Michael Caine's first movie was Zulu! portraying Lt. G. Bromhead, VC
Well, after all that Team Yankee painting the past few weeks, I figured I'd go for something completely different: Anglo-Zulu War british Colonials. I picked up some models last year and have most of them built and with the dark blue, skin and dark red basecoats on but that's it. After watching this Tutorial I decided I would modify it slightly (to use paints I already own) and do up a test model. And what better character to do a test model than to do the Michael Caine sculpt of Bromhead! I'll be going step-by-step so if you are more advanced, feel free to skip ahead! I'll have a full breakdown of colours used at the end.
First though, glue your models onto whatever basing you will use, some go for singles as I have, but if you know for sure you are going to be going with 4 to a base, by all means, go that route. I use a pre-mixed tub of ultra-fine sand, mixed in with some larger rocks and crushed slate.
Pre-Mix tub at left, officer on horse superglued onto his green base, with white glue (PVA) painted on the top of the base.
After being dipped and swirled around in the tub, the officer now has a scenic base. I like to do this prior to painting since i get messy drybrushing the sand and rocks!
Even though my models will be on single bases, gluing them temporarily on paint strips means I can work on 4 models at a time. You can see their bases are already done.
Trousers are done with the above colours. Close-up of the blue-gray trousers when finished. 1 base, 2 highlights.
first 2 colours of red: Burnt Red and Cavalry Brown (which is more red than brown) This is also a good close-up of the finished blue-grey trousers.
3rd red is Carmine red. Front.
Back. Leave the stitching lines where you see them sculpted (metal models mainly)
Final Red is Vermillion red. If you want, go edge-highlight in Orange-Red, but I thought it was much and stayed with Vermillion
Skin has been inked in Army Painter Soft-tone, 2 layer green regimental colours and collars, yellow piping (normally white, but he is a Lt) in Desert Yellow.
Face and hands re-highlighted, webbing done in light gray and white, leathers is 3 layer of brown, gun stock is same except last colour is reddish brown to differentiate. His blond hair was highlighted in Desert Yellow. I could have used a different yellow but I am already using it on other things, so up to you!
The next shots are just different angle shots for you guys. Full palette after we are done. Enjoy!
The Vermillion really pops here. You can also see the one pouch under his left arm.
Full colour palette: All Vallejo unless otherwise noted. Order of colours is dark-to-light in steps
Desert basing: Beige Brown 70875, then successive drybrushes of Brown Sand 70876, Desert Yellow 70977 and Pale Sand 70837. The rocks are 70990 Light Grey then white over the whole base. Trousers: Dark Prussian Blue 70899, then Vallejo Panzer Aces Periscopes 309, Field Blue 70964 Redcoat: Burnt Red 70814, Cavalry Brown 70982, Carmine Red 70908, Vermillion 70909 Browns / Leathers: Ger. Camo. Black Brown 70822, Chocolate Brown 70872, Beige Brown 70875 Gunstock: Ger. Camo. Black Brown 70822, Chocolate Brown 70872, Mahogany 70846 or Flat Brown 70984 Black Boots: Black, Black Grey 70862 or German Grey 70995, Neutral Grey or London Grey 70836 Webbing and straps: Light grey 70990 then 70-820 Off-white Other pouches (This model only has one, the rest have lots) Khaki Grey 70880, Khaki 70988, then edge highlight Ivory 70918 Regimental Colours and Collars: (I chose the 24th) 70970 Deep Green (any dark green will do though) then 70942 Light Green highlights. Pith helmets (not shown) Light grey 70990, Sky Grey70989, 70-820 Off-white
Over the weekend, we had ourselves a Napoleonics game featuring Chris Caron and I running the dastardly French (and one unit of Irish allies) vs Mark and Rob's assorted British / Allies including Kings German Legion, Badeners (posing as Portuguese) and some Black Brunswickers. We kept things reasonable and had roughly 200pts per player, and thus 400pts per side. Laid out 2 static objectives (Lion statue and french supply cart) in the middle and would score 1 VP for each enemy unit broken. As ever, Video Battle Report is at the end. Enjoy!
View from the French side, you can see supply cart left middle and lion statue mid right.
We decided to deploy onto the table using orders. Hands up if you can guess whose entire Brigade failed its command rolls? I took a cavalry Brigade with 3 units of Horse and 2 Horse guns, and thus was not able to take advantage of 'Attack Column' Command bonuses!
