Start of my VBCW Ground Forces: Updated June 9th

[Rob_bresnen]

Brilliant tartan. I wish I was as brave as you, but I don't have the stomach for it.

[flags_of_war]

wow these are superb mate

[pocoloco]

They look stellar! 

[Pappa Midnight]

More awesome stuff!!! 
Love the BUF characters ( second from left my favourite) and those Scottish Nationalists are brilliant. I agree about the tartan, difficult to get to look right but have have done it beautifully!!!!

PM

[joekano]

Thanks Everyone!

Brilliant tartan. I wish I was as brave as you, but I don't have the stomach for it.

I have to admit, when I first started working on the figures I asked myself, “How they hell are you going to do this?” and considered just going with a khaki kilt.  However, I wanted this to be the stand out unit on the table and decided I just had to go for it.

My first attempts were not a success – I tried using the actual colors and it just looked a mess, especially the black. The green also looked too dull and faded into the background.


What I ended up doing was standing well back from the swatch on my monitor and seeing what impression I got of the pattern rather than the reality of the details.  As such, I decided to paint the kilt dark red, make a grid of dark green lines, add dots of bright green to the intersections, then add four bright red dots  in each resulting square.  The resulting pattern and colors are not completely accurate, but I think it gave the appropriate feel at this scale. And I have to admit, it wasn’t that bad to paint once I started getting a feel for it.

For the detailing on the bonnets, that was pure insanity and I’m not sure if I’d want to try it again.  Nothing short of a new brush with a near perfect point will get you through it.

[6milPhil]

Your collection are really coming on. It'd be great if you could put on a demo game at a local convention as I imagine the period and your work combined would turn a lot of heads.

[former user]

best tartan I've seen in a long time!

[tomek917]

Wonderful painting, love the tartan!

[Mason]

Some simply stunning additions and a wonderful tartan that I will be shamelessly stealing at the first opportunity!
 

[Republicofalnwick]

Excellent!

As far as using the Scottish Borders as a location, it has bits of everything. A few of us have gamed pretty much the whole length of the Border on both sides. Hastings, one of the triumvirate who invented VBCW, is based in Carlisle, so we have had a number of games set in that neck of the woods, also on the Dumfries side, and there was a big game set in Berwick too.

Your Highland regiment is fantastic. The Scottish Border regiments didn't wear kilts, but a lot of people use Musketeer Black and Tans or various makes of Lowland Scots for them, and also for the Tyneside Scottish.

Another good thing about the Borders is that the roads are terrible, but it's always been countryside with a strong tradition of raiding cavalry. Horses can get over those Border hills where trucks, and especially tanks, can't.

[joekano]

The Scottish Border regiments didn't wear kilts, but a lot of people use Musketeer Black and Tans or various makes of Lowland Scots for them, and also for the Tyneside Scottish.

Another good thing about the Borders is that the roads are terrible, but it's always been countryside with a strong tradition of raiding cavalry. Horses can get over those Border hills where trucks, and especially tanks, can't.

Yes, I debated on the kilts, as they are not traditional to the Kerrs, being a Border Reivers clan.  However, I wanted them to stand out from my English troops, so I took artistic license and decided the front line troops would be recruited from throughout Scotland, and would wear kilts as a sign of national pride.  The local auxiliaries from Kelso area  (with the exception of the assigned officers) are kilt free.

It’s funny you mentioned cavalry, as I just bought some figures from GWM to represent the Lothians and Border horse.   They has switched to armored cars in the 1920’s, but I’m having them go back to horses to better handle the terrain.

[Republicofalnwick]

I have used Renegade lancers, also some Reiver cavalry figures. They are smaller, which works as the smaller Border ponies.

The Scottish regiments wore Glengarries as well. Great War Miniatures do some, and so do Foundry.

[FramFramson]

Good god man! More praise for those tartans here!

[leadfool]

Really nice tartan.  Mixing the figures works as the slight difference of size can be explained with the difference in people size. 

[MajorTalon]

Where did you get the minis for the German-supplied BUF unit?

Also, is there an American Expeditionary Force in VBCW? I've seen it in some sources.