Mortarfied

Sorted. 600pts. Ready.
Sorry, in the cabinet rather than on the lawns but it's all you're getting, you ungrateful sods!
The mortars are behind.

And where be the Germans? Blitzkrieg, my arse. Ha, that shut their von trap!

Places, people! Places!

To let you into my plans.

What's my army like? Like so:

HQ

- General + sergeant + standard-bearer

- Second-in-command + soldier

- Komissar with soldier

P1, first squad
- 5 stands o 3 men with rifles
- 3 stand of 4 men + HMG + sergeant
- 1 stand of 3 men - HMG + lieutenant

P3 same

P2 same but with SMGs

These 3 squads make up a company led by:

CPT, a capitain + sergeant + standard-bearer

K, a komissar with a soldier

3 SU122 mobile guns

The army will be finished with mortars

- a capitain + sergeant + soldier

- 2 squads of 3 mortars

In good campany

About time I gave an update on Flames of War.

I've spent yonks leaning over my desk to paint all the figs I've got for this game.



"Here's one I made earlier!" These 2 I did maybe 6 months ago. A good look for winter but these guys are far too similar! For that reason and also due to the lack of winter figs other than basic soldiers, I decided to MIX IT UP! Explained previously.

Presenting you the first finished items.

Me likey.

With my will power at its highest (like the YEaah.. you would get after a Waterstone's pep talk), I got my head down and got stuck into the 2nd squad.

Good start: I painted almost everything in one afternoon/evening. But then, the days went by without progress. I made myself finish them to show Joe (the barbarian) this weekend when we meet again! snif, ehem.

In the end I finished well within the time last wednesday.

So I set myself the challenge of doing the 3rd squad before the weekend!

Dodgy! But upon receiving this on friday:

A light mortar company, I just had to get it sorted!

With painting till 1 in the morning on friday and a few finishing touches at half 6 on saturday before leaving, job done!

So here's ya lot.

And I'm chuffed! Painted figs is still pretty new for me. So long have I faced unpainted piles.

Pics are a bit bit dark, but it's war for fook's sake!

The men are more or less disciplined. Note the bloke having one for the road. Well, it'll probably be his last...

Brave fellows! They advance knowing not fear!

Oh, I see. This explains that. A komissar and his right hand man.

And here's the HQ one. "The first man to retreat shall be shot by this man, comrades!"

My Cossack HQ.

"Get down, fool!"

It's the hardened veteran blisters that really give my army life and character.

Just the mortars to do. I've put 6 in my 600pts list. Pity, all the figs are the same. I'll try to swap some.

Tank you very much!

Well, it took some time, but I'm back on the blog with 2 Marder IIIMs, a birthday present from my brother, to join my first German Grenadieren platoon for F.o.W.! I need to re-do the camouflage, as I've since noticed that the actual base colour for summer cammo on Gerry vehicles had a slight green tint, so some Vallejo Middlestone or some such like will be required. I'm taking the opportunity to finally decide on whether to go for Summer or Winter as a theme. The 26.V-G saw its most famous actions at Bastogne, so Winter, and on the Eastern front during the summer... so like a Western Winter.

As it is, the cammo needs some more work anyway, as the base colour should be a lot less visible, with more dominant green and brown strips of paint.

I am rather pleased with the mud effect, though. This was acheived by applying all-purpose D.I.Y. filler, which I then painted in the same colours as the infantry stands, before giving it a coat of gloss varnish, thus obtaining a wet mud appearance... I hope.

Note that as Marders are self-propelled guns, the epaulettes have red piping, rather than the white braiding on the shoulders of the Grenadieren.

As promissed, I have also got back into my E.C.W. project, by doing some G.S. touch-ups before praying the last 1st & 2nd rank pikemen and 8 musketeers with a great can of brown Humbrol undercoat I picked up over Christmas.

Joe the Barbarain, humbly begging your pardon for my tardiness.

Their blood shall flow like vodka

To remind people that BarbarianJ is not the only person using this blog, and to fill up the time between his projects which are as plentiful as they are varied as they are violent, here are some Russians, of the Soviet type for connoisseurs.

I'm starting a modest army. More on that story later.
Here are 2 SU122 self-propeled guns.

Bit of a problem on opening the blister pack.
But with a bit of this...

And a spot of that...

Sorted.

Painting may commence.
Some black.

One green.

2 green.

Mud. LOTS of mud.

Nice motivational slogans. Here, "For the Motherland" and "Onwards to Berlin".

Just the red stars left to do. Or buy...

