Revisiting my TYW collection

Les grands embrasements naissent de petites étincelles. (Infernos always starts from a small spark)

Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu, Cardinal de Richelieu, Testaments politiques

The astute reader might have notice a lack of new painting recently on this blog; I've been plagued by a provincial healthcare reorganisation (work) and a water leak (home) which have drained most of my time. The water leak in turn became a complete bathroom renovation, with all the lovely activities it entails (who in their right mind doesn't love to go ceramic shopping?!). The living room, where my painting desk is located, also has suffered and will soon have a new ceiling and new painted walls. The desk has disappeared for the moment and all paints and brushes put in boxes. And all of this knowing we will probably move in a matter of months. Good times...

Anyways, this create lack of painting time, as well as lack of painting space. And I know you wargamer lot are a fickle bunch who will quickly forget about my blog if I don't regularly feed your insatiable appetite for miniature porn. Y'all make me sick! ;-)

So yeah, a good moment as any to revisit my Thirty Years' War Imperialists army, painted 5 years ago (man time flies by!). It was build not really as a gaming project, but rather as a display project, based on the Lützen battle. I just really love the era and the look of the regiments. And those flags! I have the figures needed for their Swedish adversaries. One day...

Anyways I recently photographed the army for a project, and I figured this might be of interest to some of you. First because the pictures are much better than my old ones and second because I'm sure many of you never visited my old site. And third, that porn addiction I talked about earlier...

So let's start today with the first Thirty Year War regiments I painted, possibly still today my favourite, the Comargo Regiment.

The Comargo regiment was a Catholic League veteran regiments. Raised in 1619, it performed admirably well at Lützen, largely responsible for the destruction of the crack Old Blue brigade of the Swedish army.

As far as uniforms are concerned, I had no information on this regiment, other than the fact it seems it was once issued blue coats, long before Lützen. Since they are my only Catholic league infantry unit, I went with a pale blue coat; pale blue being the colour of Bavaria, main patron of the Catholic League. I of course mixed other colours in there to get a semi-uniformed look. However, I restricted my palette to a few shades of browns (often the same brown tone but lighter or darker) and greys in order to get a imho better look. The socks and sashes are mostly red, a favourite of the Bavarians and Imperialists it seems. And I used my love of bright colours on the bows, a joy to paint. Yes, I'm aware many gamers picture the period more dark and less bright, but I stayed true to myself and my style of painting.

The unit is made-up entirely of figures from the TYW and ECW Foundry range, except from one injured figure from Warlord games. Purists will probably tell me there are some historical innacuracies (later ECW dress being slightly different from continental fashions of the 1630s), but it's well within the acceptable for me. 

Oberst Theodor Comargo and his drummer Hans Boehm 

The flags are from a unknown catholic league regiment, as far as I could tell there is no info on Comargo's colours at Lützen, so I just went with flags I liked. 

Hope you liked the trip down memory lane, another foot regiment coming next week!

Foundry Biblical range resurrected!

We continue on with the Easter thematic this week ;-)

I just saw that Foundry Biblical range has been completely rearranged and put "au goût du jour" on their Website. It is in my humble opinion one if not THE best Foundry range, and certainly one of my all-time favourite (just don't buy the chariots, royal pain in the a** to assemble they are!). 

Foundry also gets a free sales pitch from yours truly; biblical is one of the most underappreciated period outhere, and even in the Ancients wargaming scene is usually seen as a "parent pauvre" to the Greeks and other favourites. Give it a try folks; unless you despise painting flesh, they are a joy to paint, the history is fantastic and it makes for a nice change from the usual but so often seen Roman legions (yawn). Yes, chariots are a pain to paint, but they. look. so. nice. 

Now, go ahead and click on that nice image and enjoy the fantastic period of warrior-kings, Pharaohs and chariots. You can thank me later. Or invite me over for a game.

New command figures from Murawski

Retreat from Moscow Command

Some new figures this month from Murawski Miniatures; a command pack.

There are 6 figures in the set, 3 of which are cast open handed, allowing them to be equipped with a musket, halberd, or eagle.  

There are also 2 drummers: 

Roger is also going to throw in the middle figure (pic above) for “free” whilst stocks last as the sword didn’t come out properly!  We don’t really know why but you can use him as is or trim the sword off.

Pack price will be: £9.50 for the seven figures

Also the officer casualty figure is now available.

He can be acquired 3 ways :

• £2 plus shipping
• FOC with orders over £50
• As part of the GDW casualty pack for £5

As usual, you can order through Murawski Miniatures website 

Maryanna of the King

Biblicals for Easter! Can't be more thematic than that!

My last submission of the painting challenge was a unit of Canaanite Royal Guards, "the Maryanna of the King". I just found time to put them on my blog today, as I've been swamped with real life issues recently (like a water leak in my ceiling!)

Each Canaanite city-state had its cast of maryannu, professionnal warrior whose wealth derived from his holding of a fief. Among the general warrior caste of maryanna was an inner elite of "picked men" (na'arun). These elite units comprised infantry as well as chariotry. From these picked men, a small battle guard called the Maryanna of the King served as Royal Guards.

We know very little about the appearance of these soldiers, so I had the choice to use pretty much any colours I wanted. My royal guard chariotry is dressed in  purple so I had to include the colour, and then I used turquoise for the shield and on the command group to differentiate them from my other elite soldiers. It looks like the kind of expensive colours a truly elite unit of the time would wear. While it is probably doubtful they had a common uniform, kings from the Pharaoh to Murat always enjoyed dressing up their elite soldiers so I figure why not? I will gladly accept pictures to prove me wrong. 

I find the bronze of the armour, helmets and weapons gives them a shiny look which works wonder as an elite and spoiled bunch. I normally am not a fan of single pose infantry, but it works well for troops which would be highly disciplined and it will make them stand out in my Canaanite army.

With this unit, I am but a few chariots away and one small unit from finishing my Canaanite army, and actually respecting to the letter the plan I drew up around 2 years ago. That, is not something I manage often!

This unit helped me reached my goal and, even surpassed it! Yeah me! First time I manage that. I'll post a quick post-mortem of the challenge in a few days.