Project Naseby - 3

Although for purposes of describing progress I have broken the project down into distinct parts in reality the parts overlapped.  For example I couldn't write rules without knowing what figures I would be using,  or how the units fought.  Period drill manuals gave me the answer but raised new ones as well.  I decided to create units based on the most common distances between ranks and files.  I had to take into account that in the real world formations can change but little lead casting are immobile.  Once I started to read some of the drill manuals I started to realise that so much of what I thought I knew I couldn't show to be accurate.  For example Horse attacking Foot, once I knew the size and footprint of a Foot Battalia I started to ask if a pike hedgehog was a defensive formation used in practice.  Can 400 musketeers really hide behind 200 Pikemen?  If it isn't possible what were the real mechanics involved.  Would Horse really charge home into well formed and well trained infantry?

On the plus side the formations I settled on do look like the those shown on the deployment maps created by De Gomme so something was going right.

Pictures or it didn't happen

I have been a bit lax over posting pictures in my last couple of entries.  so here are the pictures of some examples of my 2mm figures I promised.  First up is a regiment of ECW foot

 

 

These are never going to win any competitions but they do what I want them too.  Next comes some horse.  I was using up some odds and sods to build this unit including some rare miscasts normally the castings are far better than these.

 

 

 

 

Last but not least a look at an artillery piece.

 

 

The photos could be better but as I was using my phone I don't think they have come out too badly.





Project Naseby pt 2 - selecting the figures

So with the terrain researched it was time for me to buy some lead.  Off I went to Irregular Miniatures website with a burning desire to spend money!  Problems arose within moments as I realised that I needed to ensure that the 2mm blocks were going to have the proper footprint on the table and the website didn't (and still doesn't) provide details of the size of the castings.  A quick search on Google later and I had found the Tiny Tin Troops website: http://www.tinytintroops.co.uk/Res/2mm/2mm_blocks.htm which gave me the details I needed.  Backed up with frontages, depths and descriptions from that site I was able to decide which castings looked to be the best fit to the fighting frontages commonly quoted in the drill manuals of the period.

Not wanting to waste money I bought a few samples first before settling on the Horse and Musket range of infantry castings (BG32 48 foot in 3 ranks or BG31 48 foot in 6 ranks) for shot and the large Swiss/Landschnecht pike blogs (RBG9A&B) for the pike armed troops.  I had to trim flags off the shot castings until Irregular started to provide a version without the flags.  For the horse I used the Armoured Pistoliers (RBG31 15 horse in 3 ranks).  On top of which I used a variety of different castings for generals individual foot figures to add to bases etc.

I used one block of pike to represent 100 pike in 6 ranks and two blocks of shot to  create 100 shot in 6 ranks.  Three blocks of horse side by side give 45 horse in 3 ranks plus some individual single figures as officers to bring it up towards 50 horse per element.  A mix of artillery types was used from the renaissance list with the addition of limbers and ammunition wagons to the base to make it look like a working gun team.

As I'm blogging this in my lunch hour I don't have photos to hand so those will have to wait for another time.

Project Naseby - The story so far

Project Naseby - The story so far

I have always had a bit of an obsession with trying to create a complete representation of any army involved in a battle that interests me.  A while ago I decided that I wanted to do Naseby.  But not just one army but both sides.  Then I thought why not do it to a figure ratio of 1:1 its not quite as insane as it sounds when you realise that I am doing this in 2mm using Irregular Miniatures range.

That's when the megalomania started to really kick in.  I could match the figure scale to the ground scale if I aimed for 1mm to 1 yard/metre.  How hard could it be I thought.  The armies are not that big and the battlefield isn't huge.  All I need to do is get the respective orders of battle, recreate the terrain based on the OS map adjusted for the more open landscape of 1645, buy some figures and that would be that, easy..... right?  And so Project Naseby was conceived , or should that have been misconceived?

Early research went quite well, I created a contour map of the area of the main fighting area and was able to make the adjustments for the period land use based on the English Heritage battle field report.  Problems started with creating the two orders of battle.  I quickly realised that most of what I thought I knew was wrong.  so off I went to the best primary sources.  Symons diary is good for Royalist Horse but information on the foot is variable.  On the New Model side pay returns give an indication of numbers for the foot but not for the horse, and so it went.  In the end I based my forces on the Naseby Battlefield trust information.  That allowed me to buy some figures.  Although I did have to decide on a few other points first like frontage and formations so I knew what to buy.

More on that and my attempt to write rules in a later blog.

Am I the world's worst blogger?

Once again its been a year since I did anything with this blog.  Its not that I haven't been doing anything blog worthy, I have just been busy.  New job, new house and now a new dog.

I have been completing some starter fleets for Full Thrust,  6mm armies for DBA and both painting 2mm ECW armies and writing some rules for them.  I know, pictures or it didn't happen!

Close up of Irregular Miniatures figures in action.  they might not look much close up but at a distance they do look like the seventeenth woodcut illustrations of battles.

These figures are based for a 1:1 figure scale set of rules I'm working on.  The intention is to relight Naseby at a ground scale of 1mm to 1 yard/metre so that ground scale and figure scale match.

