Friday, 22 September 2023

More Spanish war galleys 1/1200 for MAD FOR WAR

 Hi guys,


These days I`ve been painting more little XVII c. ships. I have added 2 more galleys  to my Spanish Mediterranean fleet, now I have 3 painted, and several more oared ships waiting in the painting queue, including a 3D printed galley as a test.



In just a week, I received a parcel from the UK with all the goodies from Ark Royal miniatures' ships, my order was: 5 medium and small galleons,  4 fustas (small galleys) and 2 lanternas/galeras capitanas or big galleys.  Barry Hilton also gifted me with a bergantin (very small galley) and a fireship. All very well detailed with no flash and clean sculpts 👍



all this plus their ratlines and masts with sails.


Coming back to my recently finished galleys, I tried to introduce subtle variations in colors, trying to keep as historically accurate as possible. Again I combined hand painted flags with paper flags from Minairons miniatures, I am pleased with the end result, given its small size. More soon!




The full "squadron" of galleys so far...




I hope you like them!










Monday, 11 September 2023

MAD FOR WAR: Ark Royal miniatures 1/1200 Ships

 Hello there!


After a loooong summer break, I have come back into painting minis again.

I have been reading a book about a naval battle right off the coast of my town, the battle of Cartagena-Cabo de Gata in 1643. 

During a relief operation during the Barbary/Algerian siege of Oran, then in Spanish hands, a French fleet appeared off Cartagena,  French tried to sent fireships to the narrow bay of the port, but were beaten after some hours of fire from the port's  batteries. Then the French headed south and found the Spanish unprepared for battle.

The French fleet, superior in number and with better quality ships, (41 vs 25) made the Spanish fleet take refuge in the port of Cartagena. The casualties are not exctaly known, but the Spanish probably lost 2 sunk ships and 2 captured. The French lost 1 sunk ship and 4 fireships. The galleys closed the port to the French, who could not enter it. 

So I have been in the mood of XVIIc. sailing ships lately. I have just finished my small model ships, and also I am working on a list of actions and scenerarios to play with, all of them historical.

The models are, obviously from Ark Royal miniatures, by Warfare Miniatures/The League of Augsburg brand. In a previous post about ships and scales, I was thinking about painting and wargaming naval warfare in 1/600 or in 1/1200 scale and I was not sure which of the two scales to choose for the project... I finally opted for 1/1200, I think it fits better my needs of squadrons of 6-12 ships per side.





This ships are; and advice jacht, a war galley and a small galleon/frigate of 26 guns.


Advice Jacht:





War Galley:








Frigate:







I use plastic bases, painted in blue, and most important,  with AK interactive water gel over it.

paper flags re scaled by Lluis from Minairons. In this scale sometimes it is better to paint the flags on the metal flags casts in the ships. For instance for Dutch or French, as their flags are super easy to paint. But other navies with more difficult patterns are more complicated, so I will mix paper and metal painted flags.

The modelling and painting stages were very simple, but the tricky part was adding the simple rigging to the ship, and the photo etch ratlines (from the same brand! ).

There were a huge number of actions and battles of 80 Years War/ Thirty Years War and Franco Spanish War,  involving Spanish fleet, all three were interconected and often simultaneously. I recently read that no other navy in the world up to that time (and maybe ever!) had fought for so long , against so many powerful enemies at once.

In the decade of 1660 the Spanish navy declined for 30 years because of the lack of funds, This coincided in time with the admirable rise of the English, Dutch and French navies. It would not be until the beginning of the 18th century when Spanish naval power grew again until it was in the "top 3" in the world until Trafalgar.

My main interest nowadays is wargaming mostly early to mid XVII actions in this scale. I placed an order yesterday to get more little ships!

I hope you like them!




Friday, 30 June 2023

Bolt Action Fallschirmjager for Sicily PART II FINAL

 Hello guys,


I finally managed to finish the entire squad of Artizan Fallschirmjager in Sicily 1943!




 As this is the second (and final part) of this squad, leave the link of the first post here:

https://spanishleadpainting.blogspot.com/2022/10/bolt-action-fallschirmjager-for-sicily.html


These are fantastic Artizan Design miniatures, "Ramcke Brigade" Fallschirmjager, I think they are out of production nowadays. I painted them as Fallschirmjager Regiment 3 in Sicily, summer 1943, as their uniform was almost the same, tropical suit.