Gentlemen with high standards: Pike & Shotte command

After an almost unforgivable lapse of time without posting, here are some pics of my Lieutenant-Colonel and standard bearer for the company of the Earl of Manchester's regiment of Foote which I'm painting up. The standard is still very much a work in progress, so please forgive the sloppiness of it. I opted for blue as my Lieutenant-Colonel's suit. This will let him stand out from the grunts, whilst tying him in, as blue is the colour of the ribbons the foot soldiers were in my company.My understanding is that officers could wear pretty much what they liked. As I got into E.C.W. after reading a book on Marston Moor, I've sculpted on a band around the Lieutenant-Colonel's hat, into which is sculpted a piece of paper; it was reported that many of the soldiers in the Parliamentary armies present at Marston Moor wore such tokens, in order to distinguish themselves from the enemy in the heat of battle. Indeed, when Sir Thomas Fairfax, in his characteristic manner, got too far ahead of his cavalry corps and found himself caught up amongst an enemy horse regiment, he is said to have removed his white token to slip back through the lines to the Parliamentary side.

I opted to dress the ensign in black, so as to avoid his detracting attention from the Lieutenant-Colonel and the flag itself. The ribbon in his hat is white, following the same logic as with the Lieutenant-Colonel. I've not managed to find any detailed info on Manchester's flag, although I believe it was blue. As I understand it, the standard system for the flags within a regiment was as follows.

• C/O: plain field colour
• Lt-Col: Field colour with St George’s Cross in canton
• Major: As above, with addition of a device or wavy pile (which looks like a streaming line coming down from the corner of the canton towards the centre of the flag).
• Captains: As major, with increasing amount of devices or wavy lines to denote rank (the more wavy piles, the lower the seniority)

However, some nobles appear to have elected to use a device from their coat of arms on all their flags, using wavy lines. This could be understandable with some coats of arms. Manchester’s arms contain 3 lozenges and therefore it wouldn’t look particularly good to use the lozenges to denote rank, as heraldic devices in 3 could have a special significance. I therefore took example on the Sealed Knot and used the lozenges as standard on Manchester’s flag.

As always, comments & constructive criticism are welcome.

Joe

E.C.W.: Manchester's pikemen

Well, it took me all of 24 days, but here are the first 13 pikemen for my company of the Earl of Manchester's regiment of foote. I'm really pleased with this box of Warlord Pike & Shotte infantry; they're fun to assemble and paint, and there's just enough variety to not need to mix them with another manufacturer's unit. I reckon I can improve the technique on them, as they still look a bt sloppy. Getting the right browns was the hardest part, and no doubt purist (or even Puritan) E.C.W. gamers will point out that the gloves are way to dark. I'll put another highlight on them at a later stage. I'm also doing a display base for the unit as a whole.

I took this opportunity to include in the photos some of those Christmas trees I purchased, to show what the finished bases look like.

If you haven't yet done so, make sure you check out Saxon Dog's blog, as the Marston Moor game he recently did was... well, take a look at these photos and you'll see what I mean.

Next up are Manchester's Major's company command group and the Green Knight.

Joe

The Pledge 2010

As a new year, indeed a new decade, is upon us, it’s time to make the pledge. I did say the same thing in 2009 and subsequently forgot to keep count. I’ll try to make a rough estimation by using the blog’s history for 2009. As for 2010, the count starts now, though out of fairness I’ll include the Christmas arrivals: 48 E.C.W. men of the Parlimentary foote.

Acquired: 48
Painted: 1

Having now acquired a small E.C.W. infantry force, the time has come to choose which unit to do first. I decided to go for one of the regiments which fought at Marston Moor, having just read a book about that battle and being very fond of the North East of England. My choice? The regiment of Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester.

The Earl of Manchester

In the run up to the First English Civil War, Manchester, then known as Viscount Mandeville, was the only member of the House of Lords to be named by Charles I along with the “Five Members” of the Commons to be arrested. At the outbreak of the war, in 1642, he took command of a regiment of foot in the Parliamentary army of the Earl of Essex, but his regiment was disbanded after it fled the field at Edgehill.

Mandeville inherited his father’s Earldom of Manchester in November 1642. In 1643, Manchester is appointed head of the Army of the Eastern Association, a natural nomination for one of the most senior Lords in the Parliamentary faction. During 1643, Manchester secured East Anglia and with the Fairfaxes, based in Yorkshire, contained the threat posed by the Marquis of Newcastle in the North.

June 1644 saw Manchester amongst the three victorious commanders at Marston Moor, annihilating Newcastle’s Whitecoats. This was the last time Manchester and Cromwell cooperated with each other. Cromwell launched a scathing criticism of Manchester’s generalship after the Second Battle of Newbury. Manchester was opposed to the use of independants and religious fanatics. He was ousted from the army by the “Self-Denying Ordinance”. The final straw was the suggestion of executing the King. Though a reformist, Manchester was no regicide.
A full biography can be read here.

So here is the first pikeman, wearing Mancester's green-lined red coat and green trousers.

Many more on the way!

Joe