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Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Baraque ECW and Crisis

I'll be there for the first time and I hope to see many of you as well!

As any of my regular readers will know my blog has gone quite for awhile....well pretty much the whole summer in fact. I've been blogging for over 9 years now and while I've not been prolific I have been consistent with one or two posts a month on average, but for some reason I just ran out of gas. I expect things will return to normal. I haven't been completely idle and have been painting here and there, but just couldn't be bothered with taking pictures and writing things up I guess. I'll post some of the other painted projects I've done later.

Anyhow I thought I should share at least some of what I've been doing. While I still don't feel like setting up some studio pictures I thought I would show a progress report of a sort so the pictures were just quick ones without proper lighting, but still give one an idea of the project.

I'm advancing in years and have settled on the fact that I'm a slow painter and will just never be able to finish all the projects I want to do, so some compromises will need to be made if I want to see a particular period hit the table.  A few months ago a nicely painted ECW collection came up for sale at a very reasonable price and since I've been burning to play the new Impetus Baroque rules, but lacked the armies to do so I decided this was a opportunity not to be missed and purchased the collection. The collection consisted of both a complete English army and Scots army numbering some 600+ infantry 40 Cavalry, some artillery, commanders and a number of blisters of unpainted figures!


Lots of figures!
Upon receiving the package I was happy with what I purchased, but knew I would need to change a few things and put a little work into the figures to get them in the ballpark of what I wanted. Namely-

-Add extra highlights to the skin, hair, musket stocks, leather, sashes
-Repaint chipped paint and damages
-change the color of the pikes from a dark to light brown
-Repaint or in most cases replace flags with GMB ones
- Rebase everything for Impetus Baroque

No question this is proving very time consuming with the additions and changes, but nothing compared to if I had to start from scratch so I'm not in the least bit complaining! At one time I was thinking of going 10mm with ECW, but changed my mind and happy that I did. I will of course need to rebase my own personally painted ECW collection for Baroque which will add a further 100+ figures to this one.

The rule set I plan on using.

Anyhow here is some quick pics of the units I've completed with the transformation so far. Not the best pics I know, but enough to see what is happening.

The Reds


The Whites


The Greens( A mix of P&S and Shot)


I'm currently working on 4 bases of Blues which will see the English foot finished and then I'll move on to the Scots. I really enjoy putting everything on Impetus Baroque bases as I feel you can really give a sense of movement. Regiments tend to form up in somewhat imperfect lines which Baroque bases allow you to depict quite nicely.

So one can see I have been doing things, but haven't been reporting on it which I plan on fixing and going back to my regular posting schedules. 

As I mentioned at the header I'll be at Crisis this year which will be my first time so I'm looking forward to it even if my wallet isn't! I hope to meet a few of my fellow bloggers that I haven't met plus the ones I have! One of the things I like best in traveling to wargames conventions is talking to my friends about wargaming on the way and since this looks to be a long drive I'm sure we will get to cover many topics!

Miniature Company-Bicorne, Renegade, Warlord, TAG

29 comments:

  1. Glad you posted. I'm currently struggling trying to finish my ECW army. My friend Anton and I have been playing Pikeman's Lament. Great set of rules. We can something get two games in. Speaking about getting old I turned 69 at the beginning of last Month. Please keep this blog going. Here is link to the second battle: https://gary-oldsargeswargameandmodelblog.blogspot.com/2017/08/pikeman-lament-part-2-rescue.html

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    1. Well Gary I suppose I should't complain about age when you have me beat by 20 years, but turning 50 next year has given me time to pause and assess where I want to be in the coming years. As for the blog I plan on keeping it going, but just needed a break. Nice looking game btw!

      Christopher

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  2. Now, this is the way to jump start a project!
    That is a good looking collection you picked up and Baroque is an excellent way to proceed.

    Hope to see these troops in action on your gaming table and blog in the near future.

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    1. Yes. I was happy to get the score and happily working on the units! I just wish I could do all my armies at the same pace!:-) They should see action end of the year or next.

      Christopher

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  3. Awesome! THese units are superb, painting and basing...

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  4. Fantastic ECW collection and transformed units!

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    1. Cheers Cyrus I'm happy how they are turning out!

      Christopher

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  5. Great looking units and superb basing on them all. Looking forward to seeing the Scots being re-imaged to your standards.

    Cheers, Ross

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    1. Thanks and Scots will be coming soon after I've finished a few English units.

      Christopher

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  6. The figures look really nice after the re-painting and the basing is simply top-notch.

    Hope to see you at Crisis ;-)

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    1. Cheers Itgaard and hope to see you Crisis as well.

      Christopher

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  7. Time the great enemy, if only we could capture and bottle it and then use later.
    We can but KBO.
    Great looking tidy up on the figures.

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    1. Thanks Phil. I suppose looking at 50 around the corner is what is motivating me in forming a plan for the future in that some projects I'll need help to see them through. A reality check I suppose.

      Christopher

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  8. Really nice upgrade and a fast way of implementing it!
    Best Iain

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  9. Good buy, nice work on basing, glad you are still with us.

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    1. Thanks David and yup still plugging away at the blog and lead mountain.

      Christopher

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  10. Wow! Stunning collection, Christopher. Your touch up work and re-basing certainly paid off in spades! I've never played the Pike & Shotte era, so not familiar with the period, but a lot of the locals here who do have been using Pikemen's Lament - for smaller games of course. Good to see you posting again. You may recall I took a little hiatus from blogging myself :)

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    1. Thanks Dean and yes it's coming along pretty nicely. In fact I do recall your hiatus from blogging in search of the perfect set of armour I believe.:-)

      Christopher

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  11. Nice to see you back Christopher, not that I can talk, I seem to have lost the drive to blog! I check out other peoples blogs but as for something myself, well...... Anyway, love your ECW fig's, they are looking wonderful!

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    1. Thanks Rodger and nice to be back! It seems a whole bunch of bloggers took the summer off and are now slowly trickling on back in so your by no means alone.

      Christopher

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  12. Had the pleasure to see these up close. Your touch ups really lifted these to a completely different level. Your basing and especially the work on the skin are excellent.

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  13. Thanks Nick and yeah the skin takes the most time, but it's worth it to give that extra character to the figures.

    Christopher

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  14. Great looking figures again. I envy your basing.
    Hope to see you at Crisis in 2 weeks
    Greetings
    Jan
    Alde Garde

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    1. Thanks Jan and I hope to catch at Crisis as well!

      Christopher

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  15. Hey There !
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    ReplyDelete