From ByronM - 15mm 30 years war Holy Roman Empire (136 points)

One of the goals I set for myself for this years challenge was to try and reduce the pile-o-shame (models that have not yet been painted) that has accumulated over the years at my place.  So I created a large list of projects that have started over the years, but never finished.  Once such project was last years foray into the 30 years war in 15mm.  While I finished quite a few bases of figures during last years challenge, I barely touched the stock pile of them that I bought, and have yet to play a game with them due to not having enough completed.  Therefore I thought it would be a good thing to get cracking on them over the Christmas holiday.

Here is the batch that I got done over the last week: 18 cavalry, 18 muskateers, and 14 pikemen.

All of these were painted using a very quick and messy method.  Essentially, all I did was apply base coats of the basic colours, then washed everything with the one GW paint I use (Agrax Earthshade), and then highlighted them with the base colours again, and in some cases 1 shade higher to get some highlights.

While this basic method produces tabletop ready miniatures quickly, they are nothing special.  Which means I get frustrated painting them quickly as well, as it feels like cheating to not put your best effort into something you are painting, BUT with something like 500+ more models to do to complete them all, I simply can not put much more effort into each model than this or I will never finish them!

Overall though, at tabletop level they look ok, and that's all that counts for these.  My plan is to use the "By Fire and Sword" rule set with them for small skirmish games (a great rule set that's super detailed and in depth) and then to use "By Pike & Shot" for bigger games (another great rule set, essentially GW's old Warmaster rules).  I look forward to getting them on Curt's table for a game with the Regina crew sometime this year.

As for points, this batch should net me 136 points as per:

- 18 Cav @ 4 pts each = 72
- 18 Muskateers @ 2 pts each = 36
-14 Pikemen @ 2 pts each = 28

From ByronM - Revisiting the Thirty Years War - Rousell's Sandhill - (240 Points)

I have been looking for my next spot on the map and trying to figure out what on earth I would do for Rousells Sandhill, and then realized "wait a minute, the figures I am using for the 30 years war are actually from the 'By Fire and Sword' game that is all about the Polish wars from 1640 through 1676"!  Even though I am using them for the 30yw that was preceding the period Rousell wants, the figures are exactly what he is looking for!

Therefore I present to you a pile of men in "floppy" hats....

This group of figures makes up the start of my force from the Holy Roman Empire, which actually doesn't mean that much given the period.  Pretty much EVERYONE involved in the conflict were morally corrupt back stabbers.  The armies were mainly mercenary forces that fought for whomever paid them the most, many forces switched sides multiple times over the course of the war.

Worse, as far as I can figure from all the reading I have done on the subject, the whole war and all the deaths involved in it was pretty much about if you believed the Pope was a representative of God on earth or not.  It was not even about which imaginary being you believed in!  Both sides believed in the exact SAME imaginary being, just differed in how they thought you should worship him.... WOW.  I could at least understand if they believe in different Gods, I couldn't agree with killing each other over it, but could at least understand it.

I mean there is a lot more to it than that, but that was the basic jist of it.  A lot also had to do with Royalty of the time being a bunch of inbred back stabbing power grubbing maniacs that cared little about the actual population that died fighting their wars.

Oh well, enough ranting on a subject I can't possibly truly understand since I am obviously an Aethist by the comments above!  Back to the reason we are all hear.... toy soldiers!

These figures are a mix of several manufacturers.  Most are from Wargamer Games Studio (makers of By Fire and Sword), but there is a mix from Blue Moon, Peter Pig, and at least one other that I am forgetting.

All of them are pretty nice with the WGS ones being the best sculpts to me.

Since the mercenaries changed sides so often they never really used uniforms, hence most of the units being in random coloured normal clothing.  I did however paint one unit in a uniform colour trying to replicate Greg's painting style that he showed me last year when I was struggling with this project.  I think I did a not bad job on them and they look better than the rest of the units.

The flags are just place holder, home printed ones as I have misplaced the much better quality ones I had printed last year, so until I find them these will have to do.

Overall I have 90 infantry figures and 6 guns, so by my math that should be 204 points, plus 30 points for the map space.  I don't know about you all, but 15mm seems like much harder work for the points than 28mm!  I guess I am still trying to paint them too much like 28mm figures.


I know this isn't one of your favourite scales to paint, but you do a fantastic job on them Byron. Whilst religion (or rather, which Christian doctrine) was certainly a major factor in the war, for the leaders at any rate, the big issue that began it was about who got to elect the Holy Roman Emperor and the rights of (the rulers of) the various states - in the early phase protestant Saxony was on the same side as catholic Bavaria and the catholic Hapsburg Emperor.

I'm going to add a point each for the flags, even though they are "placeholders", which takes your score to a round 240 points.

TamsinP

From MilesR: Swedish Dragoons for Rousell's Sandhill - 84 Points

I really had a hard time figuring out what might pass muster for Rousell's Roost given his rather exacting time period restriction of 1660 - 1669.  Sadly, when one has a leadpile as big as mine, there's likely a figure for any time period.  In this case there are a ton of them form my Kkstarter for the game system "By Fire and Sword".  I present to you a unit of Swedish Dragoons (mounted and dismounted) which the rule books say go all the way up to 1660 - just making it into Ray's time band.

