Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Pikes, Muskets and Flouncy Shirts => Topic started by: Billythefish on 11 May 2020, 01:44:57 PM
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Hello there....after a VERY long lay off from wargaming given current situation i have decided to return after a 30 or so layoff from a hobby i used to love.
I kinda returned about 3-4 years ago (I think!) briefly doing some dark ages stuff, my painting obviously was not what it was but not so bad, though I found those little lumps in their metalic armour a bit bland.
I had thought about going modern, but for various reasons instead of getting into painting the various camos (used to be really good at it but it was Falklands War and Waffen SS back in the day!), I fancied going to my true favourite of your Napolionic type braces and frills, but with a view to miniatures i can use in skirmish gaming, also with a wide variety of troop types, preferably infantry....
Without boring you further the French and Indian wars totally ticks all my boxes at the moment. Wide range of troop types and irregulars, I am about to hit the button on some Rogers Rangers and French Compagnie de la Marine types with a view to skirmish gaming with them either alone or in the future at a local club.
I was wondering if Warlord Games stuff is okay? I tried Front Rank a few years ago albiet medieval and the poses felt a bit bland to me, they werent cheap either.
Plus does anybody have any knowledge where i can get a decent painting guide for them, plus what sort of paints are in vogue these days? Used to be humbrol enamel back in the day but I would prefer this time to use something a bit brighter, pointless putting hours of detail in if nobody can see it :) imo, from memory are water based paints like Citadel brighter?
I hope this makes some sorta sense.......thanks in advance for any helpful feedback :)
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There's some great figures out there - mines is mostly from Perrys AWI range for Provincials and Indians and Conquest/Warlord for Marines & Canadian militia with regular French & British line infantry from Crusader; they all mix pretty well with each other but they're all a good bit smaller than say Galloping Major. I've also got some Crann Tara mixed in here and there as officers and they fit, although they tend to be taller & slimmer than the others, realistic anatomy rather than wargames anatomy, if that makes sense.
Most of my painting guidance has come from an ancient book on the SYW (Mollo? Haythornwaite?) but you'll get more information from the Kronoskaff project and Galloping Major has some good painting guides on their site. I don't know how definitively accurate all those are but they're good enough for me since it was the old book that set my expectations of "the look".
It all started with half a dozen Perry Indians a few years ago but I'm pushing 200 figures by now. And only 2 games ever played...
great fun painting though!
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Galloping Major and Redoubt fit together...everything else is too small and doesn't need to be considered :D
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Haha many thanks for the feedback, I can remeber back in the day been attracted this genre, specifically the rangers and various indiginous groups, back then though I think it was all 15mm.
I'll check out those makes above nice one :)
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Galloping Major and Redoubt fit together...everything else is too small and doesn't need to be considered :D
I agree that Galloping Major and Redoubt fit very well together and they both have an extensive ranges - Redoubt slightly more but Galloping Major is slowly catching up.
In my opinion both ranges paint up really well and the sculpting is first class.. The only thing you have to watch out for in the Redoubt range are some of the older moulds which occasionally produce a miscast, but this is being addressed by the new owners. They are also very good at replacing any miscast figures.
The other ranges are ok. Warlord produce some nice figures but you mostly have to buy them in boxes and they are slimmer and slightly smaller than other ranges. Perry's produce a few indians but don't have an extensive range pourely for the FIW but have an extensive AWI range which some figures can be adapted.
Kings Mountain are taller? and certainly slimmer than the others . I haven't got any of the Crann Tara but have seen them added to Redoubt/GM and they don't seem out of place.
As to painting guides there is a lot of information about on this forum but I don't have a recommendation. I am sure others will have. If you want to know what good looks like then search on this thread for Jeff965's painting threads.
As to paints, I use the Foundry Triad acrylics but there are plenty of good ranges out there - Vallejo, Army Painter, Citadel (GW), Coat D'Armes etc
Hope that helps.
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For my money Galloping Major are hard to go past, with Redoubt to fill gaps in the GM range.
I only have one figure but it looks like the Northstar offical range would fit quite well size wise too.