This is second part of the squad , painted in Vallejo and Foundry paints, using different shades of desert yellow ochre color in order to show the sun faded effect in the fabric.

The newly painted miniatures are these 6:








Now the full unit:




I will also paint a light anti tank rifle team from Perry Miniatures, the 2,8-cm-schwere Panzerbüchse 41
a 28mm gun in 28mm scale (bad joke). I may add more Fallschirmjager to this German Army ( already have common Wehrmacht infantry, Hermann Göring Panzers)... I also have 3 Italian tanks, 2 painted (and posted in this blog)  and 1 unpainted, the Semovente 47/32 by Warlord Games, already built and primed. I hope to finish this army in 2023!

Cheers








Friday, 26 May 2023

28mm Lakhmid Arab cavalry (Sassanid allies) PART II END

 Hello guys!


Finally , since 2020, I managed to finish my Lakhmid cavalry for my Sassanid army.

Here you have the first post with the history and conversion process:

https://spanishleadpainting.blogspot.com/2020/05/28mm-conversions-lakhmid-arab-cavalry.html


The miniatures are a mixture of Gripping beast plastic Arab heavy cavalry,  Armorum & Aquila Sassanids horse archers in armor. I painted them mostly in Vallejo and Foundry paints in triads.










I started the painting process in early March, but an eyes operation prevented me to finish the unit until May!  I tried to use earthy and warm tones, like the illustration above, I also painted a couple of horse saddle with leopard skin like the noble warrior of the illustration.
The shields are A&A with Little big men studios decals from their Sassanid range.

The plastic horses are nice and pleasant to paint, also the plastic rider, which , in my opinion, is a good miniature compared with other plastic kits from Gripping Beast.

The unit is based for Impetus or Basic Impetus, like the rest of my late antiquity armies.

I hope you like them!








Cheers





Monday, 15 May 2023

XVII c Civilians: Knight of Calatrava

 Hello guys,


I am (slowly) painting some XVII civilians for different games set in 30 Years War, Lace Wars... And I started with a miniature from Anno Domini 1666, he is a Caballero de la Orden de Calatrava or Knight of Calatrava... This order was one of the four Spanish military orders and the first military order founded in Castile, in 1164 to fight against the Moors

After the fall of Granada in 1492,  the military spirit had long disappeared. The orders had, in fact, fallen into a state of utter inactivity.  The last attempt to employ the knights of the three orders for a military purpose was that of Philip IV, in quelling the rebellion of the Catalans (1640–50), but the orders restricted their efforts to the complete equipment of one regiment, which has since been known in the Spanish army as "The Regiment of the Orders".

This knight from small Spanish nobility can be a wealthy man who lead his men into battle, or a duellist or just a civilian who defend his town during a siege.

The painting was veeeeery easy , almost entirely black , I tried to emulate some new techniques of drybrushing with big soft brush, and then some speedpainting of edge highlights in grey, nothing too fancy, just a quick and easy miniature for the warband.











Tuesday, 2 May 2023

Flames of War: Panzer II "whitewashed"

 Hello guys!


It has been a long time since I last updated this blog... I had some health (eyes) issues, and thank God, everything is fine now, and I was able to finish some  painting projects I had unfinished, like a 1/35 model diorama (not gaming stuff) and some ancients in 28mm , as well as some Flames of War miniatures like these here.

This time I painted 3 Zvezda plastic 1/100 or 15mm Panzer IIs for my Stalingrad project.




The detail of these little tanks is decent and good enough for gaming purposes, and they are quite light and small.  I really enjoyed painting them in winter camouflage, with the white wash over the panzer grey paint.  

By late 1942 (and almost 1943) Panzer II were clearly outdated and outgunned by enemy tanks, but they were still useful as rear guard actions or airfield protection.  As I am buillding a small airfield , inspired in  Gumrak airport in Stalingrad, or something similar, with a 1/100 Junkers 52 in the airstrip... I wanted to have some Panzer II as the defense force against Soviet hordes in my games.

I used  Ammo Mig Chipping fluid over the panzergrey paint, and the white paint over this fluid... then just brushed on some water, and the white paint began to tear off or "chip".


Then I applied the usual weathering on the tanks as follows...

Gloss varnish, decals, more gloss varnish to protect all the previous work... filters, oil dots fading,  pin washes, chipping, dust & mud, and matt varnish!

I hope you like these small tanks!