Rob's splendid King's German Legion preparing to deploy in Line Formation to sort out the frenchies.
Mark's British and Light Dragoons. He wouldn't let me take shots of half-finished Brunswickers! Ignore the unpainted casualty markers please.
After my Brigade failed to get on the table, and Chris' 3 infantry and 2 light infantry (in attack columns) only moving one move, the Redcoats managed to get everyone in place, except the guns. Rob here has left room for the guns on the hill.
Close-up of Rob's KGL, front view
For the second straight turn, most of my army does not come on the board. Only my 9eme Dragoons are on board near the house and obscured by my alcoholic beverage :)
Meanwhile, Chris' 2 units of Lights move up to the Supply wagon and deploy into open order, with the Irish plugging the remaining gap to the trees. Mark already has some British in the middle and a vicious close range firefight would ensue .
Mark's Brigadier fails to inspire the troops to get into the safety of the houses, even though they would be much safer from the musketry coming from the stone walls in the background there.
Meanwhile the German's under Rob's Brigadier await the tardy french horse to arrive!!!!! Only my guns made it on (back right) and took pot shots at Rob's limbered guns on the hill
Holding the Supply Wagon and manning the defences, Chris' Brigade has no reason to move and focuses fire on the limbered British gun in the town square, Disordering it repeatedly so it can never unlimber and fire cannister (see below)
Mark's Brigadier would love to order the gun to fire, but its is permanently limbered with Disorders. It would eventually break off after failing a morale test.
Chris' Light Infantry command jeering the British from the supply wagon, waving the colours!
FINALLY my cavalry brigade comes on the board, but can only declare charges on the infantry and they form square. My Horse Guns, despite being within Cannister range, only on the last turn do would they finally break Rob's KGL line infantry. With Mark's Brigade below half strength from the town-side fire, the British -Germanic alliance would fall back and leave the field to the French. To be fair, Chris' infantry did all the heavy lifting. Still, great game, and it turns out we have enough models and terrain to play in Scott's absence. Looking forward to our next game, perhaps some Colonials?
What I've been working on the past month, after finishing rebasing and highlighting my French Napoleonic army, is some terrain to go with them. Quick video at the bottom, as usual
Stone walls, box-barricades and grain-sack barricades, and some old-school 15mm Normandy Bocage, which works great as hedges for 28mm! In the middle is the Rorke's Drift barricaded Wagon piece (I have 2 french soldiers defending it)
Smaller MDF building from Impudent Mortal, 20 $USD. I go into more detail on them in the video below. Stayed tuned, we have a Black Powder game coming on Saturday where we will put these to use!!!!
Quick hobby article.. had a great game of Black Powder showing the ropes to Rob, David (British players with 1 painted battalion apiece) and Christian (who is waiting for MDF bases for his French) However, the footage for that game is on another machine, so instead, I decided to fix all the chips from a disaster that occured driving home from that game on Good Friday:
I had slammed on my brakes, and David and I could hear all my models jostling around the trunk.. So this is what 7 battalions all smashed together looks like! I have already fixed all the damage (mostly bayonets) but figured why not start by highlighting my battalions as I fix paint chips? I had initially just speed-painted these guys to get them playable.
These are how my whole army looks: Blocked-in colours, a wash. Thats it. "good from far, far from good" But this allowed me to play a whole Division vs Scott pretty quickly.
Command base, with white highlights, sky grey on the trousers, green and red highlights, the bridlework done in black, with a dark grey highlight. about 30 minutes.
When highlighting the cloth, I left dark areas for shading. Turned out great. Vallejo 909 Vermillion is a great red highlight color.
All 6 bases done. The white really pops on the strapping and gloves. FYI, these are Perry Plastics, with a few different torsos and arms.. I built these when I had no clue.. I mean I didnt know what a Turnback or Shako was :)
As ever, Video:
Bonus pic: Ever wonder if there is such thing as too much stowage when putting together a tank? The answer is yes:
WTF I don't even....
No idea what this guy was thinking when he was putting wings on top of wings and onto the SIDES of his car.. Oh, I watched him pull away from the parking lot. The horses' eyes on the roof light up in red!!
Anyways, on to highlighting my other Dragoons.. exactly the same as above except yellow instead of red. Riveting stuff, I know!
