. On 25mm round bases.
The Paints: Mostly citadel paints (no foundations, only washes used were on some skin areas), the occasional vallejo and reaper paint. For specifics, just ask!
The Basing: ..is absent, will be done at a later date (when the entire unit - or several units - are finished).
Highs..: They're truly excellent models, very detailed and with plenty of options for poses - the latter of which is very important if all look the same! Also: I managed to paint them in time!
..and Lows: They took much longer to complete than I would've wanted, seeing how I'll have to paint close to 100 of these guys. The details mentioned above proved to be a negative quality too, clasps, daggers (pugiones), detailed faces and more. Also, the skin and armour are spread across the entire model, armour can't be painted in one go because of the 'stripey' nature of the segments. And then there are the cingula (belts with metal studs): 28 metal dots - per model! Yay!
Transfers are slightly annoying too, but that's just me not being used to working with them.
Next month: Probably 8 archers (the Gallic type), some command for the legionaries.. and - assuming I've got time left - either cavalry or a bunch of Germanics. Who knows, perhaps even both!

Pictures (better than the ones in last month's thread):

[sigur]

Argh, I was so happy to get everything done way in time that almost forgot posting the results here. So let's think of a good title for the whole thing....

Sigur's Thirty Years War Catholic (Imperial/Leaguist) and Protestant (Swedish/Saxon/Hessian) Armies

Rolls right off the tonge, right?

...to be used with Pike&Shotte by Warlord Games.

This month:
148 points of Habsburg imperial troops for the first month. I aim to have two armies of 750pts of each side in the end. (1500pts total --> 150pts I have to paint per month)
The Minis: All 10mm minis, mostly by Pendraken Miniatures, pikemen by Old Glory with some Irregular Miniatures minis thrown in.
Paints:Old GW, Coat d'Arms, Vallejo Model and Game Colour, P3. Whatever works.
Basing: Very conservative, using sands, small pebbles and different kinds of static grass.
Highs and Lows: As for highs, I really enjoy painting 10mm miniatures and that I actually managed to paint up 150 points of stuff. Lows were the fact that I got the minis very late into the month, had to wait for additional minis, had to do a lot of research even though in that period there were hardly any uniforms as such and so on.
Next month's plans: Phew, probably a bunch of Cuirassiers for the Leaguists and something for the Swedes.

Pictures:

This month's whole gang.


Imperial Pikemen (Colloredo's regiment)


Imperial Swordsmen (Kehraus' regiment)


Imperial Harquebusiers (Piccolomini's regiment)


Croat light cavalry (Kegleritz' regiment)

Unfortunately they all lack flags for now but I'll add them as soon as possible!

[Codsticker]

Although I managed to complete my quota for July (just barely!) I am unable to post pics; hopefully my camera situation will be resolved shortly.

[DeadInTheHead]

I'm still in with my ECW Royalists. My company has recently decided to be very inconsiderate and set up a web filter and I cannot access Warseer from the office, from where I would normally post.

Anyway, I have photo's that I just need to reformat and I'll be posting later this evening.

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

Alrighty, then - just under the wire!

Background: The secutor was specifically trained and armed to fight the retiarius. His helmet had only two small eyeholes to help protect him from trident thrusts, and the curved helmet (as opposed to a myrmillo's more angular crested helmet) was less likely to become snared in a retiarius's net. However, his heavy armament and poor vision also made him very slow. The retiarius was a pretty common class of light gladiator, and one of the only ones to not wear a helmet. His only armor was a manica (arm guard) and galerus (shoulder shield) on his left side. Since this was the side facing his opponent, the galerus could help protect his head, and since he was relatively unencumbered he could probably outmaneuver his usually more heavily armed opponents. Whereas a heavy gladiator like the secutor would need to rely on his armor to protect him and close quickly, the retiarus was better off trying to exhaust his opponent by drawing a combat out.
This Month: 2 gladiators - A secutor and his opponent, a retiarius.
The Models: As with all my gladiators, these are from the Crusader Games range, mounted on 25mm round bases from Renedra.
The Paints: A mixture of old Citadel, Vallejo Game and Model Color, and Reaper Master series.
The Basing: Just a fine-grain sand added before priming, painted in terracotta then dry-brushed with a light flesh and finally cream.
Highs: The secutor was a lot of fun to paint. I think I've probably taken some liberties with his subligaculum, since I doubt they would have worn patterned textiles, but it's a scheme I've really wanted to try my hand at. Given how beefy he is, and the fairer complexion I gave him, I figure he can just be a Gaulish gladiator of some repute, and maybe his notoriety in the arena has earned him a fancier loincloth. I included a back shot of him because I think it shows off the tartan better.
..and Lows: Conversely, I thought the retiarius was really dull to paint. Less armor, and less ornate armor, than nearly any other gladiator class means these guys just aren't that interesting and pretty much boil down to a lot of bare skin and some cloth. I'm not really used to painting human fleshtones, so for that reason all of the gladiators are good practice, and so far I'm generally pleased with how they've come out though.

Next month: Not sure, but another historically-likely pair of opponents. I may do the specialist versions of these two, the laquearius (basically a retiarius with spear and lasso rather than net and trident) and a scissori (very heavily armored secutor with a bladed gauntlet instead of a shield). If not them, probably a myrmillo and hoplomachus.

[Hakkapelli]

The good news: I'm all but finished with my first catholic Tercio for the 30-years war.

The bad news: My camera have, after a long illness, finally died. Therefore pictures will have to wait 'till next week when my parents come home from their vaccation and I can borrow their camera.