Below is photo of the battlefield so you can see the effect of the massed figures.

These are reasonably easy to paint.  The cavalry castings are a bit more detailed so they take a little more time.  The other excuse is shown below just do you can go "ahhhh".

From Tree to tree - making 6mm trees.

From Tree to Tree

Or how to make trees for 6mm and smaller scales from cones from Alder Trees.

First find your tree

Alders like damp conditions so the best place to go looking for them is near lakes streams or rivers.  They are easy to recognise in the winter when they have lost their leaves but still have cones and catkins on the tree.  Alders have both cones and catkins on the same tree which also helps identify them.  As you can see from the photo below they are quite a slim tree rising to a distinct point.

This is what you are looking for, an Alder in winter.

It’s the cones we are after these are best collected after a couple of dry days so that they are not damp.  If you can only find damp ones don’t worry as they dry out easily.  When you collect them, the cones will probably still have some seeds in them.  I find that putting the cones in a plastic bag and banging them against the palm of your hand (do this quite hard or use a harder surface to bang them against) will dislodge most of these.  Don’t worry about damaging the cones they are pretty tough.  Test a couple to see how hard to hit them to dislodge the seeds.

These are the cones as they come from the tree (UK 2p coin and ruler in Cm for scale)

Cut the “stalk” about 1cm below the base of the cone with a sharp craft knife.  You can also trim off a couple of rows of the segments that make up the cone from the base to give the cone a more tree like shape.  So you end up with something like this.

I base mine on UK 1p pieces.  To do this I use Milliput, a blob about 5mm in diameter should be about right to create a flattened dome on top of the coin deep enough to hold the stalk of the cone firmly.  If they come loose a drop of glue in the hole is enough to hold the cone in place.  Set these aside to let the Milliput cure until firm.  I usually leave them overnight.  What you have now should look like this.

Now to add the foliage, I have found that a light foam flock such as Woodland scenic fine turf works well.  Mix some PVA glue with a little water until you get a consistency similar to single cream.  Paint this onto the cone starting at the bottom and working upwards towards the pointy end.  It doesn’t need to be 100% coverage the cones are wood coloured anyway so any you miss will just look like the branches.  Now dunk the cone in the flock and give a good tap to shake the loose flock off.  If you want to make a bigger tree use a chunkier foam such as the course turf or shrub size foam flock, but either don’t water the PVA down or use a stronger glue such as Bostick.  The result should look like these.

So all that is left to do is paint or texture the Miliput base and Bob’s your Uncle.  From a big tree into a teeny-weeny tree!

Objects in Space

Full credit to anyone who spotted this as being the title of an episode of Firefly.  I chose the title as I have been making some contact markers for use in games of Full Thrust so they show the location of an unidentified "Object in Space" when using the hidden movement and sensor rules.  I could have done a better job of the painting but I was doing the target rings free hand on a spherical marker.  I may repaint them to try to get a better result, or then again I may not.

The spheres come courtesy of Guiness. They are the widgets from their draughtflow cans.  These are hollow and hold the gassing agent for creating the draught beer effect. Other draughtflow systems may use different shapes of widget. The Guiness cans themselves are only thin and crush and tear quite easily. First drink the Guiness (or other draughtflow beer of your choice). After gently crushing the centre of the can's cylinderical length they can either be cut with a pair of kitchen scissors or torn open.  Take care doing this as the metal will be very sharp.  I recommend using gardening gloves or similar to protect your hands. 

Roll out the plastic ball and wash to remove traces of beer.  You will find two small indents at or near the "North and South poles".  I drill these out with a Bradawl, rewash them and set them aside to dry, you might need to blow out any moisture from inside the spheres.

I poke a paint brush handle through on of the holes I drilled out and paint the sphere black using a cheap craft acrylic paint.  Slap this on in quite a thick layer using a course bristle brush to create a little bit of surface texture.  Once this is dry I use a dry brush technique, which is the reason for creating that texture in the black paint, and apply a metallic dark purple and dark red random pattern.  This is only a slight effect intended to break up the monotone black colour.  It should make them a little easier to focus on in game.  Of course you could paint them any colour you fancy I just like the illusion of not being totally sure where they are against a black playing surface.  Put these aside to dry.

The stands are created next using a hexagonal base cut from cardboard.  The uprights are furniture fixing dowels available really cheaply from most do it yourself stores.  Glue these to the centre of the card hex. Finally glue a metal washer to the top of the dowel.  I find Bostick glue works well for assembling the bases.  Once the glue has dried paint the whole thing black using the craft paint, no point wasting the good stuff on these as they soak up a fair bit of paint.  Remember to paint the edges and underside of the card.  Painting the underside prevents the card warping and the edges are just for the look of the thing.  Add a label either using a metallic ink pen or by printing something up on the PC. saying something like "Contact 1" and the base is complete.

Finally, add any targeting graphic you fancy to the sphere, or in light of the dog's breakfast I made of mine you might want to leave this out, add a coat of varnish to the sphere and glue to the washer on top of the stand.  And there you have your contact marker