Thursday, March 29, 2012

The great 15mm ACW overhaul


Well I've finally got a window to do this without feeling like I should be doing something else in imminent need of completion. It's not that I don't have a lot to do which I do, but rather nothing that has to be done right now which gives me the freedom to do what I want......yipeee!:-)

My largish 15mm ACW collection is quite old in that 90% of the collection was painted about 15 to 20 years ago and is in a bad need of an overhaul in both basing and figure touch ups! I've been looking at them for several years saying I really need to do a revamp and now I've finally got the time.:-) The figures are based for the old Fire and Fury with different sized bases and varying number of figures per base. I'm now re-basing the entire collection using the standardize format given in Regimental Fire and Fury which has speeded up the desire to get started since it's release!


The figures themselves are Old Glory and they are still are very nice figures and even more so when one bears in mind the sculpts are over 20 + years old. In addition to the figures I have painted I also have bags full of unpainted ones where quite literally if I assembled and painted everything I owned I could field both sides for Gettysburg! However first things first so painted stuff revamped before adding any new stuff.
 
Things that will be done:

*Figures will conform to RF&F recommended base sizes which in effect will give me more units which is nice.
*The basing will be completely redone as the old style is pretty darn dated and looks shabby.
*Figures will given a wash and a quick highlight(I noticed I did at least cleanly block in the colours when I first did them which was a pleasant discovery making touch ups much easier).
*When placing the figures on the new bases I must make sure to keep the figures with lowered rifles farther back on the base to allow easier alignment of the units which I failed to do the first time and made everything line up haphazardly.
*Replace badly done shot up standards with whole ones which I think looks better at this scale.
*Paint up all the new terrain I bought for this well!
*Add new units

I'm not looking to paint the armies to the best of my ability as I have 28mm ACW collection to lavish that kind of attention on, but rather I am going for a decent looking force that hopefully I and others visiting will find pleasing to look at on the tabletop.

Since Fire and Fury is in my top 3 all time favourite games I'm just iching to try out Regimental Fire and Fury and so I'm really excited to see how this turns out!:-)

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Fanatic Warriors


I've been a little under the weather lately, but I managed to finish these two stands of Fanatic Warriors for my Ayyubid 15mm Muslim Crusades army.
There were two approaches I could have used in designing these troops. The first could have been a group of warriors in different clothes, weapons and shields to look like the faithful hastily gathered together from different parts to fight the invading Franks. The second option and the one I decided to go with was a more serious and slightly sinister looking discipled  formation of warriors dedicated to crushing the infidels who invaded their holy land. They look much harder then their profile really is in the list, but hopefully they will intimate my opponent enough!:-)
In going with the black I insured to add plenty of colour to the sashes and shields to keep them tied in with the rest of my rather colourful army and so I hope it worked.
The figures are legio Heroica which as I said before are some of the best 15mm out there, but if I did have one small critique I'd say some of the figures can be a bit static, but the sculpting detail more then make up for it. The paints I used were mostly Foundry with some Vallejo and the flag is from LBM.
Thanks for viewing!
Miniature Company- Legio Heroica

Monday, March 19, 2012

Mamluks



Mamluks are the elite of my 15mm Ayyubid army for Impetus. They began as slave soldiers before eventually taking Nobles into their ranks were some even became Sultan! They were not just deadly archers, but were equally hard in close quarter fighting and in a large part defeated both the Crusaders and Mongols to give some perspective of their qualities for those perhaps not familiar with them.
It was tough finishing these figures as cavalry at any scale is taxing for me, but I'm happy I did it in the end.:-)
The army is progressing along at a nice clip and I'm pretty close to 300pts if you include command structure costs which is nice!
Once again wonderful Legio Heroica figures painted up using Foundry paints. The Banner is from the superb LBM with some small added trimming by myself.
Thanks for viewing!
Figure Company- Legio Heroica 

Friday, March 9, 2012

Turkoman Horse Archers

Continuing  on with my Impetus 15mm Ayyubid Muslim army for the Crusades in the form of Turcoman Horse Archers which are a main stay of the army of the period. Their lightning swift hit and run tactics were a constant thorn in the side of Crusaders until they got their own to counter it!
The figures are once again from the fantastic Legio Heroica range and paint up very nicely indeed. I'm really enjoying myself with the army as it gives quite a bit of opportunity to explore colour although painting horses regardless of scale is always a challenge!
Colours are mostly Foundry with some Vallejo.
Thanks for viewing!
Miniature Company- Legio Heroic