[Eternal Hatred]

Title: SAGA Viking Warband
Background: As Harry kindly explained the points system (thank you Harry) I won't need to. I'm hoping to do 3 points each month, which is half of a normal sized warband. This month is Viking's, the Warband of Gunnar Randalfson. This consists of 3 points of Hearthguard and 3 points of warriors, plus of course Gunnar Randalfson himself.
Figures: All Gripping Beast except for the beserkers whch are from Crusader.
Painting: All GW paints as base coats,followd by a brown wash.
Basing: Small pieces of slate and static grass.
Highs and lows: The highs are of course managing to finish twice what I wanted to achieve, also I'm very pleased with how the bases turned out. Lows are that now I'll need to find some more figures to paint :-).

[emperorpenguin]

Second unit painted and based, boy this is hard work!

Project: American Civil War

This is the US 1st Sharpshooter regiment, founded by Colonel Hiram Berdan. He envisaged an elite marksman force, patterned after the rifle regiments of European armies. These soldiers, and the 2nd US Sharpshooters, didn't wear Union blue but instead a dark green uniform patterned after the style of European rifle units, such as the British 95th. Armed with the breech-loading Sharps rifle (accurate to 500 yards and firing 10 shots per minute) and marksman rifles such as the Morgan James Heavy Target Rifle, these regiments fought in over 60 battles of the war, including Gettysburg. By the end of 1864 losses were so high that the two regiments combined into one.







The figures are by Redoubt.

Paints are GW washes over a white base.

Highs and Lows: Every time I think I've finished I discover I missed details! But painting with washes is enjoyable.

Next models: I need to base and photograph the Pennsylvania Zouaves. Then I'll likely finish the New York Zouaves and some artillery.

[Tonny]

I am going to use a joker. Working on the Perry WotR mini's lured me again to GW Empire. It was not a good idea to paint War of the Roses mini's, it's not different enough from GW empire. But I am not giving up, I just recieved a dispatch notice of my Victrix Theban Hoplites. I hope this will be a succes. Expect previews soon.

[f2k]

It’s kinda quiet in here, isn’t it? Oh well, let me kick it off with a round of comment...

@Harry: Love the Vikings – makes me want to find my old GW norsemen and give them a fresh coat of paint. I’m particularly impressed by the green tartan pattern – how on earth did you get it that neat? And Man’o’War? Man, I miss that game...

@Harry: Norman are looking good too. Though, if you don’t mind me saying it, they’re a bit too metallic for my taste. It might just be the photos, but they do look somewhat mono-colour with very little depth or contrast.

@Xazil: I’ve always had a soft spot for those carriers. Did you give them a wash? They do look like they could use a bit of depth in the paint to pick out the details – particularly since dessert warfare is so mono-colour.

@DarkAngelG: Nice to see some follow Germans on the thread. I like the difference in the uniforms – quite historical, particularly towards the end of the war. If you don’t mind me saying it though, the white stripes on the vehicles could use a bit more work. If you’re going for a hard-edge look, then some masking tape would help you get a far better defined edge. If you’re going for a soft-edge look, then stripling would get you better results.

@C-Coen: A very sweet paintjob – way above what I would consider tabletop quality. I don’t know if white uniforms are historically accurate, but it sure looks nice.

@sigur: Those models look almost too detailed for being 10mm. – very nicely done. If only there were anyone interested in historical gaming at that scale in my local area...

@Whitword Stormbringer: Nice a simple paintjob. Gladiators aren’t the most common thing here on WarSeer so this is going to be interesting to follow.

@Eternal Hatred: Looking just as nice as Harrys. What’s up with the big base under the guy in front, though? He looks kinda lonely with all that space around him...

@emperorpenguin: Looking really nice. I like the variety in the poses. But green units? If I hadn’t read your description I wouldn’t have made the connection with the Civil War. Interesting...

For those of you still without pictures... Come on, don’t be shy. Let’s see what you’ve painted...

[f2k]

Well, it’s time for a second try at the Stukas...

As I mentioned earlier, I had ordered a Zvezda Stuka. This is the B2 version and thus somewhat earlier than what it should have been. Oh well... Let’s see what we can get out of it...


The box


The contents

The model itself is very plain. In fact, way too plain for my liking. It does, however, have a few interesting details.

The single sprue contains the fuselage, wings, elevators, landing gear, propeller, and a single bomb - no weapons for the wings at all. A plastic bag contains the cockpit in clear plastic and a sheet with a few nondescript decals.

Most disappointing of all though, is the fact that the wing and fuselage is (almost) completely devoid of details – no panel-lines at all. On the other hand, it does model the dive-brakes sunder the wings (completely missing on the Battlefront model) and the nose and underslung bomb-release mechanism is much better detailed than the Battlefront version.

Interestingly, considering my complaining about the landing gear attachment, whereas the Battlefront version has a small tab, the Zvezda version has two deep indentations in the wing – a much better way of attaching the landing gear if you ask me.

As for scale, the two aircrafts are almost at the exact same scale – almost... There’re a few minor discrepancies but we’re talking millimetres here.


Comparing the models

Right now I’m tempted to combine the two sets to model a single Stuka, using the Zvezda landing gear, bomb, and propeller to detail the Battlefront Stuka. There’s also the option of transplanting the dive-breaks (either by greenstuff casting or by cutting them off) but I don’t know about that.

For now, however, I will return to one of those I have already undercoated to see what I can do about the undercoating problems. Something has to be done about that.