Liberators! More New Stuff.

This last few weeks I've been busy bulking out my Liberators! armies, though busy may be somewhat of an overstatement. What I actually mean is that some of my limited spare time has been taken up painting miniatures when not cooking, eating, nagging Mrs. Handgrenadealien & sleeping.

Here they are:

A cavalry Brigadier for the Royalists. I've put him in the uniform of Fernando VII Hussars & given him  a Cravat standard to carry.

Not entirely sure the cravat standard was ever issued to the infantry units operating in South America but it kind of works with the miniature, just the thing to throw into the enemy ranks to encourage the troops forward.

Peruvian Legion infantry battalion complete with grenadier & light companies.

The finished Patriot Santander Regt. in all their scarlet glory.

Theres a bit more to come on the Liberators front, I've enough Victrix figures left to do another Royalist  battalion ( probably the Aragon), a couple more artillery pieces and the Cacadores Britanicos for the Patriots. After that its onto another project, I've still 60 odd hoplites to finish off for the Achaean League army that will hopefully see action over the Christmas period & then I've a pair of 54 or 70mm fantasy figures to do for a friends wedding cake, no pressure there eh!

Peruvian Legion Command.

Just finished these up whilst dinner is in the oven. There are one or two details which are pure speculation on my part but I don't think they are too far off the mark. I've consulted Col. Wm Millers biography for a basic description & then filled in the blanks myself.

Built using the ubiquitous Victrix figures; the officer & drummer use British bodies & French heads, the ensign & hatless fusilero are pure French, packs in this case are British.

Casualty Markers.

Before I go any further with this entry into the blog I wish to make it perfectly clear that I won't take any credit whatsoever for the following idea, it only came about by the generous dissemination of information & raw materials by Messrs Johnson & Ireland the two other members of Shropshire's smallest wargaming club.

The following sequence of photographs demonstrates how a fairly horrible plastic pre-paint miniature & its accompanying base can be turned into a useful tool for the table top.

Wizkids Heroclix base. Original figure excluded for crimes against painting.

Exploded view of base & internal dial.

The textured base after talus is applied & base-coated, the decal on the dial comes off easily after quick blast of steam from the electric kettle.

The dial showing two of the twelve possible positions available.

Obviously with the current project being Liberators I've chosen to represent an appropriate casualty on the base. The numbers shown really don't tell very much, at present they're just an exercise in marking out the available dial slots ( hence the small dot above each number), but with twelve slots there is some fair scope for presenting casualty/ morale information as dictated by various rulesets.

There ought to be a few more Liberators miniatures finished later this week, but due to work proving a constant distraction progress is glacial to say the least.

A Brief Return to South America.

My friend the estimable Mr. Johnson was kind enough to donate a few sprues of Victrix plastics to the Liberators project this last weekend. Coming at a time when I was beginning to tire of painting hoplites this has given me a kick up the jacksey to finish up a few incomplete units for both Patriot & Royalist armies.
First of these is the Grenadier company for the Patriot Santander Regiment.

These worthies were created using British centre companies bodies ( with braid carved off) & arms with French heads. Packs to be added tomorrow.

Hoplite Progress.

The Achaean League army continues to grow but progress remains... steady.

Theres another half dozen which I hope to get finished this evening but that depends on my motivation which is at a low ebb after another busy day. But hey ho its not a race because I suspect the next outing to the gaming table is likely to be Christmas by which time I should have completed a few more of their compatriots.
May start to throw a few more shield designs into the mix but I do quite like the monograms of the various Polis in the League.

Horse Archery.

Normally my Sundays are fairly pedestrian affairs at least when work doesn't intervene, today just because I've always wanted to try it I went on a horse archery course at a local equestrian centre. I used to ride a fair bit in my teens to a competent level & I dabble in archery on a fairly regular basis so the basic tools were in place ( at least I thought they were) so it seemed that a day long course ought to give me a grounding in the required techniques.
After a quick safety briefing and the first of many cups of tea I was introduced to the thumb draw recommended for use with a horse bow, at first this all felt a bit strange given as how for the last 35 years I've used the mediterranean draw- you know the one with three fingers on the bow string and the arrow resting on the hand to the left of the bow. The thumb draw conversely places the arrow to the right hand side of the bow and uses the crooked thumb and forefinger of the right hand to draw the string. This took a bit of readjustment as did the technique of nocking the arrow by touch alone, what is known as blind nocking. The whole operation falls into four distinct phases which have to be carried out as quickly and as smoothly as possible, difficult at first but surprisingly intuitive after a few tries.
After that its on with the actual shooting, lots & lots of shooting; forwards, sideways, backwards, walking & jogging. All designed to instil the actions into muscle memory, the importance of this becomes apparent once one is mounted; co-ordinating all the above & riding a horse is not an easy combination of activities.
It was at this point that I realised how rusty I was on horseback. All that muscle memory of correct posture, technique etc was long gone, this really bought home how important those blind nocking actions were particularly when riding at a rising trot on an independent minded equine.
However despite some early difficulties I was, by the end of the day trotting down the course and managing to loose three arrows off to a sufficient degree of accuracy to hit the targets & managing a Parthian shot over the horses rump at the final target.
The best part is now I've graduated from beginner school I can pop along for two hour sessions at £30 a time and hopefully become proficient in something genuinely challenging.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I started off this morning with good intentions but there just wasn't opportunity what with all the information to digest. Perhaps next time.

First Unit of Achaean Hoplites Good to Go.

Admittedly its taken a while but I've finally finished a viable unit of hoplites from the Victrix plastic boxed sets. Early progress has been slowed somewhat by work commitments but here are the final results:

I've made a large assumption including a standard but I can't find any references either way for greek city states circa 250-220 B.C. so artistic liberties have been duly taken. Theres lots more to follow but rate of progress will very much depend on ongoing work load.