Breton Domnonée Dark Age cavalry II

Breton cavalry II

A unit of medium Breton cavalry for my Kingdom of Domnonée project, another project from the 2019 pile that was partially completed and required a few steps to complete them. I am almost at a end for this army one more cavalry unit, a command and thirty figures. This will give me quite a large army for the 5th through to the 8th century and by swapping out some infantry and cavalry will stretch until the 9th century.

The figures in this unit are footsore with one converted gripping beast celt to make up the unit. Quite happy with the plaid on these.

"walk the battlefield in the morning, wargame in the afternoon"™

Salut
Matt

The Black Prince Edward III

Edward the III, the Black Prince

If you have been following you will know that this year I am adding to my Early 100YW armies using predominantly Claymore, Old Glory and selected Perry and Crusader miniatures, I have around 120 figures to add to my English, Scots, Bretons and French. 

In addition one of my goals this year I will also be building a historical 14th century chateau for my TTSFN (total Terrain System For Now) table.

Edward the Black Prince, a miniature sculpted by the Perry twins. Released by Warhammer Historical quite a long time ago. I painted it for the “Metal” painting competition on the guild Wargamers forum.


We visited the Poitiers battlefield last September and walked quite a bit of it. The signs need some work but happy to see it not completely surrounded by houses.

Nearby I would recommend visiting Abbaye Saint-Junien de Nouaillé-Maupertuis in the valley. A wonderful Fortified medieval Abbey with many stages of construction, much of the grounds are walkable. A book on the Battle and the Abbaye is available in French at the L'Hotel de Ville located in the Abbaye gatehouse.

"Wargaming History"™

Cheers

Matt

Confederate Marines

The last remnants of 2019 projects are leaving my table this week, first up a rebase and touch up of some Confederate Marines that suffered during our move from Australia to France. Basically highlighted and touched up the scratches and dings and re-flocked the base.

The figures are from the first corps range and are the only 28mm confederate marines I know of on the market. They were originally built for our clubs Atlanta campaigns.

A rare unit, as they mostly only acted in companies, serving the the ships and gunboats with the Navy. But they served on land was along with ex ship crews at the siege of Atlanta, they were formed into a unit and manned Fort Ogeechee, manning the guns and defending the bastions until the Atlantas surrender. The other battles that they served on land include Fort Fischer and at Drewy's Bluff after the scuttling of the Viginia-Merrimac. The last battle they served in was at Saylors creek, a battalion was formed with ex naval personnel and marines defending the James River fortifications.

The flag references a 1861 company flag, as I am unaware of any marine unit or dismounted ship crew ever carrying a flag on land and is hand painted. These chaps will join the sale of my ACW collection in the coming months.

Cheers

Matt

ref Marine Corps Gazette, June 1978 Col T.J Saxon

Lion d’OR cafe 20mm buildings part six

Completed my first piece of my 2020 list, a building this week, after discussion on Facebook about the name of a cafe that would suit all of the regions close to my house Normandy, Brittany and Pays de Loire. After a suggestion and the doing some follow up research I settled on the “Lion d’Or” which possibly refers to the Normandy and Maine/Anjou golden lion used by William the Conqueror and the Plantagenets in the region.

The building is from the Raventhorpe 20mm Normandy building range, the only additions I made were the paper sign on the side, the clear plastic glass from Christ card box, the curtains from tissue and the sign writing for the business sign and on the window with a brush.

Cheers
Matt

Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a successful 2020, may the dice be with you!

Cheers

Matt

20mm Normandy cafe, what is in a name

Almost completed my 20mm Normandy Cafe all I need to do is name it. I need a name that will work for Normandy, Brittany and Pays de La Loire, so I can use it o on my table in any location. Thoughts guys? I have currently digging through my 1939 copy of the Blues guide to Normandy for inspiration.

Cheers
Matt

20mm Bombed out building

Chipping way at completing the 20mm buildings, this bombed out building has been in the painting stash for at least 3 years, very happy with my result though.

 

Cheers
Matt

20mm building boom

I have been working on so,e terrain this week, specifically 20mm bits for my Normandy and Arnhem tables.

Two Resin Houses, ( raventhorpe shop) one ruin and one plastic Faller I think model railway kit I purchased off eBay. First job was to remove the plastic roof and build an interior. Next to build a roof for the partly ruined building and the ruins I added sandbags. The Raventhorpe shop will be a straight forward build.