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Brigade Games in the US (and available in the UK too, I think) have just announced a kickstarter with Paul Hicks as sculptor in residence. They look like they match the North Star figures, in the same way the Galloping Major and Redoubt match up in terms of general size and heft. (Be aware that several sculptors have worked on the Redoubt range; the Indians and the first few Europeans were done by one guy who was excellent - the Indians are absolutely superb, not least in the massive range of poses - if only he had understood the meaning of 28mm; the remaining Europeans and Rangers/Regulars were done by someone else, who was....well, let's just say a little short of excellent; and the most recent releases were done by a third guy who is definitely ok and they match other, more "normal" 28mm ranges.)
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Nice many thanks guys, ive checked out the UK based chaps and im probably going with Redoubt to start with and top them up with Galloping miniatures.
With regards to paint these days, I want a slightly "brighter" as opposed to drab look to the figures, are water based better than enamels? Citadel colour and what have you?
Im planning on buying what i need same time i order the figures :)
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Paint-wise, I think you’d be best off using acrylics over a white or grey spray undercoat (I use Humbrol car primer). Popular acrylic ranges at the moment are Vallejo, Army Painter, Foundry and many more. I’ve no idea what your painting style preferences are but I favour a basecoat, wash (usually Army Painter strong tone or dark tone) followed by a highlight.
I’ve just started on a few Galloping Major figures (all with a white undercoat) - few pics for you (there’s loads of excellent examples in this group and on the Galloping Major website too).
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Nice many thanks guys, ive checked out the UK based chaps and im probably going with Redoubt to start with and top them up with Galloping miniatures.
With regards to paint these days, I want a slightly "brighter" as opposed to drab look to the figures, are water based better than enamels? Citadel colour and what have you?
Im planning on buying what i need same time i order the figures :)
Vallejo and Army painter are both excellent ranges and easily obtainable. Cheaper than GW/Citadel as well, and come in dropper bottles. They both do a great range of washes as well. Use a white or light grey primer.
I'm not that familiar with Redoubts FIW range but another advocate of Galloping Major here, just something about those figures make them a joy to paint.
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Aye back in the day i used to undercoat all my old citadel minis with that choclate brown by umbro and dry brush/paint over it to bring out details, or base armour black and just dry brush it lighter.
Then i got into historical, my eureka/golden age was the Connisseur Range by the wargame holiday man Peter Gilder, they were absolutely fantastic and the new "25mm" cough 28mm was way more fun to handle and paint than the old tiny minifigs sorta stuff.
Ill give those paints a look on my next day off and ill be digging deep for some of that redoubt kit for my first Indian wars fortay :)
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Lots of choice for FIW. I'm partial to the Conquest - now Warlord - and Perry mixed together. A few Old Glory figures scatterred about add some flavor.
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North Stars Muskets and Tomahawks range is great, lovely figures. Also Galloping Major hits the spot.
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My Indian war bands consist of figures by Conquest (now Warlord Games), Perry, Brigade Games and Crusader Miniatures. All fit well together.
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Paint-wise, I think you’d be best off using acrylics over a white or grey spray undercoat (I use Humbrol car primer). Popular acrylic ranges at the moment are Vallejo, Army Painter, Foundry and many more. I’ve no idea what your painting style preferences are but I favour a basecoat, wash (usually Army Painter strong tone or dark tone) followed by a highlight.
I’ve just started on a few Galloping Major figures (all with a white undercoat) - few pics for you (there’s loads of excellent examples in this group and on the Galloping Major website too).
Many thanks James i think this will be the approach i take, I assume the undercoat is Acrylic too - just I always used to use humbrol enamel for some reason back in the day? Ill probably go Vallejo, are their any painting guides around for these relating to French Indian Wars/suggestions to buy, just looking at the size of the range i can see this getting quite expensive.
Thanks all for the feedback, I'll probably go redoubt as bigger is easier to pain if memory serves me right haha :)
Also a big thanks to the rest of you linking all these excellent minis much appreciate your help thanks!
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Since you are used to enamels, no need do disregard them; Olicanalad paints exclusively with enamels and his figures look both fantastic and distinctive. He is in the middle of a series of posts describing his painting technique: link. (http://olicanalad.blogspot.com/search/label/How%20I%20paint%20with%20enamels.)
