Warlord Plastic Americans for Chain of Command

I recently bought a copy of Wargames illustrated as it had a free sprue of Warlord Games Americans on the cover. 6 models for £5.25 and a free magazine thrown in.

My collection of Americans for WW2 began with Warlord plastics many moons ago. These are a newer set of sculpts.
They're still a little caricatured, as is the Warlord style, but they're nicer and not as cartoonish as the older ones. They also went together a lot better.

I just assembled them with a mix of basic kit - I need a few extra riflemen for my crewed weapons.
A really nice set - very happy with them for the price.
Martin has now gifted me another sprue, so I'll shortly do a few more

Napoleonic French Lancers

Finally finished and based these fellows.

Not exactly sure what the difference is between the last two pictures...

Anyway, glad to have these all properly done as a unit. Napoleonic uniforms are a pain to do, but there's no denying how splendid the finished effect is.

Warlord Lancers Command

Finally finished the command for the Warlord Lancers.

Pictures have come out a bit dark.

The leader fellow was a proper pain, The horse ankle snapped repeatedly, despite my best pinning efforts. I;m not that keen on the pose either. Also weird that he's on a galloping horse when all the plastics in the unit are standing/walking.

Anyway, they're done now (bar a little bit of basing)

Warlord Games' Plastic French Lancers

These are for Black Powder, Sharp Practice or Song of Drums and Shakos. Need to add the leader and trumpeter to make them eight strong.

They were given to me for my birthday a year ago, which is nice. They went together very easily - the horses in particular whilst less dynamic than Perry ones went together with far less filling and filing than the plastic Perry horses need.

There's only two bodies and two lance arms, and one of the lances is carried across the body. I wanted them all erect, so had to do a little chopping of one of the sword arms. I suppose I could have just used the sword arms, but these are lancers, the clue's in the name.
Painting was pretty easy, though obviously a bit of a faff because Napoleonics.

Pretty nice kit and if I get a single sprue I should be able to make 2 units of eight, which is about two more units than I really need, but what the heck.

Compagnie Franches de la Marine

Some months ago the members of the Sherwood, Hucknall and Ilkeston Team decided as one to assemble forces for the French and Indian war. Our rules of choice to be Muskets and Tomahawks.

Steve immediately painted up some plastic Perry AWI models to use as redcoats. General Ballroom and I take great pleasure in telling him they're the wrong period.

At the same time I purchased the models I needed but knew I had to finish the Late Romans for Peterborough.

Now, decks clear I have begun work.

I shall be playing the French and so began with the Warlord (Conquest Miniatures) Compagnie Franches de la Marine.

Ten including a couple of characters seemed a good start.

Truth to tell I'm not a fan of the models.
They're "characterful".
Not in an "oh my god, my eyes, my beautiful eyes" sense of characterful like, for instance the Tiger miniatures Afghans, but the faces are a bit cartoony and the sizes and proportions seem to me to vary quite considerably.

Anyway they're done now, bar basing which I'll do for the whole force at the same time.
Next up some Crusader Woodland Indians I reckon.

Dipped Bolt Action Americans (2)

Some more quick and dirty dipped Americans.

 Cigar chompin' Sarge!

 Grenade!

Reasonably happy again with how these have turned out.
Interesting photography variations given that I took them all one after another with the same set up then treated them all the same in Photoshop...
They would definitely improve with some highlights (especially the fleshy bits) but then I might as well go back to my usual basecoat, wash, highlight method and this is definitely quicker
Just keep telling myself to keep it quick and get playing!

Doing the Dirty Dip

I'd always looked askance at the idea of dipping. I saw it as "not proper painting". More specifically it generally seemed to be aimed at the type of wargamer who saw having a painted army as a necessary evil, rather than a thing of joy in its own right. Promotion for dipping always seemed to emphasise that it was all about speed and getting an army on the table fast, and made reference to "tabletop standard" - all of which seemed to me to aim it squarely at people who actually don't like toy soldiers very much. An example would be the recent article about a Viking army in WI, an article which (to my eye at least) did little to show either the Army Painter products or the Gripping Beast models in a very good light. Yes it was quick, but it looked it. And I happen to know that Bo is a very talented painter and that the GB Vikings are nice models. Maybe it was the photography but I remained unconvinced.

To me it's the soldier that's the important thing, I like how they look and feel and appreciate the skill and talent that goes into making a good one. Therefore my object in painting it is to enhance that beauty and lavish such skill as I possess to make the model look as good as I possibly can.

However some other painters began to give me pause for thought. Scrivs has been churning out some lovely armies at an alarming rate, and Saxon Dog has had some great results too. However both of these guys have been doing more than simply "dipping" the model. They've gone back and added highlights and the like, all of which seems to move right back to “proper" painting and be pretty much the same as the more traditional basecoat, wash, highlight method that I already use, with the added complication of having to use a "wash" that needs 24 hours to dry. So you’re left with a method that's either quick and looks a bit nasty, or the same as traditional painting but more complicated.

Then, last week I bought some cheap grey primer (I was making a Gandalf costume for my son to wear on Book Day at school) and I began to think about my "stalled" ACW project and my "not even off the starting block" Napoleonic project. Couple that with suggestions from the Warhammer forum that cheap proprietary woodstain was the same as the Army painter stuff and I was ready to experiment. Spray Grey, a few other colours and then dip might give me something I could live with. Had to be worth a go, right?

So I grabbed one of the Warlord ECW figures I got in my grab bag at the Derby show and set to work.

Here he is sprayed with cheap Grey Primer from the £1 shop, then painted with Tallarn Flesh, Bestial, Khemri and Calthan Browns, Mechrite Red, Skull White, Boltgun Metal and Dheneb Stone.

Next Stage was to Dip. I took some Wilko's own brand Walnut Woodstain and applied liberally. Then left it to dry for 24 hours:

Uurgh shiny!

So I followed the prescribed method and sprayed with Army Painter Matt Varnish:

 

Much better.

And so finally I based him:

 

 

I'm actually reasonably happy with him as a test model. The face in particular has come out well. Cheap, and although the individual took as long as a regularly painted model once I start doing batches it'll be quick, and  think I can live with that as a standard for my ACW models - though I suspect characters and the like will get more attention.