Chassuers de Fischer

Another unit rescued from my old 7YW blog “Fine and Dandy”. Hunters by Fischer, with Perry Mirliton for the drummers and officers.

Cheers

Matt

Volutaires de Bretons

another unit moved from my 7YW blog, the voluntaires de Bretons fought in the WAS and become part of  volutaires de Flandre for the 7YW.

Voluntaries Étrangers de Clermont Prince

I have posted this here after I closed my 7YW blog that was dormant for a number of years, I sold these recently to an American client.

Regiment La Sarre, 7YW French

Another French 7YW unit off the desk, regiment La Sarre, originally raised as Regiment de la Ferté-Senneterre in the Lorraine by Maréchal de La Ferté on the 20th May 1651. The regiment consisted of two battalions in the 7 YW and was commanded from February 1747 by Louis-Guy-Sacriste de Tombeboeuf, chevalier than Marquis de Montpouillan and in December 1767 Jean-Henri Morel de Groslée, Compte de Peyre.

1st battalion
The first battalion was posted 1757 to Royan until 1760 thence to La Rochelle, in

2nd battalion
Commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Etienne-Guillaume de Senezergues, made brigadier on the 10th February 1759, second in command to Montcalm  at the plains of Abraham

 battle honours
1756 battle of Fort Oswego
1757 battle fort William Henry
1758 battle fort Carillon (Ticonderoga)nnnn
1759 battle plain of Abraham
1760 battle Sainte-Foy
1760 capitulation of Montreal

After the return of the depleted second battalion from Canada the depleted regiment was reorganised. In 1762 the regiment was part of the corps of Maréchal de Beauvau sent to Spain during the attempted conquest of Portugal. The regiment was at the siege of Almedia and qautered in Andal. I need 1763 the regiment returned to France.

Cheers 

Matt

La Reine French line infantry Regiment 7YW

Off the desk this week La Reine line infantry regiment, 28mm Front Rank miniatures, just a joy to paint.

The regiment La Reine was raised in 1634 as a gentlemens regiment, the regiment caserne was  in Montpellier, by the seven years war the Queen was the Colonel, so the regiments were officered by Colonel lieutenants, From 1759 to 62 the regiment Colonel Lieutenant was Anne-Emmanuel-François-George Marquis de Crussol d'Ambois (who lost his head during the revolution). In 1762 the Colonel lieutenant was Charles-François-Casimir de Saulx, Comte de Tavannes until 1774. 

The first battalion had very little action in the European theatre, but the second fought in most the the major engagements in Canada. 

 

1st Louisiana Wheats Tigers Battalion

1st Louisiana Volunteers Wheats Tigers

Off the painting desk this week before my eyes go crossed from plaid, I finished off a quite paint job of some ACW figures I had in my "painting sometimes" pile, or draw to be more correct. From time to time while in the middle of a project and not feeling inspired I will pick up something very simple and paint it, from this pile of lead, then normally sell it, because I am no longer playing the period. This is the case for these chaps as I already have a battalion in my collection so surplus now to my needs. The 28mm miniatures are sculpted by the talented Mark Fenton, and are sold by Adventure time Miniatures through Elite Miniatures Australia, I think they are some of the finest sculpted ACW figures on the market today.


The 1st Louisiana tigers had a bad reputation during the war, being raised from "the lowest scum of the lower Mississippi...adventurous wharf rats, thieves and outcasts...and bad characters generally." 

But I think almost all confederate players will have an entire battalion in their collection. I doubt as do historians that the entire battalion ever wore the Zouave uniform, as each company was raised independently,  but wargamers being wargamers will paint the entire battalion looking that way. Some still even paint the uniform in brown, which as far as I know has been disproved, being blue that has faded to a brown as the dye was of bad quality. 

