League of Augsburg French (Pendraken 10mm)

This summer I was hoping to get loads of figures painted. In the end I managed two battalions and its now October !

These figures are from my new project - a French army in 10mm for the War of the League of Augsburg. I've started collecting these mainly because the figures in the new range by Pendraken are simply fantastic (they are sculpted by the amazingly talented Clibinarium who also created their AWI range). The detail is superb - some of the figures even clearly having eyeballs. In 10mm! Its just not fair on us painters !

This was a figure inspired project, so I quickly realised that I didn't actually know anything about the period at all. With help from a certain Mr Essex Boy from the WD3 forum I got into some basic background reading. The most enjoyable being the useful Art of Warfare in the Age of Marlborough (David Chandler). This is a very good introduction to the tactics of the period and well worth a look. There is also a very useful webpage and forum at the League of Augsburg website. Here also you can purchase a set of rules for the war - Beneath The Lily Banners 2nd Edition. They are a bit pricy, but well produced, colourful and very readable. I haven't had a chance to play them yet but they seem like fun.

The Pendraken figures come in packs with a variety of poses. Initially I was going to mix the poses on all my stands - but this made the battalions look very irregular and rag-tag. Conversely I wasn't too keen on completely identical regiments. So I have compromised with having each base having the same figures front rank and different ones in the rear rank. I think it looks ok but i'm not entirely convinced - I may well have to experiment still more.

I have targeted my collection at the large starter army from the rulebook. This requires nine foot battalions and oodles of horse. Luckily the horse figures haven't been released yet so I have some time to get the other seven done. That's of course if I don't get distracted by AWI, 40k, Napoleonics, Space Hulk or ....sigh... Dreadfleet...... 

Virginia Continental Regiments (Pendraken Miniatures 10mm)

After a break of nearly a year I have now finished the next part of my 10mm AWI forces for Guilford Courthouse. I finally finished the British last year, so now its the turn of the gallant Patriots fighting against tyranny, oppression and for the right to super size meals.

 

First under the brush are the Virginia Continental regiments. There were two regiments at Guilford Courthouse which seem to have different numbers in every reference book, but I'll go with Babits* and use them as the 1st and 2nd Virginia. I have been constructing my forces using the order of battle in the original British Grenadier rulebook which used a 1:20 ratio - meaning if I can get away with each regiment being about 20 figures. The new scenario book has scaled the battle up to 1:10. I decided therefore to arrange the figures so they could be used as 2 smaller regiments at 1:20 or one larger at 1:10 in case I ever get round to painting enough figures for the larger battle (i.e. never)

 

One advantage of painting up the Americans is that you pretty much have free reign on how to paint the uniforms and flags since they were anything but standardised. This also means needing to put a bit of thought into it rather than just following an Osprey guide. I have decided to give each of my American regiments their own flavour. For the Virginians I latched onto a passage in Babits which mentions that they had received a new batch of poor quality uniforms prior to leaving Virginia. I decided therefore to paint them up in relatively uniform blue coats but have a number of them patched on the knees and sleeves. In the end they probably still look a lot less scruffy than they would have done in actuality (I'm going to save proper scruffy for some of the militia!).

 

The flags are also entirely conjectural. The best work on flags is Richardson but even this is incredibly vague. I knew I didn't want a Betsy Ross so I have just used a random Stars and Stripes design. The regimental colours are entirely made up. There are some Virginia State flags using a buff background so I made the flag with a plain buff yellow field and a simple scroll device. I have had comments that painting 10mm flags is borderline insane, but it really is quite straightforward (and probably easier than larger scale flags). This time I've included a step-by-step to show how I went about them

Step 1:

First you need a template on a piece of paper. I use standard printer/copier paper. It needs to be absorbent to make the glue work (see below). You could hand draw the template entirely. I prefer to print a base template for somewhere like Warflag. Print it down in black and white and resize as appropriate. It is better to use the resize function in your printer driver or photocopy the size down. I find using an art package to rescale can cause the image to become 'blocky'. For these flags I used a Stars and Stripes template from Warflag and a standard blank template that I have used for other flags previously. At this point make sure that the flag is the right size to fit on your flagpole!

Step 2:

Now blackline all the detail. I used a Rotring 0.1 pen. It needs to be a waterproof ink. Don't worry if the detail becomes smudgy at this point. Extend border the lines beyond the boundary of the flag - this will help to guide cutting later.

 

Step 3:

Paint in the base colours using a shade colour. Paint up to and slightly over the blacklines so that you leave the finest black line bordering each colour. Don't put the paint on thickly otherwise it risks cracking when the flag is bent later.

