Spanish XVII c. militia

Hello guys,

This is a project I had since I started painting late XVII century armies, I wanted a fast raised tercio or militia regiment. These soldiers represent the rural or town militia of the dangerous border with France  in Catalonia or even Flanders.

As Spaniards, they carry a flag with the Holy Virgin Mary, and a Red background. Of course is conjectural but quite realistic in my opinion. I tried to use mostly browns, beiges or greys, with a couple of uniformed men here and there, like the officer.

The minis used are a mix of ECW Warlord games militiamen, Warfare Miniatures' League of Augsburg,  Dixon's Grand Alliance... I think they combine well.

They are militia so although, oriented to 1665-1690's, I used some earlier period figures, in order to represent the old fashioned clothes of the rural folk, and some morions to give the appearance of old Spanish troops or siege troops, who usually still carried armour.

I want to combine this unit with my  Miquelets ( you can see them in earlier posts) in order to field a Militia "battalia"... I plan to add a new regiment made of the oncoming miniatures from Warfare Miniatures, you can see here a few previews: http://leagueofaugsburg.blogspot.com.es/2018/03/ive-been-waiting-to-tell-you-this-for.html

Here you have several pics of the finished unit, fully painted and based.

Mordheim ruins !

Hello folks, here I am again, this time with more fantasy stuff, Mordheim scenery! My God, I love this game, In the near future I will post a pair of warbands I am working it (besides my XVII century project).

In this game you need a lot of scenery If you want to play properly or release its full potential, so I built a ruined corner from scratch, using some bits from the fortified manor (GW) and used a 1/35 Miniart's Normandy diorama, heavily converted to be a fantasy ruined house with wooden sticks, some plastic bits etc. I think it fits perfectly with 28mm miniatures.

here are some WIP photos, the process is the same used with the GW Fortified Manor;

-Airbrush the colours
-block the main colours with the brush
-washes (oil/enamel filters, oil fading, streaking grime, pin washes...)
-drybrush and highlights
-basing materials
-pigments
-varnish

I hope you like them

Some XVII century review & comparison

Hello all!

Here I am again, this time some reviews,  Last week I received an order placed on  excellent North Star 1672 miniatures,  I already have almost all their references, but I wanted the D'Artagnan miniature they produce. The miniature itself did not look impresive in the web page, but in the flesh is much better, well sculpted and detailed. I like it a lot for my foot King's Musketeers unit.  The only thing I did not like too much is the sword, too broad Imho. Apart from that, a good officer miniature for all French armies of 1670's

The next batch were some 1672 mounted dragoons, very good miniatures, both the riders and the horses (smaller than their line cavalry counterparts). Initially, I wanted these miniatures to represent veeeery late Franco-Spanish War (1635-1658) Spanish mounted Arquebusiers, painting them with different earthy colours and using some earlier miniatures for command group.

I have not decided yet how I will use these figures... they seem suitable for mounted carabiniers or arquebusiers for Franco Spanish War, Portuguese Restoration War, War of Devolution etc., apart from their main target, 1672 Dutch war (and onwards), so as you can see, very versatile miniatures.

Here you can compare it with a superb TYW horse arquebusier from Russian manufacturer Avanpost miniatures.

Next comparison pic, you can se some metal Tercios Miniatures, next to Avanpost resin figures. the Tercios are a command group, and Avanpost some artillery crew.  in terms of detail, I must say Avanpost are superior, indeed, they are one of the best sculpted miniatures I have ever seen, and very cheap! they are not heroic 28mm miniatures, so not so well fit with Renegade or Bicorne ECW ranges but they fit well with Tercios Miniatures, Warlord Games, Perry, TAG etc. Very nice miniatures all of them.

Finally 2 musketeers, again Tercios and Avanpost. I personally dont like very much the style of digitally sculpted miniatures, but Tercios are well researched and done, BUT some of the poses are a bit stiff or "wooden"(not this one). I will use both of them together in the same army or in skirmish games.

Regards!

Warhammer Fortified Manor FINISHED!!

Hi guys, this time I present you the WIP and finished Warhammer Fortified Manor, now out of production. I bought it in 2014 on ebay and did not build it until this year...

I like the model, being plastic it has a lot of detail and personality BUT I don´t like at all all those skulls everywhere. I know I know, Its GW, so it needs to have skulls, but for a common building it has too many for my taste. Indeed the main reason I don´t buy GW buildings like the ruined tower or Skullvane Manse because of the insane number of skulls.

I converted slightly the building, I have eliminated almost all the skulls so it could also serve for some historical games, although its design is clearly oriented to fantasy and the Old World.

I want to use it for Mordheim or Warhammer.

The additions I made to it are some wood slats and filler or plaster to hide skulls and other fantasy designs which made the manor too cartoonish,

I Used the airbrush to paint it, using tamiya and vallejo, masking a lot... But it's still much faster than the traditional brush painting, and allowed me to give it some light modulations effects that are more complicated with a brush ...

Then, with a brush and with Vallejo paints I basecoated all the details (boring phase), painted here and there some different colours on the stones and roof tiles. I gave it an oil wash, some pin washes in order to shade some parts, then some light drybrush, earthy pigments and those little things.

then I made base and Varnished it in matt with the airbrush ... I hope you like it