This range is also available from Adventure Miniatures sold by Elite Miniatures Australia. Here

Enjoy 

Cheers

Matt

Plodding through Plaid.....painting miniatures thoughts

I posted the picture below tonight on a number of Facebook forums and had probably the best reaction to a photo for some time. Painting plaid is a daunting task and I have tried over the years to perfect it. The secret is paint flow, and shading highlights. I basically paint and wash like I do for all my models, then highlight, then add the lines, then highlight the squares inbetween. For the fine lines I have tried wet palettes, water, drying retarder and mediums etc, I finally settled on a idea I read on planet models forum using a single drop Vallejo varnish as the medium.  I find it works the best on a wet palette, dragging both together into a mix, too a milk consistency,  add a good brush, preferably sable, I used a 5/0 kolinsky on this piece, but a good 000 will give a satisfactory result as long as it has a good point. Brush washing also helps, as I paint almost every day I wear our brushes quite fast, so I like to wash them weekly so I can get a long service from a expensive sable? As for the lines I lay it down on my finger nail first to ensure it is correct, also I find a good magnifier is required, I use mine for all my painting now my eyes are failing me. I purchased it at a dress makers shop and have the brightest daylight globe I could find.

Hope that is helpful, not a expert at any means, but happy to pass on my tips.

Cheers
Matt

28mm Kingdom of Domnonée Breton light cavalry I

Breton Light Cavalry I

Completed more light cavalry for my Kingdom of Domnonée army which spans from the 4th to the 11th century. These are great sculpts from Footsore miniatures. I am very happy with the light plaid pattern on two of the figures, not convinced with my red though.

 The Bretons have a recorded history of light cavalry since the eastern invasion of Francia of the Goths/Alani in the early 5th century. The Romans settled the Alani and Goths along the border with the Armoricans, the Notitia Dignitatum places them in Orleans, Poiters, Rennes, Alençon, Mayenne, Le Mans and Chartres. These areas became predominant Frank horse breeding areas in the 10th century and remained so up until the 19th century, 6 of the 8 French military light and heavy horse breeds come from the area).
  John Wallace-Hadrill in his book Long Haired Kings, links the strength of the Breton feigned flight back to the Alani tactic in the 5th century, and the the overall use of heavy cavalry by the nobles. In several battles with the Franks, Vikings and Normans they used this tactic very successfully. By the 8th century the Breton border had moved to the west from the modern Mayenne river to the Vilane river, then back and forth for the next two centuries. Under Pepin the short, the Anjou-Maine Franks gained the territory, capturing the remaining Breton horse breeding areas almost entirely.  By the 11th century the Anjou-Maine cavalry were also using the tactic of feigned flight, most famously allied with William the Conqueror along with the Bretons knights using feigned flight tactic at the battle of Hastings to break the Saxon sheildwall.

"walk the battlefield in the morning, wargame in the afternoon"™

Cheers

Matt

28mm Breton Kingdom of Domnonée Coloni infantry IIII

Coloni Infantry IIII

More 28mm Armorican Kingdom of Domnonée Breton 4th to 11th century project. The Coloni were colonists from mainland Britain. The infantry are from the Gripping Beast Miniatures dark age Plastics. Ready to fight the Alani, Romans, Franks and Vikings. A few head swaps with Victrix miniatures and two metal shields. Based for Impetus rules. 

"walk the battlefield in the morning, wargame in the afternoon"™

Cheers

Matt

28mm Dark Age Anjou-Maine infantry III

Carolingian Frank Anjou-Maine heavy Infantry III

Another unit completed of Gripping beast plastics with a few head swaps of Victrix Celts, a few plastic javelins and a few metal shields in the mix. Transfers are LMBS and hand painted shields.
This unit could easily serve as any dark age unit, Carolingian Frankish Anjou-Maine infantry, Bretons, or even Goths.

"walk the battlefield in the morning, wargame in the afternoon"™

Cheers

Matt

28mm dark age Breton heavy infantry III

Breton heavy Infantry III

A hive of activity on the desk this weekend as my mojo returns for painting, another Breton unit but for my Kingdom of Domnonée army from the 4th to the 11th century. All metal from Footsore miniatures, with various shield makes, LBMS transfers and metal spears I made myself. Really easy to paint these and happy with the result. This base with it flag will designate an attached command on a stand for Impetus, although I prefer separate commanders normally as I tend to get them mostly killed when attached!

"walk the battlefield in the morning, wargame in the afternoon"™

Cheers

Matt

28mm Dark Age skirmishers

Completed two units of archers, one for late Roman -Alan  archers and a generic Archer dark age base.
Figures are Footsore miniatures. They will fit into any of my late Roman and dark age armies nicely.

Cheers

Matt