 These are metal castings in 15mm scale from Wargamer.Pl - the Polish based entity that publishes the by Fire and Sword rule system.  BFAS is a really fun game that I've played about 5 times but it never really caught on with my gaming groups.  It has a very innovative command control system and works for both skirmish level as well as army battles.

I've got a ton of unpainted Swedes, Poles and Ottomans to paint up and you may see a few more over the next few months.

This submissio has nine mounted and dismounted figures which totals 54 points.  That goes to 84 with the bonus points.

Rather than head straight to the Snow Lords lair next, I think I'll make a left turn and take the scenic route.




Gordon Bennett Miles, haven't you got anything else to do! These are lovely. Begrudingly stands back and admires the output

From ByronM: 15mm Thirty Years War Swedish force (288 Points)

I had plans for doing so much this year, yet due to struggles with getting my head around painting 15mm I just never got into it this year.  Now finally at the end, once I started basing them up and looking at them from tabletop distances, I am actually really happy with them, and realized that my issue was that I was looking at them individually and close up while painting them, expecting 28mm style looks, when really, its all about the bulked up / ranked up look....  I really should have based some up way earlier, and I could have gotten past the mind lock and painted more!!!

Anyway, on with the show....

These figures are a mix of Wargammer LLC (makes of By Fire and Sword), Khurasan, and Blue Moon.  I honestly do not know which are which anymore as they all just went into a pile to be painted.  All of them are very good though, with Blue Moon being the roughest, but at the price they offer for bags of 50 I really can not complain.  The Khurasan and Wargammer LLC figs are both super clean and easy to work with.

I made a choice while working on the Swedish force that a good section of them was going to be King Gustav II Adolf's personal force and therefore they would be in the regular uniforms of blue coats and yellow sashes.  While normally during the 30 year war, no one was in any sort of regular uniform, in theory Gustav's personal / elite guard was.  Probably not in any real numbers and even though they were uniforms they were probably not as regular looking as I have done them, so I expect some would be historians to have issue with the uniformity, but it's my force, so my choice!

I discussed my basing choices last time I posted some 30 years war figures, but I also made a choice to cut some bases with some rounded edges to use for my leaders bases since then.  This is so that I can tell them apart from the normal troops when I use these figures with Pike & Shot, but still use them attached to units in By Fire and Sword.  This can be seen on King Gustav II's base.

I painted a pile of Cavalry to go along with the King, after all, even though he was known to charge in recklessly, but never alone, so three units of cavalry should be enough to support him.

As most of you know by now, I am not a fan of painting horses, but I think these came out well with a few different shades mixed in.

I also needed Musketeers to help out with the force, so painted two units of them as a start.  Many more are to come in the near future but this gave me something more to post at least.

Again, probably way to uniform in colour, but I wanted the Swedish force to look like a force compared to the coming Holy Roman Empire army that I am working on where everyone is wearing something different.

Last up in this post is what started it all for me with the Thirty Years War, pikemen!  Here are 4 more units of pikemen to add to my Swedish force.  Most of them are without armour, but one is an armoured unit.

As you can see, I also took Curt's advice and got some standards to start adding into the units.

Now that I am in the right mind set for painting 15mm, it's almost too late for the challenge.  Sigh...

I will get at least a few more done before the end, but it looks like I will have a lot to carry over to next years challenge. Which unfortunately means that I am likely to miss my points goal for the year.  I ALWAYS go for 1500 to make sure I can meet it, this year I looked at everything I had to paint and decided I could go higher....  bad call.  I would have made 1500, but will miss my 2k target.  Oh well, live and learn, right?

******

For points:

Cav: 30 x 4 points = 120
Infantry: 84 x 2 points = 168
Total: 288

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With the Snowlord calling sauve qui peut, what is a good minion to do but pitch in and stem the tide? And here we have the future foreign regiments (at least the German ones) of the King of France!

The Army of the King of Sweden has always been one that has fascinated me, ever since the heady days of my youth, finding Trevor Dupuy's The Military Life of Gustavus Adolphus: Father of Modern War in the kid's section of my local library. And who can forget the illustrated Great Commanders and their Battles?

I fully sympathize with the pain of switching to 15mm. I tried painting a DBA army pre-challenge for a tournament and was stopped dead in my tracks, for much the same reason. I also sympathize with the not meeting your target fears. I'd love to paint 1500 points in three months; I feel I did quite well passing my lowly 200 quota.

But these are beautiful, Byron. Keep up the good work!

288 points in the spreadsheet!

HerrRobert, Friday Follies Phantasmical, Over

From ByronM: 15mm 30 Years War Swedish Pikemen (30 points)

A quick little post today to at least put something up.  While I have been having fun with theme week entries, my general painting output has really been low this year as real life and work have intervened, leaving me just not feeling it as much as most years.  Hopefully that will change when I am off in a week and can take some time so sit and paint and hopefully get in the groove and meet my goal for the year.