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Besides the ranges mentioned, Brigade Games will launch a FiW Kickstarter tomorrow.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brigadegames/this-very-ground-french-and-indian-wars-28mm-miniatures?ref=profile_saved_projects_live
Models are sculpted by Paul Hicks, which means they will be roughly the size a Perry Miniatures and North Star Figures, i.e. slightly larger than Conquest/Warlord but smaller than Galloping Major.
Eureka Miniatures also has a few models for FiW. The Highlanders are true 25s, which means they are quite small when compared with other ranges, even Conquest/Warlord. However, the Virginia Regiment Provincials are normal 28s. They fit well with Perry, Brigade and Conquest. Problem with Eureka is that except for Aussies the shipping costs are crippling.
I have British and Provincials from Galloping Major, but probably I will sell them because all my Indians and French are Conquest and GM tower over them. It is exaggerated, even at a distance. It's a shame, because I like GM and I have 12 Hatmen and one officer painted, plus quite a few unpainted. However, I want some consistency and with 60 French and Indians painted, plus 24 Eureka Provincials, I prefer to rebuild the British which I only have 12 painted.
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Oh! I forgot! Crann Tara Miniatures also has a small range of FiW, plus their WAS French could be used on a pinch. Sizewise they are true 1/56 scale models, which means that while on height they are like Conquest/Warlord or Perry, the bulk is also proportioned to the scale and therefore they are slimmer than other ranges. On the other hand, the quality of the sculpts is really good and paint easily.
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Another thing: Brigade Games uses a softer alloy than the other manufacturers mentioned. That leads to bend muskets and bayonets and mould lines are more noticeable. However, in the plus side that softness means that there are not broken bayonets nor weapons.
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Interestingly I watched "The Last of the Mohican's" a couple times this week as I am spending quite a bit of time on my back recovering from pneumonia. Love the movie and also decided to look about for some F&IW's miniatures.
I am leaning toward buying some minis from Warlord but I think I'm going to take a hard look first at Brigade Games Kickstarter "This Very Ground" which will begin today.
Link to Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brigadegames/this-very-ground-french-and-indian-wars-28mm-miniatures).
Figures are by Paul Hicks and I have to say from what little I have seen... they look great!
(http://theminiaturespage.com/news/pics/2020/may/11485456a.jpg)
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Just threw some money at them.
First day pledge gets you a free George Washington, which is quite a nice figure actually.
Can't wait to see more add-ons!
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Just threw some money at them.
First day pledge gets you a free George Washington, which is quite a nice figure actually.
Can't wait to see more add-ons!
Lon has showed the photo of a British officer. Quite nice, actually. Here:
(https://i.imgur.com/ul28Dv8.jpg)
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What I am not understanding is why are the add-ons $13 while a normal pack from Brigade Games from this era is $12?
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Brigade do some wonderful figure - check out their gunfighters ball range for just about any movie cowboy you can think of.
I'm really wanting these but need to sift out the guys in winter dress to make them fit the units I've got
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What I am not understanding is why are the add-ons $13 while a normal pack from Brigade Games from this era is $12?
The FIW packs will be $15 when they become available to non-Kickstarter supporters. The AWI packs available as Kickstarter add-ons are $11 instead of the normal $12.
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The FIW packs will be $15 when they become available to non-Kickstarter supporters. The AWI packs available as Kickstarter add-ons are $11 instead of the normal $12.
Okay.
Damn. That could get expensive... ;)
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Since you are used to enamels, no need do disregard them; Olicanalad paints exclusively with enamels and his figures look both fantastic and distinctive. He is in the middle of a series of posts describing his painting technique: link. (http://olicanalad.blogspot.com/search/label/How%20I%20paint%20with%20enamels.)
Thanks, Codsticker. I'm still using enamels to reasonable effect. No varnish required, LOL. Latest - for the Sudan.
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6OUMcMv0VN8hiwRvNzfQkj6V-zo-bGBjEpT5yDNDtu7t2I6PUkkgQzA5Gu-icUSxrja0tQJnsaOCz9beinV3aU-loUn8zVYnkTfxbu8sZjZFWaFtECdlC1auktMZ5F-qYIRhcupPQyXlV-rG3Ar5a8gVi6Sc7PnO5z-Uaz3MjodRSkNJFIAKRQlUx4Iw/s3264/IMG_0089.jpeg)