Step 4:

Paint a mid tone colour to fill most of the shade colour blocks already done. You may need to repeat if the brushstrokes are still visible when dry. At this point I also used a Rotring 0.03 pen to write the slogan on the scroll. In hindsight I should perhaps have used this fine pen to outline the stars.

Step 5:

Now cut out the flags using a sharp scalpel and a metal ruler. I have one of those paper cutters that combine a blade into a sliding ruler but it's not necessary. When the flags are cut out, paste the reverse sides generously with a PVA/Water mix. Wrap the flag around the flagpole and match the two halves carefully. While the flag is still wet, get a thin paintbrush handle or similar (a knitting needle is good if, and only if, you have permission!).  Bend the flag around the handle 2 or 3 times to create furls - the paper should bent stay in place. It looks more realistic to furl on the diagonal rather than straight up or down. If you are brave you can scrunch the flag up quite severely..... I wasn't! Leave to dry overnight and then varnish to give the flag some strength and you're done.

League of Augsberg (Pendraken 10mm)

Having finally finished my 28mm 18thC brigade for the WD3 battleday earlier this month I am now back into 10mm painting. I have primed my Virginian Continentals and on Saturday night painted all the flesh on them ready for a concerted assault on the painting task on Sunday. But this morning I couldn't help but look at the Pendraken League of Augsberg sampler pack and wonder what they would look like painted - so it looks like my Continentals will have to wait a week at least.

I'm seriously looking at League of Augsberg as one of my next projects so there was a point to this. I didn't pay too much attention to getting the uniforms right this time, I just used the photos from the latest edition of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy as a rough guide.

My first impressions are that the figures are a delight to paint up. The sculpts from Clibinarium are crisp and well defined making them very easy to paint. The uniforms are very simple with plenty of opportunity to field brightly coloured units with long coats and large cuffs and lapels in attractive contrasting colours. One lesson learned though is that I'm not doing the Dutch - nice though they look, painting orange is a nightmare and I'm not really happy with the effect that I ended up with here.

AWI British Commanders (Pendraken Miniatures 10mm)

Well finally my Brits have some officers. Once again some excellent sculpts from Clibanarium. There are 6 great individual officers in each pack. I've only used three though, since thats all I need for Guilford Courthouse. The others will have to wait until the rebels are completed (in a decade or so.....)

Pendraken AWI Generals might arrive September

The masters are complete for the AWI Generals and they look fantastic!!! Six Brits and six rebellious colonial types. This range just gets better and better ! Clibinarium has posted the above pic and a few even more detailed ones on the Pendraken Forum. Hopefully they are going to be available in Pendraken's September release. At last my little men will have leaders.

New Pendraken AWI General's are on their way

First pics from Clibinarium. At last I'm going to have someone to inspire my gallant Brits!

More details on the Pendraken Forum
 
 
 
 
    

Hessian Jaegers (10mm Pendraken Miniatures)

Some of the best sculpted figures in the Pendraken range. A good variety of figures in each pack - just right for skirmishers.

van Bose Hessian Regiment (10mm Pendraken Miniatures)

The van Bose Hessian regiment. This was one of those paintjobs that makes you feel that your eyeballs are going to pop. Striped trousers and the worlds most complicated flags (which annoyingly are smaller than British ones). And then I got carried away and put some patches on their knees too. By the time I got round to the Highlanders I had regained my sanity and cunningly avoided having to do tartan trousers.......

17th Light Dragoons (10mm Pendraken Miniatures)

Royal Artillery 3 Pdrs (10mm Pendraken Miniatures)

Some would have you believe the General Cornwallis fired through his own men on purpose to save the day. Surely not......

The Guards (10mm Pendraken Miniatures)

Okay okay so we all know the Guards didn't actually wear 1768 Warrant Uniform but I've got some excuses. Firstly there aren't any figures of the Foot Guards in their correct uniform for the Southern Campaign. But, more importantly, the 1768 Warrant is just a gorgeous uniform and Clibinarium's sculpts are a wonder to behold. So.... no way was I going to paint up the Brits and not have any.

23rd Foot (10mm Pendraken Miniatures)

The 23rd Foot (Royal Welch Fusileers). When I painted them up I wasn't aware of any goats in this scale so they are without their famous mascot. Apparently they are available as N gauge railway accessories so maybe I will re-do this command group some day!

British Light Infantry (10mm Pendraken Miniatures)

These are just generic light infantry and totally wrong for Guilford Courthouse. However there aren't really any late war Light Bobs available yet and so I'm happy to compromise with these (and I'm sure that I will get to use them when I get round to my early war collection in a decade or two)

71st Highlanders (10mm Pendraken Miniatures)