Anyway onto the post for today, here is a small unit of 30 years war Swedish Pikemen. 

As mentioned in a previous post, even though I am doing these to play 'By Fire and Sword' with, I am changing the basing a bit to fit my own aesthetic ideas.  So the bases are 10mm wider than their normal and 10mm deeper as well.  They require only 3 figures per base, but I felt that 3 musketeers looked too cramped, and felt that only 3 pikemen didn't look right.  So, I am basing with 3 musketeers per base still which allows it to look like they had some room, but I am doing 5-7 pikemen per base to make them look more like a block.

Again I have tried to imitate Greg's style, but am still disappointed a bit with the result.  I keep trying to use subtle shade differences, and I know I have to go with harsher differences, it's just against my normal style, so am struggling with it.  The figures turned out ok, there is nothing "wrong" with them, they are just no where near what I know is possible, and what Greg gets from his 15mm figs.

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Your reservations aside, I think these look terrific Byron. Though I think 15mm figures often lend themselves to a more high-contrast approach, I think your work here is excellent. I especially like your larger basing scheme though I must admit that, personally, I'd cram more figures per base, but that's just me. Question: Are you adding banners to these units later? These lads need some Swedish colours or at least some IKEA cargo totes. :)

- Curt

From ByronM - 28mm WWII Canadians, 15mm Thirty Years War, and Epic 30k ( 133 Points)

A few things to post up this week, that are all over the map, I really wish I had seen and entered that "squirrel" challenge.

First up I have a squad of WWII Canadians from Warlord.  These are the metal figures and are great, with a ton of character in the faces.  In addition to the squad itself, I have included a command figure.

While the pink flowers may look a bit odd at first glance, they are there to be my unit designators.  This is a pink squad, later will be followed by purple, blue, red, etc.  That way as units get mixed up on the battle field it is always easy to see which one belongs to which squad.

The figures were done pretty quickly, but turned out pretty well.

Next up is my first submission of a new project, I plan on painting several armies for the Thirty Years War, and this is the first few bases for a Swedish cavalry skirmish group.  The figures are from Wargamer LLC who publishes the rules By Fire and Sword.  While not specifically targeting the 30YW period, they are aimed at the late 1600's just following the 30YW and not much tactically had changed during that time, so I plan on using their rules for the period.  If they don't work out I can always fall back to the tried and true Pike and Shotte rule set.  Regardless of the rule set I end up using, the figures are amazingly good and I strongly suggest them. 

I tried painting these figures initially, but was just not coming up with something that I liked.  I paint way more 28mm than anything else, and was using a 28mm paint method which was taking way to long and not showing well on the figures.  So, having Greg in the area, and knowing that he can bang off amazing looking 15mm figures with ease, I invited him over to give me a painting lesson!  Sure enough, he had a completely different way to paint 15mm figures than what I was doing.  It involved way more contrast than I was using, a different order of painting, and looked way better with way less effort.

While I still don't have it down solid, and my version of his painting does not look as good, I am getting there. So thanks to Greg again, but don't judge these figures and reflect badly on him, it's just my first attempts at his style. If you look closely, you can see 3 figures that look much better than the rest, those are the 3 he did that night to teach me how.  I am still not super happy with my results, but hopefully I get better as I paint more of them.

The bases for By Fire and Sword and Pike and Shotte for 15mm should be 40mm wide for 3 figures and either 20mm or 30mm deep depending on infantry or cavalry, however I found that a bit cramped and since the basing doesn't really matter (as long as both forces are done the same way, and I plan on doing both sides for games) I expanded the bases by 10mm in both directions.  This allows a bit more room for groundwork and to protect the models.  It also allows infantry a bit more room for Muskateers to spread out, or to add a few more pikemen onto a base to look more like a block of men.

Also shown here are 3 test figures for Musketeers of any nation.  These I believe are Bluemoon sculpts, but could be Khurasan as well.  I bought a pile from the three different suppliers and then cleaned and primed them all together, so no real idea which are which any more.  They all look good though, the only issue I have with the Bluemoon figures is that they come in bags of 50, but only have 3 different sculpts.  The price is right and they are the cheapest and look good alongside the other two companies, they just have very little variation, so can not really be used by themselves.

Lastly, I have a small squad of Epic 30k vehicles that I forgot to photograph last week.  The squad is made up of 5 scimitar jetbikes and a speeder.  They are great little sculpts and while they will provide almost no use on the battle field, being way to fragile, they look awesome and I could not resist.

That should give me a little bit of a points boost, but I have been struggling to paint this year, so I am not all that hopeful about meeting my goal, I really need to get working!  Oh, and 3 of the Cavalry should count to Greg's points as he painted 3 of them, so 12 points to GregB as well.


11x 28mm = 55 points
15x 15mm cav = 60
3x 15mm inf = 6
6x 6mm vehicles = 12
Byron's total = 133

3x 15mm cav = 12
Greg's total = 12
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TamsinP:

Ah, yes, the switch from painting 28mm to 15mm can be quite difficult. The same applies the other way, as I can well attest.

Excellent work on all of these sets Byron. And Greg for his three 15mm cavalry.